LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The editors invite Dartmouth alumni and others to use these columns freely for the expression of opinion and the statement of facts of interest to readers. All communications must bear the signatures of their authors.

Detailed Directions Given

Dear Sir:

Sometime ago, in company with many others, I read the harrowing account of the fraternity house tragedy in which thirteen* boys were overcome by carbon monoxide gas. I should like very much to learn—in detail—exactly how the monoxide gas was liberated from the furnace, and how people in their own homes can guard against a similar tragedy. Could you help me in obtaining information on this subject? Might I suggest that a detailed article on this subject in the MAGAZINE might be very much worth while?

Yours very truly,

Walpole, Maine,September 13, 1934.

* Nine boys died in the tragedy of February 25,1934.—ED.

Rules for Firing No. 1 BuckwheatAnthracite Under Forced Draft[The information below has been prepared for the Dartmouth Committee onStudent Residence by engineers of a research institute. Copies may be secured atthe office of Jhe Committee in ParkhurstHall, Hanover, N. H.—ED.]

1. Clean fire by shaking. Stop shaking when light appears in the ashpit. Puncture fuel bed with a straight or curved poker to break up crust using care not to "turn over" the fire. Leave sufficient ash to prevent coal falling through grate. Cover any dead spots with live coals and heap a mound of live coals near feed door.

2. Fire a good quantity of fresh fuel. Sectional boilers should be fired high in the rear, along the sides and in the corners, using care not to cover the mound of live coals near feed door. This is imperative. ALWAYS LEAVEA HOT SPOT.

3. Start blower for a few moments to make sure that gas is properly ignited.

4. fire a good quantity of fuel at longer intervals rather than a small quantity often.

5. Keep the ashpit clean.

6. Leave check slide in feed door open at all times.

7. Air delivery of blower should be adjusted for the minimum amount required to give steam promptly and maintain required pressure.

8. Smoke pipe and chimney should be tight. Small leaks may be sealed with asbestos furnace cement. Dampers should be left open sufficiently to allow all gases to escape up the chimney. When blower is running a lighted match held near the open check slide in the feed door should indicate that air is entering through the check slide. g. In round boilers the HOT SPOT may be left in front or at either side, and the fresh coal heaped on the side opposite the HOT SPOT.

10. Inexperienced persons should not be allowed access to boiler rooms.

Most Honorable Thanks

Dear Folks:

Enclosed is a draft for next year's subscription to the MAGAZINE.

It- would be impossible for me to express what the MAGAZINE means to me out here. Certainly far more than to the alumni at home where personal contacts are comparatively frequent and close. Please consider me an enthusiastic subscriber until death do us part!

National City Bank of New York,Shameen, Canton, China,July 12, 1934.

Virile Voices

Dear Sir:

Here's the check $2.50, subscription blank, and envelope. Address as above, class '93. Hope that extra mellow, smooth, deep full volume bass who sang with glee club at alumni dinner at Hanover last June is still in college. I thought that they had the best bass section I ever heard in a glee club and that one voice predominated. He shouldn't be allowed to graduate!

Best luck for '34-'35 all around. Old fellows like old pictures.

21 Chestnut St.,Wakefield, Mass.,Sept. 14,1934.

Not Sarcastic

Dear Sir:

This isn't exactly sarcastic but while you're at it, give a little credit to Harry Wellman for allowing "Dartmouth Days"— the movie—to come out at all. Besides that, being in Hollywood, the M.G.M. called me in to O.K. the music.

Now you get the inside!

24 Beverly St.,Melrose, Mass.,June 10, 1934.

[The "Hanover Winter Song," sung byHollywood extras and climaxing M.G.M.'sotherwise excellent sound picture of Winter Dartmouth, was composed by FrederickField Bullard, words by Richard Hovey '85.Edwin Osgood Grover '94 and Harry Richmond Wellman '07 hold the copyright. Thedirector of "Dartmouth Days," MauriceRapf '35, secured full permission before using song— ED.]

Hello Little Jeremy!

Dear Sir:

I think it reasonably certain that Little Jeremy More will seek admission to Dartmouth with the class of 1951. The College will have changed in many respects by that time. It has, since I first visited it in 1912. Unless I can follow this change, I should not be able, accurately, to visualize the physical Dartmouth and comprehend the spiritual Dartmouth in the fall of 1947, when Jeremy leaves Denver for Hanover. The DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE, by its illustrations, its editorials, and its articles enables me to "go along" with the College. I, therefore, read Bob's MAGAZINE religiously. Furthermore, I want you to know that I enjoy it and hope you get a lot of new subscribers.

(Wife of Robert E. More '13)

James W. Grimes, 1836

One would hardly expect to find in the catalog of Dartmouth College anything which would even savor of sentiment. If one were making a search for anything of this nature, forgiveness would be granted if the seeker omitted the sections devoted to scholarships and prizes. Yet a little research into the causes for the presentation of certain of these benefactions evidences very real sentiment.

Consultation of page 155 of the catalog number of the college bulletin for 1933-34 shows that there are two scholarships based on funds of $1000.00 each, the "Grimes given by James W. Grimes, of Burlington, 1a.," and the "Mrs. James W. Grimes scholarship given by James W. Grimes, of Burlington, la." On page 161 we note, under the heading of Rhetorical prizes, "The Grimes prize. Two prizes of $30.00 and $20.00 respectively, established by James W. Grimes, of Burlington, la., offered to the senior class for excellence in English composition." On page 163 there is a prize for general improvement, "a prize of $50.00 established by James W. Grimes, of Burlington, la., offered to that member of the senior or graduating class who, in the judgment of the college faculty, has during his college course made the most satisfactory progress."

One wonders just who James W. Grimes might have been. That question was answered for me not long since when I was presented by my father-in-law, Colonel Samuel P. Town, of Philadelphia, former Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, with Volume I of the American Historical Record, published by Colonel Town in 1872. In the April issue of that excellent publication, under the heading of "Obituary" I learn that the Honorable James W. Grimes had died at Burlington on February 7, 1872, and I learned further, to my great satisfaction, that he was a graduate of the College in the class of 1836.

If one were to look up the brief personal history of Mr. Grimes in the general catalog of the College, he would find but five lines devoted thereto. It was a real satisfaction, therefore, to note in this obituary, the honors which came to a man who found so much of interest in his alma mater.

Born in Deering, N. H„ October 16, 1816, Mr. Grimes, after preparing at Hampton Academy, entered Dartmouth at the age of 16 and was graduated with the class of 1836. He immediately emigrated to what was then the Far West, and settled in the territory of lowa. At the age of 22 he was elected to a seat in the territorial legislature. In 1854, eight years after lowa was

admitted into the Union, Mr. Grimes was elected Governor of lowa, and continued in that office for five years, when he was promoted to a seat in the U. S. Senate. He immediately took a conspicuous position, serving as chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia, and chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs. He was also an active member of the committees on Public Lands and on Public Buildings.

The Senator was a delegate to the famous Peace Congress held in Washington City, in February, 1881, to consider the state of public affairs and for proposing amendments to the Constitution, but as he perceived the futilities of its efforts, he took no active part in the proceedings.

In 1865, Mr. Grimes was elected for a second term to the Senate, but was compelled to retire in 1869 because of the ill effects on his health from the arduous duties he had been called upon to perform during the Civil War. He went abroad and his health seemed to improve somewhat, but the disease had fixed itself upon him and in 1872 he passed to his reward.

Senator Grimes was given the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by Dartmouth in 1865, and the same degree was conferred upon him the same year by lowa College.

The Historical Record notes that the Senator was a good debater, was a most faithful Senator, and observed that the country "lost a treasure in being deprived of a really honest man."

Mr. Grimes never lost interest in his old College. Not only did he give the prizes mentioned in the catalog, but in 1869 he gave to the College $1000.00 in trust, the income of which was to be applied for the use of the library of the Society of Social Friends. The Social Friends, it may be noted, was one of the Dartmouth local literary societies and was established in 1783. It had its library in Dartmouth Hall, and for many years Social Friends and the United Fraternity were strong and active rivals. Indeed, they carried on a corporate existence until 1904, when Edward K. Woodworth, Esq., '97, acting in a legal capacity for the College, properly terminated their existence.

Senator Grimes had several classmates who attained positions of eminence. The most outstanding was Samuel Colcord Bartlett, who was president of the College during part of the writer's undergraduate days, and who was widely known as a clergyman and educator.

Other classmates were Daniel E. Colbv, Adjutant General of New Hampshire, 1863-4; Stoddard B. Colby, Register of the U. S. Treasury, 1864-7: Erastus Everett, Founder of the College of New Orleans; Edmund R. Peaslee, who was graduated as a Doctor of Medicine from Yale in 1840, and was for many years a professor in the Medical Schools of Dartmouth, Bowdoin, New York Medical College, and Bellevue Hospital; Timothy P. Redfield, Judge of the Supreme Court of Vermont for 14 years; Jonas D. Richards, President of the University of Alabama; Claudius B. Webster, a Civil War surgeon, who was for 18 years U. S. Counsel at Sheffield, and John Wentworth, editor of the Chicago Democrat, Mayor of Chicago, and for six terms a member of Congress.

A further perusal of the catalog would undoubtedly bring out many other examples to indicate that success in the world's affairs in no way minimizes a man's love for and devotion to his alma mater.

155 Van Wagenen Ave.,Jersey City, N. J.,Sept. 6, 1934.