The record-union., 1899-07-10
D6MEYS BOYHOOD.
sCHooLlGATEs SCATTERED ALI
ovRR THE COUNTRY. i,
Astonish1ng Number of Those Who.
Aepmed Next to Him
at School.

at School.
George Dewey, Admiral of the United
states navy and idol of his country,
was probably the most widely known
poy OF the century. Not day passes
Dut hundred or more men come re-
iuctantly to the front, and, with mod
esty and hesitant demeanor, admit that
tney went to school with Dewey. Those
VINO did not go to school with him lived
next door to him. Do these men real
lze now they are taxing the elasticity
OF the State of Vermont? A State has
certain metes and bounds, and is not
axe rubber overshoe. You can some
times squeeze a number 8 foot into
NUMBER Q overshoe. but you cannot put
Io,OOO men into space sufficient for only
o,UUO, because they are not like tele-
scopes or pie plates. BY the way, the
TN pie plate is most remarkably
scientific anomaly. Take a dozen tin
pie plates all the same size, and you
can put one into the other, and the one
on top remains no larger and no smaller
than the one on the bottom. This is a
problem, that has long puzzled the best
paid servants of the country. That IS
the way it is about George Dewey'a
schoolboy friends and college chums
Either Vermont was much larger when
Dewey was a boy, or men and boys took
up much less room than they do now.
Perhaps Vermont has shrunk so gradu-
ally since then that no one has noticed
it, A good geographer could make a
hit by discovering this fact and writ
ing about it for the magazines.
ic moi fnu IN, he
SO mean and small and despised that it
has not it's share of Dewey's school
mates. = 1t is a well known fact that
the school Dewey patronized was the
largest in the world. There exists no
photograph of the school house, but a
trustworthy architect, who is greatly
interested in the matter has recon.
structed the school, basing his caicula-
tions upon the number of men who, as
boys, occupied the room right next to
Dewey's. He has made a sketch of
the building, based on these figures. 1t
is fourteen stories high, $50 feet long
by 115 feet wide 1t is estimated that
Dewey occupied at the same time / ,652
rooms TO accommodate the boys who
roomed next to him. foreseeing that
some day he would be great man. Be-
sides this Dewey occupied 1923 rooms
with room mates who have since blush
ingly admitted the fact. 1t is said that
Dewey Ebecame famous that he might
not disappoint the friends of his boy
hood, who had so laboriously and at
great expense prepared themselves to
have been his schoolmates when they
grew old. This is a valuable lesson for
all boys to remember: be great, and
you Will always have. plenty of school
mates. There is no such spur to future
greatness as to go to a large school
where you are bound to have a great
many companions. And another thing
to remember Is, always do a great many
things that will serve for future anec-
dotes. The boy who does net do anec-
dotal things can never expect to be
successfully great man. 1t was largely
due to his anecdotage that Dewey sank
the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay. When
he stood on the bridge of the Olympia
he said to himself: STEADY, George,
there are all those anecdotes behind
you. Do not forget that you had school,
mates Then. aided by the war corre..
spondents, he went il and won the fight
before and after breakfast, thus show,
ing that he remembered his youthful
training and his com1nendable habit of
preparing anecdotes as he went along
When a man becomes great enter
prising editors, knowing that he has
prepaped a large number of anecdotes
in his youth and distributed them
around among his family and school
mates, send out and gather them in.
1t happens very often that they do not
have to send out. One by one the
men to whom the anecdotes were in
trusted remember their responsibility
and bring them to the editor. Some
times the anecdotes get into circula-
tion by. the drawing out of an old
ischoolmate when he drops into the
store of an evening When he sits
astraddle of the sugar barrel and eats
eyaporated peaches he can gradually
be persuaded to confess that he went
to school with Dewey at Montpelier or
Pomfret or Chittenden or Johnson or
Rutland or Northfield or Bellows Falls,
wherever he happened to be from. A
great many are discovered in that way.
Sometimes the wife of a schoolmate
writes her husbands "reminiscences of
Dewey and sends them to 1.-The Ladies'
Own Companion"
Vermont used to have a remarkable
population. OF late years it has mys-
teriously fallen off. and the reason has
only recently been suspected. Dewey's
schoolmates have moved out West. The
density of population in Vermont is
now only 1854 to the square mile, and
there is plenty. OF room to breathe
Before Dewey's ischoolmates moved
away 1T used to be like a crowd in
front sf newspaper Office on the night
of big prfze-fieht
Yes" said Eleazor Polk, st remem-
Der George well. I always call him
George, you know. got letter from
him not long ago, written just twenty
eight minutes before he went into ac-
tion at vanilly. I'd show you the let
ter, but my wife lent it to the neigh
bors, and 1t got passed around until
1t was wore out and never came back.
I mind George well. I used to room
next to him when he went to school
at Paddlebury. He was not much for
style in them days. He knew he was
goin' to be Admiral some day and used
to dress the part. He was a small
peckled boy with yellow hair. and used
to make up to the gals right smart
The gals all liked him, too. because
they knew he was goin' to be a great
man some day. My, but he was full
of pranks. was George! always call
him George. Ny, my! ] mind once he