PHILADELPHIA. February 25th, 1882.
[DEAR OLD BOY:]
I'm glad the affair ended so well. I don't want you to
fight, but if you have to fight a cuss like that do it with
all your might, and don't insist that either party shall too
strictly observe the Markis O' Queensbury rules. Hit first
and hardest so that thine adversary shall beware of you.
DAD.
At that time the secret societies played a very important
part in the college life at Lehigh, and while I do not believe
that Richard shared the theory of some of the students that
they were a serious menace to the social fabric, he was quite
firm in his belief that it was inadvisable to be a member of
any fraternity. In a
general way he did not like the idea of secrecy even in its
mildest form, and then, as throughout his fife, he refused to
join any body that would in any way limit his complete
independence of word or action. In connection with this phase
of his college life I quote from an appreciation which M. A.
De W. Howe, one of Richard's best friends both at college and
in after-life, wrote for
The Lehigh Burr at the time of my
brother's death:
"To the credit of the perceptive faculty of
undergraduates, it ought to be said that the classmates and
contemporaries of Richard Harding Davis knew perfectly well,
while he and they were young together, that in him Lehigh had
a son so marked in his individuality, so endowed with talents
and character that he stood quite apart from the other
collegians of his day. Prophets were as rare in the eighties
as they have always been, before and since, and nobody could
have foreseen that the name and work of Dick Davis would long
before his untimely death, indeed within a few years from
leaving college, be better known throughout the world than
those of any other Lehigh man. We who knew him in his college
days could not feel the smallest surprise that he won himself
quickly a brilliant name, and kept a firm hold upon it to the
last.
"What was it that made him so early a marked man? I
think it was the spirit of confidence and enthusiasm which
turned every enterprise he undertook into an adventure, — the
brave and humorous playing of the game of life, the true
heart, the wholesome body and soul of my friend and classmate.
He did not excel in studies or greatly, in athletics. But in
his own field, that of writing, he was so much better than the
rest of us that no one of his fellow-editors of the
Epitome
or
Burr needed to be considered in comparison with
him. No less, in spite of his voluntary nonmembership in the
fraternities of his day, was he a leader in the social
activities of the University. The `Arcadian Club' devoted in
its beginnings to the `pipes, books, beer and gingeralia' of
Davis's song about it and the `Mustard and Cheese' were his
creations. In all his personal relationships he was the most
amusing and stimulating of companions. With garb and ways of
unique picturesqueness, rarer even in college communities a
generation ago than at present, it was inevitable that he
sometimes got himself laughed at as well as with. But what
did it all matter, even then? To-day it adds a glow of color
to what would be in any case a vivid, deeply valued memory.
"It is hard to foresee in youth what will come most
sharply and permanently in the long run. After all these
years it is good to find that Davis and what his companionship
gave one hold their place with the strongest influences of
Lehigh."
But Richard was naturally gregarious and at heart had a
great fondness for clubs and social gatherings. Therefore,
having refused the offer of several fraternities that did him
the honor to ask him to become a member, it was necessary for
him to form a few clubs that held meetings, but no secrets.
Perhaps the most successful of these were "The Mustard and
Cheese," a dramatic club devoted to the presentation of farces
and musical comedies, and The Arcadia Club, to the fortnightly
meetings of which he devoted much time and thought. The
following letter to his father will give some idea of the
scope of the club, which, as in the case of "The Mustard and
Cheese," gained a permanent and important place in the social
life of Lehigh.
