The College in the Sixties
[Dr. Spaulding's Autobiography of hisyears at Dartmouth (1862-66) continuedfrom last month.—ED.]
After the Fall Term of Senior year, Father wanted me to try to earn some money and sent me to be Captain's clerk with Uncle Greenleafe on the "Ohio," the Receiving Ship at the Charles town Navy Yard. I worked there three months and came back to Portsmouth bound for Hanover with not a cent. Too much high life in the Navy had made me extravagant. This was soon after the Civil War. Many officers were loaded with prize money. Uncle Greenleafe entertained freely and we dined out once a week at the houses of officers or citizens in the town.
I met the family of Captain Sands, including Miss Rose, and the Crowningshields, half a dozen of them, together with Captain and Mrs. Clitz. We also saw a good deal of a Marine Officer who had a charming wife, who drank her champagne as handsomely and unaffectedly as any man I ever saw. We had no cocktails in those days but a glass of Madeira or sherry with the oysters. Our steward was a first-class cook who stuffed us with gorgeous dishes. He was also a skinflint, loaning money at from 50% to 100% interest, until the next pay day came due.
I also used to see Dr. and Mrs. Coues at the Navy Hospital at Chelsea, and the Hughes at the south end of Worcester Street, near the celebrated Deacon house, then pronounced with the accent on the first syllable. I saved no money, because I was in Boston to play billiards whenever I had a chance, and I had a good many Parker House suppers with a small bottle of Sauterne, regardless of cost.
The "Vandalia" officers gave us a party and all winter long from Thanksgiving to Washington's Birthday, spirits—meaning whiskey, brandy, rum and eggnogs—were offered in abundance, and champagne to all those who cared for it. I never saw anybody who was intoxicated. It was a question of take it or leave it as you chose, but don't drink too much to prevent you from getting home.
Twice during college life, I taught in Portsmouth and swept out schools to pay for college tuition; but, to tell the truth, I could not save money. I did not know how to save it. It looked as though it were made to spend, and I spent it.
Returning to Hanover, the college church, standing in need of repairs and of better light, had a concert given for its benefit, and the men of '66 contributed largely with their voices. A lady from the village and a "fairy" from the Nunnery assisted.
When President Lord resigned, we had Professor Hubbard and Professor Aiken as Pro Tempores until President Smith was elected. When he was ready to come, the college buildings were tidied up. The village hotel was enlarged and the table improved. President Smith was a good official and knew every boy in college by name, but he failed to get at the psychology of most of them, and punished some of them unmercifully for the merest trifles.
Once upon a time there was a girl who drowned herself from the bridge over the river, and that made a great deal of talk. Nobody knew how it happened, but she probably got mad at the man who was driving her, jumped out of the carriage, told him to go along and she would walk back. Then she took off her hat and her hoop skirts and jumped in. For a week every student meeting another said, with Tom Hood, "One more unfortunate gone to her grave."
As for religion at Dartmouth, Kelley and I attended college chapel with the other students, and on Sundays went to St. Thomas, where services were held by "Teddy" Bourne, who was President of Norwich University. He was a blear-eyed man with a big mouth and flabby lips. It seemed as though he were sucking his lips all the time during the service. He was abominably pious, as I once wrote home. Father wrote to him occasionally, probably to ask him if I was going to church. I went, sure enough, but I was still idle and undecided.
Once we had prize speaking, our parents chipping in for the prizes; and Jimmie Powell carried off the highest prize for voice and style. It was this contest which led Otis of '66 to give to Dartmouth his prize speaking fund.
Soon after the prize speaking I visited Kelley at New buryport, and we had a narrow escape from overturning in a sailboat on the Merrimac under heavy winds. He knew nothing about sailing a boat, so I grabbed the tiller from him, brought her up into the wind, let her drift into an inlet, furled the mainsail, and then we continued our sail up the river and home after dusk. While walking from the wharf we saw a magnificent meteor, four times bright as Venus at her brightest. We had aboard the boat on that dangerous voyage two sisters, charming girls, one of whom Kelley married soon after; but of his wedded life with her we never heard.
There is foolish talk nowadays, and it is sixty years later, about the sad lack of personal contact between the professors and students; and they talked in the same fashion in our days. We never had any personal meeting with the professors, never met them outside of the recitation rooms. I do not know whether we cared for it or not, or whether we considered the faculty as our opponents, but it is a fact that few of us ever knew or made friends with the professors or their wives. Few were ever invited to a meal or to meet other professors at a social function. There was Professor Sanborn, for instance, with two charming daughters, one the well known Kate Sanborn of national literary importance, and Mary, a most charming sister. Sanborn himself was an interesting man, but we never had a chance to meet his family.
In our Senior year Professor Hubbard took a fancy to two of us because we pursued out-of-doors Geology with enthusiasm, and he asked us to his house as did Professor Crosby of the Medical School.
Some of the citizens of Hanover ought to be mentioned before I leave its classical shades; and amongst them was I. O. Dewey, who was postmaster and sold us the Boston papers. Mellish was the town jeweler and sold clocks. Carpenter dealt in hats and caps. Elijah Carter was the only man who kept a restaurant and served oysters in excellent style. We used to have "cracker bets" at Elijah's, the idea of which was to see who could bite through and swallow the quickest a common cracker without any water or fluid. One letter home mentions the fact that I once did this feat in 59 seconds and won another cracker.
Right across the street from Elijah's was A. Rock who made boots and shoes for us, and made them so close-fitting that we had a hard time breaking them in. I was re- minded in later years of Rock, by a roommate in Boston who had his boots made tight on purpose, because, as he said, "if your feet can't move around in your boots, you can't have corns."
Just above Rock's was the shop of Mr. Cobb, who sold about the same things as Dewey, so when we had run up a bill at Dewey's, and could not pay, we would run up another at Cobb's.
During our Senior year, there was a savage and brutal attack of Sophs on the Freshmen. After a prolonged tumult of hauling, throttling, striking with bare fists and pulling off of clothes, the class of '66 as a body left their recitation room and "went" for that gang of ruffians, scattered the ring leaders all over the grass of the campus and led away a few to their rooms and locked them in. This was a good example to the college, for it showed that the class of '66 was going to back up the faculty, so that law and order would prevail, if it took every man in the class to uphold it.
Norwich University stood across the river from Hanover and once in a while, we had dealings with the students, especially if some friends, like one of the Ladd boys from Portsmouth, was studying there. When "Owly" Ladd was there, I went over to see him, and his father and mother came to see me in Hanover. Unfortunately, the students at Norwich, with their gray uniforms and brass buttons, were too much for us where the girls were concerned, because in citizen clothes, we stood no show in the eyes of our charmers.
The Rev. Mr. Bourne, President of Norwich, officiated at St. Thomas in Hanover, and Kelley sang in the vested choir.
There was not much love lost between us and the "Norwegians" as we called them, but we liked "Teddy" and tried to make more boys attend his church. Once upon a time, when Pillsbury and I were "geologizing", for the gold which we had found but lost, we made a formal call
upon Mr. Bourne at Norwich, and after quite a talk, we came out laughing at his funny speeches and his genial way of meeting us, so different from any such call upon our President at Hanover.
There was a good deal of drinking at one time in connection with a terrible concoction called "S. T. 1860 X," which we translated to mean that the originators "Started Trade in iB6O with a X dollar bill." This dreadful stuff—bad whiskey and some kind of bitter tonic—some students managed to get hold of and, mixing with sugar and water and then boiling, they would use it for hazing lower classmen by compelling them to get drunk. I never saw this done but once, but it was something that made me hate the stuff forever afterwards. Why! we might even then have been poisoned or blinded for life by denatured alcohol.
I had the first mark in French for one term in "Polyeucte" and when I was resting I took up the knitting of afghans for fun. Mrs. Ben Crosby entertained us as Seniors and I often met her nice country cousins and visitors, who loved to be "petted" a bit.
The newspapers were much opposed to Dartmouth in our later years. One editorial said that you ought not to send your son to Hanover where the Lord reigneth. The professors also were tired of him and were looking for a better job elsewhere, but they were hard to find in those days, so we endured the state of affairs until President Smith came in. President Lord could deal with God and slavery but not with boys of our age. He did not understand growing-up boys, and boys who were growing up with the echoes of the Civil War in their ears and reading the history of cruel deeds. Under President Lord we felt a good deal like slaves ourselves, and he did treat us harshly whenever he had an opportunity.
When President Smith was inaugurated, the village houses and the college buildings were illuminated, and there was plenty of oratory. From that day on, Dartmouth advanced with rapid strides toward its present high position.
(To be continued in a later issue)
