THE-MAvSTER 
 OF-THE^HILL, 
 
 A Biography of 
 
 JOHN-MEIG^
 
 THE MASTER OF THE HILL
 
 JOHN MEIGS
 
 THE 
 
 MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 A BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN MEIGS 
 
 BY 
 
 WALTER RUSSELL BOWIE 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 
 1917
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1917, 
 By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC.
 
 DEDICATION 
 
 "ONE WHO NEVES TURNED His BACK BUT MARCHED BREAST 
 
 FORWARD, 
 
 NEVER DOUBTED CLOUDS WOULD BREAK, 
 NEVER DREAMED, THOUGH RIGHT WERE WORSTED, WRONG 
 
 WOULD TRIUMPH, 
 
 HELD WE FALL TO RISE, ARE BAFFLED TO FIGHT BETTER, 
 SLEEP TO WAKE."
 
 PREFACE 
 
 AS that noble biography of Charles Kings- 
 y\ ley was written by his wife, whose 
 intimate understanding made her the 
 one supremely able to reveal Charles Kings- 
 ley's spirit, so it would have been the ideal 
 thing that this biography of John Meigs 
 should have been written by her whose life 
 was most closely linked to his. For a time, 
 indeed, Mrs. Meigs did intend to write this 
 book, but various difficulties compelled her to 
 postpone the undertaking. Then, through her 
 gracious willingness, the responsibility came 
 to me; and as a work of love and noble privi- 
 lege I received it. As a boy, first, in the 
 school, I knew the Master of the Hill, and 
 afterwards as a teacher I worked under him 
 for a little while. To this attempt to record 
 his life I bring, therefore, some knowledge 
 and much love. 
 
 The material which the following pages 
 embody has come from many sources. 
 Through the efforts of Mrs. Meigs herself 
 was most of it gathered. Three years ago 
 she sent letters to a great number of the 
 graduates of The Hill School, and to other 
 
 vii
 
 viii PREFACE 
 
 friends of John Meigs, asking that they 
 should allow her to copy any letters from 
 him which they might have received and 
 preserved, and also that they should write 
 down their recollections of any special inci- 
 dents which they remembered as character- 
 istic of him. The responses which came to 
 this request have been in my hands. Also 
 Mrs. Meigs read through her own letters from 
 her husband, and copied a number of para- 
 graphs which she was willing should be used 
 at my discretion. From her, too, has come 
 information concerning facts in John Meigs' 
 life which otherwise could not have been 
 known. But when this is said, there should 
 be linked with it another statement. Upon 
 the present writer, directly and particularly, 
 rests the responsibility for the inclusion in 
 this book of certain references to Mrs. Meigs 
 herself, which she for her own part would 
 have avoided. It is only because I have per- 
 suaded her to recognize that they are linked 
 inextricably with the attempt to make com- 
 plete the picture of John Meigs' life and work 
 that she has suffered to be printed here those 
 even now too brief suggestions of her influ- 
 ence at The Hill. 
 
 Most of the facts concerning John Meigs' 
 earlier ancestors are drawn from " The Meigs 
 Family in America," by Henry B. Meigs, of
 
 PREFACE ix 
 
 Baltimore, published in 1902. From two dear 
 friends, Mrs. Rossiter W. Raymond and Mrs. 
 Thomas M. Drown ; from Mr. William S. Wells 
 and Mr. Louis Richards, students at The Hill 
 under Dr. Matthew Meigs; and through Pro- 
 fessor W. T. Owen, of Lafayette, has come the 
 larger part of such recollections of John Meigs' 
 own younger days as are preserved. Mr. 
 George Q. Sheppard, Mr. Alfred G. Rolfe, 
 Mr. Arthur Judson and Mr. Frank W. Pine, 
 from among the masters of The Hill, have 
 contributed reminiscences of exceptional im- 
 portance. Out of the many responses which 
 came to Mrs. Meigs' request to the " old 
 boys " and other friends that they write what 
 they remembered best about him, much that 
 is illuminating has been gathered. As a rule, 
 it has not seemed fitting to give the names 
 of those from whom these personal recollec- 
 tions came; but to them all, both those who 
 will recognize in the pages that follow quota- 
 tions from letters they have written, and to 
 those also whose words, though not printed, 
 have none the less helped to shape the present 
 author's conclusions, this tribute of indebted- 
 ness is here set down. 
 
 Pre-eminently also is gratitude due to Dr. 
 Robert E. Speer for inestimable counsel and 
 help in the publication of this book. 
 
 Certain letters of Dr. Meigs to his sister,
 
 x PREFACE 
 
 Miss Elizabeth W. Meigs, and to his daugh- 
 ters, have been available, as well as carbon 
 copies of a part of his correspondence to per- 
 sons in general concerning the affairs of the 
 school. Two addresses made by Dr. Meigs, 
 in which he set forth his conception of 
 what a school should be, have been of im- 
 mense value as giving the key to his plans 
 and ideals. In these, under the form of a 
 general discussion, he has often revealed his 
 own soul. But, with the exception of these, 
 and some memoranda of talks to the boys, 
 there is a scarcity of the kind of material 
 which one craves most in the assembling of 
 a book like this. John Meigs kept no diary. 
 The deep and intense emotion, and the power- 
 ful thought which made him great, expressed 
 themselves more characteristically in action 
 than in any deliberate summing up in written 
 word. He was conspicuously free from the 
 kind of self-regard which would have made 
 him think that what he was dreaming and 
 desiring would some day be of interest to 
 people at large save as embodied silently in 
 the work which he did from day to day; and 
 so he seldom spread out for inspection his 
 thoughts and feelings concerning the duties 
 and hopes which pertained individually to 
 himself. It was not that he was reserved, 
 for, on the contrary, he was impetuous and
 
 PREFACE xi 
 
 lavish to his friends of the best he felt he had. 
 Rather, the explanation lies in his singular 
 humility that humility which can belong 
 sometimes to those who are confident and 
 masterful when they lay their hands to a work 
 so great as to clothe their spirit with the 
 authority of a high commission, but who, in 
 their estimate of the interest which they 
 themselves may have for others, are incredu- 
 lous with almost a child's simplicity of heart. 
 So the fact stands that he who could best 
 have given the materials for this book has 
 given them, so far as written words are con- 
 cerned, only in fragments here and there. 
 Happily in his letters to those whom he loved 
 best, where these may be quoted, he has given 
 us flashing insights into his deepest self; but 
 chiefly he expressed himself in the school 
 which he builded and in the lives which he 
 molded. From what he did, therefore, and 
 from what others have found him to be, rather 
 than from what he himself has said, must a 
 large part of this book be made.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAOE 
 
 I SCHOOLMASTER AND MAN . . . . i 
 
 II JOHN MEIGS' ANCESTRY, AND His ANTE- 
 CEDENTS AT THE HILL . . . . . 10 
 
 III BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 30 
 
 IV THE BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE . . 52 
 V LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 104 
 
 VI IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 137 
 
 VII THE MAKING OF MEN 201 
 
 VIII THE LIFE WITHIN 249 
 
 IX FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS AND A FINISHED LIFE 298 
 
 X VICTORY 362 
 
 THE MASTER . 369
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 John Meigs . ,. . . . . . Frontispiece 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 John Meigs, aged eighteen 36 
 
 The Headmaster's House at The Hill. ... 94 
 
 Professor John Meigs, at the age of thirty-four . .150 
 The Upper School ......... 220 
 
 The Chapel 350
 
 THE MASTER OF THE HILL
 
 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 SCHOOLMASTER AND MAN 
 
 The Two Aspects of John Meigs to Be Considered ; His Con- 
 structive Achievement and His Personal Character The Func- 
 tion of the Great Schools in the Life of the Nation Shaping 
 Ideals for Others The Arena of the Man's Own Heart. 
 
 THIS is the story of one who lived nobly 
 and wrought well. It is written not 
 alone, nor even chiefly, in order that 
 the boys who knew John Meigs at The Hill 
 School, and others who were his friends, may 
 have this enlargement of their own memo- 
 ries, but rather because his life was such that 
 the story of it ought to go out with its kin- 
 dling message to all those everywhere who 
 rejoice in idealism and gallantry and 
 strength. 
 
 Two separable threads of interest are inter- 
 woven in this record of John Meigs' life. The 
 first and more obvious interest has to do with 
 the visible work he accomplished. " Si mon- 
 umentum requiris, circumspice," one might 
 say of John Meigs, as one stands in the quad-
 
 2 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 rangles of The Hill School, as truly as men 
 say it of Sir Christopher Wren, when they 
 stand under the dome of St. Paul's. He took 
 a small and ill-equipped institution, the mere 
 framework of a school, with two teachers and 
 twenty boys. He built upon that foundation 
 a great plant, unsurpassed in America for 
 completeness and efficiency. At his death 
 there were forty masters and three hundred 
 and seventy-five boys, working under an or- 
 ganization so clear and firm that, even when 
 the school was left without a leader, its work 
 moved on with no break and no uncertainty. 
 From an obscure venture he lifted The Hill 
 School in his lifetime into the rank of the 
 great preparatory schools of America. 
 
 What this means will grow more impres- 
 sively evident as time goes on. We are only 
 beginning to understand the power which 
 the influential schools of the United States 
 will exercise upon the coming thought and 
 will of the nation only beginning to invest 
 the schools here with that dignity of asso- 
 ciation which belongs to the schools of an 
 older world. To many persons in America 
 the names of the schools in England are 
 doubtless more familiar than the names of 
 those in our own land. Eton, Harrow, 
 Winchester, Rugby, Uppingham thousands 
 Joiow these who have never seen their towers.
 
 SCHOOLMASTER AND MAN 3 
 
 They have entered into the stories, the his- 
 tory one might almost say the legends of 
 the English race, on whichsoever side of the 
 Atlantic it may be. The glamour and ro- 
 mance of many generations clothes them 
 with an imperishable garment, the mellowing 
 touch of the vanished centuries is upon their 
 walls, and the aroma of old hopes and dreams 
 and desirings is sweet within their gardens 
 and their cloistered walks. The great per- 
 sonalities who have inspired their life have 
 sent the echo of their message far and wide. 
 Countless boys have read " Tom Brown at 
 Rugby," and felt the power of the soul of 
 Thomas Arnold. Many, too, have read of 
 Thring of Uppingham. Under men like 
 these, the schools of England have trained 
 the leaders of the nation. They have taught 
 boys from whose ranks should come those 
 who were to do the great work of their gen- 
 erations, honor and manliness and truth. 
 They have cultivated in their class-rooms 
 not always without severity and rigor the 
 power of sound scholarship; and on their ath- 
 letic grounds they have wrought the stamina 
 of those who, not in the day's encounter 
 alone, but in the larger tests of later life, 
 have learned how to " play the game." The 
 saying attributed to the Duke of Wellington 
 is famous that " the battle of Waterloo was
 
 4 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 won on the playing fields of Eton." Whether 
 that be so or not, it is true that in the great 
 schools of England men have been bred who 
 have fought well in those many battles of 
 the common day, which if less dramatic are 
 not less real. 
 
 Obviously, the schools in America cannot 
 possess as yet that quality of romance and 
 that long richness of human traditions which 
 invest the schools of England. Yet the real 
 achievements of the more anciently famous 
 schools they can repeat nay, more than that. 
 They can do in this larger country a work 
 which while partaking of all that is sound 
 and honorable in the earlier traditions, can 
 add to these the fresh enthusiasm, the un- 
 hampered and creative imagination, of the 
 free and virile democracy in the midst of 
 which they stand. To this ideal the greater 
 schools are already attaining. They are per- 
 petuating high traditions of scholarship. 
 They are training boys, too, not only in mind, 
 but also in heart and will. They are develop- 
 ing individuals with that broad open-minded- 
 ness to the individual's possibilities, which is 
 characteristic of America, and yet at the same 
 time they are teaching that which is selfish 
 in the boy's individualism to subordinate it- 
 self in a nobler esprit de corps to the pur- 
 poses and aims of the school. And, best of
 
 SCHOOLMASTER AND MAN 5 
 
 all, they are helping boys to understand that 
 the snobbishness which boasts of inherited 
 wealth and privilege, and makes this an ex- 
 cuse for selfish laziness, is a contemptible 
 thing, and that the only manly and honorable 
 life is one that is trying truly to fit itself to 
 be of use. 
 
 To have as one's accomplishment the crea- 
 tion of a school like this means not only to 
 have affected for good the immediate group 
 which the school has trained, but through 
 that to have set in motion impulses in educa- 
 tion and life the bounds of which cannot be 
 marked. Such a work John Meigs achieved, 
 and because of that the story of what he 
 wrought is significant to all those who regard 
 the potencies of American life with seeing 
 eyes. 
 
 But, as we said at the beginning, in think- 
 ing of him, there are not one, but two threads 
 of interest to be followed. The first, of which 
 we have spoken, deals with that which is the 
 more obvious since it has to do in part with 
 visible things. Yet it is the second which 
 reaches down to a deeper and more instinctive 
 chord of human response. Comparatively 
 few persons are immediately concerned with 
 the details of the building or the government 
 of schools. We do not expect ourselves to 
 be confronted with these particular tasks and
 
 6 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 problems; and howsoever much we may ad- 
 mire what another has achieved in this direc- 
 tion, we should not be helped in our particular 
 responsibilities by the technical facts of what 
 a schoolmaster had managed to do. We 
 might be interested, but not moved. But if 
 through "The Master of The Hill" we can see 
 and understand the man see the human soul 
 in all the poignant reality of its kinship to our 
 own aspiring, struggling, conscious of faults, 
 battling for self-mastery, mindful of its 
 limitations, yet reaching after God then we 
 begin to know that we are not reading a story 
 impersonal to ourselves. Rather, we shall be 
 reading one more expression of that infinite 
 drama of human life, which is not without 
 us only, but within us too the reflection in 
 another's experience, made perhaps the more 
 clear thus for us to consider and understand, 
 of realities which, intuitively at least, we dimly 
 know. When in this sense we read the record 
 of another man's life and working, it does not 
 matter what that man professionally was, or 
 what we are. Butcher, baker, candle-stick- 
 maker, man of business, lawyer, doctor, 
 woman in her home whatever we may be, 
 we recognize in a man who has genuinely 
 lived, no matter in what sphere he moved, an 
 experience and an inspiration which may be- 
 come the heritage of us all.
 
 SCHOOLMASTER AND MAN 7 
 
 In this vital and human sense, therefore, we 
 shall think of John Meigs. There was noth- 
 ing remote about him. No one who knew him 
 would try to ascribe to him that passionless 
 perfection with which sometimes an amiable 
 but anaemic art paints its haloed saints the 
 saints who in reality were men fashioned into 
 refinement through much sore discipline and 
 courageous pain. There was a great deal in 
 him which was fine and lovely from the first; 
 but there were elements also against which 
 he had to fight with grievous effort. In his 
 relationship with those he loved best, and in 
 his relationship with all persons in those many 
 times when his easily roused sympathy over- 
 flowed, he was full of a lovely tenderness. He 
 kept even through weary years a boy's capac- 
 ity for fun and enthusiastic playfulness. But 
 he had a will which when it was set upon 
 some goal drove forward with a kind of awe- 
 inspiring inflexibility; and they who blocked 
 it, did so at their peril. When his plans were 
 interfered with, or more especially when he 
 confronted stupid inefficiency and wilful 
 wrong, he could launch against the offender a 
 blast of scorn and anger which withered like 
 a flame; but when he himself had been unjust, 
 none could be more swift and humbly eager 
 to make amends. There were moments in his 
 work at the school when it seemed as though
 
 8 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 his nature were being hammered out by the 
 mighty strokes of conflicting influences, and 
 fashioned into the larger likeness still to be 
 revealed. 
 
 While he was still living, there was on ex- 
 hibition once in New York a piece of sculp- 
 ture which, to some who looked at it, seemed 
 strangely symbolic of these spiritual facts 
 which were true of him. It was a great head 
 of Abraham Lincoln, colossal in size, deliber- 
 ately half-hewn, unfinished. The face was 
 beautiful with haunting power, full of all the 
 mystery and the majesty of the brooding 
 human soul and back of it only the unhewn 
 marble. The Master of The Hill, whom many 
 feared and many loved, had a soul whose crea- 
 tion seemed like that. Always those who 
 looked upon him saw that he was fashioned 
 out of a larger mould than common men. In 
 every sense there was a bigness about him. 
 The soul of the man looked out of him, great 
 and strong and yearning. Yet one could feel 
 back of it something of the elemental rugged- 
 ness almost the harshness of the human 
 material which the divine spark was slowly 
 transfusing and transfiguring. Sometimes 
 there came a kind of awesome sense of the 
 contrary possibilities of his nature. The 
 powerful will, the impetuous and sometimes 
 passionate emotion, the volcanic energy, might
 
 SCHOOLMASTER AND MAN 9 
 
 have been as terrible had they been turned 
 toward any evil as they were glorious turned 
 toward good. He, himself, must have been 
 aware of the peril, as well as the possibilities, 
 of those elements within him. He had that 
 highest wisdom of humility which made him 
 know that he, himself, was not sufficient to 
 rule his spirit well. He reached up after God 
 with a genuineness such as only a man in 
 deepest earnest concerning the great business 
 of his living can possess. He grew and 
 changed under the touch of that higher spirit 
 which he sought. From the beginning strong, 
 impetuous, generous, true, he became, as the 
 years went on, more patient, self-controlled, 
 forbearing. He won through many a battle, 
 and not without pain and wounds, the finished 
 manhood of his final and noblest years.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 JOHN MEIGS' ANCESTRY, AND HIS ANTE- 
 CEDENTS AT THE HILL 
 
 Pioneers of the Meigs Name in the Life of New England 
 The First John Meigs and His Adventures Figures of Mark 
 in the Generations Following The Father and Mother of John 
 Meigs, of The Hill The Beginning of the School in 1851. 
 
 THOUGH John Meigs, himself, was born 
 in Pennsylvania, went to school and 
 college and spent all the years of his 
 working life there, and died within the walls 
 of the house in which he was born, his earlier 
 ancestry belonged to another part of the coun- 
 try. The first of the family line in America 
 who bore his name was John Meigs, of Ham- 
 monassett, near Guilford, Connecticut, who, 
 with his father, Vincent Meigs, came to New 
 England in the very early days of the Ply- 
 mouth colony and was in Weymouth by 1639. 
 It was in 1654 that Vincent Meigs and his 
 sons came to Hammonassett. There they 
 lived till the father died in 1658, and John 
 Meigs remained there until shortly before 
 his death, which befell in 1672 he removed 
 to Killingworth. 
 
 Concerning this John Meigs, the following 
 quaint record is embodied in the official pro-
 
 JOHN MEIGS' ANCESTRY n 
 
 ceedings of the Court of Guilford for Decem- 
 ber 4th, 1657. 
 
 " John Meigs being called for on complaint 
 that he came with his cart from Hamonaffet 
 late in the night on the Lord's Day, making a 
 noife as he came, to the offenfe of many who 
 heard it. 
 
 " Then appeared and answered that he was 
 miftaken in the time of day, Thinking that 
 he had time enough for the journey. But be- 
 ing somewhat more ladened than he appre- 
 hended, the cattle came more slowly than 
 ufual, and so caft him behind, it proving to 
 be more late of the day than he had thought. 
 But he profefsed to be sorry for his miftake, 
 and the offenfe juftly given thereby, promif- 
 ing to be more careful for the time to come. 
 
 " The Court confidered the promifees did 
 see caufe (seeing that the matter seemed to be 
 done through a surprifsel and not willingly) to 
 pafs it over with a reproof for this firft time, 
 on his giving a public acknowledgement of 
 his evil in so neglecting to remember the Sab- 
 bath, on the next lecture or firft day, with all 
 the aggravating circumftances in it." 
 
 The wearied legs of John Meigs' cattle thus 
 brought him on this occasion unwillingly into 
 court, and he might have counted himself 
 fortunate to have escaped as well as he did 
 from " his evil in so neglecting to remember 
 the Sabbath"; but there appear to have been 
 other times when he had come into court upon
 
 12 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 his own motion, and had had more reason to 
 be sorry that he did. Earlier in the same 
 year of 1657, he appears on the court docket 
 as plaintiff in a suit against two citizens of the 
 nearby town of Saybrook, as defendants. In 
 those early days of New England, the sparse 
 crops grown out of the soil wrung with sore 
 difficulty from the wilderness were too pre- 
 cious to be tamely allowed to be invaded, and 
 so John Meigs launched against his neigh- 
 bors, Chapman and Parker, an action for 
 trespass to stimulate them to a more particu- 
 lar guardianship of their piratical " hoggs." 
 He alleged that after he had " fenced his land 
 at Athamonfsook, with such an orderly fence 
 as was sufficient to keep out great cattell ; yet 
 the Defendants* hoggs came into his field and 
 destroyed his corne." 
 
 One of the witnesses testified that he had 
 driven fifteen of Parker's hogs out of John 
 Meigs' cornfield, and that furthermore he had 
 seen, at " Sundry other times the Defendants' 
 hoggs in Corne doing Spoile." 
 
 The defendants replied, for their part, 
 that instead of John Meigs' fence being the 
 proud creation " sufficient to keep out great 
 cattell " which he declared it was, as a matter 
 of fact it was no sufficient fence to discourage 
 even hogs. The Court thereupon appointed 
 reviewers to examine the fence and pass an
 
 JOHN MEIGS' ANCESTRY 13 
 
 opinion upon it. Their judgment was disas- 
 trous to John Meigs' contention, and the 
 Court returned a verdict in favor of Chapman 
 and Parker, with the expression, however, of 
 a hope that the defendants would "confider 
 the great lofse the plaintiff sustained by their 
 hoggs, and that, therefore, in a neighborly 
 way they should confider to afford some sup- 
 ply, as themselves would defire in a like cafe. 
 That amity and good agreement might be the 
 better maintained betwixt the perfons and 
 towns of Seabrooke and Guilford as for- 
 merly." 
 
 Besides growing his crops, John Meigs 
 like the rest of his neighbors in that hardy 
 and self-sustaining life of the early colony 
 was a tanner and currier as well. In 1647, he 
 brought against one Gregory a suit for dam- 
 ages because the latter had spoiled material 
 which he, the plaintiff, had furnished, by mak- 
 ing it up into several dozen pairs of bad shoes. 
 The Court seems to have been more impressed 
 by the disagreement than by the right of 
 either party to claim much justification, and 
 fined Gregory five pounds and John Meigs 
 ten! 
 
 But if not very successful at the bar of the 
 Courts, John Meigs was eminently success- 
 ful in more important matters. He was a 
 man of mark in many aspects of the life of
 
 i 4 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 that colony in Connecticut where he dwelt. 
 The most dramatic single event in his career 
 had to do with the aftermath of the Crom- 
 wellian period in England and the attempts 
 of Charles II, when he was restored to the 
 throne, to punish on both sides of the Atlantic 
 certain of the men who had brought about 
 his father's execution. The judges who had 
 passed the sentence of death upon Charles I 
 were excluded from the general amnesty pro- 
 claimed to most of the party of the Common- 
 wealth; and three of these, Edward Whalley, 
 William Goffe and John Dixwell, had come to 
 Connecticut and sought refuge near New 
 Haven. Governor Endicott, in Boston, sent 
 two commissioners to apprehend these regi- 
 cides, and they set out in 1661 to discharge 
 that commission. But when they got to 
 Guilford where the fugitives were supposed 
 to be concealed, they found that the quarry 
 had fled; and in the report which they sub- 
 mitted to Governor Endicott they declared: 
 
 "To our certain knowledge, one John 
 Meigs was sent a horseback before us, and 
 by his speedy going so early before day, he 
 gave them information so that they escaped 
 
 The John Meigs, therefore, who was not 
 averse to fighting his own battles at law was
 
 JOHN MEIGS' ANCESTRY 15 
 
 not afraid either to espouse unselfishly the 
 perilous cause of others; and he had the dar- 
 ing, the hardihood and the skill to carry it off 
 gallantly to success. 
 
 When this first John Meigs died in 1672, he 
 bequeathed his farm to his son of the same 
 name, and a pleasant commentary upon his 
 conception of the kind of things that were of 
 value is in the item of his will which specifies 
 as part of his son's inheritance, " all my 
 wrightings, Books and manucripts, alfo my 
 book of Marters, Rolls, Hiftory of ye World, 
 Bacons, Thomas Bacons, alfo Simpfon's Eng- 
 lish Greek Lexicon, and Thams Dixonarye." 
 
 This John Meigs' wife was Thomasine Fry, 
 of Weymouth, England, whom he had mar- 
 ried before coming to America with his fa- 
 ther, Vincent. Two of his daughters bear 
 witness to the Puritan atmosphere which 
 the thoughts of men and women at that time 
 breathed, for their names were "Concur- 
 rence " and " TryaL" Two other daughters 
 also he had, and the one son, whom we have 
 already mentioned, named after himself. 
 
 This second John Meigs, like his father, 
 was also a leading personage in his commun- 
 ity. He had been born at Weymouth, Massa- 
 chusetts, in 1641, but was taken with his 
 parents when they moved to Connecticut, and 
 there he remained for the rest of his long life.
 
 1 6 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 He was one of the twelve patentees named in 
 the charter of Guilford in 1685, and in 1692 
 he was made deacon of the First Church of 
 Guilford, an office which meant no little dig- 
 nity and authority in the theocratic New Eng- 
 land of that day. 
 
 Deacon John Meigs and his wife, Sarah 
 Wilcox, had eight children, the third of 
 whom, and the second son, Janna, succeeded 
 his father as deacon in the Guilford church. 
 He was a representative also in the Connecti- 
 cut Legislature and a captain in the train- 
 band of Guilford during restless years of 
 Indian warfare. When Janna Meigs died in 
 1739, the Reverend Jonathan Todd, pastor of 
 the church in East Guilford, preached a 
 eulogy over him in which he must have found 
 a wondrous amount to say seeing that the 
 printing of it in a subsequent pamphlet cov- 
 ered forty-four pages. In the course of it he 
 said: 
 
 "And here, I think, I may in particular 
 recommend unto us for our Imitation, the 
 Example, that hath been set for us, by the 
 worshipful and much refpected Perfon, whom 
 God hath the Week paft, difmifsed from a 
 State of Trial, amongft us, and admitted, as 
 we doubt not, to inherit the Promifes. . . . 
 
 " He was endued with that natural Capacity 
 necefsary to make a great and ufeful Man;
 
 JOHN MEIGS' ANCESTRY 17 
 
 which was improved by a pious Education 
 under the Care of his Parents, and recom- 
 mended by many agreeable Qualifications. 
 
 " He was, therefore, taken Notice of, as one 
 capable of publick Service and Betruftments 
 among'ft us: And was therefore promoted to 
 Civil and Military Honours and Pfiices 
 amongft us. He hath been a Father unto 
 us, the Leader of our Publick [Affairs; and 
 rendered Himfelf very ufeful unto us. The 
 Gentleman hath been confpicuous in him 
 His Converfation was pleafant and improving. 
 And his natural Temper helped to recommend 
 him to the love and affections of his ac- 
 quaintances, which was the Serious and the 
 Grave temper'd with the Cheerful. He was a 
 pleafant Companion to the Wife, and a gen- 
 erous Friend. . . . 
 
 " But that, which I efpecially propofe to re- 
 mark, is, his Piety and exemplary Vertues. 
 Religion was what seem'd to be moft upon 
 his Heart; to approve himself faithful unto 
 God, in the Places and Relations in which 
 Divine Providence had set him, seem'd to be 
 his greateft Concern." 
 
 Janna Meigs and Hannah Willard, his wife, 
 had nine children, two of whom were twins, 
 and the arrival of whom seems to have been 
 received with a mingling of consternation and 
 the meekness of recollected piety. The tradi- 
 tion runs that " on the announcement of the 
 arrival of the first, to check the rejoicing of 
 the family, Janna Meigs said, ' Silence,' and
 
 1 8 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 on that of the second, moved by his patient 
 spirit, he said, ' Submit.' The twins were 
 afterwards given these names." 
 
 The eldest son of Janna Meigs, born in 
 1699, was named after his father; and the 
 youngest son of this second Janna, Seth 
 Meigs, was the first of the family line to leave 
 New England. He settled in Albany, where 
 he married, and whence he went out to serve 
 in the Continental Army during the Revolu- 
 tion. He married Jemina Van Boskerk, the 
 widow of William Van Loan and had one 
 son. To this son, John, who married Hannah 
 Kughler, was born among eleven children 
 a son who was named Matthew Kughler, and 
 this Matthew K. Meigs was the father of 
 the John Meigs with whom this book has 
 to do. 
 
 This lengthy tracing of ancestry is of worth 
 because it helps us with more appreciative 
 eyes to interpret the character of the man 
 whose lineage it forms. It is not from father 
 and mother alone that the deepest elements 
 in inherited disposition may come. Dim im- 
 pulses which stir in the blood, and half-hidden 
 inclinations which work in the subconscious 
 mind, may owe their origin to the far-off gen- 
 erations, just as the direction of the river is 
 shaped not so much by the immediate channel 
 as by the set of the streams that rise in the
 
 JOHN MEIGS' ANCESTRY 19 
 
 unseen distant hills. Something of that first 
 John Meigs, who in the seventeenth century 
 saved the regicides by his " speedy and unex- 
 pected going so early before day," may have 
 lived again in the strong son of the ninth 
 generation, who in his different world could 
 show a vigor and an impetuous energy like 
 his ancestor of the older day. The spirit of 
 that second John Meigs, too, the sturdy 
 brother of Concurrence and Tryal, and deacon 
 of the church in Guilford, may have helped 
 to fashion that inmost fibre of loyalty to re- 
 ligious things which the last John Meigs, like 
 the earlier one, possessed. To men like these, 
 and to women who were the wives and 
 mothers, on both sides of his house, if less 
 traceably yet not less really than to his father 
 and mother, he owed the qualities that came 
 to him at his birth. 
 
 On his mother's side also, John Meigs' an- 
 cestry linked him with New England. His 
 mother's name was Mary Moulton Gould. 
 Her father, William Ripley Gould, who could 
 trace his descent back to the Bradfords and 
 Brewsters of the first Plymouth Colony, was 
 born and brought up in Sharon, Connecticut, 
 and before he was ready to enter college he 
 became engaged to Eunice York, of Torring- 
 ton. She would not marry him, though, until 
 he had finished his education, and so the
 
 20 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 seven-year engagement continued until he 
 had graduated from Yale College, in 1812, 
 and then for he had determined to become a 
 minister had gone his way through the Di- 
 vinity School. Claiming his bride at last, he 
 took her to his first parish, in Gallipolis, Ohio, 
 and there in the Manse Mary Gould was born. 
 Later, when she and the other children began 
 to be ready for school, her father moved to his 
 wife's old home, Torrington. All the rest of 
 her girlhood was spent in New England, and 
 there she went to Mt. Holyoke Seminary in 
 the early days of Mary Lyon. In 1836, she 
 met Matthew Meigs and they were married 
 in 1842. Of loving and gentle spirit, and 
 marked as we shall see anon by an unself- 
 ish consecration which grew out of religious 
 loyalties that were as winsome as they were 
 deep, she was to give to her son those pro- 
 founder emotional qualities which increas- 
 ingly should dominate his nature. 
 
 Matthew K. Meigs, John Meigs' father, 
 went from his father's home, in Albany, to 
 Union College, from which he graduated in 
 1836, and then entered Union Theological 
 Seminary, whence he went out as a Presby- 
 terian minister, in 1839. For a very short 
 while he was pastor of a church in Pontiac, 
 Michigan, but his temperament was not such 
 as- to make the pastoral work permanently
 
 JOHN MEIGS' ANCESTRY 21 
 
 congenial. The intellectual side of him pre- 
 dominated, and he shortly left the regular 
 activities of a parish minister for educational 
 work. For four years he was a professor in 
 the University of Michigan, in 1844 became 
 assistant to Dr. Boyd, pastor of the Presby- 
 terian Church at Winchester, Virginia, and 
 later removed to Newark, Delaware, to be- 
 come president, until 1851, of Delaware Col- 
 lege. 
 
 In that year, he concluded that his health 
 was not strong enough for him to continue in 
 his college presidency, and he determined that 
 he would go somewhere and establish a small 
 day school, in which also he would train his 
 own boys. Mrs. Meigs' younger sister, Re- 
 becca, had married Reverend W. R. Work, 
 and these two were conducting at that time 
 a school for girls, called the " Cottage Semi- 
 nary," in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. On the 
 crest of a low but abrupt hill, which rose just 
 in front of the Seminary, was an old stone 
 mansion, set among trees, and this Dr. Meigs 
 bought, and thither he removed with his 
 family in 1851. Some of the lads at Delaware 
 College which was itself then hardly more 
 than a school wanted to come with him, and 
 for these he added a wing to the original 
 school building; and thus the boarding-school 
 on The Hill began.
 
 22 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 Pottstown, on the outskirts of which the 
 school was established, lies on the northeast 
 bank of the Schuylkill River, some forty miles 
 above Philadelphia. By the early part of the 
 eighteenth century it had been discovered that 
 there was iron in the region, and in 1716 
 Thomas Rutter, of Germantown, came and 
 built some two miles above the present town 
 what is said to have been the first forge in 
 America. Tribes of Delaware Indians roamed 
 over the country, but the sturdy Rutter es- 
 tablished himself in safety; and in 1720 his 
 friend, Thomas Potts, Jr., came also from 
 Germantown to join him in the manufacture 
 of iron. This Thomas Potts, who at Rutter's 
 death succeeded him in the control of the 
 business, was the founder of the family from 
 whom the settlement that grew up around the 
 iron forges took its name the name first of 
 Pottsgrove, changed in 1829 to Pottstown. 
 John Potts, the son of Thomas, laid out the 
 streets of the town and divided it into lots; 
 and it was a grandson of John Potts who 
 about 1795 built the stone house on The 
 Hill which Matthew Meigs was afterwards 
 to buy. 
 
 The valley of the Schuylkill is naturally a 
 pleasant country, of gentle undulations and 
 not infertile lands, green and fair to look 
 upon; but its great iron deposits have called
 
 JOHN MEIGS' ANCESTRY 23 
 
 into being along the banks of the river the 
 huge iron foundries that have given their 
 character to the towns. They are industrial 
 communities, with an industrial population, 
 and an industrial aspect. One would never 
 now deliberately pick out Pottstown as the 
 natural site for a great school, for there is 
 little in the town itself which suggests scho- 
 lastic quiet and the mellow atmosphere of 
 meditation. Yet upon the borders of the 
 town, by the adventure of Matthew Meigs' 
 purchase, the school which was to grow to 
 large importance established itself amid its 
 trees upon its hill. 
 
 In these first days, the school blended 
 quaintly an exceeding simplicity of physical 
 equipment and an elaborate old-fashioned 
 suggestion of the culture which its founder 
 wished it to inspire. The only building for 
 the work of the school at first was the square, 
 big-roomed residence itself, to which pres- 
 ently was added the brick' addition to the east. 
 Back of the school was a large barn, with the 
 barnyard, the horses and cattle and farming 
 implements such as belonged to any other 
 country house ; for the school at that time lay 
 beyond the limits of the town, and the open 
 country stretched pleasantly on every side but 
 one. A crude gymnasium, made out of part 
 of a stable, and containing nothing within its
 
 24 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 walls except a trapeze and parallel bars, 
 served the boys as part of their play space, 
 and in fine weather they played about the 
 slopes of the hills and fields, to the northeast- 
 ward, or went swimming in the Schuylkill 
 River. 
 
 Inside the house, however, from the sim- 
 plicity of field and farmyard, the boys entered 
 into another, and to their young minds an 
 imposing, atmosphere. Fortunately, there is 
 still a living witness to these first days of the 
 school. Mr. William S. Wells, of New 
 Haven, was a boy in Pottstown when Dr. 
 Matthew K. Meigs first bought from Na- 
 thaniel P. Hobart the house on The Hill and 
 moved into it to begin his school. " I can 
 recall the day," says Mr. Wells, "when the 
 school was opened in 1851, and the entrance 
 to the grounds through a large gate, quite 
 near what was called ' Hobart's Run.' I was 
 ten years of age at that time, and well re- 
 member the morning when, with a few other 
 boys, I went up The Hill on the long curved 
 road to the house. We assembled in a room 
 in the southwest corner of the house now 
 the parlor which was surrounded on three 
 sides by a broad piazza. I have a very dis- 
 tinct remembrance of the conspicuous paper 
 on the walls of this room, I think of Greek or 
 Roman personages, prominent in classical his-
 
 JOHN MEIGS' ANCESTRY 25 
 
 tory, or mythological conceptions of those 
 days." 
 
 By other boys also this amazing paper was 
 regarded with awe-struck eyes, and was long 
 afterwards remembered. Mr. Louis Richards, 
 who entered the school in 1855, and many 
 years afterwards made an address concerning 
 those first days, said: "The walls of its spa- 
 cious hallway were decorated with scenes 
 from Scott's ' Lady of the Lake/ and those of 
 its western parlor with sketches illustrating 
 the 'Quest of Telemachus.' Hung upon the 
 walls of the library and reception room were 
 many beautiful engravings, while busts of 
 Socrates, Demosthenes, Cicero, Seneca and 
 Homer looked down from their niches upon 
 the students of classic lore." 
 
 Mr. Wells continues: 
 
 " Before the session opened in the school 
 room, we had to take off our shoes in the 
 anteroom, put on slippers and wear what was 
 called a wrapper, generally made from gaudy- 
 colored cotton cloth. And we marched into 
 the school room in military order standing 
 at desk, being seated, opening the desk and 
 taking out the books by the tap of a bell. 
 
 " After the grounds were graded, statues 
 of classical personages were placed at various 
 locations in the grounds near the house, which 
 was an innovation in decoration for this 
 neighborhood. An inquiry one day, to Dr.
 
 26 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 Meigs' disgust, was to know ' Who those gen- 
 erals were? ' " 
 
 Mr. Wells' description of Dr. Matthew 
 Meigs himself is vivid: 
 
 "The personal appearance of Dr. Meigs, 
 who was a finely developed man, in his long, 
 gaudy wrapper, and his austere face, is fixed 
 indelibly in my memory. He was a man of 
 quick movements, but a splendid disciplina- 
 rian, and governed the boys by advice and 
 admonition, not unmixed with fear. To be 
 sent to him, or sent for by him, for an infrac- 
 tion of the rules or a misdemeanor, was 
 dreaded worse than if corporal punishment 
 had been expected. Much that Dr. Meigs said 
 was burned into my memory and has served 
 me well through life. He was very severe on 
 the indolent or careless or obstinate, and espe- 
 cially those scholars who were indifferent or 
 lazy and did not make preparation for recita- 
 tions. He was a most effective teacher. I 
 can recall later in the school when I was 
 studying Geometry that he unexpectedly ap- 
 peared one day to hear the recitation. I, like 
 some other boys, had a fairly good faculty to 
 memorize, and just before the recitation I 
 memorized the propositions and could repeat 
 them parrot-style without comprehending the 
 subject. This day, when Dr. Meigs unex- 
 pectedly appeared, he sent me to the black- 
 board first. I drew the figure, put the letters 
 on the angles as in the book; repeated the cap- 
 tion, and was about to commence when he
 
 JOHN MEIGS' ANCESTRY 27 
 
 ordered me to erase all the letters and sub- 
 stitute figures on the angles. I could not then 
 even make a beginning to elucidate the prop- 
 osition. He found other pupils were as igno- 
 rant of the principles of the subject as I was. 
 The teacher who had this class did not receive 
 any compliment for his efficiency, and we 
 were turned back to the beginning of the 
 book, and then, advancing slowly, more fully 
 comprehended the subject we were studying." 
 
 As these recollections of the man whom 
 long ago as a lad he taught may suggest, Dr. 
 Matthew Meigs was a man of great scholarly 
 attainment. He knew not only his Greek and 
 Latin and modern languages thoroughly, but 
 was familiar with Hebrew and Sanskrit also. 
 His reading was rapid and of an exceeding 
 range. He was a stern and often impatient 
 teacher, but he kindled in the boys an intense 
 admiration for his own attainments, and a 
 sense of the dignity of learning which they 
 saw exemplified in him. Without doubt, how- 
 ever, there were times when the boys' sense 
 of the sternness of his methods outweighed 
 every other impression which they got from 
 him. Here is a letter which one little lad 
 wrote home on January 2d, 1863 : 
 
 "Dear Father: 
 
 " write to Mr. meigs and tell him not to wip 
 me any more for nothing I have hade to much
 
 28 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 of his wiping and I am not agoing to take 
 any more I write his name with A small m 
 to discrace it now remember write soon. 
 " yours effectionetely, 
 " G. G. Browning." 
 
 If Dr. Meigs' punishment was visited on the 
 boy on account of his dereliction in spelling, 
 it must be admitted that the master had some 
 excuse for his violent procedure. 
 
 His temperament was not such as to make 
 the work of the school long tolerable to him. 
 He was sensitive and nervous, and his habit 
 of intense study, and the late hours to which 
 he read at night, contributed to make him 
 irritable and restless under the burden of the 
 school routine. He built for himself, there- 
 fore, a house some hundred yards away from 
 the original school building, on the school 
 grounds, and moved into it with his family. 
 But his wife, who loved the boys and the life 
 with them, and in her sweet mothering was 
 an abiding influence upon them all, was un- 
 happy in the separation from the immediate 
 activities of the school, and after a time the 
 family moved back again into the original 
 residence. 
 
 Settled there again, Dr. Meigs fitted up for 
 himself a study in the corner of the house 
 that commanded a wide outlook over the tree- 
 tops, and withdrew himself more and more
 
 JOHN MEIGS' ANCESTRY 29 
 
 into a solitary existence. He entrenched him- 
 self contentedly among his books and put the 
 school into the hands of vice-principals, who 
 conducted it for him. The result was that the 
 school began to decline in efficiency and in 
 numbers. There was needed some new leader 
 to come and take it if it was ever to advance 
 to real importance and commanding rank.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 
 
 John Meigs ; His Birth in 1852, and Boyhood Lafayette Col- 
 lege in the Mid-Nineteenth Century John Meigs' Entrance as a 
 Student College Life, and Friendships Reminiscences His 
 Summons to the Work of the School. 
 
 ON August 3ist, 1852, in the corner room 
 of the old stone mansion on The Hill 
 that looks out over the sloping lawn 
 and over the town towards the river, and the 
 walls of which were to include afterwards a 
 part of his own study, John Meigs was born. 
 It was only one year before that the school 
 had been established, and so in the surround- 
 ings of the new institution, and as a boy 
 within the ranks of the other boys, he was to 
 grow up. He was the fifth child and the 
 fourth son among eleven brothers and sisters. 
 His grandfather and grandmother on his 
 mother's side, the Reverend William Ripley 
 Gould and Mrs. Gould, were living at The 
 Hill. Father Gould, as the boys affection- 
 ately called him, was superintendent of the 
 farm and grounds, and sometimes used to 
 preach also in the Presbyterian Church of the 
 town. 
 
 30
 
 BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 31 
 
 The little boy, John, was the special favor- 
 ite of his grandparents. Every morning he 
 used to gather up his clothes in a bundle in 
 his arms, and go from his mother's room, 
 where he slept, into his grandparents' room 
 next door to dress. He was an alert and in- 
 quiring child, and one of the recollections 
 which have come down from those earlier 
 years is that when he would go into his 
 grandparents' room he used to begin to spell 
 the names of the different articles of furniture 
 and other things in the room. " Bureau " 
 baffled him for a long time, but finally he got 
 that too. He remembered very vividly in 
 after years the only time his grandfather 
 punished him. He had called the colored 
 cook's little boy a " nigger," which so out- 
 raged Grandfather Gould's ideas of kindliness 
 that he spanked him first and then prayed 
 with him. His mother used to spank him at 
 other times also, and his grandfather would 
 have occasion to pray with him too. When 
 he was head of the school, his study in- 
 cluded the space that used to be his mother's 
 room and his grandparents' room also, 
 and he liked to tell that it was reminis- 
 cent to him of both sorts of chastening 
 experience. 
 
 In the school he came under his father's 
 discipline, and Dr. Matthew Meigs' rigorous
 
 32 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 ideas of scholarship were not at all abated, 
 but rather made more urgent, in their applica- 
 tion to his own son. By the time he was six, 
 he was in the Latin class. By the time he was 
 eight, he was being taught Greek with his 
 older brothers. Mr. Wells remembers that 
 the Meigs boys, if they did not know their 
 lessons, would usually be more severely dealt 
 with than the others in their class, though the 
 boys in general recognized that the upbraid- 
 ing was meant for their benefit and warning 
 also. 
 
 Among his companions John Meigs was a 
 vigorous, upstanding lad, liked and respected 
 and looked up to on the playground, and in 
 other places where the boys would meet to- 
 gether. They had a habit of referring dis- 
 putes to him, for already a certain authorita- 
 tive justice in the boy's character had begun 
 to impress his companions. 
 
 His entrance into college came in singular 
 fashion. Lafayette College, founded at Eas- 
 ton, Pennsylvania, in 1832, under Presby- 
 terian control, had been appealing to all 
 Presbyterian ministers to send their sons 
 there. Dr. Matthew Meigs accordingly sent 
 his two eldest boys, and in the fall of 1866 he 
 took the third, Edward Kirk, to Easton to 
 enter him. On the trip he carried John along; 
 and, with his austere ideas of scholarship, he
 
 BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 33 
 
 was very much disgusted by the examina- 
 tions, which were all oral, and to his thought 
 absurdly easy. " Why, this boy here could 
 pass them ! " he said, and forthwith he had the 
 boy try. John did pass; and his father 
 promptly entered him in the college, and de- 
 parted for home. 
 
 The elder brother died in December, and 
 the lad of fourteen, left alone in the college to 
 which he had been introduced in such sum- 
 mary fashion, was naturally unhappy. So his 
 father took him away after Christmas, and 
 carried him with him to Europe for a trip 
 which lasted until the autumn. 
 
 One boyish letter, written to his mother, 
 telling her of the things he had seen in Rome, 
 remains as the only immediate record of the 
 lad's experiences. There is nothing in the 
 letter which is extraordinary, nor indicative 
 as yet of anything except the natural interest 
 of the boy in new experiences and strange 
 associations. 
 
 Two echoes of this early journey appear in 
 letters written many years afterwards: 
 
 " I visited this place [Perugia] when I was 
 in Italy as a boy, and remember particularly 
 the promenade on the city walls in the eve- 
 ning when everybody and a few more seemed 
 to be in evidence, and the view from the afore- 
 said walls.
 
 34 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 In the fall of 1867 he re-entered Lafayette 
 College, and began that part of his college 
 course which was to be continued now until 
 his graduation in 1871. The college, then 
 thirty-five years old, was still simple and al- 
 most primitive in its equipment, and sparsely 
 endowed. It was situated beautifully on a 
 bluff above old Easton and the Delaware 
 River, in the midst of what had been a farm 
 and orchard; apple trees still grew upon the 
 college campus, and the fences of the farm 
 divisions ran here and there. There were 
 fifty-eight men in John Meigs' class, which 
 was nearly half of the total number one hun- 
 dred and twenty-eight in the whole college. 
 There were fourteen professors and four as- 
 sistants in the faculty. 
 
 Founded as a Presbyterian college, and 
 under the direct control of the Philadelphia 
 Synod of the Church, the college was con- 
 ducted with a very distinct and forthright pur- 
 pose to nurture its students in sound and 
 orthodox ideas. " The Classical Course," says 
 a paragraph in the catalogue of 1867, " is the 
 same as the Undergraduate Course of our best 
 colleges; it will be pursued here, as it has so 
 long been, as the regular introduction to the 
 special professional study of Theology, Medi- 
 cine or Law, and also as a thoroughly tried 
 means of securing the culture and elevation of
 
 BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 35 
 
 mind, and of imparting the useful and liberal 
 learning which becomes a Christian scholar.' 1 
 And as to the newly created Scientific 
 Course, the catalogue remarks: 
 
 " The trustees of the College are deeply im- 
 pressed with the thought that our present col- 
 legiate system has grown up under the fos- 
 tering care of the Church, and the relations 
 of our old college studies to manly culture 
 and religious training, have been studied by 
 generations of Christian educators. They 
 have therefore taken care that the new course 
 shall not be removed from the old land- 
 marks, and that as far as possible the old 
 approved methods of instruction shall be used 
 in all the departments of study. It will be 
 found that the new course includes all the 
 studies of the old, except the Ancient Lan- 
 guages, and it is believed that the method 
 of teaching English and other Modern Clas- 
 sics, which has been for some years in use 
 in the College, may be so adapted to the stu- 
 dents of the new course as to give in a good 
 degree the same kind of discipline that is de- 
 rived from the study of Greek and Latin." 
 
 And then, as though to quiet any unrest in 
 ecclesiastical circles, the comment on this 
 course goes cautiously on: 
 
 " It is perhaps scarcely necessary to add 
 that the Board intend that the whole Scien- 
 tific Course shall have the Christian character
 
 36 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 which they have endeavored to impress upon 
 the studies of the College, and that science 
 shall be here so taught as to become the hand- 
 maid of religion. All the departments will be 
 in the hands of Christian scholars, who will 
 not fail to improve, in their various instruc- 
 tions, the opportunity constantly recurring of 
 directing the student from Nature to Nature's 
 God. But in addition to this and also to the 
 systematic and thorough study of the Word 
 of God in all the classes, both of the Classical 
 and the Scientific Course, special lectures will 
 be given upon the connection of Science with 
 Revealed Religion, that the student may be 
 thoroughly informed upon the issues that are 
 made, and be prepared to meet the arguments 
 from Physical Science, by which our common 
 Christianity is usually assailed." 
 
 Prayers were held in the college chapel 
 morning and evening and " preaching on 
 Sabbath afternoon," and at all these times the 
 students were required to attend. On Sunday 
 morning they could go to the church of their 
 own choice in town. John Meigs was already 
 by inclination an earnest-minded lad, and at- 
 tendance at religious service was for him by 
 no means a perfunctory necessity. He used to 
 go to the Episcopal Church in the mornings, 
 and sang in the choir. In his fundamental 
 convictions he agreed with those great ideals 
 of Christian truth which the college was 
 founded to cherish, but he was somewhat
 
 JOHN MEIGS, AGED EIGHTEEN
 
 BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 37 
 
 restive even then at the narrowness of some 
 of its teachings. 
 
 With the mental power which the rigorous 
 preparation he had had under his father's 
 guidance gave him, he threw himself with de- 
 termined perseverance into the work of his 
 classes. In a letter written some years after 
 he left college is this paragraph: 
 
 " In looking over countless papers that have 
 been accumulating for years, I found one of 
 my old college reports. One fails to attach 
 much value to these things after so many 
 years, but I shall always remember the glow 
 with which I received these reports in my 
 youthful days, and how earnestly they would 
 be anticipated as if my eternal state was con- 
 tingent on certain combination and permuta- 
 tion of figures; and yet in work, for I was 
 but a child in those days, I never thought 
 much of the measure of others' estimates, but 
 to find my own pleasure in doing, as cleanly 
 as I could, the weekly round of duties, and 
 wish for more, and so it went on until more 
 came, and with the increment of work came 
 the enlargement of capacity and desire for 
 something to satisfy my love that underlay 
 my work." 
 
 In the fall of 1868 his mother wrote to him: 
 
 " I expect, my Dear Boy, you are doing 
 your very best as a student. I fear that you 
 will not exercise enough. Do not fail of
 
 3 8 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 spending a couple of hours in smart exercise 
 in the open air. Take hold of baseball or 
 some such sport for one hour at least. Con- 
 vinced that our dear Eddie's life was shortened 
 by his close student habits of the two months 
 preceding his death, I feel strangely anxious 
 that you use every precaution that will 
 strengthen and establish your health. Your 
 father's life of suffering has all originated in 
 his unwise student habits. Avoid the evil, 
 choose the good. ..." 
 
 As to whether he followed her advice in 
 regard to athletics or not there is no record, 
 and it is to be remembered that in those days 
 there were no such organized forms of college 
 sports as are familiar in America to-day; but 
 at any rate, he was a healthy, active lad, who 
 grew naturally into his manly strength, and 
 impressed his companions with his energy and 
 vigor. The last words of her letter he cer- 
 tainly did make true he avoided the evil and 
 chose the good. All the men at Lafayette 
 who knew him remembered him as clean and 
 upright, free from anything low and mean, 
 wholesome in all his influence. 
 
 In this essential goodness of his there was 
 nothing in the least aloof or unnatural. On 
 the contrary, he was full of the instinct of 
 human fellowship light-hearted, fun-loving, 
 sociable. He was a member of a trio who 
 sang together, and were in the habit of going
 
 BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 39 
 
 about serenading the girls of the town. 
 Among the men, he was known and loved 
 for his quick humor and his vivacity. Some 
 of the professors at the college, however, used 
 to seeing piety go in more sober garb, could 
 not understand that beneath his laughing and 
 impulsive exterior John Meigs carried the 
 heart of earnestness which was really his. 
 Some of them looked at him askance. One of 
 the oldest professors had often been outraged 
 by his fun-loving spirit, which showed itself 
 in an irrepressible desire to say amusing 
 things to the general upsetting of the class. 
 Once something was thrown across the room 
 a thing which John Meigs had not done and 
 would not have done but the poor professor 
 turned in great excitement to where he sat, 
 and indicating the missile which lay on the 
 floor, exclaimed, " That fell here, but," point- 
 ing directly to him, " it came from there, John 
 Meigs!" 
 
 And the friends who really knew him re- 
 joiced most of all in the solemn concern which 
 another member of the faculty expressed 
 about him. Mr. David Bennett King, one of 
 John Meigs' classmates, tells the story. 
 
 It happened that there was a great revival 
 of religious interest in the college, and one 
 of Meigs' classmates who had been opposed 
 to religious exercises and meetings, and to re-
 
 40 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 vival sermons and prayer meetings in particu- 
 lar, finally became interested, and went to 
 consult Dr. Coleman, a very distinguished, 
 pious and venerable clergyman, the professor 
 of Latin, and at that time past eighty, think- 
 ing that it would be of great interest to hear 
 Dr. Coleman's views on the religious move- 
 ment and revival, then so widespread among 
 the students. After the interview, which was 
 a long and most earnest one, as the student 
 was going away from the Doctor's library, 
 the Doctor asked very seriously: 
 
 " Mr. S , I wish you would tell me some- 
 thing. 
 
 "Well, sir?" 
 
 "I wish you would tell me confidentially, 
 has Meigs reformed?" 
 
 But the most intimate glimpse of the high- 
 spirited lad whom the sedate old Doctor 
 thought in need of reformation, conies from 
 the recollections of two very dear friends 
 whom he met first during that time. One of 
 these was Mrs. Helen L. Drown, whose hus- 
 band, Dr. Thomas Drown, came to Lafayette 
 in 1874. The story of what followed is best 
 given in Mrs. Drown's own words: 
 
 " My husband had just been appointed to 
 the Chair of Chemistry in Lafayette College. 
 Until we could move our household effects to 
 enter upon our new home, he established his
 
 BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 41 
 
 headquarters in the college, and joined some 
 of the junior professors who took their meals 
 in a boarding-house on the campus. From 
 thence I received the enthusiastic message, 
 ' You should see John Meigs ! ' 
 
 " When we were finally settled in our new 
 surroundings, John Meigs came to tea with 
 us, and from that time became as one of our 
 household. His bonhomie, winning smile and 
 social gifts made him a charming companion, 
 and as acquaintance progressed, his delightful 
 fun was a constant source of joy. He said 
 once to a mutual friend, ' They know how to 
 take all my nonsense.' And indeed we did. It 
 was fun purely his own, bubbling up with 
 sparkling explosions of wit. His power of 
 repartee was lightning quick. At the board- 
 ing-table, being asked if he would take some 
 doubtful lamb, he said in an audible aside, 
 ' That's right, call it pet names.' Speaking of 
 an acquaintance who had too great a fondness 
 for whiskey, he said, ' If you threw a cork in 
 his backyard, he would go out and follow up 
 the scent.' To another who inquired when he 
 intended to open his kindergarten, he replied, 
 * Don't you worry, I'll let your mother know 
 in time.' 
 
 " With all his wit and fun, there was the 
 keenly critical side. How easily he summed 
 up people in a few short words, describing 
 them exactly; and the lovable side, which 
 made him pick up his little friends and kiss 
 them in the street his love of beauty, of 
 flowers and home refinement. His taste was 
 fastidious and correct, both as to appearance
 
 42 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 and conduct. A great source of pleasure to us 
 was his music, his hands fell with such natu- 
 ral harmony on the piano, and he had a 
 charming collection of songs to which his 
 glorious voice did full justice. 
 
 " With the heart of the boy and the soul of 
 the man he passed on his way, full of life and 
 vivifying the lives of all around him. 
 
 " When the time came for him to assume 
 the new duties of The Hill School, it found 
 him with a mind well prepared, young as he 
 was, and he entered upon his new work, full 
 of courage and determination. I shall not 
 forget his leave taking. In one sense it was 
 the departure from the sunny, care-free side of 
 life, and as he turned away his heart was too 
 full to speak the farewell words. 
 
 " Many delightful visits followed, generally 
 announced by characteristic telegrams. ' Will 
 be with you for evening devotions/ and such 
 like. It was our custom to adjourn to the 
 dining-room for refreshments before dispers- 
 ing for the night, and talk, grave and gay, 
 went round the table. My husband humor- 
 ously called the various helpings, ' rectifying 
 the frontier.' In winter time, mince pie was 
 the favorite piece de resistance, and one night, 
 during these week-end visits, mince pie was 
 requisitioned. Alas! the cupboard was bare 
 of the favorite dish. ' What ! ' was the ex- 
 clamation of incredulous amazement, ' no 
 mince pie!' A hasty consultation ensued. 
 The servants had retired, the range was put 
 of commission for. the night, but nothing 
 daunted, the ingredients were quickly col-
 
 BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 43 
 
 lected, the draughts put on, and in less than 
 half an hour we were in the dining-room 
 again, ' rectifying the frontier * amid great 
 applause and approval. We loved to please 
 John, he was so appreciative. It was at one 
 such time that John heard of several new 
 pupils from the West who were to enter The 
 Hill School. Opening the dining-room door, 
 he called to an imaginary waiter, ' Zwei Mil- 
 waukee/ in triumph. It seems impossible to 
 describe the serio-comic manner and voice 
 which accompanied these outbursts. 
 
 " At another time when he was leaving us, 
 and the carriage was at the door to take him 
 to the station, he descended the steps and with 
 the air of a grandiloquent magnate called 
 out, ' To the bank ! ' but our Irish Peter was 
 equal to the occasion and replied with amused 
 indulgence, ' Now then, Mr. Meigs, you get in 
 and none o' yer nonsense/ 
 
 " One Christmas was made memorable by 
 the advent of ' Uncle Remus/ We read him 
 round the wood fire, thoroughly enjoying the 
 sayings and doings of the woodland creatures. 
 John suddenly took his departure for New 
 York one afternoon because he thought some- 
 one was interfering with a cherished plan. In 
 a very short time the telephone rang out the 
 message we were waiting to hear, ' Brer Rab- 
 bit suspend Brer Fox in de elements/ which 
 announced his satisfaction." 
 
 The other intimate friend of these years, 
 who came afterwards to be the very closest 
 and best-loved friend outside the immediate
 
 44 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 family circle whom John Meigs cherished, 
 was Mrs. Sarah D. Raymond, the wife of 
 Rossiter W. Raymond. 
 
 Thus she writes of her memories of the 
 days when he was still at Lafayette: 
 
 " When first I knew John, I think he was 
 just nineteen. I met him at Dr. Thomas 
 Drown's, at Easton. We lived at Durham, 
 Pennsylvania, in the summer time, right 
 across the river from them. He used to come 
 over almost always unexpectedly. My chil- 
 dren were all little, the youngest being a baby 
 about two years old, and whenever he came, 
 from the great-grandmother of the family 
 down to the baby, servants and all, it was a 
 day of rejoicing. They all loved him and 
 loved to see him come. A shout used to go 
 up, ' Oh, here comes Mr. Meigs ! ' and every- 
 thing else was dropped for the pleasure of see- 
 ing him, hearing him talk and laugh and sing. 
 He had an exquisitely tender and sweet voice 
 at that time, and had a beautiful touch on the 
 piano, just a natural touch, playing every- 
 thing by ear, but when he began his songs, 
 whether they were sea songs, war songs, love 
 songs or cradle songs, there was always a 
 large chorus which helped him along. Every- 
 body loved him, the servants fairly worshiped 
 him, and he used to sing Irish songs when he 
 thought they were listening, just to please 
 them. He was always thinking of other peo- 
 ple and doing what he thought would please 
 and make them happy.
 
 BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 45 
 
 " He was slender and very active and could 
 do anything he wanted to but dance. How- 
 ever, one of the youngest of the little group 
 used to insist upon it that she could not dance 
 with anyone but Mr. Meigs. 
 
 "He felt himself perfectly at liberty at our 
 house, therefore we saw the very tenderest 
 and sweetest side of his nature. 
 
 " My youngest child, little Dwight, having 
 been a great invalid during his babyhood and 
 rather fretful, was instantly quieted and de- 
 lighted the minute Mr. Meigs appeared. He 
 was beloved by every child that came near 
 him. He could lure the most bashful or 
 naughty child to him. 
 
 " My husband was superintendent of some 
 iron works, and at one place he used to pass 
 there were about a million little children who 
 used to gather there, perched all around, and 
 they would watch us as we passed. One day 
 Mr. Meigs was with us, and when he saw 
 these poor children he said, ' I am going to 
 buy all the candy there is and give it to these 
 children/ He had a heart full of love for lit- 
 tle children, and my little invalid, captious 
 boy, with a high temper and a great deal of 
 wit, chose him instantly as his hero." 
 
 Then follows this story of a conversation 
 which might have fallen upon grown-up ears 
 with a shock had it not been so full of the 
 innocent naivete of a little child: 
 
 " One Sunday, it being stormy, the children 
 stayed at home and I said I would have Sun-
 
 46 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 day school for them. My little Dwight was 
 only four years old. His sister and brother 
 were in the class, and I began and asked the 
 usual questions, ' Who was the first man, and 
 who was the first woman?' Then I said, 
 'Now I am going to ask you a question that 
 is not in this little catechism, and I want you 
 to think it over very carefully. Who was the 
 first person that God ever sent into the world, 
 He was so good that anybody who loved Him 
 would be made good, and He could do any- 
 thing He wanted to help people?' and the 
 baby replied, ' Mr. Meigs.' The other two 
 children giggled with surprise. I responded 
 as seriously as I could, ' Oh no, my dear! ' and 
 in a most indignant tone he said, 'Who, 
 then?' I said, 'It was Jesus Christ,' and 
 he turned around to his little sister, who 
 was still smiling, and said in a loud whis- 
 per, pointing to me with scorn, ' Mudder 
 said Jesus Christ : I say Meigs ! ' When I 
 told Mr. Meigs, he laughed, with tears in his 
 eyes. 
 
 " On another occasion, when we had a tele- 
 gram from Mr. Meigs that he was coming to 
 visit us, the little boy was asleep when he ar- 
 rived, but when he heard the rapture of the 
 welcome, he dashed out of his crib and rushed 
 downstairs and cried hysterically, ' I knew 
 you came, I knew you would come, I kept 
 knowing you were coming,' clinging to Mr. 
 Meigs' knees and looking up into his face. 
 We all moved away and could say nothing, 
 but Mr. Meigs took him up in his arms and 
 went out on the piazza, and they both cried
 
 BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 4 ? 
 
 together. He was only about twenty-two 
 years old at that time." 
 
 In 1871, he, graduated from Lafayette with 
 honors, and went back to teach under his 
 father at The Hill for a year. This was, how- 
 ever, not the beginning of his permanent con- 
 nection with the school, for in the fall of 1872 
 he was back at Lafayette as an instructor of 
 modern languages. In 1875, he was made 
 adjunct professor in this subject, and was 
 awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 
 at the commencement of 1876. 
 
 As a teacher he left his mark. An honor 
 man of the class of 1878 who was in his 
 classes described his experience thus: "Know- 
 ing that questions would be fired at me so 
 thick and fast that I should be unable to think 
 out the answers, I prepared the lesson so care- 
 fully that I could not fail, and should not need 
 to think in making the answers." 
 
 It was in 1876 that John Meigs finally left 
 Lafayette to go back to The Hill this time 
 to remain. His return came about through 
 an appeal from his mother. 
 
 In the years since The Hill School had been 
 opened, it had been not chiefly Dr. Matthew 
 Meigs himself, but his wife, John Meigs 5 
 mother, who had been the mainspring of its 
 life. With rare sweetness and efficiency she
 
 48 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 gave herself in tireless unselfishness to her 
 manifold duties as mother of her own family, 
 and mother to all the boys of the school. She 
 had eleven children of her own, and her room 
 was nursery and playroom and schoolroom, 
 too, for the smaller ones whom she taught 
 herself. Dr. Meigs went seven times to Eu- 
 rope, and was for a time the United States 
 Consul at Athens ; but she never left America, 
 and seldom in term-time left The Hill. She 
 was housekeeper for the school, and carried 
 all its affairs upon her mind and heart; she 
 watched over the boys' welfare, and even up 
 to the time when the number of pupils had 
 grown to fifty, she mended all their clothes. 
 
 Yet, most remarkably, she never suffered 
 the pressure of her routine work to take away 
 the freshness of her interest in literature and 
 music and all beautiful things. When she 
 was such a little girl that she could not see 
 over the gallery rail, she sang in the choir in 
 the old church of her home town, Torrington; 
 and she continued to sing in the Presbyterian 
 Church at Pottstown until she was sixty years 
 of age. She gave music lessons at The Hill 
 for many years. And meanwhile, she some- 
 how found time for wide reading in history 
 and biography, and among the English novel- 
 ists. 
 
 Underneath all her activities and her other
 
 BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 49 
 
 interests, lay the deep springs of her religious 
 life. She belonged to the Presbyterian 
 Church, but she loved the Episcopal Prayer- 
 Book, and every day read to herself out of 
 a book which at her death was worn al- 
 most to fragments the morning and evening 
 prayer. Amid the cares of the school, and 
 her selfless ministry to her erudite and bril- 
 liant, but eccentric, husband, she kept in spirit 
 and in face a serenity, and in her bearing a 
 queenly poise, which those who saw her never 
 forgot. 
 
 Between John Meigs and his mother there 
 was a very close and loving bond. In the years 
 while he was teaching at Lafayette, he sent 
 her each month $25.00 out of his salary to help 
 her at the school. But now, in 1876, she 
 needed the help of his personal presence. 
 
 Some time before, his father had put the 
 school into the charge of his eldest son, 
 George. But George Meigs had suffered a 
 nervous breakdown, and the school was drift- 
 ing without a leader. There was nothing left, 
 therefore, but for John to come to the rescue. 
 
 To undertake the responsibility of the school 
 had not been his choice. He had meant to be 
 a journalist. But he accepted his duty with 
 good grace. Since the work had fallen to him 
 to do, he set out to do it with all the strength 
 he had.
 
 50 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 Although he had been for a period cover- 
 ing more than nine years at college as student 
 and teacher, he was still a very young man. 
 The commencement of that year, at which he 
 received his doctor's degree, found him not 
 quite twenty-four. He came away from Eas- 
 ton bringing the intellectual fruits of not a 
 little hard work, and something also which he 
 valued even more the treasures of friendship 
 which had called out his own warm-hearted 
 devotion, and from which he was to receive in 
 coming years inspiration and strength. 
 
 Yet it is doubtful if even his nearest friends 
 at that time understood exactly the direction 
 in which his abilities should most signally 
 develop. They had seen much of his happy 
 sociability, his tenderness with children, his 
 good fellowship with men. They knew also, 
 of course, his integrity and moral strength. 
 But they could not know because indeed the 
 circumstances had not yet matured which 
 called into expression a kind of power in him 
 which should characterize his coming work. 
 They realized the force which had always been 
 evident beneath his good humor. They re- 
 membered that he had hardly ever argued, but 
 gave his opinion in short, decisive statements 
 like a man who, being himself convinced, ex- 
 pected others to agree. But this element of 
 his nature had not been conspicuous, because
 
 BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 51 
 
 in college no notably creative and construc- 
 tive task had challenged him. Now, however, 
 when he turned to face the problem of re- 
 organizing and re-creating a weakened school, 
 such a challenge did confront him. It was to 
 call out a masterfulness and a personal au- 
 thority which seemed to give his whole char- 
 acter a new aspect. In the ardor of his task, 
 and in his intense determination to accomplish 
 what he set himself to do, he was to drive 
 ahead with an absorbing energy that some- 
 times should seem harsh to those who worked 
 under his direction. The John Meigs who 
 plunged into his new duties at The Hill was 
 a more forceful, a more formidable person 
 than the John Meigs at Lafayette; and he was 
 going to need new influences to help him keep 
 the balance of his nature and make the impetu- 
 ous .loving-kindness which was always a part 
 of him able to sweeten still the strenuous exer- 
 cise of his determined will.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 
 
 Headmaster of The Hill in 1876 The Meagre Equipment 
 of the School Financial Problems Complex Responsibilities- 
 John Meigs' Strenuousness in His Task Rigid Standards of 
 Work and Discipline His Requirements for Masters Comrade- 
 ship with the Boys Marriage in 1882 His Spiritual Self-Dedi- 
 cation. 
 
 THUS, with the strength and enthusiasm, 
 and perhaps the self-confidence, of 
 youth, yet with unusual maturity of 
 mind, John Meigs came back from Lafayette, 
 in 1876, to begin at The Hill the work which 
 was to absorb henceforth, for thirty-five years, 
 all the energy and devotion of his life. 
 
 To distinguish him from his father, the elder 
 Dr. Meigs, he was called " Professor " ; and by 
 that title, made through familiar affection 
 into a name, he was known by boys and men 
 alike. 
 
 Neither John Meigs nor his father had any 
 amount of money to invest in the school. 
 There existed no group of other persons inter- 
 ested in its success and ready to back it with 
 their help. The school had no connection as 
 some of the great schools of America have had 
 with churches from the ranks of which con- 
 
 5
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 53 
 
 stant support would come. It had no clientele 
 to look to for endowment. It was a venture 
 to the success of which only the determination 
 and ability of the man who now took it in 
 charge could contribute. 
 
 To succeed at all meant hard work and able 
 management. If boys were to be drawn to 
 the school, the school must be made such as 
 would draw them. Only as the school should 
 grow and prosper could the means be acquired 
 to create the equipment which was necessary 
 if the school should climb to commanding 
 rank. The burden which rested upon the 
 shoulders of the man who had assumed the 
 school as his responsibility was, therefore, a 
 complex and sometimes a very heavy one. In- 
 numerable details crowded for adjustment. 
 The problems were not those alone which the 
 head of a day-school faces who must see to 
 the teaching of the boys as long as school 
 hours last, but is freed from responsibility for 
 them as soon as the last bell rings. For the 
 head of a boarding-school, the building up of a 
 system of instruction, and the supervision of 
 it, are only one element in his many-sided task. 
 He is responsible not for the mental culture 
 only, but for the very life in its simplest and 
 most urgent needs, and its highest and subtlest 
 possibilities of the boys who come from many 
 homes into his single trust. He must see
 
 54 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 that they are properly housed, and properly 
 fed. He must see that the surroundings of the 
 school are kept wholesome. He must show 
 in his choice of the masters who shall serve 
 under him the kind of discernment that is able 
 to find men who not only can teach their boys 
 in the classroom, but can be examples of manli- 
 ness and truth in the very intimate and exact- 
 ing relationships of the whole school day; 
 and when he has found them, he must be able 
 to get them to come. The eager visionary 
 might dream dreams of a great school, nobly 
 equipped and worthily manned; but visions 
 alone would not suffice unless there should be 
 joined to them the executive power and the 
 practical skill to build them into fact. The 
 truth of this confronted the younger Meigs 
 when he took the leadership of The Hill. 
 His father had been content simply to gather 
 a few boys into his own home. He was too 
 elderly a man, too much absorbed in his own 
 studies, and with too much of his life's am- 
 bitions behind him, to attempt to create a 
 great institution. But John Meigs had the 
 eagerness and the energy which could be con- 
 tent with nothing less than large ends. And 
 this meant, as he clearly saw, the necessity of 
 making beginnings so sound and excellent that 
 out of them the school should gradually 
 finance and build itself, and thus offset the
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 55 
 
 limitations of poverty under which the work 
 began. 
 
 But though the material element had thus 
 to enter largely into his thought and plans for 
 the school, John Meigs' spirit was never ma- 
 terialistic. When he sought to build up the 
 fabric of the school by the only way in which 
 it could be built up that is to say, by the 
 returns each year which an earnestly careful 
 management saved over the expenses the 
 building of the fabric was never for the build- 
 ing's sake, but always that the school might 
 grow better equipped to serve the highest 
 ideal of its human usefulness. When there was 
 a surplus at the end of a year's accounting, the 
 satisfaction over it came not from the proof it 
 gave that the school might be run with profit, 
 but only from the way it opened for larger and 
 more lavish expenditure upon the school itself 
 the next year. There were many times when 
 the finances of the young and struggling 
 school were a sore burden; and because of the 
 money that from the beginning had to be bor- 
 rowed, this burden was never wholly lifted 
 from John Meigs' shoulders; but through ad- 
 versity or success he was true to what he said 
 once to a friend who long afterwards remem- 
 bered his words: "I am not in this to make 
 money. I am glad I am not hampered and can 
 carry out my own ideas and ideals. I am
 
 56 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 working to have a school of the highest and 
 best standard." 
 
 Into the interpretation of that ideal "a 
 school of the highest and best standard " two 
 elements of his nature pre-eminently entered. 
 In the first place, there was his idealism, based 
 upon and drawing its strength from his reli- 
 gious loyalty. He accepted his work at The 
 Hill as no common profession, to be followed 
 through ordinary motives to a selfish success. 
 He took it rather with reverent hands, as one 
 who receives though his inclination had not 
 turned in this direction to seek it a commis- 
 sion for a holy service. He wanted to make 
 the school a place where young lives might be 
 lifted into nobleness, in which might dwell, and 
 from which might go, only that which is high 
 and true and good. This was one aspect. But 
 with this, on the other hand, was joined the 
 clear, and altogether efficient realization that 
 to work out an ultimate ideal meant infinite 
 care, and often exceedingly wearying patience 
 and thoroughness in small details. The foun- 
 dations of the school's life, even when they 
 went down into the obscure and prosaic things, 
 must be laid in the integrity of a purpose 
 that counted nothing too small to be done 
 well. 
 
 It was fortunate that Meigs had unusual 
 executive capacity, and also an extraordinary
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 57 
 
 aptitude for hard work, for in these early days 
 he needed both. The later development of his 
 own systematizing, which divided the detailed 
 responsibilities of the school among many 
 helpers, with a business office and secretaries, 
 and masters trained to assume charge of defi- 
 nite spheres of work and discipline, had not 
 then been possible, and he himself had to 
 superintend practically everything that was 
 done. The most interesting feature of the 
 material side of the school was, of course, the 
 planning of new buildings, when these became 
 feasible; and from the very beginning there 
 was hardly a year during his head-mastership 
 when he was not projecting or actually accom- 
 plishing some needed addition to the school's 
 equipment. But there was much to be done 
 that did not have the interest of new construc- 
 tion. He taught as many recitations as any 
 one of the other three teachers who with him- 
 self made up the faculty about twenty-five a 
 week; kept all the accounts, drew all the 
 checks, wrote all the letters with his own hand, 
 personally attended to all matters of discipline, 
 tardinesses and absences, sent monthly reports, 
 calculated each boy's general average for the 
 reports, personally saw all visitors to the 
 school, and directed the work of the other 
 teachers by conferences every day. Then the 
 ordinary routine of living had to be kept in
 
 58 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 its course, hungry boys had to be fed, and 
 servants had to be found to take care of 
 them. 
 
 Among his letters is this half-humorous, 
 half-wearied and altogether revealing account 
 of one day's particular activity : 
 
 "I feel like sitting down and ' boo-hooing,' 
 for after this day and a-half of bleak, bluster- 
 ing blizzard, during which time I have trudged 
 and travelled ineffectually in quest of a cook to 
 suit us and save us the greatest of leakages, I 
 am detained over a second night by the assur- 
 ance from the intelligence office that as to- 
 morrow will be fair I can certainly be suited 
 in regard to cook and waitresses, but I am 
 a-weary, and after going to the ends of the 
 earth in New York must sit down and say, 
 ' Nothing but leaves!' I never knew such 
 weather, and how my knees have fairly 
 groaned with the cold and weariness! I will 
 not try to tell you all the details of my experi- 
 ence by letter; suffice it to say I have as yet not 
 gotten finally on the track of just the person I 
 need. To-morrow I shall come home with a 
 big fish for next week's basket. 
 
 " P. is simply wild to have me go to the Twi- 
 light Club with him to hear him speak on 
 poetry ! Goodness alive ! Think of my suffer- 
 ing aching head, aching knees and yet 
 doomed to hear all of the poetical rant of this 
 night. What I want what I need (and I 
 have told P. ... this in vain), is rest, but 
 he won't believe me. From eight until this
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 59 
 
 thing is settled I shall push towards cook and 
 home!" 
 
 In the later years of the school's larger de- 
 velopment, Meigs, of course, did not have to 
 go personally hunting cooks, but even then his 
 oversight was so inclusive that he knew the 
 conditions concerning all the obscure elements 
 of the school's life, and he could and would 
 recognize and remedy inefficiency with a quick 
 and summary authority. 
 
 He had his share of natural difficulties, too, 
 in the organization of the school in its other 
 aspects. When it came to choosing masters, 
 his ideals, as we shall see, were high; but his 
 decisions in this respect were made hard for 
 him sometimes by his tender-heartedness. 
 And when it came to a question of adding one 
 more to the many lecturers and other special 
 speakers whom he used to bring to the school, 
 his generosity might outweigh his more de- 
 liberate desires. 
 
 In two of his letters are these passages: 
 
 "Dr. B has twice attacked me on the 
 
 subject of my engaging him for next year, and 
 in the usual impractical, ai gumentative, dis- 
 putatious way that is enough to drive me mad. 
 Poor man! He sees nothing but success and 
 rare aptitude for our work and life in himself. 
 It is an ungracious enterprise to prove to a 
 man categorically that he is unsatisfactory
 
 60 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 not that he is not able as a scholar but B 
 
 is a German and that tells it all." 
 
 " H 's visit was brief, but none too brief 
 
 for me. With all of his ability he is an in- 
 tolerable, conceited, self-absorbed, self-seeking 
 lunatic. I fairly pity him, and yet would 
 rather pity him at a safe distance. He came 
 here in a dress suit, dirty collar, one white 
 enameled stud in his shirt, which was shock- 
 ingly soiled, no baggage of any kind, but some 
 bad cigars and his book of poems, unwrapped 
 in his hand, with rusty hat and rustier over- 
 coat. I gave him a collar and a set of shirt 
 studs, which I fairly cudgelled him into wear- 
 ing in the gaping, empty holes in his shirt front, 
 and loaned him every article for his toilet, and 
 finally got him pulled into shape for the night's 
 exercises. He made some preliminary re- 
 marks, full of self-complacency and deprecia- 
 tion of Emerson, Longfellow and Lowell, and 
 then read his poems, which are certainly bright 
 and thoughtful. The boys were delighted, as 
 were most of his auditors. He is an original 
 fellow. I gave him $25.00 and he left at 8:30 
 the next morning, much to my relief. His only 
 theme of thought or talk was himself, and as 
 he kept me up until nearly one o'clock, I am 
 effectually cured. I am glad to have escaped 
 so cheaply. It might have been so much 
 worse. He has offered Lippincott's the poems 
 for $10,000!!!!" 
 
 The necessary relationship with parents was 
 another sphere in which the young headmaster
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 61 
 
 was put to the test. Here his sense of humor 
 stood him in good stead. He could listen when 
 necessary with solemn countenance, but in- 
 wardly amused understanding, to the elaborate 
 explanations by voluble fathers and mothers 
 of the peculiar virtues and peculiar needs of 
 their unexampled children; and he wrote once: 
 
 "It is a fine thing to have boys come from 
 South Dakota. The esteemed parents cannot 
 be with you always, and the old gentleman 
 cannot pass his time on the back fence criti- 
 cizing the work and guessing at the combina- 
 tion of the hash." 
 
 Sometimes he had a startlingly effective way 
 of dealing with the parents who were too much 
 in the way. One obstreperous mother who had 
 been packing up her boy's effects at the end of 
 the year, invaded the Study at a very busy 
 time, carrying a large military helmet which 
 belonged to her son, and inquired, " Professor, 
 how shall I get this helmet home?" He re- 
 plied blandly, " You wear it." 
 
 In matters that touched reality he had a 
 swift intuitive sympathy with the father's and 
 mother's aims and hopes, and he spared no 
 pains to create between himself and them a co- 
 operation on the boy's behalf which was affec- 
 tionate and eager. But at the same time he 
 was definite and firm in his requirement that
 
 62 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 parents as well as boys should conform to the 
 disciplined order of the school. They should 
 not take boys away for week-end holidays or 
 in any other fashion interrupt the regular work 
 and life except in agreement with perfectly 
 definite and impartial rules. Nor could the 
 wealth or influence of any parent avail to keep 
 in the school a boy whom he thought to be an 
 evil influence. In his first term at The Hill, 
 when there might have seemed urgent need of 
 keeping all the clientele he had, he dismissed 
 the son of a man high in the nation's life be- 
 cause he thought that boy to be undesirable, 
 though the immediate cause of offense was 
 one which a man of less courageously clear 
 purpose might have overlooked. Yet, on the 
 other hand, as some of the coming pages 
 in this book will make vividly clear, if he 
 believed his duty to the school at large allowed 
 it, there was nothing that he rejoiced in more 
 than taking an unpromising boy, and for his 
 own sake, and for his parents' sake, making 
 him over into purposeful manhood. 
 
 For the first seven or eight years after he 
 came to the Hill in 1876, he himself taught in 
 the classroom. He was a thorough and accu- 
 rate scholar in Greek and Latin, no less than 
 in French and German, which he had taught 
 at Lafayette. With the impetuous swiftness 
 of his own mind ranging freely through the
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 63 
 
 literature which he assigned to his classes, he 
 was often inclined to be unconscious of the 
 tremendous tasks which he imposed on more 
 plodding intellects. The boys regarded his 
 classes with a mixture of admiration and ter- 
 ror. He drove at a furious pace through the 
 hour, and boys used to say that they came out 
 of his classrooms sometimes dripping with 
 perspiration from the strain of his relentless 
 questioning. His quick temper made him im- 
 patient of anything that suggested indifference 
 and inattention, and in this he was no regarder 
 of persons. One of the boys, between whom 
 and himself there was a very special love, used 
 to be sometimes very forgetful, and Meigs 
 would burst out upon him : " You are too 
 absent-minded. You will never be worth any- 
 thing if you don't remember!" The boy's re- 
 ply was naively genuine. "Professor, I wish 
 you would not say I am absent-minded, my 
 mind is always somewhere"; and he used to 
 say, "You don't know how harsh Professor 
 can be." But notwithstanding the dread the 
 boys often had of the severity of his require- 
 ments, they could not but be proud of his tre- 
 mendous thoroughness, and the enthusiasm 
 for his work which lifted it up for himself, and 
 gradually for them too, into a kind of noble 
 even if often austere dignity. They knew 
 that he was impartial, and altogether in ear-
 
 64 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 nest. They knew that he scorned above every- 
 thing meanness and deceit and shuffling eva- 
 sion, and that he would never let them off 
 until he knew that they had done the very best 
 they could. One of the boys has left this com- 
 ment on the kind of man he seemed to them 
 to be: 
 
 "He certainly would get after me pretty 
 hard, but then I deserved it every time. We 
 fellows all knew that he would not stand any- 
 thing that was mean and despicable, and knew 
 how severe Professor could be at such a time, 
 but we all loved him, and had nothing to fear 
 when we did what was right." 
 
 Another wrote in the retrospect of the after 
 time: 
 
 " It is full thirty years since I came, an un- 
 licked cub if there ever was one, to The Hill. 
 If outward things are the realities, it was a 
 very different Hill then from now. There 
 were a scant forty boys for a school. There 
 was a small and rather dilapidated property. 
 
 "I think we were a pretty rough lot of ma- 
 terial for the most part, in those very early 
 days. School standards had not been set so 
 high anywhere then as, through John Meigs 
 and his few peers, they have been set since, 
 standards, I mean, not merely of scholarship, 
 but of all the decencies and refinements of life 
 and conduct. It was not the least of his
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 65 
 
 achievements that, even then, with his smaller 
 experience, his poorer physical equipment, his 
 discouragements of every conceivable sort, he 
 took the rough material and fashioned it into 
 the semblance of a man gave it an ideal, a 
 vision, a spirit." 
 
 Nearly all the letters and other personal 
 papers of John Meigs which date from the 
 early years of his work at The Hill were de- 
 stroyed in the great fires of 1884 and 1890 
 (which wrecked the material fabric of the 
 school and of which more will be said here- 
 after), and so it is difficult to gather much that 
 expresses at first hand his own thought and 
 opinions. But there are some fragments of 
 different dates which show the characteristic 
 attitude which he had taken toward essential 
 matters from the start. 
 
 In his direction of the boys' work, he was 
 anxious that they should attain excellence for 
 the obvious worth in the first place of that 
 excellence itself. He wanted the boys to be 
 trained well, that they might know what they 
 were supposed to know, and know it not super- 
 ficially, but with mastery. He rejoiced, for 
 the sake of the boys themselves and for the 
 school, when they succeeded in college. "The 
 college," he writes, " is what the boy makes it. 
 It can give you as large and broad a culture as 
 you need or are willing to strive for." And in
 
 66 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 another letter to the same boy at college: 
 " You don't say a word of your parents' feeling 
 about your success in taking the prizes : don't 
 you think I might be interested in that? Come 
 now, my beloved boy, stifle your modesty and 
 tell me about this in your next, like a man." 
 Once more he writes : 
 
 "We hear gratifying news from the boys 
 generally. . . . The Yale boys are doing well 
 in their work and will probably all stand in 
 the first division, which is to be organized 
 this week. . . . How comes on our work? Can 
 you maintain yourself well in the sophomore 
 class? If not, what are your special difficul- 
 ties? Tell me a little about the length of les- 
 sons, etc., etc. Do you find the life over-full 
 of distractions and temptations? Write to 
 me, my dear old fellow, straight from the 
 heart." 
 
 Between the lines, in these brief quotations 
 one may clearly read the other interest which 
 was deeper than the pride in the boy's scho- 
 lastic triumphs in their academic aspect. He 
 invested work with a moral quality. He 
 thought of laziness and of the kind of failure 
 which ought to have been avoided as an inward 
 as well as an outward reproach. He valued 
 achievement most of all for the sake of the 
 kind of character which the winning of it 
 necessitated. It was because of this that he
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 67 
 
 could often be so inflexibly stern in the require- 
 ments which he held to in his dealing with 
 boys in the school. 
 
 He writes to a father concerning a boy who 
 was shirking his work, and trying to have his 
 father take him out of school, or else have him 
 dropped into lower classes: 
 
 "I believe not in the 'divine right of kings' 
 but in the ' divine right of fathers.' 
 
 "I should instantly take this ground with 
 F and insist upon his compliance there- 
 with before any other question should be 
 considered, such, for instance, as his going to 
 college. 
 
 " You have, whether wisely or unwisely, 
 
 placed F here for the school year, ending 
 
 in June, not for so long a time as he can keep in 
 good temper with himself, his teachers or the 
 boys. . . . Meanwhile, you expect, and will 
 exact, that he shall give you the respect and 
 deference that you are entitled to by availing 
 himself, to the uttermost, of the privileges of 
 education that you, at large expense, have 
 most seriously, not lightly, been generous 
 enough to bestow. 
 
 " You will listen to no departure from your 
 maturely determined course for this year, and 
 only his very best employment of his time, in 
 the very best spirit, will afford him any reason- 
 able ground to expect your consideration of his 
 views with reference to the following years 
 or the more remote future. . . . 
 
 " F. 's spirit is unpardonable. He should
 
 68 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 learn instantly that he will be required by 
 you to apply himself to his work, without 
 reference to his temper toward himself or 
 others, and to do, until June, just what other 
 boys are required to do, both in the matter of 
 work and of spirit. He has simply lashed 
 himself into a bad mood, and would have us 
 all endure his unreasonable spirit. As I have 
 said, he should have no quarter in any direc- 
 tion until he has shown the disposition to 
 honor your judgment and proper authority in 
 placing him here and, by his submission and 
 diligence, justified your listening to rational 
 views, affecting his immediate or remote fu- 
 ture. 
 
 " He would naturally fall into a lower Latin 
 class, unless he has made up the Virgil when 
 he returns, or manifests an energetic determi- 
 nation to do so when he gets back. 
 
 "As to other changes of his schedule, I 
 should, for his immediate or ultimate good, 
 decline to consider them now. . . . 
 
 "The matter of studying this subject or 
 that is of comparatively little moment along- 
 side of his simply doing as well as he can, in 
 the best spirit possible, his duty. ..." 
 
 To another father whose boy had claimed 
 at school that his efforts to learn Greek 
 brought on "the family heart-trouble," he 
 writes, in the first place, a description of the 
 boy's health which, with the exception of 
 one or two days' indisposition, seems to have 
 been sturdy enough, and then, after detail-
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 69 
 
 ing the boy's actual status in his class, he 
 says: "Of course, his heart disturbance may 
 have resulted from this ' Greek nightmare/ 
 . . . but I am inclined to think that his heart 
 has been weak in purpose, rather than in 
 power. ... I will have a talk with Herbert, 
 and try to re-inforce your own counsels; and 
 hope that his heart and head will combine to 
 reassure you as to his purpose and power to do 
 Greek and every other subject well, as he gives 
 to it his inheritance of power and pluck." 
 
 Concerning another boy who wanted to 
 abandon a subject which he did not like, Meigs 
 writes to the parents : 
 
 "The question has been transformed from 
 an intellectual to a moral problem. If by 
 
 shirking and dishonesty, W , or any other 
 
 boy, is to secure his self-gratification in an un- 
 warrantable and ignorant prejudice against 
 any subject that you or I may feel it desirable 
 for him to prosecute, the integrity of his mind 
 and character will permanently suffer. As the 
 head of the school, responsible for the moral 
 and mental development of those confided to 
 my care, I should feel compelled to decline to 
 allow the boy to do as he chooses." 
 
 Into his -discipline he not infrequently 
 brought the power of a sarcasm, which he 
 could employ with terrific force. When he 
 found himself faced in a boy with shiftiness
 
 70 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 or insincerity or deliberate shirking, he could 
 hurl against him a scornful invective which 
 withered like a blast of lightning. In the early 
 days of the school, he used this weapon often. 
 As years went on, and his own nature rounded 
 into a larger compassionateness, he used it 
 less; but boys knew what it meant, and when 
 they saw his brow darken, the guilty shrank. 
 
 Such was the sterner side of his attitude 
 toward the boys and their work. But it was 
 the sternness, not of harsh indifference, but of 
 a high insistence, based on love. He could be 
 wonderfully patient with the shortcomings or 
 the dullness of any boy whom he believed to 
 be trying to do his best. 
 
 One of the nearest friends of those early 
 years recounts the following memory: 
 
 "The first time I came to visit the school 
 was about the time there were twenty-five 
 boys. His beautiful mother received me with 
 great welcome because we were so identified 
 with his interests, and I well remember how he 
 came to me and said, ' You love boys so, I want 
 to ask you something. What would you do to 
 a boy who really does not seem to be able 
 to learn ? ' I said, ' Is he lazy, or is he a shirk ? ' 
 and he said, 'Neither, but he simply cannot 
 learn/ I remember talking to him about a boy 
 who could not seem to learn anything, and 
 different professors had been pretty hard on 
 this boy, and he was finally sent to the high-
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 71 
 
 est authority, and the little boy said to him, 
 ' Professor, I don't know why you are all so 
 hard on me, I study a great deal harder than 
 anyone else, but I cannot understand/ And I 
 'said to Mr. Meigs, ' If I were you I would take 
 such a boy alone and help him study his les- 
 sons for the next day.' I also said, "Perhaps 
 he is homesick; if I were you I would go in 
 after he has gone to bed and talk to him,' which 
 the Professor did, with the greatest tender- 
 ness, and when I saw him again he said, ' You 
 don't know what results I got from that 
 boy!'" 
 
 And in two of his own letters Meigs re- 
 counts two incidents which show on the one 
 hand the feeling in the boys' hearts that they 
 could find in him a ready and sympathetic 
 understanding when they came to him with 
 their difficulties, and, on the other hand, the 
 glow of his own when boys did come to him 
 with frank confession or appeal. 
 
 " I am sure/' he writes, to her who was after- 
 ward to be his wife, "you will not be dis- 
 pleased to have me repeat what came to me 
 
 as from H . The youth was talking of 
 
 his peculiar difficulties of temper, of training 
 and study. He said, 'I never before really 
 wanted to obey any man, but it is my great- 
 est happiness to do just what the Professor 
 would have me do.' Well, that is not very 
 much, you may say, and it is not, in one sense;
 
 72 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 but if I can get hold of one boy's heart for his 
 real abiding welfare, it is very much for me and 
 for him." 
 
 And in a letter to another friend he refers to 
 a conversation they had had " as to the neces- 
 sary element of faith and courage in our work 
 here, leaving to the future the vindication of 
 our efforts which might fail of recognition in 
 the stress and strain of daily routine." " I 
 think it was within twenty-four hours of your 
 
 visit," he continues, "that B , whose case 
 
 you will recall, came to me entirely spontane- 
 ously and opened his heart to me absolutely 
 and utterly as to his recent life and influence 
 in the school, . . . deploring his faults, and 
 appealing most pathetically for the sympathy 
 and co-operation that he knew he would re- 
 ceive from me. Since then his spirit and at- 
 titude have been above reproach, or even 
 question, and he has come heartily and hap- 
 pily ... to such an appreciation of his duty, 
 and his privilege too, as when we talked to- 
 gether seemed most remote." 
 
 Another quotation from a letter, though 
 somewhat obscure in part of its reference, is 
 of value because it shows how merciful he 
 could be in forgiveness, and libw reverently 
 regardful he was of the dignity of a boy's own 
 right to freedom in his deepest choices, even 
 when he felt the need of shaping those choices
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 73 
 
 in a very definite way. Evidently, in his 
 thought, the wrong that this boy had done 
 came from some influence that was undermin- 
 ing his religious loyalties. 
 
 " R reported to me in class yesterday 
 
 morning," he writes," " that he had read all of 
 his review in Latin; but last night, before 
 bedtime, came to me and said, ' Professor, I 
 told you a lie to-day, and I can't stand it. It's 
 the first I have told here, and I feel very much 
 distressed.' I talked with him as gently as I 
 could, and then . . . tried to make him think 
 of what he was doing ... in subjecting him- 
 self to an influence that might impair his rev- 
 erence for and belief in the faith in which his 
 mother died and his family lived. He was 
 honest and outspoken, and seemed impressed 
 by my presentation of the subject which his, 
 not my, conscience must decide." 
 
 He tells, too, in one of his letters, of an inci- 
 dent which is full of significance as showing 
 the way in which he sought to build the disci- 
 pline of the school upon the foundation of that 
 which was deepest and finest in the boys' 
 souls : 
 
 "Jan. iQth, 1882. 
 
 "You will be interested to know the step I 
 have taken for, and with the boys. I have ob- 
 served with keen concern the disposition of 
 several of the older boys to tamper with stimu-
 
 74 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 lants, the use of which, in the form of beer and 
 light wines, is very prevalent in our state. 
 They would stop at the inn, a mile or two down 
 the road, on their return from a long walk, and 
 drink a glass of beer or wine. The matter was 
 in its incipiency, so that a decided stroke and 
 an advanced position on the subject of liquor 
 and its abuses would correct the matter, and 
 radically, too. Last night every boy in the 
 school pledged himself to abstain totally from 
 the use of stimulants during his connection 
 with the institution. In many cases, nine out of 
 ten boys assumed this generous responsibility 
 for the sake of their comrades, and I venture 
 the assertion that the trifling evidence by 
 which I proceeded has worked a blessed result 
 in the immediate effect upon one or two boys 
 whose past, prior to their coming here, made 
 this lapse easy and natural. I thank God that 
 my eyes were opened so soon, and that we 
 have taken the high ground to which we are 
 forever committed. I want you to understand 
 that it was the faintest beginnings of the evil 
 that I detected and corrected, I prayerfully 
 trust. Many of the boys have access to liquor 
 in their own homes, but the ultimatum on the 
 subject has been pronounced here for all time. 
 With the two boys who originally offended, I 
 know I have begun a good saving work, and 
 under God, our combined influence will enable 
 them to repair the injury to which they would 
 or might have drifted in the course of months. 
 At any rate, whether or not there has been 
 any real injury, it is a good, safe position for 
 every boy to take, and I am heartily glad that
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 75 
 
 it was so readily assumed by all for each 
 other's sake." 
 
 Later, he writes again: 
 
 "I appreciate your feelings with reference 
 to my boys ' taking the pledge.' There was no 
 compulsion about it. I submitted the facts to 
 them and they voluntarily assumed the re- 
 sponsibility which I said to them could be no 
 more sacred than any manly and worthy reso- 
 lution by God's help to do and help the 
 right. I think that the benefit derived from 
 their position will far outweigh any possible 
 violence to their honor by the breaking of any 
 such pledge. I tried to have them regard it 
 as no more solemn for what could be than a 
 sturdy, prayerful purpose God helping them 
 to do the right for the right's sake and from 
 my own experience with boys I confidently 
 expect 'a lifting up of the hands which hang 
 down, and of the feeble knees/ God help them 
 and us all worthily to serve them. . . . Thank 
 God, I am very much occupied with my school 
 and I have no higher ambition than to do 
 worthily what devolves on me right here by 
 God's own appointment. . . . This afternoon, 
 instead of the regular final lessons, I shall have 
 a plain familiar talk with the boys collectively, 
 and I shall try to tell them something about 
 thoughtfulness as a duty, as a basis for which 
 Psalm 119 will do very well, 'Wherewithal 
 shall a young man cleanse his way. By tak- 
 ing heed thereto according to Thy word.' "
 
 76 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 One of the men who was a boy at The Hill 
 in the days of which we are thinking, wrote of 
 John Meigs: 
 
 "He could be stern. He could be witty or 
 broadly humorous, and he could use his keen 
 wit for the discomfiture of rebellion or mis- 
 behavior. Intellectual and spiritual weapons 
 were all he needed to enforce discipline. I 
 could not imagine him resorting to physical 
 means. But his greatest weapon was his kind- 
 ness. How well I recall the awful day when I 
 publicly offended his high sense of dignity. 
 To this day I can search my conscience and 
 protest my innocence of any intent. But I 
 had offended, and, miserablest of sinners, I 
 was bidden to the Study. Its walls were so 
 thick that the entrance was an embrasure of 
 at least three feet. Once in there, and the door 
 closed behind you, your chance of escape was 
 about as good, in your excited imagination, as 
 Rebecca's in Front De Boeuf's dungeon. 
 
 "Oh, the dear, kind man! In two minutes, 
 after one or two choking sentences, we were in 
 each other's arms. From that day I knew the 
 sweetness of forgiveness." 
 
 And from another, who both then and after- 
 wards knew John Meigs in a very intimate 
 and loving way, comes this description, which 
 is as searching as it is true: 
 
 "As I look back over the years, my personal 
 memories of Professor have an ever-increasing
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 77 
 
 significance, and outweigh all that I ever re- 
 ceived from him in the way of correspondence. 
 It is hard to put these things into words : but I 
 will try. The first characteristic that im- 
 pressed me as a boy, and grew stronger with 
 the years, was the tremendous authority of 
 the man. One could not doubt the sincerity 
 of his appeal for truth, honesty, industry and 
 obedience. It was impossible to shuffle or 
 make excuse for one's self; the only alternative 
 was to take a position squarely on this side or 
 on that. This dominating force of a superior 
 personality is often offensive to weak natures. 
 It forbids them to do wrong, and at the same 
 time persuades them that they are right a 
 species of self-deception to which boys are 
 more prone than their elders imagine. There- 
 fore, when Professor won the unswerving 
 loyalty of many, he failed to inspire others 
 with more than a wholesome fear of the rod. 
 However, that many of these very fellows 
 came to him voluntarily in after years, showed 
 that he had been a power in their lives, in spite 
 of the strong persuasion of their worse nature 
 to regard him as a tyrant. 
 
 " It was sometimes hard for Professor to 
 reveal the gentle and generous spirit beneath 
 his sterner aspect. He has told me that many 
 a time his heart yearned over a boy, and he 
 knew that the latter wholly misunderstood his 
 attitude, yet he could not establish the point 
 of contact. Sometimes he did force himself 
 to a direct attack upon the boy's reserve, reti- 
 cence or dislike, and when he did, seldom did 
 he fail to give that fellow a wholly different
 
 78 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 view of all things, and a wonderful revelation 
 of himself. But more often he depended upon 
 something in the way of an outward occur- 
 rence on which to base his appeal. Here he 
 had an unerring instinct and felt himself on 
 sure ground. It might be a trivial breach of 
 discipline, a classroom incident, an athletic 
 triumph or failure, perhaps a moral victory or 
 defeat, which the boy had thought known only 
 to himself. In any case, it led to a realization 
 on the boy's part that Professor was the keen 
 observer of his daily living, and was deeply 
 interested in the outcome. His manner dif- 
 fered greatly with the individual and the occa- 
 sion. Sometimes it was no more than one of 
 those wonderful smiles, or a hand on the shoul- 
 der, just at the psychological moment when 
 one needed to hear a word of cheer or encour- 
 agement or sympathy. And the action was 
 better than such words; it spoke each, or all, 
 of these things, as the need might be, and was 
 so interpreted : more, it conveyed an intimation 
 of confidence that was a spur to pride. 
 
 " On the other hand, he might descend like a 
 thunder-cloud, sharp and sudden, upon a sleep- 
 ing conscience, trusting that this rude awaken- 
 ing was the only thing that could reach the 
 lethargic soul, already labored over to no pur- 
 pose by other masters. Here was a side of 
 Professor's character that I think was often 
 misunderstood by masters as well as boys. He 
 knew his actions were at times wrongly inter- 
 preted, but he scorned explanations. If he felt 
 that he had been right, he was content to be 
 misunderstood and to trust to time to justify
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 79 
 
 him. Furthermore, he was hampered by diffi- 
 dence in anything that seemed to concern his 
 personal relations to another, and abhorred 
 the appearance of seeking another's confidence, 
 support or affection. He has often said, to my 
 knowledge, that this feeling made it very hard 
 for him to speak to any number of men or boys 
 in a body, unless he had a very definite text or 
 occasion. He had so much in his heart that he 
 should have wished to express, yet feared to 
 produce the wrong impression. The evidence 
 of this was shown in two ways especially. 
 One, the intense devotion he showed to those 
 fellows whom he had never to seek, who under- 
 stood him from the beginning, who feared him 
 not, who offered their affection frankly and 
 without reserve. He looked for them at re- 
 unions, he was disappointed few knew how 
 much when one or another failed to come. 
 Blessed be they, for, even if unwittingly, they 
 did much to make his life a happy one. The 
 other way in which he showed how deeply he 
 felt the personal relations of life, was in the 
 instant whole-hearted forgiveness he always 
 accorded the repentant. It seemed as if he was 
 twice glad: both that the boy had come to a 
 nobler view of things, and that he himself, in 
 doing his duty, had not lost a friend. 
 
 " Many times I have been thankful that my 
 first week in the school revealed this side of his 
 nature to me. It was for what to me seemed a 
 very petty thing that I received a tremendous 
 rebuke from him, in a manner that seemed to 
 say he had no interest in me as a human being, 
 but was merely angry at my actions. But
 
 8o THE MASTER OK THE HILL 
 
 when I had duly considered the matter, and 
 realized that in doing what I had done, I was 
 doubtless taking the first step on a very easy 
 and dangerous road, I felt the inclination to go 
 and thank him for what he had said, but I 
 couldn't quite summon up courage. 
 
 " However, and this is the most significant 
 fact connected with that otherwise ordinary 
 enough occurrence Professor had not forgot- 
 ten me and my small troubles ! In some mys- 
 terious way he knew that I was ready to sur- 
 render, and made it as easy for me as possible 
 by giving me a friendly nudge in the ribs as he 
 overtook me in the hall. Somehow, it seemed 
 that I quite naturally walked on into the Study 
 with him, and there laid a real foundation for 
 my life." 
 
 Even in these years, when he was still a 
 very young man, Meigs was beginning to be 
 recognized outside the immediate circles of 
 The Hill for the power as a schoolmaster 
 that he was. He used to go often with some 
 friends in Brooklyn to hear Henry Ward 
 Beecher, and one Sunday, after Mr. Beecher 
 had preached a wonderful sermon, Meigs said, 
 "I must go and thank him for that sermon." 
 One of the friends who knew the great 
 preacher pushed Meigs ahead, and as he 
 stepped up to Mr. Beecher, he said, " Mr. 
 Beecher, I want to thank you for that sermon ; 
 it was just what I needed." Mr. Beecher
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 81 
 
 looked at him and said, " I don't know 
 your common name, but you're the boy- 
 man." 
 
 In order, however, that the school should be 
 efficient, it was necessary that Meigs should 
 possess something besides success in his direct 
 relationship to the boys as teacher and master. 
 He had to prove himself able to organize the 
 life of the school so that it should be adjusted 
 with sureness to his desired ends, and to plan 
 the system of teaching so that the work of a 
 number of men should be combined into ef- 
 ficiency. 
 
 In the beginning, when the school was small, 
 and equally in later years, when the school was 
 large, the clearness and decisiveness of his 
 thinking served him well. He was never a 
 person who projected general plans in a vague 
 way, and left them for the general drift of 
 things to carry through. He held plainly in 
 his own mind, and he made plain to others, 
 what he expected, and as a result both masters 
 and boys could know their duties with pre- 
 cision. 
 
 The order of the school day and of the school 
 year was shaped in the early years substan- 
 tially as it remained afterwards. In the morn- 
 ing, at six forty-five, or seven, according to 
 the time of year, the bells rang in all the halls. 
 Twenty-five minutes later, the bells rang
 
 82 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 again, and the boys on each hall reported to the 
 master resident there, to show that they were 
 ready for breakfast for which they assembled 
 in the big common dining-room of the school, 
 three minutes later. After breakfast, came 
 prayers, in the schoolroom, and the beginning 
 of the study and recitation periods, which 
 lasted, with two brief recesses, until one forty- 
 five. In the winter time, from Christmas until 
 Easter, the morning school session came to 
 an end at twelve forty-five, and the last two 
 periods began at four-thirty, ending at six, a 
 quarter of an hour before supper. This was in 
 order that the boys might have their play- 
 time all in the hours of daylight, before the 
 dusk of the short winter days came on. Sup- 
 per was at six-fifteen, and after it, evening 
 prayers in the schoolroom. Then from seven 
 to nine came a period of two hours of study. 
 [At this time, and also in the morning, in the 
 hours when they were not due at recitations, 
 the boys studied in the schoolroom, under the 
 charge of a master, except the sixth formers 
 and the boys who had attained good rank in 
 their studies and had no demerits. These were 
 allowed to study in their own rooms.] From 
 nine to nine forty-five, the boys could visit in 
 each other's room, on the same hall, or in the 
 master's room, except in the case of the little 
 boys, who went to bed at nine. At ten o'clock,
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 83 
 
 except for the sixth form, lights went out, and 
 the day was over. 
 
 The boys were held responsible for all the 
 regimen of the day. They must be where they 
 were supposed to be, and there on time. Dis- 
 obedience of the rules, or lateness anywhere, 
 meant, of course, demerits, and fifteen de- 
 merits meant the loss of privileges the neces- 
 sity of studying in the schoolroom, instead of 
 one's own room, and " confinement to bounds " 
 of the school grounds. 
 
 In the classroom work, the masters were re- 
 quired to mark each boy each week, according 
 to the rank he had attained in the average of 
 his daily recitations. These marks were the 
 "lists" A, B, C and D. A "D" list was the 
 dreaded " fourth." Monday instead of Satur- 
 day was the weekly holiday of the school, but 
 on Monday, immediately after the morning 
 prayers, the fourth lists were read out by the 
 headmaster in the schoolroom; and many a 
 boy, uncertain of his record in the week ending 
 with the previous Saturday, listened with 
 bated breath as the ominous list of names 
 drew near in its alphabetical descent to the 
 point at which he might hear his own. " John- 
 son Geometry, Latin; Lloyd Greek" the 
 relentless record might proceed; and Johnson 
 and Lloyd would turn at this mournful con- 
 firmation of what they had probably expected,
 
 84 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 to study an hour and a half on each subject, 
 while Jones, who had waited with dread for 
 the sound of his name in between, cracked his 
 heels together underneath his desk to know 
 that he was free. 
 
 The school year was divided into three terms 
 the fall term, from the opening in Septem- 
 ber until the beginning of Christmas vacation; 
 the winter term, from New Year's till Easter 
 time, or at least until the end of March for 
 Easter might fall later; and the spring term, 
 beginning after the Easter holiday and lasting 
 till the close of school, in June. At the end of 
 the first two terms, there was a reckoning like 
 that of the Monday mornings, only on a larger 
 scale. There would be examinations for every 
 subject and every class, but every boy who 
 had attained a certain grade of scholarship in 
 any class for the whole term was excused from 
 the examination in that subject. This meant 
 that the more industrious boys might be ex- 
 cused from every examination, and start for 
 home almost a week earlier than their less for- 
 tunate comrades, who were ensnared in the 
 toils of their now too-late-repented delin- 
 quencies. For the boys who could not start 
 with the group which was altogether free, 
 there was still opportunity, however, for hard 
 work to be immediately rewarded. If a boy 
 passed in the one examination, or the two, or
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 85 
 
 the half-dozen, for which he was held, he could 
 leave for his holidays immediately the master 
 in the last subject had O.K.'d his paper. If a 
 boy failed, he was given a condition for as 
 many hours as the master thought he needed 
 to study. After that length of time put in 
 work, the boy was given another examination. 
 If he failed again, he was conditioned again, 
 and so it might be that some boys might spend 
 the whole week after the departure of the first 
 boys in their efforts to clear their conditions 
 off, until the day when for everybody the vaca- 
 tion began. In June, all the boys, without 
 respect to previous standing, had to take the 
 final examinations; and after the commence- 
 ment, which came about the middle of the 
 month, the fifth and sixth form boys remained 
 some two weeks longer for special work in 
 preparation for the college examinations, 
 which the proctors brought down from Har- 
 vard, Yale and Princeton and other colleges 
 late in June. 
 
 In this arrangement of the school there was, 
 of course, nothing outwardly unusual. Many 
 other schools have the routine of the days and 
 the terms ordered in the same general way. 
 But the thing which the boys at The Hill came 
 almost at once to feel was the extraordinary 
 degree to which the personality of John Meigs 
 pervaded the whole system. His thorough-
 
 86 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 ness, his decisiveness, his determination, were 
 all through it. In every rule and requirement, 
 the boys knew that they faced not an abstract 
 code which they might respect or not with only 
 perfunctory consequences, but that they stood 
 confronted rather by the spirit of a man who 
 was lifting up in all their tasks a living ideal 
 which he willed to be obeyed. Many a boy 
 who on Monday morning listened to Meigs' 
 voice reading out his name among the " fourth 
 lists," and turned to take out his books for the 
 hours of his penalty, directed against the 
 headmaster personally the hot resentment 
 which stirred in his heart against the discipline 
 that held him with such inexorable grip. Yet 
 even in those hours the same boys came to 
 learn a deeper lesson than their books could 
 teach the lesson of the dignity of duty, and 
 the sureness of that penalty which sooner or 
 later in this world must overtake unfaithful- 
 ness; and learning it, they began to under- 
 stand that it was through John Meigs that it 
 had come home to them, and in John Meigs 
 that it was made real. 
 
 In his relationship with the masters, Meigs 
 could seem often to show the same kind of 
 rigorous insistence which, on their plane, he 
 showed to the boys. He had unyielding 
 standards of the quality of work which ought 
 to be done, and of the earnestness which ought
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 87 
 
 to be put into it. His own enthusiasm made 
 him give himself unsparingly to what he him- 
 self had to do. 
 
 "This morning reveals the first snow of 
 winter," he writes in one of his letters, "and I 
 am rejoiced to see it, for it means for me a 
 quickening of working forces; I can accom- 
 plish twice as much during the four months of 
 winter as I can hope to in any other similar 
 period of the year. I really wish that my work 
 here might go on unremittingly for months to 
 come." As a matter of fact, he worked so hard 
 that he was often very tired when vacation 
 came, and thoroughly glad to welcome it; but 
 he forgot this when he was in the midst of the 
 exhilarating pressure of the work itself; and 
 as a consequence, though without the least 
 intention of being unduly exacting, he was 
 apt to key the work up for others, as well 
 as for himself, to a point at which men 
 who did not try to understand his spirit 
 and purpose might have begun inwardly to 
 complain. 
 
 In the early days of his headmastership, 
 much more than in the later ones, there was 
 room for the men who served under him to 
 feel that in the tremendous intensity of his con- 
 centration upon the work which he wanted 
 to get done, he sometimes set requirements 
 which, from a more inclusive point of view,
 
 88 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 seemed unreasonable. For instance, it was his 
 custom to have the masters, at the close of the 
 school hours every Saturday, make up their 
 lists as to the boys' standing, in order that all 
 these might come in for his own record and 
 inspection. He would announce that the mas- 
 ters would meet "immediately after dinner," 
 and at that time he expected every man to be 
 prepared to answer, with no uncertainty, the 
 standing of every boy in his division. As the 
 week's final marks could not be made up until 
 after the classes on Saturday, this meant that 
 the men must have the record of what they 
 considered the boys to have deserved on the 
 previous day clear in their minds, and that 
 they must work with speed and promptness to 
 finish their reports in the few minutes between 
 the ending of the last class and dinner. The 
 worst of the matter was that the necessity of 
 being ready " immediately after dinner " some- 
 times seemed to involve a hardship which was 
 not necessary. If Dr. Meigs was not himself 
 interrupted by an unavoidable cause, his " im- 
 mediately" meant exactly what the word said; 
 and because the men knew that, they had to be 
 ready even though this involved snatching a 
 very hasty dinner to gain time for their figur- 
 ing, or, in the case of one married master, who 
 lived just outside the school grounds, fre- 
 quently missing dinner altogether. Sometimes
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 89 
 
 when they hurried thus, the "immediately 
 after dinner" turned out to be some fifteen or 
 twenty minutes later than usual, because Dr. 
 Meigs was kept at dinner by the necessity of 
 talking to a visitor at his table. To half- 
 hungry men, the authority that thus held them 
 to its bidding may have seemed arbitrary, and 
 no doubt it did. 
 
 What these meetings of the masters were is 
 well told by Mr. George Q. Sheppard, who 
 came to The Hill in the seventh year of the 
 school, to become, as time went on, one of the 
 men on whom John Meigs most depended. 
 
 "Already in 1883 no one could fail to be im- 
 pressed by the fact that The Hill School was 
 Professor's life work, into which he was throw- 
 ing all his energy, for which he had the high- 
 est ideals of industry in -work and play, of 
 sound scholarship, of true purpose in masters 
 and boys. Prompt, alert, indefatigable him- 
 self, he demanded the same of all about him. 
 
 " The first teachers' meeting ' directly after 
 dinner' the first Saturday, the School having 
 opened the previous Wednesday, was an 
 awakening to the three teachers of the faculty, 
 all new that year. 'Directly after dinner' 
 meant when the Professor arose from the table 
 after the midday meal. We had been told in 
 the dining-room as we were at dinner that the 
 meeting would be held. Without a word of 
 explanation he opened the big record book and 
 began to call the roll of the boys alphabetically,
 
 90 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 expecting us instantly to report upon each boy 
 whom we had taught during the half week, 
 stating that he had made A, B, C, or D for 
 the week, while he recorded our reports. Na- 
 turally there was hesitation in answering, since 
 we had not been informed previously of the 
 demand to be made upon us. Having finished 
 the roll with some show of annoyance at our 
 delays, he said, ' Gentlemen, we shall have such 
 a meeting directly after dinner each Satur- 
 day, and you are to come prepared to report 
 promptly on each of your boys. The meeting 
 should not occupy more than twenty minutes.' 
 There were sixty boys upon the roll; each of 
 us, including the Professor, taught twenty-five 
 recitations per week, generally teaching the 
 last period Saturday, between which and din- 
 ner there was given ten minutes for prepara- 
 tion for dinner; yet we were to be prepared 
 to report on each boy directly after dinner. 
 The noteworthy point is that we did it. How 
 often have I visited schools which needed a 
 John Meigs to wake up masters and boys and 
 show, them what they could do, a point on 
 which they seemed absolutely ignorant. Paul 
 found out, ' I can do all things/ What a valu- 
 able lesson for any man or boy, a lesson, alas, 
 which few have learned, but which men and 
 boys always learned from John Meigs. 
 
 "This type of meeting continued 'directly 
 after dinner ' on Saturday until the roll became 
 so long and the masters so many that the re- 
 sults could not be properly recorded even by 
 the Professor, when reports in writing upon 
 printed rolls of the School, to be handed in
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 91 
 
 before four o'clock Saturday afternoons be- 
 came the rule, as it is to-day." 
 
 From this story there comes an impression 
 of the John Meigs of the school's early years 
 which is true, and yet which needs to be shaped 
 by a balanced understanding lest it be unjust. 
 In the outward aspects of his government, 
 there was reason sometimes to call him arbi- 
 trary. He was strong and confident and mas- 
 terful, and he established requirements which, 
 even when they were difficult, he would not 
 suffer to be disobeyed. But the fact that needs 
 to be remembered is this that his authority 
 was never a petty self-assertion for its own 
 sake. If he seemed sometimes not to spare 
 others, neither did he spare himself. When 
 he set a standard which was to be conformed 
 to, he did not do it for his own convenience, 
 but as part of his imperious sense of the de- 
 mands of the most efficient work. His decrees 
 were not shaped by an infallible wisdom, but 
 they always were forged out of a fine honesty, 
 and tried by an unflinching loyalty to purposes 
 which were so commanding in his mind that 
 they outweighed sometimes his thought of the 
 convenience of others, just as they outweighed 
 his thought of his own. 
 
 As the years went on, the gentleness and 
 consideration, which were always so beautiful
 
 92 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 a part of his deepest nature, more and more 
 spread themselves through all his outward re- 
 lationships. He could still be authoritative 
 and commanding, but he more consciously and 
 completely made it evident that not self-will, 
 but his own submission to the great ideals of 
 the school, into the obedience of which he 
 would have them gathered with himself in 
 noble fellowship, governed all his attitude 
 toward the men who served with him. 
 
 One young teacher who came to The Hill 
 straight from college spent three years in the 
 school, and in that time made a notable suc- 
 cess of his work. Dr. Meigs recognized this so 
 thoroughly that he urged him to throw in his 
 lot permanently with the school, and promised 
 him enlarged responsibilities and an oppor- 
 tunity which the younger man knew he could 
 not equal elsewhere. But he left The Hill, say- 
 ing to himself as the final reason, "John Meigs 
 is so forceful and overmastering, while I am 
 naturally diffident, that I feel sure he will ex- 
 pand in character while I should shrink." 
 
 But another member of his staff said: 
 
 "Other men felt differently, remained, and 
 have been given ample opportunity to express 
 themselves. Professor demanded of every 
 man undivided loyalty to the ideals of the 
 school, all his time and energy in the activities 
 of the school during the short school year, a
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 93 
 
 high measure of success in dealing with the 
 boys in the whole circle of their lives as well as 
 in the classroom, instant and whole-hearted 
 obedience of all decisions, yet he was most 
 careful not to strangle individual initiative, 
 sought counsel and advice from the teachers, 
 and constantly gave enlarged responsibilities 
 and duties to men who seemed fitted to per- 
 form them. He cannot be understood without 
 the knowledge that his consuming ambition 
 was not himself but the school and its success 
 in an idealized meaning of the word success." 
 
 Another of the masters who knew him best, 
 Mr. Arthur Judson, wrote of him: 
 
 "After much thought, and after many talks 
 with Professor on problems of personality that 
 beset the school, I came to certain conclusions 
 which were very helpful to me. In the first 
 place, I believe that his ideal of organization 
 was the military one, not that of the tyrant, 
 whose privates, like the Persians of old, are 
 driven to battle with the lash, but the army 
 of liberation, inspired by the great Cause, 
 honoring obedience as the law of salvation. In 
 this, the assumption of responsibility was as 
 important as the obedience to the superior. 
 Each man's place and his duty was perfectly 
 clear; he did not understand how any right- 
 minded man could fail to perceive it. Our re- 
 sponsibility to the boys never ceased. If there 
 were signs of insubordination, the man was 
 there, he was clothed with full authority, it
 
 94 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 was up to him to act with promptness and 
 decision. Whatever was accepted as school 
 policy was to be carried out without deference 
 to some individual's likes or dislikes. But one 
 master was not to be commanded or bullied by 
 another. There was no question of prece- 
 dence; as men, the youngest was on a par 
 with the oldest. This matter of obedience 
 was an impersonal one, it was obedience to 
 the established law of The Hill, not to John 
 Meigs, though the definite instruction might 
 proceed from his mouth. 
 
 " New members of the force were to be given 
 a reasonable time in which to ' learn the ropes/ 
 as the saying is. After that, they must stand 
 on their own feet. They were supposed to 
 have certain qualifications as a sine qua non. 
 Beyond that, all depended upon the spirit each 
 put in his work. Professor once said to me 
 something to the following effect: 'How can 
 any right-minded man fail to see the greatness 
 of the opportunity, the importance of the work, 
 that should inspire us to act in unison? How 
 can he rebel against the safeguards that we 
 must throw around these boys? He should 
 not merely be willing to observe discipline, he 
 should be zealous that no least act of his should 
 violate the regulations of the community and 
 embarrass the efforts of everyone of the rest 
 of us. It is astounding [he used that very 
 word] that any man here should be afraid to 
 face a set of boys, when every advantage is 
 on the side of the man/ 
 
 " These were not his exact words, of course, 
 but pretty nearly what he said. At another
 
 X t 
 
 < 
 
 UH <
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 95 
 
 time he said to me, 'We are not running a 
 school for masters, but for boys. If we have 
 to spend all our efforts in educating masters 
 to their duty, we'll land in imbecility ! ' ' 
 
 Most of the men who taught at The Hill 
 understood his spirit. It was always his desire 
 and policy to attach the men who had proved 
 their worth permanently to the school, and 
 thus build up a group of associates whose lives, 
 like his own, were wholly identified with the 
 work. These men admired him, loved him and 
 rejoiced to serve at his side. And among the 
 whole group of masters he was able to create 
 almost always a spirit of loyal and happy co- 
 operation. In such of his letters as happen 
 to have been preserved from the first decade 
 of the life at the school, the expression of his 
 satisfaction frequently recurs: 
 
 In 1881 he writes: "In a fortnight the vaca- 
 tion begins, and I shall have the most satisfac- 
 tory retrospect I have ever honestly indulged 
 in. That there is so gratifying and cordial a 
 feeling between boys and teachers and the 
 lower constituents, is all I can ask, as far as 
 generous work and spirit are concerned." 
 
 Early in 1882, after the Christmas vacation, 
 he writes : " Everything is cheery and hopeful. 
 A has decided to remain; that he has re- 
 sisted the urgency of other institutions is most 
 gratifying. He has said such satisfying things
 
 96 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 about his association with me for six years, 
 that I best epitomize them in the mere state- 
 ment that he had declined the other proposi- 
 tions from the other schools that sought his 
 splendid services. Our conference furnished 
 me an opportunity of expressing my appre- 
 ciation of his own work." 
 
 And again : " It is a deep pleasure to tell you 
 of the gratifying progress of the school. I 
 never felt so strong and ardent a desire to 
 vindicate the generous confidence of its friends, 
 nor have I ever known so assuring prospects 
 of its growth within and without. Such help- 
 ers as I have had the singular fortune to get 
 and maintain furnish the explanation of it 
 all." 
 
 These quotations are from letters written 
 to his wife-to-be. In the fall of 1880, he had 
 gone to Durham, Pennsylvania, to visit his 
 beloved friends, the Raymonds, and there he 
 had met Miss Marion Butler, of New York. 
 They became engaged in 1881. In 1881 and 
 1882, Miss Butler was studying abroad, and 
 was in Berlin in the winter of 1882. A little 
 before the close of school in that year, John 
 Meigs left The Hill to go across the seas for 
 his bride. 
 
 From Mrs. Drown the same Mrs. Drown 
 who knew him when he was at Lafayette 
 comes this familiar reminiscence of that time:
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 97 
 
 ''The summer of his marriage found us on 
 the ocean together, on the way to Berlin. By 
 a series of misadventures, after arranging for 
 a most comfortable crossing, we were changed 
 from steamer to steamer, until finally we were 
 forced to cross in the 'City of Montreal/ an 
 old, slow steamer, sorely trying the patience 
 of our expectant bridegroom. The voyage 
 proved cold and stormy, and John was not a 
 good sailor, but we still managed to get much 
 amusement out of the passengers on deck, giv- 
 ing them fictitious names and characteristics. 
 One, a little priest, who walked the deck with 
 a tall brother, we found was a high-placed 
 church official, on a mission to the Pope. He 
 was so gentle and amiable looking, we called 
 him the ' little dear/ and years afterwards John 
 loved to allude to him. When Queenstown 
 was reached, we bade each other a temporary 
 farewell until we met again in Berlin, where 
 opened for him the great, supreme blessing of 
 his life. On meeting us at the station, he 
 briefly summed up his disapproval of German 
 red tape and officialdom, which fretted his 
 active, impulsive spirit, and when we were 
 mounting in the elevator in the hotel, he called 
 out to the operator, ' Oh, do put in another tea- 
 spoonful of water/ so slow it seemed to us after 
 our swift American methods." 
 
 When this old friend thus called his mar- 
 riage the "great, supreme blessing of his life," 
 she wrote no mere phrase, but summed up the 
 high and beautiful truth. To the woman
 
 9 8 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 whom he married, more than to any other 
 human gift which came to him, John Meigs 
 owed the stimulus of those gentler and diviner 
 elements which shaped the original strength 
 of his nature into the large and rounded beauty 
 of the later years. Of her, since her eyes will 
 read these pages, it is not permitted with full- 
 ness here to speak. When she came to The 
 Hill, Mrs. Meigs the elder was still living, and 
 so she was called "Mrs. John." As "Mrs. 
 John," she has laid her touch, like an accolade, 
 upon the heedless spirit of many a Hill School 
 boy, and there are those who work with wor- 
 thier manhood at their tasks to-day, because 
 in unforgotten years the knightliness which 
 slumbered deep within them rose in the thrill 
 of its first awed recognition to meet the loving 
 challenge of her eyes. What she has meant to 
 The Hill School, only the reckoning of many 
 lives can tell. What she meant to John Meigs, 
 he only could express whose hands should hold 
 those uncreated balances in which the values of 
 a soul are weighed. 
 
 It had always been John Meigs' ideal to in- 
 vest the school as truly as possible with the 
 atmosphere of a home. The buildings, and all 
 the physical conditions of the boys' life, were 
 shaped to express this thought. The boys all 
 came at meal times into the one dining-room, 
 where the whole family assembled, headmaster
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 99 
 
 and the other masters, and all the ladies of the 
 household, too; and they all bowed for the 
 one grace as they sat down together. The 
 masters lived on the different halls, in rooms 
 surrounded by the boys' rooms, and the head- 
 master's house was a part of, and opened di- 
 rectly into, the buildings where the boys were. 
 Whenever the boys wanted to talk with the 
 headmaster himself, they had only to open the 
 door that led into the passage outside his Study, 
 and knock at his Study door. In particular 
 ways, when the school was small, he used to 
 be at pains to cultivate the informal and affec- 
 tionate relationships between the boys and 
 himself. 
 
 In a letter of 1881 he writes: 
 
 " I have just finished reading to the younger 
 boys, and as the little fellows left me, so cor- 
 dially grateful ... the blessed possibilities of 
 my work and its influence occurred to my mind 
 anew to strengthen and stimulate me. . . . We 
 had our usual gathering on Friday evening 
 . . . and sang a number of solos and choruses. 
 S played on his violin, and L accom- 
 panied us on the piano, and with this spirited 
 chorus, we made havoc of aesthetics in true 
 dragoon style. To one unacquainted with the 
 true nature of boyhood, these familiar gather- 
 ings might seem profitless enough, but it is 
 wonderful to observe their humanizing influ- 
 ence upon the least promising. I should as
 
 ioo THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 lieve give up church of a Sunday evening, as 
 far as the peculiar hold I get on certain char- 
 acters is involved, and that too for their real 
 moral good, as renounce these informal eve- 
 nings with my boys." 
 
 He could enter heartily, too, into the boys' 
 fun. In the winter of 1882 he writes: "A 
 very heavy fall of snow has brought the finest 
 sleighing you could imagine, and the air is 
 resonant every minute with merry bells and 
 merrier laughter. . . . The boys are in high 
 glee, and yesterday afternoon I sent as many 
 of them out riding as our vehicles would carry. 
 To-morrow I shall take them all in large omni- 
 bus sleighs for a long drive, returning by eight 
 or nine in the evening to a hot supper." 
 
 In another letter, he tells how he is about to 
 go out coasting with the boys, and adds, " The 
 boys are in such fine trim, in spirit and work 
 it is a great comfort to have them feel and 
 act so." 
 
 The influence of John Meigs' mother went 
 hand in hand with his to make the boys feel 
 toward The Hill the home-love. His sister, 
 too, Miss Elizabeth, played a great part in the 
 life of the school. To her reception-room, at 
 the corner where the family house faced the 
 school quadrangle, masters and boys alike 
 were welcome in the afternoons for tea. When 
 the new Mrs. Meigs came, her spirit was added
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 101 
 
 to that of the mother and sister to help the 
 man who bore the responsibility of the school 
 to make it what his heart desired. 
 
 And from the first years onward, he did 
 make it a place to which the love of his boys 
 turned with an ever-deepening faithfulness. 
 Instinctively, the school came to seem to them 
 the embodiment of his personality. Their best 
 memories of it were identified with memories 
 of him. 
 
 In after years, one man, who was a boy of 
 those early years, poured out his heart: 
 
 "The old boys only can know what Pro- 
 fessor really meant to us, in those days when 
 he was more closely in touch with each boy. 
 Don't you remember the chafing-dish parties 
 and the Sunday night reading hour in his 
 study? Apples for all of us who lived on the 
 second hall, and he would read pausing every 
 how and then to ask some pertinent question 
 of some restless spirit. 
 
 " I am perhaps the last one in the world to 
 say anything about influences but Professor 
 had a big one on me; it is being realized the 
 more as I grow older. 
 
 " He used to be the stern headmaster, but 
 you forget that, and only recall that, as he did, 
 his boys do, in little ways. Not a Christmas 
 has gone by since I left The Hill, that I haven't 
 read the * Christmas Carol/ by Dickens he 
 read it to us just before Christmas vacation, 
 you know. This year I had my father sit out-
 
 102 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 side the door and read it, as I was in quarantine 
 with diphtheria; and as I listened, I kept think- 
 ing of the school, and of my four years there, 
 and then I could hear, 'God bless the old fel- 
 lows/ It was as real as though I were back 
 at prayers. 
 
 " Oh, if we only realized, if we but could be 
 made to realize, what those years are to the 
 whole life, who of us wouldn't go back and re- 
 live them, and try to make them count as Pro- 
 fessor desired that they count ! " 
 
 And another writes: 
 
 "The real picture of the Professor, which al- 
 ways comes clear and distinct from the memo- 
 ries of the school days of one of the 'Old 
 Boys/ is as he sat at his desk in the old school- 
 room, of a Sunday evening, at song service, 
 and the hymn I always associate with that 
 picture is 'Ein' Feste Burg/ Eighteen or 
 twenty years have not dimmed it in the least. 
 That is what he looked and what he was a 
 firm, strong, kindly, helpful citadel. There 
 seemed to be something in Professor's face as 
 he came down the aisle at the close of those 
 song services on Sunday nights, that I never 
 quite caught at any other time a something 
 words will not tell." 
 
 Yet if any words would tell it, and the secret 
 of it, perhaps they would be such as these from 
 one of his letters in the early eighties:
 
 BEGINNING OF THE VENTURE 103 
 
 " I had my usual talk with the boys before 
 church. I do want to become more in my own 
 heart, and more to them, in these vital matters 
 that are their life and hope. God grant me 
 grace and strength, and make me worthier in 
 all these things."
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 
 
 Burning of the School in 1884 The School Rebuilt It Passes 
 Fully into John Meigs' Control Birth of His Children, and His 
 Companionship with Them Travels Abroad, and Letters Home 
 The Second Fire in 1890 The Rebuilding of the School Meigs' 
 Spirit Under Difficulties. 
 
 UP to the point to which we have thus far 
 carried the story of John Meigs' work 
 at The Hill, from 1876, that is to say, 
 until his marriage in 1882, and for two years 
 thereafter all had gone prosperously with the 
 school. Many difficulties and problems there 
 had been, it is true, which he must meet and 
 surmount; and there came, doubtless, many a 
 moment of weariness, which threw its passing 
 shadow on the bright activity of those years. 
 One single expression of this mood lingers in 
 his letters, in this paragraph written to a friend 
 in great perplexity concerning his duties : " I 
 have myself often, amid the surging and rush- 
 ing tide of my busy life, felt the uncongeniality 
 of so much of the life here that I have again and 
 again felt as if I could almost deplore the fate 
 that brought me "back to my birthplace " ; but 
 that he himself realized, even in the moment of 
 104
 
 LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 105 
 
 writing, that this feeling had been only super- 
 ficial, and never truly characteristic of his 
 deepest instinct, is shown by the rest of that 
 sentence, " yet I have had an entirely healthy, 
 and in the main, happy life . . . and have al- 
 lowed none of the experiences which have been 
 yours to modify my simple and spontaneous 
 enjoyment of my home and its environment." 
 And over against this sentence, with its partial 
 reflection of the sense of restlessness under the 
 burdens which now and then oppressed him, 
 there stand many passages in even those few 
 letters of his which are available, that show 
 how gladly and buoyantly in the main he shoul- 
 dered his responsibilities, and with what vigor 
 he pressed forward on his chosen ways. 
 
 Here is what he writes from time to time in 
 letters of the early eighties : 
 
 " You will rejoice with me to know how 
 prosperously the school goes on in respect of 
 its morale; above all things, there has been a 
 minimum of the usual vexations to which we 
 look for our discipline of heart and soul." 
 
 " To-morrow night we shall have the cherubs 
 spend the last evening with us for this term. 
 . . . The general sense of thoughtfulness will 
 be focalized here, and therefore it has been my 
 great joy to have several boys who sorely taxed 
 my patience and faith for months, gradually 
 emerge from the category of unfaithfulness,
 
 io6 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 and take hopeful pride in ranking with the 
 faithful. On the whole, there is much to be 
 encouraged by, and everything to be grateful 
 for." 
 
 [January, 1882] " School began to-day, and 
 there are sixty-four boys on the roll, of whom 
 all but five are on the ground. This is doing 
 well for the first day, is it not? And then I 
 am so glad to be back at my work, and to have 
 the boys returning so promptly and cheer- 
 fully." 
 
 In his achievement for the school, he had 
 already overpassed the eager, but still hesitant 
 hope, which was the best he dared cherish 
 when he took up the work in 1876. Writes 
 one of his friends: 
 
 " About the time that Mr. Meigs entered the 
 small Hill School, the coming of more boys was 
 such an event that he would come and stay a 
 week-end in order to say, c I have got two new 
 boys/ I said to him, ' When you get twenty- 
 five or thirty boys you will be satisfied, won't 
 you?' He answered very hesitatingly, 'Yes, 
 I think I shall be, but perhaps I would like 
 fifty/ " 
 
 As he refers, in a letter of 1882, to new boys 
 who were entering, and the general progress 
 of the school, he writes : " It is certainly a 
 blessed kind of bread, material and immaterial, 
 to have come back after many days/'
 
 LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 107 
 
 In 1884, the course of the school's develop- 
 ment, which had seemed theretofore so steady, 
 received what threatened to be its first great 
 shock of arrest through a fire which broke out 
 in the bitterest weather of winter. This was 
 in the middle of the eighth year of John Meigs' 
 administration of the school, which he had 
 built up from a dozen boys to sixty, of whom 
 forty-five were boarders. The buildings were 
 the original old ones, which at various times 
 since Dr. Matthew Meigs bought them in 1851 
 had been added to without any general archi- 
 tectural plan, heated by several furnaces in 
 the cellar and lighted by a private gas plant. 
 The family part of the building was of stone, 
 the school addition of brick, and at the east 
 end there was a small addition of frame con- 
 struction containing wash rooms for the boys, 
 with faucets and ordinary wash basins; there 
 was no other running water for the use of either 
 boys or teachers, and the whole was the simple, 
 and, by modern comparison, the primitive 
 equipment of the boarding-school of that day. 
 In the preceding autumn, there had been built 
 a frame gymnasium at right angles to the 
 school building, and it was through a stove in 
 this that the fire started. It happened that 
 Mrs. Rossiter Raymond, whose intimate friend- 
 ship with John Meigs had begun while he was 
 at Lafayette, was visiting at The Hill at this
 
 io8 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 time. On the day after the fire, she wrote 
 home to her husband a long letter telling him 
 of it; and her vivid first-hand account is full 
 of interest in the light it throws upon the spirit 
 in which the " Professor " and " Mrs. John " 
 and the school at large met this crisis. 
 
 "Pottstown, March 5, il 
 " MY DEAR Ros. : 
 
 " Yesterday afternoon at 3, no one being in 
 the gymnasium, one of the boys saw a slight 
 wreath of smoke issuing out from the window 
 back of the stove there. He watched it for a 
 moment only, then rushed down to John in 
 the study and told him he feared the gymna- 
 sium was on fire. Otto and Will also discov- 
 ered it, and gave the general alarm, and all set 
 to work with a will. But it took the fire engine 
 so long to be notified and to get up there, 
 besides which the plugs were so clogged with 
 ice that before the men had arrived, we were 
 all in fear for the dear old house itself, and 
 abandoning the gymnasium all efforts were 
 turned towards that. The boys behaved won- 
 derfully; not one appeared to lose his head, 
 and all accomplished a great deal. . . . The 
 day was bright and fine, and the fact that it 
 was day and not during the darkness of night 
 seemed from the first to make me glad. Loss 
 of life would have been inevitable had it been 
 night, for the gas had to be turned off imme- 
 diately to prevent explosion. I rushed into 
 Mother Meigs* room but could not make her 
 realize that the house was in danger, although
 
 LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 109 
 
 she was as calm and self-possessed as an angel. 
 Then I went to Marion's room and helped a 
 very little, and then into the boys' room, where 
 Will and I hastily packed a few of his and 
 Alfred's things into Alfred's trunks. Then 
 Otto found me and I offered to go down and 
 pack for him, but he said his room was already 
 full of smoke. He and I stayed together in 
 Alfred's room and Marion's, grabbing up what 
 we could till Otto took me by the arm and said, 
 'Cousin Sally, you must come away; look at 
 the smoke ! ' Sure enough, it was purring out 
 in thick blackness from the attic. I put a 
 shawl over my face, and Otto led me down. I 
 went into my room again, where a man was 
 asking which things to save first, and gave him 
 a few directions. ... I slipped and slid down 
 the steps, and then plodded out into the snow, 
 where mattresses were brought for us to stand 
 on. The baby was grabbed by a strange man 
 and conveyed in a smiling condition over to a 
 neighbor's, where she sat with a strange lady 
 till they persuaded Mother M. to go too, which 
 was a long time after. . . . She stood on a mat- 
 tress with me, and except saying, ' Mrs. Ray- 
 mond, this is my dear home; my children have 
 been born here ! ' showed nothing but the most 
 wonderful serenity, except that her beautiful 
 eyes shone. She asked one man to see if the 
 hams and barrels of sugar and other provisions 
 could be rescued from the cellar as the fire was 
 in the top, ' for,' said she, ' the boys will need 
 them.' Different ones would come to her for 
 directions where to look for particular 
 things. . . .
 
 no THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 " The boys worked like heroes; there seemed 
 in all the hurry and confusion to be some one 
 of them always near Marion, so that if she 
 ejaculated, ' Oh ! my baby's clothes ! ' or some 
 kindred thought, a knight instantly started off 
 for Mrs. John's baby's clothes ! In one of these 
 moments she exclaimed, ' Oh ! boys, boys, my 
 little old Bible! My cousin Edith gave it to 
 me, I've always had it ! ' Well, I can't count the 
 boys who went Bible hunting. It seemed to 
 me the roughest boys were the ones that came 
 oftenest with eager delight, with one Bible 
 after another, to be met with thanks but the 
 remark, ' Oh ! that isn't the one ! Never mind ! ' 
 Back they would fly, and although I told them 
 all for their comfort it would very likely be 
 with the other saved books, it seemed to be 
 like the ' Holy Grail.' Of course there were 
 awfully funny things done, and it was a healthy 
 thing to have to stop and laugh to see a man 
 carefully descending a ladder with a beautiful 
 vase in his arms, have a scrap basket descend 
 on his head, scattering its papers, and com- 
 pletely enveloping his head, so some one had 
 to climb up and uncap him. It is wonderful 
 how much was saved, but I fear many things 
 are badly injured that need not have been, and 
 in spite of the boys watching, things must have 
 been stolen. But there was more good will 
 than bad, I am sure. Neighbors both gentle 
 and rough exerted themselves to the utmost. 
 The deserted seminary opposite was crammed 
 with recovered goods. Finally when we were 
 fairly exhausted, after being assured that John, 
 Alfred, Will, Otto and Endicott were in no
 
 LIGHTS AND SHADOWS in 
 
 peril, Marion and I wended our tired and half- 
 frozen way over to the neighbor who had the 
 baby to find her entry and parlors filled with 
 saved bundles. Presently along came Will and 
 another boy, with my trunk between them, and 
 when Will saw me he roared at the top of his 
 lungs, ' Oh ! tell Mrs. John her Bible is safe ! ' 
 It was one of the worst little scalawags in the 
 school who had the honor of finding it, and I 
 think the big boys were uncertain whether to 
 embrace him or kick him! Although I never 
 once caught sight of Alfred, they all said he 
 worked well. I was proud of all my boys, and 
 even of some boys whom I don't like. Poor 
 fellows, some lost all they had in their efforts 
 to help others, though I hope indeed it was 
 not literally all, as the firemen threw a great 
 many clothes out from the boys' wing, where 
 the smoke was the densest, and lost things may 
 be recovered. But one and all seemed to have 
 but one thought of pity, and that was for the 
 Professor. ' Oh ! he tries so hard to do every- 
 thing: for us ! ' said one, and ' He's so splendid ! ' 
 said another; and * Just look at him never say- 
 ing a word of complaint ! ' said another. And 
 indeed John seemed glorified for the time : his 
 face looked so exalted and noble that after one 
 glance, upon my word I couldn't stand it to 
 look at him for fear I shouldn't be able to do 
 another thing! 
 
 " Mr. and Mrs. Stephenson (the minister 
 and his wife) wanted John, Marion and the 
 baby and nurse there. When all of us were 
 there but John, it was found that Mrs. S. had 
 been told by the neighbors to parcel out the
 
 ii2 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 boys to them, and some took six or seven. The 
 boys all collected in Mr. S.'s study to be billeted 
 out, and such a lot of heroic scarecrows ! Some- 
 body sent in piles of dry stockings, and I made 
 the boys put them on, though they could 
 scarcely move their frozen shoes. . . . John 
 told them to come to-day at nine, and he would 
 be ready to tell them his plans. Then after 
 crowding around him to bid him good-night, 
 with shame-faced softness they all trooped off. 
 Now began my usefulness, for most everybody 
 was advising John to let the boys all go home 
 at once, even if they reassembled in a week or 
 two. Even dear Mother Meigs could see no 
 other way out. I held my point firmly, at first 
 privately with John and then bravely backing 
 him up against the majority. This then is the 
 plan as it stands now (which may be modified 
 by people's unexpected coldness, but it won't 
 be!). As there were accommodations enough 
 offered last night for one hundred and fifty 
 boys, and there are only forty-eight, I wanted 
 John to boldly ask how many would be willing 
 to give house room and board to how many 
 boys apiece (the number needed being only 
 two to a house), and let the work of reconstruc- 
 tion of the school instantly begin. Mr. Morris, 
 living in Philadelphia now, offered his house, 
 which is next to the seminary, for the entire 
 winter and spring to all who could fill it. The 
 seminary can be got right away. The boys' 
 hearts are filled with that kind of eager sympa- 
 thy that makes them long to help, besides 
 which they are the very ones to sort their own 
 companions' belongings. The boarding-out is
 
 LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 113 
 
 a picnic to them, and their enthusiasm is so 
 roused for study, by John's resolve to have the 
 school go right on, that I think they will do as 
 good work as ever. The three assistants are 
 like a tower of strength to John. They, as well 
 as the boys, admire his grit. Many of the boys 
 if sent home have parents who would either 
 send them to other schools, or terminate their 
 studies here. To see the boys' faces this morn- 
 ing in Mr. S.'s parlor while John spoke to them 
 was a sight! He said they had done their 
 kindest and best for him yesterday, in a way 
 that made him determined to do the same by 
 them, and not to be cowed by circumstances: 
 that the fire which had destroyed valuable 
 property had kindled a yet more valuable flame, 
 which must not flicker and go out, but must 
 illumine their whole lives. I tell you he spoke 
 straight from his full heart, and well, and 
 simply. John had a gentleman arriving late 
 come to him last night, the father of one of his 
 best boys, with another son to put at school. 
 Said he, ' Professor, I am sorry enough to see 
 this trouble! Shall I take my boy (the one he 
 had just brought) home again, or will you keep 
 him; which would you like best?' John said, 
 'Let him stay!' and the gentleman went off 
 without him, very much pleased. That went 
 right to my heart, it was such a pledge of trust. 
 John says in answer to your inquiry if you 
 can help in any way, ' Not just now ! ' Oh ! 
 how I wish now we were rich! Wouldn't I 
 make this calamity into a blessing? Which 
 perhaps the good Lord will do, without my 
 help."
 
 n 4 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 Mrs. Raymond's final words were prophetic. 
 The calamity 'was made into a blessing through 
 the courage and energy with which John Meigs 
 faced the situation. He could laugh with stout- 
 hearted humor in the midst of the disaster. 
 " We are celebrating your arrival with a bon- 
 fire/' he said to the astonished new boy who 
 reached the school when its walls were tum- 
 bling into ruin. 
 
 Though the ground was covered with snow, 
 and the March wind blowing, and though he 
 did not know at the moment where family, boys 
 or teachers would sleep, he said instantly that 
 the school should not be suspended, but that 
 its work would go straight on. He would find 
 a way. The kindliness of the neighbors pro- 
 vided immediate shelter. The building which 
 had formerly been the Girls' Seminary, and 
 a residence next it were secured, and in one 
 week from the day of the fire the school was 
 thoroughly established in these two buildings. 
 In June the commencement exercises were held 
 in the new gymnasium, and in September the 
 next session opened in a completed new equip- 
 ment built upon the enlarged foundations of 
 the old. 
 
 The fire was John Meigs' opportunity, and 
 he seized it. His seven years at The Hill had 
 revealed his power as a headmaster, and proved 
 that he could create the answer to the ever ex-
 
 LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 115 
 
 isting demands for a school of high ideals in 
 life, in industry and intellectual accomplish- 
 ment. But he had been handicapped in the 
 realization of his complete desires by the poor 
 physical equipment which he inherited. Now 
 he determined to hazard the costly erection of 
 a school that should measure up to his ideals. 
 So he built it with steam heat, hot and cold 
 running water in every room, fully equipped 
 bathrooms, and electric lights being the 
 pioneer among all the educational institutions 
 in the country in the installation of what was 
 then this new wonder of illumination. And 
 when the boys came back in the fall, the re- 
 created school was ready. 
 
 As after the fire the school made a new start 
 in its physical equipment, so in the year fol- 
 lowing there was a new beginning in its formal 
 control. Up to this time, the school had be- 
 longed, so far as legal title was concerned, to 
 Dr. Matthew Meigs. The strange old man, 
 haughty and imperious, dwelt apart in the 
 isolation of his study, as remote from the world 
 of the boys as some brooding Jove upon his 
 misty Olympus. The actual conduct of the 
 school and all real possession of it, he had long 
 since delegated to the son. From the time 
 when John Meigs came from Lafayette, it had 
 been, in all essential respects, his school; but 
 now, in 1885, ne entered into formal possession
 
 ii6 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 of it. On November I7th, of that year, he 
 writes to his wife, who happened to be away 
 from The Hill: 
 
 " Father signed a contract this A. M. to sell 
 the place, and I am now sure to become owner 
 of it January first. It seems like a dream. 
 Can you believe it? God make me wise and 
 strong to administer faithfully this new, and 
 great, and blessed trust. We now have a dis- 
 tinct and noble object on which to concentrate 
 our aims and efforts and prayers. I feel as if 
 I had been born into a new world." 
 
 In the new year, which saw the transfer com- 
 pleted, he writes : " How thankful we should 
 be to God for His mercies in this, our field of 
 work, and for its possibilities; to me, day by 
 day, it grows more attractive and compen- 
 sating. The future, God willing, will be full 
 of higher consecration." 
 
 From his letters of this time, come these 
 paragraph also: 
 
 " I have just had talks with E. . . ., who is 
 full of appreciative words about everything, 
 and reports that the boys are happy and con- 
 tented to an unusual degree among happy 
 school boys, and with H. . . . who, poor boy, 
 is so far from my heart's desire just now. 
 How I have loved that boy; and how he has 
 . . . but enough ! There is One who has given 
 His love to H. . . ., with greater, purer out- 
 flow, and Him have I so often grieved ! I have
 
 LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 117 
 
 asked H. ... to deal honestly with himself, 
 and come to me as soon as he will, and tell 
 me his real desire and purpose." 
 
 "April 14, 1886. 
 
 " H. . . . has just offered me one of his new 
 pictures, inscribed, ' Yours most gratefully.' 
 The underscoring is his. If he should be con- 
 firmed in Christian character, he would be a 
 magnificent fellow. How my heart goes out 
 to him!" 
 
 " May the blessed Master prepare our souls 
 for larger blessings! How we need Him mo- 
 mently! His is the only strength that can 
 prevail, and yet we try so often to fight by 
 ourselves." 
 
 These years in the eighties were full for him 
 of happiness and growth. His marriage had 
 made an atmosphere in which everything that 
 was best in him expanded. 
 
 He had then, as indeed he kept always, the 
 extraordinary capacity for light-heartedness 
 and exuberant humor which marked his life 
 at Lafayette. From the pressure of the most 
 exacting work he could turn with a sudden 
 rebound of spirits to some quick jest or boister- 
 ous playfulness. Once when he was in his 
 study at commencement time when the strain 
 of the year was at its climax, his bellboy came 
 in with a card-tray bearing the card of a gen- 
 tleman who was waiting to see him downstairs. 
 He leaped from his chair with a mock ferocity,
 
 n8 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 deftly kicked the card-tray out of the aston- 
 ished boy's hand up against the ceiling, stooped 
 and picked up the card, and then with the 
 boy left grinning behind him swept down the 
 stairs to meet his visitor. 
 
 His music gave him boundless delight. In 
 later years he had less and less chance to enjoy 
 it, but at this time when the school was small 
 he reveled in it. He liked to gather the boys 
 round him in the evenings and sing, with 
 " Mrs. John " who loved music as much as 
 he did as the accompanist. He would play 
 games with them, too, and enter into whatever 
 hearty nonsense might be afoot. From one of 
 these games has survived the following jingle, 
 which makes up in spirit what it lacks in 
 rhyme. The rules were that each person in 
 the game should write down on a slip of paper 
 a question; the next person in the circle wrote 
 down underthe question a noun ; then the third 
 person had to write a poem on the combined 
 subjects. 
 
 Here is John Meigs' subject and his 
 response : 
 
 "How CAN I LEAVE THEE?" 
 Cats 
 
 " I've gnashed my teeth in agony, 
 I've torn my hair in passion, 
 I've thrown my wig, my boots, my hat, 
 I've spoiled my beauty lashin'
 
 LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 119 
 
 Around the window frosty nights 
 
 Meand'ring thro' the halls 
 
 A-listening for the demons black 
 
 Their dev'lish caterwauls 
 
 And as they scramble on the fence 
 
 Up postern gate and wall 
 
 Their tails distended, eyes aflame 
 
 Their heath 'nish yells appall, 
 
 I ask my quivering soul, oh, how 
 
 If I must leave at all, 
 
 Could I my conscience lull to sleep 
 
 While cats thus show their gall 
 
 And how I'd leave thee would be thus, 
 
 No fur, no ribs, no liver 
 
 No mouth, no nose with doleful woes 
 
 No rest save depths of river 
 
 I'd pocket all the cor'ner's fees 
 
 I'd do a fancy stroke 
 
 Of murderous mauling, bloody gouge 
 
 Till all your bones were broke." 
 
 When his children were born, a whole new 
 realm of happiness began for him. Edith, the 
 eldest, was born in 1883. The following year 
 his son was born. The name he chose for him 
 was a recognition of the influence which had 
 come into his life through the little boy who 
 had loved him, and whom he had loved when 
 he was at Lafayette the little invalid of whom 
 the story was told in an earlier chapter. When 
 that child died, John Meigs had had in his visits 
 to the Raymonds his first great impression of 
 the kind of radiant Christian faith which turns
 
 120 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 sorrow into triumph. He never lost the effect 
 of that, nor ever lost his love for the little 
 child. So he named his own son Dwight 
 Raymond. 
 
 Three other daughters came to the family 
 Margaret, in 1888, Marion, in 1891, and Helen, 
 the youngest, in 1893. In his companionship 
 with them, all that was tender and beautiful 
 in Meigs' nature expanded to the full. He 
 played and romped with them, and entered into 
 all their childish pleasures and excitements 
 as witness these two letters written to a friend 
 who had sent the children something that 
 threw them into exuberant delight: 
 
 " Your letter and telegram announcing your 
 great beneficence arrived in good time before 
 the goats! 
 
 " You can imagine the state of exhilaration 
 in which the children managed to exist until 
 the goats reached The Hill. Then their joy 
 knew no bounds, and meals have been a super- 
 fluity and a rude interruption to the otherwise 
 unbroken course of their joy in watching the 
 animals and ministering to their dainty palates. 
 They are certainly beautiful, and when the 
 harness, of which you speak, arrives, I shall 
 be able to provide for the children great happi- 
 ness by supplying a suitable cart, which will 
 give a final touch to their bliss. ..." 
 
 " I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your 
 esteemed favor of the 24th inst, relative to the
 
 LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 121 
 
 harness for the goats. I wonder that you ever 
 found time to even send the goats, for I appre- 
 ciate, I think, the volume and the multiplicity 
 of the demands upon your time and thought. 
 " Your suggestion as to the brushing and 
 combing of the goats I note with thanks. A 
 man will attend to this, and I need hardly 
 assure you, that this care is, in a sense, unnec- 
 essary so far as convincing us that we have the 
 handsomest pair of goats going is concerned. 
 They are beautiful, even now, and I anticipate 
 great pleasure in the children's happiness dur- 
 ing the summer." 
 
 In the summer of 1887, he took three Hill 
 boys with him to England, for four weeks' 
 vacation; and thus writes home: 
 
 "July 17, 1887. 
 I F; 
 
 "This morning we heard Farrar preach a 
 thoroughly characteristic sermon just such 
 an one as I wanted to hear from him if I were 
 to be denied a second. The text, Psalm cxiii: 
 3, offered him a magnificent theme for a plea 
 for charity and broad Christian living. His 
 language was as superb as his treatment of the 
 subject on Christ's lines. I was filled almost 
 to the point of sobbing again and again, and 
 all the accessories of the occasion served to 
 burn it into my soul. The old church, St. 
 Margaret's, the Parliamentary church, has had 
 a new lease of life under his rectorship, and 
 throngs of people struggle for places to hear 
 the wonderful preacher. I had one of the 
 choice seats in the whole edifice, near enough
 
 122 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 to the reading desk and pulpit to catch every 
 word with comfort." 
 
 "July 23, 1887. 
 
 " On Thursday we went out to Windsor and 
 Eton, enjoying our great privilege of going 
 through Eton under N. L. . . .'s guidance. His 
 father had written him of our coming, and he 
 met us at the White Hart, where we lunched, 
 and conducted us through Windsor, so far as 
 it was accessible to the public, and all through 
 Eton's grounds and buildings. The boys were 
 hard at work in every quarter with cricket, 
 and just before we left, word came that Eton 
 had beaten all the schools of England in the 
 annual rifle match at Wimbledon. At half-past 
 four, we returned to N. . . /s room, which is, I 
 should say, five feet wide and ten or eleven 
 long, with cupboard inserted in wall, from 
 which he took out various packages, depositing 
 their contents upon the table, upon which a 
 servant had placed a tea pot and cups and 
 sugar, with bread cut thin and spread with 
 butter, ripe raspberries in their little baskets, 
 ginger snaps, vanilla cakes, and a jug of ' Sur- 
 rey Cream,' the richest and most delectable 
 concoction for tea I ever tasted. We thus took 
 ' tea ' together in true Eton style, and I actu- 
 ally enjoyed the tea. Lots of little incidents 
 filled up this afternoon, and I was more inter- 
 ested in this visit than in any event of our 
 journey. We came straight from Eton to 
 Southampton. 
 
 " Yesterday we spent on the Isle of Wight, 
 a paradise with its few earthly taints. We
 
 LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 123 
 
 were most delighted with Carisbrooke Castle, 
 where Charles I of England was confined, and 
 where his daughter, Elizabeth, died in prison. 
 The view from this elevation is exquisite. We 
 enjoyed Ventnor's beauties, and should easily 
 choose it for a stopping-place in preference to 
 all others. At Newport we witnessed the pres- 
 entation by the Mayor of the town of an 
 address (Jubilee) to the Queen. We had a 
 commanding view of Her Majesty, Princess 
 Beatrice, Prince Henry of Battenberg, Grand 
 Duke of Hesse and his two daughters. The 
 town was decorated elaborately, and the en- 
 thusiasm of the Burghers was great. The 
 Queen was gracious, smiling and cordial in her 
 manner." 
 
 " Oban, August 7, 1887. 
 
 " Yesterday morning we started for the little 
 islands of lona, where St. Columba consecrated 
 the very earth by his life of Christ-likeness, 
 and drew the blood-thirsty and blood-imbued 
 chieftains and kings of isle and mainland to 
 desire burial in the soil he trod, and Staffa, 
 where Fingal's Cave astounds one by the won- 
 ders of its formation, and its varied display 
 of the handiwork of God. 
 
 " To-day the thermometer is about 50 de- 
 grees, while I suppose with you at home it is 
 nearly ninety; and yet, as for me, heat has no 
 terrors at home, blessed spot ! 
 
 " We attended service this morning at the 
 Congregational church, and heard from Mr. 
 MacGregor, of London, a powerful and beauti- 
 ful sermon on the text, ' For Thou preventest 
 him with the blessings of goodness ! ' ' Pre-
 
 '124 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 yentest ' in the sense of ' provides! ' or ' antic- 
 ipatest for.' The preacher illustrated with rare 
 beauty and power the truth of the text in 
 nature, in Christ, in Providence; and how 
 touchingly he told, here, the story of the prod- 
 igal son, and how tenderly he explained 
 Christ's preparing a place for us, just as the 
 wife or mother, for child or husband, is un- 
 willing to allow other or menial hands to pre- 
 pare for the returning one after long absence. 
 After service, we partook of the Lord's Supper, 
 so simply, but sweetly, composing all unrest, 
 and breathing new peace and hope in my soul." 
 
 " London, August 12, 1887. 
 " Since writing you from Oban, we have had 
 by far the pleasantest week of our journeyings. 
 Owing to the severe storm which would last, 
 according to the Scotch authorities on the 
 matter, from three to four days, we aban- 
 doned our trip over the Caledonian Canal to 
 Inverness, and came down to Glasgow. The 
 Cathedral of Glasgow has, unquestionably, 
 the finest collection of stained-glass work in 
 the kingdom, and I have never seen such mag- 
 nificent effects, nor deemed them possible, as 
 in Christ's ascension. It was in the crypt here 
 which, strangely enough, contains the finest 
 glass windows that, according to Scott, Rob 
 Roy gave the warning to Osbaldistone, as re- 
 counted in Rob Roy. That night we came 
 down to Carlisle, where Mary Queen of Scots 
 was first imprisoned, visiting, early the next 
 day, the Cathedral, and then advancing to the 
 English lake region, by way of Penrith and 
 Keswick. We took a carriage for a day driv-
 
 LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 125 
 
 ing to Greta Hall (Southey's residence) to the 
 Falls of Lodore . . . and along Derwentwater; 
 then by way of Grasmere, where Wordsworth 
 is buried, to Rydal, where he lived, though his 
 house is scrupulously closed to visitors by the 
 present owner, and on to Ambleside and Win- 
 dermere, from which point we made our ap- 
 proach to Manchester. . . . 
 
 " We came on to Rugby that night, and by 
 management I got access to the chapel, where 
 Arnold preached and lies buried before the 
 chancel simply ' Thomas Arnold ' graven on 
 a marble slab, but oh! the indelible impression 
 he has graven on the lives of so many priceless 
 souls that shall go on speaking through other 
 souls when all trace of the name is effaced! 
 It was a solemn hour to me, and how I wished 
 to be alone there at that shrine but for a little 
 time! It was not so to be, and my prayer 
 for the help and spirit of Arnold's Christ was 
 no less sincere and burning because of the boys' 
 presence. . . . 
 
 " At Oxford, I bought Bazeley's life, which 
 you will enjoy deeply. His evangelistic work 
 was wonderful, and the Scotch church at Ox- 
 ford is his own gift to his people. He died in 
 '83 I believe, but his is a hallowed name on the 
 lips of all who knew him or his work. . . . 
 
 " We have visited the wonderful Kensington 
 museums, the Blue Coat and Charterhouse 
 schools in the latter of which you will re- 
 member Thackeray, who was educated there, 
 located Colonel Newcome in his last days 
 the pathetic ending of which is one of 
 Thackeray's finest passages. Thence we went 
 down the Thames, by boat, to Greenwich,
 
 126 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 where after visiting the hospital and observa- 
 tory we had one of the famous ' Ship Tavern ' 
 dinners." 
 
 " Sunday evening, August 14, 1887. 
 
 " I rose early this A. M., and after breakfast 
 we attended service at Westminster Abbey. I 
 pray that the great throng there felt more of 
 the spiritual power of the sermon and service 
 than I did. The entire service, prayers, every- 
 thing except the scripture lessons, was intoned, 
 and the music, though artistically beautiful 
 and moving, was powerless to stir one's 
 thoughts one half so much as silence in that 
 grand sanctuary might. The sermon, on the 
 text, * Seek ye first the kingdom of God and 
 His righteousness/ was composed largely of 
 rather striking, but crudely correlated anec- 
 dotes, which distracted rather than fixed one's 
 thoughts on the magnificent theme. The more 
 I see and hear of this mighty church ' estab- 
 lishment ' fixed in the state, rather than in the 
 heart, of its very dignitaries and apostles the 
 more convinced am I of its wide and almost 
 hopeless departure from Christ's ideal organi- 
 zation which must have been simplicity itself 
 and directness in its quintessence. 
 
 "Think of it at Rugby and Stratford-on- 
 Avon we heard and saw the Salvation Army in 
 its aggressive work, and here to-night, we 
 heard choirs of Christian singers arresting the 
 attention of passers-by, by gathering in front 
 of their respective churches, and with organ 
 accompaniment, tell the story of Christ. Here 
 are the two extremes of so-called Christian 
 worship. How wide the interval, God knows
 
 LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 127 
 
 and judges. Dear Master, help us to live Thy 
 praise and speak it too! ... 
 
 "To-night we have been writing, all save 
 R. . . ., who retired early. He is a singular 
 boy, and one is at a loss where to place him. 
 We are all just so bundles of paradoxesGod 
 help us all!" 
 
 At this point it is interesting to add also 
 some of the impressions reflected in the letters 
 written home from Europe during another trip 
 a few years later: 
 
 " Amsterdam. 
 
 " In the midst of this wonderful Dutch peo- 
 ple I have groaned for you. Your soul would 
 be filled by the sights on every hand, and 
 their patience under stupendous natural dis- 
 advantage would wrest admiration from your 
 responsive spirit. I am amazed at the courtesy, 
 the kindliness, of all classes and conditions 
 of men and children, too. We should be 
 astounded by such politeness in America, and 
 they here must be aghast at our manners 
 sometimes. I have noticed the children and 
 the country children especially, and they seem 
 to me the simplest, happiest lot of youngsters 
 I have ever seen. It has been a positive delight 
 to watch them at their play or at their domestic 
 tasks. Even you would pronounce Holland 
 the cleanest country in the world, and while 
 they have a superabundance of water at their 
 doors, literally, for many men can step out of 
 their front doors into the canal, if they so 
 choose there is a clean, wholesome, constitu-
 
 128 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 tional characteristic that one fails utterly to 
 see in Venice, where the streets are all canals. 
 I am prouder than ever before of the infusion 
 of Dutch blood in my veins, be it ever so slight. 
 (Through his father's grandmother, Jemina 
 Van Boskerk, of Albany). I shall be really 
 happy only when I have spent days, not to 
 say weeks, in this wonderful garden spot. The 
 expanse of country is like an animated paint- 
 ing. I have been to Delft and gotten a few 
 trifles of the ware for tokens. I have visited 
 Rotterdam, The Hague, the capital, which is 
 marvelously attractive, and Scheveningen, and 
 Amsterdam, the commercial capital. So far, 
 I have had but one impression of the Dutch 
 people, and I have already uttered it." 
 
 " Copenhagen, July 22. 
 
 " I surely am seeing much that is new and 
 moving without undertaking prodigies in the 
 way of miles of canvas, traversed by my eye, 
 while my brain is whirling in hopeless confu- 
 sion. I am systematically avoiding art gal- 
 leries, though I have deep pleasure in visiting 
 the Thorwaldsen Museum, which is devoted to 
 the great master's wonderful work exclusively. 
 I have driven or ridden much, have visited the 
 famous Deer Park in the country near by, and 
 seen some of the royal family at, or near their 
 summer residence, en famille. This is to me, 
 next to Holland, the most engaging region I 
 have seen. 
 
 " From Amsterdam via Hamburg, I came to 
 Kiel, where I took the Danish mail steamer, a 
 government boat, for Korsor, in Denmark, 
 whence I came by rail to Copenhagen. . . .
 
 LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 129 
 
 But a thousandfold more interesting and un- 
 expected was my meeting at Hamburg, and 
 keeping up the association as far as Copen- 
 hagen, with General Booth, of the Salvation 
 Army, en route to Stockholm for a three days' 
 visit and campaign. I had much conversation 
 with him, and he was as simple and affable and 
 cordial as a child. He looks better and younger 
 than I had anticipated, and bears his honors 
 meekly. He is coming to America in the 
 autumn, and will be in Philadelphia, so that 
 we may see and hear him there. I inclose you 
 his signature on one of his cards. You will 
 prize it, I am sure. 
 
 " The open air life of the people here delights 
 me, their countenances are ruddy, fresh and 
 wholesome, and their eyes clear and frank. 
 The children are peculiarly winsome and ap- 
 proachable." 
 
 "July 23. 
 
 " Was it not singular, my meeting General 
 Booth at Hamburg? I was already in the train 
 and saw him approaching, recognized him 
 from his pictures, and taking off my hat ad- 
 dressed him. He came up to me and greeted 
 me most cordially, and thereafter we were 
 quite chummy. The King of Sweden has made 
 unprecedented concession in the matter of 
 public meetings in the great square in Stock- 
 holm, and as you may recall, the Crown Prince 
 was a delegate at the Y. M. C. A. Jubilee in 
 London recently. In this fact may be found 
 the explanation for the surprising privilege 
 granted the Salvation Army. One of the Gen- 
 eral's attendants was a Swede, who, ten years
 
 1 30 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 ago, I believe, turned from his studies in the 
 University of Upsala, Sweden, to engage in 
 this work. He acts as an interpreter on this 
 expedition, having devised a system of inter- 
 pretation that the General says is practically 
 almost as effective as direct speech." 
 
 " Christiania, Norway, July 24. 
 " The ride to Helsingor, where Shakespeare 
 locates one of the great scenes in Hamlet, was 
 interesting. At this point, the train crosses by 
 a ferry from Denmark to Sweden, through 
 which the journey was most uninteresting and 
 commonplace until one o'clock this A. M. On 
 entering Norway, we were all examined as to 
 our antecedents and destination by a health 
 officer, who was on the scent for cholera. As 
 I had none about me, I passed muster, though 
 I see no reason why a man could not lie like 
 a son of Belial and frustrate utterly the gov- 
 ernment's scrupulous care. . . . The sleeping 
 cars, built on the ever-wakeful principle, are a 
 study. One is expected to stretch out at 
 length on the cushions of this compartment, 
 with which you are familiar, and with a micro- 
 scopically discernible pillow, and a blanket that 
 won't stand the microscope, luxuriate in 
 modern appliances for comfort. If I had to 
 travel at night here, I should organize a " pull- 
 man strike " on original lines. ... I just met 
 Ibsen on the street and may meet him per- 
 sonally this P. M., as I have been offered an 
 introduction. He is so like his pictures and 
 caricatures that I recognized him instantly, 
 though I had no idea he lived here. Booth and 
 Ibsen within four days of each other! What a
 
 LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 131 
 
 contrast, and yet they are working out, each 
 in his own way, their theory of the truth for 
 the salvation of society. What vessels the Al- 
 mighty does use for His purposes and what 
 weak ones I realize better day by day. ... 
 
 " The kind of terror that ' walketh at noon- 
 day ' and that sign U. S. A. after their names 
 on the hotel registers, make one's hair stand 
 on end. I have had to listen to the conversa- 
 tion of two of them. One of them had seen 
 nothing at Copenhagen but Tivoli, a kind of 
 Coney Island affair, and the other rather in- 
 sisted that the so-called Viking ship at Chicago 
 was an original. 
 
 " The first glimpses I get here of Norway 
 are reassuring, and doubly so, for to-morrow I 
 begin to travel westward." 
 
 Back to The Hill after the first journey, 
 Meigs came in the fall of 1887 for three more 
 years of steady growth in the school. But at 
 the end of the third school year, in July, 1890, 
 there came another fire, more sweeping, more 
 ruinous than the fire of 1884. Destroying, as 
 it did, the entire equipment of the school, and 
 recompensed, as it turned out, by inadequate 
 insurance, the disaster seemed at first so com- 
 plete as to be almost crushing. But Meigs 
 looked the difficulties in the face unflinchingly, 
 drew a grateful breath that they were not 
 worse, and then set himself, with indomitable 
 hopefulness, to shape out of the ashes of the
 
 132 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 old school his vision for the new. His letters 
 tell the vivid story of the way in which he 
 turned his trial into blessing. He was away 
 from the school when the fire occurred, and 
 so was Mrs. Meigs. Hurrying back to Potts- 
 town, he writes her from on board the train: 
 
 " Surely God has called us to a most unusual 
 experience of His dealings, mysterious beyond 
 words while we look upon the things that are 
 seen, but in and through it all, His great 
 mercy ever shines. If this latest calamity had 
 befallen our home by night, how awful might 
 have been the consequences! Who can say 
 what agony might have been added to our al- 
 ready great loss ? It is at best a great blow to 
 us, only beginning to emerge from the shadow 
 of great burdens borne so many years, but we 
 can look up and say, * Blessed be the name of 
 the Lord.' Six years ago we found cause to 
 thank Him for the loss that seemed at first to 
 be irreparable; who knows but that we shall 
 be happier and more useful for, and because of 
 this affliction? Such is the spirit in which we 
 shall meet this shock. With the presence of 
 Him 'who giveth liberally/ we can nothing 
 lack." 
 
 Then from Pottstown he wrote again: 
 
 "July 4, 1890. 
 
 " H. . . . came to Harrisburg to meet me 
 this morning. By the time we reached Potts- 
 town I was thoroughly posted on everything
 
 LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 133 
 
 but the origin of the fire. No one knows, 
 though it was first detected in the third story 
 near the elevator. The Fire Company, being 
 telephoned for, responded soon, but found the 
 water supply deficient. They fought heroi- 
 cally, and saved the annex and gymnasium, 
 though the schoolroom fell easy prey to the 
 fire, because of its yellow pine ceiling and lin- 
 ing. It is practically for insurance recovery 
 a total loss, the annex alone having its walls 
 intact, and even its interior is defiled and dis- 
 figured by the gum-like deposit and smoke 
 coming from the schoolroom. The busts, 
 which were not destroyed, are ebonized now. 
 The iron girders in the dining-room appear in- 
 tact, and have had much to do in saving the 
 walls of the East Wing. The basement is a 
 horrible marsh, water and mud from above 
 having deluged it. The floors in the old stone 
 part, on the first story are not burned through ; 
 above all is gone, far worse, I think, than in 
 '84. As a whole, the sweep of destruction was 
 more terrible than in '84, but the outer walls 
 are in promising condition, except in the 
 southeast corner. Our fireplace and chimney 
 again rears its head aloft, the hearthstone and 
 back and jams unmoved by the general wreck. 
 . . . By Monday we ought to have fifty men 
 at work, cleaning away the debris, and then 
 we purpose to make things hum, though until 
 the insurance people settle I cannot lay a hand 
 to the work. While I was going through the 
 ruins with the builders, a lady and gentleman 
 were announced, who entered their boy amid 
 desolation itself a striking and cheering to-
 
 134 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 ken of faith, surely. If is wonderful how little 
 damage was done to the grounds about the 
 house. 
 
 " I have lots of telegrams offering service ; 
 everybody has been kindness itself. It is 
 touching to discover the sentiments of the 
 people. This will be a blessing, though to- 
 day it is a great burden. I am delighted to 
 be occupied with plans for a perfect building 
 from cellar to roof. This disaster is already 
 being blessed to our future I know, and before 
 the new year comes we shall say it was a 
 blessing undisguised! It is a positive delight 
 to be able to plan how to carry out every idea 
 that I have felt must be dismissed for years, 
 if not forever. ^ > : . I feel more infused with 
 courage now than ever before, and with God's 
 help and counsel we shall be able to do far 
 more for our boys than ever before. . . ^ 
 What a glorious rest I had with the loved ones 
 at E. . . . ! It gives me strength and 
 spirit for the big pull ahead! Have been up 
 nearly all night making an inventory for use 
 of insurance men, and to-day comes the en- 
 counter. God help us ! The appraisers of the 
 building will go ahead while we are overhaul- 
 ing the furniture a sickening business; but 
 it will all come out right; of this be assured. 
 
 " I telegraphed S. . . . Grand oppor- 
 tunity to improve on the past. Am hopeful 
 and as happy as it is decent to be." [Speak- 
 ing of his disappointment concerning the re- 
 sult of the amount of insurance allowed.] 
 
 " Well, we have better than earthly riches, 
 and it is still within our power to make our
 
 LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 135 
 
 beloved home sweeter still, and means amply 
 to do this, though I shall have less of a sur- 
 plus than I anticipated. . . . 
 
 " Yesterday was a big day in achievement, 
 and I am passing from the realm of hope to 
 that of expectation that we shall be ready for 
 our boys at the regular date." 
 
 He had the grounds strung with arc lights, 
 and a double force of workmen labored on the 
 walls of the new buildings day and night; 
 while he himself was among them continually, 
 urging, pushing, inspiring foremen and men 
 to finish the whole construction in season for; 
 him to make good his promise that the school 
 would open at the usual time in the fall. 
 
 In spite of multiplied difficulties, it did open 
 only a very little after the hoped-for day ; and 
 a vivid glimpse of John Meigs himself may 
 be caught through the words of one of the 
 masters, Mr. Alfred G. Rolfe, who began his 
 long term of service at the school in that 
 memorable year. 
 
 " I shall never forget," He wrote, " the open- 
 ing night. The schoolroom was in an un- 
 finished state, and workmen were still busy 
 when Professor took his place to conduct 
 evening prayers. There was no organ, and 
 as Professor started the first hymn, ' Holy, 
 holy, holy/ I said to myself, 'he can never 
 carry it through ; it's too high.' I didn't know
 
 136 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 the man. The hymn went triumphantly 
 through to its finish, Professor's powerful 
 voice dominating all. Then followed a short 
 passage of scripture, and then the prayer, 
 strong, helpful, inspiring. Then Professor 
 called up boy after boy, addressing them all, 
 new and old, by their first names, and settling 
 each case in a few crisp, decisive words. I 
 had been teaching several years, but I had 
 never seen in school or college such an ex- 
 ample of power. Professor was master then 
 as always, strong, calm and self-controlled." 
 Years afterwards in the year, in fact, of 
 his death there came to John Meigs a little 
 note from a gentleman in England. It said: 
 " I was talking to a man on the 'phone just 
 now, and in the course of sundry moralizings 
 I had occasion to say to him, ' Well, as an 
 American whom I once met for an hour or 
 two in a train in Switzerland remarked to 
 me, " Obstacles are the glory of life." ' So you 
 see you are not forgotten." To many other 
 persons who had thus met him, even for a very 
 little while, John Meigs was a man not easily 
 forgotten; and the reason was that those who 
 had come in contact with his spirit felt in him, 
 not as a phrase, but as a fact, that strength 
 which out of obstacles had won its glory.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 
 
 Thring of Uppingham as Exemplar of John Meigs' Ideals 
 The Educational Value of Beautiful Things The Mother in 
 the School The Influence of the Masters Training the Older 
 Boys for Leadership John Meigs' Loyalty to Boys Who 
 Seemed to Fail His Hopefulness, and " Humanness " Boys 
 Whom He Befriended The Exile from Japan The Power of 
 His Prayers. 
 
 WITH the rebuilding of the school after 
 the fire of 1890, there began another 
 decade of progress and expansion. 
 The buildings which had been burned were 
 replaced by larger and better ones. The walls 
 of the old stone family mansion still stood 
 firm after the flames had swept the interior, 
 and within these much-tried walls the head- 
 master's house was, for the second time, re- 
 stored. Back of it, and extending along the 
 crest of the hill, ran a three-story building of 
 brown brick, afterwards overgrown with 
 vines, in which on the first floor was the big 
 dining-room, and on the second and third 
 floors, rooms for the younger boys. At right 
 angles from the end of this building, ran an- 
 other of the same general appearance, with 
 the gymnasium on the first floor, and the 
 137
 
 i 3 8 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 great schoolroom where the boys studied on 
 the second. Opposite the headmaster's house 
 and the dining-room, and forming with that 
 first building and the schoolroom the third 
 side of an open quadrangle, was built some 
 years later what was called then the " Sixth 
 Form Wing." From a brick cloistered arcade 
 on the first floor opened the large general 
 reading-room, where the papers and maga- 
 zines and a library of books for the boys were 
 kept, and several recitation rooms; more reci- 
 tation rooms, and the physical and chemical 
 laboratories were in the basement a base- 
 ment which, on account of the steep slope of 
 the land, was almost wholly above ground on 
 the side away from the quadrangle. The 
 rooms of the Sixth Form boys were on the 
 second floor, and those of the Fifth Formers 
 on the third, and in a little turret on the 
 fourth floor that finished the end of the build- 
 ing. On the other side of the schoolroom, and 
 forming a prolongation in that direction of 
 the Sixth Form Wing, was a smaller building 
 with rooms for the boys ; and in the " Cot- 
 tage," a building about fifty yards away 
 which had been built originally by Dr. 
 Matthew Meigs for his own residence, then 
 sold and afterwards repurchased for the 
 school lived some twenty-five or thirty re- 
 maining boys. In the cottage, and in all the
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 139 
 
 halls of the main buildings, were the resi- 
 dence rooms of the masters, all of whom lived 
 among the boys, with the exception of a few 
 married men who had houses just outside the 
 borders of the school grounds. 
 
 To a singular degree the school, in its shap- 
 ing and reshaping, expressed the ideals and 
 convictions of the man who was at its head. 
 Vitally significant were those words of John 
 Meigs', already quoted : " I am glad I am not 
 hampered and can carry out my own ideas 
 and ideals." ,What he meant, of course, was 
 his freedom from dictation by others who 
 might not have seen the school's opportuni- 
 ties, nor have possessed the venturesome im- 
 agination which would have sanctioned dar- 
 ing plans. In the formative years of the 
 school there was no board of trustees to which 
 he was subordinate. The upbuilding of the 
 school was his task, his responsibility and his 
 chance. Obstacles there were, of course, and 
 exceeding difficulties; but at least, unshackled 
 by any interferences, he could measure against 
 them his full strength. The financial problem 
 after the second fire was a grave one, even 
 as it had been at the time of the school's be- 
 ginning. Meigs had to trust to his own ener- 
 gies and his powers to convince men with 
 financial resources of the soundness of his 
 plans, if he should ever hope to equal what
 
 1 40 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 a school with a large endowment might 
 achieve. Much money was needed to build 
 the new buildings, and to make possible the 
 constant enlargement of the grounds and the 
 beautifying of the whole school plant which 
 Meigs' unresting imagination conceived. It 
 was necessary that he should borrow sums 
 so large that a timid man would have flinched 
 from the risk of them, and have chosen in- 
 stead to be content with narrower and less 
 eager ideals of what the school might come 
 to be. But it was characteristic of John Meigs 
 that, as he projected greatly, so he flung ac- 
 tion forward on the heels of thought. He 
 knew what he wanted to do with The Hill, 
 and he believed in his plans so thoroughly 
 that he was able to make others believe in 
 them too. " The name of John Meigs was 
 collateral enough for me," said the president of 
 a Pottstown bank who had loaned him large 
 sums of money. Into the school, year after 
 year, and into the repayment of the money 
 which had been loaned to enlarge it, went 
 the surplus that had been left from the pre- 
 vious session. So its borders grew, and the 
 compass of its walls widened. The number 
 of boys who could be taken increased to one 
 hundred in 1890, and to two hundred and 
 twenty-five in 1900. On the shoulders of 
 the man who carried his great responsibility
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 141 
 
 the burden of debt was a heavy load, which' 
 to the end of his life was never lifted; but 
 he bore it gladly for the sake of his knowl- 
 edge that little by little he was building his 
 ideals into reality. 
 
 Often we may learn much as to a man's 
 purpose by understanding his admirations. 
 In the figures whom he looked up to, we may 
 find the interpretation of many of his own 
 conceptions of nobility and success. For John 
 Meigs there were two men who stood as ex- 
 emplars of much that he believed the head of 
 a great school ought to be. One was Thomas 
 Arnold, of Rugby; the other was Edward 
 Thring, of Uppingham. 
 
 Of these two, it was to Thring, particularly, 
 that Meigs looked with a peculiar glow of 
 sympathetic regard. In many curious paral- 
 lels set off, too, by sharp contrasts not the 
 less significant Thring's problems and deep 
 trials were like those which Meigs knew as 
 his own, and with Thring's ambitions and 
 ideals he felt an intuitive kinship. In 1853, 
 the year after John Meigs was born, Thring 
 became headmaster of Uppingham, one of the 
 older schools of England, founded in its little 
 Midland town by Robert Johnson, Archdea- 
 con of Leicester, in 1584. Old as it was, the 
 school was still comparatively insignificant in 
 equipment, numbers and standing. When
 
 142 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 Thring came to if, if had only twenty-five 
 boys and two assistant masters, an antiquated 
 master's house and a sixteenth century school- 
 room. The endowment was so meager as 
 to give little or no support for hopeful plan- 
 ning, and Thring had very small means of 
 his own. Worst of all, he was hampered 
 as John Meigs rejoiced that he never was 
 by a board which governed the trust funds 
 of the foundation, and from the majority of 
 this board, men who were narrow-visioned, 
 timid and stubborn, Thring received in the 
 years of his heaviest struggling not help, but 
 wearying hindrance. Yet single-handed he 
 set himself to the task of taking the obscure 
 and ill-furnished school and lifting it to com- 
 manding rank. From the beginning, he had 
 certain clear ideals to which he clung with 
 an intensity of conviction which was never 
 shaken, even when if seemed sometimes as 
 though his loyalty to them might cost the 
 very existence of the school itself. He felt 
 that the schools of England, and the system 
 which they had made familiar, were vitally 
 deficient in two respects: in the first place, 
 that their teaching was arranged for the ben- 
 efit of the brilliant boys, while the classes 
 were so large and the instructors so few that 
 the average boys were left to shift indiffer- 
 ently for themselves; and that, in the second
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 143 
 
 place, picturesque as many of the schools 
 were, yet in the matter of actual adaptability 
 to the good of the boys, both physical and 
 moral, they were often crude and sometimes 
 almost dangerous. The standards which 
 Thring lifted up required courage and de- 
 termination of the highest sort to maintain. 
 His protest against conditions with which he 
 believed England too complacently to have 
 been satisfied roused the hostility of the 
 friends of the great schools which by implica- 
 tion he criticized; and the application of his 
 ideals to Uppingham itself meant an expendi- 
 ture upon teaching force and upon buildings 
 so out of proportion to the parallel expendi- 
 tures in other schools, and so far outstripping 
 the resources of the small endowment, that 
 the burden of debt at times almost crushed 
 Thring's spirit. He poured into the school 
 all the money he himself had; he found now 
 and then a man whom his own enthusiasm 
 inspired to share his ideals and his sacrifices, 
 and these men came to be masters at Upping- 
 ham under him, to help build up the school 
 which Thring had dreamed. 
 
 When success seemed at last to have been 
 won, there came in 1876 the year in which 
 John Meigs went to The Hill a disaster 
 which all but annihilated the school. Ty- 
 phoid fever had broken out in the fall term
 
 144 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 previous, and there had been great uneasiness 
 among the parents, and such real danger to 
 the boys that Thring closed the school in 
 November until after Christmas. He did his 
 utmost, meanwhile, to probe the cause of the 
 fever to the bottom, and was convinced that 
 the drains of the town of Uppingham were to 
 blame. In the school itself he did everything 
 which the severest experts could suggest in 
 the way of precaution, but the jealous stub- 
 bornness of petty officials blocked his efforts 
 at a drastic reformation of conditions in the 
 town; and he faced the opening of the winter 
 term of 1876 with an apprehensive heart. It 
 was not long before the fever broke out among 
 the boys again, this time more virulent and 
 deadly than before. There was nothing left 
 but to break up the school a second time and 
 send the boys home till none knew when. 
 " One thing I feel sure of," Thring wrote in 
 anguish of spirit, " that this is the beginning 
 of the end." Yet in this darkest hour, when 
 his heart and hope were almost gone, Thring' s 
 courage, nevertheless, girded itself up again 
 for the one herculean venture that could save 
 the school. He determined to transplant it 
 bodily. When the boys had reached their 
 homes, and the news had come that the par- 
 ents of some of them were already casting 
 about for other schools, Thring sent a letter
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 145 
 
 to them all, saying that Uppingham would re- 
 open after Easter in a new location as yet to 
 be arranged. Then began what he called in 
 grimmest truth, "a fierce race for life." A 
 place fit for the school had first to be found, 
 then secured, and then the plans made to 
 establish the school there as an actual work- 
 ing reality; and every day's difference in prog- 
 ress or delay was of desperate importance. 
 
 Thring succeeded. On March 27th, the 
 school reopened in a building that had been 
 a hotel, on the sea-coast of Wales, at Borth. 
 Until Easter, 1877, or a full year, the school 
 remained in Wales, and then, when the town 
 of Uppingham, chastened by much suffering, 
 had corrected the conditions which the stub- 
 born stupidity of its officials caused, the school 
 moved back to its old home. Though the 
 stay at Borth itself had been made beauti- 
 fully memorable by the glory of the sea-coast, 
 and the cordiality of the people, the year, of 
 course, had been marked by terrible anxieties 
 and great financial burdens for Thring and his 
 assistant masters through the double trans- 
 fer. When the school was established at Up- 
 pingham again, there were those among the 
 trustees and the masters who wanted to in- 
 crease the size of the school, in order that 
 the masters' losses might be made up by 
 increased revenues from the boarding pupils
 
 146 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 in their several houses. But even under 
 the pressure of the new and almost crush- 
 ing difficulties, Thring's insistence upon his 
 ideals never flinched. It had been from the 
 beginning his conviction that for the proper 
 training of all the boys under the guidance 
 of one spirit in the system of Uppingham, 
 it was essential that the school should not 
 exceed three hundred and thirty or three hun- 
 dred and forty boys. That point it had 
 reached; and Thring absolutely refused to al- 
 low that number to be passed, no matter 
 what conceivable emergency should seem to 
 furnish an argument for a modification in his 
 principle. He would not, he said, increase the 
 school's prosperity and " ruin its life." In this 
 matter, as in others, the masters under him 
 rallied finally to his side. Uppingham con- 
 tinued according to the ideals which Thring 
 had shaped for it from the first; and before 
 his gallant life came to its end, in 1887, there 
 were many in England who held him to be the 
 strongest and most constructive force in the 
 life of the great schools of the nation. 
 
 The story of what Thring was doing and 
 had done in Uppingham brought its brave 
 message to John Meigs in his often similar 
 task across the seas. He shared to the utter- 
 most Thring's fundamental belief that a 
 school, in the first place, should be made not
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 14? 
 
 the harsh arena from which the exceptional 
 boy might come out victorious, but in which 
 the average boy should be submerged; but 
 that it should be molded instead by that 
 spirit of the true home in which the least en- 
 dowed is given by love an equal chance to 
 develop the utmost of which he is capable. 
 And, in the second place, he believed, as 
 Thring did, that for a school to attain this 
 ideal meant an infinitely patient and thorough, 
 and also a very costly, planning of its build- 
 ings, its surroundings, its system of teaching 
 and its life. 
 
 It was because of this that Meigs in the 
 building of the school was continually reach- 
 ing out for the best that could be constructed 
 for the welfare of the boys. It was because 
 of this, too, that he never approved of great 
 dormitories in which considerable numbers of 
 boys slept within the same walls, but provided 
 instead for boys to be alone, or with only one 
 roommate, so that the individuality of differ- 
 ent boys might thus be recognized and re- 
 spected. 
 
 In those things also which had to do not 
 with the essential construction, but with the 
 adornment of the school, Meigs believed in- 
 tuitively in the same principles which Thring 
 worked out at Uppingham. He loved beauti- 
 ful things himself, and he felt that the silent
 
 i 4 8 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 ministry of beautiful things about them would 
 have its steady, ennobling effect upon the 
 boys at The Hill. Not only, therefore, did 
 he put upon the walls of the great schoolroom 
 busts and pictures, but he put these also in 
 the many recitation rooms where the boys 
 went for their various classes. In the Greek 
 room, for instance, were representations of 
 the friezes of the Parthenon; in the Latin 
 room, photographs of Rome. And on the 
 walls of all the corridors of the school were 
 other great framed prints and engravings 
 which brought their constant suggestion of 
 the noblest buildings and paintings of the 
 world. Meigs did not happen to write down 
 what was in this thought when he did this, 
 but doubtless his idea was like that which 
 Thring expressed when he said in one of his 
 letters : " I have just got a new forward move. 
 You may remember perhaps the photographs 
 in my classroom and the idea of culture 
 through them. Well, I have got twenty-six 
 magnificent autotypes of ancient art in upper 
 school now, and I mean to turn out by de- 
 grees all the mean furniture in the room, and 
 I hope that this will make the low views and 
 meannesses connected with lessons and learn- 
 ing drop off by the mere force of fine sur- 
 roundings, just as good surroundings have 
 made the whole domestic life of the school
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 149 
 
 higher, and freed it from tricks and petty 
 savagery." And again he said, " It is hard 
 to escape something of the pig if lodged in 
 a sty. The schoolboy has not escaped and 
 never will till honor to lessons is the first ar- 
 ticle in the nation's secular creed. Everything 
 that meets the eye ought to be perfect, ac- 
 cording to the work and workers, as human 
 skill can make it. Give honor, you will re- 
 ceive honor. I know that boys respond with 
 honor when they and their life-work are 
 honored." 
 
 In deeper and more intimate things also 
 than the plans for the visible aspects of the 
 school John Meigs rejoiced in that sense of 
 spiritual comradeship with Thring which one 
 strong man feels with another though far, 
 away and never seen who is grappling nobly 
 with such problems as he himself must face. 
 Many of the ways in which the work he did 
 resembled Thring's had, of course, in Meigs' 
 case no relationship to Thring as example; 
 through his own thought and by the impulse 
 of his own character he arrived at many of 
 the conclusions which the master of Upping- 
 ham also had worked out. But when he did 
 come to know of Thring, and to read what he 
 had written, and what others had written 
 about him, Meigs was swift to acknowledge 
 the inspiration he and all other schoolmasters
 
 150 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 might receive from him. Thring's great cour- 
 age, his costly devotion to his clear ideals, 
 the authority of his rulership because that 
 rulership was built upon a loyalty to some- 
 thing higher than himself, and the intense re- 
 ligious consecration of all his work, made his 
 personality seem peculiarly near and glowing 
 to John Meigs. In his own trials at The Hill, 
 and especially in that most bitter crisis so like 
 the great crisis at Uppingham the typhoid 
 epidemic of which the story is to come he 
 turned to Thring's revelation of the travail of 
 his own soul for strength and patience and 
 power. 
 
 To return, however, to the matter of the 
 school itself, its principles and its organiza- 
 tion, we are not left to comparisons to know 
 what Meigs was thinking. As has been said 
 before, he kept no diary nor book in which he 
 wrote down his meditations; but he made an 
 address once on, "The Ideals of the Home 
 School," the manuscript of which is preserved, 
 and in that he sets forth some of the beliefs 
 which he built into the fabric of The Hill. 
 
 The first part of it ran as follows; 
 
 " In Ihe ideal home boys are early taught 
 obedience, truthfulness, purity, unselfishness, 
 service, ' self-reverence, self-knowledge, self- 
 control these three alone lead life to sov- 
 ereign power/
 
 PROFESSOR JOHN MEIGS AT THE AGE OF THIRTY- 
 FOUR
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 151 
 
 " The ideal home for the growing boy 
 should be in the country, with a first-rate 
 school within easy distance, suitable compan- 
 ions at hand, and parents who can devote a 
 fair amount of time to their children. But 
 most people to-day are dwellers in a city, 
 where opportunities for the physical develop- 
 ment of a boy are few, and where the whirl 
 of life is so dizzying, and engagements so pre- 
 occupying, that family life is little more than 
 a tradition of happier days. 
 
 "And so it conies to pass that boarding- 
 schools confront the parent, as the alternative 
 to the mutilated conditions of existence that 
 environ the boy in his city home. . . . 
 
 "There must be change at every step we 
 take, as boys or men; there must be new 
 things to be learnt, new experiences to be 
 bought. But ah absolute break there need 
 never be, if love takes the place in our lives 
 it should take; takes such a place that every 
 new fact, every new experience can be referred 
 back to the one place where we learnt the 
 meaning of love in its finest sense home. 
 
 "After all, the life of a boy in a home school 
 of the best sort is not much different from the 
 life of a boy in a home of the best sort. The 
 family is much larger; the love of the father 
 and mother may not be there ; but a love high 
 and devoted is there. 
 
 "There is the mother of the family who 
 brings the spirit of love and refinement into 
 this throng of growing lads, who instinctively 
 understands them and comforts them and fills 
 them with a high sense of the glory and
 
 i 5 2 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 beauty of womanhood; who tirelessly toils 
 and strives, and prays her great household 
 through the tempestuous period of her high 
 commission; who fulfills even the hope of par- 
 ents who seem to trust that the love of others 
 for their children will be more unselfish than 
 their own; who becomes, in sooth, the very 
 Madonna of manifold lives. 
 
 "There is the definite concentrated influ- 
 ence due to the line taken by the headmaster 
 upon the various points in the education of 
 boys, and handed on by him to the members 
 of his staff, and to whom the boy looks for 
 final judgment. 
 
 "There are the masters with whom he 
 freely associates, whose personality is more 
 than books and knowledge and teaching and 
 skill combined the greatest power in the 
 world ; 
 
 " Men who are living epistles read of every 
 boy the familiar companions of the boys in 
 sports as well as studies no longer as in the 
 olden time looked upon as moral policemen, 
 but lovers of boys, who in their love are will- 
 ing to give much of their time to their up- 
 building, to sacrifice much of their worldly 
 interest ; 
 
 " Men of good scholarship and of fine char- 
 acter who have not failed in other things, nor 
 are trying to make a living while they are 
 preparing to enter the public ministry or the 
 law; 
 
 " Men whose ministry is as sacred and de- 
 voted as that upon which the formal hands of 
 consecration have been laid whole-souled,
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 153 
 
 red-blooded, glorious men who give them- 
 selves and everything they are and have to 
 help develop men for the nation, 
 
 " Such masters there are, and when the 
 young boy meets them on the threshold of 
 his home-school life, he enters an atmosphere 
 of affection and devotion to lofty ideals the 
 essentials of the Christian life. 
 
 "And then, perhaps, best of all in this 
 greater household in which the boys and 
 masters and the family of the headmaster 
 meet at table, at work, at play, at worship, 
 and sleep under the same roof, are the loyal- 
 hearted Upper Form boys who, the elder 
 brothers of the family, act as guides, advisers 
 and heroes for the younger boys to follow 
 and worship. 
 
 "As time goes on, the new-boy's relations 
 to these people change. He becomes an older 
 boy himself. The mother and the head of the 
 house are his close friends, with whom he 
 discusses freely his possible services to other 
 boys, becoming thus a fellow worker with the 
 masters to prevent evil, to keep the whole 
 body sound. 
 
 "Advantage is taken of the intense admira- 
 tion which the younger boys have for their 
 elders in the school, and these latter are 
 trained to take responsibility and strong posi- 
 tions against evil and for righteousness, and 
 to go to college committed in their own minds 
 to clean living. 
 
 "Teachers who love boys who are bent: 
 upon righteousness and boys who will sympa- 
 thize with the masters in trying to establish
 
 154 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 pure and clean and righteous living in the 
 school, are the great powers. With these co- 
 workers, in a question of moral principle a 
 boy is taken in hand and helped to break up 
 a bad habit before it has taken firm hold of 
 him. Discipline becomes different from that 
 of the old-time schools. 
 
 " It need not be said that the standards of 
 scholarship in the home school must be of the 
 highest. Where close and confidential rela- 
 tionships beget such intimacies of mind and 
 soul between boys and masters as are the 
 most stimulating forces in life, the heart 
 strengthens the will to firmer purpose and 
 kindles the brain to more ardent employ- 
 ments. . . . 
 
 " There is an absence of rigor in restricting, 
 to one grade, the work of each boy. He is 
 individualized, in respect of his mental and 
 temperamental characteristics, and may pur- 
 sue, for instance, science, history, language 
 and mathematics on different levels, condi- 
 tioned only by the demands of the university 
 or technical school to which he may later seek 
 admission. 
 
 " From such a school the graduates go well- 
 equipped for college, for life. Some may sink, 
 some do; but they know what is right, they 
 have looked into the very heart of a life which 
 is strong and sound and pulsating for others, 
 and they will never be satisfied with material, 
 sordid, irresponsible views of life which the 
 world may try to impress upon them. 
 
 "And to such a school the old boys fre- 
 quently return, too often, perhaps, as to the
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 155 
 
 real home of their souls whose standards of 
 service loyally upheld, whose high expecta- 
 tions sacredly cherished and whose loving be- 
 hests eagerly accepted stimulate the spiritual 
 sons of the great household to conquests 
 worthy of the high devotion that blessed their 
 boyhood and of the yearning solicitude and 
 affection that attend their onward life. 
 
 " The school becomes to these a haven of 
 imperishable sympathies and high aspirations. 
 The touch of sorrow and the kindling of a 
 new joy alike send quivering home the sad- 
 dened or the gladdened son of spirit-birth, for 
 comfort or for chiding or for joy perfected by 
 the sharing of its great gifts with those who 
 may have first laid its foundations in the pure 
 standards of reverent living. 
 
 " This relationship neither time nor change 
 can dissolve and maturer years can only 
 strengthen because into it have entered the 
 eternal things of life and character that rest 
 in the unchangeable God." 
 
 As John Meigs described thus his concep- 
 tion of what a school ought to be, he was, as 
 a matter of fact, describing also what he was 
 trying to make true at The Hill. From the 
 beginning, he had sought to create in the 
 school such an atmosphere and influence as 
 should bring to the boys what a home at its 
 best might give. 
 
 When he spoke of " the mother of the fam- 
 ily who prays her great household through
 
 156 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 the tempestuous period of her high commis- 
 sion and who becomes, in sooth, the very Ma- 
 donna of manifold lives," he was thinking 
 of one whom he might not name, but of whose 
 likeness to that ideal his own heart and the 
 hearts of scores of boys at The Hill well 
 knew. That which, joined to the influence of 
 John Meigs himself, more than any other 
 thing set the tone and created the spirit of 
 The Hill was the touch of Mrs. Meigs upon 
 the boys. In the lovely " sky-parlor," up in 
 the high tower of the old stone building 
 of the headmaster's house, with its wide win- 
 dows looking out over the tranquil trees, 
 many a boy in his talks with her has caught 
 the gleam of new meanings for his life, and 
 gone down to the school again with the power 
 of finer purpose in his soul. 
 
 Next in importance to the headmaster and 
 his wife in influence upon the boys were, of 
 course, the other masters. Meigs realized 
 well that for the effective transmission of his 
 ideals to the great body of the boys, it was 
 imperative that he should gather about him 
 a group of men who were both ready and able 
 to share his convictions as to what the school 
 ought to be and to interpret those convictions 
 in daily work. He was lavish in his efforts, 
 therefore, to get and keep the best men he 
 could find. He made his scale of salaries
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 157 
 
 large far larger, for instance, than the scale 
 for similar work in the colleges. He required 
 obedience to the laws and standards of The 
 Hill; but, as he never flinched from giving 
 necessary criticism and correction, so also he 
 was generous in his recognition of work well 
 done. He valued scholarship and thorough 
 teaching; but he valued the kind of rounded 
 manhood which boys would look up to even 
 more. 
 
 He wrote in a letter to a friend at one of 
 the universities who had suggested a man for 
 a position at The Hill: 
 
 " Let me hear from you with reference to 
 the matter, and if you have in mind another 
 man for I shall make two or three changes 
 I shall be pleased to hear of him. You know 
 the kind I am wanting here. First of all, I 
 say unhesitatingly they must be Christian 
 gentlemen. Brilliant scholarship is a good 
 thing, but not so good a thing as an earnest 
 nature supplemented by the discipline of con- 
 scientious work during four years, without 
 perhaps the dazzling record for exact knowl- 
 edge that some men easily attain; and I am 
 convinced that it is utter folly for me to bring 
 in any new men here who are not earnest 
 Christian men primarily. Secondly: they 
 should, of course, have distinct ability in one 
 line or another, and capacity for good clean 
 work, along with a healthful interest in the. 
 many-sided life of school boys."
 
 158 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 To one of the earlier graduates of the school 
 who was thinking of coming back to The Hill 
 as a master he wrote: 
 
 "There is undoubtedly a wide field in the 
 teaching profession, and a whole-hearted man 
 of character and energy will have quick recog- 
 nition. The heads, and, in a number of cases, 
 assistants in the various departments, are per- 
 manently attached to the school, and it is my 
 hope that as the years go on changes will 
 become still more infrequent. I want the men 
 to feel that they are really engaged here in 
 their life-work, and that the good work they 
 are doing secures to them an indefinite tenure 
 of their places, so far as their own comfort 
 and happiness may warrant their continuance 
 here. . . . Teaching is a great work and a 
 very laborious life, and yet there is nothing 
 in it to deter a man from devoting himself 
 unreservedly to such a career as implies so 
 distinct a service to humankind. Personally, 
 I enjoy the life and work more and more." 
 
 The man to whom this letter was written, 
 Mr. Arthur Judson, did come to The Hill to 
 become one of John Meigs' close associates; 
 and after his death Mr. Judson wrote of him : 
 
 "As a headmaster his executive capacity 
 was one of the things that most impressed 
 me. Although he was not a good speaker and 
 found it hard to make a matter of policy clear
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 159 
 
 to his assembled masters without the use of 
 unnecessary words, he continually astonished 
 us by the quickness with which he grasped 
 the salient facts of any proposition laid be- 
 fore him and saw whether it were practical 
 or the reverse. It was a matter of common 
 knowledge that if a man had something to 
 say to Professor in the study, he would do 
 well to have every aspect of it perfectly clear 
 in his mind before he entered. Otherwise, he 
 might be suddenly interrupted, and hear the 
 entire plan presented, argued and condemned 
 by Professor, who would have caught the 
 drift of it from the first two or three sen- 
 tences, and instantly have seen the whole 
 thing clear in every detail. 
 
 " Professor had a very high conception of 
 the ideal Hill schoolmaster, and ardently de- 
 sired that every man on the force should see 
 it as he did. He tried from time to time to 
 express his ideas on this subject in faculty 
 meetings, but I think seldom did himself jus- 
 tice. I used to wonder why it was so hard 
 for him, remembering as I did his marvelous 
 ability as a teacher; and I believe the solu- 
 tion is to be found in the sensitiveness of his 
 feeling about the school. The Hill and its 
 welfare were so intimately a part of himself 
 that he hesitated to speak out exactly what 
 he felt. But when things had gone well 
 when the men had met one of the trying times 
 of examinations, closing days or what not, or 
 when some definite, concrete thing had gone 
 wrongthen he was able to speak directly 
 and with eloquence. He was as ready with
 
 160 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 praise as with blame, but he needed the in- 
 spiration of an accomplished fact. 
 
 "And who was quicker than he to sympa- 
 thize with real trouble, to give sound advice 
 when he thought it was needed, to settle 
 financial troubles with an unexpected check, 
 and pass it off as if it were a reward for serv- 
 ice performed, to praise work well done? 
 
 " Just one thing more. If there is one thing 
 in particular that I personally owe to him, 
 it is the ability to hang on when things are 
 discouraging, and just to work, and work, and 
 keep on working. That tenacity may help to 
 save some of us inferior mortals, even though 
 it never leads to the great things to which 
 those who are not great oft aspire." 
 
 Of the same kind was the impression he 
 made upon another of the masters, Mr. 
 Michael F. Sweeney, of whose part in the life 
 of the school more is to be said presently. Said 
 he: 
 
 "John Meigs had the unusual but most 
 valuable gift in a headmaster of arousing 
 enthusiasm in those with whom he came in 
 contact. If all his influences could be gener- 
 alized and concentrated into one idea, I should 
 say that the one big influence he gave, quick- 
 ened or vitalized in me was, that in whatever 
 activity I undertook I should give that activity 
 all my power. 
 
 " By his own example he showed me that 
 no money, time, thought or energy should
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 161 
 
 be spared in order to equip oneself, partic- 
 ularly in one's main line of work. He aroused 
 my enthusiam to the point of my giving for 
 the first eight years of my life at The Hill, 
 over two-thirds of my summer vacation to 
 study, attending summer school, etc., and 
 often suggested to pay any unusual expense 
 that might be necessary to secure such train- 
 ing. 
 
 " His zeal and fire were contagious. By 
 his own example he lit any smouldering fires 
 that were lying dormant in a man's nature. 
 The effect of his personality was like the igni- 
 tion of an electric spark one could scarcely 
 keep from ' lighting up.' It was by his con- 
 tinual stimulation of these deeper forces in 
 his men that he fed and kept alive the interest 
 of most of his teachers in their chosen line of 
 work. He had tremendous will-power, and 
 was essentially a man of action. He made 
 one feel that thinking and feeling were not 
 life until put into action; that an idea, no mat- 
 ter how noble, was wasted unless it was 
 expressed." 
 
 He delivered on one occasion an address at 
 Princeton University on " The Master Art of 
 Teaching," and at the close of it he sounded 
 that high note of consecration which was 
 always present in his own thought of the 
 teacher's work: 
 
 " The school is not a knowledge-shop, so 
 much as a great assay of human souls. Edu-
 
 1 62 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 cation means making the most of each and 
 all. By making the many capable of noble 
 life, the weakness that becomes strong by be- 
 ing good, is given a fair chance. The practice 
 of the art of teaching, therefore, is not re- 
 stricted to one type of mind or character. 
 There is only one duty for the teacher to 
 know the putting first the boy's life and its 
 good. We shall then know that there is some- 
 where a key to every human soul, and we 
 shall realize that the soul is trying to find its 
 way out far more eagerly than we are trying 
 to find the way in. 
 " Browning puts it : 
 
 " To know, 
 
 Rather consists in the opening out a way 
 Whence the imprisoned splendor may awake, 
 Than in effecting entry for a light 
 Supposed to be without." 
 
 " To him who, diffidently disclaiming all 
 pretension to high scholarship, and secretly 
 yearning to render high service, may ponder 
 his fitness to enter this ministry, let me as an 
 elder brother say that one's very brilliancy of 
 mind, which has enabled its possessor to 
 surmount easily towering obstacles, and thus 
 lose the chastening effort of acquisition 
 may mark the bridgeless chasm between the 
 true teacher, who, with upbuilding love, 
 guides tenderly and triumphantly the slowly 
 plodding mind, and him whose easy growth 
 in knowledge may quench sympathy and the 
 capacity for love.
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 163 
 
 " It is well to be possessed of a trained and 
 disciplined intelligence, to have access to the 
 treasures of science and speculation, to know 
 the best thoughts of the wise, and the sweet- 
 est fancies and fairest visions that have vis- 
 ited the noblest imaginations of our own and 
 other days; but it is no mere pious truism to 
 add that the final standard by which here or 
 hereafter each of us is to be measured is not 
 an intellectual one. What, rather, is the 
 secret moral temper of our spirit? Are we 
 living, not to do our own will, but the will 
 of God; not for selfish ambition or pleasure, 
 but for the good of others? Are we in sym- 
 pathy with that life which was the manifes- 
 tation of the eternal love and goodness to 
 mankind? 
 
 " It is, after all, charity to the soul that is 
 the soul of charity. Here is the largest 
 sphere of the teacher's service. We who 
 have observed the onward march of the years 
 towards the diviner day that is yet to be, 
 have a right and duty to say to you a word 
 of good cheer and of hope and of high expec- 
 tation. My brothers, the time is coming 
 when . . . He who is Lord of Life and 
 Love shall ask not what high degree of aca- 
 demic knowledge you have won, but rather 
 to what low degree of humble service you 
 have been exalted, that you may be counted 
 worthy of eternal fellowship with Him who 
 was the greatest Teacher of all, because more 
 than all other human teachers He was the 
 servant of all. In simplest verse you will find 
 His will for your life and for mine:
 
 1 64 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 " An arm of aid to the weak, 
 
 A friendly hand to the friendless, 
 Kind words so short to speak, 
 
 But whose echo is endless ; 
 The world is wide, these things are small, 
 They may be little, but they are all." 
 
 The measure in which the finer spirits 
 among the masters caught and shared the 
 ideals of John Meigs for the school is shown 
 in this letter, written in 1907, to Mrs. Meigs 
 by Mr. Arthur Judson. Speaking of the loy- 
 alty of the Alumni, he says: 
 
 " If that spirit lives and grows, then when 
 we are all dead and buried God will still 
 raise up men and women to carry on the 
 work. I believe that given any such high 
 esprit de corps . . . the ruling motive can- 
 not fail to be a spiritual one; for the Holy 
 Spirit does not neglect such powerful instru- 
 ments to its purpose. While we cannot have 
 the power of centuries behind us like Eton 
 and Harrow, I see no reason why our boys 
 cannot have and carry the tradition of cen- 
 turies of English and American literature, 
 and nineteen hundred years of Christian lib- 
 erty. Since I began this humble task (the 
 compiling of a list of Hill boys from the be- 
 ginning) mere statistics though it be, at the 
 outset, it has led my thought strangely afar. 
 In the attempt to weld these boys more closely 
 into a unit, I begin to see how some at least 
 of our masters and I speak mainly for my-
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 165 
 
 self have neglected some of those tremen- 
 dous issues in the interest of Latin on the one 
 hand, or athletics on the other. Great as The 
 Hill may be among American schools, I have 
 a vision of yet greater things. If only our 
 boys can be imbued with a true sense of the 
 real grandeur of a great school and its ideals 
 and traditions; if their thought can be di- 
 rected to the great world into which they are 
 going, with the desire to be known and make 
 themselves known as sons of The Hill; and 
 if among them year by year shall be Sixth 
 Formers with the humility to accept respon- 
 sibility and the dignity to command respect, 
 what may they not accomplish? You and 
 Professor have put the spiritual motive into 
 the school, but it seems to me it is the part 
 of the rest of us, faculty largely, but chiefly 
 Alumni to realize it in such way as to make 
 it seem to the boys not as something handed 
 down to them from above, or as imposed on 
 them by authority, but as ingrained in the 
 very fabric of the structure, a part of the very 
 air they breathe while here, bequeathed by 
 the noble examples of two generations of 
 Hill graduates and backed by the influence 
 of the whole graduate body. In this young 
 country, if we cannot be descendants, we can 
 at least, and more worthily, become ancestors 
 of unborn generations. There, it seems to 
 me, is a thought generally overlooked at 
 least I do not remember to have often heard 
 it but in it I am only just beginning to find 
 my true inspiration. ... It will certainly 
 sweeten my efforts to feel that I begin to
 
 1 66 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 understand what you and Professor have been 
 aiming at, and that I may have the privilege 
 of revealing it to some other life." 
 
 But the depth and permanence of John 
 Meigs* influence upon the men who served 
 with him came perhaps to fullest conscious- 
 ness in those who from The Hill went out to 
 assume for themselves in other places tasks 
 and responsibilities like his. One of the men 
 who thus passed from the faculty of The Hill 
 to more commanding work was Mr. Frank 
 W. Pine, now headmaster of the Oilman 
 Country School, near Baltimore; and the 
 words that follow are from him. 
 
 " I shall never forget either my first visit to 
 The Hill or the first weeks and months spent 
 there as a teacher. I went down to the school 
 for a week-end in response to a telegram from 
 Professor. I can still feel the thrill I then 
 experienced for the first time as I both saw 
 and heard him in the big chair by the desk 
 in the old schoolroom, leading the singing of 
 that powerful hymn, 'We march, we march, 
 to victory, with the cross of the Lord before 
 us/ I can still remember my complete en- 
 joyment of the story, 'The Birds' Christmas 
 Carol/ as he read it with so much natural- 
 ness and spirit on that December night nearly 
 twenty years ago. And I can feel even now 
 the quiet of that room full of boys as Pro- 
 fessor prayed at the close of the half hour.
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 167 
 
 It seemed as if, like Jacob of old, he wrestled 
 with the Lord as he pleaded for the old fel- 
 lows in college or out in the world and for the 
 fellows of the school. The affectionate men- 
 tion of the dear ones at home, ending with 
 the petition ' Help us to honor them by our 
 more faithful service here/ still seems to me 
 the epitome of appeal to filial devotion. How 
 many, many times since then have I gone from 
 such a service, after such a prayer with all its 
 earnest sincerity, lifted up in spirit and with 
 a new resolve for better service and more 
 earnest attempt at self-renunciation! 
 
 " From those early days of my life as a Hill 
 School teacher, I recall the keen pleasure 
 which I had in sustained effort and the new 
 zeal for accomplishment, inspired by the at- 
 mosphere of the school more than by fear of 
 Professor's displeasure at failure or short- 
 coming, although that wholesome fear was 
 undoubtedly a factor in my service as in that 
 of all other Hill men. I felt instinctively that 
 I was privileged to be a part of a great and 
 growing enterprise, with the spirit and pur- 
 pose of which, as well as with its methods and 
 system, I was completely in sympathy, an 
 enterprise that fixed and satisfied my ideals 
 and so challenged my best effort. It was a 
 little world, perhaps, sheltered by his power 
 you felt that you had a sense of security 
 in your work but it was also the city on the 
 hill, whose light shone out far and wide. 
 There was a buoyancy, a spirit of energetic 
 enthusiasm that was contagious. Everybody 
 was systematically yet happily busy. There
 
 1 68 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 seemed to be never an idle minute. The back- 
 ground of this picture was equally satisfying 
 a combination of perfectly kept equipment 
 and quiet appointments, bespeaking good 
 breeding, artistic taste and culture. Through 
 it all appeared a seriousness of purpose not 
 obtrusive, yet hardly concealed by the various 
 devices for interesting the boys in the realities 
 of life and leading them more or less uncon- 
 sciously through the commonplace, normal 
 experiences of boyhood to the contemplation 
 of the things of the mind and the spirit. 
 Whether in the genial and comfortable air 
 of the dining-room, amid the varied activity 
 of the athletic field, or in the more rarefied 
 atmosphere of the schoolroom chapel, there 
 was the same heartiness and stimulus, physi- 
 cal, intellectual and spiritual, and the center 
 of it all, the animating spirit of this city on 
 the hill, was Professor. As time went on I 
 came to realize more and more that Professor 
 was the soul of that enterprise. It was the 
 biggest part of his life and he was in it and 
 through it. Its ideals were his ideals and its 
 system was the device of his genius for 
 making those ideals practical and applying 
 them to the everyday problems of life. There 
 all fine character-molding influences were 
 brought, with a rare discrimination of their 
 values; there were generated also high ideals 
 of body, mind and spirit; ideals of sportsman- 
 ship, of civic duty, of ethical and moral prin- 
 ciple, of religious conviction. Such ideals 
 were sure to receive rude shocks when they 
 came up against the sordid realities of life,
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 169 
 
 and it was right here that the unusual quality 
 of Professor's character displayed itself. Hand 
 in hand with the constant presentation of 
 these ideals went a stern discipline, a severe 
 training of all the faculties of mind and body 
 that generated a power which enabled the 
 ideals more often than not to survive the 
 shocks, and to inspire strong purposeful lives 
 to enduring accomplishment, as witness the 
 type of service now being rendered by Hill 
 School men in all walks of life. 
 
 " The great thing about Professor was this 
 fine balance in his strong character between 
 the ideal and the practical. His sun-clad 
 vision was constantly lifted to the hills from 
 whence came his help, yet his feet were 
 firmly planted on the earth. He had hitched 
 his wagon to a star, but the axle was always 
 greased. You felt here was a soul inspired 
 by a lofty ideal, a noble aspiration; here was 
 a dreamer of dreams, yet no visionary senti- 
 mentalist all about you both in material 
 things and in the life of the school and the 
 accomplishment of old Hill fellows were in- 
 disputable evidences that he had the power 
 and gift to make his dreams substantial 
 realities. In this daily contemplation of great 
 faith and concomitant works, you were made 
 hopeful of your own emotional impulses 
 and only ashamed when you failed to 
 translate spiritual exaltation into concrete 
 action. 
 
 " Only those who have gone out from the 
 protecting shadow of The Hill, with its won- 
 derful system perfected in every detail, to
 
 1 70 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 struggle with problems of school life and ad- 
 ministration in the making can appreciate to 
 the full the debt of gratitude that every man 
 who came under the influence of his person- 
 ality and character owes to John Meigs. In 
 the first years of my work as a headmaster, 
 when I was confronted by many and varied 
 problems, I found that I invariably asked my- 
 self the question, ' What would Professor do 
 in this case?' and the astounding thing to 
 me was that just as invariably I seemed to 
 find the answer. I had stored away in my 
 mind unconsciously a very clear impression 
 of what he would do under the circumstances. 
 I have no doubt my experience has been 
 that of the many other men who have gone 
 out from The Hill into executive positions, 
 only to find how great is the debt they owe 
 to the spirit and genius of the great Head- 
 master under whose guiding influence our 
 powers were trained, our characters molded, 
 our ideals fixed." 
 
 And from under the shadow of the great 
 war, Professor W. S. Milner, of the Univer- 
 sity of Toronto, Canada, who also was once 
 a master at The Hill, thus expressed what 
 the spirit of John Meigs meant to the lives 
 it touched: 
 
 " I could wish no greater thing for my 
 country, in this great hour of her history, 
 than the appearance at the close of the war 
 of only a few such schoolmasters. They
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 171 
 
 would affect our whole future. For it is the 
 simple truth that here was a man with a 
 genius for organization, with abounding vital- 
 ity and a passionate zest for life, with ex- 
 traordinary power over his fellow men, living 
 in a period when the fantastic could be made 
 the actual, who deliberately put from him 
 thoughts of material achievement, and gave 
 himself not to the bending or breaking, but 
 to the making of men." 
 
 In the address on "The Ideal Home 
 School," the first address from which we 
 quoted John Meigs goes on after speaking 
 of the masters to speak of the influence of 
 the older boys upon their younger compan- 
 ions. He tried at The Hill to make use of 
 this to the utmost, by his personal touch upon 
 the older boys. In this respect more than 
 in almost any other it is impossible to dis- 
 entangle his own work from what Mrs. 
 Meigs did at his side. Between them they 
 would bring to bear upon the stronger boys 
 the power of a very great and challenging 
 expectation, and they made these boys feel 
 that in their hands rested not infrequently 
 the real shaping of the spirit of the school. 
 There was a Christian Association, open to 
 all the boys, which held its services every 
 Wednesday evening in the three-quarters of 
 an hour between supper and study-hour, the
 
 172 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 commencement of which was postponed 
 thirty minutes; and though different masters 
 were often invited to lead these, the conduct of 
 them was more often in the hands of the boys 
 themselves. Here was a chance for the in- 
 fluential boys to keep lifting up before the 
 others their own fine insistence on manliness 
 and honor and the sort of religious loyalty 
 which was linked directly up to the duties of 
 every day ; and John Meigs was always swift 
 to reinforce this opportunity by his advice 
 and counsel to the boys concerned. But in 
 the main, of course, the sort of leadership to 
 which he inspired the picked boys could not 
 be traced in definite times and places. It 
 concerned rather the spirit and ideals of work 
 and conduct which they themselves were led 
 to believe in, and which through them would 
 pervade the public sentiment of the school. 
 
 His own genuineness, and his keen sense 
 of the ridiculous, kept him from ever falling 
 into the danger of encouraging the kind of 
 exclamatory pretense which sometimes passes 
 for religion. He himself was never profane 
 in so much as a syllable, but there is a story 
 of how he listened once, with peals of laugh- 
 ter, to one of the best-loved masters, who was 
 a great wag, describing, to the confusion of 
 a second master, the indignation of this 
 second one over a boy named James whom
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 173 
 
 he had vehemently pronounced to be a 
 
 "d d pious hag." The religion which 
 
 John Meigs led the boys to understand and 
 seek after was no artificial piousness; but it 
 was a deep and manly and straightforward 
 choice of Christ as pattern and Master and 
 Lord. Under the title, "Religious Work in 
 Secondary Schools," he once made his ideals 
 plain : 
 
 " As with the aspiring athlete and the eager 
 learner, so must it be with the young Chris- 
 tian. He must be taught to study the great 
 Book of rules for daily living; to seek his 
 great Captain in difficulty, and ask for guid- 
 ance in prayer; to heed the coach who has 
 gained wisdom and victory in his longer game 
 of life; and to share counsels, joys and confi- 
 dences in brotherly meetings for prayer. He 
 must realize that the test of his religious life 
 is what he is, and what he does, when he is 
 not on his knees in prayer, not reading his 
 Bible, not listening to great preachers, and 
 not participating in religious meetings. 
 
 " The fellows who are Christian leaders 
 should be as carefully trained as football and 
 baseball captains, and great stress should be 
 laid on these pivotal members of the spiritual 
 forces of the school. Just here lies the great 
 peril of all organized religious training in 
 schools. It is so easy for these things to be- 
 come merely traditional or perfunctory, or, 
 worse still, a pitiable sop to the Cerberus of
 
 174 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 school authorities, who are often presumed 
 by boys to be incapable of differentiating the 
 real from the unreal, and to enjoy existence 
 in a fool's paradise." 
 
 It was not unusual for John Meigs to pick 
 out for responsibility boys whose record on 
 the surface seemed unpromising. He had a 
 keen eye to judge the real possibilities of 
 loyal strength that might lie hidden under 
 the turbulent and undisciplined exterior. 
 
 A memorandum among his papers contains 
 these words: 
 
 "The largest, strongest characters among 
 boys who make the most trouble most need 
 to find their place. They most truly have a 
 place to find. The commonplace boy fits in 
 anywhere and makes no trouble; but in that 
 graceless, awkward, interfering character is 
 a real pivot if you can help it into its right 
 place to help hold the world together and 
 let others revolve on it." 
 
 Here is an incident which reflects his deal- 
 ing with the sort of boy just spoken of, told 
 in the words of the lad concerned : 
 
 " The afternoon of the track meet with Law- 
 renceville on their grounds in the spring of 
 1905, Professor, on learning that we had won 
 by a very close score after a most exciting
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 175 
 
 meet, called another boy and myself to the 
 study. We did not go to the meet with the 
 rest of the Sixth Formers, because of divers 
 * D ' lists, and perhaps other causes, too, 
 which is not unlikely, although I have for- 
 gotten. Professor's interview with us was 
 short ; he briefly told us that we were to have 
 charge of the whole school that evening in 
 all things pertaining to the welcoming of the 
 team home and the celebration; that the boys 
 should not go off bounds; that we could have 
 certain fireworks and a bonfire, but that we 
 personally would be responsible for any 
 breach of discipline by anyone, and that he 
 would announce to the school that we two 
 were in charge of them. This was all the 
 more surprising to me because Professor 
 raked me over the coals severely only a day 
 or so before for my poor stand in studies 
 and for bad conduct. I won't go into detail 
 as to how it all went off. It suffices to say 
 that the fellows behaved themselves better 
 than anyone expected. Within a day or so 
 Professor called me to the study, as I 
 believe he had already done with the other 
 boy, complimented me on the manner with 
 which everything went off, and finished by 
 saying: 'You mustn't think I tried to put 
 the school on its honor not to have a repeti- 
 tion of that wild outbreak we had on the 
 return of the football team from Hotchkiss 
 last fall. It was not that, though I knew 
 this way would be effectual, but I just wanted 
 to find out, Ted, what sort of stuff you and 
 Neil were made of.' "
 
 176 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 And with reference to the responsibility 
 which he felt for boys who seemed unrespon- 
 sive to the best things, he wrote: 
 
 "How shall this influence be exerted? 
 First of all, it must be realized that as possi- 
 ble physical strength and skill may be latent 
 in even the weakest boy, and splendid mental 
 attainments in the dullest lad, so spiritual 
 vitality is possible to the worst fellow. He 
 who would awaken the religious life of a boy 
 must first believe that it is there potentially; 
 the greater his faith, the greater the possi- 
 bility of awakening that of the boy. He must 
 avail himself of every opportunity to become 
 acquainted with the individual boy's temper- 
 amental characteristics. This costs. It takes 
 far more than time. It involves the highest 
 'law of life the old familiar principle that 
 under the divine economy we must lose to 
 gain, and give to get; and as no two boys 
 possess identical characteristics, so can no 
 two boys be reached by precisely the same 
 method. One must therefore know or learn 
 human nature, even through bitter experience 
 and by failure no less than by success; and 
 there will be many a one to the door of 
 whose heart he may not find the key. It 
 may be that only one of the three mighty 
 ones, Love, Life and Death, will hold the 
 key that shall release the slumbering spirit 
 years hence; yet it is our business to knock 
 at the door, try every key that we possess, 
 and, failing, go on undiscouraged to minister
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 177 
 
 to others for whom we may unlock the mys- 
 teries of the kingdom of God." 
 
 And again: 
 
 " Up to twenty no one can truly say that 
 a boy is absolutely bad, or thoroughly good. 
 His vices and virtues seem to lose definition 
 as in a moral twilight. The average bad boy, 
 so called, with wayward tendencies and love 
 of mental ease and physical activity, may have 
 incipient vices contrasted with his many lov- 
 ing impulses and generous deeds, while the 
 good boy, so called, of clean and moral life 
 is too often selfish, unsympathetic, conceited 
 and censorious. Someone has said: 
 
 " ' In men whom men pronounce as ill 
 I find so much of goodness still; 
 In men whom men pronounce divine 
 
 I find so much of sin and blot ; 
 I hesitate to draw the line 
 
 Between the two when God has not.' 
 
 And, yet, when all has been said and done, 
 despite the best surroundings for a boy's 
 home life, and the most approved methods 
 to stimulate religious consciousness and serv- 
 ice, the force that awakens the spiritual life 
 of a boy and inspires him with ideals is above 
 all method and defies all analysis. Though a 
 man have faith in the religious nature of a 
 boy; though he have hope of the potential 
 goodness within him, if he have not love it 
 profiteth him nothing. The coach who wins 
 loyalty, devotion, and co-operation is he who
 
 178 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 spends himself for his boys; the teacher who 
 inspires the love of knowledge and fidelity in 
 the quest of it is he who with all his giving 
 to his pupils gives a deep personal interest in 
 their lives and characters; and he who would 
 guide the spirit of a youth through the period 
 when ' childish things ' are being put away 
 and manhood's armor put on must meet the 
 individual boy with a heart kindled by a 
 spark of God's love for His weakest child, 
 must sit at the feet of the Great Teacher 
 who spake as never man spake, must have the 
 eyes of his understanding enlightened by the 
 Spirit of All Truth, and above all possess 
 that love which hopeth, believeth and en- 
 dureth all things. The first Christians saw 
 God in His diyinest relation through the 
 human friendship of Christ; and He who 
 would lead His other sons along the same 
 path as our Great Master must strive to give 
 the same human friendship to him in whom 
 he would awaken and deepen the conscious- 
 ness of his birthright and his sonship in the 
 Kingdom of God." 
 
 The boys responded to his trust because, 
 instinctively, they felt that underneath his 
 authority and his discipline which could be 
 swift and severe there was the heart of the 
 man who understood the boys' enthusiasms 
 and the boys' resentments, too. In their mo- 
 ments of truest realization they knew what 
 he was, and what he was trying to do for 
 them. "To me," wrote one, "he was never
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 179 
 
 an aloof personality, never just a headmas- 
 ter or a very good man; he was just human; 
 got mad quickly, forgave twice as quickly, 
 knew and recognized the boy's code of jus- 
 tice, and, what was more, lived up to it; for 
 when he was wrong he admitted it so fairly 
 and impetuously that the boy who thought 
 that he had been wronged, when he went into 
 the study, left there a staunch ally of Pro- 
 fessor, the school and the whole institution 
 of justice." 
 
 Sometimes the fact that he was "just hu- 
 man " led to funny consequences. Once in 
 the Wednesday night service of the Christian 
 Association of the school, one of the boys 
 was telling the other boys that they ought to 
 make it a point to know the Professor. He 
 was very emphatic about it, and told them 
 that they ought to go to his study now and 
 then just to see him and talk about things in 
 general. One boy, at least, thought this was a 
 good idea ; so a day or two after that he went 
 to the headmaster's door and rang the bell. 
 The little electric latch clicked, and the door 
 opened. The boy walked in. The Professor 
 was sitting bent over his desk at the far end 
 of the big room, deep in some pressing work. 
 As the boy paused he looked up suddenly, 
 and shot out "What do you want?" The 
 boy stood speechless, and as soon as he re-
 
 i8o THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 covered his wits, he decided he did not want 
 anything, and beat an immediate and silent 
 retreat. 
 
 But the " humanness " of him showed itself 
 more characteristically in the swift intuition 
 which understood the boys and mingled au- 
 thority with playful tact. One day a boy 
 came into the study to ask permission to go 
 away for a visit to near-by relatives over 
 Sunday. The headmaster seized him with 
 mock roughness, ran his hand through 
 the boy's shaggy hair, pulled a quarter from 
 his pocket, and announced, " No boy of mine 
 can go away from this school with such a 
 looking head of hair as that. Take this to 
 the barber with my compliments, and then 
 come back and we'll see what we can do." 
 The boy returned presently, bringing back 
 the quarter, to get his permission to go away 
 shorn, and in a general aspect of grins and 
 neatness which passed inspection trium- 
 phantly. 
 
 He knew how, also, to lay aside the rela- 
 tionship of headmaster and share fun with 
 others on their own terms. Here is an inci- 
 dent which Mr. Rolfe, one of the masters, re- 
 calls: 
 
 " Professor was as jolly and care-free as a 
 boy when he was away from the school and
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 181 
 
 its responsibilities. I went with him and 
 three or four boys once to visit a famous 
 authority on Indian relics, who lived near 
 Trenton. The day was one long lark, and 
 finally we persuaded Professor to share our 
 chewing-gum. He chewed vigorously for a 
 while, but as we approached the house of our 
 distinguished host, he thought it wise to re- 
 move the gum and throw it away. It stuck 
 to his ringers and finally, to our great delight, 
 he sat down to dinner with hands well be- 
 smeared with the sticky stuff. He seemed to 
 enjoy the joke as well as anyone, and we 
 were all delighted to see that Professor could 
 lay aside his dignity and be a boy with boys.'* 
 
 So, in spite of the fact that he was often 
 under tremendous pressure in the work of 
 the school and sometimes seemed swift and 
 summary in his decisions, the boys knew that 
 his spirit kept its kinship with their own. 
 They knew it best of all in the times when 
 they thought they had reason to fear him. 
 Once, at one of the reunions of the Alumni 
 which came every year in May one of the 
 men who had blundered badly was thanking 
 the Professor for his kindness and considera- 
 tion for him ; and he replied " Dick, we are 
 all of us so very human." 
 
 " O Howard ! " he wrote to one of them, as 
 he recounted the way in which at the end of 
 the school year certain boys had revealed in 
 themselves so much more that was fine than
 
 1 82 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 he had given the credit for being there, " what 
 lessons of forbearance and charity and love 
 we all need to gather!" 
 
 His own great eagerness to find in a boy 
 all that was best, to recognize it and to bring 
 it in spite of all difficulties to expression, 
 showed itself most impressively in his attitude 
 toward the boys whom he had to expel. When 
 a boy's influence seemed to him hurtful to 
 the school, he could be relentless against all 
 pleading of parents that he should remain; 
 yet none the less his own affection suffered 
 keenly, and he left nothing undone to show 
 that though the boy had failed at The Hill, 
 he would do all that he could to help him else- 
 where not to be a failure. 
 
 "You will believe," he writes to a mother 
 whose son has broken a rule for which the 
 penalty was expulsion, " that nothing but the 
 most urgent duty to the school could con- 
 strain me to take a step which my heart so 
 shrinks from for your sake and ours; and if 
 in any way, now, or hereafter, I can be of 
 service to you, by counsel or suggestion, I 
 pray that you will give me this poor boon that 
 may mitigate perhaps my sorrow in view of 
 my helplessness now to serve you as my affec- 
 tion would prompt. 
 
 " I need not assure you that as N. ... 
 goes from us he will be attended by our af-
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 183 
 
 fectionate prayers for his strengthening and 
 quickening in the supreme matter of unselfish- 
 ness, which more and more appears to me to 
 be the foundation and culmination of that 
 which is to be desired in this life." 
 
 To the guardian of another boy he wrote of 
 his feeling that the boy " with his past record 
 might be a more acceptable member of a day 
 school than of a family school, his present life 
 in either, so far as overt acts are concerned, 
 being free from the grave faults of the past. 
 I feel less and less, year by year, like prophe- 
 sying as to the future of any boy, no matter 
 how flagrant may be his boyish delinquencies, 
 and I stand ready to co-operate with any boy 
 who sincerely desires a new life and who, 
 from the circumstances of the case, can better 
 pursue that life elsewhere than here." 
 
 To the head of another school he wrote, 
 concerning a boy whom he had sent away 
 from The Hill: 
 
 " My letter of this morning was somewhat 
 abbreviated owing to my desire to reach an 
 early mail, and I feel that I am hardly doing 
 justice to you or to myself to allow my brief 
 communication of this morning to stand for 
 my final word in such questions as may be in- 
 volved in the dismissal of a boy by one school 
 and the recommendation to a friend to give 
 him a new life, especially under such circum-
 
 1 84 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 " I believe that we schoolmasters must be 
 men not only of a ' larger hope/ but of the 
 largest possible hope; that were it not for this 
 our responsibilities would crush the joy out 
 of our lives. And as my years increase and, 
 perhaps, my infirmities of mind as well, I seem 
 to be conscious of a deeper sorrow, approach- 
 ing agony at times, when, to prevent confu- 
 sion of moral distinctions in the minds of my 
 other boys, I am compelled to adopt the he- 
 roic course of dismissal in the case of any lad. 
 
 " I cannot help reaching out a hand to him, 
 despite his well-merited discipline, and yearn- 
 ing over him as he leaves The Hill as if it 
 were his birthright to be here, so far as any 
 act of mine is concerned. I want to give each 
 boy in such a case a fresh start. I believe 
 that most boys experience so violent a shock 
 in undergoing this discipline that, if their fault 
 is frankly acknowledged and earnestly re- 
 pented, they are likely to learn a lifelong les- 
 son from the ordeal. 
 
 "... has confessed and declared both his, 
 desire and purpose to lead a blameless life,' 
 if only he can have a new chance. His father 
 is a man for whom I have the highest regard, 
 and will reinforce to the uttermost anything 
 that can be done to uphold and strengthen his 
 boy. If you can take him into your school, 
 knowing as you do the truth in the case, I 
 know that you will merit the grateful appro- 
 bation of those most deeply involved and of, 
 " Yours most faithfully, 
 
 "John Meigs."
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 185 
 
 His faithful sense of a bond with every boy 
 who had ever been at The Hill continued to- 
 ward these boys whom he had sent away. 
 Though they might not remain as boys in the 
 life of the school, he wanted them to feel that 
 his sympathy followed them, and that in after 
 years there was always a welcome for them 
 if they came back to The Hill. When he was 
 ill and away from the school in 1907, he wrote 
 back to one of the masters who was working 
 to compile a list of all The Hill boys of 
 former years: 
 
 " This is a great work the reclaiming of 
 missing, perhaps lost, sons whom we shall 
 welcome in scriptural terms nor do I believe 
 that the grouchy elder brother of the parable 
 will be found to chill the prodigal's or the 
 father's heart/' 
 
 Not only in relation to the crisis of boys' 
 transgressions, but in happier and also in 
 more playful circumstances he would often 
 show his affection for the boys who came to 
 The Hill, and his quick understanding of those 
 things which in themselves are little, but 
 which to a boy can mean so unforgetably 
 much. Here is one incident which the boy 
 who was concerned in it told, and there were 
 others like it.
 
 1 86 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 " Professor did a thing for me once, so 
 thoughtful and so generous that the mere tell- 
 ing of it cannot fail to appeal to the genera- 
 tions of boys as they come on. In the fall 
 of either '97 or '98, I was on the football team, 
 was in poor scholastic standing, and was al- 
 together, I fear, rather a trial. Our season 
 was almost ended, and one of the great games 
 was to be played in Philadelphia ; it was either 
 Harvard vs. Penn, or Penn vs. Indians, I can- 
 not remember which, and was to be played 
 on a Saturday. Friday, Professor announced 
 that the team could go to the game, and then 
 half jokingly added ' Will any member of 
 the team who is not going please hold up his 
 hand?' It so happened that I had no money 
 at all, and not caring to borrow, held up my 
 hand to show that I could not go. I, of 
 course, was disappointed, particularly so as 
 all the rest were so excited about the pros- 
 pect of seeing the game, but was reconciled 
 to my fate until late that night or early the 
 next morning I forget which when Pro- 
 fessor's boy came over to my room and said 
 that Professor wished me to go to the game 
 as his guest. Of course, I went; and the next 
 morning in the train Professor called me to 
 him, laughingly showed me that he under- 
 stood my predicament, gave me five dollars for 
 incidental expenses, and insisted that I be his 
 guest for the party. It all struck me as being 
 so thoughtful, and showing so much insight 
 into my little part in the school life, that I 
 would have jumped off the water tower for 
 him at a moment's notice."
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 187 
 
 Here and there also, from among the copies 
 <bf his letters and the recollections of the boys, 
 can be gleaned the evidences of the generosity 
 with which he met the difficulties of those 
 who wanted to be at The Hill and, because 
 of lack of money, thought they could not. 
 
 In the carbon files of his correspondence for 
 1892, there is this letter to a father who had 
 written to say that financial reverses would 
 make it impossible for him to send his son 
 back: 
 
 " I trust you will not misunderstand me 
 when I say that it will afford me great pleas- 
 ure to expedite the matter in any way within 
 my power. ... I should esteem it a pleas- 
 ure and a privilege to so abate the regular 
 terms as to make it possible for C. ... to 
 return. 
 
 " I need not say that no one, not even Mrs. 
 Meigs, need know of this proffer, and my 
 heart goes with the invitation that I shall 
 feel robbed of a personal privilege if you deem 
 it inexpedient to accept my suggestion in the 
 spirit of cordiality and fraternal feeling in 
 which it is offered. 
 
 " C. . . . has so won our confidence and 
 respect, and has so honestly and so loyally util- 
 ized the advantages of the school that I should 
 welcome him under the conditions that I have 
 indicated, to our household and school for 
 another year. 
 
 " Permit me to say that it has been my
 
 1 88 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 happiness to do this very thing in the case 
 of other boys on less assuring personal 
 grounds, and as I shall feel in my heart of 
 hearts so sincerely that you have done me a 
 favor in meeting me half-way in the matter, 
 there can never come up a question or sug- 
 gestion of an obligation save that which a 
 fraternal spirit is glad to recognize. 
 
 " Do let me hear from you at your con- 
 venience, and be assured of my earnest hope 
 that we may number C. . . . among our 
 boys in a larger and deeper sense next year 
 than ever before." 
 
 In one of his letters to his wife he wrote : 
 
 " I think seriously of taking D. . . . for- 
 cibly and putting him on his feet in respect 
 of a college preparation at least. I have 
 learned of his kindly, self-helpful and hard- 
 working methods by which he is slowly ad- 
 vancing, and I hope to do more with the 
 gritty little chap." 
 
 From one of the boys conies this further 
 record : 
 
 " My most vivid recollection of him was the 
 time my mother came to take me away to 
 another school. Professor, before he had 
 even seen me, offered to prepare me for col- 
 lege for less than the regular rate. He knew 
 my family had very little money. About a 
 month after my arrival at school a friend se- 
 cured a free scholarship for me at Lawrence-
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 189 
 
 ville. When my mother came for me, we 
 went to the study to say good-by to Pro- 
 fessor and thank him for having taken me 
 as he had. In that short time I had grown 
 to love the school and those connected with 
 it. I broke down as I was saying good-by. 
 This so touched Professor that he offered me 
 a free scholarship at The Hill. I spent the 
 three happiest years of my life at school, and 
 never did he make me feel that I was on a 
 different footing from that of any of the other 
 boys." 
 
 At this point it is fitting to tell the singular 
 and romantic story of one especial lad whom 
 John Meigs befriended. The story has its 
 beginning in Japan. 
 
 In a Samurai family of noble rank and an- 
 cient inheritance the boy with whom the 
 story has to do was born. He was trained 
 in all the traditions of Japanese culture and 
 in the religion of his forefathers. Once, when 
 his little sister was sick, his grandmother 
 bade him go and pray to the god of the shrine 
 under the fir tree. So up the hill he went 
 to pray to the god of the fir tree. And since 
 his sister recovered this god served to satisfy 
 his boyish religious ideals. 
 
 Later, as he grew up, he went as a student 
 to the Imperial University at Tokio. By this 
 time he had begun to ask questions which 
 none of the religious teachers whom he found
 
 1 90 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 could answer. He was particularly concerned 
 about the question of life after death. He 
 could not bring himself to think that after 
 the life here on this earth, the soul perished 
 with the body. But from the ancient reli- 
 gions of Japan he could get no clear accounts. 
 Neither could he find any satisfaction from 
 the Buddhist priests. They talked of an ab- 
 sorption into the universal spirit. But he did 
 not want to be absorbed. Without knowing 
 exactly what he sought, he knew that his 
 spirit, with a kind of imperial insistence, was 
 seeking after a more personal and uplifting 
 message. 
 
 One day he was passing by She entrance 
 to the park in Tokio. There a missionary 
 was standing, selling books. Kentaro which 
 is the name we shall call him by, since for 
 certain reasons it is not fitting that we should 
 use his own was arrested by what the man 
 was saying, " Everlasting life ! Everlasting 
 life ! If you drink this you will live forever ! " 
 Kentaro stopped and bought one of the books 
 he was selling. He went home with it; and 
 when he had gone into his own room, he sat 
 down to investigate what the thing was that 
 he had bought. To his indignation he found 
 that it was a New Testament the book of 
 the "foreign devils" propaganda of the re- 
 ligion he had been trained to despise. He
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 191 
 
 took it back furiously to the old man at the 
 gate of the park. With hot abuse he de- 
 manded that he give him back his money. 
 The old man started to comply, but he 
 asked him, "Have you read it?" Kentaro 
 said contemptuously that he had not. Then 
 the man replied, " I see by your cap that you 
 are a university student. I presume that you 
 have studied logic. You have been taught 
 that it is not logic to condemn something 
 which you have not proved by reading. Will 
 you not take this book and read it? That is 
 all I ask of you. If, after you have read it, 
 you want your money back, I will give it to 
 you cheerfully." Kentaro was struck by that 
 appeal. That was fair, he recognized. So 
 he took the book home again in order that 
 he might read it. 
 
 Once again he went into his room alone. 
 He opened the book and turned the pages 
 carelessly. This was what his eyes fell upon: 
 " God so loved the world that He gave His 
 only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in 
 Him should not perish, but have everlasting 
 life." The words went through him like an 
 electric shock. Here was something that 
 claimed to be an answer to his seeking. 
 
 Time went by. Kentaro read the book 
 more and more. He became a Christian. 
 One day he went back to the old man at the
 
 192 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 entrance of the park and told him so. The 
 old man burst out weeping. " Ten years," 
 he said, " I have been selling New Testaments 
 here at the park gates, and you are the first 
 who has ever come to tell me you were 
 helped." 
 
 But when his father found that his son had 
 accepted the foreign religion, all the scornful 
 pride of his ancient traditions and his ancient 
 prejudices rose hot within him. When the 
 boy came next into his room he found on his 
 table the naked hara-kiri sword. He did not 
 need to be told what it meant. As one of 
 the Samurai he knew. He was regarded to 
 have besmirched the honor of the family, and 
 he should kill himself by his own hand. He 
 took up the sword and prepared very coolly 
 to carry out his father's purpose. 
 
 When he was ready he knelt down first to 
 pray. Then of a sudden it seemed as though 
 a message came to him, clear and vivid as a 
 living voice. " Your earthly father has cast 
 you off. Commit yourself to your heavenly 
 Father." He rose from his knees. He put 
 the sword back into its sheath. 
 
 Not long afterward he left home an exile. 
 He came to America seeking a Christian land 
 and Christian guidance. All his life he had 
 been accustomed to luxuries. He was penni- 
 less now, an alien in a new land, faced with
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 193 
 
 dismaying hardships. He made his way to 
 Washington, seeking help and advice from 
 the Japanese embassy. He was told that his 
 father had forewarned the embassy that no 
 help should be given him. 
 
 From Washington he reached New York 
 with five cents in his pocket. He spent it 
 to take a street car to Central Park. There 
 he sat down on a bench, homeless, friend- 
 less, and knowing hardly a word of the lan- 
 guage of those who went by him in the great, 
 strange city. He meant to spend the night 
 on the bench, but a policeman arrested him 
 and took him to the lock-up. He had in 
 his pocket a little English dictionary, and he 
 opened it and pointed to the word " inno- 
 cent." The officer was impressed, and sent 
 him to the Bible House, where he was be- 
 friended and put in the way of employment. 
 
 He made his way then, as best he could. 
 For a while he sailed on a coast-wise ship 
 along New England; once was wrecked and 
 almost drowned. He worked on farms, and 
 as a servant. Finally, when he was a serv- 
 ant in the house of a family in the city of 
 New York, the family became interested in 
 him. They learned the story of his birth and 
 breeding and of the adventure that had 
 brought him to America. They made him not 
 a servant, but a brother and friend.
 
 i 9 4 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 A son of the family was secretary to the 
 China Inland Mission, in Toronto, and there 
 Kentaro went. Another official of the mis- 
 sion in a nearby city took the lad into his 
 home in order that he might attend the local 
 high school, but later when this friend suf- 
 fered financial reverses, it was necessary that 
 Kentaro should find some definite way of 
 livelihood. One of the sons of the family 
 had been to The Hill, and he wrote to Dr. 
 Meigs asking him if he would put Kentaro on 
 the list of the lecturers whom he used to have 
 come from time to time to speak to the boys. 
 Kentaro went to The Hill to speak about 
 Japan. When he got there John Meigs 
 claimed him and kept him. He was to stay 
 at The Hill School henceforth and did stay 
 to the end of his short life. 
 
 Kentaro was very popular with the boys, but 
 his great work was done outside the school. 
 Out in the quarter of Pottstown which lay 
 beyond the school, he developed a mission 
 he, the Christian from Japan, bringing Christ 
 to the people in a Christian land. He had an 
 almost marvelous influence over the people. 
 He loved them and they loved him. He was 
 intimate with all their homes, and all their 
 problems, and all their interests. He shep- 
 herded them one by one old and young. 
 A chapel was built and he was superin-
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 195 
 
 tendent of the Sunday school and minister, 
 too. 
 
 So, for three years, his life and work went 
 on. He lived at the school, but he worked 
 mostly at the mission. In the summer he 
 generally used to go and visit some of the 
 boys, who were devoted to him and used to 
 invite him to their homes. 
 
 At the beginning of the third summer he 
 had not been well. He caught a deep cold 
 which seemed to have become fastened upon 
 him. It went into swift consumption; but no 
 one knew it. 
 
 Some weeks before the opening of the 
 school in the fall, Dr. Meigs wrote him that 
 the family were going back to The Hill, and 
 that they would expect him when they were 
 back. But Kentaro, with a sensitive etiquette 
 that had been bred into the nature of him, 
 had a feeling that he should not come back 
 to The Hill until at least twenty-four hours 
 after the family had arrived and been settled. 
 It chanced that he arrived in Philadelphia 
 a good many hours before that period which 
 he had set for himself had elapsed. He stayed 
 in the station all day instead of taking the 
 first train for Pottstown. He was consumed 
 then with fever. 
 
 That night, as Dr. Meigs was sitting at the 
 supper table, he saw Kentaro pass the window.
 
 196 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 He rushed out to meet him. The boy stag- 
 gered and fell into his arms. 
 
 He was put to bed at once, and it was plain 
 that he was very ill. Before many days the 
 doctors told Mrs. Meigs that his death was 
 near. She determined that she would let him 
 know. 
 
 So one day she went into his room and she 
 said, " I have some wonderful news for you." 
 
 He was lying back weakly on the pillows, 
 but the black eyes flashed in surprised antici- 
 pation. 
 
 " You are going," she said, " on a long and 
 wonderful journey. The most wonderful 
 journey in all the world." 
 
 " I," he said wonderingly, "I on a jour- 
 ney?" 
 
 "Yes," she said; "you are going to where 
 you will see Jesus Christ." 
 
 He lifted himself up on his elbow, " You 
 mean," he said, " that I am going to die? " 
 
 " Yes," she said, " that is one way men 
 call it." 
 
 "Soon?" he questioned. 
 
 " It may be very soon," she answered. " It 
 may be even to-night." 
 
 He lay back on his pillow and a great light 
 filled all his face. " To think," he said, " that 
 I may see Jesus Christ; that I may see my 
 Master, it may be even to-night! "
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 197 
 
 So, not very long afterward, he went on 
 his wonderful journey. Up in the sky parlor 
 of The Hill School is the hara-kiri sword, 
 with it seven-hundred-years-old Damascus 
 blade, keen and shining. On the hill opposite 
 the school stands the tower of the chapel 
 where Christ was preached and where He is 
 worshiped to-day through the influence of 
 the exile from across the seas, whom the 
 hearts of John Meigs and his wife received 
 and sheltered. 
 
 From two of the boys of The Hill come 
 the following: 
 
 "When I think' of Professor, instantly I 
 find myself thinking of almost everything 
 that was characteristic of The Hill, and to 
 try to describe what he was is no less an un- 
 dertaking than to describe the whole spirit 
 and genius of the school. And not any one 
 of us, and hardly all of us together, can do 
 that. 
 
 " I remember when I first saw him. It 
 was the night in September, 1897, before 
 school opened. I came by myself from the 
 depot in Pottstown up to the school, lonely 
 and a little afraid of the school I was coming 
 to, because it seemed so far from home, and 
 because everything about it was so utterly 
 unknown and strange. The carriage I came 
 in stopped at the front of the steps leading 
 up to the front door of the school. I went
 
 198 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 up them and rang the bell. A boy opened 
 the door, and I told him who I was, and then 
 from somewhere the Professor came, great, 
 hearty, loving, with his hands outstretched 
 to greet the shy new-comer, and instantly 
 his welcome made the whole school seem a 
 friendly place." 
 
 " I came to The Hill knowing no boys nor 
 any teachers. I had never been separated from 
 some members of the family before in my 
 life, and being thus left apparently the only 
 friendless boy in the school, I became fright- 
 fully homesick. The Professor had always 
 been held up to me as one to be respected 
 and admired, but never to be approached. 
 When I could stand it no longer, I scraped 
 up courage and rang his study door-bell. In- 
 stead of confronting the stern disciplinarian 
 I expected, I received a heart and hand as 
 kind as ever a mother's could be. When I 
 had told, with tears running down my cheeks, 
 how I should die if I remained in school any 
 longer, Professor Meigs took one of my hands 
 in his and talked to me as I never hope to 
 be talked to again. He sympathized with me, 
 told me how my parents wished me to stay, 
 and ended by saying that he always liked to 
 have the boys get homesick, for it showed they 
 came from good homes and they would miss 
 The Hill just as much when they left it. I 
 remember I promised to say until Christmas, 
 but in less than a week I had gotten all over 
 those homesick feelings. I never regretted 
 the trouble I had, though, for it showed me
 
 IDEALS FOR THE SCHOOL 199 
 
 the soul of the man whom I never got over 
 loving, although I stood in great awe of him 
 at times." 
 
 Thus to many a boy at The Hill did there 
 come the widening understanding of the 
 many-sided spirit of the man who controlled 
 its life. They knew that he could be stern 
 with the authority of an unflinching purpose; 
 they learned that he could be wondrously 
 loving, too. The time arrived when in veriest 
 truth their hearts, in the words of his ideal, 
 would return to the school "as to the real 
 home of their souls, a haven of imperishable 
 sympathies and high inspirations." And as 
 they have thought of The Hill, they have 
 thought of it as permeated with the per- 
 sonality of John Meigs. They remember his 
 strong voice asking the blessing at each meal 
 when the whole great family sat down to- 
 gether, and in his accents the familiar words 
 come back, " Father in heaven, graciously 
 add Thy blessing to these gifts of Thy love, 
 and accept of us, for Christ's sake. Amen." 
 They remember how in the evenings from 
 the study door he would come striding with 
 that heavy form of his down the " second- 
 hall " and up the stairs to the schoolroom, 
 reaching out suddenly to lay hold of some 
 darting figure of a boy and carry him with 
 him in his arm. They remember him as he
 
 200 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 was at prayers. And remembering him, it is 
 as though they heard again the warm and 
 living voice which spoke from the great heart 
 " so very human," beating at the center of 
 a manhood yearningly akin to the best within 
 themselves; and they know that little by 
 little they learned from him, as "Tom 
 Brown " learned in the chapel at Rugby from 
 Thomas Arnold, "the meaning of this life: 
 that it is no fool's or sluggard's paradise into 
 which one has wandered by chance, but a 
 battlefield ordained from of old, where there 
 are no spectators, but the youngest must take 
 his side, and the stakes are life and death."
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 
 
 The Principles Wrought into the School Insistence on 
 Obedience Hatred of Insincerity and Sham John Meigs' Pas- 
 sion for Purity Physical Training as an Aid to Moral Sound- 
 ness Public Service as the Duty of Privilege Meigs' Own 
 Civic Activities Religious Loyalty as the Goal of His Ideals for 
 the Boys. 
 
 IT is somewhat difficult to indicate a quite 
 clear distinction between the subject of 
 this chapter and that of the one just 
 closed. Both treat of the ideals of John 
 Meigs for The Hill as worked out in the fif- 
 teen years between 1885, when the school 
 came fully into his possession, and 1900. But 
 under this general continuity of subject, there 
 is this difference. The chapter preceding had 
 to do with his ideals as they were related 
 successively to the various classes of persons 
 who made up the life of the school the 
 mother of the family, the masters and the 
 boys. This chapter will deal less directly with 
 persons and more with qualities the quali- 
 ties of mind and heart which he sought to 
 develop in the boys of The Hill. 
 
 He realized keenly that one of the great
 
 202 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 problems of a schoolmaster rises out of the 
 imperfect training in many homes from which 
 boys come. His responsibility was not only 
 to preserve that which the boys with finest 
 family influences had received, but to bring 
 to a number of others that gift of idealism 
 and earnest purpose which the superficiality 
 of their homes had never inspired. Of this 
 he speaks thus in that same address on " The 
 Ideals of the Home School," which was 
 quoted in the previous chapter: 
 
 " The best schoolmaster is only half of the 
 problem the best parent is the other half. 
 Too few boys get a fair start in their homes. 
 
 " The foundation of their education is not 
 laid where alone it can be laid as it should 
 be, through continual care and discipline of 
 the children and of their parents. Boys too 
 often arrive at school quite unfitted for the 
 life that meets them there, because parents 
 do not realize this immense influence of early 
 discipline and training. 
 
 " The reason why we have in this world 
 of ours so many dull and stupid men is be- 
 cause in their early years the patience and 
 love that should have striven to find and de- 
 velop these germs of intelligence were lack- 
 ing in those who had their care. 
 
 " It is easier for a parent to let a child grow 
 up selfish than unselfish; ungrateful than 
 grateful; and thus it comes to pass that a 
 boy enters school ready to take everything
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 203 
 
 he can get in the way of pleasure and self- 
 gratification, and feeling resentment against 
 any rule which seems to prevent indulgence 
 of this gratification. It is really late to learn 
 to give up because he ought. 
 
 " It should be a parent's aim to have his 
 boy what every boy ought to be. A young 
 girl is apt to be trained to give up a boy to 
 demand. In tacitly allowing in childhood one 
 sex to look down upon the other, the founda- 
 tion is laid of the spirit by which a man gains 
 the advantage, when he is grown up, of being 
 able to despise what he uses for his own sel- 
 fish purpose. 
 
 " Our truly unselfish men are those who 
 either through their homes or through some 
 other outside cause have been controlled dur- 
 ing their boyhood and young manhood, and 
 thus drawn out of themselves and forced into 
 action for some idealistic motive." 
 
 In the first sentence of this same address, 
 it will be remembered, he had said : " In the 
 ideal home boys are early taught obedience, 
 truthfulness, purity, unselfishness, service." 
 
 As between the boys who had, and the boys 
 who had not been thus taught at home, there 
 was a difference in the difficulty of the task 
 which faced him in the school, but for all 
 alike it was directed to the same end. He 
 wanted to deepen in those who particularly 
 understood, and to create in those who had 
 still to learn, the realization of what obe-
 
 204 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 dience, truthfulness, purity, unselfishness, 
 service, meant for them. 
 
 The obedience of which he spoke was no 
 slavish subjection to a reign of fear. It stood 
 in his thoughts for the boy's willing con- 
 formity to the right standards of the school 
 which all must accept who were to accept 
 its life. On this point he could have no re- 
 fusal and no evasion. " His vital and fatal 
 lack," he wrote to the father of one boy who 
 was about to be sent away, " is that of obe- 
 dience. He has so indulged himself that self- 
 pleasing is the law of his life, and deference 
 to a higher law seems repugnant to the boy. 
 ... It is needless for me to specialize his 
 derelictions; they have all lain along the line 
 of disloyalty to our known rules and wishes, 
 and even in several instances where he had 
 received particular instructions and cautions, 
 we have had to recognize the same spirit of 
 pertinacious wilfulness and insubordination. 
 The reflex action of such a spirit upon 
 younger boys, and even upon older ones, if 
 it be unchecked and unchanged by such re- 
 strictions and discipline as are brought to 
 bear upon it, is of a grievous nature, and 
 your . . . experience will reinforce my po- 
 sition touching the vital necessity of submis-
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 205 
 
 sion to law as the primal condition of moral, 
 as well as physical, life and well-being." 
 
 That obedience meant in his thought not the 
 mere submission to rules which forbade 
 wrongdoing, but rather the earnest and manly 
 willingness to take up loyally the work of the 
 school, is well revealed in this other letter to 
 the parents of a boy who, though continually 
 promising to do better, persisted in an evasive 
 and shifty idleness: 
 
 "I agree . . . that his faults are rather 
 negative than positive. . . . Yet so quickly 
 repentant a temperament is, in some respects, 
 a less promising one than is revealed by a 
 persistency or determination in wrong-doing. 
 In the latter case, it often is a question of 
 direction; in the former, a question of purpose 
 and power. We must strive patiently to 
 rouse in him a manlier and more purposeful 
 spirit. He must be made to feel that there 
 is (for him) a greater moral danger in aim- 
 lessness than in misdirected aim." 
 
 Against such vacillation and shiftlessness, 
 his call was as he once wrote it " to gird 
 yourself with might in the inner man " for 
 that obedience which is not to rules but to 
 the high majesty of accepted duty. " The 
 religion of a boy," he wrote on a penciled 
 memorandum of what was evidently a talk 
 he gave in the school, " means learning what
 
 206 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 duty is and caring much and always for it. 
 All else is accessory; this is essence." 
 
 And with obedience, truthfulness. In no 
 way did John Meigs impress himself more 
 powerfully upon his boys than in his own ab- 
 solute truthfulness and sincerity and his ha- 
 tred of everything mean and false. There 
 was nothing tepid in his moral judgments, 
 and no blurring of distinctions which ought 
 to be kept clear. 
 
 " I think that the first thing which im- 
 pressed me," said one of the boys, " was his 
 hatred of a lie or a sham. This was so im- 
 pressed upon me by one of his talks one 
 morning at prayers, soon after I came, that 
 I made up my mind right there that he would 
 never have to talk about that on my account 
 if I could help it. So many of the boys were 
 afraid of him, afraid because they had done 
 some wrong that he would not forgive them. 
 They did not know his big heart. I have 
 heard many a fellow say, * Well, what shall 
 I tell him ? ' I always said, ' Go and tell the 
 whole truth/ I do not recollect a time when 
 a fellow did go like a man and tell the whole 
 story that he did not get the help that he 
 was seeking and come away feeling that 
 he had a friend he did not know of before he
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 207 
 
 had the talk with Professor. On the other 
 hand, those who went with excuses and the 
 thought of hiding the fault, came out feeling, 
 oh, so mean and small!" 
 And two others said: 
 
 " Professor's strongest characteristic, as I 
 remember it, was his absolute abhorrence of 
 anything that was deceitful or underhanded, 
 and I remember that he never stole in on any 
 of the boys unawares, either in our rooms or 
 in the schoolroom, as his tread down the hall 
 was always distinctly heard; and I do not 
 remember ever having been spied upon by 
 any of the teachers while at The Hill. I 
 think this way of putting the boys on their 
 honor was the thing which impressed me 
 most during my five years at school. 
 
 " I remember the Professor's plain speaking 
 and openness. He never minced matters in 
 talking to us boys in the schoolroom, but I 
 do not think that any fair-minded man, look- 
 ing back upon those days, can doubt for a 
 moment the Professor's devotion to the very 
 highest principles of manhood, which, from 
 the outset, we all knew he insisted on the 
 school's standing for. I am sure that it was 
 due to the Professor's influence, that there 
 was no sneaking and no cheating." 
 
 Yet, though he could feel so intensely in 
 this matter of truthfulness, though he could 
 write to one boy, " Unless you get down to 
 the very bed-rock of character, which is truth-
 
 208 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 speaking and truth-loving, you will be un- 
 able really to change your life," and though 
 in the case of deliberate falsehood he could 
 be as one said of him " terrible as an 
 avenging angel," yet he could be patient and 
 forbearing when he thought that a boy's 
 wrong was capable of some charitable inter- 
 pretation, and very compassionate when a boy 
 confessed manfully and repented. 
 
 " Boys have a great deal of human nature 
 in them," he wrote once, " and men and 
 women are few indeed who do not, on the 
 first impulse, seek to vindicate themselves, 
 despite the apparent or real fault that they 
 may have committed." 
 
 And again: 
 
 " Where a boy does what he knows as well 
 as we to be wrong, and has the honesty and 
 courage to admit it, whatever be the char- 
 acter of the offense, he may be sure that I 
 am ready to go to the death with him 
 while his spirit is right." 
 
 How his heart agonized when the boys had 
 proven false, this letter best can show: 
 
 " Saturday has come and brings with it no 
 cessation of the work and worry that has 
 crowded the week. It seems sometimes as 
 if I were losing my grip on things deeper
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 209 
 
 than physical. I feel that this year more 
 things have happened to humble and discredit 
 me with myself than in almost all prior years 
 combined. I had resolved, vainly, to keep 
 silence as to a most agonizing trial that this 
 week has consummated. We have had to 
 expel four boys for drinking on a driving 
 party, and to put two on probation for a simi- 
 lar offense. Think of my coming home to 
 such a trial, involving Sixth Formers almost 
 exclusively! Their parents, so far as I have 
 heard from them, are simply cruel in their 
 words and feelings, and had I debauched 
 them I could scarcely have been more of a 
 monster of duplicity or wickedness. Then 
 several boys stayed in Philadelphia overnight 
 at the beginning of the term and lied about 
 it, and what is worse, lied, constructively, to 
 their parents and dishonored themselves 
 rankly. I am just used up and feel almost 
 disheartened with other problems to face. 
 God help me! A glimmering of light in this 
 unusual darkness comes through A. ... 
 who has come to me voluntarily, and after 
 confessing deeper sins than he has ever com- 
 mitted before, expresses his determination to 
 turn absolutely and unreservedly to Christ 
 as his only Saviour from the sin that does so 
 easily beset him. This helps me a bit. S. . . . 
 will probably consent to go with him for 
 the summer as teacher and friend. This is 
 A. . . .'s own idea and shows appreciation 
 of the deepening struggle. God bless him 
 and help him! This is a sad letter; God 
 knows my heart is sadder still. I feel cast
 
 210 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 down and almost bewildered. I ought not 
 to tell you this, but it seems sometimes as 
 if my heart would break if I did not." 
 
 He knew that the finest truthfulness could 
 flourish not in an atmosphere of fear, but of 
 love only; and such an atmosphere he tried 
 to make the boys he governed feel. 
 
 He said: 
 
 " Perfect truth can be the outcome only of 
 perfect trust; and perfect trust can be the 
 outcome only of perfect love. The more we 
 love, the more we trust; and where we trust 
 perfectly, we cannot lie. If a child lies, it is 
 because he does not trust; .and whose fault 
 is this? Those to whom we cannot lie are 
 those we really love. The most ordinary 
 cause for lying in a child is the desire to 
 escape punishment or to help him get some- 
 thing he wants, or to help him to get it in 
 his own way. Another reason, though more 
 complex, why a child will lie is that he wishes 
 to control his own life. This is the reason 
 generally why grown-up people lie. 
 
 " The boy will let you in to help him as 
 soon as he has found you worthy of love. It 
 is very right for a boy to tell the truth, but 
 it is far more important that your boy's char- 
 acter should become a character which can- 
 not tell a lie. Truth is to be gained only by 
 perseverance in its practice by downright hard 
 work. A boy obeys a rule of school because 
 he must; if he find himself at a school where
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 211 
 
 love underlies the rule he will, by degrees, 
 obey because he ought. A true disciplinarian 
 must be a true lover. True obedience is the 
 expression of love." 
 
 The measure in which John Meigs himself 
 embodied his own ideal of high, yet loving 
 challenge to a boy's truthfulness was nobly 
 expressed in an editorial in the Outlook of 
 November, 1911, by Ernest Hamlin Abbott, 
 himself a graduate of The Hill: 
 
 " Even those who owe most to him cannot 
 explain his power; they remember, however, 
 certain things that might help to describe 
 it. They can remember that he never ap- 
 peared suddenly upon them, but that always 
 his heavy footfall, every ounce of his great 
 frame telling at each step, resounded through 
 the corridors as he approached; and in the 
 memory of that sound they find their most 
 vivid impression of what is meant by the 
 hatred of sham, subterfuge and unfairness. 
 They can remember the silence that fell upon 
 the gathering of boys when they saw in his 
 face the suppressed anger at some meanness 
 or pretense, and awaited the words that would 
 fall like cudgels on the offender; and in the 
 memory of such an occasion they find their 
 most vivid impression of what is meant by 
 the searching of conscience. They remember 
 that even while still wincing from some just 
 rebuke they -were willing to go to him, if 
 need be, with their confidences; and in that
 
 212 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 memory they have their best example of what 
 it means to be chastened as a son." 
 
 In the chapel of Eton there hangs, like a 
 silent challenge to all that is high and pure 
 in the soul of a boy, the lovely painting by 
 Watts of the young Sir Galahad the Knight 
 Unstained. A great print of it hung on the 
 wall of the schoolroom at The Hill, with 
 Tennyson's lines in gilt upon the frame: 
 
 " My good sword carves the casques of men, 
 
 My tough lance thrusteth sure, 
 My strength is as the strength of ten, 
 Because my heart is pure." 
 
 With all his power John Meigs sought to 
 make his boys believe that the strength of 
 noblest manhood is built on purity, and that 
 impurity is weakness and shame. As early 
 as 1886, he had begun to feel the urgent 
 duty which rested upon him to educate the 
 boys in this direction. In a letter of Novem- 
 ber 4th, in that year he writes : " I have sent 
 for three books and a lot of tracts from the 
 Philanthropistf adding a mite of surplus for 
 their work. Here lies our great work with 
 our boys, I am persuaded." 
 
 More and more, as the years went on, he 
 came to feel with a kind of awful intensity
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 213 
 
 the dreadful havoc which impure thoughts 
 and purposes and habits could work in a boy's 
 life. 
 
 In one of his letters to parents he writes 
 how a boy, after denying certain immorali- 
 ties, came and " explained to me certain social 
 and domestic conditions which, naturally 
 enough, conduced to such a life as he con- 
 fessed to have been leading prior to his arrival 
 here. I was deeply moved by the revelations, 
 and expressed, then and there, my desire and 
 determination to render him all the help 
 within my power, compatible with my always 
 urgent duty to the other and younger mem- 
 bers of the family, of which he had become 
 a part." 
 
 But the boy had not responded to the help 
 held out, and the letter goes on: 
 
 "Along the line of evil communications, 
 aside altogether from overt acts committed 
 . . ., the power of impure-minded boys is 
 simply frightful, and my own experience of 
 twenty years confirms me in the conviction 
 that the greatest peril to young boys, in so 
 intimate associations as exist here, is due 
 rather to the moral atmosphere environing 
 boys of B. . . ,'s moral character than to 
 the allurements of their wrong-doing, while 
 they are actually and truly under our control 
 and restraint as our life-work with them goes 
 on. In consideration of this, it has become
 
 214 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 necessary to drop or dismiss from the school, 
 during the term just closed, six or eight boys. 
 not to punish, discredit or disgrace these 
 boys or their friends, but to preserve such a 
 moral tone in the school as we owe to the 
 parents of the younger and susceptible boys, 
 who become all too easily and unconsciously 
 the victims of those whose lives and char- 
 acters have not been shaped and guided in a 
 wise and salutary way." 
 
 In connection with the mention in the pre- 
 vious letter of " certain social and domestic 
 conditions, which naturally enough conduce 
 to such a life as he confessed to have been 
 leading," the following letter concerning an- 
 other and wholly different boy finds appro- 
 priate place. It is not pleasant reading, but 
 it is worth perpetuating for two reasons: 
 first, because it shows the way in which John 
 Meigs could bring the boys to disclose to 
 him their inmost confidences, and because in 
 the second place, it helps unveil the perils 
 to which all unconsciously to fathers and 
 mothers their boys may be subjected: 
 
 " I am sure that you will be glad to know 
 that I had last night a most reassuring con- 
 versation with T. . . ., touching the mat- 
 ter of his summer's experiences. . . . He 
 told me that the stablemen and butler were 
 impure and vile in their conversation with 
 him, and exerted their pernicious influence to
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 215 
 
 the utmost in seeking to defile his mind and 
 thoughts by their lewd and abominable talk. 
 He censured himself without stint for not re- 
 coiling instantly from their advances, but 
 said that having no congenial associates he 
 drifted into their company all too easily, and 
 once under their spell, so to speak, he found 
 it hard to recover himself. ... Of course 
 there was no overt act of impurity in which 
 he was engaged, and he now looks back upon 
 his associations with those vile fellows with 
 abhorrence and inexpressible regret. Since 
 his return, he tells me that he has had no 
 conversation with anyone that has served to 
 revive or keep alive his mental state of the 
 summer, but has been steadily regaining his 
 old-time freedom from such besetments. His 
 manner to me was confidential and affection- 
 ate, and responsive in the extreme, and I tried 
 to give such practical aid as will, I hope, 
 simplify the dear boy's recovery of his well- 
 earned self-respect of former years." 
 
 In another instance he writes to another 
 father: 
 
 " Do you feel secure in the matter on 
 C. . . .'s associates and associations in Chi- 
 cago? The indications that we have had here 
 are such as to throw grave doubts upon their 
 salutary influence. 
 
 " Do you really know what he is doing in 
 the hours that are passed from under the 
 family-roof? 
 
 " I ask these questions, not to alarm, but
 
 2i6 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 to suggest the reasonable occasion for a closer 
 scrutiny than you have perhaps felt it neces- 
 sary to give to C. . . .'s irresponsible 
 hours." 
 
 As to the depth of his feeling concerning 
 what impurity could mean in moral damage, 
 this letter can best show: 
 
 " Looking at my duty to my household 
 from the standpoint of one who is charged 
 with the responsibility that, at times, so 
 presses upon one's spirits that I am con- 
 strained almost to cry out in my solicitude 
 for my boys, I have come to the deliberate 
 conviction that of all the disqualifications for 
 membership in my school no other can be 
 compared, in its deadly and inevitable effect, 
 with that of impurity. This is so insidious 
 that sleepless vigilance cannot counteract its 
 diabolical effects. By day and by night its 
 foul trail is made in the lives of boys, young 
 and old, and only God knows how many 
 young souls are imperiled by the pernicious 
 influence of one boy's speech and behavior. 
 
 "As for me, I simply cannot tolerate the idea 
 of incurring the responsibility that attaches 
 to me in so far as I actively or passively sub- 
 ject to the influence of a boy who is impure 
 those young natures whose unfolding and up- 
 building are committed to me, by their anx- 
 ious parents, under God. ... I had rather 
 incur the risk of besmearing the very walls 
 of my boys' rooms with the germs of some 
 foul contagion than to expose young, and it
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 217 
 
 may be innocent, boys to the peril of deadly 
 immoral contagion, for which I know no 
 remedy short of divinely miraculous inter- 
 position." 
 
 The longer he lived and worked, the more 
 John Meigs cried out in spirit against the 
 cowardly silence of so many parents toward 
 their boys concerning the great and solemn 
 mysteries of growing life, and the more he 
 realized that loving and positive counsel must 
 take the place of the evasions which leave 
 boys to find out what ought to be holy facts 
 through perverted and degrading ways. 
 
 He said in his address already mentioned: 
 
 " The diffidence or cowardice or indiffer- 
 ence of parents in homes not ideal touching 
 the enlightenment of the young boy as to the 
 facts of life and birth, the recurrent miracle, 
 and yet the very type and embodiment of law, 
 throws upon the schoolmaster, in whose heart 
 the ideals of his school are the measure of 
 his effort, a grave responsibility which is dis- 
 charged simply and adequately. No boy can 
 sin in ignorance who has been a few weeks 
 a member of his great household." 
 
 In the other address, directed particularly 
 to those who were thinking of becoming 
 teachers, Meigs wrote: 
 
 " The body, its reverent, radiant uses ; the 
 mind, its subtle and intricate processes; the
 
 218 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 soul, its strenuous and triumphant emergence 
 from the toils of body and of mind; these seek 
 and find in a true teacher the tender, tire- 
 less servant of the whole man. If you would 
 best serve the physical life of youth, as friend, 
 teacher, father, you will find one duty clearly 
 paramount such a preparation of mind and 
 spirit as will enable you simply, reverently, 
 and faithfully to present to boyhood the 
 truths of the sacred uses of the body, which 
 the cowardice of parents, the perversions of 
 the vicious, or the inanities of the ignorant 
 have befouled or beclouded, to the disaster of 
 body, mind and soul. Should you ask me what 
 most crucial test the vitality of early religious 
 and moral training must survive, I would say 
 that of sexual purity. I have been more and 
 more deeply stirred, year by year, as I have 
 been convinced of the sad havoc caused by the 
 prevalent neglect of parents in dealing with 
 their sons in respect of this fundamental 
 moral question of boyhood and young man- 
 hood. United States senators, learned judges, 
 clergymen, lawyers, physicians even, have 
 confessed their failure or reluctance to state 
 simply, reverently, savingly to their sons the 
 truth which might have averted frightful dis- 
 aster. Parental cowardice, or mock-modesty, 
 is a challenge to the manhood of the teacher, 
 who may not shrink from the faithful decla- 
 ration of necessary truth whereon may rest 
 the strength that is the strength of ten be- 
 cause the heart is pure. And with body, mind 
 and soul poised so delicately in this impal- 
 pable, and yet mighty, integrity, what less
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 219 
 
 than loving, reverent hands may deftly touch 
 the tremulous life?" 
 
 For his own part, John Meigs took up with 
 all earnestness the responsibility of talking 
 to his boys at The Hill in the way in which 
 ideally he would have wished that he could 
 be sure their own fathers had already done. 
 
 Here is one lad's testimony: 
 
 " I shall always remember a little talk Pro- 
 fessor gave the older boys in his study one 
 time, on right living. Keep yourself pure 
 and everything else will take care of itself, 
 was the subject, and in the course of his re- 
 marks he worded the idea about as follows: 
 * Keep yourself pure and all things will be 
 added unto you/ and it is this expression, so 
 direct in its appeal to ambition, and so won- 
 derfully comprehensive of all of life's teach- 
 ings, that has ever been associated in my 
 mind with Professor, and has grown in im- 
 portance each year as I keep realizing more 
 fully its powerful truths. 
 
 " I do not think that many of us fellows 
 thought very seriously of this at the time. 
 There is a certain age at which young fellows 
 feel perfectly self-sufficient in respect to their 
 ability to lead a life of integrity and virtue. 
 The exhortation to keep yourself pure is ac- 
 cepted as more or less of a platitude in much 
 the same way as the maxim, ' Be honest and 
 you will be respected,' or the advice to be 
 brave and have the courage of your convic-
 
 220 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 tions. In many cases it is not until much 
 later in life that a fellow begins to realize 
 the significance of these precepts in the final 
 molding of his character, in that they are 
 something that he has to fight for. He comes 
 to understand that he cannot continue to 
 follow the line of least resistance and be sure 
 of going straight. He comes face to face 
 with the fact that his self-sufficiency does not 
 amount to much, as the intricate and wider 
 experiences of life force his character to a 
 test at every turn. It is here that the beliefs 
 nourished by the finer associations of his life 
 become strong assets and tide him over, and 
 the pretty phrases of early days grow into 
 convictions and hard learned truths. The 
 words of Professor, ' Keep yourself pure and 
 all things else will be added unto you/ are 
 words of profoundest wisdom, and it is only 
 with the years that one comes to the full ap- 
 preciation of them." 
 
 It was because of the real moral training 
 which he thought they afforded and not 
 least because of their contribution to purity 
 that Meigs most valued athletics. This is not 
 to say that he lacked a spontaneous interest 
 in the fun and excitement of the boys' games 
 for the games' sake. On the contrary, he 
 took a keen pleasure in watching the boys 
 play, and nearly always accompanied the 
 teams when they went away from The Hill 
 for the big games on the grounds of the rival
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 221 
 
 schools. He understood, too, how intensely 
 much this rivalry meant to the boys' pride, 
 and after some Hill victory in an important 
 game he would often telegraph the results 
 to some one of The Hill graduates among the 
 students in each of the big universities, in 
 order that the news might be spread among 
 the "old boys" there. But though he thus 
 could share the boys' enthusiasm, those who 
 watched him at baseball and football games 
 and knew his attitude to the boys who played, 
 understood that he was thinking of something 
 larger than victory or defeat. He was watch- 
 ing as with the eyes of one who saw the 
 chances for courage, and endurance, and fair- 
 ness and generosity, and was waiting to see 
 how the boys would meet these finer tests. 
 
 On the technical side, the matter of the 
 boys' exercise was very exactly organized. 
 In the opening days of the school, every boy 
 was thoroughly examined by the physical di- 
 rector and the school physician, and a record 
 made of his weight and measurements, his 
 muscular strength and general condition. 
 These examinations were repeated every half- 
 year, and on the basis of them the physical 
 director arranged for the boy whatever par- 
 ticular training he thought advisable. Every 
 boy was required to take part in some form 
 of athletics on every schoolday. In the fall
 
 222 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 term, a boy might be on one of the many 
 football teams, or he could play tennis ; in the 
 spring term, there was tennis again, and 
 baseball; and a boy had to make report every 
 day that he had taken the exercise required. 
 In the winter term, all the boys were formed 
 into gymnasium classes, which met at as- 
 signed hours in the afternoon. For a number 
 of years there was military drill, but this was 
 discontinued in 1902. 
 
 One of the happiest choices that John Meigs 
 ever made among the men whom he brought 
 to The Hill was the man who became the 
 physical director. This was Mr. Michael F. 
 Sweeney, himself a famous athlete, and the 
 holder when he came to The Hill, and for 
 many years thereafter, of the world's record 
 in the high jump. As the years went on, the 
 sphere of Mr. Sweeney's control and influence 
 widened. He became not only the physical 
 director of the gymnasium and track work, 
 but also the coach and controlling spirit of 
 all the other organized games in the school. 
 Between him and the headmaster there was 
 a sympathy and understanding which grew 
 into the most loving identity of purpose; and 
 into all his relationship with the boys who 
 were the athletes at The Hill and therefore 
 the heroes of the boys' world Mr. Sweeney 
 brought not only his technical skill, but the
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 223 
 
 power of a Christian idealism which left its 
 deep impress on the spirit of many a lad 
 who would hardly have been reached through 
 any other channel. 
 
 This whole higher aspect of school athletics 
 in its relationship to character was expressed 
 thus by the headmaster: 
 
 " Physical training also takes high rank in 
 the scheme of the school which stands for 
 ideals of boyhood's training. The high ethical 
 value of physical training needs only to be 
 considered to be recognized as the basal con- 
 dition of mental and moral discipline. The 
 final test of its efficiency must deal not only 
 with muscular development, but with the 
 achievements of mind and soul. The train- 
 ing of the will and intelligence has its poten- 
 tials deeply laid in the physical man, and the 
 new physiology and the new psychology are 
 compelling the acceptance by educators of 
 this gracious correlation of the wonders which 
 God has wrought in man. . . . 
 
 " The average collegian, if healthy, is more 
 apt at expressing himself fully in terms of 
 muscularity than in terms of mentality; and 
 the obvious fact that college morality im- 
 proved so wonderfully during the last genera- 
 tion was, undoubtedly, due largely to the in- 
 fluence of athletics which demanded regular 
 habits, clean lives, and pre-occupatipn for 
 body and mind. The grosser dissipations of 
 university life, in ante-bellum times, could not 
 withstand the new spirit engendered by the
 
 224 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 athletic standards, which have as their noblest 
 exponents to-day many men famous for spir- 
 itual and intellectual power. 
 
 "While one must recognize and deprecate 
 in some cases the physical and moral reaction 
 from the rigorous training which athletics 
 impose during their characteristic seasons, 
 one must admit that in physical training 
 many a boy and young man finds a sufficient 
 motive for integrity of life until the deeper 
 moral and physical forces master his con- 
 science and his will. 
 
 " Even schoolboys are trained now to scorn 
 softness and self-indulgence and to prize the 
 finest fruits of self-denial and self-mastery, 
 which are plucked from the tree of life itself. 
 Strength and symmetry of body are happily 
 so co-ordinated in these better days with their 
 logical and spiritual counterpart that each 
 new year adds fresh and convincing testi- 
 mony to the real content of physical training." 
 
 " Obedience, truthfulness, purity " thus it 
 will be remembered John Meigs named the 
 qualities he desired his boys to win; and then 
 he continued with these, "unselfishness, 
 service." 
 
 He knew many of the boys who came to 
 The Hill came from privileged families, and 
 he knew that some would probably enter into 
 rich inheritances. He understood how im- 
 portant it was that to these boys in particular,
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 225 
 
 as well as to all boys in general, there should 
 be presented the kind of manly ideals of use- 
 ful living which would keep them from being 
 contented with indolent indulgence or selfish 
 money-making. Among his papers is this 
 penciled memorandum: 
 
 ' Whatever we wish to see introduced into 
 a life or a nation must be first introduced into 
 its schools.' Humboldt. 
 
 " It is a wide subject. According to this, 
 we must look to schools for a revival of the 
 simplicity of life, for training in truth and 
 moral courage; for real intellectual training, 
 for giving men the power of hard thought, 
 of seeing things as they are. The school must 
 educate the young to keen social and political 
 interests; must bind classes together in an 
 unselfishness that is often wanting in the 
 weary pleasure-seeking classes; in a word, 
 must revive public spirit. The school must 
 give that self-restraint of the body, that purity 
 of moral tone and conduct, that moral horror 
 of degradation, on which more than anything 
 else the welfare of the nation depends." 
 
 Therefore, he tried to bring to the school 
 for talks to the boys as often as possible, men 
 who were doing the kind of virile work in 
 public service which would strike the boys' 
 imagination. Jacob Riis, for instance, when 
 he was in the midst of his struggle to im- 
 prove the tenement conditions in New York,
 
 226 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 came more than once. Theodore Roosevelt, 
 when he was police commissioner, came too. 
 Woodrow Wilson, when he was president of 
 Princeton, made an address on Washington's 
 birthday on " Patriotism." Dr. Frissell, head 
 of the great Hampton Institute, which Samuel 
 C. Armstrong founded for the education of 
 negroes and Indians, used to come, with the 
 Hampton Quartet, and tell the boys of the 
 work of the school, at which their gifts main- 
 tained scholarships. John Meigs wanted the 
 boys to have opportunities made familiar to 
 them which would inspire them to generosity 
 with their money, and even more he wished 
 them to learn the great lesson that a real 
 patriotism means also the will to give of 
 themselves in the activities of loyal and un- 
 selfish citizenship. 
 
 He used to gather the boys of the Sixth 
 Form into his study and explain to them the 
 kind of relationship which later when they 
 came of age they might bear to good govern- 
 ment, and impress upon them the importance 
 of voting in primaries and elections. Further- 
 more, his advice was not theoretical. He 
 did not in his own case allow his school duties 
 to make him narrow and academic, nor to 
 stand as an excuse for withholding his own 
 energies from political matters. He never 
 sought any office for himself, but he threw
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 227 
 
 his whole strength more and more into strug- 
 gles which he believed concerned the public 
 good; and when a matter of principle was 
 at stake, he put as much determination into 
 what seemed a small matter as he would have 
 into a great one. At one time, for instance, 
 he joined a number of other citizens of the 
 town in a fight to prevent the appointment 
 as postmaster of a half-ignorant and wholly 
 unqualified man whom the local political ring 
 wished to have rewarded for party services. 
 In the carbon copies of his correspondence 
 of that year are repeated long letters which 
 he wrote the postmaster-general, as well as 
 references to a visit which he made to Wash- 
 ington in person. It is not to be wondered 
 at that he felt strongly about the situation 
 of which he could write as follows: 
 
 " We simply awaited the development of 
 the alert and vociferous claimants for the 
 spoils of victory, hoping that the better sense 
 of these men would bring forward names of 
 candidates for the office of a least average 
 morality and repute in the community. We 
 waited in vain, for of the three aspirants, one 
 was disqualified by gross moral unfitness, 
 another alike by increasing bodily infirmity 
 and notorious gambling, and the third [who 
 had been the janitor of the market-house] 
 is even now before you as the reluc- 
 tant choice and residuary legatee of the
 
 228 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 former two, whose numerous and scrupulous 
 advocates seem to fancy that any man in the 
 community is man enough to be postmaster 
 if only he can wear the party collar and read 
 the more legible addresses of the letters." 
 
 Besides the immediate result of preventing 
 the appointment of the man against whom he 
 protested, this incident had lasting conse- 
 quences for John Meigs through giving him 
 an insight into the corrupt indifference to the 
 public good of a strong political element in 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 In subsequent years he threw himself with 
 generous energy into the fight to break the 
 control of this element in state affairs, and 
 to compass the election by the Pennsylvania 
 legislature of a reform candidate for the 
 United States Senate. He did not succeed 
 in this particular effort, but he was none the 
 less ready to do his best when called upon for 
 service on fresh occasions. Into political 
 campaigns which involved issues that stirred 
 his loyalty to what he thought was right, he 
 put the same aggressive power which he had 
 given to his own work at the school. 
 
 On his desk for many years he kept before 
 him these words of Goethe's : " Wo du bist, 
 set alles" and he lived up to their challenge 
 in his public as well as his private service. 
 
 With relation to the affairs of his own
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 229 
 
 town particularly was his citizenship forward- 
 looking and unselfish. He offered on one 
 occasion to pay the salary of a teacher of 
 music for the public schools, and helped make 
 possible the appointment of the first health 
 officer. He was the founder and president of 
 the Young Men's Christian Association and 
 when he died he left a large legacy to con- 
 struct a new building. He inaugurated in 
 the opera house a series of Sunday afternoon 
 services, at which the speaker was the 
 preacher (drawn from among the eminent 
 men of the country) whom he had brought 
 to The Hill for the morning Chapel of that 
 day. 
 
 He encouraged the boys to take part in 
 forms of service which he helped suggest and 
 guide. In one of his public addresses he 
 emphasized this point of service for others 
 as one of the ideals in the training of a good 
 school, and in general terms he described 
 what was, as a matter of fact, true at The 
 Hill: 
 
 " In a school known to me a summer camp 
 on the coast of New Jersey has been pur- 
 chased and maintained in the summer vaca- 
 tion for some years by the boys and masters 
 for the benefit of poor boys of the slums of 
 our cities. This service and observation at 
 close range of the less favored classes sug- 
 gest possibilities of no slight value.
 
 230 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 " By the same school a mission is con- 
 ducted near enough to enlist the active co- 
 operation of older boys and of the masters 
 who conduct the Sunday evening services 
 during the school year; and a boys' free read- 
 ing-room for the unsheltered and ambitious 
 lads of the town is largely supported by 
 their efforts." 
 
 In his regard for activities like these, John 
 Meigs' spirit was concerned with something 
 far larger than the details of the immediate 
 acts of helpfulness. They were for him part 
 of an ideal which centered in the very heart 
 of his desires for the boys. His great hope 
 was that through the practical things he 
 helped them to do for others there might be 
 kindled in them the high consciousness that 
 only as they chose for themselves service 
 rather than self-indulgence could they attain 
 their finest manhood. 
 
 Here he well knew that his ideals for the 
 school had reached a height which could not 
 be scaled by human help alone. The memo- 
 randum from which we quoted just now the 
 sentences in regard to training in the school 
 for the service of the nation, continued thus: 
 
 "And, lastly, the school must educate, de- 
 velop, guide and instruct that spiritual faculty 
 in the child or boy, which, by whatever name 
 we call it, is supreme. There is no other 
 restraining power [than religion]. Sympa-
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 231 
 
 thy, the innate horror of doing wrong to a 
 fellow creature; self-respect, the innate horror 
 of doing wrong to ourselves, are real powers 
 with all finer natures. A restraining power 
 is needed. The gratification of passion is an 
 intense reality, and can be held in check only 
 by a still more intense reality. 
 
 " This must be physical or spiritual. It 
 must come from the legislator, the doctor, or 
 the teacher. The legislator can only help to 
 diminish crime and does not really touch the 
 case. The motive must come from science or 
 religion. But science gives a feeble sound. 
 Science admits that immorality is damaging 
 to the boy. Science, as yet, does not speak 
 of its effects on character. It is not in science 
 that we are to look for a restraining power. 
 The problem of school morality will be solved 
 by a religious motive or none. In so far as 
 sin is a product of circumstances we must 
 strike at the circumstances; but if sin, and 
 so far as sin, is in human nature, it is neces- 
 sary to give boys some fresh power to cope 
 with it. To give this fresh power, the power 
 of conquering the selfishness and passions of 
 our lower nature, is surely the end and aim 
 of all education." 
 
 At the head of four other pages in his hand- 
 writing which perhaps are notes of a talk 
 to the boys there stands the reference: 
 I Corinthians iii : 9, which verse begins 
 " For we are laborers together with God." 
 From the form of this memorandum, as also
 
 232 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 of the one just quoted, it is not wholly 
 clear whether the words are John Meigs' own, 
 or whether he was jotting down something 
 he had read somewhere and wished to repeat; 
 but in either case the words express what 
 with intense conviction he believed. 
 
 "Are we living with the thought in our 
 minds that a school of any enduring worth 
 must be a center, a focus, a very sacred hearth 
 of the higher life of the time that there 
 ought to be a clear and active purpose in its 
 leaders, nay, in the majority of its average 
 members, to raise the general life of men in 
 some respect or other, to rectify its standards 
 where they may be defective, to set their faces 
 against things or notions in regard to which 
 the world has gone astray? How many of us 
 can say that day by day we set our faces to 
 all this with any serious or definite aim; that 
 our personal life is marked and characterized 
 by anything which can rightly be called a 
 distinct religious purpose, that we are con- 
 sciously and methodically and professedly 
 doing anything to raise the moral life, to 
 quicken the spiritual life, to stimulate the 
 intellectual life? 
 
 " I think of the time, when from some 
 school, under some influence which as yet 
 we know not, there shall go forth a new gen- 
 eration of men who shall be characterized, 
 not by some special gift, not by some literary 
 accomplishment, or some varnish of culture, 
 but by a combination of gifts and strength
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 233 
 
 of spirit which shall stamp them as promi- 
 nent workers, if not as leaders and prophets 
 in the next stage of our country's progress. 
 There is abundant room, to say nothing of a 
 crying need, for these missionaries of a new 
 type, who shall be men of cultivated and dis- 
 ciplined intellect, enlightened and strong; 
 who shall be sworn to the new chivalry of 
 personal purity and the suppression of the 
 baser animal appetites; who shall be men of 
 simple and pure tastes, no epicurean senti- 
 mentalists the declared enemies of luxury, 
 whether vulgar or refined; men, again, in 
 whom public spirit and social purpose shall 
 be practical and guiding motives, not vague 
 and intermittent sentiments, who shall feel 
 the call to alter those conditions of life which 
 are working so destructively in all our cities; 
 men who, with all this, are not bigoted, who 
 shall have learned to know that earnestness 
 and toleration are not incompatible, who shall 
 have no respect, either, for that young man's 
 spurious liberalism which is a child of in- 
 difference, nay which is begotten by shallow 
 criticism, of cynicism as its mother and nursed 
 by luxury and want of faith; above all, men 
 whose life shall be guided by a serious and 
 humble and reverent spirit, who may fairly be 
 described as faithful, religious and devout" 
 
 At the end of the first group of notes which 
 we have quoted was this sentence also: 
 
 "We are in danger of pressing into ex- 
 tremes one or the other of two axioms of
 
 234 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 education: religion cannot be taught; reli- 
 gion must be taught." 
 
 Doubtless what he meant was this: 
 He was familiar on the one hand with the 
 insistence in many quarters that religion as 
 such cannot be made a part of the school 
 curriculum, because it rests upon a choice 
 that must grow out of the intimate and per- 
 sonal decision of each single personality; but 
 as against this he knew that though religion 
 could not be communicated as a classroom 
 subject, it could be kindled in boys' hearts by 
 the living touch of religious men round them. 
 On the other hand, the danger of those 
 who cried ' that religion must be taught ' lay 
 in the direction of the kind of dogmatism 
 which ignores the boys' sensitive reserve and 
 tries to force upon them that which can be 
 given only when affection and confidence have 
 been won. 
 
 He wrote once this: 
 
 " Religious teaching must be simple, defi- 
 nite, attractive, personal; a Bible-reading 
 scheme within considerate limits is helpful 
 and stimulating. The history of the great 
 nations and of the leaders of religious thought 
 in the Old Testament and the New Testament 
 should be studied and exemplified by their
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 235 
 
 successors of the later generations, and op- 
 portunity given, outside of this systematic 
 study, by the organization of voluntary 
 classes, for the consideration of the spiritual 
 lessons, especially those of the New Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 "In his First Epistle to the Corinthians 
 Paul says, ' Knowledge puffeth up; Love build- 
 eth up/ Here then is the ideal of the real 
 schoolmaster Love as the master-motive of 
 all true life. The Love of which Paul speaks 
 is no protoplasmic ooze of unctuous benevo- 
 lence nor saccharine complaisance. It is 
 strenuous, aggressive, upbuilding. It in- 
 flames the heart and brain to lofty thought 
 and high endeavor; it quickens the mind to 
 command wisdom's riches for the fit endow- 
 ment of Love's best gift ' the love that tops 
 the might the Christ in God/ the love that 
 ' beareth all things, believeth all things, 
 hopeth all things, endureth all things.' " 
 
 His whole conception of the religion which 
 he sought to inspire in the boys' hearts was 
 tremendously virile, or, as he said love ought 
 to be, " strenuous, aggressive, upbuilding." 
 He felt with a quivering earnestness the awful 
 reality of the battle between good and evil, 
 righteousness and sin. He began a talk to 
 the boys once with this quotation : " Gustavus 
 Adolphus, King of Sweden, to the Ambassa- 
 dor of the Elector of Brandenburg: 'I will 
 hear nothing and know nothing of neutrality.
 
 236 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 His Highness must be friend or foe. When 
 I come to his borders, he must declare him- 
 self hot or cold. The battle is between God 
 and the devil.' " 
 
 At another time he spoke to them on " this 
 is the victory that hath overcome the world, 
 even our faith," and these notes show the 
 message he sought to bring them: 
 
 " Do you think that your life is quite right 
 in its standard and in its attainment? or that 
 the standard and tone among us generally is 
 quite right let us say in industry, reverence, 
 thoughtfulness? No one would say this. 
 But this standard is the world for us. Is 
 there no temptation to do wrong, because 
 some others do wrong? to cheat in work, be- 
 cause some others cheat? to waste time, to 
 swear, to do worse it may be, because others 
 do? This influence of our surroundings is 
 the world for us. And this is the world that 
 we are set to overcome. How are we, first, 
 not to have our own standard lowered by 
 copying the evil that we see? and, secondly, 
 how are we to help to improve the aims and 
 tone around us? This is what St. John means 
 by overcoming the world. It is something 
 very practical. There is somewhere a power 
 which would enable us to be somewhat more 
 like what God would have us to be, which 
 would make us better and stronger than we 
 are in ourselves; and make our society, our 
 world, better, too.
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 237 
 
 " Now look at a larger field outside these 
 walls, the hand-workers, and below them a 
 class of boys, and others, neglected from birth, 
 saturated with evil. And the cry of them 
 goes up hour by hour to the ears of the Lord 
 of the whole earth. 
 
 "And, meanwhile, what are the lives of 
 our class? The least we can say is that they 
 are not of the standard which Christ holds up. 
 We very rarely regard wealth as a trust: we 
 treat it as a possession. 'It is mine, it is 
 mine. I will do as I please and who shall 
 say me nay? ' This again is the world, a hard 
 world to touch and move, because it is con- 
 tented with its ideals. 
 
 :{ There is the world of failures of our 
 industrial system the rough, the destitute, 
 the loafer, the idler, the weak who go to the 
 wall. 
 
 "And there is the world of the successful, 
 who live at ease, and have little thought of a 
 kingdom of God on earth. There is our 
 worldliness, yours and mine: and we have yet 
 to be conquered. Somewhere there is a power 
 that shall overcome all these worlds of degra- 
 dation and low ideals. We turn to John and 
 read: 'This is the victory that overcometh 
 the world, even our faith.' It is the declara- 
 tion, and it is true, that in all these worlds, 
 in purifying the individual life of your single 
 self, or in raising the tone of school morals, 
 or in improving the life and physical condi- 
 tions, amusements, literature, morality of the 
 lowest class, or in giving largeness and gen- 
 erosity and everyday patriotism to the class
 
 238 THE MASTER OF THE HILL. 
 
 to which we belong for overcoming these 
 worlds, there is one source of victory, even 
 our faith. How full of hope and force these 
 words are. Here is something that may make 
 the world good and right and beautiful, even 
 our faith. 
 
 "There is something awful to me in that 
 little word our. It tells us that we, the living 
 generation of men, are the sole instruments 
 through which God works. We do in some 
 sense present to the world the Living Christ, 
 if we profess to be animated by His spirit. 
 The world judges Christ by us. If the world 
 is to be overcome the selfishness, the squalor, 
 heartlessness, and our own low standard of 
 the possibilities of human society it is to 
 be overcome by our faith if the next gen- 
 eration and century are to be better than 
 this. 
 
 " I scout the idea that these evils are irre- 
 mediable. I hate the practical infidelity that 
 says, * It is no use : the scramble and struggle 
 are a part of human nature: lust and intem- 
 perance and mammon-worship have always 
 existed, and always will exist/ This is not 
 faith; it is blank disbelief. Why did Christ 
 come? to tell us that the kingdom of God 
 shall come, and to show us how it is to be 
 won. It is to be won by faith. The weak 
 things of this world, as always, confound the 
 mighty. 
 
 " You understand now, what is to be over- 
 come by faith. But can you also understand 
 what faith is? It is the teaching of St. John, 
 in gospel and epistles, that the spirit that
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 239 
 
 was in Christ is in a measure in all of us, and 
 is leading us on to the Kingdom of God, if we 
 will go with it. Our faith is that the spirit 
 of God still lives in men, and shall rule the 
 world. When that divine life, which was at 
 its full tide in Christ, flows into our dry chan- 
 nels and flushes them, then victory will come. 
 Now we read Christ's words and discount 
 them and explain them away. It will not 
 always be so. Some day we shall believe that 
 He meant what He said ; and we are beginning 
 more and more to do so now. 
 
 " What hopeful signs there are in the world ! 
 There are two camps in every society; and 
 in one of the two we find ourselves, and one 
 of the two you will join. The one camp is of 
 those who say that conventional morality, ex- 
 pediency, business principles, self-interest, are 
 a sufficient basis for politics, commerce, and 
 the relation of man to man. They distrust 
 the enthusiasm of service and self-sacrifice 
 and the idea of the Gospel as a foolish ele- 
 ment. They bid the prophets prophesy not. 
 The other camp is of those who say that in 
 the social reformation that is coming upon 
 us, the one safe guide is some deep religious 
 truth that shall inspire to noble ^deeds the 
 claim that all are truly brothers in Christ 
 the faith that God rules the world and is 
 transforming it into His kingdom. 
 
 "The first is the camp of the world; the 
 second the camp of faith and the camp of 
 God. You scarcely know yet to which you 
 belong; but you are fitting yourself by your 
 whole life for one or the other. ..."
 
 2 4 o THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 One of the old Hill boys, who knew the 
 school in the early years of John Meigs' mas- 
 tership, has written: 
 
 " The religious life of The Hill, if I am not 
 mistaken, made its first start from its original 
 formation of two Sunday attendances at 
 church, when in my first year the Professor 
 started a mid-weekly prayer meeting. At- 
 tendance was voluntary and most of us were 
 shy about it. It was not until two years after 
 I had left the school and came back to a com- 
 mencement and stayed over for a day or two, 
 that I ever came into an open communion of 
 spirit with Professor on the higher things of 
 human life so stubborn was the boy's pride, 
 but so gentle and tender of the boy's rights 
 was the strong, humble man. 
 
 " The memory that comes quickest to mind 
 shows the Professor sitting on the small plat- 
 form in the old schoolroom, conducting the 
 evening prayer service. The light of the oil 
 lamp which he used to carry around with him 
 at such imminent peril, fell on the strong 
 kind face, and the beloved voice was the only 
 sound to be heard as he read to us, most often, 
 from Paul's epistles, exhortations to ' stand 
 fast in the faith; be strong: to forget the 
 things which are behind and press towards 
 the mark for the prize of the high calling of 
 God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord: to 
 think on whatsoever things are true, lovely, 
 beautiful, of good report, if there be any 
 virtue and if there be any praise.' There are 
 some of these phrases which to this day I can 
 
 : '
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 241 
 
 never hear without instantly bringing up a 
 vivid picture of the scene I have tried to de- 
 scribe. He never, or very seldom in those 
 days, preached. Perhaps he was feeling his 
 way, but I prefer to think it was his idea 
 that the constant holding up of the old Apos- 
 tle's manly gospel of right living and think- 
 ing would at last make its impression even on 
 us careless youngsters. At any rate, he, him- 
 self, came very early in my knowledge of 
 him to stand in my mind as the example of 
 the Christian runner pressing towards the 
 prize of the high calling, of the man who 
 thought ' on these things ' and in whose mind 
 was no room for any base, vulgar or impure 
 thoughts." 
 
 He could come sometimes into very close 
 and confident relationship with boys whom 
 he wanted to reach. 
 
 One writes: 
 
 "In the Spring of 1887 or 1888, Professor 
 invited me to spend the night with him, and 
 after a jolly half hour before the lights were 
 turned out, he had, easily, naturally, and skill- 
 fully, prepared me for the two-hour heart-to- 
 heart talk that followed. Stimulated and en- 
 couraged by his apparent interest in me, and 
 feeling decidedly proud of the honor of being 
 his roommate, he soon found out about all he 
 desired to know, namely: plain, simple, un- 
 embellished statements that any boy would 
 give concerning himself and others! causes 
 that I thought produced failures, partial sue-
 
 242 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 cess and progress, my natural desires for the 
 unattained; ideas of future occupations to be 
 tried; my opinion of the desirable, and annoy- 
 ing characteristics of classmates, teachers 
 and friends, and what I considered were their 
 best assets, and mine. Finally: How and 
 when did I think of Christ, and talk with 
 Him? Did I know and feel that He wanted 
 and thought of me, and longed to aid me? 
 Did I feel and appreciate a growing and 
 healthy confidence in my efforts, and the 
 efforts of others, to co-operate with, and un- 
 derstand God, feel His influence, and under- 
 stand His simple requests and wishes? Then, 
 Professor's wonderful personality, and power 
 to permanently plant in the boy mind and 
 heart, the seed of his experience, during years 
 of close association and co-operation with 
 Christ, and the study of the Bible most im- 
 pressively conveyed his thoughts and wishes, 
 reasons and explanations, to a prepared and 
 receptive mind, which would change any boy's 
 viewpoint, error in judgment, and mental 
 picture of a useful and valuable Christian life. 
 His analysis of the boys at The Hill, always 
 located their weakness! His advice and help 
 nearly always corrected mistakes and short- 
 comings! never distorted any one, but im- 
 proved every one. 
 
 "All who knew Professor could see that 
 he expressed in life what he so beautifully 
 expressed in words! And as I so often recall 
 those two memorable nights, about twenty- 
 fiye years ago, yet remembered as of yesterday,, 
 I seem to hear him add to that which I 

 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 243 
 
 have endeavored to quote: 'A pure life is 
 usually much more helpful and desirable than 
 a brilliant life.' ' Our character is our will, 
 doubt and fear must be conquered if failure 
 is to be avoided/ ' Constantly exercise the 
 habit of praying, the prayer can be as easily 
 heard when offered on a crowded city street, 
 as it can in the quietest hour and place one 
 can find/ ' Learn to think of Jesus as your 
 devoted brother, teacher and friend, then you 
 will be nearer to Him, and know Him better, 
 when you think of Him, and see Him as King 
 of kings." 
 
 As those who have been boys at The Hill 
 have tried to sum up their memories of John 
 Meigs, the one thing which most often and 
 most impressively has been repeated is the 
 memory of him as he used to be at prayers, 
 and the message which, all unconsciously, 
 perhaps, stole into the hearts of those who 
 used to hear him then. 
 
 From among many letters have been drawn 
 these paragraphs: 
 
 " First of all, I don't believe anyone could 
 improve on that quotation from Robert 
 Browning, as descriptive of Professor's fine, 
 big, powerful, rugged and sympathetic char- 
 acter ' One who never turned his back 
 . . .' The poem, backed by Professor's in- 
 fluence, serves as an inspiration, as it always 
 suggests him so vividly: I love to think of 
 Professor as standing up before us on Sunday
 
 244 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 evenings after singing, and praying to God 
 for all of us, with his fine judgment in pick- 
 ing out the better things in life for us, his 
 voice touched with a sympathetic tremor as 
 he touched upon the future lives of us all, for 
 he must have seen how cruel the world can 
 be at times, and the end of the prayer in 
 which he asked the Lord to ' be with all the 
 old fellows to-night wherever they may be.' 
 I'll never forget that, never ! " 
 
 " One thing I remember especially of those 
 prayers in the schoolroom. It is the passage 
 which again and again he used to read, 
 the passage ending with the 8th verse of the 
 4th chapter of the Philippians. I can shut my 
 eyes and see and hear him now as he came in 
 his reading to that last verse. All his earnest- 
 ness seemed to dwell and linger on that word 
 ' Finally/ as though he would sum up for us 
 in what followed all that he was eager for us 
 to believe and do. ' Finally ' he read, 
 ' Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, 
 whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever 
 things are just, whatsoever things are pure, 
 whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever 
 things are of good report; if there be any 
 virtue, and if there be any praise, think on 
 these things/ It was on such things that he 
 thought, and I think that even the most care- 
 less and unworthy of us knew that as we saw 
 and heard him then." 
 
 But above all did the memory live of his 
 prayers each night for the old boys.
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 245 
 
 Thus different ones have written: 
 
 " I always associated with him the way he 
 always ended up his prayer in the school- 
 room in the evenings with ' And bless all the 
 old boys in the larger life beyond.' Those 
 few words showed how big a man he was, 
 for he was always thinking of others who 
 moved in the various walks of life. So many 
 schoolmasters forget that there is any kind 
 of a world beyond their own. . . ." 
 
 " Many nights have I sat in a big chair at 
 home recalling his strong face as he would be 
 saying, 'And God bless the boys in this 
 school, in college, and the larger life beyond/ 
 and I knew he was speaking for me along 
 with the other fellows." 
 
 " Long after I left the school I often re- 
 membered when way off in the hills that every 
 night there was a prayer going up for me 
 along with all the other old Hill boys, and it 
 made me glad." 
 
 In the statue of Phillips Brooks by the side 
 of Trinity Church in Boston, Saint Gaudens 
 has tried to express the great truth of the 
 mightier Presence which overshadowed and 
 inspired the mighty preacher. Behind him, 
 with hand stretched out, is the figure of the 
 Christ. 
 
 Just back of the platform in the school- 
 room at The Hill where John Meigs used to
 
 246 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 pray among his boys, there hung a picture 
 which to more than one thoughtful spirit must 
 have conveyed the same suggestion which 
 Saint Gaudens has put into his bronze. Be- 
 hind John Meigs, too, the Master stood. It 
 was the symbol of the truth. All that he did 
 in the school he did as the servant of his 
 remembered Lord. 
 To one of the boys he loved he wrote: 
 
 " I trust that the vacation has opened to 
 you new and blessed assurances of your faith 
 in Christ and of His power to aid. He bids 
 you ' be strong, and fear not ! ' I pray for 
 you daily. He is ever with you; only keep 
 near Him and you are safe and victorious." 
 
 Back to The Hill, not infrequently, the boys 
 who had gone out from the school would 
 come to ask advice and guidance from the 
 man they trusted and loved. 
 
 " I remember," says one, " the day dear 
 Professor was ill in bed, and still saw me. 
 Being naturally hesitant about intruding in 
 his sick room, I was struck at once on coming 
 into his presence by a feeling of being put 
 at complete ease, because I could see by his 
 remarkable expression that he saw my dis- 
 tress and suffered with me; then it was very 
 easy to tell him all, and through my narrative 
 I could see that he was a sympathetic listener
 
 THE MAKING OF MEN 247 
 
 to my account. And then his big, beautiful 
 heart opened up to me in, first,, an atmosphere 
 of strength and power which he always 
 radiated, and then the advice came, the 
 advice from one in perfect accord with the 
 Infinite, with all its sound judgment, its re- 
 assuring encouragement, and lastly this, 
 more powerful than all, its irresistible ap- 
 peal to follow the Right, to be at peace with 
 God. I came out of his room with a peace 
 and a determination that have never left me. 
 I love to remember Professor's last words to 
 me, the last time I saw him, as I left, ' God 
 bless you, John.' It typifies in such a lovely 
 manner his whole attitude towards life, and 
 I cherish the words as being his final fare- 
 well to me." 
 
 And very bezutiful is the story from an- 
 other Hill boy who came back to a commence- 
 ment two years after he had graduated, and 
 then for the first time fully learned what The 
 Master of The Hill could mean to the spirit 
 of those who came close to him: 
 
 " One does not easily speak of the greatest 
 moments of one's life, but surely one may be 
 forgiven for laying a sincere if belated tribute 
 at the feet of a holy man of God. The years 
 have come and gone, a whole generation of 
 men has passed, but I have that great moment 
 to look back at when I stood with his arm
 
 248 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 around my shoulder, on the little platform 
 which used to be on the peak of the roof of 
 the old building, watching the sun set over 
 the far-away hills; and by some miracle I 
 was able to forget myself and speak the things 
 that are true and eternal if one sees them 
 but once in a lifetime. And oh! the tender- 
 ness and the kindness of the dear Professor. 
 Many, many years have come and gone since 
 that great soul for a moment raised the 
 small, timid soul of the boy into a sense of 
 companionship. It would be grossly out of 
 place to attempt to set down here the conse- 
 quences. But surely it may be accepted as 
 the tribute of the boy's reverence and not set 
 down to the egoism of the boy, grown man, 
 if I say that through all the wanderings of 
 the years the light then kindled before my 
 boyish eyes, though it has flickered, has never 
 died; though it has been obscured, has never 
 misled or played me false; though it has 
 lighted for me a different path from his, yet 
 it may shine at last upon the same goal. 
 
 " ' Therefore to thee it was given 
 Many to save with thyself 
 And at the end of thy day, 
 Oh, faithful shepherd, to come, 
 Bringing thy sheep in thy hand.' " 

 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 
 
 John Meigs; Religious Nature Likeness to Luther-Emphasis 
 on Reality His Championship of Freedom in the Briggs Trial 
 Power of Personal Sympathy His Spirit as Revealed in His 
 Intimate Letters Death of Two of His Daughters and of 
 His Mother The Ministry of Sorrow. 
 
 IN the chapters which have preceded, we 
 have thought of John Meigs as he shaped 
 and molded the school. The time has 
 come when, in an even more intimate and 
 personal way, we must try to consider how 
 there was shaped and molded meanwhile 
 within him the Spirit which was his deepest 
 self. Thus to seek to lift the veil that hangs 
 before the all but incommunicable mystery of 
 a human soul is a task which only reverent 
 hands may touch; and even then, as the eyes 
 of the would-be understanding look into that 
 inmost shrine, they shall perceive only so 
 much as they have been made wise enough to 
 recognize and know. Yet from this attempt 
 none will turn away who wish to gather the 
 final message of that which makes this book a 
 thing that should be written. What John 
 Meigs did to build The Hill School and make 
 it strong is of interest to all those who have 
 149
 
 250 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 come into contact with his workmanship, and 
 to those others too who realize in general the 
 significance which a great school may have 
 in the nation's life. But what John Meigs 
 was in the aspirations and struggles of his 
 soul draws the story of his life out of the 
 circle of an intellectual meaning, and brings 
 it into a living touch with that hunger of all 
 human souls for fellowship with the greater 
 spirits, who on that arena of life's realities 
 where each must play his part, have fought 
 the fight, endured their wounds, and won 
 their victory at last. 
 
 As we said at the beginning, John Meigs' 
 nature was made up of vivid elements. In 
 every aspect, and very obviously, he was a 
 man of strength, strong in body, in mind, in 
 will. He had the instinctive self-confidence 
 of power, the formidableness of great energies 
 driven by a determination which was unafraid. 
 At the same time, he was intensely loving. 
 When he set his hand to his work, he could 
 do it with an unflinching, and if necessary, a 
 lonely disregard of opposition; yet he de- 
 pended for his happiness upon the love of 
 those he loved. His own volcanic energies 
 made him by instinct often impatient, and 
 his own determination often stern; he was to 
 learn the secret of a larger patience under 
 the dominance of a yet higher and diviner love.
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 251 
 
 In many singularly suggestive ways, John 
 Meigs was like one of the great figures of an 
 earlier time. If one who knew Meigs looks 
 at the pictures and studies the character of 
 Martin Luther, he will be struck by a resem- 
 blance which grows the more interesting as 
 it is pursued. There was a certain physical 
 similarity, in the first place, between John 
 Meigs and the likenesses which have come 
 down to us of the great preacher and prophet 
 of the Reformation. In both there were the 
 heavy, deep-chested frame, the powerful head 
 with its broad forehead and rugged features, 
 the deep, unflinching eyes. They were alike, 
 too, in impetuous emotion, and in the strength 
 which could gather itself like a flaming thun- 
 derbolt against wrong no longer tolerable. 
 They were alike in the curious blending of 
 self-confidence and humility, of a power in 
 action which seemed to need no support, and 
 yet a hunger of the heart for affection which 
 was as simple and ingenuous as a child's. 
 They were alike in human daring, and most 
 of all alike in their knowledge of the final 
 truth that the highest human strength and 
 courage can come only when the soul's in- 
 sufficiency is linked to the greatness of 
 God. 
 
 John Meigs' conception of religion was filled 
 with a throbbing sense of its relationship to
 
 252 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 life. The intense reality of his own spirit 
 turned with an aversion sometimes scornful, 
 sometimes sad, from the empty forms of an 
 indifferent or merely esthetic worship; yet 
 he was sympathetic with every manner of 
 worship, whether or not instinctively con- 
 genial, in which he felt the soul of earnest- 
 ness to stir. It will be remembered how in 
 his letters from England in 1887, he expressed 
 his profound appreciation of Farrar's preach- 
 ing, and in the next breath his sense of the 
 deadness and formality of the service he at- 
 tended at Westminster Abbey. Other letters 
 of his written at different times show his 
 responsiveness to all religious appeals which 
 were deep and true, and the amusement with 
 which he regarded the prejudices of those 
 who could see nothing good in any form of 
 worship save their own: 
 
 "Jan. 22, 1882. 
 
 " Last evening I was invited to take tea at 
 Mrs. A's and found a very pleasant circle of 
 friends assembled there all of whom were 
 much my seniors save the Dominie and his 
 wife. However, this did not alter the meas- 
 ure of enjoyment that I had. There were 
 the Episcopal Rector and his wife; Mrs. O, 
 alleged to be the ' Mother of our Church ' 
 . , . ; the D's who belonged to the Unitarian 
 Church in Brooklyn, but whose interest in 
 our Church is just as Christian and beautiful
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 253 
 
 as one could wish to see. Of course, we did 
 little but talk although I sang several songs 
 and I haven't had so thoroughly diverting 
 a conversation for at least two months as 
 we managed to become involved in last night. 
 Mrs. O did get exercised over my occasional 
 digs about her shocking orthodoxy, and in 
 intense earnestness strove to warn me against 
 letting the old landmarks go ! You know how 
 utterly devoid of any approach to form our 
 service is; of late years we have stood during 
 the last two hymns, and since Mr. Stevenson's 
 installation we sing the Doxology at the 
 opening, immediately after which the Pastor 
 repeats the Lord's Prayer. Now many of our 
 people have wished to have the congregation 
 participate in this last act; Mrs. O naturally 
 rises on her traditions and antediluvian 
 associations figuratively, at least, mounts 
 the back of her pew, screams fire and shakes 
 her umbrella in the face and eyes of the 
 ritualistic party who wish to commit the 
 impiety of repeating the Lord's Prayer in 
 unison. I was amused beyond expression to 
 observe her oracular deliverances on the 
 * fatal step ' that she would resist to the day 
 of her death. . . . Dear me! the form and 
 method of the service are so immaterial to 
 me; I believe I could stand anything from 
 puritanism to episcopacy as florid ... as 
 rites could make it." 
 
 " Boston, January i, 1882. 
 " I have just returned from a most solemn 
 and delightful service at Trinity, Phillips
 
 254 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 Brooks' church, . . . lasting from n o'clock 
 until the beginning of the New Year. . 
 The whole church was filled, and I shall long 
 remember the awful silence which ensued 
 after Mr. Brooks' words inviting the congre- 
 gation to spend the last moments of the old 
 year in unvoiced prayer for a holier power 
 for God's service in the incoming year. He 
 beautifully and cogently likened the New 
 Year to the New Jerusalem, the chapter de- 
 scribing which he had read earlier in the hour, 
 and the dear Father knows how my heart and 
 soul poured out in loving prayer. . . . 
 
 " I escorted Mrs. F. ... to hear Phillips 
 Brooks this afternoon and sat near enough 
 to catch every word and the varying shades 
 of expression. It was a sermon I hope never 
 to forget, based on our Saviour's characteriza- 
 tion of the instructed into the Kingdom of 
 Heaven Matthew xiii : 52. The earnestness 
 of the preacher's noble face is in itself an 
 appeal to all that is pure and inspiring in one, 
 the forceful exposition of the inspiration that 
 comes from devotion to God's works and 
 ways. An unusual and impressive feature of 
 the service was the singing by the choir, un- 
 attended by the organ, of the invocation dur- 
 ing the brief period of quiet prayer prior to 
 the dispersion of the congregation. Never 
 have the hidden things of God been more visi- 
 ble and real." 
 
 Of one of the Wednesday night voluntary 
 prayer meetings which he used to hold with 
 the boys, he wrote, in 1883:
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 255 
 
 "It is now 9:30, and I have just finished 
 reading the last word of ' Nathan ' which the 
 boys will wrestle with to-morrow; and before 
 I go to bed I want to tell you how earnest 
 and beautiful a meeting we had to-night. I 
 conducted the services; we first sang two 
 verses of ' Love Divine/ and then N. . . . 
 led us in prayer. I then read Paul's passage 
 on eating meat offered to idols, and on this 
 both Mr. Roe and I spoke, I believe, im- 
 pressively as never before. God grant that 
 it be so! After our words, prayers were vol- 
 untarily made by many. We closed with one 
 verse of 'Just As I Am. J About twenty-five 
 were present and there were some very earnest 
 faces among them." 
 
 From other letters come these paragraphs: 
 
 " I have great and peculiar need of being 
 ' instant in prayer ' and in my work and my 
 responsibilities ; unless the Lord direct all will 
 be amiss. Oh, pray with, and for me, that I 
 may be quickened and chastened by the Lord's 
 mighty hand. 
 
 " H. . . . seems most happy, as well 
 he may, for * his joy no man taketh from 
 him.' It is inspiring and discouraging to 
 see a man so full of triumphant, exultant 
 peace. 
 
 "What riches for you to come back to! 
 God grant that the good work he is do- 
 ing may be established in the hearts and 
 lives of each one of these boys and of us 
 all."
 
 256 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 "Dec. 27, 1885. 
 
 " It is ten o'clock, but I cannot rest before 
 telling you of the wonderful sermon I have 
 heard to-day from Phillips Brooks. This 
 morning he preached from Acts vii : 59 and it 
 was the grandest sermon I ever heard. The 
 keynote of its inspiring tones was the ulti- 
 mate power of a simple living Christianity. 
 He traced Paul's relation to what he wit- 
 nessed at Stephen's death, and bade every 
 soul that doubted its aptitude for great things 
 for Christ to be only willing to be small that 
 Christ might be great in it or through it. 
 His appeal to the young men of Boston to 
 choose Christ, his full heart and blazing eye 
 as he told of Him and His love I shall never 
 forget. I fairly quivered through the sermon 
 and felt as if I must sob, so deeply was I 
 stirred by this wonderful preacher of the 
 wonderful truth." 
 
 "January 24, 1893. 
 
 " I do not know when I have had such a 
 shock as Phillips Brooks' death caused me. 
 Almost the last words you spoke yesterday 
 at the station were ' Now, I must hear 
 Phillips Brooks ! ' It is a mystery, and yet 
 not a mystery that such a man should be 
 taken. His life surely was complete; but the 
 incompleteness of so many lives that drew 
 vitality from his almost causes one to cry 
 out in sorrow at his removal. How glorious 
 his death was a translation in very truth!" 
 
 Perhaps the most interesting single event 
 in John Meigs' life so far as concerns its reve-
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 257 
 
 lation of his religious beliefs and essential 
 loyalties, was his connection with the famous 
 heresy trial of Dr. Charles Augustus Briggs. 
 Dr. Briggs, then a professor in Union Semi- 
 nary, New York, was assailed by the conserv- 
 ative party in the Presbyterian Church be- 
 cause of certain writings of his which espoused 
 those newer ideas as to the Bible which the 
 bolder scholarship of the time was making 
 familiar. The beliefs which he advanced con- 
 cerning the authorship and the manner of 
 composition of some of the Old Testament 
 books, particularly, were those which most 
 thoughtful men in the churches have long 
 since recognized to be true, but at the time 
 when Dr. Briggs advanced them, they threw 
 many ecclesiastical leaders into amazed and 
 indignant consternation. A great cry went 
 up that Dr. Briggs was assailing the inspira- 
 tion of the Scriptures. The attack against 
 him was waged with all the intensity of 
 which a conscientious intellectual reaction 
 can be capable, until he was finally arraigned 
 for trial before the General Assembly of the 
 Presbyterian Church. Dr. Briggs himself was 
 a man of that aggressive temper which does 
 not help promote the peace, but he stood in 
 this instance as the champion of a cause far 
 greater than himself. In the keeping of the 
 side which he represented rested the fate of
 
 2 5 8 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 that liberty of investigation which believes 
 that the reverent study of the Word of God 
 must be hampered by no prohibitions of 
 stereotyped opinion, and that the study which 
 may compel the recasting of long-accepted 
 theories about this and that aspect of the 
 Bible, if it has been based on a true and honest 
 method, will lead not to uncertainty, but to 
 larger and serener faith. On the other hand, 
 stood many men who sincerely believed that 
 the pronouncements so new and strange to 
 them must be fraught with danger to the 
 old beliefs they knew and loved; and in part 
 their attitude reflected unconsciously the tra- 
 ditionalism which in so many ages has tried 
 to crush with its brand of heresy the new 
 aspect of truth for which it cannot find room 
 in the pigeon-holes of those ideas which it 
 believes to be orthodox and final. Sincere 
 men, and men of conviction, there were, of 
 course, among the prosecutors of Briggs, but 
 the sincerity of some of them was of that 
 same grim character which has made Inquis- 
 itors under many garbs and in many genera- 
 tions. Progress and the fearlessness of a 
 larger faith waited upon the triumph of that 
 tendency which Dr. Briggs for a moment 
 represented; and though, as it happened, he 
 was formally condemned, the cause he stood
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 259 
 
 for as often happens, too, moved on to its 
 destined victory. 
 
 For a number of years, John Meigs' essen- 
 tial sympathies and his activity in his own 
 church had prepared him to be one of those 
 who should rally to the banners of the prin- 
 ciples which Dr. Briggs defended. In his 
 boyhood, he attended the Pottstown Presby- 
 terian Church, where for many years his 
 mother sang in the choir. When he came 
 from Lafayette to become headmaster in 
 1876, he took from the outset a prominent 
 part in the church's work, beginning by sing- 
 ing in the choir. Later he was elected a trus- 
 tee, and on December 8th, 1889, he notes: 
 
 " On Wednesday evening after prayer meet- 
 ing, the heads of the church elect at least 
 two more elders and I have been requested 
 to allow the use of my name. I shrink from 
 it for many reasons, beside my sense of un- 
 fitness, and I am in a real quandary as to 
 what to do. Pray that I may have guidance 
 and grace to decide wisely." 
 
 For a number of years, until the school 
 grew so large that he established services on 
 The Hill, he took the boys to the Pottstown 
 Church twice each Sunday. Because of that, 
 he felt a special responsibility to make the 
 spirit and teachings of the Church such as 
 would appeal to straightforward and inquiring
 
 260 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 minds. When, soon after he came to The 
 Hill, the pulpit became vacant, he used his 
 earnest influence to find and call a minister 
 who should represent what was fearless and 
 forward-looking, as well as what was rev- 
 erent, in Christian thought. Such a man, in 
 the Reverend Henry M. Dyckman, he found, 
 and he stood back of all his work to the 
 utmost of his power. 
 
 In 1893 he was elected a member of the 
 General Assembly, before which the Briggs 
 case was to come. Dr. Charles Cuthbert Hall, 
 of Brooklyn (afterwards president of Union 
 Seminary), wrote him this letter, in which the 
 real satisfaction shines through its affectionate 
 raillery: 
 
 " No. 128 Henry St., 
 
 Brooklyn, 
 "Dear Friend: ! 7 May, 1893. 
 
 " I rejoice that your Presbytery, in an evil 
 hour, fell under the temptation of the adver- 
 sary, and sent you to the Assembly. May 
 you do much harm! 
 
 " I send this line to Brown, who will give 
 you a hearty greeting, and will introduce you 
 to Dr. Briggs if you do not already know him. 
 
 " May the blessing of the sons of Belial rest 
 upon you and upon your children to the third 
 and fourth generation! 
 
 " Yours for preterition, 
 *' Elder Meigs C C. H." 
 
 from Pennsylvania ! "
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 261 
 
 Then from Washington, where the Assem- 
 bly met, his letters to his wife take up the 
 graphic story of the trial. Very positive and 
 partisan in their expressions they will be seen 
 to be, and full of the intensity which was 
 characteristic of all his convictions. Some 
 might even question the wisdom of publishing 
 that which is so vividly reminiscent of old 
 controversy; yet those who knew John Meigs 
 will not forget that underneath his outspoken 
 and militant opinions dwelt that deep and 
 humble Christian sympathy which always 
 made him recognize his ultimate fellowship 
 with all who were seeking to serve with 
 their best light the Church and the Church's 
 Lord. 
 
 " Washington, May 20, 1893. 
 " To my surprise and almost pain when the 
 Moderator announced the committees yester- 
 day morning, I found myself on the Judicial 
 Committee next to three distinguished law- 
 yers ; the second committee in importance gen- 
 erally, the first this year because before it 
 conies, or has come, the first consideration of 
 the Briggs case. Nothing could have been 
 more unexpected except my original election 
 to the Assembly, and without personal ac- 
 quaintance to bring me under the eye or 
 mind of the Moderator I am designated 
 for this supreme committee, in this fateful 
 year of our Church. May the Christ of
 
 262 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 peace and love fill my soul with His spirit 
 aright to serve Him who gave Himself for 
 me! 
 
 " We had our first meeting last night and 
 heard the appeal in full from the New York 
 Presbytery prosecuting committee, who were 
 defeated in the Presbytery in January, as you 
 may recall. Never was there a worse cause 
 worse presented than the anti-Briggs present- 
 ment by this prosecuting committee. No ac- 
 tion was taken last night beyond filing the 
 appeal in order, pro forma. This morning we 
 meet to consider what recommendations we 
 shall make to the General Assembly. Here 
 will come the agony, for, of course, the ma- 
 jority of our committee is anti-Briggs, or 
 anti-liberal as I prefer to put it. There will 
 undoubtedly be a majority for a strong reso- 
 lution unfavorable to freedom; there will un- 
 doubtedly be a strong (in quality and spirit, 
 I hope) minority report, appealing either for 
 regularity of procedure, a hearing by the New 
 York Synod which has been . . . ignored 
 by the appellants, or for a dismissal of the 
 appeal, the ending of the contention and 
 acrimony of the whole case and the advocacy 
 of peace and work. This last, the dismissal 
 of the appeal, would best suit my views, but 
 I fear it is impracticable. There seems to 
 be a fair fighting chance for the return to 
 the New York Synod. I shall work and vote 
 in concert with the lovers of liberty and 
 peace, and suffer in the passing regard of 
 the large majority who seem ready for any 
 intolerant and crushing issuance of this ever-
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 263 
 
 recurring question of the liberty wherewith 
 Christ hath made us free. 
 
 " I am seeing numerous old college ac- 
 quaintances and find the gathering on this 
 side most interesting. 
 
 " Mrs. M. . . . has turned up and seems 
 very glad to see me, though (dear soul!) after 
 the Judicial Committee makes its report, she 
 will probably want to cross the street 'to 
 escape me! 
 
 " I have just come in from a long confer- 
 ence with the Liberals and am actively en- 
 gaged in trying to bring our committee mi- 
 nority of six, to common ground to-morrow 
 morning when the majority will propose 
 resolutions that pre-judge the great case and 
 prejudice the defendant's interest. . . . 
 Briggs' opponents are so fierce that they will 
 not consent to the regular order, but wish 
 to depose him in a summary and premature 
 way. You can imagine how intense the feel- 
 ing is. The pressure on the Judicial Com- 
 mittee is, and will be, frightful until we re- 
 port to the Assembly. I am unutterably 
 sorry and yet glad that I am in this place of 
 peculiar responsibility and gravity. God help 
 me to speak and act in His spirit of liberty 
 and love. How true that tolerance of the in- 
 tolerant is the hardest kind of tolerance to 
 attain! Pray for my guidance and my help! 
 
 " I am brought into close relations with the 
 rarest spirits of this great gathering, and this 
 is a privilege dear to my soul. Social pleas- 
 ures are a thing of the past or future. I have 
 no soul for them now, and yet I feel the in-
 
 264 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 adequacy of my powers impaired as they 
 certainly have been by my illness. 
 
 " I ran up home for a night, and rinding 
 things running smoothly returned this P. M. 
 in order to be here in time for our early 
 morning committee meeting." 
 
 On the back of the letter from Dr. Hall is 
 written in pencil this memorandum : " Minor- 
 ity of Judicial Committee called to order by 
 election of Dr. Nicholls as Chairman, J. Meigs 
 as Secretary. By vote of meeting Dr. Nich- 
 olls was requested to draw up report setting 
 forth the opinion of the minority." 
 
 Then the letters continue: 
 
 " May 22, '93. 
 
 " Our Judicial Committee will divide in 
 reporting the result of their conference. Fif- 
 teen will support the majority, and six of us 
 the minority report; the latter is the specific 
 and constitutional recommendation, the for- 
 mer is summary and intolerant. I am re- 
 lieved unutterably to have the committee 
 stage of the question ended; for, for the first 
 time I can begin to breathe freely and prepare 
 my spirit for the strain of the next few days 
 of trial. 
 
 "To-morrow the committee's reports will 
 be heard and then the battle will be on. Of 
 course, the Briggs side is very much the 
 weaker numerically, but the quality is good 
 enough for me. To-night the Briggs group
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 265 
 
 have a conference at our hotel, and I am to 
 be with them in this supreme and final 
 council." 
 
 " May 24. 
 
 "At last the main work of our committee 
 is done and the majority and minority reports 
 have brought the great judicial case before the 
 Assembly. Yesterday afternoon the reports 
 were brought in and read to the General As- 
 sembly amid silence. The majority has gone 
 outside of the constitution in their eagerness 
 to punish Dr. Briggs, and our minority report 
 was adopted, not formally or openly, but, in- 
 ferentially by the course that the Moderator, 
 under counsel, laid out for the case. The read- 
 ing of the appeal, a clerical exercise that tried 
 the patience of a gathering boiling with agi- 
 tation, aside from the smothering heat of the 
 church, was the only step taken after the re- 
 port was heard. This afternoon at half-past 
 two, the case comes on with precedence over 
 all the other business until it is out of the way. 
 The sentiment is divided as to the hearing of 
 the case by the Assembly and reference to 
 the Synod. The latter I prefer, as do the 
 liberals, generally, and some of the moderate 
 conservatives. 
 
 " I have been appointed by the liberals one 
 of a ' steering committee ' of seven to arrange 
 and apportion the work on the floor of the 
 Assembly or elsewhere, so that my hands are 
 full and my head and heart as well. I can 
 scarcely believe that I am myself; I may feel 
 this the more after the trial when the liberals
 
 266 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 are put under the ban, if this be, as it is likely 
 to be, the natural course of events. 
 
 " Last evening I accepted an invitation to 
 dine at the H. . . .'s, and had a lovely, 
 quiet, domestic evening a sharp contrast to 
 my other evenings here, and it brought me 
 to bedtime in a serene spirit." 
 
 " May 25, 1893. 
 
 " You can hardly realize the tension I have 
 been, and am, under. All of one's thoughts 
 and energies are enlisted in this great ques- 
 tion and I am daily surprised to find one and 
 another of the consecrated, influential per- 
 sonalities, men and women, eagerly, prayer- 
 fully, hoping for liberty's triumph. It may 
 be delayed, but it is as sure as God, despite 
 the temporary obstacles that oppose it. Dr. 
 Briggs spoke an hour and a half yesterday 
 P. M. and will have three and one-half more 
 hours allowed him on the propriety of the 
 prosecuting committee's appeal. Then the 
 latter will reply, and then comes the first great 
 struggle on the floor of the Assembly. The 
 conservatives, by whom I mean the great 
 body of Dr. Briggs' opponents, are disposed, 
 not to say determined, not to allow free dis- 
 cussion and debate; they would actually like 
 to settle the question over night. This Judi- 
 cial Committee experience has been a despir- 
 itualizing ordeal for me. The combination 
 of prayers for peace, for the spirit that is 
 'first pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be en- 
 treated, full of mercy and good fruits, without 
 variance, without hypocrisy,' and the deliber-
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 267 
 
 ate utterance of a purpose to wage war, 
 bitter, relentless and to the knife, is enough 
 to sicken one's soul. 
 
 " As the General Assembly has now entered 
 on the Briggs case, all else is suspended and 
 we must sit steadily without leave of absence 
 for an hour even, until the whole issuance 
 is made. God help us to show His spirit in 
 these trying days." 
 
 " May 26. 
 
 " I have just come in from a long, tense 
 agony in the Assembly, incident to the dis- 
 cussion of the question as to whether we shall 
 try Dr. Briggs or send the case down to the 
 Synod, the intermediate court. God help 
 them and his Christ-bought Church! In an 
 hour and a half after the discussion begins 
 we take the first great vote and this virtually 
 decides the case. Oh, that in this our hearts 
 and consciences could be illuminated by 
 Christ's own spirit of love and peace! But 
 I fear the motives are not all God-given. 
 However it goes, and it seems now as if it 
 could go only one way, we who profess the 
 liberal spirit must show the spirit of Him 
 who, when He was reviled, reviled not again." 
 
 On this same day he wrote to a friend: 
 
 " Here I am, and have been for more than 
 a week, sitting as Commissioner in the Gen- 
 eral Assembly ... at this great crisis. I 
 have had frightful work to do and warfare 
 to wage in the Judicial Committee. ... Six 
 out of twenty-one finally refused to bow the
 
 268 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 knee to Baal and brought in our minor- 
 ity report which blazes the way to liberty 
 and righteousness. The atmospheric pressure 
 against us has been terrific, but our strength 
 has increased daily. And though we go to 
 certain defeat to-day we are in the path of 
 ultimate victory. 
 
 " I have come into the closest relation with 
 Dr. Briggs and his intimate friends, and best 
 of all, with a noble group of men who are 
 here in the interest of no personality but that 
 of our Lord and His Christ." 
 
 " May 28. 
 
 " We are nearly all hoping that Dr. Briggs 
 will continue his case to the end, though last 
 night one of the Union Seminary directors 
 told me he thought there would be no use in 
 it. They are rampant, he says, to slaughter 
 him and will have no regard for what he says 
 on the merits of the case which now formally 
 comes up for trial. I don't wonder at Dr. 
 Briggs' own disinclination to make a plea 
 before so hostile and inflexible a body of so- 
 called judges. And yet for the sake of the 
 principles embodied in his position, I hope he 
 will have the Assembly go on record on this 
 question." 
 
 " May 29. 
 
 " Dr. Briggs, following the prosecuting 
 committee, has begun his defense this after- 
 noon. This argument covers the question of 
 his heresy, and is, of course, the vital one. 
 There is no disposition among the majority
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 269 
 
 to listen to argument, however. ... I 
 realize that Dr. Briggs is not the ideal de- 
 fender of the faith, so far as that gentleness 
 and winsomeness that were in Christ are 
 concerned, but he has been so hounded by 
 these malignant enemies who misrepresent 
 him, in season and out of season, that I am 
 not surprised, though I am disappointed 
 somewhat by his strong utterances. It has 
 been his personality rather than his view 
 throughput that has aroused the relentless 
 antagonisms that now are fast ripening for 
 his downthrow. However, if your own cate- 
 gorical asservations before God should be 
 hooted or sneered at by unfriendly judges, 
 you would find it hard to preserve a mild and 
 serene behavior, and I sometimes wonder, not 
 at his vehemence so much, as at his restraint." 
 
 "May 30. 
 
 " The great case has been presented by the 
 parties; at 7:45 to-night the members of the 
 New York Presbytery will be heard. To- 
 morrow at 9:30 members of the Assembly 
 will begin to be heard for two hours; at n 130 
 the first of thirty-one votes will be taken on 
 sustaining the appeal of the prosecuting com- 
 mittee; aye, means Briggs' condemnation; no, 
 his justification. It is needless to say he 
 will be condemned, despite his utterances of 
 argument and belief. The majority have one 
 chance to rescue themselves from their me- 
 dieval posture, and this is the mitigation of 
 the sentence. If they are as intolerant in this 
 as they have been in the other proceedings,
 
 2 7 o THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 God help the Church. I cannot believe that 
 they will rush madly to extremes in this 
 matter. 
 
 "To convict Briggs the Assembly ought 
 to alter the indictment from heresy to lying, 
 if they are really anxious to be consistent. It 
 looks now as if we should get away to-mor- 
 row, Wednesday night. I sincerely hope so, 
 for my absence at this time is a great strain 
 for me, and yet I shall ever bless God that 
 I came at this critical juncture of the Church." 
 
 "June ist. 
 
 " ' The court ' has been in a most contin- 
 uous and tense session for the past two days. 
 I begin to feel ready for a rest-cure of any 
 description, and shall doubtless find in my 
 diverse occupations at home a real solace from 
 these novel and distressing responsibilities 
 that have rested on me. 
 
 " The verdict, as you have anticipated, is 
 suspension from the ministry and Dr. Briggs 
 is no longer a Presbyterian clergyman. This 
 will not necessarily affect his relation to 
 Union Theological Seminary, and he will 
 doubtless continue to teach as long as he 
 lives. The majority has assumed a great re- 
 sponsibility and will have the future, if not 
 the present, thought of the Church of Christ 
 against it." 
 
 The immediate issues which gave these 
 letters their intensity and fire pass away, but 
 from them there comes an abiding impression
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 271 
 
 of the men who wrote them a sense of the 
 earnestness of his religious loyalties, as well 
 as of the force of his championship for free- 
 dom. 
 
 But a still deeper development in his re- 
 ligious consciousness than these letters alone 
 can show had been going on for a decade in 
 his spirit. 
 
 When he first began his work at The Hill 
 his religion consisted essentially of a sturdy 
 devotion to right and duty, under the sanc- 
 tion of the thought of God. As a Christian, 
 too, he looked to Jesus Christ as the incarna- 
 tion of those ideals which he himself wished 
 to try to follow, and gave himself with ear- 
 nest heart to His service. But in his own 
 thought there was still something greatly 
 lacking. He became the more conscious of 
 this after his marriage and his association 
 with the radiant spirit of his wife. He said 
 once sadly that though he was trying as well 
 as he could to follow the Master, he did not 
 have the feeling as he knew some had 
 that God in Christ was a real and living Pres- 
 ence to whom he could turn in conscious and 
 immediate communion. 
 
 None can describe the way in which this 
 sense of the living God comes to the human 
 hearts that know it. Still it lies beyond the 
 reach of words, wrapped in that "mystery
 
 272 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 which hath been hid from ages and from 
 generations . . ., which is Christ in you, the 
 hope of glory." But through the doors of 
 manifold experiences, sometimes from the 
 sunlight and sometimes from the shadow, it 
 does come self-revealing, sufficient. And to 
 John Meigs too, it was to come, out of the 
 door of love and over the threshold of sorrow. 
 
 If we should know his spirit fully, it would 
 be necessary to know all that came to him of 
 inspiration, of spiritual recognition, made 
 more exquisite and tender through his mar- 
 riage. But the story of that cannot be told. 
 
 Yet we can trace the influence upon him 
 of some of the rich friendships which he ac- 
 knowledged with the unrestrained outpour- 
 ing of his lavish affection. The Drown family 
 and the family of Dr. Rossiter W. Raymond, 
 both of whom he met first when he was at 
 Lafayette, meant pre-eminently much to him. 
 
 In 1881 he writes, referring to the Drowns : 
 
 " T. . . . says he has a whole week's talk 
 laid out and I am essential to the entire ar- 
 rangement, so I shall go directly to Easton on 
 Thursday, after the boys leave and stay until 
 Monday after Christmas, deferring the rest 
 of that ominous conversation for a month 
 or two. I shall be glad to get into the house- 
 hold that has been so faithful and unswerv- 
 ing in their devotion for so many years. I
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 273 
 
 want just such friends now and thank God 
 fervently that their love is such as to induce 
 them to desire my presence. It's all a great 
 mystery to me, but life is so permeated with 
 marvels that I simply feel thankful and try 
 to be worthy of such love and leave the rest 
 with God." 
 
 Again he writes of a visit to the same 
 family : 
 
 " Jan. 30, 1882. 
 
 " I never felt so grateful to God for His 
 gracious favor in allowing me during the past 
 six years to give the very best of which I 
 have been capable to the hearts and lives of 
 these loved ones, whose blessing has been the 
 sweetest compensation God could render for 
 my faltering service. ..." 
 
 Best of all is the correspondence through 
 many years with Mrs. Rossiter W. Raymond, 
 for whom John Meigs felt an altogether pe- 
 culiar love, and whom he used to call " Aunt 
 Sally." From among many letters these para- 
 graphs are taken. 
 
 John Meigs to Mrs. Raymond, written from 
 on shipboard as he returned from Europe in 
 1887: 
 
 "My beloved Aunt Sally: 
 
 " Here I am only eighteen hours thank 
 God from New York!
 
 274 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 " The days immediately following the close 
 of school were thronged to the degree of dis- 
 traction with innumerable cares from which 
 the intervening weeks have hardly released 
 me. . . ." \Then, after recounting the ex- 
 periences of the journey, he goes on:] "If I 
 am to be really a ' changed man ' that change 
 will have to be worked out in the bosom of 
 my family or amid my dearest friends; Eu- 
 rope, Asia and Africa are as dust in the 
 balance alongside of ' Durham Woods ' or 
 "The Hill/ ... My heart is full and run- 
 ning over with joy as the staunch ship meas- 
 ures her sixteen knots an hour, and one, dear- 
 est Aunty, of the most precious hopes I 
 cherish is that of seeing you and the dear 
 ones with you ere long. 
 
 " Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 "John Meigs." 
 
 From John Meigs to Mrs. Raymond, two 
 weeks later: 
 
 "My beloved Aunt Sally: 
 
 " Your letter of the i6th has just reached 
 me. 
 
 " I am covered with shame, as with a gar- 
 ment, to think that so gracious and dearly- 
 prized a gift as E. . . .'s beautiful picture 
 should be so long unacknowledged. 
 
 " There is no sufficient apology for this ; 
 but my head has been swimming, day and 
 night, because of the unpardonable neglect 
 of mechanics who had promised to complete 
 necessary changes early in July, and yet left
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 275 
 
 the commencement of these until within a 
 day or two of my return. 
 
 " I have simply had to drive them, day and 
 evening, trying, almost vainly, to make ready 
 for the boys who are coming down upon us 
 in royal style and spirit on the too-near 2/th 
 and 28th. 
 
 " The almost dizzying distraction involved 
 has left me hardly time to sit down; tele- 
 grams by telephone have been my principal 
 form of communication, and I am still more 
 inexcusable because I haven't adopted this 
 method in more cases. 
 
 " You will forgive me, my dearest of 
 Aunties, and know that I appreciate more 
 than I can tell you the lovely picture . . . 
 and the blessed letters that you and A. ... 
 wrote me on the 3ist [his birthday']. 
 
 "To have received such a letter as yours 
 was to have an added inspiration for every 
 hour of life, . . . fraught with associations 
 of the holiest and most joyous ties that have 
 fixed my life here and hereafter. 
 
 " I need not, indeed I cannot, tell you all 
 that I ever have from you and your beloved 
 circle. Whatever of faint suggestion of use- 
 fulness or fruitfulness I aspire to or may 
 feebly attain I refer gratefully and constantly, 
 before God, to you. Oh, dear Aunt Sally, but 
 for the uplifting hand of God your head even 
 now would bow with the very burden of the 
 crowns which the souls of those you have 
 drawn to Him would lay lightly and rever- 
 ently upon that dear brow, that I, and my 
 beloved Marion, long again to see! You are
 
 276 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 ever in our thoughts; you are, more largely 
 than you believe, the thought in us, with 
 Christ over and in and above all. . . . 
 " Ever faithfully, 
 
 "John." 
 
 To John Meigs from Mrs. Raymond, writ- 
 ten in IQOJ, while Mrs. Raymond was on a 
 visit at The Hill, and he was away: 
 
 " April 25, 1907. 
 " Dearest of all Johns : 
 
 " Here I am yet, though I purpose to be 
 well enough to start with dear E. . . . to- 
 morrow for Brooklyn." [Then after telling 
 many details about the household at The Hill, 
 and of her fellowship with Mrs. Meigs, she 
 continues:] 
 
 " I do love her, John, and I always did, 
 from the first hour of our acquaintance, and 
 now more than ever. And I need not, though 
 I will, tell you again how I can say the same, 
 most sincerely, of you; and this increasing, 
 intensifying interest and affection is to me 
 the most wonderful and satisfying proof of 
 immortality. With all we read, and talk 
 about in regard to the other life, this lovely, 
 happy, deepening and heightening and en- 
 larging love for our friends is the one factor 
 of assurance I need, from the earthly stand- 
 point. It is to me the complement to the 
 Saviour's declaration, ' Because I live, ye shall 
 live also.' 
 
 " Aren't you glad that we first met so long
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 277 
 
 ago? For not only we, but so many of the 
 beloved in both circles have been drawn into 
 the same blessed circumference that we are 
 unusually blest in the contemplation of re- 
 union! . . . 
 
 " I send you my dearest old-timey-est love; 
 and when you give of the same commodity 
 [without the adjective!] to J. . . ., to 
 M. . . . and to little S. . . ., don't dole 
 it out, but give largesse. 
 
 " Your affectionate, 
 
 "Aunt Sally." 
 
 From Mrs. Raymond to John Meigs in 
 IQ08. 
 
 " How many years is it, dear John (dear- 
 est of Johns, in fact!) since you first came to 
 Durham Wood to spend your birthday . . . ? 
 I cannot think back and get dates to my satis- 
 faction; but ah! I can get all my old fond 
 associations back in a moment, when I put 
 my mind to work on my memory! 
 
 "And as far as my loving heart can go, it 
 might be only a very few years, and it might 
 be ages. For always long ago, and always 
 in eternity, those beautifully happy days will 
 be radiant; and as permanent in memory as 
 fixed stars are in the heavens. How little 
 we thought in those jolly times that we were 
 heaping up treasures which should become 
 holy! But so it is with me at any rate; and 
 so it is with you too, I doubt not, faithful 
 friend!"
 
 278 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 And again in 1910: 
 
 " August 30. 
 
 " And how many times have I written that 
 date, dear John, and how many times did 
 you spend your birthday with us, needing no 
 letter? 
 
 " Ah, how kind God has been to us, to fill 
 our lives with memories; some merry, and 
 some sad, but all of them sacred! ..." 
 
 From John Meigs to Mrs. Raymond: 
 
 " My best beloved Aunty: 
 
 " Your oldest * boy ' feels, after the blessed 
 Sunday he had with you dear, dear friends, 
 as if he were ready to say, Nunc Dimit- 
 tls. . . . 
 
 " I cannot, and therefore shall not try 
 to tell how Heaven itself helped to people 
 that dear hill top with its most blessed 
 presences; and if ever my soul aspired and 
 rejoiced it was during those brief but radiant 
 hours with you and yours and ours, of earth 
 and Heaven alike. 
 
 " Oh, if I could utter, as I cannot, the glad 
 burden of my gratitude and love to you, dear- 
 est of earthly friends, and yours, every one, 
 perhaps even your full heart that must know 
 somewhat of the streams that have issued 
 therefrom to make glad the City of God, be- 
 low, might feel a keener joy. . . . 
 
 " I was in the spirit in Durham much of 
 the time and yet in Washington, too, for the
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 279 
 
 soul's home is in the souls that have given 
 it its new birth, as you have really, mine; and 
 I go hurrying back to my Beloved and your 
 Beloved too, to tell her of new and deep ex- 
 periences that find their power and sweetness 
 in this latest fellowship which it has been my 
 rich blessing to enjoy. . . . 
 
 " Devotedly, 
 
 "John." 
 
 In the less intimate and established friend- 
 ships, also, John Meigs' spirit of service was 
 able to give and to receive much. Here, for 
 example, are two incidents which are men- 
 tioned in his letters to his wife: 
 
 Writing of the illness of a young girl in 
 whom he was greatly interested, he says: 
 
 " She is sick in mind and I simply could 
 not restrain my tears as I rode along home 
 thinking of what I should do or try to do if 
 one of our own children were thus stricken; 
 and it somehow helped me to understand 
 better the heart of God as He sees His sin- 
 sick children and must suffer to be really our 
 heavenly Father. We must pray for the dear 
 child and cheer the sorrow-laden parents and 
 learn the ever clearer lesson of forgiveness 
 and love in judging others." 
 
 And again, with reference to another friend : 
 
 "To-night I attended prayer meeting dur- 
 ing which I sat near enough to E. ... to
 
 280 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 discover her manifest depression and agita- 
 tion. After meeting I joined her and walked 
 with her to her gate. A casual word, inti- 
 mating some special trouble, the nature of 
 which I easily divined, led me to go into the 
 house, where I had a talk with her upon her 
 engagement. It turns out that for a week 
 past she has been in utter misery, doubting 
 the right course to pursue, as the reputation 
 of her lover had come to her corroborated 
 by conclusive facts as to his character. The 
 poor girl really has had no disinterested coun- 
 sel that had laid hold upon her heart and 
 head alike, and I was bold enough to be ut- 
 terly frank with her as to the considerations 
 that could be educed on every side of the ques- 
 tion that occurred to me. She has decided 
 to write him and break off her engagement. 
 Her spirit and manner were sweet, womanly 
 and grateful beyond expression. I feel un- 
 utterably thankful that I went to service to- 
 night. So it is, and must ever be: the 
 apparently incidental experiences of life 
 are what make or mar our own and other 
 lives." 
 
 If his letters to his friends are revealing of 
 that inward ministry to his spirit which love 
 wrought, so also in an even tenderer way are 
 his letters to his children. 
 
 Through them runs a vein of playful hu- 
 mor, as for instance in these paragraphs taken 
 from different letters to his daughters at 
 school and abroad:
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 281 
 
 "When we reach the school, we shall ob- 
 serve all the rules and not make you blush 
 by talking about your charms to the girls 
 or even to the teachers. ' I embrace you ! ' as 
 Napoleon used to say in his letters to his vari- 
 ous wives, particularly when he was about to 
 take another. 
 
 " You quite ' stump ' me when you ask 
 about the fool questions parents of new boys 
 ask, and yet I should know a little about 
 what they say. 
 
 "A very frequent statement is: Johnnie 
 has so lovely a disposition, has never told a 
 lie, and is so unselfish but he must have a 
 southern exposure for his room, and his health 
 is so important that he really ought to have 
 a larger room than a mere ordinary boy: and 
 he is so sensitive about his food, really can't 
 enjoy broiled sweetbreads more than twice 
 a day, nor sweets more than three times a 
 day. He has a very rare mind so rare that 
 you cannot discern it, except under a mag- 
 nifying glass. His less amiable qualities he 
 inherits straight from his father's side of the 
 house; his good looks from mine. ..." 
 
 " Your letter of Friday reached me this 
 morning, and I was greatly charmed by its 
 marked improvement in penmanship and gen- 
 eral style. 
 
 " If you keep up this tone, you'll soon find 
 yourself unable to drop back into the old 
 paralyzed, hen-tracks, negligee style of yore.' J 
 
 " I'm trying to be good and get out in the 
 air in the automobile every day. It looks
 
 282 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 like new, and Frank seems to have a new 
 coat of varnish put on his manners." 
 
 "A. . . . has appeared in a new Spring 
 creation in the shape of anything else than 
 a hat, though she wears it chiefly on her head. 
 It is much milder than most of the hats I 
 see, and as she threatens to take it with her 
 to Europe, you'll see how chaste and simple 
 it is." 
 
 " We have had our usual early days' ex- 
 periences with home-sick and book-sick lads. 
 
 " The weather has been superb for a week, 
 and that has helped matters greatly. Your 
 room and ' Gran's ' have been occupied by 
 boys for several days sad profanation, in- 
 deed, and their antics over the east end of 
 my study reminded me frequently that my 
 dignified mother-in-law doesn't vault over 
 beds and try ' drop-kicking ' between bells 
 for meals." 
 
 But underneath the sparkle of this playful- 
 ness, like the tide setting in from the sea, 
 surge the great deeps of his lavishly expressed 
 devotion. 
 
 Thus he writes to one of his daughters: 
 
 " My darling: 
 
 " No day in Father's calendar is bigger with 
 joy and gratitude than October 25th, and you 
 need no word of mine to tell you why. 
 
 " You have gone singing and ringing
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 283 
 
 through your, now, twenty beautiful years, 
 gladdening all hearts and none more than 
 your Daddy's. 
 
 " It would be strange, indeed, if with two 
 such eventful days as the 23d and 25th so 
 near me, I were not counting my mercies 
 and recognizing God's goodness to me to a 
 degree far exceeding my deserts. 
 
 " May He keep you ever as His own Angel 
 of tender love and ministrations to those who 
 need you, Dearest ! " 
 
 And again: 
 
 " What can I say that is not full of the old 
 familiar blessed love that has filled my heart 
 to overflowing for you, my sweet comrade, 
 during all your days and especially during 
 these last two years of my halting life when 
 we have been thrown together in a peculiar 
 way. I cannot write a steamer letter to you, 
 for you know my heart's inmost thought and 
 love, already; and, God willing, we shall soon 
 again take up the blessed, familiar fellowship 
 on the other side, where in the meantime our 
 hearts will really be. 
 
 " You will help and bless all you know by 
 your loving spirit. God keep you and enrich 
 you by the deepening sense of His dear 
 presence." 
 
 " Well, K. . . . won't be a hundredth part 
 as glad to see you as the old white-haired fel- 
 low I saw in the looking-glass a little while 
 ago."
 
 284 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 But though to his heart the ministry of the 
 living was so deep and beautiful, the ministry 
 of the dead had been more transforming still. 
 
 His eldest child was Edith, born February 
 25, 1883. 
 
 In May of 1890, Edith fell ill with diphthe- 
 ria. In a few days the disease more terrible 
 and deadly then than now ran its course. 
 On Saturday, near midnight, on the loth of 
 May, she died. 
 
 That which was perhaps the greatest crisis 
 in the growth of John Meigs' soul had come. 
 
 Early on the next morning he came into 
 his own room from the room next door where 
 lay the body of his beloved dead. 
 
 From the windows high up over The Hill, 
 he stood looking out as the morning broke. 
 Out across the trees he gazed, over the sleep- 
 ing town to the river and the still spaces of 
 the farther hills and to the lightening sky. 
 The breath of the day's awakening stirred 
 through the tops of the trees. That exquisite 
 and poignant loveliness of the morning, full 
 of its quivering suggestion of the infinite and 
 haunting beauty which lies beyond the frame 
 of the things we see, was lightening across 
 the world. 
 
 Yet other things, too, cut across it. The 
 rattle of early wheels in the streets, the smoke 
 going up from the distant furnaces, the con-
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 285 
 
 fused but growing sound of the preparations 
 for the day, came up like a kind of inexorable 
 reminder of the harsh facts of life, which 
 seem so indifferent to the heart's longing and 
 the heart's pain. 
 
 One deep human cry broke from him 
 " Oh, if I could only see her once more and 
 know that she is alive, I could let her go!" 
 
 Then to him in that moment of his bitter 
 sorrow came the reminder of the words which 
 long ago the Master said to Thomas: " Blessed 
 are they that have not seen and yet have 
 believed." 
 
 He looked out again into the morning. The 
 day had come. 
 
 Well has it been said, "We live in deeds, 
 not years; in thoughts, not breaths; in feel- 
 ings, not in figures on a dial." In that day 
 the sunlight went round the face of the dial 
 but once, but for the soul of John Meigs it 
 was as though the days of all a ripening 
 harvest-time had dawned and passed and left 
 their fruit. He found for himself, that which 
 he had longed for even in the Valley of the 
 Shadow, the conscious presence of the living 
 God. 
 
 At the funeral the much-loved friend, Dr, 
 Rossiter W. Raymond, conducted the serv- 
 ices. And these verses which he wrote ex- 
 pressed not only the message of an ideal, but
 
 286 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 that which came true for John Meigs that 
 day. 
 
 " ' Beside the dead I knelt for prayer, 
 And felt a presence as I prayed. 
 Lo! It was Jesus standing there. 
 He smiled : ' Be not afraid ! ' 
 
 " ' Lord, Thou hast conquered death we know ; 
 
 Restore again to life,' I said, 
 
 " This one who died an hour ago/ 
 
 He smiled : ' She is not dead ! ' 
 
 " ' Asleep then, as thyself didst say ; 
 Yet thou canst lift the lids that keep 
 Her prisoned eyes from ours away ! ' 
 He smiled : ' She does not sleep ! ' 
 
 " ' Nay, then tho' haply she do wake, 
 And look upon some fairer dawn, 
 Restore her to our hearts that ache ! ' 
 He smiled : ' She is not gone ! ' 
 
 " ' Alas ! too well we know our loss, 
 Nor hope again our joy to touch, 
 Until the stream of death we cross.' 
 He smiled : ' There is no such ! ' 
 
 ' ' Yet our beloved seemed so far, 
 
 The while we yearn to feel them near, 
 Albeit with Thee we trust they are/ 
 He smiled : ' And I am here ! ' 
 
 " ' Dear Lord, how shall we know that they 
 Still walk unseen with us and Thee, 
 Nor sleep, nor wander far away ? ' 
 He smiled : ' Abide in Me/ "
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 287 
 
 The following Wednesday night, the prayer 
 meeting for the boys came at its usual hour. 
 Ordinarily the boys themselves had a large 
 part of its conduct. This night, John Meigs 
 went as he always did, but he asked that the 
 whole time might be given to him. Then 
 out of the sacred deeps of his own experience 
 he brought to the boys the message which 
 love and pain had brought to him. He tried 
 to help them understand that night that by 
 faithfulness and obedience through the com- 
 mon days they must learn to make Christ 
 real to their own thought and will if they 
 would find Him near in the moments of their 
 some-time need. 
 
 It was at this time that he began at the 
 evening prayers in the schoolroom to use a 
 phrase which became dearly familiar to those 
 who listened to him as the years went on: 
 " We thank Thee, Lord, for what Thou hast 
 given, for what Thou hast withheld, for what 
 Thou hast taken away." 
 
 Among the copies of his letters in 1892, is 
 this one to one of the old boys who had lost 
 his sister: 
 
 "There is something sad, and much more 
 unutterably beautiful, in the thought of her 
 transition from earth to heaven at this Easter 
 season. There will be to you and the other 
 boys a new impulse and influence heaven-
 
 288 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 ward! The eternal joys upon which she has 
 entered will become more real to you now, 
 as Mrs. John and I have learned through such 
 affliction to count the sorrow little in the face 
 of the infinite blessings that now attend our 
 dear ones who have faded from our physical 
 sight, but who are more dear and more in- 
 fluential in our lives because of their physical 
 withdrawal. At such a time there is no pos- 
 sible help or comfort in any other than Christ. 
 One may say what he will, it is the Christ 
 who has taken from death its sting and from 
 the grave its victory. He is the Ever-Present, 
 Ever-Loving Friend, and to Him, we tenderly 
 commend you. . . . God help you and com- 
 fort you, as He alone can. Be assured that 
 our hearts go out to you here in tender sym- 
 pathy, for we, too, have suffered the loss of 
 our first-born, and God knows how truly we 
 can enter into the sorrows of other hearts; 
 and yet our sorrow has been changed into 
 joy. May this be ... your own portion! 
 " I send a few copies of the little memorial 
 ' Edith,' which may be blessed to the comfort 
 of you all." 
 
 In letters to his wife in the days and years 
 after Edith's death he wrote: 
 
 " December 27, 1890. 
 
 " I have no desire for the old-time lavish 
 exchange of gifts. Love is best; and what 
 God gives us must be passed on to needier 
 souls than even we. When I read of what 
 Christmas has denied others, I feel self-re-
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 289 
 
 preached to think that I have received a 
 penny's worth. 
 
 "January i, 1891. 
 
 " God only knows what the New Year holds 
 for us of trial, it may be of sorrow; we know 
 that all things work together for good, and 
 are ready to follow where He leads, for it 
 can only be towards light and love, final and 
 triumphant. As I recount our experiences of 
 the past year I thank God that faith, not 
 sight, is the order of our life. How hearts 
 would fail and courage die, if we knew what 
 a day would bring forth ! No year of my life 
 has been so rich and fruitful as this old year, 
 1890. It has been a period of travail of soul 
 but of no darkness. God has not veiled His 
 face and His word has been sure. I travel 
 to the setting sun with the sweetest joy and 
 peace in my heart that I have ever known. 
 I cannot tell you the infinitude of content and 
 gratitude that floods my soul. 
 
 " May 10, 1893. 
 
 "The day that signalizes our deepest ex- 
 perience of the sufficiency of Christ's sustain- 
 ing love has come once more. It were bet- 
 ter not to think how different life would be 
 to us as we think how different it would be 
 to our first-born darling had the Master not 
 called her to share His veriest life. God make 
 and keep us worthier of her and Him, day 
 by day! 
 
 "May n, 1895. 
 
 " I found on my return that the children 
 had been invited to go to Ringing Rocks for
 
 290 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 an afternoon picnic and I thought that the 
 joyous life they would throw into this outing 
 would quite fit the real spirit of the fifth an- 
 niversary of our precious Edith's entrance 
 upon the life eternal; so I went alone to the 
 cemetery and cleaned up the ivy and saw 
 that all was well with the resting place of 
 the dear body that enshrined our darling's 
 pure soul. 
 
 "May 12, 1898. 
 
 " I was so moved yesterday to recall eight 
 years ago that Sabbath morning when to the 
 sacred sorrow of those early hours, dear old 
 Ros brought his great loving heart of comfort 
 and strength. Strange and divine mystery 
 how it has deepened and sweetened all our 
 life, for through it we have entered so many 
 other lives which had been else closed to us 
 and we had gone on our own narrow way ! " 
 
 In the year after that letter was written, 
 while Mrs. Meigs was absent on a visit, he 
 had these words of Browning's painted over 
 the window in their room, " Love is all and 
 death is naught." 
 
 " For through it we have entered so many 
 other lives which had else been closed to us," 
 he wrote of his sorrow; and as though they 
 were a commentary upon that, stand these 
 words of one of the masters at The Hill: 
 
 " He had a flood of sympathy, at times 
 approaching a woman's tenderness, for one
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 291 
 
 in real distress. At the time of my wife's 
 death, the first big sorrow of my life, I was 
 shaken to the very depths of my nature by 
 an almost uncontrollable grief. In the very 
 darkest hour he came, enveloped me in his 
 arms and by such a strong, genuine outburst 
 of love, sympathy and sorrow, intermingled 
 by words of hope and faith, he seemed to 
 breathe into me his very life. I mention this 
 most sacred memory only as an illustration 
 of the way in which he gave his life and love 
 and hope to his very dying day." 
 
 Among some memoranda in his handwrit- 
 ing on a few loose sheets of paper are these 
 sentences abbreviated from different para- 
 graphs of Phillips Brooks' sermon on " The 
 Light of the World": 
 
 " The divine life is the completion, not the 
 surrender of our humanity. Christian char- 
 acter is only completed human character. 
 The Christian is only the true man. The 
 Christian graces are only the natural virtues 
 (courage, patience, trustiness, humility) held 
 up into the light of Christ. Manliness has not 
 been changed into Godliness; it has fulfilled 
 itself in Godliness. 
 
 " Thus what a great, clear thing salvation 
 becomes. It is . . . the making of the man 
 to be himself. . . . 
 
 "The Christian to Jesus is the man the 
 completed man. With what naturalness this 
 idea clothes the invitations of the Gospel.
 
 292 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 They are no strange summons to some dis- 
 tant unknown land; they are God's call to 
 you to be yourself; they appeal to the home- 
 sickness in the soul. . . . That you should 
 be the thing you have been and not be that 
 better thing, that new man, is unnatural and 
 awful. . . . 
 
 "This is the true ground for the appeal 
 you desire to make to other souls. ' Come 
 home, come home.' ' I have found the home- 
 stead.' ' I have found the Father.' ' I have 
 found the true manhood. I have found what 
 you and I and all men were made to 
 be. . . .' 
 
 "What then? If Christ can make you 
 know yourself; if as you walk with Him day 
 by day, He can reveal to you your sonship 
 to the Father; if, keeping daily company with 
 Him, you can come more and more to know 
 how natural is goodness and how unnatural 
 sin is to the soul of man; if, dwelling with 
 Him who is both God and man, you can come 
 to believe both in God and man, then you are 
 saved saved from contempt, despair, into 
 courage and hope and charity and the power 
 to resist temptation and the passionate pur- 
 suit of perfectness. 
 
 " It is as simple and as clear as that. Our 
 religion is not a system of ideas about Christ. 
 It is Christ. To believe in Him is what? To 
 say a creed? To join a church? No, but to 
 have a great, strong divine Master whom we 
 perfectly love, whom we perfectly trust, 
 whom we will follow anywhere and who, as 
 we follow Him or walk by His side, is always
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 293 
 
 drawing out in us our true nature and making 
 us determined to be true to it through every- 
 thing, and rinding the deepest truth that we 
 are the sons of God. ..." 
 
 And again, under the text of Paul's words 
 to the Galatians, " Henceforth let no man 
 trouble me; for I bear branded on my body 
 the marks of Jesus": 
 
 " Oh ! that we bear the marks of our Lord 
 Jesus visible to His tenderness, however faint 
 to the eye of man. Wherever there is any 
 form of self-conquest (of pride, ambition, 
 envy, passion, indolence, self-indulgence, im- 
 purity) there is one of the marks of Jesus 
 marks however faint. And this is not beyond 
 the strength of any one of us. . . . 
 
 " With all the energies of an immortal life 
 let us strive to bear at least these marks in 
 virtues won, in faults corrected, in sins re- 
 pented. All sins leave their scars, even when 
 the wound is healed; but after forgiveness 
 the very scars are as Bossuet said of the 
 wounds of the immortal Conde. " Proofs of 
 the protection of Heaven." 
 
 " If we can take with us no saintly self- 
 denials, no rich spiritual gifts, no noble serv- 
 ices, when we stand before Christ in judgment, 
 let us at least take the traces of wounds which 
 His grace has closed proofs of recovery. 
 It was for this that Christ died and rose 
 again and ever maketh intercession for
 
 294 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 In 1896 there came another break in the 
 circle of those he loved best. That year, his 
 mother died. 
 
 Thus he writes to Mrs. Raymond: 
 
 " The Hill, August 14, 1896. 
 "My beloved Aunt Sally: 
 
 " Once more we rejoice in the Lord and His 
 gracious dealing with our beloved while we 
 sorrow, as we may, that we can no longer 
 minister, in our feeble way, to her whose 
 tender, loving recognition was so precious to 
 her children's souls. 
 
 " The dear Lord understands all this and 
 does not chide us that we both sorrow and 
 rejoice. 
 
 " The blasting heat of the past week pros- 
 trated dear Mother beyond the help of physi- 
 cians, though, for a few short hours on Tues- 
 day we almost dared to hope. . . . She 
 recognized us all most sweetly and affection- 
 ately early Wednesday, and yesterday at two 
 slipped peacefully away into the life so radiant 
 with our beloved. 
 
 " What a life and what a memory ! . . . 
 
 " To your dear household who have blessed 
 us in joy and sorrow, as no other has or can, 
 we send our love, deeper still now that a 
 new bond is ours. 
 
 " Devotedly, 
 
 "John." 
 
 And on August i8th he writes again:
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 295 
 
 " Truly if ever a soul might say ' Thy gen- 
 tleness hath made me great ' it was Mother's, 
 and yet hers was the last to think so obvious 
 a truth. . . . 
 
 "... The children (except George who 
 arrived later) were all here with Mother to be 
 recognized and blessed and caressed. . . . 
 You may divine the heavenly beauty and 
 dignity of the sweet face that had never lost 
 its early grace. After the simple service con- 
 ducted by the Episcopal rector, a dear friend, 
 when all the friends had withdrawn, I read 
 the Scriptural passages from Mother Ray- 
 mond's memorial and made a brief prayer 
 with our loved ones only kneeling by or near 
 the precious body, and thus in family prayer 
 which was our Beloved's delight we bade 
 farewell to the dear, dear form, glorified al- 
 ways but now transfigured and yet to us 
 ever the same. Oh, how we shall bless God 
 for you all on the birthday and every day, 
 and hope for a speedy meeting! . . . 
 
 "Through all these deep waters the pres- 
 ence and potency of your tender spirit, as in 
 times past, have been our dear possession, 
 and in Him, to whom you have ever led us so 
 surely and so sweetly, we are strong." 
 
 And in another letter dated simply " Christ- 
 mas," he writes: 
 
 "We have hung our stockings and ex- 
 changed our gifts in the study in which, as 
 Mother's room, our first Christmas joys were 
 known. The place is perfect for the purpose,
 
 296 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 and I am sure that the pure and heavenly 
 spirit of her who glorified the room so many 
 years shared our simple joys to-day." 
 
 Upon a tablet erected to his mother's mem- 
 ory in the chapel of the school he wrote this 
 inscription : 
 
 Mother, Comforter, Friend 
 In strength, gentle 
 In love, selfless. 
 In service, tireless 
 In patience, joyous 
 Her Children Rise Up and Call Her Blessed. 
 
 As his eldest had died in 1890, so in 1900 
 from the same illness, his youngest one, the 
 exquisite little Helen, went away. 
 
 To this new sorrow he brought again the 
 steadfast and courageous faith which he had 
 learned beyond all faltering. But henceforth 
 there was in his spirit a vaster note. The 
 old sparkle and playful banter still were his, 
 but underneath these lay that still profundity 
 of unrevealed emotion whose depths are filled 
 with tears. 
 
 " He went so blithely on his way 
 The way men call the way of life, 
 That good folk who had stopped to pray 
 Shaking their heads, were wont to say 
 It was not right to be so gay 
 Upon that weary road of strife :
 
 THE LIFE WITHIN 297 
 
 He whistled as he went, and still 
 
 He bore the young where streams were deep, 
 
 He helped the feeble up the hill, 
 
 He seemed to go with heart athrill, 
 
 Careless of deed and wild of will 
 
 He whistled, that he might not weep."
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS AND A FINISHED LIFE 
 
 Growth of the School The Fire in 1901 Pneumonia in the 
 School The Typhoid Epidemic of 1902 The Breaking of John 
 Meigs' Health Visits to Bad Nauheim Letters Concerning the 
 School and Its Future Death in 1911. 
 
 THE last decade of John Meigs' life and 
 work at The Hill was marked by much 
 achievement and also by much trial. 
 In December, 1900, another large and hand- 
 some building containing recitation rooms 
 on the first floor and rooms for the boys on 
 the floors afoove, and called the " East Wing," 
 had been built at right angles to the school- 
 room on the side opposite the quadrangle. 
 
 During the Christmas vacation in Decem- 
 ber, 1901, it caught on fire in some undiscov- 
 ered manner between the time when the 
 night-watchman left and the time very shortly 
 afterwards when the first servants arrived 
 from outside the buildings. Since the boys 
 and masters were away there was no one in the 
 building, and the fire, when it began, was un- 
 seen until too late to check it. A high wind 
 was blowing, and the building burned fiercely; 
 and though the work of the men employed at 
 the school and of the town fire department 
 298
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 299 
 
 kept the blaze from spreading to the other 
 buildings, the East Wing itself was almost 
 completely destroyed. 
 
 In the midst of the fire there happened a 
 little incident which showed with a kind of 
 delightful vividness the way in which John 
 Meigs' spirit could rally and find humor even 
 in the midst of disaster. On the day before, 
 which was Saturday, one of the best-loved 
 of the old boys, Upton Alexander, had tele- 
 graphed that he was in Philadelphia, and that 
 he wanted to come up to The Hill for a quiet 
 Sunday. The Professor took the telegram 
 from Mrs. John who had opened it and said, 
 " Let me answer that." So he dictated this : 
 " Come for your quiet Sunday, and bring 
 your sneakers with you." When the fire 
 broke out early the next day, which was 
 Sunday, Alexander, of course, was aroused 
 by the general alarm, and throwing on his 
 clothes, and snatching up a boy's military 
 cap which happened to be in the room where 
 he was sleeping, he rushed out and began to 
 help the other men in fighting the flames. 
 For a while it looked as though the whole 
 school would be swept away. The wind was 
 blowing perilously, and at the most critical 
 hour of the fire word was brought that on 
 account of the fact that some repairs were in 
 process to the town reservoir, it was possible
 
 300 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 that the water would hold out only half an 
 hour longer. It was at this juncture that 
 Meigs, with all the possibilities which this 
 news brought before him, caught sight of 
 Alexander in his motley costume, working 
 feverishly, with hatchet in hand, at a window 
 frame outside the "old boys' room." The 
 incongruity of this with the " quiet Sunday " 
 struck him, and he shouted up, " Hey, Upton ! 
 Got your sneakers on?" Alexander looked 
 back at him with shocked and reproachful 
 astonishment. " How could he be thinking 
 of a joke," he said afterwards to Mrs. Meigs, 
 "when the whole school was about to burn 
 up?" 
 
 Once again Meigs set himself to the task 
 of reconstruction. The building had been so 
 recently completed, and embodied so fully all 
 his ripest ideals for the school that it was 
 almost exactly duplicated. A passage in a 
 letter which he wrote to his sister the next 
 summer indicates the only changes that were 
 made. 
 
 "You will be glad to know that with the 
 exception of the one part of the East Wing 
 which stood directly above the Greek Room, 
 the building is under roof. I do not see why 
 fairly rapid progress should not be made in 
 pushing it forward to completion. As the 
 basement and first story were so little
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 301 
 
 affected by the fire, a good deal of the tedious 
 and heavy work connected with the piping 
 and plumbing will be avoided. 
 
 "As you may know, I have decided to en- 
 large the part of the building in which the 
 Greek Room was located by about eighteen 
 feet, which will secure to us an additional 
 classroom and six rooms for boys, which will 
 accommodate the third boy in the cottage 
 rooms, who is there and everywhere a nuisance 
 and will soon be, I am happy to say, a thing 
 of the past." 
 
 Meanwhile, for the winter of 1902, a tem- 
 porary recitation building was put up; the 
 boys were quartered in the infirmary and in 
 buildings near the school, and the work went 
 on as usual. The new East Wing was ready 
 for the opening of the next session in the 
 spring. 
 
 Some years before a movement had been 
 begun by the Alumni, inspired chiefly by Mr. 
 Alfred Raymond, of Brooklyn, and Mr. 
 William S. Clawson, of Philadelphia, to raise 
 funds to build a chapel as the gift of the old 
 boys to the school. Up to this time, Sunday 
 services as well as the daily morning and eve- 
 ning prayers, had been held in the school- 
 room. In 1904, the chapel, built of sand- 
 stone, larger and more beautiful than had at 
 first been planned, was finished and dedicated 
 to the use of the school.
 
 302 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 The chapel stands some fifty yards north- 
 east of the headmaster's residence, and just 
 beyond the corner of the West Wing, to 
 which it is placed at right angles. It is of 
 a simple and massive, yet beautiful type of 
 collegiate Gothic. To the south there is an 
 entrance through a porch, and to the east 
 another entrance under an arched cloister, 
 which runs along that side of the building 
 from the south front to where, near the north- 
 ern end, rises a square tower. Within, the 
 chapel is finished in limestone and brick. 
 Wide lancet windows on the floor level, and 
 in the clerestory above light it. The organ 
 is in the northeast corner within the base of 
 the tower, and opposite that is a transept. 
 The deep chancel, which is apsidal in form, 
 bears upon its walls these words: "Watch 
 Ye. Stand Fast In The Faith. Quit You 
 Like Men. Be Strong." A large triple lancet 
 window over the south door bears in its 
 center the shield of the school, and under- 
 neath it the school motto, " Whatsoever 
 things are true." A tablet on the wall is in- 
 scribed thus: 
 
 " As a token of love and loyalty to the School 
 And to those whose lives have inspired it, 
 This chapel has been erected by the Alumni." 
 
 Meigs' appreciation of what the Alumni 
 had done was great. He wrote to Mr. Claw-
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 303 
 
 son: "I cannot put into words my personal 
 feeling of gratitude and affection for you and 
 Charles Hatfield for the untiring and self- 
 sacrificing devotion to the enterprise that you 
 have shown." 
 
 One other building, finished in 1910, marked 
 the climax of John Meigs' constructive work. 
 It stands parallel to the old Sixth Form wing 
 some 100 yards to the north, and with the 
 chapel at the west, forms another open quad- 
 rangle. It was the largest, as it was the 
 newest, of all the buildings, and is used for 
 rooms for masters and boys. 
 
 Meanwhile the grounds and particularly 
 the athletic grounds had been steadily en- 
 larged, until the school encompassed about 
 120 acres, with five football fields, besides 
 the cinder running track and the many tennis 
 courts. 
 
 The year of 1902, which began with the 
 many cares incident to the reconstruction of 
 the burned buildings, was to hold within itself 
 the deepest anxieties and the gravest sorrows 
 that John Meigs ever had to face in connec- 
 tion with the life of the school. 
 
 In February, there broke out in the school 
 an epidemic of pneumonia. Twenty-four boys 
 were ill at different times, and two died. Upon 
 the headmaster the burden of care was very 
 heavy, and the grief of parents pressed upon
 
 3 o 4 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 him as his own. Yet for himself and others 
 he lifted up that largest aspect of sorrow 
 which he himself had learned, " What a divine 
 comfort to know that P. ... has been so 
 good and true a lad, so thoroughly conscien- 
 tious and steadfast in all his life's relations 
 and duties. . . . How our hearts rejoice 
 with the lad and sorrow with the parents! 
 And yet there is more . . . joy than sorrow, 
 and I prayed to-night that we might all truly 
 rejoice at our friend's high promotion to fel- 
 lowship so close and satisfying with God 
 and Christ. Even so may we one day at- 
 tain!" 
 
 To his sister, Miss Elizabeth, who was in 
 Europe, he wrote of February I4th: 
 
 " Since my letter of a fortnight ago was 
 mailed, much has happened to make the 
 year . . . monumental in our experience. 
 . . . Marion and I are together undergoing 
 with other parents what we ourselves have 
 been called to undergo, and so recently that 
 we can, perhaps, speak words of greater com- 
 fort than those who have not known so re- 
 cently the sorrows and the consolations, too, 
 that have been our blessed portion. 
 
 "Among the new boys one of the finest 
 was George Lawrence Laflin, of Chicago. He 
 had always been delicate, super-sensitive, and 
 spiritually and mentally gifted beyond his 
 years. He was diffident and shy, but won my
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 305 
 
 heart the first time I looked into his eyes, and 
 ever since, until the end came, has he been 
 very dear to me. 
 
 " During the Christmas holidays he had a 
 slight illness, which was followed by the fatal 
 illness of his father's mother, to whom he was 
 tenderly devoted, and who died of pneumonia 
 just before the end of the vacation. . . . 
 From her funeral he came directly to The 
 Hill sick, depressed and saddened. He fell 
 ill after a few days and developed pneumonia, 
 which quickly led to his death. His parents 
 were with him and everything possible was 
 done to avert the fatal termination of his sick- 
 ness, for which the dear fellow was singularly 
 ready. He walks in light if ever a boy was 
 prepared to. 
 
 "At the same time that he fell ill several 
 others, with varying early symptoms, devel- 
 oped pneumonia, and on Wednesday morning 
 Graham Baker's condition became so hope- 
 less that, in order to avert from the fellows 
 the shock of a second death and particularly 
 that of an old boy, I decided to close the 
 school for a fortnight, thus anticipating the 
 Easter recess, and in order to give the boys 
 the mental relief incident to their going home 
 and avoiding here the depression inevitable 
 to Graham's death, then imminent. The dear 
 fellow passed away that afternoon and his 
 parents, who chanced to be in New York, 
 were with him as they had been from Sunday 
 evening, when they arrived. 
 
 " When we remember that last year there 
 was not a single case of serious illness, we
 
 3 o6 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 find it very hard to understand the present 
 plague of pneumonia. It has, however, been 
 everywhere. Groton School has been closed 
 and yesterday we heard that St. Mark's, too, 
 had been closed and that they have pneumonia 
 at Hotchkiss. It seems to be of an unusual 
 type, due to atmospheric and not local condi- 
 tions. 
 
 " Our first fear was that the exposure of 
 the boys incident to the emergency houses 
 since the fire might have conduced to the un- 
 usual number of cases, but the fact is that 
 more than two-thirds of the boys who have 
 been, or are, ill are inmates of the regular 
 school buildings. This is, in a sense, gratify- 
 ing and consoling, for otherwise we should 
 feel responsibility for the possible exposure 
 of the fellows to the rigors of the winter. 
 We had two weeks ago, when the trouble 
 began, frightful weather, which has, however, 
 improved decidedly and affords sick and well 
 a better chance to survive it. 
 
 " Miss Cameron, Mrs. Smith and Miss Ryan 
 have been simply magnificent in this crisis, 
 and everybody has been as kind and consid- 
 erate and helpful as could be imagined. The 
 boys themselves have been heroic, calm, serene 
 and steadfast, even to the point of questioning 
 the real occasion for their dismissal for a 
 time." 
 
 And after the Easter vacation he wrote: 
 
 " The boys have come back to us in fine 
 spirit. Their demeanor throughout these crit-
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 307 
 
 ical weeks has been sublime, serene and cheer- 
 ful beyond all praise. Somehow we feel that 
 our fellowship in suffering has been helpful 
 to us; and the parents have been noble in 
 their sympathy and hopefulness." 
 
 With a great thankfulness and relief Dr. 
 and Mrs. Meigs saw that school session come 
 to an end. As they stood on the deck of the 
 little steamer that took them up Lake George 
 to their summer cottage, he looked out over 
 the beautiful, still water and said to her, 
 " Does it seem possible that we have put this 
 most awful year behind us?" 
 
 Yet a greater crisis than that of the pneu- 
 monia was impending. Scarcely had they ar- 
 rived at the cottage, near Sabbath Day Point, 
 when letters began to come telling that one 
 boy and another and another was ill with 
 typhoid. Meigs hurried back instantly to The 
 Hill to see if he could discover there any ex- 
 plaining cause. The water system had been 
 one of the prides of the school, with an artesian 
 well of its own, and a system of drainage 
 planned and executed under the direction of 
 Colonel George E. Waring, the famous sani- 
 tary engineer who transformed the cities of 
 Cuba. But it was found that underground a 
 pipe had burst, and a leakage had percolated a 
 long distance by a fissure in the rock until it 
 had contaminated the well. Meigs immedi-
 
 3 o8 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 ately gave orders for the installation of an 
 absolutely new system, taking the water from 
 a new source, filtering even that which went 
 into the swimming pool, and sterilizing all 
 that was used for cooking and drinking; sent 
 out letters to the parents of all the boys tell- 
 ing them the facts and went back to Lake 
 George with a burdened heart, knowing that 
 tidings of illness and danger were likely to 
 multiply. 
 
 And they did. One after another the let- 
 ters came telling of this one and that whom 
 the fever had attacked. From the point on 
 the beautiful shore at Bluff Head where his 
 house was, Meigs could see the mail boat 
 steam into sight far down the Lake, long be- 
 fore it reached Sabbath Day Point to which 
 his letters came. With a daily agony of ap- 
 prehension he used to watch it, fearful of the 
 news it brought. The weary list of the 
 stricken grew as the days went by, to nearly 
 one hundred, masters and boys. Then came 
 the news of this one and another five in all 
 who had died. Among the boys who were 
 most ill was " Manny " Holabird, a leader in 
 every aspect of the life of The Hill in face 
 and body beautiful, an athlete and scholar, 
 the kind of beloved figure to whom the boys 
 looked up as one of their heroes. When 
 John Meigs learned that he, too, seemed at
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 309 
 
 the point of death his cup of agony was full. 
 It was his custom to go into his own room 
 with his wife every morning after breakfast 
 to read together George Matheson's " Times 
 of Retirement," and to pray. This day the 
 depths of his soul cried out, and he prayed: 
 " Oh, my God, take anything we have, take 
 our children, but spare Manny!" It was not 
 so to be. Two days later came the news that 
 Holabird was dead. 
 
 In the chapel at The Hill is this tablet to 
 his memory, written by John Meigs himself: 
 
 William Holabird, Jr. 
 April 4, 1884 August 18, 1902 
 
 " Manny " 
 
 Athlete, Scholar, Gentleman. 
 For his loyal friendship, and for his 
 fidelity to the highest standards of the 
 school, which he helped to lift higher 
 still, beloved and honored. 
 
 His strength was as the strength of 
 ten, because his heart was pure. 
 
 That summer, a certain man, with blunder- 
 ing sympathy, said to John Meigs: " What 
 effect do you suppose all this dreadful hap- 
 pening will have on your school? " He turned 
 upon him with fierce amazement, " My school, 
 my school," he said, " I am not thinking of 
 the school, I am thinking of these boys ! " 
 
 When the school opened in September, a
 
 3 io THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 larger number than ever were on the applica- 
 tion list. And one night the door opened, 
 and in walked the father of " Manny " Hola- 
 bird, bringing his only other son. 
 
 Many letters came which must have helped 
 over the sad road. One of the men who used 
 to come to preach at The Hill wrote: 
 
 " My dear Hero : 
 
 " I have been on the point of writing to 
 you for a long time past to express my 
 sympathy with you in your awful burden and 
 my profound admiration for the way you have 
 borne it. It is wonderful to me this triumph 
 of yours, as witnessed to me by the loyalty of 
 your boys. God bless you." 
 
 In this grievous year John Meigs learned, 
 perhaps, better than he had ever known be- 
 fore how deeply the school was intrenched 
 in the hearts of many; but the wounds of his 
 own sufferings were deep. After that year 
 his physical strength, which had been great, 
 began gradually to wane. 
 
 In one of his letters of February, 1903, is 
 this comment: 
 
 " In a brief conversation at Pittsburgh with 
 the Secretary of the Treasury, who has just 
 returned from the Lincoln's birthday celebra- 
 tion at Chicago, I was expressing regret at 
 A. . . ,'s departure when he said, * Yes,
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 3 1 1 
 
 A. . . . is a greater man than the country 
 has perhaps realized. He has reached the 
 summit of an earthly career and his time to 
 die is now.' I returned to Washington re- 
 cently from my brother's death-bed. He was 
 just fifty and I felt his going very keenly, 
 particularly at his age; on my going to the 
 Club in Washington, I met Mr. K. . . ., 
 formerly a distinguished member of Congress 
 from my state, and exclaimed upon the long 
 interval which had lapsed since last I saw him 
 or knew of his doings. He had been two 
 months in a hospital and few knew the fact. 
 I said to myself, better dead at fifty than alive 
 at eighty." 
 
 In the spring of 1906 came the keenest per- 
 sonal disappointment which marked his whole 
 life at The Hill, a discovery which forced 
 him to separate almost immediately from the 
 school one of the masters whom he had loved 
 and trusted most. He writes: 
 
 " Matters are moving on quietly and on the 
 whole surprisingly well. It is really an im- 
 pressive illustration of a familiar principle that 
 no one is indispensable that . . ,'s drop- 
 ping out affords. It will, of course, be pre- 
 cisely the same in the case of any one or all 
 of us, so far as the main affair of common 
 and commanding interest the school is con- 
 cerned. The men have rallied so nobly and 
 assumed so strong tho' silent a protectorate 
 of its large interests that one is greatly
 
 3 i2 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 heartened. These leaden days have a golden 
 setting and a glorious dawn to follow." 
 
 But the "leaden days" cast their long 
 shadow on his heart, nevertheless. His hopes 
 and plans for the organization of the school, 
 his personal affection, his confidence, all 
 were involved in the sudden and deep dis- 
 tress. He slept restlessly, and would cry out 
 sometimes at night in words that showed 
 his dreams were tracing again the experience 
 which had put its mark upon his very inmost 
 spirit. 
 
 The life in the summer at the cottage on 
 Lake George came in these years to be to 
 him more and more an oasis of refreshment. 
 He rejoiced in the simplicity and quiet of the 
 little house; and reveled in the beauty of 
 the blue lake and the mountains which spread 
 their lovely panorama before his door. He 
 could play with the children, and read for 
 hours aloud with " Mrs John " ; and always at 
 mail time he would go across the Lake to 
 the post-office at Sabbath Day Point, and 
 often at other hours go out here and there 
 in a small launch which he loved to run. 
 
 In one of his letters to his sister in the 
 summer of 1906, he writes : 
 
 " Little as there is really eventful in the 
 swift gliding of the days and weeks here at
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 313 
 
 the Lake, it will interest you to know how 
 well and happy we are with the children's 
 friends and joys. . . . 
 
 " We are finding much more comfort in the 
 place than we had dared hope for; tho' Marion 
 finds it hard to live in a mere house, and would 
 not accept the land with the house on it as a 
 free gift from divine or human hands, if we 
 might have a cabin of logs, with bark and 
 moss on them, and a leaky roof and bugs 
 chasing over us on pine branch lairs, and an 
 occasional light meal of thick cream and pre- 
 digested stuff, preferably in tablets, one of 
 which would carry us three days, not including 
 Sundays. 
 
 " The launch has been out of commission 
 since our arrival, except for three or four 
 days, but will be in condition this afternoon. 
 You can imagine the pleasant sense of being 
 marooned for two weeks or more on the 
 'offside' of space. ..." 
 
 By the fall of this year there had begun to 
 make itself felt the serious heart trouble 
 which, with intervals of seeming improve- 
 ment, grew worse until his death, five years 
 later. The development of this disease bur- 
 dened his mind often with the apprehension 
 that he might be crippled in a way which to 
 his active temperament seemed worse than 
 death. The fact that he had had three 
 brothers who broke down in middle life and 
 lingered in invalidism, made him fear this
 
 3 1 4 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 the more. Repeatedly he was heard to say 
 that he prayed God would mercifully let him 
 drop in the harness and the end when it 
 came was the answer to his prayer. When 
 the doctors told him what he must do to 
 help check the malady, he set himself to face 
 the necessity with characteristic thoroughness 
 and determination. All his life he had been 
 a man free from all dissipation, but he had 
 eaten what he pleased with never an apparent 
 cause to hesitate. Now, however, he had to 
 accept a most rigid, and to him often un- 
 pleasant, diet, with coffee and many other 
 things he had been accustomed to eliminated. 
 He conformed himself to the new state of 
 things so simply and immediately that some- 
 one remarked on it one day, and asked 
 whether he had not found the restriction very 
 hard. He answered : " Anything is easy which 
 you make up your mind to do." 
 
 In December, 1906, he went for a while to 
 the sanitorium at Watkins Glen, N. Y., and 
 in April, 1907, he was at Winnetka, Illinois, 
 for another enforced rest. He writes home: 
 
 " Watkins Glen, 
 December 6, 1906. 
 
 " I am relaxing and am doing my best to 
 accelerate my cure by working with the doc- 
 tors to the limit of my heart and will." . . . 
 [He found great happiness in the friendship
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 315 
 
 and companionship of Mrs. Cyrus McCor- 
 rnick.] " Dr. K. . . . seemed to think that 
 Mrs. McCormick and I naturally fell to talk- 
 ing on kindred interests too much and thus 
 intensified rather than lightened our thinking. 
 She certainly is a wonder and we still have an 
 occasional shy at each other. . . . The more 
 I see of her the more impressed I am with 
 her mind and spirit. We have established an 
 abiding friendship I believe, and surely she 
 has made my stay here marvelously different 
 from what it would have been without her. 
 
 " I am hoping the new term will open hap- 
 pily. How my heart aches to be out of it 
 and yet I am so grateful for the loyal hearts 
 there to carry on the work." 
 
 And from Winnetka: 
 
 "April 21, 1907. 
 
 " We shall go to church with J. . . . this 
 morning. They are much comforted to know 
 that their present minister will retire soon. 
 It is a common but always pathetic ordeal 
 when a man is no longer efficient in his 
 church, or other field of service, and just now 
 my sympathy with such an one is especially 
 keen!" 
 
 "April 23, 1907. 
 
 " I rejoice with you that Mr. Speer was so 
 strong and impressive. God grant that the 
 fellows, especially the Sixth Form, may have 
 received some uplift that will endure. What 
 of the Sixth Form? Are they developing
 
 316 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 any larger sense of responsibility, any finer 
 perception of their duty for moral leader- 
 ship?" 
 
 But the treatment at Watkins Glen and the 
 rest at Winnetka was not enough to give him 
 back his health. When the school year drew 
 to a close he realized that he would have to 
 take heroic measures if he was to find restora- 
 tion. The doctors told him that he ought to 
 go to the baths in Germany as the most hope- 
 ful chance of arresting the trouble with his 
 heart. So, very reluctantly, in this summer 
 of 1907 he started on the first of what were 
 to prove the repeated enforced trips abroad. 
 
 To one of the masters on the eve of his 
 departure he writes: 
 
 " This is, believe me, a mild expression of 
 my sense of peculiar gratitude and obligation 
 to you for your sympathy and co-operation in 
 the most difficult years of my life, during 
 which your loving loyalty has been a balm 
 to the soul of 
 
 " Yours affectionately, 
 
 "John Meigs." 
 
 From the steamer he writes home: 
 
 " S. S. ' Deutschland/ July 2, 1907. 
 " This has been so far, the serenest sea 
 voyage I have ever had. Not a qualm nor a 
 suggestion of physical discomfort of any sort;,
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 317 
 
 enough acquaintances on board to feel the 
 joy of human fellowship with whom a few 
 words a day signify much in little; plenty of 
 sleep in the twenty-four hours, and above all, 
 the priceless quiet times for that dearest fel- 
 lowship with my dear ones and with our 
 loving Christ, who seem nearer and dearer as 
 my earthly cares recede and my earthly bless- 
 ings tower so high and precious. I try to 
 think of you all as you are and dismiss such 
 apprehensions as too easily face one and 
 plague one in his absence, for the same dear 
 Lord holds us all in His tender keeping." 
 
 To Mrs. Meigs he writes from Bad Nau- 
 heim, July 7, 1907: 
 
 " I had my first bath Saturday at twelve 
 and my second this morning at nine. To- 
 morrow is my rest day, indicating more de- 
 liberation here than at Glen Springs in the 
 treatment, though I don't welcome this save 
 as a starter, for I 'ain't got long to stay 
 here.' " 
 
 " Yesterday after luncheon we took a drive 
 in and about the town to get our bearings, 
 and after dinner strolled up to the ' Kurhaus/ 
 an establishment for the entertainment of the 
 visitors, who are taxed $5.00 a head to main- 
 tain it, and of the citizens, who may buy 
 family tickets at a considerable reduction. It 
 is like a great big club house, with a fine 
 reading room, billiard room, restaurant and a 
 large expanse of terrace, on which are set 
 tables for ' al fresco ' service of food and
 
 3i8 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 drink, and best of all, an orchestra of about 
 fifty pieces which gives concerts three times 
 daily in the season. There is also a theater 
 attached which gives operas and plays. This 
 afternoon we drove out to Steinfurth, which 
 is famous for its rose gardens belonging to 
 the Schultheis brothers, who have 250,000 
 bushes in bloom in the height of the season, 
 and an old tower with a medieval castle and 
 a modern thriftiness and wholesomeness that 
 would put most American towns of its size 
 to the blush." 
 
 "July 9, 1907. 
 
 " Nauheim is beautifully ordered and kept. 
 Such scrupulous neatness would astound the 
 minds of the residents of Pottstown and I 
 should like to have a few of them see what 
 is possible in the way of municipal house- 
 keeping." 
 
 "July 12, 1907. 
 
 " The weather since our arrival and, we are 
 informed by friends, since early June, requires 
 a more gifted pen than mine to have justice 
 done. It is both cold and rainy and as there 
 is no provision for heating moderately the 
 hotel we shiver and shake at intervals when 
 the infrequent and coy sun glances at us 
 askance ; still I am so busy with fussing that it 
 is pretty much of a muchness for me however 
 the wind blows and the Dutch goes. You 
 should be here to listen to our fluent conversa- 
 tion with the natives, who shy like W. . . . 
 at an unexpected meeting on a corner. I an>
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 319 
 
 supposed to dp nothing but loaf and recover 
 from the possible tax upon my system of the 
 baths, three of which have intervened since 
 my former 'rest day' which of itself is en- 
 couraging as indicating the doctor's opinion 
 of my constitutional strength of resistance, 
 though I am obviously in the category of 
 1 him who putteth his armor on ' and shall 
 refrain from the feeblest suggestion of boast- 
 ing. 
 
 : 'Two weeks and a half have passed since 
 I sailed and they seem like months. Indeed 
 I do not dare to allow myself to measure time 
 or space or sensibilities lest shipwreck over- 
 take me utterly. My heart is so absolutely 
 elsewhere that I sometimes wonder how it 
 can be here at all to be benefited by the treat- 
 ment. I try to be full of thankfulness to God 
 that I can make this effort, and effort it 
 truly is, to better my condition when it is 
 denied so many." 
 
 "July 15, 1907. 
 
 " It is unspeakably solacing to my soul to 
 feel that I have tidings of you all up to yes- 
 terday, for one does not need companionship 
 in general terms so much as the companion- 
 ship of his very own. I might have a score 
 of friends here to-day but I should, actually, 
 still be lonely; but having none and my dear 
 ones in spiritual communion and none to in- 
 tervene I am with you all in a deeper sense. 
 As Stevenson says, ' When we are alone we 
 are only nearer the absent.' ... I heard 
 from L. . . . that John Timothy Stone was
 
 320 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 on the steamer with him. How I would like 
 to catch the old heathen over here and coach 
 him in Dutch." 
 
 "July, 1907. 
 
 " I have had a very long and exciting after- 
 noon with a Mr. L. . . . from P. ... and 
 must lie to for repairs. He talks faster than 
 anyone I have encountered for a long time 
 and laughed so much that I feel as if I had 
 been in a hen roost for an afternoon's diver- 
 sion." 
 
 "July 21, 1907. 
 
 "Well, it looks now, Heaven be praised! 
 as if we should return two weeks earlier! ! ! ! 
 though I cannot hope to be with you at the 
 beloved Lake for my birthday, I may expect 
 to arrive on the second, reaching New York 
 by September first if we arrive in time. What 
 a joy and rapture to think of ten days at the 
 Lake! ! ! ! God be thanked for this much 
 more of life." 
 
 "July 24, 1907. 
 
 " You speak most naturally of my coming 
 back a ' new man ' in point of energy and 
 vigor. This I verily believe is not to be. If, 
 however, I can secure from this treatment 
 such reinforcement as will enable me to go 
 on, moderately, with my beloved work for a 
 few years longer, even though I should have 
 to come here summer after summer to pro- 
 long my period of service, I shall be unspeak- 
 ably thankful for there is so much to be done
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 321 
 
 for which it seems as if my heart and soul 
 were only preparing. Pray for this at least; 
 pray indeed for perfect restoration, if God so 
 wills, but we shall rest content if it be His 
 will that I may go on for a little while longer, 
 though I do crave the service of not a few 
 years. It is said that the real benefit of the 
 cure is not appreciable for weeks and even 
 months, so that we shall be patient and ex- 
 pectant. It seems as if the sight of my 
 beloved ones will do my heart more good than 
 all else man can devise. Still I want you to 
 believe me hopeful and grateful beyond 
 words, that I have had this rare chance to 
 do the best we know for my health." 
 
 "July 31, 1907. 
 
 " There is a mere chance of our getting 
 away on the ' Kaiser Wilhelm II ' which 
 holds the record for the transatlantic run, 
 which should arrive not later than the twenty- 
 eighth or twenty-ninth, so that I should be 
 with you for my birthday, if this fortune 
 favors me. I finish my * cure ' two or three 
 weeks earlier than the doctor suggested two 
 weeks ago and I don't see what better use I 
 could possibly make of these days than by 
 starting correspondingly earlier for my loved 
 ones' abode at the dear old Lake; if you know 
 something wiser for me to do, you may cable 
 me, collect. 
 
 "Among the guests here, the most trying 
 person on my nerves, is a 1. . . ., who brought 
 a card of introduction to me from the father 
 of one of our boys. This gentle soul sits up
 
 322 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 calmly in the hotel lobby and enjoys indulging 
 in a monologue in a tone which overpowers 
 the hum of quiet conversation and, naturally, 
 concentrates observation upon himself and 
 me, until I run away abruptly to the won- 
 dering eyes and attention of the other guests. 
 He is just as likely to be telling how bad the 
 food is as to be confiding to me the state of 
 his internal department or the low opinion he 
 has of doctors generally. As he ' has it in ' 
 for most everybody and everything on earth 
 but his little four-year-old girl at home and 
 his family cook, he does not lack for themes 
 for his soliloquizing. I am taking most of 
 my meals in my room just now to escape for 
 a season, at least, his personal attentions. 
 It is truly a good experience for me in a way, 
 but does not minister to peace of mind in my 
 feeble estate." 
 
 " August 6, en route to Frankfort. 
 " I took my last bath Sunday morning, 
 spent my last ' rest day ' somewhat restlessly 
 as you may imagine, and having packed de- 
 liberately during the afternoon was ready 
 for an early start for Frankfort. My final 
 interview with the doctor was very satisfac- 
 tory in its helpful suggestions as to my mode 
 of life, etc. I asked him such questions as 
 I had jotted down and he answered me clearly 
 and frankly. The main question, after all, 
 was as to the presumable effect of my malady 
 upon my life-work. He said if I moderated 
 the ordering of my life, and deputed to others 
 duties that could be transferred so as to
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 323 
 
 secure genuine mental relief from anxieties 
 as to their conduct, regulating my diet as was 
 practicable and obtaining frequent intervals 
 of rest, I ought to be able to go on for years 
 of happy and useful service. My trouble has 
 only advanced far enough to summon the 
 reserves of my vital powers to resist and we 
 should be able to check the progress of the 
 arterio-sclerosis, by vigilance and moderate 
 employment of my strength or weakness. I 
 asked him if I should have to return to 
 Nauheim next year. He said, ' That would 
 depend upon your condition later on.' It's 
 heavenly to be rid of the sense of treatment 
 for a time. I shall rest and be sensible and 
 do all the loafing I can." 
 
 " Burgenstock, August 8, 1907. 
 
 " We arrived at Lucerne at midnight and 
 reached this place of marvelous beauty about 
 noon yesterday. We came up from the Lake, 
 thirteen hundred feet, by a funicular railway 
 to the narrow level of the ledge of the moun- 
 tain on which the hotel is perched. We are 
 higher, here, than the top of Black Mountain 
 and while the view is similar it is vastly more 
 majestic with its snow-capped mountains 
 piled up to the sky on the eastern horizon 
 and the rocky abutment of range upon range 
 in every other direction than the north. 
 
 " Lucerne nestles at the head of the Lake, 
 perhaps twelve or fifteen miles away, looking 
 last night with its myriad lights like a fairy- 
 land, while the deep carmine band of sunset 
 light, confined closely to the horizon by the
 
 3 2 4 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 dull leaden clouds, gave an unearthly hue to 
 the wondrous scene of beauty. Near at hand 
 are the characteristic Alpine pastures and 
 little farms, and the lovely villas lie along 
 the Lake in easy sight. The hotel is perched 
 on the edge of the cliff, which seems to fall 
 sheer into the Lake. One stands on the 
 esplanade and looks into space, almost be- 
 wildered by the lavish beauties on every hand. 
 The silence is not of earth, and yet the earth 
 is so real. The mountain tops are hung here 
 and there with fleecy clouds, the snow-capped 
 peaks little obscured by their passing shadows, 
 and at many points the sharp Sierras cleave 
 the blue with dazzling whiteness. The Jung- 
 frau is visible and many another famous 
 mountain height. I feel so selfish amid such 
 entrancing beauty as the landscape affords, 
 that I groan in spirit to think I have none 
 of my beloved here to share it with me. 
 I shall be devoutly glad to spend my days 
 here instead of in the more frequented haunts 
 of men until I start for Paris and Cherbourg." 
 
 "August 12, 1907. 
 
 " It is a little past seven, early for breakfast 
 on this mountain top. Yesterday was a most 
 beautiful and interesting day. At eight there 
 was early Communion in the parlor, con- 
 ducted, of course, by a Church of England 
 clergyman who dispensed the bread and wine 
 to one other person than myself. He is a 
 curate of St. Judes', Brixton, England, and is 
 sent here as I suppose scores of others are 
 sent, to minister to the chance people at the
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 325 
 
 resorts. I do my reading of our ' Daily 
 Strength/ 'Rests by the River ' and the New 
 Testament before breakfast, so that about 
 quarter-past ten I took the boat from Brunnen 
 to see the surpassing beauties of the view 
 from Axenstein, which is on the mountains 
 higher up, I should say, than the Grand Hotel, 
 Burgenstock. I am more and more impressed 
 with the narrowness of the Lake as contrasted 
 with Lake George. It is more like a river as 
 to width and would not compare with our 
 really great rivers in this respect, but the 
 soaring mountains and piles of jagged rocks, 
 snow-clad peaks and vista after vista among 
 the receding ranges give a quite different im- 
 pression that is more majestic and overwhelm- 
 ing as an expression of Nature's grandeur. 
 
 " These Swiss have the genius for grasping 
 the salient points of a view and locating just 
 there, whenever possible, their hotels and re- 
 sorts. The apparent inaccessibility of a pros- 
 pect seems to have no sort of discouraging 
 influence upon them, for their ' funiculars ' 
 or 'electrics' shoot up into the clouds if 
 need be, as blithely as the birds, and the won- 
 der is that to their enterprise the travelers of 
 almost every nation respond, for you find 
 nearly all of these mountain resorts crowded 
 and in some cases hopelessly so; and the 
 crowds that push up for views alone are 
 amazing. These last days will slip away 
 swiftly I believe, for I keep up a kind of 
 routine that helps to lubricate the flight of 
 the hours. To think that I can say * next 
 week' I sail and shall soon be saying 'this
 
 326 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 week ' and ' to-morrow ' ! It's a sort of sus- 
 pended animation just now, but I shall really 
 live soon, God willing. 
 
 " I am distressed to learn that G. . . . has 
 been ' rejected ' in Tech. That is the word 
 they use in reporting on his exam and it is a 
 bad one. I shall cable to-day to inquire 
 whether he will be refused another chance to 
 qualify. The truth is that G. . . . fooled 
 away his chance to recover from his poor 
 work in his ' preliminaries ' during the au- 
 tumn term, when he set about doing the same 
 old evasive and tricky things instead of bon- 
 ing right down to business. It is a most clear 
 and sorrowful illustration of the perils of half- 
 heartedness and slippery methods." 
 
 On September second he wrote to Mrs. 
 Raymond from Lake George: 
 
 " On Wednesday last I returned to the be- 
 loved Lake with Marion, who had met me 
 on my arrival in New York the preceding day, 
 by the good ship ' Kaiser Wilhelm II.' 
 
 " Our voyage of six days was happily un- 
 eventful, and the only incidents were those of 
 good fellowship with two or three fine spirits 
 I was glad to meet on sea or shore. 
 
 " After my Nauheim ' cure ' I went to 
 Lucerne and Burgenstock to be ' cured of the 
 cure/ passing a day in Paris and three days 
 in London, where I saw the . . ,'s before 
 sailing from Southampton. 
 
 ' The best is yet to be ' according to the 
 foreign doctors' predictions, who assure me
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 327 
 
 with the same confidence that ' Rough on 
 Rats ' reassures the intending purchaser that 
 the rats do not die in the house, but after 
 four or five months (during which the cor- 
 oner may get in his work) I shall realize how 
 great is the benefit I have derived from the 
 baths. I do, seriously speaking, expect good 
 results, whereof I have as yet observed only 
 slight intimations. 
 
 " I have the great consolation that I have 
 done the best I have known to regain my 
 health, and I shall continue to be a law- 
 abiding member of the Commonwealth." 
 
 Back of the cursory mention of the visit 
 in London, lies a very characteristic incident 
 which is best told in the words of the gen- 
 tleman concerned in it. This is the letter he 
 wrote to John Meigs on September 2ist, 1907: 
 
 " My dear Man, 
 
 " There has not been a day, nor many hours 
 of any day, since we said good-by, that I 
 have not been thinking of you. Many letters 
 have I written to you in my head. And yet, 
 knowing how it is between us, I calmly let 
 the writing wait its time and occasion. 
 
 " I do not suppose I can write to you the 
 thanks that I could not speak. But I can tell 
 you now perhaps better than I had time to 
 tell you in your flash through London, what 
 it was you did for me. In itself the material 
 help you brought me was of even greater 
 benefit than it could, perhaps, have been at
 
 328 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 any other time. I was not only hard up, but 
 tired out with working too long and with too 
 little encouragement, in need of a holiday, 
 and really even more out of health than I 
 realized when I saw you. Thanks to you, 
 I have had the holiday^ with an easy mind, 
 and am, in spite of the operation performed 
 about a week after you sailed, very much 
 better for it. I am back in town again, and 
 just settling back to work, and my mind is 
 very full of you, and of the something over 
 and above all that I have tried to express 
 above, that you have done for me. I want 
 to see whether I can tell you what it 
 was. 
 
 "You brought to me, then, a wonderful 
 proof of the permanence and the indestructi- 
 bility of human friendship. That a man should 
 come, as you came, to see whether I needed 
 him, remembering me so intimately after 
 twelve or thirteen years broken only by one 
 meeting; that the almost schoolboyish delight 
 of seeing my old chief again so unexpectedly 
 should be so soon merged in the sense of un- 
 broken and protective friendship these and 
 certain other aspects of the episode which I 
 hinted at in talking to you, have given me 
 an experience which I shall carry with me 
 always as a possession invaluable. 
 
 " You have given me courage for my work ; 
 if I succeed in making it better work, I shall 
 owe thanks to you for that also. 
 
 " There ! I haven't half said what I wanted 
 to say. But perhaps you will read some sense 
 in the words."
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 329 
 
 With the breaking of his health Meigs be- 
 gan to look ahead to the time when the guid- 
 ance of the school must pass into other hands ; 
 and he set himself to build up the organization 
 which could assume control, when necessity 
 came, without break or change in the work 
 and spirit of the school. It was his hope that 
 his son, Dwight R. Meigs, should succeed him 
 in the headmastership a hope which has 
 since come true. But meanwhile, in the long 
 absence which his illness caused, the school 
 was in the charge of an Executive Committee 
 of the most experienced and trusted masters. 
 
 From Florida, where he and Mrs. Meigs 
 had gone for a little while in February, 1908, 
 he wrote to one of the masters, Mr. Judson: 
 
 " I feel worse than you can quite know to 
 miss all of this, which is as the breath of life 
 to me the return of the old fellows not to 
 speak, but merely to be at the old school 
 where so many of us have suffered so much 
 and perhaps been made stronger by it. 
 
 " You are a prophet of good tidings, indeed, 
 and I rejoice, and at the same moment groan 
 in spirit, to learn that the reunion promises 
 so well. 
 
 " I shall write C. ... S. ... in regard 
 to the Sheppard Testimonial from the old 
 boys as a part of the general reception in his 
 honor at Commencement. The supreme and 
 crucial matter to secure is such absolute
 
 330 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 secrecy as will give to the dear man the 
 greatest surprise of his life. This can be 
 insured if at the outset the importance is 
 laid heavily upon the conscience of the 
 Alumni. . . . 
 
 "If you find it agreeable to have Dwight 
 named on the Executive Committee, as a 
 connecting link, I shall be glad, but you will 
 treat this suggestion in confidence and rely 
 upon my appreciation of any objection thereto 
 that may appear." 
 
 And again, a few days after Washington's 
 Birthday: 
 
 " It was just like you, I am happy and 
 proud to say, to sit down on Sunday and 
 write me of the great event, while you were 
 still dizzy and weary from the whirl of the 
 preparations and the achievement itself. 
 
 " It may sound like special pleading but, 
 believe me, this is, at least, but the spirit of 
 our convictions that the reunion of 1908 will 
 prove to be the most significant of all the 
 delightful and blessed like occasions we have 
 reason to remember with grateful and loving 
 hearts. The inauguration of a new type of 
 fellowship between the Alumni, the School, 
 and the Masters, with the personal element, 
 that has perhaps too much, through no con- 
 scious design or purpose of Mrs. John's and 
 mine, pervaded the atmosphere, suspended if 
 not suppressed, is a consummation devoutly 
 to be wished for and to be thankful for now 
 that it is accomplished.
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 331 
 
 "We recognize that there have been, and 
 are and will be, under the compulsion of this 
 deeper, impersonal spirit of devotion to the 
 school, other torch bearers than ourselves, 
 whom we bid hail and haste." 
 
 And at the same time he wrote to his sister: 
 
 " Feb. 28, 1908. 
 "My beloved Elizabeth: 
 
 " I believe that the new fellowship of the 
 old fellows, the school and the Masters, will 
 signify great things in the future, for one day 
 those of us who like you and me have been at 
 the forefront from the beginning, and Marion 
 who seems always to have been there, despite 
 the imperfect years before she joined us, will 
 be shadowy memories if our lives' prayers 
 and efforts be not in vain; and it is well to 
 give others a growing sense of their custo- 
 dianship and adequacy therefor." 
 
 Through these years the religious elements 
 in John Meigs' nature were growing more 
 and more deep and earnest. Out of a great 
 struggle he was seeking strength. The disease 
 which was attacking his heart brought him 
 periods of torturing pain, and sometimes made 
 him irritable beyond his immediate control. 
 He recognized this irritability in himself with 
 acute distress, and sought with pathetic 
 eagerness to overcome it. Once at evening 
 prayers in the schoolroom he had prayed in 
 a more than usually self-revealing way
 
 332 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 pouring out the torrent of his own appeal for 
 patience and strength. As he came down the 
 aisle when prayers were over, his quick eye 
 caught a boy in some petty misdemeanor, 
 and he loosed upon him instantly a perfect 
 thunderbolt of scornful indignation. " How 
 could you have done that just after praying 
 for patience?" one of his family asked him; 
 and he answered, " Why should I pray for it 
 except that I need it terribly?" 
 
 Every morning he used to go as indeed 
 for many years he had been doing into his 
 study before breakfast to read his Bible and 
 " Daily Strength for Daily Needs," to pray, 
 to think, and to be alone with God. This 
 one prayer, particularly a prayer of Thomas 
 Arnold's he always used. He had a copy 
 of it between the leaves of his " Daily 
 Strength," and the paper on which it is writ- 
 ten is worn and frayed. 
 
 " O gracious Father, keep me through Thy 
 holy spirit; keep my heart soft and tender 
 now in health and amid the bustle of the 
 world; keep the thought of Thyself present 
 to me as my Father in Jesus Christ; and keep 
 alive in me a spirit of love and meekness to 
 all men, that I may be at once gentle and 
 active and firm. O strengthen me to bear 
 pain, or sickness, or danger, or whatever Thou 
 shalt be pleased to lay upon me, as Christ's 
 soldier and servant; and let my faith over-
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 333 
 
 come the world daily. Perfect and bless the 
 work of Thy spirit in the hearts of all Thy 
 people, and may Thy kingdom come, and 
 Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. 
 I pray for this, and for all that Thou seest me 
 to need, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen." 
 
 Characteristic also of his thought and feel- 
 ing is the hymn which he always gave out 
 as one of those for the boys to sing in the 
 chapel on Sunday evenings. Invariably in 
 his later years the singing closed with this. 
 Through the four verses which he loved best 
 it was as though his own prayer were throb- 
 bing up to God: 
 
 At even, ere the sun was set, 
 The sick, O Lord, around Thee lay; 
 
 O in what divers pains they met ! 
 O with what joy they went away ! 
 
 Once more 'tis eventide, and we, 
 Oppressed with various ills draw near; 
 
 What if Thy form we cannot see? 
 We know and feel that Thou art here. 
 
 O Saviour Christ, Thou too art Man ; 
 
 Thou hast been troubled, tempted, tried; 
 Thy kind but searching glance can scan 
 
 The very wounds that shame would hide. 
 
 Thy touch has still its ancient power; 
 
 No word from Thee can fruitless fall ; 
 Hear in this solemn evening hour, 
 
 And in Thy mercy heal us all.
 
 334 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 In the summer of 1908, he found it neces- 
 sary to go to Bad Nauheim again, and from 
 Europe he writes home: 
 
 "Nauheim, July n, 1908. 
 " Last Sunday the minister at the English 
 church preached from the text * Come unto 
 me all ye that labor/ etc., emphasizing the 
 words ' come/ ' take ' and ' learn ' and strongly 
 presenting the idea that Christ's invitation 
 was to those willing to learn, not the 
 learned, as such, but those who desired to 
 learn His way, His will. It was very simple, 
 impressive and beautiful; for an English 
 churchman most unusual in its breadth. 
 Christ came, he said, not to found a church, 
 a system, a theology but to find souls will- 
 ing to learn the law of love, the life of love." 
 
 "July 26, 1908. 
 
 " I have just returned from the services in 
 the German Parish Church, of the Lutheran 
 stock which has recently reabsorbed the Ger- 
 man Reformed denomination. It is a good 
 sign and a characteristic sign of the times I 
 believe, to find churches seeking union rather 
 than division. The impression is abroad that 
 the German nation has lost its great religious 
 motive and has become rationalistic, in the 
 extreme. However this may be, it is stoutly 
 contended that in household and public of- 
 fices of religion the good old ways are fol- 
 lowed and revered. The church this morn- 
 ing was full and emergency seats had to be
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 335 
 
 provided for a great many attendants, myself 
 among the number. The congregation was 
 more than ordinarily reverent, the preacher 
 given to no declamatory frenzy, but quiet, 
 reasonable and comforting, his voice sooth- 
 ing rather than stimulating, though I saw 
 only one aged man in the gallery succumb 
 to the honeyed tones of his voice. The vol- 
 ume of sound during the singing of the hymns 
 was glorious and impressive. I have hitherto 
 attended the English church but am glad to 
 have made the change as an experience out 
 of the common. Somehow it is much more 
 stirring and gets hold of one's imagination to 
 hear the service in another tongue and to feel 
 that the ' earth is the Lord's and the fullness 
 thereof; that we are all brethren and that 
 He is the Father of us all. ... A week 
 hence when we leave, we shall have only 
 grateful thoughts of our stay here, the trifling 
 untoward incidents being quickly and finally 
 expunged from our memory in the conscious- 
 ness of the larger benefits." 
 
 In September he wrote to Mrs. Raymond: 
 
 " I feel more like my old self, physically, 
 than I have felt for three or four years"; 
 yet within two months he had to leave The 
 Hill again. His two daughters had gone to 
 Italy to be in school there for the winter; 
 their mother was to join them; and it seemed 
 best that he should go, too, for at least some 
 of the months of the school session, to the
 
 336 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 work of which he found himself unequal. 
 Writing ahead from the steamer to his 
 daughters, he says: 
 
 " I'm taking advantage of the quiet hours 
 before luncheon to send you a line to tell you 
 that we are approaching the coast of Ireland, 
 though we can't smell the turf or the pigs 
 in their ancestral castles. . . . 
 
 "As we were leaving The Hill the fellows 
 gathered in the West Quadrangle, sang 'A 
 thousand hands have labored long ' and 
 cheered us out of sight. At singing last 
 Sunday night I spoke briefly and simply to 
 the fellows about our going and their staying 
 to hold high the common standard of our 
 common love, the old school. They gave a 
 very sympathetic and, to me, touching hear- 
 ing, and we left home the next morning per- 
 suaded that both men and boys would do 
 their best to guard their ' City on the 
 Hill.' " 
 
 From Italy his thoughts turned back to 
 The Hill and to all those who were part of its 
 fellowship. In December he wrote this letter 
 to be read in the Gymnasium at the Christmas 
 gathering of all the servants and employees: 
 
 " Florence, Italy, 
 
 Dec. loth, 1908. 
 "Dear Friends: 
 
 " Mrs. John and I want you to know that 
 we are thinking of you all to-night and wish-
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 337 
 
 ing you, from the bottom of our hearts, a 
 Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 
 
 " It is very easy and delightful for us to 
 imagine just how you all are gathered to- 
 night in the old Gymnasium at The Hill, 
 though hard for you to fancy us in far-away 
 Florence, about two hundred miles north of 
 Rome. 
 
 " Strange as it may seem we feel somehow 
 at home, in a small degree, at least, for 
 Dwight and Margaret and Marion are with 
 us, or near by; and you may be sure that our 
 talk is very often of you and of what you are 
 doing and saying and thinking. 
 
 "We know that you are, as ever, doing 
 what you can to keep things going finely in 
 our absence, for on you depends so much that 
 no other helpers can possibly do; we believe, 
 too, that you are saying and thinking kind 
 and helpful things of each other for without 
 this sympathy that we all need, life is a poor 
 and pitiable thing, and you and we believe 
 that it can be made a joyous and blessed priv- 
 ilege by our exercise of an unselfish and 
 kindly spirit in thought and speech and con- 
 duct. 
 
 "I have told you so often that you must 
 weary of hearing, that we are all members 
 one of another, and that your fidelity to us, 
 and our fidelity to you alone makes our com- 
 mon work possible and worth while. I still 
 feel this to be true, and more than ever true, 
 and know that, as you are reminded of us, 
 so far away from you all, you will each one 
 echo our simple and affectionate prayer that
 
 338 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 we may all be led in the coming year by the 
 Father of us all into a more perfect service to 
 Him and to each other. 
 
 " I have asked Mr. Hoffer to read you these 
 friendly words of Christmas greeting; and as 
 Miss Elizabeth and he take you by the hand, 
 as Mrs. John and I have been so glad to do 
 these many years, please remember that the 
 children and we, in far-off beautiful Florence, 
 are bearing you in grateful and faithful 
 memory, as we recall our many years of 
 fellowship and friendship at ' The Hill.' 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 "John Meigs." 
 
 The time in Florence was a very special 
 joy to him, because " Mrs. John " was there, 
 and both his daughters, and Dwight came 
 from Oxford where he had been studying, to 
 make the circle complete. To John Meigs' 
 affectionate heart, this companionship with 
 the ones he loved best, apart from the pressure 
 of distracting responsibilities, was a supreme 
 satisfaction. He delighted also in the beauty 
 and romance of Florence, through the streets 
 and art galleries of which he went with lei- 
 surely appreciation and particularly into all 
 the places where he could trace the footsteps 
 of Dante, who long had been one of his high 
 admirations. 
 
 In Europe he had the wider opportunity to 
 do what he loved to do also at home roam
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 339 
 
 about in old book-stores and other shops 
 where he might pick up the curious and inter- 
 esting things he was continually collecting. 
 He gathered from time to time many exceed- 
 ingly beautiful old prints, rare autograph let- 
 ters and other papers, some of which he gave 
 to his friends and others of which he hung on 
 the walls of his study at The Hill. He pur- 
 sued, from place to place, and finally secured 
 and gave to " Mrs. John " on one of their 
 anniversaries that which to them both, with 
 their particular love of the poet's work, was 
 a thing precious beyond price the complete 
 original manuscript of Browning's " Dramatis 
 Personae." He had a most unusual collection 
 of Lowestoft and luster ware, brown, pink 
 and silver, and old blue china. The antique 
 shops in Pottstown, richly stored with colonial 
 furniture, were one of his unfailing resources 
 of distraction and refreshment when he was 
 tired with the pressure of the day's work 
 at The Hill. When he went abroad, he found 
 his rest and pleasure often in the same way 
 of exploring places where beautiful and quaint 
 things were to be found. And, as Mr. Robert 
 E. Speer, who knew him in a long and inti- 
 mate fellowship, has written : " His love of 
 beautiful things was inevitably associated with 
 his truth. ... It was good taste not for its 
 own sake, or thinned out into trifling selfish-
 
 340 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 ness. Everything in life for him was for 
 some uses, and these uses were the ends of 
 love and character building, and the making 
 of people, and the sweetening of life." 
 
 After three months in Florence, he turned 
 homeward again, writing to one of the mas- 
 ters : " I shall return with eager and grate- 
 ful heart to do whatever I can for our better 
 service, and rejoice to anticipate meeting you 
 all to whom so much of gratitude and love is 
 due for your loyal and devoted fellowship." 
 
 To Mrs. Meigs, who remained in Florence, 
 he wrote from Naples : 
 
 " February 22, 1909. 
 
 " We have just passed Corsica whose great 
 son held Europe at bay for his few fitful but 
 mighty years. I cannot forbear to think more 
 charitably of Napoleon for the part he has 
 had in making modern Italy possible." 
 
 " February 23, 1909. 
 
 " I have just returned from a few hours' 
 visit to the city, the ' Deutschland ' having 
 reached Naples at ten o'clock in a blizzard, 
 the first snow they have had in many years. 
 The mountains about the bay, especially 
 Vesuvius, are very lovely in their Mardi Gras 
 decorations of white, and it looks as if to- 
 morrow's sun would shine clear and strong. 
 . . . The memories of those three months 
 in Florence will always abide with me and 
 stir an ever deepening sense of gratitude to
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 341 
 
 God for His goodness in making possible our 
 common experience of uncommon mercies." 
 
 And to his daughters from the " Deutsch- 
 land " as he neared New York: 
 
 " At half-past six A. M. we are making our 
 way up ' Ambrose Channel ' to New York, 
 hoping to dock between nine and twenty-four 
 o'clock, so to speak. . . . Yesterday after- 
 noon a wireless from The Hill was handed 
 me to this effect ' Pottstown, Pa., March 4th, 
 John Meigs We await your coming with 
 joyful anticipation The Hill School Com- 
 mittee/ 
 
 " You can imagine how happy I was to re- 
 ceive that message, and how it warmed the 
 cockles of my old heart to have the fellows 
 think of sending it out to sea to assure me 
 they were glad I was coming back. It helps 
 not a little to make my home-going very 
 much easier . . . and only deepens my de- 
 sire to signify to the fellows, one and all, more 
 than I have ever been able to in bygone days. 
 For this I shall strive in season and out of 
 season." 
 
 Meanwhile in Pottstown eager preparations 
 were being made to receive him, not only by 
 the men and boys of the school, but by the 
 townspeople also. A public invitation by the 
 Burgess and the Town Council called all 
 the citizens to meet at a given hour at the
 
 342 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 Opera House and thence to march to The Hill 
 for a reception which had been arranged for 
 his coming home. 
 Thus he tells of what he found: 
 
 " The Hill, March 8, 1909. 
 
 "As we neared the pier Friday morning 
 last at 10 o'clock, I saw the four ardent faces 
 of E. . . . and M. . . . and H. . . . and 
 G. . . . smiling their welcome and gladden- 
 ing my heart to the core. After I had quickly 
 finished with the customs officer, I disposed 
 of the luggage, coming on to Pottstown by 
 the train, arriving at 5:15. You can imagine 
 how our tongues flew for 130 miles or more. 
 As we approached the Chapel I was quite 
 overcome to see the Quad decorated as for 
 our great games, and banners, flags and pen- 
 nants over the windows and on the walls and 
 the whole school drawn up in the Quad cheer- 
 ing and singing until I felt like sinking into 
 the ground. 
 
 " I said just a few words of grateful affec- 
 tion and they returned to their classes. On 
 coming into the study I found it decorated 
 with exquisite flowers from many of my 
 friends and at supper on my table three great 
 vases of Killarney roses from the Sixth Form. 
 
 " B. . . . invited me to take his place at 
 prayers but I declined and he led as usual, 
 giving out the School Hymn and 595. After 
 prayers I went up to the desk and told the 
 fellows ' off-hand ' something of my travels 
 and experiences and expressed my affectionate
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 343 
 
 appreciation of their thoughtfulness in cabling 
 and greeting my return so as to make my 
 home-coming, without you, so much less 
 difficult. 
 
 " At a little after eight o'clock Mr. H. . . . 
 came into the study and said some friends 
 were down in the Gym and would like to see 
 me. On arriving there, much to my conster- 
 nation, I found very much such a state of 
 affairs as the accompanying papers describe. 
 You will, of course, absolve me from the 
 imputation of most of the sheer drivel that 
 the newspapers report. But I was over- 
 whelmed by this manifestation of the towns- 
 people's interest in my return, as you can well 
 understand. 
 
 " The Gym was filled up by the release of 
 the boys from study hour and there was high 
 carnival for a little time, to which masters, 
 some of their wives and the boys contributed 
 their loving part. . . . I go to New York to 
 attend the Union Seminary Directors' meet- 
 ing to-morrow but intend to go slowly, gen- 
 erally, and to leave the school matters for 
 this term in the good hands that have con- 
 ducted them so splendidly during my absence. 
 Everything and everybody are in the best 
 spirit. It has been worth while to abdicate 
 for these past months in order merely to see 
 how efficient, harmonious and co-operative 
 has been the spirit of all. The Sixth Form, 
 below last year in scholarship, has been great 
 in its desire and effort to serve the school in 
 a large way. 
 
 "The way in which the fellows have been
 
 344 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 coming in to see me on all kinds of business 
 has been a great delight and comfort to my 
 soul, as you well know." 
 
 In one of the Pottstown papers was this 
 editorial : 
 
 "The welcome which was tendered Dr. 
 John Meigs, the headmaster of The Hill 
 School, on his return from a tour of Europe 
 last evening, was a tribute to Pottstown's 
 representative citizen that was as hearty as 
 it was spontaneous. Surely no other occasion 
 could have brought so many of Pottstown's 
 people together for such a testimonial to a 
 returning citizen. There have been other occa- 
 sions when citizens of Pottstown have re- 
 turned from abroad, after longer stays than 
 Dr. Meigs made, but there was no outpouring 
 of the residents of the town to do honor. 
 
 "And Dr. Meigs is deserving of all the 
 honors that may be shown him. No other 
 citizen of Pottstown has done so much to 
 make Pottstown a better place in which to 
 live than he. No other citizen has so gener- 
 ously stepped forward to aid all enterprises 
 which had for their objects the welfare of the 
 borough. No other citizen has aided so gener- 
 ously the poor and the afflicted in times of 
 distress. In fact, Dr. Meigs has earned the 
 title of Pottstown's representative citizen not 
 so much because he craved the title, but be- 
 cause his fellow citizens felt that he deserved 
 it. 
 
 " The loving cup that was presented to Dr.
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 345 
 
 Meigs last evening was an evidence of the 
 esteem in which he is held by his neighbors 
 here in Pottstown, but no mere silver token 
 of affection could adequately express the love 
 with which the people of the borough regard 
 the headmaster of The Hill School. They 
 know of his many acts of charity, although 
 they were supposed to have been done by 
 stealth, and they rejoice that Dr. Meigs has 
 returned to Pottstown benefited in health by 
 his sojourn abroad." 
 
 Such was the way his townsfolk expressed 
 their opinion of John Meigs. But there hap- 
 pens to exist a letter which transmits the 
 deliciously frank judgment of one of the boys 
 about him, and the force of which is rather 
 heightened, than otherwise, by its decidedly 
 unconventional language. The boy was at 
 The Hill when Meigs came back in 1909. The 
 year after that he went to one of the eastern 
 colleges, and it was from there he wrote to 
 his father. The father copied part of his 
 letter and sent it to Dr. Meigs. 
 
 Thus it ran: "The fellows here are fine, 
 though of course, not as nice as The Hill 
 crowd none could be but they are mighty 
 fine, as near as possible to the ' Old Guard/ 
 Personally, I don't think much of President 
 A. . . ., that is, as president of a college,
 
 34 6 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 tho' he seems well enough. Still he don't 
 seem to me to have the ' pep ' in him, and 
 alongside of John Meigs would look like a 
 pin in a haystack." 
 
 Then the father adds : " Youth's ideals, you 
 know, are the strongest and most lasting; 
 hence, well grounded, operate greatly in shap- 
 ing the future life. And in my opinion just 
 such schools as ' The Hill ' are needed to start 
 boys well, giving the foundation on which to 
 build the character, and stability with which 
 to fight and conquer the important battles the 
 future holds for all. The stamp of The Hill 
 is evident in all the colleges I know, and hear 
 of; and you are the die." 
 
 In his own letters to Mrs. Meigs in Europe 
 he writes: 
 
 "March n, 1909. 
 
 " Here, everything is swinging forward to- 
 ward the close of the term. The attitude of 
 men and boys is splendid, and I am more and 
 more gratified as I probe matters more deeply. 
 I have had, this afternoon, conferences with 
 the Sixth Form Committee, on the proposed 
 permanent constitution for the Sixth Form 
 and the Dance Committee I have advised 
 them to simplify the arrangements as far as 
 possible, reducing still further the cost of the 
 festivities, and the committees sympathize 
 with my suggestion, though they will, of
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 347 
 
 course, have to be submitted to the entire 
 Form for consideration. 
 
 " Conferences with the heads of depart- 
 ments have been going on, ever since my re- 
 turn, and I have had good results from these 
 heart-to-heart talks. ... It is not hard to 
 smile and smile as I go about among the boys 
 and men and household generally. They are 
 all so cordial that I begin to believe they are 
 glad to have me back; and I have been both 
 touched and amused to hear of the queer 
 manifestations of their feelings. The other 
 day, after I had said grace, one of the young- 
 sters at G. . . . 's table said * Gee, don't it 
 sound good to hear that ! ' ' 
 
 " We had a most interesting visit from the 
 Hampton Singers, one of the boys we have 
 been educating, Major Moton and Dr. Frissell. 
 The doctor let himself out on broad educa- 
 tional questions, and gave me lots to think of 
 in terms of our opportunities in educating 
 young men to assume their rightful burdens 
 in the amelioration of social conditions 
 strangely enough the very matter that has 
 been most on my mind since I have returned 
 home. 
 
 " He spoke in noble terms of the school, 
 its work and position guaranteeing the suc- 
 cess of any definite measures we might under- 
 take to train our boys for the highest type of 
 citizenship. We must have men for this, a 
 man at least, and we must have him soon. 
 
 " I have really been deeply touched by the 
 many expressions that have come to me since
 
 34 8 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 my return, giving me quite a heartening, as 
 if I did signify to the boys, as well as to 
 their parents, in a personal way. 
 
 " M. C. was here for a few hours on his 
 way to New Haven, from Mercersburg, where 
 he and another Yale man spoke on Sunday. 
 I was delighted to find him taking this active 
 part in the Christian work again. He looked 
 like a prince of the blood, and I was proud 
 to feel him a Hill School boy, after our own 
 heart. 
 
 " I have never seen the boys evince such 
 cheerful courage under affliction as the condi- 
 tioned boys do this term. The spirit of the 
 school, through and through, except in a few 
 instances, is very fine and comforting." 
 
 For the third time, in the summer of 1909, 
 he went to Nauheim, seeking the benefit of 
 the treatment there. His whole family were 
 with him, Mrs. Meigs and her two daughters 
 coming from Florence, and Dwight from Ox- 
 ford, in which places they had been during 
 the winter. 
 
 He was deeply grieved and burdened as he 
 left The Hill by a grave moral disloyalty on 
 the part of several Sixth Formers which 
 necessitated their expulsion from the school. 
 He writes of this to one of the boys who had 
 written to him: 
 
 " My dear Cameron : 
 
 " Your deeply appreciated letter has reached 
 me here in Nauheim. I can hardly tell you
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 349 
 
 how comforting your words of sympathy and 
 appreciation are. It was, and is, a grief be- 
 yond words to have this matter come up at 
 all, and especially so at the very end of the 
 year, when our hearts and minds are so nat- 
 urally pre-occupied with the joys and in- 
 terests of the Sixth Form, on the very eve 
 of their graduation. It literally takes the 
 life out of me, and I am more conscious of 
 it than ever. 
 
 " Of course, much of this sort of thing is 
 done thoughtlessly, but after so many years 
 at The Hill one would think that Sixth Form 
 boys would feel some sense of responsibility. 
 
 " It hurts the school, the moral conscious- 
 ness of the younger boys, the families and 
 friends of the fellows who are disciplined, 
 who always resent our action, no matter what 
 it is, and thus creates an atmosphere of un- 
 kindness, and often bitterness, instead of sym- 
 pathy, appreciation and friendliness. God 
 knows how unspeakably hard it always is to 
 have to say the final words, and I shrink 
 from it more each year. 
 
 " Just as I was feeling most distressed over 
 the whole affair, comes along your blessed 
 letter, for which I cannot thank you ade- 
 quately. 
 
 " ' Mrs. John ' shares my sense of gratitude, 
 and joins me in love. 
 
 " You know that she and I came over last 
 November, spending the months of December, 
 January and February in Florence, near Mar- 
 garet and Marion, in school there. 
 
 " I returned home early in March, and
 
 350 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 ' Mrs. John * continued in Florence until the 
 girls' school year ended, in May, since which 
 time they have been in Northern Italy, France 
 and England, joining Miss Elizabeth and me 
 on our steamer, at Dover, and coming on to 
 Antwerp, and after a week of travel, largely 
 in Holland, by the girls, with their aunt, we 
 are here for this month. At the end of the 
 month, we go to Switzerland, for my ' after 
 cure,' and in August to England, where, on 
 the last of the month, Dwight is to be mar- 
 ried." 
 
 During practically all the session, begin- 
 ning in the fall of 1909, he was at his post 
 in the school, and in the spring he wrote to 
 one of his daughters, who was still abroad, 
 of the annual gathering of the old boys. 
 
 "This has been the greatest reunion we 
 have ever had. 
 
 " Over seventy of the old boys have been 
 back and quite ' rilled us up ' with their un- 
 disguised happiness at returning to the school, 
 but we have had more old fellows here on 
 other occasions. What has given this gath- 
 ering its distinction has been the ardent en- 
 thusiasm of the fellows over the present con- 
 dition of affairs in the school; its spirit was 
 never so fine, and we all feel it most keenly. 
 
 " There was a meeting yesterday at noon 
 in the ' Gym/ when several of the Alumni 
 spoke, Bill Warren greeting them as presi- 
 dent of the Sixth Form, and a noble poem by
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 351 
 
 Herman Hagedorn was read in his absence by 
 Mr. Bement. It was entitled 'God and the 
 Warrior/ and will be published in the Record. 
 Billy Bird, Bert Alexander, Wolcott Hum- 
 phrey and Will Fincke, as president of the 
 Alumni Association, spoke to great effect, 
 and there were cheers and songs to stir up 
 enthusiasm. In the afternoon, two Alumni 
 nines played ball, and at eight in the evening 
 the meeting of the 'Ancients' took place, 
 followed by a dinner at nine. 
 
 " There has been more close, intimate fel- 
 lowship this time than ever before, and we all 
 feel comforted and cheered by the great rally." 
 
 In the summer of 1910, he was at Lake 
 George, and in the fall he came back to 
 The Hill for what was to prove the last 
 complete session of his mastership. 
 
 In February of that school year he went 
 South with Mrs. Meigs to Florida, and as he 
 turned his face homeward he wrote to his 
 sister at The Hill: 
 
 "Feb. 2ist, 1911. 
 "My beloved Sister: 
 
 " I need not tell you, but I must, how grate- 
 fully we have borne you in our hearts and 
 minds these past two weeks during which we 
 have been able, owing to your great and lov- 
 ing devotion, to rest awhile and gain strength, 
 I am sure, for what awaits us in the remaining 
 weeks of this hard term. ... 
 
 " I do not know when I have had a quieter,
 
 352 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 more restful week than the past week has 
 been. 
 
 " Marion is getting out of it all she can, 
 too ; we drive daily in the sun for two or three 
 hours, and walk in the mornings. 
 
 " I have read four or five novels to her 
 and 'The Corsican/ ostensibly Napoleon's 
 diary. 
 
 "Thursday we go to see Russ Bowie and 
 Jean, remaining until Monday A. M., when 
 we go to the New Willard, Washington, hop- 
 ing to reach home Thursday evening, March 
 2nd. ..." 
 
 The visit of which he speaks in the last para- 
 graph was to the Rectory of a country parish 
 at the head of the beautiful Piedmont Valley, 
 circled about by the Blue Ridge Mountains, 
 in Virginia. For two days he rested there 
 and enjoyed himself with the light-hearted- 
 ness of a boy. He was as has been said 
 under very strict rules as to his diet, and had 
 observed them for a long time with inflexible 
 regularity. So breakfast was made ready for 
 him according to his usual routine. But he 
 happened to be fascinated by the "batter- 
 cakes " and other unfamiliar things which the 
 old colored cook was sending in to the rest 
 of the family group, and in exuberance of 
 rebellious spirits, he flung his diet to the 
 winds, and reveled for once in whatever he 
 liked, as much as he liked. He drove about
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 353 
 
 the country in a buggy, went to church on 
 Sunday and met the people of the neighbor- 
 hood, and everywhere his big presence ra- 
 diated the warmth of his own unfeigned en- 
 joyment. 
 
 The errand that took him away somewhat 
 earlier than he had planned was characteristic 
 of him. There had been a rector in a certain 
 church he was familiar with who had left that 
 church under doubtful circumstances, and 
 had come into one of the dioceses in Virginia 
 seeking work under its Bishop. Dr. Meigs' 
 sensitive regard for the honor of the Church 
 at large made him feel he ought to let the 
 Bishop know of the clergyman's record; yet 
 his generous desire that the man himself 
 might be given the utmost consideration to 
 which he might in any wise be entitled made 
 him shrink from writing the bald facts in a 
 letter. So, though the whole matter had no 
 claim upon him whatsoever, he went out of 
 his way on a long and tiring journey to meet 
 the Bishop and tell him face to face the facts 
 in the whole case. 
 
 At morning prayers the morning before he 
 left, he was asked to read the verses in Philip- 
 pians, which he read so often at The Hill 
 and which to those who had ever heard him 
 there always thereafter seemed to echo with 
 his voice. So he read them:
 
 354 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 " Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are 
 true, whatsoever things are honorable, what- 
 soever things are just, whatsoever things are 
 pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatso- 
 ever things are of good report, if there be any 
 virtue, and if there be any praise, think on 
 these things." And so, from the quiet of the 
 mountains, he went on his way, back to the 
 work of the school. 
 
 At Easter, in 1911, he wrote to his daughter 
 from The Hill: 
 
 "This blessed Easter Day our hearts are 
 full of gratitude and peace in the thought of 
 you, and your participation with us in all 
 that the day typifies. 
 
 " Heaven and earth are in beautiful har- 
 mony and inspiring accord: sunshine and an- 
 swering blossoms tell the tale of the old and 
 yet ever new miracle of nature's resurrec- 
 tion. . . . 
 
 " Dwight brought over the adorable baby 
 on Thursday afternoon, and by this time, all 
 who have seen her beauty and brightness are 
 groveling at her dainty feet. She seems to 
 realize how loving and lovely life is, and 
 smiles and even laughs audibly at the con- 
 templation of the adoring friends who sur- 
 round her at every turn. . . . 
 
 " Dr. Abbott is the preacher to-day, and 
 tells me his theme will be ' Immortality ' a 
 great subject for a great man, who, person- 
 ally, is as simple and loving as a little child."
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 355 
 
 Once again, and for the last time, in the 
 summer of 1911, he went to Bad Nauheim for 
 the measure of strength which the treatment 
 there seemed to give him. Thus he writes 
 home: 
 
 "The first week has passed fairly swiftly. 
 What with the arrivals and departures of 
 acquaintances, and the old familiar routine of 
 baths, walks, drives, concerts, afternoon teas 
 and passing glances at the glorified tennis 
 pavilion and grounds, where, strange to say, 
 I do not linger as of yore the days seem to 
 fairly shove each other into the gliding 
 past. . . . 
 
 " We had a great Fourth of July celebra- 
 tion, with ex-President Diaz, of Mexico, and 
 Kossuth, the Hungarian statesman, son of the 
 great Kossuth, as ' pieces de resistance/ as the 
 French don't say; while for murder, pure and 
 simple, of patriotic songs, commend me to 
 the alleged German-American Quartette of 
 Bad Nauheim, who mutilated everything in 
 sight or sound, and seemed to revel in their 
 havoc of what true Americans are presumed 
 to hold most dear. 
 
 " Well, . . . , these weeks will soon be 
 past, and my face set towards home. God 
 grant that in the interim we may all be kept 
 safe and at peace in the assurance of ever- 
 deepening love for each other and for Him, 
 who gave us to each other, and will keep us 
 until the end, which is only a beginning of 
 diviner things ! "
 
 356 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 And home again in August, he wrote to 
 Mrs. Raymond: 
 
 " I returned home a fortnight ago, to find 
 the dear ones here well and cheerful. . . . 
 
 " At this dear anniversary, all of the blessed 
 memories of days that have been and are, 
 and our hopes of those that are still to be, 
 enrich our souls, and give us an ever new 
 sense of gladness and gratitude that we have 
 been born into the priceless heritage of friend- 
 ship with you . . . and those other beloveds 
 whose names are written on high in earth 
 and heaven." 
 
 At the usual time in September, school 
 opened with Meigs at his post. He threw 
 himself unrestrainedly into the work that 
 faced him, and did not go away that fall 
 as for some years he had been in the habit 
 of doing for a brief rest after the crowded 
 weeks of the boys' return. He was feeling 
 physically stronger, and his spirits were high. 
 To one of the men whom he was trying to 
 secure as a preacher in the Chapel, Mr. 
 Tweedy, he had written a little before the 
 beginning of the school: 
 
 "My dear Friend: 
 
 "I returned from Europe on Friday last, 
 having taken the cure at Bad Nauheim, 
 greatly to my benefit, I believe; and my heart 
 has been so invigorated by the baths that I
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 357 
 
 am stout enough in my nerve not merely to 
 hope, but to expect you to come to us in 
 October. 
 
 " We want you, ma honey, and Mrs. John 
 and I will be delighted to have a word of en- 
 couragement from you." 
 
 But soon the ominous attacks of his heart 
 returned, with increasing frequency and pain- 
 fulness. Early in November it was decided 
 that he should go away to Atlantic City; 
 and it was hoped that a brief rest there would 
 enable him to take up his work again with 
 recruited strength. 
 
 On Sunday, November 5th, the Professor 
 went down into his study for a long talk with 
 a gentleman who had come to enter his boy 
 at The Hill, and with whom he conversed 
 about many things in which they were mu- 
 tually interested in his characteristic eager 
 and happy vein. He did not feel strong 
 enough to go to the Chapel service, but sat 
 at a window looking out toward the Chapel 
 it being a beautiful, still autumn day and 
 sang the hymns with the unseen congrega- 
 tion when their music rolled across the Quad- 
 rangle. 
 
 On Monday, the 6th, he came down to 
 breakfast, and worked in his study all the 
 morning; and the boys who were at his table 
 remembered afterwards how full of playful-
 
 358 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 ness he was that day. In the afternoon he 
 went to his room to bed, for he was to start 
 to Atlantic City the next day, and he had 
 been ordered to rest. Perhaps if in the morn- 
 ing he had saved his strength when he felt 
 so deceptively well, the result that followed 
 with such grave suddenness that night might 
 not have been. 
 
 Mrs. Meigs had gone to Philadelphia for 
 the day to see " Miss Elizabeth," who was ill 
 in a hospital there. When she reached home 
 about six o'clock, she found him suffering. 
 Through the evening, he was intermittently 
 in great pain. About ten o'clock, when the 
 lights were going out, and quiet was settling 
 over the school, he cried suddenly for " Mrs. 
 John " as she crossed the room. When she 
 reached his side, he had gone. 
 
 Upon The Hill, as the word spread in the 
 morning through its halls, a silence fell. Boys 
 and men gathered here and there, looking at 
 each other with stricken faces. But into that 
 silence came a voice a voice which gathered 
 up into one heroic utterance all the glory of 
 that faith in the strength of which John Meigs 
 had lived. It was the voice of her who, hav- 
 ing known and loved him best, knew best 
 what The Hill had lost, and that also which 
 it could never lose. 
 
 The night after her husband and the
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 359 
 
 school's master died, she asked that all the 
 boys assemble in the schoolroom. There, in 
 the beautiful strength of her great opportu- 
 nity, she met them face to face. Twenty-one 
 years before, when Edith died, he had tried 
 to shape from his great sorrow a message for 
 the boys he loved. So she yearned to do now 
 for the far larger number of boys in the 
 greater school. 
 
 She told them what he and she had always 
 felt that the world here is only the lesser 
 room which opens into God's greater rooms 
 beyond; and that Death is no veiled terror, 
 but God's messenger, beautiful and benignant, 
 who comes to open the doors of Life for the 
 homeward turning soul. 
 
 She tried to make them feel what she be- 
 lieved for them that when the master whom 
 they had loved was sitting in that school- 
 room at his desk, and looking into their faces, 
 he could not know what was going on in their 
 minds and hearts; but that freed from the 
 limitations of the body, he knew now, and 
 would know. And as she plead that they 
 should work and live henceforth, and "play 
 the game " as with the challenge of his eyes 
 upon them, she told this story, which years 
 before a minister had related at The Hill. 
 
 An Oxford man who was famous as a 
 cricketer, just before the great final match be-
 
 360 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 tween his own university and Cambridge, was 
 summoned home by the sudden death of his 
 father. He returned the very day of the 
 match, and by his brilliant, almost inspired, 
 playing, won the game for his university. 
 One of the professors complimented him on 
 what he had done in the face of his great be- 
 reavement. He quietly and modestly ex- 
 plained to him the reason why he had re- 
 turned to play in the match, and the real 
 source of his brilliant playing. His father had 
 always been more interested in cricket than 
 anyone in the world, but was totally blind 
 and had never seen him play a game. " To- 
 day," he said, " I know for the first time in 
 his life he has seen me play, and so I played 
 the game for him." 
 
 Then she quoted to them the " Christus 
 Consolator," which she and he had loved so 
 long: 
 
 " Beside the dead I knelt in prayer, 
 
 And felt a presence as I prayed; 
 Lo! It was Jesus standing there, 
 
 He smiled, ' Be not afraid ! ' 
 
 
 " Dear Lord, how shall we know that they 
 
 Still walk unseen with us and Thee, 
 Nor sleep, nor wander far away? 
 He smiled' Abide in Me ! ' " 
 
 Back from the hushed schoolroom, into the 
 presence of her dead she went again, and for
 
 FINAL ACHIEVEMENTS 361 
 
 nearly four hundred boys, the thrilling won- 
 der of a mightier Life shone for that great 
 moment real. 
 
 It had come true, what John Meigs had 
 written four months before the end was only 
 " a beginning of diviner things."
 
 CHAPTER X 
 VICTORY 
 
 The Appeal Which Determined the Place of His Burial 
 
 The Power of an Immortal Faith Home-Coming of the Old 
 
 Boys Services in the Chapel What John Meigs' Life Had 
 Meant. 
 
 OVER The Hill a kind of exalted quiet 
 brooded, and a wonder and a mystery 
 like the first wakening of the earth 
 when a summer's morning dawns. John 
 Meigs' faith in Life was triumphing in the 
 school where he had died. 
 
 Many who had loved him came to The Hill 
 in the swift impulse of sympathy and comfort. 
 They entered there into an experience trans- 
 figuring and new. 
 
 Dr. and Mrs. Raymond, whose lives had 
 been so intertwined with John Meigs' own, 
 were on the sea, returning from Europe. 
 Their daughter came, and thus she wrote to 
 her father and mother of her meeting with 
 "Mrs. John": 
 
 " She came to us just as we reached the 
 door, in that swift * claiming ' way she has, 
 and took us two alone up to her bedroom, 
 where on the couch at the foot of the bed, 
 
 3 6a
 
 VICTORY 363 
 
 the dear Professor lay asleep, looking, with 
 his great broad shoulders in the white night- 
 gown, and one hand holding a cluster of pan- 
 sies, like a mighty angel resting between 
 errands. Strength, serenity and dignity were 
 in the uttermost corners of the room, because 
 of him. I was never more intensely aware 
 of all the ' meanings ' that Mrs. John had 
 accumulated in that beloved room of theirs 
 than in those few minutes that we three stood 
 together with our arms entwined, while Mrs. 
 John talked with such simplicity, and all the 
 little mottoes stood round listening in wonder 
 and saying to themselves, ' This must be what 
 we mean ! ' I spoke to Mrs. John in that quiet 
 time of the deep impression her little talk 
 had made on the boys, and she said, ' I'm 
 glad. I was afraid the boys would think of 
 me just now as being far away and not to 
 be approached in my bereavement; and I 
 thought and thought what would be the best 
 way to make them feel me near and close to 
 them all. And as I sat beside John's couch, 
 I said out loud, t Dear, do you want me to 
 talk to the boys? Do you think I'd better?' 
 and it was almost as if he said in words, 
 ' Yes, I do/ " 
 
 Meanwhile, as the body of the great head- 
 master lay in the quiet room, up above the 
 tree-tops of The Hill, there was brought to 
 "Mrs. John" this note: 
 
 "As Stanton said, when he closed the eyes 
 of Lincoln, ' Now he belongs to the ages,' so
 
 364 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 in regard to Professor, there are, I am sure, 
 some who believe that now he belongs to the 
 school. 
 
 " In the chapel porch, on the right of the 
 entrance, with an exposure to the east, and 
 an outlook upon all the larger buildings, is a 
 cloistered spot where I wish he might lie. 
 There, just a little to the Sixth's right, be- 
 yond the wall, he would still be their guide 
 and counselor. There, as the boys passed in 
 to service, he would still lead them to the 
 Truth, and there at his side, at the opening of 
 many a schoolboy's life, would be transmitted, 
 from father to son, the ideals which he 
 praised, and the school traditions, to estab- 
 lish which he gave so much. 
 
 " It is late. Doubtless I intrude, and there 
 are certain objections, but I am, 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 "R. H. J. 
 
 " P. S. Matthew Arnold, in his inspiring 
 ' Rugby Chapel/ adds his silent plea that even 
 in what we call death, the school may not 
 lose its leader. Some of us need him near. 
 The school will rally about his grave, as he 
 rallied the school about himself. (My per- 
 sonal debt to him and to the school may not 
 be relevant, but life for me has begun again 
 here.) It is for the boys of twenty years 
 hence, as well as for these men of to-morrow, 
 that I write." 
 
 That request prevailed. It had been 
 planned to lay him by the side of his two
 
 VICTORY 365 
 
 children; but his grave was made instead in 
 the chapel cloister floor. 
 
 On Friday night there was a service in the 
 chapel for the boys, conducted by the Rev. 
 J. Timothy Stone. This was held for them 
 that evening because there would not be room 
 at the service the next day, when the Alumni 
 gathered. 
 
 Then on Saturday, the nth of November, 
 from far and wide the sons of The Hill came 
 home. The world said John Meigs was dead. 
 On The Hill, it seemed to them never had 
 his spirit been so radiantly alive. There was 
 no crepe, nor any badge of mourning. She 
 who had been as himself and with himself 
 had made the school, went to her place in the 
 chapel with unveiled face, and in the white 
 dress she had worn when he was by her side 
 beautiful in the peace of a transfigured soul. 
 They sang that great congregation of boys 
 and men and women no hymns of sad mor- 
 tality. " For All Thy Saints," " Emmanuel's 
 Land," "Ten Thousand Times Ten Thou- 
 sand" and "Forward Be Our Watchword" 
 they sang instead, and the great volume of 
 their voices rolled through the chapel arches 
 where his voice so many times had sung 
 before. 
 
 And when in the evening of that still, au- 
 tumn day, boys and men turned to go their
 
 3 66 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 different ways, they knew that they had seen 
 in one supreme example the victory of that 
 Christian faith which overcometh death and 
 time. 
 
 From every quarter letters poured in, filled 
 with the tributes of the love of many hearts. 
 And greatly true were some of the things 
 they spoke. 
 
 One said: 
 
 " It is of such as he, that Bunyan wrote 
 that * the trumpets were sounding on the other 
 side/ even before his feet touched the wash 
 of the waves of the river." 
 
 From far-away Roberts College, in Constan- 
 tinople, came this word of the president, Dr. 
 Gates : 
 
 " Last night we prayed for you, and this 
 morning I spoke to our boys in the college 
 of Dr. Meigs and his work, and the way in 
 which he and you are meeting death. . . ., 
 There is nothing sad in such a death. It is 
 the triumph of him that overcometh, it is the 
 entrance of one who has been faithful upon 
 a larger sphere of service, it is the home-com- 
 ing of one who has traveled far." 
 
 Wrote Jacob Riis: 
 
 " In all the sense of personal grief and loss, 
 I feel like crying out in the words on the
 
 VICTORY 367 
 
 stone at Quebec: 'Here lies Wolfe, victori- 
 ous ! ' Such souls do not die ! They go out 
 of our mortal sight for a little while, but God 
 keeps them with Him for evermore." 
 
 And from one other friend come these 
 quoted lines of Le Gallienne's ode to Robert 
 Louis Stevenson: 
 
 " Not while a boy still whistles on the earth, 
 Not while a single human heart beats true, 
 Not while Love lasts, and Honor, and the Brave 
 Has earth a grave, 
 O well-beloved, for you ! " 
 
 So in the quiet cloister of the chapel his 
 body lies; but over The Hill it is as though 
 his spirit brooded still. And where, on many 
 paths, they walk who have felt his touch, in 
 truth, in manliness, in self-forgetting service, 
 and in the power of that high consecration 
 which lifts its eyes to God, there his spirit 
 goes on far and living ways beyond the 
 school.
 
 In the " Hill School Record," for December, 
 1911, first were published these noble lines, 
 by Mr. Arthur Judson. 
 
 THE MASTER 
 
 A massive man, of iron frame, was he 
 Our master and the breadth and bulk of him, 
 Towering up to the great brow and head, 
 Fit temple was for the indwelling force 
 Of mind and soul and will. So clean and pure 
 He kept that temple, on whose altar high 
 Burned the eternal fire, the light divine ! 
 
 Never was quenched that spirit's steady flame ; 
 Nor was it aught diminished, though it fed 
 So many failing lamps that now burn bright 
 In other fanes. 
 
 Master of men he was, 
 And fit to be one of Earth's captains they 
 Who lead the way where wreaths of oak or bay 
 Or olive wait them at the goal Not he ! 
 All this he left, and rather chose to serve 
 The lonely heart of boyhood. Well he knew 
 Its foes and weakness, and how small the meed 
 Of praise or wealth or power the world bestows 
 On those who save her children. Well for us 
 'He chose ! 
 
 Who knew, better than he, how much 
 A man's strength means to a boy? Our dreams 
 369
 
 370 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 Were all of manhood, of its fancied joys, 
 
 Its power and freedom from the petty round 
 
 Of childish tasks unwillingly endured. 
 
 Little we knew of the hard road that lay 
 
 Before us of the rocky wastes where we 
 
 Must eat our bitter herbs and drink our tears, 
 
 Must sit apart and mourn the visioned years 
 
 Of some unrealized life ! But God is good 
 
 And works beyond our ken the discipline 
 
 That shaped us for that hour, gave bone and brawn, 
 
 Begot the will to live, strength to endure 
 
 And conquer in the end by God's good grace 
 
 'Twas given us through those impatient years. 
 
 And other things we learned not to be told; 
 For of that inner life the Spirit knows, 
 And He alone can speak. But memories 
 There are that daily spring beside the road 
 We travel, blossoming as from the seeds 
 Of deathless youth dropped in our stony soil 
 By Heaven's ungrudging winds : 
 
 that quiet hour 
 
 By night, when some sweet thought of home 
 Gave us new heart; that first awakening 
 Within us of the sense of mastery; 
 Those days of spring when incense, from the fields 
 Arising, drifted from the winds afar, 
 Seeking our studious chamber, to invite 
 Our thoughts. Again how near they seem, how dear ! 
 Those boyish friendships, voices, grip of hands, 
 A smile, a word yet all of life was there ; 
 For thus the spirit, proud and shy, reveals 
 That which the tongue can ne'er consent to tell. 
 
 How like an endless string of priceless pearls 
 Those days, years, moments, till the last of all,
 
 THE MASTER 371 
 
 When with uncovered head we said farewell 
 
 To them and to the Master of The Hill. 
 
 For his it was that city beautiful ; 
 
 His the strong hand that held it in its seat ; 
 
 His was the master-mind that planned its walls 
 
 And built its towers ; until its every stone 
 
 And ivy leaf and cloister breathes of him. 
 
 His tread yet echoes through our halls ; his voice 
 
 That marvelous voice is ringing in our ears. 
 
 How it could pierce the flimsy, futile mask 
 
 Of pride or falsehood and confound the guilty soul ! 
 
 Or, tender as a woman's, win the heart 
 
 Forth from our very bosoms till we stood 
 
 Ready to dare a soldier's part to play. 
 
 Often we counted him unjust and harsh, 
 
 Judging in youthful haste, all unaware 
 
 That while we slept he pleaded with his Christ 
 
 For us and for himself that he might have 
 The wisdom to decide, the will to do 
 That which his heart would not that we might be 
 Strong men and true, brave, loyal, honest, pure. 
 
 Had he his faults ? Well, he was just a man 
 And therefore did we love him a great man 
 In all he did; and mightily he warred 
 Against the flesh. He ever scorned to give 
 Ground in the fight. His noble spirit rose 
 Triumphant over age and grief and pain. 
 He toiled unto the end and finished all. 
 Death found him at his post, his work was done. 
 Right gladly did he hear the trumpet call 
 That rang victorious o'er a well-fought field. 
 He stripped him of his arms, he sheathed his sword 
 He laid the faithful, weary body down 
 To sleep. Ah ! who would grudge him of his rest !
 
 372 THE MASTER OF THE HILL 
 
 But O if I might see again his smile 
 So tender, hear his voice, or meet again 
 Those eyes that looked so deep and saw so far! 
 Then might I 
 
 Nay, the dawn is drawing nigh 
 And we must raise our standard with the sun. 
 Buckle each strap, close up the ranks and on, 
 On with our colors to another war. 
 Thus shall our city stand, and men shall say 
 In years unborn, on many a distant field : 
 " The children of The Hill have passed this way."
 
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