Cambridge Sketches | Page 4

he was elected to Congress in 1876 his
classmates were only surprised because it seemed so natural that this
should happen. Another was of so depraved a character that it seemed
as if he was intended to illustrate the bad boy in a Sunday-school book.
He was so untrustworthy that very soon no one was willing to associate
with him. He stole from his father, and, after graduating, went to prison
for forgery and finally was killed by a tornado. There was still another,
a great fat fellow, who always seemed to be half asleep, and was very
shortly run over and killed by a locomotive. Yet if we could know the
whole truth in regard to these persons it might be difficult to decide
how much of their good and evil fortune was owing to themselves and
how much to hereditary tendencies and early influences. The sad fact
remains that it is much easier to spoil a bright boy than to educate a
dull one.
The undergraduates were too much absorbed in their own small affairs
to pay much attention to politics, even in those exciting times. For the
most part there was no discrimination against either the Trojans or
Tyrians; but abolitionists were not quite so well liked as others,
especially after the close of the war; and it was noticed that the sons of
pro-slavery families commonly seemed to have lacked the good moral
training (and the respect for industry) which is youth's surest protection
against the pitfalls of life. The larger proportion of suspended students
belonged to this class.
During the war period Cambridge social life was regulated by a coterie
of ten or twelve young ladies who had grown up together and who were
generally known as the "Spree,"--not because they were given to
romping, for none kept more strictly within the bounds of a decorous
propriety, but because they were accustomed to go off together in the
summer to the White Mountains or to some other rustic resort, where
they were supposed to have a perfectly splendid time; and this they
probably did, for it requires cultivation and refinement of feeling to

appreciate nature as well as art. They decided what students and other
young ladies should be invited to the assemblies in Lyceum Hall, and
they arranged their own private entertainments over the heads of their
fathers and mothers; and it should be added that they exercised their
authority with a very good grace. They had their friends and admirers
among the collegians, but no young man of good manners and pleasing
address, and above all who was a good dancer, needed to beg for an
invitation. The good dancers, however, were in a decided minority, and
many who considered themselves so in their own habitats found
themselves much below the standard in Cambridge.
Mrs. James Russell Lowell was one of the lady patronesses of the
assemblies, and her husband sometimes came to them for an hour or so
before escorting her home. He watched the performance with a poet's
eye for whatever is graceful and charming, but sometimes also with a
humorous smile playing upon his face. There were some very good
dancers among the ladies who skimmed the floor almost like swallows;
but the finest waltzer in Cambridge or Boston was Theodore Colburn,
who had graduated ten years previously, and with the advantage of a
youthful figure, had kept up the pastime ever since. The present writer
has never seen anywhere another man who could waltz with such
consummate ease and unconscious grace. Lowell's eyes followed him
continually; but it is also said that Colburn would willingly dispense
with the talent for better success in his profession. Next to him comes
the tall ball-player, already referred to, and it is delightful to see the
skill with which he adapts his unusual height to the most petite damsel
on the floor. Here the "Spree" is omnipotent, but it does not like Class
Day, for then Boston and its suburbs pour forth their torrent of beauty
and fashion, and Cambridge for the time being is left somewhat in the
shade.
Henry James in his "International Episode" speaks as if New York
dancers were the best in the world, and they are certainly more
light-footed than English men and women; but a New York lady, with
whom Mr. James is well acquainted, says that Bostonians and
Austrians are the finest dancers. The true Bostonian cultivates a sober
reserve in his waltzing which, if not too serious, adds to the grace of his
movement. Yet, when the german is over, we remember the warning of
the wealthy Corinthian who refused his daughter to the son of Tisander

on the ground that he was too much of a dancer and acrobat.
* * * * *
From 1840