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Show ! INGALLS AND HIS DIPLOMA. CNew York Sun.) ! "The late John J. Ingalls never showed IfTs ability to better advantage than in the affair of his oration on Mummies.' " said a graduate of Williams Wil-liams college. "The story never circulated circu-lated far out of college. Ingalls was a member, of the class of '55 at Williams. Wil-liams. I followed not long after. So the story is more than a matter of record rec-ord with me. "Ingalls took a high position as a student. With Garfield he was an editor of the prominent college publication. publica-tion. His ability made him quite popular, pop-ular, as his sharp tongue was kept in restraint. "On a winter's night in one of the later years of Ingalls' course I think he was a junior the boys took a trip across the hills to a neighboring town. Ingalls. joined in. The start on the return re-turn was not made till well past midnight. mid-night. It was early morning when the crowd of students passed a young ladies' la-dies' seminary not far from Williams-town. Williams-town. "Some one it may have been Ingalls proposed a serenade. The idea pleased. The tin horns, laid aside on the return trip, were brought out. The valley echoed and re-echoed with the discordant blasts. The noise was kept up until the seminary awoke and blinds were thrown back here and there. Finally sleepy heads peered out from the windows. Then the horses were whipped up and the seminary returnea to its slumbers. "The second morning after the trip President Hopkins 'mark the perfect man' kept his boys a f3w minutes after af-ter chapel exercises. In his slow, im-nressive im-nressive manner he said, as nearly as I remember: 'As a party of students' from this college were recently passing at an early hour of the morning a neighboring institution of learning they disturbed the slumbers of the young ladies, students there, by tooting on a barbarous instrument known as a tin horn. In my time I have seen several sev-eral men who tooted their own horns and I have observed that they have been tooting ever since.' "Just what else the president said I don't recall. But this last sentence was the one to strike Ingalls. Like most men with sharp tongues, Ingalls was sensitive to sarcasm .himself. He took a personal view of the remark. The implication that he tooted his own horn hurt. Very likely other things i in college irritated him. But this remark re-mark of the president was said to have given the impulse to the oration on 'Mummies.' "The future politician was a good waiter, as the boys say. Commencement Commence-ment week for the class of '55 came around. 'Mummies' was the subject which Ingalls had chosen. Every one expected something brilliant from him. They' got it. Once on the platform the speaker made his peroration short. Then, before the faculty could guess his intention, he had begun to sketch some mummies that he had seen. There was no -mistaking the members of the faculty whom he was holding up to view. All the strength of the speaker's intellect was brought to his self-imposed task. Faculty and students alike sat spellbound, held as much by the ability of the man as by his audacity. "In the distribution of diplomas which followed one- was missing. Ingalls In-galls left the platform without one. Later the faculty considered "Mummies" "Mum-mies" more at length and decided that its author merited the withholding of his diploma. Faculties are only human. hu-man. But here Ingalls' wit had not failed him. Members of the graduating graduat-ing class were required to settle the bills of the last term at the beginning of commencement week. These bills included fees for the sheepskins. Ingalls In-galls had settled his bill. When the faculty said 'No diploma,' he threatened threat-ened legal steps. At. the close of commencement com-mencement week Ingalls left Williams-town Williams-town with his diploma and a mind at peace with the world." |