YALE ALUMNI WHEHEKLY fe i ose
THAT FORTY-FOUR LETTER,
Class Secretary Tells the True Story
of its Origin and Travels.
To the Editor of YALE ALUMNI WEEKLY:
Sir:—A story which has been going
the rounds of the daily press recently
purporting to give the history of the
letter of the Class of Forty-Four
begins with the following statement:
“Probably no letter in the whole
world, in all time, has been traveling
so long as that of the Class of Forty-
Four, Yale College”. "Tis letter,”
continues the article, “the postmaster
calls the Flying Dutchman of the
Mails; it knows no rest, it is always
on the rounds. For fifty-three years it
has traveled and never been lost,
although in this time it has traveled a
half million of miles. It has crossed
the continent 150 times and paid 1,500
dollars in postage; and if the sta-
tionery on which it was written be
added, fully 2,000 dollars has been
expended on it. This letter, like
the Flying Dutchman, never grows
old, indeed it renews its youth each
year. Like the Flying Dutchman too,
it will finally find rest. Every year its
stopping places are fewer and fewer,
and the tithe will soon come when
there will be no one to send it on its
further journeyings.”’
This is a beautiful fiction, as fresh
and newsy to the Class of Forty-Four >
as to anybody. About a score of years
after graduation a few of the boys of
Forty-four from Connecticut were lo-
cated in Illinois in the practice of their
professions. They met in Chicago to
renew their acquaintance, and just a
little weary. of the broad Western
world and hungry for intelligence from
their classmates, they resolved to open
a correspondence with them and learn
what their fellows would say about
themselves and of the world outside of
Iinois. They named the men in the
different states who, they thought,
would take interest in the matter and
began the correspondence.
The next day A wrote as agreed to
B and told him all he knew about him-
self, whom he married, how many chil-
dren he had, what he knew of other
classmates, and in short, anything one
classmate would like to hear from an-
other from graduation up to the date
of writing. He gave B a list of the
men named and told him after he had
read the letter just received to write
one himself and inclose the two in the
same envelope and forward to C. C
received the two letters, read them,
wrote one himself and forwarded the
three letters in an envelope to D, and
so on.
When the package reached the last
man selected, he, after reading the
letters in the package, inclosed his own
and sent the entire lot back to A, and
the circuit was complete. Thus the
package brought in a letter from every
man in the coterie. A then opened the
package and after reading the letters
took out his own, wrote another letter,
inclosed it and sent the package around
the circuit again. Each man now
when he receives the package takes out
his own letter, writes a new one, in-
HOME
Life Insurance Co.
OF NEW YORK.
GEORGE E., IDE, President.
Wm. M. ST. JOHN, Vice President.
ELLIS W. GLADWIN, Secretary.
WM. A. MARSHALL, Actuary.
F. W. CHAPIN, Med. Director.
EUGENE A. CALLAHAN,
General Agent
STATE OF CONNECTICUT.
23 Church Street, - - New Haven.
closes it and sends the package on its
way.
The coterie of the Class of Forty-
Four consists of twelve men. We
have recently added to our number our
former Tutor in Yale—the Rev. Dr.
Strong, of Pittsfield, Mass., the only
survivor of all the professors and
tutors who were our instructors at
Yale.
We have two rules to be observed by
every man of the circle: Our first for-
bids political discussion in our class
letters. Our second allows twenty-
four hours to each man to read the
letters, write a new one and post the
package to the next fellow on the list.
If the man ‘is sick or absent from
home his wife is expected to write
for him. The best letters are often
written when the head of the house is
sick or absent.
Our letters have made the circuit
monthly until recently; one of our
number has removed to California and
now the time is about forty days. Only
two of the original members are now
living: Savage, of Chicago, and Camp,
of Sierra Madre, California.
The addresses of the members of the
coterie at the present time are as fol-
lows:
Isaac Atwater, Minneapolis, Minn.;
Rev. Charles W. Camp, Sierra Madre,
Cal.; A. A. Coleman, Birmingham,
Ala.; J. W..Dana, Worcester, Mass.;
W. FewSmith, Merchantville, N. J.;
Professor Marshall, Tufts College,
Mass.; Virgil M. D. Marcy, M.D., Cape
May, N. J:; Abner Rice, Lee, Mass.;
Rev. G. S. F. Savage, D.D., 628 Wash-
ington Boulevard, Chicago, Ill.; E. D.
Selden, Saratoga Springs, N. Y.; Rev.
Edward Strong, D.D., Pittsfield, Mass.
' Yours very truly,
H. D. Smita,
Class Secretary.
DEGREES AT MID-YEAR.
[Continued from rst page.]
it has been admirably supported by the
best organized and most ambitious
secondary schools in the country, and
it confidently expects this support in
the future.”
EXCESSIVE ATHLETIC TRAINING.
Touching on the athletic side of col-
lege life, the President says:
“The number of students who were
engaged during the year in the various
sports for which a physical examina-
tion is required was approximately four
hundred and seventy-nine, excluding the
sport of lawn tennis. It is very un-
likely that a student who takes.an active
part in athletic sports can win good
standing as a scholar; but on the other
hand a smaller proportion of athletes
get put on probation in Harvard Col-
lege than of other students. This re-
mark is not true of scientific students.
“The evil of excessive training has
not been cured. The baseball team of
last Spring was distinctly overworked,
and half the crew gave out in the four-
mile race. In all probability the nerv-
ous strain resulting from prolonged
training, many exciting contests and an
anxious sense of responsibility has not
been sufficiently considered.”
Dean L. B. R. Briggs of the College
discusses in his report the need of some
plan to prevent the loafing which com-
pels the dropping a large number of
men in each Freshman year class at the
end of the year. Thirty-seven members
of. the Class of 1900 were thus
dropped. The Dean proposes a pro-
visional membership in the College
until the student has demonstrated his
ability to do respectable college work.
HARVARD FINANCES.
The Treasurer’s report, which is ap-
pended to that of the President, shows
the receipts of the University during the
year 1896-7 to have been $1,327,360,57,
and the payments $1,228,941.50, leaving
a balance of $08,419.07, which is the
net increase of the funds and balances,
excluding gifts for capital account.
The Library, the Observatory and the
Veterinary School are the only depart-—
ments where expenditures have ex-
ceeded receipts. The rate of income,
compared with that of 1895-6, shows a
loss of three-hundredths of one per cent.
The amount of gifts and bequests to the
University was $337,820,56 as com-
pared with $243,791.05 in 1895-6.
| J. Weston ALLEN.
than one the time to insure was spent in that
Cuas. ApAMs. ALEX.MONEILL. Ww.S. BRIGHAM,
Yale ’87. Yale ’87.
ADAMS, MCNEILL & BRIGHAM,
BANKERS AND BROKERS,
44 Broad Street, - New York.
Members New York Stock Exchange. Stocks
and Bonds Bought and Sold. Investment Securi-
ties a Specialty.
** Long Distance Telephone, 947 Broad.”
An Unwise Conservatism.
The familiar saying that “ The conservative
man is the safe man,” is not always true.
Taken in the broad sense in which Meredith
wrote the words, it may be granted: but
considering the statement solely as it stands,
one is not so ready to agree. It is a good
enough thing to “go slow,”’ but don’t go too
slowly. Conservatism may prevent mistakes,
but there is an irrational conservatism that
cheats one of many benefits. There are nota
few people who, when they are approached on
the subject of life insurance, announce that
they will “think it over.” This is a clear.
case of going too slowly, of irrational con-
servatism. Life insurance needs no thinking
over now. All that has been done by those
who have lived before you, and the decision
they made in their time, you may wisely
make your own to-day. In The Mutual Life
of New York there are over.a quarter of a
million policyholders who fully considered
the matter in every possible relation, and
concluded there was but one thing to do
about it—and they insured. You can think
of nothing that this army of insured have
not already thought over,—to ally yourself
LEOPOLD H. FRANCKE. ALBERT FRANCKE,
*¥ale’89; 18.
Yale ’9
ok. tt, Oe. TRANCKE,
BANKERS AND BROKERS.
50 Exchange Place, + 2 New York.
Members New York Stock Exchange.
Buy and Sell on Commission Stocks and
Bonds dealt in at the New York Stock Ex-
change. Also Miscellaneous Securities not
listed on the Stock Exchange. :
Long Distance Telephone, 1348 Broad.
Guaranty Trust Co.
of New York.
NASSAU, CORNER CEDAR STREET.
with them is to prove your conservatism to | CAPETAL, - = = $2,000,000
be of the soundest kind. © SURPLUS, - = = $2,500,000
This “thinking over’? is often disguised ACTS AS TRUSTEE FOR CORPORATIONS,
procrastination. The “sober second thought’
saps the vitalityof half of the noble impulses
that make this world so livable a spot. How
many men would wear the Victoria Cross if
it were the invariable rule to think things
over? What would become of bravery if
every life-saver took a sober second thought?
The fame that comes of noble actions bravely
done has never been sponsored by that sort
of conservatism.
As for life insurance in this connection
there are two things of which you may be
sure. You can think over the subject as
long as you like, and the longer you think
the more your policy will cost you when at
last you have decided it is a good thing to | HENRY A MURRAY, Test sur Saodent:
have. The second point is that every day of y NELSON BORLAND, Asst. Treas. and Sec’y.
this thoughtful thinking lessens the chances | JOHN GAULT, Manager Foreign Dept,
of your ever getting insurance. For more
FIRMS, AND INDIVIDUALS, AS GUARDIAN,
EXECUTOR, AND ADMINISTRATOR, TAKES
ENTIRE CHARGE OF REAL AND PERSONAL
ESTATES,
INTEREST ALLOWED ON DEPOSITS
subject to cheque or on certificate,
STERLING DRAFTS ON ALL PARTS OF
GREAT. BRITAIN BOUGHT AND SOLD, COL
LECTIONS MADE,
TRAVELLERS’ LETTERS OF CREDIT AVAII;
ABLE IN ALL’ PARTS OF THE WORLD, AND
COMMERCIAL LETTERS OF CREDIT ISSUED:
WALTER G. OAKMAN, President.
ADRIAN ISELIN, JR. Vice-President.
DIRECTORS,
Charles R. Henderson,
Adrian Iselin, Jr.,
Augustus D,. Juilliard,
James N. Jarvie,
Richard A, McCurdy,
Alexander E, Orr,
Walter G. Oakman,
es BE
Samuel D. Babcock,’
George F, Baker,
George S. Bowdoin,
August Belmont,
Frederic Cromwell,
Walter R. Gillette,
Robert Goelet,
G. G. Haven,
Oliver Harriman, - McK. Twombly,
R. Somers Hayes. Frederick W. Vanderbilt,
William C, Whitney.
oe
same thinking, and his clock has struck
twelve.
That hackneyed line of Shakespeare’s is
simplest truth: ‘ There is a tide in the affairs
of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to
fortune.” ‘Is it a wise conservatism that sits
down on the bank and watches the water
flow slowly past while carefully thinking LONDON BRANCH,
things over? Lo! the ebb has set in—op- 33 LOMBARD STREET, E. C.
portunity is paSsed. ' -F, NEvILL JACKSON, SECRETARY,
The object of this is to impress upon the
reader the folly of delay and of putting off
till to-morrow the obvious duty of life
insurance which should be attended to this
very day. It is comfortable often to shirk
responsibilities, but they have an unfortunate
habit of coming back to inquire when you
intend to shoulder them, and they ask that
question in louder tones with every day of
your evasion. Do not then longer waste
precious time in thinking over that which
has all been thought out before and which
can only result to your advantage, but call
to-day upon the nearest agent of the Great
Mutual Life of New York, and under his
guidance fall into line with those whose
conservatism consisted, not in doubting the |
wisdom of life insurance, but in choosing
the best company to which to ally them- |
selves—The Grand Old Mutual. |
Buys and sells exchange on the principal cities of
the world, collects dividends and coupons without
charge, issues travellers’ and commercial letters of
credit, receives and pays interest on deposits subject
to cheque at sight or on notice, lends money on
tollaterals, deals in American and other investment
securities, and offers its services as correspondent and
financial agent to corporations, bankers and merchants,
Bankers.
BANK..OF ENGLAND,
CLYDESDALE BANK, Limited,
NATIONAL PROVINCIAL BANK OF
ENGLAND, Limited,
PARR’S BANK, Limited.
Solicitors.
FRESHFIELDS AND WILLIAMS.
London Cummittee.
ARTHUR JOHN FRASER, CHAIRMAN,
DONALD C. HALDEMAN.
Cash Capital, $4 000,000.00
Cash Assets, 12,089,089.98
Total Liabilities, 3,655 ,3 70.62
Net Surplus, 4,433,719.36
Losses Paid in 79 Years, 81,125 ,621.50
M. B. CLARK, President.
W. H. KING, SECRETARY. E. O. WEEKS, VICE-PRES.
A. C. ADAMS,
HENRY E. REES, Asst. SECRETARIES.
WESTERN BRANCH, KEELER & GALLAGHER,
413 Vine Street, Cincinnati, O. 1
NORTHWESTERN BRANCH,
PACIFIC BRANCH,
General Agents.
WM. H. WYMAN, General Agent.
Omaha, Neb. Sw P. HARFORD, Assistant General Agent.
San Francisco, Cal. BOARDMAN & SPENCER, General Agents.
( CHICAGO, ILLS., 145 LaSalle Street.
NEW YORK, 52 William Street.
INLAND MARINE DEPARTMENT, | Boston ee pads
PHILADELPHIA, 229 Walnut Street.
