The Last Leaf: Observations, during Seventy-Five Years, of Men and Events in America and EuropeHosmer, James Kendall
History
The Last Leaf: Observations, during Seventy-Five Years, of Men and Events in America and Europe
Hosmer, James Kendall
History; United States -- History
Brooks had attained nearly or quite his full height on entering
college, nor was he slender. His large frame was too loosely knit
to admit of his becoming an athlete. He had no interest in outdoor
sports. I do not recall that he was warmly diligent in study or
general reading. His mind worked quickly and easily. Without effort he
stood well in the class, absorbing whatever other knowledge he touched
without much searching. His countenance and head in boyhood were
noticeably fine, the forehead broad and full, the beardless face
lighting up readily with an engaging smile, the eyes large and
lustrous. It was evident that a good and able man must come out from
the boy Phillips Brooks, but no one, not even President Walker, who
was credited with an almost uncanny penetration in divining the
future of his boys, would have predicted the career of Brooks. Though
decorous and high-minded he was not marked as a religious man. If he
were so, he kept it to himself. Though sometimes hilarious, he was
never ungentle or inconsiderate, a wholesome, happy youth, having due
thought for others and for his own walk and conversation, but without
touch of formal piety. When I was initiated into the Hasty Pudding
Club, I recognised in a tall fiend whose trouser legs were very
apparent beneath the too scanty black drapery which enveloped him, no
other than Phillips Brooks. He was one of the most vociferous of
the imps who tossed me in the blanket, and later, when the elaborate
manuscript I had prepared was brought forth, was conspicuously
energetic in daubing with hot mush from a huge wooden spoon the sheets
I had composed with much painstaking. The grand event in the "Pudding"
of our time was the performance of Fielding's extravaganza of _Tom
Thumb_. I think it was the club's first attempt at an operatic
performance, and it was prepared with great care. I suppose I am
to-day the only survivor among those who took part, and it is a sombre
pleasure to recall the old-time frolic. The great promoter of the
undertaking was Theodore Lyman, able and forceful afterward as
soldier, scientist, and congressman, who died prematurely; but the
music and details were arranged by Joseph C. Heywood, later a devout
Catholic, ending his career in Rome as Chamberlain of Pope Leo XIII.
In the cast Heywood was King Arthur and Lyman, general of the army.
There were besides, a throng of warriors, lords, and ladies wonderful
to behold. The costumes were elaborate. Old trunks and attics of our
friends were ransacked for ancient finery and appointments that might
be made to serve. Provision was made for thrilling stage effects,
chief among them a marvellous cow which at a critical moment swallowed
Tom Thumb, and then with much eructation worked out painfully on the
bass-viol, belched him forth as if discharged from a catapult. The
music was an adaptation of popular airs, operatic and otherwise, to
the words of Fielding, and was fairly good, rendered as it was by
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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