1921
To Ellis Briggs an emotional reader of a New Hampshire newspaper sent a clipping about a tragic Merganser duck, wings frozen in a Claremont pond, rescued by a brave little boy who took it home, warmed it, petted it, fed it, and released it to freedom, happiness, love, and reproduction. Here is how Ellis feels about that beautiful story, that lovely duck, and that sweet child-rescuer:
The Merganser, my line-feathered friend, is known in my neck of the woods as the shelldrake; and we take a dim view of it. Since the bird lives on fish and tastes the part, no one not threatened with starvation will eat it. And by the same token, shelldrakes consume thousands of fingerling trout which might otherwise grow up to arouse the libidinous passion of Corey Ford and Sid Hayward. I am sorry that your Claremont client did not rescue a couple of otters. Otters eat shelldrake.
Whether Hilt Campbell with a very rash statement has made himself a sitting duck for Ellis Briggs remains to be seen. When the weather indicated that golf clubs should be allowed to hibernate, Hilt took up skeet shooting. Here it comes, that statement: "I could not begin to compete with experienced hunters like Ellis, but at this stage I get just as much fun out of it as he does shooting woodcock."
Guns as such may not interest greatly PaulSanderson or Cory Litchard, Jack Hubbell or Vint Corwin, Fritz Bornman or Homer Gleary, but they will certainly be interested in their gunsmith fraternity brother Spike. More formally, he is Arthur Craig Foley. His business card reads: Reload Ammunition of 7857 Wilbur Ave., Reseda, Calif., but Art is retired now and reloads only for three friends and himself.
Art is almost certainly 1921'S only gunsmith; Rudi Blesh is almost certainly 1921's only Professor of Afro-American music. Now in his second year at Queens College and unwilling to rest on the acclaims given his book published in 1956 called "Modern Art, USA," he is writing another for teen-agers on jazz - this one for Lothrop Lee and Shepherd. In the summer Rudi lives in a hamlet which has fascinated America almost to the point of morbidity: Peyton Place. Rudi and other staid New Englanders refer to it by its real name, Gilmanton. He resides primly in the old farmhouse he bought there in 1952.
The bucolic felicity of Peyton Place reminds 1921 of another man who likes to escape urban rattle and bang. He is Jim Smead who has not only sold his house which he owned for 31 years but also bought 250 acres of meadow and woodland to add to his 90 acres of forest land where he has his rustic camp and where he hopes to build more solidly. Though for Jim retirement is still far away, he is gradually relinquishing one position after another. Five years ago he resigned as Surgeon-in-Chief, and next year will be his last as President of the Hospital Staff.
Though Dr. Jim did not advise Jack Hubbell to avoid stresses and strains, another doctor did, for V. P. Jack has been suffering from what most businessmen do not like to mention out loud any more than John Sullivan, Sandy Sanders and Rynie Rothschild, top-notch golfer, do a s - k. That frightening word is u - r. Well, Jack's "reclu" (let your eye drift back, but don't speak it out loud) is better after his absence of two months from the office, seven weeks of recuperation and a nine-day fishing holiday in northern Canada. Jack's doctor when he hears what Jack has consented now to undertake may himself be developing an u - r. Jack has been persuaded by the Business and Defense Services Administration, U. S. Department of Commerce, to enroll in the National Defense Executive Reserve. Should World War III break out, along with 866 experts Jack would be called on to staff the operation of an emergency production agency both at regional and national headquarters.
Jack's ailment being what it was, he should be interested in Mallary Excel Lulu. If his backyard in Rye were big enough and his wallet fat enough, he might like to purchase Mallary Excel Lulu to mollify any acidities unwillingly brought home to Windcrest Road. Lulu, you know of course, is the daughter of Glenafton Excelsior and a great-granddaughter of Montvic Rag Apple Colantha Abbekerk, nationally known as "Old Abbie." Lulu is, in short, a cow, owned by Dewitt, Gertrude, and Richard W. Mallary '49 of Bradford, Vt. Even if Jack were intemperate, which he is not, Lulu could take care of him, daily and yearly. She averaged for the year 35 quarts a day of 4.7 percent milk, and her yearly production of 24,032 pounds of milk is about four times that of the average dairy cow in Vermont, enough to supply a generous supply for two children from birth to college. This is the largest record ever made by a Holstein in Vermont, regardless of age or times milked a day. Lulu's grandmother produced more than 100,000 pounds of milk during her life, and Little Lulu, who made her record at the age of five years and one month, may become the envy and admiration of her grandchildren.
And as for records, Ralph Ruder nominates Merrill Shoup not only for the honor of being the busiest man in the class of 1921 but also the busiest man in the USA. Dartmouth's new IBM machines broke down trying to compute Merrill's and Dorothy's mileage in 1958. Suffice it to say that it is believed to surpass that of Ike Chester, no slouch when travels hither and yon are involved. Dorothy and Merrill spent January in Honolulu, practically all of February in Puerto Rico and other places in the Caribbean. Dorothy and Nancy left in July for England, Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, Holland, and France, finally to end up in Switzerland. Nancy returned to school the first week in December, and Merrill flew to Geneva to join Dorothy for a month, for he was a delegate to the International Sugar Conference. The Shoups took the opportunity to make side trips to Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Germany before returning home in October byway of Rome and Madrid. The trip was not perfect for Merrill and Dorothy. They missed seeing Caroline and Roger Wilde by a matter of minutes in Switzerland.
And Ralph Ruder is by no means immobile in Colorado Springs. He goes to Cincinnati about once a month on business and so keeps in touch with his brother Lucius '24, who leaves his orchids and his real estate holdings in Clearwater, Fla. And Ralph sees about once a year George Ferguson in Tucson where Ralph enjoys looking at George's church, architecturally one of the most beautiful in the country.
Mobile too is Borden Helmer, who will use his own legs for walks to enjoy wildflowers or rented planes over land or sea in the United States or automobiles in Europe where in two grand family outings with his family he covered 6,000 miles and more.
The activities of Dutch Bausher, however, keep him close to Reading, Penna., and, for his taste, too far from Hanover, but, even so, Dutch has wide horizons. Mildred, his wife, has sold the German rights to her last book. His son Jordan of Carpenter Steel was scheduled to marry Betsy McIlvaine (Smith '58) last month. His son-in-law, Ivor Petrak, manages the Lodge in Stowe, and his grandson, Lee Post, is heading for Dartmouth with the class of 1973.
Secretary, 33 East Wheelock St. Hanover, N. H.
Rm. 1200, 195 Broadway, New York 7, N. Y. Treasurer,
