1900

1900 is very proud. One of its lineal descendants has been awarded a coveted collegiate scholarship honor. Betsy Woodman, a senior at Smith College, was recently inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. Betsy is the oldest daughter of President Everett Woodman '39 of Colby Junior College and the granddaughter of our Jim Woodman. To win this election is an outstanding achievement. In June I am certain that Ethel will be present to see granddaughter Betsy receive her degree.

Betty Redington, widow of Paul Redington, from her home in La Jolla, Calif., has written me at length about her immediate family. In this changing world it is gratifying to report the successes of one's children. Every thoughtful mother is justly proud of the accomplishment of her family. Betty herself is apparently in very good shape for one of her years. She enjoys the friends and the cultural advantages of La Jolla.

One day during the winter Arthur Roberts, looking out of the window at his home in Natick, Mass., saw a power-driven snowplow clearing the street. This incident brought to Arthur a picture of ye olden time when a yoke of heaving oxen hitched to a sled, in slow motion, cleared away the snow. Arthur says the ox team was more homely in the American meaning of that word, but perhaps we should add less efficient though more picturesque. Such a picture arouses in many of us of the older generation a nostalgic emotion, a bit of longing in this complex and confusing age for the simplicity and directness of the turn of the century. We, of course, would not want to do without the labor-saving devices and conveniences of modern technology, but we do wish they might be accompanied with less speed and mental pressure.

Charlotte Sanborn, widow of Chan Sanborn, with commendable foresight, made in March her annual visit to her daughter's family in Dallas, Texas. She escaped a few of the coldest days of the winter in this area. She basked in the 87 degree temperature of that southern city and thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of going out without winter garb. As usual her visit was a relaxing and enjoyable one.

Through a long historical period mankind has been in a struggle to gain higher standards of life and to achieve freedom. At times the struggle has seemed well-nigh hopeless. In reference to this struggle of the masses Bob Jackson uses a telling simile. In a letter to me he says: "In a sentence, it is to have man exchange his life sequence with that of the butterfly. The latter starts as an inconspicuous larva incased in a tiny cocoon. In time it emerges from its envelope into the sun but as an ugly, crawling thing, to be avoided as repulsive, a sticky caterpillar. For a period it continues in that unattractive state but all the while absorbing knowledge of its environment and its limited world. Then, when at last it has reached the point comparable to that of man's middle age, it suddenly bursts into a glory of flaming color, energy, and mobility that enables it to roam the skies at will and to enjoy its new-found existence to the full."

In the midst of all the turmoil of the present day perhaps we may think of mankind as in the sticky caterpillar stage. With increased opportunities for educating the masses and the lessening of ignorance, superstitions, and emotional action combined with the application of large doses of reason, our caterpillar (humanity) may burst forth into the wide-ranging butterfly.

Secretary and Class Agent Box 714, Hanover, N. H. 03755