THE VIA'fQRIAN
THE CANISIUS 1v!ONTHLY:-Fron1 Buffalo, N.Y., The 'C anisius Monthly strides into our sanctum. The verse on the · ;fi rst page ent~tled " BaiL Child,'_' is ..:3:bout. as::~ood as the maj_o~it~ 19f poems wntten by college n1en on the subject of the N attvtty.l :When the author refers to Bethlehen1· as "The Fountain . of; Mi rth" he un·d oubtedly means well, but notwithstanding his good intentions the Ex1nan thinks that t4e 1tw? ideas, i. e., the birth-· place of our Saviour and a f9untain .o_f 1nirth, are incongruous. The scene was one o f awe-inspiring .sublin1ity and joy, it is. true, but the words joy and n1irth carry with the111 decidedly different shades of n1eaning. "Christmas in No. 38" is a cleverly written little story. The author seems to excel - in powers of description. " Incarnat.u s" ·is ·rather incoherently put together. The author o f "MusiC' of Christn1as Night" ingeniously sees music in ahnost everything pertaining to Christn1as. · Why refer to the Christlnas rnoon as " golden?" The "Fountain of Inspiration" is an interesting story, but hardly true to life. Is it possible that the author really wants us to believe that a dope fiend does not know the difference between the taste of his favorite drug and the taste o f plain, unadulterated 11 2 0? The lines in the verse "1\fother'' seem to be forced, strained, artificial , and unpoetical. The n1anner in which Christn1as is celebrated in Poland is pleasantly told in "Christlnas Customs in Poland." The Exn1an would like to be a child should the hypothetical propoition "If I Were King," offered as the title for a jingling little verse, ever con1e true. The clin1ax of " Doubly True" smacks of the n1elodran1atic. All that is lacking is a succession of cappistol shots and the rattle o f tin pans to 1nake the reader believe he is witnessing a blood-curdling thriller. The n1ethod of ctecribing a battle fr om a window is so antiquated that every time one sees or hears it he thinks of n1oss. The ending is very unsatisfactorily fr om a melodran1atic point of view. Why not have the hero shot in the left arm? Then have the heroine approach him and say, in a voice choked with emotion, "Darling, forgive me ; I knew all along you could do it." The heroine must approach the wounded knight from the right side so that he may put his uninjured ann around her in a protecting n1anner, look into her deep brown orbs, face the audience and ·say,. ~' 'Tis well. " Curtain. The Exn1an cannot imagine what induced the author of "Yielding the Better Part" , to spoil his story by giving the clin1ax to us before the proper titne. The sen-:tence beginning "The good man could scarcely have been more overjoyed," etc., etc., . gives in a kernel what is to
. ·:-:1 ·~
.
·.~
....
"!!fr ~~
~·
t
.
,.. ~
'
,~·
Ji:'
}:
~~·
II''•
'! ~·
.,
\'