“Report Tickets for Chautauqua Selling Rapidly. Children Above Eighth Grade Must Have Adult Tickets. Opening Day June 11” (1 & 10 – AC, IR, and RR) – In its description of the excellent programs ahead, The Swarthmorean noted how Don Manuel Tellez, the Mexican ambassador, “will tell intimate facts about our southern neighbor that few of us have ever heard.”49 With regard to one of the performances, the article beckoned to, “Come and see these queer little folks dance and go through all sorts of queer antics . . . ¶“There will be quite a number of these little people – Mobile Zeke, the colored boy from Alabama; Bull Work, the sailor; Petrouska, the dancer; Mickey, the newsboy, and many others. ¶“Boys and girls, you are sure to have a jolly time at Molarsky’s Marionette show, the last afternoon.”50
“More Visits to Local Gardens Next Week” (1 – GN) “Methodist Church Notes” (1 – RS)
“B. and C. to Meet Next Wednesday Night” (1 – BB and CO)
“New Books at Public Library. Mothers’ Club Donates Nineteen Child Psychology Volumes. Many Borrow Books” (1 – BB and WO)
“Special Musical Service at Methodist Church” (1 – AC and RS) – by the Orphean Male Quartette
“Garden Committee Contributing Flowers” (1 – GN) – for Southwark Neighborhood House Flower Market
“Women See Program of Rhythmic Dances” (1 – AC) – Miss Alice Kraft and six of her pupils
“Wanted: A Playground Daddy” (1 & 4 – BB, CO, and ED) – Front-page editorial praised “Jim” Stewart and Water Craig, two men who, respectively, promoted playgrounds in Lansdowne and Chester, arguing that Swarthmore needed its own “playground daddy”, while adding that a “woman might qualify very well for this job.” The Home and School Association sent out a questionnaire about whether school funds could be used for a summer playground. “If the questionnaire shows that there are not enough children in Swarthmore to use the playground during July and August, then certainly it should not be established. On the other hand if there is a demand for the playground, a few hundred or even a thousand dollars is not an exorbitant amount for the School Board to spend for the first year.”
“Commencement at College Monday. Class Day Today, Alumni Program Scheduled for Tomorrow. Expect Many Present” (1 & 10 – SC)
“‘Twelfth Night’ Is Commencement Play” (1 – AC, SC, and SN) – James Michener was to play Duke Orsino.
“More Signers for Crossing Petition. Will Be Presented to Borough Council Next Week. Crash Victims Improve” (1 – AD, BB and CV) – The Borough Council received a petition with nearly 500 signatures about “added protection for the grade crossing at Swarthmore avenue.”
“School Board Will Again Be Petitioned to Establish Playground This Summer. Committee from Home and School Association Leads Movement. Vacation Bible School Committee Interested. Seek to Learn Attitude of the Public by Means of Questionaire” (1 & 10 – BB, CE, CV, and RS)
“Appointed to West Point” (1 – SN and VM) – Robert Hulburt Douglas of “Beechbrook” at Swarthmore Avenue and North Chester Road, a graduate of Swarthmore High School and sophomore at Swarthmore College, was heading to the United States Military Academy in July.
“Social and Personal” (2 – SL)
Photo: “There’s a Place for You under the Big Chautauqua Tent” with caption “View of the Chautauqua Tent on the Prep School grounds as it looked last year. The Chautauqua program opens this year on June 11. Inset, Dr. Paul M. Pearson, head of the Swarthmore Chautauqua.” (3 – AC)
“‘Our Town’ Topic of Women Voters. School Board and Other Organization Heads Address Meeting. Many Men in Attendance” (3 – WO) – “The meeting adopted a resolution endorsing the efforts of a committee of citizens to secure a program of superintended play, using the school grounds as a public playground, during the coming summer months.”
“Woman’s Club Notes” (3 – DC and WO) – Meeting of County Federation of Women’s Clubs
“Girl Scout Notes” (3 – KO) “Correspondence”
(4 – AD, BB, and CV) – letter from Mrs. J. V. Bishop on how ten days and nights have
passed and still “not the slightest precaution has been taken to safeguard human life [at the Swarthmore Avenue train crossing]. No bell, no light, an empty signal station during the hours of the night. A small building on one side, an impenetrable hedge on the other, make this spot in very truth, a death trap.”
“Church News” (4 – RS)
“Is Once a Month Too Seldom?” (5 – ED and MO) – a plea for how badly Swarthmore, whose Business and Civic Association only met once a month, needed an equivalent to all the women’s social organizations, e.g., a Business Men’s Luncheon Club of Swarthmore
“News of Swarthmore Presbyterian Church” (5 – EA, IR, RS, and WO) – Its “woman’s Association” was organizing “an elaborate strawberry festival”. Mrs. J. V. S. Bishop was in charge. The church was also receiving a “freewill offering for its foreign missionary pastor Rev. Dr. Hayes.” A public reception for Hayes and his wife was in honor of the “distinguished services which they have rendered in China.”
“Mary Lyon Girls in ‘Hans and Gretel'” (5 – CE)
“Reappoint Rev. Brown to A. M. E. Church” (5 – RR and RS) – signed by Helen Rae Hollaway
“Women Voters to Attend State Meet” (6 – DC and WO) – meeting of the League of Women Voters from five eastern Pennsylvania counties in Bryn Mawr “at the [estate] of Mrs. George Vaux, Jr., ‘The Thicket'”
“Woman’s Club Members Visit Scott Gardens” (6 – GN and WO) – Mrs. Irwin E. Scott of Elm Avenue, “whose garden is especially lovely now with early roses and peonies”, welcomed Woman’s Club members.
“40 and 8 to Hold Show at 69th Street” (6 – DC and VM) – American Legion gala planned for June 7th and 8th
“Annual Memorial Day Exercises” (6 – BB and VM)
“Health Center Needs Old White Muslin” (6 – BB and PH) – for the Visiting Nurses in the Community Health Center in Borough Hall
“Hedgrow [sic] Opens Full Summer Program” (6 – AC) – comedies for four out of the next five nights
“Local Girl Scouts Collecting Flowers” (6 – GN and KO) – for the Art Alliance of Philadelphia’s “Daisy Day” on June 1st
“Ex-Superintendents Will Serve at Chautauqua” (7 – BB and CW) – “to make as much money as possible for the Library Association”
“Sam Drayman Opens New Shoe Store” (7 – SE) – This item asserted that “[h]is windows are attractive and his new store [on Park Avenue] should be a distinct asset to the business district.”
“Swarthmore Prep by Mark Wilcox” (7 – SS) – track, baseball, and graduation featuring speaker Dr. William W. Comfort, president of Haverford College
“Boy Scout News” (7 – KO)
“Mrs. Jaquette Re-elected” (7 – CW and DC) – “Mrs. William A. Jaquette, was re- elected president of the Delaware County Welfare Council”.
“Gas Company to Lay New Main” (7 – DC) – along Middletown Road with connections at the Elwyn Training School
“News Notes” (8 & 9 – SL)
“Classified” (8)
“Pre-Kindergarten School Closes Successful Year” (9 – CE) – Mrs. Robert E. Sharples, who directed the school with Miss Arleen Snyder during the past year, was going to conduct the next year’s school. “The location has not yet been definitely determined.”
“Correspondence”
(10 – BB) – letter from Arthur J. Jones in favor of a summer playground, with his assurance as a member of the general committee of the Vacation Bible School, that there would be conflict between his organization’s and the public’s needs
NOTES:
49 Tellez (1885-1937) served as Mexico’s ambassador to the United States from 1925-1931. His next post was as Secretary of the Interior (1931-1932), followed by Secretary of Foreign Affairs (1932-1934).
50 Although it is not clear from the sequencing, it appears that these “queer little folks” were part of Molarsky’s Marionette show. According to his obituary accessed in August 2020 on sfgate.com, Osmond Molarsky (1909-2009) was the son of Abram Molarsky, a Russian-Jewish immigrant, and Sarah Ann Shreve, “who traced her lineage to Rhode Island in 1640.” Osmond, who started his marionette show in high school, was James Michener’s roommate at Swarthmore.