Divine Guidance; Memorial of Allen W. Dodge

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. COLLEGE. Of his college life but few records remain; but those are all honorable to the blameless, brilliant, and enthusiastic student. Rev. A. P. Peabody, of Cambridge, who was his classmate, says: In college he was regarded as among the foremost of his class in ability, and held high rank as a scholar. IIo was severely strict in all the essentials of moral principle and conduct, with a high sense of honor, frank, outspoken, manly heyond his years. He was popular in his class, hut it was understood that he was always on the side of law and order in the collisions? then not infrequent?between the students and the higher powers. You, perhaps, are unaware that he was regarded as the master-wit of his class. I doubt whether the distinction was ever better merited. He was president of the ' Medical Faculty ' (Med. Facs.)?a society whose sole business was fun and merriment. Its meetings were ghastly masquerades by the light of blue fires, and its outside manifestations were in the form of a triennial catalogue, with its long array of honorary degrees in hybrid Latin. Its existence was wisely tolerated by the Faculty, as a safety-valve for exuberant spirits that might else have found vent in vicious ways. I well remember Mr. Dodge as presiding at a meeting held in commemoration of Alexander, Emperor of Russia, who hud received an honorary degree from the society. The President's flashing wit and coruscating humor formed the chief charm of the burlesque ceremonial. I emphasizo this feature of his college life, because it seems to mo to have been a life-long characteristic, though modified in its expression by the more serious tone and spirit of his maturer days. Whenever he spoke of the follies and sins of the times, I recognized in his scathing irony the same ge...