Livingstone College - Livingstonian Yearbook (Salisbury, NC)

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1928 The Maple Leaf 1928 Kitchen. All arc so marvelous and so dissimilar as to point to the folly of an attempt at any description. We rode on a few rods farther and came to a news stand where I bought a news- paper, The Globe. It ' s headline read Scientific Achievements of Negroes. Gladly surprised I was to see the name of my old homie and classie, William Douglas, now one of America ' s greatest scientists. In his laboratory he has just succeeded in converting the deadly poison T. N. T., used in the World War to destroy human lives, into fragrant violet perfume. This perfume is made from the combination of T. N. T., phosgene, a poison, and castor oil, a purgative. The compound once used to still the heart of an enemy is now used to quicken the heart of a lover. It sells at forty-two dollars an ounce and is known by the chemical cognomen, Methylheiptin Violette Carbonatte. He has also made aluminum from clay, and chewing gum from china- berry. All told, he has received over five millions for his various contributions. He has also been admitted to the British Royal Society and awarded three Spingarn Medals. He now peacefully resides in his brown stone mansion in the Black Hills of South Da- kota — (Just Ruth and he, and the baby makes three). In another column I saw the name of Dr. Isaiah McClain my old roommate and classmate in the old glorious days of Livingstone. Despite his belief that every inven- tion is an insult to some god and that physical and chemical inventions are blasphemy, and that every biological investigation is a perversion, he accidently discovered that a new drug could be made from combining Hydrorgyri Corrosive Chloridium, Acidium Cnticium, and Hamamelis, which would elimmate all the color pigments of a human epidermis without affecting the individual, and a beauty cream for women that has changed our idea of beauty from the steatopygous Hottentot to the modern Anglo- Saxon, from the Venus of Brassempory to the Venus of Milo. Dr. McClain owns the second largest drug store in America, covering an entire city block in Whistler, Ala- bama. He and Mrs. Worth McClain are touring Asia. Jack and the madam insisted that I stay a few days longer with them. But , said I to my friends, dutv calls and I must obey. He drove me over to the flying field where my plane, the Super-Albatross was waiting. It was a huge tri-motored monoplane, capable of doing 250 miles per hour. With a twist of the propeller, I put the valves into action. I congratulated my friend on his wonderful success at raising and selling sugar cane and was off. I circled low over the place once or twice, then straightened out. Very soon the abyss of heaven had swallowed up our form. Within two hours I dropped out of the clouds like a shooting star, landing safelv at Raleigh, N. C, to replenish my fuel supply. My attention was attracted by a mammoth parade, and I asked a nearby gentleman what was the excitement. Dr. Daniels, said he, a noted dentist, has just been elected to the position of governor of North Carolina. Great stuff! I said giving him two dollars. ' Please send him a telegram of congratulation for me. I took off again and was soon crossing the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia. On up the Potomac I went, landing at Washington about 12:30 p. m. Leaving the field I went to the Ponce De Leon Hotel and an hour later found me on Pennsylvania Avenue. It was here that I met another old friend, Dr. Ellis, a thriving dentist with an elaborate office on R Street, N. W. He told me that he had fourteen dentists at work and a mechanical department that supplied the city of Washington. He asked me to walk to the courthouse with him and on the way he explained his errand. They are trving some of our friends today, T. D. Mc- Donald, the big butter and egg man of lower Broadway and W. Mance Gilliam, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Naval forces, for selling the Atlantic Ocean to the English government. We went in and listened awhile. Our old classmates were found guilty and given twenty years each in Atlanta. After leaving the Court- house, I went with Dr. Ellis to his home. Mrs. Ellis and the children were in the Adirondikes on a vacation. We arose early the next morning, — after a very pleasant nights sleep. After breakfast, I bought a paper the headline of which read: Mc- Donald and Gilliam given twenty years in Atlanta, but appealed to Supreme Court for Pa e 27

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1928 -:- The Maple Leaf 1928 O ss Prophesy (By Wallace S. Lewis) Oh, how wonderful are the feats of introversion. 1 am seated at the foot of a lonely, giant oak tree in the dismal swamps of Louisiana. Everything seems to be in a state of pensive quietness, or tranquility. I raise my eyes heavenward and noth- ing is visible but a haphazard spatter of stars. The earth seemed a wild jumble of sleeping animals and plants. The sinibrious area about me seemed saturated with ? dense somniferious vapor which exuded, or emanated the jets and valves of the bag carried by Morpheus himself, filled with opium and sponges moistened with ether Being almost enebriated, as it were, by this vapor, slowly and dimly receding from this state of somnambulism, my eyes behold a little black dwarf dancing and singing just in front of me, letting daisies lightly rain from hif tiny head. He utters a delirious series of phrases that can not be adequately understood and disappears. I stand up looking at the leafy arms of the mighty tree, thinking that within the next century another traveler will come and seat himself at the foot of this giant oak to contemplate in silence the majesty of this place. I begin to move through the briers and weeds and finally reach a highway almost hid by high trees. Just on the side is parked a beautiful, olive green Packard sedan nea r a path, 7hat a lovely place this is, where silence seems to take the forest and man meditates. I enter the path as one enters a vast Cathedral at the hour of prayer Just as I enter the path I recognize the form of a beautiful girl behind a rhododen- drum. As I approach her she stands motionless, gazing at me with a spectral glare. Hello , sa) ' s L She recognizes me. Wal-lace , she exclaims, what in the world are you, eh-oh-r-e where are you gomg? I stood dumb for a moment, and walked back several steps and kicked a clod of dirt to regain my equilibrium. Oh, Ruth, how happy I am to see you, I said, grasping her hand. My husband and I drove out here to make some snaps. Abrviptly a bush shook. I turned around and there stood before me my old classmate, Joe Jackson. Hello there, he said, Great mom- ents come to every man , with one hand in mine and the other on my shoulder. He asked about the members of the old Class of ' 28 and I told him as much as I knew. Then the wife suggested that we go. We seated ourselves comfortably in his fine cai and in less than no time 1 found myself in front of a magnificient stone arch with Bayou Bleu, J. S. Jackson written across the top. We drove in. I own this park , said my friend, and it cost me a handsome sum to put it up, too . We then mounted one of his motor busses which affords most comfortable and en- joyable tiding as it goes whirling along the hard, macadamized, dustless roads of the park. We spent a few minutes at the children ' s playground and then moved on. A few rods farther on we stopped at the botanical gardens with its myraid thousands of vari- gated flowers, decanting their sweet aroma in roinantic profusion to every passer-by. To the right of this was the zoo with its animals from educated fleas to foims of the ape and chimpanzee. This park is forty miles square with an artificial fountain geyser near the west end, said Joe as we went on. Turning from this, we proceeded to the great basin which made me think of Norris Basin — weird and uncanny. But as we stood near the verge of this chasm, watching the furious waves being thrown violently upward or tossed and swished about until the surface is covered with a seething foam, listening, as it were, to the omnious groans and growls and threatening roars under- foot, it really seems as though all the demons in Hades are congregated beneath and holding high carnival. I have never seen a more beautiful sight , said I to my friend. We rode a few rods farther and stopped at a news stand where I bought a paper. Other objects of interest were Cupid ' s Cave, Bath Lake, and the Devil ' s I ' age 26

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1928 The Maple Leaf 1928 new trial. The appeal was granted attorney W. H. D. S. Moreland, of California, rep- resenting the defendants. The closing words of his argument were: If all men were given justice, the grave yard would have to give up some of their dead. After this powerful plea, the judge sprang to his feet and said: Gentlemen, we will have to throw this case out; Gilliam and McDonald go free. Attorney Moreland is looked up- on as the greatest lawyer since the time of Clarence Darrow. I had a few words with the boys, and I nosed the Albatross towards New York. One hour and six minutes, I landed safelv at Mitchel field. I was not in the city very long before I ran across my old friend E. W. McCoy who was heading the department of English at Columbia University. He was also Vice President of the Erie Railroad Co. I was informed by Professor McCoy that Bishop Daly had just left the city; he is the only bishop on the bench, and is doing the work that it took twelve bishops to do. After spending several hours in the beautiful home of Prof. McCoy, I took the air again. While passing the Catskill mountains, I ventured to fly low enough to get a view of the Summer residence of Miss Nettie Ingram. She held the distinction of be- ing one of the leading Morticians of New York. A few hours later, I landed in Han- over New Hampshire. Among the thousands who awaited my landing, was my long looked for friend Lindsay Eason. He informed me that he was director of music at the Conservatory of Hanover. In a Hanovian journal, I was delighted to hear of the achievements, both abroad, and at home, of William Powe in Oratory. After visiting several places of interest with Eason, I bade him adieu and in a very few minutes the Albatross was again behind the clouds. About four o ' clock, I was flying over the big ship Cabo Espartd which had on board Ambassador John H. Lewis to London, and Helen Buckley and Grace Morrow, missionaries to Africa. Pa e 28