1895 Holds Successful 55th

It is NOW a few days after the observance of X 1895's Fifty-fifth Reunion, and a report of our doings is requested for publication in the July issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. SO here it is.

A week before our 55th, I motored to Northampton with Mrs. Stevens. She had received two letters from Smith, one from the College Archivist reading as follows:

"My dear Mrs. Stevens: "You are very kind indeed to respond so generously to my hope that you will come into the library during the anniversary celebration in June. I look forward to an opportunity to meet you here.

"Your reminiscence of that first Commencement is charming, and indeed a very happy addition to our story of that day which remains

one of the great moments in College history. The little sketch of your visit, with its stay at the Round Hill House, and the drive to Baccalaureate exercises through the rain in hacks, the appearance of that first graduating class of eleven seated in a row facing the grand piano, and especially, the picture of the weary small girl climbing onto two chairs and falling asleep at the President's Reception, brings warm color and life to the formal record. Thank you very much indeed for sending it on.

"I am sure that there is no one who will be here who has so remarkable a connection with this College. We are glad to have your report of the tradition that your father was the first parent to register his daughter at Smith...."

The other letter was from the President of The Alumnae Association of Smith College quoted herewith:

"We understand that you are coming back for Commencement this June. We should like to mention at the annual meeting of the Association that you were present at the first Commencement of Smith College in 1879. We are reserving a seat for you on the platform at Sage Hall on Saturday morning, June 3, at 10:30 and we hope you will surely be with us."

I roamed around the Smith campus unattended and was seemingly a displaced person some of the time. Northampton was fully signed up as to places to sleep, but fortunately I was invited by a gentleman and his wife, chance acquaintances, at a lunch table, to spend the night at their beautiful home twenty miles from Northampton and 1700 feet above sea level. This saved me from a charge of vagrancy and theoretical lodging in the Northampton jail and added two genial persons to my list of friends. On my return to Northampton the next morning I went wife hunting among thousands of Smith alumnae and undergraduates. Well towards evening I found her. Sunday morning we visited Morris House. The house matron, and students too, cordially greeted the erstwhile small sister of the first student to enter Smith College and called her attention to a framed statement about Morris House, named for Kate Eugenia Morris (Mrs. Charles Morris Cone).

The Smith Commencement seems to me to be reciprocally related to our own Class Reunion which I report herewith. Those present were: Hobart and Mrs. Ayers, Watson W. Baker, Fred and Mrs. Cleveland, Joe and Mrs. Ford, Ernest Gile, Charles Holden, Francis and Mrs. Mason, George Mclndoe, Will and Mrs. Rice, Mrs. Stevens and her husband and son Robert, "H.Dan" Watson, Albion and Mrs. Wilson, Mrs. Tom Hack, Burt and Mrs. Hack, Mrs. Frank E. Austin, Mrs. Edward J. Rossiter and Mrs. Walter Lane and daughter and son-in-law, being ten graduates and two non-graduates.

Friday evening we all were received at the home of President and Mrs. Dickey. Saturday the group roamed about Hanover, ad libitum, before and after attending the Alumni meeting in the Gym. At 5 o'clock members, wives and a few descendants motored to the Secretary's home in Hartford. At 5:30 we grouped under the old apple tree in our yard and sat for picture taking. Thereafter we sat down together at various tables and had a feast of home-cooking prepared and served by the Hartford Ladies Aid.

Following the New England supper we gave the Dartmouth Cheer (yell, we used to call it), a bit feebly, I think, but we did it. Then we sang Dartmouth songs and listened to our champion poet and narrator, "H.Dan" Watson. Watson left for his home early, but the

rest stayed on and talked and laughed.

I am planning to give a more detailed account later in a special edition of the Post Reunionist.

CLASS SECRETARY