big _City of New York_ filled her long saloon-deck with New London
spectators. A special train of eighteen cars came up from New Haven, a
blue flag fluttering from every window. The striking contrast to the life
and bustle of the lower end of the course was the quiet river at the
starting-point. The college launches, the huge tug _America_,
the press-boat _Manhasset_, loaded with correspondents, the tug
_Burnside_, swathed in crimson by her charter party of Harvard men,
and the steam-yacht _Norma_, gay with party-colored bunting, floated
idly up-stream, waiting for the start. The long train of twenty-five
observation-cars stood quietly by the river-side, its occupants closely
watching the boat-houses across the river."

Did any fleet of steamers solid with eager spectators, or special train
of eighteen cars, or long train of twenty-five observation-cars, a vast,
enthusiastic multitude, ever arrive at any college upon any Commencement
Day in Philip Slingsby's time to greet with prolonged roars of cheers and
frenzied excitement the surpassing eloquence of Salutatorian Smith, or the
melting pathos of Valedictorian Jones? Did ever--for so we read in the
veracious history of a day, the newspaper--did ever a college town resound
with "a perfect babel of noises" from eight in the summer evening until
three in the summer morning, the town lighted with burning tar-barrels
and blazing with fireworks, the chimes ringing, and ten thousand
people hastening to the illuminated station to receive the victors in
triumph--because Brown had vanquished the calculus, or Jones discovered a
comet, or Robinson translated the _Daily Gong and Gas Blower_ into
the purest Choctaw? In a word, was such tumult of acclamation--even the
President himself swinging his reverend hat, and the illustrious alumni,
far and near, when the glad tidings were told, beaming with joyful
complacency, like Mr. Pickwick going down the slide, while Samivel Weller
adjured him and the company to keep the pot a-bilin'--ever produced by any