The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1875-02-05
COLLEGE FRANKS OF MON.
CURE -. CONWAY.
From the Louisvllle Commercial.

DIR. Jesse T. Peck was President
of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa,
in 1S4S, and was made the victim
of practical joke about that time
which was widely published and
regarded as the very essence of
college mischief. The authors of
that joke can, at this late day, be
made known, for the first time,
without subjecting them to cen
sure. DR.. Jesse T. Peck latter
ward Bisop Peck, and now, if we
mistake not, dead, was very
large man, dignified in his man
ner and bearing, and with a pecu-
liar faculty for rolling his RS in
conversation, which made his
speech very impressive. At Dick
inson College, in that year, were
Moncure ID. Conway, now famous
in this country and in England
for his high literary attachments,
his vigorous, brilliant intellect,
and his strong-minded views on
all religious and scientific topics.
His name is familiar to every lover
of literature, and his letters to the
Cincinnati Commercial are not of
the most interesting features of
that paper. Mr.. Conway Cor as
his fellow-students styled him then
Mono Conway was not regarded
as brilliant student, but was
rather noted for his literary pre-
objections. He appreciated hui
NOR, and enjoyed the practical
jokes for which college students
have always had n weakness.
In the same junior class was
Marcus j. Parrot, who afterwards
became q prominent man in the
tree-soil party of BLEEDING Kan
sas," and whose name for years
was connected with the politics of
the West. This was the same
Macrus j. Parrot who some years
ago, while at the Langham Hotel
in London, dispatched to the
Grand Hotel in Paris to reserve
apartments for him. On his ar
rival there, great was his astonish-
ment to find that one of the grand
est suites of apartments in the ho-
tel had been reserved for him
while he was greeted with the
greatest display of respect by mine
host and his staff.
This extraordinary attention to a
simple American sovereign was
caused by ludicrous misconcep-
ton of Mr.. Parrott's name. The
dispatch conveyed to the landlord
the impression that the apart
ments were for the Marquis de
Parrott-a distinguished foreign
nobleman. How Marcus j. Par
rott, the private citizen, undeceiv-
ed the landlord and selected more
humble apartments, it is not nee
essary to relate.
Dickinson College was sustain
ed at the time we referred to by
the Methodist Conference of Penn
sylvania, Virginia and Maryland,
and the annual conference was to
be held at Stanton, Va. in March,
1S4S. DR.. Peck, as was customary,
made his arrangements to attend
the conference, and also to wit
ness the Inauguration of President
Taylor in Washington.
The students were aware of the
fact, and one evening Moncure D.
Conway, Marcus j. PARROT, ans
E. A. Maginness, then a freshman
from New Albany, (now the portly
manager of Louisville Industrial
Exposition), sat down to play a
game of euchre. The Presidents
visit to Stanton was commented
upon, and, in the mischievous
spirit of reckless studenthood, a
practical joke was projected,
which, after mutual suggestions
from each of the three, assumed
complete shape.
Conway could initiate DIR
Peck's handwriting, and pen and
paper being procured, he wrote .
letter to the Superintendent of the
Insane Asylum at Stanton, Va.
in which he stated that a very re
spectacle citizen of Carlisle, Pa,
named Hugh Blair, was subject to
temporary alteration of the mind
during which he imagined himself
to be DIR. Jesse T. Peck, President
of Dickinson College. Then the
followed description of the un
fortunate Hugh Blair, which de
scription was an elaborate picture
of DIR. Peck himself. As Mr.
Hugh Blair had been absent some
days, his friends were becoming