MARCH,
Vol. LVI
No. 4
1930
STAFF RICHMOND COLLEGE CARROLL TAYLOR BRUCE MoRRISSETIE
H. G. KINCHELOE
WESTHAMPTON COLLEGE Editor-in-Chief Business Manager Assistant Editor Assistant Editor
LAWRENCE BLOOMBERG •
• LUTHER
WELLS
Editor-in-Chief Business Manager Assistant Editor Assistant Editor
DOROTHY GWALTNEY VIRGINIA
BECK
ELIZABETH
GILL
JOHNNIE
ADAMS
•
Staff Artist
•
THE MESSENGER is published every month from October to Jtne by the students of the University of Richmond. Contributions are welcomed from all members of the student body and from the alumni. Manuscripts not found available for publication will be returned. Subscription rates are Two Dollars per year; smgle copies Thirty-five Cents. All business communications should be addressed to the Business Managers. Entered as second-class matter in the postoffice at the University of Richmond.
Members Intercollegiate Press Association of Virginia
n
EDITORIALS
shut his ears to it and trust Dieu et sa droite that the issue will, somehow, get to press and be out at least vaguely on time. His own especial energies he must consecrate to the sacrasanct summum dificulum of all writing, the editorial. When his editorial fingers actually get to touching a key to two of his associates subside into a reverent hush, and the office-boy must loose into the air a subtle perfume that the nostrils of the Master may be permeated with its elusive and provocative beauty. Should this intellectual aphrodisiac fail, the Master's fingers dwindle again into idleness, and the unmistakable look peculiar to the first stage of editorial despair appear upon his face, more potent measures must be resorted to: vinagret, brandy, or champagne. Finally, after a progression of despairs and renewals of For to the editor above all men is reflective solitude effort, the editor has necessarily, like a gland, se_creted a and a philosophic imperturbability essential to the slightest number of words m some practice of his craft. Should neo-grammatical sequence. he allow a momentary reThis becomes an object of le~se of silent vigilance, he extreme interest and care; will find himself being TABLE Of CONTENTS it is delicately expanded and goaded into editorial idiocy embellished ; it assumes what 4 by the shrieks and clamors Chinese Verses, Bruce Morrissette . might generously be termed of his subordinates, motley 5 a form. Then is it exhibited A Young Man On a Fence, John Fenris . utterances in a blaring conproudly to the subordinates, fusion of tongues, keys, and 7 Portrait of H. H. V., B. A. Roque . . . clipped neatly to the proof, tempers - cries relevant to and dispatched to the lino9 Recollections of Otis Skinner, Elizabeth Gill :he procuring of material, to typist-in order that it may its selection, to the time for Puppet History, Catherine Dawson appear reassuringly in this press, to the reading of place, saving the editorial • 10 proofs, .and to the profuse Lucidity, Paul Ft·ederic Bowles dignity by making at least c?n~omitant details of pub~ . 11 Wind Dance, Corinne Morecock passable sense to anyone foolltshmg any issue. ish enough to assume that it . 14 Toward all this must the Light and Shadow, Geneva Bennett . is put here really to be read. practicing editor remain -B.A.M. lofty and austere; he must ~E co~position of editorials is a peculiar activity, mvolvmg much esoteric skill and unique erudition. Unsuspected as such by the reader of editorials, the practicing editor must in reality be a very strange man, unfit in many cases for the elemental processes of social life, and-in distinction to the banker or the realtor-inadequate always in funds and at deipnosophic discourse. The editor, indeed, is not infrequently reduced to a state of reclusion and cenobitism, vol1;1ntaryor enforced, in which condition he prepares to thnve-the practicing editor-as did any mediaeval anchorite, denying to himself the voluptuousnesses and exquisities of this world in return for a spiritual fecundity and an ultimate ascension into supernal arpeggic bliss.