Word: writing
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Dates: during 1870-1879
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DEAR JACK,- I find that I have an excellent opportunity to pass a few months in Europe; and as I never allow opportunities of this sort to slip by, I am going to sail next week. As this, then, is probably the last letter that I shall write to you for some time, I shall venture to devote it to a subject which may not be of immediate interest to you at this moment, but which certainly will occupy a great deal of your time when you have penetrated a little deeper into the mysteries of college life. I refer...
...view of the present phase of Class Politics, it may not be amiss to pass a bit of friendly criticism on the value of the so-called "Class Lives." Class after class has maintained the custom of having (or trying to have) every member write his "life" on sheets of abnormally large paper, which are intended to be bound with a manuscript copy of Oration, Poem, etc. in a "Class-Book"; records of all Class-Meetings are to be made in this volume; the unfortunate Class Secretary is expected to know the whereabouts of Tom, Dick, and Harry, their occupation...
Speaking from experience, I can say that not sixty per cent of the class write anything at all, and the most part of what is written is not worth a picayune. Now and then a man has something worth mentioning, but the average life is a very cambric-tea affair, or about as amusing reading as the directory, here and there rising to the exciting pitch of Homer's Catalogue of Ships...
...abandon this farce of class lives, and have a large class-book with pages assigned to every man ever connected with the class. Have a brief simple history, comprising some few salient points, such as date of birth, name of father, and time connected with class; let each man write the secretary at least every two years, and from these letters let his "history" be collated by the secretary. It is absurd with such large classes as we have now to attempt individual lives of every member, and so many men see this folly and act on it, that...
...here, - make a name that every one will acknowledge was worth making? He may lead his class, and no one but his few rivals will care at all. He may be stroke of the crew, and men will pity him because he has taken so much trouble. He may write for the papers, but he is by no means sure that any one will read his articles...