The Days of a Man 



D871 



i:he 



choice of a life mate than are found in a coeducational 

 institution, l^his of course is not the whole story, 

 but to my mind the advantages both to men and 

 women distinctly outweigh all incidental drawbacks. 

 Fortunately for me and several others, there was 

 Mitchell one cultutcd home where we were always welcome — 

 ■^"'^'^^ that of three sisters by the name of Mitchell who 

 lived in a red farmhouse beyond Cascadilla Creek. 

 Our friendship with Miss Minnie, the youngest, now 

 Mrs. Barnes, was wholesome and helpful at a time 

 when social opportunities were scanty. 



The paucity of womankind in whom we had an 

 intellectual interest tended to turn our thoughts 

 perhaps unduly toward what I then described as 



Glimpses of the golden future, 

 Foretastes of the fair to-be, 



and tinged all our poetical effusions, whether serious 



"Era" or not. Four of us in "The Strug" ^ — ^ Leavitt, 



poetasters Audetsou, Dudlcy, and I — had some skill in the 



making of verses, which we read at our weekly 



meetings, and often printed in the Era: 



Poets of the better era, 



Poets of the Cornell Era, 



Knock the spots all off from Shakespere; 



SO we stoutly asserted, before an incredulous world. 

 One of my efforts, entitled "To Minnie," was sung 

 by her to the blithe tune of "Cocachelunk," an air 

 then popular in college circles. The poem read as 

 follows : 



In the castles grim and stately, 

 In the halls where grandeur reigns, 



Stood of old the Mastersingers, 

 Chanting high, heroic strains — 



: 68 -} 



