The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-20
FAMOUS OLD HALL
HOLLIS HALL AT CAMBRIDGE
HAS BEEN TENANTED By
EMINENT MEN
FULL OF HISTORIC INTEREST
Was Built 1as Years Ago and Was
Occupied by Emerson, Thoreaa,
sumner and Others During
Their Student Days.


lngs and environment has "gone through
Harvard. New buildings, however, and
the gradual stretching out of the uniyer-
slty IN various directions are constantly
increasing the cost of this free and easy
graduation, both in time and shoe Ieath-
en- ana 1t is noticeable that the interest
Which brings the tourist to Cambridge
centers more Immediately in the older
and more historic buildings than in those
OF more recent erection. The Yard itself
is a development of the original Yard
then bounded, on the zone side, by the
hrst Harvard hall, destroyed in the great
college nre OF 1864, and soon after re-s
plaeed py the present building of the
same name, on another by old Stoughton,
which vanished in the early part of --e
eighteenth century and on the third, by
Massachusetts hail. once a 1ormitory, but
now devoted to lectures and .recitations
still holds It's own both In the affection
OF students and sightseers.5 The great
elms that shade the yard have grown I'D
there since the first Harvard hall was
erected at the end of a spacious plain
more like bowling green than wilder
ness, and Hollis hail. the oldest dormi-
tory still used as a residence for stu
dents, has naturally a historic interest
mat no amount of modern luxury can
1mpart to it's more pretentious rivals.
link between the twentieth and the eigh-
teenth century undergraduate, and it is
interesting, in view of ..e hundreds of
students now housed in other dormitories
to recall that it was built in answer to
an appeal of the everseers some 1873
years ago, stating that more than ninety
students were obliged TO live in private
families, and were less orderly and well
regulated than those within the walls"
Nails QlAS 9TH te,.i
ported from England
The old dormitory, built in 1853, in the
beginning of the Revolutionary
period, is naturally rich in associations,
both OF the college pranks that have now
gone SO completely out of fashion that
their occasional recurrence. is an impor-
tant news item,a and Of the student life of
men VINO afterWard became prominent
in the history of the outside world.
There is one tradition in particular that
illustrates the combination of foolhardi-
ness and daring that often characterized
an almost forgotten phase of college edu-
cation.
Harvard hall. erected after the destruc-
ton Of the first building of that name in
the fireat fire already mentioned, when
Hollis itself was seriously threatened and
the governor and general court of Mass D.
chusetts, then in session at the college,
Boston, were very active in fighting
the flames, stands near Hollis, the roof
OF the two buildings being separated by
a considerable interval In the small
tower of Harvard hall swings the college
bell that still summons the students fo
recItations and, in former days, called
them to compulsory morning prayers, thus
earning for itself an unpopularity that
made 1T the subject of frequent under
fO~. IFS,
student, so runs the legend, was discov-
cred in such an attempt. His retreat was
cut OFF, the foot of college authority was
on the stair, and the only way of escape
was to risk his neck by making literally
a. flying leap from Harvard to Hollis
he chose that alternative, and although
his own name has been lost, his per-
formance has gained immortality in col
lege tradition {-
eler, however, are the memories of the
young men who in the various rooms of
Hollis prepared themselves to take i'm
portant places Yin the history of their
country. The fact that no student was
then allowed to occupy a given room more
than one year at a time-a rule enforced
In order that the best and the poorest
rooms should be impartially distributed
has practically made the whole building
VI tH6f SLUueHlS QdyS OIL Illus
trious Americans. Under this rule for
example, HenryDavid 1Thoreau occupied
successfully four different rooms in HoI-
lis. The rooms are still pointed out in
which Ralph Waldo Emerson, after his
first year of service as Presidents Fresh
man-when his room adjoined President
K1rkland'S in WadSworth house and the
future philosopher was partly paying his
way through college by acting as sort
n niol - ~
spent many of his student hours "incu-
batting as one ofthis contemporaries has
written, lover deeper matters than were
dreamt of in the established philosophy
of elegant letters" and for that reason
occupying place in college far less pre-
eminent than he has since come to hold
In the ouaside world. Here, Indeed, he
probably returned after his unsuccessful
effort to master the art of song at
which the singing master, when he
reached Emerson said 'Chordr'
WHAT" said Emerson, Chord! Chord!
tell YOU" repeated the master. ST don't
know what you mean" said Emerson.
why sing! Sing a note" $50 I made a
kind of nofse"-thus Emerson afterward
tells the story-"and the singing master
said, THAT will do sir You need not
come again. Here also he prepared the
Class Poem which he delivered at his
.
better than had been expected and
received, earlier in his college career, the
prize of some thirty dollars for declama-
ton which he carried home hoping that
it would buy shawl forhis mother and
was later chagrined to discover it had
gone to pay the bakers bill.
To his old rooms In Hollis cling also
memories of the book club in which the
student with the longest purse bought
tho of Scott other recent litcra-
ture not yet to be found in the college
library and Emerson took his turn in
reading it aloud to the assembled men,
bers. In the latter part of the eighteenth
century Charles Angler kept his table in
room No. S, Hollis, always supplied with
wine, brandy and crackers of which his
friends were at liberty to partake,' and
nearly half a century later the abstem-
ious Thoreau, whose preference in food
was simply for that which was nearest,
planned in Room % MS first camping
trip on the border of a pond near Wal
den not eAen made famous by his choice
of that spot for his historic hermitage.
Thoreau himself one can almost see in
the description OF a classmate: How the
prominent blue-gray eyes seemed to rove
down the path as his grave Indian stride
carried him down, to University hall. He
did not care for people. His classmates
seemed very remote. This reverie hung
always about him, but not go loosely as
the odd garments which the pious house
hold care had furnished him." Edward
Everett, Charles Sumner, Wendell PAIL
lips, Cushing, who negotiated the .irst
treaty WIZ China in 1913; Prescott, the
historian; G. F. Adams, B. r. Curtis,
FELTON,, Pillard, e. R.gHoar, A. P. Pea
body and Horatio Greenough are among
the others whose names still live IN tho
Old rooms of Hollis.
Charles Summer occupied Hollis II dur