GRADUS AD PARNASSUM
The gift of a collection of Webster engravings by Jim Landauer '23, announced in the MAGAZINE, has brought forth from its years of seclusion the words of the "Statesman's Dirge," a song composed in honored memory of the great Dan'l. It was written by the Rev. C. W. Denisne in 1852, and here follow the funereal verses:
Where stricken groups around him stood,The dying statesman lay;While ocean washed the Pilgrim wood,His spirit passed away,His spirit passed away.
But deeper than the roar of waves,From yonder rolling sea,He sang, beside his field of graves,"Thy staff shall comfort me.""Thy staff shall comfort me."
Oh! mighty dead! that staff of GodWas ever by thy side;And thou didst make the Christian's rodThy Glory and thy prideThy Glory and thy pride.
Borne by that staffThy fame shall last,A tower of strength sublimeTill yon Arch-an-gel's trumpet blastShall sound the Knell of timeShall sound the Knell of time.
Rollie Morton '34, brother of Bill '32, promises to earn nine varsity letters if his prowess and health hold out in this, his final year in athletics. He will be Dartmouth's first nine-letter athlete, won't he? This is the general impression in Hanover and, if incorrect, should be modified for Rollie is modest and no false claims should be made for him.
In Bill's senior year his brother Charlie, one of two older brothers, was in town watching practice before the Harvard game. He hadn't been in the East for several years and was much interested in Bill's and Rollie's efforts. "Looking forward to the game Saturday, aren't you?" he was asked. "You bet," he said, "I haven't watched Bill on a football field since he was in high school and I never have seen the little feller play!"
Charlie didn't go to college. He was all set for Dartmouth and was going to room with Fred Wenck '26 but finances kept him at home. And Fred and other New Rochelle citizens say that Charlie was the best athlete in the family. He has helped Bill and the "little feller" through Dartmouth.
The Dartmouth Club of New York has taken on a new lease of life. At least it seems like that if the recent issue of the Bulletin emanating from 24 East 38th Street under the able auspices of Mac Rollins '11 is any harbinger. Hooker Horton '27 is calling on New Yorkers to extend personal invitations to join the Club; the dues have been adjusted to care for such things as men living outside the City but working in it, and to ease the burden on younger alumni; the interior of the Club has been refurbished; ladies are now admitted to Floor No. 1 at dinner-time; and John Bowe and his staff are said to be even more zealous in their services than heretofore. One talking ppint for the Club, in the Bulletin, is the space it offers for taking naps after lunch. The peace and quiet of the Club at the siesta hour must be a marvelous thing to behold. Outside: the rattling banging noise of busy streets. Inside: the droning hum of many snoozers.
While patrons of the Club are napping, the officers, such as King Woodbridge '04 and Jim Landauer '23, are wide awake and on their toes. Alumni are invited to make an inspection and see for themselves that the brethren in New York have A-1 headquarters.
And speaking of bulletins from Dartmouth clubs we must never omit mention of Squeaks from the Golden Gate. This monthly publication of the San Francisco alumni and Abe Winslow '20 is well done.
If the publication date of last month's MAGAZINE was any sample of its promptness in months to come, "Squeaks" could take our subscribers away. But, may we say in self-defense, the editors and printer were pretty well on schedule to get the October issue out on October 1. A delay in receiving advertising plates held us up and Al Frey and others were gnashing fillings out of their teeth in the interim.
Bill McCarter '19, whose column in these pages already has its devoted followersBill says that a '13 man was rooting around in his attic not so long ago and discovered that he had three books bearing the imprint of the Dartmouth College Library! These he promptly returned to Hanover. Bill wonders if others might burrow into old trunks and dusty shelves and see what might turn up. Like The Dartmouth ads: Person seen taking book from library in1908. Return to the delivery desk. No questions asked.
Among the score or more of newspaper editorials that appeared following President Hopkins' address at the opening of the year there is one sour note that is beyond the understanding of this department. This editorial appeared in the Youngstown, Ohio, Vindicator:
"President Hopkins of Dartmouth repeats the current humanitarian cant inhis address to Dartmouth undergraduatesat the opening of the college today. Thefunction of college education has changed.'Emphasis upon the formerly held tenets ofpersonal rights and personal immunitiesmust be subordinated to safeguardingprinciples deemed to affect the general welfare at large. The college must focus itsattention upon the problem of producingthe great society and of undertaking tocreate in its individual students the zest forself-forgetful transcendence.'
"Sceptical undergraduates will be inclined to retort that this is a lot of bunk,and they will be right. Now, as always, theduty of the college is to teach its studentsright principles and help them to make themost of themselves. If the students don'tknow this, the parents certainly do andought to tell Dr. Hopkins that they don'tsend their boys to Dartmouth to lose themselves in 'self-forgetful transcendence'whatever that is."
Perhaps the editor has a grouch against Dartmouth, but from his statement that the President is repeating "the current humanitarian cant" it would appear that the writer is grieved at public opinion in general. If this is so, why take it out on Dartmouth? Especially when the editor might have learned a lot about "self-forgetful transcendence" if he had read the address carefully.
Contributors of feature articles this month are Prof. Artemas Packard and Carl F. Woods '04. Professor Packard, chairman of the department of art, tells the story of the origin of the Orozco frescoes in Baker Library and interprets their symbolism for those of us whose minds may be said to be "untutored" as far as appreciating Mexican mural painting is concerned. The Senor is moving rapidly in his painting of 3,000 square feet of wall space. Visitors flocked to the hall all summer. Knots of students gather about Orozco's staging as he works silently and deftly, day after day.
Mr. Woods explains the present set-up of the Alumni Council and, speaking for a special committee of the Council, raises certain questions regarding districting and methods of nomination as observed at the present time.
The series of vocational articles begin next month with a contribution from W. J. Minsch '07 on "Business and the College Man." Other authors of subsequent articles will be: Prof. W. K. Stewart, A. C. Tozzer '02, Paul Sample '20, and A. W. Stone '94.
Not to be overlooked is the anonymous contributor of the first letter to the folks at home, written by a this year's entering student. It is a genuine letter and was written by a Vermont boy at the end of his first few days at college.
