Memoirs of an editor : fifty years of American journalism / Edward P. Mitchell.

DANA AND HIS PEOPLE

207

wore a superb overcoat of Russian sable, enlisted his pen
in the service of the clerical party, and figured, to his
immense pride, as chamberlain in the establishment of
His Holiness the Pope. But beneath his furs and behind
his decorations he was the same whole-hearted fellow of
the seedy days, though he had transferred his affection
from Lowenbrtu and Augustinerbrau to Orvieto and
Montepulciano, and, I sincerely hoped for the sake of the
Vatican, had acquired meanwhile the habit of punctuality
in the performance of his official functions.
In my college days there was published anonymously
a novel which had a considerable vogue in institutions of
learning and elsewhere entitled "Fair Harvard: A Story
of American College Life." Whether it is still read I don't
know. It was an interesting story, with not a little of wit
and philosophy and imagination redeeming its crudities;
though we in the less sophisticated environs of Academe
used to wonder if the freshmen and sophomores and juniors and seniors at Cambridge were really accustomed to
converse in perfect classical Latin and tolerable colloquial
Greek, to chaff each other across the supper-table in the
spirit and language of Martial, and to give elaborate
banquets in the triclinia of the dormitories, where the
guests reclined on purple couches, ate viands and sidedishes that might have renewed the appetite of Lucullus,
partook of wild boar roasted whole, and had their glasses
filled by garlanded Hibernian slaves from gypsum-sealed
amphorae of Falernian:
"We will drink Scythian draughts tonight," said the host,
as the slaves passed glasses around the table. "This is sweet
Falernian; I warrant it pure. The grapes were pressed when

the southwind blew through the vineyard, which you know
makes wine mellow and wild boars tender. Boy!" he then
commanded a slave, "fill my cup with wine cyathi of Caecuban."
This Sybarite of a Harvard junior was my favorite hero
in the book. He was an aristocratic youth of Manhattan