MYSTERY
HISTORY
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By
GLENN HASSELROOTH
City, Athena.
State, Okl^rada.
Time, the last 25 years.
Characters, Americans.
“What People Said,” by W. L.
White is a novel, no fairy tale,
even if its locale is given a fic
titious name.
You’d like Athena if you could
see it, drive down its wide
streets that are clean and well
decorated with shrubs and flow
ers. You’d like its white houses
sitting quietly with smug ease
in the centers of green lawns.
When you drive past the
churches into the business dis
trict, you will naturally see the
building of the Sun, one of the
best known newspapers in Okla
rada. And of course you’ll see
the bank. You may park your
car and sit back and watch the
people, walking by in undis
turbed, jovial harmony. All in
all, Athena can make a fine im
pression on you.
But the air is warm and you
feel thirsty for a drink. You get
out and start looking for a soda
fountain, and finally wind up at
Davie Hughes’ drug store.
Things seem busier in there
than on the street.
While you’re sipping your
coke, you’ll hear things—things
you may like to hear and things
you may not. Some of them will
be brazenly spoken; others will
be whispered almost impercep
tibly. But you’ll hear all of
them. As you pay for your
drink and walk back to your
car, the streets won’t look so
clean and wide, the cheery
smiles on the people’s faces may
take on a slightly sneering
turn, you’ll notice the little
sticks that have blown from the
prairie across the fresh, green
lawns.
You think you’ll leave Athena
and never return. But when you
get about to the city limits
where the Lions club sign tells
you to come again, you decide
not to go. You might hang
around; with all those things
you’ve heard, something might,
begin to happen. All the ends
of those stories don’t seem to
fit together, but if you knew
just a bit more . . .
Mr. White can tell you all
about Athena. He knows folks
in those parts inside out. He’ll
tell you how they look, what
they think about, how they
talk, what they work at, and
what they do after office hours.
In the argot of the Middle
Westerner he speaks to you.
Not in a very loud voice, not al
ways a pleasing tone, but he’ll
keep you listening. Back before
the war things were very differ
ent in Athena. Charles Adding
ton Carrough was editor of the
Sun, and the most famous
novelist in all Oklarada. Every
body knew and liked Mr. Car
rough, and Mrs. Carrough, and
their little boy, Junior.
;|c :jc :'fi
Then the Norssexes came to
Athena. Isaac Norssex also had
a wife and a boy, Lee. Nobody
in Athena knew anything about
the Norssexes, but after Mr.
Norssex had been in the bank
a while and become a friend of
Mr. Carrough, and their two
boys had become pals, Athena
took to the Norssex family.
The war came and was over,
business slumped and boomed,
depression came. Each period
'Man of Steel' and His Bride
Freddie Steele and wife ... on a marriage license issued last June
they were listed as Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Earl Bargett.
265 Students Doing NYA
Work; Scholarship Up
Of 265 U. of O. students now working on NYA, 49 were on the
honor rail for fall term, it was disclosed yesterday by Karl W.
Onthank, dean of personnel. Six of these students received straight
A’s, he said.
For campus NYA work during the last three months of this
school year, students will receive more than $9,000. All of this
work has been assigned.
Undergraduates working on NYA receive from $9.80 to $19.95
per month, the dean. said. Only graduate students are permitted
to receive more than $20 monthly, by government regulation.
New students in the undergraduate group (those who entered
college or university for the first time this school year), number
105. Sophomores, juniors, and seniors total 152. There are eight
graduate workers.
Of the total 265 on NYA, there are 164 men and 101 women.
had a definite effect on the -
characters of the Athenians,
mostly not for the better. Lit
tle by little the hidden qualities,
cooped up for years by pleasant
bourgeois manners, are revealed.
We see them in closeups, un
masked.
More than 600 pages long,
“What People Said” is told in
Mr. White’s clipped, “talkable”
style. Although he occasional
ly pulli* his punches, Author
White usually refuses to be
compromising in dramatic situa
tions.
The novel has undeniable
story values, but we enjoyed it
more for its detail, its conver
sations which sometimes seem
to be taken down verbatim from
life, such as the advice that Lee,
who had attended the state uni
versity for two years, gave
Junior, a freshman. Or the re
torts that Henny gave some of
the town busy bodies, when they
asked questions. And others.
Mr. White may yet turn into
the novelist Sinclair Lewis
might have been.
In June, W. L. White will be
38 years old. The son of Wil
liam Allen White of the Em
poria Gazette, he may be said
to have been born for writing.
He has worked for his father,
a Washington newspaper, the
Republican party, and now,
Fortune magazine. Besides be
ing schooled at the University
of Kansas and Harvard, he has
the advantage of several Euro
pean trips to his credit, a term
in the Kansas legislature, and a
wife.
Send the Emerald home. Your
folks will enjoy reading it.
1 ' ■; r I f » " > i ir '■ : i
Volchok Is Guest
On Emerald of Air
Zollie Volchok, assistant educa
tional activities director was last
night interviewed regarding his
work by Paul Stewart, Emerald
of the air reporter.
Volchok was the first to be in
terviewed this week. He will be
followed tonight by Dale Malli
coat, who is well known on the
campus for his exceptional art
work.
STUDENTS INTERVIEWED
Walter Sullivan, personnel di
rector of Pacific Fruit and Pro
duce company, was at the employ
ment office for a few hours Wed
nesday afternoon interviewing
seniors for permanent jobs. Sulli
van who came on short notice was
able to interest only 14 students.
Represented for National Advertising by
National Advertising Service,- Inc.
College Publishers Representative
420 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y.
Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles,
San Francisco
1937 Member 1938
Associated Collegiate Press
Maxine Glad, Thurs. Adv. Mgr.
Assistants: Vi Stillman, Jean Rawsou,
Roma Theabald.
EMERALD REPORTERS
Rod Orange
Lyle Nelson
Elizabeth Jones
Bud Jermain
Betty Hamilton
Dorothy Burke
Sadie Mitchell
Betty Thompson
Bill Scott
(iene Snyder
Glenn Hasselrcoth
Pat Krickson
Priscilla Marsh
Gordon Ridgeway
Bud Updike
Cathy Taylor
Ken Kirtley
NIGHT EDITORS
Chief Night Editor this issue:
Priscilla Marsh,
Assistant Night Editors :
Lee Babcock Jack Farris
Harold Lomreaux James d imming
Wednesday Night Desk Staff
Rod Orange Gene Snyder
Gordon Ridgeway
• : i ( I ' ' -It
I
Low IQ of Teachers Due to Laxity
In Standard Explains Prof. Smith
Recent reports from a survey made in Pennsylvania by the Car
negie foundation for the advancement of teachers disclosed the fact
that the majority of college seniors who are prospective high school
teachers do not know as much as the pupils they teach.
Professor S. Stephenson Smith, of the English department, at
tributes this condition to the fact that the standards for teachCK-*
have been lowered because they are not required to prove their aca
demic qualifications.
"Students should asked to pass rigid subject matter examina
I
I
I
Skull anil Dagger will meet this
morning at 10 in the College Side.
There will be a regular meeting
of the Christian Science organiza
tion tonight at 8 o’clock in Ger
linger hall. All friends and facul
| ty members are cordially invited
to attend.
AWS Carnival directors will
meet this morning at 9:30 at Col
lege Side.
Meeting today at 4 o’clock up
stairs in the Side for house rep
resentatives for AWS Carnival
booths.
Campus
Calendar I
Backseat Driver
(Continued from page two)
est and the situation began to
take on the character of a major
crisis we both quietly collected our
belongings and marched out o‘f the
store in silence.
“Well,” Alice Toots grunted at
last after several blocks of home
ward trek had' been covered in si
lence, “It was only a gesture. A
new spring hat would have looked
pretty silly with your last year’s
clothes, anyhow.”
And so, dear friends, if Easter
morning dawns behind a screen of
wintry clouds, don’t be too diffi
cult, for remember . . . there is one
who is rejoicing.
Coed of the Week
iContinued from page three)
father edits a newspaper, brought
forth no special enthusiasm. It
seems that she never gets home
sick, writes home infrequently and
has not spent more than two weeks
at a time home since she left there
five years ago. She thinks it’s a
good thing she doesn’t get home
sick because she plans to work on
the coast after graduation.
Plans to Teach
She has a job teaching dancing
and dramatics in Wildwood Girl
Scout camp, near Portland. After
that she wants to teach dancing
in either a public or private school.
In recalling amusing things that
have happened to her she laugh
ingly told of her trip to Los An
geles from Indianapolis on the
bus. She had been riding com
fortably along near the front of
the bus with her shoes off when
the engine burst into flames. She
hastily scrambled out in front of
the other passengers in her stock
ing feet. And in her stocking feet
she remained until the fire had
been put out.
Lives in Co-op
La Von lives in the University
Co-op and works in a local dance
studio. Cooperatives were another
thing she had never heard of until
she came to Oregon. She thinks
they are grand for girls going to
school on limited finances. She
was affiliated with Kappa Kappa
Gamma at Butler. She considers
living in a cooperative a very val
ual experience and commented on
the harmonious spirit found there.
The interview was brought to
an abrupt end when La Von dis
covered it was time for her to be
on life guard duty at the pool.
tions administered by the major
departments in the state system
of higher education before they;
are allowed to teach,” he said. <fc
is true that their hours of educa
tion have been increased, but their
academic knowledge is not bi cutl
enough.”
Professor Smith believes that
teachers are not held in high
cial esteem, so consequently many;
of the better students do not
into the teaching profession. Sineo
leadership of the community rest;-*
in the hands of businessmen,
bankers, and editors, and sined
the monetary returns from teach-*
ing are much lower than from
business, he said, many entei’prij
ing young men and women seelr,
these other fields.
Ratcliffe to Speak
To Sigma Delta Chi
Guest of honor at a Sigma E*el-*
ta Chi banquet at the Anchorage
tonight will be S. K. Radcliffi',
British author and journalist, this
morning's assembly speaker.
The noted journalist will speak
informally on European journal
ism, and will answer questions cn
that subject and others.
The banquet is scheduled to be-*
gin at 5:30.
VALMA . . . Perceptual Reader;*
Belvedere Hotel, next to Singer
Machine Co. Phone 593, Room £3.
The Petite Shop. Dressmaking
and Altering; 573 E. 13, ph. 3203.
DR. ELLIOTT
Optometrist Optician .
FREE EXAMINATION
SPECIAL
STUDENT PRICES
Over Kuykendall Drug Store
874 Will. St. Phone 429
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