The Washington times., 1901-10-20


ture not yet to be found in the colleg
library, and Emerson took his turn i
reading it aloud to the assembled mem
bers.
In the latter part of the eighteenth
century Charles Angler kept his tabl,
IN room 8, Hollis, always supplied witt
wine, brandy, and crackers, of which
his friends were at liberty to partake.
and nearly half century later the alb
stemious Thoreau, whose preference il
food was simply for that which was
nearest, planned in room 2S his frs
camping trip on the border of a pond
near Walden not then made famous by
his choice of that spot for his historic
| hermitage
Thoreau himself one can almost Sc,
in the description of a classmate: How
| the prominent grey blue eyes seemed tC
rove down the path as his grave Indiar
| 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
so loosely as the odd garments which
the pious household care had furnished
him" Edward Everett, Charles Sum
ner, Wendell Phillips, Cushing, who me-
| gotiated the first treaty with China in
1913; Prescott, the historian; c. f.
Adams. b. r. Curtis, FELTON,, Pillard,
f.. r. Hoar. A. p Peabody, and Horatio
| 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 it was
| from Hollis, therefore, that he made
mis- three appearances to account for
| his famous buff waistcoat before the
| Parietal Committee of the college. The
anecdote illustrates very well the
tenacity of purpose that marked his
career from beginning to end. The buff
waistcoat was a real, if very minor, in
! fraction of college discipline. for there
then existed a rule, curious enough
| when one considers it in connection
with the modern undergraduate. enforc-
| ing a uniformity of clothing.
This costume, we are told in a letter
of a classmate of Sumner, consisted of
an Oxford cap, coat, and pantaloons,
|
mixed. In warm weather it was per
missible to substitute a white vest, but
no other color was allowable. Sumner,
continues the letter, objected to the
white vest and appeared accordingly in
! a very light buff garment which he de-
| clared TO be white, although admitting
| that laundress could make it whittier.
! 10 ytrac paIIa6 hafnra the Pnriotal (rnul-
| mittee, a lower board of discjpline
standing between the students and the
| faculty of the college, and on three sue
| cessive occasions argued the whiteness
| of his buff vest so successfully that the
! board finally voted that in future
Summers vest be regarded by this
! hoard as white" and the victory re-
mained with the undergraduate refor-
mer. The man himself left upon his
classmates an impression of careful
/ dressing and of earnest study, and
| Wendell Phillips speaks of seeing q
light in Summers window night after
night when Phillips and other under
| graduates were returning from pleasure
! trips to Boston.
| Wendell Phillips is another name in
tinately 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 a singularly handsome
| youth-so much so, indeed, that on one
occasion in his room they measured him
| to find out how his proportions com
pared with those Of the Grecian statue
| of Apollo-and it is interesting to re
member that here also he helped to de-
| feat the first effort to form a temper
| ance society in the college. In later
| life he accounted this fact as AN in
| fanny" In Hollis and elsewhere, 1t is
also interesting to know. his room was
| much frequented by SOutherners, then
| the most elegant" of all Harvard un-
dergraduates, and the one thing that
| connects the Hollis student with the
great reformer is the impression which
he left upon his classmates of deep
sympathy with all victims of oppres-
sion.
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 i'm
portant place among American men of
letters. The accident occurred in col
lese, where at the time of his entrance
he had found it necessary to make rules
for himself governing the hours and
minutes to be devoted to each particu-
lar study; rules, adds his biographer,
which he took care never to break by
working overtime, for, like many an
other famous man, in later life he was
more given to general reading than to
work in his prescribed courses.
Here also the future historian culti-
waited that remarkable memory that
made it possible for him to learn by
heart entire demonstrate in the de
tested science of geometry. and to re-
cite them in class without any attempt
to understand their mathematical
meaning. 1t may be added, however,
that he later confessed TO his instruc-
tor his inability actually to grasp the
mathematics, and was allowed TO dis
pense finally with that part of his edu-
cation. an arrangement that points di-
rectly toward the elective system now
SO much in vogue in all the large insti-
tutions Of learning.
BIDS OPENED YESTERDAY.
Proposals for Increase in Electric
Power ut ST. EIiznbeth's.
Proposals were opened yesterday after