The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-02-27
OLDEST LIVING GRADUATE.
4 VOCATION WHICH SHOULD BE
 SOLE IND SUFFICIENT
For Amy Ambition.


 mortal immortality with another poten
 tate and great public character the
 oldest graduate. There is always ar
 oldest graduate, and always there are
 heirs waiting for the succession. Ben.
 jamin D. Silliman, distinguished and
 fortunate in so many other regards
 was also for some time the oldest living
 graduate of Yale, and now that honor
 belongs to Judge Cutler of '29, who lives
 in Waterbury, where they make the
 watches. May these be wound up fol
 many day before he yields his crown to the heir apparent. At ninety-thre the oldest living graduate Is or should
 be but boy. After waiting seventy odd years for his title, he will be in nc hurry to give it up. He should enjoy it to the full, be merciful in his remtnis- cences and look with an indulgent pity on the lads of ninety and nlnety-one who want his job For, flower unloved of Amaryllis though 1t be, this honor is greatly prized The supvivor in this Tontine has beaten all his contempora ries at college. He can say to Time, as Beranger said:
 Old Postilion, hold up, hold up;
 Let us drink stirrup cup.
 It is too much for this glory to go to a man otherwise famous, as Mr. Silli- man was or as Horace Binney was. The latter, an illustrious lawyer, whose fame is perhaps as dim now as that of most great lawyers who have not held high political office, was graduated at Harvard in 1797, if we remember well, and he was the oldest living Harvard man for some time before he was cut off at ninety-ive. An oldest living gradu- ate who has no other fame than that is to be preferred. Such was Joseph Head of Harvard, 1894. He lived in some lit tie town. With his bent form, his Van Wrinkle beard, his long staff, he looked what he was as he marched among the younger generations in the yard on Commencement day, the oldest living grad-oo-ate," as he pronounced it, after the fashion of his rural youth. Good old Joseph Head, If that was his name! One thinks with kindness of him, and all his predecessors; and of his success sors In the procession.
 In every college from A to z eone- thing of affection attaches to the college elder and leader of the line. Of ordina- ry distinction the graduate may grow tired, be 1t his or that of classmate. Of the class of 1925 at Bowdoin, of 1929 at Harvard, of 1853 at Yale, it has been possible to hear too much At Bruns- wick in 1875 MT. Blaine happily ex- pressed the weariness which the con stant celebration of the celebrated brings. q am glad to hear" he said, that those members of the class of 1925 who are not illustrious on earth are happy in heaven"
 The graduate whose ambition 1t Is to become the oldest living graduate scorns all loud and easier flames. In seclusion and with perfect modesty of spirit he sets before himself early the high goal He accepts philosophically all detriments which fate and fortune send. T am no longer young" he says to himself, but why should I wish to be? Everybody who stays In the game must get old and how few can become the oldest living graduate? I am not handsome, witty, eloquent or even pop ular. I don't have to be in my business, which is that of living to be the o. I. G. My classmate, Hooker Haynes has made most of the money there is in the world. My classmate, Brattle Holyoke, has married most of the rest I don't need money in my business Byles Is bishop. Dwight is senator. Bill Trumbull is a trust. I haven't any of fee. I don't direct anything. l have little property and less hair But I think I can outlive every man in my class and I mean to do it. Let them last into the nineties if they can. I'll take an even hundred, and one to carry, if necessary"
 The young chaps just out of college may not know this harmless ambition at first. They are too young-confound 'em We remember hearing George Bancroft, sixty years after his gradua- ton, imparting the fact to freshman. The freshman gaped and gaped in won der How was it possible for a man to have been graduated sixty years ago? If Nebuchadnezzar had come into the room and tried to sell bookk on vege- tarianism, that freshman could not have been more surprised. But youths a stuff will not endure. It doesn't take the truly wise graduate long to find the most reasonable object of desire. He nourishes the gentle vision in his heart. He sees himself well-preserved an- cient of ninety-eight, with face like Baldwin apple and still tolerable legs. His gold-geaded cane is less staff than a part of his makeup; 'tis rep resentative of the monumental pomp of age. He wears, for effect, a tall hat of the fashion of fifty years before. He brides himself on the cut of his frock coat His serviving hair is soft and white A perfect gentleman of the old school
 Young gentlemen" says the oldest 1 living graduate, q ascribe my remark able health and long life to the fact that | for seventy five years I have neither l smoked nor drank" Boys" he says | to 8 few striplings of ninety-odd assem- l bled around the punch bowl, q attrib- ute my good health and looks to the fact | that for eighty years l have taken nip of good stuff regularly every day. But never overdid it as you do."
 We once knew an oldest living grad nate who would walk on the railroad track, although he was nearly one hun fred and deaf az post This is en- for beginners, as it seems to show that the o. L.. is born, not made nv training Only few years ago