1909

GREETINGS TO ONE AND ALL

To all, a Dartmouth greeting, This season of the year. May Fortune work her magic To bring you health and cheer.

To all, the gift of mem'ry That keeps the past alive. To all, the keen enjoyment Of friendships that survive.

To all, a hand extended To clasp you by the hand, And join with you in praying For peace throughout the land.

To all, let's keep the contacts We made in college days, And gather, while we're able, To sing old Dartmouth's praise.

THOSE EARLY HOCKEY DAYS

This is the season when hockey takes over as one of the winter sports. It will be remembered that hockey was introduced at Dartmouth during our sophomore year when the only playing facility was Faculty Pond. In the next year or two an outdoor rink came into being, but no artificial ice. Mother Nature had to be relied on to give water the freezing treatment. During our senior year, Sam King was the dedicated manager who arose before dawn to flood the rink. That year, the main members of the team were all '09ers. If you don't believe it, take a gander at the accompanying photo.

In the back row you see Manager King,Emile Erhard, Plum Leighton, captain, Coach Eames, Russ Pettengill, Heinie Stucklen, and Charlie Fay 'l0, assistant manager. In front are Dinny Marston, Chet Perry, and ArtDoe. Four in the group - King, Erhard, Stucklen, and Doe — are no longer in the land of the living. Whether the coach is still alive is not known, but it is known that '09ers were among the prime movers in the early days of this exciting sport.

THE SPIRIT OF DAN'L WEBSTER

Reports of old days, in the opinion of Jake Wiley 'OB, constitute a basic part of Dartmouth history. When he made this statement he had in mind the profiles on Cuddy Murphy '21 and Gus Sonnenberg '20 that appeared in the '09 class notes, and he wonders if the name of George Grout 1875, rings a memory bell. "There was a lad of muscle and agility," says Jake. "One by one, he is reported to have pinned six Dartmouth lads (brothers, I think) in a wrestling tournament. It was the climax of the challenge made by the brothers to 'throw' every man in Dartmouth in succession." George must have been some man.

While in an historical mood, Jake recalls an incident far afield from wrestling, but which is, indeed, source material. It concerns Dartmouth's most distinguished alumnus, Daniel Webster.

"Webster," reports Jake, "did for Dartmouth what Lincoln did for the union. He saved it on its original basis. The event in point occurred in 1850 at an alumni dinner sponsored by Webster. In course of the occasion, the question arose as to what was Webster's greatest effort as a lawyer and a statesman. Dartmouth men present had no uncertainty about the answer to that one. The answer was Webster's peerless argument before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1818. He was 37 at the time. In that supreme effort he saved Dartmouth against the aggrandizement of the New Hampshire legislature and restored it to the private authority that had established the college."

"I am poor," Webster said at one point in his alumni talk. "I have done for Dartmouth college all that I can. Yet I feel indebted to her — indebted for my early education, indebted for her early confidence, indebted for an opportunity to show men . . . that I was equal to the defense of vested rights against state courts and sovereignties . . . and if you think I was of any service in obtaining it, remember what Dartmouth did for me before I could do for her, and bestow upon her your pecuniary means as freely as I have my intellectual means." (This was quoted from "Dartmouth Traditions" by William Carroll Hill '01, page 132. What a theme that would be for the Alumni Fund!)

Jake concludes with this observation: "But 'Black Dan,' 'Cuddy,' and 'Gus' were not such strange bedfellows. They were all Dartmouth to the marrow. And if the trend of the moment is to establish Dartmouth as a Cambridge, or a Harvard in the wilderness, may the doors to the college be left wide open to the strong lads, physical, as well as mental. Just so the spirit of Webster is their chief asset."

Our classmate, Dutch West, has a lot of choice memories about college days which he hands out on occasion. This one concerns two '10 guys, Tom Foster and Ted Smith, who were roommates. Ted wanted to attend a football game and take some dame with him, but he lacked enough money and borrowed twenty bucks from Tom, who was known as a generous fellow.

Later, Tom decided that he'd take in the game, but being short of funds, he hopped a freight and landed in town grimy and dirty. He knew where Dutch West was staying, looked him up, and got into his bed for a snooze, just as Dutch was getting up. At the game that afternoon, Tom, still looking more or less like a bum, ran across Ted and Ted wouldn't even speak to him.

The friendship of these two lads, nonetheless, did survive. Tom is a prominent physician in Portland, Me.; and Ted, who spent the greater portion of his post-graduate life in Cuba, until Castro took over, is now living down New Orleans way.

Have a good Christmas, folks, and you old-timers who are still with us, guard your health as a priceless possession.

Dartmouth hockey was in its infancywhen this team took the ice. See the'09 Notes for additional information.

Class Notes Editor, 141 Pioneer Trail, Aurora, Ohio

Secretary and Treasurer, Sandwich, Mass.