“Public Playground Definitely Assured – First Meeting on Grade Crossing Elimination – Plan for 4th of July – Tennis Tourney Starts” (1 – BB and SS) – headline
“Meeting Gives New Impetus to Elimination of Grade Crossing. Informal Conference of Parties Interested Highly Successful. Plan Second Meeting within Thirty Days” (1 & 8 – BB, CO, CV, and SC) – Borough Council members met with “representative of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Public Service Commission, the State Highway Department, Swarthmore College, the Swarthmore Business and Civil Association, as well as the three county commissioners and the county solicitor.” All agreed on the need for a “passageway beneath the R. R. tracks rather than a bridge for traffic over the tracks.”
Photo: “Playground Chief of Chester” with caption “Scene at one of Chester’s summer playgrounds. Here the children not only play but learn constructive work. Inset – Walter H. Craig, City Commissioner, who has raised the standard of Chester’s playgrounds since his department took over the work” (1 – BB and DC)
“Seek Tennis Entries for Tournament” (1 – SS)
“Vacation Bible School Opens July 1st” (1 – CE and RS)
“Public Playground Assured by Approval of School Board” (1 – BB, BS, and CE) – The Swarthmore School Board allocated $500 for a playground that “will be open during the afternoons in July, so as not to conflict with the Summer Bible School and during the mornings in August.” It was for children aged six and older, with “showers at the high school building” for boys. A 15-member committee was in the process of interviewing supervisors to “secure a man for the principle position and a girl as assistant.”
“Summer Session to Open July 1st” (1 – CE) “Prepare for Annual July 4th Program” (1 – BB) “Social and Personal” (2 – SL)
“Outboard Motorboating Finds Enthusiasts in Swarthmore” (3 – SN and SS) – Arthur W. Collins of Ogden Avenue came in second in a Torresdale race sponsored by the Outboard Motor Boat Association.
“Elementary Grades Show Improvement” (3 – CE) – “Only eight of the 280 children enrolled in the elementary grades above the kindergarten failed of promotion.”
“Library Now Has over 400 Users” (3 – BB)
“Christian Science Churches” (3 – RS)
“Correspondence”
(4 – CE) – letter from Margaret Paxson on the militarism children were imbibing from Swarthmore’s Memorial Day Services. She found it “deplorable . . . that such services of war propaganda are still held to impress the younger generation . . . War is hell, and why misinform our youth and so train them in a different direction from the trend of the times.”
(4 – BB, CV, and RS) – letter from S. E. Simmonds on how the “tragedy of the Swarthmore crossing and the four who were murdered at Morton recently”53 is attributable to “meaness [sic], selfishness and Godlessness.”
(4 – CE) – letter from T. Harry Brown that praised the High School graduation ceremonies
Item: (4 – DC) – “Swarthmore is represented on a county-wide committee, working for the introduction of the voting machine in Delaware County”.
“Church News” (4 – RS)
“Improvements at College Will Tend to Beautify Campus” (5 – GN and SC) – on the summer construction of the Isaac H. Clothier Memorial Auditorium and the “razing of the [unsightly] servants’ quarters, which are now located to the rear of the men’s gymnasium. . . Sleeping quarters for the help will be constructed in the renovated laundry building.” Toward that end, the college was also getting rid of its on-campus laundry: “Next year the laundry work will be let out to laundry companies.” A $75,000 fund was allocated for the Scott Horticultural Foundation in honor of the late Arthur H. Scott (class of 1895), who had been president of the Scott Paper Company.”
“Final Musical at Presbyterian Church” (5 – AC and RS)
“Swarthmore Girl Graduates at Bradford” (5 – SN) – Miss Cornelia S. Reynolds “Presbyterians Hold Porch Meetings” (5 – RS and WO)
Ad for Media Theatre: “Today and Tomorrow, Friday and Saturday, ‘Abie’s Irish Rose’54 with Nancy Carrol” (6 – JR and QA)
“Classified” (6) “Sheriff Sales” (6 – RE)
“College Faculty Vacations” (6 – IR and SC) – Among the announcements for Swarthmore faculty vacations was one on Dr. Samuel Copeland Palmer, an associate professor of biology, who was headed to the Arctic Circle to study birds and flora.
“Old Packard Given Unusually Hard Test” (6 – CV) – on a 1907 Packard’s 420-mile round-trip drive from Oakland to Los Angeles
“Phoenix Compiles Athletic Averages over Seven and a Half Years” (6 – SC and SS) – “During six of the seven and one half years the average of the athlete has been higher, in most cases appreciably, than the grade of fthe [sic] Swarthmore man.” But in the last 18 months, “the athletic averages have taken an unaccountable slump.”
“Auto Club Head Comments on Accidents” (6 – CV) – J [sic] Borton Weeks, president of the Keystone Automobile Club, acknowledged the hazard posed by train crossing, but because it will take time and money to rectify the situation he recommended the “only safe course to pursue – stop, look and listen wherever a view of the tracks is obscured at unguarded crossings.” He also noted that intersections were a bigger danger and cautioned against the “road hog,” the “arrogant ‘cutter in'” and the “driver who tries to beat the traffic light”.
“New Gas Rate for House Heating Services” (6 – MI)
“Start Work for Annual Church Bazaar” (7 – RS and WO) – The Woman’s Association of the Presbyterian Church changed the date of their bazaar so as not to conflict with “Hallowe’en.”
“News Notes” (7 – SL)
Inset: “Baseball Season Ticket” (7 – SS) – Form with blank spaces for name and address, and a request for $5 season tickets for the Swarthmore Baseball Team
“Baseball Team Wins in First Home Game” (7 – SS) – against West Philadelphia
“Delegates Sent from Presbyterian Church” (8 – RS)
“Swarthmore Man in Auto Crash” (8 – AD and CV) – at Washington and Orange streets in Media
“Crowded Program for Hedgerow Theatre” (8 – AC and RR) – After news about various plays to be staged, the item noted: “Mr. Deeter’s newest find, Wayland Rudd, in the ‘The Emperor Jones’, will again be seen on Saturday, June 29th. ‘The Emperor Jones’ has played to overflowing houses since its opening this season, and is fresh proof of Mr. Deeter’s eye for acting material.”
Ad for the Strath Haven Inn: “A Personal Word to Swarthmore Husbands. Some of you have never treated your wife to a dinner at our tea-room. Think of it! Yes, think of it the next time the maid is out. Let your wife ‘sign off’ at five o-clock. We’ll broadcast the evening performance . . . and put the dishes to bed.” (8 – BS and QA)
“‘Wallingford Hills'” (8 – RE)
NOTES:
53 I could not find information on this crime.
54 A comedy based on a 1922 play about the romance and marriage between a Jewish man and Irish-Catholic woman, “Abie’s Irish Rose” had staying power: an NBC radio series ran it for more than two years and Bing Crosby starred in a 1946 film adaptation.