Comfort Found in Good Old BooksFitch, George Hamlin
General
Comfort Found in Good Old Books
Fitch, George Hamlin
Books and reading
_In college he tided scores of boys over financial straits; his room at
Stanford University was open house for the waifs and strays who had no
abiding-place. In fact, so generous was his hospitality that the manager
of the college dormitory warned him one day in sarcastic vein that the
renting of a room for a term did not include the privilege of taking in
lodgers. His friends were of all classes. He never joined a Greek
letter fraternity because he did not like a certain clannishness that
marked the members; but among Fraternity men as well as among Barbarians
he counted his close associates by the score. He finished his college
course amid trying circumstances, as he was called upon to voice the
opinion of the great body of students in regard to an unjust ruling of
the faculty that involved the suspension of many of the best students in
college. And through arbitrary action of the college authorities his
degree was withheld for six months, although he had passed all his
examinations and had had no warnings of any condemnation of his
independent and manly course as an editor of the student paper. Few boys
of his age have ever shown more courage and tact than he exhibited
during that trying time, when a single violent editorial from his pen
would have resulted in the walking out of more than half the university
students._
_Then came his short business life, full of eager, enthusiastic work for
the former college associate who had offered him a position on the Board
of Fire Underwriters. Even in this role he did not work so much for
himself as to "make good," and thus justify the confidence of the dear
friend who stood sponsor for him. Among athletes of the Olympic Club he
numbered many warm friends; hundreds of young men in professional and
business life greeted him by the nickname of "Mike," which clung to him
from his early freshman days at Stanford. The workers and the idlers,
the studious and the joy-chasers, all gave him the welcome hand, for his
smile and his gay speech were the password to all hearts. And yet so
unspoiled was he that he would leave all the gayety and excitement of
club life to spend hours with me, taking keen zest in rallying me if
depressed or in sharing my delight in a good play, a fine concert, a
fierce boxing bout or a spirited field day. Our tastes were of wide
range, for we enjoyed with equal relish Mascagni's "Cavalleria," led by
the composer himself, or a championship prize-fight; Margaret Anglin's
somber but appealing Antigone or a funny "stunt" at the Orpheum._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account