Page 40 - To Dragma October 1933

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The concluding feature of the day's festivi-
ties was the tea and reception at Chase Hall
given by Mrs. Clifton D. Gray, wife of the
president and assisted by Mrs. A. A. Hovey,
president of the Bates Needle club, the fac-
ulty women presiding at the tables and in
the receiving line with President and Mrs.
Gray were Dr. Mary Ellen Chase, Mrs. Harry
H. Burnham, of Biddeford, first vice president
of the State Federation, Mrs. Schoppe, Dr.
Wright and Dean Hazel Clark.
The tables were attractive with spring
flowers, and lighted candles and here several
of the professor's wives poured.—Lezviston
Daily Stin.
Dr. Chase Speaks at Bates
-f- DR. MARY E L L E N C H A S E ( r ) , devoted
daughter of Maine, head of the department
of English at Smith College, author of "A
Goodly Heritage," that autobiography-epic of
Maine coast life, gave an address Saturday
afternoon on "The Literary Background of
Maine," at the chapel which was well filled
for the occasion. It was more than an address,
it was an intimate, inspiring talk of Maine by a
daughter who well knows how to express her
love and admiration for her native state. She
is indeed a charming and gifted speaker.
Dr. Chase did not talk about the men and
women of letters, who have gone out from
Maine, but rather of Maine itself as their
background and the permanent qualities of the
Pine Tree State which form its brief char-
acteristics-equalities that go into the making
of distinguished sons and daughters—that fur-
nish ambition, inspiration, courage, fortitude.
Background, Dr. Mary Ellen Chase believes,
is more than mere setting. Literature is life
itself.
Maine literature is bound to reflect the rug-
gedness of her hills, her forests and her coast.
Dr. Chase's talk was an earthy one—a rhap-
sody on the good earth—State of Maine soil.
The most permanent quality of any state is
its soil, she said, the root of all our subsistence ten—went back to the rostrum and turned off
and sustenance. All great literature is related
to the soil. The books that live are those that
have to do with the permanent elements of
life.
Willa Gather, whose books are deeply rooted
in the soil, was named as the greatest Amer-
ican novelist now living. The speaker also
referred to the recent novel by Gladys Hasty
Carroll, a Maine girl and Bates graduate: "As
the Earth Turns," chosen as the best novel of
the year by the Book of the Month Club, best
because of the permanent elements which
formed its background—the close relationship
of her people to the soil, of its influence on
their daily lives, as the seasons change.
The Maine born have two special urges,
according to Dr. Chase, the passion for work
and the passion for learning.
The early New England pioneers were edu-
cated men, many of them graduated from
English universities. They learned to work
with their hands, between times studying and
reading good books such as were available
To DRAGMA
in those days, building up a literary heritage
for succeeding generations.
Speaking of certain characteristics handed
down to us from our Puritan forefathers, she
pointed out a certain pride in orderliness we
have inherited—a striving for harmony with
life about us. Illustrating this peculiar virtue
which is ours with the story of a dear old
New England lady 97 years of age, who loved
cleanliness and order. One day she fell and
broke her hip. Her family, after sending for
doctors and meanwhile doing everything pos-
sible to make the poor woman more com-
fortable, expressed concern for the apparent
pain she was suffering. "It isn't that," she re-
plied, "some one has forgotten to dust the
top of the mirror."
The speaker admitted she also had a weak-
ness for straightening out closets and drawers
and derived a lively sense of satisfaction from
such a task well done—as noble a job as teach-
ing or writing books in her opinion.
The high spots of life may be cleaning
closets, baking a good cake or glimpsing the
glory of a scarlet tanager in spring, a recent
experience of hers in Northampton, Massa-
chusetts. (We have them in Maine too and
there is also glory in the black and orange
of a Baltimore Oriole on an appletrcc bough
in bloom—the fragrance of the blossoms, the
vivid gold of the bird against the pale pink
bough, the sound of that full, cool note no
other bird has.)
Dr. Chase urged a greater knowledge of
and intimacy with our Maine soil, physical
contact with the earth itself. Every Maine
son and daughter, whether writers or not—
could learn the dignity of labor—feel the rhy-
thm of the earth—in order to get the most out
of the rich heritage that is theirs in being
Maine born.
Running true to good old New England
form, after taking her seat on the platform,
at the conclusion of her talk, Mary Ellen
Chase of Bluehill, Maine, incidentally doctor
of literature in a Massachusetts college, sud-
denly remembered something she had forgot-
the light.—Lezviston Daily Sun.
Alpha O Urges A i d for Blind
-4- ANNOUNCEMENT OF the results of the pre-
vious day's election and the presentation
of new officers and directors, marked the con-
clusion of the three-day convention of the
Massachusetts State Federation of Women's
Clubs yesterday at the New Ocean House in
Swampscott.
Mrs. Elmore I. MacPhie (A'13), chairman
of the division for the handicapped, announced
that the members of the convention had con-
tributed $240 in the collection taken for Miss
Mary Rollins, a blind musician who enter-
tained at the meeting on Wednesday. She
urged that clubs sponsor handicapped persons,
make friendly contacts with such people in
their own communities, and that each club
hold at least one sale a year when physically
handicapped persons can display the articles
they make.—Boston Herald.