Class of 1890
Vic Safford, who has been a prominent figure in recent years in the office of the Board of Health in the city of Boston, has reached the retirement age, and quit work the first of the year. In a recent letter he says:
"It has occurred to me that I am arriving at an age when a man is expected to apologize for being alive, and I will start off by saying that I do not regard myself as responsible for this fact. I have always worked hard with little recreation. I have always been a good liver, and otherwise not ascetic in my proclivities. Incidentally, in a rather varied career I have been through some tropical as well as cold climate diseases regarded as unfavorable to one's expectation of life, and I have been shot at on at least two occasions.
"Probably because of good luck and a tough sea-going heredity I have thus far managed to escape physical decrepitude sufficiently to be able still to carry on the active executive responsibilities and to meet the legal problems of the health department of one of the world's larger cities, maintain a satisfactory morale in its personnel, and keep it tuned up to a notable degree of efficiency to get work out of men. I was never busier in my life.
"When called on to tell about the regular official duties of my treadmill municipal job, I am likely to start talking about some of the 11,000 persons who annually complain to us about some feature of their environment in the hope of thus inducing us to exercise the somewhat despotic powers of a 'board of health' to entangle in the meshes of the law somebody who has
incurred the complainant's enmity or envy.
"We receive daily complaints alleging that some local industry or other is a 'nuisance and a menace to public health.' Few except officials of the health department of a large, thickly populated city realize the extent to which special mechanical and chemical devices are required to prevent modern industries from becoming an intolerable annoyance to neighbors in a crowded city like Boston. We are stimulated to encourage the development of such devices because of the tendency of our tax-paying, labor-employing industries to move out of the city. The solution of prob- lems of industrial public nuisances at a cost within the financial means of the in- dustry concerned presents a most interest- ing feature of my official work. Such en- couragement of local industries is also a matter of serious practical importance in a city which has shrunk $303,000,000 in the taxable valuation of property in the past few years in spite of efforts to boost valu- ation.
"As a diversion from daily duties I have turned to the real interests of my early life—ships. I try to keep up to date in developments in ship construction, in motive power, and in new methods and devices in navigation. I am also especially interested in the United States Naval Institute and its objectives. As a recreation I took up a few years ago something entirely new to me—gardening—at our place at Woods Hole, where we live most of the time from May until November, I commuting by train to Boston. I am getting a 'kick' in trying to make this Woods Hole home a local show place, and also in giving my classmates and friends a hearty welcome there. I thank God that my wife, my helpmate for thirty-seven years, seems to be standing the stresses of life as well as I."
If we can get Vic to give us some of his experiences while emigration officer at New York City in the early days, I think they would be particularly interesting.
The following paragraphs were accidentally omitted from Reed's letter in last month's notes, in the rush of getting out the MAGAZINE.
"My wife, who stood with me during my illness, died a year ago, and among other difficulties I had to start life anew. I have four living sons, three of whom have chosen to live in Ecuador. My four daughters-in-law are each of a different nationality, Canadian, American, Mexican, and Ecuadorian. I wonder if any member of our class has such an international family as that!
"I have been in Ecuador as a missionary for forty years, and the work has been so satisfactory that I think I would take the same course if I were beginning again. My first years here took me through many trials and dangers, but I had a very brave wife, and our memories were a great pleas- ure to us. One of my sons is in American diplomatic service, and two are in business here in Guayaquil.
"I remember with pleasure seeing a number of my classmates on my short visits to the States, but I missed our 25th anniversary in Hanover, being very ill at Denver. Lest I weary you by saying too much about myself I will stop while the stopping is good."
Secretary, 34 Gray St., Arlington, Mass.
