ON THE eleventh of November, 1904, the gift was announced of a new room to be known as the Common Room, from Mr. A. Howard Hinkle and his family in memory of their son and brother, A. Howard Hinkle, Jr., '01. This was formally opened on the twenty-second of March, and Mr. Hinkle stipulated that it should never be locked. It was built out north from the corridor, midway between the dining-room and the schoolroom wings, with sliding doors from the hall, opposite which is a dark oak-panelled vestibule, paved with Moravian tiles, leading into the quadrangle. The room is about forty-five by thirty-five feet in dimensions, oak-panelled, with tall leaded windows and long window-seats cushioned with brown leather lighter than the walls. The fireplace at the west end is of the famous Rookwood porcelain, of special design, and the high mantel light gray with a dark blue oval slab in the middle bearing the monogram A. H. H. in raised white letters. The sides of the mantel are curved, and form lions' heads at the corners. A pair of large Florentine andirons of intricate design, dating from the sixteenth century, and being surmounted by lions especially adapted to St. Mark's, stand on the broad hearth. Over the mantel in raised letters is the inscription

The ceiling, slightly vaulted, is twenty-five feet high, of white plaster with raised medallions bearing in alternation the School seal and the monogram A. H. H. surrounded by a laurel wreath. A large chandelier hangs in the centre. The floor is of hardwood, and lighter than the walls. The room is furnished with three Turkish rugs made especially for it, armchairs, large tables, writing table and a pony-grand piano. Its purpose and its dignity were at once apprehended by the boys, and both have been respected in a manner which would have surprised the educators of olden days. On the walls now hang photographs of the boys who died in the war against Germany and of others who died before the completion of their school course. The formal acceptance of the gift took place in the room itself, Mr. Thayer presenting it in behalf of the Hinkles, and Dana Brannan, '98, speaking of the influence of the boy whom it represented, ---one who will always be remembered by his contemporaries as typical of the prominent athlete unspoiled by success, gentle, sunny in disposition and utterly true in heart. At the dedication the School hymn was sung, prayers offered, and the benediction pronounced by Bishop Lawrence.

On the eleventh of November resolutions were passed by the Trustees on the death of the Rev. Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, D.D., LL.D., which took place on the sixth of October, 1904. Dr. Pynchon had faithfully served the School for thirty years, and during this period had never spared time or labor in its interest. The death of this Christian gentleman and profound scholar left Mr. Foster the only survivor of the older men who had seen the great development since the days of Dr. Coolidge. The vacancy was filled by the unanimous election of George Brown Post, Jr., a member of the class of 1882, whose name had been changed after leaving school from George Augustus Post; and Dr. Chambré was elected to the vice-presidency of the Board. At the same meeting a gift of two thousand dollars was accepted from Thomas Minns in accordance with the will of Robert Charles Billings for a permanent fund to be called the Robert Charles Billings fund; the income only to be used for the general purposes of St. Mark's School.

At the April meeting a vote of thanks was passed to Harry Burnett for his careful and eminently successful management of the finances and property since he became a member of the Board; and on the thirtieth of May, 1904, in accordance with a suggestion made the preceding autumn by Mr. Thayer, a celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the School was held in Southborough. The exercises began with service in the Chapel at ten o'clock, in which the Rev. Joseph H. Coit, D.D., Rector of St. Paul's School, Concord, spoke in high praise of St. Mark's. At eleven Mr. and Mrs. Thayer received the guests in the Common Room, and at half-past eleven exercises were held in the gymnasium, at which Bishop Lawrence presided and spoke of the importance and value of church schools. Mr. Nicholas Murray Butler, Ph.D., LL.D., of Columbia University, made a strong address on the necessity of character-building in education; and the exercises closed with the singing of the School song. Luncheon came at half-past one, and then short addresses by C. F. Choate, Jr., President of the Alumni Association; Dr. M. H. Morgan, representing Harvard; Professor Breton of Trinity; Mr. Croswell, a former tutor of the School, representing Brearley School; the Rev. Endicott Peabody, D.D., Headmaster of Groton School; and Mr. Buehler, the Headmaster of Hotchkiss. A large number of trustees and friends were present, including Dr. Patterson, the former Headmaster.

The football season of 1904 was marked by a determined effort on the part of the Captain, Alfred A. Biddle, to establish a more effective attitude towards the game, and in this he was successful. The light team lost to Groton in a splendidly fought contest by the score of eleven to nothing, but the record of victories was good, a better spirit was awakened, and at the end of the season Biddle was presented with a loving-cup for what he had done for football. The Vindex had steadily increased in ability and value through the years, and was now as creditable a school paper as could be found in the country, doing much to cultivate school spirit by its fidelity as chronologist as well as by offering an opportunity for literary talent in fiction. In the February number, 1905, it exhorts the boys to respect the old tables in room three and the trophy room, carved throughout by the boys of an older time, and elsewhere it offers a prize for the best article on the pictures in the corridors, of which there were now a great number. The baseball season was very successful in general, with but two defeats, by Mercersburg and the Framingham Business College. Groton was beaten in a rather poorly played game by the score of fifteen to ten, in which St. Mark's made fifteen hits with a total of twenty-four bases, and Groton nine with a total of seventeen, Mr. Flichtner and Mr. Sturgis making two home runs each. The other games were played with Noble's, Milton, Stone's, Roxbury Latin, Harvard 1908, Newton High, Wellesley High, St. George's, Cushing Academy, and Maiden High, and were all victories.

At the beginning of the year 1905-6 Dr. Gulliver and Mr. Flood were missed, the former having resigned and the latter being absent on his sabbatical year. Their places were taken by Mr. E. A. H. Van Etten and Mr. Goodridge, the latter of whom has but for a year's absence remained with St. Mark's ever since, and has been of incalculable value as a teacher and disciplinarian, and of generous and effective assistance to the baseball teams as coach. In the building, an old Venetian lion of historical value, the gift of Mrs. Hinkle, stood above the mantel in the Common Room; and on the fourteenth of November the new wing at the southeast corner was opened. This had been much needed as quarters for the Headmaster and for proper enlargement of the hospital facilities, and the rooms vacated were available for visiting alumni and other guests. The new rooms are very large and pleasant, especially the Headmaster's study, which because of its great size can be comfortably used for meetings of the Faculty, Alumni and Trustees, while its windows command Belmont Field. The former headmaster's study was made a common room for the masters. The hospital is now adequate in all particulars for every emergency, and was constructed according to the most modern methods.

CORNER OF THE QUADRANGLE

MASTERS' HOUSES. 1902

The football season yielded six victories, a tie with Milton, and two defeats; but one of the last was by Groton, with a score of seventeen to nothing. Captain Galatti, following Biddle, had shown a spirit similar to his predecessor's, and the record was the best for five years. The game with the superior Groton team was hard and clean, and in spite of defeat a credit to St. Mark's; and to the continued interest of Galatti, particularly in the last five years, football at the School owes a debt which it would be hard to overestimate. The hockey season was also a most successful one; and this year a dual athletic meet was arranged with the Noble and Greenough School, in which St. Mark's lost by a score of twenty-seven and a half points to thirty-five and a half. The baseball team won fourteen games out of sixteen played, a percentage never before equalled, including a victory over Groton of eleven to three, which put St. Mark's ahead in the series by ten games to nine. The success was largely due to Potter, the captain, whose enthusiasm was as great as Biddle's and Galatti's in football.

But Biddle's work and interest were not limited to football, and for the coming summer a camp in the mountainous district of New Hampshire was arranged for, largely through his efforts. Its purpose was missionary, and its boys were to come mostly from three missions conducted by St. Mark's graduates in Cambridge. It was to last from the first of August until the tenth of September.

On November the fifteenth, 1906, the Trustees passed resolutions on the death of Mr. Henry Nelson Bigelow, who had been Clerk of the Corporation and of the Standing Committee for twenty-two years. His services as Clerk were described as faithful and efficient, and his character as a trustee highly regarded as well for his genial helpfulness as for his sound judgment. Filling his position in the world with honor as a Christian gentleman, a worthy citizen and an ideal trustee, he left to St. Mark's a memory that will be lovingly cherished. At the meeting in April, 1908, Mr. Bigelow's son, Henry Forbes Bigelow, graduate of the School and architect of the new buildings, was elected a trustee to take his father's place. On the twenty-sixth of December the School suffered another serious loss in the death of Mrs. Joseph Burnett. Her beautiful personality, gracious courtesy and warm hospitality had until lately been known to all St. Mark's boys during a period of more than forty years, and were inseparably associated in their hearts with her husband's devotion. Their six sons were all St. Markers.

The new chancel in the parish church which she had recently given in memory of her husband was completed only in time for her own funeral services, which took place on the twenty-ninth of December.

Mr. J. Richards White, who had taught in the School before, returned in October, and Mr. Flood had returned from his sabbatical year. The football season was of unusual interest because of the new rules, which allowed forward passes, on-side kicks and open formations. The season was as successful as usual, but again Groton won, this time by the score of seventeen to six, St. Mark's' only score being made possible by a "crisscross" from the thirty-yard line to the five. The succession of defeats from Groton seems to have been well analyzed by Biddle, who found lack of interest among the younger boys, and a tendency to rely upon baseball for revenge among the older; and the incalculable force of tradition was beginning to work to disadvantage. To this was added the unquestionable fact that the School had an exceptionally able and enthusiastic opponent, who studied the game from every angle under skilful leadership, so that even when out-classed physically the alertness and individual responsibility and keenness of the players produced situations which were too often called luck, and operated on the popular youthful' mind accordingly. It was not until Biddle applied his enthusiasm and hard work that things began to change; and St. Mark's does not even yet lack reminders that success without them is a very temporary matter. When baseball arrived the tables were turned by a nine to one victory for St. Mark's after an indifferently successful season, the nine coming into its possibilities in an excellent game in which Wood's pitching and hitting were masterly, and the playing of the rest of the team good.

The gifts to the School had become so numerous that in the fall of 1907 the Trustees instructed the Headmaster to obtain a suitable book in which should be recorded all made in the past and the future. The new library, to the memory of Grenville Gilbert, and a gift of five thousand dollars by Mr. Joseph Fay, formerly a trustee, in honor of a cum- laude degree awarded to his son by Harvard, enabled the Trustees to undertake improvements in a very important equipment; and Dr. Morgan, Mr. Fearing and the Headmaster were appointed a committee to consider them. Dr. Morgan reported that for a year or two the Fay fund would be used for books of permanent value in the several departments; and to this end a list was prepared, with the help of Harvard professors, of books of special value in department libraries. This decision met the question of room for the books by placing shelves in the various recitation-rooms. The Headmaster had also perceived the need of an enlargement of the schoolroom; and a gift of five thousand five hundred dollars from parents of the boys of the class of 1907 made this improvement possible. It took the form of a large bay at about the middle of the east side; and the master's desk was placed opposite halfway up the room on the west, with the boys' desks facing south as before. Panels were placed in the walls, in 1910 extended to the north and west sides of the original room, and inscribed with the names of the past members of the School by years.

The completion of Mr. Barber's twentieth year as master was marked in 1908, and the Trustees recorded their appreciation of his long and faithful service as a competent and efficient teacher and disciplinarian, and of his deep interest in and affection for the School. Mr. Rees had gone for his sabbatical year, and the School also missed Mr. Pride, whose genial optimism and humor had contributed greatly to the cheerfulness of life and routine. Mr. Fernald and Mr. Woodhead were the new masters, the latter for a comparatively short but successful stay, and the former to add one more to the splendid staff of masters who are giving a lifetime of ceaseless devotion and effort to the success of St. Mark's. The systematizing of school activities had now become so far advanced that a description of them would be a repetition of previous years: the universal activity of the football season; the scattering to the gymnasium, fives courts, land hockey, theatricals and skating when the snow begins to fly; dance, lectures, entertainments, chess, photography, and a hundred other occupations---in 1907 a well-named one called diabolo, which tended to break windows---of the winter term;(116) and the beautiful spring days of baseball, rowing, golf, swimming and feverish reviewing for examinations. It is enough to say that the wise Headmaster has known every detail, and has quietly supplanted or encouraged as the results suggested, until the community is very busy and very happy without the ancient necessity of getting into trouble to be so; and Mrs. Thayer has made the whole a home of which analysis is as unnecessary as it is hopeless.

The football season of 1907 once more ended in a defeat from Groton by a score of twenty-seven to eleven; but distinction came at Harvard through seven St. Mark's boys who won scholarships, and three elected to Phi Beta Kappa, R. L. Knowles, '05, S. Ervin, '04, and L. G. White, '04. A victory over Groton in baseball by the score of eight to three, principally through superior batting, ended an extraordinarily successful season of fifteen victories, almost all of them over strong opponents, one being a score of eight to nothing over the Harvard Second Team.

In November, 1908, a plan was discussed of constructing a separate building for a heating and lighting plant, and it was decided to put it into execution during the summer of 1910. The building was erected at the foot of the avenue leading to the rear road, and was connected by a tunnel seven feet high and five feet wide. When School opened in 1909 another improvement was in process of completion, the extension of the dining-room by thirty feet at the north end, which was finished during the following Christmas vacation. This and a complete remodelling into a beautiful room were due almost entirely to the efforts of Dr. Thayer, who had collected thirty-two thousand dollars; and the Trustees took occasion to congratulate themselves on his influence, and to acknowledge his responsibility for the accomplishment of the undertaking. Another work of organization by Dr. Thayer was that assigned to him by the Trustees of arranging for the proper keeping of a file of headmasters' reports, and of preparing a card catalogue of all boys who have been members of the School.

BETWEEN RECITATIONS (MESSRS. FLOOD, WHITE, PRIDE, BARBER, REES, FLICHTNER, KING, HOPKINS AND CAMBRIDGE. 1903)

BETWEEN INNINGS

During the summer of 1908 the School lost one of her boys, Henry Bainbridge Chapin, Jr., a member of the Fifth Form and son of a St. Mark's graduate and trustee, who was killed on July the seventh at the South Station in Boston while crossing from an inward bound train to the baggage room. He had been in school since the First Form year, and was universally loved for his sunny disposition, friendliness and affectionate nature. Perhaps no better proof of the Trustees' success in preserving the family character of the School could be furnished than the intensity with which Chapin was missed in all its activities when the new year began. Another loss, though of a graduate, was little less felt when W. Otis Smith, '07, one of the School's most promising scholars, died on the nineteenth of June. In the spring of 1910 memorial windows in the Chapel were dedicated to the memory of these two boys, the one to Smith representing David, the Champion of Right, and that to Chapin representing Jonathan, the Beloved Friend. They were respectively the gifts of the classes of 1907 and 1910, who were present at the dedicatory services, at which the Rev. Roland C. Smith preached. A scholarship to yield five hundred dollars was given to the School by Mr. and Mrs. Henry B. Chapin in memory of their son.(117)

The record of the previous year in football was repeated in the fall; a successful season, but a defeat at the hands of Groton by a score of sixteen to eleven. But Biddle's and Galatti's efforts to rouse greater interest and create a better spirit were beginning to bear fruit. Groton's three touchdowns were cleverly made within ten minutes; but the St. Mark's team then found itself, and for the rest of the time outplayed their opponents in a clean, hard game, scoring eleven points. Revenge came in the spring after a not over-successful season by a score of six to nothing in St. Mark's' favor,---the first shut-out of Groton. The winter sports this year were memorable for the breaking of the world's record in the high kick by H. B. Beebe, '09.

In the next year another loss came to St. Mark's in the death of Morris Hicky Morgan, Ph.D., LL.D., a graduate, former tutor, trustee, and life-long friend. He was born in Providence, R. I., on the eighth of February, 1859, the son of Morris Barker Morgan and Isabelle Manton. He entered St. Mark's in 1872, was made a monitor, and was awarded the Founder's Medal in 1877, when he was graduated. He received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Harvard in 1881, that of Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Arts in 1887, and that of Doctor of Laws from Hobart in 1896. On the third of June, 1896, he was married to Eleanora Semmes Gibson of Baltimore. He died in Newport on the sixteenth of March, 1910.

Dr. Morgan was at the time of his death recognized as one of the leading classical scholars of the country. His undergraduate work in college was said to be fair, but not brilliant, though he was given a disquisition in the commencement parts, and honorable mention in Latin. He expected to take up law or business, and it was not until after graduation that he changed his plans. He was an editor of the Daily Echo, the predecessor of the Crimson; a member of the St. Paul's Society, Institute of 1770, Hasty Pudding Club, Alpha Delta Phi, and the Glee Club, in which he sang tenor; and in 1895 he was made an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa, an honor he valued very highly. He taught at St. Mark's from 1881 to 1884, and was Head Tutor during his last year. After obtaining his post-graduate degree in 1887 he was an Instructor in Classics, a Tutor in 1888, Assistant Professor from 1896 to 1899, and Professor of Classical Philology from 1899 until his death in 1910. From 1898 to 1906 he was Chairman of the Department of Classics. Professor A. A. Howard, '82, writing in the Harvard Crimson, describes him as an inspiring and effective teacher, beloved and genuinely respected by students for his accuracy and earnestness and personal interest in them.

As an administrative officer he was energetic and progressive, with a keen eye to details and boundless capacity for accomplishment; as an author and editor, of fine scholarly feeling and acute literary appreciation; and as a friend and colleague, sincere and devoted, always ready to assume more than his share of the work, sympathetic to the last degree, and though at times in manner somewhat brusque, at heart always the kindest and gentlest of companions. The trustees passed resolutions upon Dr. Morgan's death in which they called attention to the fact that as a Professor at Harvard he may be considered to have been St. Mark's' representative there, and spoke gratefully of his long and devoted attachment to the School.

The death of Mr. Henry B. Chapin, who had served on the Board of Trustees since 1899, came as another heavy loss. One of five brothers, all St. Markers, he entered in the fall of 1872, took the Founder's Medal in 1875, and was graduated from St. Mark's in 1876 and from Harvard in 1880. His efficiency and integrity as a business man were of great service through many years to the School. He was twice Vice-president of the Alumni Association, twice President, and was an active member of the executive committee of the Board of Trustees. He contributed generously to the new buildings when planned in 1888, and later also gave freely for them; and it was chiefly through his gifts that the first fives courts were built. He represented all that is best and finest in citizenship, and as a man was straightforward, strong in conviction, fervent in spirit, generous and courageous.

The loss of these two men, different in their interests and occupations, but the same in their conception of unselfish service, seemed irreparable, for Dr. Morgan's help in the School's scholastic and intellectual policy had been invaluable, and his interest in St. Mark's graduates at Harvard an advantage which could not soon be hoped for again. His intimate knowledge of both the School and the College smoothed the transition from one to the other for many more St. Markers than knew him personally, and this interest was given like that of an elder brother. The School was fortunate in obtaining as trustees in the places of Dr. Morgan and Mr. Chapin Dr. Alexander Mann and Mr. Walter C. Baylies, who were unanimously elected at a special meeting on the twenty-third of June, 1910.

At the opening of School in September, 1909, Mr. Cambridge and Mr. Flichtner were absent, the latter only for his sabbatical year. The thirty new boys temporarily crowded the dining-room, in which a large sheet still covered the unfinished addition. Fifty-one credits in college examinations received by St. Markers in June are reported in the Vindex.(118) The football season opened very favorably, and under coaching by Mr. Woodhead, Fish, Galatti, and Kennard rewarded Biddle's prophetic efforts by beating Groton, after an extraordinary series of victories over other strong teams. The game with Groton was notable for St. Mark's' strong defensive play, in which Bliss and McKinlock figured, and for the powerful offensive work of Chatfield, whose two beautiful runs enabled him to score the only touchdown of the game, Bliss kicking the goal. The countless activities and interests of the winter can be appreciated only by a glance at the Vindex, which notes lectures on Judge Lindsay, on mountain-climbing, on athletics, and on education in China, and announces the gift of a set of the Harvard Classics by Mr. Harry Burnett,(119) and a cup for the winner of the new boys' fives tournament; Missionary Society meetings, at which Mr. Brinley, Mr. Drury and Mr. Stanton King spoke; the dance; a trip to the Wayside Inn; a concert by the musical clubs; hockey; the Christmas play; Fourth Form debates and extemporaneous speaking; and dancing lessons. We may note also that exercise blanks were now given to every boy, in order that the record of the full performances of general or specially prescribed exercises should be kept and approved. The Vindex itself was in the hands of very capable editors, and now began to elect the editor-in-chief and the business manager for the following year a month earlier than before, in order to give them a clearer insight into their coming duties. A prize was offered by Spencer Ervin, '04, for a one hundred word essay on "How to Study," and the winning article, by Henry Jackson, Jr., '11, was an extraordinarily creditable piece of work. Finally the mumps came and upset the baseball practice, necessitating besides a postponement of the Groton game. This was played on the first of June, and resulted in a victory of seven to six for our rivals, who outbatted us.

Announcement was made in the spring of 1910 of the establishment of the Kidder Latin Prize, given by Mr. Charles A. Kidder for the best work in Latin during the Sixth Form year. The scholarship in memory of H. B. Chapin, Jr., which has already been mentioned, was also accepted at this time, as was the endowment by Mr. D. B. Fearing of the Morgan Greek Prize. The Trustees likewise accepted a portrait of William E. Peck for the School, which had been obtained through the subscriptions of those alumni who had been at St. Mark's in his time, had been painted from photographs and from the suggestions of those who had known him, and was an excellent likeness. On Mr. Fearing's motion a vote of thanks was sent to A. R. Tisdale, '89, for the alumni.

As the years passed it had been necessary from time to time, in view of the increased equipment and corresponding expenses of the School, to raise the tuition fee of the boys, and at the meeting in November, 1910, a further raise was considered, and afterwards made. The boys in the Sixth Form had always been exempted from an increase; but this time a letter was sent to patrons informing them that the increase was to go into effect for new boys in the autumn, but not until 1912 for boys already in the School. The letter also stated that if in any case the increase should cause embarrassment, or involve the withdrawal of a boy, a statement to the Headmaster would be confidentially considered. At the same meeting report was made of the resignation of the Rev. John Binney, D.D., from the Board of Trustees, of Mr. Cambridge as mathematics teacher, and of the retirement of Miss Eccleston, who had for several years been the efficient matron of the School. Mr. John T. Burnett, '87, was made Assistant Treasurer.

The academical distinctions won by St. Mark's boys at college were so numerous as to call for special notice. Dodd, '06, had been graduated magna cum laude from Harvard; Fish, '06, very prominent also in athletics, cum laude; G. P. Gardner, '06, cum laude; and Tweed, '03, from the Law School cum laude. The honors in the preliminary examinations for Harvard numbered forty-one, in the finals seventeen, and in the Board examinations forty-nine. Dodd also won the Philip Washburn prize at Harvard for the best history thesis; and on January the twenty-fourth, 1911, the School was given a holiday in honor of the winning of the Jacob Wendell scholarship by Francis Dewey Everett, '06, at Harvard. It is enough to say that this record, though unusually striking, is reasonably typical of the way in which since the radical reforms in 1894 became operative, St. Mark's boys were and had been accomplishing the second object for which the School stands.(120) There were tablets in the schoolroom bearing the names of the boys who had won the more important scholastic prizes, and now three more were added for the Coleman English Essay prize, the Suydam Mathematics prize, and the Harvard Scholarships. In February prizes offered by Dr. Thayer for the best examinations in current topics were announced; and in April three prizes, one for the Sixth and Fifth Forms, one for the Fourth and Third, and one for the Second and First were offered by S. Ervin, '04, for the best examinations in current events.

The coaching of the football team was undertaken this year by S. Galatti, P.G., '06; and though the results of his excellent work were not of course immediately visible in games won, as Biddle's had not been, they were soon to appear. Groton won the annual game by eleven points to none through Hardwick's splendid punting, variety of attack and forward passes, and promptness in taking advantage of two fumbles by St. Mark's. After this game soccer football, introduced by Mr. Milligan, occupied the squad. Two deer were seen on the football field and above the swimming-pool, indicating an early winter; and the cold came so soon as to necessitate the postponing of the tennis tournament until spring. On the twenty-seventh of February Dr. and Mrs. Thayer left for California, and Mr. Barber took charge of the School. The baseball team, missing the help of Mr. White during the spring, had an only moderately successful season, Groton winning the final game by eight to seven, principally by superiority at the bat. Plans were made this spring for a new baseball diamond for the younger boys across the Marlborough road.

On the sixteenth of June, 1911, the School lost John Richards White, '99, who died in Providence after a lingering illness which had baffled his physicians. He entered St. Mark's in January, 1898; played one year on the eleven and two on the nine, of which latter he was captain; was made a monitor; took the Fearing athletic prize; and after being graduated in 1899 went to Yale. After graduation from college in 1903 he went to St. Mark's as a master, remained one year, and then entered business with his father; but two years later his interest in teaching and his affection for the School brought him back. An efficient teacher, a loyal alumnus and a devoted friend, he was modest almost to the point of being self -depreciatory, just, fair, and high in purpose; and his work was characterized by his superior officer as earnest, conscientious and faithful. He was loved and respected by both boys and masters, being a brilliant athlete, a devoted and serious teacher, and a sympathetic and intelligent friend.

The records of the Trustees for November the eleventh, 1911, contain a vote of thanks to the Headmaster for his handling of the infantile paralysis situation. The mysterious disease struck the School lightly, but the fear of it was preoccupying, and the relief among the authorities intense when danger was past. On the thirtieth of April, 1912, resolutions were passed by the Trustees on the death of Rev. A. St. John Chambré, D.D., Vice-president of the Board, and many years a member of the Standing Committee. Dr. Chambré had since his election on May the seventh, 1889, given evidence of the deepest interest in St. Mark's, both by various gifts and by his wise, patient and faithful service. The A. St. John Chambré scholarship, left to St. Mark's by the will of Mrs. Chambré, and received in 1915, fittingly commemorates this service. At the same meeting Charles Francis Choate, Jr., a graduate of the class of 1884 and a resident of Southborough, was elected to fill the vacancy. Mr. Foster had tendered his resignation after a service of nearly thirty-eight years, but it was not accepted; and a vote was passed that a letter be written to him by the Headmaster urging him to remain on the Board.

The football team showed in the season of 1911 the results of Galatti's work by defeating all opponents but Middlesex. A successful forward pass, a brilliant run by McKinlock, and a criss-cross produced the only score of the game against Groton. When colder weather came the School enjoyed a characteristic address by Jacob Riis on how he became an American citizen; and on the evening of Thanksgiving Day one by Theodore Roosevelt, which was the more appreciated because informal and witty.

The baseball season was eminently successful with eleven victories and three defeats, among the former an eleven inning game with Groton, which was won by Ervin's triple to right field and a fumble by a Groton player.

Coöperation between the Trustees and the Alumni had been frequent for some years, and the Board now voted to undertake it more formally with an Alumni Council, a body of fifteen to be a permanent committee advisory to the Headmaster and the Trustees. A plan for the enlargement of the Chapel was given hearty approval, and Dr. Thayer was authorized to raise the money necessary for carrying it out. Later in the year it was voted that the Billings fund, which has already been described, and the fees of twenty-five dollars for application for membership in the School, which had been established in the previous year, should be considered as an endowment fund, and the income added to the principal until further action. A letter was read at the same meeting from Hugh Blythe, '97, presenting a portrait of Dr. Thayer from the boys who had been at the School during his headmastership, and a letter of appreciation was sent to Blythe. Further business at this meeting concerned the deeply regretted resignation of Dr. Shearman from the Board after thirty years of faithful and efficient service, and a memorial window in the Chapel to John Choate, one of the scholars, who had died during the previous summer. On the thirtieth of April Mr. William Richard Castle, Jr., of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was elected a trustee.

John Choate was a member of the Fourth Form, and because of his residence in Southborough had long been known to St. Markers. Conscientious in his work, quiet, sweet in disposition, he was missed sadly by his fellows at the opening of the year, as Henry Chapin had been, and will not be forgotten by his contemporaries. His loss was still heavy on his schoolmates when another occurred in the sudden death of Gordon Theopold, who had entered the First Form and had been in the School two years. The shock and grief caused by Grenville Gilbert's death were repeated, for Theopold also was beloved as a true-hearted, wholesome, vivacious boy with the faculty of endearing himself by whatever he did. A memorial service was held in the School Chapel, at which Dr. Slattery of Grace Church, New York, officiated. A memorial window for the School Chapel, whose subject was "The Sower," was given by Theopold's form in the year of their graduation.

The autumn of 1912 was a fortunate one in the new masters, for though Mr. Barber was away on his sabbatical year, Mr. Goodridge and Mr. Lawrence returned, and Mr. Brinley and Mr. Howell came. Mr. Lawrence is still one of St. Mark's' most valued men, and Mr. Brinley has remained to add to the increasing strength of the faculty in all his activities, and to bring to St. Mark's Marian Fay, to whom he was married in 1921. The membership of masters in the Alumni Association, to which they are eligible after six years of service, was becoming rapidly larger. The football season was notable for many victories over old rivals, including Roxbury Latin, Middlesex, Milton and Groton, the last by a score of seventeen to nothing in an aggressive game against a lighter team. The Alumni dinner took place on the twenty-seventh of February, and formed its plans for the Council to coöperate with the Trustees. The baseball season was also a success, with two defeats and ten victories, amongst the latter Groton by six to four through superior hitting.

In connection with the recognition of Mr. Barber's twenty-five years of service, and in view of the long terms of conspicuous ability and devotion already to the credit of several members of the Faculty, a committee to consider the subject of pensions was formed in November, 1913, of the President and Treasurer of the Trustees and the Headmaster; and at a meeting a week later the Rev. William G. Thayer, D.D., was unanimously elected a trustee. The appreciation of Mr. Barber was shown by the gift of a gold watch from the boys, and a chain of twenty-five links from the masters. Mr. Fernald had left for his sabbatical year; and a gap in the service of the School was occasioned by the leaving of Miss Irene Wardwell, whose fidelity as Secretary was acknowledged the following spring by a gift from the Trustees and a letter of appreciation from the Headmaster. Dr. Thayer's and Mr. Burnett's activity is further evident in the continual improvements in the building, such as the very welcome one of battleship linoleum in the corridors of the first floor; the authorization for a survey of the entire grounds, showing buildings, drains, roads and all important objects; the directing of attention to the need of a batting-cage, which it was hoped might be given in the near future; and plans for the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the School, to take place in the last part of May, 1915. For the last, Dr. Thayer and Messrs. Fearing and Gardner were appointed a committee to report in November. The plans for the anniversary were also discussed at a dinner of the Alumni on the twenty-third of April at the New York Harvard Club, at which a hundred men were present and Mr. Barber spoke.

The athletics of the autumn were very successful, St. Mark's winning all games, that against Groton by thirteen to three. A new skating-rink was constructed across the Marlborough road. The baseball season was almost as successful as the football, and ended with the hardest-fought game yet played with Groton, a victory of six to five in twelve innings.

In November, 1914, the Trustees were able to inspect the new batting-cage, or closed-in playground, given by the Armour brothers, and now nearing completion; and also the finished skating rink and the shelter given by Charles F. Choate, Jr., '84. The batting-cage is a brick structure with a glass roof, one hundred feet square by forty feet high at the apex, and has been of great service for winter practice of sports and for military drill. At the spring meeting John Hill Prentice, '93, was elected a Trustee. As yet the shadow of the war had not fallen perceptibly upon the School, though it was to be only a few months before St. Mark's graduates were fighting in France; and the plans for the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary went vigorously ahead. The football team kept up to the standard of good work set by the recent elevens, but was beaten by a very spirited and aggressive Groton team by fourteen to nothing, the only defeat of the season. In the midst of a prosperous and happy year the School was suddenly saddened by the death of Giraud Foster de Rham, a much loved member of the last class graduated, who had come on the fourteenth of March to pass Sunday. He was taken ill almost immediately, and died of typhoid at School on Saturday, the twenty-seventh of March. He was the youngest of four brothers, all St. Markers. His funeral took place from Grace Church, New York, on the thirtieth. A scholarship was founded in his memory by his parents.

THE years that have passed since my entrance at St. Mark's are crowded so full of the memories of things great and things little that, when once evoked, they fairly flood me,(121) driving before them all else. For many years after graduation one is not far enough away from them to gain much perspective--- the recollection of a feast successfully accomplished is just as vivid as the wild enthusiasm of a Groton game; a particularly long list of deficiencies just as clear as the results of certain examinations. These memories that I am trying to set down are, therefore, liable to be scattered and as miscellaneous as the "Brevities and Levities"; in fact, they remind me very much of that column --- even to the fact that the "Levities" are as inconspicuous.

One cannot quite compare the years at the School to the "Seven Ages" of Shakespeare, the periods being less distinct, the contrasts less vivid; yet there are periods, and there are contrasts. There is, I think, a growing tendency at School to make for less distinction between these periods, to bring about a closer relation between the forms, and between the upper and lower School. The "new kid" year is becoming each year less and less sharply defined. It holds fewer terrors than formerly perhaps it is for the best, and possibly not, in some cases.

But just what periods or ages can be found in those years at school? In that first year we were a little more allied to our past than in other years. We had contests with schools that we had left, we had close friends in those schools, and our parents were more frequent visitors. We had not yet become fully a part of the School. In our second year we were completely at home, and felt the dignity of becoming "old boys." With the next two years came the feeling that, in some way, we were vital to the life of the School. The dignity of a "room" had been attained, and we were putting ourselves into line for places on teams that would represent St. Mark's. With the Fifth Form year came care:---college examinations were looming terrible on the horizon. With these cares and worries came, also, an added dignity born of a feeling that we were in some way responsible for those beneath us. Then, in our last year, this feeling increased; the sense of power and the pleasure of control had come to us. In this year we plucked the fruits of the past, and they were the most pleasant of our experience. Suddenly, before we realized it, a new world had opened to us and we were looking back---back upon those long, happy years. During the following year, our visits to School were frequent. We felt a certain superiority, I must admit; but it soon vanished, and our attitude toward School underwent a change. Each year, as we returned, we were admitted more and more into the confidences of the masters --- those who guided the School --- and we began to feel that there rested in us a debt, a certain responsibility that made us sharers in the problems that concerned the School.

Thus does the cycle of years pass before me, and, in a similar way, the cycle of each year. With early fall came football, the half-drudgery of practice and the wild exhilaration of the game ---in early years the games with Fay School, later the Brotherhood and Fearing, still later those with outside schools which, as nothing else, brought the School together as a unit. Then, after the Groton game, came that rather monotonous between-times when we waited for hockey---broken only by Thanksgiving with its boxes from home, golf, and occasional games of land-hockey, usually played on a Saturday afternoon when visiting graduates joined the game, only to repent of overhearty living and little exercise. Then came the expectant checking off of days on the calendar --- the counting of days before the Christmas vacation. After vacation, long afternoons of practice for the sports in the gymnasium, and the longed-for hockey, played in my first years on any part of the reservoir that happened to be frozen, often as far away as White's Corner, but now played on the school grounds with the most comfortable of living-rooms right at the rink's side. Then, after Easter vacation, came the many-sided life of spring, when baseball held by far the greater part of our attention, not only in the afternoon but at all spare moments of the day, even long after the sun had set. June followed the baseball season, bringing with it the shadow of examinations. Baseball continued, but shared the honors with track, golf, tennis, swimming, "the Store," and reviewing. Prize-day came and examinations were over; summer vacation was at hand.

For an instant I let my memory run riot, and a procession of happy days, scattered over the six years, passes before me: the Sixth Form dance, and a consequent lapse in lessons; a free day between examinations, an early morning swim; a bicycle ride ending long after supper had begun; an early morning tramp, returning with a pocket full of young squirrels; an afternoon of skiing; a tent in the woods and a half-burnt chicken without salt or pepper but with a bottle of olives and some candy; an afternoon in the gymnasium and a game of basketball; the daring adventure of umpiring a Sixth Form and Faculty game of baseball; and an afternoon rehearsal of the play on the half-completed stage.

These memories are, indeed, but one long procession of pleasures, often pleasures that may never be attained again and are, therefore, doubly cherished. They are often the pleasures of youth---of that period in our lives which is almost invariably the brightest. Care-free and exuberant we were; our imagination unfettered by the cut and dried formulas of later learning. Our minds wandered at will, and our thoughts were our own. Among the strongest and most welcome of the memories that come to me are those of the friendships formed at school. It was inevitable that we should form many and some that should be lasting. We were as one family for years. We played on the same teams or struggled in rivalry in the sports. We sat at the same table day in and day out. We went to the Store together, and we served slate side by side. We helped one another in our lessons and we played jokes on one another.

We knew one another's abilities, and watched them develop. We saw one another's characters in the making and knew them as well as our own. Each friend left his impression upon us, and we, in turn, left ours upon our friends. Some of those friendships that we made we keep up in after life. Other friends are separated from us, fall away, and are practically lost; yet the memory of the days of friendship remains ever as bright.

Sharing with those friends the influence upon our lives were the masters--- friends, also, but looked upon in a somewhat different light. They often knew us better than we knew ourselves, and were working for our betterment when we least suspected it. In the class-room, in our sports, and in our daily life, they were with us, helping and guiding. Sometimes we acknowledged their intents and efforts, and sometimes we did not. Often, however, there was a certain feeling of antagonism, a certain contest of wits that added a definite amount of excitement to our life. I am sure that I found as much joy in a feast successfully carried out in the dead of night as I did in the passing of a difficult examination. I may play the rebel to most existing ideas of school discipline and also be very unphilosophical when I enter the plea that discipline be not so organized as to make mischief impossible. We are learning that contest, not very peaceable or mild, is apparently essential to mankind; and I claim that a certain amount of contest between masters and boys is vital. Not long ago I was relating to an elderly lady some school-boy prank. When I had finished, she gasped, "How could you be so bad? " To myself I echoed, not for the first time, "Why were we so good?"

Among the most vivid of my memories arise those which are connected with my principal interest while at school---the Vindex. As I recall the later years, there has been but little change in its general character, except that due to the personality of the editor-in-chief or the very small circle that is usually the backbone of the paper. Each year has made for progress in one way or another; in finance, in variety, in volume, in scope, or in the quality of fiction, poetry, or editorials. In a rather vague way I can trace tendencies in these years. From a wealth of poetry it grew more rigid and standardized; then there came a decided emphasis on the grotesque in fiction, followed by an interest in the great outdoors, which in turn gave place to an interest in things mechanical; and in later years it has become more varied in its interests. Its aims, however, have ever been the same; to cultivate literary ability in school; to unify the efforts of the School; to be a record of school events for the parents and the graduates, and to unify the graduates, and hold their interest in the School.

My first inclination to write came in my Third Form year. When that first story was accepted, my joy was far greater than at the acceptance of any two stories later on. The following year brought me greater luck; and as months passed the actual pleasure in writing grew steadily. Wild, bloody tales they were, and never did I receive such a damper as was administered one day by a well-meaning editor-in-chief who suggested that I write at least one story without slaughtering some one. It was a stupendous task he set me; and months passed before it was accomplished. When it was, I fear that I considered my duty done and that I was entitled to a relapse; at least, I took one. And it was an acute one, if I remember rightly---everyone murdered but the family cat. This experience of mine is far from unique; in fact, it is typical of the majority of those who write for the Vindex; and, when one stops to consider, the tendency is quite natural.

The last year brought with it the sense of power and responsibility --- also the bugbear of editorials that must be written, with the straining after something original. The writing of the editorials was about the only irksome task, since the proofreading was always patiently done by one of the masters --- who, in most cases, was also consulted in the selection and correction of the stories and poems that were published. This selection and correction, as well as the gathering of such material, was one of my most enjoyable duties. In many cases the masters would tell me of some boy who had, in his English composition, shown an aptitude for writing. Then, often only after much persuasion, would I prevail upon the boy to try to write a story. Usually the first one was a failure with little gleams of virtue scattered through it. Then long hours would be spent convincing the boy that he could write, but that, although his attempt showed great merit, the story was not quite what was wanted. Almost always a second and third attempt would be made before a story or a poem would be produced that could be published. Then the battle was half won, and several pieces could be refused without dampening the boy's ambition. It was those struggles to gain a boy's interest that were to me the reward of no little hard work.

Thus it is that the memory of things done and things said swarm back to me. And, giving a background to all, are glimpses of the School itself, the buildings, the grounds and the countryside, --- visions of the ivy-clad walls; the dim stretch of corridors; the dark circle of the track, half-hidden in the green of trees; the white row of beds in the hospital; the reflections in the swimming pool on a calm spring evening; the soft light flooding over bent heads at the library tables; the half-dim light in chapel on a winter's afternoon. And echoing to me come the once familiar sounds: the sudden clatter of chairs in the dining-room after grace has been said; the roar of cheering from the side lines during a game; the tramp of feet as the classes are dismissed; and the summons of the chapel-bell.

Pervading all these scenes and thoughts floats the atmosphere of old traditions, traditions that have sprung from a somewhere in the past and have become one with the daily life of the School. Indefinite and vague they often are, yet present and so potent that, when we return, as visitors, to school, the instant we step again under the arch of the cloister, passing beneath the Lion and the Book, we feel once more the grip of their laws, and know ourselves to be drawn nearer to that former life. These traditions are to us the School. We see each year fewer and fewer familiar faces, yet we feel that we half-know the thoughts of these boys playing cloister-ball, that we share many of their hopes, and have, indeed, much in common with them.

We pass along the cloister, and inside the door we meet Mr. Thayer, coming from his study; and we step with him into the little parlor, where we find Mrs. Thayer. We are again back in our days at school with these two kindest of friends, who have made so much that is good in us, who for six years shared our troubles and our pleasures, and who are still doing the same, year after year.

What memories I have of them! The evenings spent with them during our last years at school; their words of cheer as we lay lonesome and ill in the hospital; their words and deeds of sympathy in all our troubles; their earnest advice when we erred; their words of praise when we were successful, even in the most trivial of things. There was not a field to which we turned our thoughts and ambitions in which they did not take an interest ---and in our after-life we have found them ever the same. Never shall we find two better friends.

THE celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of St. Mark's began on Friday, the twenty-eighth of May, and lasted through Monday, the thirty-first. It was attended by about 250 alumni from all parts of the country, including representatives of the first class, which entered the School in 1865. Most of these guests occupied the quarters of the boys, who had given up their rooms and gone into tents temporarily erected near the baseball cage. The formal exercises were held in the gymnasium at half-past eleven Friday morning, at which the following was the program: Prayer; singing of Gaudeamus Igitur; the address of welcome by Dr. Thayer; an address by Bishop Lawrence, President of the Board of Trustees, on The School; singing of Integer Vitae; an address by President A. T. Hadley of Yale on Education and Public Service; the singing of the School song; and the Benediction. At the close of the exercises the academic procession formed again and marched to the School building, where luncheon was served. After luncheon speeches were made by President Lowell of Harvard; President Luther of Trinity; Professor McElroy of Princeton; Adjutant-General Cole, who in Governor Walsh's absence through illness brought the greetings of the Commonwealth; Dean Olds of Amherst; Dr. Peabody of Groton; Dr. Drury of St. Paul's; Dr. Olmsted of Pomfret; Principal Perry of Exeter; and Mr. Jones of the Boston Latin School.

In his address of welcome at the exercises(122) Dr. Thayer said that though in the presence of representatives of institutions which measured their age in centuries and half centuries, St. Mark's could not claim a great length of days, we nevertheless rejoiced that we too had reached our majority. Bishop Lawrence traced the evolution of church schools from the New England academy and high school; spoke of Joseph Burnett's energy in founding the School, born in the travail of a nation, the Civil War; and named as the foundation stones of any such school scholarship, diversified interests, public service, and loyalty to Christ and the Church. President Hadley, the principal speaker of the day, made a plea for the culture which should show itself in scholarship, citizenship and religion; and congratulating St. Marks on what it had accomplished, he stated that it had always emphasized this culture, now more needed in America than in any other country, and more needed today than at any other time. To the training of the scholar, the citizen and the Christian it is necessary to add the training of the gentleman, as opposed to the utility of typical American school courses, which in the long run are not good for the pupil, and are unsuited to public interests. The danger to political and social life is narrowness and partisanship in public opinion, and public opinion in school days has a strong influence on later life. With the breakdown of belief in certain dogmas and creeds, there is danger of a collapse also in the spirit of reverence and sanction for moral conduct. Alarmists believe that we are face to face with the time when the country will have no religion except that of a more or less enlightened selfishness; and those who are not alarmists often feel that the substitution of selfish motives for religious ones is progressing at a dangerously fast pace. It has been said that schools like St. Mark's are undemocratic; but President Hadley believed, on the contrary, that a school with the true ideals of culture, and one that appeals to the real instinct of the gentleman, is a training-ground and preservative of democracy.

In a speech after luncheon, President Lowell pointed out the nature of work and ideals, and the glory of holding the torch of life for a while in contributing to the great work whose foundations were in the past, and whose completion is always in the future. President Luther brought greetings from Trinity, and pointed out that Dr. Pynchon, Mr. Peck, and Messrs. Barber, Goodridge and Brinley were all from Trinity, and cemented the connection between this college and St. Mark's; and Dean Olds, bringing greetings from Amherst, claimed a large connection with St. Mark's because she had given us Dr. Thayer. Dr. Peabody of Groton spoke with intense appreciation of the material prosperity Dr. Thayer had brought to St. Mark's, but congratulated him and the other masters more on what they had done and were doing for the character and development of the boys who came to them. Dr. Drury of St. Paul's made a strong plea to the alumni for their interest and help in obtaining and holding good teachers, to whose value he paid great tribute, and in cultivating when they could a proper coöperation between these teachers and parents.

In preparation for the baseball game with Groton on the following day, the last practice was held in the afternoon and was attended by the graduates. Dr. and Mrs. Thayer then entertained the Alumni at tea, and at half-past seven Dr. Thayer conducted a special Chapel service for the graduates. At eight o'clock the alumni dinner began, with Harry Burnett, '69, as President, and J. H. Prentice, '93, as Toastmaster. During the dinner music was supplied by the School clubs and a special orchestra. The dinner was followed by speeches by Dr. Thayer, Mr. Barber, C. F. Choate, '84, and F. Wickes, '94, and Dr. Thayer was presented by the alumni with a silver cup in recognition of his twenty-one years of service. The next day, Saturday, was a whole holiday for the School. In the morning a baseball game between two teams of graduates was played, and in the afternoon the game with Groton, --- the latter perversely resulting in a defeat for St. Mark's by seven to nothing. On Sunday morning, after the service of the Holy Communion in the Chapel, the alumni attended the regular service in St. Mark's Church, at which the Rev. Samuel M. Dorrance, '01, was the preacher. In the afternoon Dr. Thayer conducted an open-air service under the trees by the running-track, with a short address, prayers, and familiar hymns sung to the accompaniment of a cornet.

As of interest in connection with the fiftieth anniversary, the Trustees had ordered a report on the condition of the School by a committee consisting of Mr. Castle, Mr. Baylies and Dr. Mann, which was made substantially as follows. The teaching on the whole was excellent, as the good records, at the Harvard examinations showed, and there was a keenness and enthusiasm in the recitations due to the character of the masters, and unusual in American schools. While it is not essential that a school teacher should be a scholar, it is essential that he should be manly and love teaching, and be able to communicate enthusiasm for the work; and this was very evidently the ideal that the School was aiming at. The training of youth is now regarded as important beyond almost any other work. In 1890 report was made that the teaching at St. Mark's suffered from frequent changes in the staff; but since then there had been a change, and St. Mark's should be able to obtain and keep the best quality of men.

The course of study was well planned, according to the opinion of a professor in the Educational Department at Harvard; but he thought that it might be covered in five years instead of six. The apparent disadvantage in this would be immaturity at college; yet English boys were now about two years ahead of ours at the same age, and the matter formed a good question for discussion with other schools.

A criticism made twenty-five years ago by the committee appointed to consider raising the standards of scholarship was that masters taught a variety of subjects. This had been met except in the case of history, and there was no reason why history should not be taught by a specially equipped man. The boys should become interested in political and economical questions, not merely as text-book matter, but as dramatic, organic growth.

The comment on the teaching of English was that English instructors ought to bring their instruction into relation with the other instruction in the School, and that every master in the School should be a teacher of English. St. Mark's boys have unusual home advantages in this subject, yet at Harvard their use of language is no better than that of boys who have not. The effect on other work of proper cultivation of language was pointed out.

A recommendation was made that steady influence should be exerted for neatness and respect for individual property and books, a matter which had already occupied the attention of the Trustees.

The report further stated that some of the graduates were disturbed because St. Mark's was becoming more and more a rich man's school, and that they wanted competitive scholarships, or something of the sort. On this the Committee made no recommendation, but observed that similar experiments in other schools had not been markedly successful. The Committee believed very strongly that the influence of the Headmaster was so wisely exerted that the boys at St. Mark's were in little danger of becoming snobbish, or of laying undue stress on the mere matter of wealth.

The report ended with the observation that the School possessed the loyalty and affection of the graduates, and that the quality of these graduates indicated that on the whole the School was doing its work well.

In November, 1915, the Trustees passed resolutions on the death of Mr. Francis Charles Foster, who had been a member of the Board since 1874, and during these forty-one years had been constant in attending the meetings, and highly efficient as a member of the executive committee. His interest in St. Mark's dated from the founding of the School, since which his devotion had been unswerving.

ATTENTION had now been forced by events to the menace of war, and it became evident to the Trustees that military training should be introduced into the School, according to the Headmaster's suggestion. Mr. Flood was temporarily absent when the term opened in 1915, Mr. Reid and Mr. Knapp had left, and three new masters, Mr. Blake, Mr. Greene, and Mr. Dennis, came to take their places. The building had been improved during the summer vacation by the installation of new fire walls and doors, and enlargement of the kitchen and pantries. The results of the college examinations in the spring are recorded in the Vindex as twenty-eight honor marks in the Harvard finals, and 148 in the Board papers; but since we have no other source of information we are compelled to suspect that the latter number is a misprint. The School had four representatives in each of the two groups listed by Harvard, in which there were thirty-two schools represented, with St. Mark's heading the list. The football team was undefeated until the Groton game, in which a fumble by St. Mark's gave Groton its only opportunity to score. The military program was put into the charge of Major Henry Anson Barber, U. S. A., Retired, a graduate of West Point and brother of Mr. W. W. Barber, the Senior Master. Major Barber was detailed by the Adjutant-General of the United States Army as military instructor. Requisition was made for arms and equipment for all except the first two forms, instruction arranged for all boys, and rifle-practice for the older ones; but almost before the work had been thoroughly organized Major Barber died, and the full program could not be carried out in all its details. The character and ability of Major Barber had had time, however, to impress themselves with remarkable distinctness on the School, and his soldierly manliness, firm discipline and open-hearted friendliness won him a permanent place in the memories and affections of those who were fortunate enough to know him. The training began on the twenty-sixth of November for the Sixth Form, and was planned for the rest of the School as soon as the Sixth should be prepared to help. Military drill was held every Wednesday and Saturday in the baseball cage, and later outside as weather permitted.

The usual school activities were curtailed as little as possible, though they were colored by the absorbing interest of the war. There were lectures, Missionary Society meetings and Dramatic Club rehearsals. We read in the Vindex that Mr. Francis Ouimet broke the golf course record by making thirty-one, that Professor Baumgarten lectured on the stars, and that Admiral Peary gave an account of his expedition to the Pole. There were cross country runs, the Sixth Form dance, excellent hockey games, and during the fall term a series of golf matches between Groton and St. Mark's masters, the latter winning two out of three. Lectures and talks on such subjects as aviation and preparedness indicated the increasing preoccupation of the times, and four war-maps were placed in the hall in charge of one of the boys. In April an appeal was made by S. Galatti, '06, who had spent many months in relief work in Alsace, for an ambulance to be purchased and equipped by the School. This was at once answered by both boys and graduates, the former and the Faculty contributing $1,000 and the latter $1500, through the efforts of Hamilton Fish, Jr., '06, so that two ambulances were sent to the work in France. A letter of thanks was received from Mr. A. Piatt Andrew, the Director.

The School company, soon changed into a battalion of two companies, held manoeuvres every Monday afternoon, and an hour of close order drill Wednesday mornings, after recess. There was a special drill in honor of the Trustees on St. Mark's day, and on Memorial Day, May the thirtieth, the Battalion marched with the G. A. R. veterans. The following letter of the third of June, 1916, from Lieutenant Stuart McLeod, the instructor, gives ample testimony of the zeal with which the new work was undertaken and carried through: "Prior to the departure of the members of the present Sixth Form I wish to convey to them my sincere thanks for the zealous and efficient work they have performed in connection with the military training of the St. Mark's Battalion. Without their aid it would have been absolutely impossible to have brought the Battalion to its present high standard of efficiency. I consider that the work that has been performed by the students of the School during the past year has been most gratifying, and that, if appearances may be considered an index, the organization will continue to be one of the best, if not the best, private school corps in the country. I wish especially to thank Captain Street, Captain Choate, Second Lieutenant John Caswell, Battalion Sergeant Major Taylor and Quartermaster Sergeant Hoffman for the strenuous work they have performed and for the assistance they have rendered."

At the April meeting of the Trustees, of whose number, by the election of S. M. Dorrance, 01, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Mr. Foster a majority were now alumni of the School, the matter of the endowment fund was discussed, and the use authorized of as much of the income from it as the Standing Committee might direct for the increase of salaries of those masters who had been in the service of the School for more than ten years. Subsequently, at the exercises on prize day, Dr. Thayer pointed out in detail the need of endowment.

Baseball continued as usual in the spring term, with the usual sports, and the tennis team played several matches, beating St. George's and being beaten by Worcester Academy. The nine was moderately successful, but was defeated by Groton by three to nothing. Saturday evenings were devoted to moving pictures shown in the quadrangle or in the common-room as the weather decreed. On prize-day at half-past nine the Battalion was reviewed on Belmont Field by the Headmaster. The chief speakers at the usual exercises in the gymnasium were Bishop Charles H. Brent, of the Philippine Islands, and Professor W. H. Schofield, of Harvard.

The expenses of the School of course heavily increased in 1916-1917, and an increase in the tuition became necessary for the following year. This was less in amount for boys already in the School than for new boys, and did not include those holding scholarships. Few improvements were needed, fortunately, because of Dr. Thayer's foresight. The printing of a list of alumni, with addresses, was authorized, and much activity shown among the graduates in the matter of the endowment fund. The year began on the fourth of October, two weeks later than usual, because of the threat of infantile paralysis. Mr. Flood was again at his post; and there was one new master, Mr. Snyder, who was to remain as an efficient teacher and enthusiastic participant in the School's athletic interests until 1924. The School lost the services of Mr. Fish, whose skill and energy as choir-master had for several years been greatly appreciated. Sixteen of the boys had during the summer attended the Fort Terry Junior Training Camp, which was similar to that at Plattsburg for men. Mr. Knapp, formerly a master, returned to help Mr. Snyder in coaching the football team; but after the late start many injuries occurred, and when the team faced Groton, which was heavier by ten pounds to a man, the backfield players had been together in only two signal practices and not one scrimmage for a month before the game. The result, though a good fight, was thirteen to nothing in Groton's favor. In hockey the form team system was introduced instead of the club, each form having at least one team.

The military work meanwhile continued as before, and a regular course in marksmanship for all members of the Battalion was held in a shooting-gallery twenty-five yards in length constructed in the basement. There were voluntary scouting-parties and military walks on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons under the supervision of Lieutenant McLeod. In the spring Lieutenant McLeod was called away by his duties in the National Guard, and Major William J. Greene, Massachusetts National Guard, Retired, took his place. The restlessness of the boys at the urge of events is indicated by a telegram from General Wood, who advised St. Mark's boys not to leave school before the plans of the government were known, and stated that the best thing now was the training as they were receiving it. The arsenal contained 140 rifles of the Krag-Jorgensen type, with an equal number of bayonets and cartridge-belts; and in a record shoot thirteen boys qualified as marksmen.

In view of the ominous conditions which the country was facing, Dr. Thayer sent a letter to the boys' parents saying that each boy should do something during the coming summer, and announced that a farming camp would be established at the School during July for boys who cared to contribute their work. There were to be twenty-five boys in each of two periods, who should work from five to six hours a day, and sleep in tents. About thirty acres had been secured for cultivating corn and potatoes, Barber Field being but one of about eight pieces of land used for the purpose, and Mr. Barber and Mr. Flichtner had volunteered to take charge. This work was similar to that undertaken by about a dozen other schools, and was accomplished successfully. The division into periods was changed from two to three of two weeks each; and before School closed in the spring all boys whose studies averaged seventy-five per cent or over were excused for ploughing and planting. The camp consisted of tents pitched in the form of a company street, between the baseball cage and the gymnasium, and was under the supervision of Mr. Velte. A master's cottage was used as lounging-room and dining-hall. The boys did no cooking, but helped wait on table and wash dishes; and taps came at half-past nine. All went away over week-ends. The second shift, for weeding and hoeing, began on the fifth of July; and the third gave the finishing touches to the crops.

Winter and spring athletics were as active as usual, and the Vindex notes that the tennis team, organized in 1913, had won sixteen out of nineteen matches played. It defeated Milton Academy, the Technology Freshmen and Worcester Academy by comfortable scores. The fives matches had been lost by six to nothing to Groton on March the tenth; the baseball game with Groton was lost by the decisive score of eleven to one through Groton's greatly superior batting. On prize-day, June the twentieth, the Battalion was reviewed on Belmont Field by General Sweetser, Acting Adjutant General of Massachusetts, who afterwards spoke at the exercises as the representative of the Governor. Dr. Van Allen also spoke at the exercises on aspects of the war.

In the fall of 1917 is found in the Trustees' records the first reference to St. Mark's' losses by war, resolutions on the heroic death of Julian Biddle, '08, who in his will left all the money he had earned since leaving school, about $20,000, to St. Mark's; and at the May meeting necessary expenditures for compiling a war record were authorized.(123) Some of the masters entered the service, and the spirit of the others in taking up the extra work thus thrown upon them was warmly appreciated by the Board. Six of the Faculty were gone, five directly on account of the war, and almost every boy had spent some part of his vacation at war work. The new-comers on the Faculty were Mr. John A. Hunt, Mr. Howard D. Miner, Mr. Edgar A. Sheldon, Mr. Malcolm H. Dyar, and Major Greene, who had come from Boston the year before to give military instruction. A loss had come to the School in the death of James Huntington Dalliba, of the class of 1920, who was killed in an automobile accident on the twenty-fourth of August. He had been a member of the School only one year, but had established a place for himself in the regard and affection of boys and masters by his modesty, uprightness and scholarly ability.

The college examination record was again excellent; and in a list published by Harvard of the thirty-one men who had passed the examinations with special credit stood the names of six St. Markers of the class of 1917. This put St. Mark's at the head of the list, and in recognition of it the School was notified that the Phi Beta Kappa Interscholastic Scholarship Trophy was this year awarded to St. Mark's. It was a bronze bas-relief, held for the past two years by the Central High School, of Springfield, and was formally presented on January the twelfth by Dr. George H. Chase, formerly a master at the School. A bronze lamp was presented to each boy whose work had helped to win it.(124) On February the eighth the School was given a half-holiday in honor of the event.

Though much time had been used in harvesting and husking corn, football went on in charge of Mr. Brinley with Mr. Dyar and Mr. Snyder as his assistants. The team was beaten by Middlesex and Milton and played a scoreless tie with Groton. At the end of the season Mr. Snyder left for the Officers Training Camp at Camp Upton; but Richard Knowles, '05, joined the Faculty, and is as valuable as a master as he was efficient as a scholar. The military work went on, and a course in military science was established for the Sixth Form, by which each boy might have a chance to act as officer. The bi-weekly drills had to be abandoned during the winter term because of shortage of coal for use in the baseball cage, and its place was taken by lectures on military matters. The lecturers during the winter spoke on such subjects as the Dardanelles campaign and the work of the Massachusetts Relief Party in Halifax; and Mr. Bigelow presented the School with a service-flag with 320 stars, five of them gold, which was hung from a wire from the windows at each end of the quadrangle. In the Third Liberty Loan the boys set out to raise $10,000, and from masters, boys, and others interested, obtained over $21,000.

The Sixth Form dance, postponed because of an epidemic of measles, was held on the tenth of May, and through Mrs. Thayer's unfailing interest was as successful as ever. The usual entertainments were held, among them the favorite Hampton Quartette recital; and in spite of war work the boys were able to help Mr. Stanton King's Sailors' Haven, in Boston. The significant subject of the Fourth Form prize debate this spring was Resolved, that Criticism of the Government at the Present Time is Disloyal. C. F. Choate, Jr., '84, gave a talk on patriotism, and on June the first Captain Turner, of the Royal Rifles Regiment, lectured on gas and gas masks. Baseball came in for its usual attention, and through the devoted work of Mr. Flichtner and Mr. Goodridge the season was very successful, and Groton was beaten eleven to ten. The speakers on prize day were Mr. Howard Elliott, Mr. C. D. Gibson, and Bishop Lawrence. Dr. Thayer announced that there were now 362 St. Mark's graduates in the country's service.

During the summer of 1918 the tremendous tradition of loyalty to the Nation was forming at the heart-breaking price of the loss of seven graduates, making thirteen thus far on the increasing roll of honor published from month to month in the Vindex, which bade the boys of the School uncover when they passed beneath the service flag. There were now over 400 graduates in active service, more than a third of the total number. The School farm was extended, and, though many boys had gone to camps, forty volunteered. The two periods were of two weeks each. There were seven tents, one for Major Greene, and six for boys, each of the latter containing four beds. Belongings were kept in the gymnasium, the Boys' Parlor was used for a dining and reading-room, and the work lasted for four hours in the morning and two in the afternoon except on Saturdays, when all went away. The success of the farm was very largely due to Mr. Flichtner.

The influenza epidemic of 1918 closed the School in October until the twenty-third, though all boys who chose to return were allowed to do so before the sixteenth. The question of a war memorial was left to the Standing Committee, with power; and acknowledgment was made of a gift of two hundred and fifty dollars to the library from Mrs. W. H. Schofield for books on aviation, in memory of her son William H. Cheney, '16, who was killed in an aeroplane accident in military service in Italy. The Biddle bequest was to be maintained as a separate fund, and until further action one thousand dollars of the income to be devoted to scholarships, with preference for the sons of men who had served the armed forces of the United States or the Allies in the Great War. These were to be known as the Julian Cornell Biddle scholarships, and the balance of the income was to be added to the fund.

On the nineteenth of May, 1918, the School and its graduates lost a lifelong friend by the death of Daniel Butler Fearing, '78, who had been closely associated with St. Mark's for forty-seven years. He entered in 1871, was graduated in 1878, and entered Harvard in the class of 1882. In 1886 he was one of the organizers of the St. Mark's Alumni Association, of which he successively became Vice-president and President. He was elected a trustee in 1891, the first from the alumni, and served very actively for twenty-seven years. In an appreciation drawn up by Bishop Lawrence and Dr. Thayer it is stated that no alumnus was better known to the boys both of the past and the present; that his visits to the School were frequent; and that his friendliness and unfailing and enthusiastic loyalty made his presence felt wherever St. Mark's boys were to be found. He gave for nearly thirty years, in person when possible, the much-coveted Fearing Athletic Prize, which was awarded to the boy in the Sixth Form who had done the most for athletics in spirit and accomplishment; and endowed the Morgan Greek Prize, instituted by his friend Morris H. Morgan, '77. His gifts to the School were continuous, amongst them many valuable books to the library; in fact whenever he heard that anything was needed he usually either supplied it or helped to do so. His own library on fishing and angling, which became the largest and best collection on the subject in the world, he gave to Harvard College; and for his work as a collector he was given the honorary degree of Master of Arts. As a man, he was essentially a friend to all he came in contact with, and his large heart, ingenuous manner, devotion to the causes he loved, and bountiful spirit endeared him everywhere. St. Mark's was the great interest in his life, and the love he gave, returned in full measure by generations of St. Mark's boys, is the measure of the School's loss at his death.

The close of the war allowed the thoughts and energies of the community to return to other things. The military drill was abandoned at the end of the year. The names of Charles Anthony Fowler and Francis Burritt Shepard are included in the list on the Trustees' records of those who died in the war, though their comparatively short periods at St. Mark's did not satisfy the conditions of affiliation as drawn up by the School for the formal printed record. The service of three of the trustees is also mentioned: Mr. Dorrance, Mr. Prentice, and Mr. W. R. Castle, Jr. The plans for the enlargement of the Chapel had been made and approved, and the work was now in progress, under a building committee composed of Dr. Thayer, Mr. Harry Burnett and Mr. Bigelow. Seventy-five thousand dollars had been raised,---by February, 1920, ten thousand more ---and many special gifts for the Chapel and its endowment. It is a matter of satisfaction to the alumni, skilfully considered and attained by Dr. Thayer's interest and sympathy, that though much enlarged, enriched and beautified, the Chapel is still the Chapel of past years, and associations and sentiments are undisturbed, by the additions, for the returning graduates. The building now commemorates all who served in the war, though there are special memorials for most of those who died in the service. The copy above the altar of Bellini's Madonna and Saints,(125) by Signor Lochoff, is in memory of McKinlock; the organ in memory of Booth; the choir room in memory of Taylor; the Sanctuary candlesticks in memory of Kemp; and many beautiful windows in the Apse and Aisle in memory of most of the others. On the walls of the Sanctuary are two tablets on which are inscribed the names of the graduates who died in the service, and in the Aisle the names of all who served.(126)

On account of the lack of men the football squad disbanded after the re-opening of School, and the idea of a representative team was given up. Teams were made up from the two companies and played a series of three games, which resulted in a victory for each and a tie. In the fourth ("Victory") Liberty Loan campaign the school over-subscribed its apportionment of $40,000 by thirty-nine hundred. The United War Work campaign, in charge of Mr. Brinley, did excellent work, subscribing $1874 more than its quota of $3000, but the reaction against military training after the armistice was voiced by an anonymous legend on the blackboard in the schoolroom: "Wars may come and wars may go, but drill goes on forever." It continued, however, on Wednesdays and Saturdays from eleven to a quarter of one. The entertainments, with a few musical exceptions, continued to be lectures on war matters: "With Three Armies," by Mr. Arthur Stanley Riggs, the war correspondent; "The Use of Animals in the War," by Mr. Harold Baynes; and "Lloyd George," by Miss Helen Fraser. The Vindex had for many months been printing intensely interesting letters from graduates in service. But the life of the School was gradually flowing back into its accustomed channel, and the dance, speaking, debates, "Officer 666" by the Dramatic Club, and hockey in inter-form games, came in season. On the fifteenth of December Dr. Thayer read to a peaceful audience in his study Dickens' "Christmas Carol" as usual. The same evening, instead of the regular Chapel service, the choir gave the first part of Handel's "Messiah." In March announcement was made of the winning by Porter R. Chandler, ;17, of the highest academical distinction of the Freshman year at Harvard, the Jacob Wendell Scholarship, which had been won ten years before by Francis Dewey Everett, '07. The reconstruction of the Chapel was now begun, and evening prayers were held in the schoolroom. A temporary chapel was arranged in the choir room.

Baseball flourished in the spring term, St. Mark's winning a large majority of games, including the all-important one with Groton by a score of twelve to two through greatly superior batting. This climax was celebrated on the following day with a whole holiday. On prize-day, the School's fifty-third, Dr. Thayer reviewed the work of the year, and announced that normal conditions had been resumed. The principal speaker at the exercises was Mr. Montague Rendall, Headmaster of Winchester School, England.

ON FOUNDER'S DAY, 1919, the Trustees observed the twenty-fifth anniversary of Mr. Harry Burnett as Treasurer and Dr. Thayer as Headmaster of the School by the gift to Mr. Burnett of a clock and to Dr. Thayer of a watch, both appropriately inscribed. A presentation speech was read by the Rev. Alexander Mann, D.D., in which he called attention to the gracious interest of the occasion, and pointed out the inestimable benefit to St. Mark's of the strong and loyal affection between the two men; a friendship which gave lasting form and direction to the ideals and policies of St. Mark's, which is what it is because they have worked together for twenty-five years. The Board expressed gratitude for this to both; and honoring the wisdom, fairness and winning sympathy of the Headmaster, and the integrity and ability of the Treasurer, nevertheless were drawn to them even more by what they were than by what they had done, and by the rich promise for the future which their coöperation and friendship gave. The Vindex expressed similar appreciation and added the boys' thanks for the motherly influence and kind interest of Mrs. Thayer.

At the November meeting acknowledgment was made of the gift of a one thousand dollar Liberty Bond by the Whitney family in memory of Holyoke Lewis Whitney, 'i6, who died in the war; the gift to be known by his name, and the income used for athletic purposes. James Wolcott Wadsworth, was elected to the Board to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Mr. Fearing. At the same time work was begun on a very important matter, the systematic consideration of the financial needs of the School, and of the methods and means best suited to meet them. This was put into the hands of Mr. Post, chairman, and Messrs. Prentice and Dorrance, who were also to call the Alumni Council into conference. The subjects for consideration were fees for tuition and residence; scholarships; and endowment. The result was a determination on the part of the alumni to secure an endowment of a million dollars; (127) and the following fall it was voted that Messrs. Post, Prentice and Baylies, of the trustees, should be appointed with full power to coöperate with the Endowment Fund Committee; and that the latter be thanked and congratulated by the Standing Committee for their efforts and accomplishment, and assured of the willingness of the Board to coöperate in every way. The following resolutions were presented by the Headmaster: that hereafter the principal of the Permanent Endowment Fund be forever intact, and securely invested (but not in School property) and the income only expended as the Trustees may determine; that the enlargement of numbers from about 150 to about 180 boys was for the best interests of the School, provided ways and means could be found for taking care of the enlargement without impairing the present policies of the School; (128) that the matter of building a new master's cottage be left to the Standing Committee with power.

At the May meeting the resignation of Mr. Castle as a trustee was announced, and Professor George Harold Edgell, Ph.D., was elected to take his place.

Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Snyder and Mr. Blake returned in October; and with them a new master, Mr. Eaton, and twenty-one new boys. With Mr. Galatti and the others on hand the football team carried through a full schedule with good success, beating Groton by a score of seven to nothing. On the nineteenth of December a Radio Club was organized, and three years later, in 1923, the Vindex informs us that by the wireless transmitter the School had been heard in England, France, Holland, Porto Rico, Cuba, Alberta, and thirty-four states of the Union, including Oregon, California, Arizona and Nebraska. The Sixth Form dance had during the years increased from an afternoon function to a delightful week-end; and the usual program was now the dance itself on Friday evening, luncheon on Saturday at the Wayside Inn, and on Saturday evening a dance in the Common Room, with any sports that were available at other times of the day. These jollifications owe their great success to the sympathetic and wise guidance of Mrs. Thayer, and Miss Pine also is always thanked for her interest in them.

Meanwhile the Alumni Council was forming its plans for an endowment fund campaign, and in explaining them it pointed out the extraordinary fact that during the past year every boy had cost the school forty dollars more than was paid for him without taking into account the cost of the original equipment, etc. The prospect for the present year would have been still more discouraging if about seventy parents had not subscribed a hundred dollars each. The results of the campaign had been so far good, however, about $180,000 having been raised from 130 subscribers.

A winter of very disagreeable weather threw the School on its indoor resources to a larger extent than usual. On the tenth of March the fives team defeated Groton, and the winter sports occupied the week of the thirteenth of March. There was a song recital by Mr. Frank Rogers, always greatly enjoyed, and "Seven Keys to Baldpate" by the Dramatic Club. A pathetic and sad occurrence early in the spring was the death of Annie Ahern while at her work in one of the dormitories. She had served the School for more than thirty years with that devotion which seems to pervade the community, and she will be remembered by very many St. Markers with affection and thankfulness.

On the fifteenth of May at half-past eleven came the rededication of the Chapel, at which Bishop Lawrence and Dr. Thayer officiated. The service began with the hymn "Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken," and was followed by the creed, appropriate prayers, psalm number twenty-four, the hymn "Christ is Made the Sure Foundation," the address by Bishop Lawrence, the prayers of dedication by the Bishop, and the hymn "Jerusalem the Golden." Dr. Thayer then read the Roll of Honor, which was followed by "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," the prayer for the School and the Benediction by the Bishop, and the hymn "Sun of My Soul." In his address the Bishop emphasized the fact that the Chapel was being rededicated to the same sacred purposes to which it had been consecrated thirty years before, in 1891; and Dr. Thayer expressed the School's gratitude to the donors, who numbered more than a hundred.

Except for a concert by Mr. Karl Rissland's pupils in the School, a Sixth Form dance on the fourth of June, and a "Republican Nominating Convention" on Sunday evening, the sixteenth of May, baseball and tennis occupied the spring days. In the former Groton was beaten by eight to three, mostly through errors and timely hitting in the third inning, which gave St. Mark's four runs. The tennis team was less successful than usual, being beaten in three out of four contests. The principal speaker on prize day, the twenty-fifth of June, was the Honorable Thomas Nelson Page; and Harrison Tweed spoke on the subject of a fund for the Dr. and Mrs. Thayer prizes and scholarships to be raised in honor of their twenty-five years of service.

In the fall of 1920 the thanks of the Trustees were extended to Mr. Baylies for his gift of two rowing shells; to J. Sanford Barnes, '87, for a beautiful bronze given in memory of the boys who lost their lives in the World War; and to W. Burnett, '71, for a valuable collection of autographs given in memory of Henry L. Stevens, of New York. The bronze memorial stands in the northeast corner of the common room. Later in the year the School was presented by Régis H. Post, '87, with a Spanish lamp which he had received from the Right Rev. William Jones, Roman Catholic Bishop of Porto Rico, in recognition of his services when Governor of Porto Rico during President Roosevelt's administration. The lamp is of old Spanish silver, and is inscribed with the words "Esta lámpara es de nuestra Señora de alta gracia del Valle de Cuamo; se hizo año de 1692."

Mr. Flichtner was absent in Italy during the fall term, and the only newcomer on the Faculty was Mr. C. B. Saunders. The class of 1920 had sent fifteen members to Harvard, three to Princeton, one to Yale, and one to Trinity College, Oxford; and the credits obtained numbered seventy-one for the twenty-six boys examined in June, no boy taking more than four examinations. Mason Hammond, '21, was one of two boys honorably mentioned in the annual report of the College Entrance Examination Board out of more than 15,000, his ratings being the highest in three subjects. The report from the managing committee of the endowment fund was encouraging: representatives of classes as far back as 1882 had been appointed, and two hundred and sixty-eight thousand dollars realized. In December the mark to be reached was again set at seven hundred and fifty thousand.

In football three major league teams in the lower school played a series of games. The season for the first team was moderately successful, the record being five games won and four lost, among the latter the Middlesex, Milton and Groton games. In the last the Vindex reports that Groton profited by many "breaks," but nevertheless won on merit. The lectures delivered to the School had now returned to subjects unconnected with war: one by Dr. Hume on China, Mr. Conkling on modern poetry, Mr. W. W. Ellsworth on the Pilgrim Fathers, the Rev. Carroll Perry on missionary life among the Alaska Eskimos, and Mr. Baumgardt on the frontiers of the universe. The Radio Club posted the national election returns in the masters' study; and Mr. Baldy and others obtained a private wire and arranged a chart reproduction of the Harvard-Yale football game. On the fourteenth of December a masters' dance was given by Mrs. Thayer in the common room. After Mr. Flichtner's return in December Mr. Fernald was granted leave of absence for the winter term. The Vindex, grateful always to him for his help and advice, and to Mr. Flichtner for collecting the important alumni notes, takes occasion to express the extent and quality of his services. Through his encouragement and interest the School files are gradually being completed, and during the spring of 1924 an attractive editorial room was fitted up in the top of the School building. Similar interest and work have been devoted by Mr. Fernald to the organization and management of the library, until now its size, quality and usefulness can safely be designated as unsurpassed by any school library of its kind in the country.(129) In the new acquisitions science, biography and travel hold their own as against fiction; and Mr. Fernald is able through the systematic organization of his staff of assistants among the older boys to observe the trend of literary taste and habits among the boys. Mr. Lawrence had taken interest in the poetical contributions to the Vindex, and to him fell the duty of advising the editors and reading the proofs during Mr. Fernald's absence.

The fives team had beaten Groton by four matches to one; and a reorganization of school athletics was made by the adoption of the club system. Masters were made presidents, insignia granted, and colors assigned: red with white stripes to Brotherhood, green with white stripes to Fearing and black with orange stripes to Thayer.(130) The relative values of the different sports were six points for football, six for baseball, four for hockey, three for track, two for fives, and one for cross-country runs. Through the splendid coaching of Mr. Saunders the baseball team went through the season creditably, ending it by defeating Groton eight to one in a game characterized by hard and timely hitting. The tennis team also had a successful season, defeating Middlesex and St. George's, and tying Worcester Academy.

Alumni day came on the twenty-first of May. An interclub regatta took place on Fort Meadow lake in the morning, and after luncheon the ball-game with Middlesex. Prize day, for which Dr. Thayer returned after his leave of absence during the spring, was as usual except for the absence of Bishop Lawrence, a rare occurrence during the past thirty years. The principal speaker was Dr. Lewis Perry, of Exeter. The class of 1921 announced the publication of a year-book called The Lion, which consisted of photographs of the members of the class, humorous characterizations of each, and records of events conspicuous in the class's history. Similar volumes have been published by the succeeding classes, and form an interesting commentary on the intimate life of the boys, particularly during Sixth Form year.

With the autumn of 1921 the chronicling of facts and events of interest to the School was begun, largely through the initiative of H. Tweed, '03, by the St. Mark's Alumni Bulletin., the first number of which appeared under the date of December.(131) A paper of two leaves without cover, called the Alumni Association Bulletin, had appeared on the fifth of November, 1920, but this is not regarded as the first number of the periodical still printed for the Alumni. The latter is published three times during the school year by the Association, and is still prepared by those who began it, Mr. G. B. Fernald, the editor, and Mr. F. A. Flichtner and S. Galatti, '06, the committee on publication. It consists of twenty-five to thirty pages enclosed in an attractive paper cover, and includes besides events, facts, and photographs of interest to the alumni, a letter from the Headmaster dealing with and commenting upon the condition, progress, opportunities and needs of the community. It is sent to all alumni and presents in very interesting form the information which they have always wished were accessible to them, and which proves an effective means of keeping alive the interest and loyalty of those who live so far distant as to be unable to visit the School often. Its columns are open to all alumni as correspondents.

In November resolutions were sent to Mr. Flichtner in recognition of the completion of twenty-five years of his services to the School, and the following spring similar ones were sent to Mr. Flood, in which the Trustees acknowledged with profound gratitude the benefit which had come to the School from such able and consecrated masters, and declared their services to be the explanation of its achievement. A just and substantial evidence of this appreciation was the energy which both Trustees and alumni now applied to raising an alumni fund by annual subscription. The plan was put into the hands of a committee of twelve alumni, and it was resolved that part of the fund should be used for paying proper salaries to the masters. To the pension fund were to go also all registration fees, past and future, up to a certain sum. The time at which the pension should be granted was also considered in the light of a letter from Terry & Company of New York, which stated sixty-five as the age at which a pension is given to those in services entailing about the same amount of wear and tear as teaching.

Material improvements meanwhile went on vigorously: a new master's cottage(132) of brick, for the superintendence of the construction of which John Nutt's services were properly acknowledged, the extension of the schoolroom and the dormitory above it; and an addition to the fives courts, for which a gift of a thousand dollars was made by Mrs. George P. Cammann. It was also decided to install an emergency light unit in order to meet such conditions as those brought on by a heavy ice-storm during the past winter, when the buildings had been left without lights and power. It is particularly pleasant to record evidence in others than masters and boys of efficiency and loyalty. The Trustees acknowledged the cooperation and efficiency of the steward and the cook during the illness and absence of the matron, Miss Pine; and a year later recognized the twenty-five years of faithful service of Abbie Ahern by a suitable gift. The services and character of John Nutt, Charles Misener, Michael Maley and Walter Mingo hardly need recording for St. Markers of later years, who have rewarded them with the regard which the Trustees expressed for Mr. Works of a former day.

In April a suit against the Town of Southborough by the Treasurer for abatement of taxes on the masters' cottages was approved by the Board; and the latter recommended that for the ensuing year the School should pay to Southborough a sum of money in lieu of taxes. Definite action, and the amount and date of such payment, was placed in the hands of the Standing Committee.

The idea of a St. Mark's camp for needy boys from the more congested city areas was as we have seen not a new one, but it was not until the summer of 1920 that the project became a well-established work for St. Mark's. The use of suitable grounds at Brantwood, near Peterborough, New Hampshire, was then obtained by the Trustees, and masters, boys, and graduates of St. Mark's formed the council. The site had been used before the war by others for a similar purpose, and substantially constructed camp buildings were already there. The first summer's work served as an orientation for those engaged in it, and since then Brantwood Camp has been a regular interest of St. Mark's boys, valuable alike to them and to the boys from the city, and generously supported and developed. The season includes three periods of two weeks each.

Mr. Brinley, whose marriage to Miss Marian Fay took place on the fourteenth of June, was in Europe, and the new member of the Faculty in the fall of 1921 was Mr. James Hilton Marr. The term opened with an enrollment of 173 boys, the largest thus far in the history of the School. Five of these had been accepted on the results of competitive examinations, regardless of priority of application, and three to fill the places reserved for the boys from the Fay School, instead of five as the number had been for many years. There were now twenty-eight sons of old St. Mark's boys in the School. A new athletic interest had been introduced during the last winter by the resumption of the sport of rowing, which the School had abandoned as impracticable almost forty years before. A boathouse was erected by the boys on the northerly shore of Fort Meadow Lake, which lies well to the north of Marlborough, and is easily accessible by motor. The lake is the length of a Henley course, one and five-sixteenths miles, with a half-mile straightaway at each end. Mr. Blake, through whose initiative rowing was started as a supplementary sport to baseball, so effectively communicated his enthusiasm to the School that enough money was given by graduates and friends to put it on a permanent basis and to build a thoroughly serviceable boat-house on the southern side of the lake, directly opposite the old site. The new building is seventy-eight by thirty-eight feet in size. Besides space for innumerable boats there is a crew room, a large dressing-room for the club crews, and a shower room. During the winter practice is kept up at the School on machines, but only those boys take part in the rowing who cannot play baseball, or in the opinion of the baseball coach will never develop baseball ability.

The college examinations of 1921 resulted in forty honors, and seven in a single subject by the class of 1922. Out of nearly a thousand candidates for Harvard, Mason Hammond, '21, received the highest average rating. While at School he had won a Punctuality prize, the Livingston-Parsons prize, the General Knowledge prize, the Morgan Greek prize, the Kidder Latin prize, the Suydam Mathematics prize, the Sixth Form first prize in scholarship, and the Founder's Medal. At Yale Dexter Cummings won the Chamberlain prize for the best examination in Greek.

The results of the football season of 1921 were six victories and one defeat, the latter perhaps due somewhat to the fact that the Cambridge Latin was a well-knit, experienced team, and St. Mark's had been together only one day. Groton was defeated by seven to three in a very hard-fought game, in which, although Groton was nearly always in her own territory, her splendid defensive work permitted St. Mark's to score but once. The touchdown resulted from a well executed series of plays which carried the ball over sixty yards. On the twenty-third of November St. Mark's also defeated St. Paul's at Concord by a score of thirteen to nothing in the first football game ever played between the two schools. The team owed much to the coaching of S. Galatti, '06, and to the skill and enthusiasm of Captain Caulkins.

During the winter two alumni dinners were held, one in New York at the Yale Club, and the other at the Hotel Somerset in Boston. At both the absorbing matter was the alumni fund, which had now been well organized by the election of class secretaries, whose duty it was to explain to their contemporaries the purposes of the fund and to solicit subscriptions. The general management devolved on the chairman of the executive committee, H. Tweed, '03, and the Secretary, S. Galatti, '06. The winter sport of hockey was as vigorous as ever, and the new rink assured continued interest and success. In fives, the best indoor winter sport, the annual matches with Groton players, won this year by Groton, stimulated interest and practice, and it is perhaps worth noting that graduates who have distinguished themselves on the squash courts were fives players of exceptional ability at school. On Washington's Birthday a winter snow carnival for the benefit of Brantwood Camp was held on Sears' Hill. This consisted of various sports.(133) and resulted in a sum of over five hundred dollars. On Alumni Day, the thirtieth of May, about seventy were present, representing classes from the earliest to the latest.

The baseball season resulted in twelve victories and three defeats, the game with Groton being among the former by a score of eight to six. The success was very largely due to Mr. Saunders, who succeeded in developing a very strong team out of what at first seemed indifferent material. The tennis team defeated all its opponents, a feat in which Mr. Knowles' interest was a great factor.

In the summer of 1922 Brantwood Camp, now a permanent institution, was put in charge of a graduate, G. G. Monks, '17, who was assisted by Mr. Velte, the School's efficient athletic instructor, three graduates as a permanent staff, and other graduates and boys. While the effect of the work on those who conduct it is broadening and informing, its primary object of giving the city boy something to take home with him in the way of new ideas of sportsmanship, fair play, and a new and wider outlook on life has been well attained; the spirit and character of those who have done the work have sent something of St. Mark's to germinate among less privileged boys in the city.

Mr. and Mrs. Brinley returned in the fall of 1922, but Mr. Knowles was away on his sabbatical year. Mr. Blake, who had opened a camp for American and European boys on the shore of Lac du Bourget in Savoie in July, did not return, and the only new master was Mr. William J. Reed. During the summer the triptych had been put into position above the altar in the Chapel, and a new piano provided for the common room. The record of honors in the college examinations was thirty-eight for the class of '22, and thirty for '23; and it is of interest to note that Walden Pell, 2nd, '20, who had been a player on the football team for two years and a distinguished scholar at St. Mark's, was selected from a large number of applicants from the State of New York for a Rhodes scholarship. It is interesting also to note the average of 9.44 attained by Richardson on one of the School rank-lists.

A beginning was made this year by Dr. Thayer in a matter which had never received special attention at St. Mark's; the cultivation of music by the School as a whole. The pressure of other interests and the full schedule demanded by the college requirements in a school which sends practically all its boys to college perhaps account for the comparative neglect in the past of general musical instruction and drill. The first step was taken with the First and part of the Second Form, in order that the work might begin and develop logically and thoroughly. It is perhaps a sign of the times that in the same number of the Bulletin in which Dr. Thayer expresses the desirability of cultivating the finer things of life a recent graduate of the School, H. Whitney, '21, points out the fact that American schools seem not to have transplanted from our English predecessors the tradition of service for the Nation and the Church, or for literature and the learned professions, and calls on the faculty and on the graduates for a discussion. The result was, in the March number, two interesting letters on the subject.

Of the hoped-for improvements in the School buildings a twenty-eight-foot extension to the schoolroom wing had been completed before the fall term began, and increased the total capacity of the room to 150. The bay had also been lengthened in proportion, the brickwork above the oak panelling painted white, and excellent overhead lighting substituted for individual desk lamps. The extension increased the capacity of Dormitory B, above, by eleven alcoves, and the basement below the schoolroom became available for a manual training shop. The cost of the alterations was over twenty-two thousand dollars.

The football season was a reversal of 1921 in the important games with Groton and St. Paul's, the former winning by six to nothing and the latter by fourteen to nothing. But the St. Mark's team, if not a finished one, and too likely to make mistakes, nevertheless proved itself as creditable in fighting quality as the School could wish.

In spite of a very heavy storm nearly a hundred graduates assembled at the annual dinner, held at the New York Yale Club on the evening of January the twenty-fourth, with Dr. Thayer, Mr. Barber, Mr. Baldy and Mr. Blake as guests. The following telegram was sent to Mrs. Thayer at the School: "The Alumni at their annual dinner are sending their love and best wishes. We are now thinking of you and how much you have done and are always doing for St. Mark's. We wish you were with us." The Harvard St. Mark's Club dinner took place on the second of March at the Boston Harvard Club, with Professor R. B. Merriman of Harvard, Mr. W. C. Baylies of the Trustees, and Dr. Thayer and Messrs. Flichtner and Lawrence as guests. At School, the usual performance by the Dramatic Club was given successfully; another snow carnival was held on Sears' Hill for the benefit of Brantwood Camp; the Fourth Form debates flourished; and hockey and indoor baseball practice in the cage involved the usual amount of activity. On the twenty-seventh of May the triptych above the Chapel altar was dedicated with appropriate services.(134) The annual meeting of the Alumni Association was held on the twenty-sixth of May, with about sixty-five members present. Report was made of the progress and condition of the alumni fund by the Treasurer, Harry Burnett, '69, and special mention made by Dr. Thayer of the excellent work done by the retiring president of the Association, Harrison Tweed, '03. Dr. Thayer spoke also of other matters of interest, including the late notable gift by J. Suydam, '05, of entirely new equipment for the chemical laboratory.(135)

On the fifth of May the class of 1906 held a reunion at the School after a banquet at the Brookline Country Club the evening before.

A victory over Groton in baseball by the score of five to four made the record since the year 1887 twenty-two games won by St. Mark's to fourteen by Groton. This 1923 game was the sixth straight victory over our rivals, and was due largely to unusually good team work. In rowing, despite the fact that because of baseball probably much of the material for a representative crew is inaccesssible, the results could not have been bettered: victories in all races scheduled. These were with Middlesex, the Harvard Freshmen, Tabor Academy, and Brookline High. The last was held on the Charles River in Boston, and the St. Mark's crew failed by only three seconds to break the schoolboy record for the course.

In the summer of 1923 Brantwood Camp continued its successful work again, under the management of G. G. Monks, '17, as Director. During the previous winter it had been reorganized and put entirely under the direction of a new board of trustees, all connected with St. Mark's. The Board, which both owns and controls the camp, is composed of Dr. Thayer, President; G. G. Monks, '17, Secretary; Mr. Baldy, Treasurer; Mr. Baylies and Mr. Burnett from the School Trustees; and Mr. Blake, Mr. Flichtner and J. Harris, '20. There had been a camp reunion in Boston on the evening of the twenty-eighth of January at which over 120 boys who had been at the camp and twenty counsellors were present. During the season of 1923, 136 boys in all attended the three sessions of two weeks each. These boys came from eighteen churches, mostly in and around Boston.(136) In order to carry out the "follow up" plan of the Camp, all former Brantwood boys were invited to visit the School on the twentieth of October. 130 responded, arriving at two o'clock, and after inspecting the School formed a cheering section of their own at the football game with Allen School on Belmont Field. After the game they held a contest of their own on the field, attended various other forms of entertainment which had been provided, and had supper at the campfire on the new field, with stories and singing.(137)

In September, 1923, 185 boys, the largest number ever yet enrolled, taxed the resources of all departments of the School. Of the new boys about twenty-five per cent were admitted on the competitive plan; but besides the first requisite of adequate scholarship, character, personality and general desirability were considered in choosing these candidates. The results of the college examination continued to be good as compared with those of schools like St. Mark's; (138) and the Headmaster pointed out that all St. Mark's boys who go to college are intellectually ready to take what the college offers in just proportion to each individual's ability(139) while representation in the first group of scholars at the colleges can be counted on. But the opinion of the Headmaster was that the record in college for intellectual attainment is not worthy of the effort of the years spent in preparation; and it was this rather than comparisons between the records of boarding-school boys and those from other schools that gave him concern.(140)

Of the thirteen members of the Board of Trustees, there were now seven who were graduates of the School; but the fact that no one of them represented the alumni of the last twenty years suggested to the Board the idea of choosing two graduates from this body to serve for two years as associate trustees, having all the privileges of membership except a vote. The purpose of this plan was to put the Trustees into close contact with the younger alumni, and to teach the representatives the temper and traditions of the School's governing body. A committee of three graduates was appointed in the spring of 1924 to nominate six candidates, and a description of the plan and of the records and activities of these candidates was sent in the fall to the alumni for a postal ballot. The result of this was the election in October of Stephen Galatti, '06, for a term of two years, and Harrison Tweed, '03, for one.

The figures of the 1923 alumni fund showed satisfactory growth over those of the preceding year, the percentage of contributors having risen five per cent. The chief object of the fund is to keep the interest of all the graduates in the School; and the work of the secretaries by correspondence and of the Alumni Bulletin in reaching all graduates has done much towards its eventual attainment. The success of the campaign enabled the School to complete the addition to the gymnasium by the receipt in the two years of over eighteen thousand dollars for the purpose, supplemented by gifts from a few of the boys' parents. The appropriation of the rest of the 1922-23 fund was for the Alumni Bulletin, and two scholarships. Prizeday, June the twenty-second, was the thirtieth anniversary of Bishop Lawrence's service as President of the Board of Trustees. The principal speaker, Senator J. W. Wadsworth, spoke of the present need of clear-thinking, upright men in politics.

In the fall of 1923 Mr. Flood was absent on sabbatical leave, but Mr. Knowles had returned, and the only new master was Mr. E. C. Willcox, who was to teach mathematics. An important acquisition to the School's athletic equipment was sixty acres of land, the gift of Mr. George P. Gardner, comprising the entire golf course, and many acres undeveloped.(141) Football began with the club competitions, in which 120 boys took part, the three clubs each represented by three elevens. In order to provide for systematic coaching, masters were admitted to membership in the clubs. The School eleven won five of the seven games played, losing to St. George's, and to Groton, by thirteen to nothing, in an extraordinary game in which Groton's alertness turned the scales against the greatly superior power of St. Mark's. The two Groton touchdowns were made on runs of about sixty yards, one on a blocked drop kick, and the second on an intercepted forward pass, both in Groton's territory. St. Mark's made eleven first downs, and Groton a net gain of only eight yards throughout the game; but the Groton line held when it had to hold, and made up in keenness what it lacked in strength, taking instant advantage of every opportunity. There were about 2500 spectators at the game.

The increasing interest of the alumni in the progress of the School was shown by an attendance of one hundred and twenty-five at the annual dinner, which was held at the New York Yale Club on the evening of the sixth of February. Interest centred largely on Dr. Thayer's speech, of which the text was the recent act of the Oregon Legislature in barring out private schools. While this subject and its innumerable ramifications, which have brought forth nation-wide discussion, are too large even for a summary here, the matter as far as the School is concerned amounts to a challenge to St. Mark's to show the reasons for her existence in a democracy; and though all good Americans who have ever graduated from the School realize that such a challenge obviously proceeds from ignorance of what such schools are doing, and is due perhaps also to the failure on the part of those who make it to understand democracy, Dr. Thayer's explanation is of great interest to everybody concerned in the fate of the School. He mentioned an article in the November, 1923, number of The Atlantic Monthly entitled "The Dissociated School" as typical of the attacks made on private schools. He believes that the opposition to the private schools involves a misconception of democracy and a false definition of its function, and agrees with Professor Ryan in the February number of The Atlantic that the true philosophy of democracy considers the development of the individual, and that the State is not a super-organism synonymous with democracy. The obligation of the individual to the State is the highest, but the State has no life except as it is made up of individuals who are working for the common good. Collectivism is not democracy, and the corollary is not tenable that the individual can be more and more deprived of his freedom for the benefit of an imaginary collection of individuals called the State; for on this theory any legislation is permissible that the majority in the State may deem advantageous according to their theory for the good of the State. Applying this theory of collectivism to the school question, the speaker pointed out that the road led inevitably to the social theory that abolishes the family and makes the child a ward of the State, and instanced Germany as a result of such a system. He then stated that while the public school justly demands the unstinted support of true Americans, it was not true that the private school has grown out of a desire for exclusiveness. It was through the leadership of private institutions that the State established public schools and state universities; and if the State determines, as in the case of Oregon, that all children under sixteen must go to public schools, it must also legislate out of existence such private schools as Harvard, Yale and Princeton.

St. Mark's must exist for the training of boys in good citizenship; and if democracy means a socialistic state where distinction between brains and culture and all other distinctions are to be done away with, the School has no place in this country. But if democracy is the government of men for the good of all, where every man has the same opportunity as every other man and at the same time where there are distinctions of brain and physique, opportunity and personality, and all the other things that go to make this world worth living in, then St. Mark's exists to train boys for special service in the community, for the training of good citizens in a democracy; and to do this it has from the beginning insistently kept in view that the best citizenship can be built up only on godliness, healthiness, and education in all good learning. The product of the School must meet the needs and expectations of the State, as do those of the public schools; but the champions of the latter stress the wrong attitude towards democracy, and emphasize the wrong kind of nationalism. The State should insist that children up to a certain age should receive an education in order to prepare them for citizenship; but just here the State's function ends. The State's function is not to direct education throughout the Nation; and if the agitation to create in the Cabinet of the United States a Secretary of Education should be successful, the resulting centralization, which has always proved detrimental to education, would be a heavy blow to American democracy.(142) In speaking of the limitation of numbers to which Harvard, Yale and Princeton have been forced by the undue pressure at their gates, Dr. Thayer believed that it would operate to the advantage of the School by stimulating St. Mark's boys to more vigorous scholastic work to meet the more exact standards, and better still would keep before them the importance of their development in character to fit themselves for the requirements, other than scholarship, which the colleges will consider in their selection for admission.

The dinner of the Harvard St. Mark's Club on the fifteenth of January was held at the Boston Harvard Club, with about forty present. The invited Harvard guest, Professor Julian Coolidge, spoke of the chronic debate between schoolmasters and the college authorities as to the responsibility for the failure of many boys to make the most of their opportunities at college.

The winter term passed with the usual Sixth Form dance on the first of February, the Fourth Form debates,(143) lectures every Tuesday evening by Mr. Snyder on current events to the Fourth Form, the Dramatic Club play, meetings of the Missionary Society, the fives tournament, the indoor athletic meet, lectures by Professor G. H. Edgell of Harvard and Major Guy Envin, and in the spring a concert in the gymnasium by the Pierian Sodality, of Harvard. A gift of five hundred dollars had been received by the School in the fall for the establishment of a prize, consisting of books, for the best story written especially for the competition. This was to be called the Henry Smallwood Redmond prize. Hockey was much interfered with by the uncertain weather conditions, but good matches were played with Milton and Middlesex, and a series between the three clubs. Fives could always be resorted to in unfavorable weather, and its great popularity emphasized the desirability of more courts.(144) Tentative plans were drawn up for the addition of five singles and one doubles court to be built back of the present ones. During the six weeks' absence in Italy of Dr. and Mrs. Thayer in the spring term, Mr. Barber took charge of the School. The placing of boys in the two cottages necessitated by the increased numbers, while unobjectionable as regards either health or social contact, did not accord with the old policy of "one roof"; and plans had been made to take over and refit for eighteen boys the dormitory hitherto used by the employees, and to erect for the latter a building of their own, containing a pleasant recreation-room and much more adequate accommodations. Over eighty graduates were present on Alumni Day, the seventeenth of May, when the report of the Alumni Fund Committee was presented; and appropriations were made for the expenses incurred in connection with the publication of the proposed School history, and for the cost of the Alumni Directory, which had been published shortly before. The question was also raised as to the advisability of holding Alumni Day in the fall, because of the difficulty of selecting a date in the spring which would not conflict with something else; and discussion was invited before the date for next year should be assigned.

The baseball season was extraordinarily successful, the only defeat in the thirteen games being that by Milton. The thirty-seventh annual game with Groton was won by a score of nine to two, the seventh consecutive victory over our old rivals in baseball. In rowing, victories were won over Brookline High, Huntington, Middlesex, the Harvard Freshmen, Cambridge Latin and Choate, and except in the race with Choate School the second crew likewise defeated all its opponents. The sport of rowing seems to have established a permanent place for itself at St. Mark's; and the moderate length of the race, considered with the searching medical examination and the careful observation of each boy throughout the season, removes any possible objection to the sport as too trying for schoolboys.

The fall term of our sixtieth year began prosperously on the seventeenth of September with the same staff of masters except Mr. Judson Abbott Blake, who took the place of Mr. Snyder, and Mr. Goodridge, absent on sabbatical leave. Mr. Snyder resigned to become Headmaster of the Valley Ranch School at Valley, Wyoming, and in him St. Mark's lost a very valuable teacher and counsellor. There are 185 boys in school, and among these are forty-one sons and four grandsons of old St. Markers. As our history goes to press the news comes of another defeat in football at Groton by the score of seven to nothing, the result of a blocked kick. And so our young warriors come to realize with their elders that more work is always to be done; and that, as the Red Queen pointed out, running as everybody else runs means staying in the same place. But the Vindex tells us that out of ninety-six individual examinations for college in the spring forty-six were of honor grade.

A COMPARISON of the condition of the School today with that of any other period of its existence gives the graduate cause for congratulation that it is still too early to trace the present Headmaster's administration as history. When in the spring of 1924 the alumni who had been at the February dinner in New York presented to Dr. Thayer an original letter of Lord Byron's as a memento of the occasion, which was that of the completion of half his lifetime as Headmaster of the School, it was accompanied by an inscription containing the words "The alumni . . . believing with Lord Byron that 'the best of prophets of the future is the past,' can ask nothing better for their School than that Dr. Thayer may long continue to guide it." The material development of the School has been extraordinary, and the wise directing of its interests, the invariable tact, the skill and caution at the helm, have been registered in every advance and in every correction for half the extent of the School's existence; but the confidence and affection of the boys have no dates and chapters to fall into, especially when they are shared with one whose only thought seems to be how she can give sympathy, courage and happiness. A comparative appraisal of these things, and of all those who silently and devotedly have given and are giving their lives to the ideals towards which the School strives, can never be made: each St. Mark's boy of the past can know his own brief space of time, and no other. But each graduate knows that much the same joys and griefs, triumphs and defeats and affections present themselves and pass for all, and that others know the familiar things,---the athletic field, the old hills and woods, the cloister, the quiet places; and to him can be said with all confidence that the Golden Age is still here, and that all is well.

And similarly a careful consideration of the development of St. Mark's since its founding yields entire confidence in the future. Its ideals of service, training and godliness have never yet suffered loss, and never in the School's history have so many effective, unselfish and devoted men as at present stood as guarantee that they shall not do so. Needs and methods have changed, and will change; but it is heartening and inspiring to know that the School is a growth, and not merely something fashioned by men's hands; and one who loves it can ask no more for its future than that God will be to us as he has been to our fathers.