Franklin College - Almanack Yearbook (Franklin, IN)

Page 22 text:

Rather say this to your friends Cspeaking with a smile to cover the shadow of oncoming doubtj: No, I do not sell my work to those horrid magazines. I consider it far too good for them. Oh, it is possible that some- time I may have Harper's or the Century Company bring out a volume. Even that is not settled at all. I write- as Browning did, and Tennyson and Wordsworth-just to please myself. I find it relieves my emotional re- straints. fGet in that last shy phrase, nobody knows just what it means, but all agree that it is remarkably, literary.j Perhaps you dislike twaddling verse-making and go in -like Jack London-for advise--gently, but firm or even two. That will red-blooded prose. Again, I -y-write! Write one page- allow you to go high-browing among your fellows witd offhand remarks about your forthcoming novel-or t ae sketch of a drama you will have ready sometime-or the plotting of a book of short yarns. No need to really write them in order to talk. ln fact, the people who a out rarely talk at all. someway, takes the edge re silly enough to write them all The grind of hours of writing, off of talking. But you, who care only to be a pseudo, need not worry over small de- tails. lf possible, purchase a pair of wide, black-rimmed QA? ..... atts i N, . glasses. There is surely a literary air about that type of nose-gear! As a Hnishing touch, try to attend one play during the winter. Try to read some small amount of book-review. If you can adopt some writer friends, such as Riley or William Allen White or John Fox, Jr., or an Arnold Bennett or a Henry Watterson, that would have its ad- vantages, in that way you can impress a number of very innocent people. Think of being able to say: As Jim Riley has often said to meg or, One time, when John Fox asked me for my advice on writing up :Hell Fer Sartain', I told him --gn or, UAS I have often told Bill White. Can't you see the possibilities? Have you not already figured it out that being literary is really a mild amusement? Do you not see that you will be able to play a part hundreds of your fellows play every year? Of course, if you must build a college, well and goodg but being literary is the world's choicest intellectual snap. With spare time, add a few foreign expressions to your vocabulary. Now and then look inside of a magazine. If forced to it-being an English teacher or club woman or social leader-glance inside a modern rhetoric. But do this only as a last resort. When one can so easily seem, why pay the unnecessary price of being? Eighteenl 4-nn.. - '---f'- ' ---ii f--- --we '--'-f' -'- - H -- -----'rr'- -W re -sr M r- .S

Page 21 text:

'A ' ' '111t'A 'k'L N ' NEW i1 1 . a aaaaa . s L .....Y.f:,ff1 QQQlll .,....YYY. is By Rqjjgggjjg Qjjjjjvjfjjgjg f1'j'qj'j jL4'0-I, 1611111 in EP iflitrrztrg D In One Easy Lesson Q HE beautiful part of being .iterary is the pleasant fact that it really doesn't require any bmins at all. The so-called brainy people are doing really big things, like unto the building of canals, or being col- lege presidents, or establishing great industries. Any- body can readily see that it takes no genuine intellectual acumen to talk 'ftone colorw or character portrayal or 'fpsychological data . No one needs such a massive or- gan as a mind to discuss the large value of lbsenesque literature, or the eccentricity of a Kipling, or the risque verse of Walt Whitman. Far from it! There are two types of literary people-pseudo and real. Since there is always safety in numbers, one should hasten to align himself with the pseudos, in that this class shows far more literary propensity than their humbler brothers. Too, pretending is far easier than mastering. Almost every magazine guarantees its readers a mastery of art, or success as an actor, or large ability as a writer, in ten easy lessons. I go farther and assure that even before you have finished these simple words, here put down in order, that you may arise fully equipt to go forth, a literary fellow in whom there is no guile-on comparatively little. Let us suppose that you have chosen to become a pseudo. Suppose that, since you are not going to build a canal or lSeventeen .lag- erect a college, youl have contented your' self with being a lit- erary man or woman. Good! Weunderstand each other perfectly. Now-Hrst thing-sit down and write! No matter just what. Write a few soulful lines about Spring. Do not worry about such trivial things as unity and proportion: nobody will ever know, anyway, neither take thought for the so- called f'swing or the arrangement of your stanzas. Nor is it wise to waste postage in submitting your beautiful verses to the pitiless eye of the editor of a modern journal. He does not know what good work is, anyhow. He draws down his little hundred a week for helping out his close friends. WVhy take such hasty judgment? Wliy be bored with a possible rejection slip?

Page 23 text:

N M - . ..... ,.....,.. ...,...,......, .. ,,,,, Evtivria illrnm An 09121 Grail in Eta Nvphmn By JOHN SHEIK, ,IZ A SHANGHI, CHINA, October 15, IQII. DEAR NORVAL: Am delighted with the idea that you have at last de- cided entering upon your college career at my old Alma lVlater. l think your decision a wise one. The small scnool after all is the one that is drawing the real men. This is not so much because of the personal attention which they give to each individual, but more because of the personnel of the student body. lt catches the fellow from the big city with the novelty of the thing, while it attracts those from the agricultural districts because it is a gradual awakening and the beginning of their reali- zation that dreams come true. Your letter, with all of its enthusiasm, drives me to retrospect, and, boy, if you get half from your college career that your desperate old uncle has, you will be making some speed. Let me advise you upon entering to live intensely, enter every activity to which you may have the opportunity, and in each of these, make yourself the leading Hgure. You can either lead or follow the crowd, but, believe me, leading is worth while. This comes more like a benediction or, rather, ad- monition from one who is usually so gay in spirit, but allow me to be sincere in this instance and dead in earnest. fNmeteen .4-.-nn.. l am for you now and at all times, and if l can be of any assistance to you in any way, please don't hesitate to call. After this Ht has elapsed l will write you a normal letter, but l am so elated over the fact that you are to trod sim- ilar paths and l am so full of anticipation that you will not wonder at this letter being abnormal. A business proposition will take me to Peru, S. A. Please adress me there, as l am anxious to have your first impression of college life. Fondly, UNCLE jack. PHI PSI RHO Ho1.'sE, Nov. 3, IQII. DEAR UNCLE jack: Your letter not only came as a benediction, admonition, or what you may call it,- it came as a 'lTom Collins on morning after. After matriculating and walking down the stairs at Old lyleharry, I realized that l was one of that select crowd of four hundred twenty students who were beginning upon a new era in life. But, to save me, l can't take college life seriously. French is too easy for ef- fort. Of course, our higher mathematics sounds big, but the way one can stall and the methods they have for slip- ping through have got not only any curriculum backed off the map, but have Doc and the Dean beat a city block.