Oliver Wendell Holmes - Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1885

Page 67

COLLEGE LIFE.

47

Barnwell, the first scholar in the class, deliv ered the Valedictory Oration, and Emerson the Poem. Neither of these performances was highly

spoken of by Mr. Quincy. I was surprised to find by one of the old Cata logues that Emerson roomed during a part of his College course with a young man whom I well

The two Gourremember, J. G. K. Gourdin. dins, Robert and John Gaillard Keith, were dashing young fellows as I recollect them, be The longing to Charleston, South Carolina. " Southerners " were the reigning College

gans

ele-

of that time, the merveilleux, the mirli-

flores,

of their day.

Their swallow-tail coats

tapered to an arrow-point angle, and the prints of their little delicate calfskin boots in the snow

were objects of great admiration to the village I cannot help wondering boys of the period. what brought Emerson and the showy, fascinat ing John Gourdin together as room-mates.


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