"The Days of a Man 



Branner 

 and the 

 others 



most every younger entomologist of standing in the country 

 has at some time or other studied. 



He married Anna Botsford, a Cornell graduate of later 

 days, an artist and a naturalist especially interested in insects. 

 Mrs. Comstock's big heart and genial nature, varied acquaint- 

 ance, and sympathy with young people have made their home 

 a center of student life for upwards of forty years. Her fine 

 and accurate work in the illustration of her own and her hus- 

 band's books commands the admiration of naturalists, and her 

 efforts in recent years for the promotion of nature study in 

 the lower schools of New York State have been very success- 

 ful. The devoted friendship of both the Comstocks is one of 

 our joys in life. 



Branner, a big, broad-shouldered, enthusiastic, jolly-tempered 

 youth with a fine wit, a most delightful story teller, from 

 Dandridge in eastern Tennessee, we hailed as "king of the 

 wassail and jack of the rebels." He came to college with the 

 intention to enter the Presbyterian ministry. Science, how- 

 ever, as events have plainly proved, was his proper field, and 

 he turned definitely to Geology, in which subject he became in 

 time a leading world authority. But of him, my lifelong friend, 

 my colleague also for more than a quarter-century, I shall 

 have frequent occasion to speak. Mrs. Branner, whom we 

 have also long held in warm affection, is a graduate of Vassar 

 and sister of Horace Kennedy, one of our favorite "brothers." 



A forceful member of the science group in Delta Upsilon 

 and also of "the Strug" was Edward Leamington Nichols, a 

 rosy-cheeked boy of excellent caliber, afterwards for more 

 than a quarter of a century head professor of Physics at Cornell. 



Another "youngster of excellent pith" was Herman L. 

 Fairchild, geologist, now for thirty years or more professor in 

 the University of Rochester. 1 



Among others not scientifically inclined but much beloved 

 were Newman, already mentioned, afterward an attorney in 

 Ithaca and for many years also a member of the university 

 board of trustees; John Manley Chase, a youth of rare per- 



1 Members of the local chapter of Delta Upsilon who became eminent in 

 science, but who entered Cornell after I left, were Simon Henry Gage, physi- 

 ologist; William Trelease, botanist; Leland O. Howard, entomologist; and 

 Theobald Smith, bacteriologist. 



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