New-York tribune., 1918-06-20
Wednesdays of Past Sim
ply Wednesday, June 19,
This Year
Drills Succeed Play
Class Reunions Abandoned for
There Are Few Present
to Attend Them
special Dispatch to The Tribune

49, t'NSs"s A|-'PuttN ~ i NJ FsDHNbb
CAMBRIDGE, Mass, June 19.-Wed-
nesday Of commencement week at Cam
bridge is usually the riot day. On
Tuesday the restraining presence Of
parents and faculty members has
curbed the bcisterous tendencies of
young men just completing their cul-
tural education.
Tuesday, which is class day, is gen.
orally admitted to be q terrible bore.
But on Wednesday the classes in the
past have assembled in informal carb
and allowed the entertainment COM
mlttees to do their worst-excursions
down the harbor, reunions at country
ciuos, the donning of colored costumes
which were never very effective, but
which gave the desired impression of
mature abandon, and finally the base
ball game with Yale in the afternoon,
at which both teams united in an orgy
OF wild playing, the game going to the
side which least often threw the ball
over the first basemans head into the
stands.
This is what Wednesday of COM
mencement week used to be. This year
it was simply Wednesday. June 49,
Soldiers Field was deserted and the
nleachers stood like empty racks, wait
ing for the crowd that never came,
From over behind the concrete walls of
the stadium echoed the solitary STAG
cato commands of an ensign putting a
squad of men from the naval radio
school through drill, sound which
only intensified the quiet of the dia-
mond.
Place Was Really Barren
A sentimental and solitary visitor
might have shut his eyes and imagined
that it was the quiet which reigns in
the last of :he ninth where there is an
En- on third and two out and the de-
Gliding ball is being fondled in the
pitchers glove. But such imaginings
would have done little good for sooner
or later the sentimental visitor would
have had to open his eyes and seen
how barren the place really was.
The class of '93, twenty-five years
out of college, was due for the cele-
bration Of its career, lasting an entire
week. AS matter of fact, it had q
smoker last night, at which messages
were read from some of the forty
eight members in active war service,
and to-day Louis A. Frothingham en-
tcrtained the class at his home in
ANOI III EdS lOH. 30 s3fluCl 10Y the LWeu-
ty-ffth reunion.
'O3 various sparsely attended reunion
gatherings were held at clubs near
Boston, but with 1903 these reunions
came to a significant halt. The decen-
mai of 1908, the sexennial of 1912 and
the triennial of 1915, events looked
forward to ever since graduation. were
all abandoned. There weren't enough
members left.
One From Glass of IL
The class of ~, which would nor
mally be in the throes of its sexennial.
had one solitary representative in Cam,
bridge. He was here on business. In
a futile search for q familiar face
he mooned into the yard, where no
one was in sight except three riduicu-
ing some student lamps and books out
OF Hollis into waiting automobile.
In the square he saw groups Of white
clad sailors from the radio school. ali
very youthful. Finally he dashed into
the various eating establishments
which line Massachusetts Avenue. hon
ing at least to find familiar "Dan" or
Jimmy" serving familiar indigestihle
combinations.
But even the names of the sand
wiches had been changed, and "Dann
and Jimmy" were at Camp Devens.
and when last seen the disconsolate
member OF the sexennial of the class
OF l9l2, was taking last rather
blurred look at Harvard Square before
diving into the subway kiosk, headed
Tor boston. There one would at least
not pc constantly expecting to see