At Amherst

Lord Jeffrey Amherst was a soldier of the king And he sailed from across the se-ee-ee-ea; To the Frenchmen and the Indians he didn't do a thing In the wilds of this wild countree-ee-ee. In the wilds of this wild country.

And for his royal majesty he fought with all his might; He was a soldier loyal and true. He conquered all the enemies that came within his sight And he looked around for more when he was through.

O Amherst, brave Amherst, 'twas a name known to fame In days of yo-o-ore; May it ever be glorious Till the sun shall climb the heavens no more!

There is only one college* to which the song rightly belongs, but no haphazard gathering of U. S. college songsters, however diverse their allegiances, would be unable to render it, "swipes" and all, with never a look at one another, heads tilted back and eyes shut tight for the roaring refrain. Thus, when the Lord Jeffrey Inn was opened with ceremony last week at Amherst, Mass., college men everywhere pricked up their ears, hearing fond echoes in the very name. The inn, of an old English design, facing the village green, was not a part of the Amherst college plant, but Amherst alumni thronged to join the celebration. President George Daniel Olds of Amherst made a speech. President Harry A. Garfield had come over from Williams College and he made another speech. Mr. George A. Plimpton, senior trustee of Amherst, exhibited his remarkable collection of Amherst memorabilia--portraits, autographs, prints, cartoons, maps and even original broadsides of the declarations of war between George II and Louis XV.

It was in 1758 that William Pitt commissioned Jeffrey Amherst, already a seasoned campaigner of 41, as major general with the British colonial forces in America. After the taking of Louisburg that July, Amherst was promoted to full command of all these forces. After the fall of Montreal he was made Governor General of British North America. If indeed he "looked around for more when he was through," he found all he sought, for the Indians under Pontiac gave him more trouble than all his other campaigns put together, in fact had much the best of it. He was made governor of Virginia in 1763, then governor of Guernsey. In 1772 he was acting chief of the entire British army, remaining at headquarters during the Revolution as chief adviser. He died at has home in Kent in 1797, at ripe 80.

An old New England sermon, delivered in thanksgiving for the fall of Montreal, says of Amherst that "the renowned general is worthy of that most honorable of titles, the Christian hero; for he loves his enemies and while he subdues them he makes them happy. He acts the general, the Briton, the conqueror and the Christian." From his own correspondence, however, it appears that the Indians were not among the enemies loved and made happy by Amherst. He held them in supreme contempt. He directed a subordinate: "You will do well to try to inoculate the Indians [with smallpox] by means of blankets, as well as to try every other method that can serve to extirpate this execrable race." Bluff, arrogant, forthright, Amherst is thus seen as a soldier of quite modern scientific resourcefulness, for all the eclipse that his military record suffered through the brilliancy of Wolfe, captor of Quebec.

* Amherst College derived its name from the village of Amherst, which was named for the "soldier loyal and true."