New York
A PLACE LIKE the Dartmouth Club confutes the two old codgers of Wiscasset, Maine, who were settin' around the fire one night in the general store. One said to the other, "Josiah, it appears to me they ain't as much lallygaggin' among the young folks as they was when we was boys." Josiah thought, spat and answered, "Yes, they be, Homer, jest as much—diffrunt crowd though."
Somehow or other there seems to be a similar crowd at the Club these days to that of ten or twelve years ago when this vox clamantis in urbe started its first thin wail.
Dan Hadlock continues to get fun out of most occasions. So do many men of a slightly younger generation than his. So too, do plenty of Tenners and Eleveners, Sixteeners, Twenty-oners and the young fry of the recent classes.
Bill Knibbs '05 as President has made two smart appointments that are bearing fruit. Ed Redman '06 as chairman of the House Committee and Jib Dingwall '1 as chairman of the Entertainment Committee have worked hand in glove with Charlie Graydon '25 who is the present secretary.
The Entertainment Committee which includes John Redington '00, Brice Disque '25, Al Marsters '30 and R. K. Hage '35, has won its spurs by a series of good parties. One was a Beer Party attended by some 40 men and another somewhat more original and even better attended Stanley Besse's '05 New England Chowder Party, at which the rotund Master Besse engineered two giant cauldrons of genuine clam and fish chowders, both accompanied by authentic Boston "common" crackers, especially imported from the storm bound Hub by airplane.
The biggest luncheon meeting the Club has yet enjoyed occurred on October 5th when 155 members and guests listened to Bruce Barton, Congressman from New York City. The dining room was jammed to capacity and about 30 men overflowed to the second floor for lunch, coming down later during Mr. Barton's excellent talk. Reporters from all the New York papers were present and the Club the next day received some welcome publicity.
The Entertainment Committee has Lowell Thomas, District Attorney Dewey and other headliners on its future pro- grams.
The Princeton Smoker on October 7th was conducted by Al Marsters, who had Charlie Boyle, Eddie Dooley, Bill McCarter and Whitey Fuller as his speakers. Naturally this again brought out a capacity house.
The fall season got away to a great start when the first of what it is hoped will be an annual series of Freshman Dinners was held on September 15th, the Thursday night before college opened.
Seventy boys and sixty-six fathers accepted the Club's invitation that night. All boys from the metropolitan district thus had a chance to recognize some of their fellows before they arrived in Hanover and the relative anonymity of a freshman cap. Several 1942 lads seen in Hanover the next week told us that they had found friends as soon as they had arrived on the Campus and felt a very warm spot toward the Club for having gotten them past the first hurdle.
Rooms at the Club have been extremely well filled during the summer and fall with a good sprinkling of transients to keep the old guard on its toes. There is almost always a spare bed, but reservations are decidedly in order, particularly during the football season.
A departure in the Club operation has been that of permitting ladies to use the rear dining room on the second floor for lunch and dinner. Since the Club food has a well deserved reputation, the attendance has shown a healthy and important increase.
Non-resident members will be especially interested in the Club's ability to take care of theatre reservations, football game and railroad tickets and the other normal services of any club or hotel plus the one thing that not another single place in New York can supply—the chance and probability of meeting people you know, whom you like and with whom you have an immediate feeling of easy and comfortable familiarity.
The Club is operating the usual trains to the Princeton and Yale games and a special in connection with the Cornell Club to Ithaca. The next month's calendar is filled with other events interesting alike to resident and non-resident members.
