1888

It is a pleasure to know that Mrs. John Lew Clark is much improved after a very serious illness.

Pattee's class letter at Christmas stirred Dunlap to report that he and Mrs. Dunlap are enjoying the winter at St. Petersburg, Fla., but at times he longs to see another field of snow. Around here we long to see someone who is even willing to use a snow-shovel.

The January ALUMNI MAGAZINE is of unusual interest to the men of the late eighties. Prof. Fletcher's diary notes recall so vividly many interesting happenings, and among them the Julius Caesar play and Kibling's Opera House. It required a generous woodpile to heat this building and the wood was considered a nocturnal asset to the unregenerate students of that era and area, then known as "Hell Alley." Something about its atmosphere must have been conducive to longevity, as of the nine surviving members of '88, Rev. John Lew Clark, Fred Dunlap, Wendell Williams and Forrest Keay, my old roommate, lived within fifty yards of the woodpile freshman year, and Dick Ely and Richard Paul were just around the corner. "Kib" and the College were not fraternizing even in our day, and had very serious difficulties after our graduation. An interesting event evolved many years later. E. E. Reynolds of '88 became a most successful Methodist minister at St. Petersburg, Fla., and he always called to see old friends during his vacation trips North. On one of these occasions he told of a series of revival meetings that he had conducted, with the "sawdust trail" to the "anxious seats" of that epoch, and at the end of one of these meetings an aged man with long beard came to the front seat. In the conversation that followed the convert proved to be Mr. Kibling, who afterwards became a sincere member of the church. Reynolds was an eloquent and popular preacher at St. Petersburg. His early death removed an earnest worker who had accomplished much.

Every alumnus should educate himself in the Great Issues course by reading not once, but twice, the evisceration of Fascism as performed by Lewis Mumford in his article TheNature of Fascism in the January issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. No serious problems of life demanded such a course in our senior year, the main aim of 90% of the class having to do with bread and butter. The present generation is fortunate in being so forewarned of these grave problems confronting them.

Secretary, 135 Summer St., Maiden, Mass. Class Agent, 32 Chaflin St., Milford, Mass.