Letters to the Editor Ulmus Americana
To the Editor:
The article concerning "Eleazar's Millstone" in the November issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE interested me a great deal. I can well remember that soon after my arrival in Hanover as a Freshman in the Fall of 1919 I noticed the old millstone lying on the ground east of South Fayerweather Hall and near the corner of the building, since torn down, which housed the chemistry department. What caught my eye particularly was the very small sapling which was growing through the hole in the center of the millstone. As I passed the spot from time to time during my four years in Hanover I often wondered if the tree would live long enough to reach a fair size, realizing that if it should do so it would undoubtedly attract considerable attention.
As to the pedigree of the millstone I have no information or theories and even if I had any I would hesitate to join a debate which apparently has split the population of Hanover into three warring factions, two militant and one indifferent. It is best that the crisis be localized for who can tell what would happen if the alumni should likewise become split over a matter as serious as this!
However, there is one statement made by the author which I feel should be confirmed by a botanical expert merely to keep the record accurate. In the first paragraph of the article the author refers to the vegetable portion of this natural phenomenon as a young "poplar" tree. Now if my memory is not playing tricks on me, the little sapling which was growing in the hole of the old millstone in my day was not a "poplar" tree but a white elm (ulmusamericana L). Strange things have happened in New England of late years due to the influx of a large foreign element. It would be news indeed if alien influences have so affected the surrounding country that a native American elm has been ousted from a natural breeding spot for its species by a "poplar" tree.
Sincerely,
35 Walnut St.,Englewood, N. J.,November 8, 1937.
[lke Phillips is right. It's an elm.—ED.]
Novelist in '34
To the Editor
I hope it will be of interest to you and to Dartmouth men generally to know, something of a novel called Run Far, Run Fast by Lawrence A. Goldstone of the class of '24, which is also my class. As it happens that I am president of The Greystone Press, it means that both author and publisher are Dartmouth men.
We are sending you a copy of the book so that you can judge of its quality yourself. We think it is very promising for Goldstone as a writer. It rates as a first novel though he has actually had other things published over the name Lawrence Treat, particularly in series called SeeingSherlock Home. The reviews of Run, Far,Run Fast have been very favourable.
