Lyceum Phoenix of Friends School - Phoenix Echo Yearbook (Providence, RI)

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Plainness of speech meant singular pronouns in addressing a single person 3 more thanfthis was vanity. It included also the avoidance of extravagant, vain, and superfluous words in conversa- tion. Plainness of behavior implied a reserve from evil companions ship, places of public resort, horse-races, theatres, and general muster, and other vain assemblies. Plainness in apparel meant nothing for show, in form or color, or to attract attention, A coat must have only one row of useful buttons, another row would be only to stimulate superiiuous vanity. There must be no buttons behind for the same reason, or at any rate not for ornament. No rolling collar was allowed on a coat. It niust rise single, sole, and perpendicular, like a rector's. If it rolled and doubled over, that portion was superiiuous, and the government proceeded at once to do execution on the coat and reduce it to the regulation type, and sometimes even took the whole collar away. A boy came in 1829 from Worcester He had light, beautiful hair, with natural curls and ringlets all over his head. The gov- ernment, in order to subdue the wayward crookedness of his hair, sheared it all off, and left him like that fowl which had its feathers plucked out to reduce Plato's definition of a man to an absurdity: Here is Plato's man. Think of the absurdity of this in the midst of the ten thousand times ten thousand forms of beauty in the world, created solely, and without superiiuity, for the sake of beauty, which is its own excuse for being. Yet we need not think that we shall escape. A future generation will be trying in all ways to translate sense and excuse and reason into our actions and conduct, which will seem absurd to them when far from us. The superintendents were changed in I82Q and go-Enoch Breed and his wife, Lydia, with Stephen and Hannah Gould as assist- ants. Their powers and official stations were, no doubt, properly distributed, but they are not well known at present. Enoch Breed and his wife continued in oflice seven years. He seems to have left a strong impression upon the institution. His wife is said to have been a gifted person, with quick understanding, with a power of penetration into the motives of personal action which was quite remarkable. Her daughter, by ag1'ffr.er husband, entered the list of teachers at this time, and subsequently became the wife of a for- mer teacher, Samuel Boyd Tobey.

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loyalty of this man in its infancy will be cherished with grateful and affectionate remembrance. The large accession to the funds of gIO0,000, turned the atten- tion of the Yearly Meeting to guarding the same on all possible sides for its protection. The Yearly Meeting itself was in 1823 in- corporated especially under the name of The Yearly Meeting of Friends for New England, to hold property in trust perpetually, for educational and charitable uses. It would have been wiser, as the result has shown, to have created boards of trustees and have limited the immediate government of the School, as in cases of col- leges and other like institutions in general. There are reasons which make a change to usual methods, for the present, at least, impractical. There were several other donations to the School at about this time. Sylvester Wickes left to it his farm in Pomfret, Conn. He lived in Cranston, R. I. Lydia Tillinghast, of Providence, was an- other benefactor. The most remarkable benefactors at this time, next to the Browns, were William Rotch, of Nantucket, later of New Bedford, and his son, William Rotch, Jr. We must never forget to do justice to those who contributed small sums. Their personal sacrifice was greater than that of the affluent donors. The first report of the first School Committee is duly recorded, and is found Y. flf. Rec., Vol. ff, p. 3,41-2. The number of pupils in the early years are uncertain, because there were no vacations, and people must, in many instances, have remained for brief periods. It seems to have been like the platform railway, at the Chicago Columbian Exhibition, which was an end- less chain, and, without stopping the train, you stepped on and rode one minute or an hour or two, as it suited your convenience. The Yearly Meeting record reports the average number for 1819- I82O at seventy pupils, while the lists show one hundred and seventy-eight different individuals who attended. The average number reported in 1828 to the meeting is 121, but the lists show 274. The average number in 1829 reported was I35,Wl1llC 365 were listed. The two wings were extended in 1825 and 1826 forty feet each, making the wings, as now, eighty-two feet each. This made room for an increase of students. Each monthly meeting sent one or more free of cost, for six n. hs, The School at this period was distinguished for Plainness of speech behavior and apparelf'

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Dr. Samuel Boyd Tobey and his wife were among the most dis- tinguished and loyal friends the School has had in its history. Sarah F. Tobey, until quite recently, survived for half a century, to extend to every child who became a member of the School the measureless influence of a graceful, beautiful, and exalted woman- hood. Her presence was more potent than words. It furnished an example of true and noble life. Enoch Breed, a good, faithful, and substantial Friend of his time, cannot be described without his hat. The founder of the Society, in recognition of the equality of all men before God and the law, took off his hat neither to high nor low in social life, thus, at one stroke, so far as his influence went, leveling all social orders to one common humanity. It was a noble testimony to bear. When VVilliam Penn stood before Charles II with his hat on, the king put off his. Friend Charles, said Penn, why dost thou not keep on thy hat? ,Tis the custom of this place, replied the mon- arch, K' that only one person should be covered at a time. Enoch Breed is said to have worn his hat constantly in the house and out of doors. He wore it at the table, and when he drank tea or coffee, and his saucer met the brim of his hat, then was the time for the boys to put in the fun. They tell an innocent, but doubt- ful, story, that he once took a seat in a barber's chair with his hat on. The barber hesitated, and Enoch Breed said to him: Dost thou not know me P The barber replied : No ! I should think you might b-e Methuselah l No ! I am Enoch? Very soon in his administration a more extended curriculum began to be agitated. They were no longer satisfied with a simple course in English studies. They found difficulty in the lack of teachers who were members of Society. They appoint a commit- tee with a View to expansion, and took a risk 3 but they took special care 'K that the principles and manners of the children may be pre- served from exposure by the introduction of a teacher who is not a member, should they be under the necessity of employing such an one. -- Y. JV. Rec. Vol. 3, p. 195, 235, 253. The Committee proceed, in 1830-1831, to construct the north building, long called the new building, where the natural science department, Thomas J. Battey, and the Seniors are now located. Here and now was organized the classical department, by Samuel J. Gummere, afterwards a distinguished president of Haverford College, and that most distinguished scholar, Pliny E. Chase, was