New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-05-06
NOTED NEW- ENGLANDERS.
Sketches from Boston and Cambridge
Life Forty Years Ago.


CAMBRIDGE SKETCHES. By Frank Pres
ton Stearns 12mo. PIP. 374. ]. B. Lppin-
colt Company
These sketches of the New-England celebri-
ties of forty years ago are frank, unpreten-
tious and mostly unprejudiced- There is little
IN them to change accepted opinions concerning
the men characterized, and the illustrative
anecdotes are less amusing than We had hoped
TO find them That many Of them should be
fresh was not TO be expected-the field has long
been too thoroughly thrashed over.
The opening paper the Harvard Of the
war time period is graphic. and so are the sue
cessive glimpses Of men like Agassiz, Peabody,
Child, that delightful old mathematician Ben
jamin Pierce and the Greek professor Sopho-
cIes the most picturesque figure on the college
grounds. OF this quaint being the author says:
He was a short, thickset man. with large
head and white Medusa-like hair; but such an
eye his was never seen in an Anglo-SaXon
face. 1t reminded you at orce of Byron's Cor
sair and suggested contingencies such as find
no place in quiet, law-abiding Observation-Disclosures
possibility Of sudden and terrible concentration.
His clothing had been long since out Of fashion,
and he always wore faded cloth cap such as
student would dare to put on. He lived like
hermit at No. 3. Holworthy, where he prepared
his own meals rather than encounter strange
faces at a boarding house table. Once he IN
the president went, not without some misgivtngs
what his entertainment might be. He
found however, 0imple but we'll served repast,
including a French roll and a cup of black cof-
fee, with the grounds in ii. The coffee loosened
SOphocless usually reticent tongue and after
that, the president himself expressed it, they
had a delightful conversation. Everybody
spected Suphoces in spite of his eccentric mode
Of life and the freshmen wera as much afraid
Of him if he had been the Minotaur Of Crete.
The reason for his economy did not become
apparent until after his death. When he first
came TO the university he made friends with
gentleman IN Cambridge, 10 Whom ne was rnuch
attached, but who at the time write Of had
long since been dead. 1t was to support the
| daughters Of his friend, who would have other
wise been obliged to their own living, that
he saved his money; and in his will he left them
a competency Of $4,000 or more
The author finds much that is entertaining
to say of Professor Child, the compiler of the
we'll known splendid edition Of old English
| ballads. The professor took as much interest
in politics in poetry, and generally preferred
! them to literature as a topic Of conversation
| It is remembered of him that one November
day he dismissed his classes, renlarking: Next
Tuesday I shall have to serve my country. and
there will be no Rotations" and when the day
arrived he was discovered on the sidewalk near
the polls as busy as less distinguished Republi-
can workers. He attended caucuses and con-
ventions, and never lost faith in the ultimate
results of such good work. Why" he would
ask ARE you discouraged? Times win change"
AS for play, his happiest hours were spent in
his rose garden, which doomed under the
tendance of his own hands. Longfellow is
described by Mr.. Stearns with genuine affection
albeit as one who was greater perhaps as a
man than as a poet. The portrait of Lowell
is just if less sympathetic. Christopher Cranch
painter and poet. who is not often remembered
in these days, has a chapter to himself a char
IN
singing in his rich barytone voice the injuno-
ton Shakespeares tomb,
Good friend. for Jesus sake forbeare.
"as a recitative both in English and Italian"
No book of New-En gland "reminiscences can
be complete without some pages devoted to
! Tom" Appleton, the Boston wit. who is often
! est recalled the author Of the saying that
| good Americans, when they die, go to Paris"
| That saying has lost something Of its point
| now, but it is more effective than the other
! specimens Of Appleton's cIeverness here en-
| shrined. The paper on Charles Sumner is, in
some respects, the best which Mr. Stearns
offers US He defends Sumner against the
| charge Of affectation while admitting that he
| was often self-conscious in his least serious
| moments. He talked of himself as an limo
| cent child talks On all occasions he was thor
Oughly real and sincere, and he would some
times be as much abashed by a genuine COM
| pliment as a maiden of seventeen" His early
| Independence and persistence are illustrated by
story Of his Harvard days, when 1t was not
| considered decorous for a student to wear a
| coored waistcoat White ones were permitted
! but not buff ones. 1t was the bun one that
! Sumner preferred; and he not only wore it. but
lectured the faculty on the subject with such
| energy that they retired from the contest
Other departed worthless are commemorated
zglr he
them all being that Of John A Andrew, the
! War Governor, a man whose character was
| as lovable it was strong.