FRANCIS HUNTINGTON SNOW, SCIENTIST. 



By E. Miller, Lawrence. 



XTTHEN Oliver Cromwell was sitting for a portrait of himself, 

 ' ' he said to the artist, "Paint me as I am." So when one at- 

 tempts to portray the character and life of another, in order that the 

 picture may be perfect in all its details — nothing added that should 

 be omitted, nothing lacking that should be there — it is easily seen 

 how great a task is to be accomplished. But when the character 

 and the work of such a man as Francis Huntington 8uow, whom 

 we all knew and loved, are to be described, the undertaking is a 

 very great one indeed. 



To portray him as he lived, as he showed himself in his family 

 and among his fellow citizens; to picture him in his classroom with 

 his students about him, and in his laboratory arranging and classi- 

 fying the material he had collected among the mountains, on the 

 plains and from the sea, would require in the one attempting it a 

 personal and intimate acquaintance with the man. Nor would the 

 description be complete without the story of his search for new 

 and unknown forms of insect life, or for meteoric bodies; of his 

 exposure to dangers, seen and unseen; of the writing and publish- 

 ing of his scientific reports; of expeditions made summer after 

 summer; of his daily record of rains and snows, and winds and 

 storms; and of his investigations into the habits of insects in order 

 to save the wheat and corn of Kansas. And over and above all 

 this, there must be shown the indomitable spirit, the intensity of 

 purpose and the unflagging zeal, as well as the great mental and 

 moral qualities, that in themselves constituted the man. 



From the day of his birth, in 1840, until he entered Williams 

 College, in 1858, the boy Frank Snow exhibited the same deter- 

 mined, masterful spirit and honorable ambition to win out, the 

 same hatred of shams, and that rugged, vigorous, incorruptible and 

 outspoken sense of honor that ever marked his long and useful 

 career of service. At the age of eighteen he entered college, where 

 for four years the boy gave proof of the stufp that was in him. 

 He seemed to be always keyed up for work or play. And this told 

 in unmistakable terms what kind of man was being fashioned dur- 

 ing those four years at college. His thorough mastery of the old 

 classic languages, his clear conception of such scientific subjects 

 as were in the course of study of those days, and his eagerness in 



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