1878

All six of us, and the ladies who were with us at our Fiftieth, will regret to learn of the death of Mrs. M. L. Stimson at Rochester, N. Y., June 22, after she had been lying helpless in a hospital from early January. She was present with her husband at that reunion and contributed much to the enjoyment of all.

Parkhurst was laid up for three weeks in December, a new experience for him. He began with an attack of the flu which was followed by an abscess in his ear, but is back at his office in good shape, feeling more like himself than for some time—all the better, he says, for the good rest. Isn't he the first man to find an earache restful?

Reverting again to history for lack of class news: All six of us favored the League of Nations in its inception, but two withdrew support later, one of us because the League lacked teeth; the other, because it showed too many, and threatened to become a superstate. All six favor something of the kind in the present crisis, and all are willing it should have teeth. We object to war. We expect it to cease. We have vivid memories of four wars to which our nation was a party and in which our near relatives served in its armed forces, although none of us did; and of four others over which we became wildly excited partisans of one side or the other.

And our memories cover vast change. They begin with times when people made their own soap, lighted fires or pipes with rolled paper tapers or brimstone matches and their houses with homemade candles or whale oil or kerosene lamps, made change with paper halves, quarters, dimes, and five- and three-cent bills. These trifles mark only the fringe along the march of progress. Contrary to the popular axiom, human nature has changed, and does not history prove that it is in that change that all other significant change originates? We can at least submit that question to younger and wiser alumni whether the improvement of human nature is not the chief business of the Liberal Arts College.

Secretary and Treasurer 32i Highland Ave., Fitchburg, Mass.