[31] liked to be fondled and caressed like some shaggy Newfoundland dog. In many respects he was well fitted to be a social leader, and his tastes naturally inclined that way, rather than to pre-eminence in scholarship. But there was too much of the rough diamond about him to please the fastidious, and he drove the shafts of ridicule so deep that he sometimes made enemies among those who should have been his friends. His faults were those of a frank, impulsive disposition. He was bold and outspoken, and had too much pride to attempt conciliation where he had given offence. A proneness to exaggerate the merits and defects of classmates, want of appreciation of, delicate and subtile traits of character, too great intolerance (if we may use the word) of conceit, affectation, sentiment, and those other weaknesses from which college students are by no means exempt,—these were his chief faults. He drew the line boldly between friends and enemies, and while he would always defend the former, he fought the latter to the death. He struck vigorously while the iron was hot, but lacked that quiet, persistent application which commands success. On the whole, his course at Harvard, although by no means a failure, did not seem to do him full justice, and was not, perhaps, a happy one. A singular combination of strength and weakness, a proud and generous nature struggling with adversity, one of strong will and equally strong passions, irregular, fitful, and inconsistent, constantly making good resolutions and often breaking them, Nature's image of a true man, but with feet of clay,—such was ‘Jack How,’ as he impressed his friends at college. His character is well illustrated in an extract from a letter written to a classmate by a lady who had the best opportunities of knowing him:—
You knew his noble character and great heart, and need not that I should call to mind the many generous and splendid traits that so endeared him to his friends. He was a good son and fond brother. You know how warmly he was attached to his College friends. He never ceased to remember them lovingly, and talked to me often of a half-dozen of them. He could n't see the future
