1905

One of our more remote classmates, Harry Lill, writes interestingly of his activities in Glendale, Calif. While, like most of us, he avoids long hours of hard physical work, he nevertheless has accomplished some man-sized jobs in his back yard. He excavated a quarter of the area for a brick surface which his nephews laid and he used the earth dug up for some leveling of his rose bed for better flood irrigation. He finds pleasurable relaxation, too, with the drill press, power saw, and other power and hand tools in his shop. He is hoping that he and Bessie may come east for our 60th. In '58 they made a short trip to Europe, but since then they have been pretty closely confined to Glendale by the failing health of their daughter, long an invalid, now very weak and completely blind under nurses' care in an invalid home. They are naturally reluctant to be far from her.

By a rather striking coincidence I have received a letter from another very active classmate, Ralph Knight. He too limits himself to no more than four or five hours of hard work a day. Unlike Harry, he lives alone (his dog "Sambo," whose picture we once published, passed to the happy hunting grounds two years ago). In his shop Ralph seems to specialize in the repairing, refinishing, and constructing of small pieces of furniture. Besides he likes to do all sorts of work in his fine darkroom. As an outgrowth of his family's request that he write a history of his family, he finally settled on a Pictorial Knight Family History. Bound in seven volumes, this work consists of 300-400 prints of enlargements or reductions of photographs going back to daguerreotypes and coming down to the present. This achievement is doubtless highly valued by his family. Further he has done quite a bit in "trick" photography, examples of which he sent me, as, for instance, a picture of Ralph holding up two huge fish caught in Kennebago Lake, his favorite fishing ground for long years. We wish Ralph might favor us by joining us at some reunion.

Now let me swing to a considerably younger member of our '05 family. I had the pleasure of meeting Dwight Billman, son of our well-liked, late lamented "Varsity"Billman. Dwight took a leading part in a delightful concert given at the Central Presbyterian Church in Montclair by the choir of the Princeton Theological Seminary. I had a brief chat with Dwight and found him an attractive, keen young man, of whom I'm sure his mother has good reason to be proud.

We were pleased to learn from a card that Ethel Conley was having a "lovely vacation" at Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Mildred, first assistant and checker-upper to your secretary, is making good, if seemingly slow, recovery from her knee operation. She has graduated from crutches to a cane, which she now is discarding.

Men of '05, reach for your pens to make your reservations at the Inn for July 12, 13, and 14, the date of our reunion, as reported by C.C. Women of '05, don't let your man forget. Widows of '05, we hope your numbers in attendance will increase.

Secretary, GEORGE W. PUTNAM Upper Montclair, N.J.

Class Agent, 63 Virginia Ave., East Greenwich, R.I.