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Interview with Irene Beaudoin of Leominster, Massachusetts. Her husband Bill was also present. Topics include: Irene's father came to Leominster, MA from New Brunswick, Canada in 1894, when he was sixteen years old. Her mother's family was from Canada, but her mother was born in West Boylston, MA. Her father's work history, how he eventually ended up in the insurance business. Her parents met and were married in Leominster, MA. Her parents' involvement with Saint Cecelia's parish in Leominster, MA. Where Irene and Bill went to school as children. Rumors surrounding a fire that burnt the original parish school. Irene went on to Leominster High school, Becker College, beauty school in Worcester, and then worked as a hairdresser until she was married. Her father's work in real estate and as the director of the Leominster Home Federal Bank. Her father's work on the Selective Service Board. Organizations her father belonged to and his work to help Franco-Americans become citizens. Bill and ; 1 SPEAKER 1: Where, where were you born, Irene? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Right here in Leominster. SPEAKER 1: Right here in Leominster? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Mm-hmm. SPEAKER 1: And your maiden name? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Uh, Lejier. SPEAKER 1: Lejier. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Mm-hmm. SPEAKER 1: Um, your parents, where did they come from? IRENE BEAUDOIN: My father came from New Brunswick, and my mother was born right here in the United States in West Boylston. SPEAKER 1: Uh, about when did your father come to the United States? IRENE BEAUDOIN: In 1894. SPEAKER 1: How old was he then? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Sixteen. SPEAKER 1: Why did he come here? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Well, I guess he just heard so much about the U.S. he decided he, you know, wanted to come out here and he had 50 cents in his pocket when he came out. SPEAKER 1: And when you say 'when he came out' where is that? Uh, did he arrive here Worcester or Leominster or…? IRENE BEAUDOIN: No, he came to Leominster and from what I can remember he was waiting for a train to take him to Rhode Island, [unintelligible - 0:00:55] Rhode Island, but evidently he didn't like and came back to Leominster and found work. And then a short while after he was here, he found work at the woodshop in – back on [unintelligible - 0:01:12]. I can't remember. BILL BEAUDOIN: Bartlett. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Bartlett. And he finally became superintendent of the manufacturing company but had to leave because he was getting 2 wood sawdust in the lung and the doctor told him either he had to leave or he would die within a year, which he did leave. SPEAKER 1: So, what did he do after that? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Well he had to take a year's absence [unintelligible - 0:01:46] and went back to his home in New Brunswick and stayed there for six months until he felt better and came back here. And then he started a grocery business, and then from that, he went into the insurance company. SPEAKER 1: Where was his grocery business? IRENE BEAUDOIN: On 6th Street going down the hill. SPEAKER 1: On 6th Street? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Mechanic. BILL BEAUDOIN: [Unintelligible - 0:02:13]. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah, [unintelligible - 0:02:16]. SPEAKER 1: Oh is that right? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Mm-hmm. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. Oh, they had a store there. How long was he in business there? IRENE BEAUDOIN: That I don't know. I couldn't tell you how long he was in the grocery. I really have no idea. He was in a few years, but how long, I don't know. SPEAKER 1: Right. About when was that, what year approximately? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Perhaps '96,'97. SPEAKER 1: I see. So, your father was a very [unintelligible - 0:02:50] businessman in the French community. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Mm-hmm. You see for a while he worked for a Mr. [Wingman] who owned a grocery store, and from there, this is how he got started in the grocery business. SPEAKER 1: So, did he cater mostly to the Franco-Americans? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Oh yes. He – I remember him telling me. So, he used to deliver, you know, the [unintelligible - 0:03:17] and he used to do this at 3 night many times and he used to carry these heavy bags of flour and sugar. SPEAKER 1: The location is right on the edge of what's called French Hill and then when you get down below there are many Italians. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yes. SPEAKER 1: Do you know if… IRENE BEAUDOIN: There were Italians at the time, yes. SPEAKER 1: There were Italians there at the time. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yes. SPEAKER 1: And do you know if they bought from the store also? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Oh, yes. There were, you know, neighbors around that area that would come to the store to buy that were Italian. SPEAKER 1: In that case, did he have a language difficulty or did he have enough knowledge of English to carry him through or…? IRENE BEAUDOIN: I think my mother helped him a lot in that area because I do believe he spoke French. I don't believe he knew too much English at the time but… SPEAKER 1: Well, you mentioned that your mother spoke English then. IRENE BEAUDOIN: That's right. SPEAKER 1: Where did she learn the English? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Well, she had to go to public school. There were no parochial schools where she came from. SPEAKER 1: Was your mother born in the United States? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah, she was born in West Boylston. SPEAKER 1: She was born in West Boylston, and what was her name? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Gonville. SPEAKER 1: Gonville. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah. SPEAKER 1: Was that related to the Gonvilles that lived on 7th Street when they were here? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Sure.4 SPEAKER 1: Oh, it was. IRENE BEAUDOIN: The father was my mother's brother. SPEAKER 2: [Unintelligible - 0:04:55]. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Of course. They lived right near you. SPEAKER 1: Yes, now I remember. I remember my folks mentioning it, yeah. Well, you mentioned they were born here? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Now who are you talking about, my mother? SPEAKER 1: Your mother, I'm sorry, your mother. IRENE BEAUDOIN: In West Boylston. SPEAKER 1: In West Boylston, I see. So, what brought her here? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Because they took the town over to make a reservoir and that's the reason why she came up here. SPEAKER 1: I see. Well, have your grandparents on your mother's side lived in the United States for a while? Did they come from Canada? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Oh, they've been here for a long time, yes. SPEAKER 1: They had been here for a while? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah. SPEAKER 1: I see. You don't recall anyone mentioning when… IRENE BEAUDOIN: No, no. Evidently they've been here for a long time because my grandfather owned the grocery store and the fish market in West Boylston. SPEAKER 1: In the area as a reservoir? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yes, yeah. SPEAKER 1: I see. IRENE BEAUDOIN: In fact, it was their home, and the store evidently was very close to the church that still remains there but just collapsed. SPEAKER 1: Oh, is that right? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah. SPEAKER 1: Oh, I see. So, your mother went to the public schools of West Boylston, picked up her English, and somewhere she met your father. Was that Leominster or in West Boylston?5 IRENE BEAUDOIN: Well, when she came out here to look for work after the –you know, preparing to make the reservoir. SPEAKER 1: Oh I see. She came here to look for work. And where did she go for work? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Clewett's. SPEAKER 1: At Clewett. IRENE BEAUDOIN: And then she did work in a dry goods store downtown. SPEAKER 1: Do you recall the dry goods store? IRENE BEAUDOIN: No, but it would be in the vicinity of the Metropolitan Theater, in that area. SPEAKER 1: Do you ever recall your mother talking about wages and working conditions at Clewett's at the time? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah, I remember them saying how, you know, the wages were like perhaps $7 a week is what they earned. SPEAKER 1: Did they consider that good or was she satisfied or…? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Well, evidently that was about what everyone earned in shops at that time. SPEAKER 1: Do you remember if your mother ever mentioned the people that worked at Clewett's, whether or not they were Franco-Americans largely or a great number of them or…? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Well, there were several French people working there, but I think the majority were American and Irish, I think, more than French. SPEAKER 1: I see. And that would be approximately what year or what time? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Probably around, you know, 18… SPEAKER 1: '96? IRENE BEAUDOIN: '96, '97, '98, around. SPEAKER 1: Right around there. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah, around that, yeah. SPEAKER 1: All right. So then your parents met in Leominster. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Mm-hmm, and were married here in Leominster.6 SPEAKER 1: And were married here in Leominster. Where were they married? IRENE BEAUDOIN: At Saint Cecilia's. SPEAKER 1: At Saint Cecilia's. So by the time they met, the Saint Cecilia's had been established as a parish? IRENE BEAUDOIN: That's right. It was a very small church but it was already established, but they helped the parish grow. I believe they were married by Father Balthasard. SPEAKER 1: -Which was the first pastor. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Mm-hmm. Yeah, they were married by Farther Balthasard. SPEAKER 1: Your parents were married, your mother worked at Clewett's, and your father had his grocery store. Now, you say he remained in business three or four years, what did you say? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Well, possibly longer because he started in the insurance business in 1919. SPEAKER 1: Oh I see, so from just prior to 1900 until 1919, he was in the grocery business. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Right. SPEAKER 1: Where did he start his insurance business and how? IRENE BEAUDOIN: He started from this own home. SPEAKER 1: Up on 6th Street? IRENE BEAUDOIN: No, on Mechanic Street. SPEAKER 1: On Mechanic at this point. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Mm-hmm, and from there he had his office across the street from the church. I believe there's a hairdressing parlor there. [Unintelligible - 0:09:50] was on one side and my father's office was on the opposite side. I don't know who's in there now, but then he moved from there to the present location, which is at the corner of Walker and Mechanic. SPEAKER 1: I see. What kind of businesses? You mentioned insurance business. What did he do, sell insurance or…?7 IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah. He started with life insurance and then into all types of insurance: general insurance, car, fire insurance and automobile insurance. SPEAKER 1: So, he became an agent for various insurances. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Right. SPEAKER 1: How long was he in that insurance business? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Well, when he left, it was 50 years. He retired two years after they saw the 50th anniversary. SPEAKER 1: He left the business. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah. SPEAKER 1: He sold that business. IRENE BEAUDOIN: He sold it, right. SPEAKER 1: When he first started, did he make it a habit or did he try to cater specifically to Franco-Americans or did he…? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yes, he did. SPEAKER 1: He did. IRENE BEAUDOIN: He did but he had all types, all nationalities that came to the office for insurance. He was liked, very well-liked by all, yeah, and he helped a lot of people. Grandma said that he did help a lot of people, but no one else knew about it. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. Was he associated in any way with a Mr. Gordon who was also in the insurance business? IRENE BEAUDOIN: No. He was always alone in business. No one that I – I know he worked in the insurance [unintelligible - 0:11:52]. SPEAKER 1: So, he was a very early parishioner at Saint Cecilia's, one of the founders of the parish. I presume that he became an active member of the parish? IRENE BEAUDOIN: They both were very active, raising funds to someday build the church that we now have. SPEAKER 1: Were they involved in preparing for the original school? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Oh, yes, they worked very hard for that.8 SPEAKER 1: Did you go to that school? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yes, I sure did. I graduated from there. BILL BEAUDOIN: We were going to school there when the fire… IRENE BEAUDOIN: The fire broke out. BILL BEAUDOIN: When the school burned down and we went to class in various houses around. IRENE BEAUDOIN: I went in [Lamont's]. BILL BEAUDOIN: I went to [Holme's] house which was where the school yard is now. SPEAKER 1: Oh yeah. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah. BILL BEAUDOIN: There was an old house there. That's where I went to school. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah, and I went in Lamont's Hall which is… SPEAKER 1: It's across the street. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah. BILL BEAUDOIN: It was in the old town square. That's where I went to school. She went to… IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah, something's now. SPEAKER 1: There was approximately a thousand students in the school at the time. Where did they all go? IRENE BEAUDOIN: In homes. BILL BEAUDOIN: All over third… IRENE BEAUDOIN: Third and fourth. Different people offered their homes and converted a room or two into classrooms. And then there were several classes in Lamont's Hall. They divided that up into, you know, several classes. I don't remember how many. BILL BEAUDOIN: Then we got the old church, the old church, the old white church which is where the [back lot], where the present school is – or the present church. SPEAKER 1: When they built the school, the first brick school, did they have the church in there?9 IRENE BEAUDOIN: No. They still had the… SPEAKER 1: They still had the white… IRENE BEAUDOIN: White church across the street. And they had a school house there, next to the church. BILL BEAUDOIN: They had the eighth and ninth grades there. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Right, right. SPEAKER 1: Yes, I think I remember the same pictures – IRENE BEAUDOIN: I remember it, but we didn't go to school there ourselves; in fact, my cousin, Sister [Elinya] who was a convent girl taught there. And I remember, you know, having to go there with my mother to visit her, but I never attended school in that building. SPEAKER 1: Where is your cousin now, the nun? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Oh, she passed away quite a few years ago. SPEAKER 1: Quite a few years ago. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah. SPEAKER 1: All right. Now, the first time I asked this question, I've heard stories told about the fire at the school. Does anyone know to this day what actually happened, how the fire got started? IRENE BEAUDOIN: No, I've always heard it had been set, but whether that was so or not, I don't know. SPEAKER 1: Wasn't there rumors that the Ku Klux Klan was involved or…? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah. SPEAKER 1: I heard that, I don't know. BILL BEAUDOIN: The Ku Klux Klan was very active in those days, because I remember, you know, we would see from where I lived, we always see the crosses burning on Prospect Hill. SPEAKER 1: And where was that where you lived? BILL BEAUDOIN: On 6th Street, right where the fire was. We could see right across Whitney Field and up into Prospect Hill, and one of the police officers saw it. He was an officer in the police department, Mr. [Karl] lived next door to us. We would always see him go into 10 the room, and if the crosses were burning they would be out chasing these guys around. I'll never forget that. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Well, it must have been around town, you know, around the hill, because I remember my folks talking. I wasn't supposed to be hearing this, I guess, but I would overhear different things. And I'm sure they used to go up Mechanic Street. BILL BEAUDOIN: They attacked his home one time on Sixth Street, Mr. Karl. They tried to burn that. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Of course, I remember them talking about the white sheets that they put over their clothing and, you know, crosses. SPEAKER 1: So they actually did this in Leominster? BILL BEAUDOIN: Oh, yes, we testified – IRENE BEAUDOIN: I was petrified of them that whenever they spoke of them, I was very petrified. SPEAKER 1: But it was never – the fire was never actually shown to… IRENE BEAUDOIN: No, it was never proven that it was set by anyone. That was a rumor, I suppose. SPEAKER 1: I always heard another rumor that one of the local parishioners had done it, someone's family had trouble with. I don't remember. IRENE BEAUDOIN: I never heard that one. SPEAKER 1: I heard that one a few times. BILL BEAUDOIN: I don't remember how it happened. I just remember very vividly the day it happened and [unintelligible - 0:16:58] was running over, wanting to see the fire. SPEAKER 1: Oh, it was a terrible night. It was all ice. And, of course, living not too far away from the convent, we really could see it well because my father went, but my mother and I naturally didn't go because it was such a bad night out. But, it really hit, you know, the parishioners because they really had worked to have the 11 school and then to have somebody let that happen, it meant starting all over again. SPEAKER 1: Who was the pastor at the time? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Oh Father [Shiquin]. SPEAKER 1: Father Shiquin. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yes. SPEAKER 1: How many years was Father Shiquin in Leominster? Was it forty? SPEAKER 1: I don't know. I know he celebrated his 50th anniversary as a priest here but… IRENE BEAUDOIN: Well, he came from Worcester here, which would have been – what, Bill? BILL BEAUDOIN: Oh, when Father came here, he'd been … IRENE BEAUDOIN: It was 1919? BILL BEAUDOIN: Yeah. He's been here, I think, five or six years then. SPEAKER 1: And so then the parishioners had to begin all over again? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Mm-hmm. They used to have fairs and minstrels. SPEAKER 1: Minstrels? IRENE BEAUDOIN: They had one or two a year. And then recitals from the different students that took piano. In the music department, they used to have recitals and I guess they sold tickets for that because we used to hold it at the Realtor. I know I used to perform as a piano student, and then, of course, the minstrels was a variety affair. I remember as a little kid, I perhaps was seven or eight years old, dancing on the stage for different little skits they had. SPEAKER 1: Do you recall if the parish received any outside help to rebuild the school or…? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Well, I don't know about that, but I'm – perhaps from the Diocese of Worcester or… BILL BEAUDOIN: No. The only thing I ever heard about it as I recall is a gift from Mr. [Doyle].12 IRENE BEAUDOIN: Because we were in the Boston diocese at the time, weren't we? BILL BEAUDOIN: Springfield. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Springfield, that's right. Whether they got help from the bishop at the time, I don't know. SPEAKER 1: All right. So, you, Irene, graduated from Saint Cecilia's, and from there, where did you go? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Leominster High. SPEAKER 1: You went to Leominster High. And did you graduate from Leominster High also? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah. SPEAKER 1: What did you do after graduation? IRENE BEAUDOIN: I went to Becker College and then I went into hairdressing. SPEAKER 1: You went to Becker's and then you went to hairdressing. What did you take up in Becker's, what course? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Business course. SPEAKER 1: Business – one or two years? IRENE BEAUDOIN: One year. SPEAKER 1: One year, and then off to hairdressing. That's a switch, isn't it? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Mm-hmm. BILL BEAUDOIN: She went to hairdressing school in Worcester. IRENE BEAUDOIN: I went to hairdressing school in Worcester also, yeah. SPEAKER 1: Was that at girls' trade? IRENE BEAUDOIN: No, no, no. It was beauty school. SPEAKER 1: And did you go into business for yourself or did you work for someone? IRENE BEAUDOIN: No. I worked as a beautician in two different beauty shops, and then I got married and that was the end of my working days. SPEAKER 1: [Laughs] These beauty shops were they located on French Hill or were they in town? IRENE BEAUDOIN: I worked for Olivia who was on Washington Street. SPEAKER 1: On Washington.13 IRENE BEAUDOIN: She has passed away, and I also worked in Fitchburg and she has passed away also. SPEAKER 1: So that… IRENE BEAUDOIN: Oh, I worked at [Selligs] also. I must say that. I worked at [Selligs] as a biller. SPEAKER 1: Is this right after Becker's then? IRENE BEAUDOIN: No, after hairdressing. I went back to the business world. SPEAKER 1: [Laughs] So Sellig's must have been new at the time. IRENE BEAUDOIN: They had just come in. BILL BEAUDOIN: Her father was instrumental at bringing Sellig's] here. In fact, he did bring Sellig's here. IRENE BEAUDOIN: That's right. SPEAKER 1: Oh, is that right? BILL BEAUDOIN: Her father had that building. SPEAKER 1: Which building is that, the one on Green Street? IRENE BEAUDOIN: On Green Street, right. SPEAKER 1: And when you say your father had that… BILL BEAUDOIN: Well, he was a realtor. SPEAKER 1: Oh. As time went by with his insurance business, he had realty as part of the business. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Oh, he had realty, right. He went into realty and… SPEAKER 1: And he had the place on Green Street. Do you recall how he managed to get Sellig's in here, where they came from or…? IRENE BEAUDOIN: There's a lot of concessions [unintelligible - 0:22:38]. SPEAKER 1: Well, it was through – he was also, you see, director of the bank. SPEAKER 1: Which bank was that? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Well, it's Monument Federal now. It was Leominster Home Federal at the time. SPEAKER 1: Oh, I see. BILL BEAUDOIN: Leominster Home loan. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Home loan.14 SPEAKER 1: Home Loan, which is now Monument, I see, and he was a…? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Director. He was a director since, I believe, 1919 or 1920. Right after he got into the insurance business, I think he became a director. He was for many, many years. SPEAKER 1: I see. And it's through that, his position as director and in the real estate business that he was able to bring Sellig's into Leominster. IRENE BEAUDOIN: That's right, that's right. SPEAKER 1: Where were they from? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Gardner. SPEAKER 1: Oh they were in Gardner. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah. SPEAKER 1: That was their home base then? IRENE BEAUDOIN: That's right. And he formed a committee with different businessmen in Leominster, and Mr. Buckley was one of the other gentlemen that [unintelligible - 0:23:55]. SPEAKER 1: Which Mr. Buckley? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Cornelius. SPEAKER 1: Cornelius? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah. SPEAKER 1: The father of the present Cornelius Buckley? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Right, right. SPEAKER 1: I see. IRENE BEAUDOIN: And the two of them, I remember, worked very hard to get this like concern into Leominster. SPEAKER 1: Now who owned the building at the time, do you recall? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Well, I don't know… BILL BEAUDOIN: There was a trust [unintelligible - 0:24:21] formed and it was purchased by the group. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah, right. BILL BEAUDOIN: Anybody could be a shareholder if they wanted to.15 SPEAKER 1: This was in what years, in what year did this occur, the Depression years? IRENE BEAUDOIN: No, no. It was 1937. I would say '38, '37, '38. SPEAKER 1: So, we're still a little in the Depression. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah, just about at the end of it, yeah. SPEAKER 1: This was a rather brave attempt then… IRENE BEAUDOIN: And it helped; it did help, yeah. SPEAKER 1: I gather then they must have had to deal with the city officials at the time? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Oh, yes. That's right. SPEAKER 1: The city officials were receptive of bringing them in, I take it? BILL BEAUDOIN: Yes. IRENE BEAUDOIN: It was – Pete Lapierre, I think, was mayor at the time, wasn't he? I think he was. SPEAKER 1: Mayor Lapierre. How did the Depression affect your father's business, or did it affect it at all? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Oh, it did affect it, as far as people being able to pay for the insurance. It was quite head-on at the time, but he managed to hold on to all his customers by paying a lot of premiums himself. And he also was appointed to appraise property at that time, which was a big help. SPEAKER 1: Did he ever hold any position in city government? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah. During World War II, he was appointed to be on the Selective Board and was chairman… SPEAKER 1: Selective Service Board? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Service Board, yeah. He was chairman of that board for a number of years. SPEAKER 1: Do you recall any other people that were on the board at the time? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yes. Mr. Harris was one of them. BILL BEAUDOIN: Paul Holman.16 IRENE BEAUDOIN: Paul Holman. BILL BEAUDOIN: Are we talking about the carriage company that Paul Holman owned – was one of the owners of… IRENE BEAUDOIN: Of the Whitney Carriage. BILL BEAUDOIN: Mr. [Hart]. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Oh Mr. Hart, right. BILL BEAUDOIN: Who was the president of [unintelligible - 0:27:04]. Those were the Selective Service Board. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Now another thing, I don't know if I mentioned this, though, where my father was on the board of directors for a bank. SPEAKER 1: Yes, you did. IRENE BEAUDOIN: I mentioned this before, didn't I? He did a lot of appraisals for the bank also on property. SPEAKER 1: Apparently your father was the only Franco-American on the Selective Service Board for quite some time. IRENE BEAUDOIN: That's right, that's right. Then later on in years, of course, Mr. [Golden] was on the board also. SPEAKER 1: Henry Golden later on joined the… IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yes, Henry Golden was on. SPEAKER 1: Did your father ever work for the state of Massachusetts? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Well, just – no, I don't really think he ever had been. No, no, he didn't. SPEAKER 1: When he was an appraiser, was he an appraiser for the banks or was he an appraiser for the city of… IRENE BEAUDOIN: No, that was for the state. That was for the state. SPEAKER 1: For the state, I see. IRENE BEAUDOIN: He was appointed by the governor. SPEAKER 1: He was appointed. Who was the governor then? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Dever, Governor Dever. SPEAKER 1: I see. Now, as far as the city is concerned, besides the Selective Service, did he ever serve on any other, any commissions? Or 17 did he ever run for – was he ever elected to office or anything of that kind? IRENE BEAUDOIN: No, no. SPEAKER 1: Was he interested in politics or…? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Oh, he enjoyed politics but he never really cared to run for an office. SPEAKER 1: Did he ever work to help Franco-Americans become citizens? Was he ever involved in that? IRENE BEAUDOIN: He certainly was. In fact, he sponsored many people that came from Canada here. SPEAKER 1: In that sense, did he belong to – was it Club [Nordier]? It seems to me that they were active, politically active in the city. BILL BEAUDOIN: [Unintelligible - 0:29:33]. SPEAKER 1: He belonged to [unintelligible - 0:29:36]? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Oh, yeah, he belonged to that. SPEAKER 1: And was he ever a member of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Oh, yeah, yes. SPEAKER 1: Any other organizations that you remember that he might have been in? BILL BEAUDOIN: [Unintelligible - 0:29:47]. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah, [Jasons], the Elks. BILL BEAUDOIN: [Unintelligible - 0:29:53]. SPEAKER 1: In that case, Irene, your father must have become acquainted with Bill's father? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Oh, he knew Bill's dad and mother for – well ever since his father and mother came here from Worcester. SPEAKER 1: Was that through your… IRENE BEAUDOIN: They were friends for many, many years. SPEAKER 1: I see. Do you think that – how many children did you and Bill have? IRENE BEAUDOIN: We have three boys.18 SPEAKER 1: You have three boys. And were they all educated locally or…? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Well, they all went to high school here. BILL BEAUDOIN: Saint Cecilia's. IRENE BEAUDOIN: They went to Saint Cecilia's first naturally, and then two of them went to Notre Dame and one went to Leominster High. SPEAKER 1: And what are they doing now? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Well, the oldest boy is in Connecticut and he's a doctor. The second boy is in Connecticut and is working with addicts. He… SPEAKER 1: Drug addicts? IRENE BEAUDOIN: He took up psychology. BILL BEAUDOIN: He's an assistant to a psychologist there, a doctor. IRENE BEAUDOIN: And works with drug addicts. SPEAKER 1: Is he working out of the university or…? IRENE BEAUDOIN: No, right in a hospital. SPEAKER 1: In a hospital, I see. IRENE BEAUDOIN: And the youngest is in business with his father. SPEAKER 1: Oh I see. That's the solder business? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Right. SPEAKER 1: You said, when I asked you where they went to school, you said Saint Cecilia's naturally. Why did you say 'naturally'? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Because that's the school we went to as youngsters and it seems to be the school that you sent your children to. SPEAKER 1: So, they teach as much French when your children went through as when you went through. IRENE BEAUDOIN: No, no. SPEAKER 1: How much French did they teach when your children went through? IRENE BEAUDOIN: I believe they only had like 15 minutes or a half hour and, it's all they have; very, very little French. SPEAKER 1: And those were lessons in the language then?19 IRENE BEAUDOIN: That's right, that's right. And you could – they could choose catechism, either having a French catechism or an English catechism. SPEAKER 1: I see. And what year did they go through? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Let's see. It would be 1954. BILL BEAUDOIN: What – at Saint Cecilia's? IRENE BEAUDOIN: He went in '54. BILL BEAUDOIN: I don't remember the date that well. SPEAKER 1: They were in school at Saint Cecilia's in the 50s then, the three of them. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yes. SPEAKER 1: So that by the 1950s… IRENE BEAUDOIN: Not the three of them. SPEAKER 1: So, that by the mid-50s and into the 60s, the French had just about disappeared from the school except for… IRENE BEAUDOIN: I would say so, yes. SPEAKER 1: Except for that 20 minutes a day of lessons in language. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Exactly. SPEAKER 1: Quite a change from the time that you were there. IRENE BEAUDOIN: We were there, right, because our afternoon was complete French from catechism to Bible to your French language and so on, which took all your afternoon in French. SPEAKER 1: So, coming back to your father now, it seemed to me from having asked you a number of questions that from relatively early in his insurance and real estate business, he was run outside of the French community quite early. Would that be correct? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Mm-hmm. SPEAKER 1: In other words, he did a lot of business with many other people in the community, other than French Canadians from almost the beginning?20 IRENE BEAUDOIN: That's right, that's right, but the majority of his business was done with the French Canadian but he had many other people, you know, different nationalities: Italian, American, Irish… SPEAKER 1: Yeah. What kind of an education did your father receive? He went to… IRENE BEAUDOIN: He had no education whatsoever. He was a self-made man really. SPEAKER 1: He didn't get through the eighth grade or anything like that? IRENE BEAUDOIN: No, no. He had to go work on the farm. I… SPEAKER 1: While in Canada, he worked on the farm? IRENE BEAUDOIN: While in Canada, they lived on a farm and he worked on the farm, and if I remember correctly now… BILL BEAUDOIN: He worked in a coal mine. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah, he worked in a coal mine also. SPEAKER 1: In New Brunswick? IRENE BEAUDOIN: New Brunswick. Springhill, was it? BILL BEAUDOIN: Springhill, the one they had all the very serious collapses there [unintelligible - 0:35:13]. SPEAKER 1: Yeah, yeah, Springhill mine, in New Brunswick. BILL BEAUDOIN: Yeah. And this happened – oh, God, I remember there was that shack and, you know, he can remember the track to the shack. He remembered that shack because he worked there. SPEAKER 1: And he came to the United States at 16; then he was rather young when he was working in the mine. IRENE BEAUDOIN: That's right, because in those days you went to work at any age. BILL BEAUDOIN: If you could do any kind of work in the pit. IRENE BEAUDOIN: If you could carry a shovel and a pick. But I think he went as far as the fourth grade and I don't believe he went any further than that. BILL BEAUDOIN: And that was in New Brunswick.21 IRENE BEAUDOIN: In New Brunswick. And, of course, they lived so many miles away from a school or a church. It was very… SPEAKER 1: Then when he came to the United States, his intention was to go to Rhode Island, was that it? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah. SPEAKER 1: And this was for work. IRENE BEAUDOIN: That's right. SPEAKER 1: Where did they plan on working when he went to Rhode Island and do you recall…? IRENE BEAUDOIN: They had nothing in mind. They were just looking for work. SPEAKER 1: Do you recall where they went in Rhode Island? Was it Woonsocket or…? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Woonsocket. SPEAKER 1: It was Woonsocket. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah, Woonsocket, Rhode Island. SPEAKER 1: And he came back here to Leominster. IRENE BEAUDOIN: That's right. SPEAKER 1: Why did he stop in Leominster? This puzzles me. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Well, evidently they had to change trains or something. I don't know just what it was, but he was downtown. I remember him saying he was down town, waiting for another train, and all he had was 50 cents in his pockets. SPEAKER 1: Did he meet relatives when he went to Rhode Island? IRENE BEAUDOIN: He had no relatives out here whatsoever. He came on Canada with another friend of his, and they were both 16. SPEAKER 1: And both of them had intentions of going to work in Rhode Island? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah. SPEAKER 1: Did his friend stay in Rhode Island? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah. The friend stayed in Rhode Island; he came back here alone.22 SPEAKER 1: And now your great grandparents on your – well, your grandparents on your father's side remained in Canada? IRENE BEAUDOIN: His mother came. His father died, then he went back to get his mother and his sister and they lived in Fitchburg in Cleghorn. He found them an apartment in Cleghorn. Why Cleghorn, I don't know now. I couldn't tell you why they lived there. Why not Leominster, I don't know. SPEAKER 1: There were many French Canadians in Cleghorn probably. IRENE BEAUDOIN: And my grandmother died in Cleghorn, and my aunt died in Worcester, and his sister, his only sister who was in a home there in Worcester… I'm trying to think of the name of that place. SPEAKER 1: You mentioned that your father delivered groceries by horse and buggy. When did he eventually get a car? IRENE BEAUDOIN: I believe it was around – in the 20s, early 20s. It was a turn car; he called it a turn car, which he just loved. And I can remember so many times, well, I guess, I was five or six years old when there was a rainstorm or thunderstorm that came up in the summertime, how he would stop the car and put up the side pieces and then the windshield wipers were on the inside. They had to this by hand. SPEAKER 1: They had to work the manual windshield. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah, or the windshield wipers were on the outside but I guess you had to work it from the inside. SPEAKER 1: Exactly, a little handle. IRENE BEAUDOIN: That's right, yeah. SPEAKER 1: And so he got his first car after he went into the insurance business? IRENE BEAUDOIN: Well, I'm sure it must have been at that time, yes. SPEAKER 1: And how long did he drive? IRENE BEAUDOIN: He was almost 91 when he retired from driving. We mentioned several times, you know, "How I wish – why don't you give 23 up?" I didn't ask him to give up. I would say, "If you want to give up, I can take you wherever you want to go." And he'd just reply, "What's the matter with you? I can drive as well as you can." So, that was that. SPEAKER 1: Though your father was not active in politics, holding office or anything like that, was he involved in politics in any other way or no? IRENE BEAUDOIN: No. SPEAKER 1: I found that many of the Franco-Americans voted or tended to vote Republican until about the 1930s. Was your father a Republican or was he a Democrat? IRENE BEAUDOIN: He was a Republican and changed when Bill's father ran. BILL BEAUDOIN: And always went back to Republican. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Went back to Republican but to give his father that vote, he had to change – BILL BEAUDOIN: Her father did run for the city council once. IRENE BEAUDOIN: Yeah, that's right. BILL BEAUDOIN: But he was defeated and only because he was a Republican, no other reason. SPEAKER 1: Oh your father did run for…? IRENE BEAUDOIN: He did run. That's correct. BILL BEAUDOIN: Republicans were non-existent at the time – or close to it. /AT/cw/ee

MAY, 1901 o oTheo o Qettysbur Mercury VOL. NO PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE GETTYSBURG,PA PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. Amos Eckert Dealer in Hats, Shirts, Ties, Um-brellas, Gloves, Satchels, Hose, Pocket Books,J-Trunks, J>J> Telescopes, Rubbers, Etc., Etc. AMOS ECKERT. PRICES ALWAYS RIGHT. TUB Llltta No. 1424 Arch Street, PHILADELPHIA, PA. Acknowledged Headquarters for Any-thing and Everything- in the way of Books for Churches, Families, Colleges and Schools, and Literature for Sunday Schools. PLEASE REMEMBER That by sending- your orders to us you help build up* and develop one of the church institutions, with pecuniary ad-vantage to yourself. Address HENRY S. BONER, Supt., No. 1424 Arch St. Phila. 50 YEARS' EXPERIENCE TRADE MARKS DESIGNS COPYRIGHTS &C. Anyone sending a sketch mid description mnv quickly ascertain our opinion free whether ah invention is probably pulentable. Communica-tions strictly confidential. Handbook on Patents sent free. Oldest apency for securing patents. 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X GETTYSBURG, PA., MAY, 1901 No. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS The Social Qualities of Robert Burns as Manifested in His Poems, 70 The Cultivation of Patriotism, . 77 Superlatives, . 80 Perseverance, . 82 A Dutch Schoolmaster's Adventure, . . . . .84 Editorials, . 88 An Old Reader, . 90 Pictures, . 91 Spontaneity in Literature, . . . . . .93 In Nature's Realm, . 96 A Country Barn on a Rainy Day, . . - . 97 All Souls Day, . 98 Exchanges, . 100 Now the bright morning-star, day's harbinger, Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her The flowery May, who from her green lap throws The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose. Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire Mirth, and youth, and warm desire; Woods and groves are of thy dressing; Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing! Thus we salute thee with our early song, And welcome thee, and wish thee long. -Milton. Through wood, and stream, and field, and hill, and Ocean, A quickening life from the Earth's heart has burst As it has ever done, with change and motion, Prom the great morning of the world when first God dawned on Chaos; in its stream immersed The lamps of heaven flash with a softer light; All baser things pant with life's sacred thirst; Diffuse themselves; and spend in love's delight The beauty and the joy of their renewed might. -Shelley. 70 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY THE SOCIAL QUALITIES Of ROBERT BURNS AS MANIFESTED IN MIS POEMS D. C. BURNITE, '01 [Graeff Prize Essay] A CAREFUL comparison of the lives of poets, with their pro- ■*"*• auctions, discloses this fact, that almost universally there exists more or less inconsistency betiveen their true characters and the characters which their poems would lead us to believe they really possessed. In some cases the former belie the latter completely. In others, the works are in a large measure faithful transcripts of the men. Great uncertainty would attend an at-tempt to paint pictures of the natures of many poets were we to use as materials only the evidence drawn from their productions. Recurring bombast and affectation preclude any possibility of using their poems, with any great amount of reliability, as stand-ards by which to judge their real characters. Not so, however, with all poets. Here and there in the field of our inspection appears a bard, whose writings are a faithful reflection of his real nature. But before we can be sure that this is true of any poet, we must be certain that he is thoroughly sin-cere. So, before we can proceed to show that the qualities indi-cated in the poems of Burns are revelations of his actual personal characteristics, we must prove his sincerity. And we do this, not by a comparison of his verses with his biography, but by testi-mony drawn from the poems themselves, apart from all historical evidence. Men who talk much of themselves, as Burns does, are not gen-erally prone to admit their own shortcomings. But this poet, contrary to general practice, makes no attempt to present only the good side of his character. Frequently he gives us glimpses of his own weaknesses; not a shameless exhibition of guile, but always with expressions of sorrow and remorse. Never hidden, always open, he bares his whole heart, and shows himself as he is. He seems anxious to have us see him in a true light. How frankly and clearly he reveals his true self when he proposes "A Bard's Epitaph" for his own tomb. Read his condemnation of his own self: . THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 71 " Is there a man whose judgment clear, Can others teach the course to steer, Yet runs, himself, life's mad career, "Wild as the wave; Here pause—and thro' the starting tear Survey this grave. " The poor inhabitant below Was quick to learn and wise to know, And keenly felt the friendly glow, And softer flame; But thoughtless follies laid him low, And stain'd his name !" Can we read this and believe that Burns was not sincere ? But there are other evidences of his genuineness. Affectation and sincerity are incompatible. But, no matter how closely we scrutinize his lines, we find no indications of the former in Burns' works He must have been a lover of the truth, for he never descends to the expression of feigned emotions. His pictures are real; all are undoubtedly the products of his own experience. Of his hundreds of poems, with one or two exceptions, none are the offspring of imagination. All he presents he himself has seen and felt. We see no indications of anything assumed about his addresses "To a Mouse" and "To a Mountain Daisy." Neither is there anything false or overdrawn in his descriptions. Per-fectly natural himself, he presents things as they are. Nothing could be written with much more fidelity to life than his "Cotter's Saturday Night." Without his characteristic straightforward-ness such complete depiction of Scottish peasant life would have been impossible. All his poems manifest in the man a spirit of genuineness and deep sincerity. With this conviction, then, that Burns wrote exactly as he saw, thought, and felt, we can be certain that the social qualities which his poems suggest are identical with those he really pos-sessed. Our investigation, then, involves an answer to the question, What social qualities do Burns' poems make us think he pos-sessed ? With this answered, we then know, with some measure of accuracy, what Burns himself was socially—what it was that, in all probability, must have rendered him an ever-welcome guest both in the humble homes of the Scottish peasantry and in the mansions of the gentry. But in order that we may be competent judges as to what features in his social nature were attractive and 72 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY what were not, we must make allowance for the differences in time, place, and circumstances, and view the matter, not from oicr point of view, but from the standpoint of his Scottish contempo-raries. Only then can we avoid the danger of an over or an under estimation of the man's social constitution. We have already spoken of what we regard as the crowning social virtue of any man—sincerity. "L,et a man but speak forth with genuine earnestness the thought, the emotion, the actual condition of his own heart, and other men must and will give heed to him."* Burns, as we have stated, does this. We here have a certain quality which would of itself draw men to its possessor. A writer whose poetic works are imbued throughout with the truth must himself have been sincere. Burns must have attracted his fellows because of this one social quality, if for nothing else. The whole world loves a patriot. Even those of other nations than his own admire him; but especially his own countrymen. Burns' poems indicate the presence of patriotism in the heart of their author. Compare his stanzas with those of former Scottish bards, and what do we find ? The subjects of their themes are foreign, and they even scout their own native dialect. The poeti-cal works of Burns are the initial achievement of a new era in his nation's literature. He is the first to give out a body of dis-tinctively Scottish poetry. He saw no need to step beyond the borders of his own laud for things of which to sing. He writes of things, not English, or Irish, or Continental, but of things Scottish—thoroughly so, from his country's ' 'braes'' to her moun-tains, from her field-mice to her horses, from her beggars to her kings, from her daisies to her trees, from her " burns" to her rivers; all of his own "bonnie laud." Nor does he hesitate to take the initiative of using the language of his fireside; not, however, because he was unable to write in pure English. Some of his poems show that he could. But he prefers his native tongue, and seems to delight in the use of its quaint expressions. He appears proud of his dialect, and all he describes with it. In almost every poem there breathes the true spirit of patriotism, a quality which we believe helped to make his society desirable. What Scotchman could have avoided a feeling of attraction to the "loyal native" who wrote such things * ♦Carlyle. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 73 .'* ' j as "My Heart's in the Highlands" or "Scots wha hae wi' Wal-lace bled?" Another social characteristic is revealed in his verses; a trait indispensable to gaining the good-will of the Scottish peasantry. How generously he applies himself to the faithful interpretation of the thoughts, feelings and manners of that class amongst whom he was reared ! His poetry teems with this natural sympathy for the lowly inhabitant of the thatched cottage. His were the first Scottish poems to show it, and from it we can be sure that the man himself thoroughly loved the humble people of whom he writes. How nobly he exalts their simple lot in the words he puts into the mouth of Luath, "the ploughman's collie" in "The Twa Dogs." In the "Cotter's Saturday Night" he brings to the notice of the humble bread-winners, not the ills, but the blessings of their toilsome lives. He would make them proud of their station and their labor. He appears at all points to have been a thorough democrat, and evidently was in close touch with the lives of the poorest people. It is such qualities as these that hold men in social esteem, with thehighas well as the low. A highly sympathetic nature was a social trait which undoubtedly helped to make Burns popular. Cheerfulness is a prime essential to social success. A glance convinces us that the man who wrote these poems surely had this attribute. Such a one must have cheered the lives and bright-ened the very faces of those with whom he came in contact. At every turn we meet his genial poetic laughter. And this, too, in the same poems in which he tells of his own misfortunes. To be happy in adversity; what an enviable trait! And if he could shake off his coil of pitiful thought and recognize the good things in his own life, he surely would shed some beams of happiness on the lives of those about him. All his songs attest this quality. "When at his best, you seem to hear the whole song warbling through his spirit, naturally as a bird's."* Note it in this stanza: "Ye banks land braes o' bonnie Doon, How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair? How can ye chant, ye little birds, And I sae weary, fu' o' care?" A vein of humor makes its possessor welcome. "I,augh, and the world will laugh with you." Doubtless Burns' little world "Jeffrey. 74 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY enjoyed many a laugh with him. For some of his poems fairly bubble with humor. And the author of these must have exhibited a like trait when he spoke, as well as when he wrote. We realize this when we "Remember Tarn O'Shauter's Mare;" or read the following from "Death and Dr. Hornbook": "The Clachan yill had made me canty, I was nae fou, but just had plenty; I stacher'd whyles, but yet took tent ay To free the ditches; An' hillocks, stanes, an' bushes, kenn'd ay Frae ghaists and witches. "The rising- moon began to glow'r The distant Cumuock hills out owre; To count her horns wi' a' my pow'r, I set mysel'; But whether she had three or four, I could na tell." These and many other poems, manifest in Burns himself a spirit of jocularity which, we believe, heightened the attractive-ness of his nature wherever he went. That a man was a friend of "John Barleycorn" was no social defect in Burns' day. And he'seems, from his poems, to have been a participant in "those convivial enjoyments which were not only counted excusable by the temper of the time, but gloried in by all whose heads were strong enough to indulge in them without ruin."* In fact, as a "total, abstainer" Burns' social career would likely have been curtailed. It is perfectly natural, therefore, that he gives drink and drinking a very prominent place in his verses. And the fact that he does so leads us to conclude that he was a not infrequent participant in the then prevalent jolly tavern carouses. Many evidences in his poems manifest his inclination toward convivial enjoyments of a more healthy character. He seems to have had a fondness for other gatherings than those where the consumption of "usquebae" was the central feature. We refer to such social functions as he speaks of in his "Hallow E'en." He evinces perfect familiarity with the jolly practices of that mysterious night, as he describes the mirthful sports of the country "lads and lasses." In fact, his frequent description of J *Blackwood'6. Feb., 1872. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 75 such scenes convinces us that he must have been an important member of the peasant society of his locality. But we see evidences that he would also make a valuable ad-dition to a higher plane of society than that of his own country-side. The mere fact that he was able to produce such remarkable verses is enough to show that he was fitted to move on a higher level than that of the peasant class. We can treat only briefly of a few of the many manifest traits which, besides those already cited, would make him a social attraction in the hall as well as in the hut. It is hard to prove conclusively from his poems that Burns was a good conversationalist. But we think there are indications that warrant us in believing that he was. The ease with which we understand the thoughts he wishes to convey in his lines, i. e., his extreme simplicity, together with his vivacity of expression and his powers of vivid description, lead us to think that he was a good talker. Nor would such a writer be at a loss for topics for conversation. He seems perfectly familiar with the full details of an immense variety of topics. Burns undoubtedly was at perfect ease in conversation. A keen insight into human nature, as we see it in his verses, would enable him to throw himself quickly into close sympathy with new associates; an almost invaluable social quality. His oft-appearing spirit of independence would gain him respect. The thoughtful tenderness he exhibits, not only for his fellow-men, but for beasts and flowers, too, suggests a feature in his nature which would draw men to him. Thus we see in his poetry, char-acteristics which would make his company acceptable to those of high rank. Of Burns' actual social successes in a certain direction, we have positive evidence. The great majority of his poems are con-cerning women with whom he has been in love, or at least ad-mired greatly. And we can easily see that, if not as a lover, at least as an admirer, he was accepted in .some cases. At any rate, we can judge from these poems that he had sufficient attractions to make him acceptable among the lasses of his native land. This gives us a clue, though an uncertain one, to his personal appear-ance and manners. To have been admired by so many women, he must have been to some degree attractive in looks and move-ments. 76 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURi Thus far we have considered only those things in Burns for which he was undoubtedly admired. But he shows traits that we cannot believe were acceptable to all of his contemporaries, for he refers in different passages to the fact that he had enemies. Certainly there were some who did not admire all he did; but just as we are limited in giving all his good qualities, by the fact that he does not make manifest in his poems all the traits he really pos-sessed, so are we limited, but to a greater degree, in observing all his bad qualities; for though he constantly confesses that he had monstrous faults, he has not specified what the particular immor-alities were that he committed, and we cannot know all these without referring to his biography. However, he does exhibit definitely some traits which, we believe, would be hindrances to his free movement among all classes of society. Profanity may have been attractive to his tavern associates, but must have been a shock to the strict piety which we know prevailed in his community. Reference to "Holy Willie's Prayer" manifests a spirit approaching blasphemy, an indication that the poet himself was probably not averse to the use of strong expressions by word of mouth, as well as pen. As a sincere man, Burns was a hater of hypocrisy, upon which subject he wrote several poems. But this feeling leads him into a fault. The satires he has written against hypocrites are too bitter to be commended. Were we to see only those works, we would have little desire to meet their writer. The acrimony of his invective seems unreasonable and repulsive, rather than at-tractive. We have mentioned Burns' drinking habits; but though we have no direct testimony in his poems that he himself was over indulgent, yet some of the scenes he depicts make clear that he must have been present at them, or he could not have described them so well. He at least practically confesses that he frequented places and associated with persons of low repute. Whether it is likely that he indulged in the orgies he describes, the reader can judge from the evidence. Such tendencies as these thus indi-cated certainly did not at that time constitute admirable social qualities. That Burns was positively vulgar, we must admit. A look into certain of his poems, which we do not deem fit to make more public by quoting them here, will convince us of this. It is seen, THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 77 for instance, in certain lines of ' 'The Kirk's Alarm.'' A betrayal of such lack of decency, in the eyes of some, would seriously affect his social character. Though to many persons the absence of Christian qualities in a man would be no social objection, yet we must be of the opinion that Burns' great lack in this regard would form a barrier to his entrance into close acquaintance with many persons at his time. We are sorry to admit that such a genius, in all his works, shows no spirit of true devotion to his Creator and His Son. Probably a closer inspection of Burns' lines would manifest more qualities wherein he would be attractive or not; but we think we have drawn from his poems enough of both kinds to indicate whether or not he deserved to be popular. It is our decision that his good far outweigh his bad social qualities. We believe that were Burns' biography to be forever lost, with noth-ing but his poems for grounds from which to reason, the world today, were he to come back again, would greet him—just as Scotland would have done immediately after his death—with open arms. And we would welcome him, if for nothing else, because of his social qualities as manifested in his poems. THE CULTIVATION OP PATRIOTISM FRANK LBNKER, '03 HPO have a thorough understanding of the subject one must ^ necessarily have a full and true conception of the meaning of the word patriotism. Patriotism is—" L,ove and devotion to one's country, the spirit that originating in love of country prompts to obedience to its laws, to the support and defense of its exist-ence, rights and institutions and to the promotion of its welfare." From the definition of the word it is readily seen that without patriotism no good government can exist and by as much as the people of a nation are patriotic or unpatriotic, by so much that nation will be either pre-eminent or debased in the galaxy of nations. Patriotism is of different kinds. It is patriotism that leads a man to shoulder his musket and amid storms of applause and the entrancing strains of his national air to dare to fight for his country's honor. It is still greater patriotism that enables him to endure 78 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY the privations and hardships of a severe campaign and which enables him, when some very daring service is required, willingly to lay down his life. It is patriotism that a man displays when for a season he leaves the pleasures of his home, neglects his business and exposes himself to the censure of those opposed to him, to become a voice of the people in the nation's council. But only the true statesman, the man who stands for right and principle against personal interests, displays this patriotism. Then, too, anyone may be a true patriot. He need not be a soldier, he need not be a statesman, but one thing Me must be—a man—a man true and firm, a man of high principle and lofty sent-iments and above all he must dare to stand by the right. If each one should place his country's welfare above his struggle for per-sonal gain and aggrandizement, what a powerful nation such men would constitute. It is acknowledged that there is no power equal to the mother's in shaping the characters and disposition of the young. If the solemn duties and obligations of motherhood could but be more strongly intrenched in the minds of those who have assumed the positions of wives and mothers, patriotism would surely become a more self-sacrificing and deep-seated kind. Mothers should endeavor to bring their children up to maturity even-minded and devoted to their country and to their God. Early in life children should be taught to reverence the starry ensign—the symbol of their freedom, to respect the nation's laws —safeguards of their liberty, and above all to know our history. Let them know how the nation was established on a foundation of right, cemented with the blood of some of the noblest men who ever lived. Let them know how, when the nation was in its in-fancy, our statesmen studied and planned so that laws tending only to progress might be promulgated. Let them know how gallantly our warriors punished England's insult to that banner, which so long as the true American spirit prevails will tell of the freedom of our nation and assure every American citizen protec-tion abroad or a speedy vengeance if molested. It should not be forgotten to tell them of the Civil War which for a time threatened to disrupt the Union. Tell them how the North was arrayed against the South and how bravely brother engaged brother to the death. But most emphatically tell them that each fought for principle. They fought not concerning petty THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 79 matters but rather concerning deep-rooted belief that each was right. Then review how at first there seemed to be bitter feeling, then gradually take them through the intervening space of time and at last show them how gloriously a united, a thoroughly . united and closely associated baud of men, representing the North, South, East and West, defeated the cruel Spaniards on San Juan hill. Our young should also be led to hate the greatest curse of the nation, they should be taught to abhor the greatest enemy of true manhood and upright living—the moral-debasing and character-weakening rum. Can a drunkard be a true patriot? No, most decidedly not. For how can a man who weakens himself morally, physically and mentally by using the vile stuff offer his ablest and best services to his country either as a statesman, a soldier, or as an exemplary private citizen. Double-dealing, rottenness and corporation influence in politics is another great evil and the one which probably above all others might possibly cause the downfall of these United States. Oh, would that some of our statesmen were more honorable men, would that they were more stalwart warriors in the defense of right and more zealous to forward measures drawn up for the public good rather than for personal gain and advantage ! L,et those, in whose power it is to elect the law-makers, cast their ballots for none but honest men. Then, with an honorable man guiding the ship of state, and none but honorable men on the crew, how can it be otherwise than that a more patriotic spirit would be displayed in the next generation. We turn our sad, reluctant gaze Upon the path of duty; Its barren, unwilling' ways Are void of bloom and beauty. Yet in that road, though dark and cold, It seems as we begin it As we press on—I/O ! we behold- There's Heaven in it. —Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 80 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY SUPERLATIVES J. B. BAKER,'01 WHEN, in accusing Peter of affiliation with Jesus of Nazareth, the morbid scions of Jewish authority, said "Thy speech bewrayeth thee," they described a condition of more than local interest. The sentiment their charge embodied has outlived the perverted Sanhedrin. It prevails to-day and applies to us. We are the heirs of a rich language; londled were we in the lap of opulence and children of fortune are prone to squander. Our language, being as it is a composite one, necessarily, by the survival of the fittest, contains the accumulated grace and vigor of its varied progeny. Its verbs express accurately every shade of human thought, even to the antipodal range of a Shakespeare. Its nouns are like the notes of a pianoforte, so varied is their tone. Its adjectives, in their several degrees embellish even that which already is sublime. They are the grace notes in the vernacular strains and of all things the most difficultly used. The proper adaptation of an adjective, even in the positive de-gree, to its corresponding noun is of itself a task of no mean im-port; the comparative requires more skill, while the superlative, like a run of extras on a key board, is accomplished gracefully, only by a practiced man. And yet how prone we are to use them. With what readiness we carry every thing to a ne plus ultra. Why is it thus? Wherein lies the cause ? Emerson has probably answered it, in his essay on history, without intending directly to do so. After a short disser-tation on the various nations that have come and gone over the highway of time, he says, "But I will make no more account of them. I believe in Eternity, I can find Greece, Palestine, Italy, Spain, the islands, the genius and creative principle ofeach andall eras in my own mind." The much-travelled man does not call each high hill a cloud-piercing peak, nor does he speak of every landscape as nature's last attempt. Those are the foibles of childhood. The evolutions of such whose peregrinations have not as yet translated them be-yond their native shire. Precisely the same is true in the world of thought. The cos-mical mind uses few superlatives. The farther out it pushes into unknown tracts, the more it discovers of hitherto unrevealed re-ality, the closer appears its affinity with it, and with that increasing THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 81 identity there comes an increasing frugality of terms. He who has thoroughly established his identity with all reality could not possibly predicate a superlative of any thing without paying his own self an indirect compliment, and this, if report be true, is of all things the most odious to men of a larger growth. So much' so at least that they will use them stintingly, save only as applied to Divinity. As proof of this we need but resort to the sayings and writings of such great men. The genial paternal Emerson is judiciously sparing even in the use of his comparatives and yet there \s an ex-hilarating loftiness in all his thoughts. The many sided Ruskin speaks most frequently in simple, homely, childlike terms, and yet Carlyle compared his words to copious lightning bolts pour-ing incessantly into the black words of anarchy about him. Tolstoi, whose boldness has incurred the hostility of the Russian royalty, seldom calls things by their hardest names, yet his pen is a very scramasax in the side of monarchial iniquity. Nor is this abstemiousness from any thing that smacks of hy-perbole a characteristic only of him who sits down quietly at his desk and writes in his pacific words. It is characteristic of great men everywhere. Even in the forum, tempest-tossed and raging. The men who kindled and maintained the fires of patriotism through seven years of blood strife were men whose speech was as plain as their garb. A few months training in a country school and a six weeks course in law would not be likely to embellish much the speech of any one. But "give me liberty or give me death" had a potency that added superlatives could not augment. Daniel Webster, in that paragon of American philippics, his reply to Senator Hayne, is deadliest when he is plainest. His unadorned arrows are the swiftest. Lincoln, the great, in his speech on these hallowed grounds, gives us not only a model in structure well worth study, but manifests a chastity in terms seldom seen. Not once, in referring to the war in which we were then engaged, does he use an extravagant term such as thousands of others might with apparent justification have employed, and yet there is an Alpine sublimity pervading it all. So we might continue our citation almost indefinitely, pushing our observations out even beyond the confines ofour native tongue; including all ages past and present, all lands and climes, and find the great men every where corroborating the truth. The greater 82 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY the man, the smaller will things appear, and with the diminution of things will come a corresponding frugality of terms; deducting from this the converse and we have in very truth the modern ap-plication of those ancient words, "Thy speech bewrayeth thee." PERSEVERANCE EMORY D. BREAM, '02 T^HE old saying, " A rolling stone gathers no moss," has been * illustrated so often, and in so many ways, that when we see a young man going from one thing to another, not following one pursuit long enough to overcome its difficulties, we at once con-clude that he will never amount to much. The youth who comes to college with the intention of being a doctor, a lawyer, or having in view some other profession, and when he encounters difficulties in Greek, mathematics and other hard studies, has not the conquering spirit to master them, shows to a marked degree the lack of persistency. Or if, during his college course, he is swayed from his purpose, and decides to take a special course because he has failed in some department, or there is in the regular course a laborious, abstract subject which he dislikes, and which he has not the courage to attempt, it is evi-dent that he will never be well prepared to face the more difficult problems of life. Hence, instead of steering to a position of trust and honor, he will drift down the stream along with thousands of aimless beings like himself. On the other hand, the young man who chooses a worthy and honorable calling because he knows it is right and noble to do so; because he knows that to attain the desired end he will have to work long and hard; if such a young man will do with his might what his hand findeth to do, and, like Henry Clay, Daniel Webster or Abraham Lincoln, overcome every obstacle that comes in his way, each victory won will strengthen and encourage him for something higher. With such persistency he is bound to make life a success. The boy who enters life as a clerk, and looks forward to the time when he will be a prominent business man, lending a help-ing hand to the needy, using his influence in every good cause or having some other worthy aim, and takes for his motto this I THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 83 proverb of Solomon, "Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings;" the boy who enters a blacksmith shop, determined to hammer out, as it were, link by link the very chain by which he is to be raised to honor and usefulness; if such boys keep in mind the life of Iceland Stanford or P. D. Armour or Clem. Studebaker, never dreaming of failure, future genera-tions will not fail to call them blessed. The drummer-boy who says to himself, '' I shall not always beat the drum. I will rise just as high as my talents or the neces-sities of war will permit;" the youthful soldier behind the gun, who performs faithfully every duty, no matter how small it may be; if within his breast burns the spirit of patriotism ; if he feel that faithful work insures success, and that success means that a man must make the best possible use of his God-given talents for the benefit of his fellow-men; if he never allow himself to be deceived nor turned from the path of martial glory by spending his time, strength and money in the regimental saloon; if such drummer-boys and soldiers take as their ideal Paul Jones or An-drew Jackson or Ulysses Grant, their names will be recorded on the pages of history. To-day there is a greater need than ever for able men in the pulpit; for h°nest cashiers in our banks; for upright and noble statesmen, who do not enter politics for money or the gratifying of selfish desires; for truly patriotic generals and admirals, like him who was called "Father of His Country," and who will not, after the war is over, fill the columns of our newspapers with abominable wrangling as to who won certain battles, Santiago for instance, or who will be promoted-and who will not. We shall be needed. Our future depends upon the present. To make the best use of our present opportunities, we must per-severe. "Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving' thine out grown shell by life's unresting sea." —The Chambered Nautilus. 84 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY A DUTCH SCHOOLMASTER'S ADVENTURE A. 0. WOLF, '04' SOME eighty years ago, in the vicinity of the little village of Gettysburg, there lived two celebrated characters. One a long, lank, ungraceful Dutch schoolmaster by the name of Joseph Sleutsenslizer, who wielded the birch in a most prolific manner and who was noted for his arrant cowardice and marked suscepti-bility to feminine influences; the other, Mike Miller by name, a type of Herculean manhood, famed for his ability to break the most vicious horse, and for a diposition to indulge in all the pranks and roguish proceedings-of the most recklessly disposed element of the mischievous young men among whom he lived. It so happened that these worthies were rival suitors for the hand of the village belle. Their antagonism had attained to such proportions that our friend Joseph had felt himself constrained to exert his influence to prevent his rival from receiving an invita-tion to a ball which was to be held at a neighbor's home some distance south of the village. For thus, the schoolmaster argued to himself, he would be able to anticipate the advances of his rival and to monopolize the society of the fair one in question. His plans had worked well. The revelry was over. The tracing and retracing of the woof and weft of the dizzy dance by the light of the roaring logs had ended. The dingy rafters had ceased to ring with peals of girlish laughter and strains of the violin. The swish, swish of fantastic feet was no longer heard. Echo from her rocky cavern stepped forth perplexed at the sudden transformation. A scamper for wraps, a change from almost tropic heat to the crisp atmosphere of a November night, and the terpsichorean revelers bid adieu to their host and the dancing. As they trudge homeward beneath the brilliant emblazonry of a star-lit sky, oceans of midnight air poured over the mountains into the forest-covered valley making its branches groan with forebodings of the coming storm. The maidens became startled at the demoniacal laughter of some melancholy night-bird only to give the attentive swains an opportunity for reassuring them. Jest is passed from couple to couple, and their hilarious spirits find vent in snatches of song and in pertinent thrusts of wit. At the fork of the road they separate with a hasty "good night" and a counter ejaculation of unthought-of-until-the-last-moment inter-rogations hurled at each receding party. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 85 Joseph was now reaping the fruit of his well laid scheme, as, with the fairest of the fair maids in the little village on his arm, he turned to the right on the road that leads past Devil's Den. His heart beat wildly for it was rarely that he had the opportunity of enjoying the society of the beautiful but somewhat reticent maid. In fact, the society of others seemed preferable to his own. This made him gloat over his good fortune as an ogre would gloat over his cannibal repast. The infatuated schoolmaster failed to conceive himself anything but a brilliant courtier in at-tendance on the object of his affection. Moreover, his bigotry would not permit him to offer his awkward, uncouth appearance and decidedly rustic air in striking contrast to the trim figure of his companion, as a possible explanation of her reticence and her disposition to indulge in a peculiar sort of suppressed laughter. Suddenly she became communicative and deftly turned the drift of their conversation on ghosts, hobgoblins and other super-stitious fancies so dear to the heart of the early Dutch settler. Oh, what's that ! she cried, clasping his arm in terror. His heart stood still. But just then a passing breeze rustled the dead leaves on a bush by the roadside which she had mistaken for the crouching figure of some wanderer from Spiritland. After this his aroused imagination saw ghosts innumerable; headless hobgoblins and winged fairies. Even the murky air seemed teeming with imaginary hosts. The drift of his com-panion's conversation by no means tended to allay his trepida-tion. In a fearful whisper she told him of a time when her father passed along that very road after nightfall, and how a horned creature with gleaming eyes and nostrils that breathed forth sheets of flame snatched him up and was bearing him away. It became frightened at the wild cry of a panther, dropped him half dead and galloped into a cavern in the adjacent hillside. Again, she related the story of the adventure of a certain deacon which happened at the rocks which they were then Hear-ing. The deacon was going home from a visit to a sick neighbor and on passing the rocks he heard an unearthly crash and felt the rock on which he stood heave under him. Thunder pealed. The sky was kindled by a lurid blaze. The ground was on flame, and fiery torrents came down in tumultuous avalanches. The rocks melted and the valley assumed the aspect of a basin of glowing ore. He bounded with the speed of the wind through the raging 86 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY conflagration. The sulphurous molten tide pursued him, spouting white columns of vapor and sheets of vitreous lava. As he ran, it gained speed on him; when he bounded, the spot Irom which he sprang was on fire before he alighted on the ground. At length he sank exhausted, but the indefatigable lava rolled on like armies rushing to battle. Suddenly the earth quaked and a fissure appeared, out of which leaped a compan}' of devils as if shot from a subterranean catapult. The foremost, whose stature was as that of a tree, advanced and with a claw-like hand had picked him up and was about to hurl him into the bottomless pit. The deacon recollecting himself cried, "Get thee behind me, Satan,'1 which so enraged his captor that, with a horrible roar, he hurled him through the air with such force that he continued his aerial course until he lauded on his own door step. Joseph was now fully aware of his danger. His natural cow-ardice prompted him to cast his eyes in every nook and cranny of that mass of rocks which now bears such a sinister name, and from which he firmly expected to see the beginning of a sponta-neous combustion which would overwhelm him. Nor had he long to wait. Just as they came opposite the rock a blood-curd-ling yell resounded which would have put to shame a vociferous Comanche brave. By a sudden contraction and relaxation of his muscles, Joseph was elevated some three or four feet in the air. He turned to look for his companion, but she was fleeing with the speed of a whirlwind and giving vent to that series of ex-quisitely rendered screeches, in which startled women delight to indulge. Another whoop from the rock, accompanied by the rattle of chains and clank of iron, and Joseph's knees began to strike each other in a remarkable manner. He looked up, and there on the summit of the rock stood his Satanic Majesty plainly outlined against the stony vault. To the excited beholder he seemed panoplied in all the regal habiliments of a prince of the nether world. His hoofs and horns gleamed in the starlight, and from his eyes scintillated the fiery sparks of his wrath. The poor pedagogue was in a serious predicament. His limbs moved convulsively. His hair rose and with it his hat, allowing the cool breeze to fan his throbbing forehead. His heart palpitated wildly. His breath came in short quick gasps. Hoping that he was in some horrible nightmare, and that his visitor would soon vanish, he looked up. His majesty was de- I THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 87 liberately stepping to the edge of the rock where he tore a tree from its roots, and with a sepulchral roar leaped headlong, with the tree in his grasp, upon the terrified Joseph. The branches of the tree struck him and bore him to the earth. His tormentor leaped upon him, kicked him, pulled his hair, spat upon him, at the same time producing the most hideous noises. Tired of his diversion, he threw the trunk of the tree across the breast of the prostrate pedagogue and started, roaring like an enraged buffalo, in pursuit of the fleeing girl. A rescuing party, aroused by the clamor, came and released the terror-stricken Joseph and heard his fabulous tale. Their mirth knew no bounds. And ever after when the irate school-master was asked to relate his adventure at the Devil's Den he would exclaim, "Vat ! you dink a Dutchman's a geece, hugh ! Do you dink I shust come over tomorrow ?" This, dear reader, is how Devil's Den came to be so named. Again the sun is over all, Again the robin's evening call Or early morning lay; I hear the stir about the farms, I see the earth with open arms, I feel the breath of May. Century Magazine. Oh, the merry May has pleasant hours, And dreamily they glide, As if they floated like the leaves Upon a silver tide. The trees are full of crimson buds, And the woods are full of birds, And the waters flow to music, Like a song with pleasant words. Willis. & There is something grander than the ocean, and that is con-science; something sublimer than the sky, and that is the interior of the soul. —Victor Hugo. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Entertd at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter VOL. X GETTYSBURG, PA., MAY, 1901 No. 3 E. C. RUBY, 'Oi, Editor-in-Chief R. ST. CLAIR POFFENBARGER,' 02, Business Manager J. F. NEWMAN, '02, Exchange Editor Assistant,-E.d,.it.ors Advisor•*y Board . -K, o ,"-. PROF. J. A. HIMES, A. M., LIT. D. M. IS"S "ANNIE M. .S"W" ARTZ, '02 _ " _ " ." ~ PROF. G. D. STAHLEY, M. D. A. B. RICHARD, '02 _ T _. _ ' -. PROF. J. W. RICHARD, D. D. Assistant Business Manager CURTIS E. COOK, '03 Published each month, from October to June inclusive, by the joint literary societies of Peuusj'lvania (Gettysburg-) College. Subscription price, One Dollar a year in advance; single copies Fifteen Cents. Notice to discontinue seudiug the MERCURY to any address must be accompanied by all arrearages. Students, Professors, and Alumni are cordially invited to contribute. All subscriptions and business matter should be addressed to the Business Manager. Articles for publication should be addressed to the Editor. Address THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY, GETTYSBURG, PA. EDITORIALS '"pHE first day of May was once a festival in honor of an Ameri- *■ can "saint," canonized simply by popular acclamation. Our colonial troops deprived themselves of the patronage of St. George by their rebellion, and at once they looked about for a saint of their own. Their choice fell on Tamina, a sagamore of the Delaware Indians, who, tradition says, bad whipped satan. Naturally the soldiers concluded that the conqueror of satan could also overcome St. George. The name of St. Tamina was in-scribed upon the banners of the colonial troops and on the first day of May celebrations were held in his honor. These celebra-tions were a combination of the Indian war dance and the old English May Day frolics. The May-pole was crowned with a THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 89 liberty cap, and bore a tomahawk instead of the garlands of flowers used to decorate the English May-pole. The army was not alone in doing honor to the "saint." Poets sang of his virtues. His life was dramatized and appeared on the stage in many places. Societies, which usually took the place of the modern club, were formed under his name. In England it was customary, on the first day of May, to wear a sprig of green gathered in the early morning and worn all day. This sprig was called the " May." The narrow-leaved elm and the hawthorn were the trees from which the sprig was usually taken. The expedition into the grove after it was called " going a-Maying," and the carrying of it home was " bringing in the May." The erecting of a May-pole, the young men and maidens dancing around it with flowers and song, and the choosing of the most attractive maiden as the " Queen of the May," to whom homage was paid as long as the day lasted, were characteristic features in the observance of May Day. This festival was quite general in England until the Puritans of the Commonwealth put a stop to it and uprooted the May-poles. It was again revived after the Restoration, but has now nearly, if not entirely, died out. In the New England States this same festival had been observed for a short time. Here it was also opposed by the Puritans, who regarded it as an emblem of satanic rule. In such an atmosphere it could not flourish long, and soon became a thing of the past. The custom of giving " May baskets," however, survived a little longer, and for aught we know may still be observed in some places. A basket, tastefully arranged with flowers, was left by the love-sick swain at the door of his lady-love; children tied baskets and bouquets on the door-knob of the house wherein dwelt their playmates, and friends remembered each other by gifts and flowers on May Day morning. r"pHEPvE is a surprising lack of knowledge in regard to *■ South America, its people and their ways. There is more known of Europe, Asia and Africa than of South America, once an echo of Spain in her glory and the home of a brave people con-quered by treachery and deceit. When we do study its history at all, we start with its discovery and almost abruptly end there. 90 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Perhaps it is because we do not have so much in common as we have with the people of other countries that we know so little about the people, but it would be better to be more familiar with the doings and character of the people who live on the same side of the world as we do. We usually regard South America as made up of a number of little republics always at odds and the people as indolent and uneducated. We might change our minds some-what if we knew more about them. The natural resources of the country are worth study also, the magnificent mountain-ranges, the valuable forests and mines, the rivers and bays, the fertile plains equal to any which nature has ever bestowed on any country. —S. AN OLD READER CHAS. W. WEISKB, '01 I picked up an old school reader, Which up on the attic lay, Covered with the dust of ages, Brown with mold and decay. I opened its well-worn pages— They were soiled and marked with grime, By the little hands which used them In a by-gone, happy time. And out came the flood of memory, "With a rush, a flutter and sweep, And I lived those days all over— Those days ere I climbed life's steep. Aye! there was the old brown school house, With its warped and beaten floor, And there were the old wooden benches, Arid the old thumb-latch on the door. And there was the rude cut initial, Carved on the desk and seat, And under the forms the shuffling Of stout-booted restless feet. Around me arose a murmur, A chatter and whisp'ring gay, The humming of happy children, In the school beside the way. But the cold winds weirdly sighing, Awoke me from my dream; The present lay before me— Iafe's bright and silvery stream. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 91 PICTURES MARY C. SIELING, '03 HPHERE are pictures not painted with the brush of the artist. * The hills, the valleys, the sky, the rivers—all the works of God—what are they to him that see, aught but so many beautiful pictures ? How the hills, with their trees rising rank above rank, brighten the valleys between them. What artist can imitate the delicate shade of their green ? What colors mixed by man are so beautiful as their red and gold in autumn, and in what picture hung in our houses is there expressed the desolation of those same hills in winter, when the trees are bare and the winds moan through their branches ? The stream sings through the valley, hurrying on to the sea. The sunbeams dance upon the waters, making the scene still more pleasing, while the flowers along its banks add to its,beauty. All this is a beautiful picture, and it fills our hearts with peace. In the sky, too, there are pictures. The heavens are a moving panorama. The blue of the noon-day sky is to the sight what far-off beautiful music is to the ear. It fills us with a vague longing, and turns our thoughts to what is high and spiritual. The sunset is the most beautiful of all pictures, for do not the rifted clouds, bordered in gold, with the splendor spreading from them, seem like outer battlements of heaven when the inner gates are opened ? These pictures are around us and above us day after day. They gladden us, purify us and uplift us. He who can copy these pictures on canvas is the painter, and that man is the best painter who can most com-pletely forget himself and yield his soul and his hand to the Mas-ter of all paintings, content to let himself be the means through which the copies of the paintings, engraved deep on his own soul, are made to stand out on canvas. Raphael painted his beautiful Madonna because, in his mind, there was a beautiful picture of the purity and love of the mother of Jesus, and this picture was his, not only from a study of the Bible, but from the memory of his own pure and noble mother. Michael Angel o, who in the age in which Christian art had reached its zenith, stood almost unrivaled as a painter, sculptor, architect and poet. He painted and carved as never man painted and carved before or since, because he more fully than other men let nature and the God of nature speak through his life and his hand. 92 THE GETTYSBURG MEBCURY But artists are not the only men who try to copy these pictures which God has painted. The poets and prose writers also paint pictures, not with brush and palette, but with words in writing. "The Great Stone Face," how clearly we see with Hawthorne the long valley with the great family of lofty mountains beyond, the great face of stone carved in the side of the mountain, the people of the valley. Ernest, who, as a boy and man, looked through a long life for the face that should resemble the great face carved in stone, and who should thus fulfill a tradition of the valley ! With him we look into the face of the rich man, warrior and poet, and with him we are saddened to find in each one something lacking, but with the people we shout to see at last that he, Ernest himself, is the man who resembles the great stone face. But these pictures drawn by prose writers and painters, in the end mean to us only as much as we put into them. We cannot enjoy a poem or a painting of a forest stream unless we ourselves have felt the restfulness and delightful coolness of a streamlet murmuring over the pebbles under the shade of the overhanging trees, nor will the most beautiful pictured children Millias appeal to us before we have learned in some way the beauty and inno-cence of childhood. Thus in truth, all the pictures, of which we have spoken, depend on the great painter, Nature. But every-body is to a certain extent an artist, because everybody is paint-ing a picture called character. This picture is of more importance in the sight of God and to us than any other kind of picture. Upon this picture depends our happiness hereafter. Some people are trying hard to paint the picture well, while others handle the brush so carelessly that in the end the picture is a mere daub. There are a few men whose characters stand out above others like the paintings of the mas-ters. We should study these pictures, and let the beauty of their character enter into our own lives. If you would teach a boy self-poise, coolness of judgment and majesty of character, let him read about George Washington. If you would have him sincere, looking through the glamour of symbols to the things beneath, let him study long and well the lives of such men as Socrates and Lincoln. But if you would have him to be a true man, rounded, combining all virtues, let THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 93 him study the life of Him more majestic than Washington, for He was the God of man, and more sincere than Socrates. "We should study His life until just as Ernest, by looking long and lovingly into the great stone face, grew like it in feature, we also, by looking at the picture of His character, may grow more and more like Him. SPONTANEITY IN LITERATURE J. RUSH STONER, '01 QPONTANEITY, applied to literature, may be used to desig- ^ nate that spontaneous flow of eloquence or spirit from the depth of the author's own nature, giving to literary work spice and attraction. It may have an ennobling effect, or it may have a degrading effect, according as the life and ethical ideas of the author are high or low. It constitutes the ground upon which what is commonly called good and bad literature are distinguish-able. In the higher sense it might be looked upon as inspiration in literature; in the lower sense, merely as an evil tending to de-moralize the race. All who are familiar with the poetry of Robert Burns have recognized there the naturalness with which the poet gave vent to his feelings. And with the exclusion of his coarser poems, he might be taken as a good type of authors, whose writings flow with natural freshness of pure humor, pathos and wit, appealing strongly to the higher sympathies and the nobler passions. There is in literature a force that molds the character or indi-viduality of the reader. This element, or subtle force, makes itself clearly manifest in the life principles of different individuals, through the subconscious impressions it ingrains upon the mind. For the reader, if he is in the highest sense a true reader, must be in a receptive state, imbibing the spirit and tone of the litera-ture perused. And these impressions are stored up for future reproduction in the principles of life. Enthroned thus in the ruling element of the world, this force becomes at once a power in shaping the destiny of the race. Those who are at all susceptible to literature resort to it either for rest, pleasure, instruction, or for its ennobling influence. The scientist, exhausted from his deep abstraction in the realms of nature, searching for laws and principles in large collections of 94 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY facts, comes hither to quaff from this sparkling fountain, this source of the emotional nature. It is to him a source of rest and pleasure, indispensable to his well-being, that he may draw from his life's work the best results. And, too, what wealth of in-struction is yielded to the earnest seeker after knowledge as he pries into this mine of wisdom. Above all, the ennobling effect ofgood literature is universal; experienced alike by scientist and all who come within the scope of its power. The existence of this subtle force in literature may be verified by the career of a distinguished scientist of the nineteenth cen-tury, who neglected entirely the fine arts and the reading of in-spired writings for the absorbing interests of his life's work. In this description of his own life, Darwin tells his pathetic story. He tells how in the early part of his life he took great delight in poetry and music, and then, after many years of their utter neglect, he tried to read some poetry. But he could no longer appreciate it. His mind had become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, and was so revolutionized that poetry seemed unendurably dull and even nauseating. He had lost all appreciation of the higher tastes. He says this atrophy of the emotional nature is doubtless a loss of happiness. And he expresses an intense regret that he could not have his life to live again, that he might, at regular intervals throughout his busy career, pay some attention to those things which appeal to the spiritual side of life, that this horrible atrophy in his mind might have been averted. Here was a man who accomplished a vast work in science, but his absorption in the work, and neglect of the finer arts, brought him to a painful consciousness of the reality of this element in literature, and its influence upon the reader. While there are many instances that demonstrate the reality of this force by showing the change brought about in the indi-vidual who is isolated from its influences, there are also numerous evidences of its positive influence upon the individuality of the reader. So positive is this influence, that the literature a person enjoys is an unfailing index to his character. If the mind be turned into the channels of heroic and active literature, a heroic spirit of'strong and manly principles, master of circumstances and capable of resisting the most powerful evils, is the inevitable re-sult. If, on the other hand, time is spent in devouring nonsensi- THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 95 cal trash of a doubtful, or possibly degrading moral tone, you have as a reward, or rather demerit, a nerveless, sentimental tem-perament, unfit for the accomplishment of any great work, be it in the study or in life's profession. There is no more contemptible type of human character than the nerveless sentimentalist and dreamer, who spends his life in a "weltering sea of sensibility," and never does a concrete, manly deed. But, ah ! the individuality formed by contact with inspir-ing and ennobling literature ! How sublime is that character, standing firm amid the tempests, like a tower when everything rocks about it, and the weaker fellow-mortals are winnowed like chaff in the blast ! Since there is. a spontaneous force in literature exerting its influence over every reader, whether he is conscious of the fact or not, how essential it is that all current literature and fiction should be idealistic, upholding the ideal of the race; for this is the law of human progress. It would be better if the realistic novel were never published. What we want is a stalwart ideal-ism. In life " aim and ideal are everything;" so it is in litera-ture. And if these be high and just, the author is true to his profession, and will be false to no one. How great is the responsibility resting upon the author ! He may be the agency through which humanity is brought into the most exalted phase of moral excellence, or into the vilest degen-eracy, endowing the race with real wealth to promote its civiliza-tion, or bringing upon it the deadliest curse. Then let those who are looking forward to a higher order of things, social and politi-cal, equip themselves and aspire to win the favor of the people by making the idealistic literature surpass in splendor the low-grade realistic novel, as the glorious mid-day sun outshines the insignificant glow-worm. And let the unscrupulous author, who has no higher ambition than to cater to the populace, sink into oblivion beneath the weight of a refined popular taste and criti-cism. This mournful truth is everywhere confessed, Slow rises worth by poverty depressed. -Johnson. 96 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY IN NATURE'S REALM J. RUSH STONER, '01. How oft in life's deep vestige sought,— Be it in Nature's realm and throne, Where fleeting time has strata laid, And plant life quivering, by zephyrs blown, Wafts perfume o'er the sacred dead, Or in the search of truth and lore,— The Unintended lifts its head And speaks in oracles of yore! In the closing days of winter drear, When anon begins through Nature's veins To course the life of a living world, We strolled through field and rustic lanes; Enchanting for romance were they, In facts for science richer still. We searched for minerals, types of rock And phenomena caused by rippling rill. And lo! within a fractured rock A microscopic plant was seen. Perennial, delicate, tiny thing, It has of Nature's marvels been One oft escaped the human eye; A life unscathed by Aeolian breath Or Zeus' cataclysms wild, Nor felt Apollo's scorching dearth. But clinging to the rugged cliff A lonely, solitary form; In all the great, wide universe Only a little speck forlorn; Yet symmetry and order plain Are there set forth in clear design By the Supreme Intelligence, Its "Great Original," benign. A useless infinitesimal plant! But it a mission has to fill: It may proclaim the law Divine, And be of greatest value still. If it but shows that God, who keeps The stars in cosmic beauty bright, Regards the smallest forms of being, It turns on science floods of light. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 97 i And man, a spark of the Divine May see in this the message clear, That God who rules things great and small In sweet compassion holds them dear. And he may catch the inspiration, That love, the essence of the soul, Controls and rules the universe And pilots safely to the goal. A COUNTRY BARN ON A RAINY DAY D. S. Weimer, '03 TT is a warm summer morning, the folks have arisen from the long, A sweet slumbers of the night, breakfast has been prepared and served, the horses have been fed and harnessed, and all are ready to go to their respective duties, when, lo! the sky becomes dark, ened and in a short time the rain begins to descend upon the parched earth, causing the drooping plants to lift their heads, as it were, and to spread out their leaves that they may be bathed by the gentle rain. All stand wrapped in delight, as they watch the rain which has been needed so long, no one being unwilling to rest from his labor, while the gentle rain descends to replenish the earth with flowers and fruits. Soon the scene changes. The father, ever mindful ofhis duties, bids the sons go to the barn to unharness the horses. When this is done, they are told that they must go to the barn-floor and pre-pare to thresh some rye in order to have some long straw for tying the corn in the autumn. Soon the doors are thrown open and you see the boys sweeping the floor to get ready to place upon it the sheaves of grain ready for the flail. When the sweeping is completed, you see James climb thelad-der and pass into the mow, while Henry remains upon the floor to arrange the sheaves in order, one after the other, until the floor is fairly covered, when James ceases to throw them from the mow and descends to the floor and prepares to begin with the flail. Taking their flails, they step to their places, and at once begin to strike with alternate strokes, creating a great noise so that it is very difficult to be understood in speaking, but doing the work to which they were appointed with apparent ease and skill. They 98 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY labor during the long hours of the day, ceasing only when thefact that it is time to perform the regular evening duties is made known to them. From what I have said, you may infer that the "Country Barn" is, besides being a protection for the animals against the inclem-ency ofthe weather and a storehouse for grain, a kind ofworkshop, where boys are taught to improve their time and not to throw away the golden moments. We shall see that it is something more. While James and Henry are busy at their work, Willie, Ned, and Joe, who are yet too small to bear the greater burdens of life, are rolling over the hay, turning somersault, standing upon their heads, playing "Run and Jump," "Hide and Seek," and indulg-ing in other sports. Seated in the corner of the barn-floor or run-ning to and fro, or lounging in the swing made by Henry, are Jane and Nell, too selfish to engage in sport with the boys, or probably keeping away, pouting on account of some trick which the boys have served them. Thus wesee that the "Country Barn" is a shelter, a storehouse, a workshop, and a playhouse, teaching to us the lesson that the things which exist may be used for different purposes, each pur-pose in its own time, being necessary for full and complete devel-opment and advantageous to all. «f^£> ALL SOULS DAY W. H. B. CARNEY, '99. Arched above, a reefless ocean Gray of clouds; no sunny glow: Leafless trees affect no motion To the biting' winds which blow. Everywhere are solemn faces,— Father, mother, daughter, son; Over all I see the traces Of a sorrow, deep and lone. Towards God's acre slowly walking Where a loved one lies "At Rest"; Thinking all, but none are talking: Sometimes Silence speaks the best. w THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 99 On the arm a wreath of holly With white flowers wove between; But the gnawing melancholy Of the heart cannot be seen. In the churchyard there is weeping Over every ivied mound; Some have infant forms in keeping, Some by sculptor's hand are crowned. On the graves the wreaths are lying, Glistening with blood-warm tears, Tribute of a love undying, Living on through dragging years. In a homestead sits a maiden Sighing o'er a golden band ; For his grave her hands not laden; There's a trench in foreign land. In her dreams a wife is hearing Lashing waves that froth and roar; And she sees a boat that's nearing,— But it never reached the shore. • In the church is told the story How the Christ, in village Nain, Gave a widow cause to glory, Raising up her son again. While the trumpet tones are blowing All the dead in Him shall rise; And the living, those reknowing. Shall meet with them in the skies. Every desert yield the treasured, Every mountain, and the Bea, Thousands in whose deeps unmeasured Toss like leaves upon the lea. Then I see the faint hearts strengthen And the tears are wiped away; For the shadows soon will lengthen, Herald of Eternal Day. —Berlitz School of Languages, Berlin, Germany. 100 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY EXCHANGES TVTE have been pleased to receive more than the usual number " of magazines and journals from different colleges and universities during the past month, many of which visited our desk for the first time. Among these the Red and Blue, because of its neat and attractive appearance, and wealth of both poetry and prose, will always be most heartily welcomed. The Harvard Monthly is unassuming in appearance, and filled with excellent literary productions. The Nassau Literary Magazine and the University of Virginia Magazine are both entertaining as always. In addition to these, many others could be mentioned. It has been interesting to note that nearly all the magazines have given considerable space to poetical selections, and also that the number of really good prose articles is greater than dur-ing the previous month. The Lesbian Herald contains a tender and beautiful poem, "The Trailing Arbutus," whose title was probably suggested by John Burrough's poem on the" same subject. We quote the fol-lowing : " Her presence like glimmering sunshine seemed, And the soft sweet breath of the spring, The blue of her eyes was the blue of the heaven, Her voice had a gladsome ring. " Like the voice of the birds as they sing in the trees, When the sweet April shower is done, Or lift to the heavens their anthems of praise When a glad new day has begun. " But the wind swept by with a wailing moan, And the maiden so wondrous fair Was gone in her glory of summer sheen, But the prints of her feet were there. " You call it the trailing arbutus flower, A sweet breath of spring, you say, But I know the glory which gave it birth In the foot-prints left that day." The author of '' The L,ady of the L,ake '' in The Mountaineer evidently appreciates the vivacity and beauty of one of Scott's grandest productions, and thoroughly enjoys the chivalric spirit manifested by the characters. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 101 In the St. John's Collegian appears an article on " The Bible as a Text-book.'' The importance of this subject cannot be ques-tioned when we think of the efforts which are made to exclude the Bible from the curriculum of our educational institutions, and the author's very thorough discussion has our entire appro-bation . The Juniata Echo is publishing a series of articles on Porto Rico, written by Prof. M. G. Brumbaugh, Ph. D., Commissioner of Instruction in Porto Rico. These articles contain valuable information. The last issue contains an article on Martin Luther, part of which we take the liberty of quoting: " Martin Luther was the example of loyalty, the exponent of freedom, the guiding star of the Reformation, the advocate of the genuine Pauline Doctrine, and the mainstay of Christendom since the Apostles. . ******* " 'Thou, who art so great in whatever aspect we view thee, so worthy of admiration, so deserving of universal gratitude, alike great as a man, a scholar, a citizen, and a Christian', hast so in-spired us with the thought so characteristic of thy life, that he who steers his frail canoe the best, truest and noblest in the ser-vice of himself, his Alma Mater, his nation and his God; steers it longest when he receives his reward." "The Chemist's Guess" in The Free Lance teaches two important lessons—" the result of careless work " and " honesty is the best policy." J-Other exchanges to be acknowledged are: The Dickinson Lit-erary Monthly, The Susquehanna, The College Folio, The Western Ufiiversity Courant, The Catthage Collegian, The Scio Collegian, The Phoenix, The Campus and The Forum. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. C. R. SOLT MERCHANT TAILOR Masonic Bldg., GETTYSBURG Our collection of Woolens for the coming Fall and Winter season cannot be surpassed lor variety, attractive designs and general completeness. The latest styles of fashionable novelties in the most approved shades. Staples of exceptional merit, value and wearing durability. Also altering, repairing, dyeing and scouring at moderate prices. In buying don't forget the Advertisers. They support us. ESTABLISHED 1867 BY ALLEN WALTON. ALLEN K. WALTON, President and Treasurer. ROBT. J. WALTON, Superintendent. flammelstomn Bromn Stone Gompany Quarrymen and Manufacturers of Building Stone, Sawed Flagging and Tile Waltonville, Dauphin Co., Pa. Contractors for all kinds of Telegraph and Express Address. Cut Stone Work. BROWNSTONE, PA. Parties visiting the Quarries will leave cars at Brownstone Station on the P. & R. R. B. For a nice sweet loaf of Bread call on J. RAMER Baker of Bread and Fancy Cakes, GETTYSBURG. PA. EIMER & AMEND, Manufacturers and Importers of Chemicals and Chemical Apparatus 205, 207, 209 and 211 Third Avenue, Corner 18th Street NEW YORK. Finest Bohemian and German Glassware, Royal Berlin and Meissen Porcelain, Pure Hammered Platinum, Balances and "Weights. Zeiss Mi-croscopes and Bacteriological Apparatus; Chemical Pure Acids and Assay Goods. SCOTT PAPER COMPANY MAKERS OF FINE TOILET PAPER 7th and Greenwood Ave. PHILADELPHIA PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. The Century Double-Feed Fountain Pen. Fully Warranted J6 Kt. Gold Pen, Iridium Pointed. GEO. EVELER, Agent for Gettysburg College PRICE LIST. Spiral, Black or Mottled $2 50 Twist, " 2 SO Hexagon, Black or Mottled 2 SO Pearl Holder, Gold Mounted S 00 THE CENTURY PEN CO. WHITEWATER, WIS. Askjour Stationer or our Agent to show them toyon. Agood local agent wanted in every school No. 1. Chased, long or short $2 00 No. 1. Gold Mounted 3 00 No. 3. Chased 3 00 No. 3. Gold Mounted 4 00 awfwmiffmmmmwiffmiffifmrmiffmmiffifrTffffgg 7k Printing and Binding We Print This Book THE MT. HOEEY STATIONERY AND PRINTING CO. does all classes of Printing and Binding-, and can furnish you any Book, Bill Head, Letter Head, Envelope, Card, Blank, or anything pertain-ing- to their business in just as good style and at less cost than you can obtain same elsewhere. They are located among the mountains but their work is metropolitan. You can be convinced of this if you give them the opportunity. Mt. Holly Stationery and Printing Co. *SPRINGS, PA. UMkJttiUlUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUR H. S. BENNEF?, .DEALER IN. Groceries, Notions, Queensware, Glassware, Etc, Tobacco and Cigars. 17 CHAMBERSBURG ST. WE RECOMMEND THESE BUSINESS MEN. Pitzer House, (Temperance) JNO. E. PITZER, Prop. Rates $1.00 to $1.25 per day. Battlefield a specialty. Dinner and ride to all points of interest,including the th ree days' tight, $1.25. No. 127 Main Street. You will find a full line of Pure Drugs and Fine Sta-tionery at the People's Drug Store Prescriptions a Specialty. J. A. TAWNEY_^ Is ready to furnish Clubs and Boarding Houses with Bread, Rolls, Etc. At short notice and reasonable rates. Washington & Middle Sts., Gettysburg. . A. WONDERS, Corner Cigar Parlors. A full line of Cigars, Tobacco, Pipes, Etc. Scott's Corner, Opp. Eagle Hotel. GETTYSBURG, PA. M. B. BENDER Furniture IRON BEDS, MATTRESSES, SPRINGS Picture Framing" and Repair Work done Promptly 27 BALTIMORE ST. GETTYSBURG, PA. .GO TO. fyokl Gettysburg Barber Sfyop. Centre Square. B. M. SEFTON WTJ /~T\P\r\Dl Successor to . r . {JJUKJKl, Simon J.Codori Dealer in Beef, Pork, Lamb, Veal, Sausage. Special rates to Clubs. York St., GETTYSBURG. .GO TO. CHAS. E. BARBEHENN, Barber In the Eagle Hotel, Cor. Main and Washington Sts. * CHAS. S. MUMPER (Formerly of Mumper & Bender) Furniture Having opened a new store opposite W. M. R. R. Depot, will be pleased to have you call and examine goods. Picture Framing promptly attended to. Repair Work a Specialty Students' Trade Solicited FAVOR THOSE WHO FAVOR US. Spalding's Official League Ball and Athletic Goods Officially adopted by the lead ing Colleges, Schools and Athletic Clubs of the Country Every Requisite for— BASE BALL FOOT BALL GOLF TENNIS ATHLETICS GYMNASIUM Spalding's Official League Ball Is the Official Ball of the National league, the princi-pal minor leagues and all the leading-college associations Handsome Catalogue of Base Ball and all Athletic Sports Eree to any address Spalding's Offi-cial Base Ball Guide for 1901, edited by Henry Ohadwick, ready March 30,1901. Price 10 cents; A. O. SPALD1NO & BROS., Incorporated NEW YORK CHICAGO DENVER ROWE, Your Grocer Carries Full Line of Groceries, Canned Goods, Etc. Best Coal Oil and Brooms at most Reasonable Prices. OPPOSITE COLLEGE CAMPUS. S. J. CODORI, ^4 Druggists Dealer in Drugs, Medicines, Toilet Articles, J* Stationery, Blank Books, Amateur Pho-tographic Supplies, Etc., Etc. BALTIMORE ST. R. H. CULP PAPER HANGER, Second Square, York Street. COLLEGE EMBLEMS. EMIL ZOTHE, ENGRAVER, DESIGNER AND MANUFACTURING JEWELER, 19 S. NINTH ST. PHILADELPHIA SPECIALTIES: Masonic Marks, Society Badges, College Buttons, Pins, Scarf Pins, Stick Pins and Athletic Prizes. All Goods ordered tltrough A. N. Beau. To Repair Broken Arti-cles use Remember MAJOR'S RUBBER CEMENT, MAJOR'S LEATHER CEMENT, Meneely Bell Co. TROY, N. Y. MANUFACTURERS OF SUPERIOR BELLS The 2000 pound bell now ringing in the tower of Pennsylvania Col-lege was manufactured at this foundry. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. The Pleased Customer Is not a stranger in our establish-ment— he's right at home, you'll see him when you call. We have the materials to please fastidious men. J. D. LIPPY, Merchant Tailor 39 Chambersburg St., Gettysburg, Pa. Try My Choice lane of ,\ High-Grade Chocolates 3 'at 40c per lb. Always fresh, at ,£ CHAS. H. McCLEARY J Carlisle St., Opposite W.M.R.R. jj Also Foreign and Domestic Fruits A i Always on Hand. B,C L. D. Miller, GROCER Confectioner and Fruiterer. Ice Cream and Oysters in Season. 19 Main St. GETTYSBURG City Hotel, Main St. Gettysburg. Free 'Bus to and from all Trains Thirty seconds' walk from either depot Dinner with drive over field with four or more, $1.35 Rates $1.50 to $2.00 per day John E. Hughes, Prop. 1 k Capitol Cit£ Cafe Cor. Fourth and Market Sts. HARRISBURG, PA. Pirst-Class Rooms Furnished. Special Rates to Private Parties. Open Day and Nig-ht. European Plan. Lunch of All Kinds to Order at the Restaurant. ALDINQER'S CAPITOL CITY CAFE. POPULAR PRICES F. Mark Bream, Dealer in Fancy and Staple Groceries Telephone 29 Carlisl e St., GETTYSBURG, PA. .Photographer. No. 3 Main St., GETTYSBURG, PENNA. Our new effects in Portraiture are equal to photos made anywhere, and at any price. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS Wright, 140-142 Woodward Avenue DETROIT, MICH. Manufacturers of High Grade Fraternity Emblems Fraternity Jewelry Fraternity Novelties Fraternity Stationery Fraternity Invitations Fraternity Announcements Fraternity Programs Send for Catalogue and Price List. Special Designs on Application. MOTEL GETTYSBURG LIVERY GETTYSBURG, PA. LONG & HOLTZWORTM, Proprietors Apply at Office in the Hotel for First-Class Guides and Teams THE BATTLEFIELD A SPECIALTY Uhe JSolton Market Square •fcartfeburg, fl>a. Earge and Convenient Sample Rooms. Passenger and Baggage Elevator. Electric Cars to and from Depot. Electric Eight and Steam Heat. J. M. & M. S. BUTTERWORTH, Proprietors Special Rates for Commer-cial Men "EZ 1ST IMMER CUT ET WAS ZU WISSEIN." These are the words of Goethe, the great German poet, and are as true in our day as when uttered. In these times of defective vision it is good to know something about eyes. A great deal has been learned about the value of glasses and their application since Goethe lived. Spectacle wearers have increased by thousands, while at the same time, persons losing their eyesight have been greatly diminished. If your eyes trouble you in any way let me tell you the cause. Examination free and prices reasonable. We grind all our own lenses and fit the best lenses (no matter what anyone else has charged you) for $2.50 per pair and as cheap as SO cents per pair, or duplicate a broken lens if we have one-half or more of the old one, at a reasonable charge, returning same day received. .E. L EGOLE. 807 and 809 North Third Street, HARRISBURG, PA. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. ^entpol Jlotel, ELIAS FISSEL, Prop. (Formerly of Globe Hotel) Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, Pa. Two doors from Court House. MODERN IMPROVEMENTS. Steam Heat, Electric Inght and Call Bells all through the House. Closets aud Bath Rooms on Every Floor. Sefton & Flem-minfr's Livery is connected with this Hotel. Good Teams and Competent Guides for the Battlefield. Charges Moderate, Satisfaction Guaranteed. Rates $1.30 Per Day. GET A SKATE ON And send all your Soiled Einen to the Gettysburg Steam Laundry R. R. LONG, Prop. Horace Partridge & Co., BOSTON, MASS. Fine Athletic Goods Headquarters for Foot Ball, Gym-nasium, Fencing' and Track Supplies. Send for Illustrated Catalog. 84 and 86 Franklin Street R. W. LENKER, Agent at Penna. College. JOHN M. MINNIGH, Confectionery, lee, ■•««>Iee Creams Oysters Stewed and Fried. No. 17 BALTIMORE ST. The Leading garber v5f)op (Successor to C. C. Sefton) Having thoroughly remodeled the place is now ready to accommodate the public Barber Supplies a Specialty. .Baltimore Street. Grymi5£im(i, PA. ESTABLISHED 1876 PENROSE MYERS, Watchmaker and Jeweler Gettysburg Souvenir Spoons, Col-lege Souvenir Spoons. NO. 10 BALTIMORE ST., GETTYSBURG, PENNA. L. i\. kiimm Manufacturers' Agent and Jobber of Hardware, Oils, Paints and Queensware. GETTYSBURG, PA. The Only Jobbing House in Adams County. i I - >- L PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. For Fine- Printing go to Tte Jo Co Wile Pnviqjg HOOK CARLISLE ST. GETTYSBURG, PA. C. B. Kitzmiller Dealer in Hats, Caps, Boots and Douglas Shoes GETTYSBURG, PA. R. M. Elliott Dealer in Hats, Caps, Shoes and. Gents' Furnishing Goods Corner Center Square and Carlisle Street GETTYSBURG, PA. EDGARS. MARTIN, F^CIGARS AND SMOKERS' ARTICLES. Chambersburg St., Gettysburg Leadership IN THE CLOTHING and MEN'S EURNISHING Business It is strictly here—everybody knows it. Testimony ? The stock itself. The pen suffi-ciently nimble to tell all the good points of our ::::::: PALL AND WINTER. SUITS AND OVERCOATS has not been found. We will keep you dressed right up-to-date if you buy your Clothing and Furnishings here. : : : : STIINE McPherson Block- No. II BALTIMORE STREET <5ett\?stmret pa. /iDerville E. Zinn, proprietor The Leading Hotel Rates $2.00 per Day Long & Holtzworth Livery Attached Cuisine and Service First-Class We furnish The swellest Furnishings for Collegians in America. Ties, Hosiery, Gloves, Underwear, Sweaters, Hats, Caps. PRICES EXTREMELY REASONABLE. Joseph Auerbach, 623 Penna. Ave., Washington, D. C

AjN \Z r t SK*-*—*— DECEMBER, 1900 Qettysbtiir Mercury CONTENTS The End of the Nineteenth Cen-tury, 205 Pennsylvania College at the Close of the Nineteenth Cen-tury, 206 The Belles 208 The Mysterious Picture, . . 211 Father Hawkin's Observations, 215 King- of Reformers, . . .217 An Old Camera, . . .220 Editor's Desk 222 Elements of Inspiration in the Earliest Greek Poets, . . 224 Words add Things, . 228 A Financier, . 233 Book Review 236 Among Our Contemporaries . 236 FAVOR THOSE WHO FAVOR US. For Fine. Printing go to Tk J° Co Wile Prifltiig ftwe CARLISLE ST. GETTYSBURG, PA. C. B. Kitzmiller Leadership Dealer in Hats, Caps, Boots and Douglas Shoes GETTYSBURG, PA. R. M. Elliott Dealer in Hats, Caps, Shoes and. Gents' Furnishing Goods Corner Center Square and Carlisle Street GETTYSBURG, PA. IN THE CLOTHING and MEN'S fURNISHING Business It is strictly here—everybody knows it. Testimony'! The stock itself. The pen suffi-ciently nimble to tell all the good points of our ::::::: FALL AND WINTER. SUITS AND OVERCOATS has not been found. We will keep you dressed right up-to-date if you buy your Clothing and Furnishings here. : : : EDGARS. MARTIN, F^CIGARS AND SMOKERS' ARTICLES Chambersburg St., Gettysburg ST McPherson Block. No. li BALTIMORE STREET THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY, The Literary Journal of Pennsylvania College. Entered at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter. VOL. IX. GETTYSBURG. PA., DECEMBER, 1900. No. 7. THE END OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. "Old Time's great clock, that never stops, Nor runs too fast nor slow, Hung up amid the worlds of space Where wheeling planets glow; Its dial-plate the orbit vast Where whirls our old earth free— Has pushed its pointers round again And marked a century." «^2> 'T'HE century ends. The startling records of to-day are being ■^ stamped upon the last lap of the scroll. Marvelous have been the achievements of the last ten decades. Strange are the inscriptions on the escutcheons of the nations of the world. May the American not cease to hallow the ground where rest the ashes of the sages, patriots and warriors! Remembered be the deeds of the fathers ; long live their admonition ! Soft be the breeze that sways the trees on the famous fields of battle! Forgotten the strife that stained our soil with blood! Firm be the future grasp of Labor's callous hand—recognized, in every sphere, the noble and the true! Appreciated be the heritage of the fathers ! Bared be every arm in defense of our common, sacred trust! Solid be the phalanx in freedom's holy cause! 206 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE AT THE CLOSE OP THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. E. S. BREIDENBAUGH, SC. D. T N this last issue of the MERCURY for the nineteenth century it *■ is proper to consider Pennsylvania College in connection with the present condition of higher education in our country. While not attempting a complete survey, a few glimpses of the field will be a source of congratulation and encouragement in our work, and may be an incentive to further effort for advancing the interests of our college. During the last third of the century there has been a large in-crease in the number of college students, proportionally a larger increase than the increase in population. There are no available statistics to show whether the number of Lutheran young people in institutions of learning has grown in proportion to the growth of our church membership, there are sufficient facts to show that there has been a very decided increase in the number of our young peo-ple who are having the advantages of the higher education. This increase in number of college students is due in part, if not wholly, to the growing conviction that a higher education is advantageous to men in every field of activity. While formerly the college graduates rarely entered any other profession than the ministry, law or medicine, we now find a minority of all the college graduates entering these professions. In our own college we find in recent years an increasing number of our graduates entering on business or technical pursuits. This change in the life work of college men has accompanied and has been in part the cause of and in part the effect of changes in the college curriculum. There have been introduced into the curriculum many important subjects, which in the early part of the century were hardly thought of in connection with a college education. This large increase in number of subjects taught has necessitated the introduction of electives into the requirements for entrance to and graduation from college. The same conditions have lead to the opportunity being given to the student to substi-tute for Greek, L,atin and Mathematics, which formerly occupied nearly the whole of the college time, Modern Languages, Natural and Physical Sciences, History, Politics, etc., thus giving the student the choice of subjects in which he may specialize. At the same time the requirements for entrance and graduations have THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 207 been notably increased. In all departments of study there have been changes in method of work which increase the labors of the teachers and require more and better study on the part of the pupils. Pennsylvania College has enlarged her courses of study —has adopted to a fair degree elective courses of study—and in every department has increased the requirements for graduation. These changes in subjects of study and methods of work have necessitated an increased teaching force and enlarged equipment. Our college has in recent years somewhat increased her teaching force and added laboratories of chemistry, biology and elementary mechanics. We have also greatly improved our accommodations for class work in new and convenient buildings. The duty of our college is not rivalry with our neighbors, nor is it at present to do university or technical work, but is to do the best possible for our constituency in providing a sound college training such as is demanded by the present times, to this end we need, and we need greatly, additional teaching force, increased facilities for laboratory work and larger library equipment. Our professors are required to teach too many subjects, and other subjects barely included or not included in our curriculum require attention which cannot be given them. While there has been no increase in the personal interest teachers have for their pupils, there has been a change in methods which requires more immediate individual work between teacher and pupil. This personal teaching in all subjects, while greatly benefiting the student, is a great drain on the vital power of the teacher. As the number of pupils increases the personal attention to individual pupils must lessen unless the teaching force is in-creased, thus enabling each teacher to have fewer subjects and a smaller number of pupils. Co-education has been adopted to a limited degree by Penn-sylvania College. If we desire to enlarge this work, which can easily be done, we must have suitable accommodations for the young women. There has been in our colleges a great change in the dormitory and other accommodations for students. What thirty or forty years ago was regarded as excellent is now deemed wholly inadequate by parents and pupils. In some places these provisions have grown to extravagant proportions, while Pennsylvania College 208 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY has not developed to such a degree, we are in these respects fully abreast of the times. We find the college student yearly taking a greater interest in matters outside the college curriculum—this when properly guarded, is wise and of educational advantage. Our students have shown reasonable activity and had fair success in many of these enterprises, such as athletics, musical clubs, publications and debating clubs. With all these changes in college work—with the greater pressure of material things, with the ever increasing claims of study on the energy of the student and the accompanying greatly increased personal freedom and self-control of the individual student there has been an equally increased interest in religious subjects—this is shown in many ways, not the least being the activity of the College Y. M. C. A. and the accompanying Bible study. In this brief summary of the changing conditions of college work—and we believe they are changes for the better—we find that Pennsylvania College has been advancing in the same direction as the general educational world, and while there is always room for fuller growth, we feel encouraged with the past and are hope-ful for the future. These improving conditions are due to the diversified and united labors of trustees, presidents, professors,students,numerous liberal friends and the general loyalty of the alumni of the college. It is in reliance on the continued energy and loyalty of all these friends that we are assuredly hopeful for the future of our college. THE BELLES. J. B. BAKER, '01. Hear the singing of the belles— Choir belles! What a world of vanity their rhapsody foretells ! How they wrinkle, wrinkle, wrinkle, All the muscles of their bite 1 While the gems that oversprinkle All their tresses, seem to twinkle With a hyaline delight; THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 209 Keeping time, time, time, In a faintly falling: rime, To the nasal proclamation that so dissonantly wells From the belles, belles, belles, belles, Belles, belles, belles— From the singing and the ringing- of the belles. II Hear the flippant summer belles, Giddy belles! What a string- of soda bills their coquetry foretells ! Throug-h the balmy air of nig-ht How they draw us out of sight! From their starting, darting eyes All aglow, What a funny feeling hies To the bosom of the lover, while he spies Not the bow. Oh, from out those spheric cells, What a gush of repartee extravagantly wells ! How it swells ! How it dwells On the future ! how it tells Oh the philter that impels To the flushing and the blushing Of the belles, belles, belles, Of the belles, belles, belles, Belles, belles, belles— To the flushing and the blushing of the belles. Ill Hear the loud alarum belles— Infant belles ! What a train of muffled oaths their noisiness compels ! In the startled ear of night How they scream out their affright! Too much horrified to speak, They can only shriek, shriek, Out of tune, In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the sire, In a mad expostulation with his warm erratic ire Leaping higher, higher, higher, With a desperate desire, And a resolute endeavor To resign the job forever That he undertook alas, too soon. Oh, the belles, belles, belles What a tale their horror tells Of the crier! 210 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY How they squirm, and kick, and roar, What a horror they outpour On the palpitating bosom of the sire ! Nor the father fully knows, By the wiggling-. And the wriggling, How the sulphur ebbs and flows ; But the mother t'is who tells, In the jangling, And the wrangling, How the danger sinks and swells, By the sinking and the swelling in the squealing of the belles,- Of the belles— Of the belles, belles, belles, belles, Belles, belles, belles— In the squealing and the reeling of the belles. IV Hear the moaning of the belles— Ancient belles ! What a world of sympathy their monody compels ! Through the day and oft by night, How our tears spring into light, At the melancholy mumble of their tone ; For every sound that floats From the rust within their throats Is a groan. And the lovers—ah, the lovers— They who go and wed some others, Altar prone, And who strolling, strolling, strolling, By discarded belles alone, Feel a glory in so rolling On the human heart a stone— They are neither false nor true men— They are neither brute nor human— They are fiends, And their king the devil, tolls, And he rolls, rolls, rolls, Rolls A threnode from the belles ! And his scaly bosom swells With a threnode from the belles! And he dances and he yells ; Keeping time, time, time, In his Tartarean grime, To the threnode of the belles— Of the belles; Keeping time, time, time, THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 211 In his Tartarean grime, To the throbbing- of the belles— Of the belles, belles, belles,— To the sobbing- of the belles ; Keeping time, time, time, As he knells, knells, knells, In his Tartarean grime, To the groaning of the belles— Of the belles, belles, belles,— To the moaning of the belles Of the belles, belles, belles, belles— Belles, belles, belles— To the moaning and the groaning- of the belles. THE MYSTERIOUS PICTURE. STANLEY C. FOWLER, '04. 44QPEAKING of mysteries reminds me of a very curious, yes, ^ startling experience I had when a struggling young artist in Paris," said Wilbur Cutting. " What was that? " we asked. " Go ahead, let her rip, said Coleman, the irrepressible, "we're all attention." Wilbur puffed at his favorite corn-cob pipe and we all drew our chairs nearer the grate fire which burned cheerily and lighted up our cozy club-room. Presently we heard Wilbur's voice from behind a cloud of tobacco smoke, saying: "I was searching for a new model to pose for my 'Abraham.' I had been told of an old, patriarchal Jew, living in one of the many by-ways in the Latin quarter. While walking down a dingy, narrow alley, my attention was attracted by a picture lying on a heap of canvasses, in an old curiosity shop. Drawn by an irresistible impulse I entered and purchased it from the shop-keeper, a queer, little, old Orient, who seemed eager to dispose of it. I took it under my arm and hurried back to my studio, in-tending to retouch it. I placed it on my easel and scrutinizing it closely, marked what a peculiar face it was. Pure oval, the fore-head low and square, eyebrows high-arched meeting over a long, Roman nose, the nostrils were contracted, the mouth, tight shut, was cruel and sinister. The eyes had been scratched through the pupils, completely destroying its expression ; the hair, long 212 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY and black as a raven's wing, was painted as though blown by the wind and finally blended into the deep crimson background. The head had the appearance of flying through the air, for there was neither shoulders nor neck. I failed to recognize the style and searched in vain for the artist's name. "I was soon at work on the eyes, hoping to complete them before the arrival of Archie Armstrong, a young American, who, attracted by the gayeties of Bohemian life, had adopted them as his profession. He had a rich, indulgent, spinster aunt, living in Paris, who descended periodically upon his studio, which was across the hall from mine, and purchased all his masterpieces. To tell the truth, the only parts of them not painted by me were his signatures, which he persistently painted in the brightest colors and in the most conspicuous places. He was expecting a visit from his aunt that afternoon and was about to make a raid upon my studio and carry off all the paintings, finished or not. "As I painted the eyes, it seemed as though an invisible hand was guiding or directing my brush. They were soon finished and I stepped back to see my work. What an expression ! Simply hellish. The eyes seemed like living coals of fire. They burned and blazed and seemed to pierce one through and through. I felt a most peculiar tingling sensation. "I looked at lny hands. No longer were they covered with oil and paint stains, but were changed to long, slender white hands with tapering fingers. My velvet jacket and paint covered trous-ers were changed to an evening suit. Even the studio had changed to a drawing-room elegantly furnished. "Stepping over to one of the mirrors that adorned the wall, I looked in. I started back with a cry of surprise and alarm. The face that had stared at me from the canvass now gazed back at me from the mirror. Could it be possible? Was it I? I raised my hand to my face and when the glass reflected the action, I knew then that I had changed. "Presently I heard footsteps and turning, beheld a young man advancing towards me with outstretched hands to welcome me. I hastened to meet him and he led me into an inner room where a young woman was reclining gracefully on a high-backed, old-fashioned seat. She blushed prettily as we entered and he presented me to her—his wife. As I bowed low and kissed the tips of her dainty fingers, I had an uncontrollable desire to kill THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 213 her, take possession of me. I cannot explain it. It seemed as though I must kill her or myself. "The young man took me to his "den" where we were soon drinking her health. I took up a jeweled dagger from a table and told him of some murders I had heard of done under hypnotic influence. He asked if I believed in hypnotism and I replied in the affirmative, saying, that I could hypnotize him if I so desired. He seemed startled but continuing to drink heavily was soon in a stupor. "Seizing the dagger I stole into the room where his wife was; I raised it aloft and struck with all my might, again and again. As I felt the blade sink into the soft flesh, I could not refrain from laughing exultingly. I knew that when he was aroused from his stupor he would believe himself guilty of the crime. I think I must have been changed into the devil, for I chuckled and gloated over the misery that would come to the young man. "I stole away still gloating over my crime. Suddenly my face grew warmer and warmer. It seemed that flames were creeping slowly over my head. I screamed aloud for agony and then I must have fainted. "When I regained consciousness, I found myself in my own bed with Archie leaning over me and the.morning sun pouring in the window. " 'What has happened ?' I asked. " 'Blamed if I know,'said Archie, rubbing his head. 'Icame yesterday afternoon and nearly banged my fists off, trying to make you let me in. I heard you sputtering and as time was valuable, I pushed the door in and found you staring at the queerest picture I ever saw. You turned around to me sputtering gibberish and I took you into your room. I thought you had been indulging too freely. In the night you stabbed your lay figure with your pallet knife. You'll have a nice job replacing that gown. You had it spoiled before I discovered you. You've been raving until you screamed just now,' said Archie, looking disgustedly at me. ' 'I looked at my easel. The picture was gone. "'Where's the picture?' I asked. Archie looked sheepish and said: 'Well, auntie would have it. There's the check on the table.' % % if. ■%. % "That afternoon as I was relating my experience to Archie, the 214 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY door flew open with a bang and in stepped his aunt with head erect and fire in her eye. Without returning Archie's greeting, she opened hostilities thus: " 'What do you mean by selling me that picture, sir ! I don't believe you painted it at all! I think the devil did ! ' " 'Why, auntie, you surprise me. What's the trouble,' asked Archie. " 'Trouble! Humph! I should say so. Trouble! There's been nothing but trouble since I brought that thing to my house. Why, when I had Henry hang it in my saloon with the rest of your paintings, he acted like a lunatic. Tried to stab me ! He raved so all last night about that picture that I took it down this morning and threw it in the fire, and as I did so, it shrieked! My nerves have had such a fright that it'll be months before they'll get quieted again. How did you ever get it, tor I don't believe you painted it? ' she finally asked Archie. " 'Well, I'll confess I didn't paint it. My friend Wilbur bought it in an old shop and I thought since you liked it, you know, when—er—that is—I thought you would like it better if you thought that I painted it. I am sorry that I deceived you, but shan't do it again,' said Archie, looking very penitent. " 'You'd better not, for I am very shrewd. I thought you didn't paint it,' said his aunt, and turning to me said: " 'Mr. Wilbur, if you would turn your attention toward art, as my gifted nephew has, and paint a few pictures like his, it would be better than tramping around buying such things as that picture and calling them your own as I guess you were going to do. I hope this will be a lesson to you, Archie. Don't follow in your friend's footsteps again or attempt to deceive me again, for I am too shrewd for you !' and off she stamped, followed by Archie, whose face was purple with suppressed laughter. I was in deadly fear of the eruption and heaved a sigh of relief as they disappeared. "All those symptoms Archie's aunt attributed to his shame and mortification he felt at being caught trying to fool her. "I made inquiries afterwards at the shop about the picture. All that I could learn was that the shop-keeper had bought it at the auction of the art treasures of a young man who had killed his wife and died crazy. It was said that he had imported the picture from the Orient, where it had been, probably, for many I THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 215 years. It was the shop-keeper who had scratched out the eyes, for he said they haunted him. Whether or not I should have died mad, as did its former possessor, had it not been destroyed, I can't tell." e^pj FATHER HAWKINS' OBSERVATIONS. CHAS. W. WEISER, '01. Well, Lizer, I'se been up ter town, Ther college fur ter see, And talk about yer country Jakes— Ther same as you and me. Of bildins fine I saw a heft, That's fine as ever I've seen, And trees, and signs—"Keep off ther grass' I guess because its green. The Profs' got lots of larnin, And plenty fur ter spare ; But me thinks they need it all, Ter train thim fellers thare. So guess we'll send our Kier, Ter eddicated be, Fur he must have more larnin, Than ever you an me. I saw thim fellers go A stragglin long ther walk, Ther one he looked so strait ahead As any line of chalk. He looked not ter ther right er left, But just strait down his nose, And where that little nose did point, He always surly goes. Ther one did run his hands, Inter his pockets deep. With hangin head and crooked back, He ter the class did creep. His knees did knock each other gainst, And pigeoned were his toes. Well such er sight I niver seed Where ever I do goes. 216 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Another one went walkin long, A lookin at ther cloud ; His nose er pointin in ther air, His heels er stumpin loud. He wore er collar high er enough, Fer any six months calf ; And tie like my red handkichief, That made er feller laugh. And one he said "Wha don chu knaw" I took my "cut" ter day ; Another one he got er "zip," And wished he'd stayed away. They say they "horse," and "make a stab, An some times make a "break." But if I had them in my field, I'd make them take a rake. When yer do hear a college chap, Yer don't know what he says I guess its Latin—but don know, In all my born days. We send our men from off ther farm— They have some common sense ; Ther "city's" call them "greenies" But grapple for ther pence. But soon they larn to shporty dress, And know ther college slang, They come back with swellin heads, Too fine ter help er lang. They think they know a heft of stuff, And flaunt it in yer face, But 'fore ther thro' ther college course, They've set another pace. But don't cher know, I often see, Ther boys from off ther farm, Who think ther "dad" has got ther "mon," Make oft ther shports—yes marm. And tho I kin not spaik mam Like eddicated men I'm not so dull as ruff mam Tho' kin not hold ther pen. And so they musn't judge mam, 'Cause farmin is our lot, THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 217 That we are slow and kin not tell Ef they're er man er not. They ortend fur ter be mam, More than thay really was, But live ter what ther trained fur, And not make sich a fuss. " KIING OP REFORMERS." GEO. W. NICELY, '01. Honorable mention Junior Oratorical. HPHE sixteenth century gave birth to the most remarkable man A the world has ever known. Welcome must have been the change in all Germany, created by the reformation. " From Germany proceeded the power which caused Rome, the once proud mistress of almost the whole world, to tremble, even when she was at the zenith of her potency. And from Germany also proceeded the power which shook the triple crown of the most artful religious and temporal usurper at modern Rome, and brought her to the very brink of inevitable ruin; it was in Ger-many where the morning dawn of a pure worship of the Supreme Being, and of a wise liberty of conscience was destined to arise." In order to realize, to some extent, the magnitude and im-portance of Luther's services to mankind in promoting the cause of freedom and progress, as well as in reformiug the church, it is necessary to recall the condition of the civilized world at the time he appeared and began his career on the stage of human affairs. In the beginning of the 15th century the church was almost universally corrupt, and popes and bishops and people were alike involved in the general demoralization. For a hundred years before the papal chair was occupied by princes, most of whom attained their elevation by intrigue and bribery, and some even by assassination. " It was an age of monasticism." Thousands of men and women in all countries had renounced the world and entered into monasteries and convents to lead lives of superior holiness, but these retreats from the world had changed from their original character and many of them were now places of in-dolence and sensuality. Guiler Von Kaiserburg declares that convent life had become a mere mockery. Infessura, a Roman 218 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY historian, says: "Everyone in Rome knows, alas, that monas-teries have now become dens of corruption.'' Such was the general character of the clergy, from the pope down to the lowest priest; and such also was the condition of religious teachers. Ignorance, superstition and immorality prevailed generally among them. All who questioned the authority of this complex despotism, or denounced its usurpations, were soon silenced or crushed. John Huss and Jerome Prague suffered martydom at Constance for preaching the truths of the gospel a hundred years before Luther; Savoiiavola, at Florence, met a similar fate in 1498. Thousands of others were persecuted, imprisoned, assassinated, tortured to death; hunted down like the wild beasts, or burned to the stake, for worshiping God according to the dictates of their own con-science, for reading the scriptures or for exposing the wickedness and usurpations of the clergy. It was under this state of civil and ecclesiastical despotism, when corruption and profligacy were dominant in the church, and ignorance and superstition prevailed among the people, that Luther appeared and entered upon the great work of reform, for which God had prepared him. It is difficult, if not impossible, at the present day to appreciate the magnitude of that work. All sources of power and influence in church and state; all customs and habits of the people for generations; all existing institutions and the entire structure of society were against him, and had to be assailed, confronted, overthrown and reformed. The word of God was buried in the Latin vulgate version, which only the educated few could read, and copies were so dear and scarce that they were inaccessible to the common people, even if they had been able to read them. " It was one of the achievements of Luther, and a service of ines-timable value to the Germanic nation, that he translated the Bible and gave it to the people in their own tongue, so that all could read it and know that the doctrines he proclaimed were the living truths of the living God, before whom popes and kings and priests and all men were alike accountable." But Luther's work was not confined to reforming the church and furnishing the Bible to the people. It was not only the overthrow of usurped ecclesi-astical power and the restoration of religious toleration and free-dom in Europe. It was all this, but it was also more. There is not an interest or reform affecting human welfare in modern civilization—whether educational, social, industrial or THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 219 political—upon which Luther did not shed the light of his great intellect and soul, enlightened by the word and spirit of God. He taught that it was the duty of the state to educate all the children of the people in order that they might become intelligent and useful citizens; and thus he was the pioneer advocate of uni-versal education four centuries ago. In quelling the outbreak of communism in Germany, known as the "peasant war," he de-clared it to be the duty of all to be subject to " the powers that be," and to acquire property, not by the plunder and robbery of others, but by industry, frugality and honesty. In an address to the princes and nobles of Germany, he taught the reciprocal duties of rulers to their subjects, and of subjects to their rulers, suggest-ing the fundamental principle announced in our Declaration of Independence, that governments, though " ordained of God, de-rive their just powers from the consent of the governed." " I will call this Luther a true, great man," says Carlyle. " Great in intellect, in courage, affection and integrity, one of our most lovable and precious men; great, not as a hewn obelisk, but as an Alpine mountain, so simple, spontaneous, honest, not set-ting up to be great at all; therefore quite another purpose than being great. A.h, yes, unsubduable granite, piercing far and wide into the heavens; yet, in the clefts of its fountains, green, beautiful valleys with flowers ! " "In my judgment," said Senator Wellington of Maryland, " Luther is the greatest man that hath yet lived." "Challenging the license To make gain of sin, Luther nails his protest; Listen to the din. "Striking with his hammer— How the panels shake— How the gateway trembles— How the timid quake! "Blows on blows resounding, Echoed from afar; How the world is shaken, How the churches jar. "We to-day are feeling Heart and conscience thrill, And throughout the ages Men will feel it still. 220 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY "Till the death-stroke's given To all force and fraud; For the striking' hammer Is the word of God." AN OLD CAMERA. P. W. EYSTEB, '03. A BOUT twenty years ago there lived in Dowingtown, about •**■ thirty miles west from Philadelphia, a young man by the name of Warren, whose ambition it was to succeed. He started out in life by teaching school in his native town. So, during the school term he was busy, but during vacation he did all kinds of work about his home. His neighbor was a photographer, and business being dull, he sold his old camera to Mr. Warren at a small price. After young Warren's school had closed, he packed up his camera and left the town, visiting the small villages and towns, to take the pictures of buildings and family groups. Finally he came to a small vil-lage called Pleasant Hill. There was at the time a small show in the place, and as Warren was strolling over the show grounds, he saw an Italian organ-grinder, and a curly-headed boy about six years old on whose face were the features of an American parent-age. Just then the intoxicated assistant-manager of the show came out of a nearby hotel, and tossing to the organ grinder a dime, said, "Make the little rascal dance." The organ grinder, after a few kicks and cuffs, got the boy to dance. The photographer, Mr. Warren, was among the onlookers and took a picture of the Italian and the daucing boy. Warren went to his lodging place, and after developing the picture, put it with others in his traveling case, forgetting all about it. Not meeting with much success at Pleasant Hill, he went to Ardmore, a suburb of Phila-delphia. He took the pictures of the pretty houses and beautiful scenes to be seen in and about Ardmore. One morning as he was stopping before a large sandstone house, preparing to take a pic-ture of it, a handsome lady, on whose face were signs of inward grief, came walking across the lawn, and commenced to talk with the photographer. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 221 This was the house of Mr. Sheffield, a wealthy Philadelphia banker, who lived in Ardmore, and conducted his business in the city. About five years before, his little only son, then one year old, had wandered into the street and was kidnapped. Mr. Shef-field offered a large reward to any one who would make known the whereabouts of his child, but was not successful. Mrs. Shef-field, who admired children, was so grieved at the loss of her only child that she, at times, came near losing her reason. She would every morning, at the time the child was kidnapped, walk across the lawn as if looking for some one; and she Could frequently be heard repeating a low prayer, in which she asked but one favor from God—the return of her sou. This accounted for her pres-ence on the lawn at this time. Mr. Warren invited her to look over the pictures in his travel-ing case while he was fixing the camera. She examined them all till she came to the last, the picture of the organ-grinder and the curly-headed boy; and as she recognized the boy's picture, she exclaimed , "Oh, my boy, my dear little George," and fell over fainting. Just then Mr. Sheffield came; arid Mrs. Sheffield soon recovered sufficient to hand the picture to Mr. Sheffield, He took a long look at it, and judging from the tears that rolled down his cheeks, one could easily tell what his feelings were. Mr. Sheffield asked young Warren where and when he had last seen the organ-grinder and the little boy. Warren gave Mr. Sheffield the desired information, and in less than four hours the police in every town and village in eastern Pennsylvania were looking for an organ-grinder and a little boy, who answered the description of those on the picture. Both were soon found. The organ-grinder, who was the kidnapper, was dealt with according to law and the child was sent to the home of his loving mother. The boy grew up to take part in his father's business, and to-day the Philadelphia firm of Sheffield & Son is well known. The young photographer received from Mr. Sheffield the reward which gave him a good start in business. At present Mr. Warren lives in Baltimore as a retired mer-chant, and he often tells his friends about the old camera stored on the garret of his house. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. Entered at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter. VOL. IX. GETTYSBURG, PA., DECEMBER, 1900. No. 7. Editor-in- Chief, S. A. VAN ORMEK, '01. Assistant Editors, W. H. HBTEICK, W. A. KOIILEH. Business Manager, H. C. HOFFMAN. Alumni Editor, REV. F. D. GARLAND. Assistant Business Manager, WILLIAM C. NEY. Advisory Board, PROF. J. A. HIMES, LIT. D. PROF. G. D. STAHLEY, M. D. PROF. J. W. RICHARD. D. D. Published monthly by the students of Pennsylvania (Gettysburg) College. Subscription price, One Dollar a year in advance; single copies Ten Cents. Notice to discontinue sending the MERCURY to any address'must be accompanied by all arrearages. Students, Professors, and Alumni are cordially invited to contribute. All subscriptions and business matter should be addressed to the Business Manager. Articles for publication should be addressed to the Editor. Address THE GETTYBURG MERCURY, GETTYSBURG, PA. EDITORS' DESK. "VVTE hear with regret of the death of Business Manager Hoff- " man's father. Mr. Hoffman was summoned home some weeks ago on account of his father's illness, and accompanied him to a Philadelphia hospital, where an operation to save his life was performed in vain. The MERCURY extends sincere sym-pathy to the bereaved family. Since the close of the foot ball season there is a noticeable in-crease in interest in the work of the literary societies. Special programs were rendered in both societies last evening (Dec. 7)— THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 223 in Philo, "An Evening with Kipling"; in Phrena, "A Mock Trial.'' Both halls were filled. It is to be hoped that enthusiasm in and the healthy rivalry between the two societies will continue increasing as time advances. A college man is expected not only to talk intelligently on the current topics of the day but also to meet his adversary in debate with clean-cut, forcible arguments. Men are needed who can think accurately and think on their feet. That Gettysburg men may be the better able to meet these de-mands, a course in Argumentation has been provided for. It is in charge of Professor Klinger, whose enthusiasm and magnetism will prove a source of inspiration to the members of the class, which, added to a knowledge of the principles of Argumentation and practice in the application of these principles, will amply pay for the time and energy expended. As this is the last issue of THE MERCURY for the year and for the century, we wish to bespeak a continuance of the kindly feeling and hearty support of the journal on the part of the stu-dents, alumni and friends of the college. We wish all a pleas-ant vacation, and hope that all may return with renewed ambition and high ideals. When we shall have been transported by the machinery of the world into a new century, may we behold a "New Era" that con-tains bright visions for the coming years ! *3^ab Do not look for wrong- and evil, You will find them if you do; As you measure to your neighbor, He will measure back to you. Look for gladness, look for gladness, You will meet them all the while; If you bring a smiling visage To the glass, you meet a smile. —Alice Cary. 224 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY ELEMENTS Of INSPIRATION IN TME EARLIEST CREEK POETS. C. M. A. STINE, '01. "VVTHAT do we mean when we speak of a book as inspired ? " What is the signification of the word inspiration? These two questions present themselves at the very outset of the subject. The word inspiration means, literally, a breathing into, that is, it is the breathing of God's spirit into the mind of man. When we speak of a book as inspired we mean that it makes the divine will known to man, or contains some great principle or truth in regard to the life of man. It is in this sense of the word that we use the terms inspired and inspiration. In considering the elements of inspiration in the earliest Greek poets we naturally inquire what these elements are in order that we may know what to look for. Let us consider the subject from three standpoints: first, the revelations of God and of the hereafter which they gave to their readers ; second, any prophecies which they contain ; third, their influence upon Greek morals and civilization. Homer and Hesiod are the earliest Greek poets of whose works we have any definite knowledge. The great epics of Homer and the "Theogouy" and the "Works and Days" of Hesiod may fairly be considered as representative of this earliest known period of Greek poetry. Hesiod, in his "Theogouy," as the name indicates, endeavored to harmonize and systematize the numerous myths in regard to the gods b}' arranging the gods themselves in the order of exact genealogy. Homer portrays the gods as grand in the strength of their passions and in their power, yet they leave the impression of being scarcely more than human beings endowed with great power and with immortality. In the Iliad they take sides against one another. Zeus at first is not favorable to the Greeks, and they realize that without the favor of Zeus it is useless to fight. They therefore prosecute the war by wiles and by spies till Zeus has been propitiated. The power of Zeus is recognized, but there are none of the attributes portrayed as pertaining to him which belong to the true God. In his portrayal of the character of Athena, Homer gives the loftiest conception of the Deity. Athena is mind personified. She is without the lower attributes and the petty jealousies which attach to the. other gods. Athena, "the flashing eyed," is essentially the goddess of the keeu-witted THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 225 Greeks. It is necessary that the Greek be constantly on the lookout not to offend the Deities, and if by some mischance a god or goddess is offended, it is necessary that the offended deity be placated at any cost. The various divinities have their favorites over whom they watch and whose actions they direct. In the first book of the Iliad Athena is represented as restraining Achilles by his yellow hair when he is about to draw his sword against Agamemnon : ***** jiffy g> •AOrjvrj ******* * * * l-avOTfi $k ho/ir/i HX* TTTjXziwya, (II. I. 193-201.) Again, in the Odyssey, she assists Teleuiachus to set out from Ithaca in search of his father, and watches over the wandering Odysseus. But how far is all this from the love of the Christian Jehovah ! There is a power spoken of against which it is useless to strug-gle or to appeal to the gods. The decrees of the fates are unalter-able. Even the gods themselves are subject to them. As com-pared with the Christian idea of God as the supreme power there is a wide difference to be noted here. Homer gives a high con-ception of God, when it is remembered that he was a pagan, but the Zeus of Homer and of Hesiod is far indeed from the God of the Christian. From the foregoing we see, first, that there is no clear revela-tion of the attributes of God; second, that there is no idea of Provi-dence; when a guiding hand is revealed it is still within the limitations of stern fate. As to revelations of the future life, the hereafter as painted by Homer is gloomy and forbidding. Instead of regarding the soul as the real ego, and the body merely as a fetter from which the soul is freed at death, the soul is regarded by him merely as a "shade," the shadow of the physical body. This life is all, and there awaited the Greek after death a joyless exist-ence in a gloomy twilight at best, and perhaps even the tortures of Tartarus. He makes the shade of the great Achilles in Hades to say: "I would be A laborer on earth, and serve for hire Some nian of mean estate, who makes scant cheer, Rather than reig-n o'er all who have gone down To death." Od. XI. 489-90, (Bryant's Trans.) 226 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Such a conception of the hereafter must certainly be regarded as unfavorable to the attainment of the highest and noblest life. As to the revelations of God and of the hereafter as contained in these poems we may say that God never reveals half of himself, or in contradictory lights, nor can an idea of the hereafter be for a moment entertained as the correct one if it is hostile to the attainment of the noblest life and the fulfillment of man's highest ideals. Second, as to the element of prophecy as contained in these poems. Prophecy, strictly defined, is "a prediction under divine influence or direction." We ask then, what predictions are there in the works of these poets and what indications do these predic-tions give of having been made under divine influence or direction ? These poems contain not a single instance of this kind of prophecy. It is true that Homer represents predictions as uttered and later on as fulfilled, but there is no prophecy made by either Hesiod or Homer in regard to the future. The predictions of oiacles are mentioned, and later on we see the fulfillment of these predictions worked out as the action of the poem moves on, but in no case is a prophecy in regard to future ages uttered. We come next to the influence which the works of these poets had on the morals and civilization of the Greek people. It is from this third standpoint that we are most likely to speak of these poems as inspired. The"Theogony" of Hesiod moulded the vast number of myths which we find to have existed in that early period into an orderly, polytheistic theology and was accepted as authority by the Greeks. Any book which brings the idea of God nearer to a people and gives more definite form to that idea, whatever form it may be, will have an influence for good upon the morals of that people. In this way such a book as the "Theogony" must have influenced Greek morals. Hesiod's "Works and Days," however, came nearer home to the hearts of the common people. This poem is a sort of a farm-er's calendar, and in addition to the enumeration of the various lucky days for sowing, etc., it contains a collection of precepts, ethical, economical and political. While the style is homely and unimaginative there is a lofty and solemn feeling throughout, found-ed on the "idea that the gods have ordained justice among men, have made labor the only road to prosperity, and have so ordered THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 227 the year that every work has its appointed season, the sign of which may be discerned." A poem of this character certainly had a beneficent effect upon the minds of the people. It is before the immortal Homer that we must pause in wonder and almost in awe. The influence of the Iliad and the Odyssey upon the Greek mind can hardly be over-estimated. Tbe char-acters which stand forth in his poems, with their matchless symmetry and trueness to life, even to this day, twenty-five hundred years after the writing of the poems, play a part in the formation of the ideals of all who read them, and cannot but enoble the reader. Nausicaa, the loveliest of Homer's female creations, is a character which, in her innocence and her queenly maidenhood, has scarcely ever been equaled. Penelope is the ideal of a con-stant wife, faithful and unswerving in her affections through the most trying experiences. Hector is an ideal of a loyal, unselfish patriot. While no less brave than the fiery Achilles, he is yet more human than that mighty warrior, who has been rendered by the gods practically invulnerable. The appeal of the white-haired Priam for the body of his son will never fail to touch human hearts. With characters such as these ever before them in the lofty poetry of Homer, Greek minds could not fail to be purified and ennobled. Their influence upon the general culture of the age must have been very great, and they are therefore treated as one of the great factors in Greek civilization by many historians. To sum up, we find that while these early poems failed to give the highest conceptions of God, contain nothing of the idea of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and were entirely lacking in the element of prophecy, they, nevertheless, were of the greatest value in the education of the Greek people and the advancement of civilization. In this third aspect, at least, they do not fall short of that lofty ideal which we expect an inspired work to fulfill. While we are not warranted in conclud-ing that they were inspired, yet so long as either Hesiod or Homer are read, the homely truth of the former and the superb genius of the latter must command our highest admiration. 228 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY WORDS AND THINGS. D. C. BUBNITK, '01. I ANGUAGE is God's gift to man. The lower animals pos- *~* sess memory, will and intellect, and in a few cases even the ability to repeat words; but to man alone has the Creator given the power of expressing his thoughts in words. This dis-criminate use of words is the most prominent mark of difference between man and beast. The value of language is realized when we try to imagine man without it. How limited would be his knowledge and how nar-row his range of thought, for he would be unable to receive from his fellows one single idea with which to compare his own thoughts, and thus arrive at new conclusions. Nor would reason have any value without words to communicate to others its re-sults. What would be the extent of scientific knowledge today had Copernicus, Newton, Franklin and all the host of discoverers been unable to preserve their results in words? "Thoughts without words are nothing." * Words are valueless without a knowledge of the relations they bear to the things for which they are the symbols. But an ex-tensive knowledge of their significance is inestimable, for upon this foundation rests all learning—that alone which can procure true appreciation of life and its blessings. Acquaintance with the real meanings of words is necessary to scholarship. One must be able at a glance to discern that which lies back of a word, the thing for which a word stands. He must have appropriate terms with which he can readily give accurate expression to his own thoughts. "A word fitly spoken," says Solomon, "is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." T_et us attempt to substitute one word for another in a passage of Milton, and we destroy the effect of the whole. It was Webster's accurate selection of words that placed him in history. How do we acquire this ability to join the right word with the right thing ? This faculty, like most other endowments, develops with age. The infant hears a word and learns by mere observa-tion what thing it represents. He wishes to denote an object or express a thought, and his elders supply him with the necessary words. And this process of obtaining the meanings of words may be pursued in this same manner all through life. No con- *Max Muller. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 229 scious effort in this direction need be made in order to prosper, but to pass into the sphere of education one must apply himself to the work of definition; he must faithfully consult his dic-tionary. The student's vocabulary is also increased, as in the case of the infant, by being supplied with the ideas before he is given the corresponding terms. That is, a definition may precede the word it explains. This is the modern inductive method of teaching, especially in the natural sciences. By it we are lead first to form a conception and then given the appropriate word. By repeated use every word whose meaning is understood be-comes a complete possession. But not only mere definition and repetition suffice to procure for us in all cases true appreciation of the meanings of words. The things for which some words stand must be experienced before their real significance lies open before us. Who knows what the word "sorrow" really means but him who has had trouble ? The mild tempered person can-not realize fully what lies back of the word "anger." The true meaning of "ocean" is inconceivable to him who has never be-held its beauty. Words are living beings to one who has expe-rienced the things they represent. One of the greatest obstacles to retard our progress is the lack of this absolute requirement for advancement—total command of the words in common use. We wonder why this is. Of course some of us lack original capacity to understand words, and some of us have not had sufficient opportunities to obtain a good vocabulary. But most of us have this capacity and have had the best of chances, and yet we are deficient. The failure to understand and use words in their true import can generally be traced to the habitual disinclination to do that which requires .special effort; in short, we have been lazy. It is surprising how few of us are willing to attribute some of our fail-ings to that cause. Many of our present shortcomings are owing to wilful neglect in the past. In the case in hand we have failed to perform the fundamental process. We have procrastinated, deferring the definition of unfamiliar words till "the next time." We have done this again and again, and now when we attempt higher pursuits, we find our error. An exceedingly large proportion of persons are in this condi-tion. And it is to be deplored that a very large part of those in 230 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY this plight do not seem at all anxious to remedy their condition. How shiftless and inaccurate is their use of words. How feeble their attempts to argue, or even to hold intelligent conversation. The artisan must have materials with which to work. He who would make his thoughts known must have suitable words. But these persons are satisfied with their poor attempts, both to ex-press their thoughts and to understand the thoughts of others. "The world," says Paschal, "is satisfied with words; few care to dive beneath the surface." How true this is. We see it everywhere. Where it is possible the student uses his memory. Words, empty words, are all he tries to obtain; and, sad to say, he gets what he is after. He fails to see beyond the narrow present into the broad future. He strives for present reputation and marks, and he gets them; and that is all. He soon loses words, and he has never received their corresponding ideas, and all that is left is a record "on the books," which in these days of the survival of the fittest, counts for naught. But then there is that large class of persons who do thoroughly realize the necessity of greater command of language, who do want to make up for past neglect. How can we accomplish this ? "There is no royal road to learning." The rudiments of any study must be mastered before there can be advancement. We must now do what we have before neglected. We must use our dictionaries and weigh the significance of each word before we attempt to use it. To attain the highest use of language we must not pass by a single word without thoroughly understanding the thing it stands for. Extreme care must be exercised in the selec-tion of words with which to express our thoughts. Constant watchfulness is the price of success. This work of improvement is an arduous task, the performance of which persistence alone can accomplish, but the end fully repays the effort. Who that has reached this goal would trade his accomplish-ment for all that man could offer? With this possession one dwells upon a higher plane than that of his less intelligent fellow. By it he is brought a step nearer to the Being with whose help he obtains it. No other acquirement can produce such pleasure as this knowledge of the relations of words to things. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 231 THE REFINING FIRE IN NATURE. J. R. STONER, '01. A T that period of the year when the process of oxidation is **• going on more rapidly than at any other, preparing nature for a state in which she may resume anew the forms of activity and life,—look out over the landscape ! The autumnal equinox has ushered in another season to succeed the vanished summer, and the robe of verdure is changed into the beautiful golden garb of autumn. The forest and the grove reflect a hue of amber and gold as they lie in the distance, bathed in the rich sunlight against the blue background of the sky. It is but the flame of this burning process in nature now fanned into a great conflagration consum-ing all that has flourished in the past year that is no longer of value in the economy of nature, except it be decomposed into its elements and taken up in the formation of other substances. But all is not consumed. The golden grain and the fruit of the tree; that which at one time appeared but as an obstructed growth of leaves, now contains within its narrow shell the capability of un-folding in another life. By its persistence in complying with the law that turns all hindrances to good effects, while it could not assume the beauty and prominence of a leaf in the bright robe of the herb or the tree, but submitting to its allotted destiny, it grad-ually developed into the permanent kernel, able to survive in the test under which the leaf must perish. We see all around us the work of nature purging the earth of all that is useless at the end of a period of creative activity or growth, preparing for another period of vigor and work. By means of this oxidation or slow burning "all effete substances that have served their purpose in the old form are burnt up" and only that which has the promise of life and usefulness passes un-harmed through the ordeal. Without this conflagration by which the earth is swept in autumn, there could be no.new, fresh growth in nature. Through the amber flames of autumn comes the pure, fresh verdure of spring. Everywhere is this refining fire purg-ing the universe of all that is worthless, perpetually tending to bring it into a purer state. Even the rivulet, whose crystal waters have been made foul by the natural contamination of the soil over which it has flown, is made purer by being thrown into a state of agitation as it ripples down over the obstructions in its way. The grand column that dashes precipitately over the awful 232 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY cataract and is separated into multitudinous particles of spray reaches the plane below in a purer state ; because the molecules have been bathed in the refining element of oxygen pervading the atmosphere. Thus we see that hindrances or adversity in nature are the means through which all great and phenomenal feats are brought about. And may not this principle be traced into the ethical life of man ? Surely all great heroes of the past, whose deeds are worthy of immortality, and whose careers merit the height of fame they have attained, have been disciplined by the stern school of adversity. They were men who met the hindrances with a de-termined will that would not flinch, when faced by difficulties, or cower in the presence of misfortune, their destinies were not moulded by circumstances ; but circumstances were controlled by their high destiny, the goal of their illustrious lives. And as a consequence the hindrances they met and surmounted prepared them to survive in the refining fire of trial, and instilled into their very sinews pure and noble principles of life. Thus estab-lished in character, they came from the ordeal all the more beauti-ful for having been submitted to the test. Arduous accomplishments that require an extraordinary amount of perseverence, patience, tact, and earnest toil should not be looked upon disparagingly. They are but the means, the testing fire, as it were, by which those who are fit to rise high in the walks of life, to take charge of responsible positions and to wield the sceptre of influence over the world in a manner to di-rect it in the channels of righteousness, are separated from those who are frivolous, trifling, insignificant idlers. And like the evergreen,—fitting emblem of the eternal that it is,—as it stands robed in its brilliant garb, unscathed by the withering effect of the autumn frost and the snows of winter, an object of life stand-ing out in sharp contrast with the seemingly lifeless world around it; so shall those, who have stood the test, be clothed in immor-tality though all things else may perish. CQgj 111 fares the land to hastening' ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay. —Goldsmith. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 233 A PINANCIER. FRANK 8. FITE, '01. \ HAD the rare privilege, some forty years ago, to make the ac- * quaintance and to be favored with the confidence of a finan-cier who had risen to eminence from the lowest social grade. As a beggar boy, his exceptional talent for begging had roused the enthusiasm of a set of elderly maidens, who were attracted by his peculiar cry of helplessness and his boast of honesty. They put him to school. He learned there the fundamental principles of arithmetic, and little else; but his aptitude for trade was devel-oped in a marvelous degree. All the spending money of the scholars was invariably found at the end of a vacation in Chaucey Alcott's pockets. Yet, no boy could say that he had been cheated. All the fellows felt that their bits of silver coin had mysteriously disappeared in their various business relations with Alcott; but still they reluctantly confessed that everything had been "fair and square." He was said to be "on the dead level," yet plucked them, it would seem, pitilessly; but he stood by his own contracts, as he compelled them to stand by theirs. No act of positive dishonesty was ever proved against this plausible, cautious and relentless trader. The boys declared that he was shrewd, cunning and hard, yet he was "so obliging!" They disliked him, and at the same time accepted his services. Could they have caught him in any act of rascality his life would have been made a misery, but he was so discreet in his early preparation for his future career that, at the age of ten, he already gave promise of the great merchant and banker he eventually became. On leaving school, young Alcott found that his possessions amounted to thirty dollars. Instead of rushing at once to the elderly maidens who had helped him he went to the city and offered himself as clerk in a wholesale fish house. The senior partner was attracted by his evident talent and felt his youth renewed in looking at the youngster; he gave him a position in his counting room at once with a salary of fifty dollars a year. The keen youth, seeing at a glance that his employers were pious misers, instantly became, to all appearances, a pious miser himself. But in the course of five or six years he astonished the firm by show-ing that he knew more about the wholesale fish business than they did, and had made some money by quiet speculation of his 234 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY own. They oSered to double, treble, quadruple his salary, but nothing would satisfy Alcott but a partnership in their question-ablegaius. This they refused and Alcott promptly set up for himself on a small capital of money but a large capital of knowledge and intelligence, and soon cornered his former employers in a few heavy dealings and put them into bankruptcy in twenty-four months after he had left them, with the skillful use of their own methods. In the course of a few years he ventured cautiously but surely into other departments of commerce. He became a general merchant and at last assumed the dignity of ship owner and shipped his o-oods in his own vessels. He had two grand qualifications for business: his mind was quick and his heart was hard. In all financial panics he collected what was his due relentlessly, regard-less of the suffering it might bring upon nobler people than him-self; and paid all his own notes punctually as they fell due. To "fail'' was to him the worst of crimes. Almost everybody detested him, yet all knew that they could rely both on his word and his bond. Such a merchant, perhaps, should be judged by his own prin-ciples ; he had no sympathy with the great body of merchants of the country and laughed at all such sentimentality. "Get the better of 'em," was his motto. About this time he was a little wearied with commerce and bonds and stocks held for him the charm which merchandise had lost. He had obtained about two million dollars and amazed the moneyed world by a rush into Wall street, where he became a gigantic stock-jobber and banker. Here, as in school, the same shrewd, cunning characteristics were manifest, and slowly at first, but surely, his fortune increased and he obtained big commissions on the doubtful and worthless securities he sold; but just as his school-mates, those wbo relied on him could not assert that he had done anything to forfeit his reputation for honesty. It was at this point that I happened to have the honor of being one of his clerks, and in a short time his confidential one. I at once noticed his profanity. Everybody and everything interfering with his business designs brought forth a volley of oaths. There is probably no greater shock to the mind of an honest, well-intentioned country lad who is sent to confront the tempta- THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 235 tions of a city, with a mother's prayers hovering over him, than when he finds his employer is a rascal disguised as an honest man. Shall he also become a rascal ? Shall he stoop to scoundrelisms which his inmost soul abhors ! His behavior under such circum-stances is a test of his character ; his father, mother and sister, if he is fortunate enough to have a sister, combine all their moral energies to help him. There is no reason why the boy should have more privileges thau the girl, but the fact that he has is too evident to admit of a doubt. The denial of sisters to advance their brothers is one of the tragedies of human life. The re-verse SHOULD be the case, but unfortunately is not. But to return to my theme. As soon as I found out Mr. Al-cott, I began to look upon him with a certain horror. He had the greatest confidence in my honesty and even allowed me to sign his name to checks, but when I suggested that my services were worth more than I received, and that fifteen hundred would but partly recompense my unceasing work in his journal and ledger, he used his favorite formula and cursed me and my ser-vices roundly. He really thought that my services were due his pre-eminent position, though he was aware that I might ruin him in a single day had I chosen to "skip" at the close of business hours with his stocks and bonds. It is curious that I never had the slightest temptation to use the vast powers with which Mr. Alcott endowed me, for I might easily have become a millionaire in some European country had I chosen, like my employer, to become a rogue. I witnessed, as do clerks every day, the process of plundering, without any desire to plunder the plunderer. His wife, a meek woman, whom he swiftly scared into the grave, left him a daughter. She appeared to me a foolish, gig-gling creature, with large black eyes, a pug nose, and a complex-ion which was red to the point of ignition. A younger clerk in the office, much to our amusement, with a salary of five hundred dollars a year, declared that he was madly in love with her and convinced her of his sincerity ; as it was ridiculous to suppose that the father would consent to such a match, the clerk and heiress eloped and were married. When Alcott heard of it, he blasphemed with a savage fluency that was Wonderful even in him. His son-in-law was a bright fellow, however, with some rich connections, and with their backing, soon appeared in Wall Street. He made money, backed as he was, and Mr. Alcott went deliberately to work to ruin him, but at first he didn't succeed, as the son-in-law, in an early "corner in Erie," took eight hundred thousand out of his father-in-law's pocket: but this only stimu-lated Mr. Alcott and he ventured his millions without stint in an attempt to "corner" his son-in-law. [Continued.] 236 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY BOOK REVIEW. Quicksand, by Hervey White :—Small, Maynard, and Co., $1.50. QUICKSAND is the life history of a family with many more downs than ups. It is divided into three parts, in each of which a particular member of the family is the central figure, although all the members of the family enter into each divi-sion. The birth, boyhood, education, marriage, struggle for literary fame, and tragic death of Hubert form a conspicuous current in the narration. The varying dispositions of the members of the family, the appearance of the Indian, Maude, and the faithful hired man give an abundance of variety. The characters are depicted in striking detail, and the descriptions of the three homes (which the cover-ing of shame made necessary) are complete. The effect of a number of follies (crimes in some instances) are so clearly brought out as to emphasize the necessity of straight forward living. AMONG OUR CONTEMPORARIES, TT has not been the policy of THE MERCURY to devote much *■ space to an exchange article, but we feel it our duty to say something at intervals of those journals of other institutions, the reading of which gives us much pleasure and is profitable. The fact that an exchange article was crowded out of the November number explains why, in a few instances, reference is made to October numbers. The University of Virginia Magazi?ie is one of the most com-plete literary journals on our table, and the November number is an especially good one. It contains an article on "Keats—A Conscious Reformer of English Poetry," that is worthy of study. "The Quiet Indian's Ghost" in the November Touchstone is a well written story. The editor makes a strong appeal to the "men of Lafayette" in behalf of the literary journal of the insti-tution . The recent changes in the form and general get-up of the Pharetra make it the neatest and most attractive of our exchanges. The material is of a high grade, and the pen-sketches add ma-terially to its attractiveness. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 237 "The Living Relic of Barbarism" in the October Ursinus Col-lege Bulletin is decidedly above the average oration in beauty and in force. An increased number of pages of literary material should accompany the change of The Bulletin from a biweekly to a monthly. The November Midland contains in its literary department a poem by Longfellow and one from the Denver News, an article by an alumnus and one by a student. Will this encourage liter-ary work among the students at Midland f The Dickinson Literary Monthly has materially raised its standard and, in general, does not suffer in comparison with the best; but the November number contains a partisan article that is unworthy a place in a college journal. Those interested in the educational condition of Puerto Rico will find an interesting article by Dr. M. G. Brumbaugh in the Juniata Echo for October. The Echo is to be congratulated on being able to publish these articles. We regret that the Novem-ber number did not contain one. "The Spanish Arnaida," an outline with explanations, by Stanley Ecker in The Western University Couranl reflects credit upon the author and the journal. It is the result of effort and thought. The poetry of The Lesbian Herald is an important feature of the publication. 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Interview with Nunzio Roselli of Leominster, Massachusetts. Topics include: How he came to the U.S. with his family ten years prior, when he was seven years old. What he remembers about life in Sicily. His education in Sicily and then being put back two years, to first grade, when he came to the U.S. because he did not speak English. What his town was like in Sicily. What he remembers of when he first moved to the U.S. and how different things were from Europe. Stories he has heard from his family about World War II. His experiences in school. Italian traditions that his parents maintain. Cultural differences between life in the U.S. and life in Italy. How he started playing the drums. What school was like in Italy. How the food in the U.S. compares to the food in Italy. His plans to study music in college. ; 1 GREG CARCHIDI: Okay this is Greg Carchidi doing an interview, an oral history, with Nunzio Rosselli. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Buona sera, buona sera. GREG CARCHIDI: Okay, buona sera [laughter]. Okay. All right, this is Nunzio Rosselli [laughter]. We play in the same band [laughter]. All right. Nunz, how old are you? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Okay. I'm 17. GREG CARCHIDI: Seventeen years old, yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Eighteen this January. GREG CARCHIDI: All right. Is that -- what's your full name? NUNZIO ROSELLI: My full name is Nunzio Roselli, exactly what you said. GREG CARCHIDI: Nunzio Rosselli. NUNZIO ROSELLI: That's it. No middle name, nothing. GREG CARCHIDI: All right. Could you tell us like where were you born? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Okay. I was born in Italy, first of all. Actually, in Sicily. Sicily. I came -- some 10 years ago, I came to this country, and I came with just my family. Actually, we came with my mother's sister, you know… GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: And her family. But then they left after two years and we remained here because, you know, felt good here, felt comfortable, you know. GREG CARCHIDI: All right. NUNZIO ROSELLI: So, but like most of my relatives are in Italy. All I have here is an uncle in Boston, an uncle in Fitchburg. GREG CARCHIDI: Who else? NUNZIO ROSELLI: All alone, that's all. GREG CARCHIDI: So just you, and there's -- what is it, your mother and father? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Oh, we have a lot of friends. We have a lot of friends [unintelligible - 00:01:29].2 GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. So how old were you when you came over here to America? NUNZIO ROSELLI: I was seven years old. GREG CARCHIDI: Seven years old, yeah? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah. GREG CARCHIDI: Well, what was the life like over there? Do you remember anything? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Oh, sure. You know, life -- well, it's a different type of things because people, they take it easier out there, you know what I mean? They worked less, okay? GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: But they spend more of their time having a good time, you know what I mean? Like I'll give my uncle as an example, right? He's a constructor, okay. He works on houses and stuff like that, right? And he'll get work every now and then on his own, you know, to do something… GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: And when he's not working, you know, well he's not making any money. But, still he sets money aside, goes out every night, you know, goes out with a few friends, go down to the local bar downtown or a café if you call it, go for a nice [speaking in Italian] or whatever you want to call it. And they'll have a few beers, right, have a few beers, you know. GREG CARCHIDI: They drink beer over there too? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. GREG CARCHIDI: Oh, that's good [laughter]. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Beers or whatever you like, you know, and go home late at night. They go to sleep late over there. Twelve o'clock is like same as 10 o'clock here, so you know, so… GREG CARCHIDI: They have a lot of churches over there. Do they have a lot of churches?3 NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, yeah. Over there it's kind of -- the churches are all Catholic, you know. It's not, for instance, that you have your local Catholic church and your local Protestant church, you know. Everything is Catholic there. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Because the country itself is run by religion, [unintelligible - 00:03:09]. Not in that sense. You know I'm trying to say. GREG CARCHIDI: What town was it where you were…? NUNZIO ROSELLI: The name of the town is Santa Caterina, which means St. Catherine in Sicily [laughter]. GREG CARCHIDI: Santa Caterina. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Caterina. Hey you know how to spell that? Let's see… GREG CARCHIDI: Caterina? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Mm-hmm. GREG CARCHIDI: Did I spell it right [laughter]? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Wait a minute. You got an H there, right? GREG CARCHIDI: No H. NUNZIO ROSELLI: No H. GREG CARCHIDI: No H in Italian? NUNZIO ROSELLI: No, no. GREG CARCHIDI: Oh. NUNZIO ROSELLI: No H, just T. GREG CARCHIDI: Okay. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah don't forget the T [laughter]. GREG CARCHIDI: Caterina. NUNZIO ROSELLI: St. Catherine. GREG CARCHIDI: I just want to remember here. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah. GREG CARCHIDI: Okay. That's in Sicily, right? NUNZIO ROSELLI: That's in Sicily. GREG CARCHIDI: All the olive oil and the mafia?4 NUNZIO ROSELLI: That's right, that's right. GREG CARCHIDI: [Speaking in Italian] [laughter] Godfather, yeah. Let's see. You were seven when you came here, right? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Mm-hmm. GREG CARCHIDI: All right. You must have gone to school over there for a couple of years, right? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, two years I went to school there. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: I went first and second grade, and then I never finished the second, and I finished it over here. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: And then I got put back here two years. GREG CARCHIDI: That caused the…? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, instead of going to the third, I got put back in the first. GREG CARCHIDI: Really? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah. GREG CARCHIDI: Did you feel like that you knew -- like when you finally did start school in America, did you feel like you were ahead of the kids in here, in America, or was it about the same, or was there a language problem or what? NUNZIO ROSELLI: The only thing there was, was a language problem, but I think as far as knowing stuff like math or stuff that didn't involve the language, I would know more because second grade over there is like fourth or fifth grade over here. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: They teach you with the same difficulty in all. But with just the language, that's what my teacher told my relatives, you know, my aunt and uncle, when I didn't pass and then they put me back in the first. She said, well, you can't speak, so he's going to stay back and learn, you know… GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. 5 NUNZIO ROSELLI: Just for the sake of the language, not so much the other things. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah, oh that's…[laughter] NUNZIO ROSELLI: Oh I don't care [laughter]. This is a recording. We must keep everything [laughter]. GREG CARCHIDI: Keep it clean. NUNZIO ROSELLI: It's kind of hard to, you know, when you're used to talking… GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah [laughter]. All right. How about the people in your town there in Santa Caterina… NUNZIO ROSELLI: Santa Caterina… GREG CARCHIDI: Was it a rich town, or are they farmers? Or what do they do over there? What was the main…? NUNZIO ROSELLI: By all means, it's not a rich town. All right, if you were to judge it like, okay, a town in the United States. In other words, what kind of town would it be if it was translated to the United States, you know what I'm trying to say? GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah, yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: You know, it would be the equivalent of let's say something place Shirley or a small town like Princeton, you know. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: But in size, it's small. I'd say it would be the size of… yeah, probably Shirley, would be the size of Shirley, real small, small town, you know. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: You know, most of the people that live there, the older people like my father's age maybe in the 50s or mid-40s, probably they worked on their land. They have a piece of land that the governments rents to them or gives to them or whatever, and they work on that, you know. And younger generations, you know, they're mostly involved with either going to school or something construction or something maybe mechanics, you know. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. 6 NUNZIO ROSELLI: Stuff like that, you know. But it's by no means… it's not a big town. It's a real small town. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Nice town though. A lot of good times there [laughter]. A lot of nice, young people, you know, girls [laughter], people. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah, a lot of young woman, huh? All right [laughter]. Did you have any room, did you think your family had any real reason why they wanted to come to America, or did they just…? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Well, all right, we had relatives here. You know, at the time they were living Leominster, my aunt and uncle, you know. Now they live in Boston. So I guess what we did was we were going to come here for a couple of years, see what it was like, because my father was having a hard time with jobs over there, you know. They weren't easy to come by. And so we said we'd come over here and try, you know. If we liked it, we stay a couple of years. If not, we'd leave. So we came over, we stayed. You know we've just been here ever since, you know. I've gone back a few times, two times. My brothers have gone back few times too, you know. You know, we've all gone back a few times. GREG CARCHIDI: The refrigerator just went on, huh? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Oh, sorry about that [laughter]. GREG CARCHIDI: It's okay [laughter]. All right. When you first got here, right, did you come by boat or you fly? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Oh, we fly. GREG CARCHIDI: You flew Alitalia? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Alitalia, yeah. What else? GREG CARCHIDI: Alitalia Airlines. NUNZIO ROSELLI: We're Italian. We can't use Pan Airlines, you see. GREG CARCHIDI: Oh, nah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, it's going to be Alitalia [laughter]. GREG CARCHIDI: That's right. And you landed in Boston, right? 7 NUNZIO ROSELLI: We landed in Boston, right. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah. GREG CARCHIDI: That must have been what? What year was that? NUNZIO ROSELLI: That was '68, sessantotto. That's when President Nixon… GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah, that was when Nix -- you came [unintelligible - 00:08:28] [laughter]. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Right yeah, right. GREG CARCHIDI: They got the crook [laughter], the birth of the [unintelligible - 00:08:33]. NUNZIO ROSELLI: What the heck is this? What are you doing here [laughter]? GREG CARCHIDI: If you have any, you know, you can remember at all, like what are your first experiences? One of the first things that happened to you when you got here? NUNZIO ROSELLI: That was unique? GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. That was like, you know. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Oh I got a few, but no [laughter]. GREG CARCHIDI: Well, so you were seven. NUNZIO ROSELLI: That's right. GREG CARCHIDI: You didn't have the [combats] on, did you? NUNZIO ROSELLI: No, no [laughter]. Well, I might have, you know [laughter]. No, let me see. I'm trying to think, actually. As far as the whole way of life, you know, it's so different when I got over here, you know. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Because I mean, we weren't used to seeing all this many cars and things at the time, you know. But yeah, that probably have to be -- just the whole idea of the way of life over here, which is so different, you know. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: People were different. It wasn't as close, you know what I mean? It wasn't like you know your neighbor.8 GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah, like in Sicily, you knew all your…? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, you knew what was going on. GREG CARCHIDI: Paisans and. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Right. Yeah, paisans. GREG CARCHIDI: I mean, of course you come to Boston, right? You landed in Boston. You must have freaked out when you saw [laughter]. NUNZIO ROSELLI: You say, "What the heck is this?" Oh, you know, I've seen big cities like -- you know, there were a few big cities near my hometown, you know, but it was just a different type of an atmosphere too, you know. It was set up different, you know. The cars were big, you know, so what the heck is this one, bus? GREG CARCHIDI: And when you came to Boston, you saw… NUNZIO ROSELLI: I used the small cars in Europe, you know, and you see all these [laughter] tanks. GREG CARCHIDI: The food is same thing. The first thing, is the food any -- like you eat different here, or…? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, when we get over here, I remember the first thing I think I tasted that was really big was potato chips. I didn't like it. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: I don't like potato chips at all. And I really didn't like it. But after a while, I developed at taste for it, you know. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Well, I like potato chips, but you know, at that time, especially those Ruffles with the ridges, you know what I mean [laughter]? Funny flavor [unintelligible - 00:10:57] exactly what it was, you know. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah [laughter]. NUNZIO ROSELLI: You know, any idea of hamburgers… GREG CARCHIDI: McDonalds and stuff… NUNZIO ROSELLI: McDonalds, you know. It was different, but I'd still rather eat Italian still.9 GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: You know, that's what we eat at home. We're not the gravy and potatoes type people, you know what I mean? GREG CARCHIDI: Oh yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: I mean potatoes… GREG CARCHIDI: Unless it's sausage and… NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, unless it's sausage [laughter]… GREG CARCHIDI: Like the peppers and the onions and the garlic. They can keep McDonalds. NUNZIO ROSELLI: That's right [laughter]. GREG CARCHIDI: They can keep it, man. All right. When you first settled down, when you came to America, did you come right to Leominster? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, right. Like I said, we had a set of relatives here, and we lived with them for a couple of months until we found our own apartment. And we lived in an apartment for about eight months, then we found another apartment. We lived there about six years, then we moved here and we bought this house. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. Nice house. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Thank you. GREG CARCHIDI: You've got your drums on there, huh? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, I got all my stuff yeah [laughter]. We've been living here about four or five years, so. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: We enjoy it here. GREG CARCHIDI: Right, nice. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, nice part of town. GREG CARCHIDI: All right, I don't know maybe… when you were growing up, I mean, did your parents -- do you remember anything that your parents said to you about -- like they must have lived through the war in Italy.10 NUNZIO ROSELLI: Mm-hmm, yeah. They tell me a lot about their experiences, you know. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, bad experiences. Good experiences too, you know. There were things that, you know, they remember about the war that they can relate too, but you know, I mean, what's there to say? It's just going to… GREG CARCHIDI: They made it through alive. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, they made it through, yeah. My mom always told me about her father. He joined the service. He had to join, you know. It was drafted for… GREG CARCHIDI: World War II or World War I? NUNZIO ROSELLI: World War II. GREG CARCHIDI: World War II. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Right, and he was there for about few months, then they send him back because he had too many kids, so many kids he couldn't really, you know, be involved with the war and take care of the family. Because, you know, in Italy, in other words, in Italy it's not like over here. I don't mean to get off the subject or anything… GREG CARCHIDI: No, that's okay. NUNZIO ROSELLI: In other words, there isn't as much… women's lib, you know what I'm trying to say? GREG CARCHIDI: Things like that? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah. GREG CARCHIDI: You mean like white for the flag and the… NUNZIO ROSELLI: Well, no. What I'm saying is the woman's place is in the home, okay. In other words, my grandfather was out fighting, okay? GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. 11 NUNZIO ROSELLI: And he wasn't home, and he had all these kids to take care of. Who's going to take care of them as far as supporting them, you understand? GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: So they had to do things like that because of the way life is in Italy, you know. The woman really isn't as free as over here, not really free. I don't know if this is true with you. It's just… GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Just a way of life, you know? I don't know. GREG CARCHIDI: It's definitely different, yeah? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, but you know, about the war, yeah. My parents told me stories about the soldiers used to come to town. Like all right, the soldiers used to come and used to give the kids candies and stuff like that, you know, and then they used to give food from some of the neighbors, you know, the Italian food, because [unintelligible - 00:14:26] or not. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah. GREG CARCHIDI: Wow. NUNZIO ROSELLI: [Unintelligible - 00:14:33] experiences. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. So what school did you go to when you started school over here in Leominster? NUNZIO ROSELLI: That was at Priest Street. GREG CARCHIDI: Priest Street School? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Right, up on… GREG CARCHIDI: Your Doyle Field up there? NUNZIO ROSELLI: No, no, wait. Pierce, I'm sorry. GREG CARCHIDI: Pierce Street? NUNZIO ROSELLI: I got it mixed up. Pierce Street, yeah. GREG CARCHIDI: So you lived up in North Leominster?12 NUNZIO ROSELLI: Right, that's where we moved to, right, yeah. I always get the two schools mixed up. GREG CARCHIDI: It's funny. I interviewed my grandmother. When my grandmother first came to America, that's the school she started. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Is that right? GREG CARCHIDI: Pierce Street. This is back in 19 -- oh Jesus, 1910, 1911, 1909, right around… NUNZIO ROSELLI: Amazing, that's [unintelligible - 00:15:16] [laughter]. Those of you who don't know what wig is [laughter] don't ask. That's great [laughter]. GREG CARCHIDI: So you started school there, and then you went right to like sixth grade and stuff? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Well, I moved to… Fallbrook. GREG CARCHIDI: Fallbrook. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, I went to Fallbrook, then I went to Lancaster Street, then I went to, you know… GREG CARCHIDI: How long did it really take you to kind of get the language, the English language, down? NUNZIO ROSELLI: I'd say after about a year and a half, you know, pretty good, you know, to it, you know… GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Because I could speak pretty good after about a year or so. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: But still, it's a lot of the vocabulary, it takes years to pick up on everything, you know. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Because you're never sure if some of the words they're saying, you know, what exactly are they saying, you know? I always said that to myself. GREG CARCHIDI: Did the kids in school act… how did they treat you in school, say like in fourth or fifth grade? Like if you spoke Italian in front of 13 them, did they look up to you like you were really something special, or…? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Well, yeah. In a way. GREG CARCHIDI: Celebrity like… NUNZIO ROSELLI: In a way, yeah. But I don't think there was that much of a difference, you know, between me. Once I got in the fourth grade, like when I was in second, I was different. But you know, like you say, you know, when I used to talk, I used to say well, what is this kid, you know? GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah [laughter]. Did they ever call you [guinea] or anything? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Oh yeah. GREG CARCHIDI: Did you ever get to any fights when you were little, you know? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Oh yeah. I got into a fight once, I remember. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah. I used to detest them. They'd call me wop or guinea or something. I used to be hurt for that. I don't like that. No, you know, if a friend says, you know, let's knock it off at school. But when I was little, I used to be really serious about it, you know. But now, you know, unless the guy's really serious about it to me… GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: That's the only time I take it. It's weird, but yeah. That happens. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. Did you and your family belong to any social clubs? When you first came over, did you get in like -- what do they have? They used to have the Corifinio Club and the…? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Oh, you mean Italian social clubs? GREG CARCHIDI: Italian clubs, or like the church or whatever. NUNZIO ROSELLI: No, not really. My parents really aren't much of, you know, people, like go out and get involved and like that you know… GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. 14 NUNZIO ROSELLI: In Italy they were, because they felt safe. They felt, you know, more at home. GREG CARCHIDI: Everything was closed there. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah everything is closed, you know. You know, the language, you go out… GREG CARCHIDI: Right. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Social people there. But you come over here, it's a different thing, you know. They sort of lost their -- how do you say it? You know, they don't do it anymore. GREG CARCHIDI: Free spirit, or like… NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, their willingness to go out as much or stuff like that, you know, because it's just a total different, different country, you know. They're still not fully used to it. GREG CARCHIDI: Really? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, they aren't, you know. They speak their language a little much better, you know. They can understand what you're saying. You know, it's still… but like I said, we get a lot of friends, you know. They're always over at somebody's house or somebody's over here or something's going on. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah, that's good. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, you know. What are you going to do when you don't have many relatives, you know? GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. Do you remember like your first part-time job or something? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, probably [laughter]. Well, the first… probably I was a baby boy for about five years. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, I had two, three paper routes. I had one in Lancaster Street, and then I had one up here, five years [unintelligible - 00:19:19].15 GREG CARCHIDI: You're in a unique position. A lot of immigrants that -- you know, people that came over from Italy, the people that I know, it's usually like people my grandparents' age, you know? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Right, the older people. GREG CARCHIDI: Which makes my parents, you know, native-born Americans, you know what I mean? And you were born over there, and then you came here when you were, what, seven? Yeah? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Mm-hmm. GREG CARCHIDI: And so I guess, you know, it's safe to say that you've adjusted pretty well to America, you know, to the ways of life here. But still, I think -- would you say that you have preserved certain features about Italian lifestyle, the Italian culture? Have you preserved those at all? You know, not really specific, but I mean as far as relaxing like on Sunday? I know I do, my family. You know, nobody's going to catch me up raking leaves on Sunday afternoon, you know, at two o'clock. I'm gonna be in the house eating dinner. You know, I could give a sweet shit if World War III was coming, man. Sunday dinner is… NUNZIO ROSELLI: Is more important, right. GREG CARCHIDI: You know what I mean? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Well… GREG CARCHIDI: Do you still preserve certain things like that, or…? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah. Well, my parents preserve a lot of things that are Italian. They have to, because I mean, you know most of their life was spent doing that, you know. It's only been 10 years that they've been here compared to 30 years in Italy or 40 years in Italy, you know? So they have a lot of things that -- I can't remember what, but [laughter]. Well, food's one thing, you know… GREG CARCHIDI: Food… NUNZIO ROSELLI: The way you celebrate certain holidays. GREG CARCHIDI: Right. 16 NUNZIO ROSELLI: Even the way you treat guests, you know? GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: You know, like I said, my parents -- all right, in other words, as far as being hosts and stuff like that, they host more like an Italian host than somebody over here would host people, you know what I mean? It's a different type of… GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: I don't know how to describe it… GREG CARCHIDI: I don't know. It seems to me like I've been… most of my friends were Italian, but I don't know. You can tell right away when you go into an Italian household… NUNZIO ROSELLI: Right, right. GREG CARCHIDI: Well, especially when the people are from Italy. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Because the house is set a certain way, and in other words, you know… I know a certain openness about the people, to strangers… GREG CARCHIDI: Right. Or for meetings… NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, "Sit down, have a drink," you know, all the stuff like that, you know? GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Want a drink? Want something to drink? GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Want a beer? GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah, all right. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah. I'll get upstairs… GREG CARCHIDI: Okay, we'll have a timeout here. NUNZIO ROSELLI: All right. GREG CARCHIDI: Time off against it [laughter]. Okay. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Even if it's all for just a quick call. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Oh yeah.17 GREG CARCHIDI: The hospitality is nice. Personally, yourself, have you ever had any bad experiences here or in America? Or is there anything that has ever affected you to the extent that you wish you were back in Italy? You wish you went, you know, you wish you still lived there? You wish you lived your life there, you know? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, when I first moved here, there were a lot of things that hit me. The biggest thing I'll tell you was the freedom, you know, like kids over there had a lot more freedom, okay? By that, what I mean is every night you go out [laughter]. I mean, a 7-year-old kid will be out downtown in a bar and with a few friends of his, seven, eight years old, nine, whatever. GREG CARCHIDI: Really? NUNZIO ROSELLI: They'd be out there, they'd order a beer, you know? GREG CARCHIDI: You can go order a beer or order a glass of wine? NUNZIO ROSELLI: You know what I'm trying to say? Or you know, even if you don't do that, you go out every night. You're out, and you're in a place where there are a lot of people, you can meet a lot of people, you know what I'm trying to say? But over here, you know, your nights would be spent home, you know? I've never seen winters in Sicily. The biggest winter I've seen is maybe 2 inches of snow, nothing really big, you know? GREG CARCHIDI: Really? NUNZIO ROSELLI: And then all of a sudden I come here, it's five feet, you know? [Laughter] You walk out the door and say, "What the hell is this?" you know? GREG CARCHIDI: With all the snow. NUNZIO ROSELLI: But I think it's mostly the freedom that I had over there as a kid that I never had here, that I'm starting to enjoy now that I'm, you know, 17, 18, that I can go out, you know, have a good time that way, you know. I couldn't do that when I was younger.18 GREG CARCHIDI: So you think over here, they kind of postponed everything? They make you wait? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, yeah. GREG CARCHIDI: They make you wait before they let you live. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, which in a way is good, in a way it's not. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: You know. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah, you got to think. They got to have some rules. NUNZIO ROSELLI: How is it that a country like Italy manages and a white kid can't manage it here? I can't understand that. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: You know, I mean, see, in Italy, that whole attitude towards booze or something like that is different. You know, they don't think of it the way you think of a beer here. "Oh, kids having a beer! Oh! Hit him!" you know, do this… GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Over there, the parents will get a kick out of giving the kid a beer, you know, "Drink it." Here, "Can you drink this?" [Laughter] No, no… GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah [laughter]. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, I had a little cousin, my uncle used to get a kick out of seeing him smoke. He was like two years old. GREG CARCHIDI: Really? NUNZIO ROSELLI: My uncle used to get a kick out of seeing the kid smoke and blow through his nose [laughter]. I couldn't believe it. I used to do it, yeah. It's the way Italians are, you know? We're, I don't know… different [laughter]. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. What the heck, I admit it. NUNZIO ROSELLI: I don't know [laughter]. GREG CARCHIDI: What the heck [laughter], I admit it… NUNZIO ROSELLI: I admit it about you too [laughter]. 19 GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. Have you been able to form any opinion about the American political system? NUNZIO ROSELLI: I'm not much into that. I don't know about it because, you know… GREG CARCHIDI: Well, over here, you know, the politics kind of dictates how you live. I mean… NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, well… GREG CARCHIDI: You pay tax, all kinds of taxes here. NUNZIO ROSELLI: All right, all right. As far as taxes, from what I see, it's too much over here, okay? It's good because the government is rich and all that and they can do a lot, and that's why the country's probably rich. But see, besides there being a lot of work and stuff like that -- but see, in Italy, you don't have the taxes that you got over here, okay? People make less money, okay? But they spend less on taxes, you know? And they don't work as hard. My parents always say how work over here is, you know, it's like hard compared to work in Italy. You work in Italy, you get a three-hour lunch break, you know? And if you work all year around, you get at least one month vacation, yeah, something like two weeks you get over here or one week, you know? GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Plus the fact that every night, you go out having a good time, something like that, you know? It's more relaxed. People don't work as hard. They have more time to themselves. GREG CARCHIDI: Everything is competitive over here. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah. GREG CARCHIDI: Have you noticed that? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah that's right, that's right. GREG CARCHIDI: They compete for everything, I guess, [unintelligible - 00:27:01]. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Even for your job, even for your job. See, I don't know, it's just different. That's the only thing that I don't like. But I'm used to 20 it, you know? I mean, I can relate to other American, I could relate to it, you know, as far as work, you know. It doesn't bother me because I grew up here, you know, so. All right, good night. SPEAKER 2: Go out [laughter]. I'll go. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Bye. Yeah, they go out a lot, gonna have a good time [laughter]. GREG CARCHIDI: That's good [laughter], that's good. You've given me most of your opinions about the people who lived there. NUNZIO ROSELLI: [Unintelligible - 00:27:48]. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah, yeah, [laughter], you know. What else? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Talk, talk. GREG CARCHIDI: I mean, like heck, you lived in Italy for seven years, you know? There must have been a few things that really… NUNZIO ROSELLI: Well, I like both countries, you know, as far as opinion and the way of life. I'm used to the way of life here. You know, I'm not against it. I like the way of life over here. I like staying at home at nights, or -- you know what I mean, as opposed to always going out, like in Italy. In other words, people over there relax by going out and talking to friends, you know? Well the people over here relax by staying at home, watching TV, you know? In Italy, you know, you don't have TVs like over here. You don't have the entertainment at home… GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: To do over here. Just stay home and just listen to the radio or TV. So people go out more, people go out to socialize with their friends, or there's a group of friends that comes over to somebody's house, you know. It's just a mock. GREG CARCHIDI: They play cards… NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, play cards, have wine. People are just crazy over there. Just, you know. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah, they make a big thing out of it over here. NUNZIO ROSELLI: That's right.21 GREG CARCHIDI: They got to go out. The woman gets ready for four hours, you know. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah. GREG CARCHIDI: That's the way. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Well, it's different. I'm not saying one is better than the other. I'm just saying. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: It's a big difference. GREG CARCHIDI: It's true. NUNZIO ROSELLI: You know, and I could deal with either one. GREG CARCHIDI: Okay, I know probably your favorite hobby is music, because we play in the same band. So, did you start playing the drums when you were in Italy or when you were that young? NUNZIO ROSELLI: No, I just started playing that thing when I was 11. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: I was in the fifth grade over here. Matter of fact, I started playing because I was sort of forced into it by my fifth grade teacher. I studied with this real mean Italian lady. Her name was Ms. Holera… GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah [laughter]. NUNZIO ROSELLI: She was a nun at one time, you know. It was [unintelligible - 00:29:48] really mean [unintelligible - 00:29:50] you know [laughter]. Anyways, one day we got a call from the office, anybody wanted to try out for the band, you know, who could try out. And she goes I hope everybody in here is going to try out, because if you don't -- she made some remark or something. So I was afraid of her, you know. She said I'd better go down and try out, you know, or else she might get really mad at me, you know. I don't want that, so I went down. I was like -- hey, I thank her for it now, you know? GREG CARCHIDI: Really?22 NUNZIO ROSELLI: I wouldn't have gone down [laughter]. Hey, she was Italian, too. GREG CARCHIDI: But that's pretty good. But you never really had -- did you have any hobbies in Italy when you were, like, your first seven years of life over there? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Seven years? GREG CARCHIDI: You just did what the other kids did? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Well, what kind of a hobby does a kid have when he's seven? You know what I mean? GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah, they don't even start -- you know, over here, they don't even start with playing little league baseball until they're eight or nine, something. NUNZIO ROSELLI: You believe that I play any sports… GREG CARCHIDI: What did you do over there, you know, when you were little? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Oh, for fun? I played soccer… you know. What do kids do? They just hang out. GREG CARCHIDI: Hang out… NUNZIO ROSELLI: [Unintelligible - 00:31:05] when I was seven, you know. Yeah, that's mostly what I did. I had a few friends around the neighborhood. We used to always meet. We'd meet like at eight o'clock in the morning, you know, when there was no school. We'd be out till 12, go home eat 12, sleep a few hours, and then after… GREG CARCHIDI: Go back to school? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Well, go back on the afternoon, you know, and just play [laughter]. GREG CARCHIDI: How was the school over there in Italy? So you must have went '67, '66. You must have gone to school over there. Did you go like five days a week like here? NUNZIO ROSELLI: No. GREG CARCHIDI: Three or something or whatever? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Not at all. I went six days a week. It went longer as far as the weeks go, but you only went from 8 to 12. You don't have to go in 23 the afternoon, you know? You went Saturdays, but you don't have to go. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah. GREG CARCHIDI: That's good. NUNZIO ROSELLI: They ought to keep that up. I used to like school when I was in Italy. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah? NUNZIO ROSELLI: I had a teacher that really liked me. She knew my mother, and just really liked me [laughter]. GREG CARCHIDI: You were only 6, 7 years old. NUNZIO ROSELLI: You know, people in Italy mature fast. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah [laughter]. NUNZIO ROSELLI: No, I know. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah, I had sideburns when I was about 13, 14. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Right, right. Don't you find that a lot of…? GREG CARCHIDI: I had full sideburns. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah. GREG CARCHIDI: When I was 14, I could have grown, you know… NUNZIO ROSELLI: Right. GREG CARCHIDI: I had to shave my sideburns and my mustache. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, I started shaving when I was in the sixth grade. GREG CARCHIDI: Really? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Uh-huh. But as far as maturing, I don't know if it means much, but when I went over there a few years ago, I find that girls are like 13, 14, I mean… GREG CARCHIDI: Developed, yeah? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Developed. They looked like they were 18, 19. GREG CARCHIDI: Well developed, yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: It's not [unintelligible - 00:32:58] I couldn't believe it. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. Hey, you want to go? Let's go, okay [laughter]?24 NUNZIO ROSELLI: No, no, it will freak you out. GREG CARCHIDI: Well, yeah. It's like over here. One of my other friends goes back every year, you know, Sandro Vittorioso. He goes back every year for [unintelligible - 00:33:16]. He goes to Italy. She has relatives that are still over there, and he says it's amazing, it's amazing. Just like what you're saying, he says exactly the same, because he's from a small, small town or village, you know. He says the same thing. He says people over here, you know, you can't beat this country for its richness and all that, but people over there, you know, open a store when they get up [laughter], when they get out. But when they have to wake up or when they do get up and all those siesta. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Is that [unintelligible - 00:33:53]? GREG CARCHIDI: Jeez, I wished they had that [laughter]. If we were good at our band, then we'd become good, real good… NUNZIO ROSELLI: We could have the same thing… GREG CARCHIDI: Real good, we could get rich. We could have a siesta every day, a little espresso [laughter]. NUNZIO ROSELLI: A little espresso. Yeah, that will keep you up if you get a siesta, isn't that right? GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah [laughter]. Well, do you think you would ever go back there to live? NUNZIO ROSELLI: I might. But I really -- well, I used to think about it a lot more, you know, when I was younger. Because after I lived here for a year or two, I got homesick, okay? GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: I really got homesick. That happened, you know, all the way up to about five years, six years ago, you know, after -- I've lived for like seven years. Well, after I've lived here for about six, seven years, I started realizing, you know, I started growing up here, I started becoming, you know, more of an American, you know. I 25 grew up with kids that, you know, they were Americans. I talked to them in English. I did the same things they did, you know. I play football or whatever, you know? You know what I'm trying to say? So it's… GREG CARCHIDI: I don't know what you're saying. NUNZIO ROSELLI: So I sort of felt both ways… GREG CARCHIDI: You feel -- yeah… NUNZIO ROSELLI: You know, when I went over there for a vacation at summer, I stayed out there a month, and I'm just used to it over there. It was like I never came over here. And I came back here, and I have a hard time getting used to it. But once I get used to it, I could handle over here. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: You know. GREG CARCHIDI: All right. I got a couple of other questions. NUNZIO ROSELLI: You mean that hasn't run out yet? GREG CARCHIDI: All right. No, no, no [laughter]. About 10 minutes, Nunz. Hang in there. NUNZIO ROSELLI: No problem. GREG CARCHIDI: I want to ask you. Like I know that we all, like, all of us Italian Americans here, we like salami… NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah. GREG CARCHIDI: Proscuitto, capicola, pepperoni with, you know, provolone cheese. I always wondered this. Now, the Italian cold cuts that we get over here, are they as good or close to what you get over there, the real thing? NUNZIO ROSELLI: No way. They're absolutely not, absolutely not. GREG CARCHIDI: You mean this is second-rate garbage? NUNZIO ROSELLI: This isn't even a second rate. I mean, this is… GREG CARCHIDI: This is real horse dung, man [laughter]? NUNZIO ROSELLI: If you want to compare it -- holy shit, you know, it is. 26 GREG CARCHIDI: So we're paying four, five dollars a pound for cured capicola over here? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Right. They have in a ball over there, you know, good stuff. It's a big difference. Even the stuff they import from Italy over here… GREG CARCHIDI: It's not as good? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Nothing compared to the real, you know… GREG CARCHIDI: It's nice over there. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, nothing compared to it. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah. As a matter of fact, we just bought some capicola. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Gonna hang it up in the other room there. GREG CARCHIDI: Oh yeah? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah. Hey, if you want a slice, you'll just slice it later on, man. GREG CARCHIDI: No, that's okay [laughter]. NUNZIO ROSELLI: You know, well… GREG CARCHIDI: What, you buy it from Italy? Somebody sent it over? NUNZIO ROSELLI: It's not from Italy, but it's from a store that's supposed to make it just like Italy. It's good. Don't get me wrong, it's good. GREG CARCHIDI: You know [unintelligible - 00:37:01] in Boston… NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah. GREG CARCHIDI: In the north end in Boston, that's pretty good. NUNZIO ROSELLI: They're from Italy? GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah, I think they make their own. Some they make their own, some they import. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah. GREG CARCHIDI: Very expensive, but… NUNZIO ROSELLI: Well, you know, it's the same. The only thing about it that's kind of hard, the flavor's still not as good as the Italian. Anything, you just can't beat it, the sauce…27 GREG CARCHIDI: See what I mean? That's what I do on Sundays. You know, it's not what you like to do on a -- you gotta take a day in the weekend, you eat a capicola, sit down [laughter], pasta, antipasto… NUNZIO ROSELLI: Uh-huh, that's great [laughter]. GREG CARCHIDI: It's like Thanksgiving. The Americans, they feature the turkey Thanksgiving. We feature lasagna, you know [laughter]? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Manicotti. GREG CARCHIDI: Manicotti. NUNZIO ROSELLI: We had Manicotti in Thanksgiving. We had the turkey, but hey, you give them… GREG CARCHIDI: The turkey's last. NUNZIO ROSELLI: That's right [laughter]. GREG CARCHIDI: The turkey's last. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Right. GREG CARCHIDI: Nothing against the Americans, but I mean hey, when they can make a turkey that tastes as good as lasagna or manicotti, then we'll eat it first, you know [laughter]? Well, all right. This is one of the things I want to ask you. Yeah, that's right. Okay, you're a senior now at high school, at Leominster High School. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah. GREG CARCHIDI: You're the head drum major for the band, the marching band. You've been in the all-state concert band your junior, and you look like you've got a real good chance to have a decent career in music, like -- I know you do very well in school. Do you have any plans to, you know, go to college for your education, or -- what do you think you might like to do? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Sure, yeah I'd go for a [mortician's] job, no [laughter]. It's like a friend of mine who goes to college for philosophy and gets out and becomes a [mortician]. I'm going for music, yeah. Definitely. I've thought about it for four years now, you know? I kind of decided against for three or four years, but this year I realized that, 28 you know, I can't go for [unintelligible - 00:39:12] engineering. I'm going to go there, you know, I'm just going to flunk out, you know, just -- because I can't do it. You know, I got to do something I like. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: I just couldn't go for four years, four other years in school. I'll take some courses like calculus again, yeah. GREG CARCHIDI: Well, do what you like. NUNZIO ROSELLI: That's right. GREG CARCHIDI: That's good. NUNZIO ROSELLI: That's the way I feel about it. You know, my parents, they say, "Hey," you know, "what are you doing? You got to go for something that's," you know -- I think they kind of realized now that that's what I got to do. They have to respect me for it. GREG CARCHIDI: It's the same thing. A lot -- that's an American thing over here, [unintelligible - 00:39:48] parents. You're going to become a doctor, you're going to be a lawyer, you're going to be -- you know, my parents not as much as I know other parents… NUNZIO ROSELLI: Right. GREG CARCHIDI: But you know, over here, you got the freedom to do what you want, when you want, and why. You know, why you want to do what you're going to do. You might as well take advantage of it. NUNZIO ROSELLI: That's right. Well my parents, you know, "Why don't you go for something like lawyer stuff?" I said, "I just can't do that. I see no reason why I --" you know, I can't do something like that. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: See, all right, my parents grew up in a time when work was scarce, the war was going on. So they're more inclined to feel that [unintelligible - 00:40:29]. GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. Well go ahead, go ahead. It's all right. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Can I stop over there?29 GREG CARCHIDI: No, no, okay [laughter]. No, it's okay [laughter]. Hurry up, the tape's running out. NUNZIO ROSELLI: All right, all right [laughter]. Well see, my parents feel, my parents feel -- they're more inclined to feel that work is something that you go to work, okay? That's not something that you have to enjoy as long as you make money out of it, you know what I mean? GREG CARCHIDI: Yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Because they grew up in a time in Italy when work was scarce, you know, and you have to make a living and stuff, you know. But I think they understand that, you know… they're not giving me a hard time about it, you know. I told them once, like I'd decided, I've made up my mind a few months ago and I told them, you know, they opposed it, but they haven't said anything ever since, you know. They're not going to bug me about it. GREG CARCHIDI: Hold it against you, yeah. NUNZIO ROSELLI: They can't do that. GREG CARCHIDI: That's okay. This about wraps it up here. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Oh, finally. GREG CARCHIDI: But that's good. All right [laughter]. But it's interesting, Nunz, because… NUNZIO ROSELLI: Oh, nice talking to you. GREG CARCHIDI: Really, there's not many Italian immigrants that are, you know, your age around that can have and really express their opinion like you did. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah. GREG CARCHIDI: So this has been an interview, an oral history, [laughter] with Nunzio Roselli. You're 18, right? NUNZIO ROSELLI: I'm going to be 18. I'm sorry, I didn't tell it. January first. GREG CARCHIDI: And you skipped a grade, right? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah.30 GREG CARCHIDI: They kept you back then you skipped a grade in school. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Right. GREG CARCHIDI: You must have, because you're 17. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Well, [unintelligible - 00:42:03] should be out. I should have been out last year. GREG CARCHIDI: Oh yeah? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah. GREG CARCHIDI: But you did skip a grade? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Yeah, I did skip a grade because… GREG CARCHIDI: After you learned a lot? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Hey, they screwed me once, you know? They can't screw me all the time. GREG CARCHIDI: Hey, that's right [laughter]. Okay. So thank you very much, Nunz. Why don't you say goodbye to the people in your native tongue? NUNZIO ROSELLI: Arrivederci. [Speaking in Italian] and as long as you pay me an extra 10 bucks this week, you know [laughter]… GREG CARCHIDI: Say merry… NUNZIO ROSELLI: Buon Natale, Buon Natale. It means Merry Christmas. GREG CARCHIDI: Buon Natale. NUNZIO ROSELLI: Buon Natale. GREG CARCHIDI: All right gracias, gracias. NUNZIO ROSELLI: [Speaking in Italian]. GREG CARCHIDI: [Speaking in Italian], okay. This about wraps it up. NUNZIO ROSELLI: [Speaking in Italian]. GREG CARCHIDI: Now that's the way it is./AT/jf/cl/es

Part three of an interview with Musa Ali of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Topics include: Different job he held and businesses he owned. How he brought his children to the U.S. Where his children were educated and what they do for work. How he has been treated in the U.S. What churches he attends. What marriage customs are like. ; 1 SPEAKER 1: Yeah. ALI: Uh, he say, "Give me $10 more and me wash dishes." I say, "No, my friend, me like wash dishes." And he can't kick me out because I'm the boss. SPEAKER 1: Boss, right. [Laughs] ALI: And I start working in the kitchen. This Chinese is a short fellow. What he do, I write in my. with Arabic language. I write what he do. Every time, what he do-do, I write it until I learned all the cook. SPEAKER 1: Really? ALI: I fired the cook, I hired dishwasher. SPEAKER 1: [Laughs] ALI: And I start cooking for two and a half years Chinese food. SPEAKER 1: Wow, you stayed that one. ALI: I stayed two and a half years. SPEAKER 1: Yeah? ALI: Yes. And after, American government send me to Russia. SPEAKER 1: For what? ALI: Business. SPEAKER 1: Business? [Laughs] ALI: And I went to Russia and I have to sell my business. SPEAKER 1: Yeah? ALI: I sold it, I think, $11,000. SPEAKER 1: Yeah? ALI: The restaurant. I stayed six months, less than a few days to six months. When I came back, I find the place go to pieces. SPEAKER 1: Really? ALI: That's right. And I took over. I be. I-I bought it $450. SPEAKER 1: Back? You bought it? ALI: Back. SPEAKER 1: [Laughs] Yeah. 2 ALI: And then we changed it from Chinese to American again. SPEAKER 1: Yeah? ALI: Yeah. And I took it over. I bought it $450. I fire all the help and I hire good girls, nice-looking girls. She wants to take picture in Fox and Hound, if you know that place, Fox and Hound Nightclub in Quincy. She take picture and take the picture, put your picture in a match. SPEAKER 1: Oh, yeah? ALI: She's a beautiful girl. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. ALI: Big, tall, hair up to. I hire her behind the counter and I see a lot of customers look at her. And her dance is very, very good and after. Uncle Sam again, called me up again. SPEAKER 1: Yeah? ALI: Send me back to Palestine. SPEAKER 1: Business again? ALI: Business again. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. ALI: And I have to sell it. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. ALI: And I sold it. When I came back again, I have to take hairdresser. I went to school. SPEAKER 1: Yeah? You went to school? ALI: A hairdresser. Yeah. SPEAKER 1: Where was this, did you go to school? ALI: In Boston. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. ALI: Academy something school. Yes. And I took a license. And after when we talk, I became. me and Harry J. Sullivan, and Harry L. Barker, we had a meeting together and I said, "I'd like to get my business back to be doctor." He said, "Ali, you can't. You have to 3 go to school." I went to Harvard College. When I went to Harvard College, naturally they talk big words, the dean of the college. I don't understand. I go to library. In state hospital, you have a beautiful library, American here. I went to library and that's where the boys who were in the same class with me, some of them were in the army too, you know, and started to look at dictionary what this word mean. I don't understand even the meaning of the word. I look what's the meaning of this word way back two or three times. I got lost. I said, "I don't want to lose my time in the government." The government pay for the school and gave me $125 a week. SPEAKER 1: Really? ALI: That's right. They pay me $125 a week and I don't understand nothing. That's why I thought make the government pay money for nothing and I don't understand nothing. It make you feel ashamed. Number two, it make you feel ashamed, an intelligent man, you don't understand English. It looks bad. SPEAKER 1: It's not an easy language. ALI: That's right. I say, "Okay, forget it." See? And I open sponge business. SPEAKER 1: Sponge? ALI: That's right. SPEAKER 1: [Laughs] ALI: They call it [unintelligible - 00:03:40] Sponge Company in Boston. That's my name. Yes. I have 250 men diver for me. SPEAKER 1: Oh, yeah? ALI: Yes, in Boston. I made good business. Yes. And I have a boat go to Middle East and come back. Yes, with captain. I go with them once in a while. I've done a very good business. Yes. And after, I sold the business and I came to Fitchburg. 4 SPEAKER 1: Well, all this time you were in Boston, were you still living with your brother? ALI: No. SPEAKER 1: No? You moved out? ALI: I move out. I live alone. I hire apartment, one doctor. I mean, doctor. him and I, we live together. SPEAKER 1: But you still didn't have enough family to bring your family over here? ALI: No, I bring my family. SPEAKER 1: When did you bring your family? ALI: In 1946, I bring my son. SPEAKER 1: Yeah? ALI: Yes. SPEAKER 1: Just your son or.? ALI: My son, the one who died. SPEAKER 1: Yeah? ALI: I bring him; I put him in high school in Boston. After, I put him in Northeastern College. After, I put him to Harvard College. Yes. SPEAKER 1: Did you bring your wife or the rest of the.? ALI: No, my wife she. SPEAKER 1: She had died. ALI: In 1948. SPEAKER 1: And what about the rest of your children? ALI: Lived with my mother and father. My father, he lived 107. SPEAKER 1: To 107 years old? ALI: That's right. SPEAKER 1: And the other children lived with him? ALI: Yes. SPEAKER 1: Why did you just bring the one boy and not the others? Because. ALI: No, no, because he's old enough. He was 17. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. 5 ALI: And the other one was younger. He didn't need mother. SPEAKER 1: Yeah, they had to be taken care of while he was work. ALI: We have to be [unintelligible - 00:05:07]. If I bring with me women here. because I hear here, in old country, they say he's a playboy. SPEAKER 1: Oh, yeah. ALI: And I don't want to say that. I don't want somebody give me a bad name. I don't want no woman to live with me with my children. You see? Right away, they say, "It's not for his children – he playboy." SPEAKER 1: Yeah. ALI: And I don't like that. See? I bring my son then he finish and I bring other son when he grow when I came to Fitchburg here. In 1950, I bring my other son. And after, I bring my daughter. See? And my son, that number two, he don't like the school. I put him in Fitchburg High School here three months and I walk with him – I don't take him in a car, walk with him – he go to school, inside. He see when I go and he walk out. He don't go to school. SPEAKER 1: Do they speak English at all? ALI: A little bit. SPEAKER 1: A little bit. Yeah. ALI: Because down there, they teach you A, B, C, D, open the door, close the door, thank you, goodbye, how are you, you know. SPEAKER 1: He just didn't like it. ALI: He don't like the school. We have to learn some trade. He said, "I like to be mechanic." I put him to mechanic here in [unintelligible - 00:06:25] summer school, a mechanic. I put him there, two weeks, he said, "Too dirty." SPEAKER 1: Yeah. ALI: And I said, "All right." And he start to smoke. I beat him up. And he see me a few time I go to Fidelity Bank, to Mr. Barrett. He 6 ask him, he say, "My father need $200, Mr. Barrett. Can you give me please?" Mr. Barrett did give him $200, the president of the bank. SPEAKER 1: Oh, geez. ALI: He took $200 and he took the bus from here to Boston. He was only five months in this country. And he went to Boston by bus. And from Boston, he took the taxi to the airport and he took the airplane to Dearborn, Michigan. This boy here, you met him, Abdullah? SPEAKER 1: Yeah. ALI: He's the one who was there in Dearborn, Michigan, because he came the same day, this my nephew, because. both cousin. And he went to see him. He started work with him. From there, he went to volunteer to the air force, American Air Force, four years. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. What's he doing today? ALI: Now, he wants to work with me, barber. I put him in school here to be barber because he don't like. SPEAKER 1: He came back, yeah. ALI: He came back. He get married and he get six kid now. I put him to work with me for 14 years, you know, barber. I gave him $225 a week, five days, for barber. He was [Unintelligible - 00:08:01] for me in barbershop here. SPEAKER 1: In Fitchburg? ALI: In Fitchburg. And after the business dropped down because everybody gets. starts to get long hair. And then he left. He went to Somerville. He bought packages store, you know, variety store. And he bought house there, see. And now, he has then. making a good living. SPEAKER 1: What about your daughter? How did.? ALI: My daughter, she got married. SPEAKER 1: So she came here? 7 ALI: No. I send her to Harvard College. I want to be doctor. Because I found out you can't open a hospital, you can't do nothing until you be doctor. And I was thinking, "She's young and she know English." I put her in Harvard College, took a medical degree, and she get doctors. And I work on her hair. And after two or three years, could be, maybe, I get my practice license doctor, too. See? And she went over a year and a half. And I was her hairdresser myself in Fitchburg here. She don't like to be doctor. She said, "Dad, I don't like it – too hard for me. Can I take hairdressing and work with you?" I said, "Okay." I put her hairdresser, in a school. She stays seven months in school and then she got her practice license, hairdresser. And she came work with me in Fitchburg as hairdresser. She don't like it. I said, "What do you want?" She said, "Well, let me work with you in the house." I have a house. SPEAKER 1: Take care of your house? ALI: My house. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. ALI: I put her in the house. Then she hit 18, 19 and I said, "Now, you can't stay like this. You have to be married." I send her back to old country. She met my cousin. SPEAKER 1: Yeah? ALI: Yes. SPEAKER 1: It was an arranged type of marriage? ALI: Yes. Yes. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. Your other boy got married though. That wasn't arranged, was it? ALI: Arranged by my father. SPEAKER 1: Oh, it was? ALI: Yes. I send them there from here, from the air force. SPEAKER 1: So he married an Arab? ALI: Yes. 8 SPEAKER 1: And your other son, he went to a school here? ALI: Yes, he went to Northeastern College. He went to Harvard College. SPEAKER 1: For any special thing? ALI: Yes. SPEAKER 1: To be a doctor? ALI: No. SPEAKER 1: No? ALI: Number one, he was engineer, see. And after, he took, I don't know what kind of thing. He took another one. Subject, he took another subject. And after, he went to the air force. He once worked for the government intelligence service six and a half years, see. And after he get discharged, he came here. He opened supermarket in Detroit, Michigan. And the American government went after him, took him. He went on postmaster in Saudi Arabia. After, they took him back to ambassador. Two months ago, the American government, they want me to go back. They came here to the barbershop and ask me to follow. I thought about it. They want me to go back to the service. SPEAKER 1: They want you, too? ALI: Yes. SPEAKER 1: Yeah? And you said no? ALI: No. I told them the story about when that tourist was hunting. Do you remember? SPEAKER 1: I think. ALI: One Arabian champion and one German champion went to hunt. They say, "There can't be two champions. There got to be one." When he went to Germany, he say, "Okay, you're my guest tomorrow morning." Next morning, they went to hunt. The German fellow took the eagle with him – pheasants, they're called pheasants. He let the pheasant cock, cock, cock, and all the 9 pheasant come in. German fellow, he took the gun and shot five. He said, "Boy, that's why you're champion?" He says, "Well, that's my limit now. Five minute, five pheasants. Let's go back home." He said, "Before you go, you want to sell me the pheasant? He said, "It cost too much money." He said, "Why?" "Because they take me a long time to teach them, making the pheasant come in and after I kill them, he come in with them. You know, because they're dead and it becomes alive and put them with me and go home. It cost me too much time and money." He said, "I don't care. How much you want to sell it?" He said, "A thousand mark." He said, "Here's a thousand mark, my friend." Look at him, the smartest man. He said, "I'll buy it. The German fellow, he said, "A thousand marks for one pheasant is a lot of money." He took it, and the Arabian man, he took the gun and shot him, he kill him. He said, "Why you kill him?" He said, "Well, he's not worth to live. He doesn't deserve to live." He said, "Why?" He said, "He double-cross his kind." SPEAKER 1: [Laughs] ALI: Double-cross his kind. The German fellow, he always said, "You're right." He said, "He's not worth to live." Am I going against my people? No. And I told that story to the people who come to see me. They say, "You're still American." I say, "I don't care. Still, I'm Arabian blood." SPEAKER 1: Yeah, you can't go against your people. ALI: I can't. SPEAKER 1: When you started to live in this area, did you look for a neighborhood of your own nationality or weren't there enough people? ALI: No, when I came here, I don't find nobody except one man, I told you, Mr. Joseph. He's Lebanese and he's Catholic. And the Catholic, they don't like the Muslim. 10 SPEAKER 1: They don't? No? ALI: No. This people here that came tonight, they don't like Muslims. SPEAKER 1: No? ALI: But just he work for me one time. When he came to this country to. he didn't have no license. I took him with me to Boston and I help him out to get his license. And he work with me one year, see. And I give him good money. But, of course, I'm Muslim, he quit. SPEAKER 1: Really? ALI: That's right, after I give him license. He work in the plastic. He come and his finger all burned here because of the plastic. SPEAKER 1: The chemicals? ALI: Because I get factory in New Hampshire. SPEAKER 1: You have a factory now? ALI: Yeah, I sold it. SPEAKER 1: Oh, you sold it? ALI: Yeah, last year. I get plastic factory, Green, in New Hampshire? SPEAKER 1: Yeah? ALI: That's my name. SPEAKER 1: Geez. You have a lot of things going. Well, how did the people treat you when you came into this area? ALI: Well, like I say, when I came here, I think I told you I met that man, Mr. [Lowell], and I took him home, I make Christmas dinner. I told you a story about it. And when I ask him to get. I give him $2 and dinner with us. She took it the wrong way. SPEAKER 1: Yeah, to be a waitress. ALI: Yeah, and after I went to First Baptist Church, where is the library now exactly, I make dinner for 250. When we were finished, I show you the papers here. I fed him next year. I asked him, he said, no, he get to be only a Baptist member, a First Baptist Church member. I said, "No, my friend, every man, the Greek, Italian, 11 Jews, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, I don't care who it is, over 6 years, they are invited. We call the mother, father of the town or the city. I invite everybody. And I have cars, transportation. I have. each car, two people to bring man or woman in wheelchair and put them in a car. When they come out, they can bring them to the dinner. And I have nurses; I hire 10 nurses. Every time I went to [unintelligible - 00:15:28] Hospital with my high English. I have a hard time even to rent 10 girls, to hire girls to feed the people and wash them out and send them back. Even one fellow is named Father O'Brien. He was in charge of the Saint Camilla Church. He was a waiter. And he didn't believe it. He came, kiss me, and hug me two or three time in my cheek. He say he never see that in his life and he was waiter with the George Burke last time and the policemen in five minutes, city council – waiters. And Father O'Brien, he volunteered. He say, "Honest to God, Mo, I give one man five times, you know, what's called second, second, second, five dishes. He eat five dishes in all, all men. And this man, he never eat before." I said, "That's what I would love to have. I want people to eat." The last time, last year, when I get. I get 15 years in Fitchburg here. The last time was 2,200 people. It was on TV, channel 4, 5, and 7. SPEAKER 1: Really? ALI: Yes, ma'am. SPEAKER 1: I don't remember. ALI: Yes. SPEAKER 1: A year ago? ALI: Yes. No, eight years ago. SPEAKER 1: Oh, eight years ago. ALI: Yes. Then they take me to the court. I have 500 letters. Over 10 letter come in from Tokyo, Japan. SPEAKER 1: Really? 12 ALI: That's right. I still got that mail. From Tokyo, Japan they thank me. They never see that man who do all that dinner, 82 turkey. I bought the smallest turkey, 35 pound from C.A. Cross. I don't know if you remember that name. It was a wholesale when you go to Wayland Park in your right-hand side. I bought. when I have my own restaurant. I have restaurant in [Parma], big dining. And I have the hotel. [Unintelligible - 00:17:29] I told you. And I had. SPEAKER 1: Barry? ALI: Barry. I have restaurant in [unintelligible - 00:17:37]. See, I have different places. And I buy a lot of food from them. And I ask Mr. Cross, young fellow, I say, "I want to make dinner." He say, "I hear about it." I say, "I want you to give me wholesale." He say, "Yes." He give me 82 turkeys but it's special because you have to order especially that big turkey. And nobody wanted that turkey, 38 and 40 pound, not 10, 15 pound. The smallest was 38 pound, see. I bought it and put them at table. And then the TV man, he came and took the picture. SPEAKER 1: Yeah? ALI: Yeah, he didn't believe it. One man, he volunteered to buy this stuff and cook them and slice them. He don't believe it. And nobody helped me here. And after, took me to the court. I told you that. They want to know where I got my money and what reason. I told them. SPEAKER 1: They just didn't know you could do something like that because you want to do it for people, to help them. ALI: I want it. I've done it in London. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. ALI: I fed in London in 1943. I fed 1,500 people in London. And the mayor of London, his name is Mr. Johnson—I not forgot it, old man with one eye—he worked with me all night long. And the 13 English is, everybody know, cold-blooded. But he's hot blooded. He worked with me. But the American here, nobody work with me. SPEAKER 1: No one helped you? ALI: Nobody. And even took me to the court. They want to know where I got my money. SPEAKER 1: So the people just weren't very friendly to you? ALI: No. No. Can you believe.? What reason, I can't tell you – just jealous because I run for politics here, for mayor? SPEAKER 1: When was that? ALI: Huh? SPEAKER 1: What year was that? ALI: I forget. Eight years ago since I start to run for mayor, this trouble starts in the city. SPEAKER 1: So do you still find a little bit of hostility now even? ALI: A little bit. I know they don't like me. Look now, I have a building, main street building – Dr. Rosenberg here, Dr. Benton here, and my building in the middle. Number one, I paint it white. They came and give me help, you see. "You can't paint it white. You have to paint it blue." I had one argument with my neighbor. I said, "Okay, I paint it blue but not dark blue, light blue." Dr. Benton and the dentist's wife, they came and they both gave me, "Are you blind? We're not this color." I say, "You told me blue. It is blue." He said, "No, it's light blue." I say, "Yes. It's barbershop. I want to grab people eyes, look. I don't want it dark." He said, "Where do you buy your paint?" I told him, "From Academy Paint Store." His name Phil, the manager, they went to see him. He said, "Phil?" He say, "Yes." He say, "We want a paint for Mr. Ali." He say, "Sure. No?" He say, "Yes." He say, "We need paint." They pick up the color – dark, dark blue. I could swear to God it's black. And he say, "[Unintelligible -14 00:20:51]. Is he color blind? He's stupid." He, he, he to the end. And then he came home to the office and he called me up. He say, "Ali?" I say, "Yes." "We got you the paint." I thought he pay for the paint. No. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. They wouldn't pay? ALI: No. He just pick up the color for me. I went to Phil. He said, "Ali, how do you live with this wife?" I said, "Why?" He said, "She call you stupid, she call you colorblind, she call you." I say, "That's not – you know how the women. They don't want to hear me. I didn't say nothing. SPEAKER 1: You didn't say it wasn't your wife? [Laughs] ALI: No. And he said, "What color?" He said, "This one." I said, "My gosh! Nobody died in my barbershop." SPEAKER 1: [Laughs] ALI: It's black. He say, "That's the wife. She." I say, "Give me that green." He says, "She's going to divorce you." I say, "Good. I like her to divorce me. I'll find another one." I painted it green. And since that time, he don't talk to me. He called me everything. We have a fire in that building. Fellow's name [unintelligible - 00:21:59]. He's the headman or the building inspector. He send me a letter by police – not by post office or by mail – by the police. I have to start remodeling my building before eight hours. If not, he can [unintelligible - 00:22:16] to make my building. I start for eight hours after the fire, start work on my building, three years ago. Now, Dr. Rosenberg is still there now. The window broke, the door broke. There's snow inside, frozen pipe. They didn't tell him, "You have to remodel your building." Why? He's a white man. I'm a white man. He's an American citizen. I'm an American citizen. He pay tax. I pay tax. I pay $800 tax – this year, $2,100 tax. But why they can't send him letter, "You have to fix this building." I went to John [unintelligible - 00:23:00]. I 15 said, "Mr. John, cousin," I say, "Will you please write letter to Dr. Rosenberg? He don't want to fix his building?" "All right, I can't force him. I'm not the City Hall." I say, "Can you give me permit at least for the window? Because it froze my pipe and I can't afford it. Even last week, when I was in old country, the pipe froze. They have to call the policeman; they have to call the fireman to close my water. It was leaking, fifth floor to the cellar, my pipe. It cost me $1,000. And they won't help me to [sell]. They won't help me. SPEAKER 1: No? ALI: No. When I went to John [unintelligible - 00:23:41], he charged me $10. He wrote me a letter, a typewritten letter, good English, to Dr. Rosenberg to ask him permit, to give me permit. I buy the wood; I hire the carpenter, just for the window to hold the air. You sue me for $25,000. SPEAKER 1: They can do that? ALI: Yes. Now, I'm under court for $25,000 and that passing, what's that called in English? SPEAKER 1: Damages? ALI: No, pass. SPEAKER 1: Trespassing? ALI: Trespassing. And I send them up by mail, by lawyer. They charge me $10. See? SPEAKER 1: And they're going to sue you? ALI: They sue me already. My lawyer, Solomon, too, is Jewish; Dr. Rosenberg is Jewish. I say, "Two Jewish fight each other." See? To show you I'm not wanted here. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. You said something about you became an American citizen. When did you become one? Do you remember? 16 ALI: 1942 and they took me to intelligence service. Because you can be intelligence service; you have to be citizen. I took my citizen in Durham, North Carolina. SPEAKER 1: Yeah? ALI: That's right. SPEAKER 1: Really? Did you ever become involved in… well, there was no Muslim Church around here. You said that. where is the church? ALI: We have a church in Quincy. We have a church in New York. We have a big church in Washington, D.C. We have a church in Dearborn, Michigan. We have church in Detroit, Michigan. We have church in Cleveland, Ohio. SPEAKER 1: But none really that. do you go to churches around here? ALI: I go to every church. I go to Saint [unintelligible - 00:25:13], I go to Christ Church, I go to Saint Georgia's Church [unintelligible - 00:25:20], I go to Baptist Church. now they move it. It was here. They move it in John Fitch Highway [unintelligible - 00:25:30] down when you go to New Hampshire. Ashby? SPEAKER 1: Oh, Ashby? ALI: In the middle. We have a garage there, a new garage, in the church up the hill, building new. I go there. I go to Jew synagogue. SPEAKER 1: So you're really involved in all of them? ALI: I go to everyone. I don't mind. SPEAKER 1: It doesn't make any difference? ALI: No, we have one God in this world, like I told you yesterday. We have one God in this world, see. SPEAKER 1: Did you ever become involved in any social activities while you did those, you know. like you did the Christmas dinners with people. Anything else that you. any social activities like. did lots of Muslims ever get together and have like dates? ALI: No. SPEAKER 1: Nothing like that? 17 ALI: We have Arabian dance in Boston because [unintelligible - 00:26:14] get married, or [ring show] from Egypt, Lebanon, Beirut, [unintelligible - 00:26:19]. SPEAKER 1: But nothing in this area? ALI: Not in this area, because not much here people. SPEAKER 1: No? ALI: The most 25, 30 people, just young boys. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. What were some of the things that you miss most about home, back in Arabia? Like did you miss the food or the.? ALI: Yes. SPEAKER 1: Do you still cook Arabian food? ALI: I cook any kind but I can't cook Arabian food. SPEAKER 1: You can't? ALI: I can't cook Arabian food. SPEAKER 1: No? ALI: No. I have to go some time in Worcester. They call it [El Morocco]. You've been there? SPEAKER 1: I've heard of it, yeah. ALI: I go there sometime when I want Arabian food. But sometime, invite me, somebody like this people here, Lebanese, sometime invite me. I eat Arabian food. Sometime, I go to my son, I go to my nephew, see. SPEAKER 1: Do you miss that kind of food though? ALI: Yes. SPEAKER 1: You're becoming adjusted to American food though? ALI: Yeah, I like American food. SPEAKER 1: [Unintelligible - 00:27:15]. ALI: Anything to fill your belly. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. ALI: That's all. SPEAKER 1: Do you miss the customs and things like that? 18 ALI: I wear it here. Yes. SPEAKER 1: You were telling me about the marriage customs. I thought that was kind of interesting, you know, how you don't get. like in your country, you don't even see them. ALI: No, you don't see them. SPEAKER 1: Each other before you're married. ALI: See, down there, like I say, I like the custom this way. And I like American custom like we talked yesterday because independent. how you look at it. Number one, down there, you can't have no girlfriend, no boyfriend, only through by your mother, by your father. See, you're married. Okay. When you're married, like I say, depending on your class, how much money you're worth; if you're worth money enough because the money belong to you because you belong to your wife, $2,000. You buy silk handkerchiefs. It's got to be white silk handkerchiefs. You give to the girl's father. The girl father count them. You have to replace it, match it. SPEAKER 1: Match it, yeah. ALI: He put $2,000, you put $2,000. He put $5,000, you put $5,000. He put $10,000, you put $10,000. The girl father, you have to match it. And he call the mother and he give the mother. The mother and the daughter, they go outside next day, buy jewelry, furnishing. SPEAKER 1: Stuff for the house? ALI: Stuff for the girl, for her future. Okay. And after, the boy, he invites everybody. Like I told you, we have dance three nights, see, until 12 or 1 o'clock in the morning. They bring like guitars in old country but call that oud. SPEAKER 1: Oud? ALI: Oud is different. It's round. SPEAKER 1: It's round? Yes. 19 ALI: Yes, beautiful. See? And they play sometime until 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning. Poem. SPEAKER 1: Singing? ALI: Yeah. And people have good time drinking coffee and cinnamon. SPEAKER 1: Yeah, cinnamon. ALI: Oh, beautiful. I love it. SPEAKER 1: But no liquor or nothing? ALI: No liquors, absolutely none. SPEAKER 1: It's against the religion? ALI: If you get caught with empty can beer in your hand or your body, three months in jail without court. SPEAKER 1: Because of your religion? ALI: That's right. SPEAKER 1: Really? ALI: That's right. Now, I can tell you now. But in my time, you see, you can. not allowed. You remember my nephew when he told you I own the hotel. He get busy because I have nightclub. See? And I bring girl from Africa, Algiers, dancing from. from Italy, dancing and advertising in the papers and radio. And everybody, they want to see something different. Because you have to get [unintelligible - 00:30:06] to bring somebody and I bring a lot of people. And when the bartender. they have three bartender and too busy, see. I have to help them. They say, "Mo, give me Schlitz." "This cousin Schlitz?" "No, no, not this one." "This?" "No, no." I start to pick up. I don't care. Beer is the same thing to me. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. ALI: Beer is beer. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. ALI: Everyone has a different name, see. I have a cooler. I can put in 30 case, see. And I do not care. I just pick up. "I don't want this 20 one." "Okay, cousin. Open this." "Okay. No, not this one." "Okay, that's the one. Okay." They drive me. but fast. I want it fast. SPEAKER 1: So when you have your wedding celebrations, you just like to sit, have coffee, things like that. ALI: Coffee. SPEAKER 1: That lasts for three days? ALI: Yes. SPEAKER 1: And the girls last three days, too? Separate? ALI: No, together. SPEAKER 1: Oh, together? ALI: Together, but men dance and sing and the girl behind – same area but not together, see. All right. And after, they make dinner. SPEAKER 1: For everybody? ALI: For everybody. Sometime, even four or five towns, depending how you are well known. I don't know what you call in English. How much you are well known. People know you. Two or three towns, sometimes 10 towns. Sometimes, nobody just your neighbors, see. Sometimes, a lot of people come in, 40, 50, 6000 lambs, sometimes two lamb. But like I say, how much people do you know? SPEAKER 1: So you kill a lamb? ALI: You kill them; you cook them, make dinner. And after, we eat dinner. No, before the dinner, we take the boy, ride in a horse, like I told you, and start a race, see. And after half or one hour, the men bring back the horse and they begin with the dance with the sword and poem./AT/mb/ee

Part five of an interview with Robert and Joanne Frigoletto. Topics include: His father's dental practice. How dentistry changed between Robert and his father's time. Dentistry and insurance. How Robert got into pediatric dentistry. What it means to Robert and Joanne to be Italian. What it was like when Robert and Joanne moved to Leominster, MA. Finding a church to join. Italian cooking. Discrimination and derogatory ethnic terms. ; 1 ROBERT: How is it different? I guess, I don't know. LINDA: Oh, I guess I'll just give a hint. I remember last time… SPEAKER 1: Yeah, I'm just gonna -- not saying anything different. LINDA: I guess remember last time you had mentioned… ROBERT: Two generations? LINDA: Well, more, more that they established more of a relationship you had thought, your father and his, his customer. Or the patients or whatever. ROBERT: The patients, yeah. LINDA: And by the time you came along it was more a business relationship. SPEAKER 1: Yes, that's what I was gonna say. ROBERT: Yeah, I think the culture changed then, the insurance changed then. SPEAKER 1: Exactly. ROBERT: You know, they weren't paying the bill all the time anymore, I guess. But then I get… SPEAKER 1: It was on a professional level more than… ROBERT: Yeah, it was more of a professional level. LINDA: But can you give me some examples of your father… again, last time you had mentioned that some, some of these people just couldn't afford the bill. ROBERT: Sometimes they bring in the eggs and the, from the chickens, and they'll bring in the chickens. SPEAKER 1: [Laughter] ROBERT: Then they couldn't bring in the eggs. [Laughter] SPEAKER 1: [Laughter] ROBERT: Really, my life, we had eggs for the rest of our lives here, really. SPEAKER 1: [Laughter] ROBERT: But right. My, my dad used to do a lot of work for these -- 50 cents and some dollars. And I remember coming from dental school in '63, when I got out, and I thought I had a hard time 2 learning the fees, they were the same as we were charging in the clinic in Chicago, and that was like three and four dollars a filling. My father had the same fees then. SPEAKER 1: He had clinic fees instead of Boston [buttons]. ROBERT: Instead of Boston places. Yeah, certainly now Boston places and places around here about the same. SPEAKER 1: They're the same because it's all covered by insurance. ROBERT: Yeah, well, different class. So I guess he had a lot of people who are paying him on time, and those people really appreciated the doctor and patient relationship. And a lot of them are friends, and my father used to use a lot of his patients to do work, and… SPEAKER 1: Yeah, I think that was more prevalent then… ROBERT: It was more prevalent in those days where people used to use… SPEAKER 1: And you kind of… ROBERT: … their own group back and forth. But my father used to say -- there's a great quote, "If you keep spending money in town it'll eventually get back to you." That was probably a good -- he always used to tell me that. Keep using the local people in town, and it'll eventually get back to you. LINDA: That sounds good. ROBERT: Yeah, I think that's -- that's a quote that's gonna make the CD. SPEAKER 1: [Laughter] LINDA: Well, if you don't pay extra, I don't know. ROBERT: … out of all the quotes. LINDA: I don't even know about… SPEAKER 1: Yeah, right. We… LINDA: You know, we don't know. ROBERT: Right. We don't know what that means. LINDA: We don't know. ROBERT: Hidden information or whatever, that's the one or two phrase out of all of this.3 LINDA: Oh, but don't be discouraged because, again, I think… ROBERT: Oh, I'm not discouraged. LINDA: … there are more… ROBERT: I'm just talking about it, you know. SPEAKER 1: I think it's just wonderful that it's written down, and especially, and I think I mentioned this last time, in the book that we've done called City in the River, that was one of Fitchburg, the section on the Italian, the Italian section in the book, left out his father. They mentioned the other brothers, the other brother and sisters, but his father was left out. So it's nice that he's gonna be in some archives. ROBERT: I think that was a political… SPEAKER 1: Yeah, there was a … ROBERT: … it was -- for my father being involved in politics a little bit, there was some stuff. But what was… SPEAKER 1: But the Jewish section they mentioned him. There's two doctors… ROBERT: Well, that's because of my mother… SPEAKER 1: … that's Dr. Van and Dr. Phil, they mentioned Dr. Frigoletto in the Jewish part of the book. ROBERT: My mother was such a social being. SPEAKER 1: Well, they mentioned that, that's why she came here. Now… ROBERT: Everybody loved her. She was just huggy. SPEAKER 1: No, but they mentioned her because of your father's instrument on the incumbency, so it was mentioned in that part of the book. ROBERT: [Brilliant] thing. SPEAKER 1: But it's nice to have this in history. Like I say, who knows, great, great, great grandchildren, someday, may wanna find out. ROBERT: Yeah. LINDA: Oh, but it's not -- certainly that, but it's the people that wanna learn about, let's say, the history of Italians or the history of Leominster and Fitchburg. It's really for our reviewing.4 SPEAKER 1: Absolutely. And that's important, I mean, I think the more of us ought to be a little more connected with history somehow. This generation sometimes is not too interested; they're only interested in here and now. ROBERT: And the only -- the other thing that may be interesting was he had a brother and sister that came here from Grandpa, lived here for a while, Lee Marie. SPEAKER 1: Louise… Louise Frigoletto. Grandpa Frigoletto came here from Italy. ROBERT: Grandpa Frigoletto had a brother and sister from Italy who came to Fitchburg for a year or two. SPEAKER 1: A year. Didn't… ROBERT: … and that both of them ended up in California. The last time I was still there, we got to meet them about 15 years ago for the first time. They came out to my daughter's wedding, and we still talk and write letters, and [unintelligible - 00:05:11] see each other probably 'til we die. We found them too late. Wonderful Italian family. SPEAKER 1: Yes. They -- now, his parents have gone off to visit them. I never… ROBERT: The never talked much about it. I knew they went, but, you know, they came home with some pictures and by the end of the week that was it, and I never remember them calling or doing -- and yet we, you know, we went up there and struck up a nice relationship, and to this day we're constantly in touch. But somehow they didn't like they didn't like the area, and what's interestingly, culturally, I think, is that the brother, so I understand, didn't like it here and saw an ad in the Boston Paper from California saying come out and work in our produce farm, and if you spend a year with us and you work hard, we'll give you an acre of land. For five years or three years or some time, and that's what this brother 5 did, and kept getting acres of land, and now -- out in [Los Baños] you'd look like this, as far as you can see, hundreds of acres of produce that he produces… SPEAKER 1: Yeah. LINDA: Mm-hmm. SPEAKER 1: Well, now, do they have Frigoletto, or are they… ROBERT: No, they're Frigolettis… SPEAKER 1: They kept the old… ROBERT: They're the Frigolettis. SPEAKER 1: Frigoletti, right. ROBERT: Hmm. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. LINDA: Oh, yeah, but they would be, right…? SPEAKER 1: Right. LINDA: …. because… ROBERT: Because they left a year or two after Grandpa. My father might've been, you know, five years old or born recently or something like that when they left. And the… SPEAKER 1: But there's a family resemblance. LINDA: Is that…? ROBERT: Oh, I wish. I walked… SPEAKER 1: Watch. He walked like him. ROBERT: I walked into the room in California, and one of the daughters turned around and said, "You look just like Uncle…" SPEAKER 1: Tony. ROBERT: Uncle Tony, who used to be her -- Uncle Tony had died recently just before we got there, right? Showed me pictures of Tony… SPEAKER 1: They're your father's first cousin. ROBERT: My father's first cousin. I looked at the pictures and go, "Wow!" SPEAKER 1: Yeah.6 ROBERT: And I guess one of us, one of the daughters, one of the daughters' daughters who came to the wedding, yeah, and met me for the first time. This Tony used to send her money when she was going to college, was her favorite uncle, you know, always slipping the -- never met me. When she met me she took a breath because she thought Tony came back to her. And she told me that after, just for a second, because you turn around they introduced you, she says, "I took a deep breath because that was my favorite uncle. And he -- and for a second there he was again." So we knew we were the right relatives. SPEAKER 1: [Laughter] LINDA: [Laughter] ROBERT: So that's -- I don't know if that's be of interest to anybody at all. But I think the produce going and being -- and now, doing very well. He says most of the lettuce you get back East comes from us. SPEAKER 1: They made… ROBERT: … big bucks. SPEAKER 1: Big money. LINDA: Wow. SPEAKER 1: They really value the land. ROBERT: Yeah, they'd really lorded it then. LINDA: So getting back to dentistry, how did insurance change the practice? ROBERT: He didn't have that 50 cents and a dollar a week, come and get in do free work as much because all of these poor—and there are poor people who are now on welfare, which is some kind of insurance, right? And insurance paid now some of the things that were deductibles and back pays, but it separated the trust factor, and now we weren't doing so many things for free or discounts or 15 kinds of people, because we don't have to, we would get it from the insurance. But you'd always get less with the insurance with 7 all these complaints about the things you would choose to do and put doubt in people's minds. So now the relationship with the doctor who could do no wrong, which sometimes I guess he did, and insurance company always looking for their stockholders, and they have different goals, so you've got -- poor consumer was in the middle, and the relationships are more business than personal, aren't they now? So that's what happened to medicine. When I heard that medicine sometimes -- a lot of times the insurance companies would figure out the price of an appendectomy, say, and they get this from the auto insurance business. I heard this, and I think it's true that most doctors can do an appendix in 33 minutes, and it'll cost the hospital X amount of dollars, and they figure it out. And that's what you do when you got a big car fix. They say it takes 34 minutes to do this and this is the price you get for it. It doesn't matter if it's complicated or not. Because a car is not a person and doesn't have the history of diabetes or cardiac or whatnot, you know, you replace a windshield in a car, it usually goes pretty much the same way every time, not true with people. So this insurance really got kind of crazy. Now they've come up -- well, this is not even cultural -- well, this is cultural. They've come up with a new thing now, evidence-based medicine that will be coming through -- it's starting to trickle in. If you don't perform, if you don't -- say you come to me with a certain disease, certain problem, and I don't solve it in one of the three or maybe one of the only ways that most people would solve that, the insurance won't pay for it because it's not evidence-based. It has to be proven that that particular way of solving the problem is the way that most people solve it. So that's gonna take all of the 8 entrepreneur out of this. And just what they've done with the drug companies, they stifle some of the research because the people, the drug companies can't get back their dollars. So all the medicines that didn't work out and all the lawsuits they got, so they'd stopped doing a lot of extra research and the progression, and the speed of new things coming out is slower. And the same thing is gonna happen in medicine, I would guess, with evidence-based medicine there's gonna be a stifling. On the other hand the protection of crazy medicine, so you get both sides, don't you? LINDA: You hear much of that…? ROBERT: You get a protection… LINDA: Crazy medicine? ROBERT: I don't know. LINDA: Let's keep it at dentistry. ROBERT: Yeah, at dentistry? Yeah, this is people of all levels, but less and less now. Most dentists are pretty proficient. Yeah, I think in my father's day there was some bad ones around, less skilled ones around. But I don't know of any now, everybody's pretty good. LINDA: So did your father determine procedures as much in the same way you did, or was it, was insurance even determining that for you? ROBERT: Ah, no. I would not let insurance determine that. I would tell the patient the best thing, give them their choices, tell them what the insurance would pay, and if they didn't pick the worst one I'd kinda go along and do it. If they picked the worst procedure I'd tell them go someplace else. I think in my father's day, my father would pick the procedure that he thought the person could afford. That's what you're looking for, remember we said that. LINDA: Mm-hmm. ROBERT: And then give them that procedure rather than letting the patient make up their mind, because I have found that some of the poor 9 people want the best medicine, and some of the richer people don't always want the best medicine. LINDA: How did the instruments change between your father's day…? ROBERT: Surprisingly a lot of the same stuff, but two things that changed the most were the high-speed drill. Let's see, just about in the early '60s when I was getting out of school, they had this air rotor, you know, air-driven turbine rather than the old mechanical thing you saw the string going around turning the pulley. Krrrr-krrrr. SPEAKER 1: Grinding away. [Laughter] ROBERT: Right, and now it's like painting, little brush. I mean, it's really air… air-quick-caning. As you can remember now, going to the dentist, you don't feel the pressure anymore. You just hear the sound. If you forget the sound that'll be all set. The other thing is the plastics, all of the adhesives and the kinds of plastics and fiberglass materials. That was always a boring subject, dental materials, is now the hot subject, because every six months they're improving all of these white fillings, so to speak, which they haven't got yet perfected but they're getting closer every year. LINDA: Oh, wow. SPEAKER 1: And the other thing besides the material, I mean, the procedures they do, the procedures that you do that your father didn't do with children? ROBERT: Ah, yeah, the specialties of -- but that's true in medicine in general, the specialties have become more important and accepted, except you can't get this under the specialist now if you're in an HMO. [Laughter] LINDA: True. True. ROBERT: You might be going back to the generalist because it's less costly. But now we -- my brother and I would say the same thing, we 10 would get referrals from general doctors for problem cases that, to us, were not really problems because we dealt with them every day. And he used to say the same thing, he used to get problem cases that were routine. But we had extra training, and that's what specialists are for. I mean some percentage sometime of his work. LINDA: Did your father deal mostly with problems or maintenance? ROBERT: Father dealt mostly with problems, because a lot of people would come only when they had a problem. Although he was -- he would deal with a lot of six-monthers that were on maintenance. SPEAKER 1: I think it was pretty evenly divided. ROBERT: Yeah. But certainly, for a time in my dental career, maintenance and prevention became really most of my practice. As a pediatric dentist that was -- prevention was really strong, stronger than most practices. And then, now the insurance companies are in now trying to dilute a lot of the preventive things that we're doing in medicine. And the -- what do you call it? SPEAKER 1: Pendulum. ROBERT: The pendulum will swung back because they're gonna get caught ten years down the line with more expensive diseases because they didn't wanna pay for the prevention. SPEAKER 1: I think there wasn't much education when your father was practicing, so people wouldn't… ROBERT: People -- yeah, less television, less news, less -- now you can't do anything because it's out in the news, they tell you every week something new. SPEAKER 1: So a lot of his patients were problems. ROBERT: Yeah, now the drug companies are advertising directly to the consumer. The hospitals are advertising directly to the consumer – never had that 25 years ago. Looked like the doctor make the choice, which hospital to go to, which medicine to use. Now, 11 people go into doctor and say, "I wanna go to hospital A, and I want you to use pill B." SPEAKER 1: I just thought of something that might be important. Your father, Scott, is the… first of all… ROBERT: The dental staff at the Burbank Hospital. SPEAKER 1: Burbank Hospital. That's what you… ROBERT: That's right, yeah. He and Dr. Beckman were… SPEAKER 1: There were no oral surgeon in town… ROBERT: Well, no. SPEAKER 1: … they used to do the oral surgery. ROBERT: My father was -- yeah. My father was [unintelligible - 00:18:01] surgery. SPEAKER 1: Mm-hmm. I think in his other life he would come back as an… ROBERT: Back as an oral surgeon. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. ROBERT: Yeah, I learned a lot of oral surgery from my dad. SPEAKER 1: Uh-huh. ROBERT: And I think he learned by the gut of his -- how do you say that? SPEAKER 1: Pleat of his pants. ROBERT: Pleat of his pants. SPEAKER 1: Mm-hmm. ROBERT: Right. You read about it and then you practice it, huh? LINDA: Then you can just… SPEAKER 1: Confident. ROBERT: Yeah, they were no -- oh, very good. Very good at tooth extractions, and a lot of people would come in. They didn't have root canals in those days, right, so you'd end up taking out the tooth. SPEAKER 1: He wasn't doing major facial surgery. We're talking of… ROBERT: No. Doing internal, oral… SPEAKER 1: Yeah, root canals…12 ROBERT: Yeah. SPEAKER 1: … extractions, yeah. LINDA: Well, I was going to ask you about pulling teeth. It seems as though people back then would just have their tooth pulled… ROBERT: Tooth pulled out and not saved, and nowadays, people are saving their teeth. Maybe years -- in his early practice, how that 70 percent of the people had full dentures, huh. Population maybe over 50 percent certainly… SPEAKER 1: Really? ROBERT: … had full dentures, and now it's down to like 25 percent. And I can remember teenagers coming into his practice when I was there the first few years and saying, "I want all my teeth out," 16, 17 years old, and my father would refuse to do it. And two months later he would tell me he would see them with dentures. LINDA: Now, why would they do that? ROBERT: Because they were here to have it made, they had money to fix them, and someone told them just get them all out of teeth and get dentures, and what a terrible thing. And my father wouldn't do it, and a number of people wouldn't do it, but I guess there were two or three dentists around who would do it. My father says he'd always see those people six months later with dentures. He used to kick them out, "Hang on to these." They'd come in and ask that [unintelligible - 00:19:51]. SPEAKER 1: Again, it's… ROBERT: But I know I used to see a lot of 16-year old kids taking out one tooth at a time, and 8 months later taking out the other one, and a year later another one would go. And I know a couple of people today that are running like that. [Laughter] LINDA: Right. SPEAKER 1: Well, as long as it's a couple that…13 ROBERT: Yeah. Well, see, I'm seeing it now in Florida when I volunteered at an indigent clinic, in Florida, during the winter. Seeing the same thing now with all of the immigrants that have come in over the past 10 years and the minorities. They're really back to the '50s dental education-wise, because these minorities they go and have a toothache and have it taken out, and I see the same thing happening as what's happening back in my early days. LINDA: Now, is that because they don't have the money or the education or both? ROBERT: Both. Both. They come from third world countries, and… you know, we had a couple of dentists in town, they go every year, over to -- where do they go, Bangladesh or something? SPEAKER 1: No, no, no. They go to El Salvador. ROBERT: El Salvador? SPEAKER 1: I think. ROBERT: And he'd see people standing in the line. They walk all night for six, eight hours to be at the clinic early in the morning at the tent to have teeth taken out because they had been suffering with toothaches for months. And there's -- every morning there's a line of people, he would say. SPEAKER 1: Or Colton tells a… ROBERT: He says over there that's all we can do. And I think I mentioned to you last time, you know, people in Colombia who said, "Let's get… let's pool some dollars and get some old equipment and get it over there to the clinic in Colombia, and the Colombian doctor who was working with us in Miami said, "Don't bother, they'll get stolen within 24 hours." LINDA: Hmm. I don't remember you mentioning that. ROBERT: Oh, didn't I? LINDA: I do remember you mentioning Florida. ROBERT: Oh. So you never know.14 LINDA: See? So it's coming back to you. ROBERT: Yeah. We're trying to get a grant passed now. I sent her the stuff, a lady has the clinic, and see if we can get Rotary and Kiwanis and all of those groups involved in helping out some of the poor people in Florida. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. No one wants to do it down there. LINDA: No one wants to… SPEAKER 1: The other day, the dentist don't want to… ROBERT: No, no difference in this, with the county. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. ROBERT: You know, the welfare system is so screwed up, and the fees are so low and the people don't show for appointments. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. ROBERT: And the only way you can do it is if you had a clinic. In fact, tomorrow night there's gonna be a meeting locally in town, and the local dentist society is gonna talk about that with some of the politicians. And I think the only answer is to develop a clinic every so often and have us guys in private practice go volunteer half a day, a week, and have some kind of tax incentive. LINDA: Trying to get people to volunteer is a problem. ROBERT: Well, you gotta give them -- you gotta give them a tax incentive… LINDA: Yeah. ROBERT: … a couple of hundred bucks of a day or something like that, you know. And then -- see, years ago, my father was -- and I just finished the rest of it, I'm doing it all, the school examiner… SPEAKER 1: He asked you. Yeah. You and your father both were school dentists. ROBERT: Right. Yeah. My father was the -- well, they didn't have school dentists anymore; he would just examine teeth. But the program started with a guy named [Bumgardner] who's a living legend. The patient that used to come into my office shaking like this 15 because they were afraid of the dentist. I used to go to Dr. Bumgardner. [Laughter] SPEAKER 1: [Laughter] I actually hear some people say that to this day. ROBERT: To this day. "My parents used to go to Bumgardner." Oh, he must have been… SPEAKER 1: He must have been horrible. [Laughter] ROBERT: So he'd say -- he was the school dentist. He used to take out teeth without Novocainee and did things like that, you know, and just -- I mean, a kid could come in with a sore tooth and just yank it out. LINDA: I can remember you telling me -- I think you told me that you were known as to be more gentle than your father? SPEAKER 1: Yes. ROBERT: Oh, that story, too, yeah. SPEAKER 1: [Laughter] ROBERT: He was pretty rough. [Laughter] But people loved him. SPEAKER 1: Well, he was quick. ROBERT: Yes. If you said ouch he'd say, "Oh, shut up." SPEAKER 1: Well, yeah. Your father worked on me once. And when I said ow, he said, "That doesn't hurt." LINDA: [Laughter] ROBERT: [Laughter] That doesn't hurt. LINDA: You [unintelligible - 00:24:04] went to him once? SPEAKER 1: Once? [Laughter] ROBERT: Well, I told you a story about the first toothache ago was the nearest from the hospital, I guess. SPEAKER 1: That was a story. ROBERT: That was a story, yeah. And I gave him a Novocainee and she said, "Ouch," and I said, "I'm sorry." She said, "Your father would've told me to shut up." I said, "Well, shut up." She says, "Good! I feel more at home now." [Laughter] 16 Then the other guy was Bill Botta, who used to be the head of United Fund here and played tennis with him. He says, "I never found out there was Novocaine until I left your father." Went to another dentist, he said, "Do you want Novocaine?" He says, "What's that?" [Laughter] He says, "Your father, decided -- " he was a big, overweight, burly guy, and I'm sure my dad decided he was strong enough not to take, that he could take the pain, why give him a Novocaine. [Laughter] He says he grew up without Novocaine, and he's well with that, you know. I don't know if it was terrible, but -- actually I don't take Novocaine now. I grew up the same way. [Laughter] SPEAKER 1: And I don't understand that. I cannot imagine not having Novocaine. ROBERT: Well, I used to study how it felt. It would help me practice, really, because I kinda knew what happens. Dang it. SPEAKER 1: I just hope… [laughter] yeah, well, before the war. ROBERT: It wasn't part of my education, but it really is not bad. LINDA: [Laughter] So tell me about… ROBERT: All right. LINDA: Tell me more about your father's connection to Burbank Hospital. ROBERT: He and Dr. Beckman, this other dentist, had decided -- I guess because my father liked these surgeries so much. He's taken out a lot of teeth, people would demand that. Started the dental department, really, the dental staff at Burbank Hospital, and which became… SPEAKER 1: So they had… ROBERT: And to mingle with the medical staff eventually as we, dentists, became accepted as doctors as the years went on. SPEAKER 1: So then they had hospital privileges in the OR. ROBERT: And we had hospital privileges in the OR, right? And I remember when I first got out of school going up with him and he was so 17 good at taking out teeth and so fast. He used to just toss them, and the girls would be running around trying to catch them with a can. [Laughter] And he caught [unintelligible - 00:26:20] mouth extractions on elderly people and senior citizens and then put the dentures right in immediately, and they'd walk out with a full set of teeth. SPEAKER 1: There was a time when both father and son were on the staff together. ROBERT: Together. Right. SPEAKER 1: Yeah, well… ROBERT: We did cases together. And it was part of my training, really, going into pediatric dentistry because I ended up dealing with retarded adults. Probably one of the few pediatric dentists that had six years of general dentistry experience, and then took a lot of retarded people to the hospital, and did fillings and their special equipment to make sure you did rehab in the hospital, at least special, and some medically compromised people. SPEAKER 1: That's what you did. ROBERT: And some apprehensively compromised people, that were adults that we took into the -- or young kids under three or four. In fact, well they're starting to change, to pass the bill in town now, in the state, been at it for three years, I think they'll get it through this year, 23 States out of… SPEAKER 1: Fifty. ROBERT: The 50 that passed it to force the insurance companies to pay for hospital costs for serious dental problems for kids under five years old. LINDA: Oh, good. SPEAKER 1: About time. ROBERT: Which we used to have years ago, and in fact, that's one of the few things Medicaid still covers. But then the insurance companies 18 dropped it. As we hear they dropped circumcision, because that's not treating a disease but preventing. SPEAKER 1: Really. ROBERT: Pennsylvania they had started it and a few states picked it up. The insurance companies are so under the wire now they think of everything they can think of to not, not to pay. Because the dollars are so tight. SPEAKER 1: Don't get sick. Stay healthy. LINDA: [Unintelligible - 00:28:25]. ROBERT: Yeah. Well, they've… they've prepared, they're doing this evidence-based medicine, and some of the insurance companies now want to allow only one clean and fluoride a year for children instead of two, every six months. LINDA: And how long does it take them to make a change like that? Typically speaking. ROBERT: I don't know. I mean, when the change comes out and there's some noise about it, because when they come out with a change they won't pay for it. SPEAKER 1: No, but does it take years, months? ROBERT: I don't know. I started reading about it a year and a half ago, and I hear some insurance companies now are just trickling in. SPEAKER 1: So probably about a year… ROBERT: A couple of years. Yeah, a year or two. LINDA: So there's really no public discourse; it's just immediate, but it comes down… SPEAKER 1: Yeah, they just do it and tell you about it. ROBERT: The public comes when they get hurt later and they wanna make a noise about it. SPEAKER 1: When they found out they're not covered. ROBERT: Like what happened with the HMOs. Many years nothing happened until a few people died. Actually, a few senators' 19 daughters, kids got involved and said, "Dad, you know, this isn't government." Dad said, "Gee, my insurance is still okay, [laughter] I got the big stuff up here in Washington." You know, and then word started to trickle through, and then they started to get after the HMOs. And here's the big thing now about passing a law whether you could sue an HMO or not. What is negligence, what isn't? LINDA: What's going on with the doctors and all of those insurance changes? ROBERT: To clarify with the patient, the pros and cons of both sides and letting the patient know what they want to do, what's available for them and how much money they will get from it, pros and cons of each kind of treatment, what will happen if they don't get treated. And some people say, "Hey, I ain't got any money. Do the treatment that they will pay for, even if it's second class." And the doctor then has to decide -- and a lot of second class, second steps are okay, as long as it's average, good. You don't have to buy a Cadillac every day, right? You can buy a Ford, still get there, but you don't wanna buy last year's junk. LINDA: Well, what if, let's say, the Dentists Association or whatever you call the professional organization, what if they felt very strongly that children should have their teeth cleaned twice a year? And the insurance companies says… ROBERT: We're not strong enough. That would take a decade to change, and we'd need a lot of public support behind it. Unfortunately, the children don't vote, so that's not gonna happen. Now, if it has something to do with adults, like if they took away, maybe root canals, maybe the adults would get it done faster. But things to do with kids don't change too quickly. SPEAKER 1: Not just quick.20 ROBERT: It's the kids they're taking advantage of, what can I say? When you wanna get cheers, who gets -- used to be the kids and the senior citizens got it. Now, the senior citizens, there's so many of us that vote, we're now getting listened to. Especially now with the next group of baby boomers that come along. SPEAKER 1: Very vocal. ROBERT: Very vocal. Runs and goes, gonna vote… SPEAKER 1: My feeling is that somehow in this society we children like they're commodities, aren't people, they're just things, are just -- they have it real tough, children. ROBERT: Yeah, it's terrible. There's a story of a little girl I tried to tickle once, dirty clothes and dirty… and when Medicaid is out, "How many brothers and sisters do you have?" How many sisters or whatever I asked her, and her answer, in two words, told me, the answer was, "Too many." And I couldn't get her to laugh, tickling her, that's how -- she could've been four and a half years old, pretty face, you know, worn out clothes. You could see. And those kinds of kids you just wanna give them a hug and help them out as much as you can. Every week in our office we would, I would say, "We should do something for nothing and we should tell the girls," and it gets me to the end of the week. And we then find someone, you know, we wanna do something for and remind me, and so Fridays we can do it, because they would know a lot about the people sometimes more than I did, in busy days. SPEAKER 1: That sounds more. We just don't like the insurance company… ROBERT: We don't like someone telling me what we can do for nothing. That's one we choose ourselves. But that was always a good exercise. Or if we charge someone some money, they'd come back, they'd say, "Wait a minute," and they'd come back and say, "These people really can't afford it." That's okay. [Unintelligible - 00:33:14] work out something.21 LINDA: Mm-hmm. ROBERT: I always had that nice relationship with my best friend so that we could, so that we could really be helpful to people when we could, on those who needed it. And on the other side of the story where someone comes in, you know, a little kid who came with us with an interpreter, Spanish kid with a toothache, and I said, "How did she get on Medicaid so quickly? She's only been here two weeks, you tell me?" and the interpreter told me, "Oh, we got her on Medicaid before she even left Puerto Rico. She had a toothache in Puerto Rico. And we paid for the flight over." SPEAKER 1: That annoys me. And we don't… ROBERT: So there's, you know, there's two sides to every story. And being a doctor or politician or anybody, a judge, lawyer, boy, you're in the middle of some of this ethical stuff. It's tough to make a decision sometimes. Gotta go with your heart. And sometimes you get in trouble though, with your heart. So sometimes you just pull back and don't do anything; that's not good. SPEAKER 1: It's not good for people. ROBERT: Because what's happening to a lot of medicine now; they're pulling back and not doing it because they're afraid to make the right suggestion. They have a poor doctor in Boston with a basketball player, with Madge… SPEAKER 1: Dr. Madge. ROBERT: Dr. Madge, it's my cardiologist. SPEAKER 1: [Laughter] LINDA: Wow. SPEAKER 1: So I said to him when I… ROBERT: I asked Dr. Madge, "If I had a little irregular heartbeat when I'm playing tennis, what should I do?" He said, "Just play through it." [Laughter] I said, "Thanks a lot, that's pretty…" SPEAKER 1: … before we asked her.22 ROBERT: No, even now. LINDA: Even now? ROBERT: Why are you telling me that? But I'm not sure. He said, "You have to make your decision." LINDA: Uh-huh. ROBERT: It's tough. SPEAKER 1: He lost that case to… ROBERT: No, no, he won it, but two years later. Two years of misery. LINDA: I thought that we're now… SPEAKER 1: … but they took him again. ROBERT: But it's civil. SPEAKER 1: Oh, civil. ROBERT: He still made it. He won the case. I don't know what happened with the civil case. SPEAKER 1: No, I don't know what happened. ROBERT: She wanted the big bucks. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. ROBERT: You know, he said, if she were alive now he would have earned four trillion dollars… LINDA: You know what, I think… ROBERT: … so I don't want part of that. Because you said that if he played basketball he wouldn't die. It's like bringing the [unintelligible - 00:35:40] in and saying if you could change the distributor the car will work. Probably. If you changed the guy's heart, maybe it'll work, maybe it won't. Look at the guy who just got in trouble and he had an artificial heart, and stroke, blood clots. SPEAKER 1: I printed that, Reggie Lewis, I think she was gonna start a third suit, but I haven't heard anything about that. ROBERT: Is that right? LINDA: Haven't heard anything.23 ROBERT: Well, her lawyer keeps going, going and going. He wants to get -- he probably started the case and said, "I won't take anything until we're winning." He's just gonna keep coming up with stuff until they win. LINDA: They had a big negative backlash last time, which I'm sure they weren't prepared for. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. LINDA: So I can imagine they'd keep going now. ROBERT: Me neither. I thought he was finally done. For 12 months he had at least -- remember the first year? He had to take off two months because he had plenty of phone calls from his family, and his life and everything from people, and he just left the city, upside down. SPEAKER 1: You know you can see… I mean, you can see people thinking, "Oh, it's his fault," because you don't get all the information on TV, so… ROBERT: No, you got just what the media wants you to get. SPEAKER 1: Mm-hmm. Yeah. ROBERT: So we wonder how much of this stuff we're hearing about the war is true. We hear only about all our successes, we don't hear about the failures. LINDA: It seems that anytime we do hear about a failure, it's always a mechanical… ROBERT: Brought it down, mechanical, right. Oh yeah, they were there on a training mission. SPEAKER 1: Mm-hmm. ROBERT: Anyways. Boom. Well, here we are spending two hours again. We gotta… LINDA: I know, I'm sorry. ROBERT: This is terrible. SPEAKER 1: No. ROBERT: Look. What other questions you got?24 LINDA: Oh, I want just to cover with the information about your starting your practice, and I seem to remember that you went into the pediatrics floor in [unintelligible - 00:37:26]. SPEAKER 1: He practiced with his dad first. ROBERT: I practiced general dentistry with my dad for six years and found myself doing more and more of the younger population of the practice, and enjoying it, and being successful at it. Probably enjoying it is the main word. Oh, I just enjoy the kids. SPEAKER 1: IE, he is the kid here. ROBERT: IE, I am a kid still. SPEAKER 1: [Laughter] ROBERT: Well, they are the next leaders of the world, and it feels [unintelligible - 00:37:58] time thinking about what they're thinking about, it keeps you young. The body doesn't like that, but the mind that's -- you know the story, "I just got my mind together and now my body is falling apart." And it took 60, 65 years to get to here. [Laughter] LINDA: [Laughter] SPEAKER 1: Anyway, that's when he… ROBERT: So all the parents used to say, you know, I guess -- well, last time the parents used to tell my father, "I don't want go over to your son. He just got out of dental school. But I don't mind if my kids go to your son." So I guess that's why I got the younger population and enjoyed it and did well with them. Because I have magic, it's a hobby, and sleight of hands, so I was always -- to this day, I think, would keep thimbles and cards next to my chair. LINDA: How did you learn that? ROBERT: This 91-year old Sylvia here that we're talking about started me in as a hobby as a kid, and puppets and all that stuff. I think I broke my leg at one point, and that's when I got introduced because I was in a cast for some weeks and nothing to do, and she brought the 25 stuff and happened to like it. But the… you know, one of the many stories of kids is the kid had been to three dentists and with a toothache, four-year old, and screaming and yelling at me and kicking, and me, the dentist, could handle him and finally made their way to pediatric dentist office, my office. And so I looked in the mouth as the kid was screaming and produced a red thimble from his mouth, and the kid stopped crying right away, put his hand to his head, scratched his head and said, "No wonder why that damn thing was hurting." [Laughter] SPEAKER 1: [Laughter] ROBERT: And I had him then, right? [Laughter] Yeah, I said, "Lemme look around some more. You got any more of those in there? Ah, over here," and goes, "Why not. Well, go get rid of that," you know. "I can do that magically, you know. Boom, I got that." [Laughter] LINDA: He's a cute… ROBERT: So probably he said, "No wonder why that damn thing was hurting." [Laughter] SPEAKER 1: They really do… ROBERT: Oh, I've got some great stories, yeah. [Laughter] And sometimes, also, when I used to lecture, I used to tell that story, and nobody would laugh. And I'd look and I'd say, "Come on, guys, wake up. Get a life. Do any of you have any kids, anybody, I mean, kids at all? That's a funny story." LINDA: Even if you don't have kids I think that was… SPEAKER 1: Right. ROBERT: That's a funny story. Because you guys are too serious. I used to tell adults that and get nothing out of it. I tell you, these guys are really too serious. It's like golfers rather than tennis players with dentists. We have a good time. In golf everybody's, "Don't make a sound. Be serious." And I'm throwing clubs around [unintelligible - 00:40:40] I can't understand.26 SPEAKER 1: He used to talk… ROBERT: I can't understand why they take this game so serious. LINDA: So can both of you talk a little bit about being Italian, what it means to you? ROBERT: Other than being proud I'm Italian -- I grew up not knowing there was much difference 'til recently. I got interested in the history of all of this, and yet I think my wife has a different story. SPEAKER 1: That's very recent to him. He just thought of himself as American [laughter] more recently, I think… ROBERT: Yeah, I mean I didn't know there was any difference to… many years SPEAKER 1: We were always -- our family was very into the history of being an Italian, very proud, you know, really proud of everything connected with being Italian, whether it was, you know, where you came from, or the country… ROBERT: Oh, yeah, I was smart enough to marry an Italian. LINDA: … the history. Thank you. The history, the architecture, I mean, we were all -- our family was always -- there were some parts of it. Some were more into the food, some were more into the history, but there was always, you know, you're an Italian American, you know, it's great to be an Italian. So it was just -- although, living where I lived, where we were, talk about a minority, we were really a minority. In the school I went to we were also a minority. And I do remember -- but just in that neighborhood, I don't remember while I was in anywhere else, but there were people who -- now, we were… ROBERT: Who thought you were second-class citizens, right? SPEAKER 1: … we were third generation, and we had some people who were first generation but spoke English thinking that we were second-class citizens because we had those funny-sounding names. ROBERT: First generation of another group, another ethnic group.27 SPEAKER 1: Yeah, of another -- yeah, they're not Italian. Right. And I thought, "Excuse me?" you know, I was born here, my parents were born here… ROBERT: So she experienced some prejudices that I don't remember. SPEAKER 1: Yeah, and in school, too. LINDA: Now, where was this? SPEAKER 1: Boston. The suburb of Boston but it was a very, very predominant Irish, Catholic neighborhood. I went to an Irish Catholic school, so while the nuns were Irish… ROBERT: Irish Catholics… SPEAKER 1: … so the nuns couldn't quite… ROBERT: Well they were Catholics, that's the… SPEAKER 1: You know, they couldn't quite understand, you know, anything. And then we had, maybe, like, two Polish kids, maybe three Italian kids. So we did feel different, but only in that, you know, instance then we were in the rest of the, you know, with my relatives who lived in all over suburban Boston, [unintelligible - 00:43:23], whatever, you know, lived with the -- it wasn't a problem… ROBERT: Which brings up my story, which you're probably waiting for, again, because I must've… SPEAKER 1: That was when I was -- then we moved to another neighborhood in Newton, I don't live there now. ROBERT: When I was in this progressive school and my parents were -- we were family members of a local country club that was limited in the acceptance of people, of members, and I took home a black friend of mine from school for the weekend, grabbed my neighbor, who was Jewish and took him up to play golf and get kicked off of golf course with a black and a Jewish guy. That was in the early '50s. LINDA: And where was this? SPEAKER 1: At the local…28 ROBERT: At a local country club. SPEAKER 1: He was too dumb to even know… ROBERT: I was too dumb to even know that they had restrictions. Right. SPEAKER 1: Sorry, I didn't mean dumb. LINDA: What kind of -- what did they tell you? Was this before you got on the course, or did somebody…? ROBERT: No, no, we were right just -- took him out on the course. Apparently we were coming back close to the clubhouse again on the third hole… SPEAKER 1: Someone saw him. ROBERT: … and the manager came out and told me I had to get off the course. LINDA: Did you ask why? SPEAKER 1: He didn't tell you? ROBERT: I don't remember. Yeah, we left… LINDA: And then? ROBERT: He was the boss, he said, "Get off," I got off. LINDA: But was it clear that he was doing because it was…? ROBERT: Yeah, I guess I knew that -- I figured it out once I was in the car and got home, I guess. I didn't figure it out right on the spot, but I think once I got in the car I figured it out. I didn't even think of checking on it when it went up, because I did the same thing recently, I took a lady on men's day who had Levi's, and you never have to have Levi's up there, same club. [Laughter] SPEAKER 1: Well, they were happy [laughter]. If you knew who was Wednesday… ROBERT: [Laughter] I forgot. I thought Wednesday morning was men's day and then Wednesday afternoon was okay. SPEAKER 1: They don't want pants with Levi's anywhere. LINDA: So it was key to double win.29 ROBERT: There was a double, so-- I got permission… I did get permission to go out on men's day in the afternoon. They said, "If nobody complains, just go out." When I get back in, head of the pro comes up to me and says, "And I heard you want Levi's, too." SPEAKER 1: [Laughter] ROBERT: I said, "I didn't even think to look at that so much." [Laughter] LINDA: All right. What's our next question? How did you feel coming here? I know we talked a lot more about this last time, but how did you feel coming to Leominster after living in -- was it Newton? SPEAKER 1: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I thought this was the end of the earth, [laughter] I thought this was… ROBERT: She said this was the on the other side of orange. [Laughter] SPEAKER 1: No. I thought it was real country. ROBERT: Out there an echo. SPEAKER 1: And I thought when I first came here, well it was late fall, so it was winter by the time we moved in our house and no one welcomed us, and I thought what an unfriendly place. And the ward of the dentist who welcomed us, the one nearest our age was 15 years older than we were, so I thought, "Oh, Lord, there was no one my age." I don't even know if there are any neighbors here. I never saw a face, and it didn't dawn on me that, well number one, it was winter, so people were kind of [unintelligible - 00:47:09] down. Number two was this is a real family community, generations are born and married and stayed here, so they have all extended families living right here. It's not that you're all spread out though… ROBERT: But the lights kept going on in the houses around us. You didn't see any people, but the lights kept going on at night. SPEAKER 1: And there was -- not Leominster, and I told him I thought the city had these houses wired up and they just flipped the switch at night [laughter].30 ROBERT: And the lights used to go because there were no people around us. SPEAKER 1: I thought there were no people. LINDA: And what year was this? SPEAKER 1: I thought it was '63. And then I realized after that, well, number one, it was winter and people weren't so ready, you know, to welcome you. Number two, his name was known in town, so they assumed, I guess that he had tons of friends and family, whereas, he really didn't because he was all the way to school, and his family -- well, because his parents were in Florida, so we had the one aunt and uncle who lived here in town. So I think people just assumed, "Well, we have our huge extended family. They must have theirs," so it was mainly lonely and I thought unfriendly. So it took -- it took a while, then when the thaw came, the neighbors… ROBERT: Spring came and we started raking leaves and we see people around. SPEAKER 1: … come. And then I found out it was a nice neighborhood, and the neighbors were nice, because the snow melted and out they came. But it took a while. I was really thinking, "Oh, boy. What a -- this is awful." ROBERT: There was like about -- we moved up here, right? We were like -- there were three houses up here in this hill, three of four houses, right here the top of the hill, and these people built houses and moved in, I always bring a bottle of wine and welcome them, maybe from the experience that we had. And it was all fine, that's great, whatnot, and then we decided after -- well, never, never heard from them after that. SPEAKER 1: Hmmm. No. People aren't as friendly as they are in the Midwest. Well, I worked… ROBERT: Then we finally said -- oh, great people, Midwest. SPEAKER 1: … people are different.31 ROBERT: Different. Then we decided we're gonna throw a street party. So we opened up our house and we sent a letter out to everybody with the old farm road address, 95 percent of the people showed, right? SPEAKER 1: Mm-hmm. ROBERT: Never heard from them since. That was 15 years ago. Other than the, other than the people who are touching us [unintelligible - 00:49:31] land here. LINDA: Mm-hmm. SPEAKER 1: Well, people are busy. It is different. People -- it's not like when we were kids. I think people are just so busy. ROBERT: When I grew up in the street where we had everybody, had each other's keys and everything when I was in grammar school, high school and whatnot. That street was close. SPEAKER 1: Well, those were your high school, what, home high school friends. ROBERT: Those were my home high school friends, right. But I mean, geez, you know. SPEAKER 1: But I have… ROBERT: We were in each other's houses all the time. Streets were… SPEAKER 1: I don't think… I learned to like the area, but it took a while. It really did. Took quite a while. Probably it was better when my children learns… ROBERT: When we saw the kids enjoying it, then we got to like it better. SPEAKER 1: … yeah, I probably -- great place for children because there was so much available that was close by, where on the city you really had to travel, you know. Here they could do everything within the, you know… ROBERT: Yeah, five-minute ride. Then it wasn't -- it was easy to go to wherever you want to go. Now, if you ever decide to go from Leominster to Fitchburg or across our city. LINDA: I just did.32 ROBERT: 3:30 to 5:30, it'd take you an hour and a half to get from one city to the other. If you're going north, then the south isn't too bad. But we come off the highway, we – every… well Route 13, Route 12, every one of those going north is loaded. SPEAKER 1: Well, I laughed. He told me 30 years ago, "Oh, you just wait," because I complain, I still miss the city. I didn't miss living there, but I wanna be a little bit closer so that I could just run in and take advantage of everything, I missed that. And he kept saying to me thirty years ago, "Oh, just wait. This Leominster is just gonna be a bedroom community to Boston," and I would just laugh hysterically and said, "Oh, my God, no one is coming past Concorde." And… ROBERT: And here we are. SPEAKER 1: Here we are. Yeah. ROBERT: Build the highway and they will come. [Laughter] SPEAKER 1: Yeah. LINDA: So which church did you join? SPEAKER 1: Ah, that's something… ROBERT: She remember one of the… SPEAKER 1: I wasn't used to that. We were in North Leominster and there was a knock at door, and there was this priest standing there and I went, "Well, I've never seen this in my life." No one -- no priest ever knocked on my door before. And it was the pastor from the Italian church in Fitchburg trying to convince me to join his church. My [unintelligible - 00:51:54], "Oh, that's fine, that's…" ROBERT: And we were living in… SPEAKER 1: North Leominster. ROBERT: Leominster. SPEAKER 1: Yeah, and, of course, I came from Boston where you went to church, and whatever neighborhood you lived there and whatever, 33 you know. He wasn't surprised when he came home. He said, "Oh, yeah," you know, but I didn't join that church… ROBERT: No, I said, "But you don't have to feel you have to join." SPEAKER 1: The one that was dear in my life, Lady of the Lake, we lived in North Leominster, that was there, so that was the church I joined. But then when we moved here, my daughter was in public school in first grade, we just moved, and I thought, "Well, yeah, I have to sign her up to CCD classes." So this house had been St. Leo's Parish, which was the Irish church. Well, I thought, well, that's obviously where I have to send her to… ROBERT: Closest church. SPEAKER 1: Well, again, didn't dawn on me that's where, you know, but if I had known, I mean, Saint Ana's was just hop, skip and a jump down the road, I could've signed her up there. But it -- still, it was the '70s now, and I still wasn't thinking, "Oh, well, this is different." And I called the secretary of the church who answered it and asked who it was, and she signed up my daughter, and I thought, "Well, don't you want -- aren't you gonna ask me my name? I haven't been -- don't you want us to join the church?" I never heard of a church that would take a child to CCD if the parents didn't belong to it. And she said, "Well…" in her accent, "… um, well, I thought you might… you might wanna join Saint Ana's church." ROBERT: -Which is the Italian church down the road. [Laughter] SPEAKER 1: I didn't know, this is 1970 whatever, and I said… ROBERT: "What?" SPEAKER 1: Yeah. I said, "What?" ROBERT: Why? SPEAKER 1: I was so befuddled. And I said to him, "I wish I had thought fast enough," I probably would've said, "Well, I'm Protestant anyway, so I don't wanna join any church." [Laughter] My sister was so 34 overwhelmed by that. So I thought, well change comes very slowly out here. [Laughter] ROBERT: Did you know we have the largest Finnish population in the world. LINDA: In the world? SPEAKER 1: No, no. In the United States. ROBERT: In the United States that's -- yeah, that's a Finnish group and we have a sister city in Finland. LINDA: Hmm. I didn't know that there were so many Finns around here. ROBERT: A lot of Finns. They're great people. LINDA: Just like my grandfather is Finnish. ROBERT: Is that right? SPEAKER 1: Oh, really? ROBERT: Oh, I remember in my dad's practice, and then I was… SPEAKER 1: Well, still. ROBERT: Great Finnish people. Wonderful people. SPEAKER 1: They have this pact, signed a pact in Fitchburg, and they still have big gatherings, Finnish gatherings and so forth. Yeah. LINDA: So would you like to speak about anything else? ROBERT: No, I need to have lunch. LINDA: Lunch? SPEAKER 1: Oh, poor dear. LINDA: It's dinner. I don't know… ROBERT: Put something in my tummy before I go play tennis at dinnertime. SPEAKER 1: Every Friday he has to play tennis. Yeah, still have fun. ROBERT: Fun time. SPEAKER 1: What else? What else? I guess just my Italian experiences are a little bit different from his. I think… ROBERT: Yeah, well you grew up in a different place. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. Well, and our family might have been different. We had more traditional meals and we did the traditional Christmas Eve dinner. We did the traditional…35 ROBERT: This reminds me, my mother made homemade raviolis every Thanksgiving and Christmas. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. That wasn't Christmas Eve in an Italian household; you have all fish Christmas Eve… ROBERT: Yeah, if you're like -- there aren't any fish out here. SPEAKER 1: [Laughter] No, that's true. ROBERT: Years ago, but I said the fish was four days old… SPEAKER 1: … when I found that out… found that out… ROBERT: … by the time it swam up the national river. ROBERT: That was true. The first time I bought a fish here I threw it out. I couldn't even eat it. I thought, no wonder he doesn't likes fish. ROBERT: It was after the… SPEAKER 1: He was used to getting it live from the… ROBERT: Oh, that's when I got the live fishes, this meeting with her relatives. They had fresh fish and wow, what a difference. SPEAKER 1: We did have… ROBERT: But we didn't have fish houses around here until, maybe, like three, four or five years after we're married. It moved… SPEAKER 1: Yeah, at least. Yeah. ROBERT: It took the… late '60s. SPEAKER 1: I know your mother. I don't remember your mother ever doing -- she did -- I mean, she baked great pies but never did Italian cookies, Italian version. We did all that Italian stuff at the holidays so we were more… ROBERT: The lady next door did, Vermonti. SPEAKER 1: Oh, wow. You were lucky. ROBERT: She used to bring them over. SPEAKER 1: Oh, wow. The stuff you do with this… ROBERT: With all the onion on them and stuff like that, there were ribbon things? Yeah. Yeah?36 SPEAKER 1: I think they have someone I'm looking for a recipe for that because only our -- a distant relative on the other side made those, and we only had it when we went to her house, not… LINDA: Often you don't… SPEAKER 1: Oh, I would love that. That's the one I'm trying to… ROBERT: Yeah, you've been looking for fill-ins. SPEAKER 1: My children are so into this. ROBERT: We make [unintelligible - 00:56:38], we're the intersect. We have her grandmother's, her mother's… SPEAKER 1: [Unintelligible - 00:56:45]. Yeah. ROBERT: [Unintelligible - 00:56:45]. And we get her up all nights and mix us the stuff and… SPEAKER 1: My father's family were great cooks, and my mother actually cooked like my father's side of the family. There were two different sides, and you could tell the difference. My mother's side cooked one way and my father's side cooked the other way… LINDA: Why? They're from different regions? SPEAKER 1: No. ROBERT: No? SPEAKER 1: From the exact same place, but it seems like the Fridocelli cooked with a little bit more… LINDA: Cooked cuisine. SPEAKER 1: You know, a little more fancy. And then my mother's side, they were a little more peasant, plain… ROBERT: You mean there was merit having both grandma and grandpa from the same city. [Laughter] SPEAKER 1: Well, my four grandparents came from the same… ROBERT: Oh, is that right? SPEAKER 1: Same province. ROBERT: Same province. Yeah. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. But still the cooking was a little different.37 LINDA: Wow. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. And that was it. It was important, and I'm glad my kids still think it's important. It's very important for them to -- and often the Italian are important to them. Even though… LINDA: Now, they didn't marry Italians? SPEAKER 1: My daughter married someone who's half Italian. LINDA: What is her last name? SPEAKER 1: Well, she goes by Frigoletto. Yeah, she kept her name. LINDA: But who did she marry? SPEAKER 1: Peter De Feo. D-E capital F-E-O. And then my son, really, broke with tradition. He married Tamara Taylor. [Laughter] ROBERT: Oh, yeah, but he was going with an Italian. SPEAKER 1: He was going with an Italian… ROBERT: Italian, but she turned out to be too strong for us… SPEAKER 1: [Laughter] LINDA: Oh. SPEAKER 1: So Tamara Taylor… ROBERT: Direct battleship. SPEAKER 1: Actually now… she's a redhead, but delightful. She's Norwegian and Scottish. I thought Taylor was English, but she said Scottish was her blood. And her family, they have traced her family back to the first two boats that came over the Mayflower and the next one. What was the other one? Two names, I forget what it is. ROBERT: I don't know. SPEAKER 1: So they're into the history, too. So now the two of them… ROBERT: Has it anything to do with the Minnon, the Tintin, the Sta. Maria? [Laughter] SPEAKER 1: No. But she's had -- but she's very much into Italian… ROBERT: Wrong group, right? SPEAKER 1: … go back. She was trying to learn the language. LINDA: Mm-hmm.38 SPEAKER 1: She was trying to learn to speak it. LINDA: Oh. ROBERT: She's in [unintelligible - 00:58:57]? That daughter-in law? SPEAKER 1: Boy, no. I forget. Yeah, we were trying to learn all this… ROBERT: New Ireland, I think… I forget. No memory anymore. Kinda learn all these Italian words… SPEAKER 1: The word for parent is genatori. ROBERT: Genatori which is… should be -- parenti's relatives. SPEAKER 1: Right. Yeah, that's… ROBERT: Parents genatoris. SPEAKER 1: Yeah, I can't figure that one out. Right. ROBERT: Yeah. SPEAKER 1: Now you are part Italian? LINDA: My grandmother was Italian, my maternal grandmother. Then she married a Finn. SPEAKER 1: Oh. LINDA: And then my mother married a Yankee, then I married a Swede. SPEAKER 1: So you're all that? ROBERT: Did you watch the Hall of Fame last night? LINDA: No. SPEAKER 1: Oh. ROBERT: There was a cute love story in the war, early '40s… SPEAKER 1: Based on a true story. LINDA: Oh, my goodness… ROBERT: In Italy. LINDA: … need to tell me but… ROBERT: Yeah. And a lot of Italians. They spoke too fast, though. SPEAKER 1: You know, I'm not -- and that was the first time I said that's… ROBERT: But a lot of sceneries were filmed entirely in Italy, and it was about this guy that… SPEAKER 1: But you can buy the tape. It's a Hallmark story, though.39 ROBERT: Yeah. LINDA: It was Love and War. Thank you. SPEAKER 1: Love and War, yeah. ROBERT: Love and War But it was an interest of -- the thing I thought was cute, that I hadn't learn or forgotten, I guess, is that a British soldier, it might be British saying, when he falls in love with this Italian girl that they took him in and saved his life, he says, "We, growing up, we used to call you macaroni heads," from British, from the -- derogatory thing, you know, those Italians, they're macaroni head. He says, "Now I found out how wonderful you people are." [Laughter] He says, "I feel guilty." That was kind of a cute part of the story. LINDA: I think that's sort of true. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. LINDA: In any culture, if you just open yourself up and… ROBERT: Sure. SPEAKER 1: But I -- actually, you must've -- I can remember, in Boston… ROBERT: I don't remember. SPEAKER 1: … he had a lot of this derogatory terms. ROBERT: Well, dego, I remember but I didn't hear -- macaroni I thought was just English, that was an English that was the… SPEAKER 1: Yeah, that was it. What I'm saying is that you did hear -- but then, again, you would hear it for the Irish, you would hear it for the Jewish, you always would hear about derogatory terms for -- at least in the city we get through all the ethnic… LINDA: So tell me what some of them are, you know, what's so politically correct now that you don't really…? At least my children don't know any of the… SPEAKER 1: You know, I don't really… LINDA: … Italian being derogatory… SPEAKER 1: No. Dego, wop…40 ROBERT: Dego, wop. And when in Chicago we used to -- we used to walk back East to look at the watch and, "Watch the dego by," [laughter] and used the word "dego." LINDA: Oh, dego. Where did that come from? SPEAKER 1: I don't know either. ROBERT: I don't know. SPEAKER 1: I don't know either. LINDA: I've never heard dego. SPEAKER 1: I don't either. ROBERT: Like, what? Pollack is Polish? SPEAKER 1: Pollack would be for… ROBERT: Be Polish and… SPEAKER 1: Mic are half… ROBERT: Mic were half for Irish. Right. And we were dego and the wops. So I would be French… SPEAKER 1: No. I don't know where they… ROBERT: Don't know the origins of all of those things… be interesting, which my uncle would've mind. He was such a [unintelligible - 01:01:51]. He was doing the history of words. SPEAKER 1: He was so… ROBERT: After he retired that was his… LINDA: Did he keep his information? ROBERT: Yeah, he's kept it going, and when he died I tried to get it from my aunt. SPEAKER 1: And when he couldn't… ROBERT: I guess she gave it to one his younger teachers. I don't know where it is now. SPEAKER 1: He gave it to another elderly person… ROBERT: Another elderly person and got lost or something. SPEAKER 1: Right, it's gotta be… ROBERT: We even offered to pay her for it.41 SPEAKER 1: Yeah. ROBERT: It was -- yeah, it was just so interesting. SPEAKER 1: He was the professor of Roman languages, so he's doing the… ROBERT: He knew the different languages. SPEAKER 1: … words, whether it came from France… ROBERT: France or Italian or whatnot. SPEAKER 1: We desperately want… ROBERT: I wanted to get a hold of that. SPEAKER 1: We couldn't, we tried. ROBERT: Every time we'd see him, which is like twice a year, that it's, "Oh, I got, you know, twenty… twenty more words…" LINDA: What's his name? ROBERT: Merlino. My mother's name, Merlino. SPEAKER 1: Camillo Merlino. ROBERT: Camillo Merlino. How's that? SPEAKER 1: Yeah. He was the… ROBERT: Protestant Italian. SPEAKER 1: … head of the department at BU… ROBERT: Head of the Roman's languages at BU. And still I didn't get the language. SPEAKER 1: No, he did not inherit that. No, my kids took after my part of the family. We have an air for languages, he struggles so with it. Doing better than I ever… ROBERT: I got so frustrated last night watching that… SPEAKER 1: That was tough, I had… ROBERT: But you said you had a tough time, too. Two years trying to learn words, just to recognize [unintelligible - 01:03:12]. SPEAKER 1: I mean, I think you're doing well… ROBERT: It's got nothing. SPEAKER 1: … trying for all these years. LINDA: I think you have to be immersed in it.42 SPEAKER 1: Mm-hmm. That's true. ROBERT: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good idea, let's go. [Laughter] SPEAKER 1: That's my mother. ROBERT: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for a month, that's her way of saying we gotta go. SPEAKER 1: But that is no close. ROBERT: [Laughter] SPEAKER 1: Well, before we let you on, could you take another picture of us? LINDA: Oh, yes. I have central… SPEAKER 1: I'd love that. LINDA: … because I almost forgot the camera, too. SPEAKER 1: Oh. LINDA: This was supposed to go over real low. SPEAKER 1: No, we wouldn't hold you to it. I just thought -- I didn't like my plaid shirt, I looked like the… the fire hand. LINDA: He said you'd say amazing things. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. Well, I may -- well, I was that day. Well, I was today, too, but… ROBERT: Guess what? It's four o'clock. SPEAKER 1: It's now four o'clock in the middle of a family interview./AT/jf/jc/es

THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY, The Literary Journal of Pennsylvania College. Entered at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter. VOL. IX. GETTYSBURG, PA., OCTOBER, 1900. No. S RALLY 'ROUND THE STANDARD. CHAS. W. WEISER, '01. Those days are gone, they've swiftly flown, With pleasures fraught, and joys well known, When by the sea or mountain town We gaily roamed, or lithe, sat down— Or in the country on the farm Renewed our health thro' nature's charm. We'd often sport throughout the day, And when the zephyrs held their sway We'd chat with friends and loved ones light, 'Neath Hesper islands of the night, Of actions done which time had sealed, Or of the future unrevealed. Those days are gone, and back to toil, We've come, and burn the midnight oil— Aye eagerly once more we've come, 'Though minds are full of thoughts of home, For thro' it all we get a view Of the orange and the blue. We see our standard in the air, Floating high in noon-tide glare, And feel that we must lead the ranks Which cross the yellow Tiber's banks, And bravely 'neath our ensign stand,— A glorious future's now at hand. 138 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY BARNACLES. [First Gies Prize.] R. D. CLARE, '00. My soul is sailing' through the sea, But the Past is heavy and hindereth me. The Past hath crusted cumbrous shells That hold the flesh of cold sea-mells About my soul. The huge waves wash, the high waves roll, Each barnacle clingeth and worketh dole And hindreth me from sailing-. Old Past, let go, and drop i' the sea Till fathomless waters cover thee ! For I am living but thou art dead; Thou drawest back, I strive ahead The Day to find. Thy shells unbind ! Night comes behind, I needs must .hurry with the wind And trim me best for sailing'. —SlDNBV L,ANIER. We have in the lines just quoted the forcible and correct im-plication of a great and eternal truth—great in its significance and comprehensiveness, eternal in its applicability to existence in all ages and the constant uniformity of its operation. The Past is ever exercising a mighty controlling influence on the Present and is at the same time determining with wonderful ac-curacy the character of the Future. L,ike a dread sovereign, clothed with absolute power, it secures the complete enactment of its every edict. Even the forces of nature are subservient to it and yield unquestioning obedience to its behests. Its influence is at the same time beneficent and tyrannical, benign and arrogant, uplifting and debasing. Its realm of activity being infinite, all men come within its potent sway. Every individual is therefore to a great extent, in his intellectual, moral and physical char-acteristics, a product of past ages. Innumerable habits and tendencies are transmitted from generation to generation, now in-creasing in strength, now weakening or disappearing, all the time carrying with them blessing or destruction. To those who have a deep and sympathetic insight into human nature with all its frailties and ceaseless struggles, these choice lines of Eanier will appeal with special force and significance. The analogy between the soul and a vessel upon the sea is both THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 139 beautiful and appropriate. Who has witnessed the departure of an ocean liner on its solitary journey to some far distant port without being reminded of the passage of a human soul across the broad ocean of life ? Imagine the scene. In a sheltered harbor, riding at anchor upon the gently undulating surface of the water, is a stately ship. Her highly polished decks, glitter-ing sides and burnished armorings suggest immaculate cleanliness and youth, while her dazzlingly white sails, bathed in the warm sunlight, are the very emblems of purity. On board, stationed at their respective posts of duty, are the hardy sailors, eager for the cruise. Finally the signal is given; the anchor is lifted, and the sails are spread to the ready breeze. Slowly at first, but with ever increasing speed, the beautiful ship, like a huge white-winged bird, passes majestically from the harbor out into the open sea. The shores rapidly recede from view until they describe to the fond farewell gaze of the sailors nothing more than a thin haze along the horizon. This too soon disappears, and ere long our proud ship is far from all lauds, pursuing her solitary course upon the trackless depths of the ocean. Days come and go and the ship is still on her watery way, propitious winds co-operating with the unerring intelligence of the pilot in directing her to her destined harbor. From time to time the hearts of the sailors are cheered by the appearance of a sail on the horizon and the passing of another vessel with its precious burden of human beings. But the interest is only tem-porary ; halloos and good-byes are exchanged and the vessels soon lose sight of one another. Each has its own peculiar mission to perform, just as different souls, which in life's experiences may come into close contact one with another, must always remain individual existences with their own peculiar missions and obli-gations. Following our ship in her onward course we find her still staunch and true. Nor does she escape untoward conditions; the fury of the elements threatens her repeatedly; the thunders roar and the lightnings play about her masts. But she successfully braves every tempestuous sea, as though confident of her own soundness and safety. In time her first port is made; her first achievement gloriously won. The cruise is continued and the ship sails from port to port in the performance of her responsible mission. But in the course of time there gradually appear signs mmm 140 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY of deterioration in the vessel. Not only is there a decided dimi-nution in her speed, but her draught is increased and her sailing more laborious. An investigation reveals the startling fact that clinging to her once smooth and clean hull with tenacious grasp are many small barnacles, whose appearance there had been so gradual as to be at first almost without any perceptible effects. The ship is hundreds of miles from a dock and consequently the evil cannot be remedied. The number of barnacles is rapidly increasing now and the sailing of the ship is continually becom-ing more laborious. Our once proud and beautiful ship begins to show unmistakable signs of decay. She is ever sinking deeper in the briny deep and can continue her course only with the greatest difficulty. No longer is she able to withstand the buffet-ing storms; and those in charge of her make strenuous efforts to get her into the nearest port before calamity overtake her. But alas their efforts are vain ! A terrific storm, arises; again the winds toss up huge overwhelming billows. The thunders roar and the vivid lightnings flash, and in their flash can be read the doom of our vessel, whose early fortitude and strength now gone, rides helplessly in the cruel sea. Repeatedly submerged beneath the mountain waves, she can no longer be managed by her terror-stricken crew. At last comes the fatal moment. The ship is in sight of land and makes frantic efforts to reach safety, but the thousands of barnacles now adhering to her hull drag her down and impede her progress. About her the breakers are roaring. Suddenly and with a crash of doom the ship is dashed upon the hidden rocks; her well-built frame trembles and yields to the rending force of the waves; her brave crew are sacrificed to the deep, and a proud and promising career is ended in ruin. Was it the tempest that did it? No, it was the small and apparently in-significant barnacle. After the foregoing elaboration on the chief thought of the poem it would be a reflection on the intelligence of our readers to explain the applicability of this thought to human life and ex-perience. Into every life there come at an earlier or later period mischievous and destructive habits and tendencies. Like the barnacles in the poem their coming is gradual and unobserved, calling for the greatest watchfulness on the part of the individual. They quietly and insinuatingly implant themselves into the very moral fibre of our being, and cling to us with an almost inextric- THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 141 able grasp. They are furthermore like the real barnacle in that they continually multiply in number and evil effects, until at last they bring about ignominious death and destruction. A discussion of the formation of habits aud the cultivation of tendencies in early life from a purely psychological standpoint would necessarily be more comprehensive than the scope of this essay permits or the ability of the writer justifies. We shall con-. tent ourselves therefore with the mere facts and their applications. Man, in his moral and spiritual nature, has been defined as a "bundle of habits and tendencies." While this definition may be opeu to just criticism it nevertheless expresses a great psy-chological truth and implies an almost terrifying moral responsi-bility for our daily life and conduct. That character chiefly determines the nature of man's ethical distinctions and mental acts and states is generally acknowledged. That man is morally accountable for most of his own peculiar habits is no less true. This simple truth, from which men are prone to flee, invests life with the greatest responsibility. It is a serious thing to live. Barnacles of habit! What failures, sorrow aud wide-spread misery they are accountable for! Although restricted in their operations to no particular periods of life, they are most likely to appear in the early and formative periods. They meet us at the very threshold of our earthly existence, and with insinuating art invade the sacredness of pure, sweet childhood and youth, firmly attaching themselves to innocent souls and implanting therein the germs of all those evils which go to rob life of its rightful happiness and peace,and render existence through time and eternity one dreary round of sorrow and remorse. In order that we may get a more comprehensive view of the modes of operation of those barnacles of habit as well as their far-reaching effects, we shall now consider the state of the indi-vidual who has become a victim to them : and for our present purpose it is desirable that we treat first the objective influence of this individual in his social relations. We distinguish in this objective influence a two-fold division: First, the influence on others ; Second, the reflex influence, or the influence on self through the solidarity of the race. Both divisions are very important and far-reaching, but between them can be drawn no entirely clear line of demarkation. Clearly an individual's objective influence will be determined largely by his 142 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY intellectual and social status. But laying this consideration aside, it is evident that the average individual exerts a wonderfully great influence upon those about him. His habits of action and even of thought are bound to become, to a certain extent, theirs also, and to just this extent does he become morally responsible for their course of life and conduct. Since men love darkness rather than light, it would seem that his evil habits possess a more operative and effective influence than his good habits. This evil influence, emanating from him, affects not only his immediate companions, but it also leaves its deadly stamp upon the com-munity at large. Indeed the moral tone of the entire human race suffers a positive lowering because of the evil influence of this single individual. We come now to the reflex objective influence of the indi-vidual to whom these barnacles of habit adhere. It is an un-deniable fact that every individual creates to a large extent his own environment. Whether he shall be surrounded by light or darkness, joy or sorrow, righteousness or sin depends largely upon his own course of life and conduct. As an image is reflected in a mirror so is the influence of evil habits reflected in those upon whom it operates, to be seen and experienced again by him in whom it first had its origin. From the standpoint of self-interest, it is just as unreasonable to draw a fellow-man from the path of rectitude and duty as to drag him by main force into a bed of quick sand, for in both cases the aggressor must share the fate of his victim. Thus we see that he who wields an evil influence is not only a dangerous enemy to society, but is also a curse to himself, for he is continually preparing pitfalls for his own feet, and jeopardizing all chance of his ever attaining to moral worth. The subjective influence of the individual calls for treatment now, and it is here that we observe the saddest and most destruc-tive workings of these barnacles of habit. Like the unfortunate ship, whose career we have described, many a life has its begin-ning in comparative purity and strength. Full of confidence in its own powers, it presses boldly on, overcoming obstacle after obstacle. But just as the watery environment of our ship con-tained many hidden and unsuspected dangers, so is the environ-ment of this life teeming with evils which ere long begin to assert themselves. Pernicious habits of temperament, disposition, or passion appear. Silently, but with the inexorableness of Fate THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 143 they undermine all that which is best and noblest in human nature, and in the end bring moral wreck and ruin. Nor is this hideous transformation limited only to the outward expression of char-acter. There is a marked physiological change in the very brain cells of the individual. The very citadel of man's superior glory and strength is attacked and laid low. The intellect is debased and misdirected in its operations. The sensibility is rendered weak and misleading; the will is helplessly bound, as in ada-mantine chains. Beautiful and lofty thoughts, refined feelings, and noble resolves are no longer possible. In their place are low and unworthy conceptions, coarse feelings and ignoble desires and resolutions. If perchance there flash through this night of sin and shame a faint auroral beam of truth and purity, the fettered will can only by the most strenuous effort respond to its uplifting influence. Weoffer no apology for the dark picture here presented; human experience in all ages will testify to its fidelity to stern reality. These hell-born barnacles of habit have destroyed the highest in-tellects and debased the most beautiful characters. All spiritual worth falls before them. For an unutterably sad illustration of this truth, let us take a brief glance at the life of one of England's most distinguished poets, Lord Byron. Although a man of great genius, rank, fame and power, his life was in the end a miserable failure. The barnacles of habit, which first made their appear-ance in him in early youth, clun'g to him to the close of his life with ever increasing bane and deadening influence. Throughout his sad and romantic life he was in continually abject slavery to the Past. The vicious habits formed then asserted their dread power even in his best moments, and, like the hideous Eumenides of old, allowed him no rest, but drove him from shore to shore until, with a prematurely worn out body and destroyed peace of mind, his life, once full of glorious promise but now bereft of all its charm,was sadly ended. The unutterable sorrow and regret of the following lines, written but three months before his death, bar comment: "My days are in the yellow leaf ; The flowers and fruit of love are gone; The worm, the canker, and the grief, Are mine alone. 144 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY But probably the most important phase of our subject is the influence of the individual upon posterity. We stand face to face with the great law of heredity, whose workings are now receiving such general recognition by all intelligent people. If there is one thing which more than any other gives to life solemn and tremendous responsibility it is heredity, for literally, "none of us liveth to himself," but he lives for the whole race, both in this age and in all subsequent ages. We can no longer believe that " each soul is an emanation, fresh and unpolluted, from a divine fountain of being." It is entirely opposed to all our knowledge of psychical phenomena and the modern views on evolution. On the other hand, we must refrain from going to the opposite extreme of the materialist and say that " men are what they were born." The former view imposes upon poor man a terrible burden of responsibility for every slight violation of right which causes him to fall from a state of absolute purity, render-ing his moral condition utterly hopeless. The latter view would lead us to fatalism, and the denial of all responsibility. The former view ignores the existence of the law of heredity ; the lat-ter view would endeavor to explain everything by this law. Heredity is not all. Environment plays an inestimably import-ant part in the development of every human being. The evolu-tion of man is but the history of the operations of these two great forces. Like two Titans, engaged in work upon some great structure, heredity and environment ply their respective tasks, the former continually building with utmost constancy of pur-pose ; the latter capriciously assisting for a time, and then again hindering or destroying the work of the former. It is only by recognizing the existence of these influences, and their effect upon character, that we can arrive at even an elementary knowledge and appreciation of life's problems. We have thus far said but little relative to the will, and its functions in the development of character. We have, however, by our frequent references to moral responsibility in life, implied its existence and over-ruling power. Heredity and environment are not all. Towering above them in dignity and power is the human will, which, if rightly exercised, can overcome to a greater or lesser extent many of their most potent influences. This will necessarily operates in freedom, and it is in this freedom that the responsibilities of life arise. " Each human being is free, and THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 145 therefore responsible, in a measure ; and yet no child has any voice in saying where he shall be born, what blood shall course in his veins, what tendencies shall impel, or what aspirations thrill him."—(Amory H. Bradford.) In thus opposing will to heredity and environment we do not wish to imply that it operates in a field distinctly its own, and is altogether above and free from the influences of the latter. The character of the will is indeed determined to a very large degree by heredity and environment. Should the will of the parent be affected by the barnacles of weakness, indecision and cowardice, we would have reason to expect the same condition in the case of the child. For the sake of illustrating the manner in which a weakness of the will may be inherited, let us cite a sad example. The English poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, was addicted to the use of stimulants. Although he earnestly strove to overcome this tendency, he found that he lacked the will-power necessary for complete abstinence. His son, Hartly Coleridge, also a poet, inherited all his father's weakness in this direction ; and his entire life was a constant and unsuccessful struggle against temptation. In a spirit of despair he wrote of himself: " O ! woeful impotence of weak resolve, Recorded rashly to the writer's shame, Da3rs pass away, and time's large orbs revolve, And every day beholds me still the same ; 'Till oft neglected purpose loses aim, And hope becomes a flat, unheeded lie." And thus these barnacles of habit beset the individual, and accomplish their deadly work. They appear when life is young and sweet, and, like the Sirens, entice him with their soft allure-ments to destruction. As time progresses they tighten their re-morseless hold upon him, and weigh him down beneath their slimy weight of shame remorse and despair. At last death, with a thousand terrors, overtakes him, and another lost soul enters the realm of everlasting darkness. But the evil effects of the barnacles of habit do not end with the death of the individual. The curse is transmitted to subsequent generations. There is started a stream of death, which flows on down through the ages, continually exhaling from its poisonous waters, mixed with tears and blood, the germs of sin, grief, agony and unutterable despair. We shall now conclude this rather meagre and unsatisfactory 146 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY treatment of some of life's great problems. If our essay partakes of too gloomy and despondent a tone to please our reader's ears, its theme should be held accountable, but not its writer. We have endeavored to the best of our ability to set forth some of the more obvious evil effects resulting from the formation of wrong habits of life ; and throughout we have conscientiously endeavored to develop the central thought of L,auier's poem—the powerful influence of the past upon the present. Danier recognized the fact that life, for many an individual, is a ceaseless struggle ; that every attainment of virtue and true worth is reached only by the overcoming of innumerable obstacles, and the resolute and deter-mined resistance to the restraining grasp of the spectral hand which the dead past is ever reaching out to us. In conclusion, we wish to say that, by the very nature of our subject, we have been compelled to depict the darkest side of human nature. That there is a bright side, too, we confidently believe. While it is a serious thing to live, because of life's re-sponsibilities, it is also a blessed thing to live, because of life's glorious opportunities. And for us to invest life with deep gloom and sorrow is not only the height of folly, but it is an insult to ourallwise and loving Maker. The Reign of Righteousness will come ; for, while that which is true and holy will abide and in-crease throughout all time, sin has in itself the seeds of its own decay. " The wages of sin is death." THE BLACK CURL. MAY BELLE DIEHL, '03. TT was a warm day, about the middle of June, when Detective A Elair got to Richard's house. He could see it when he entered the wood, a small house, painted white, with a porch running all around it. Blair was on the search for Richard, better known as "Sly Bill." He had skipped off with about a thousand, one dark night, from the bank in which he was working. Blair had never seen him, but he was sure he would know him as soon as he would see him. As he drew near the house he heard singing, and stopping to listen, he thought he recognized a woman's voice. When he rapped on the door it was opened by a withered old woman who THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 147 curtly inquired what he wanted there. Her face grew a little pale when he asked for her son, but she straightened herself up and said that he had gone. Blair's face fell, but he asked leave to search the house. When that was ended he sat down to think. No trace whatever had he found of the fellow. Instead he found, sitting in her room, the loveliest girl he had ever seen, dark as night. Blair adored dark girls. As he was far from New York he was invited to stay over night. He declined to stay, but afterwards decided to do so and go back the next day. That evening they had a pleasant time chatting on the porch, but Blair had no idea whether either of them suspected what he was there for. He grew to love the girl in those few hours. When they took a walk the next day she coyly asked why he could not stay a little longer. He was delighted and determined to stay until he was ordered to leave. And he did. These two took a great many walks, and one pleasant evening when Blair thought the time had come, he asked her to be his wife. Of course she accepted him and he told her all about New York, and where they would live, etc. But there was only one cloud to mar the pleasure. She shunned him a little, a very little, but Blair saw it and wondered to himself. One evening he asked her why she did this;—they were sitting under a weeping willow by the brook, their favorite spot—she started a little when the question was asked, but looking at the water at her feet she coyly said, "I am afraid if I were with you always I would not be able to let you go when—a—when—the time came to part." He put his arm about her and drew her towards him; but just then there were footsteps and Mrs. Richards called her daughter. The girl arose and rau forward to her mother and they went toward the house together. The next day he got word to start and hunt Richard at another place where he was supposed to have been seen. He decided to go, and on his way stop for "Blanche." The day he left they were in their old place by the brook. Blair had asked her for a certain curl that hung lovingly over her little ear. She cut it off, and when he took it he pressed it to his lips and put it in his card case. While he was on the way to find the thief he received a tele-gram: "Come back at once; thief found." He decided to come 148 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY for his sweetheart later, and set out for New York-. He arrived there a few days later, and when he walked into the office one of the men came up to him and slapped him on the back and said: "Well, old boy, so you were entrapped ?" At this all the other men laughed. Blair looked bewildered, and he was led to a door, which, when it was unlocked was thrown open to his gaze. Blair staggered back and covered his eyes, then opened them and looked again. There in a corner by an opeii window stood— "Blanche," yet not "Blanche." The same dark skin and black eyes and pretty ringlets that Blair had so admired. She(?) held a cigarette between her pearly teeth and a cap sat back on the clustering curls. There came a sneering laugh from between those teeth when Blair came in but "fool!" was the only word that came. But he certainly made a pretty girl! ONE OP COD'S WAIPS. [Second Gies Prize.] C. M. A. STINE, '01. '"pHB train had just roared out of its miles of snowsheds and ■"■ paused for a moment on the summit of the Sierras. It was dusk. The sun had sunk behind the cloud-capped peaks and the platform before the little box of a station was very quiet after the long vestibuled train vanished into the fast approaching night. At the one end of the platform, playing with the pebbles and singing softly to himself, was a rosy cheeked, brown-eyed little boy. He was clothed in a rough suit of jeans many sizes too large, and his soft brown curls peeped through his ragged straw hat. The boy's name was Tom. Tom's father worked in the mines and sometimes Tom became very lonesome with no companions save the great, silent moun-tains. But the moutains answered Tom when he shouted in his childish sports and he thought they sympathized with him en-tirely. His mother had died six long years before, and nobody had thought it worth while to explain to him that it was an echo. To-night, when Tom spied his father in the distance and ran to meet him as usual, he was put aside and told to run away and not bother his father. It was the first time that he had not met THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 149 with a loving welcome and been lifted to his father's shoulder. His soft red lips quivered a moment and the brown eyes filled as he turned silently away. A little later when Tom had eaten his meagre supper and then gone to his bed in one corner, the little cabin was filled with men and Tom heard his father deny some-thing again and again, but he could not quite understand what it was all about. Finally one of the men sprang up, with an oath, and threatened to shoot his father, but the other men pulled him out of the cabin, saying that they offered one alternative, that was that his father go away and not show himself again. His father promised and then came and told Tom to dress himself and come. The trouble was about a large nugget of gold which had dis-appeared mysteriously. Tom's father had been working near the place where the nugget was last seen, and when it disappeared the readiness to suspicion by the rough miners at once asserted itself, and it was agreed that Tom's father could tell more about the lost nugget than he was willing to admit. He was a new-comer and had no friends, so things went hard with him. As the two stole away in the night, Tom, looking back over his father's shoulder as he was carried, saw their little cabin in flames, and when he reported the discovery his father only walked faster and didn't seem to care. But Tom cried a little to himself as he was hurried off, and finally went to sleep on his father's shoulder. The man plodded wearily on for awhile and then laid Tom down under a pine and wrapping him up in his coat, paced up and down till the gray light of dawn crept down from its resting place in the towering peaks. As he walked he talked to himself softly; " Oh, Mary, if you had only stayed. Why did God have to take you ? The brutes! To burn my home and drive me out with my little boy into the mountains to die! I did not take the cursed nugget. Oh, God ! I dare not kill myself. My poor little boy ! You can't realize what it means to you to be the son of a man who has been branded a thief.'' Finally he threw himself beside Tom and, exhausted with work and anxiety, slept till the rays of the morning sun kissed the closed eye-lids of his little boy and awoke him. The little fellow called his father, and the two trudged wearily on till they came to another mining town. The father bought a meagre dinner from one of the cabins ISO THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY which a huge board proclaimed a " Restournt." He took Tom to a cabin and gave a woman some money, asking her to keep the little fellow till he came back. Then he took Tom aside, looking at him a long time, told him to grow up to be a good man, and stroked Tom's soft brown hair awhile. At last he took a tiny locket from within his ragged blue shirt and hung the delicate chain around Tom's neck and showed him how to look at the picture of the sweet, girlish face within. He held Tom's head in his hands and gazed into the deep brown eyes as if looking for the resemblance to the face in the locket. The look in his father's face made the little fellow feel like crying, though he knew it wasn't manly to cry. That evening they brought his father back to the little town and a couple men hastily buried the body for decency's sake- There was a bullet hole in the forehead. " He had committed suicide, because his revolver had one chamber empty and was found lying beside him." Such was the verdict of the astute coroner. No one took the trouble to look about near the scene of the supposed suicide or they might have found the loaded shell which had been taken from one chamber of the revolver tossed there by the coward who had threatened to shoot him by his very fireside, and now had accomplished his craven will from a con-cealed spot among the rocks. The same villain who took the gold now had covered up his crime with an almost devilish cun-ning. He escaped punishment on earth, unless his own dark thoughts tormented him. The woman kept Tom for awhile, but she had many cares of her own and finally Tom was left to make a living for himself. The little fellow (just five summers he had seen) did all sorts of odd jobs, but was hungry always, only sometimes not quite as much as at others. One night it rained and Tom caught cold. The next day he couldn't work and one of the miners pitied the little fellow and took him to his home. For a few weeks Tom was very sick, but he was carefully watched over by the great-hearted Christian mother, who willingly undertook the care of the homeless, ragged little stranger, a part of whose pitiful ex-perience she knew. At last, one day, the great brown eyes opened and the fire of intelligence was once more alight within THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 151 them. He finally got well and received work in the company store. We must pass over a period of ten years, during which the little lad grew to be a strong, intelligent, kind-hearted youth. His restless spirit and his thirst for knowledge induced him, at the end of his sixteenth year, to take a sad leave of the woman who had cared for him as tenderly as a mother, and whom he had learned to love. At parting he left with her the delicate gold chain of peculiar workmanship, but took the locket himself. He said that he intended to find work, get a college education, and some day he would return. When, he did not know. Three years more slipped away. The little mining town had grown with a mushroom-like growth to the size of a great city. Many new mining industries had arisen. One morning a grey haired, withered old woman offered flowers for sale to an equally grey and old, but richly dressed and proud-faced woman, who, attracted by the magnificent roses of the old flower-woman, had ordered her carriage to stop. She bestowed a passing glance on the poorly dressed little woman and was about to turn again to the roses when she uttered an exclamation and demanded to know where this woman, who probably had never had money enough to buy a fine dress, could have gotten the strangely fashioned and costly chain which had slipped into view from beneath the old flower-woman's wrap. She became more agitated as the old flower-woman took the chain off and permitted her to examine it. Passers-by were astonished to see the rich and fashionable Mrs. Grayson in earnest conversation with a poor old flower-woman. Finally she out-raged the refined sensibilities of her sister, who had been leaning listlessly back in the carriage, by actually taking the shabby old woman into her carriage and ordering the coachman to drive home. "Oh, Marion, what will our friends say?" But this phrase, which usually had the desired effect, seemed spoken to deaf ears. A look into Mrs. Grayson's pale face silenced her. The old flower-woman related how Tom had come to her when a little sick lad and left her after he had grown almost to manhood, and how she had never heard of him since. The old woman's voice trembled and her faded old face took additional ti. i ii. ,.«■——w ii minim HW.IU. 152 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY lines as she told bow she longed to see her lost boy. And then her grief gave place to wonder as she discovered that the woman beside her was shedding tears from eyes that had almost forgotten what tears were. " It is certainly my daughter's son," she exclaimed, noticing the look of wonder on the face of the old flower-woman. " But where is the locket?" and she indicated the place on the chain where the locket had hung. " He kept the locket," the old flower-woman answered. Then Mrs. Grayson explained in a voice frequently inter-rupted by grief how her daughter, when but a young girl, had fallen in love with a wild young civil engineer, and on her parents' absolute refusal of their consent, had disappeared and not been heard from. The chain and locket with a picture of the young girl had been given to her daughter by her on a birthday before she left home. The mother had loved her daughter most tenderly, and when the little boy, Tom, was but a few months old the mother had received a letter asking her, if anything should happen his mother, to take care of the little fellow. She had then tried to find her daughter, but they had gone farther West and she never again heard, and did not know that her daughter was dead, though she had feared that such must be the case. That night the wires sang and operators were astonished at the number of messages and inquiries, all relating to the same man. They hesitated between the belief that the man who created all this inquiry was a murderer and the belief that he was an absconding bank cashier. But all inquiry was in vain. The past refused to give a clue to the present. Detectives who had never failed before gave up the vain search. Mrs. Grayson came to the end of her resources. All that wealth could do had been done, without result. She had shown her gratitude to the old flower-woman by making her comfortable for the remainder of her life. She, herself, decided to go abroad in search for lost health, and perhaps, deep down in her heart, she thought that some kind providence would reveal her grandson, for whom she had a very tender and deep affection as the son of her erring, but well be-loved, daughter. One day on the deck of the steamer she found a man's watch THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 153 and chain, and at once the charm on the chain caught her eye. It was the missing locket. She touched a spring and found her-self gazing, with tear dimmed eyes, at the smiling face of her daughter pictured within. A moment later a young man inquired of her for a watch and chain that he thought must have slipped from his clothing as he lounged in a steamer chair. The law of heredity had told. The strain of refinement showed itself in that, through all these years of hard work and rough surroundings, he had succeeded, and was the quiet, re-fined looking fellow the grandmother had longed to see. He had managed to earn his way through a business college, and now as private secretary of a well-to-do merchant was in a fair way to reach his goal, a higher education. Without a word the grandmother fastened the locket in its place on the curious old chain which she had received again through the old flower-woman, and handed the beautiful bit of jewelry to him. Ten minutes later the lazy passengers were astonished to see Mrs. Grayson go by leaning on the arm of a tall, brown-eyed fel-low (for she was old and the ship swayed on the ocean swell), and to notice that there were actually tears on the aristocratic old face, and a suspicious moisture in the eyes of the young fellow who helped her along so carefully, and with such a caressing touch. God had cared for and watched over the motherless waif, and when human strength had failed to unite relatives, in His fathomless love He gave the young man a loving mother in place of the mother he had lost so many years ago. CONSCIOUSNESS. Within the silent rock exist A billion yearning- lives. Man is a petty egotist To think he only strives, To think he only struggles up To God through toil and pain. He is but one drop in a cup Filled from the mighty main. The flowers have tender little souls, That love, repine, aspire. 1S4 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Each star that on its orbit rolls, Feels infinite desire. The diamond longs to scintillate When hid beneath the sod. The universe is animate With consciousness of God. —E1.1.A WHEELER WILCOX, IN COLLIER'S WEEKLY. G^U HONOR, OR HONORS? (Gits Prut Production, Third Prize.) D. C. BURNITE, '01. "TN the world's broad field of battle" each contestant must have •*■ a purpose. This life has been called the "struggle for existence." This might be said, with some measure of truth, of some of the meanest of God's creatures, but such a purpose is unworthy of one made in His image. We struggle for more than mere existence. Each has a definite end towards which he strives, an ideal he seeks to imitate. A man's moral character is measured by his ideal. The higher his ideal, the nobler his traits of character. And how many there are who fail to realize the importance of the choice of an ideal! Many persons are, unfortunately, accustomed to act before they think. They do not consider tbat there are two sides to every question. Attracted by the brilliant achievements of others, without considering the means and methods by which such persons have attained their ends, they set up a goal, towards which they blindly direct their course of action, forgetful of everything but success. Comparatively few men can stand success. As in the case of the misguided Mohammed, with the attainment of distinction comes a change of character. Too often do men forsake honor in the strife for honors. Yet honors are not to be wholly despised. Even the most modest persons experience some satisfaction when the success of their efforts meets with the approval of their fellows. And the pursuit of such approval cannot justly be condemned if attended by sturdiness of character and the pre-servation of honor. On the contrary, such a course can be com-mended, for its successful outcome is not only a source of gratifi- THE GETl^YSBURG MERCURY 155 cation to the participant himself, but brings joy to his friends and credit to his community. But not all the honors that mankind can bestow can compensate for the loss of one grain of honor. "An honest man's the noblest work of God." Shall we, then, labor to win the empty praises of men, or to fulfill our Maker's design? With honors as the one end for which we strive, honor may be lost; but if all we do is done with this one purpose in view, the building up of an honorable character, sufficient honors will surely come. What man's name is more honored than that of "honest Abe Lincoln?" Each year our nation celebrates the memory of the virtuous Washington. The humble works ofMoody have brought him esteem, more sincere than could any other achievement, political or military. These are men who have worked, not for honors, but for honor, and obtained both. But what a host of men have forgotten character in the race for glory! The pursuit of honors under such circumstances is vain. What availed all the distinctions won by the intriguing Caesar? The name of Nero is remembered, not so much as that of a great Roman emperor, as that of history's most cruel tyrant. It was checked ambition which led Benedict Arnold to give his name to history, not as a successful American general, but as a traitor. For those the maintenance of honor was impossible, with honors alone in view. This fault of excessive ambition appears not only in past history, but also in that of the present. Men are no less inclined to endanger their good names in the pursuit of honors now than they have always been. But the means taken are somewhat different. The days of bloodshed and outright robbery to gain distinction are past; but the practice of falsehood, cheating and inti'igue has scarcely abated. It is too true that in these days honors accompany riches. By a large majority of people the wealthy are respected and courted because of their possessions only. And this being realized, many are the means taken to acquire wealth. Many a man starts out into business with the avowed intention of letting right rule his every act and word. But the ever appearing opportunity of telling a "business lie," or perpetrating one of the numerous "tricks of trade," assails him at every turn. Unless he recalls and clings to his good resolve, the first step below the level of 1S6 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY honesty is too frequently the beginning of a general weakening of character, the loss of which he imagines is repaid by the acquirement of wealth and all the honors it brings. The honors attendant upon political eminence are particularly attractive. It is very easy for the political aspirant to be induced to employ falsehood and intrigue as assistants in reaching coveted ends, and it is to be deplored that these means too often are successful in producing the desired results, not only in connection with our town and state affairs, but in the government of our nation itself. So prevalent are such practices that a great pro-portion of our populace firmly believe that political honors and personal honor are incompatible. But business and politics are not the only directions in which honor can be lost to honors. There is scarcely one line of labor which does not offer abundant chances for deterioration of character. And not only at one time of life may we have this delusive ambition. It appears alike in the old and young. In fact, the evil practices of men are generally the continuation of dishonorable habits formed in early life. Nowhere is this sacrifice of honor for honors practiced so much as in our institutions of learning—those places where young men are finishing the mould-ing of characters that are to endure all through manhood. It is a cause of regret that so many in such places seem not to realize the importance of right dealing at this period of life. The bestowal of honors in the shape of high grades, in most schools and colleges, is based, not upon what the student has the ability to do—for it would be impossible to ascertain that accu-rately— but upon what he makes his instructors think he can do. What an inducement for wrong-doing, especially if these honors take the form of material rewards, or even verbal approval. He who in his zeal for honors lays aside honor, can find countless methods by which he may create the required good impression upon the minds of his tutors. And many do find and use these methods. The bane of our institutions of learning is the extensive practice of cheating, the great prevalence of the inclination to do wrong for the sake of advanced notation. Too many students are willing to give honor for honors. College credits, rightly acquired, are worthy of attainment, for they are evidence to the student himself of his real worth. But dishonestly obtained, they are nothing. And the excessive THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 157 use of this latter method of obtaining honors renders the whole system of numerical or alphabetical notation almost useless as a standard for the judgment of ability. But the majority of students fail to see this, and regard these honors as the one goal towards which they must bend their efforts, and to make the process easy, many stoop to unworthy methods. How utterly foolish such deeds ! For a few short years of self-satisfaction, for the praise of friends, and for the sake of transient credit, they are willing to injure that which is designed to regulate the whole course of life, the character. Too frequently we are mistaken in our conception of what true honors are. We consider the approval of a large number of persons as sufficient to call an attainment an honor. But true honors are not those regarded as such by many, but by certain men—the wise, the good, and by One who is infinitely wiser and better, the Great Judge. It is in His sight that the deepening of character becomes in itself an honor. With these thoughts in mind, let us ask ourselves, "For what shall we strive ? For that which will please our Maker or for the praise of men ; for self-improvement or vain glory ; for honor or honors?' ' Let Fate do her worst, there are relics of joy— Bright dreams of the past, which she cannot destroy. They come in the night-time of sorrow and care, And bring back the features that joy used to wear. Long, long be my heart with such memories filled, Like the vase in which roses have once been distilled; You may break, you may shatter the vase if you will, But the scent of the roses will cling 'round it still. -MOOKK. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. Entertd at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter. Voi,. IX. GETTYSBURG, PA., OCTOBER, 1900. No. 5. Editor-in- Chief, S. A. VAN ORMEK, '01. Assistant Editors, W. H. HBTRICK, W. A. KOHLER. Business Manager, H. C. HOFFMAN. Alumni Editor, REV. F. D. GARLAND. Assistant Business Manager, WILLIAM C. NEY. Advisory Board, PROF. J. A. HIMES, LIT. D. PROF. G. D. STAHLEY, M. D. PROF. J. W. RICHARD, D. D. Published monthly by the students of Pennsylvania (Gettysburg") College. Subscription price, One Dollar a year in advance; single copies Ten Cents. Notice to discontinue sending- the MERCURY to any address must be accompanied by all arrearages. Students, Professors, and Alumni are cordially invited to contribute. All subscriptions and business matter should be addressed to the Business Manager. Articles for publication should be addressed to the Editor. Address THE GETTYBURG MERCURY, GETTYSBURG, PA. EDITORS' DESK. "EVERYTHING points to a successful year for Pennsylvania *-* College ! A larger Freshman class, to the members of which—though too late to extend a welcome—THE MERCURY extends a greeting and an invitation to contribute to her columns ; a lively, healthy, interesting athletics ; a rival of the old-time enthusiasm in getting new men into the literary societies; an exceptional feeling of good-will among the students ; and a com-mendable harmony pervading the whole institution ; all these signs seem to augur a " star" year in the history of the college. Let us all conduct ourselves as students worthy the proffered privileges ! THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 159 HPHERE is no more opportune time to urge the expediency of * regularly attending and actively participating in the work of our literary societies than at the beginning of the college year for the old students, and of the college course for the new. The college graduate, no matter in what profession he may be engaged, will frequently be called upon in public meetings, either to conduct the proceedings or give his opinion and counsel. How often, with a brilliant college record behind him, he hesitates or reluctantly accepts, only to stumble and falter in speech, or dis-play a grievous ignorance of parliamentary practice, to his own confusion and the disgust of those assembled. Opportunities to rise into public notice, to win the confidence of his community, and, in general, to exhibit qualifications for public duty and trust, are thus allowed to pass unimproved, and the disappointed aspirant is obliged to confine his interests and activities to the narrow channels of professional routine, and tamely work out his ordinary destiny on the dead level of professional common-place ; all because in his struggle for class standing, distinction in col-lege sports or general college activities, if not because of utter indifference, he has neglected the literary societies and their training. Too often the training there imparted is depreciated, and re-garded as a college incidental of collateral importance and in-terest, and not an essential and supplementary part of one's equipment for life—a part, indeed, of higher market value in the world to-day than that any department of study in the college curriculum can furnish. The literary societies are both animated by a spirit of earnest endeavor—a spirit which, though it savors of rivalry and competition, is modified by a sympathetic interest in the literary culture of all members. Their doors are ever open to visitors, and welcome ever warm to applicants. -K. **p LITERARY INOTES. HTHE publication at this time of the United States Government's *■ History of the Civil War in 128 volumes of narrative, and 35 volumes of maps, makes very tiniely the publication of Col. Thomas L,. Iyivermore's " Numbers and L,osses in the Civil War." The work is based upon official information contained in per- 160 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY mauent department records of both sides in the struggle, and gives the numbers engaged and the losses sustained in the long contest between the North and the South. Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. will publish the work. Jt Edna Dean Proctor, whose " Poems," chiefly of New England subjects, have won for her an enviable reputation, has in press with the Messrs. Houghton, Miffliu&Co. a new volume of verse, which relates entirely to New Hampshire, her native State. The book will be issued under the title, " A Mountain Maid, and Other Poems of New Hampshire." It will be illustrated by a number of reproductions of photographs of some of the romantic mountain and other scenery of the " Old Granite State." j* The publishers of " David Harum" give some interesting statistics regarding that work, now in its 436th thousand : Over 5,000 pounds of ink, 5,865 reams of paper, and 1,900 miles of thread have been used in making the books. If placed end to end they would extend for more than fifty miles. e^b THE MAIDEN ALL PORLORN. STANLEY C FOWLEB, '04. "IT'S de gospel truff I'm a tellin yo'. Dis yere house am ■*■ ha'nted shur nuff." " What's up now ?" asked Mr. Bently, looking up from his morning paper. George Washington rolled his eyes and twiddled his thumbs as he repeated his former assertion : " Dat de house am ha'nted." "Where did you obtain this pleasant information?" Mr. Bently demanded. " W'a a young gen'lenian, dats a stayin' downhe'ar, tole me dat de spook ob a beau'ful lady walks up in de garret. Dis lady used ter lib he'ar, when dis yer house was fust built, wid an ole uncle who wanted ter marry her ter his son, so's he'd git her money, but she wa' dead in lub wid a young fellar dat she used to meet ' clandistinctly.' One night dis ole uncle spied her a goin' up ter de garret an' cotched her a makin' signals out of dat THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 161 ' oriole' window to de fellar. De ole wretch locked her in de room, an' stole down an' waited fo' de young man, an' killed him while she wa' a lookin' at 'em. She went crazy, an'used ter steal up dere ebery Wednesday night (fo' dat's de night her uncle killed him), an' moan an' groan about him, an' when she died her spook walked. De people called her ' De Maiden All Forlorn.' " And having delivered this pleasant piece of news, George Washington retired. Here was a pretty state of affairs. Mr. Bently had spent three days with his wife and nephews at the large, old-fashioned man-sion on the Hudson, that he had recenttypurchased for a summer residence. These nephews, while at college, had earned the reputation of being " wild," but had developed into two quiet cads during the three days spent in the company of their aunt; much to the de-light of that estimable lady, and disgust of her husband. Mr. Bently rubbed his ears reflectively, and said, " George Washington's name is a warrant for his veracity, but, Good Dord ! just think of living in a house inhabited by a spook ! It's just like you, Tom Bently, to buy a place like this. What will you poor boys do when she begins to walk and groan ?" asked Mr. Bently. '' I will lay me down in peace and take my rest; for it is Thine, Dord only, that makest me dwell in safety," said Fred, rolling his eyes to the ceiling. Will, the younger nephew, was too deeply interested in "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which he had been reading for the past few days, to pay any attention to the conversation. Well, if she's going to walk she'll do it to-night. But say, Fred, how will that club of yours, that you have invited to spend every Wednesday night here, stand it?" asked Mr. Bently. " They are all Christian boys, and fear nothing," said Fred. Mr. Bently's foot itched to connect with Fred, but, fearing his wife's anger, he found satisfaction in kicking the dog. " Well, it's queer that the agent forgot to mention ' The Maiden All Forlorn.' I'm going to examine the garret," and off Mr. Bently stamped. The garret had two very large rooms. One which had an oriel window, overlooking the river, opened into another smaller room, in which were a wooden table and several large packing 162 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY cases. This room opened into a large closet with a door at one end. Mr. Bently found it to be locked and the key missing. After getting the lay of the land for future emergencies, he hur-ried down to welcome the guests. They were six of the gayest looking " Christian" boys he had ever seen. His spirits rose only to fall again, for they proved to be the exact counterparts of his nephews. Mr. Bently's blissful snoring was brought to an abrupt end. " There, that's her ! Don't youhearthat noise ? Go up and see what it is !" said Mrs. Bently, who was sitting bolt upright in bed. It is needless to say that Mr. Bently failed to display a proper spirit of eagerness or enthusiasm at his wife's command, but a few prods from her succeeded in instilling the proper degree of courageousness necessary for such an undertaking. Calling for George Washington, who came running along with a bamboo cane in his hand, Mr. Bently handed him a pistol, some matches and a lighted candle; and after taking the cane from him, ordered him to lead the way. Trembling with fear they climbed the garret stairs, and just as George Washington was opening the garret door he sneezed, and out went the candle. " Light that candle ! " screamed Mr. Bently. Poor George was so excited that he succeeded in dropping the matches, and after Mr. Bently groped about in the dark, consol-ing himself and blessing George audibly, he was forced to proceed in total darkness. George plucked up sufficient courage to open the door very slowly, and both stole in. The moonlight was stealing through the window, and there, walking, or rather gliding over to it, her gauzy drapery floating gracefully behind her, was a beautiful young girl. George Wash-ington gave one yell and fled, tripping Mr. Bently, who did not take the time to rise to his feet, but scampered on all fours, fin-ishing a close second to George ; for Mr. Bently, instead of run-ning down stairs, jumped. He sailed through the air like a comet, his dressing gown floating majestically behind him as stiff as a board. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 163 When he lauded he imagined that he heard a chuckle, but turning he beheld George Washington shaking like a lump of jelly and muttering his prayers. "Say, George, I'll give you five dollars ifyou will completely forget this little excursion," said Mr. Bently. " All right, sah," said George. The next day, while strolling in the grounds, Mr. Bently was surprised to hear voices coming from behind a clump of bushes. Hearing his name mentioned, he listened and heard his nephew's voice say, " George, tell us how he looked when he sailed down stairs." Then he heard George Washington's voice answer, " Well, Massa Fred, he done went so fast ah could only see a streak ob him from de top to de bottom ob de stairs.'' Here then was a burst of laughter. Mr. Bently turned savagely on his heel and stalked away muttering, " The black snoozer. I'll choke him. Wait, I'll surprise them yet." Next Wednesday Mrs. Bently announced her intention of sleeping in the left wing of the house, far from the stamping ground of the maiden. Mr. Bently said nothing, but looked very wise. It was almost midnight, and Mr. Bently, fully dressed, his feet shod with soft felt slippers, and carrying a dark-lantern, slowly ascended the garret stairs. He trembled so violently as he turned the knob of the door that he was forced to lean against the wall for a minute. He finally opened it and peeped in. All was quiet and serene, so he tiptoed into the room. Presently he heard footsteps, and hastily shading the lantern saw George Washington walk by and enter the smaller room. As the door opened a flood of light came out, and he heard the sound of many feet tramping. Then he heard Will singing : " O, the youngest son, was a son of a gun, He was, he was, He shuffled the cards and he played for mon, He did, he did." Mr. Bently stole up and peeped into the room through the crack, for George had neglected to shut the door tightly. There sat Will and five "Christian boys" around the wooden table, on which were cards and chips. Fred was boxing with the re-maining " Christian boy," both clad in scant attire. George Washington was opening some bottles of champagne. 164 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY " Come, Ed, it's time that you did your act," said Will. Ed, a big, broad-shouldered fellow, arose aud placed a big blonde wig on his head and donned a long white wrapper. Then he draped some gauze about his shoulders. As he took off his shoe he dropped it. " Are they blasting rock as late as this?" innocently asked Will. " You horrid thing, to make fun of my little shoes. I'll hit you real hard," said Ed as he sent the other number eight sail-ing through the air in the direction of Will's head. When Ed had completed his toilet he stole up to Will, and laying his head on his shoulder, gazed up into his eyes and said, " Does 'oo love 'oo little tootsey-wootsey ?" " He should, ior he lost enough filthy lucre to you last club night," said Fred. Will sang " Thou'rt Like Unto a Flower," and was telling Ed how he " longed on those golden tresses his folded hands to lay," when Ed threw back his head and gave voice to such a howl as human ear had never heard before. It was the bray-ing of a donkey and the howling of a clog, blended harmoniously into one cry, " in linked sweetness long drawn out." "Suffering Moses! When did you cultivate that howl?" asked Will. " I got my inspiration from a Wagnerian chorus that I had the agony of listening to for about four hours and a half. I've practiced it for the past week. Dos't think it sounds like The Maiden All Forlorn singing, " Where Art Thou Now, My Be-loved?" said Ed. " She must have sung like a snorting gale," said Fred. " Say, George Washington, you told that tale with good effect. Who coached you?" asked Ed. " Ah belong to de ' Moonlight Dramatic Association,' " said George, proudly. " Gee," whispered Will, "I should think so many clouds would spoil the moonlight." " Go on, Ed, and do your act. The old gentleman may in-vestigate again," said Will. " Not much. He has his nightcap pulled down over his ears and his head buried under the pillows," said Ed. This was too much, and Mr. Beutly threw open the door and —MI im>i»nm—P THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 165 walked in. What a scene ! George Washington dropped on his knees, saying, " "Tis me father's ghost," in tones that would make the " Divine Sarah" turn green with envy. The Maiden All Forlorn, like the proverbial ostrich, had her head buried in a packing case, and her pedal extremities waving frantically in the air. A row of coat-tails were fast disappearing under the table. Only Fred remained cool and collected. " Good morning, gentlemen," said Mr. Bently. "Good morning, uncle. Won't you join the 'Precious Pearls' in their exercises ?" said Fred. " Don't care if I do," said Mr. Bently. A howl came from the depth of the packing case, where the Damsel Crowned With Rue had taken refuge. A head slowly appeared from the opposite side of the table. " But, uncle, I thought that you didn't approve of poker ?" " That's when your aunt's listening," said Mr. Bently, giving a sly wink. " Whose idea was this ?" " Mine," answered Will. " You see, Aunt Ann insisted on my reading ' Uncle Tom's Cabin,' and I thought that Cassy's racket might work here. It's diplomacy, you know." " And blamed good diplomacy. How do you get up here ?" asked Mr. Bently. " There's a flight of stairs leading from a closet in our room to that door in there," said Fred, pointing to the door in the closet of the room. " Well, it's a mighty good racket so long as your aunt don't investigate," said Mr. Bently. c^p THE NATIONAL NOMINATING CONVENTION. T}RIOR to the year 1825 candidates for President and Vice- A President were nominated by what was called the Con-gressional Caucus. Its power had become so great that a nomi-nation by the Caucus had come to be equivalent to an election. But when it attempted to force upon the people as candidates for the Presidency ir in whom the rank and file of the party did not wish, its usefulness was in question, and because of its persistence 166 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY in such obnoxious actions it lost all its power and influence and came to an inglorious end during the campaign of 1824. Throughout the stage of transition from the Congressional Caucus to the National Nominating Convention the State Legis-lative Caucus assumed the duty of making the presidential nomi-nations. The plan for nominating presidential candidates by means of a national convention had been proposed by different individuals and newspapers opposed to the Congressional Caucus and was under discussion for several years ; but the difficulties in the way, together with the lack of agreement on the part of the people, had prevented a general movement in favor of the plan. Some of the difficulties began to disappear as facilities for com-munication between the States improved with the improved roads and the building of railways. The first call for a national nominating convention was sent out by the Anti-Masonic party in 1830. Thirteen States were represented in this first national convention. An address to the people of the United States was issued and nominations for President and Vice-President were made. The convention idea was now in the air and was promptly adopted by the two great parties. The city of Baltimore has the honor of being the place where candidates for President and Vice-President were first nominated by national conventions. The procedure of these Baltimore conventions was in many particulars much like that of National Conventions to-day. There was the temporary organi-zation, the examination of credentials, the permanent organization, the address to the people setting forth party principles and assail-ing the principles of other parties, the "nominating speeches," and the committee to notify those nominated of the honor conferred. There was no formal"platform " adopted at the first conventions. This feature was introduced by a gathering of young men which met in May, 1832, in the interest of Henry Clay's candidacy. At this meeting a series of resolutions were adopted which, in the language of Mr. Bryce, "constituted the first political plat-form ever put forth by a nominating body." In the National Convention of the present the "platform" occupies a conspicuous place. Three ideas are now seen to enter necessarily into a political platform. There is first a statement of the general fundamental principles for which the party stands. Secondly, THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 167 there is a conscious effort to set forth a specific policy to be pursued under existing circumstances and conditions. And, third, the platform carries with it a pledge, stated or implied, that the party will be true to its historic principles and will carry out the policy outlined. The Anti-Masons contributed to convention organization the suggestion that each State should send as many delegates as it had electoral votes, and the National Republicans the suggestion that the delegates be elected by Congressional districts. In the early conventions the number of delegates from each State was not limited, though the number of votes was restricted to the number of electors. For twenty years from 1852 the number of delegates from each State to Democratic conventions was fixed at double the number of electors and each delegate was given a half a vote. In 1872 this rule was changed so as to give to each delegate a full vote and retain the number of delegates at double that of the electors. The Republicans had adopted this latter rule twelve years before, and it is still in force in both parties. Two delegates from each territory are admitted to Republican conventions, with the privilege of voting. Democratic conventions do not grant this privilege to territorial delegates. Since the year 1892 the Republican party requires every State to elect its delegates by Congressional districts. The Democratic party has two methods in general use. The two delegates to which each Congressional district is entitled are chosen by that district, while the State Convention elects the four "delegates-at-large" for the whole State. There is also a difference between the Republican and Democratic Conventions with respect to some other important rules—the Two-Thirds Rule, the Majority Rule and the Unit Rule. The first Democratic Convention adopted a rule declaring "that two-thirds of the whole number of votes in the convention shall be necessary to constitute a choice." This rule has been reaffirmed by every subsequent Democratic Convention. The Majority Rule was adopted by the Whigs in 1840, and is the rule which has been used by the Republican Conventions up to the present time. The first Democratic Convention also adopted a rule which has been understood to give to the majority of the delegates from any State the right to cast the vote of the State. This is known 168 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY as the Unit Rule. It disregards the wishes of the minority in any particular State and at the same time makes it possible for candi-dates to be nominated who are approved by a minority only of the party voters of the country. But as tending to exalt the rights of the State as such, the Unit Rule has been much favored by Democratic State Conventions, which have often instructed their delegates to national conventions to vote as a unit. In Republican National Conventions the Unit Rule never gained foothold, though efforts have been made to impose it upon the party. The rule which is now in force was adopted in 1880. It requires that in case any delegate objects to the announcement made by the chairman of his delegation, "the president of the convention shall direct the roll of members of such delegation to be called and the result recorded in accordance with the votes individually given." The National Nominating Convention has come to be such an important factor in our form of government that every citizen should become as familiar with its organization and manner of working as with the Constitution itself. An insight into the methods of the great political leaders framing the future policies of the nation, together with an opportunity to witness the delib-erations of the men who control the destinies of the country— especially at this important period of our national existence— ought to be sought by every young man who glories in the proud name of an American citizen. "PROMETHEUS." AN EXPOSITION.—THE LAW OF ENERGY. HAVING cut a small square out of a card-board screen, hold the screen in a vertical position near a lighted lamp be-tween the lamp and the wall. In your imagination, connect the corners of the illumined surface on the wall with the corresponding corners of the square hole in the screen. The connecting cords converge, and, if con-tinued through the hole, will meet in the flame of your lamp. The square pyramid thus formed may be seen if there is dust in the atmosphere. The part of this pyramid between the lamp and the screen, is also a pyramid, similarto the whole. By geometry, we know that the sides of these two squares are proportional to their respective distances from the point in the flame where the imaginary cords meet; hence, their areas are proportional to the squares of their distances from the flame. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 169 A bunch of rays of light that will light up the surface the size of the hole in the screen, if let pass on, will illuminate the much larger surface on the wall. Evidently, the degree of brightness is not so. great at the wall as at the screen. This degree of brightness varies as the respective areas, just as a given quantity of paint is four times as thick on a certain surface as on another surface four times as great, supposing it is evenly distributed in each case. But, we have shown that the illumined surfaces are to each other as the squares of the distances from the source of light, hence the first part of the law for the intensity of light energy. The amount of radiant energy of light to the square inch of surface varies inversely as the square of the distance from the source. Now, turn up the wick and the amount is a certain part greater at both places. It can at once be seen that the amount increases in direct ratio with the increase at the source of light. This gives us the second part of the law ; and the entire law may be stated thus: The amount of light received per unit area is inversely pro-portional to the squares of the distances from the source, and directly proportional to the intensity of light possessed by the luminous body. A student of physics has but this one law to learn for intensity of energy, and he may apply it to physical energy of whatever form. By using a screen of alum solution we might produce a similar pyramid of heat energy, able to be outlined as definitely by using a thermometer. You know it better perhaps by trying to get into the shade, as it were, of the hot rays from a stove or grate, by placing a screen, it may be of glass even, before your face. Then, as to the law, how instinctively you move back from a stove becoming too hot. The same law holds the solar system together, and we call the force, there acting in couformity with the law, the force of gravitation. There is also a similar force acting between the earth and objects upon it, and between these objects themselves. This, too, varies inversely as the square of the distances, and directly as the product of the masses. By it, electrical attraction is governed; hence, the specific inductivity of substances. Magnetic force and sound as well as light and heat vary accord-ing to the same law. In short, all physical energy varies inversely as the square of the distance, and directly as the product of the amounts. Nature is simple if we put ourselves into the spirit of her actions. She is open, ready to be read by all who will. As to the degree of energy we have learned her simple law and may apply it theoretically without a question. L,ucus. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. C. F?. SOLT MERCHANT TAILOR Masonic Bldg., GETTYSBURG . Our collection of Woolens for the coming Kail and "Winter season cannot be surpassed for variety, attractive designs and general completeness. The latest styles of fashionable novelties in the most approved shades. Staples of exceptional merit, value and wearing durability. Also altering, repairing, dyeing and scouring at moderate prices. .FOR UP-TO-DATE. Clothing, Hats, Shoes, And Men's Furnishing Goods, go to I. HALLEM'S MAMMOTH CLOTHING HOUSE, Chambersburg St., GETTYSBURG, PA. ESTABLISHED 1867 BY ALLEN WALTON. ALLEN K. WALTON, President and Treasurer. ROBT. J. WALTON Superintendent. flammelstoiun Bromn Stone Gompany Quarrynieu and Manufacturers of Building Stone, Sawed Flagging and Tile Waltonville, Dauphin Co., Pa. Contractors for all kinds of Telegraph and Express Address. Cut Stone Work. BROWNSTONE, PA. Parties visiting the Quarries will leave cars at Brownstone Station on the P. & R. R. R. For a nice sweet loaf of Bread call on J. RAiHER Baker of Bread and Fancy Cakes, GETTYSBURG. PA. EIMER & AMEND, Manufacturers and Importers of Chemicals and Chemical Apparatus 205, 207, 209 and 211 Third Avenue, Corner 18th Street NEW YORK. Finest Bohemian and German Glassware, Royal Berlin and Meissen Porcelain, Pure Hammered Platinum, Balances and Weights. Zeiss Mi-croscopes and Bacteriological Apparatus; Chemical Pure Acids and Assay- Goods. SCOTT PAPER COMPANY MAKERS OF FINE TOILET PAPER 7th and Greenwood Ave. PHILADELPHIA ■'""■"■""/'*»

PEBRUARY, 1901 ooTheoo ettysbiir Mercury CONTENTS The Flight of the Birds 239 The Taking of a United States Census 240 Pan-American Sports 243 A College Romance 244 The Treatment of the Skeptic 246 A Glimpse of Byron 248 Giving 254 Exchanges 255 Editor's Desk 258 The Past Our Present Pilot 259 A Financier (Continued) 263 A Twilight Reverie 266 "Taps" 266 An Era of Progress 268 G'BURG C. LIB. pUPLICATE FAVOR THOSE WHO FAVOR US. For Fine. Printing go to Tk Jo Eo Wile ftkilm Staff CARLISLE ST. GETTYSBURG, PA. C. B. Kitzmiller Dealer In Hats, Caps, Boots and Douglas Shoes GETTYSBURG, PA. R. M. Elliott Dealer in Hats, Caps, Shoes and. Gents' Furnishing Goods Corner Center Square and Carlisle Street GETTYSBURG, PA. EDGAR S. MARTIN, ^CIGARS AND SMOKERS' ARTICLES Chambersburs St., Gettysburg Leadership IN THE CLOTHING and MEN'S FURNISHING Business It is strictly here—everybody knows it. Testimony? The stock itself. The pen suffi-ciently nimble to tell all the good points of our ::::::: PALL AND WINTER. SUITS AND OVERCOATS has not been found. We will keep you dressed right up-to-date if you buy your Clothing and Furnishings here. : : : : STINE McPherson Block. No. II BALTIMORE STREET THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. The Literary Journal of Pennsylvania College. Entered at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter% VOL. IX. GETTYSBURG. PA., FEBRUARY, 1901. No. 8. THE FLIGHT OF THE BIRDS. MARGARET (HIMES) SEEBACH. Not one by one on lonely wing, They seek afar a sunny clime, When winds a chill from ice-fields bring The sombre Autumn-time; But when the cold rain comes to beat On tattered nest and drooping feather, They rise in rushing flocks, to greet The South-land all together. Not one by one, as single souls, We seek thy sunshine, Land of Light, When o'er our love-lit sky uprolls The first black shade of flight. When Pain comes whispering, " Rise and go I I bring the heart's bleak winter weather," Our pilgrim souls clasp hands, and so We journey home together I 240 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY THE TAKING OF A UNITED STATES CENSUS. C. W. WEISER, '01. HPHE book-agent or peddler may meet with a door slammed in * his face, a couple of cross dogs let loose, or an angry and citrous tongue set wagging ; he may even meet with the toe of a boot, or some missile hurled violently at him—poor man ! But the enumerator who is discreet and courteous has none of these weapons of local warfare to fear. His way is paved by the an-nouncement in the local papers of his coming. All the cross dogs seem to be away on a visit, or else tied. The people greet you with, " I knew you'd be along ; I saw it in the paper.'' He, unlike the wretched book-agent, starts out knowing that he is going to succeed. He is not asking the people, in an indirect way, for dollars ; all he wants is their census. "Well, you hain't a going to get any of my senses," replied one woman. The census enumerator learns lessons and acquires experience which could be obtained in no other way. He comes in contact with all sorts and condition^ of men. Some of his experiences with these people are indelibly fixed in his memory. Many of them, indeed, are pleasant, and some of them ridiculously humor-ous ; while some of the scenes and tales of woe which incidentally come to his knowledge are pitiable in the extreme. It is our purpose to relate some of these experiences in the active service. In town the work was pleasant, and progressed rapidly, until I came to the manufacturing establishments, where it went slow. It was necessary to make a complete inventory of the books and property, which took much time. The proprietors, however, acted in a very courteous manner. In the country the work was more troublesome, owing to the distance between the different farms, and the rough roads I had to travel over. It was not an unusual occurrence to be seen pushing a wheel up a hilly road, which was almost too rough even for a buggy. The farmers were usually to be found in a back field at their corn. This meant a long tramp, and some-times several hours spent standing out under a scorching hot sun filling out the Agricultural report, for no one kept a book ac-count. But this was amply atoned for by a cordial invitation to a farmer's dinner. The required statistics were freely given, except in the case THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 2A\ of a few illiterate people, who thought that this was only a scheme for increasing taxation. I met one man only who was unreason-able. Him, no amount of explanation would satisfy, until fright-ened into answering by the presentation of my census badge. All in all, the farmers proved themselves to be a well read, intel-ligent, courteous and hospitable people. It was, however, among the poor classes in or along themoun-tain side where one met with the most varied experiences. We came in contact with poverty and illiteracy of the most flagrant kind. The lack of suitable food and clothing was most evident. Some of the narratives were heartrending. I rapped at the closed door of a little shack one June morning, and soon saw the hag-gard and disheveled head of a distracted woman peer through a sidewindow. Soon the bolts were drawn and the door was opened. After I had completed the Population Schedule, and asked for the cause of the death of her child, the poor mother answered in tones of despair that it had frozen to death in bed one cold mid-winter night. Perched in an agony of physical and mental torment, in a lit-tle black hovel, through whose single window peered the dim light, I found a murderess—an ex-penitentiary convict. The look of despair, and fear, and torment, mirgled with every sign of the wildest passion, were sufficient to make one shudder. After a long and lonesome journey on horseback, through the wildest and most picturesque mountains in the state, I arrived one mid-day on the top of a lofty mountain. Far below lay a deep, narrow vale, wooded with the verdant forest. On the op-posite side loomed up lofty crags and peaks, proud sentinels of a scene of native grandeur which few have ever beheld, and which brought tears of rapture to the eye. In all this grand and lonely fastness there were but four families, for two of which I had to make this long trip. They had never been to school. Had no-where to go to church. Creeping in among the bushes I came across some rude hovels, in which dwelt gnome-like creatures, who spoke a dialect scarcely to be understood. The chief object which showed of any com-munication with the outside world, which I saw in one hovel, was a tin cup filled with tobacco standing in the centre of a rough table. Of this both men and women smoked and chewed. I suppose it was their only consolation. When asked the date of 242 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY their birth, the one replied that she was born in "the corn husk-ing time," another in the " huckleberry season." When asked their age, they simply couldn't tell; they hadn't the faintest idea. At another house I rapped at the door. A woman answered, and after I had stated my business she simply turned her back and walked away. I followed her into the house, opened my portfolio, and began work. When I asked the date of her birth she studied awhile and finally drawled out, "Why—m—1749." (She was about thirty years of age.) Another woman said she was born in 1896. One old man replied, " My mommy hut mir net gesat" (His mother hadn't told him). No doubt you will ask whether the condition of these people of the mountains cannot be helped. It cannot, at least in this generation. It has been tried. Some of the children have been brought out to the town schools, and after years of hard toil and unceasing, patient effort 011 the part of the teacher, these chil-dren have gone back as ignorant as when they came. They could not spell d-o-g or c-a-t. When given warm clothing they could not be induced to wear much of it. Habits of thought and neat-ness could not be taught to them. When they spoke to each other it was in such guttural, and so rapid, that no one else could understand. And is it any wonder that these people have become so de-praved and mentally estranged ? Isolated from the world, amidst wild and lone surroundings, they have always lived in the same spot where their ancestors lived for two hundred years back. Under such conditions the natural condition would be for these people to drift back towards a wild and animal state. Thus, coming in contact with the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it will readily be seen what a wide range for the study of humanity the enumerator has. Much of the social and moral condition of our country cannot be conveyed by the great round numbers of a census report. It remains buried in the heart of the enumerator. 'Many a dream has vanished away, Many an ideal turned to clay ; Many a friendship proved untrue— Constant and lasting, Oh, how few !" THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 243 PAN-AMERICAN SPORTS. '"PHE President of the Pan-American Exposition recently appoint- *■ ed a Committee on Sports, as follows: Jesse C. Dann, Chairman, Dr. Chas. Cary, J. McC. Mitchell, John B. Olmsted, Chas. M. Ranson, Seward A. Simons, Wm. Burnet Wright, Jr. Soon after its appointment the committee invited the follow-ing named gentlemen to act as members of an Advisory Committee on Amateur Sports: Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, Walter Camp, C. C. Cuyler, C. S. Hyman (Canada), C. H. Sherrill, A. A. Stagg, Benjamin Ide Wheeler, Casper Whitney. The appointment of this Advisory Committee emphasizes the desire of the Committee to have all amateur competitions occupy the highest possible plane. The Stadium, with a seating capacity of 12,000, is beautiful in design and promises to be one of the most successful architect-ural creations of the Exposition. It will surround a quarter-mile track with ground area ample for the requirements of all the events proposed. As to the nature of the athletic events planned, it may be said that amateur sports of all kinds will be encouraged as representing the most desirable of athletic competitions, and the members of the Committee on Sports, being college graduates, particularly wish to make a special feature of college sports. In the manage-ment of inter-collegiate events, it is the desire of the Committee that the various college associations be invited to undertake as far as possible the arrangement of the necessary details connected therewith. Although amateur sports will comprise a large part of the program, it is proposed to have such a number of professional events as will allow visitors an opportunity to witness the athletic skill of the best professionals. The character of prizes that will be offered has not yet been definitely determined upon, but the assurance may be given that prizes will be awarded of value as lasting souvenirs of athletic success at the Exposition. It is proposed to arrange a number of college baseball and foot-ball games, and it is especially desired by the Committee that the Eastern Inter-Collegiate (I. A. A. A.) Track Meeting be held in Buffalo next year. An ideal program might be to hold in the Stadium the East-ern Inter-Collegiate Meeting, then the Western Inter-Collegiate 244 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Meeting; these to be followed by a Pan-American Meeting open to competitors in the two previous meetings and to representatives of other Inter-Collegiate Associations. Other Inter Collegiate events have been considered, such as La Crosse, Cross Country Running with start and finish in the Stadium, etc., etc. The Committee on Sports hope that the Exposition may have a full college representation. It is proposed to hold many other sports in the Stadium, the A. A. U. Championship, Lawn Tennis, La Crosse, Cycling, Association Football, Water Sports, Trap and Target Shooting, etc., etc. All communications should be sent to Jesse C. Dann, Chair-man; 433 Ellicott Square, Buffalo, N. Y. c*p A COLLEGE ROMANCE. '99. Thro' a painted window Soft the sunlight falls, With a rainbow beauty Lighting- up the halls— With a touch of glory, Gilding dim, old walls. Stately arching pillars Rise above the stair, On the carven columns Stone-cut faces rare; Here a laughing satyr, Tearful naiad there. Graven deep, long ages Each has filled its space, Keeping watch in silence O'er the classic place. Time has laid no finger On each cold, still face. Motionless in sunshine, And in shadow so, Heeding not unnumbered Feet that come and go. Oh, what fiue romances Must these statues know! THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 245 Could each sculptured image Open lips of stone, Tell to eager listening Secrets it hath known, Bits of lore and legend, Of the days long gone! Once a dark-eyed maiden Lingered near the stair, And a fair-haired Junior Stood beside her there, With one strong arm resting Strangely near her hair. Eyes of brown are meeting Eyes of tender blue, Hearts are closer beating— Lips are Hearing, too, How it came to happen Neither ever knew. Just a hurried pressure, One keen moment's bliss, But the face above them Saw the stolen kiss. When had graven image Looked on sight like this? Years have closed the lashes Over eyes of brown; One page in life's story Folds forever down. Thro' the classic hallway Others trail the gown. Tho' the silent statue May recall full well That romantic moment, Yet a magic spell Ouardeth still the secret— It can never tell! c*P Howe'er it be, it seems to me, 'Tis only noble to be good ; Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood. —TENNYSON. 246 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY THE TREATMENT OF THE SKEPTIC. J. B. BAKER, '01. TVTHAT the world is to-day, she owes to the skeptic. Before " he walked among men, the race was inert and drowsy and dull. No systems of thought were conceived, no rational explanations sought. It does appear sometimes, however, in going back to mythic lands and mythopceic days, that they must have been, indeed, an active state. The grotesqueness of their various colored myths is sometimes taken as a proof of mental keenness. The multiplicity of their beings, and the variety of their functions, connected as they are with almost every conceivable phenomenon of nature, is said to augur a deep measure of mental acumen on the part of the authors, as well as the people who believed in them and honored them. But they are not the product of a mature analysis ; only the fancies of a dreamy childhood. Their golden fables were nothing more than the gyrations of splendid color to the yawning child who is just rubbing the scales of sleep away from his eyes. They are the capricious imaginings of an awakening mind. In this setni-somiioleut condition the sons of men were long enwrapped, and cared little to abandon it. When Thales, Anaximines, Diogenes and others appeared with their various creeds and myth-dispelling dogmas, they dis-turbed the lethargy of their fellows, and incurred the hostility of many. Their names became the targets of false accusation, and their teachings were branded as dangerous. But the world of philosophy is not unique in its antagonism to the independent thinker. The realm of science is its kin. There was a time when scientific men believed the world to be fiat. Columbus said it was round, and instantly the tongues of ridicule were loosened on him. Yet upon his hypothesis rest the important calculations of to-day. There was a time when the sage men of the world held that "lightning was an almost infinitely fine combustible matter, that floats in the air and takes fire by sudden and mighty fermenta-tion; also, that it was a physical expression of God's wrath against the insects He had created." Benjamin Franklin was too practical a man for such idle spec-ulation, and showed them their folly by the flying of his kite. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 247 No sooner had he seized the bolts of Zeus, however, and shat-tered their theory to the good of mankind, than he was charged with an affront to the Almighty himself. Protecting houses against lightning was said to interfere with the prerogatives of Deity, and when, three years after the experi-ment, New England was shaken by an earthquake, a Boston divine contended, in a sermon preached on the subject, that light-ning rods, by gathering the electricity from the clouds and ac-cumulating it in the earth, were the causes of the upheaval. There was a time, even later than that, when the stage-coach was the fastest mode of transportation, when steam locomotion was unknown and little thought of. George Stephenson went to work to construct an engine, and this is what the Quarterly Re-view had to say: "What can be more palpably absurd and ridicu-lous than the prospect held out for locomotives traveling twice as fast as stage-coaches. We would as soon expect the people of Woolwich to suffer themselves to be fired off in one of Congreve's cannons as to trust themselves to the mercy of such a machine going at such a rate." Another authority of equal prominence said that " the poisoned air of the locomotives would kill the birds." Waile still another insisted that " there would be no further use for horses." Such examples might be added to an almost infinite number, but would only strengthen a truth already quite patent. There is yet another sphere of activity in which the skeptic, or man of thinking, figures prominently, and that is the world of religious thought. Nowhere does dissension touch such a vital point in man's destiny, and nowhere has it been punished with greater severity. The men of courage, who gave us the heritage of a pure gos-pel, were men who felt the hand of inquisitional torture. They were men whose flesh and bones were blistered and charred by the fagots of fire; men who were driven about like the master they followed, with nowhere to lay their heads. We honor them, and mention their names with oracular reverence. But we are judging them all from the vantage ground of tested history. What shall be our attitude toward the skeptic of to-day ? Con-servatism might advise us to shun him as we would shun a ser-pent. Radicalism might tell us to be fearless and read his works. We shall not presume to answer the question, but consider it wise 243 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY to resort to that sage old philosopher, who said, "Know thyself," and to a still higher authority, which says, "Know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Above all things, whether we believe him or not, whether he is right or wrong, it is due to us to respect him for his independent thought and candor. "Honor the honest man. Earth rears but few. Only at God's white forge are such souls wrought. Rare honest man. His mind perchance sees truth In different forms from thine, yet honor him. Perchance his vision thy dim sight transcends And what to thee appears sublime and sure As the eternal hills, to him is but A bubble in the air. Perchance when thou Hast found the crystal spring whereof he drinks Thou, too, wilt quaff, and own the light divine." A GLIMPSE OP BYRON. HTHE meteoric career of this celebrated, but ill-starred poet has * been a subject of study for all lovers of literature and its makers. Meteoric, both because of its brilliancy and short dura-tion. Byron's popularity, in his day, was greater than that of any of his contemporaries, but it was much briefer and more in-constant, and to-day the general verdict pronounced by the read-ing public and literary reviewers, is against him. To-day men praise the highland ruggedness and simplicity of Scott's poetry; its bold irregularity and indifference to minor imperfections, claiming all to be the highest attributes of genius; they speak with unchilled ardor of Wordsworth: his great and sympathetic heart; his tender but manly verse, always sincere, often profound and ever, the genuine utterances of a true priest of the spirit; Southey and Coleridge are both loved and lauded for their large-ness of vision and poetic truth; but Byron who was hailed as he rose over the horizon in the artlessness and inexperience of his youth, as a star of the first magnitude, as the brightest orb in the firmament, is now almost universally despised and deserted; an outlaw under the ban of moral reproach and literary censure, he stands friendless in the gloom of his solitary exile. That Byron was endowed with rare natural gifts, that his poetry bears the evi-dence of exceptional powers are denied by no impartial reviewers; THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 249 that his poems lack energy, emotional colouring, daring in in-vention and many of the less definable qualities of poetry cannot be rationally insisted upon; bat that his poetry is unfit for the hands and hearts of innocent and impressionable youth and that it revolts the moral sensibilities of the more mature in years and experience, as well as offends the literary taste of the cultured, are matters of fact, known to all students of English literature. This apparent paradoxical fact must be accounted for by the unfortunate accompaniments that attended and marred his genius. His powers were of the first order, but they were accompanied by a pessimistic and envenomed spirit, a haughty egotism—though this he endeavored to conceal,—and at last, what reversed his early successes, a growing affectation of contempt for public opinion or private regard. There was a mixture of literary and moral virtues with literary and moral vices in which the propor-tion of vice became predominant, and eventually prostituted his genius to the service of shame and folly in their most attractive and insidious forms. Censorship should not be unjust, not even unsympathetic towards this most to be pitied of poets. His works to be properly appreciated, and his unwholesome sentiment and thought to be viewed in a fair light, must be traced back to his sad life as their source of inspiration, and there though the works may justly be reprobated as unchaste and injurious,we cannot help, at least but partially exonorate their author, when we view the circumstances that gave them birth and determined their character. Born into the world with a tender but impetuous and some-what petulant nature, he was alternately visited with passionate caress and indiscriminate and vindictive disfavor by his mother, —caressed into self-will and pride, he was upbraided and scolded into ill-temper and defiance; his sensitive young nature was embittered; his strong propensity to love and crave it in return was here first disappointed and thwarted; here his spirit began to be discolored with that tinge of hatred and haughty contempt for human kind that disfigured his poetry and ruined his life. Leaving home with scarce a regret save that at the expiration of the school term he would have to return, he hoped to enter a more wholesome social atmosphere, to mingle among more active and congenial spirits, and there find that sympathy, trust and esteem for which his ardent young nature panted. His friendships, 250 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY as may be imagined, were few but fast, nearly always broken, if broken at all, through his own petulance upon the most trivial occasions, but generally soon renewed with ties of stronger affec-tion and mutual respect. Precocious emotional susceptibility exposed him at a very early age to the vexatious experience of unreasoning loves. The mistresses of hisyouthful passions uniformly repelled his advances, little knowing that they were crushing a heart that would bleed, not for a day, or a week, or a month, but for a lifetime; that they were rejecting a passion, which, exalted by a sanctified home-life, would have provided and enriched every endearment of wedded felicity; but spurned with indifference in its first ventures, would turn to the madness of despair. The haughty pride of his untamed spirit was insulted at every turn; his keen sensibility to neglect or offense kept his resent-ment, against somebody or other, at white heat the greater por-tion of his life, making him new enemies, and decimating fre-quently the ranks of his friends—those who generally endured his eccentricities, and enjoyed his confidence and esteem. His first effort in poetry was a juvenile performance, with meagre promise of his later fame in it, written at school and pub-lished when he left the University under the title, " Hours of Idleness." It was assailed at once by Francis Jeffreys, the most celebrated critic of his day, in the Edinburgh Review. The poem, prefaced with a disavowal of all poetical aspira-tions and a cleverly written appeal to the clemency of the critics was condemned without reserve, its faults exposed with relent-less accuracy, and, in general, treated with so much ridicule and contempt that Byron was aroused, the latent powers of sarcasm and irony that lay sleeping within him were awakened, and he seized the pen and wrote with the energy and inspiration of a demon, "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers," venting indis-criminate calumnies upon all writers and critics of his day. This poem, though written in the rashness of youth, and in some re-spects inviting severe censure as " misplaced anger and indis-criminate acrimony," for the first time announced his real power. His skill in versification, the vigor of his thought, the terrible energy of his feelings, and brilliancy of sarcastic wit, proclaimed at once to England that no common man had risen, and prophe-cies were many and sanguine of his future fame. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 251 After having been rebuked by every journal, by critic and even friends for his unjust assault upon men of genius and merit, some of established reputation and venerated name, he became dissatisfied at home, and, conceiving his talents not duly appre-ciated, and himself slighted, he sailed from England and traveled throughout the continent, visiting Spain, France, Switzerland and Italy. During his tour he wrote the first two cantos of " Childe Harold." This poem, written in the verse of Spencer's " Fairie Queen," though often affectedly antiquated in style, and always darkened by skepticism and misanthropy, is energetic and manly in thought always, in spirit often, and his language is picturesque and expressive, conjuring from the world of fancy the weird but vivid and copious imagery that so uniformly characterizes all his poetry. This rhythmic tale is regarded as a poetical version of his own life, the central figure throughout the narrative no other than the haughty Byron himself, masquerading in an imperfect disguise. The spirit, the pictured career and dismal sentiments of the self-exiled hero, are all paralleled in Byron, though he strenuously denied their identity, alleging that Harold was wholly an inde-pendent creation, without an existing prototype, at least under his observation. The poet, however, in the fourth canto identi-fies himself with the gloomy pilgrim visiting earth's historic scenes, as if no longer caring to maintain his false character. All the poetry that followed was animated by the same spirit; characters were changed in name, but not in essence ; scenery was altered; the tale diversified by fresh incident; yet through it all stalked Harold's sombre ghost casting a shade of gloom and sadness over it, and breathing into it his philosophy of despair. Frequently Byron was bitter, but that in his attacks upon so-ciety, upon the virtues and excellencies of character, which most men admire and magnify, he was insincere, and did not give utterance to sentiments actually his own, only unsympathetic and misled readers dare assert. His poetry above any other of his age bears the stamp of its author's character, the seal of his spirit, though often gracefully concealed, and impresses the reader that whatever the scenes, whatever the characters, Byron is there and speaks from the innermost depths of his heart. "From the in-nermost depths of his heart," for in all his works the energy of his 252 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY spirit burns with a blazing heat and like a kindled furnace throws its wild glare upon the narrow scene it irradiates; little difference whether he wrote of angels or villains, of princes or beggars, the torch of his thought and feeling was lighted at the same flame. This sombre color and despairing energy of his genius, though admirable in the proper place and proportion, makes it impossible for him to sympathize with the ordinary and more generous feel-ings of humanity. He could not elevate the simple and obscure life, the pure love, the trials, the sorrows, the tradegy and comedy of those low in station and humble in fortune, into the realm of poetic beauty as Burns; Nature had denied him the tender respon siveness of heart to song of bird, ripple of brook, the sigh of wind, which it so richly bestowed upon Wordsworth. Byron was fasci-nated by rugged scenery, by nature in her violent moods but never loved her for herself, and though his poetry abounds with allusions to and descriptions of mountain and lake, ocean and forest, they serve but to suggest by analogy some mood of man—and that mood how monotonously the same ! What a sublime range of character, what inexhaustible re. sources of human feeling, what a wealth of poetic mystery, beauty and truth investing diversified nature and human life were left un-touched by his master pen. Had his energy of spirit not been perverted and confined to the narrow channels into which it was forced, had his harp been tuned to more numerous and pleasing chords, who can say that with his exuberance of imagination, ca-pacity for reflection and poetic insight and art, Byron would not have been the chief ornament of his day and generation, his mem-ory cherished with fondest admiration, and his poetry a more per-manent and vastly more desirable addition to our literature. Of this sad fact Byron was not ignorant and often took occasion in his verse to rebuke his impetuous and monotonous strain of feeling and ardently prayed for tranquillity of spirit and soberness of mind. Serene landscapes, peaceful waters, inspired longings "to forsake earth's troubled waters for a purer spring." "Clear placid Leman," he cries, "once I loved Torn ocean's roar but thy soft murmuring' Sounds sweet as if a sister's voice reproved." During the early stages of his literary career he resolves but in vain to tame his wild passions and to think and feel as other men: THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 253 "Yet must I think less wildly; I have thought Too long and darkly, till my brain became In its own eddy boiling- and o'erwrought A whirling gulf of phantasy and flame, And thus untaught in youth my heart to tame My springs of life were poisoned,—"Tis too late." The tragedy of a soul here seems to reach its catastrophe in the utterance of the concluding sentence: '' 'Tis too late !'' Byron here appears to stand on a commanding eminence and view with retrospective survey the irredeemable past, lamenting the errors of his way, but all "too late," and theu with sublime heroism to submit to the doom prepared for him, "to feed on bitter fruits without accusing Fate;'' to chide himself with the guilt of his own desolation: "The thorns which I have reaped are of the tree I planted—they have torn me and I bleed, I should have known what fruit Would spring from such a seed." His poetry thus is the musical wail of a proud yet broken spirit; a life with many shattered yet many vibrant strings; it is a feast of beauty attended by the unclean spirits of an unchaste mind, a song with the vigor and spirit of a march and the sadness and gloom of a dirge; the tuneful philosophy of a man who knew both too much and too little of himself and his fellow mortals, who in tempest and calm sailed life's pathless sea without chart or compass; a man with more than the usual powers of men, but destitute of their most common possession—character. "A wandering mass of shapeless fame, A pathless comet and a curse, The menace of the universe, Still rolling on with innate force Without a sphere, without a course." —TID BITS. Oh, many a shaft at random sent Finds mark the archer little meant; And many a word at random spoken May soothe or wound a heart that's broken. —SCOTT. 254 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY GIVING. When God brought forth the world we're told, He did it by decree, , Just spake the word, and chaos rolled Into consistency. But when the race of human-kind To sin became a slave, Not all the words in Perfect Mind Could ransom, so He gave. He gave his child, the anointed One, The best in Heaven above, That man might learn through His dear Son How God indeed is Love. And so must we, if we would be Found walking in His ways, Show to mankind that sympathy, That gives as well as prays. A word well said may often thrill, A happy song may cheer, But souls will ne'er be won, until Kind deeds with words appear. They are the vessels that contain The oil of healing grace, And they alone can free from pain The deep-scarred human race. Then let our eyes be e'er alert, Our neighbors' want to see, Our hands and feet grow more expert To bear them sympathy. For thus it is, each little chance Improved, becomes a gem, Whose lustre shall fore'er enhance Our heavenly diadem. —ERNIE. e$P Three poets in three distant ages born, Greece, Italy and England did adorn ; The first in loftiness of thought surpassed, The next in majesty, in both the last. The force of nature could no further go; To make a third she joined the former two. -DRYDEN. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. Entertdat the Postojfice at Gettysburg as second-class matter. VOL. IX. GETTYSBURG, PA., FEBRUARY, 1901. ' No. 8 Editor-in- Chief, . A. VAN OR.MER, '01. Assistant Editors, W. H. HKTRICK, W. A. KOHLER. Business Manager, H. C. HOFFMAN. Alumni Editor, REV. F. D. GARLAND. Assistant Business Manager, WILLIAM C. NEY; Advisory Board, PROF. J. A. HIMES, LIT. D. PROF. G. D. STAHLEY, M. D. PROF. J. W. RICHARD. D. D. Published monthly by the students of Pennsylvania (Gettysburg) College. Subscription price, One Dollar a year in advance; single copies Ten Cents. Notice to discontinue sending- the MERCURY to any address must be accompanied by all arrearages. Students, Professors, and Alumni are cordially invited to contribute. All subscriptions and business matter should be addressed to the Business Manager. Articles for publication should be addressed to the Editor. Address THE GETTYBURG MERCURY, GETTYSBURG, PA. EXCHANGES. [From the January TOUCHSTONE, Lafayette.] Our Contemporaries. I HAVE heard it said that we never have original thoughts; that even those which we consider original have been worked over in the minds of others who have gone before. It seems impossible, however, that two college men, apparently far sepa-rated, should have had thoughts so exactly similar, and above all, that they should have expressed them in language so similar, as have two men representing two of our prominent colleges. This is an age of psychological phenomenon, and the power ot one mind over another is unquestioned ; but, if the case under consideration comes under this head, there evidently remains a field of psychological research yet unfathomed. 2S6 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY We ask the aid of those interested in honest college literary work, in the solution of the following mystery : In the Nassau Literary Magazine for October, 1900, was printed the MacLeau prize oration, entitled "An Ideal of American His-tory." In the Gettysburg Mercury for November, 1900, appeared an oration, entitled " Abraham Lincoln." We quote from these two articles, and print them in parallel columns. AN IDEAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY. Thirty-five years have gone by and the Republic is stronger than ever. The battle smoke of the civil war has rolled away, and to-day when we look into the clear past, our first glance meets the colossal figure of Abraham Lincoln. He is an American mountain—when you view minutely and examine care-fully each particular crag or fea-ture, how homely he seems ! But stand back half a century, behold the entirety—do you not see an Al-mighty hand ? We say an Ameri-can mountain, for you cannot think of Lincoln as a Grecian or a Roman, he is not English and certainly not French—he is ours, the man be-longs to. us alone, while his fame is the world's. Our broad country can no more contain that, than the present race can compute its dura-tion. Ages are the units which shall measure its extent, and eter-nity shall not behold it9 comple-tion. Let us for a while then con-sider him who, under God's provi-dential hand, more than any other, preserved our liberties and main-tained for us our national govern-ment. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Thirty-five years have passed and the Republic is stronger than ever. The battle-smoke of civil war has rolled away, and as we louk into the clear past, our first glance meets the colossal figure of Abra-ham Lincoln. He seems a moun-tain— when you examine each par-ticular crag and feature, how home-ly he appears; but stand back half a century, behold theentirety—Do you not see the hand of God ! We wonder at him for his greatness, and we are proud of him that he is ours. We cannot imaging Lincoln as a Grecian or a Roman; he is not English and certainly not French —he belongs to us alone, but his fame is the world's. Our broad land can no more contain that than the present generation can esti-mate its duration; ages are the units which shall measure its ex-tent, and eternity shall not behold its completion. Let us for a while then consider him who, under God, more than any other, preserved our liberties and kept us as a peo-ple what we are. The Nassau Literary Magazine Princeton University Princeton, N. J., Jan. 29, 1901 Editor Gettysburg Mercury, « Dear Sir: You have probably noticed in the Lafayette Touchstone for January, 1901, in the department headed Our Contemporaries, that attention is called to two orations, one entitled "An Ideal of American History," which was published in this magazine in the THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 257 October number and another, entitled "Abraham Lincoln," which appeared in your magazine for November. The opening para-graphs of the two orations are printed in parallel columns and are so similar that it leaves no doubt in our mind that either one was copied from the other or else both were taken from a common source. If you will read what the Toiichstonc says you will prob-ably come to the same conclusion. Now this matter should be sifted to the bottom and it is to the interest of both magazines to see that it is done. I send you a copy of the Lit. which contains "An Ideal of American History" and request that you send us the November number of the Mercury. Will you also state who wrote the oration on "Abraham Lincoln," when it was delivered, and when probably written. Also the home residence of the man who wrote it. "An Ideal of American History" was delivered here last June and won the Junior McLean Oratorical prize of $ioo. I trust you will appreciate the seriousness of this for both of us, and help me to find out the truth of the matter. Awaiting an early reply, I am, sincerely RALPH P. SWOFFORD. The above are self-explanatory. It but remains for the MER-CURY to clear away the accumulated mist, thus vindicating Mr. Heilman and his alma mater as well as the MERCURY. For this purpose we find sufficient testimony in Mr. Heilman's Statement. "March 9, 1900, I delivered the oration at Collegeville before the Pennsylvania Inter-Collegiate Oratorical Union; March 10, joined Glee Club on trip at Carlisle; March 19, returned to Get-tysburg from Glee Club trip and found awaiting me a letter from Princeton, written by a '97 alumnus of the Harrisburg High- School, whose classmate I had been for about 9 mouths. The letter asked me to send a copy of my oration for a few hints and ideas, as the '97 alumnus was preparing an oration soon to be de-livered. Sent copy of oration to Princeton March 20th or 21st. Handed oration to Dr. Himes in competition for Geis Prize— third number. [The third production for the Geis prizes is due May 1st.—Ed.] Have not seen the manuscript since." The oration came into possession of the MERCURY from the Geis prize committee through Dr. Himes, before the close of 258 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY college in June. We published it in the November MERCURY, and the original manuscript is still in our possession. We hope the above is a satisfactory explanation—that it is not necessary to ramble through that "field of psychological research yet unfathomed." It is to be hoped, further, that this, as a warn-ing to college men, may prove beneficial. Gettysburg does not suffer from the "mix up;" indeed we may feel complimented that one of our men wrote the oration that won the MacLean prize of $ioo at Princeton University, knowing that it was not sent for the use made of it. Princeton, come out. Lafayette, give us due credit. S. A. VAN ORMER, Ed. MERCURY. EDITORS' DESK. Following the custom of former years, no January number of the MERCURY was issued. The question of special programs in our literary societies is be-ing discussed. That they have merit no one will doubt; but whether they should occur so frequently is, indeed, a question. The object of the societies is to train their members for the duties that shall rest upon them in years to come by assisting in and completing that harmonious development that shall send the col-lege student into the world well-rounded. Our discoveries in science have been made by men who worked in seclusion; our masterpieces in literature and in art have not been wrought before the gaze of cheering throngs; the men who have "moved the masses" in days agone have frequently talked to the ocean's waves and the forest's trees. Young men, that they may be successful, must cultivate the habit of working with-out artificial stimulus. As this is the last issue of the present staff, we desire to ex-press our appreciation of the hearty support we have received from those interested in THE MERCURY. We have at all times had sufficient material on hand. Whether or not we have selected wisely the material used, others must determine. We have tried THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 259 to maintain the standard formerly held by THE MERCURY among the college journals of the State. In conclusion, we remind the Professors, Students and Alumni of Pennsylvania College that the standard of her journals have much to do with her success ; and we bespeak for the new staff the same hearty support given us, that the literary journal of the institution may be worthy ot Pennsylvania College. THE PAST OUR PRESENT PILOT. CHAS. LEONARD, '01, Reddig Junior Oratorical Prize. ■CAR back through the dim, dim vistas of the ages, when chaos, ■*■ darkness and void had receded in obedience to the eternal fiats of the Omnipotent, to give place to cosmos, light, and cre-ation, there appeared in that creation a creature whose progress and destiny have been the objects of the concern of two worlds. The earth was man's birthday present. "Go forth and subdue it" was the divine commission, and the history of the race is the story of the warfare that has been going on ever since that com-mission has been received. As the nineteenth century gates swing on their hinges, soon to shut into the hoary past another century, we feel like one who is leaving the harbor to sail an untried sea; in whose vision friends throwing kisses of good-by, and waving handkerchiefs for a suc-cessful voyage, are fast fading from view, and from whose sight the well beloved shore is receding and has at last merged into the misty horizon overhanging the deep. In the stately ship of civilization we are about to launch on a trackless ocean. Farewell to the past—only its lessons are any longer ours. Welcome the future, in which we are to live and act! I^et our prayers be united that our majestic ship may clear all the dangerous rocks that lie just beneath the surface, any one of which may prove fatal to the progress of the "Ship of State." As we stand at the stern of the vessel, looking out upon the watery expanse stretching into eternity on either side of the wake, with our mind's eye we take a retrospective glance into the history of the past. We look into the realm of discovery and we note that the most important contribution of this realm to civilization has been the discovery of laws in the moral and the physical universe. 260 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Ages ago the minds of men craved to understand the laws of the heavenly bodies, and the skies did speak to the old Chaldean shepherds, but in an unknown language. They were transported by the rich melody of the spheres, but could not appreciate or understand the celestial anthem. Ptolemy listened and caught a few scattered words; Copernicus hearkened and caught the first full sentences: Kepler and Newton gave us the first translation of the rythmical language of the heavenly orbs. Thus we see the gradual development of the scientific spirit in the presence of which truth has always unveiled her face and made herself known, as she has come to answer the everlasting "Why?" of science. In philosophy the same development is strikingly real. Man in his eagerness to answer the two questions concerning himself of "Whence?" and "Whither?" at first indulged in speculations that seem to us to the last degree chimerical. Twenty-five centuries have made but comparatively few changes on the face of the material world. A Greek of the fifth century B. C. might still find his way without difficulty from town to town of his native Hellas, and recognize at a glance the scenes of his childhood days, but he would find the world of thought a new creation or rather the old so transformed as to be unrecognizable. We have emanated from the mist and fog which enveloped the old Pagan philosophers. We have transcended the highest thought of grand old Socrates. Thought can no longer be said to be "An infant crying in the night, An infant crying for the light, And with no language but a cry." In the sunlight of truth this infant of thought has grown to a great stature, though it has not yet attained the perfect symmetry of maturity. The discovery of laws has been just as important and extensive in the social and political world as in the realm of philosophy. Every century has been an improvement over the preceding. Nations have been born, grown up, and died, while history, the coroner of the fallen empires of the past, has declared at the autopsy, "The cause of death was the result of a departure from law, either undiscovered or disobeyed" and standing, a silent sentinel, in the ashes of their former glory, pointing her finger toward the future she says in prophetic voice to all surviving nations "Beware!"— THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 261 a word so full of meaning when uttered by such an authoritative voice. Are we heeding this long sounded warning? Shall we dare say that the past is meaningless? Shall we not profit by the wise instruction it has to give? The Mu

'- u VOL. IX. No. 6 NOVEMBER, 1900 ooTheoo Gettysburg Mercury CONTENTS An Evening Lesson, Abraham Lincoln, Lament for the Pine, Rabbi Ben Ezra, . Thanksgiving Day, . Editor's Desk, A Chapter of a Life, The Stability of a Republic, Shakespeare's Attitude Toward Education, . 193 The Horse vs. the Automobile, 196 Our Old School Ground, . . 198 When Should a Young Man Choose his Profession, . 201 How it Looks from the Road, 203 My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is, 203 m FAVOR THOSE WHO FAVOR US. For Fine- Printing go to i Jo Co Wile Priiptlipg Sfaw CARLISLE ST. GETTYSBURG, PA. C. B. Kitzmiller Dealer in Hats, Caps, Boots and Douglas Shoes GETTYSBURG, PA. R. M. Elliott Dealer in Hats, Caps, Shoes- and. Gents' Furnishing Goods \ Corner Center Square and Carlisle Street GETTYSBURG, PA. EDGAR S. MARTIN, ^CIGARS AND SMOKERS' ARTICLES. q^f l2^ t&* Chambersburg St., Gettysburg Leadership IN THE CLOTHING and MEN'S PURNISHING Business It is strictly here—everybody knows it. Testimony ? The stock itself. The pen suffi-ciently nimble to tell all the good points of our ::::::: FALL AND WINTER. SUITS AND OVERCOATS has not been found. We will keep you dressed right up-to-date if you buy your Clothing and Furnishings here. : : : : STIINE McPherson Block. No. II BALTIMORE STREET THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY, The Literary Journal of Ptnnsylvania College. Entered at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter. VOL. IX. GETTYSBURG, PA., NOVEMBER, 1900. No. 6 AN EVENING LESSON. [J. B. B., '01.1 'Twas in a dusky twilight hour I wandered down the vale, Beneath the cooling- azure bower My spirit to regale. I spoke to God ; He answered back And nought our talk disturbed, Till down the narrow winding track A noise our talk disturbed. 'Twas not the sound of human tongue, Nor beast nor bird aloof; But ringing from the hills among, A call to man's behoof. I stepped aside and turned awry To watch the iron steed, Till rumbling, roaring, rolling by He vanished o'er the mead. My thoughts again to God returned, He spoke once more to me, And from his sovran lips I learned These words of majesty: So run my plans creation through Across the track of time, Tneir goal as sure, their course as true Their journey more sublime; And nations, that as thou will show Attention's early gaze, In wisdom, and in strength shall grow, To prosper all their days. 172 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY ABRAHAM LINCOLN. [ORATION BY J. FRANK HEILMAN.] '"PHIRTY-FIVE years have passed and the Republic is stronger A than ever. The battle smoke of civil war has rolled away, and as we look into the clear past our first glance meets the colossal figure of Abraham Lincoln. He seems a mountain— when you examine each particular crag and feature how homely he appears; but stand back half a century, behold the entirety. —Do you not see the hand of God ! We wonder at him for his greatness, and we are proud of him that he is ours. We cannot imagine Lincoln as a Grecian or a Roman ; he is not English and certainly not French—he belongs to us alone but his fame is the world's. Our broad land can no more contain that than the pres-ent generation can estimate its duration; ages are the units which shall measure its extent and eternity shall not behold its com-pletion. Let us for a while then consider him who, under God, more than any other preserved our liberties and kept us as a peo-ple what we are. The nation was falling; that government of which sages had dreamed, that Republic toward which the Liberian exile cast his longing eye, the hope of mankind, the home of the brave sink-ing into theory ! On the fate of our country hung the fate of the human race for all time and our country was perishing. "Hu-manity with all its fears" was "hanging breathless on her fate ! " Should kings reign forever and the people never be free ? Then came the hour and the man;—from the ranks of the common people appeared the "rail-splitter" of Illinois. Who was that unknown man ? When England saw him she jeered at his home-ly face, France mocked his big hands and bent shoulders, the great men of his own land had no faith in him—but he had come with a mission, God had sent him ; and amid the clash of armies and the hell of war he rose Godlike. Those big hands erased the Mason and Dixou line, tore the shackles from the slave and held our country on the great world map ; those bent shoulders lifted our Republic to the highest place in history—and when his work was done he sealed it with his own blood. Then France took the name of the backwoodsman and said, "It belongs with Richelieu and Napoleon " ; then England took that homely face and hung it with Shakespeare and the elder Pitt; while the negro, THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 173 holding up to the world the shackles and chains of two centuries, exclaimed, "Lincoln broke these." The hisses turned to cheers ! While he lived, however, Lincoln was never fully appreciated, it was only when he had passed away and strong men staggered under the great burdens which he had borne so well, that his countrymen began to feel how strong he had been ; it was not until the giant of the forest had. fallen that, by the space unoccu-pied, its magnitude was realized. Then the world looked on and wondered—that child of poverty, that rail-splitter, that uncrowned king! His influence rose from an unseen shoot to a vast and mighty tree, and now in the hour of civil heat and international suspense our country rests beneath its shadow. Unknown, untried, slandered, without a single precedent in all history, called by the American people to lead them—where ? —through an earthquake epoch that was splitting the land north from south and shaking the pillars of human liberty. When Abra-ham Lincoln entered Washington, kings rejoiced, proclaimed that republics were forever done ; but when they bore him back to the west, historians wrote, "Republics shall stand and kingdoms fall." When amid the jeers of Europe he entered the Capitol our coun-try was breaking apart and five million slaves breathed our air; but when they bore him, murdered, back to Illinois our land had been united forever and our flag made the flag of the free. Yes, he was poor and unpolished, awkward and homely, true, he was a rail-splitter, and yet—he was a king ! His wisdom, his elo-quence, his humanity, courage and prophetic vision blended into the ideal statesman just as the prismatic shades fold into the pure white. Then, too, so many heroes are famous either for great heart or great brain power, but in Lincoln the great heart and the great brain were together. While the awful responsibility of the Re-bellion was sinking its story deep in his brow, and while the re-peated disasters of our armies where so nearly overwhelming him that occasionally his mind was weak, he found time to write and in the name of the Republic to thank mothers whose sons had fallen in battle. A master of language ! what did he know of Latin or Greek—to-day a university of Great Britain is studying the perfect English of an off-hand letter. A stump speaker who distorted his face to provoke a laugh, they tell us that his Gettys-burg oration will live with "De Corona." Washington was 174 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY proud, aristocratic, in habit and reserve English; Lincoln was a democrat, out and out a man of the people, distinctively Ameri-can. How appropriate it is that he sleeps his last sleep far away in the West, on an arm of the "Father of Waters," in the bosom of our country, in the heart of the people he loved so well. It is said that the greatest of Italian sculptors owing to the superstitious fear of losing his genius always left unfinished some parts of his creations, but it seems that when God formed the masterpiece of American history, He gave to the world the in-comparable boon of a leader perfect in every respect. Your children's children shall lisp his name with reverence, aye, when continents have changed their coasts and the twentieth century shall be called the dawn of history, your posterity, the great American people, shall point with pride to Abraham Lincoln, our uncrowned king. LAMENT FOR THE PINE. [C W. WISER, '01.] High up on the mountain side, In his cabin lone and drear, Pondering o'er the glowing fire, Sits the aged pioneer. Cold without the wind is roaring, Thro' the tops of many trees ; Dismally its wierd notes moaning:— "Gone is summer's gentle breeze." Darkness now is quickly gathering 'Neath her folds the parting day, And with forces growing fuller, Comes the storm, the night to sway. Bright within a great log burning On the ancient hearth aglow, Lightens up the little cabin, With its smoky rafters low. In his arm chair, dozing, napping, Sits in peace the aged swain; While upon the window pattering, Fall the little drops of rain. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Thus he sits and gently dozes, In the fire's cheery glare, While without, in roaring tempest, Mournful sounds now pierce the air. Hark ! he cries, what do I hear In the wildness of the night, Is it then a lost one near,—■ Or the eagle in its flight. Ah I I know, it is the sighing Of the top of yonder pine, How it sets my heart a throbbing, When I think of days long syne. How my heart aches at the thought Of those days so long gone by, When beneath the mighty forest Naught was seen of yonder sky. When within its darksome shadows Roamed at large the nimble deer, And upon its mossy carpets Walked the panther and the bear. When beneath its mighty shelter Naught was felt of winter's sting; Snugly sheltered 'neath its branches We did wait the coming spring. Long since those trees have fallen Like stout heroes of the past; Felled by the brawny woodman, Tho' they braved the wintry blast. Ah ! no more I'll see those pines, As they towered to the sky, And no more will feel their shelter As I thro' the forest hie. In their place new ones have risen, Scrubby trees of oak and pine, But no more I'll see its glory As I did in days long syne. 17S The dead leaves their rich mosaics Of olive and gold and brown Had laid on the rain-wet pavements, Through all the embowered town. —Samuel Longfellow- -November. 176 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY "RABBI BEIN EZRA." [C. C. GROVE.] /^"\N taking up the present theme, realizing as I hope some of ^S the great depth and beauty of the poem, my spirit is found breathing with Milton: " What in me is dark Illumine ; what is low raise and support," that I may bring to the notice of someone the consummate beauty of religious philosophy in Browning's "Rabbi ben Ezra." "Bring to the notice," I said, for it has been well written, "This is one of those poems which can never be profitably anatyzed or commented on: it must be read." Therefore, it is ours only to give the poem in sections with some outside substantiating and explana-tory thoughts. Like Longfellow's "Psalm of Life," this poem is an address of an old man, the Rabbi, to a young man, concerning the course of life, to light him on the way and to counsel him that he may come off victorious. He begins :— Grow old along with me ! The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made : Our times are in His hand Who saith, "A whole I planned, Youth shows but half; trust God : see all, nor be afraid ! " The glory of the sun in the zenith is one; in its setting, a more serene, benignant glory. Such is old age—"I shall know, being old." In "Saul," the poet expresses the same in other language, thus :— By the spirit, when age shall o'ercome thee, thou still shall enjoy More indeed, than at first when unconscious, the life of a boy. Would there were more who think Tennyson's Ulysses :— How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use ! As tho' to breathe were life ; More ready to "see all" nor "be afraid." The fears and hopes of youth's doubtful stage are thus out-lined :— Not that, amassing flowers, Youth sighed, "Which rose make ours, Which lily leave and then as best recall ? " Not that, admiring stars, It yearned, "Nor Jove, nor Mars ; Mine be some figured flame which blends, transcends them all I " THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 177 Not for such hopes and fears Annulling youth's brief years, Do remonstrate ; folly wide the mark ! Rather I prize the doubt Low kinds exist without, Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a spark. While "Young, all lay in dispute" and so it must needs be. i/ove, hope, fear, faith,—these make humanity These are its signs, and note, and character.—"Paracelsus." These are exponents of character, as Bailey says, in Festus, Sc. A Country Town :— Who never doubted never half believed, Where doubt, there truth is, 'tis her shadow. Yet this is not all; the hopes, joys, and pleasures of youth although not remonstrated against are nevertheless proper only in their place and season. Poor vaunt of life indeed, were man but formed to feed On joy, to solely seek and find and feast; Such feasting ended, then as sure an end to man ; Irks care the crop-full bird ! Frets doubt the maw-crammed beast "Such feasting ended" would but mark the beginning of a period of lassitude, inactivity, and indifference. Does any care harass the crop-full bird or doubt the well-fed beast? But strong souls, having passed the days of being fed on broth, are different. Says George Eliot in "Spanish Gypsy," Book IV :— Strong souls Live like fire-heated suns, to spend their strength In furthest striving action. Not enjoyment and not sorrow Is our destined end or way, But to act that each to-morrow Finds us farther than to-day. Let us then Rejoice we are allied To That which doth provide And not partake, effect and not receive ! A spark disturbs our clod; Nearer we hold of God Who gives, than of His tribes that take, I must believe. We have a nearer hold of God, possess a closer relationship with God who gives than with His tribes that take. Ours it is to minister, not to be ministered unto; to provide and not par-take ; to sow and not share the harvest. Our relationship is more close with God, the giver, than with the hosts who would merely receive. 178 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Then, welcome each rebuff That turns earth's smoothness rough, Each sting- that bids nor sit nor stand but go ! Be our joys three-parts pain ! Strive, and hold cheap the strain Learn, nor account the pang ; dare, never grudge the throe ! Enviable ye "strong souls"; yea, ye, who like Paul say, "I glory in tribulation also." For from such a course, For thence,—a paradox which comforts while it mocks,— Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail: What I aspired to be, And was not, comforts me : A brute I might have been, but would not sink i' the scale. Aspiration, breathing toward higher things, ennobles, exalts man more perhaps than a backward glance at past achievements, as is said in "Saul," " 'Tis not what man Does which exalts him, but what man would do." He might sink to low depths, to the brute even, but would not. To the brute ? Yes, for What is he but brute Whose flesh hath soul to suit, Whose spirit works lest arms and legs want play ? To man, propose this test—Thy body at its best, How far can that project thy soul on its lone way ? The body cannot stand this test, nor was it intended to do so. Yet it dare not be looked upon as a mere encumbering tenement as Browning in the next four stanzas shows, bringing out the fact that our body is holy ; that it is glorious, even divine to live in the "rose-mesh" of flesh. Yet gifts should prove their use : I own the Past profuse Of power each side, perfection every turn : Eyes, ears took in their dole, Brain treasured up the whole ; Should not the heart beat once "How good to live and learn ? " Not once beat "Praise be Thine 1 I see the whole design, I who saw Power, see now Love perfect too : Perfect I call thy plan : Thanks that I was a man ! Maker, remake, complete,—I trust what Thou shalt do ! " For pleasant is this flesh ; Our soul in its rose-mesh Pulled ever to the earth, still yearns for rest: Would we some prize might hold To match those manifold Possessions of the brute,—gain most, as we did best! Let us not always say "Spite of this flesh to-day I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole ! " As the bird wings and sings, Let us cry "All good things Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul!" m THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 179 To revert to the second of these stanzas, this is the expression of man at the very crest of the mountain of his glory and power. It all follows the order of Divine Revelation—Power, Love—first Elohim, then Jehovah, then "God is love." There also appears the trust begotten of love. Here is a man in his prime. "The truth of truths is love." Now we pass to age. Its glory, knowledge : "I shall know, being old." Therefore I summon age To grant youth's heritage, Life's struggle having so far reached its term : Thence shall I pass approved A man, for aye removed From the brute , a God though in the germ. And I shall thereupon Take rest ere I be gone Once more on my adventure brave and new; Fearless and unperplexed, "When I wage battle next, What weapons to select, what armor to indue. The former years have taught; age comes to pass sentence on youth ; then shall aged man go forth unperplexed by the varying changes and problems of life, removed from the brute, a God in powers and thought though embryonic. Stanza five presented man in Youth as gladly being of those who "provide" and "effect." Now at the beginning of the period called "Age," he tries, tests, calculates the profit or loss resulting from those efforts, those "fires." "Every man's work shall be made manifest : for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." Youth ended, I shall try My gain or loss thereby ; Leave the fire ashes, what survives is gold: And I shall weigh the same, Give life its praise or blame : Young, all lay in dispute, I shall know, being old. Thus ends Youth, and Age begins. The latter carefully ex-amines the past and pronounces at last its worth. Youth dies as the day and glory tinted Age begins. For note when evening shuts, A certain moment cuts The deed off, calls the glory from the gray : A whisper from the west Shoots—"Add this to the rest, Take it and try its worth : here dies another day." So, still within this life, Though lifted o'er its strife, Let me discern, compare, pronounce at last, "This rage was right i'the main, That acquiescence vain: The Future I may face now I have proved the Past." THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY For more is not reserved To man, with soul just nerved To act to-morrow what he learns to-day, Here work enough to watch The Master work, and catch Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play. How beautifully expressed the thought that the Master's life was for an example that we should follow, and that too, carefully, devoutly, day by day ! The previous stanza reminds one of that superb simile of Goldsmith's in "Deserted Village" lines 187-192. Age has passed the active stage. As Youth was told to ' 'trust God; see all, nor be afraid," so our minds are turned back to think of the beginning of a new stage by similarity in verse: As it was better, Youth Should strive, througfh acts uncouth, Towards making-, than repose on aught found made: So, better, age, exempt Prom strife, should know, than tempt Further, Thou waitedst age : wait death, nor be afraid ! Now comes the serene period of waiting. It is glorious only as it is found in the way of righteousness, Prov. 16 : 31. Enough now, if the Right And Good and Infinite Be named here, as thou callest thy hand thine own, With knowledge absolute, Subject to no dispute From fools that crowded youth, nor let thee feel alone. Be there, for once and all, Severed great minds from small, Announced to each his station in the Past! Was I, the world arraigned, Were they, my soul disdained, Right ? Let age speak the truth and give us peace at last! Supply the relative whom twice ; first, with / as antecedent, sec-ond, with they as antecedent. The sentence is hard to pass, for the decision is not easily made. The Right some would say is not absolute therefore. It is so and universal too but man in applying the principles to particular cases does not know all the conditions, and circumstances or may be laboring under a delu-sion or superstition ; hence, the difficulty. Now, who shall arbitrate ? Ten men love what I hate, Shun what I follow, slight what I receive; Ten, who in ears and eyes Match me : we all surmise, They, this thing, and I, that: whom shall my soul believe? There follow now several paragraphs concerning the proper judgment of life, comparing man's with God's estimate of worth. "Man looketh on the outward appearance but God looketh on the heart." THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 181 Not on the vulgar mass Called "work," must sentence pass ; Thing's done, that took the eye and had the price ; O'er which, from level stand, The low world laid its hand, Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice: But all, the world's coarse thumb And finger failed to plumb, So passed in making up the main account: All instincts immature, All purposes unsure, That weighed not as his work, yet swelled the man's amount. Thoughts hardly to be packed Into a narrow act, Fancies that broke through the language and escaped: All I could never be, All men ignored in me, This I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped. The great Judge shall consider the secret intents of the hear t We know not these, how can we judge? We may know them for ourselves ; therefore, we are commanded to judge ourselves. The last clause attracts to itself (its own elaboration) or causes the poet to expand the metaphor most beautifully. "We are the clay, and Thou our potter; and we all are the work of Thy hand," Isa. 64 : 8, or Jeremiah gives it more fully, 18 : 2-6. Aye, note that Potter's wheel, that metaphor ! and feel Why time spins fast, why passive lies our clay— Thou, to whom fools propound, When the wine makes its round, "Since life fleets, all is change ; the Past gone, seize to-day !" Fool! All that is, at all, Lasts ever, past recall; Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure: What entered into thee, That was, is, and shall be: Time's wheel runs back or stops: Potter and clay endure. He fixed thee 'mid this dance of plastic circumstance, This Present, thou, forsooth, wouldst fain arrest: Machinery just meant To give thy soul its bent, Try thee, and turn thee forth sufficiently impressed. What though the earlier grooves which ran the laughing loves Around thy base, no longer pause and press ? What though, about thy rim, Skull-things in order grim Grow out, in graver mood, obey the sterner stress ? Look not thou down but up ! To uses of a cup, The festal board, lamp's flash, the trumpet's peal, The new wine's foaming flow, The Master's lips aglow ! Thou, heaven's consummate cup, what needst thou with earth's wheel? But I need, now as then, Thee, God, who moldest men ! And since, not even while the whirl was worst, Did I—to the wheel of life With shapes and colors rife, Bound dizzily—mistake my end, to slake Thy thirst: 182 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Foolish proposition that, that "since life fleets, all is change," when applied to man's real self, his spiritual being and its life. The "Past is gone," but only in that it is "past recall." "Every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." The deeds in the body shall all have to pass examination. They are not gone forever. " Tempus res humanas mutat," but not the characters of men. " Potter and clay endure." How meter, rhyme and alliteration, everything conduces in the first two lines of the next stanza to show the evanescence of circumstantial influences ! These are just enough to bring about the proper results in all God's people. " All things work together for good to them that love God." We must fret and chafe because in later 3'ears the shapings may be more stern in character and less attractive. They all and each have their place to bring about true beauty and strength of char-acter. Let us look to the higher import and purpose in all works, and especially in ourselves, "heaven's consummate cup.'' We need not fashion ourselves upon earth's wheel, according to the designing of men. " Be not confor7ned to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." Not " earth's wheel" then, but the great Fotter we need now as ever. Lastly, after striving in youth, following meekly and trust-ingly in later life, and waiting reverently to have the Potter's plans completed, the whole is surrendered, to be taken for use in the temple above, when the flaws shall have been righted, when this inglorious body shall be raised in glory, incorruption and im-mortality. So, take and use Thy work, Amend what flaws may lurk, What strains o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim ! My times be in Thy hand ! Perfect the cup as planned ! Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same ! c*p The drying up of a single tear has more Of honest fame than shedding seas of gore. —Byron. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 183 THANKSGIVING DAY. E. C. RUBY, '02. /'"VUR Thanksgiving Day is a composite one. It is made up ^-^ from parts of celebrations of that day by other peoples. We have taken the time from an Indian festival which used to take place during the fall of the year. The wild-wood festival, with its feasting, its dancing of Indian warriors to the songs of their dusky sweethearts, may well be called the original Thanks-giving Day in this happy land of ours. The Thanksgiving we celebrate at the close of every harvest season owes something to the religious rites of ancient nations. The oldest of these is the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, with its magnificent festivities. It was the feast of the " ingathering" of the harvest of all the fruits, the corn, the wine, and the oil. The labors of the field were then over for the year, and the feast was an occasion of joyousness and gladness to the people. The glory of the great Hebrew festival has long since passed away, but the fundamental principle—that every one should equally rejoice in the fruits of the current harvest, together with the whole people of the land '' before the Lord''—has entered into the harvest observances of Christian lands. Greece celebrated the great feast known as the Eleusinia, or the feast to Demeter of the beautiful robe. Demeter was the goddess of harvests. Her daughter, Persephone, had been kid-napped by Pluto, and, because she had tasted a pomegranate seed, could remain with her mother only part of the year. This made Demeter angry, and she left the gods, made her dwelling upon the earth, and taught Celeus, King of Eleusis, how to plow, sow and reap. For this the Greeks celebrated the Eleusinian feast, one of the grandest of the Greek festivals. The Romans celebrated a harvest festival called the Cerealia. It took its name from Ceres, who was the Demeter of the Romans. This festival was a general holiday, every one resting from work, and eager for enjoyment and pleasure. Coming nearer to our own harvest festival is the English Har-vest- home. This was usually a day of boisterous mirth. The people kindled bonfires, danced on the green sward, and engaged in athletic sports. The Pilgrim Fathers remembered this festival in their new home, and expressed their thankfulness for their first harvest by 184 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY a feast. Of their harvest, Governor Bradford tells us that " they began now to gather in ye small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recov-ered in health and strength, and had all things in good plenty." Thereupon the Governor issued a proclamation appointing a Feast of Thanksgiving. On the appointed Thursday the feast was opened with religious services. Then came a period of feasting and recreation. The real Thanksgiving dinner took place on Saturday, the last day of the celebration. The earth, the air and the water had yielded of their bountiful supplies to make this Thanksgiving dinner, and when the pioneers sat down to the meal they saw a table spread with water-fowl, wild turkey, veni-son, corn and barley ; with this cheer they gave thanks that "by the goodness of God they were far from want." Our Thanksgiving of to-day has taken some part from each of these different festivals. It has taken the time of the Indian meeting ; its charity is gained from the Jewish Feast of Taberna-cles ; it has copied the festivals of Demeter and Ceres, in giving thanks for the crops ; its mirth and festivity has a flavor of the English Harvest-home festival ; and its spirit of thankfulness and religious adoration was given to it by our Pilgrim forefathers. When the American Colonies had established their independ-ence, and had united themselves under one form of government, the New England Thanksgiving custom was gradually extended to the Middle States, then to the West, and more slowly to the South. In 1863 it began to be annually proclaimed for observ-ance throughout the country. For more than thirty years has Thanksgiving been a national institution throughout this country, while as a religious festival it dates back over two and three-quarter centuries—to the first celebration by the Pilgrim Fathers of New England. In the early days of the planting of church and commonwealth on this continent, when a sterile soil began to yield its bounties to the often-famished settler, it is pleasant to recall that the little community took delight in giving public ex-pression to the spirit of thanksgiving, which has now grown into a mighty custom over the entire Republic, after the annual har-vesting of the fruits of the earth. The following extract Irom Mrs. H. B. Stowe's " Oldtown" indicates graphically the general character ot the New England Thanksgiving observance : "Great as the preparations were for the dinner, everything was so con- I ~ THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 18S trived that not a soul in the house should be kept from the morn-ing service of Thanksgiving in the church, and from listening to the Thanksgiving sermon, in which the minister was expected to express his views freely concerning the politics of the country, and the state of things in society generally, in a somewhat more secular vein of thought than was deemed exactly appropriate to the Lord's day." There is no religious tradition more interesting from its an-tiquity and its general significance, or more suggestive and useful as an American custom, than that of the annual Thanksgiving service, the purpose of which is to express general thanksgiving for the bounties of the year, and especial thanksgiving for national prosperity and progress. In this light alone the service ought to command, without any exception whatever, a more than usual interest in every church of every name. It is little less than a national misfortune that the opportunity of Thanksgiving Day is not universally improved by all churches. Throughout the entire history of the most ancient tradition of Thanksgiving it has always been recognized that the best and highest expression of Thanksgiving was that of charity to the suffering and the needy. The same Thanksgiving Day which marks the close of a season of bounty should not less mark the opening of a season of benefaction, the giving of thanks finding its full expression in the sharing of our bounties with those who may suffer want. A more recent and no less commendable feature of our Thanks-giving Day, is the custom of gathering together in family reunions which keep well knit the bonds of kinship and attune hearts, often sundered by discord, to the universal note of harmony and common rejoicing. This pleasant feature is beautifully expressed in the following verses from a poem written by Phoebe Carey: " O men, grown sick with toil and care, Leave for awhile the crowded mart; O women, sinking- with despair, Weary of limb and faint of heart, Forget your years to-day and come As children back to childhood's home. Walk through the sere and fading wood, So lightly trodden by your feet, When all you knew of life was good, : ■ 186 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY And all you dreamed of life was sweet, And ever fondly looking- back O'er youthful love's enchanted track. Go sit beside the hearth again, Whose circle once was glad and gay ; And if from out the precious chain Some shining links have dropped away, Then guard with tender heart and hand The remnant of thy household band. Draw near the board with plenty spread, And if in the accustomed place You see the father's reverend head, Or mother's patient, loving face, Whate'er your life may have of ill, Thank God that these are left you still." November woods are bare and still, November days are clear and bright; Each noon burns up the morning's chill, The morning's snow is gone by night ; Each day my steps grow slow, grow light, As through the woods I reverent creep Watching all things lie "down to sleep." —Helen Hunt Jackson. All brilliant flowers are pale and dead And silent droop to earth, While pansies chill in velvet robes Count life but little worth ; But in these dark November days That wander wild and wet, Our thoughts are winged to summer hours On breath of mignonette. —Eliza O. Pearson. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. Entered at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter. Vol. IX. GETTYSBURG, PA., NOVEMBER, 1900. No. 6. Editor-in-Chief, S. A. VAN ORMER, '01. Assistant Editors, W. H. HETRICK, "W. A. KOIII.I'.K. Business Manager, H. C. HOFFMAN. Alumni Editor, REV. I\ D. GARLAND. Assistant Business Manager, WILLIAM C. NEY. Advisory Board, PROF. J. A. HIMES, LIT. D. PROF. G. D. STAHLEY, M. D. PROF. J. W. RICHARD, D. D. Published monthly by the students of Pennsylvania (Gettysburg") College. Subscription price, One Dollar a year in advance; single copies Ten Cents. Notice to discontinue sending* the MERCURY to any address must be accompanied by all arrearages. Students, Professors, and Alumni are cordially invited to contribute. All subscriptions and business matter should be addressed to the Business Manager. Articles for publication should be addressed to the Editor. Address THE GETTYBURG MERCURY, GETTYSBURG, PA. EDITORS' DESK. '"■pHERE is a tendency on the part of college students to sell *■ their text books as soon as the branches in which they have been used are completed. There can be no objection offered to this custom in general, for many of the books will not be needed again during the college course, while the money invested in them can be used to advantage by most students ; but there are books that ought not to be sold—books that ought to be not only kept but used throughout the college course, and chief among these is the Rhetoric. If we measure the importance of a branch, in comparison with others, by the use to be made of it in after life, surely no other branch can claim more of our time and energy ; it we would express ourselves forcibly and accurately in 188 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY speaking and in writing, we must be familiar with the principles of Rhetoric ; if we would obviate the humiliation that comes from having our writing in after life criticised and condemned, we must cultivate the habit of looking up troublesome and un-certain points while in college. J> That the colleges of our country are taking an active part in the present political campaign is evinced by the number of clubs that nave been organized and the selection of the great issues of the campaign for discussion in literary societies and debating clubs. Colleges rightly invite free thought and free discussion of political issues in the class room as well as in student organiza-tions, for these and similar issues are to confront those now in college when they shall have become local leaders in political circles. A careful, thorough and unbiased study of National economic problems must necessarily broaden the intellectual hori-zon of the student and prepare him the better to meet the de-mands that shall rest upon him as a citizen. A CHAPTER OP A LIFE. T,. W. GROSS, '01. INVITATIONS were out announcing the wedding of Miss *■ Estella Wellington to J. Harry Ashland. It was to be a church wedding in the Episcopal church of that town. Friends and relatives of both families from far and near were invited. At last the day dawned and the merry wedding chimes rang out bright and clear. It was in June, the beautiful month of roses. Nothing could be more beautiful than the gay and happy scene that was presented to the honored guests who filled the little church on this occasion to witness the ceremony. Nature seemed to offer her congratulations in the extravagant profusion of flowers she furnished for the bride and the decorations. The birds in the tree tops along the deep, shady drives warbled a merry march for the bridal party as it passed to the elegant mansion of the bride. Harry Ashland was not rich. He was the only son, and the pride and joy of his mother's heart, and so it was with a feeling of sadness THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 189 that she, regardless of the gaiety and mirth around her, saw another woman claim a place in his affections. He had married against her choice. Yet she saw that her son dearly loved the one he married and was loved in return, and so said not a word except iu gentle reasoning; but even the desire of his mother, much as he cared for her, could not alter his intention. He married his choice and Mrs. Ashland calmly submitted, and made the occasion of the wedding and short visit at home of her son as pleasant as possible. Harry was industrious, popular and a general favorite in his home town, as was always shown by the host of friends who greeted him on his visits to his mother. He had no other profession, but traveled for his uncle, who was manager of a large machine in-dustry in the South. He had been in his uncle's office for some time, and when he was promoted to collector his salary was raised sufficient, he thought, to warrant his taking the step he did, and so he married. His wife came from an old Maryland family, bringing him wealth, social distinction and culture in exchange for his name, honesty and good character. He met her since he was working for his uncle, and although she was, perhaps, above him in the social scale, yet his manliness, comeliness and winning personality won her heart and hand for him; and finally she decided to share his fate through life. He had no fortune to depend on, yet his prospects for a successful life were bright as the morning sun. And they hoped in a year or so to have a home as beautiful as her own down in Maryland. In August Mr. and Mrs. Ashland moved to their residence in a small town in the territory Harry was to work, storing their goods and boarding at a hotel. He at once took the road and began business for his uncle. L,ong trips had to be made, some-times by rail, others by stage, and sometimes he drove in a buggy over long, lonesome roads through the wild and mountainous country. Business was good, and although it required him to be away from home a great deal of his time, he was happy in the thought that it was done for the one he loved above all others. His uncle entrusted him with collecting large amounts of money from which he drew his own salary and paid other assist-ants under him, turning the balance over as the net earnings of the company. 190 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Harry had now been married a year, expecting by this time to have a neat little sum over and above his family expenses at the hotel, but found that their boarding there was very expensive. His wife was accustomed to the luxuries of life and dressed according to the fashions of the day. Thus the satisfaction of her fastidious tastes drained his yearly income to its lowest dregs. It was with disappointment that he learned these facts; yet he started again with renewed determination to make more money the next year than he did the first, and in'spite of everything, make his coveted home for himself and wife to enjoy life with the wealthy. The second year rolled around without apparent change in his financial affairs. His expenses were increasing, the savings decreasing ; yet he made more trips through mountain and valley, and through town and city than ever before in his energetic struggle for existence. Besides his loving wife he now had a little girl to welcome him home with her childish prattle and glee, and he often dissipated his gloom and disappointment on coming in from a hard trip by talking and a frolic with little Iyida. But still it seemed as if the clouds were lowering and his domestic horizon getting darkei instead of brighter. He was often found in deep thought by his wife, who would try to cheer him, unconscious of his real trouble, never dreaming that she might be the cause of it. He often thought of his mother's advice about this very thing, of marrying within his class, and thought, now there might be something in it, after all. But he would rather struggle to the last than say a word to check his wife in the spending of the money he would earn. May be Harry had too much pride. About this time he was sent out to make one of the largest collections of the year, and he rather dreaded the trip because it had to be made in a buggy over lonesome and rough roads. However, giving his wife and daughter a loving farewell he started on the trip. He visited subordinate agents and dealers, collect-ing money from each till, by the time he was ready to start for headquarters, he had a little over five thousand dollars in his possession. This money he kept in a tin box securely fastened under the buggy seat. He had never been molested by highway-men himself, but often had heard of such robberies occurring in the vicinity through which he had to pass, and he felt a peculiar THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 191 dread pass over him lest he should be attacked on this particular trip when he carried so much money. Harry had been driving all day and his horse became very tired and somewhat jaded. He hoped to reach his destination before night-fall, but being in Autumn and the days growing shorter, darkness gathered sooner than he anticipated. A drizzling rain set in, and to add to his difficulties, his horse became lame from much traveling. As a result intense darkness caught him in the very worst part of the road. Yes, he was robbed. His worst fears were realized. A full and vivid account of the bold and daring robbery appeared in the daily papers giving all the details. But the highwaymen had the money and were still at large. It was the same old story. The tired horse was stopped and held while three or four men sprang at the occupant of the buggy, bound him hand and foot, gagged him, tied the horse to a tree in the wood by the road side and then hastened away with their booty. He remained in his help-less condition till at last, after a night of agony trying to free himself, he was set free by a passer-by in the morning after the banditti were miles away. He went at once to his uncle, told his story and had detectives started in pursuit of the robbers. But the old man was angry, flew into a rage at such a great loss of money, blamed Harry for neglect and carelessness, and finally discharged him from his service. This was the climax to all his trouble. He tried to reason with his uncle but he would hear none. Harry could not pacify him. He went home to his wife with a heavy heart; his bright-est gleams of home and success blasted, utterly ruined. His wife tried to console him, but with no avail. He saw bills staring him in the face, his month's salary stolen and nothing for the future in sight. Here again pride came in his way and he refused several offers of help by kind friends because the salary was lower than he had been used to getting and in the humbler occupations. His discouragement increased; at times he became moody and silent. The thought of his great misfortune, his uncle's relentlessuess and his domestic affairs weighed heavily upon him. At last it became unbearable and he told his wife he must go to the city and obtain a position worthy of his station in life. He bade 192 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY them goodbye and left little L,ida and her mother in their rooms at the hotel. Harry was gone, alas! never to return. He failed to obtain the position, his money was soon spent, and he paid his last dime for a piece of rope. The next morning his cold, distorted and lifeless body was found hanging to the limb of a tree in a secluded part of one of the parks about the great city. His body was identified by his friends, who were notified by the authorities, and taken home and buried. Time, the great physician, the healer of all wounds, bound up the broken hearts of his many friends, and soon they looked up again. He was rid of the world and its struggles and soon for-gotten by it, remembered only by a few of his friends. One life less in the world ; one leaf fallen from the great tree—the world; one pebble less on the great sea shore; one drop less in the ocean. Soon the waters closed over the ripple and were as placid as before. THE STABILITY OF A REPUBLIC. W. H. HETRICK, '01. TVTATIONAL, evolution in the course of its progress has finally •*■ ^ given government a sublime perfection in the principles and constitutions of modern Republicanism. A republic such as our own, firmly grounded on union, liberty and independence, is not modern in development, but stands as the complete product of the ages. Its grand perfection and accomplishment is the re-sult of long centuries of national experience. Out of the confu-sion of the past, the rude primitive rule of patriarchs, the disso-lution of empires, the unrelenting tyranny of despotism, the heart-less cruelty of kings, out of innumerable wars and inhuman wrongs, God, the maker of destiny, has perfected a government for man, and we call that government a republic. Heretofore the government of nations was, to a great extent, at variance with the desires and thoughts of the human mind. There was no satisfaction in serving ; no morality in slavery ; no justice in taxation without representation ; no virtue in ine-quality. Man since his creation has felt and expressed a strong dissatisfaction with the government imposed upon him. It was his conviction that he was and by right ought to be free. A deep inexplicable fact of his being forced him to the belief that the law THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 193 which governs society should conform to his own conscience and reason. This was the requisite of his soul. When once attained and instituted, government would be perfect. There would be nothing beyond it; no deeper principle for higher attainment. It would be the consummation of law. Such is our own republic. The principles in her constitution strike deep into the heart of being. Liberty, union and inde-pendence are not artificial, not the invention of mind nor even the result of thought. No ! They are the aspirations of the soul; the uniformities of all natural law. Ages of time, millions of people and hundreds of civilizations, by the power of progress, have at last evolved from the great powers of human experience an en-during form of government, that can never fall or be dissolved by the presence of faults or the schemes of men. Our country shall never degenerate from her elevated place of greatness. To bring this about would necessitate retrogression, and retrogression means a changing of law for something worse. It would be the destruction of a perfect law for the adoption of one whose im-perfection was the principal cause of its revision. It would be contrary to the nature of things. It would mean imperialism which belongs to the past. It would mean despotism, militarism, disorder. It would be forcing the law of nature, of reason and of justice against its own development. No! Our constitution is founded upon a rock, the rock of tried experience, the deepest law of progress. It must ever stand as a monument built for all time to come. SHAKESPEARE'S ATTITUDE TOWARD EDUCATION. EMORY D. BREAM, '02. WHRN we turn to the history of education to ascertain the relative position of Shakespeare among the great writers of the world, we are told that Greece had its Homer, Rome its Virgil, Italy its Dante, Germany its Goethe, France its Hugo and England its Shakespeare, Chaucer, Milton and many others ; but if one of these distinguished writers were to be chosen king over the others, Shakespeare would, by common consent, be placed upon the throne. Naturally, then, we would expect a man of such a lofty liter-ary position to be a patron of education. Although he has written no treatise on education, nor is he recognized as an educator, yet 194 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY one cannot read his works intelligently without noticing how careful he is to endow the nobler characters of his plays with the love of knowledge. For instance, in " As You L,ike It," who does not admire the noble discontent of Orlando with a condition that hinders manly development ? In the " Tempest " do we not immediately recognize Prospero as a true Student ? Shakespeare distinguishes the educated man from the unedu-cated. The fact that he firmly believed that the mind, God's greatest gift to man, should be cultivated and adorned, is proved by the case of Orlando. He is discontented with his breeding, and recognizes that though he is a gentleman by birth, yet that avails little if he lacks breeding. " For call you that keeping for a gentleman of my birth, that differs not from the stalling of an ox ? His horses are bred better." How strongly Shakespeare empha-sizes in these lines the fact that God would not have endowed us with minds superior to animals if he did not intend that we should cultivate them. Intelligence is a distinguishing mark of a lady or gentleman. In the " Merchant of Venice " this fact is brought out clearly. Bassanio lacks commercial ability and is unable to win for him-self the means necessary for the support of a man of rank ; yet he possesses the elegant tastes of a gentleman, and when supplied with money, he has no trouble in winning the heart of Portia, a young woman of wealth and high social position. Shakespeare is careful to portray her even as having good sense enough to esteem spiritual higher than material qualities. This is clearly shown in the.conversation between Portia and Nerissa when Nerissa recounts to Portia the various suitors that have sought her hand. She finds fault with all until Bassanio's name is mentioned. Here Shakespeare shows a distinction. The Nea-politan prince took so much interest in his horse that he boasted even of being able to shoe it. Faulconbridge, the young baron of England, is, in Portia's words, "A proper man's picture ; but alas ! who can converse with a dumb show ? '' But when Bas-sanio, the Venetian, a scholar and soldier, is named these two ac-complishments win for him favor in the eyes of Portia. In these examples Shakespeare made the educated man of greater weight than all the men of wealth, noble birth and polish. An educated person is recognized by people of less ability as being superior to them. This is also brought out plainly by THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 195 Portia after Bassanio has opened the leaden casket, and, according to the command given in the stanza of poetry that it contained, has claimed her with a kiss. In the conversation that follows she calls herself an unlessoned, unschooled and unpractised girl, but not too old to learn. Thus she recognizes Bassanio as her superior. In turn, when Portia is pleading for Antonio, Shylock admires her ability to argue, and as soon as she seems to be giving justice to his side of the question, he bursts out in exclamations of praise. " A Daniel come to judgment! Yea a Daniel! O wise young judge, how I honor thee ! " Considering the fact that Portia has before this confessed herself to be an unschooled girl, such ability to plead a case seems contradictory ; but this shows that educa-tion is not merely book knowledge. Though Shylock may have thought that it was to his interest to laud the wise young judge, yet doubtless Shakespeare wished to lay stress upon the influence that an educated person has over an uneducated one. Lastly, a love for study and close application is necessary to acquire an education in the true sense of the word. In " Hamlet," where the king tells Hamlet that his intention to return to Wit-tenburg to school is contrary to the wishes of the king and queen, from the words, "We beseech you, bend you to remain here," we would infer that he was a diligent student and loved study. The most forcible illustration of this, however, is Prospero. He was so attentive to his books that he neglected his duties as a ruler even so much as to allow his brother to usurp the throne. In the conversation between Miranda and Ferdinand, while he was piling up the logs, Miranda requests Ferdinand to rest awhile, saying that, "He's hard at study. He's safe for these three hours." Indicating how diligently Prospero studied. These seem almost like words of advice from the great dramatist to those who wish to be real students, and they show that Shakespeare not only was favorable to education, but believed that everyone should be educated. O reader ! had you in your mind Such stores as silent thought can bring ; O gentle reader ! you would find A tale in everything. —Woods-worth. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY THE MORSE VS. THE AUTOMOBILE. H. L. STIFEL, '03. pVER since this world began there has been in existence a cer- -*-' tain class of persons, who have opposed, with all their strength, every innovation, every invention, which untiring labor or a happy chance has brought before the public. Though I do not consider myself as one of this mean-spirited class, I wish to speak a word in favor of that good friend and servant of man, the horse, as opposed to the automobile. Of the three classes of the automobile, steam, gasoline and electric, it is hard to make a choice of the one with the least ob-jectionable features. The latter we may reject at once, owing to the difficulty in charging the batteries. An average electric ma-chine will run for twenty miles ; then it must be recharged. This circumstance renders it absolutely useless for long tours, as there are but few places along a country road where this recharging may be effected. Even in the city, the owner of this type of the automobile may find himself compelled to procure a team to drag home his horseless carriage. Nor is the steam wagon much better. It requires a great deal of labor in firing up before each trip. Another disagreeable feature is the incessant noise of the steam. Besides, a man must, to all purposes, know as much as a licensed engineer before he is capable of managing such a ma-chine. The steam pressure and the amount of water in the boiler must be careiully watched. The fire and fuel also require con-stant attention. There remains only the gasoline type. This is the most practical of all three, but it also has one very unpleasant feature. It is everywhere accompanied by the disagreeable odor of gasoline. Any one of these three classes, moreover, needs as much care as would two horses. The machine is fitted up with a large amount of nickel and brass trimmings, which, in order to be kept presentable, require as much polishing and cleaning as would a team. Then, too, the mechanism must be kept clean and free from rust, and must be thoroughly oiled, not to mention the fact that it must be kept in good running order. It has been asserted that the automobile will eventually dis-place the horse entirely. This I emphatically deny. In my opinion, it is only a fad which society, bored to the last degree, has taken up. At all events, in its present stage of development, THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY it is nothing but a toy. In the course of time the automobile may prove to be more serviceable thau the horse for heavy haul-ing or rapid transit, but it can never take the place of the hon-e for pleasure driving. There is a vast difference between guiding a mere machine and spinning along a road behind a spirited horse. The keen sense of satisfaction felt in the mastery of a creature of flesh and blood, intelligent, and with a will of its own, would be entirely absent in the running of an automobile. In regard to the matter of safety, the horse is again superior to the steam or gasoline wagon. A horse, on the darkest night, will keep on the road by instinct. An automobile, guided by a man, of course cannot do this, for man hasnot this instinct which is given to the animal. Therefore, the driver, if we may call the person who runs the automobile by that name, is likely to find himself lying in a ditch beside the road. We have often read of horses stopping and refusing to go on when their instinct tells them there is danger ahead. This again is impossible to the auto-mobile driver, for he receives no such warning. Naturally, an accident may happen to a careless driver with the most intelligent of horses; but is not the danger much greater when a careless man has a boiler full of steam, or a tank of gasoline under him ? A small stone, lying in the road, may strike a front wheel and throw the steering gear to one side, ditching the machine or send-ing it over an embankment, with an explosion, perhaps, as the result. An ordinary vehicle would simply run over the obstruc-tion with no worse effect than a slight jolt. In view of these facts, let us cling to the horse, an intelligent animal, capable of loving and of being loved, rather than take up the automobile, a thing of cogs and machinery. In following out this course we shall obtain more pleasure, and we shall obtain it with greater safety. Is it not, therefore, the more desirable ? o*p I hold it true, whate'er befall, I feel it when I sorrow most ; 'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. -Tennyson. 198 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY OUR OLD SCHOOL GROUND. [D. M. MISLCHIOR, '02.] TT may seem very odd that one should select a plain, country "■ school as the most interesting place he ever knew, yet, for me, there is no other place that carries with it so much personal interest as those nooks and crooks about our old school house. The beautiful parks about Philadelphia are very interesting not only for their beauty, but also for their historical connections; there is pleasure in watching the ocean dash its breakers against the beach of some seaside resort ; the rush and bustle of Broad-way is fascinating ; yet, I imagine that if I ever live to be an old man and think of the happy days of my past life, no recollections will come before me so vividly as those connected with that old school-ground. I should not say old so far as the building is concerned, for when I started to school it was a comparatively new one. About a quarter of a mile east of Springtown it stood—and still stands —upon a little hill beside a quaint, old Evangelical church. The house was a substantial brick building—much after the manner of all country school houses in a prosperous farming community. The playground was not much of a recommendation, for aside from being small it was uneven and rocky. It was probably for this reason that we sought other places for our sports and often wandered far beyond our prescribed limits. There was a row of sheds back of the church for the accom-modation of such church goers as were willing to pay a yearly rent to protect their teams from the rain or the burning sun. Here we would all gather on a rainy day, as long as it was not too cold, and amuse ourselves as best we could, playing such games as a half a hundred lively boys and girls could play in so small a space. On the east side of the building was an anything-but-hand-some- looking rail fence, and on the inner side of this we built huts, made of rails, corn-fodder, and dry leaves. At the back of these stood a row of cider and Baldwin apple trees, and many a feast we had off them, the owner having long before given up hope of ever getting any of the apples for himself. Running at right angles with the school ground was the road and right in front of the school house was the top of a very steep THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 199 hill which afforded us ample means for coasting. And what sport is more fascinating than coasting when you have a straight '' drive " tor a quarter of a mile or more ? I remember one im-mense sled (double-deckers were unheard of at that time) which was the pride of the whole school. Two big fellows would sit on it facing each other, and then a heap of little boys would be piled on crosswise and away they'd go. At the top of the hill there were usually immense snow drifts, and it was lots of fun to tun-nel them. First a fellow would start from the top and, feet first, would work his way through until a good sized hole would be made. Then little subways were made until the top, becoming too weak, would fall in. In the field on the other side of the road we would often build an immense snow fort, and how hard we would fight to defend it! It would be captured and recap-tured, until the teacher's bell would call us to our afternoon's work. Below this field ran a mill race, and I can well remember how, in the early part of September, we would sneak down to it, undress and take a lively little swim in the almost bitter cold water—a practice that was prohibited not only by the teacher, but also by our parents. Once, especially, do I remember how I sneaked away one noon with a fishing line in my pocket to try a half hour's luck at angling, and how I slipped from a log, fell in to my waist, and in the hope of not being detected put on a brave face and determined to sit the whole afternoon in my wet trousers. But the teacher had heard of my misfortune through someone else and was waiting for me. Instead of getting a thrashing, he gave me a sealed note to take to my father and sent me home. Believing that a great deal of harm is often done by exposing domestic affairs, I'll not say anything of the interview with my father in his private study. After the long, weary winter months were past, Spring would arouse the sleeping fields and woods, and then perhaps the most fascinating part of those school days would come. The early flowers, especially arbutus, would come out in the valley below the school house, or on the mountain back of it; and many, many times we would scour those fields and bring back not only flowers, but turtles, snakes and other such harmless creatures as would terrify the girls. Then, although perhaps chiefly in the Autumn, would come the time to play Hare and Hound, and through fields, over 200 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY streams, up the hills we would run, heedless of wet feet, torn clothes or of being late for school. Down at the foot of an adjoining field stood a lime kiln, and back of it along a small mountain creek we would sit and cut willow whistles, dare each other to do almost impossible feats, and just have a jolly good time. It was down there that on the last day of school we were always permitted to play that forbidden game—"ring tag." That was one of the times when the boys condescended to play with the girls, and everybody kissed every-body else good-bye. It was a bit of foolishness, and yet when one thinks back, and the faces of all those schoolmates come before him, he is struck with surprise to note what changes eight or nine years may bring. Some of them are married, a few have died, others are away attending some higher institution of learning, while the majority are still there, but gradually scattering one by one. Often, when thinking ofhome, I see before me that school house —a church on one side enclosed by a row of trees, fields of corn stubble on two other sides, and the well-travelled road directly in front. There is the narrow, rocky lane leading down to the mill-race, coasting down which a little girl, caught between a sled and rock, once broke a leg and was lamed for life. To one side stands the coal shed. On the right is the rock on which the auctioneer stood when we had "horse sales." So as I stand there and look upon spot after spot where one little thing or another happened that I shall never forget, it seems to me that if I live to be ninety years old, I shall never find a place of more personal interest than the scenes of my early country school life. Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear ; Full many a flower is born to blush unseen And waste its sweetness on the desert air. —Grey. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 201 WHEN SHOULD A YOUNG MAN CHOOSE HIS PROFESSION ? HEIGHTMAN, '02. '"PHIS question, manifestly of so vast importance to every young *■ man, should be presented to him at an early age. But he should be careful lest he make a decision too hastily. Often does a man see his mistake too late when, after spending a long time in preparation, he enters upon his chosen profession, and feels that it will be neither pleasant nor profitable to him. But he can put the blame upon none else than himself, unless perchance he has been forced by his parents against his own will to choose a certain profession, though he has had from his early youth a long-ing to be engaged in another—one in which he is confident of success. This we know ought not to be. Every young man has, without doubt, an inclination to some one profession, and he should be allowed to pursue it and not be persuaded to follow the same profession in which his father is engaged, simply because his father has made a success of it. And then, too, how often is a young man led into his father's business at so early,an age that he is scarcely old enough to have formed a true conception of the world. True, it may be the very best thing the father can do to give his son employment as early as possible, especially if he be inclined to be wayward ; and still more, it may, as is often the case, make a good, energetic busi-ness man of him, when, if he were allowed to remain idle a year or more, he might contract slothful habits, which would cling to him all through life. But yet, I think the father makes a mis-take if he does not give his son ample time to learn to know the world, and to be able to decide rightly and satisfactorily his pro-fession for life. In doing this, however, the father should not allow him to spend one moment in idleness. If he cannot send him to college, he should ever have some duty for him to per-form, and should afford him every facility for improving his in-tellect, by encouraging him in a desire for knowledge, and by surrounding him with the best books. If a young man can go to college, and would make the best possible success in life, let him, by all means, decide before he goes to college, what will be his profession. Doing this he will have a motive before him, and will press onward with renewed vigor at every step of his advance. Throughout his course, 202 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY whenever he learns anything which he knows will be of value when applied to his chosen profession, for the very reason that he realizes its worth to him, that knowledge will impress itself upon his mind, and he will retain it when he enters upon his pro-fession. How essential is it, in this our day, to concentrate our efforts upon one line of study or thought in order to reach that degree of excellence required if we would be among the men in the first ranks of our profession. Especially is this so in the ministry. It is the belief of some that the successful minister is the one who has made special preparation in the study of God's Word all through his college years before he enters the seminary. He will surely be able to understand theology much more readily if he is well versed in the truths of the Bible, upon which theology is based. So it is in the preparation for any profession. First to choose a profession, and then to use every effort to advance to as high a degree of perfection as possible in this one line of study, is the secret of the success of all eminent men. But there are those who are at a loss to make a choice—some thinking that they would not be suitable for the profession they would like, and continuing on in a state of indecision possibly throughout their course, while others, somewhat indolent, put it off until they find which one will require the least energy on their part. What a fatal mistake ! Not prepared for anything espe-cially, they may go out into a business life and be successful, but not, indeed, to the degree of success they would have had they made special preparation—nor would they have as much satisfac-tion. And again, does not every young man have some one talent, which, if he cultivate it, may not only give him wonderful suc-cess in life, but may make his name famous ; while, if he allow it to remain dormant, and gives it no attention, though it mani-fest itself repeatedly, he doubtless loses his one chance of suc-cess in life. However, a man cannot always know what this talent is. In this case, let him make an earnest endeavor to find out what he may best fit himself for, and in what direction his mind and pleasure are bent the more ; but let him quickly make his decision. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 203 MOW IT LOOKS PROM THE ROAD. A. L. VERMILYA. Search the woods and rake the meadows For a robin, owl or bat; Something that when slain and mounted May adorn my lady's hat. Rip the feathers off the songsters, Take each head and tail and wing, For them is my lady waiting, Tender-hearted, gracious thing. See her sitting in her carriage Making all the show she can ; On her head a cemetery, In her hand a feather fan. Yet she talks of love and mercy To all things in honeyed words, While she's decked in borrowed plumage Torn from slaughtered singing birds. O, Consistency! thou jewel, Teach these women common sense ; Teach them, while they prate of kindness, They themselves give rank offense. MY MIND TO ME A KINGDOM IS. My minde to me a kingdome is; Such perfect joy therein I finde As farre exceeds all earthly blisse, That God or Nature hath assignde ; Though much I want that most would have, Yet still my mind forbids to crave. —An Old Song. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. C. P. SOLT MERCHANT TAILOR Masonic Bldg., GETTYSBURG Our collection of Woolens for the coming- Fall andWinter season cannot be surpassed for variety, attractive designs and general completeness. The latest styles of fashionable novelties in the most approved shades. Staples of exceptional merit, value and -wearing-durability. Also altering-, repairing-, dyeing- and scouring- at moderate prices. .FOR UP-TO-DATE. Clothing, Hats, Shoes, And Men's Furnishing- Goods, go to I. HALLEM'S MAMMOTH CLOTHING HOUSE, Chambersburg St., GETTYSBURG, PA. ESTABLISHED 1867 BY ALLEN WALTON. ALLEN K. WALTON, President and Treasurer. ROBT. J. WALTON Superintendent. flammelstomn Broom Stone Company Quarrymen and Manufacturers of Building Stone, Sawed Flagging and Tile Waltonville, Dauphin Co., Pa. Contractors for all kinds of Telegraph and Express Address. Cut StoneWork. BROWNSTONE, PA. Parties visiting' the Quarries will leave cars at Brownstone Station on the P. & R. R. R. 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These are the words of Goethe, the great German poet, and are as true in our day as when uttered. In these times of defective vision it is good to know something about eyes. A great deal has been learned about the value of glasses and their application since Goethe lived. Spectacle wearers have increased by thousands, while at the same time, persons losing their eyesight, have been greatly diminished. If your eyes trouble you in any way let me tell you the cause. Examination free and prices reasonable. We grind all our own lenses and fit the best lenses (no matter what anyone else has charged you) for $2.50 per pair and as cheap as SO cents per pair, or duplicate a broken lens if we have one-half or more of the old one, at a reasonable charge, returning same day received. .E. L. ECOLE. 807 and 809 North Third Street, HARRISBURG, PA PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS- (^entpol Jlotel, ELIAS FISSEL, Prop. (Formerly of Globe Hotel) Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, Pa. Two doors from Court House. MODERN IMPROVEMENTS. Steam Heat, Electric Light and Call Bells all through the House. Closets and Bath Rooms on Every Floor. Sefton & Fleni-ming's Livery is connected with this Hotel. Good Teams and Competent Guides for the Battlefield. Charges Moderate, Satisfaction Guaranteed. Rates $1.50 Per Day. GET A SKATE ON And send all your Soiled Linen to the Gettysburg Steam Laundry R. R. LONG, Prop. R. A. WONDERS, Corner Cigar Parlors. A full line of Cigars, Tobacco, Pipes, Etc. Scott's Corner, Opp. Eagle Hotel. GETTYSBURG, PA. c Try My Choice Line of A High-Grade Chocolates ^ at 40c per lb. Always fresh at J[ C CHAS. H. McCLEARY (| Carlisle St., Opposite W. M. R. R. U Also Foreign and Domestic Fruits Y' Always on Hand. JOHN M. MINNIGH, Gonfeetionepy, lee, •■-""lee Creams. Oysters Stewed and Fried. No. 17 BALTIMORE ST. The Leading Barber CSfyop (Successor to C. C. Sefton) Having- thoroughly remodeled the place is now ready to accommodate the public Barber Supplies a Specialty. .Baltimore Street. ESTABLISHED 1876 PENROSE MYERS, Watchmaker and Jeweler Gettysburg Souvenir Spoons, Col-lege Souvenir Spoons. NO. 10 BALTIMORE ST., GETTYSBURG, PENNA. L. f\. klltW Manufacturers' Agent and Jobber of Hardware, Oils, Paints and Queensware. GETTYSBURG, PA. The Only Jobbing House in Adams County.

Part one of an interview with Frances Mercadante. Topics include: Poem for Dorris Catrell. Becoming the Italian Woman of the Year. Her work as a teacher. Being a woman with a family and a career. How her children were well cared for. How expectations and values changed from generation to generation in her family. Her mother played the organ. How her grandparents met in Boston, were married, and had her mother. How Frances' great uncle, Father Angelo Cappenella, ended up coming to the United States from Italy and was positioned at Saint Anthony's Parish in Fitchburg, MA. Frances' mother moved to Fitchburg to help care for her uncle at the rectory at Saint Anthony's. What life was like for Father Cappenella. Speaking Italian. The Venereen Sisters at Saint Anthony's. The importance of family. The tradition of family meals. How Frances dealt with her son's divorce. ; 1 LINDA: Linda [Rosenwan] for the Center for Italian Culture. It is Wednesday, October 24, 2001. We're with Frances Mercadante at her home at 306 Canton Street in Fitchburg. So she is about to read a poem that I believe she wrote. Did you write this poem? FRANCES: Yes, I did. LINDA: For a friend, Doris Catrell. FRANCES: For a friend, Doris Catrell [Disgene]. Doris, small statured woman, a warm smiling face. Whenever she greets you, it's with a hugging embrace. Impeccably dressed each Sunday as she comes to lead the parish in song with her clear, lilting voice at the 8 o'clock mass. After mass, carrying communion to the ill, she brings them consoling joy and contentment. Then, to the Blessed Sacrament she travels spending an hour with the Lord in the Eucharist. During the week, she's at mass each day, later has coffee for our group to enjoy. Always uplifting whenever we're burdened, encouraging and kind in conversation. At home as a child, I remember her presence, practiced the church services with mom in the choir. Reaching high notes as a soprano with ease, always ready to do her part. Later when Saint Anthony's School was in session, she volunteered to cook, serve, and chat with the children from our school and no one, too. Her workers enjoyed her pleasant manner. She was there when our family and neighbors required special care, assisting her parents in their senior years. Helped Margie, a neighbor, when her health began to fail. And still took care of her own family's needs. She has four loving children, Carla, Michael, Jerome, and Antonia; one special granddaughter, Ashley. Has a strong, loving bond with each of them, and especially enjoys their calls and visits. 2 She has a green thumb that is obvious to see as you approach her cottage with bursts of color from flowers of all kinds profusely growing in her yard. Doris, a woman of faith, family, and friends has left an indelible mark on my life. LINDA: Now, what was the occasion that you wrote this? FRANCES: I wanted it to be part of my Italian cultural evening. And I said it would be nice for me -- well, I had already done Luigi Relley years ago in class, in a creative writing class. I said I was going to look into getting a picture of the two of them and frame the write-ups that I did so parishioners going by, especially the older ones and then some of the families, would recognize the two people and want to read them. And that was the whole purpose. LINDA: So this was read at the awards, too? FRANCES: No. LINDA: No? FRANCES: It was just on a table with all the other material that we had, and people could read it if they wished. LINDA: So explain to us just briefly about becoming Woman of the Year, the Italian-American Woman of the Year. FRANCES: Italian-American Woman of the Year. There is a committee of people that look at individuals and usually see whether or not we have been in the community, active in the community somewhat, and also doing well with our church, our family, an all-encompassing thing. When they look at a person, they want you to be many things. I personally felt that I was more involved with church, family, and career. And I did some outside material with, probably, the ecumenical group. I had been in that for a number of years and enjoyed that. And then, I used the telephone to solicit for the Red Cross and cancer, TB-ers. 3 But I wasn't, supposedly as far as I was concerned, the type of person they should select because I wasn't as outgoing as being in politics or being very active in the elderly communities that they have in the cities and whatnot. I just didn't have the time because of my career. I stayed in quite a number of years until -- let's see, I was going on 69 when I left. And a lot of people leave at 52. So I didn't have the time. I enjoyed teaching, and I hated to give it up. LINDA: So now explain to us about being a teacher. I understand that you were the first. Were you the first married woman? FRANCES: Yes. When I came back to Fitchburg from Windsor, Connecticut, I had my training in Windsor, Connecticut. I went to college in Chicopee [unintelligible – 00:05:35]. And when I looked for a position, my mother, of course, wanted me to stay home in my own hometown. She knew I was going to be engaged and getting married, and she really looked forward to that. And I stayed on, was substituting this for almost six months, and was called maybe three times. And I said, "I'm never going to get any experience doing this." And it was a time when they were not hiring as many teachers. LINDA: And what year was this? FRANCES: This was 1953. And so I decided to use a teacher -- what do you call them? I'm trying to think of a word. Where you would look for a position, they would have the listing of different schools. And Massachusetts had a few. They were in Walpole and quite far from Fitchburg, on the other side of Fitchburg, really, going toward the cape. And then, there was this job that I found in Windsor, Connecticut, and my brother-in-law lived in Connecticut in Plainville, in New Britain. And so I decided to look into the Windsor, Connecticut job, and it started in January. And I was taking care of a fifth grade class and decided to accept the position. And I was very, very happy that I did. I had a Mr. John O'Neal, who was just delightful, as a principal. And the teachers were 4 very, very friendly. And it was a very good start for my career as a teacher. We lived in a home where there was a widow with only teachers boarding there. LINDA: And this was before you were married? FRANCES: Before I was married. So I stayed there for the rest of that year and the following year. And then I returned to Fitchburg and looked for a position here, and I was selected at the E Street School. At that time, the superintendent had just been changed, and we had a Mr. Johnson from New York, from the state of New York, I don't know exactly where. And I told him, I said, "You know, I'm going to be getting married." And at that time, they said, "Well, usually you have to retire. You could sub, but you cannot be a permanent teacher in the classroom." And he said, "No, Fitchburg is laidback." He was very get up and go. And he said, "Things are changing." And he said, "They've already changed in New York. So I don't want you to even worry about getting married and losing your job because I think it's going to change within this year." And I said, "Well, all right." So I just listened to him. And as it was, he was correct. So then, I told him the following year… LINDA: And what year is this? FRANCES: I'm very bad with years, so I think it was '54. And I told him, I said, "I'm having a child." And I said, "I know that's definitely a no-no. I'll have to leave." He said, "Oh, no it isn't." He said, "That is changing, also." And so he said, "You continue, but you get your doctor's permission that you're fine and you're able to do it." So I was the first married woman in Fitchburg and the first pregnant woman in Fitchburg. And I stayed on until that whole, entire June, and I 5 had my baby August 6 th. And everybody was very accepting. I was in a small four-room school with just four classrooms and a Mrs. McKeel, who was delightful. She was [unintelligible – 00:10:19] and knew my family. And I was very well treated, so I had no complexes about it at all. LINDA: So you didn't receive any dissention even from the community? FRANCES: No, no, I didn't. Well, I think because I was inobtrusive or unobtrusive. I did not make waves at all. I just did my job, and I was very low-key. That's the way to put it. LINDA: Now, where was this school? FRANCES: This school was on Lindbergh Street, which is Route 2-A going to Boston, the old Route 2-A. And that's where I started here in Fitchburg. And then I decided to stay out until I had my family. So I was out of teaching for six years. I returned to teaching when my husband decided he was unhappy with private accounting and really would like to start his own public accounting business. In those days, a CPA could not do any advertising at all. And I knew he was worried about the fact that he wouldn't be able to support his own family. So I decided to try to get a position, and we could live on my salary. And in the meantime, I spoke to my youngest sister, who is 10 years younger than I, and she was dating seriously. And I said, "Would you mind instead of working somewhere to take care of my children?" And she agreed. And so I had a wonderful setup if I was able to get the position. I talked to my pediatrician because I was very worried about the children. And he said, "If they're ever very seriously sick, I will take the car and drive right to your house." And so I never forgot Dr. Pick for that. And he gave me a couple of articles to refresh my mind that women have a right to have a career as well as a family. And they can do both very well. And so I did. 6 I was given a position by Miss Lyons. She was the assistant superintendent at the time. And I had a fourth grade at Hastings School. And that's where I started my career in teaching. I stayed there four years, and when Crocker School was built, I was one of the first to go into that new school. And I stayed there until I retired. So I was there for 68 years. LINDA: Sixty-eight? FRANCES: Sixty-eight. I'm sorry, 35 years or 36 years, 35 or 36 years. LINDA: Wow. FRANCES: So I was 68 years in age. That's what I meant to say. LINDA: First of all, your family sounds as if they were very progressive, especially your husband. FRANCES: Mm-hmm. The CPA business, of course, you had to wait for the telephone to ring. You could not advertise. LINDA: Why not? FRANCES: It was against their rules and regulations at that time. And it stayed like that for quite a number of years. And now, of course, they can do anything they want, advertise… LINDA: So how did he begin? Did he just hang a shingle out? FRANCES: He had to put a shingle out. And I don't know if he could even put something. I think he could put an announcement in the newspaper, and that was it, and just by word of mouth. And then there were public accountants and private accountants that knew him and liked him and offered to give him one of their jobs, and that helped him to get started. And then he get to know more people. And through word of mouth, really, it was developed. LINDA: And he continues today? FRANCES: Yes, he continues today. And he has his youngest son. And it's a thriving office. Instead of being a one-man band, he has three or four CPAs now there, I think, working in the office. LINDA: And what's the name of the business? 7 FRANCES: It's Mercadante & Mercadante. And then, my daughter-in-law took a payroll business that he had only eight people and made it into, I think, 70 clients now that do the payroll with her. LINDA: And what is that business called, or is that under Mercadante? FRANCES: No, it's her own payroll business. I honestly don't know the actual name of it, but Nick will be able to tell me. LINDA: So were the hardships worth it at the beginning? FRANCES: It was. I still had guilt complex about leaving the children. I came home at three; and in the first years, I did not take any courses. I just took the courses that were given at the school after school hours. And my sister would stay an extra hour, an hour and a half. And then I would come home, and I would just spend my time with the children and then cooking a full meal, and I would have my sister stay with me and have a full meal with her husband. And then eventually, she was married the second year and had a little girl. And I would babysit her little girl—I had a crib for her—so that she could go out and enjoy herself on occasion with her husband. And it worked out very, very well. LINDA: So she must have lived nearby. FRANCES: She lived nearby, yes. And then, when she expected her second child, then my mother talked to me about a Mrs. [Grassi], who was her very dear friend who was 65 years old. And Mrs. Rose Grassi was just unbelievable. She accepted the position here. She lived only five houses down the street from me in this… LINDA: Are we talking about this address? FRANCES: Yes, this address, right on Canton Street. And she enjoyed every single bit being another grandmother. We called her the third grandmother in the family. She was so loving and caring to the children. I would have to hide housework from her so that she wouldn't get worn out because she would always put her whole effort into caring for the needs of the children 8 first, and then worrying about the little things in the house that she thought I wouldn't have time for. She was just so special. And Fridays were a special day for the children. There was always a special goodie because it was the end of the school week and she wanted to have a special treat for them, might have been apple muffins or cookies. She made oatmeal cookies. She did so many things that were special. And to this day -- well, I'm thinking back college days. They would come home, and I never had to tell them to go and visit their grandparents, but they also would never forget her. They would go down and see her husband, Joseph, and Rose. LINDA: And now, these are other Italians, too? FRANCES: They're Italian. And, of course, both of them are deceased. But when Ann Marie got married, she went to the nursing home with her bridal gown on and her husband and had a picture taken. And she has that picture at our house. And whenever we have family gatherings, we talk about her remarks and how she used to cater to Anthony being the youngest child. And she'd say, "Oh, my goodness, your wife is so strict with that little [peachy mean]." Peachy mean is the little one. She doesn't realize he's still little; he shouldn't have the same choice that the other children have. And so we would talk about that. And so then, she would tell that to my husband. She didn't want to hurt my feelings, and so she was hoping that he would tell me to cool it with that youngest son of mine. But, oh, she was just a special, special person. To this day, I miss her whenever I go by her house. LINDA: Now, do you think that you would have continued with your teaching probably if you didn't have your sister and someone like Mrs. Grassi? 9 FRANCES: I think it would have been very difficult for me because I was a very -- they say cancereans are, but I'm very family-oriented, and I worry about the children and not being there if they really needed me. I was very fortunate that the family stayed very healthy in those teaching years. And so when I did have to take time off, it was very few and far between, so I wasn't hurting my teaching career by having a lot of substitutes in and out covering my class. I didn't want to do that because I felt that was my responsibility to my school. LINDA: You're of the generation that really invited people into your home to take care of children. How do you feel about outside daycare now with all the daycare centers sprouting up? FRANCES: I think I would peruse them very carefully. And it wouldn't be just one visit; it'd be several visits to make certain that you walk in there unannounced on certain days just to see what happens when they do have a child that's having a bad day and how they're caring for the child. And that would be my feeling. Then I think you could rest assured. I know we had a girl here on our street—and I know her mother very well —was [unintelligible - 00:21:12] daughter, Nana. And she has done a beautiful job. She takes care of 6 months old right to toddler age. And she has a lot of patience, but she only has maybe five or six children that age, so she can give them a lot of undivided attention. And she has her house set up for it. LINDA: What do you think are the most important attributes to taking care of children? FRANCES: I think loving them and making them feel secure is so important, because you are really taking the place of parents. And they feel very left out, that initial shock. Even when they are starting elementary school, we have a lot of problems with the first time they go to kindergarten or the first time they go to first grade, whatever it might be. That separation is very difficult for children. It's very difficult for parents. And so I think if you 10 have a warm, loving person that gives them the security that they're not going to be invasive and not take mommy and daddy's place, but be there for them, is very important. LINDA: What did you do to make sure that your children still felt important in your life? FRANCES: Oh, I would say, when I came home -- first of all, I always told them if there was anything majorly wrong and they felt they needed me, that they could call dad's office, and either Dad or I would pick them up at school so they would not be left thinking that no one would take care of them if they had something really seriously bothering them or if they were seriously hurt, you know, physical harm. And then when I came home, it was always a special treat. And that treat was to get together, and snack time was talking time. But even though I was talked out teaching, I made sure that I spent at least a half hour talking about the different things that may have happened. Some of them were very talkative and outgoing, and the others were very withdrawn. And so I had to reach them by just questioning very gently and not pushing the issue. And eventually, they started to tell me. If there was something on their mind, it would come out. But it was just during snack time before we started homework. And I would do that. And it worked out. I don't know, I think our parents that had to work in my generation had it easier because we all had the same rules and regulations in every household. So when they were playing with their friends, they heard the same rules. And they didn't feel that they were being slaughtered and overruled by very strict parents that had to work. They didn't feel that it was a difficulty. They just took it upon themselves, "Well, mom has to work because dad is starting a business." And then, of course, I could have left teaching. And 11 they were in the middle grades at that time. And I said, "If you don't mind, mommy would like to --" I'm always with Nana because I'm with the grandchildren now. I said, "Mommy would like to stay on stay on teaching. But if it becomes a problem," and I said, "we'll talk about it." And I stayed on because I wanted them all to get a good education, and I had them very close in years. They were 20 months apart, and the last two were 16 months apart. And so I knew that when the education started and paying the college bills, it was going to be very difficult. And our parents were good-hearted people, but they didn't have any kind of money to help us out. It was going to be our problem. LINDA: How did your mother feel about you working? FRANCES: She didn't mind it at all. Of course, she was an organist for so many years. But of course, that was part of her life because she started playing the organ when she was in her teens for the church. And she did it free of charge. And then I think probably when she was 30 or 40, they started to give her a dollar for playing the mass. And she had to take a cab down to the church there with the dollar. LINDA: So in a way, she was out of the house anyway. FRANCES: She was out early in the morning and then back at home all day. So if we got sick, Mother was there at the house. And the only time she was out of the house was Saturday mornings, and Dad was usually there or she would have a babysitter, or my grandparents were there. So there was always somebody reliable there. And then Sunday masses, she would play one or two. And we would be at one. And then Dad probably took us home. And it was never a problem. LINDA: Now, can you speak a little bit about the different generations? For example, what your parents expected and then what you expect and what your children expect. FRANCES: Well, I think that they wanted us to be kind to one another. Family was very important to them. And they enjoyed having the relatives come to 12 visit and putting a huge spread on at different times. We had my grandmother's people from Roxbury that would come up. And oh, they were such fun times. I remember my grandmother's brother, Uncle Rocco, and -- oh, maybe Great Uncle Rocco. And he was full of fun and had a beautiful singing voice, and they would get at the piano and my mother would play the Italian tunes. And then, of course, there'd be always a delicious meal to eat, and dessert. And then they would head back to Boston to Roxbury. And with my mother's sisters, I think we were the only ones that had a car. And then, we would take turns taking one family to the beach with us. And sometimes, my mom would leave us at the convent with the sisters if we couldn't fit everyone, and we would spend the afternoon with the nuns. And we enjoyed that. Now, in this day and age, they would think that was horrible. But they played games with us. Oh, we had a wonderful time. And there was goodies there. And then, Mom would pick us up probably six or seven o'clock. But it took much longer to get to Boston or to the beach because we had the old Route 2, and you had only two lanes. And it was a two-hour, almost, I think, trek to get to Boston. And so, family get-togethers were very, very important. And I think we all remember them as happy times. In our own individual families, we always had birthday parties. We did not get 10 or 15 presents. We got one present. And so the material things were a minimum. We got school clothes when we started school. And then when the change of the season came, we got warmer school clothes. And Mom and Dad very rarely bought new things for themselves. 13 We all dressed on Sundays. They were Sunday outfits. I remember that clearly. You would never wear dungarees to church. When my youngest sister was 10, and -- I was 10, and she was maybe just starting out, when she get to be 10 years old, that's when the dungarees started. But girls usually wore shorts in the summer with the skirt over. And it was a different era completely. And we didn't mind it. I don't remember anyone complaining. LINDA: So do you remember rejecting any of your parents' values? FRANCES: No. We went along with it. And sometimes, we'd be stubborn and bark at something, "Well, why can't I have a little more time doing such and such?" whether it be a game or whatever. And she'd say, "Well, it's time to hit our homework," or get busy for the things at hand, whatever it might be. And I think that's about the only thing I remember. And if we were arguing with our sister over some stupid thing, it might be, "Well, did you take my sweater out of my drawer? I didn't find it in my drawer, and you must have worn it. And now, it's in the wash. And you didn't ask my permission to do it." And I had my grandchildren two weeks ago, and the same thing happened. Olivia came in and she had on a sport shirt that belonged to her sister, Tanya. And I said, "What are you doing?" And she said, "Well, Tanya was ready to start an argument." And I said, "You know," I said, "when Aunt Theresa and I were growing up," I said, "she used to take something she loved to wear and wouldn't even ask me. And then, she'd put her jacket on and start walking down the street. And she'd say, 'Well, I'll wait for you at the corner.'" 14 And I said, "I never thought to look inside the jacket. But when she came home…" And so the two girls started to laugh. And I said, "You see, that doesn't change in families." Then I said, "It would be nicer if you asked permission, because there are some things that should be favorites and that should be left alone and then other things that you could share." And so that's the way my mother brought us up. In the very same way, she talked to us about that and she said, "Sharing is wonderful, and we should learn to do that. But there are some special things that you want to be yours, and that's okay." So I thought that was a good way of teaching my grandchildren, remembering their mother's words. LINDA: Now, your children have they taken many of your values and the way that you brought up your children? FRANCES: Yes, I would say so. Now, they have, of course, in-laws that are not of our same background. But still, in all, they have been following the same ideas. They're very loving girls. I have two daughter-in-laws, and so that makes a big difference. And then, we've had a lot of family get-togethers where they take turns. And I feel really wanted and so does the rest of the family. And I think that's half the battle, really. LINDA: Now, do you have two daughters and two sons? FRANCES: I have one daughter and three sons. Now, my oldest son has since been divorced. Now, I don't know how many years it is now. But they have joint custody, and I am very friendly with my ex-daughter-in-law to this day. And so when Christmas comes, I always remember her. And when I had my special affair, Italian Woman of the Year, she sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a beautiful card with lovely notes from herself and the three girls. LINDA: Now, what is the son's name? FRANCES: Nicholas, Dr. Nick, yeah. LINDA: And what is her name? 15 FRANCES: Her name is Jayne. And she still goes by Mercadante. J-A-Y-N-E, she spells her name. LINDA: Now, is he remarried? FRANCES: He has not remarried. No, he's dating someone spasmodically. And he feels that his responsibility right now is his three girls. LINDA: And what about your other sons? FRANCES: And my youngest son is married to Deborah. And she… LINDA: And what is his name? FRANCES: Anthony. LINDA: Oh, okay, this is your youngest. FRANCES: Yes. And sometimes we call him Tony. And Dominic is unmarried, and he's up in Belfast, Maine, and he's certified architect. LINDA: And he's unmarried. FRANCES: Mm-hmm. Then I have my daughter in Harvard, and she's married to Roy Castor, and they have two beautiful daughters. I have all their pictures on the piano so I could look at them. LINDA: And what's her name? FRANCES: Ann Marie. And it's A-N-N and then M-A-R-I-E. LINDA: Ann, okay. Thank you. FRANCES: And she's a nurse midwife. She became a nurse midwife. And he is a small-town lawyer. LINDA: Interesting. Now, you talked about your mother playing the organ. FRANCES: Yes. LINDA: And I know that you're an organist, also. FRANCES: When she became elderly, she wanted me to continue, so I worked with her at the organ and played some of the masses when she was unable to. And then she finally retired, I think after 60 years of playing. But she started at, I think, age 12. So did I, just playing benedictions. So when people read my write-up for Italian Woman of the Year, 55 years of playing, or 50 years, it was really taking those years that I had played 16 occasionally, just benedictions. But I really played maybe 30 years, 40 years. LINDA: Now, did your mother play… FRANCES: She played funerals, weddings, yeah. LINDA: How did she learn? FRANCES: She learned from the sisters. I think it was the sisters that were at Saint Joseph's Church in Fitchburg. And I think they were the Sisters of Notre Dame. But they were a French order of nuns, and she learned from one of the sisters that taught piano and then taught organ. LINDA: And how did you learn? FRANCES: I took from the Mr. Williams here in Fitchburg. And then when I went to college, I took from Sister Lawrence Newey. So I had some training from two professional people. And so did she. LINDA: Does the tradition continue with your children? FRANCES: No. Well, Tanya is a very good player, piano player, and doing well with it. And then, Sophia, my 10-year-old, is playing. And my 9-year-old is playing the piano. She's starting with the Suzuki, Allesandra, my daughter Ann Marie's youngest daughter. And then, Antonia, her oldest daughter, is learning the flute, and has played the flute. And Olivia, who is the second one in my son's house, is learning the clarinet. And she's now starting with the saxophone. And I think we're going to start Nicholas—he's going to be 7 this month—probably with the piano because he seems to like it. He goes there and he doesn't pound on it like most children do. So we think that there's an interest there. LINDA: But your children don't play? FRANCES: No. Tony had lessons and Ann Marie did. And they gave it up in, I'd say, the upper grade school years. No interest. LINDA: So now tell me -- I guess we should get -- first of all, I feel like we're really rushing and we are because we only have about an hour and there's 17 a lot to cover, but I know that you have a very strong connection with Saint Anthony's. FRANCES: Yes, I do. LINDA: And there's a reason for that, and I'd like you to explain that. FRANCES: Well, first of all, my mother was born in the North End in Boston, and she came from a mother and father that came directly from Italy to the North End in Boston. Her mother came at age 15 to live with Aunt and start her life there. My grandfather was already there, and he was 10 years older than my grandmother. And they lived in the same apartment dwelling, many floors. I think probably there's six to eight floors in those apartment buildings. And he got to know her by seeing her scrubbing the floors, that they were very immaculate. And they get to talking. And he married her. And she was just, I would say, 16 when she got married. And she had my mother at age 17. And my mother was so small that she was three pounds. In those days, they did not have the hospital care that we have. And they used to open up the oven door and have it on a very low heat, and they would put the bassinet close to the oven door to make sure that the baby stayed warm enough, plus the blankets and whatnot. But they really worried about a three-pounder. And today, of course, there would be a facility for that. And my mother grew up very healthy and always had a weight problem, which is unusual for being so tiny as a baby. But she had a very healthy life. Now, when my grandfather had spent maybe several years or more in Boston, he became very unhappy and missed Italy tremendously. So one summer, he said he wanted my grandmother to take a trip back with the 18 three older children and see whether or not she would like to go there to live, because he was not too happy with… LINDA: Now, this is your mother's parent? FRANCES: My mother's parent. This is her father. So they decided to go back, and they did take the boat from Boston, and they went to Italy. And, of course, I think in those days, it must have taken almost three months to get there, or two months anyway. And when they arrived, it was summertime there, and for some unknown reason, my grandmother became ill there. We don't know if it was a change in the water, the kind of food, but they ate the same more or less diet. So we just don't know, but she became quite ill, and they had to come back by boat. And because she was so ill, my uncle was -- my great uncle, Father Angelo Cappenella, was a seminarian professor in Naples. And so he asked the bishop for permission to escort them back to the United States, and the bishop gave him permission. And so he came with the three children and his sister-in-law back to the states, and my grandfather just acquiesced and decided he had to learn to love this country as his own. But I'm sure it was just leaving his family. I think he was a very, very quiet man and very bonded to family. And you had people in the North End, but they weren't your family. They were acquaintances. And then after a while, he was comfortable. So then what happened is my uncle was situated in [Hayville] in the Boston Diocese. And Father Maseo, who grew up with him in the same town in Italy, told him that he had to go to the Springfield Diocese, and they wanted him to work in his diocese. And so eventually he was given the Fitchburg place where Father [Rossomano] -- and going to look here and see. This was in 1907. Our father, Reverend Pasquale Russuomo, an Italian missionary began founding the Saint Anthony Parish with 200 determined Italian 19 Americans. The springtime of 1908, April 26 brought the dedication and consecration of the new church building. And under Father Rossomano, returned to Italy in the fall of that year. Monsignor Angelo Cappenella assumed the pastorate duties for the young parish. He was only Father Cappenella at that time. And so that's where he was assigned. And then going on from there, do you want me to tell the history of the church? LINDA: No. FRANCES: All right. We'll stop there. LINDA: What I'd really like you to do is -- we may have time for that, but really tell me how your mother then got involved with Saint Anthony's Parish. FRANCES: Okay. My grandfather, knowing the custom in Italy, which was if you had a parish priest in the family, the family members would take care of the rectory in his name, help with the altar, and serving in every capacity until they had sisters to help out or nuns to help out. So he talked to his wife, and he said, "We're going to have to send at least two children there. I don't want him to be alone." And so my grandmother went right along with it. And she said, "What I'll do is take the train back and forth. I'll stay two days with them, make the food ahead of time, teach them how to do certain things, and then I'll come back and spend four days here." And so Aunt Anna became the second mother in command in the North End. And that was my mother's second oldest sister, and she helped my grandfather. And so they came to Fitchburg, and… LINDA: Tell me what their names were. FRANCES: Mary and Michael. And they were both Cappenella. Now when he came, he realized that to have these children have a normal life, they really should get back to their families. But the only one who eventually did go back to his family was my Uncle Mike. My mother, staying here as long as she did, had a niche here, and she made friends, and she didn't want to 20 leave my uncle. And my grandmother used to come often enough. And then the grandparents, and my grandfather and the family, would come on Sundays every once in a while. And they would have family dinners together. So she, more or less, I think accepted being here in Fitchburg with her grand uncle, her uncle, my grand uncle. LINDA: When did she start? FRANCES: She was 12 years old, which is a very young age. But when you look at age in those days, my grandmother was 16 when she was married. They had a maturity that we don't have in our own generation, let alone our children. They are really children at that age. They can't make serious decisions, yet these children seemed to be able to. They had a maturity about them that was inhuman. LINDA: Now, where did she go to school? FRANCES: She went to St. Bernard's Elementary. And I think she only went up to the sixth grade. LINDA: And tell me what she did at the rectory. FRANCES: At the rectory, she worked at the church washing linens, setting up the altar, doing all the things that the sisters did in later years, getting the music ready for the different functions and the masses. And then in the rectory, she had to clean it as a house, all the chores you have in a regular home: cooking, cleaning. She did some sewing, ironing, all of that. And then, of course, he was very helpful. He was an uncle who did not just sit. He would help her with the dishes and help her with the cleaning and whatnot because he felt it was a sacrifice for those two children to be away from their parents. And he appreciated the fact that they were there. LINDA: So this is about the time she must have learned how to play the organ? FRANCES: Yes. She started taking lessons, I would say, early on, maybe 14. I would say about that age, probably. 21 LINDA: And did she look to the nuns as mother figures, do you think? FRANCES: I think that she just relied on her own mother when she came here. She was very, very secure. I think my uncle priest had a kind way about him. So he was sort of second father in command, and they related to him very well. He was not an abusive person. He held his temper. I think later on in the parish, we heard that he would lose his temper at times because that parish was built up on pennies. People did not have a lot of money, and it was very difficult for them to get into the habit of giving to the church, because in Italy the churches were paid by the government, a very different thing. And so when they came here, they couldn't understand why they had to support parish. That was a very difficult thing. LINDA: Did parishioners have to purchase a pew, let's say? FRANCES: I don't remember that much. But if the church was being redone, they would want a family name. So I know the windows would have a family name on them. I think some of the pews did have years back, but I don't know because they've been changed several times. And different statues were given in honor of a beloved person that died in their family. And so that was done. LINDA: So tell me a little bit about Father Cappenella, well, uncle to you. FRANCES: When I was growing up and my mom and dad were married, we lived three houses away from the rectory. The parish owned a three-tenement house that gave them money from the rent they collected to support the things they needed to have in that parish. At first, he had no nuns, and so the Irish teachers were wonderful to him. He had four or five of them. Alice Lyon was one. Mary Courtney and her sister were two more. Alice Keeney was another. And I don't know what he would have done without those Irish teachers volunteering to teach Christian doctrine and helping out with the linens, too, and helping my 22 mother out. So they were just wonderful to my uncle priest, and he always appreciated it. And eventually… LINDA: So were they just volunteering their time? FRANCES: Volunteering. Absolutely, after teaching, volunteering. LINDA: And now, where were they from? FRANCES: They were from St. Bernard's Church. Our mother church was St. Bernard's on Water Street. LINDA: Now, they must have needed the permission from [unintelligible 00:52:37]. FRANCES: Yes. And I'm sure that he gave them permission. And so that was a wonderful tribute to that pastor in caring for a mission church that was just starting out for those people who came from Italy and did not know the English language quite yet. And so he would start his mass in Italian at first. And then as time went on, it was just one mass in Italian and all the other masses were in English, because most of the Italians had that feeling of wanting to be accepted in this country, and they wanted this adopted country to love them the way they loved their natural home in Italy. And so they thought learning the language was an asset to them. And so a lot of us who had mothers and fathers who could speak fluent Italian did not have that training of hearing the language because they would just talk to the children in English, whether it was broken English or not. And they would speak only to the grandparent in Italian. Now, very many of the families did that, but there were still some families that talked Italian only at home. But that's the way we were brought up. And there were many families like ourselves where they just spoke English all the time. LINDA: Looking back on that, do you think it was important for assimilation reasons? FRANCES: When I think of the problem we're having with the Spanish people, I think that maybe it did help. And I taught in a school where the people came 23 from Finland and brought their children to school. And they spoke fluent Finnish at home. But when those children came to school, they learned the English language. And they did not put up any hesitation about the fact. They felt that this was their adopted country, and that when they got home, they would speak the fluent Finnish with them. But they were also going to learn the English from their children. And the attitude is very different. Now, I don't know about the Canadian French, because, of course, they can come from the country of France, they came from Canada. And I think it was very similar because they kept their language, but they also learned English. LINDA: But on the other hand, the Italians really didn't keep their language, did they? FRANCES: No, we didn't. I would say there are very few families who did. That's my own personal opinion. But I know Doris's family spoke fluent Italian. And there's still some that were doing it, but it wasn't the majority. I think it was difficult for them to go into the workplace not knowing more English. And I think that's where the change occurred. They wanted to do well in where they worked to be able to support their families. So that was a definite must. We have to be accepted. We have to do our part. And secondly, the Italian language, even though they loved it, had to take a backseat. That's my personal opinion. LINDA: Did you ever feel it important to teach your children Italian? FRANCES: I was hoping that they would pick it up in school because I sent them to a parochial school, but none of them did, because it was just in class. And then they never attempted to try to talk except in class. LINDA: And you don't speak Italian? FRANCES: No, I never do, no. And that's why I'm taking beginning Italian right now. 24 LINDA: Did you speak Italian when you entered school? FRANCES: No. No. English. LINDA: So your parents spoke to you in English? FRANCES: Always in English. LINDA: Well, that's because it was really their parents who came over. FRANCES: Yes. LINDA: We're going out of time. FRANCES: All right. Well, do you want to continue, and I'll just skip that meeting? LINDA: Oh, I don't want you to do that. I can always come back. FRANCES: Oh, sure. LINDA: I can come back at a later date. FRANCES: But if this is a convenient day for you, why don't we just try to get quite a bit of it done? LINDA: Okay. FRANCES: I think we should do that. LINDA: Okay. So again, I'd like to go back to Father Cappenella to get some maybe personal stories, anything that you can share that probably the average person may not know. FRANCES: Well, he was a very giving person, and he felt even though he had the help of those Irish teachers, he needed to get sisters here to bond the parish together more so. And he felt that with the nuns, they could teach Italian. They could teach embroidery, have a pre-school. And all of these things would help the new families coming directly from Italy. And it would nurture his parish, too. So he moved out of the rectory—that was part of the church in those days. There was sort of like a little L, and there was about three floors. And when I first went to the convent, that's where we would stay, so I got to know it very well. And he decided to move to Salem Street and then to the house, the [Ritchie] house. And he stayed there until a new rectory could be built. And so he did that. 25 And when he had those sisters, then they took over the pre-school and started [Sagalopi's]. LINDA: Now, who were the sisters? FRANCES: These were the [Venereen] Sisters. And, let's see, I think that is mentioned here. They came in 1919. Four sisters of a congregation of [unintelligible - 00:59:29] Venereen Sisters arrived from Italy to teach in the day nursery, to conduct classes in religious education, and to assist the pastor in caring for the needs of our expanding community. And it says, at that time the sisters lived in the -- well, was really part of the church. It was really the rectory, the initial rectory on the church. LINDA: So Father Cappenella was really instrumental in bringing [unintelligible - 01:00:03] here? FRANCES: Yes, he was. Absolutely. Yes. And that was a very close time, especially the first nuns that came. Oh, he was very fond of them and couldn't do enough. In hot weather, I can remember the years when he was able to afford a car and he would take us to Quentin when he had to confess the sisters and the presentation at their convent. They always sent a different priest so the nuns would feel comfortable confessing their sins. And he would take us for a ride and buy ice cream for us. And then when we got back to Fitchburg, he would say, "Now, I'm thinking all our nuns with all those robes on," and he said, "this hot weather," he said, "we have to stop at a store and I have to buy them a box of ice cream." In those days when you went to an ice cream place on the road, they just had the cones. They didn't sell it by the bulk as they do today, so we had to stop elsewhere and get them their ice cream. And I always remember that. And there were things that -- he always wanted to make sure they had enough heat in the wintertime, and then if he got too much from someone's garden -- but most of the time, people would take some, I 26 should say, to the convent. But if they forgot and he had over an abundance, he would always bring extra food down there or give them special treats that they couldn't afford. And he just felt that they were really the heart and soul of our parish. And I feel that that's why we grew so well through the years from one generation after another. It was those initial Venereen Sisters who really, not only gave us stronger faith, but the family life being so important, they instilled it in us in the way they treated us and the way they talk to us. And I think that helped all those good families, and it helped my mother's generation, the first families, and then my generation. And when I get together with people that are in their 60s and 70s, they still remember, and someone their age still remember those first nuns with joy and with special feeling. We just can't help it. They're part of our life, our parish life. And we have such a warm feeling about them. LINDA: So tell me more of what they did for the community. I know that they preached a stronger faith and a strong family. FRANCES: Yes. LINDA: But how did they lead by example? FRANCES: Well, they were very instructive with the children. So they had classes in Christian doctrine. And through their example, of course, they taught us plenty. But they were actually teaching us Christian doctrine, and not only that, the classes in pre-school, bonding with us in things of everyday life, not just faith, just not religion, but games, playing games with them. I can remember one little Italian game that I'm teaching my grandchildren. We had to, in pre-school, make believe we were butterflies. And we would flip our hands and walk and just hop around in a circle. And then she would teach us—and this was Sister Michaelena—and she would teach us sofaleena bella bianca vola bola nuncy stunka, which means 27 butterfly, butterfly beautiful and white, always flapping their wings and flying and never getting tired. And fly here vola coo a volala, fly there never, never getting tired. And so that little nursery rhyme was the little game of running around in a circle with our hands flapping up and down. Those brought a lot of happy memories back. As a child, a very young child, I can remember that. And a lot of my fellow friends my age remember those things. Now, we also remember that when we were at mass, we had to tow them up. There was no talking, and we had to pay attention. And in those days, it was difficult because it was in Latin. And you know how bored our children are with just going to church, let alone sitting there for an hour listening to Latin. And there wasn't the -- well, people participation the way we have it today. And so, it's a big difference in the worship of the mass today in this generation and when we were little. And I think it's much for the better. But we still honored our parents and our grandparents and our sisters with good behavior. If we were an itchy type child, we just wiggled in our seats, but we stayed where we were supposed to. I think it was definitely a deep respect and care and love for the teacher as well as our parents that made us do that. That's the only thing I can think of because I brought up four children, and my oldest one was a very big itch and is very active compared to the other three. And I would have to tell him several times whereas the others I never had to tell them. But we have all different personalities. And I'm sure there were some of us in that generation that were very antsy and wanted to move about. But because of the respect we had and the love for our parents and our priest and our nuns, we held back. We held back enough [gap and go]. I don't 28 know what you would say, but tolerance. Yet it was more than tolerance, was caring. LINDA: I get the impression that maybe you don't think there is enough caring and respect today. FRANCES: I think that the parents are too involved with making too much money and huge houses, and the sense of giving has gone to extremes. And I think the nurturing and the loving, we're so tired because I think in this day and age to do the shopping and take care of a family, have a part-time job, if not a full-time job for both mother and dad, is overwhelming. And the children are in so many organizations today. You're in the band, as I am, picking them up from soccer, field hockey, then it's instruments that they're taking up, dance. And we're spreading ourselves too thin in the meat and potatoes. The most important thing is family life and spending some time with our families. And there are some families today that don't even have one meal together. Now, that was something I insisted on when my boys were in high school and they were into different sports. I didn't care if the last one came in at 7:00 p.m. at night. We ate at 7:00 p.m. But I wanted us to eat as a family. So they could have snacks to hold them over, but I wanted us as a family to have a meal together. And very rarely, we had a conflict where we just couldn't do it. I tried to make that a rule, not just Sundays. And Saturdays were fun days for us. We had really leisurely breakfast in the morning, and we took turns making it, and we invite my milkman in. And I can remember how amused he was when Tony was making breakfast and he was in the third or fourth grade doing it. 29 But I think we have to go back to doing that. We've got to cut back on some of the stuff that's not needed. And too much material things, we don't need, too. LINDA: So whereas you worked really to support your family it was important. FRANCES: That's right, we did. LINDA: Your feeling is perhaps some of these people don't need to work as hard or even work at all if they're only buying more. FRANCES: Yeah. LINDA: Is that it? FRANCES: That's it. But, of course, today the thing has changed. Education is far more expensive than it was when we were bringing our children up. And so now, if you wanted them to go to a school—and even your state schools have gone up in the price of education—you're going to, if you have your children close in age, go out and have an extra pay coming in just for the education. It's that difficult today to educate your children. LINDA: Getting back to sharing a meal, do you feel that was part of your Italian heritage? FRANCES: Yes, I think that my mother made that very distinct because my grandmother did, too, before her. It was always -- she wanted us at least once a month to go to Boston and be with the rest of the family. And if she couldn't have everybody at the meal, we had to come for cake and coffee, those who lived in that grid, to join us so that we were all together. She wanted everyone there. And my mother was the same way. And when my mother was unable to do it physically, we would take turns and do it for her and take turns at our homes so that she would have that feeling at least once a month of all the children. LINDA: Do you continue that tradition? FRANCES: I certainly do. What we do is birthdays are very prominent. And we try to limit the number of birthday get-togethers. So we take the month of October and group them together. Now, Poppa G has a birthday in October, October 4th. And CeeCee, our youngest granddaughter, is 30 October 17. So when the family gets together, we try and get a Sunday where everyone can be together, or Saturday, and we have a cake for each one, a little cake for each one. We have plenty of ice cream. And we make the meal together. And they really enjoy it. And the cousins get to know one another more. And they learn to adjust to the temperaments, too, because sometimes one of them is off kilter on that day and wanting their own way, and they have to learn to bend like they do with their own siblings in their own home. And so I think it's a good lesson for them, and it sort of bonds the family. LINDA: Just talking to you for this short while, I feel that you don't mind bending. FRANCES: No, not at all. No. That's so important. And I try to adjust because I know I'm dealing with daughter-in-laws that come from a different background, who probably never had this. And it's too much togetherness in my family. And so I try to take the median of let's join the birthdays together. And then now with the family getting too big, at Christmastime we've started picking names because they were opening up too many presents. And I didn't like it, and neither did some of the parents. And so we started the limitation. Now the children know they're only going to get two names, two presents, one from their family and one -- I'm trying to think how they do it. It's just been recent that we've been doing that, those past two years. I know we do it at Thanksgiving time. We put names in a hat or a bowl, and usually it's a bowl. Oh, I know what it is. I'm thinking of every parent picks one for their child and so that everybody has one name. And so everybody gets at least one present. Now, we were doing the godchildren, but then we decided no, we're going to do it at birthday time. And so it has cut down the pressure of Christmas tremendously. And now 31 we can really enjoy Christmas and work on food and what we make, the specialties of food. And it's just the one gift. And I think it ends up with two gifts that they get. And I've forgotten how we do it. I have to ask my daughter again. LINDA: Is that the same for you and your husband? You just have it for one? FRANCES: Oh, yes, yes. And for their birthdays, the grandparents always remember every child, because that's the way we want it. LINDA: Now, again, you sound very patient. Has your patience ever been tried? FRANCES: Oh, yes, many times, because sometimes they don't want to have it on a certain day. And I will wait, and sometimes the month goes by. And I will say, "Well, I'm missing having our get-together." And I just wait it out, and it comes to fruition. LINDA: So not just about the birthdates, but just life decisions. FRANCES: Oh, yes, definitely. We have to bend. I have to realize if they're coming from a different culture, a different mom and dad than I had, and if I can't be bending how can my children be bending with their wives or husbands? And that isn't a good example. And then it's not definitely a good example to the grandchildren. And so there are going to be changes and difference of opinion because we're all different. We all don't vote Democratic or Republican. And so we've made a rule, but we're not supposed to talk politics. And things are going to irritate for no reason. They have nothing to do with our family life, and they're not going to infringe on our family feelings by any means. It's not going to change it. And so we drop those things. LINDA: And how is a woman like yourself, who is so strong with her faith and Italian, accept your son getting a divorce? FRANCES: It was very difficult for me. But he didn't want the divorce. She wanted the divorce. And irregardless of it, you have to go along with -- if their marriage -- I definitely talked to them about going to counseling, and they did. And after that, I said, "You have to really think about the children 32 and what's going to happen and make your decisions caring about the children because," I said, "they are going to be hurt the most." And they have done that. At first, there was bickering going on, and so they separated. He went to the condo so that there wouldn't be that going on. Until they calmed down. Now the relationship is fairly good. And they're able to talk about the problems at school, the problems at home with each other and be very, very understanding of each other and caring. And that's very important to me. Another problem I have with this marriage and divorce is that we were family friends of her mother and father for five years. And so her mother died 10 years ago, and I was very close to her. And so I, of course, saw her very close to her dying days, and I told her that I would always be there for Jayne, no matter what. And I don't find it difficult to be there. She hurt my son, but he hurt her, too. And the angels are in Heaven, as my mother said. So I have to look at both their personalities and both their qualities. She wants to go on. She does not want him anymore. I cannot make her love my son if she doesn't love him. And so I have to think about my three grandchildren and the fact that she's a very loving mother. And I have to go from there. And that's where I'm at in this stage in my life. And he's doing much better than he was. And she was his first love and his only love, and it was a very big adjustment for him. But he's over the worst of it now, I would say. But he still worries tremendously about his children. And sometimes, they have a different philosophy about education, or it might be jobs in the summer, simple things. But there 33 could be problems, and they have to learn to talk it out and… /AT/pa/pdj/es