The Savannah morning news., 1901-11-09

after his unsuccessful effort to master
the art of song, at which the singing
master. when he reached Emerson,
said Chord"
"What?" said Emerson.
Chord! chord! I tell you" repeated
the master.
81 don't know what you mean" said
Emerson.
why, sing! Sing a motel"
80 l made a kind of noise'-thus
Emerson afterward told the story
and the singing master said: That
will do. sir. You need not CONT
again. . Here, also, he prepared the
class poem, which he delivered at his
graduation, and which his class found
better than had been expected" and
received earlier in his college career,
the prize of some $50 for defamation,
which he carried home. hoping that it
would buy a shawl for his mother, and
was later chagrined to discover 1t 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 the copy
of Scott or other recent literature not
yet to be found in the college library,
and Emerson took his turn in reading
it aloud to the assembled members.
Edward Everett, Charles Sumner,
Wendell Phillips, Cushing, who nego-
tiated the first treaty with China in
1913; Prescott, the historian; c. F.
Adams, B. r. Curtis, FELTON,, Hilliard,
r. r. Hoar, A. P. Peabody, and Hora-
ito Greenough are among the others
whose names still live in the old rooms
of Hollis.
Charles Sumner occupied Hollis II
during his Freshman year, and 1t was
from Hollis, therefore, that he made
his three appearances to account for
his famous buff waistcoat before the
parietal committee of the college. The
anecdote illustrates very well the te-
nacity of purpose that marked his
career from beginning to end. The
buff waistcoat was a real. If very NIL
nor, infraction of college discipline, for
there than existed a rule, curious
enough when one considers 1t In con
nection with the modern undergrad
uate, enforcing a uniformity of cloth
ing. This costume, we are told IN
letter of a classmate of Sumner, con-
sisted of an Oxford cap, coat. and pan
falcons, with a vest of col
or known as oxford mixed. In
warm weather it was permissible
to substitute a white vest, but no other
color was allowable. Sumner, contin-
ues the letter, objected to the white
vest and appeared in very light bun
garment, which he declared to be
white, although admitting that laun-
dress could make it whittier. He was
called before the parietal committee, a
lower board of discipline standing be-
tween the students and the faculty of
the college, and on three successive oc-
casions argued the Wilderness of his
buff vest so successfully that the board
finally voted that sin future Sumner S
vest be regarded by this board as
white" and the victory remained with
the undergraduate reformer. The man
himself left upon his classmates an
impression of careful dressing and OF
earnest study, and Wendell Phillips
speaks of seeing a light in sumner
window night after night when Phillips
and other undergraduates were return
ing from pleasure trips to Boston.
Wendell Phillips is another name in
timately associated with Hollis. AS a
student he mixed more with the social
life of the college than either Thoreau
or Emerson. His contemporaries re-
member him as singularity handsome
youth-so much So indeed, that on one
occasion in his room they measured
him to find out how his proportions
compared with those of the Greciar
statue of Apollo-and it is interesting
to remember that here also he helped
to defeat the first effort to form tenn
perance society in the col.
lege. In later life he account.
ed this fact as IAN infamy." II
Hollis and elsewhere, it is also inter
esting to know, his room was mucf
frequented by Southerners. then The
most elegant" of all Harvard under.
graduates, and the one thing that con
meets the Hollis student with the great
reformer is the impression which he
left upon his classmates of deep SYM
pathy with all victims of oppression.
1t was in Hollis also that Prescott
the historian, after the accident that
deprived him of the sight of one eye,
awoke to the serious attitude toward
life that gave him eventually his inn
portant place among American men of
letters The accident occurred in col
lege, where at the time of his entrance
he had found 1t necessary to make
rules for himself governing the hours
and minutes to be devoted to each par
ticular study; rules, adds his biogra PHI
er, which he took care never to break
by working overtime, for like many
another famous man in later life, he
was more given to general reading than
to work in his prescribed courses. Here
also the future historian cultivated that
remarkable memory that made it pos
sible for him to learn by heart entire
demonstrations in the detested science
of geometry, and to recite them in class
without any attempt to understand
their mathematical meaning. 1t may be
added, however that he later confess
ed to his instructor his inability ac-
tually to grasp the mathematics, and
was allowed to dispense finally with
that part of his education, an arrange
ment that points directly toward the
elective system. now so much in vogue
in all the large institutions of learning.