Daily Kennebec Journal

THE BOWDOIN DINNER.

The annual reunion of the alumni of Bowdoin College residing in Boston and vicinity was held at the Parker House last evening.

The alumni gathered to the number of about forty in one of the parlors at 5 o'clock, and an hour or more was passed in pleasant intercourse and interchange of reminiscences of old times and former companions. The preliminary business of the association was small in amount, consisting simply of an election of officers for the year. The Hon. Nehemiah Cleaveland having declined a re-election as president, the Hon. John C. Dodge (1834) was unanimously chosen to that position. Mr. Charles M. Cumston (1843), head master of the English high school, upon whom this college at its last commencement conferred the degree of LL. D., was chosen vice-president, and D. C. Linscott, Esq., was re-elected secretary.

The doors were thrown open, and the guests proceeded to the dining-room. At the right of the president sat the Rev Dr. Harris, president of the college, and at his left the Rev. Dr. Leonard Woods, ex-president.

Among the alumni present were Professor C. F. Brackett of Bowdoin, Charles C. Everett of Harvard, the Rev. Dr. E. B. Webb, the Rev. Benjamin G. Snow, long a missionary to the Pacific Isles, the Revs. Elijah Kellogg, J. O. Means and Henry M. King of that city, Mr. James R. Osgood and many other well-known gentlemen of the various professions.

The Divine blessing was invoked by the Rev. Dr. Webb. After the cloth was removed, the commencement hymn,

Let children hear the mighty deeds,

was sung, being deaconed off by the president of the evening, who then, with a few complimentary words, introduced President Harris. The introduction gave Dr. Harris a text which served to point the inevitable allusion to the bachelor condition of ex-President Woods,—an allusion which is never omitted at a college occasion when the beloved ex-president is present, and which he invariably receives with a good-humored embarrassment which adds greatly to the delight of the company. President Harris gave a brief sketch of the present condition of the college which he represented to be in a promising condition and doing its work thoroughly and acceptably. He added a few earnest words on the general subject of education, pleading for preservation of all that is good in the old system, with a due recognition of the demands of the age in the introduction of whatever is new and good. He spoke in reference to the memorial hall also, and said that the exterior was entirely completed. The funds when all collected would be just about sufficient to pay for the work done. No provision has thus far been made for finishing the interior.

President Woods, who was next called upon, was received with great applause and made a most excellent speech, at first brimming with humor and afterwards in a more serious vein. He took up the theme entered upon by Dr. Harris, and deprecated any attempt to force our American colleges into the system of English universities. Such a change, he maintained, is opposed to the American modes of life and thought. The true idea should be to hold fast to the college as a school for general culture, and to group about it, as it is now the tendency to do, the institutions for special training. He described the promises held forth when one of our New England colleges adopted a purely elective system, and its disastrous failure, and predicted that such would be the result whenever that plan should be tried again.

The Rev. Benj. G. Snow (1846) spoke briefly but forcibly of the value of the training he had received at Bowdoin in the special work which he had been called upon to perform. It might be supposed that a college training would be of little use in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, but such was not the case. It had been of great service in the study of languages.

Mr. Snow created much merriment by speaking two or three sentences in one of the Pacific Island dialects, in response to a call from some of the company. He described how he had been obliged to pick up a few words from the natives, to acquire a wholly unknown language, then to reduce it to writing, to prepare books in the language, and finally to teach the natives to read and write their own language. All this he had done, and to-day there was a dialect of one of these islands which could be spoken by only two white persons,—himself and his wife. In all this his training in college was invaluable.

There were several other notable speeches made, but we can only mention them. Professor Everett (1850) said that his position with reference to Bowdoin where he had graduated, and Harvard where he was now located, was something similar to that in which he found himself when, as a little boy, he was asked which of two girls he liked best. With a wisdom beyond his years he had answered that he liked both. Among the special advantages which Bowdoin possessed he mentioned the opportunity to enlarge the lungs and frame, while of Harvard it had been said that the students were obliged to run to fires in order to get an opportunity to shout "fire."

The Rev. Dr. Webb, (1846) spoke of the great necessity of a classical school in Maine equal in rank and reputation to that at Andover, to supply the material from which Bowdoin should draw. He mentioned that he was aware of some Maine boys now in Andover who ought to go to Bowdoin, but who would inevitably be carried to other colleges by their aptness to go with the majority of their companions.

The Rev. Elijah Kellogg (1840) told a humorous story of his own experience with two young men sent down to him at Harpswell from the college to be reformed. The Rev. Mr. Means (1843) spoke of the encouragement and hope a visit to the college and an examination of its working had given him.

Other speeches were made by Mr. Cyrus Woodman (1836), Dr. James Ayer (1835), J. W. Perry, Esq. (1846). Mr. Joseph H. Abbott (1822), B. A. G. Fuller, Esq. (1839), T. S. Harlow, Esq. (1836), the Rev. George Gannett (1842), Mr. George M. Adams (1844) and Oliver Stevens, Esq. (1848). The speeches were harmonized and introduced by pertinent and witty speeches and stories by Mr. Dodge, the president, who fully justified the choice made by the association. The meeting broke up at about eleven o'clock.

The class which was most numerously represented was that of 1854, by four members, but the classes of 1859 and 1861 had each three.—Boston Advertiser.