ARLO BATES. 473 



ARLO BATES (1850-1918). 



Fellow in Class III, Section 4, 1900. 



Arlo Bates was born in East Machias, Maine, December 16, 1850, 

 the son of Dr. Niran, and Susan (Thaxter) Bates. The strange name 

 that was given to him was due to a family idiosyncrasy which origi- 

 nated with his grandfather, who had a theory that every man should 

 have " a name that is all his own and nobody else's." So he called his 

 son Niran ; Niran upon the same principle begat Arlo, and Arlo in his 

 turn begat Oric. You will search the dictionaries of biography and 

 mythology in vain for any of these names, they are merely combina- 

 tions of letters with no significance, but unique and calculated to 

 impress the bearer from birth with the sense of individuality which 

 was a family characteristic, not least strongly marked in the subject 

 of this memoir. 



He was educated at Bowdoin College, where he received the degree 

 of S.B. in 1876, A.M. in 1879, and Litt.D. in 1894. Already while an 

 undergraduate his strong instinct for literature as a profession began 

 to manifest itself, he became the editor-in-chief of the college paper 

 called The Bowdoin Orient, and thus started on his chosen career. 

 Shortly after his graduation he resolved to try his fortune in Boston, 

 and moved to the city in the same year, to remain a resident of it until 

 his death on August 26, 1918. 



His first venture in Boston was a paper which he named The Broad- 

 side. This led an unprosperous existence during the years 1878-79 

 and was then abandoned. In the following year he was made editor 

 of the Sunday Courier, a journal which had once been highly esteemed, 

 when it numbered among its contributors many of those whose names 

 were associated with the North American Review, but had sadly de- 

 generated when he took hold of it, and was living then chiefly on its 

 name and advertisements. Its proprietor gave him a free hand in the 

 conduct of his own columns, with the result that during the thirteen 

 years that he remained its editor he was able to restore it to something 

 of its old prestige. It became again one of the accepted Sunday pap- 

 ers, and was extensively read for its editorials, literary reviews and 

 notes on current topics, for all of which he was responsible and most 

 of which he wrote himself. 



