Class of 1880
The last issue of this magazine condined a report regarding Classmate Charles Dutton of West Danville, Vt., who at that time was an inmate of the Brightloo Hospital, St. Johnsbury, suffering from an infection of an arm and shoulder which threatened serious results. A recent letter from his daughter brings the good news that he is much improved and well along the road to recovery, and while he has not much use of his hand and arm as yet, he hopes to be able to leave the hospital soon, and wishes to thank all classmates who have contributed so much to cheer him up and make his illness endurable.
And now comes the sad news of the passing of our much beloved classmate Dana p. Dame, affectionately known to us all as "Pete" Dame. He died at his home in Agawam, Mass., March 13, after a ten days' illness from an attack of pneumonia, the result of a cold contracted and thought to be of trifling consequence, which he neglected without consulting a doctor until too late. See this month's Necrology for a more extended notice.
I have only recently learned of the death of a former classmate, William A. May, or "Billy" May as known to classmates during the period of his freshman year with us. A big, strong, "husky" boy, much respected and liked by all who knew him, he was "spotted" by the faculty spies with his hands on the cane at our first freshman "cane rush" with '79, which so infuriated the faculty of that day that our dass suffered the loss of one of the brightest and most companionable men that ever entered Dartmouth. The Alumni Records Office now informs me of his death July 22, 1933, at Calistoga, Calif.
In the March number of the AmericanBar Association Journal appears an article taken from the Journal of the Law Societyof Massachusetts (Feb.) entitled "The Sacco-Vanzetti Case; a Tragic Epilogue", written by George R. Farnum of the Massachusetts bar and a former assistant attorney-general of the United States, first published in the Law Society Journal under the title "Webster Thayer, the Last Phase", from which I quote: "The case itself, with the tale of many another episodein the history of the administration of human justice, is now for most people of buthistoric interest in the closed book of thepast. But the pitiful and heroic story ofhow this man [our Bobby and our oldbaseball captain, beloved by all his classmates] endured his protracted martyrdom,faced his destiny, and carried on to theend deserves to live on."
It is one of the most pathetic pictures ever drawn. It is too long to reproduce it here, but all classmates and college mates and friends who knew him in his happier days should read that tragic story of the injustice and persecution he suffered for his conscientious and high-minded upholding of the law which ended only with, his death.
Mr. Farnum concludes, "As I writethese lines, in the cemetery in Worcester,where he rests among his ancestors, theautumn foliage is fading out and theleaves are falling from the trees and shrubbery. The disconsolate wind sighs amidthe half-denuded branches of the trees andbreathes the chill of approaching winter.Somehow the season itself imparts apoignant melancholy to the thoughts thistheme evokes. But the agitation of thecrowd and the injustices and tribulationsof life no longer beat upon his spirit. Herethey are forever excluded. Here reignseternally what Turgenev has somewheredescribed as 'the great rest of indifferentnature.' After life's fitful fever, WebsterThayer sleeps well."
Secretary, 20 Kilby St., Boston
