Class of 1898
Ich and Mary Crane expect to sail for Los Angeles February 5 on the California of the Panama-Pacific Line from New York. They go direct to Honolulu on the Lurline, arriving February 24, and will be at Hotel Moana until March 12, when they take the same boat back to Los Angeles via San Francisco. They will be in Pasadena a week and sail on the Virginia March 27, arriving in New York April 11. They hope to see some of their Dartmouth friends en route.
Below are three letters to Denis Crowley concerning our 40th Reunion.
"To the Men of '98—Do you remember January forty years ago? We were the grave and reverend seniors and the war with Spain was just around the corner. We didn't know what a New Deal was, and our experience with 'depressions' was very slight. Those of us who have been back to Hanover frequently in the interval between then and now are impatient for the 17th of June and the opportunity to get together again. Those who have been back only occasionally or not at all are going to have all the more pleasure and excitement in seeing the new college where the old one used to be, while the old friends rally round. Let every '98 man start right now to make plans to be in Hanover from Friday night until Monday morning, if possible; if not, be there over Saturday afternoon and night anyway so that we can have a few hours when every '98 man is present. There are many big gaps in the ranks since our last reunion, but if those of us who are left do not have the best 40-year meeting any class ever had, it will be our own fault.
"That suggestion of Joe Bartlett's about a brief stop in camp on our way to Hanover sounds good to me. While I may not be able to be one of the first in arriving, I shall certainly try to be there part of the time. Perhaps a little longer time together would help in breaking down the barriers of reserve and admit us more freely into mutual confidences.
"It seems to me that we would all benefit if such barriers could be broken down more completely and we really get acquainted. We know one another in a measure. I am sure that there is so much more that would be worth while if we were better acquainted. Might we not together discuss some such question as 'Has life been worth while?' I should welcome the insight that such a discussion would bring. I think it would release intimacies and promote understandings that would be heart-warming and friendship-cementing. It seems to me that our 40th should justify a little time for evaluating what we have been through.
"And it came to pass in the sixth year of the reign of King Franklin the First, and at a time when the people were sore distressed, that I heard a voice calling out in the wilderness, 'Arise, ye of the clan of '98 of Dartmouth, your wives, sweethearts, children, and children's children, forget your trials and tribulations and repair unto the hills of New Hampshire in the land of Hanover, for in the month of June you will have completed your forty years' sojourn in the wilderness of democracy. It is fitting that such an event should be celebrated by much rejoicing and individual attendance. Nothing should be allowed to act as an impediment to a full and complete representation of the clan.'
"Thus spake the voice.
"I therefore charge you to take unto yourself, each and every one of you, the savings of this voice, and to so govern your plans that you will be at the place at the time designated.
"Forget not that the days of youth are numbered; that what is gone has forever passed away; that there is only one 'fortieth': that if you miss that one, you have missed that which,can never be regained; and that you have not only lost yourself, but have also denied to others the pleasure of your presence.
"And I heard another voice saying 'Everybody up,' and 'I command you to take notice hereof and govern yourself accordingly.'
"The above is according to revelation to 'Bill' Williams."
Secretary, 57 Grove Hill Ave., Newtonville, Mass.
