Letters

An Inspiration

To THE EDITOR: The ALUMNI MAGAZINE has been a constant inspiration during these war years. The record of heroic achievement and the glowing spirit of sacrifice of these Dartmouth men has never been surpassed in the history of the College. To follow these men, through the pages of the MAGAZINE, wherever the fighting took them, has made it just a bit easier to reconcile oneself to the inevitable armchair.

Stoneham, Mass.

Well Deserved

To THE EDITOR: The enclosed editorial appeared in the November 5th Portland (Maine) Press Herald. I am sure every Dartmouth alumnus gets a thrill in seeing his college praised in the press. In this case the commendation is indeed well deserved.

Cumberland Mills, Me.

The editorial follows: ALMA MATER

Dartmouth College has adopted a policy that might well be adopted by educational institutions all over the Country. It has set up scholarships, named in honor of its retiring president, Dr. Ernest Martin Hopkins, that provide for the college education of the sons of alumni who died in the war. Some 260 Dartmouth men gave their lives for their Country. Of them, the College estimates that 25 men, or thereabouts, left sons. The scholarships will pay every major expense of these sons—tuition, room, board, for four years, provided applicants meet the academic standards of the college. This is generous treatment. It is recognition, perhaps, of a definite responsibility to see to it that boys who naturally would expect to go to their family college do not have to suffer under the handicap imposed by the sacrifice of their fathers in the war. That old phrase, "alma mater," takes on a new meaning in the plan which Dartmouth has adopted.

Museum Piece

To THE EDITOR: In this package you will find a Nazi swastika which I believe has an interesting background in connection with Dartmouth.

When this division smashed its way into Heidelberg, Germany, during the latter part of March, 1945, in its drive into the Austrian Alps—l was fortunate to be the first person in the division to enter the city and to get to the Nazi party headquarters—where I forced a "superman" to take me to Heidelberg University. The first thing that attracted my attention was this big swastika flying from the American wing of the university.

I took the swastika down and sent it home at that time; I just arrived home this week and upon going over the "loot" I sent home I came upon this swastika again. I have decided that it belongs more to Dartmouth than it does to me considering that it is from "one college" to another—two great institutions of learning one unfortunate enough to be on the wrong side of the ocean—and I don't mean Dartmouth.

Hope the College can use this swastika possibly in the Museum or some other fitting place. The flag would make a good foot-mat" if nothing else.

Louisville, Ky

Brother Zephaniah

To THE EDITOR: The picture of the tombstone of Rev. Zephaniah Swift of the Class of 1792, which appeared in the November issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, interested me and aroused my curiosity, as the name seemed quite familiar. I checked a book which I had been reading a short time before, and found that it carries an interesting and amusing reference to Brother Zephaniah.

The book Vermont (American Guide Series), published in 1937 by Houghton Mifflin Company, speaks of him as follows:

"The Rev. Zephaniah Swift was the first person born in Wilmington (1771). One stormy night, when the pastor was comfortably in bed, there came a loud and insistent pounding on his door. The Rev. Mr. Swift poked his reluctant head out into the gusty rain, and found below a young couple that wanted to be married. Calling them close beneath the window, Zephaniah made brief of the ceremony, shouting these words into the teeth of the storm-rent darkness: 'Under this window, in stormy weather, I join a man and woman together; Let none but him who made the thunder, Ever put this man and wife asunder.'"

I am glad to add this item to the material contributed by Mr. George R. Adams, '09.

Andover, Mass,