College Life. 19 



In those days, of course, quill pens being used, 

 the young Secretary was required to procure these 

 for himself and, as crow quills wore abundant, im- 

 mediately he begun to make a large collection of. the 

 same. 



He writes : " Because I collected crow quills, the 

 Indians, in derision, gave me the soubriquet of 

 ' Crow Quill ; ' " soon after, however, we went on a 

 Moose hunt. I took good aim, fired away, and heard 

 them hallo : u Oh, you've killed him you've killed 

 him." So the Indians changed my name to " Big 

 Moose" This took place in the western part of the' 

 State of New York ; the skin and the horns of the 

 Moose were taken home by the party and preserved 

 in New York as a trophy." 



AVhen the time arrived for John to enter college, 

 Williams College, Massachusetts, was selected. He 

 was just a little shy, but was found well prepared to 

 enter the Freshman Class. Some of the Boston boys 

 called the boys from Rheinbeck, in contempt, 

 " Dutchmen." John bore it for a time ; on one occa- 

 sion, however, when the parties met at the head of the 

 steps, and "Get out of the way, you Dutchmen," was 

 the taunt, John, boiling over with wrath, sprang for- 

 ward, seized one of his tormentors by the arm, and 

 sent him rolling down the steps. From the impetus 

 he took a little tumble himself, but the class cheered, 

 and the Rheinbeck boys henceforth were unmo- 

 lested. 



As the years rolled by, he became more and more 

 absorbed in his studies ; he sat up night after night 



