The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1901-10-23

Curtis, Felton,, Pillard, E. r. Hoar, a. p.
Peabody, and Horatio Greenough are
among the others whose names still live
in the old rooms of Hollis.
CHARLES SUMNER.
Charles Summer occupied Hollid II dur
ing his freshman year and it was from
Hollis therefore that he made his three
appearances to account for his famous
buff waistcoast before the Parieta1 Com
n1ttee of the college. The anecdote AZ
illustrates very well the tenacity of purpose
that marked his career from beginning
to end The buff waistcoat was real,
il very minor, infraction of college DIS
cfpline. for there then excited a rule. Gu
rious enough when one considers it in con-
nection with the modern undergrad-
uate, enforcing a uniformity OF clothing.
This costume. we are told in letter OF u
class-mate of Sumner. consisted OF an
Oxford cap coat and pantaloous, with
vest of a color known as Oxford mixed.
In warm weather it was permisslpie 10
substitute q white vest, but no other
color was allowable. Sumner, continues
the letter. objected to the white vest and
appeared accordingly in very light bull
garment which he declared to be white.
although admitting that a laundress couid
make it whittier. He was called before
the ParietaI COMMITTEES, lower board OF
discipline standing between the students
three successive occasions argued the
whiteness of his buff vest so successfully
that the board finally voted that IN
future Summers 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 ear
nest study, and Wendell Phillips speaks
of seeing light IN Summers window
,;er1,+ or mic cxi1a pbfIlinG md OtHpF
undergraduates We're returning from
pleasure trips to Boston.
Wendell Phillips is another name in
timately associated with Hollis. AS
student he mixed more with the social
life of the college than either Thoreau or
Emerson. His contemporaries remember
him as singularIy ha ndsome 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 Grecian statue Of Apollo-and 1t
is interesting to remember that here al
so he helped to defeat the first effort to
form a temperance society in the college,
In later life he accounted this fact as
IAN infamy." In Hollis and elsewhere.
it is also interesting to know. his room
was much frequented by Southerrers.
then the most elegant of all Harvard
undergraduates. and the one thing that
connects the Hollis student with the great
reformer is the impression which he lett
upon his classmates of deep sympathy
with all victims of oppression.
1t was in Hollis also that Prescott, the
historian, after the accident that de-
prived him of the sight Of one eye. awoke
to the serious attitude toward life that
gave him eventually his important place
among American men OF letters. The
accident occurred in college, where, at the
time Of his entrance, he had found 1t
necessary to make rules for himself gov
erning the hours and minutes to be de-
voted to each particular study; rules.
adds; mis- biographer, 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 reau-
| ing than to work in his prescribed
courses Here also the future historian
| cultivated that remarkable memory that
| made it possible for him to learn os
heart entire demonstrations In the detes-
| ted science of geometry and to rec1tc
them in class without any attempt to I'M
derstand their mathematical meaning.
| 1t may be added. however, that ne late:
confessed to his instructor his inability
actually to grasp the mathematics ana
was allowed to dispense finally with that
part of his education, an arrangement
| that points directly toward the eiectiVe
| system now so much in vogue in all the
! large institutions Of learning.