1897
The first thing I want to say in our report this year is that our class went over the top in the alumni fund. Hiram is a modest man in his personal affairs but when it comes to the alumni fund he just ain't a bit modest or reserved. He is just like a little boy with his first jack knife who wants to carve his sweetheart's name in all the trees. Hiram exudes joy at the fund going over the top. I think we all ought to remember that the alumni fund is the real life blood of the College now, and we ought never to forget that when we were in college we paid only about half the expenses of drumming into our thick heads what little "learnin'" we got. In our time too the dollar was one hundred cent value dollar and now the College has to get by with the fifty cent dollar and give away the same or a larger portion to educate the boys that are good enough to get into Dartmouth.
Had a long letter from Sibley recently, but I do not dare quote him. Might get in trouble, in spite of the U.S. Court ruling that anybody can "blab" all he wants to, but I can assure you fellows that Sib finds flaws in the judgment and lack of it in many acts in Washington and I am with him 100%.
Hope "Mike" Kelly has the "Hoosier" state all fixed up with just as little socialism as they can get by with. Don't think that state will go haywire on the "something-for-nothing" idea.
Billy Balch has been in the hospital but hear he is better. Wish everybody would write him. His address is 302 Main St., Stoneham, Mass. Billy has always interested me in his observations of the little things that most of us pass over. In Thayer School he fed a mouse to learn the habits of this graceful little animal. Billy's our only classmate who has been in three wars. He is now a retired Major. I told you before that he shot a trout in Mink Brook when we were in Thayer School. I got to kind of let out on Billy and tell you you don't have to actually hit a trout to kill him with a bullet because the jar in the water will do it same as the navy boys do with sinking submarines.
A letter from "Pa" Rollins says he didn't climb mountains this year but spent his vacation on a island near Portland, formerly known as Falmouth way back in 1635 when the first Ham I know about by the name of William came to that part of the new unspoiled world with the Trelawney Expedition sent out to fish and hunt. The fishing was o.k. but the "divy" of the "swag" didn't suit five of these English free men of the party and they quit the Trelawney set-up and "hoofed" it to
"Portchmuth," where my great, plus, plus grandpappy selected a fine piece of land and started on his own, built a big house and a dock and a cooper shop to make the barrels to send the salt cod to England and let them eat the "junky" stuff as my grandson, also William, also a fisherman, calls this kind of grub. One of the five sued the Trelawney outfit and got one pound damages in court. I would like to retain one of our class lawyers to sue for my inherited rights if he will do it on a commission basis. Among the neighbors in "Portchmuth" were some people called Rawlings, neighbors of my ancestor. I suppose "Pa" Rollins is in fact a Rawlings.
"Gibby," the stylish loafer of our class (I bet he is busier in his loafing than he was in his work days), spent the summer at Duxbury. If "Gibby" gets lost or any one of you guys want to know exactly where "Gibby" is, if he will go to one of the stone bounds on the town line and let me know, I'll give him or any of you the exact latitude and longitude within 2" and that is close enough. I set these bound stones in 1897 and found the latitude and longitude by a process known as triangulation, from points of known location like church steeples. I spent about a month in the bull rushes south of Duxbury finding the town line.
Joe Ryan is retired and is living in Winchester and passing his time, so the poet says, with "books and women and talk and drink and art," Joe in his business helped to spoil the Vermont slate industry by making a million miles of blackboards, more or less. Not only spoiling the slate industry but a lot of romance surrounding the use of slate, "You wrote on my slate I love you Joe, when wewere a couple of kids." I'll bet, if the kids onJoe's street knew he was a blackboard maker,they would break his windows.
Tracy has been spending his legislature yearin the middle of politics'where the "commies"got pushed around a bit because the "Dungies" at Durham wanted to teach stuff DanielWebster would not have understood. Being onthe education committee, our classmate musthave been right in the middle of that brick-batrow. Wish we could have an inside report fromhim on it.
I had a nice letter from George Gilman fromwhich I am quoting:
"Dear Bill:—lmagine you still alive and able to write magazine articles! I thought everyone in '97 had passed on, except Hiram Tuttle, The Alumni Fund, Senator Tracy, and yours truly, but here you pop up next door to me to tell me that Sibley is also still interested in politics. Now I expect that your write-up in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE will disclose the fact that there are still enough of our illustrious classmates left to constitute a quorum. I continue in business here in New York City, and am still operating industriously in "the red", although I am not a communist and have never engaged in any subversive activities. This I swear on the next edition of the DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE! All I have to brag about are my wife and daughter, and two grandsons who may someday make one or more of the Dartmouth squads. I served with the United States Maritime Commission during the last "World War/but I am not a Veteran and am not entitled to a pension, or any other perquisites for that service, so you can classify me as "Rough Deal". My doctor says that my heart is twice its normal size, and Mrs. Gilman says that my "bay window" is much worse than that, but my rent is still going up and I am having a hard time to get enough to eat, so I must still keep up the good fight in spite of my figure. I still have my class cane to lean upon, so the future looks bright to me despite the fact that I continue to vote the good old Republican Ticket. I wish to thank you for your insinuations and assure you that I keenly appreciate the tremendous literary effort you are making in rounding up and inscribing in picturesque words the SPIRIT of the CLASS of 1897. Ever cordially yours, Gil."
Secretary and Treasurer 886 Main St., Bridgeport 3, Conn,
