LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
[Ed. Note: Dr. Spalding '66 (M.D. Harvard '70, Litt.D. Dartmouth '28) is one ofour best friends and correspondents. Advanced age and deafness have hardlyhindered his constant and varied activity.] Dear Sir:
Why don't you do something, today, in honor of Webster's hundredth anniversary of unanimous election to the U. S. Senate from Massachusetts!! I doubt if "Lifers" of Webster ever emphasize this fact. If not, they should; but they won't get a good chance, will they, until 2033, which is far off. I wrote the life of a doctor of whom I knew nothing from personal contact and had no sooner finished it than they asked me for resolutions; for the asker—being a mighty pretty girl—l laid myself out and produced the finest ever and soon carry them out to her to find if they pass her keen judgment.
Yesterday I had three patients, and then four callers, and it was a big job to "hear" all of them. How I managed to do it is beyond me now. The patients were delighted because in one I found a foreign body in an ear and removed it and with the removal a buzzing stopped right off—and another tottered in, dizzy all over; and with a deft hand I twisted her astigmatic lenses into the correct angle and placed them on her nose correctly. She exclaimed "Oh, you dear man I am cured." The other cure was soothing words and a dittio (that means also soothing) collyrium (that's eye water). I sent her along but I didn't pick up much for Dartmouth Alumni Fund from any of the three. Excuse this early folly; 9:00 A.M. breakfast over.
Don't answer—cast it into oblivion
627 Congress Street
Portland, Maine
January 21, 1933
AT YOUR SERVICE!
Dear Sir:
May I make a request, which perhaps is out of order? I should like to see the 1933 football schedule for "Dear Old Dartmouth." I have reached the stage where, after Dartmouth plays her last gridiron game in November, I seldom refer to the sporting pages of the daily press, certainly with nothing approaching regularity. Hence I am still in darkness as to what the schedule-makers are serving up to us for this fall. Recently I did note an item about the 1933 and 1934 games with Princeton in the Providence Journal; and I note Phil Sherman's reference, in the MAGAZINE, to a forthcoming intersectional clash with Chicago; but further than this, I am in darkness.
Is it possible that other alumni find themselves in the same boat—left without information on this interesting question of whither goeth the "peeraders" during the coming football season in the beautiful hills of Hanover? And on what dates?
Unless my memory fails me, this is not the first year that the MAGAZINE has failed (if such be termed a "failing") to inform some of us more fossil-like alumni on this score. Perhaps I am the only one of the rising 15,000 Dartmouth men who fails to scan eagerly the morning papers, month in and month out, in the hope of running across this item on football schedules tucked away somewhere on page 31 (or 46?) of his favorite newspaper, alongside a picture of the "King of Swat" limbering up in winter habitat. I stand ready to be corrected.
Barrington, R. I.January 13, 1933.
DEFENSE OF THE PH.D
Dear Sir:
I have read with interest, not to say astonishment, the first editorial in the January number of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. May I say frankly that it seems to be based upon ignorance of conditions in the Graduate Schools and that, in its apparent championship of superficiality, it is likely to do us much harm in the academic world. I should like to make a few suggestions.
The work in the Graduate Schools is not disciplinary and it is certainly not of fourth-grade order. Moreover, the offering in the various departments is so extensive and so varied that a student may take without restriction almost anything that appeals to him. Far from being antiquated, the scholarship that is the basis of these courses is decidedly up-to-date. An instructor whose scholarship was not abreast of the times would never have won the opportunity of teaching in a Graduate School.
I am convinced that the teacher of English poetry needs philology perhaps more than anything else. It is a simple matter for a person with an appreciation of poetry to read a lot of poetry and then teach itin an elementary way. But when it is considered that three-quarters of the words are of Latin origin, it seems obvious that he must study Latin, that he must study philology, in order to acquire a real understanding, a fine appreciation of the precise meaning and connotation of words; and it seems equally obvious that this knowledge would be of immense value to him in his teaching.
So far as "the first, fine, careless rapture" of teaching is concerned, I have never experienced it and have never come into contact with it. I should be inclined to question the rapture and deplore the carelessness.
I should doubt if any candidate for the degree of Ph.D. was ever ruined by engaging in a piece of research, even if the subject seemed trivial and even if the result added nothing to the sum of human knowledge. Incidentally, I wonder if Caesar ever depended upon the trireme. The trireme is really a Greek boat.
These are the points in the editorial that chiefly attracted my attention.
Hanover, N. H.January 3, 1933.
WE WANT MORE PICTURES
Dear Sir:
Your page "When I Was In College—25 Years Ago" brings back most vividly the joyous days to us, and I'm grateful to who-ever inspired the. idea for the MAGAZINE. Your January page stirred me so that I went to the attic and went through my memorabilia for the first time in many years. Many amusing pictures suggested my sending you one or two. If they appeal to your judgment to use, I'm sure everyone in the classes of '05 to '09 would enjoy them. In any event I would like the return of them, please, at your convenience for they are precious to me.
The large one (reproduced herewith) was taken in the fall of 1904 on the kitchen steps of the Hanover Inn. Perry Fairfield can easily be picked out, upper right hand. Old Jim Riley, chef, is lower left. "Rip" Heneage '07, front row with turned-up hat and overcoat, and myself, lower right with books under arm, were waiters together in '04-'05. Perhaps some alumni can name others.
Please know how much I enjoy the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. It's a splendid job and a credit to Dartmouth.
Some day I'm going to send you some snapshots of Eleazar Wheelock's old house and school at Columbia, Conn. I'd like to stir up sentiment eventually for the preservation of that old house as a Dartmouth shrine. It is a shame not to conserve it somehow, for it is still in its original state with only slight additions and is worth seeing for any Dartmouth man who has read its history.
Holyoke, Mass.January 5, 1933.
