“Friends in Chester. The Pennsylvania Military College Merits Recognition in Its Field; Its Proximity Is Another Advantage to Swarthmore” by The Editor (1 & 10 – ED, SL, and SS) – Sharples recommended incorporating the property of the P.M.C. into the borough, and extolled the teaching, comparing it to the college’s Honors Courses. He also mentioned its “top-notch horsemanship” and polo team.
Photo courtesy of H. F. Glover: “How Does Your Garden Grow?” (1 – GN and SL) with caption “Every Tree and every Shrub planted adds to Swarthmore’s beauty. Your Home will be worth more to you and to other people if there are Trees and Shrubs around it.”
“Annual Meeting of Woman’s Club. Mrs. Jesse H. Holmes Reelected to Serve Another Year; Many Reelections. Committee Heads Report” (1 – IR and WO) – announcement of new officers and of a “program of Russian and Polish folk dances, tales, and songs” from Mr. and Mrs Harry Garland Timbres
“Council Passes ‘Clean-up’ Law. Hear Petition of Ridley Township Residents for Admission to Borough. Disuss [sic] Traffic Problems” (1 & 10 – BB and RE) – “The new Clean-up Ordinance, which provides that vacant lots be kept in good condition, and gives the borough authority to clean-up and cut the grass on private property at the expense of the owner” was passed by the Borough Council. There was also discussion of where to place a public dump, with property owners petitioning the Council not to use Harvard Avenue east of Yale. A preferred site was “an abandoned quarry along the Crum Creek road below the Strath Haven Inn”. Ridley Township residents petitioned for an extension of the borough line into the properties of around 60 lots “between Michigan Avenue and Borough Line and between Vassar avenue and Haverford Place.”
“Timely Words Concerning Swarthmore Real Estate. Danger of Altering Community’s Character under Methods of ‘High Pressure’ Salesmanship” by A Neighbor (1 – BR, BX, IR, RE, RR, and SL) – “Every time a piece of property is sold it marks the advent of a new neighbor, whose character is a matter of interest to the whole community.” The “Neighbor” praised the borough, known as ‘A democracy of brains and breeding’, warning that “there is no telling whether one’s new next-door neighbor will be a bootlegger, an alien, or a spuabbling [sic] family with a loud radio.” The “Neighbor” added that “[t]here is nothing snobbish about this suggestion. Most of our best people are not rich. Nor are there any strict social lines to be conserved.” But there were “standards to be conserved – standards of integrity, law-abidingness, quiet Americanism, love for the fine things in life, and a sincere spirit of neighborliness and common good will.” What was needed was a Swarthmore Real Estate Board as a “functioning clearing house for all dealers in real estate.”17
“An Appreciation” by S. E. Simmonds (1 – AD) – tribute to the late Joseph E. Mickle “Social and Personal” (2 – SL)
Ad for Johnson’s Walk-Over Boot Shop in Chester: “Boy’s Oxfords. ‘Man-Eating Sharkskin'” (2 – QA)
“News Notes” (3 – IR and SL) – The first item mentioned how Mrs. Arthur Edwin Bye, of Harvard and Strath Haven avenues was “entertaining indefinitely” the Madame Olga Mordvinoff. “How a talent for portraiture, indulged as an accomplishment by a lady of high degree in Russian Court circles, became at last the means of emancipating her and her family from dire want, is the romantic history behind” Mordvinoff’s art.
“Katherine Lee Bates” (4 – AD and SN) – The item called the late Miss Bates, a Wellesley alumna and “close personal friend of Mrs. John Ellery Tuttle, of Harvard avenue,” as well as author of “America the Beautiful,” “one of the best known and most beloved poets of America.” The Swarthmorean printed the poem in its entirety.
“Church News” (4 – RS)
“School News Of The Week – College, High, Prep, Mary Lyon, P. M. C.” (5) – page heading
“Netmen Preparing to Meet Temple at Home” (5 – SS) – tennis matches “Prep School News by Mark Wilcox Jr.” (5 – SS) – baseball schedule
“Variety and Frosh Debaters to Clash” (5 – SC) – The Swarthmore College team was set to debate Haverford College team on ‘Resolved: that fraternities should be abolished in American colleges of less than one thousand students’. Among the two teams of two students each was one woman, Gwendolyn Norton (’30).
“College Campus Comment” (5 & 6 – HA and SC) – humorous piece on how spring fever was affecting students and professors alike. The author noted that spring, “most of all [was] when sober minded students begin to think of the coming summer and spend all their spare time learning speeches to be presented to a hundred housewives who have no earthly desire to subscribe to a magazine.”
Ad for Chesterfield cigarettes by Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co.: “‘Not too modern, please!’ (5 – BS and QA) – Drawing of a distinguished-looking white man looking shocked at the chair he was about to sit in, with the caption “Imagine the governor18 all set for a solid evening of comfort in his cozy old library – and finding that the women folks had ‘modernized’ it with triangular sofas, conical armchairs, and July 4th rugs!”
“Russian Vocal Music to Be Presented Here” (6 – IR and SC) – Kedroff Quartet directed by N. N. Kedroff, “baritone, and former professor in the Imperial Conservatory of Petrograd”
“‘Pickles’ to Be Given April 18-19. Combined Glee Clubs of High School to Give Operetta. Story of ‘Old Vienna'” (7 – AC, IR, RR, and SC) – The performers “offer absolutely no trouble on your part, a comfortable reserved seat, gay carnivals in the real Vienna atmosphere, wicked gypsies, good dancing, better music, and the best operetta ever put before the public. Yes, you may get all the inside information on real gypsies.”
“Fire Department Called to McKinnie Home” (7 – FE)
“Frederick Libby to Speak Here April 21” (7 – AE, QS, and SC) – Executive Secretary of the National Council for the Prevention of War, Libby was going “to give the facts regarding our growing Military Establishment, which has increased in size and political influence since the ‘War to end War.'”
“Big Spring Meeting of B. and C. Assn.” (8 – CO, RP, and UT) – Colonel Samuel P. Wetherill of the Regional Planning Federation and Albert P. Granger, vice-president of the Delaware County Electric Company, were scheduled to speak.
“Home and School Holds April Meeting” (8 – CE) – Joseph H. Noonan spoke on “Modernism in Education.”
“Girl Scout News” (8 – BS and KO) – New badge requirements were adopted for “Child Nurse, Cook, Dressmaker, Health Winner, Home Nurse, Laundress, Needlewoman, Pathfinder and Pioneer.”
“Boy Scout Notes” (8 – KO)
“‘Be Kind to Animals’ Sunday, April 14” (8 – AP and DC) – ‘Humane Sunday’ was scheduled for April 14, and April 15-20 was to be ‘Be kind to animals week’.
“Joseph E. Mickle” (8 – AD)
“Classified” (9 – BR and RR) – under “Work Wanted”: “COLORED BOY 14 years old wants work. Call Sw. 888.”19
Inset: “Benefit Performance for College Alumni Scholarship Fund” (9 – AC, CW, and SC) – April 22 and 23 performances of “Houseboat on the Styx”20 at the Erlanger Theatre in Philadelphia
“Sheriff Sales” (9 – RE) “Estate Notices” (9)
“Ordinance No. 303” (9 – BB) – prohibited “the accumulation of rubbish, noxious vegetation, and other objectionable accumulations . . . on private or public property”
“Swarthmore College in Notable Concert” (10 – AC and SC) – tribute to director Alfred J. Swan
NOTES:
17 Although nothing was made explicit about screening out people of color, it is likely that such discrimination would have been basic to the board’s mandate.
18 Underlining and italics in original
19 This ad also appeared in the April 19th, April 26th, May 3rd, and May 10th issues.
20 This play, written by Kenneth Webb and John E. Hazzard, was performed at Broadway’s Liberty Theatre from December 25, 1928 through March 23, 1929.