Class of 1920
Imagine how the city editor of a real newspaper must feel a couple of hours before press time, as he sits at his desk without a single slice of news, of any importance to stick on his front page. The telephone rings. Somebody has been murdered; a war has been declared; something vital, at least, has broken, apparently for his special benefit.
That was the way things were going for 1920 throughout the month of March. The situation seemed hopeless. And then, at the very last minute, we picked up the New York HeraldTribune to read a dispatch from Lexington, Ky., under date-line of April 3: Mrs. Woolfolk Barrow today announced the engagement of her daughter, Miss Mary Barrow, to Mr. Carl Elbridge Newton, of New York. After all, the month had not passed in vain. The four paragraph story in the Herald-Tribune describes Miss Barrow as a debutante of the winter, a social leader and member of the Junior League, educated abroad and in California. Carl, too, gets his share of space, but only a few facts come as news to some, of us. He was graduated from Oxford in 1923, is a member of the London bar, and is now an assistant United States attorney in New York city. We regret that we must rush to press without investigating this matter further. Carl's chief, B.uckner, is startling the country daily with his accounts of the spread of corruption in New York. Surely the former president of the class of 1920 may be relied upon to make a few disclosures of his own for the benefit of his fellow men of Dartmouth.
After years, literally, of modest seclusion, one of the most promising desk men in the office of the Boston Globe takes an hour's vacation from the rewriting of copy for the writing of letters. "I take it that you'll recall me," assumes Mac McPartlin. "I roomed with you for some time in 1919 and 1920; my desk was the one with the fallen arches over in the corner, and may be remembered chiefly by the fact that its top was never dusty—never cleared enough to give dust a tooth-hold. Perhaps you'll associate my name with those of Ernest 'Red' Tillson, the teller; John 'Joe' Moore, the seller and Alfred 'Morgue' Green, another feller." The style obviously is the same that made the Daily Dartmouth what it was back in the old days; but timely facts,, regrettably, are lacking. However, in a personal interview later on, Mac radiated a rather unexpected optimism, which must speak well for the newspaper business of the city of Boston or some other important factor in the case.
After a desperate battle with the class of 1921, Mel Merritt has made it plain that he remains, as he always has been, a member of the class of 1920. Mel is also, it appears, one of our fastest travelers. A letter sent to Him by Secretary Al Cate started out for Middletown, Mass. (which place unfortunately does not exist at all), went in turn to Milford, N. H., Middleton, Mass., Danvers, Mass., Hanover, N. H., Meadville, Pa., and finally ended up where it belongs in Hyannis, Mass. "My home address," Mel writes, "is 16 Hunt St., Danvers, Mass., but during large construction operations I shall be here in Hyannis on Cape Cod—probably through next summer."
The newest addition reported for the rapidly growing roster of Twenty's families is Harold McQuillan White, born on February 12 to Mr. and Mrs. Harold A. White. The second Harold is also the second child, according to information from headquarters. He is fortunate in having an older sister to assist in his preparation for Dartmouth.
Editor, , 131 East 23d St., New York
