An Introduction by the Delegation of 1956

TO BE TAPPED for Casque and Gauntlet is an honor. To enjoy the fellowship of one's delegation can be one of the rare pleasures of a senior at Dartmouth College. Yet there always has been something more serious about Casque and Gauntlet, something that partly accounts for the honor and contributes a special pleasure. "There is a tone of solemn and sacred feeling," to borrow words from the poet Washington Irving, "that blends with our conviviality." C & G's distinctive spirit still reflects the aims given by its founders: to unite and benefit those of high character and ideals, to render loyal service to Dartmouth, and to encourage one another in worthy activities. In that spirit the society has flourished for almost a century now. Often including the most prominent and promising of seniors, in the arts, athletics, scholarship, politics and other college activities, Casque and Gauntlet became early and has remained THE senior honor society at Dartmouth.

It was Albert James Thomas of the Class of 1887 who conceived the idea of uniting a portion of the sons of Dartmouth with the ideals of Arthurian chivalry, in a fellowship modelled on the Round Table. While Thomas himself died following his junior year, a dozen or so of his associates developed his suggestion and may be also regarded as founders. Wilder Dwight Quint, later a journalist and author of many books, wrote the ritual, and Fred Wesley Wentworth, later a notable architect, designed the pin. The basic plan was for men prominent in various college activities, and who liked each other, to make their friendship more enduring by organization, and to cause this organization to be continued through successive senior classes and through the life of each Knight.

The delegation of '87 was both distinguished and congenial. Nevertheless this infant society was at first an object of jealousy and suspicion on campus. Perhaps some deserving seniors went unselected, or perhaps the first delegation was suspected of political ambitions and being secretive; they did not wear pins openly or take a page in the Aegis. Whatever the causes, this first class had trouble in obtaining successors. There were but 11 Knights of '88, compared to the 19 of '87. Only with the enrollment of an outstanding delegation from'89, strong in numbers and in quality, was Casque and Gauntlet assured of more than a momentary existence.

Some seven years after the founding, in the spring of 1893, the house on the corner was purchased by the '94 delegation. Until then members lived scattered in dormitories and private homes, taking their meals in various private eating clubs. With the acquisition of its castle Casque and Gauntlet, more or less as we know it, was complete.

Thomas and his associates of 1887 had been inspired by the poet Alfred Tennyson's Idylls of the King. The legends of a great King Arthur of Roman Britain, who had battled even to the gates of imperial Rome, went back to the 5th and 6th centuries. They had been expounded for the English by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the twelfth century and by Sir Thomas Malory in the sixteenth. Yet the old legends from a dark past were revived for modern Britain by Tennyson (1809-1892). Rather early in the prolific career that made him his time's most popular poet as well as Poet Laureate, he published a number of idylls (small picturesque poems) on Arthurian themes. The completed Idylls of the King contained twelve poems and was finished in 1885, only a year before Thomas and his friends founded C & G.

The final version joins the idylls into an epic of the rise, rule, and fall of an heroic Arthur and the knights of the table round whom he inspired and gathered. The work begins with the arrival of Arthur to kingship, proceeds through the organization of the knights and their demise through faults of character, and concludes with the passing of Arthur. The poem thus has the form of an heroic epic, like Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and the archaic form is matched by a subject at least as archaic. Why the attraction of this form and subject in bustling industrializing England of the late nineteenth century, or, for that matter, among the select group of students, in a small New England college, who founded C & G?

It seems that Tennyson sought to set forth a noble model at a time when admirable human qualities were typically mocked and doubted, especially by the enlightened. One of Tennyson's sons said that the poet "hoped to combat the cynical indifference, the intellectual selfishness, the sloth of will, the utilitarian materialism, of a transition age." "I tried in my Idylls to teach men the need of the ideal," Tennyson himself remarked, and his epilogue tells us that his poem "shadows Sense at war with Soul." English stories of king and chivalry could serve the poet well, then, as he made a "new-old" perfection from old and imperfect legend. The coming of Arthur to kingship is like the higher or more spiritual parts of the soul taking over governance of the animal in us. The organization of the Round Table awakens its members to a nobler life. Knightly deeds and jousts in the many fields to come are the fitting expression of nobility within. And the Holy Grail intimates an ideal, a noble ambition: we seek dimly, and see our goal better as we are better.

Yet in Tennyson's epic Arthur and the association he inspires fall as well as rise and rule; the end of the epic marks Arthur's passing. Tennyson shadows forth not only an "overpowering conception of man as he might be," as the British Prime Minister Gladstone put it, but also an account of the many obstacles to high achievement. Sense is at war with soul, and sense has the upper hand except for the rare acts of leadership by outstanding human beings. Tennyson thought the omens in his own time peculiarly ominous. He foresaw what we see, that mighty Britain could be reduced to "some third-rate isle half-lost among her seas." In an epilogue to Queen Victoria the poet speaks of great storms that he discerns on the horizon of the twentieth century:

Waverings of every vane with every wind,

And wordy trucklings to the transient hour,

And fierce or careless looseners of the faith,

And Softness breeding scorn of simple life,

Or Cowardice, the child of lust for gold,

Or Labour, with a groan and not a voice,

Or Art with poisonous honey stol'n from France,

And that which knows, but careful for itself,

And that which knows not, ruling that which knows

To its own harm: the goal of this great world

Lies beyond sight.

Despite a hardly idyllic diagnosis of what a modern country such as Britain will eventually face, Tennyson does not counsel despair or retreat. He counsels the courageous striving of a free people suitably led.

Yet if our slowly-grown

And crown'd Republic's crowning common-sense,

That saved her many times, not failÑtheir fears

Are morning shadows huger than the shapes

That cast them, not those gloomier which forego

The darkness of that battle in the West,

Where all of high and holy dies away.

The Castle on the corner being so important to Casque and Gauntlet, a few words on its history are called for. The lot at the southwest corner of Main and Wheelock Streets was originally two acres and was granted by the College in 1771, just two years after its founding, for an inn. After another inn (now the Hanover Inn) was established across the street in 1782, business declined. In 1823 Dr. Samuel Alden built the present brick house in the rear of the old inn, and moved the old building to the northwest corner of his garden (on West Wheelock Street). Dr. Alden resided in the brick house until his death in 1842, and the next owner, Joseph Emerson, remained until 1888, when it became a boarding club for students. The actual purchase for C & G is fetchingly elaborated by one of the purchasers, Philip Sanford Marden'94.

"It was presumably in '94's Junior spring termÑ1893 Ñthat it was decided to buy 'the house on the corner' which has ever since been the 'Castle' of Casque and Gauntlet. It is manifestly a fine old house with a century or so of history behind it. During all my college course it had been a boarding club, kept for most of the time by a local character known as'Shorty' PurmontÑan altitudinous individual, who added a cubit to his apparent stature by sporting invariably a tall, if not too well brushed, silk hat, worn at a rakish angle. I boarded for a season with 'Shorty', whose viands were not remarkable for their quality but had the merit of being cheap. I think his rate was $3.50 a week. Students roomed upstairs, and among them was one whom I remember for his persistent, but not too promising, efforts to master the art of playing on the slide trombone. His stock piece was "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep", which he seldom negotiated throughout without scoring at least one sour noteÑbut he seldom made the same mistake twice.

"Anyhow 'Shorty' left town rather suddenly and the house was facing an uncertain future. It was owned by an estimable old lady named Susan Brown, who abode in a tall white house up near the 'White Church', but on the other side of the streetÑI think about where now stands the building euphoniously named McNutt. To Susan Brown on a summer noon repaired Decker Field and I as the accredited emissaries of Casque and Gauntlet, proposing to buy it of her, for a price which I have completely forgotten. She received us kindly, and readily yielded to our blandishments, remarking that there was 'nobody she'd rather sell it to but the Y.M.C.A.' This will suffice to reveal how excellent was the moral repute of C. and G. in that stage of its existence, seven or eight years after its founding. We became the owners of the house and moved in that ensuing autumn, being now the active delegation of the Society.

"Nearly our whole delegation lived there, except Matt Jones and me, who had been long established across the street in the old Deke House (The Balch House, long since burned, but then standing on the 'Golden Corner' subsequently occupied by the Commons). One lingering '93 man, Bob Maynard, had a room on the ground floor in the rear. The rest were scattered over the house, alow and aloftÑSunapee Bartlett, Decker Field, Eddie Grover, Tuffie Gifford, Billy Ames, Bud Lyon, Don Colby and the restÑwith the big living room downstairs on the northeast corner (later converted to a student room) as a place of assemblage for unofficial occasions, and a bleak room on the southwest corner above an improvised 'goat' room, in which to gather on Saturday nights. It was rather like camping out, for we had not had time to settle the house much or to add creature comforts. There was no bathroom, and sanitary conveniences were of the more primitive and remote sort, common in the country. In subsequent years, after a vigorous passing of the hat at dinners in Boston, more or less money was accumulated to spend on improving the place. I still have in my archives handsomely engraved certificates which, in a moment of enthusiasm, I subscribed for at those annual dinners, but which are not to be found quoted on any list of bonds legal for savings banks in Massachusetts and elsewhere.

"While '94 lived in the house and for some years thereafter it was not exactly a palace of ease, but a free and easy living-place to which everybody came, as to any other dormitory, save only at the holy time of Saturday evenings when none but the initiates were welcomed.

"How I wish I could remember what we paid for the houseÑand more importantly, how we ever got the money to do it, whatever it was. I think it was a 'good buy', howeverÑa splendid example of early New England brickwork on the most eligible corner in Hanover."

Still the Castle endures. Its lot has been shortened; in 1973 a piece of land behind the house, along West Wheelock Street, was sold at the town's insistence to permit access to parking spaces behind the Main Street buildings. The house itself has undergone various renovations. In 1905 the whole back section was added, and thus the handsome living room, the goat room, bathrooms, and other luxuries. A kitchen in the basement appeared in the 1930's, to be greatly expanded in 1979-80. In 1964 plumbing, wiring, and paint were renewed and some furniture, carvings, wallpaper and pictures, of a sort suitable to a baronial hall, were generously donated in memory of various alumni.

While principally a senior society, C & G was designed to encourage a life-long society among its members. Strictly speaking, according to the Constitution of The Casque and Gauntlet, it is an association that includes both the active delegation of seniors and all alumni members. No alumni association as such was to exist. A president, three vice-presidents, a secretary-treasurer and a nine-man council are to be chosen for three year terms.

In practice no council has recently been chosen. The officers, together with the seven trustees of the Casque and Gauntlet Trust, which owns the corner real estate, administer the society's affairs. Matters relative to the Corner and its operation and use by the Active Delegation are the responsibility of that group. Edward M. Scheu, Jr., '46 of Hanover is in 1981 president of The Casque and Gauntlet; F. William Andres '29 of Boston is chairman of the trustees.

Apart from Mid-Winter Feed, to which all alumni are invited, alumni dinners in Boston, Chicago, and New York have flourished and occasionally waned. Active delegations often invite alumni to visit the Corner, and a C & G Bulletin seeks to keep alumni aware and interested. Most important, of course, is the relation between the Advisor, presently H. Allan Dingwall, Jr., '42, and the active delegation.

As might be expected, Knights have served "God and their fellow men" in many fields and have reaped accordingly many crowns. Vice-President Nelson A. Rockefeller was only the most prominent of the many alumni who have engaged in national politics, including congressmen, judges, diplomats, and civil servants. Many justices, chief justices, and leading lawyers in various cities and states have been Knights, as have officers of great corporations, community and social workers, ministers and bishops, physicians and architects, journalists and writers and dramatists, teachers and headmasters, professors and deans and presidents and trustees of colleges and universities.

Particularly impressive is the number of Knights who have "rendered Loyal Service to Dartmouth College" in prominent ways. Ernest Martin Hopkins '01 and John G. Kemeny (adopted by the delegation of '71) were distinguished Presidents, and President David T. McLaughlin'54 is also a C & G. As of 1980, twenty alumni have served as College Trustees and two of these, F. William Andres '29 and David T. McLaughlin '54, as Chairman. Four Vice-Presidents have been C & G alumni, John F. Meck '33, Justin A. Stanley '33, George H. Colton '35, and Paul D. Paganucci '53. Two alumni have been Secretary of the College, Ernest Martin Hopkins'01 and J. Michael McGean '49. And two famous Deans of the College have been C & G's, Craven Laycock '96 and Lloyd K. Neidlinger '23. Many C & G's have been members of thefaculty. A number of buildings are named for Knights: Hilton Field, Hopkins Center, Channing Cox dormitory, Rockefeller Center North, and the Hood Museum. Even several Dartmouth songs, such as "Men of Dartmouth" (music by Harry Wellman '07), reflect the Corner's good influence.

"We were a very congenial and happy bunch senior year and we often thought what a 'drab' time the other fellows in the class must have without the intimate associations that we were living. To us Casque and Gauntlet meant the finest thing in our college experience." So spoke a '95, and the words mirror the experiences of most delegations during the subsequent 85 years. Not of all, of course, nor of all Knights in any. The "chemistry" of a delegation, and the leadership of its officers, have their effect. Nor can success be measured solely in terms of fellowship. Nelson B. Brown '99 once wrote that Casque and Gauntlet's "greatest eras have been those in which it has most closely adhered to the tradition of the Founders and, in extending its call to the Castle, gave its membership as an assuring reward to those who, in every worthy line of undergraduate endeavor, have served the College. Its lowest eras have been those in which this fundamental idea was neglected. It never was intended to become a Valhalla for athletes only, or for any other narrow phase of college activities, or a senior club for favored fraternities."

During World War II when the only people on campus were in the Navy, the Corner obviously could not function. From 1942 to 1945 the College took it over to house parents or dates of students. Mrs. Peg Broderick ran it as a sort of resident housemother. Although C & G was kidded by Sphinx for being The Hostess House and having a housemother, the College kept the Corner well maintained and returned it in 1945. A few returning veterans, who had joined before they went off to war, worked with George Colton '35 to put Casque and Gauntlet back together again.

A more troubling time was the late nineteen-sixties and early seventies. In the name of anti-elitism, equal dignity, and expression of the authentic self, the very traditions of C & G came to be questioned. A powerful tendency among members rejected any leadership role on campus, the passing of judgment on others, and striving after an ideal. The ritual was largely abandoned, together with the old standards for admission and for upkeep of the Castle. For a time each member chose his own successor. Relations between active delegation and alumni advisors became strained or non-existent, and even Trustees wondered whether the Society could or should endure. While this crisis was the most serious in C & G's history, it passed by the middle seventies. Much credit is due to various of the alumni, especially "Shep" Wolff '31, whose open and patient conversations with the delegations finally bore fruit. By then also a reaction against the "counterculture" had set in among students, and the soundness of C & G's traditions became again attractive.

The society presupposes that a worthy sense of dignity depends on serious accomplishment and character, that manners help make the man, that admirable leaders are a blessing and not a shame, and that such persons are sufficiently rare as to deserve encouragement and the special friendship that C & G affords. Not only to keep down the base in man,

But to teach high thought, and amiable words,

And courtliness, and the desire of fame,

And a love of truth, and all that makes a man.

-Idylls of the King

From the inception of co-education at Dartmouth in 1972, C & G delegations debated whether to nominate women to membership. Finally the '79 delegation voted unanimously to change the old policy, "in recognition of the strong contribution many women students are making to today's College." Six Ladies joined the Knights of the '80 delegation. We dare to say that the founders of Casque and Gauntlet, and Lord Tennyson himself, would be pleased with such a decision in such circumstances.

Lest the old traditions fail, and in happy celebration of a twenty-fifth reunion, this book has been written and published by the Delegation of 1956. We acknowledge with thanks the contributions of various Knights of '56, and of other Knights long devoted to The Casque and Gauntlet. We acknowledge also an important source, The Fiftieth Anniversary of Casque & Gauntlet 1887Ñ1937 (Hanover, n.d.).

CASQUE AND GAUNTLET -- Delegation of 1956

William G. Beagle, Jr., Duane C. Johnstone, Bernhard E. Bergesen III, Peter M. Kirby, Russell W. Brace, Thomas S. Marvel, James P. Breeden, Leo C. McKenna, John S. Chapman, E. Louis Metzger III, Leonard J. Clark, Jr., John A. Nicolette, Robert K. Faulkner, Jr., Walter D. Pugh, James L. Flynn, John W. Rosenberger, Leonard E. Giuliani, Berkeley Roth, Donald H. Gray, Jr., Stewart Sanders, Robert M. Grossman, Bernt P. Stigum, Thomas E. Healy, Egil Stigum, Kenneth Hecht, Kenneth E. Thomas, Richard W. Hlavac, Richard E. Whitney, Emerson B. Houck, Stephen M. Winslow, George A. Hust, Chester A. Zinn, Jr.