MSGR 1955v81n2

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MESSENGER CONTENTS

EDITORIAL OFFICERS

Pag e

Editor-in-Chi ef Katharine Severanc e

Saturday Afternoon-Margaret

Associate Editor Dick Gage

Peabody's Page .......... ................................... ............................. 4

Business Manager Walter Alpaugh

Garden Party-Adair

Assistant Business Manager Margaret Logan

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi-Adair

Ex change Editor Lois Reamey

Memories of the Dancing Dean-Lois

Featur e Edito rs Joan Gaye Levy Gene Hansley A rt Editor Ken Mace STAFF Writing Staff Jay P i g g, Lester Blackiston, Dick Bell, Walter Grutchfield, Mary Elizabeth Hix, Joan Gaye Levy, Lois Reamy, Saul Slatoff, Jody Stone , Charlotte Henley, Carl Hennessy.

Logan .................................. 3

McConnell ....................... ..................... 5

McConnell .......................... 5

Reamy ........................ 6

Not in Books-A

Dialogue by Lester N. Blakiston .............. 10

Every Inch-Aimee

Lee Raveling ............................................ 13

Cinquains-Walter

Crutchfield ................................................ 14

Three Designs in Transition-Lester

N. Blakiston .............. 15 ;,tt

..; Ji

Printer-Beacon

Press, Inc.

Proof readers and Typists Adair McConnell, Gene Hansley, Saul Slatoff, Mary Ellen Thomas , Carmen Austin .

VOLUME LXXXI

JANUARY, 1955

N .2

w a y s carefully planned. They dressed collegiately, not wanting to resemble the dreary Bohemians in the grottos of the Village. Their c 1 o the s were well-tailored, but slightly worn and invariably a little spotty. Under the doubtful white

By MARGARET LOGAN string gloves, their hands were almost certain to be inkspotted. "wise fools," These stains were the result of There were three of them, ering themselves dressed in clothes that had been knowing all Bohemians are rather their eternal term papers, themes, featured in "College Shops" all whimsical about their idiosyncraand creative efforts-they were over the country. They looked so sies. Besides, it paraded their English majors. much alike that they might have knowledge of Greek, which was, The day was spent in the book been sisters-short-cropped bare unfortunately, a little sketchy. sections of the department stores, The rite of going downtown on where they bought Modern Library heads, colored knee socks, polo coats, and loafers with just the Saturday had started back in their classics, and looked at every sale right amount of scuff . Actually, Freshman year. They had each table, exclaiming wildly over the however, the relationship between lived in small single rooms on an lithographs of Gaugin . Then they isolated hall of the dorm, and their went into the basements, to buy illthem was only geographical-they friendship was a natural develop- fitting sale underwear and look at were all Northerners. ment. Now they roomed together It was Saturday afternoon, after the bourgeoisie. Them ost radical classes and a hasty lunch. Satur- in a triple, and everywhere in the of the three, Roberta, made a pracday afternoon always meant going school knew how wonderfully well tice of putting on every hat redowntown-to shop, to criticize the they got along with each other. cently tried by a Negro woman, to Southern city, and to have liver- There was no question of "three's the dismay of the white saleslady. wurst sandwiches and beer at a a crowd"-in fact, they often said They looked at all the impossible cheap little place they had discov- to each other "three's the crowd." pastel net formals with the seered and adopted.

Occasionally They could, and did, wear one an- quined bodices and tried to be serit hey spent some time in one of the other's clothes, although there ous when the saleslady asked if city's libraries, to justify their wasn't much point to it, as their she could help them. The routine stand as Intellectual Bohemians. wardrobes were carefully stereo- then was to talk about the dress It was this pose that directed them typed and hardly distinguishable in words of three syllables or more. t o eat in the little restaurant where from each other.

It was always funny. the most expensive sandwich was They hadn't decided to be BoThe only jarring note of the little thirty cents-each of them could hemian until they came back South expeditions was the bus ride from ave afforded better food in cleaner for their second year. It was al- town to college-they were not almost an inevitable reaction to their lowed to keep cars on campus. Gosurroundings. over the ing home wasn't bad because they One of the trio-her name was new-found superiority freshmen which gave them the nec- were tired and irritable anyway.

Virginia-was sort of an expatriot Southerner.

Her mother, a frail essary courage to be living con- But the trip down, after the invigoSouthern woman not equipped emo- trasts to the "Southern Ideal." rating walk to the bus stop, was a tionally or physically to live with They deplored the Southerners, thing to be socially endured. There her robust Dartmouth-graduate furiously condemning their con- was something deadly monotonous husband, had died in childbirth genital preoccupation with the ma- about the scenery, even if viewed when th e girl was tw elve. A few terial and the social. This scorn from the upper half of the window days later the baby died too, and was doubled when one of the where the green glass was. And Virginia grew up to be a lonely fe- offendors tried to imitate the in- the stops and starts, the muted male replica of her father.

She vulnerable three-they called her sounds of air brakes, changeignored her Southern heritage to "artificial" and 'hypocritical." They maker, and horn were almost unt e extent of singing her checks were so positive that only North- unbearable . They always allowed " inny Everest." erners had the right to nonconform themselves a coffee break after The other two, Roberta and that it upset them collectively when they got off the bus, to restore Carol, were from New York and one of their "masses" quietly went their good humour. had parents who were natives of about disobeying protocol and goIt was chiefly because of the the city in the way that only New ing against the grain of "Southern boredom of the ride that Roberta Y rkers can be natives. They were Traditionalism." initiated what she called her "Good all sophomore, and enjoyed considThe afternoons in town were al(Continued on Page 14)

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

JANUARY , 1955

3

Ah! you say that you have not met my dear friend Peabody? Of course he is an extraordinarily clever fellow, quite a detective, as his reputation testifies; but in addition to that he bears at times a striking resemblance to another detective of considerable meritwhose name we will not at this time disclose. Suffice to say that he, when in his seizures of detective fervor, smokes a merschaum pipe, wears a duck bill cap, and takes up residence at number 11 Baker Street. There are those who have attempted to prove that my friend affects this resemblance for the sake of publicity; however, one look into the face of dear Peabody will immediately erase any such thoughts from your mind.

At the present time we-I say we for I have the honor of at times working with Peabody on his cases -we are tracking down the clues on the mysterious murder of the Italian opera diva, Mdme. La Bella You have, no doubt, Cantatrice. heard of the death of this lovely lady. . . . No! Then let me hasten to relate to you the circumstances surrounding one of the strangest cases in the career of my illustrious friend.

It all began one evening at the opera . Peabody and I were attending. We are both fond of "Carmen", and this performance of the opera was to make an even greater treat by the fact that La Cantatrice was to sing the lead role. The performance proceeded smoothly until the end of the last act at which time the tenor thrusts the cruel blade into the breast of 4

the rnprano who falls dead to the general acclaim of the opera-goers.

Madame Contatrice did indeed fall dead quite well; however she did not rise for her curtain call ( an unprecedented practise for an ItalThe clear-sighted Peabody ian). immediately suspected treachery and quickly hurried me backstage to make a few on the spot investiI thought surely there gations. can be no doubt that if La Cantatrice is dead it was the tenor who murdered her. Peabody remarked that I was unkind to tenors and that I always accused them of murdering music of which they are, of course, quite capable, but the actual slaying of another human is out of their line. His immediate suspect was the contralto. Contraltos have a natural bent for evil, otherwise why would composers at all times make them not only ugly and old, but unpleasant as well. As always I bowed to the superior wits of my companion and did not venture to contradict him.

After questioning the singers and finding them little disposed to discuss the matter, Peabody retired to 11 Baker Street to ponder the matter since he was firmly convinced that his reasoning alone would lead him to the porper conclusions. I of course could not imagine how he could solve a case so apparently without clues as this one by merely reasoning, but as usual I underestimated my friend.

I returned to 11 Baker Street three days after the crime to find my friend thumbing through the pages of a certain college literary magazine which he favors. I asked

him how he could browse throug h reading material with so importa nt a case on his hands. With appr opriate hauteur he repled that t he w h i c h he through magazine thumbed had given him the answ er to the case. I was, of cour se amazed. Peabody, however, revealed all to me over a cup of tea.

The solution was as Peabody said quite Elementary after one had It seen the proper explanations. seems that the name of the litera ry magazine which Peabody favors is the Messenger. This title led the master brain to think of Weste rn Union which in turn conjured up in his brain the West and the Nor th, which by contrast suggested South East, hence Dover, white, snow, mountains, Switzerland, chocolate bars, candy store, poor sales clerk, success story, rich marriage. This of course led naturally to the suspicion that La Cantatrice was in love with a lonely stock-bro ker, Mr. Phillip van Cups of the Albany, Albany, New York, Broad way, Actresses, another gold digger, There you see jealousy, murder. it is quite simple as Peabody has said.

Ah you say that it as well to devise this nice plan but what reason have we to suspect that it fits the cast at all. I had not tho ught you such a Phillistine. The solution to your problem is of course as so many say at present .. .

ARS GRATIA ART IS.

UNIVERSITY

MESSE NGER

GARDEN PARTY Through the channels of the liquid night Flow volatile currents of conversation.

Gay lanterns drip their warm glow on gliding dancers, Enthralled

by Strauss.

A knowing moo:1 toss2s a beneficent hoary wink On raptured

figures floating in the enchanted

pink mist

Created by the creaking chains of a wooden porch swing.

SICTRANSIT GIORIA MUNDI From between the dank tarny bricks of the welled-up melancholic soul Oozes Hope-the

glistening, ephemeral, transient droplet.

Now undulating with sensuous ecstasy, Then flowing with lugubrious languor, Now capricing in gentle scintillations, Then rebounding in ribald glee, Finally

and incontrovertably

she writhes

out the inevitable

grotesque

tango of doom With tenuous, soporific despondency, th'aesthetic

downward

pulls

drool-

Unheard, unseen, unmourned,

JA DARY, 1955

which unrelenting

unsung!

5

--

Memories

oft

£ois fReamy_ There is one here who knows the birth , story of Westhampton-its its struggles, its growth . She knows more of the true spirit of Westhampton than the peppiest little coed who cheers the loudest in the football stadium and sings the The Black Maria, a kind of mule pulled bus, brought Miss Keller out that day in the early fall of 1914. She had come down from Goucher College to be dean of this new institute of female learnin g, Westhampton College.

The ride was a bit jolting, to say nothing of the dust attack upon her from the narrow unpaved roads which wound through the University. As for the landscapewell, one would probably be right in saying that it was the most natural college landscape in the country. Oh, it was very natural. yet none of this All of this-and dimmed one bit the hopes and aspirations established in the mjnd of this sprite yourig woman. In fact, they s t r e n g t h e n e d her through the presentation of a challenge. It was the first time she had ever helped establish a college.

Then she saw it. Little by little the tower came into view-the tower, symbol of strength; then the building, standing for love, One lone, friendship, learning. brick building. Just a building and a hope-and Westhampton College came into being . girls There were thirty-eight that first year who came to live in the new dormatory. Fifty came from town each day, making a sizable enrollment of eighty-eight students. tradition as a Westhampton's fun -loving school began that first year. In search of some diversion, the students pounced upon Halloween, their first excuse to cele6

brate, for a party. Costumes were loudest at the song contest. Miss May Keller, dean emeritus of our college, has told me the very personal story of Westhampton, all the intricate things which make a the story not a history-but tradition. worn by students and faculty alike.

And then came the big feature of the evenin g, Thyaminy Net, the lovely Egyptian mummy who had been given r esidence in the basement was elevat ed to a position of prominance on the Blue Room table, a place occupied by few. The sophomores had carefully arranged this to the last detail which was a white carnation placed in her hand, and in a softly blue-lit room, forced the amazed freshmen to give Miss Net all the hommage due to one of such high station and royal embalming fluid.

There was a circus that year in the then uncompleted section over the classrooms, alias Rat Alley.

Thirty-eight girls , spread thin, would barely cover one floor of the dorm, so there was ample room for the faculty members who lived in the dorm. Among them were Dr. and Mrs. Gaines, and Dr . and Mrs. Boatwright. The Boatwrights occupied the north wing. The Faculty Sitting Rooms were Mrs . Boatright's parlor and dining room.

The secret of Miss Tucker's office is about to be revealed. Can you imagine it filled with pots and pans instead of yellow cards? Yes, Miss Tucker's office was the kitchen in the Boatright home.

Miss Keller was always busy during that first year. She smiled and said it was an era of non-specialization; she did everything from efficiently carrying out the duties of dean and teaching English to freshmen, to being the school's nurse.

She did almost everything, tha t is, but teach hockey. And Mis Crenshaw one of the four wome teachers that first year did tha t Hockey on the green, and wh er the days were bad they went inside to their gym in the Towe.,.

Room. It's hard to believe th a~ anything more athletic than brid g0 or the piano were ever play ed there.

That year Miss Keller beca e an experienced nurse . Runni n:; from classroom to Infirmary to office was not an unusual cycle f .,,. her. There was the time when Dr. Loving's niece came down with malaria and for three days, until they were able to get a nurse for her, Miss Keller walked arou nd with a bottle of medicine in one hand and a clock in the other. And the day Dr. Pitt brought in a boy with a broken arm . She was o help set it. She said, "Dr. Pit t , I don't know the first thing about. ... But I had to do it."

For entertainment, a piano was moved into the dining room and after supper each evening there old was a period of singing-the n Tower Room songs hadn't sang. still they but yet, invented This grew to be quite a social event and very intriguing . Boys from Richmond College waited tabe s and stayed for the Sing . Soon thPir friends began to be lured over , arid before long, there were informal dances in the dining hall each night. Several years after thi s had become a well-established pra ctice, Miss Keller received a note from al the president of the Ministe..,.i Association which read, "I understand that you permit danci ng in the Westhampton College dining room. Of course, you realiz e that this is entirely against the regulations of the Baptist Convent·on. ... " She read it and flipped it .nto UNIVERSITY

MESSE NGER

ancing

Dean

the waste-paper basket.

One day she met the young man who had sent her the note, on campus.

"Did you get my note?"

"Yes." "What do you plan to do about it?"

"Nothing!"

"What?"

"Nothing. This is Westhampton ollege, and you are at Richmond ollege. I'll take care of things ere, thank you."

The young man indignantly alked away. The dancing continued. And Miss Mae Keller became known as the Dancing Dean of Westhampton College.

Nineteen hundred and sixteenthe four hundreth anniversary of Shakespeare's death and all over the world pageants were being eld. Probably the biggest pageant f the South was held on the University of Richmond Campus . Over t o thousand people participated a d five hundred of these were in c stume. This celebration was in c llaboration with the city of Richond. Dr. Boatright was ShakesP are. Dean "Hamlet" Metcalf gave the charge to the players. A lady from town, wearing a beautiful

dress, represented Elizabeth. There were building fronts lined along the bridge to suggest London Bridge in the sixteenth century, even the tavern was there-Dame Quickley's Tavern, that is. Eight Shakespearean plays were running simultaneously that day.

Nineteen hundred and sixteen, that was also the year that Miss Turnbull came to be secretary to the dean. It was night when she

JA UARY, 1955

got off the streetcar and started toward Westhampton College.

Dean Metcalf found her wandering rather aimlessly in the woods and took her to his home. "It was so very dark then," said Miss Turnball, "that it is almost like the Great Whit~ Way today. It was so dark that one could easily fall into the lake, if walking at night, and

often did!"

With World War I came changes, and to Westhampton College it meant move or dissolve. The former was chosen. Because our campus was needed by the government, St. Luke's Hospital was selected .to take its place. Westhampton College moved to town.

That year there was a flu epidemic. First a few girls, then more became stricken, and finally the nurse and Dr. Pitt. There were thirty-eight people down at one time and only the faculty left to care for them. Dean Keller became Nurse Keller again and was given a chance to. practice what she had learned in the infirmary that first year. They only had time to administer the bare necessities but one of the ill girls, true to feminine vanity, sat up and weakly cried, "My face hasn't been washed for three days ."

"Honey, you're lucky .. .. " That was a year of moves, for in t!1e middle of the winter Dr. Mc(Continued on Page 12)

7

"'Jiaisis"-ur

SEt4E~TE~

l)OWN 1lt5 t>~Ai .. ?

..J( ClJialog«e by £ester The Cast:

Gentleman Student Girl Setting: A park bench: the park is quiet in the early afternoon of a September day, two months after the Supreme Court ruling to ban segregation.

The only scene.

A young man dressed in the attire of a college student (white shoes, slip-over-sweater, kahki pants, and rain coat lying beside him) is sitting on a parkbench with an older gentleman.

They are both waiting for someone and they have been talking to pass the time. They are strangers, having just met, and topics of conversation have been running along rather general lines until the student (We will call him this to differentiate between the two, not, necessarily, that students are not also gentleman.) mentions the current interest, segregation.

Gentleman: I say just stand in the middle and don't give a damn.

Student: Well ... I can see your point.

Gentleman: Certainly!

There's nothing else to do. Everyone that's mixed up in this big mix'em now deal is only trying to get votes or something for himself or his party. It would have happened later without all this soap-boxing and hollering that's going on.

Student: Later?

Gentleman: Sure it would. This is the last country that recognized them as equalStudent: What about Russia?

Gentleman: Russia? They don't have Negroes in Russia. If they're dark enough they're Mongolian and if their a little on the brown side they're just plain old Russians.

Student: I know, but ....

Gentleman: In France, during the war, the prettiest girls always went for the colored boys; married them and everything.

Student: I didn't know that.

Gentleman: Sure!

Student: What about later?

Gentleman: Later?

Oh! Sure! They've been marrying white people up north ever since the Civil War. Student: I know.

Gentleman: In another couple'a hundred years we would have all been the same color anyway. I don't see the sense of getting everyone excited about equality now and causing a big commotion.

Student: Yes, but just the same, I think it was a good idea to make it legal ... you know, the Supreme 10

n. (B/akiston

ruling.

Gentleman: Well ... here's the thing: If all of this business hadn't of come up now, when they finally did share the same advantages as white people they would have been excepted on the weight of their ability to be equal.

Student: Isn't that the basis of it now?

Gentleman: That's part of it, but not the most important.

Here's how I see it: They are, more or less, a race of people without any cultural back ground. Their native land is Africa and there the y would have a culture, sort of a precedent for eac h generation to use. Here they don't have that pr ecedent. They simply pass from generation to gen eration doing the best they can. If they make mone y they get by, if they don't make money then the y don't get by.

Student: They do have the same opportunities t make money that we do.

Gentleman: In fact they do, but there's the catc h.

This system doesn't distinguish between the people who will extend the civilization at its present lev 1 and those that buy it to be used like a pair of socks The only measure of success is the old handbook. If things were left to follow their natural course, th en, when the Negro was accepted, it would have bee~ on the weight of his value to society. As it is, some people think that they would simply use our cultu re as you would a pair of socks, not that culture isn't to use; but to be bought and built at the same time seems to be the idea. And, then, others have the idea that they are being taken down from some pedestal of superiority, and the one thing that rubs human nature to the quick is to be dethroned.

Student: Then you think it's a mistake to make their equality legal?

Gentleman: No. I think that time and nece ssity would have given them the desire to be equal bey ond the definition of law.

Student: I read an article last week that compared the fall of the Roman Empire with non-s egregation. I can't recall the author's name, but he said that the barbarians, when they threatened to invade Italy, were a similar menace to the Romans-a k;nd of accept them or be overrun by them. Wha t do you think of that?

Gentleman: I don't remember too much history, but I would say that a society too weak to absorb inferior classes isn't in a position to fight them.

Student: That was my history professor's ictea.

Say, not to change the subject, are you a profe ssor?

Gentleman: No. I'm an insurance salesma n.

UNIVERSITY

MESSE NGER

Student: You seem well informed.

Gentleman: I just read the papers and talk to people. Nearly sixty per cent of my customers are Negroes and they're as good as poor people can be.

Student: Are they all poor?

Gentleman: Not at all. Average people trying to keep their heads above the surface. I talk to them about segregation.

I haven't said anything today that I wouldn't, or haven't said to them. Most of 'em have pretty good ideas about these things.

Student: I sure had you picked for an instructor, or maybe an adviser.

Gentleman: I'm an adviser alright, but if you follow my advice you buy insurance; all you can afford.

Student: That's business I guess.

Gentleman: Sure is. We have to eat. Which r eminds me, I'm waiting for my partner to have lun ch with me. He's a colored fellow, heck of a nice fellow, too. When I first started with this company they put me over in his territory, I got along so well they never transferred me. He's a good man, but, they all are if you just try to under stand them.

Student: How do they feel about segregation?

Gentleman: They want the rights that they think they deserve, we all do. If we think we're not getting what's coming to us, we get mad. They feel exactly the same way.

Student: I mean what do they say?

Gentleman: That they're equal, they fought for this country, they didn't ask to come here; but now that they're here they want to be treated fairly, the same things we would say.

Student: I guess the only r eal way to understand ~hem is to talk to'em.

Gentleman: That's the only way. It's not all in ooks. By the way, what grade are you in?

Studen t : Freshman.

Gentleman: Fir st year, huh? Well, you'll be through before you know it. Just remember as you go, it's not all in books. One of the major faults I f nd with some college people, is when they finish hool, when they're really in a position to learn mething, they just stop . Can't imagine that there's a ything beyond the books they left behind. Don't c.1r e either.

Student: I know.

Gentleman: Some of the best men I know are college graduates, but when it comes to something like segregation, for example, they can't understand w•1ere the conflict is. They know that Negroes have al.vays been considered slaves, laborers, and thieves s they think that they should always be considered ju,,t that. Not only college people don't misundersb nd, other prominent men in this country are just as bad, probably worse. They stand up in church, or J NUARY, 1955

political offices, or before committees, and rave about equality, but let them be on a bus and have a Negro sit beside them, and they're enraged. What they forget is exactly what they should remember, or, maybe they never learn about what people do; but only about what they should do. I don't know.

Student: You seem to.

Gentleman: I know that all the laws in the world can't replace truth, if anything they do well to imitate it. Truth isn't put in books to remain true forever. Truth today can be the biggest of all lies tomorrow, and it's because what is true is what fits soundly with what we already consider true.

What was true seventy-five years ago of Negroes has changed today. They still have a long way to go, but in terms of culture, we didn't get what little we have over night.

Student: I know. I'd sure like to have a chance to talk to them about how they feel; I never have.

Gentleman: Why don't you?

St udent: I never thought too much about it.

Gentleman: There's no time like now.

Student: But where?

Gentleman: You could come with me this afternoon .

Student: Hey! Gentleman: Sure. Doesn't look like my partner's coming. You'd be good company and learn something to boot.

Student: I really would like to.

Gentleman: Come on.

Student: I will if you're sure I won't be in the way.

Gentleman: Not at all. Who are you waiting for?

Student: A girl, but it doesn't look like she's coming.

Gentleman: Let's go, then.

(They get up and start to leave the stage. A girl comes on the scene.)

Girl: Hi there! Where are you off to?

Gentlem:l.n: There's your friend.

Student: If you still don't mind, I'd like to talk with some of your customers.

Gentleman: .. Not at all.

Student: (Looking back at the girl) Hi! Where you been? ( Still walking) .

Girl: I had to see my math teacher after class.

Where're you going?

Studen t : To collect some information for my term paper.

Girl: Aren't you still writing on segregation?

Student: I sure am.

Girl: Well, aren't you going to the library to do some research?

Student: I'm going to get it first hand.

(Exit student running to catch up with his friend.)

Girl: .. Men! They're all crusaders ... (Exit.)

11

(Continued from Page 7) Guire returned and wanted his hospital. It was impossible to find one building large enough to house all of the girls, so they divided into four houses within a range of twenty blocks, only one of which had heat. The central house was that of T. C. Williams, home of T. C. Williams who gave us the Law School. A bus brought the girls to this house for meals and classes.

The athletic field was on the old Richmond College campus not far away. Clad in bloomers with hockey sticks in hand, the vigorous girls used to walk up Grace Street to the field. The ladies of the neighborhood began to whisper and eventually stated very firmly that they considered this to be indecent exposure of the highest degree. So the girls took to the alley!

Back at the University of Richmond, the girls found that the war had not left their campus unchanged, for there was left here the Red Cmss Building. This building became the combination Assembly Hall, gymnasium, dramatics and music building . It was not unusual to walk in at any time and find girls practicing a play on the stage, others playing basketball, and still others taking piano lessons.

The girls were delighted at having the Fine Arts Building, Gymnasium and Auditorium. They became skilled in avoiding the padded posts which rose at intervals along the basketball floor, but it became embarassing when other schools began to refuse to play W. C. because it didn't seem worth the bruises they got from the poles.

We had to borrow the Richmond College Gym then, until the alumni raised $50,000 toward th e building of Keller Hall.

During the early years there was a freshman banquet held every fall in one of the hotels in town.

Miss Keller always chaparoned because no one else would. This was a joint function of W. C. and R. C. and soon the sophomores of Rich-

12

mond started lying-in-wait for the ticed in regard to dining rooms.

Nineteen hundred and fort y freshmen, grabbing the boys as they approached the lake and seven saw the third buildin g ri s throwing them into it. Being afraid on the hill. The new dormatory that one of the girls might get the pride of the school. It was hurt she decided to charter buses called South Court, and the ol instead of using the streetcar. As dorm, which had never had a the three buses returned from the name apart from that of the school, banquet one year, the boys bar- was called North Court. ricaded the back gate and began Miss Keller had accepted her to throw rocks . Windows were challenge and had vitally help ed broken . One girl was cut. The in the building of Westhampt on. sophomores s c r e a m e d for the and leaving it in an atmosphere of freshmen to get off, they would desire for growth she retired in accompany the girls the rest of th e 1946. She retired, but she didn't way . Miss Keller rose to full size leave Westhampton.

Today she and full indignation and very firm- lives in the deanery near the Chaply told them to leave, and they el, and we often see her walk ing didn't need much persuasion. in the sun on a bright afternoo nThe next day she informed the a small lady, with grey hair t hat trustees that she would chaperone we might almost overlook , but no more freshman banquets and there is a spirit about her we cansuggested that their wives take not for get. That spirit is a spirit over. There were no more freshof interest, of concern, as if she is man banquets . a part of us. And truly she is, if During World War II the same Westhampton is a part of us. thing happen ed to Richmond Col"No matter how little we have lege that happened to all men's had in material things we'v e alschools. The number of students ways had a wonderful spir it I decreased to the extent that one hope that it will prevail. Don 't let dorm easily held all of the men. us. just because we have all these Now Westhampton, in complete things, unvalue what earlier girls rever se, was over-flowing. Where contributed to the college . would all the girls live? Thomas "The first year we emph asized the spirit of democracy whic h has Hall, of course . The freshmen were designated to go because the persisted through the year s. This I'd hate to see upper classmen refused to give up is something the luxury of fine living ( ?) . For change."

She reemphasized the term two years Westhampton girls inhabited the Richmond Campus. "spirit of democracy" and t hen it There were the usual joint classes was that I knew what made estbut strict discrimination was pra c- hampton spirit unique.

UNIVERSITY

MESSE NGER

EVERY Aimee Lee Raveling

INCH The symmetrical bare yellow lights illuminated the face in the mirror. He applied make-up, being careful to smooth over the wrinkles until they gradually disappeared. His rather small hands o r k e d competently, smoothly, s owing the years of experience they had had at this job.

Perhaps tonight it would comethe accolade he had been waiting for so long. Not that he wasn't popular-the audience always liked hi . They cheered and clapped; yes, he supposed they did appreciat him in their own mundane way.

But their appreciation was always limited.

If only once he could show the stuff of which he was made. The form was such a little thing, really, in the essence of a man . Of course he was older; but he felt sure that he was still capable of great things .

Bis voice was still good. He rem bered the time he had done KI G LEAR for the radio program. "Every inch a king." Strange JANUARY , 1955

how that line stuck with him. He remembered his reviews, "Wonderful dramatic quality." There had even been talk of work on the legitimate stage, in Shakespreare perhaps, but nothing had come of it.

For years now he had thought of how it would be when his chance finally came. He had dreamed of it so often that it seemed familiar in every detail.

Sometimes he added variations, but not often. It was so nearly perfect this way that he was afraid to move anything in his mind; almost as though it were a reality that he could actually mar by altering some part of his performance.

His mind slipped smoothly, easily into the dream. His costume was of the softest velvet, as befitted the kingly part he played. The house of course was packed, but he could now give them only passing attention. With his whole being he must concentrate on being the mad king.

He furrowed his brow . "Filial ingratitude! Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand for lifting food to't?-But I will punish none: No, I will weep no more. In such a night to shut me out! Pour on; I will endure: In such a night as

this! 0 Regan, Goneril!

Your kind father, whose frank heart gave all, (His voice dropped-then soared until it was shreik) 0, that way madness lies; let me shun that; No more of that." His eyes filled with real tears).

Sometimes he thought he would go mad himself from the sheer exultant agony of the thing. His pulse was leaping, the palms of his hands were coldly damp. But he wouldn't fail, not after this long, he couldn't. Sometimes he wished he had chosen Richard III; the very meanness appealed to him in some obscure way.

But no, he was glad that it was Lear, not Richard he portrayed.

The majesty, the vast scope and lonely grandeur was achieved nowhere else so well. Yes, it must be Lear. Now he could prove himself to all who laughed.

"Every inch a king."

A knock on the door. For a moment he thought it was part of his dream, but then he realized that it was time for his act. He took a final look at the brightly painted face in the mirror, then hopped down from his high stool.

"Hurry, Skippy, time to go on."

"All right." He barely took time to approve the resonance of his voice before he plunged out into the crowd. Barely remembered his dream until he heard a child's high voice, "Oh, Mommy, look at that funny dwarf!"

13

CINQUAINS Up! Forever up.

Not ever down do they go;

Down!

It rises

Forever down.

Note ever up do they go;

Not really slowly

'Tis always over the highest peak

'Tis always down to the down

And up.

(Continued from Page 3) Neighbor Policy ," after searching futilety for a name with a classical root. They made conscious efforts to inconvenience the white passengers for the benefit of the colored.

They would sit in the middle of the bus, which was almost empty when they got on, until it was filled , and then get up to give their seats to the aged colored domestics who appeared intermittently along the route. Of course, the white women who were standing expected that the seat was for them, and would eagerly start for the vancancy , only to find that Carol had blocked the aisle and Roberta was offering the seat to a Negro.

The regular white passengers soon caught on the little trick , and new schemes had to be devised.

The innovations were all ingenious -Roberta spent a good deal of time on them, and her roommates followed her directions well. The only one who wa sn't too enthusiastic was Ginny, who still felt a little influence from her mother's tacit white superiority.

She went along with the others, but more as a matter of group solidarity and entertainment than with the fierce zeal of Roberta.

On this particular Saturday, they had gotten a ride to the Art Museum just outside the city proper .

They spent almost an hour there, and then waited for the bus to take them the rest of the way . It was crowLi2tl, with only one seat free .

14

But steady, sure, and up.

Forever upward . Why doesn '+

below

smoke

And down.

Fall down?

Carol had on tight shoes, so she sat down , next to a vast Negress who occupied almost two-thirds of the seat.

At the next stop, a pink-andwhite old lady got on, paid her fare, and slowly made her way down the aisle with the stiff, hesitant walk of the quite old. Carol, at a sign from Roberta, casually got up and motioned to the place she had occupied. The woman moved toward the vacancy, and was just about to sit down when she noticed the Negress.

She stopped, paused perceptibly, and then backed slowly away, looking dignified and a little outraged.

She glanced expectantly at Roberta who had meanwhile found a seat right across the aisle, but she just stared back.

Ginny, who was standing, whispered loudly, "Get up, Roberta, and give her your seat!"

"If she wants to sit down, there's a seat right there," she answered calmly, with the gleam of battle in her eyes.

Carol maneuvered herself into a position to close the aisle, and the old lady either had to sit down or move farther back into the colored section. The other passengers had by now noticed the little drama, and were craning their necks around to watch.

Strangely, no one intervened, no one got up to give the old lady another seat.

The Negress made an attempt to get up, but Carol stayed where she

was, and it was impossible for her to squeeze her huge bulk pa st the girl. There was a pregnant , excited silence.

"Carol! Move out of the way so she can get by!" Ginny's agoni zed voice shot out, breaking the void.

"No, I want the lady to sit down.

Won't you sit down, Madam?" The titles were said with lazy impe rtinence. The old lady's eyes shif ted nervously from one girl to the other.

She watched the ten sion between the two build, kno wing she could either sit down or wait for something to happen. She glanced again toward the Negr ess, but the breeding of generations was too much, and she stood with her back turned toward the empt y seat and the mortified black wom an.

Ginny was pleading, "Pl ease, Carol, you're making a scene. Move now so she can-" "If that old bitch wants a seat," it was Roberta, the leader , interrupting-afraid that Carol would weaken, "she can damn well- " She didn't finish. Ginny moved quickly and slapped her , har d, across the face. Then, with the same hand, she reached for the buzzer cord, hardly looking at the angry red of her roommate's cheek.

"If you don't act like a lady, you won't be treated like one by me," she said, moving past the stupified Carol to leave the bus. It was only later that they realized she had spoken with a rather marked Southern accent.

UNIVERSITY

MESSE GER

THREE

SIREN What terrible thing screams so loud That the morning is cracked and bruised?

When too, the pedestrians stop to strain And breathe Before the busses run.

Then stare at red monster streak past, Glancing for a Moment With fiery red eye.

MOON

Stars interlude the spiral flight, Digression from earthly theme Forever Reflecting numberless points to Intrigue the seeking eye .

A fragile bead strung between mind And infinity, Swaddled in silence-dead silence; Other life But dead silence still.

DESIGNS IN MONUMENTS

Spiral of stone-towers to mind Offering a scene behind to eyes long Since blind.

And still they line the parkway to Gaze at past Through eyes long since blind , Knowing the name and face too fast; Blind gazes at the past .

TRANSITION -Lester

JANUARY, 1955

N. Blackiston.

15

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