Duquesne Monthly a Literary Magazine
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Duquesne Monthly A Literary Magazine Official Undergraduate and Alumni Publication. Published Monthly by the Students of Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pa. Subscription Price for the School Year: $1.50; Single Copies, 15 cents. Address: DUQUESNE MONTHLY, Duquesne University, Pitts- burgh, Pa. Editorial and Business Offices: Suite 2, St. Martin's Hall. Telephone GRant 4635. Minimum requirement for articles and stories is 1500 words. Entered as second-class matter, April 30, 1911, at the post office at Pittsburgh, Pa., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1108, Act of October 3, 1917. Authorized October 22, 1918. PERSONNEL Editor PAUL WADDELL Associate Editors Faculty Adviser MAURICE J. O'DONNELL REV. EDWARD A. MALLOY, ROBERT McGUINNESS C.S.Sp. Assistant Editors Business Associate HARRY BENDER PAUL M. LACKNER ELLEN McDONOUGH Circulation Manager Co-Ed Editor WILLIAM DWYER ELIZABETH A. ATWATER Associate Circulation Manager Alumni Editor WILLIAM SWEENEY THOMAS O'CONNOR, '33 Contributing Editors Assistants KENNETH DUFFY PATRICK SHARPE MARY ELIZABETH RICE CLARE KINNEY MICHAEL J. CARNEY ROBERT RIGGS Staff Secretary . MARTHA SPOERLEIN MERCEDES DONAHOE R. J. ZAIDEN DOROTHY FLOHR Business Manager FRANK KELKER PAUL WADDELL [PAGE ONE] This Month Have You Contacted The Steel Claw - - Reality? 3 By Anton Radzukinas By Rev. Jerome D. Hannan, Our short story offering of the month. Mr. Radzukinas new to S.T.D., J. C.D. these pages, writes a fast moving Father Hannan, one of the outstand- drama of life. ing scholars of our Pittsburgh clergy, has written the most perti- nent article of our Alumni contribu- tors. What he has to say is of ut- Guest of Honor most interest to all undergraduates. "Any contractor," he writes, "would A Fact or a Memory, by FRANK J. rather employ as bricklayer a man GARVEY, of The Loyola. Quarterly, who has laid bricks than the most is, in all the editorial hue and cry scholarly student who had merely concerning student government, the studied how bricks should be laid. first intelligent and well-written Too often a diploma bears written piece to come to our attention. You between its lines, 'This chap knows may disagree with the author on only how to study.' Thus it is a lia- many of his points, but you can't bility to one seeking employment. disregard his constructive criticism For strange as it may seem, practi- of what he terms a misnomer. He cal men of the world are for the even offers a substitute for that most part demanding, not men who abused phantom, student govern- have learnt how to study, but men ment. who have studied how to do." And that is but one of the many line thoughts he presents. The Editor lie's in whimsical mood again, re- marking on truths and beauty he has met in life. Wistful child that All Our Tomorrows - 5 he is, he would feel highly wronged were anyone to accuse him of ever By Paul Waddell writing editorials herein. A story of deep emotion but quiet writing, set in the days of "the first world war." Philip, sensing his ren- dezvous with death beyond the Alumni waters, leaves Angela, the one beauty of his life, his memory, Born thirty years too soon—but try rather than his widow. to tell them so! Points of View - Cayman Teeth - 7 Our critics at large again: Drama, By Edward Carr Books and Music. Those who like their fiction more demonstrative and less subtle are recommended to Mr. Carr's story. While rich in action it is not lacking The Man on the Box - - the lesson. Things can't be improving so quick- ly: this new deal in humor is still up there. Cherchez La Femme - 8 By Frank Kelker The Last Word - - This essay should send the women to Our lady of the campus with spark- their desk to dash off replies—or so ling comment on the new year. The Editor hopes. The author quite logically builds upon his premise: that women in industry are par- tially responsible for the depression. Their present economic status is a Advertisements - " - - detriment both to themselves and Make one of your new year's resolu- man, writes Mr. Kelker. You go tions the patronage of home in- on from here. dustry. [PAGE TWO] Have You Contacted Reality? • Jerome D. Umiliati. S.T.D., J.C.D. (®>xs§) AM still writing with the enthus- perience is still as notable by its absence Jrljj> iasm and hopefulness of one who in the college curriculum as it was during ML® expects some day to be able to my student days. It is a mark of periods jTOH write. Ambition was born in me of decadence that scholars content them- I*? Va,l when I was still unacquainted selves with poring over the past and with with the mysteries of Psychology and Cos- expressing its inventiveness in new forms, mology. I had a hero before my eyes al- lacking the originality that pushes into ready an initiate in those esoteric realms. regions unexplored. Any sort of training What was more, he was regarded as hav- devoid of laboratory experience is similar- ing literary talent in spite of it. I remem- ly stigmatized. A scholar cramped by the ber how devoutly I wished that when my inadequacy of such training is deprived of turn came to roam the regions of philoso- facilities that are available to even the phy I, too, might be a great writer in spite most stupid apprentice in the shop of a of it. But the pity and the tragedy of it tradesman. If the latter is not too stupid is that my hero, even though he has long to use his hands, he is surrounded by since escaped the thrall that curbed his numerous opportunities that literally de- poetic soul, has not yet become a great mand some sort of practical manipulation. writer. And I am still hoping some day But the scholar too often is confined for to catch up to him. his laboratory experience to a more or less It is only natural, then, that I should expert solution of the riddle made by the attempt to gratify this aspiration of mine fluctuating design of black ink smeared on in a quarter where it was first all but too the text book page. extravagantly nurished. Thus the same "Brain trusters" thus come to have a magazine may bear witness, if one con- bad name. Any contractor would rather sults its pages of twenty years ago, to the employ as bricklayer a man who had laid tenacity with which the budding literary bricks than the most scholarly student genius continues to bud and to the unsus- who had merely studied how bricks should pected vitality of the germ of greatness in be laid. Too often a diploma bears written imaginations not too hostile to its growth. between its lines, "This chap knows only I would that now I dared venture into how to study." Thus it is a liability to one the intricate fields of knowledge that then seeking employment. For strange as it seemed well charted to my inexperienced may seem, practical men of the world are mind. Alas, even the titles of much that for the most part demanding, not men then was written seem inexplicable now, who have learnt how to study, but men even though they were meant to be simple who have studied how to do. and succinct suggestions of what followed Even the man who dedicates himself to them. It is evident, then, that it is with research assumes the responsibility of con- no small degree of trepidation that I pre- structive effort. His task is not merely to sume to write for college men. I dare no make compendiums or collections of what longer boast familiarity with the labyrin- his predessors have learnt. If he follows thine passages of knowledge whose convo- the trail they have cleared, it is only with lutions are so easily recognized by them. the determined purpose of departing from The titles of twenty years ago persuade it somewhere or of following it beyond the me of the extensiveness of their knowledge boundary previously explored. and discourage me from saying the simple It may be accepted at least as an hypo- things that now mark the horizon of my thesis that inventiveness depends on new competence. ideas. Even so scholastic an enterprise as I am wondering whether laboratory ex- trapping two old premises, a major and a [PAGE THREE] DUQUESNE MONTHLY • minor that have never encountered each he is least ignorant of reality, and there- other in the past, produces a new coinci- fore not limited by his ignorance of it. dence that may often be called a conclu- Books are only a report on reality made sion. Though the child of deduction, and by a messenger sent on the way. A man therefore somewhat in disrepute in this who brings only book knowledge to any modern age, it has the advantage of being scene dare not believe that he has any younger than those who hate it, and may background of personal reactions to real- live to see its day of triumph after its ene- ity. Lacking such a background, his mind mies are dead. But a conclusion that has will probably be sterile even in the pres- wandered the highways and byways of the ence of the most startling manifestations schools is chiefly despised because of its of God's creative hand Or if ideas arise decrepitude and infertility. That is hard- within him at all, they will be the com- ly a reverent attitude, it must be con- monplace reactions that surge up within fessed.