 

GRINNELL COLLEGE
Gtinnell, Iowa
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The incident which occurred at

Jun Hatﬁeld

George buck

, . .Ylulll Bolimnn
anc brown. Sum Giossmsn

, Lo Colodnoy. Jim Elmoz
Susnn D. Roberts

oker. ClgmwnR snhs

n um. Hunt, Gem ine oonsy
B “7 Peter M. Miller
i-isrlnr.

Turner

~ Terrier

Levine

rounos

sight

the Three Elms Cafe

last week was an unfortunate happening in itself, and the

disproportionate publicity

fortunate. We only hope

least, a bit of wisdom.
The editor

of this paper

which resulted is even more un—
everyone involved has gained, at

has learned just how unfair

a headline can appear after the ink drys.

The Des Moines Register ~
with the story must certainly have

more than news value is to be re-

supplied his employer
learned that something
spected.

The members of the Grinnell Student
realize that their immediate cry for
n the best way

' ociation must

a boycott might not have bee

situation.
The operator

correspondent who so swiftly

Government As-

to handle the

of the Elms must certainly know now

that a lot of people consider his actions to have been moral-

ly wrong.
We can only hope

that after the resentment and the

anger and the embarrassment die away —— that a little

wisdom remains.

——

BY KEN SCHIFF -———"—

convolvulus

I was in the Union Sunday
at about noon having a cup of
coffee, when Terry Bisson walks
ed in wilh a friend of his, who
was just passing through, a
man by the name of Ulysses S.
Weaver. He drives a l933 Cros—
ley station wagon and travels
around the country buying epi-
grams and feature articles for
Boy’s Life.

When I met him, he had just
made it from NYC to Grinnell
in 15 hours by driving very
fast. It’s easy to describe him.
He’s short and ugly and was
wearing to white golf cap and
a print shirt which made it look
like palm trces were growing
out of his belt. The two of us
were introduced and ‘he handed
me ”his card,” which had print-
ed. in the right hand corner:
“Hi, neighbor! It’s a wonderful
world.”

We sat and talked for awhile,
but he didn’t strike me as be-
ing particularly intelligent. I
tried to impress him by ShoWr
ing how much‘ I know about
modern poetry and Kenneth
Koch. 1 said. “The scepter of
the Kingdom of Poetry is held
by the deaf, the dumb, the
blind and the creepy. There
are too many slimy people con—
nected with poetry. i am not
recommending that poets like
each other and organize to ﬁght
them but simply that lightning
should strike them.”

But Mr. chver didn’t have
enough formal schooling to iully
appreciate what I was saying.
no apologized very eloquently,
though: “Poetry’s good, i guess.
But I haven’t lime to read
much and i haven’t much taste.
Mostly I just like beautiful
things.

Seeing that we didn't have
anything in common, I turned
the convcrsation away from

that subject. It wasn't very
long, though belorc Mr. Wee-
vcr asked us to show him
whcrc the ncarcst supcrmnrkct
was so he could buy some
groceries for the rest of his
trip. 1 objected to going near
one of “those electronic shrub
Vals," but I ﬁnally went any—
way.

As it turned out, iv . Weevel‘
didn’t want to buy tings as
much as he just wanted to look.
He walked around Mciinliy's as

though in a trance, pointing out
how beautiful everything was.
I had come with him to insult
him on his taste but ended by
following him up and down the
aisles reading titles on soup
cans and dog biscuit boxes and
studying their designs.

We spent most of the day in
McNally's wandering through a
ncw land. 1 was going to object
to Mr. chvcr taking Gold
Bond stamps until he explained
that he was saving them so he
could get a clock radio for an
orhanage in Greenville, lnd.

Later, he told us that we'd
been so nice to him that he
wanted to take us for a “spin"
in his car. On our way back to
the college to get his car, a
freight train was passing.

“Look,” Mr. \Veever said. He
was pointing and jumping
around very excitedly, I looked,
but all I could see was s train.
“Look at that! Look st it! It’s
a trainl" he yelled.

We got in the ear and tried
to race the train, but of
coursc on old '33 Crosley sta»
tlon wagon can‘t go very fast
and we lost. So we drove out
to a development on the out-
skirts of town and looked
around.

“Isn‘t it horrible,” I said.
“One house just like another.
Row on row of sameness. How
vulgar! Another Levittown.”

But Mr. chvsr hadn’t heard
me. He was Very excited and
said, ”Isn’t it wonderful how
everyone can have his own
home to live in? Maybe some-
day everyone’ll even be able to
have his own diﬁcrcnt kind of
home and have it look the Way
he wants."

thu wc got back it was late,
so we went to the Union to eat.
Mr. Weever kept laughing, be-
cnusc ho was happy. But he
his a stupidsoundmg laugh and
the other people in thc Union
looked at him ji-fitnbly. i be-
camc couccrnod for Mr. Wocvcr,
but he sold, ”It’s all ht. 1
know i don’t lisvc a very nice
laugh, Maybe i should stop”

Latc Sunday night, Mr. chV
vcr suitl ho had to gct uudcr—
way for Idaho and as he clot.
tcrcd away in his old Crosicy,
everyone who had met him that
day threw roses and candy-
hecrts after him.

SCARLET AND BLACK

Metaphysics of boo/mapping,

Friday. March 23. I926

'Elms' story are letter topics -

To the Editor:

Thank you for publishing Pctc
Miller's article’ concerning the
case of the missing books. Hardr
ly a week goes by without my
looking over at our latest set of
the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
The missing volumes are 8, 13,
14. 18, 22, that is, EDWA to
EXTRACT, JEREZ to LlBE.
mm to MARY, PLANTS to
RAYM, TEXTILE to VASC.

It's very inconvenient not to
have those volumes, and 1 keep
hoping they will “turn up."
(Sure. Mac, just put them in
my mail box, or leave them, with
other library books still with the
call cards on the Union junk
table),

But what happened to them?
If we knew the cause, we might
prescribe a cure.

Perhaps Volume 3 was taken
because Mr. E. was using an
article in writing a paper. He
was late in his work, the libs
rary was closing, and that pap-
er had to be in the next mor-
ning. So he tucked the book
under his arm and took it to
Lawson Hall. He got his paper
in; but could he take the E. B.
volume back? It was “hot.” So
he ditched it, wrapped in last
Sunday’s Times. Little did he
know that our librarians do
make exceptions to the rules.
Sometimes reference books are
loaned. But he wasn't taking the
risk of not having that article.
is there a cure, if this is the
cause? _

Perhaps Volume 13 was taken
because Miss T. resented the in-
creased tuition. She wanted to
get back at the college for tak-
ing her money in running a
country»club in addition to a cola
legs. She had her little revenge,
and got a $100 worth of satis-
faction out of tearing up that
volume. is there a cure, if this
is the cause?

Perhaps Volume 14 had an
article in it recommended by
Professor P, Now Mr. F. had
not been doing the kind of work
that Professor P. loved in an
A‘ish sort of way. Mr. F. knows
a number of students in F001-
osophy cw who do less work,
put in less time, and really
laugh at Professor P. for liking
their papers so well. They have
figured out what tickles him,
and they tickle him. Mr. F, is
frustrated, He's going to help
out those not favored by Pro-
Profcssor P. How does the urn
derdog sct things right? He sends
Volumc l4 to the dump. Build-
ings and Grounds soon has the
EB. 14 with old red books and
while the leaves char around the
edges. and swell like an accord-
iarl, the professor and his pap»
cupclishers arc in a slow burn
too, “Who could have done such
a thing? The stinker!" “Well,”
thinks Mr. E, “they’re so smart.
aren’t they? Not smart enough
to catch me or go to the dump
for EB. 14.”

Perhaps Volume 15 was put
in Miss Exs book bag as a trick.
Miss E. never had even taken
out a book, absentrminded, pro-
fessor-like; not Miss E! She
was always responsible. Just so
much of that, and it doesn’t
have to be even uttcrcd in
monosyllables, let alone morsb
istic precept or First Principles
of All Good Boys and Girls, and
things happen to people like
that Miss E, found herself in
Harding Cottsgc with EB. 18.
How did it get there? She’d take
no nonsense. She promptly put
it in her l'oommatc’s wasllrbag."
Book in my bag: book in ller

bog" Rcciprocily, Justice, satis-
faction, righteousness. And EB,
18? Oh. yes, it was a soddcn
mess. And all l'oomy’s things,
coventhings, undonthings, so

the
done,

red from washing with
Britannica. Justice was
wasn’t it?

Perhaps Volume 22 was need-
ed for a report, and Mr. TT.
had a horde of books. He‘dlSr
covered that if you want books
for yourself, you put them behind
the Congressional Records. Those
books are the dustiest, because
no one reads them. Just hide
the books behind a few octavo
volumes. There they sit. Rarely
are they nppnrcnt, The profes-
sor was swamped with papers.
and cancelled the project that
made an article from 22 relev-
ant. And there 22 remains,
dustier and dustier. remaining
until some diggcry inquirer finds
it behind his sources on house
Bill 39462X.

What do i suggest as a cure?

1, A duplicating method,
such as Apeco, Xerox, Veriiax,
available, as in many libraries,
at cost —— usually 10¢: a page,
as at SUI and Northwestern.

2. Some ways, as these
pages, for getting rid of re-
sentments without the synr
bolic vandalism oi spoiling
books,

3. Better preparation of Stu»
dents, and wider use of many
sources by prvfessors,‘so that
nobody fools frustrated, and
everynne is contributing some
thing unique to every course.

4. Humor, that is, humorous
enough to know when inn‘s
fun, and where to stop .

5. it you do take a boo to
your study desk, your caneu,
than let there be I way ‘0 let
the others kmrw where your
horde is.

A person to check books by
a turnstile is not a device to be
encouraged, It would cost thou-
sands of dollars a you, enough
in a year to make any depart-
ment’s holdings altogether stun»
ning. And who can't beat the
game, if he is challenged by it,
and resents being suspected?

1 want to understand the sil-
nation ﬁrst. How close do my
ﬁve theories come to covering

the kinds of motivation? Am I
at least right in holding that,
as in most areas of philosophy,
no one theory is adequate?
Sui-c, Mac, if you know where
volumes 8, 13, H, 18 and 22 are;
really arcewonlt you tell me? I’ll
areiwon’t you tell me? rll
really get them. And, by the
way, I rulcd tut stealing books
for sole, becausc 5 volumes out
of 24 aren’t worth the paper
they’re printed on. And i know
another theory that's not fit to
print,
Paul G. Kuntz

To the Editor:

This letter is directcd not at
the writer of the lead story in
last wcck's 5&3 which told
told about the moral injustice
done to s Negro student, but is
directed toward the paper's edi-
tor, upon whom must rest the
responsibility for such stories.

The headline to the story read:
“Halama asks boycott of local
raceAbiased cafe.”

Even though many of us be-
lieve that The Three Elms did
show racial bias in the incident
involved, this is opinion and not
fact. The use of “race-biased” in
this headline is unobjcctive and
borders on libel, because there
is no legal proof and little non-
legal proof that the Elms was .
or is racerbiased, even if the
term itself can be deﬁned satis-
fsctorily,

Those familiar with my View 3
about racial prejudice know that
1 am not merely infuriated by
it but am interested in doing all
1 can to eliminate it. The most
effective way for a reponcr to .
combat discrimination is to re-
port examples of it objectively,
since a pro-integration report
alienntcs that part of the read-
ership which most needs to he '
reached.

Many of us felt last week's
5&3 editorial about the Elms
aﬂair was quite convincing. We
regret that the editor did not
think it was and so allowed his
news columns to buttress the
editorial.

Pat Huber .

Critic considers. discusses 0ndine.
Says fantasy ‘magnificenily done'

by Gary Thurston

If ”Dndine" is surrealistic,
then a production of it should
be judged on its communication
of moods to the audience. But
the subjectivism of a lone rc—
viewer is uncongcnial to such a
democratic mode of valuation.

A highly complex play tech-
nically, its technical problems
were so handled as to be sel-
dom evident. The same applies
to the leads’ performances. What-
ever Roberta Mahnke and Jack
Chapman lacked in polish and
experience was forgotten as they
sensitively unravolcd the impli-
cations of the sad dichotomy of
male and female.

“Onliine” wns magnificently
done. It was impossiblc to
doubt the pure nnd innoocnt
creature, Always in command
of the part, always Undine,
Miss Mohnkc built the moods,
in, this play where nothing
huppcns, to point to hcr inst
crushing line: “What a pity . . .
how I could have loved him."
Chapman conveyed a fine
scnsc on his part At his best in
tcndcr moments with Olldine, he
might have heightened his con.
trast to llcr in his other senses
Outline came first, but Hans was
not so far lacllilldrzlnd that was
as it should have bccn.

The ugliest blemish on the
Grinnell production com with

net. It ccmcd as if the play-
thc beginning of the second -
crs “at rise" were thinking:

“The costumes are so fleshy

and the set so impressive that

any concentration on my part .
would be imperiinent." The

one exception was Ray obst-

feld, whose mental effort was

intense. He reminded one of a

self-conscious Milton Berle. A

rubber crutch tip for his staff

would probably have been the

only device capable of improv-

ing an otherwise hopeless case.

The weaknessrosulted in a .
shnbby job of framing for

some important scenes.’

The nctors‘ teamwork was the
most impressive part of the ’di—.
rection. Barbara Hansen, Joe
Stiffler and Mike Burr all did
excellent supporting work. Co.
hon’s fisherman was an unus<
ually good bit, and the difficullc
trial scene was, on the whole,
nicely carried off.

The most surprising thing
about the performance was the.
fact that it Wasn’t morc ecstatic»
nlly rccclvcd. To a predominant-
ly male audience. “Olldlne
seemed intellectually uncxciting
its clcductivc import wss no.4
great enough. What Olldine said
lo the vcry small female con-
tingent in attendance, it already
knew, but had forgotten. rev;
pcoplc here were cnthrallcd by

the subject of the poem.

 

