We are glad to see that President Conant has appointed a Committee on Seals, Arms, and Diplomas to deal with doubted legitimacy of Harvard's famous Veritas escutcheon. The baroque plaster and wood emblazoned over the Dunster House Library probably constitutes Complaint No. 1, as it is radically incorrect. When the original designers took their idea to America's greatest heraldic wood carver in 1929 they were politely thrown out of the shop. The craftsman said he would not be party to such nonsense. He proved to his would-be elients that the lozenged shape of the ornament was the heraldic symbol of spinsterdom. Unmoved the Committee on House Decorations had the work done elsewhere.
Similar feelings must have been felt by a member of the Saltonstall family, who wrote to the Secretary for information in University Hall whether he was aware that the cough-drop shaped affair on the Dunster Gable was the mark of a spinster. To this the Secretary replied, with some wit, asking whether Mr. Saltonstall did not consider his Alma Mater a spinster.
"Yes, but that would be casting aspersions on her Sons." wrote back Mr. Saltonstall.
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BOOK NOTES
Among the duplicate books which the College is offering for sale in the basement of Widener is "School and College Finance," a well-known treatise. The successful management of the University Dining Halls last year ($40,000 profit) shows, we infer, that book-learning is not really necessary hereabouts.
Someone stole the notebook from the Guard Table of the Adams House Gold Room Guard.
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