1897
THE DARTMOUTH FACULTY OF 1897 AS SEEN BY OBSERVANT SENIORS
Ernest Felix Langley:-In the preparation of these notes it has been a recurring joy to find with what clearness the faces and words of the professors have been recalled. There is one exception. The catalogue shows that Langley, A. B., Toronto University, taught us modern languages, but no classmate has volunteered information concerning him. Moreover a transcript of records shows that he gave me passing rank in four or five courses, yet I cannot recall his face, his figure, his voice, or what manner of man he was.
The college administration, envisaging the coming of the machine age, offered a course in Scientific French and thought it unnecessary for this instructor to know science. To him the soupape de surete meant "some kind of a device used on a steam engine." What a chance I missed in these courses devoted to grammar, Parisian accents, and French nursery stories. All my life I have lived beside and worked with strong, sensible, merry, and gracious persons of French Canadian birth, who without a college course can understand me, and on the other hand, I with college French can neither read their Montreal paper nor understand their greetings.
Gabriel Campbell:—All true progressive educators believe that no one can teach in university or in kindergarten who is not completely grounded in psychology. Our class has specialized (1) in great doctors, (2) in great lawyers, and (3) in great teachers. Shattuck, the college professor, Pringle, the state school administrator, A. W. Brown, the tutor of pampered youth, Thome, the high school specialist, all are successful teachers because they passed triumphantly Gabriel Campbell's course in Psychology I. From the ringside I as a student have watched educational psychology as it has changed from something mysterious to something incomprehensible.
By many repetitions Campbell's courses would crystallize. There were no textbooks, no reading assignments, no library studies, no statistical comparisons. Each day the professor read his manuscript and we copied by phrase, by word, and by punctuation. The result was a compilation as complete, as irrefutable as one of Emerson's essays. I remember most clearly this, "All mentality has its corporeal relations," and this was worth remembering.
The physics that Emerson taught has been refuted, most of Foster's history has been debunked, and all of the economics of D. C. Wells has become cock-eyed if we are to believe New Deal philosophy. Still, like a pyramid stands "All mentality has its corporeal relations."
Not long ago I took my psychology notes of the senior year, read them through with" amazement, and then as I watched them turn to ashes in my fireplace, was again in a college classroom, and a kindly whiskered man at a high desk was describing in a high-pitched tone the inter-relation of the mental faculties. In the class Chase and Bolser were leaning forward to lose no word, Blunt was asleep, and Coakley, Maben, and Jerry Simpson had slipped out of the door, since Monitor John Poor had made his record of class attendance.
Professor Campbell was born in Scotland. He was graduated from a Michigan Normal School. He was a Civil War captain, an editor and author, a student in Germany, a graduate in divinity, and a member of many philosophical societies.
It was a part of our education to be taught by this man of wide culture.
Samuel C. Bartlett:—lt is not an easy thing to be the ex-president of a college, but Dr. Bartlett returned to the classroom after stormy years as Dartmouth's president with dignity, with no self-pity, and with no loss of individuality. I recall that I saw him in his last years as he left his bicycle at the cemetery gates and passed alone with bared head to the grave that he cherished and cared for. I remember him, too, as he presided over his large lecture classes in Natural Theology and Old Testament History. These were required classes taught by Prof. Bartlett to classes of young skeptics and unbelievers. Few of us cared for the subject, but all were impressed with the masterful presentation of a man of great intellectual ability. Bartlett may have been a Hebrew prophet, but he was a most tolerant one and one who loved the zest of a routed opponent. These were the years of Robert Ingersoll, and sapient seniors would try to arouse the lecturer by irreverent questions. With a few questions the statements made would seem as foolish as the assertions of the youth with whom Socrates debated, and Dr. Bartlett would shake with merriment at student discomfiture. When Billy Randall tried to match his wits with Dr. Bartlett, we awaited the outcome with mental alacrity. We had no other teacher as mentally alert, as logically convincing, as this great man.
I recall, too, sitting in his study and finding a professor who knew me, my friends, and my needs, a man who was not too busy to tell of his own experiences. He told me once of the time, when into his church as a young preacher in Salisbury, came to worship the great Daniel Webster. The clergyman trembled but continued, and at the end was complimented by Dartmouth's greatest graduate.
I suppose that my copy of Bartlett's Anniversary Addresses is the last copy that ever was sold. I bought it at an auction ten years ago—no one else bid—and I have read the many baccalaureate and occasional addresses. The baccalaureate to the class of 1883 was an appropriate address for Commencement week and was the basis of all his teaching. In effect he was saying to us too, "Young gentlemen of the graduating class, I invite you, and each of you, to join the goodly company of those who speak and act and live from profound and positive convictions."
Edward Rush Ruggles The Chandler professor of the German language and literature was another department head in the senior faculty. He was an insistent director of work, and he left no comfort to the student who had not prepared the assignment or in whose previous work there was some weak spot. One classmate has written, "We never knew when we were in his classroom whether the assignment for the day would be discussed or some lesson covered weeks before. He often called on one person to stand to recite and kept him on his feet the largest part of the period, with occasional searching questions shot to other parts of the room to keep every one alert. The most useful teaching was in the value of being able to select the most important features of each day's assignment, whether in college or later, and to store them away to contribute to the handling of new assignments as they come." Still another classmate recalls the evenings which Prof. Ruggles gave over at his home to thorough teaching and testing of work lost by a period of illness.
Hanover life was for students entirely monastic in 1897. They saw the faculty daughters and the village girls only as one looks at tropical fish in an aquarium. As a result slight and vicarious contacts were cherished. In the well-ordered Ruggles home was a daughter, Helen. She rendered clerical help to her father, and his printed make-up notices had below his name a delicately written initial "H," indicating the secretary. Noyes won one of these purposely and prized it till graduation. He said that it seemed to him like a personal note.
As usual Selden C. Smith was able to come East for the annual meeting of his firm, Ginn and Co. Dr. H. M. Chase gave him a careful examination and much good advice.
The reports from Manchester concerning Edgar D. Cass are not so good. His sight is very poor, and he is not able to carry on his interests as at other times. He appreciates very much calls from classmates and information about them.
A removal is reported and the new residence of William S. Hager is 196 Holland St., West Somerville, Mass. His office for carrying on his business of picture-framing is 6 Rutland St. in Cambridge.
It is a long time since we have had a direct report from George Parker. Tracy tracked him down and reports a delightful visit. Parker lives in Pepperell—there is but one—and is first selectman in the town of his birth. He is also an officer or employee in the textile industry. Tracy sat unrecognized in the outer office and saw this responsible town officer direct the public business of his town. Good looking, authoritative, friendly, and with full information tie over the recognized town officer. The present Mrs. Parker was Elizabeth Rolfe. She is a ranking officer in the state association of Woman's Clubs.
The college reports no son of 1897 in the freshman class. Since we got to running with the class of 1922 we have missed but two classes.
The Marlboro papers report that Mrs. Winfxeld Temple, after a quarter of a century of service as teacher and officer in the First Church Sunday school has been honored by the church and other religious organizations.
At a public ceremony in Needham she was admitted to the national society of Comrades of the Way. Judge and Mrs. Temple have two sons, both Dartmouth graduates, both married, both lawyers and members of their father's law firm. One daughter-in-law is also a member of the Massachusetts bar.
All of this we anticipated when we distributed handbills in 1897 for Temple's day at Senior Rhetoricals in the Old Chapel. One lies before me now, "Temple the Boy Orator from Mawlboro. The Great Issues of the Day Dished up in True Bryan Style. Don't Miss it."
A few weeks later another handbill called all to hear "The Mighty Six" debate on "Who Robbed the Faculty Hen Roost?" The six were Rat Cass, Podiferous Parker, Cyclone Lull, Weary Willy Mills, Miss Merrow, Todds Harrison. Today Edward D. Cass, deacon and grammar school principal, lives in retirement in Manchester, George P. Parker is a town father and business man in Pepperill, Henry L. Lull is vice president of the Southern Pacific Railroad, Archibald C. Mills dodges publicity in Los Angeles. John W. Merrow died some years ago, an architect in New York City, and Henry H. Harrison an editor in Cambridge.
Secretary, 74 Newport Ave., West Hartford, Conn.
