About Twenty Five Years Ago
TURN BACK YOUR CLOCK, your calendar, your memory. War clouds on the horizon—soon the Class of Eighteen became a Dartmouth war class, even as undergraduates are today. How bright are the memories of a quarter century ago—gosh, but that sounds like an awful long time!
And now the Class of Eighteen is thinking in terms of its 25th reunion—wonder ing whether or not it will be sensible to hold it this coming spring—or defer it until after the war. What a class! Graduated in one war; held its tenth reunion just before the bottom dropped out of things; staged its fifteenth during the great depression and now what of the 25th? Well, we'll have to wait and see. Meanwhile rest assured that Chairman Hort Kennedy (late of France) has reunion plans well in hand, ready to proceed, when, as and if.
But to go back to undergraduate days a quarter of a century or so ago. It is November. "The Dartmouth" tells how the freshman football team beat Dean 14-0, avenging five successive defeats the academy boys had given previous Green yearling teams. Said the sports writer in part: "For Dartmouth the work of Cousens was marked throughout while Kennedy and Lehman proved consistent ground gainers."
On the boards of Webster (it is still November of that same 1914) Hall was presented "But Is It Art?" And we learn: "A newcomer to the dramatic ranks was R. L. Howland '18 who sang three songs in the course of the review. His voice is clear and rich." .... The Christian Association's tutoring bureau complained that freshmen were failing to make use of the service; of 279 reported deficient only 19 had applied for help. Mebbe that's when Bob Fish's famed cram sessions were born The Big Green swamped a heralded Tufts eleven and the Tufts coach declared: "Dartmouth has the best team I have ever seen on a college gridiron." Ghee, Whitney, Curtis and Gerrish was the starting backfield, you may recall.
Soccer was formally launched as a Dartmouth sport by a group of Eighteeners, among whom were Curt Glover, Ted Hazen, Red and Woodie Hulbert, Al Gottschaldt and George Cavis F. W. Chamberlain was elected captain of freshman cross country and numerals were awarded to football men who played one-eighth of the Syracuse game, namely: Butts, Christgau, Cousens, Dusossoit, Eadie, Holbrook, Hood, Johnson, Kennedy, Lehman, Mather, McDonald, Montgomery, Proctor, Storrs, Whitmore and Woleben As you read through names and doings of those olden days, there comes a pang when you dwell on a name of a friend who has passed on. No getting away from it, the ranks are being depleted.
Penn was buried under a Green avalanche, 41 to 0; then Syracuse was swamped 40 to o at Fenway Park. Quite a varsity the freshmen of that day had to cheer The musical clubs were tripping hither and yon and we note such familiar names as Jay LeFevre and Gene Markey among the first tenors; Rog Howland, first bass; Ed Noyes and R. A. Drake, second basses. And in the Mandolin Club—Park Poole, second mandolin; and C. F. Weston, cello Smith Drabble, Chamberlain, Gerrish, Marr and Montgomery enabled the frosh cross country men to trim Harvard, Worcester Academy, Andover, Penn and M. I. T MidDecember and 35 enterprising freshmen, candidates for hockey, reported at Faculty Pond. (No handsome indoor rink in those days!) Said the college newspaper: "Among the most promising of the candidates who reported were Cousens, Draper, Duffill, Earley, Elder, Emerson, Geran, Higgins, Hobbs, Miner and Morey."
About the same time 40 of the lads reported for frosh basketball. If we are to believe the public prints of that day, among the experienced men were Aishton, Cann, Christgau, Eadie, LeFevre, Poole, Rau, Richmond, Salisbury, Siemsen, Tefft and Valentine..... Why this endless cataloguing of means ? Because, we believe, it will bring back many a fond memory, many a grand association and strengthen the decision to renew old ties whenever the Class of Eighteen can convene for a 25th reunion in Hanover.
Dartmouth men are a sentimental gang. For example get a few Eighteeners together. Mention freshman picture an institution no longer at Hanover. We'll all remember how we stayed up all night got routed out of the old schoolhouse by a hefty group of sophomores stuck to it without sleep—camped out on the Vermont side the following night, and at the crack of dawn, crossed the Hanover line to gain the coveted picture. So what? So, a memory was born—one cherished by all who participated. And somehow or other, memories get to mean more and more to you, as the years roll by. Right?....To be continued, your editor willing, in the next issue.
1918 Stayed Up All Night to Get ItIn the days when a "freshman picture" meant spending the night on Balch Hill, avoidingsophomores in the traditional "picture fight," the above was taken, about 25 years ago.
