The Haverfordian, Vols. 54-55, Nov. 1934-June 1936
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STACK THE LIBRARY OF HAVERFORD COLLEGE THE GIFT OF M 0.>J^ ^ gl't Accession No. S^ \ b^ (d^ v'ERFORC^ llaberfottrtan i^otjemtjer 1934 — THE HAVERFORDIAN MEHL & LATTA, Inc. WARNER'S Lumber, Coal and for better Building Material Rainey-Wood Ply Wood Soda Service Koppers Coke Wall Board and Celotex ROSEMONT, PA. Opposite R. R. Station Telephone Bryn Mawr 1300, 1301 OTTO FUCHS SALE OR RENTAL Costumes Make-up Wigs Library and Law Books for Plays and Pageants a Specialty OLD BOOKS REBOUND Established 1882 VAN HORN & SON ^416 N. 15TH STREET THEATRICAL COSTUMES Baldwin 4120 12th and Chestnut Sts., Philadelphia The Nearest and the Best E. S. McCAWLEY, Inc. THE Haverford, Pa. COLLEGE BARBER This shop is haunted by the ghosts Of all great Literature, in hosts; SHOP We sell no fakes or trashes FoRTUNATo Russo, Prop. Lovers of books are welcome here, No clerks will babble in your ear. Haircut, 35c Please smoke—but don't drop ashes. Penn St. and Lancaster Ave. "HAUNTED BOOK SHOP"— Bryn Mawr, Pa. Christopher Morley JOHN TRONCELLITI Expert Hair Cutting SPECIAL AHENTION TO HAVERFORD MEN Ardmore Arcade Phone, Ardmore 593 THE HAVERFORDIAN tSTABllSHKO !••• j:: LOTH INC) ^-*3V MADISON AVENUE COR. rONTY-FOURTH STRBCII NEW VORK Wearing Quality The unusual wearing quality of Brooks Brothers' ready-made suits and overcoats comes from three sources. First, the materials are care- O Brnki Brolh*T« fully selected. Second, the cutting and making "Touch?" are done in our own workrooms. And third, we design styles to survive the passing fads of ex- treme clothing, styles and materials to wear with lasting satisfaction, and not just for a season. Ready-made suits $55 to $S5 BRANCHES NEW VORKl ONE WALL STACCT BOSTONi NIWBVRT COR. BERHCICY STRICT Established 29 Years Pennies HAVERFORD PHARMACY GOOD DRUGS for Pleasure Best of Service To Havcrford Men It takes very little money to get a great deal of enjoyment at a soda- fountain. A few pennies, invested Phone, Ardmore 122 in ice cream, provide delicious re- freshment and nourishment. Let yourself be tempted. Enjoy ice cream more often. It's good for "ASK THE MAN WHO COMES HERE" you ... as well as delicious. Go to the fountain that displays the famous Established 25 Years Supplee sign. That's your guide to real|^ A. VASSALLO goodness and plea- BARBER 118 West Lancaster Avenue ARDMORE, PENNA. Ice Cream Ardmore 3353 BACKED BT A CENTUKY OF CONFIDENCE CONTENT Frontispiece donald w. brous Eumenides of Book Collecting Christopher morley 5 Judith Sends Her Love j. Wallace van cleave 8 Ode a Cassandre 12 A Marianne rene blanc'ROOS 13 The Girl from Trenton james d. hoover 14 Coincidence james e. truex 17 Editorial 19 Three Poems james d. hoover 20 Two Poems rene blanc'ROOs 22 American Song : A Melting Pot rene blanc'ROOS 23 Books 28 Drama 31 Cinema 32 THE HAVERFORDIAN Vol. LIV HAVERFORD, PA., NOVEMBER, 1934 No. 1 The Haverfordian is published monthly during the college year. Its purpose is to foster a literary spirit among the undergraduates. To that end contributions are invited. Material should be submitted to the Editor before the fifth of the month preceding publication. Entered as second'class matter March 19, 1921, at the post office at Haverford, Perm' sylvania, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized April 11, 1921. Rene Blanc'Roos, Editor James E. Truex, Managing Editor Associate Editors John A. Church, III John Christopher J. Wallace Van Cleave James D. Hoover Review Editor Richard E. Griffith Grijfon Rowland G. Skinner Art Editor Associate Art Editor D. Dennis Dunn Donald W. Brous Business Manager Samuel S. McNeary Advertising Manager Robert H. Krieble HOTSON vs. SHAKESPEARE li^ (oS'V Gumenides of Booh Collecting By CHRISTOPHER MORLEY SOMETIMES Tm almost sorry that the Caliph Newton called his famous book The Amenities. It has added to the pious and wrong' headed notion that book-collecting is just a pleasant sentimental pas' time carried on by a lot of wealthy and warm-hearted aficionados. This mis' conception reminds one of the shallow legend that grew up for so many years about the name of Charles Lamb, considering that pain-haunted soul as just a gentle blatherer. There are amenities, of course, in book-collecting; but acerbities also. Perhaps the gods of the true collector are eumenides; we call them by a gracious name to placate their cruel character. For the collector in whom I am interested is not just the dilettante of title-pages and states, edi- tions and errata. He collects books that make him think—loathsome and un- willing preoccupation. It seems almost a pity, also, to write about the true passion of book' love; it would be unseemly if that became fashionable which should proceed from private vital instinct. But I cannot resist a word of applause in honor of the Pearsall Smith Prize, named for one of the most agreeable misanthropolo- gists of our time and certainly one of the most delicate nerve-systems of liter' ary appreciation with which the name of Haverford has been connected. To quote Pearsall Smith's own favorite John Donne, we may say of Smith him' self as Donne said of the Holy Ghost, "he is an eloquent Author, but yet not luxuriant; he is far from a penurious, but as far from a superfluous style too." But this is not an essay on the quiddities of Pearsall Smith, In His Humor. It is a few remarks by request, on the pleasure and value of begin' ning young as a book collector. I've never forgotten the good advice F. B. Gummere gave us at the beginning of our freshman year, twenty-eight years ago this autumn. "Find your way to Leary's," he said; and even on the thick ears of the class of 1910 that suggestion had its penetrating power. You are luckier now than we were then; you don't even have to go as far as Leary's (though still worth going to) for Mr. McCawley, a true paramour of print, is close by. I'm even hoping that some day he'll add an annex of second-hand books so that we may have our own Paul's Churchyard and : THE HAVERFORDIAN Paternoster Row. In my time there was a reprehended haunt of erring spirits, the Red Lion in Ardmore; since, I beHeve, amalgamated into the Autocar factory. How much better intoxicant does a bookstore offer. "Sweet God," cried Cobden Sanderson, "souse me in literature." It is the ebriety without crastine grief. As I understand it the Pearsall Smith Prize offers no premium for rich bindings, rare editions or any Persian apparatus of collecting. It is to be awarded for evidence of genuine personal taste, ingenuity of search, or perhaps completeness of purview in any particular field. It is to encourage what is one of the most subtle and enduring pleasures of the intelligent man, the habit of owning books—and of discriminating between those desirable to own, those preferably borrowable. I imagine that the winning assortment might be either a general gathering of the books a student thought of as an ideal coUec' tion for college years, or it might be a closely knit referendum upon some special theme—a study of some bibliographic problem, the complete works of some minor favorite, or a tracing out of some consecutive theme through several generations. When I say a "minor favorite" I do so deliberately; some of the most exquisite pleasures of print are to be found in pursuit of the smaller names. In the great autumn forest of literature there are innumer- able leaves; the scrub and underbrush often reward us with the most brilliant colors. In such a competition every entrant has his own sure reward. One or two, by happy chance, may develop the first twinges of that highly specialized sense for books that is so exciting and so rare. You have all had an oppor- tunity to see, in the adventures of Professor Hotson, what thrilling escapades of detective science are possible in the world of print. (See frontispiece !) The book collector, I intimated, has his sombre phases; it is a melan- choly of his own, proud and fantastical. (What a delicious theme for a collection of books would be the idea of Literary Melancholy; and how, at the chance thought, one hankers to turn back to As Tou Li}{e It and read again, instantly and with new clarity of eye, the sullen fits of Jacques; find- ing, as one does ever in Shakespeare, new and astounding immediacies of purport.) And just now, thinking of Pearsall Smith, I reached out for a volume of John Donne—the writer upon whom, though often unconsciously, so many of today's poets have fed their hearts. Opening at hazard I find this Whoe'er thou beest that read'st this sullen writ Which just so much courts thee, as thou dost it . The point is worth note. The great books, the deep thoughts of great men, grant us no more than the effort we make. Literature is no easy emulsion. EUMENIDES OF BOOK COLLECTING It requires, and opens itself only upon evidence of, the most brilliant and practised attention. The extenuated subtleties of its skill are incomparably diverse. If we knew precisely why a skilful writer uses one word rather than another (and he always does) we would know much more about the history of literature. So the man who collects books not merely for the sentimental accident of edition, but for the quality of thought they bring him, has something more than amenity to consider.