1900

Arthur Virgin has revived a summer theater project in North Hatley, Quebec. He has strengthened the summer theater interest in that community by investing not only his enthusiasm but also his financial backing for the enterprise. Arthur bought a piece of land with a substantial building on it, and donated five acres including the building to the North Hatley Community Playhouse Guild. The building is to be renovated and remodeled for theater use. The community theater, as well as the community college, appears to be taking root in Canada as it has in this country. In July a clipping from a local newspaper tells of a buffet supper given to arouse community interest and financial support for the new playhouse, and carried a picture of the Board of Directors of the Township Playhouse Guild, Inc. In this picture was our good friend and classmate, Arthur. He looks every bit the part of an eager, interested, and promotional member of the Board. According to plan the playhouse will be formally opened next summer. It is indeed a noteworthy event for one of Arthur's years to take an active part in a project of this kind. We of 1900 should certainly give him a long Dartmouth cheer, and all good wishes for ample success with this undertaking.

During the summer, your secretary and his wife had two very pleasant encounters with the Rankin families. The early part of July, Marjorie, Walter Rankin's daughter, and her husband, Spencer Smith '22, called on us. They were returning to their home in Springfield, Mass., from driving their mother, Alice Rankin, up to Whitefield, N.H. After a delightful chat with them, a short tour of the campus was made to show Spencer the Leverone Field House, the new Olympic swimming pool, and to revisit the Hanover golf course which he had played a number of times. The end of the month brought to our door Walter Jr. '26, his wife, and Alice who was returning to her home in Brookline, Mass., after a month of fine seeing, good eating, and pleasant company at the Mountain View House. On the way down they stopped to see Kenneth in Lisbon, N.H., who is recovering but slowly from his long and confining illness. Marjorie Rankin called to my attention pictures in the foyer of Hopkins Center which showed the casts of Shakespearean plays put on by Dartmouth theatrical clubs. One of these was the cast of "Twelfth Night" played by the Dartmouth Dramatic Club of 1899. There were several 1900 men in the cast and among them our Walter resplendent in costume. All of which leads to the comment that it is a far cry from the rather simple and primitive accessories of that day to the modern and luxurious setting of the present Hopkins Center Theater.

Good news from Horace Crisfy. As has been previously reported Hod was hospitalized for three months because of his unfortunate accident in November. Then in March he had a bout with pneumonia which sent him back to the hospital for three weeks. By June, however, he had come along so well that on the tenth Hod, his wife, two maids, the family dog, and enough luggage to necessitate the use of three cars set out for his summer home at Harwich Port, Mass. This safari was successfully accomplished, and Hod reports that he is again indulging his peripatetic instinct by walking an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. His energetic presence must be well known in that Cape Cod area.

A card from Mrs. William Gaffney, George Tong's daughter, informs me that she is on her way to California to visit her son and daughter. Commander Gaffney, who at that time was on sea duty, expected to join her in California about the middle of August. In September they move to New York where Commander Gaffney has been assigned by the Navy to head up its training program in that area. Son Edward, who graduated with honors from Yale last June, will be a graduate student in geology at Dartmouth during the college year. Currently he is with Professor McNair's party on Victoria Island up above the Arctic Circle. The group is engaged in a search for fossils in the rock outcrop on the northern coast of the island.

Ruth Bean, Harry Jenkins's daughter, sends an attractive postcard with the news that she and her husband enjoyed a fine holiday on Nantucket and the coast of Maine. During the first part of August she was attending a very profitable Congregational conference on Star Island, ten miles out to sea from Portsmouth, N.H.

Alice Proctor, widow of Charles Proctor, spent some days in July on a visit to her son's family in Scituate, Mass. Most of the year she lives quietly by herself in the house on Rope Ferry Road, and maintains a well poised sense of independence amid her familiar surroundings. Alice reports the arrival on June 17 of her second great-granddaughter born in Denver, Colo.

After a lapse of three years, Arthur Roberts and his wife Ruth are able again to enjoy the advantages and to stand aghast at a few of the disadvantages of a home in the country. One hot July morning they loaded their new car with luggage and sped away for the north country. On arrival at Conway Center they were greeted with some of the complexities of owning a country place. In Arthur's words: "A crackling thunder shower reminds us of our weakness, for instead of Mr. Arnold's advice about serenity we have to dash about and vainly try to repair a hole in the pipe which feeds our water tank. May people speak of country life as simple. So far as my experience goes, even one competent servant puts simplicity into housework."

Secretary, Box 714, Hanover, N.H.