As the fascinating lecturere stretched out his enormous maps and stated his theories
of those monster petrifactions, a little gasp of unbelief ran through the audience.
The President smiled, saying "If yoo [sic] doubt this, ask my wife about it, for she loves
the truth better than she loves me." The blushes! ^{How every-body
laughed and looked at her blushing in a charming modesty}

For many years the dress that satisfied feminine
taste and vanity among us was of the simplest, and would ^but oddly adorn the pages of
La Bon-Tons programme of modes or even the Harper's Bazar [sic]! Soft merino dresses ^of
equally soft color were worn entirely for ordinary visiting -- ; black silk for larger
occasions. The young ladies in Summer wore muslins, white or sprigged, not too prudish
in cut ^{at the throat}. As the season grew chilly, sashes of scarlet ribbon were added, with knots of
red berries festooned on the shoulders and drooping gracefully from the hair. Often
quite heavy wreaths of myrtle leaves were bound abost [sic] the head, giving a perhaps too
classic touch, as if ^of filleted martyrs or Parnassian victims. No one smiled over the
simplicity or enforced economy of these toilets, or coveted richer or more elaborite [sic]
effects. The girls were so pretty and winsome they dominated their externals. I am
sure I do not lend them the enchantment of distance. It comes to me how fully I am
confirmed in this memory by some world famous savants from Europe -- I think Lyall the
geologist was one of them -- who were taken by President Hitchcock to the wedding rec-
eption of Mrs Davis, our loved saint in the flesh. These stony hearted scientists were
enthusiastic over the beautiful party, and spoke most warmly of the unusual number of
handsome girls and attractive women present. ^X

President Stearns coming among us as a
stranger and not an alumnus of the college was never so closely allied as his predece-
cissors [sic] with the village people.. His invitations were a little less general than those
of President Hitchcock, although he welcomed warmly all friends of the senior class
and the few families whom they knew to be in various ways connnected [sic] with the college
at the annual senior levee. Few are still left in these present days to remember the
grace and distinction with which President and Mrs Stearns received their guests on this


H bMS Am 1118.95, Box 9