lowing August. Luce had then been for some months
detached, to command the North Atlantic fleet, and I had succeeded him
by default, without special orders that I can remember. He was anxious
for me to live on the spot, to be "on deck," as he phrased it, for the
College had many enemies and few friends; and matters were not helped
by a sharp official collision that summer between him and Secretary
Whitney, who from indifference passed into antagonism. I cannot say
that his change was due to this cause, and for a long time his
hostility did not take form in act. Now that the College, after twenty
years, has had the warm encomium of the President of the United States
in his message to Congress, it is interesting to a veteran recipient
of its early buffets to recall conditions. In my two years' incumbency
we got decidedly more kicks than halfpence. Yet in retrospect it
gains. A prominent New York lawyer once told me of a young man from a
distant State consulting him with a view to practising in the city.
In response to some cautious warning as to the difficulties, he said:
"Do you mean that with my education and capacity I cannot expect rapid
success?" "I fear not," replied the mentor. A few months later they
met casually. "Are you getting on as fast as you had hoped?" asked the
older man. "No," admitted the other, "but it's heaps of fun." He
doubtless got on, and so did the College. I at the time was less
appreciative of the fun, but I liked the work, and now I see also the
comical side.

Between the early favor of the Department and his own energy, Luce had
given the College a good send-off, like a skiff shoved by hand from
the wharf into mid-stream. There remained only to keep it moving. We
had an appropriation, and a building that was ready for lecturing;
with also two as yet uncompleted suites of quarters, for myself and
one other officer. We had also a very respectable library, in which,
among many valuable works, conspicuously selected with an eye to our
special objects, I recall with amusement certain ancient
encyclopaedias, contributed apparently by well-wishers from stock which
had begun to encumber their shelves. Howbeit, like Quaker guns, these
made a brave show if not too closely scrutinized, and spared us the
semblance of poverty in vacant spaces. Every military man understands
the value of an imposing front towards the enemy. When I arrived, I
was the sole occupant of the building; and except an army officer