Time Marches Back
THE PRESENT writer has been convinced that he knows far more about the history of 1916's four years in college than any other member of the class. For this reason and for many others he is admirably qualified to write on the subject in this and subsequent articles (if any) in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. The present writer, however, knew nothing of his peculiar fitness for this task until the matter was explained to him with great clarity and in profuse detail a short time ,ago by Jack English, John Gile, Parker tlayden, Dick Parkhurst, Ross Magill, and Roger Evans. Under these auspices, accordingly, he applies himself to a pleasant assignment with the personal satisfaction of knowing that his efforts will be well received, or else. Furthermore, he contemplates a definitive history of the class to be published in several massive volumes under the financial direction of these gentlemen; first editions may be reserved by application to any one of them.
Speaking of firsts (but seriously), there were several Dartmouth firsts in the first semester of the academic year 1912-13: North and South Mass were first opened then; publication of the Bema was determined upon; the system was instituted of recording chapel attendance on those darned little white tickets; Dartmouth acquired "an undergraduate literary and artistic center" with the gift by Wallace M. Robinson for the building of Robinson Hall; the first gym team was tentatively organized (1916 supplied C. C. Bettes, W. B. Garrison, W. S. Knowles, L. J. Murphy, W. B. Osborn, F. Piper, W. Sully, A. J. Zabriskie); the possibility of a soccer team was first formally considered (Jones, Parker, Tripolitis represented 1916).
But for the 405 of us in 1916 the matchless Hanover air that September was full of firsts. The Dartmouth, then in its forty-fourth year, announces that President
Nichols opens the year with chapel in Webster—the one hundred and forty-fourth for Dartmouth, but the first for 1916. There is the first "crowding into commons" (board averaged $4.01 per week that semester and seems in retrospect pretty average good); the first D.C.A. reception (Charlie Griffith plays his violin); the first football mass-meeting (Professor C. R. Lingley, Capt. Bennett 13', and Coach Cavanaugh speak); and then our first Dartmouth Night (Judge Cross '4l speaks for Dartmouth, making us all think of Lincoln speaking for the Union, and proclaims as only Judge Cross could proclaim, "I wish to say that I have studied the class of 1916, and, in my opinion, it is the best class that ever entered Dartmouth I am a candidate for honorary membership in your class—William Jewett Tucker will give reference for me.")
1916 lost the football rush to 1915 but
took 'em in the first of the fall interclass baseball series (Hale If, Perkins ab, Doyle cf, Mendall lb, Eskeline ss, Barak rf, Devoe 3b, Salmonsen c, Worcester p). Sixteen men of 1916 made the Exeter football trip (Telfer, Winchell, Hitchcock, Douglas, Colby, Pudrith, McAuliffe, Zabriskie, Tyler, Tucker, Scovil, Burlen, Burnham, Mertin, Peterson, Gioiosa) and won la-o. 1916 defeated Tilton in basketball 26-10 (Eskeline, Murchie, Soutar, Mensel, Pelletier). 1916 won from Norwich in hockey (Garcia, Smith, Tyler, Baker, Walker, Holmes, Perkins) and took the cross-country meet at Andover against Penn, Harvard, Cornell, Yale, Worcester, Andover, and Exeter (J. M. Burke, E. F. Carey, C. M. Clarke, C. F. Durgin, L. Y. Granger, E. C. Riley).
1916 was pretty good in other ways too —back in 1912, that is. At least, the Dramatic Club thought we were (D. Shumway, B. V. Emery, E. O. Strong, W. P. Costello, R. L. McCammon, F. T. Bobst, E. L. McFalls, G. H. Pratt, L. B. Goodwin), and so did the Musical Club (F. R. Andrews, W. Sully, C. W. Fogg, E. P. Hayden). The Band showed good judgement also in its choices (L. W. Joy, W. G. Kittridge, D, B. Olson, W. E. Sloane, R. Clunie, P. F. Wadleigh) and so did the Glee Club (L. Cole, O. S. Cressy, W. F. Mott, B. V. Phinney, W. H. Renfrew, W. F. Upham, P. A. Warren) and the College Choir (R. A. Brown, C. L. Campbell, D. S. Dinsmore, M. C. Linihan, L. F. Pfinstag, E. C. Riley, F. Smith), and the String Quartet (F. W. Bailey, H. W. Wetherby). J. B. Saunders was high man on the Rifle Team; the selections for the Rollins Declamations included R. F. Evans, J. C. Doeneke, L. R. Jordan. Seventy-nine men were pledged to fraternities and almost as many were pledged to heel for The Dartmouth.
These activities were a mere fraction of our accomplishment from September to February in 1912. No mention has been made of such staples of the Dartmouth diet as smoke talks (Rabbi Wise, J. Hadfield in readings from Kipling, Benjamin Chapin in his "monologue impersonations of Lincoln"), nor of hums, nor teas given by Mr. and Mrs. Nichols, nor raffles supervised by John Spaghetti, nor Delta Alpha supervised by no one. We also listened courteously and with interest to Sousa's Band and to President Taft (he spoke from his car in front of Webster), but we prevented anyone at all from hearing Lome Elwyn and Company in a drama of Pinero's (what was the name?) at the Globe Theater in the June. We also attended chapel—and classes. You will discover that mere contemplation now of what we did then is exhausting. Our activity seems overpowering; how did we manage it then? Is it the Hanover air? At all events, I submit for consideration the proposition that the source of our energy then is to be found in Hanover still, that a short sojourn here will renew that energy for you, and that precisely the right time for such a sojourn is at the Twenty-Fifth in June.
JOHN B. STEARNS.
