Radio Script #383

Little Talks on Common Things

June 1, 1958

This is our last broadcast of the current season, and with it we complete ten years of Little Talks on Common Things and its 383rd Sunday evening program. We expect to be with you again in September.

Next weekend will see Waterville1s well known annual event, the Colby College Commencement. So let us turn to the pages of the Waterville Mail of nearly a hundred years ago, in 1862, when the Civil War had already begun to draw young men from the college halls.

On August 7, 1862 the Mail urged folks to attend the commencement of what was then still Waterville College. It said: “Come to Commencement! Yes, come along. The literary exercises will be unusually attractive; a large class is to graduate; the celebrated Germanian Band will be in attendance; and the railroad fare will be reduced one half for the occasion. We anticipate a large attendance and a pleasant time for all.”

Notice when commencement was held in those days — in the middle of August!

During the first 60 years of its history Colby College had no long summer vacation. The annual long vacation was in the winter, from mid-December to early March. The reason was not to save fuel, as has been alleged, but rather to give the students opportunity to teach a full term of eight to ten weeks in the rural schools. For many years almost every student at Colby taught a country school during the long winter vacation.

In 1862 Commencement Day fell on August 12, and it was preceded by two days of college exercises. The Waterville Mail on the 14th had this to say: “The weather and a complete surfeit of visitors have again rendered this old festival a triumph. Our streets have not been thronged as in years past, and the symbols of the day have not hung around shanties and grog shops, but friends have greeted friends in full numbers, and immense audiences have attended all the literary exercises.”

Concerning the junior exhibition on Monday evening of the three day commencement, the Mail said: “Gentlemen of the junior class contended for two prizes for the best original declamations. We happen to know that the judges, Prof. Mathews of Chicago, Larkin Dunton of Bath, and the Rev. Granger of Providence, were not a little puzzled in making the awards, but finally decided to give the first prize to John Marble and the second to Charles Emery, both of Waterville.”

It is interesting to note that two men who were losers in that contest became much more famous than the winners. One was Percival Bonney, who became a leading Portland attorney and judge; the other was William Penn Whitehouse, for many years Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Court.

The sentence with which the Mail closes its account of that speaking contest reveals a picture of customs long gone by. It said: “A large audience listened with pleasure and delight to the speeches and to the music of the Waterville band, and from the liberal manner in which bouquets were showered upon the stage, we should judge that oratory is properly appreciated hereabouts.”

Showering male speakers with bouquets? Yes, that used to be a custom.

When I was a student at Colby almost half a century ago, an important feature of Commencement was Class Day, held on Tuesday of Commencement Week. We had a class history, a class poem, a class prophecy, and a class oration, and we lustily sang a hastily composed class ode. It was a full half century before I graduated that Class Day was first held at Colby, on the occasion of the 41st Commencement in 1862. About that momentous innovation the Waterville Mail said: “Tuesday forenoon was devoted to a celebration of Class Day by the young gentlemen who had just finished their college course. It was a novelty at this institution, the most attractive feature of commencement. The exercises started at the Baptist Church, where a large audience having assembled, prayer was offered by Pres. Champlin, who also made a short address to the class. Then followed an oration by George Gifford and a poem by George Hunt. Under escort of the Waterville Band, which had done much to enhance the entertainment at the church by interposing appropriate music, the class marched to the college grounds, followed by a large share of the audience. Gathering beneath the Class Tree near the southern entrance, after music by the band, an ode was sung. Then the class history was read by E. W. Hall, followed by a prophecy by A. G. Barker and an address to the class by A. L. Lane.”

Let us pause here in the Mail’s account to identify these men. E. W. Hall was Edward Winslow Hall, who served Colby as Professor of Modern Languages and Librarian from 1866 to 1909, almost half a century. The class prophet, Aretas Gustavus Barker, died at the age of 31, while he was principal of a New Hampshire Academy. Asa Lyman Lane became a minister and school teacher, dividing the active years of his long life about equally between the two professions. For 25 of those years he was instructor in mathematics and science at Coburn Classical Institute here in Waterville.

George Alva Gifford, the class orator, was a teacher, lawyer, editor and diplomat. He edited the Portland Daily Press in the 1870’s, then served as U. S. Consul at La Rochelle, Basel and Geneva. That Class of 1862, as might be expected, had a splendid record in the Civil War. William Barrows, who came from Ellsworth, was a lieutenant in the 24th Maine. Frank Bodfish, who, after graduating from Colby, took his medical degree at Bowdoin, was surgeon of the First Maine Cavalry. Elias Brookings was first lieutenant in the 31st Maine. William Brooks captained a company in the 16th Maine. Steven Clark rose to the rank of colonel in the First Maine Artillery. William Ewer was a sergeant in the 16th Maine. Samuel Hamblin entered the war as a second lieutenant in the Third Maine, and ended it as Colonel of U. S. Volunteers. Arch Leavitt, major in the 16th Maine, was killed at the battle of Laurel Hill. Richard C. Shannon, who later rose to wealth and fame as a builder of railroads and who gave to his college the Shannon Physics Building and Observatory on the old campus, became a Colonel of artillery in the war. Augustus Smith also rose to be a colonel of U. S. Volunteers, after entering the combat as Captain of the First Maine Artillery. William A. Stevens, lieutenant in the 16th Maine, was killed at the battle of Petersburg, and George A. Wilson served in the 21st Maine.

When one notes the wide spread of this representation of one Colby class, in several infantry regiments, in the cavalry, the artillery and the medical corps, it is rather astonishing to note that this class’ only two war casualties were in the same regiment, the 16th Maine. In that regiment Leavitt was killed at Laurel Hill and Stevens at Petersburg, and both men were commissioned officers.

A short section of the class history is worth quoting. It said: “The Class of 1862 has started several new customs — a class festival at the close of freshman year and a class day at the close of the senior year. The custom of awarding prizes was begun with our class. R. C. Shannon and E. W. Hall received the prizes for declamation in sophomore year, Augustus Smith the prize for composition in senior year. Junior parts were first awarded to this class: to Shannon, Liscomb, Hall, Leavitt, Stevens and Philbrook. We have started the first gymnasium and cricket club, and have been the first to find false orders in manuscript and identify their authors.”

Edward W. Hall, the class historian, gave some statistics that have come down to us through the years about that famous Colby class of 1862. Just half of the 26 graduates were church members: seven Baptists, four Congregationalists and two Methodists. Eight of the 26 intended to become ministers, eight would study law, and four would enter medicine. Two wore beards when they graduated, three had side whiskers and nine mustaches. Only six smoked and one chewed tobacco. The youngest man in the class on the day of graduation was 19, the oldest 30, with the average age 24.

A classic feature of Colby Class Days, both before and since my own graduation, was the smoking of the pipe of peace. Whether its use had preceded that first Class Day in 1862 I do not know, but anyhow the Waterville Mail paid attention to that ceremony in its account of the 1862 exercises. It said: “A. L. Lane made an excellent address to the class, after which came the imposing ceremony of smoking the Pipe of Peace and the singing of the Parting Ode.”

As I have previously mentioned on this program, Tuesday evening of Commencement used to be devoted to a program sponsored by the two societies, the Literary Fraternity and the Erosophian Adelphi. It was on that occasion, a year later in 1863, when the orator was Ralph Waldo Emerson. Concerning the occasion in 1862 the Mail said: “The audience was as large as the church would permit. The orator was Prof. Angell of the Providence Journal, who spoke on the Scientific Study of Literature. He went upon the stand without notes, and in an easy and agreeable manner measured the deeper depths of science and took higher flights in literature than the mass of his hearers were able to follow, though to the more learned among them his oration was an effort of great merit.”

The Mail then turned to the poet of the evening: “Of Commencement poems it is frequently said that they are too good for the occasion, coming as they do at a late hour, when a tired audience cannot be aroused to appreciate their delicate conceits and hidden beauties. Prof. Benjamin’s. poem, following Mr. Angell’s oration, was not open to this objection. It was certainly no better than it should have been. As poetry it was but sorry doggerel. But its subject, the Great Rebellion, was one interesting to all. Its coarse, hard bits were effectively delivered, frequently eliciting stormy applause, with the result that the audience probably gave to the verses better attention than they would have given to a real poem.”

Of the final graduation exercises on Wednesday, the Mail recorded: “As usual, the church was crammed, larger numbers being compelled to stand in the aisles, doorways and porch. It was the largest class ever graduated from the institution, and the performances of the sixteen speakers on the large program, while exhibiting different degrees of merit, were highly creditable. At the conclusion of the exercises at the church, a long procession of hungry people marched to the Town Hall, where bountiful provision had been made for their wants. After the clatter of knives and forks had subsided, Pres. Champlin called upon Vice-President of the United States, Hannibal Hamlin, for a few remarks. He responded with a stirring patriotic speech. A concert by the Germanian Band on Wednesday evening, followed by the usual dance at the President’s house, appropriately closed the festivities, and on Thursday morning the railroad trains were boarded with departing guests.”

And with that account of a Colby Commencement 96 years ago, for old times’ sake we say Good Night and Good By until September.

Year: 1958