New York Dartmouth Club

The Dartmouth Club Bulletin is back in circulation—so is Mac Rollins, the editor. The following excerpts from the first Bulletin will prove both of these facts to be true.

There's a University of Chicago man in town—a good friend of many Dartmouth men, an especially good friend of two in particular. For years he has gone to Yale and Harvard games, he has been to the Club for returns, for lunch and dinner. He has listened to reunion chatter, to reminiscences, to tall tales of this and that. But not until Labor Day had he ever seen or set foot in Hanover, even though his motor trail has crossed and criss-crossed NewEngland from stem to stern.

Sending a post card of the campus and the library to one of his friends he wrote, "Sick and tired of hearing about this so many years. Well—it's all right!" It is all right. None of us have any doubL of that.

It's right, too, to carry on as much of it as possible here in New York. President Hopkins, writing to King Woodbridge at the time King reassumed the presidency of the Club, said,

"My own experience recurs to me frequently in connection with our boys who go to New York, for I never have known any such moments of loneliness as in the big cities, and this is particularly true of New York. When, years ago, I was living there I used to walk the streets at night and on holidays trying to think where 1 could go or whom I could visit with whom I could have anything in common. A college club, reasonably maintained and intelligently run, seems to me to be the most auspicious agency wherein to make provision for this great group of men who are pouring into the metropolitan district of New York from Dartmouth each year. Meanwhile, it seems to me that for the older men the Club has the very obvious advantages of offering hospitality and a home in a city notoriously lacking in these qualities."

So, in the mind of a man who has no connection with the college, there is great excuse for the college—and in the mind of the man who is the head of the College there is great excuse for the Club.

The College never lets go of its men after they graduate. Why should they let go of themselves? As President Hopkins says, there is little enough of common in- terest available to men who have been in the city for years—to say nothing of those just arrived.

It's plain enough that the Club offers the only possible solution of a very real problem—and a problem much more acute in New York than elsewhere. So this fact sticks out. The Dartmouth College Club continues, despite the trials and tribulations that have been no less severe on 38th Street than anywhere else, to operate as the center of alumni activity in and around New York.

Clubs, and particularly such a club as this, have a distinct scarcity value. (Page the Economics Department if the terminology is wrong—we know the idea is right.) Take away the Dartmouth Club and its loss would be felt.

To make sure of the future of the Club, and realizing that an active membership is the greatest guarantee of permanence, the governors several months ago determined on a policy in line with reductions in all other things, and quite drastically cut the membership dues. In fact, the rates were so scaled down that the roster of late entrants to membership has a distinct Scotch flavor. That is a sincere testimonial to the value presented.

If you aren't a member, or if you haven't been around recently,, come on in. Try it some Thursday noon, for example, when the weekly round table is in session. But try it, anyway.

Bankers and brokers perhaps aren't familiar, save possibly through the reports of their customers' men, with the activities of John (Chub to us middle oldsters) Sterling, who on Thursday the 21st started the Club's fall entertainment program. Embryo advertising lads and others did well in bending an attentive ear to the honeyed words of the vice-president of the McCall Company.

You'll get a lot of good horse sense out of these talks. The one by John Sterling was a good sample of what to expect. Advertising is only one of the branches of business that will get some interesting and important treatment every week for the next few months.

In the insurance field, for example, you know that Ernest Earley for years has been one of the very greatest producers for the Northwestern Mutual. Don't let that deter you from hearing what he and other smart insurance men can tell you—it being a condition that all insurance salesmen must park their fountain pens at the desk. There'll be no selling—but the free information may do you a lot of good.

And what do you suppose you'd pay Doc O'Connor if you wanted him to tell you some of the law's grim fairy tales in his office? Well, it costs you nothing but your luncheon check to listen to Doc and other upstanding Dartmouth lawyers at the Club. "Lawyers Thursday," will alternate with advertising, insurance, and general business in presenting Dartmouth men who are making their marks to a Dartmouth audience.

The list is not completed, but Jack Hubbell is busy signing up such men as Jim Mathes (the town's latest man-sized advertising agency entrepreneur), Warren Agry of Good Housekeeping, John Wood of B. Altman. There will be a luncheon October 5, October 19, and every other Thursday from then on.

Chuck Webster, who is some punkins in this squash racket, can now take a bow and have this to say about the part that this fast and interesting game will play in the Club's fall entertainment program.

"The season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" and "what am I going to do for exercise this winter" is fast closing upon us. So while you are yet in that bewildered state between resolve and resolution—recall with us the fact that you have available at the Club facilities for squash at what are believed to be the most reasonable rates in the city. At the adjoining Fraternity Club courts you can secure locker spacea small gymnasium for preliminary exer- cise—showers—all in the company of congenial Dartmouth men of every size and vintage.

Our Club will again be represented in the Metropolitan Squash Racquets Association with teams in the "B" and "C" leagues and a schedule of games with other members (Union League, Squash Club, Yale, Columbia, and others) to be announced later. Last year approximately 30 men were in action constantly, and any evening between 4:30 and 7 or at noon games could be had and even went begging. Judging from early season interest this year will bring even more. Skill and proficiency range from the peaks attained by Davis, Hicks, and Hubbell down to the great ranks of beginners who battle "pour le sport" alone.

If you live outside the great environs all the more reason for whetting up a good game, because it is proposed to hold interclub matches wherein the idle boasts of a fast New Jersey contingent will be tested on the field of battle against the vainglorious statements of a Westchester aggregation. One club tournament will be held in October, one in the spring, and during the winter all who participate in any way will find a half hour or hour of invigorating exercise together with keen physical enjoyment in the competition and companionship that this sport affords.

All those with talent and skill and all those with those great potential yearnings which well up in the hearts of the best of us who are duffers in the flesh only, please do us the favor of phoning C. D. Webster Van 3-5400 or leaving word at the Club desk that you will stop in for the evening, and well try to do the rest.

As one who has fought and bled in the cause of the celebrated pastime known as ping-pong, Collin Wells rises to sound the tocsin in defense of his favorite sport. It is, if you believe Master Wells, a game in which science links hands with art—wherein the coal-heaving muscles of a Josh Davis have little or no advantage over the banana-trained sinews of a Skinny Moore (and speaking of Skinny, did you know he's a new-fledged benedict?).

As exercise the twisting and turning is second only to a contortionist's act—and while there is little or no opportunity to sock 'em a mile, there is every chance of chasing your adversary from side to side until his tongue hangs out.

The ping-pong table still occupies the central position in the second floor arenait is the second table we have had, incidentally, so you know it's popular.

There will be a ping-pong team this year to carry on in the wake of last year's bravos. Last year proved that even the best can be beaten, so hop aboard and have yourself a time. Charley Graydon, Ed Plumb, Bud Weser, Homer McVean arc a few of the regular attendants.

By next month the program of club activities should be well under way. At the moment organization among the classes needs to come up from its all-time low. What class will take the first step? Who'll phone John Bowe for the first reservation? Next month's Bulletin should carry a full program on Page 1.

The fall season more than any other has always been the time when the Club could do more things for more people. Football activities have rightfully centered around the Club—the special trains have fulfilled a long felt want—they have supplied the means of getting a great crowd of loyal supporters to the games all inspired with the same feelings.

As in every other year since the Club opened it will do its stuff tor you this fall.

Secretary.