WIIvWAM K^ITH BROOKS — CONKUN 



PERSONALITY. 



Professor Brooks was a man of strongly marked individual- 

 ity. In personal appearance he was short and stout, with straight 

 dark brown hair and heavy dark brown moustache and eye- 

 brows. While in Cambridge, and during the earlier years of his 

 residence in Baltimore, he wore a full bushy beard. He some- 

 times allowed his hair to grow long, apparently because he 

 disliked to take the time to have it cut. He used to say jocosely 

 that he envied the man who did not need to have his hair cut, 

 and who never wore a collar or necktie. He was generally 

 careless, or rather thoughtless, of dress, and mere convention- 

 alities counted for little with him. His best known portrait is 

 the one painted by Thomas C. Corner, and presented to him by 

 some fifty of his former pupils on his fiftieth birthday, March 

 25, 1898, a photographic copy of which appears on the opposite 

 page. This portrait was afterwards loaned to the Johns Hop- 

 kins University, and it now hangs among the portraits of other 

 distinguished professors of the university in McCoy Hall. It 

 represents him in characteristic attitude, sedentary, meditative, 

 careless of dress, and with that peculiar uplift of the eyes which 

 with him usually preceded speech. 



He was slow and deliberate in his movements . and speech, 

 and undemonstrative in manner. In general he talked little, 

 and in a low tone. When he had occasion to speak more 

 loudly his voice assumed a rather high and piping quality. 

 With him talking meant expressing ideas, not merely passing 

 the time, and if he had no answer ready when a question was 

 asked him he usually gave no answer until he was ready — it 

 might be several days later — when he would answer as natu- 

 rally as if the question had been asked only a moment before. 

 These characteristics made him appear somewhat unique and 

 picturesque, and gave rise to many charming anecdotes about 

 him which his students and friends relate with merriment, but 

 real affection. 



In spite of his quiet reserve he was usually a very compan- 

 ionable man, and his company was sought and prized by his 

 friends. On his part he was fond of his friends and neigh- 

 bors, though he was often silent and absorbed in thought. At 

 6— as 7i 



