Franklin College - Almanack Yearbook (Franklin, IN)

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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.

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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

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Yesterday I was looking through the records, and it is not going to take a great deal of effort on my part to make grades that willexceed those of certain relatives in my family who have preceded me at this institution. Uncle, you must have been a devil. Thompson, of the Class of 'o.t', was here during spike week, and, of course, there was nothing to do but railroad me into Psi Rho, and, be- lieve me, the lariat was worth while. After all, Uncle, l believe the course you pursued the better one. Even though you were not a brilliant student, I End your grades were passing, and I know that you must have been engrossed in the bigger activities of living the life of a real college man rather than that of a book worm. To- day I had my first set-back. Prexy Bryce called me in for a little conference, and it was my initial trip on the green carpet. I swallowed hard and was determined that he shouldn't bluff me an inch, but my fortification was overdone. He came at me from a different angle and caught me entirely off guard, and I went out of his office feeling like a chump. The cool air served as a bracer and Margaret and jane were just crossing the campus and, under the circumstances, there was abso- lutely nothing to do but to dismiss my Firm resolution so rcccntly made, to send my conscience on a three weeks vacation, and just live. ' Tomorrow we go out on a forage party, and the tales the upper classmcn pour in our ears as to what we poor chumps have got to do almost gives one a fit of the jim- 'i2g21 -- - ' -M f . . .. E -t asa, .......,. ........ M .r.,, , ag .Q,Qc,1:::11r:,, ,ar ......., - ...................................,,,.---- 4 Q J ---,-- f S tttttt jams. I have hardly got acclimated to college life, but I think it will eventually take. At any rate, I am going to relax completely and live and let live. I trust your business proposition proved successful. And say, Uncle, you know it takes a world of kale to run a fellow. My allowance hardly furnishes me with sufli- cient chemical alfalfa. You know college has a Wonder- ful appetite for this Usilagen and, of course, if you Want to slip me enough for a party I can't keep you from it. At any rate, I have taken your advice and am living in- tensely, so, from now on, I will claim you as my sponsor, tread the path you have already blazed and live sum, Believe me to be, Your self same neph., NoR. LIMA, PERU, March 17, IQI2. MY DEAR NORVAL: In celebration of this day and after having read the last part of your letter very carefully, I am enclosing a few of those medallions of the lady whom we are all after, with the sincere hope that you will celebrate in an entirely fitting manner. You are not only a chip off the old block, but you are a man after me own heart. There is hopes for you yet, boy-really hopes, and I await with keen anticipation the time when you will be called upon the carpet a second time. Boy, I got to know that Dean's office, Prexy's waiting Twentyl .1 r