“Three Novels a Year. Swarthmore Woman Writing Three Complete Books Each Year – Publishers Reprinting One-Half Million Copies of Most Popular Works. An Interview with Grace Livingston Hill, One of Swarthmore’s Most Widely Read Authors” (1 – RS and SN) – “Along with her literary work, Mrs. Hill is greatly interested in religious work and frequently provides her home as a meeting place for the discussion of religious subjects. She has been one of the most active in establishing the mission at the Italian settlement at Avondale.”
Photo courtesy of Michell’s Seeds: “‘Planting, Planting, and More Planting'” with caption “What a difference a little careful planning and planting can make in the appearance of any home.” (1 – SL)
“Field Fires Keep Engines on Run. Chief Asks More Care in Turning in Field Fire Alarms. Membership Drive Soon” (1 & 10 – BB and FE) – There were 11 alarms in a four-day period, most of them not serious enough to warrant a response from the entire fire department. “Most of the field fires were located in the southern section of the Borough along Chester road. Sunday night there were two alarms to fight a large field blaze on the west side of Chester road below Fairview avenue.”
Inset: “Announcement” (1 – TS) – on adding social news of Delaware County and increasing circulation. The item also asked readers to tell “our advertisers that you read The Swarthmorean each week and have noticed their advertisements”.
“Want Borough Limits Extended. Land Owners of Ridley Township Want Property Taken into Borough. Will Petition Council” (1 – BB and DC) – At Borough Hall, around 20 Ridley Township homeowners with property between Michigan Avenue and “Borough Line” and between Vassar Avenue and Haverford Place asked to become part of Swarthmore, chiefly for their children to attend the schools without paying fees.
“Borough Council in Quiet Regular Meeting” (1 & 10 – BB)
“The Garden Calls. March Is Month for Planning This Year’s Garden and Planting the Early Shrubs and Flowers – Some Already in Bloom” by Mrs. George Zimmer, Chairman of the Woman’s Club Garden Committee (1 & 10 – GN, SL, and WO) – garden advice
“Social and Personal” (2 – SL)
Ad: “J. A. Nulty, Food Specialist. When Giving a Luncheon-Dinner – or Bridge, a Food Specialist Is Essential” (2 – QA and SL) – J.A. Nulty was located at 6 W. State Street in Media, but the store delivered twice daily to Swarthmore. Its “luncheon suggestions” were “Fresh Chick Broilers – Shad Roe – Alligator Pears – Broklie – Japanese Crosneth – French Artichokes.” For hors d’oeuvres, J.A. Nulty recommended “Anchovies – Russian Caviar – Bloater Paste – Pate-De-Foie-Gras.”
“Shirer’s Drug Store Robbed. Thieves Enter Building Early Thursday Morning – Big Loot. Take Finger Prints” (3 – PI) – “The loss included about $100 in cash, jewelry, fountain pens, etc. valued at more than $500, several articles of clothing, a revolver, cameras, etc.”
“Women’s Bible Class Elects New Officers” (3 – RS and WO) “Funeral Services for Albert Hill” (3 – AD)
“Children’s Story Hour Next Friday Afternoon” (3 – CE) “Monthly Service of Music This Sunday” (3 – AC and RS)
Ad: “Back from the Convention with the Latest Improvements in Beauty Culture” (3 – QA and SL) At the International Convention of Beauty Shop Owners that was held in New York City from March 4-6, Sue D. Alger of “The Vanity Box” at 411 Dartmouth Avenue learned about a new ‘shampoo treatment’ that would “not effect [sic] the setting of the wave” and well as “leave the hair soft, clean and glossy and at the same time dissolve the most severe type of dandruff.”
“Exhibit of Plumbing Fixtures Continues” (3 – SL) – at 16 Park Avenue
“Tidytown” by E. M. Fergusson (4 – LP) – on the “town that is lovely and fair” on whose streets “[r]ubbish never accumulates there…”
“G. O. P. Women Hear of Legislative Bills” (4 – DC, PO, and WO) – roundtable at the Delaware County Women’s Republic Club led by Mrs. J. Osbourne Hopwood on the “Immigration bill now before Congress” and other issues
“Christian Science Churches” (4 – RS)
“Take No Chances Parking in Phila.” (4 – CV and PN) – warning about enforcement of a March 1927 no-parking ordinance
Ad: “Colonic Irrigations” (4 – QA) – Freda A. Kern, R.N. in Media provided these, along with “Tonic and Eliminating Treatments, Electric Light Baths, Baking and Massage, [and] Gall-bladder Drainages.”
“Church News” (4 – RS)
New heading atop page five: “SCHOOL NEWS OF THE WEEK — COLLEGE, HIGH, PREP, MARY LYON, P. M. C.”
“Robert Frost to Speak at College. Famous Poet Here April 22 under Auspices of English Club. Will Read Own Poems” (5 – AC and SC) – Invited by the English Club, Robert Lee Frost, “probably the most prominent contemporary poet in the United States,” was a “worthy addition to the list of men prominent in literary circles secured by the English department during the past few years.”
“Old Packard Destroyed in Auto Show Fire” (5 – CV)
“College Campus Comment” by Will (5 & 6 – BS, SC, and SS) – Snarky descriptions of college athletics and the popularity of chewing tobacco with baseball players, along with a story about how “Wharton Hall was thrown into a near panic when two young ladies, evidently from ‘back home’ appeared on the quad and asked to see a prominent member of Book and Key. When the gentleman in question did not answer the yells of many willing lady-helpers, they determined to solve the matter for themselves and started unassisted up the stairway in C. section. The commotion which accompanied this action was not quieted until the dignified ex-president of Student Government escorted the visitors safely beyond the bachelor limits of Wharton. We are making sure that the male who was so much in demand does not forget the incident.”
Ad for Chesterfield cigarettes: “But who wants a ‘fairly good egg’?” (5 – QA) – A cartoon with a butler, “his Lordship the Bishop,” and a “timid – but always truthful – young curate.”
“P. M. C. Polo Team Ready for Meet. Harvard, Yale, Princeton and P. M. C. Teams to Compete for Honors. Cadets Are Optimistic” (6 – SS)
Photo: “Two Prominent Players on P. M. C. Polo Team” (6 – SS) – Dan Jones and Charles Bower atop horses
“High School Students Visit Industrial Plants” (6 – CE) – The entire senior class and a few other students took a trip to the Abbott Dairy and Ice Cream plant in Philadelphia.
“‘These Mad Mexicans.’ Carleton Beal’s [sic] Topic for Talk on March 19” (6 – AE and IR)
“Club Women to Dine in Phila.” (7 – PN and WO) – This March 16th event at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel was to be hosted by the Philadelphia Chapter of the Soroptimist Club “to bring together women active in the world of business, in civic and social improvement, in science and the arts.” In addition to a lengthy list of speakers, the Women’s Symphony Orchestra of Philadelphia was also due to appear.
“Christmas Seal Sale Sets High New Record” (7 – DC and CW)
“Bill of One Act Plays at College. Curtain Theatre Productions in Collection Hall Attract Many” (7 – AC, RR, and SC) – Among the offerings were: “The Beaded Buckle,” described as “a drama dealing with a southern ladys [sic] conception of honor”; “Speaking to Father” about “a pickle magnate, his wife, who is a feminist, and their daughter, Caroline.”
“Time to Enroll for Bird Study Is Here” (7 – AE)
“Classified” (8 – BC, QA, and RR) – One “Work Wanted” ad read: “White woman wants work by the day. Write or call. Mrs. Katherine Charlesworth, 21 East Seventh Street, Chester, Pa.” Another specified a “Refined, middle aged lady” who would “care for invalid or children by the day or evening.”9
“Sheriff Sales” (8 – RE)
“Mrs. Hale Speaks at Woman’s Club. Deplores Decline in Art of Conversation-Scores Infantile Games. Men Attend Meeting” (9 – WO) – In her talk to the Swarthmore Woman’s Club, Beatrice Forbes Robinson Hale deplored “bridge and other ‘infantile games’, along with “mechincal [sic] devices such as the radio and the phonograph” for the way they “have taken the place of inspiring conversation among members of the family and the entertainment of guests.” Something she called the ‘post matrimonial segregation of the sexes’ was occurring “partly because married people do not know how to converse intelligently consequently [sic] they never get to really know each other and so grow apart.”
“Woman’s Club Notes” (9 – WO)
“League of Voters” (9 – DC, JD, and WO) – Their March 25th meeting would treat ‘The study of juvenile delinquency in Delaware County” in preparation for which some members were “visiting the Juvenile Court and other community institutions that have to do with the taking care of children under care of the court.”
“School Problems Here Discussed. Superintendent of Schools Tells of Cramped Quarters Now Existing. Gym Badly Needed” (9 – CE and CO) – This item began with the following announcement: “Parents planning to enter their children in the Kindergarten next September should enroll them at once in order that the school authorities may provide adequate accommodations in case there is another record- breaking enrollment.” It continued by summarizing Superintendent Dr. Arthur W. Ferguson’s words to the Home and School association on the need to accommodate the increase in the number of students and how the State Department of Education wanted to know why the high school did not provide physical education.
“Engagement Announced” (9 – SN) – of Margaret Boyer Watson to Harry Roberts
“Swarthmore Red Cross Workers at Institute” (9 – SN) – Mrs. Anna M. Brice, Mrs. Thomas Safford, and Mrs. Martin B. Young were attending the Red Cross Institute in Washington, D.C.
“Swarthmore People at Beauty Shop Convention” (9 – SN) – on how Mr. and Mrs. Edward E. Alger of the Vanity Box attended the Sixth International Convention of Beauty Shop Owners at New York City’s Hotel Pennsylvania
“H. and S. Benefit Program Tonight. Expect to Raise $300 for High School Scholarship Fund. Trumpeters to Entertain” (10 – CE and CO) – “For the [past two years the Home and School Association has awarded a scholarship of $300 to a member of the graduating class of the Swarthmore High School”. Previous winners were Jane Michener, now at Swarthmore College, and Marjorie Friend who was a student at Juniata College.
“Swarthmore Methodists Attending Conference” (10 – RS) “Auction of Stamps at Lansdowne Tonight” (10 – DC)
“Better Homes Exposition Week of April First” (10 – DC and RE)
NOTES:
9 Both these ads also appeared in the March 22, 1929 issue of The Swarthmorean.