for it was marked by the inauguration of Dr. McCosh and the begin- 

 ning of the Renaissance. I shall defer college matters, however, to a 

 later chapter. 



Earlier in the fall, my Mother and I went back to Philadelphia and 

 Hved in Uncle's house till the following February. The house, at the 

 northwest corner of 9th and Walnut Streets, was just across 9th Street 

 from the old Walnut Street Theatre, which I supposed to be a den of 

 nameless wickedness. Oddly enough that was the first real theatre I ever 

 visited, when I saw Taylor's Our American Cousin, in 1876. My Uncle 

 was eighteen months older than my Grandfather, whom he much 

 resembled in character, though not in appearance. He was then almost 

 totally blind, but could distinguish day and night and could tell the 

 time from a specially made watch. Though he lost his sight after he was 

 sixty years old, he had acquired some surprising compensatory powers. 

 He needed hardly any help in getting about and, when driving about 

 Philadelphia, he always knew where he was. He sometimes took me 

 with him in his carriage and would astonish me by teUing me to look at 

 such a house, which he would describe and then tell me who lived in it. 

 I was put to school with Dr. Fairies, who had a large and excellent 

 school in Juniper Street, and there I had almost the only good teaching 

 that fell to my lot before I went to college. As was always the case, I 

 liked my school work and studied hard; much to my Mother's joy, I was 

 usually at the head of my class in the weekly reports and it was a griev- 

 ous disappointment to us both when I fell to second or third place. From 

 the modern point of view, the school would be regarded as sadly lacking 

 in athletic equipment; we had no playground, only a large playroom, 

 which occupied the whole top storey and contained some gymnastic 

 apparatus. I cannot remember ever taking part in any game at the 

 school and there was no instruction or oversight in sports, though I have 

 a vague recollection of a functionary, who did something for the older 

 boys, it may have been fencing, or boxing. My memories of recess are of 

 standing about in the brick-paved schoolyard, if the weather permitted, 

 or up in the playroom if it were too wet or too cold to be out of doors. 

 This was the only one of my schools in which corporeal punishment 

 was systematically given; a long, flexible rattan in the hands of the dread 

 Doctor himself was the instrument. Usually, one or two cuts across the 

 palms of the delinquent's hands were deemed sufficient, but, in serious 

 cases, other parts of the anatomy were sought out. We little boys had an 

 overpowering dread of that rattan and our conduct was most exemplary. 

 The punishment was light, but the rattan ruled supreme and the school 



[23] 



