St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1891-07-16
TWO COLLEGE BOYS.
Samples of Heroism as Recently Mani
tested.

The young man WHO'S elected Har-
wards first marshal must have first
stood the test of four years constant
fellowship with the 800 men of his
class; he must have been watched by
them in the dormitory, at work in
the classroom and at play on the
ball field-which some one has said
is the best place to test the gentle
man-and must not have been found
wanting Generally the right man
is elected; occasionally he is not.
This year the right man was elected.
A regrettably large number of
people do not know that a young
gentleman named Arthur Cumnock
was captain of the football eleven at
Harvard last year, and that his
eleven defeate the eleven of Yale,
and that Yale, in her turn, crushing
" defeated Princeton The casual
visitor at class day understood it
better wher. he was told that Arthur
Cumnock had done more than win a
championship, and that it was not
as the captain of the team that he
was cheered with heartiness and
loneliness of feeling that very few
a lesson in the four years of his col
lege life of manliness and strength
and fineness of character which had
brought a new tone into the life of
great university that was not there
when he came, and that will remain
there now that he has gone.
This year the seniors cheered all the
men or bodies of men they best loved,
from Henry L. Higginson, who gave
the athletic field in memory of the
Harvard men who fell in battle, down
to the varsity eleven, who train
upon it to win the lesser victories of
today.
And when this was done, Capt.
Arthur Cumnock. who had led the
cheering up to this point, stepped
back and looked conscious, for it
would not do for him to give the
tie vellow-haired president of the
junior class, who had bided his time
in impa tience, leaped to his feet, and
threw back his shoulders, and swell
ed out his chest, and shouted. And
now three cheers for Arthur Cum
nockl" And the 800 juniors rose up
from the turf as though they had
been shot from a trap, and worked
their elbows and yelled, and before
they had fallen back breathless the
sophomores and the freshmen and
the alumni had followed with vol
ley of cheers like the salute of a field
battery, and the Boston people and
the visitors from New York and from
all over the West were waving their
hats and handkerchiefs, and beating
their gloved hands and cheering too,
and Arthur Cumnock was looking
very red and embarrassed and hand
some.
When Arthur Cumnock came to
Harvard the fast set had marked it,
in the eyes of the outside world,
either wrongfully or rightfully, for
its own. The prevailing tone was
Harvard pessinisn, and the manly
thing, so the incoming freshmen were
told and the chief end of man was, to
drink and gamble politely, and wire
pull for the societies, and cut recita-
lions. In four years this idea Of the
manly thing has changed, and it has
changed, so all who live in Boston
or Cambridge will tell you, because
the man who was most conspicuous
in the college life, owing to his place
as the captain of the varsity eleven,
threw all of his influence on the side
of temperance in all things, fair play
or work, and showed at all times,
whether on or off the field, the court
esy and modesty and strength of a
gentleman.
And yet it is very easy to turn and
write for the other side, and to say
that more to be envied is Frederick
Brokaw, who was given his chance
at Long Branch last week, and who
rose to it. and died in taking it.
Brockaw was one of the simplest,
sturdiest, gentlest souls [ have ever
known. | know that one is always
expected to speak we'll of the dead,
but there is nothing else to write of
Brokaw if one does not write well of
him. He was tall, ungainly and
awkward, but his face was one of
wonderful gentleness and beauty,
owing to the eyes, [ think, which
were as frank and soft as a girls,
and showed the nature of the man to
whomsoever looked into them. The
smallest freshman in the college
could abuse Brokaw, and demand to
know why he had dropped that foul
or made that overthrow, and instead
of batting him over the head for his
presumption, the big giant of the
Varsity nine would stoop over and
explain about it labo1iouslv, and al
most promise not to do it again.
And with this simplicity and humili-
ty of character he had the pluck and
endurance of a bull dog, as all know
who have seen him stop the ball
through long hot afternoon with
| hands that were so bruised and
broken that whenever he raised them
the blood ran down his bare arms
from under the cuff of his gauntlet.
In all the terrible drowning acct