The Lloyd C Douglas Page

Palm Sunday 1920, Part 4: The Procession

A passage from “Art Thou a King, Then?” a sermon preached by Lloyd C. Douglas at the First Congregational Church of Ann Arbor on March 28, 1920. (In Sermons [5], Box 3, Lloyd C. Douglas Papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. © University of Michigan.)

[This is a continuation of Lloyd Douglas’s Palm Sunday sermon at the University of Michigan (the First Congregational Church of Ann Arbor), preached on March 28, 1920, entitled, “Art Thou a King, Then?” (It can be found in “Sermons [5],” Box 3, Lloyd C. Douglas Papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. © University of Michigan.)

Christ is part of a caravan of pilgrims making their way into Jerusalem for Passover Week. They are singing the songs of deliverance. Douglas says:]

“There was just a slim chance that Israel, feverishly anxious to find adequate leadership, would listen to [Christ’s] message. If ever they were in a mood to hear an interpretation of God’s will, one would think that time was now.

“If he could only lead them to see that their Messianic hope must reside, at last, in a new social order, in a new spiritual commonwealth.

“It was worth trying.

“It would probably be unsuccessful, but it was worth trying. He resolved to submit himself to the outward tests of the Messiah, as picturesquely foretold by the prophets.

“His disciples were ordered to go find a colt, the foal of an ass. They spread their garments on the beast, in the presence of the curious throng of wayfarers. The word was passed along that the Young Prophet of Nazareth who was reputed to have healed the sick, whose words were quoted on every hand as words of authority, was about to ride into Jerusalem as the Messiah.

“Messengers rushed to Jerusalem and spread the tidings.

“Jesus rode slowly at the head of a vast concourse of people. Jerusalem poured through the city gates and hurried out to meet him.

“It is said that the road which he took still exists, winding around the shoulder of Olivet amid groves of figs and palms until, suddenly, across a wide ravine, Jerusalem rises like a city painted on the clouds.

“The crowd rifled the trees of their foliage and strewed the branches along the road for the advancing king. The cries of ‘Hosanna!’ filled the air. The multitude grew hysterical with joy. Never was there a scene of such enthusiasm; never a crowd so infatuated with a sublime idea.

“To those tumultuous throngs, it seemed that the knell of Rome had sounded. The long and often disappointed dream of Jewish nationality was coming true! The golden age had dawned — for, at last, a Jewish king was riding to his capital in triumph.

“Amid this tumult of delight which swept away all sober sense, no one was any longer capable of seeing things in clear and lucid outline; all swam through a dazzling mist; all caught the glamor of imagination.

“And least of all did the multitude perceive the growing sadness on the face of Jesus.

“At the distance of about a mile and a half from Bethany, the road abruptly bends to the right, a narrow plateau of rock is reached, and with a startling suddenness the whole city is revealed. Nowhere perhaps in all the world is there to be attained a view of a metropolis so complete in itself or so dramatic in the suddenness of its revelation.

“It was here that the procession halted.

“There stood the temple, filling every corner of the area with its multiplied and splendid colonnades, with its superb and lofty edifices, which crowded to the very edge of the abyss and rose from it like a glittering apparition.

“The whole city was planned upon a scale of almost equal grandeur. On every hand, mansions of marble rose out of gardens of exquisite verdure. Terrace upon terrace, the city climbed. In the northwest it was crowned by the porticoes of Herod’s palace; a vast aqueduct spanned the valley; and from the Temple to the upper city stretched a stately bridge; while the walls themselves, built of massive masonry and apparently impregnable, suggested a city ‘half as old as Time.’

“It was thus that these ecstatic pilgrims thought of the sacred city. Jerusalem — beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth — would endure forever, when Rome had vanished.

“If Jehovah had humbled her by permitting Roman occupation, it was only for a day — and the hour had now struck. The King was coming to his own. How delightful it was to shout ‘Our King’!

“But these were vain hopes and fond illusions, not shared by him whom they acclaimed. Where all was hope and pride and triumph, he alone was not elated. He alone saw the city with the prophet’s brooding eye; and as the procession halted on this rock plateau from which the whole vast panorama lay unfolded, an utter sadness fell upon his heart.

“And he wept.

“Jerusalem had rejected the things that might have made for her peace. It was too late to avert the disaster.

“To the consternation of his followers, Jesus wept what must have seemed to them tears of weakness in the very hour when courage was most needed to affirm of himself what they affirmed of him, that he was a king.

“Now, I think that anybody could tell the rest of this story even if he had never heard it. Need it be said that the crowd left off chanting and fell into little groups to discuss the situation in bewilderment? Need it be said that they threw away their palm branches and retired from him?

“He rode on into Jerusalem and saw it through. But it was a day of great disappointment — both for him and Jerusalem.

“They were not ready for an ideal king who believed in the social commonwealth of souls. They wanted a king who could give them political freedom — and, at length, political power.”

[To be continued in my next post…]

Palm Sunday 1920, Part 3: Pilgrims

by Ronald R Johnson

This is a continuation of Lloyd Douglas’s Palm Sunday sermon at the University of Michigan (the First Congregational Church of Ann Arbor), preached on March 28, 1920, entitled, “Art Thou a King, Then?” (It can be found in “Sermons [5],” Box 3, Lloyd C. Douglas Papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. © University of Michigan.)

“Early in the fourth year of his ministry, Jesus became conscious that the hostility of the priests would shortly produce a crisis. Their warnings had become more and more dramatic, and it was evident that another visit to Jerusalem would be fatal.

“Nevertheless, he resolved to go back to Jerusalem. He arrived in the vicinity of the Holy City a few days before the annual feast of the Passover and sojourned in the little village of Bethany among friends.

“I have already reminded you of the extraordinary excitement which agitated the whole of Palestine during the period of these Passover celebrations. On such occasions, the patriotic and religious ardor of the Jews ran like a flame throughout the land.

“There was no populous city of the East, no remote hamlet, which did not furnish its contingent to what was practically a concentration of the Israelitish forces. These innumerable bands of pilgrims marched upon Jerusalem from every quarter, singing the ancient psalms of Israel — encouraging in one another a joyous ecstasy, full of eager, albeit long-deferred, hope of some great national deliverance to which the past history of their race, and especially the history of the Passover itself, gave vigorous sanction. It has been said that not fewer than a million non-resident Jews gathered in Jerusalem on this occasion.

“Camps sprang up outside the city walls, and contiguous villages like Bethany were crowded to overflowing. Every road leading to the city was thronged with pilgrims who daily increased in numbers as the solemn fate drew near.

“Much has been said, from time to time, about the loneliness of leadership. It is true that every great man who has offered the human race some new apprehension of truth has led a lonely life, for all that he was surrounded constantly with crowds of people.

“And there is nothing more touching, I think, than the sight of a great leader repudiating his natural desire for intimate friendships and his innate longing to be in and of the common life of his generation — in order to accomplish his mission.

“St. Paul hinted at this when he said to the young Timothy, whom he had just appointed an ambassador of the Christian religion at a court where the new spiritual cultus was in high disfavor:

“‘No man that would be a soldier dare entangle himself in the affairs of civilian life.

“‘May the Lord give thee understanding of this. Study to show thyself approved of God.’

“Doubtless there was a strong tug at the heart of Jesus to join these singing pilgrims and enter with them into the joy of this great family reunion of his own people. Jerusalem meant much to him. The fascinatingly interesting history of his nation was very dear to him.

“If he could only have put aside for a few days the responsibility of his task and have gone to the feast as a pilgrim, it would have been a delight.

“History furnishes many a tale of young kings who have left their thrones to wander about the country incognito and live for a little time like the common people.

“I suppose there is no more cruel bondage to be had than the slavery connoted by a crown. And the loneliest people in all creation are kings.

“Jesus must have felt strangely apart from everything that the people considered to be worthwhile on the morning of the day which we are now celebrating.

“There they marched, chanting the old petition for a deliverer, a Messiah, who would rule Thy people Israel.

“Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, thy king cometh, riding upon a colt. Rejoice, O Jerusalem. Break forth into joy. Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.’

“Jesus contemplated that situation with increasing interest, and a new idea grappled with him. Would it be possible?

“There was just a slim chance that Israel, feverishly anxious to find adequate leadership, would listen to his message. If ever they were in a mood to hear an interpretation of God’s will, one would think that time was now.”

[To be continued in my next post…]

Palm Sunday 1920, Part 2: Not Political

by Ronald R Johnson

“‘Wanted: a Messiah,’ then! That was the cry of Israel on the sunny Sunday morning which we commemorate as the Day of Palms.

“Now, having looked at the demand, let us examine the supply.

“Jesus of Nazareth was not a man to whom the Jewish public would instinctively turn for Messianic leadership. And very few had ever thought of him in this connection. His hold upon the masses was irresistible and they followed him about from place to place as sheep follow a shepherd.

“But he had never made any attempt to organize them or influence them to a mass movement. He had strong words for the priests, whom he called ‘blind leaders of the blind,’ and he dealt unsparingly with the whole system of religious profiteering in vogue at the temple, but he had never tried to equip any of the machinery of overthrow, even for these unscrupulous custodians of the nation’s religion.

“Many times they sounded his political views, without satisfactory results. Fully understanding the motives with which they asked such questions, Jesus practiced canny evasions of the subject by employing the case in hand as an illustration to point a moral in spiritual life.

“They said: ‘Is it just that we should be required to pay a per capita tax to the Roman government?’

“He rejoined: ‘How much is it?’

“They replied: ‘One denarius.’

“‘Let me see one,’ he demanded.

“Somebody in the crowd passed him a coin, and while all stood waiting, breathlessly, for a sensation, he turned the piece of money over and over in his palm and inquired: ‘It bears the image of a face. Whose face is it?’

“‘Caesar’s,’ they answered in concert and in a tone that encouraged him to express himself concerning that person.

“‘And on the other side is a signature. Whose is that?’

“‘Caesar’s,’ they shouted, now making no attempt to temper their indignation.

“‘It belongs to Caesar, then?’

“Nobody was able to deny the ownership if a piece of property that had a man’s picture on one side and his signature on the other. If it is Caesar’s…

“‘Give it back to Caesar!’ said Jesus. ‘And give back to God that which is His.’

“If one studies this episode critically, one is forced to admit that Jesus decision in regard to the justness of the tax was quite beside the point.

“Strictly speaking, the denarius did not belong to the man whose face and hand were stamped upon it, but to the possessor — and its value was not intrinsic but legally ascribed to it. But it was an easy and harmless way out of a trying situation in which almost any serious answer would have been misconstrued.

“Again, when the priests were anxious to convict him of the usurpation of power, they asked him, upon the conclusion of an address, ‘Who gave you the authority to utter these words?’

“And he promised to tell them, provided they would first answer him a question. They consented readily, for the priests were prepared to meet any and all queries.

“‘The baptismal ceremony administered by John, the Nazarite — was it of heaven, or of men?’

“It just happened that there were scores of people standing about, listening, who had accepted the baptismal rite at the hands of John and believed it to be a divine conferment of grace.

“And the priests reasoned thus with themselves: ‘If we shall say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why, then, did ye not believe in him?’ And if we say ‘Of men,’ — well, there are the people.’

“So they said: ‘We will not answer.’

“And Jesus replied: ‘Neither will I.’

“Now, our Lord did not go about hedging and evading problems of real concern to the establishment of life’s realities in men’s hearts. His teaching was wholly constructive and unequivocal.

“‘If you would live, you must love.’

“‘If you would be great, you must serve.’

“‘If you would be pardoned for your mistakes, you must forgive others their mistakes.’

“‘Do not parade your charity or your piety before men, but exert it in secret.’

“‘Avoid the trumpet and street-corner method of doing and being good.’

“‘It is only the life of the soul that really matters. Keep your soul alive. The dead carry nothing out of this world except such things as they have given away.’

“‘Blessed are the poor, the mourners, the persecuted, the friendless — for theirs is the kingdom of God, and they are called to be the children of God.’

“‘It is readily to be seen that the Isrealitish quest of a Messiah who would restore the lost prestige of the Davidic throne failed to comprehend this Nazarene idealist as a possible candidate.

“Nor is it entirely clear that Jesus considered himself a fulfillment of this national dream which had accumulated so many features of no interest to him. He had in mind an ideal spiritual commonwealth — and, as its founder, he could, by accommodation, admit that he was a king of this new state; but the fact was ever more apparent to him that his conception of the ideal commonwealth of souls was so remote from their ideal, both as to motive and method, that by no stretch of the imagination could he persuade himself that this nation would accept his leadership.

“That we may be doubly assured of this feeling on the part of the Master, we have but to review his attitude toward the Galilean public when, early in his ministry, they tried to force him to be their king. He doubtless would have been willing to accept the leadership they offered him that day, but for the fact that in their minds it carried with it some semblance of political authority. The men who offered him the crown hoped to receive some recognition.

“If there had been the slightest suspicion of a yearning for political power or popularity in the mind of Jesus, he would have made good use of his opportunity to organize the Galileans at the time when they urged kingship upon him.

“Less than a week thereafter, he is saying things to them which were so difficult to understand — things which concerned the ultimate values of the life of the soul — that they left him; and when they were all gone, he turned to the little group of disciples who stood there wondering at his careless disregard of popular approval and said, ‘Will ye also go away?’

“It was an honest question. He did not know, certainly, that they wouldn’t go.”

[To be continued in my next post…]

Palm Sunday 1920, Part 1: The Coming Messiah

by Ronald R Johnson

The title page of “Art Thou a King, Then?” a sermon preached by Lloyd C. Douglas at the First Congregational Church of Ann Arbor on March 28, 1920. (In Sermons [5], Box 3, Lloyd C. Douglas Papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. © University of Michigan.)

Last September I began a series of posts featuring the sermons that Lloyd C. Douglas preached at the First Congregational Church of Ann Arbor during the 1919-1920 school year. A student had collected the transcripts and donated them to the Lloyd Douglas Archive years later.

Here is the last sermon in that collection: Douglas’s Palm Sunday sermon, preached on March 28, 1920, entitled, “Art Thou a King, Then?” It can be found in “Sermons [5],” Box 3, Lloyd C. Douglas Papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. (© University of Michigan.)

He begins:

“Not infrequently, special messages are issued from the Executive Mansion in Washington, urging the people of the United States to put aside their work and commemorate the deeds of some national hero. Occasionally, they are asked to assemble themselves in their customary places of worship to pray for a grave cause which seems in jeopardy; or to give thanks for abundant harvests or the blessing of peace.

“One could wish that in view of the present social, economic, and political ill-health of this country, a call had gone forth requesting all loyal and patriotic Americans to gather in their churches on this Palm Sunday of 1920 to consider what manner of leadership they desire. For the problem of ‘National Leadership’ was at issue on the Day of Palms.

“I do not mean that it would be the part of wisdom for Americans to assemble in their churches today to discuss the relative merits of the various candidates for the Presidency — but to reflect upon the type of leadership in demand now at this hour of rather serious emergency.

“It might be pertinent to inquire of ourselves whether, if a man of the Jesus type of mind were to appear, we would welcome him or repudiate him.

“As a nation, what are we out after? What is our highest ambition?

“If we can discover just what that is, then we will know what manner of leadership we desire.

“So; the lesson of Palm Sunday is decidedly important at the hour. And that we may be in a position to learn something from the blunders of the people who staged that impressive pageant so long ago, it is necessary that we should know the conditions of their country.

“The Jewish people longed for an ideal leader. It was an ancient hope which had first become articulate with the great seers and prophets of the eighth century.

“Previous to that approximate date, a vague longing stirred Israelitish leaders to found a civil-and-religious state under the direction of some heroic figure cast in the Mosaic mold — an aspiration which lacked definite expression. It remained for the clear-thinking and far-visioned writers of the Apocalyptic literature to translate this yearning for a king into the language of the people and predict his coming in tones of sturdy conviction, somewhat after the manner in which we have been promising ourselves that the fine idealism of a freeborn and liberty-loving democracy must, in time, produce a certain moral supremacy, at once a pattern and ambition for the other nations of the world.

“As the ages passed and the successive generations of prophets copied, in colors, the rough drawings which their predecessors had made of the nation’s Deliverer, it is only natural that this picture should become embellished with much intricacy of detail.

“On an appointed day, the New King would ride into the city, to be instantly recognized by the populace. The pageantry of the old Davidic days was to be quite outdone by this ovation in which the discordant elements of the kingdom would forget their divisive principles to shout: ‘Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.’

“Now; all Israel had nourished this darling hope which had increasingly deepened into faith until the Nation that had lived so much upon the glory of the past found its highest pride in the promised richness of the future.

“Every Jewish girl prayed that she might be found worthy to give her nation a king. And the burden of the temple prayers, and the theme of the antiphonal chants, and the orotund canticles of the priests were one and the same: ‘Say to the Daughter of Zion, Behold, thy king cometh — the King of Glory. Who is the King of Glory? The Lord, strong and mighty. He is the King of Glory.’

“One does not like to cloud this ideal portrait of a nation’s dreams with a rehearsal of the fact that, occasionally, some young man was presented to the public as the consummation of the sublime forecast. But since one must be faithful not only to the poetry but the history, as well, of this interesting tale, it must be admitted that Messiahs had come and gone with considerable frequency and regularity for some time previous to the period in Jewish life which holds, for us, the largest significance.

“No one of these numerous Messiahs had been able to exert an influence over any large number of people, or for more than a brief day, but reported Messianic advents, from time to time, differing only in minor details, distinctly alike in the disappointment they produced, had made Israel sluggish on the point of investigating Messianic claims.

“Now that Palestine had become tributary to the Roman Empire, however, and the impositions of the Caesars more severely tried their endurance, the Jews renewed their interest in the Messianic prophecies and cast about desperately for some leader whose capacities might measure to the ancient requirements of an ideal king. This ambition reached flood-tide on the occasion of the annual Passover feast, when Jews from all nations sought sanctuary, for a few days, in the Holy City of their fathers.

“Pontius Pilate, the then Roman governor of Judea, was by nature far from being a diplomat; and his want of tact in handling his Hebrew constituency never was displayed more conspicuously than during these great festival events. Pilate never was able to understand why the Jews did not love and honor Rome. It was doubtless due to some racial eccentricity which he could overcome by familiarizing the people with the sights and sounds of things Romanesque.

“So he built huge amphitheaters in the prevailing Roman style and established games and sports of the current Roman vogue. He rebuilt old Jewish cities and gave them new Roman names.

“And when the Israelites met to celebrate their national feast, he filled the streets with gaily-uniformed Roman soldiers in the fond belief that his provincial subjects would take pride in seeing these flashy exponents of Caesar’s civilization honoring the occasion with their presence. Which produced exactly the opposite effect and infuriated the Hebrew public to a state of near-revolution.

“And had Pilate built his praetorium on the crater’s edge of a volcano, his situation would have been no more precarious.

“Any daring young Israelite of magnetic personality who enjoyed the people’s confidence would have needed only to apply the torch of revolution to this general sentiment and Caesar’s local establishment could have been swept off its feet in an hour. What might happen later was, of course, problematical. That, again, would depend upon the ability of the revolutionary leader. Almost anybody could start a revolution; no one but Messiah could see it through.

“‘Wanted: a Messiah,’ then! That was the cry of Israel on the sunny Sunday morning which we commemorate as the Day of Palms.”

[To be continued in my next post…]

Douglas’s Anonymous Limericks (Part 4)

by Ronald R Johnson

From the Michigan Daily, sometime in Fall 1919.

This is the last of this short series on limericks that Lloyd Douglas published anonymously in the Michigan Daily in the Fall of 1919. An upperclassman gives advice to freshmen. There are two limericks today: “Concerning Raiment,” and “Concerning Discipline.”

CONCERNING RAIMENT

The Newcomer Says:

Last week Bill Jones spent 60 bones
On personal adornment:
Bill rooms with me, so you can see
How that would cause forlornment.

For I must save what chink I have
To spend on food and shelter;
While Bill can throw his father’s dough
Around quite helter-skelter.

Sometimes I feel I’d rather steal
Than wear this store-bought clothing;
I look a fright – the very sight
Fills me with utter loathing.

Today Bill said, ‘What’s in your head?
Why mind a little lying?
My Dad I wired ‘More books required,’
And he came through a-flying.

‘Your folks will do the same for you,
Just pad your memorandum.
A little more won’t make ‘em sore,
When your account you hand ‘em.’

However much I hate to lie
And know it is unlawful,
My trousers feel like bags of meal,
Too wide, too long, too awful!

The Old Timer Replies:

Queer circumstance! A pair o’ pants
Costs this Newcomer’s reason;
I didn’t know that wool would go
As high as that this season.

Concoct your lie and get it by!
The breeches! Go, and win ‘em!
You’ll look so cute in your new suit –
And feel so happy in ‘em!

CONCERNING DISCIPLINE

The Newcomer Says:

Last night at nine some friends of mine,
Whom I have met quite lately,
Strolled in to call from ‘cross the hall.
I greeted them sedately.

They seemed inclined to let me find
A theme for conversation,
So I told all I could recall
Of High School recreation –

The medal that I captured at
Our contest in athletics;
The prize I won when we put on
The amateur dramatics –

I told them, too, what I’ve told you
Of her whose heart I’ve broken.
Said they, ‘Too bad – ‘tis very sad;
Such words should ne’er be spoken.’

I hope that they come back some day,
Their visit was delightful;
Though I could see they envied me
They were not one bit spiteful.

The Old Timer Replies:

My friend, this means you’ve spilled the beans:
I shudder at your story.
No doubt these men will come again,
But when they do, be sorry.

Hereafter when some genial men
Drop in for conversation
Be careful lest you prove a pest
Inviting castigation.

Last year a lad – he was not bad,
Just talkative and flighty –
Addressed a loud and merry crowd
On State Street in his nightie.

Douglas’s Anonymous Limericks (Part 3)

by Ronald R Johnson

I am continuing this short series of limericks that Lloyd Douglas published anonymously in the Michigan Daily during the Fall of 1919. They are aimed at freshmen at the University of Michigan, giving them advice on campus life. An upperclassman, called “The Old-Timer” advises the “Newcomer.” Today’s subject comes in two parts. It’s called “Concerning Romance.”

Concerning Romance (a)

The Newcomer Says:

‘Most every day I sneak away
Where not a soul can find me;
And there I write with all my might,
To the girl I left behind me.

She is a dear (would she were here!)
But she’ll not go to college;
In Junior High, she heaved a sigh,
And gave up seeking knowledge.

But I’ll say she looks good to me,
Whate’er her lack of learning;
I twang the lyre, for half a quire,
Some days when I am yearning.

If you were I, would you not buy
A ring for this fair Treasure?
I think I can (installment plan)
‘Twould bring us both much pleasure.

The Old Time Replies:

Unless I miss my guess in this,
You now have in the making,
A sad, sweet lay to chant some day,
When your two hearts are breaking.

Five years from now I wonder how
You’ll like her conversation;
When you have been crammed to the chin
With higher education.

Oh yes, my friend, I comprehend –
‘Absence – the heart grow fonder’ –
But later, when you meet again,
You will have passed beyond her.

Far better wait and contemplate
This course before you take it:
Why win her heart while you’re apart;
Then feel obliged to break it?

Concerning Romance (b)

The Newcomer Says:

Perhaps you are right, Old Wisdom Light –
I see your point quite clearly:
I might be led to some co-ed
Whom I could love as dearly.

In fact, today, there crossed my way
A most entrancing vision;
I would have smiled, had that sweet child
Not marched with such precision.

She seemed so wise, would you advise
That I should try to meet her?
For instance, when we pass again,
Should I attempt to greet her?

Or should I wait some turn of Fate
To furnish introduction?
Or boldly trace her rooming place;
Please – what is your deduction?

The Old Timer Replies:

Pathology – page sixty-three –
Explains your case verbatim:
At eighteen years, a germ appears –
(No doctor can get at ‘em).

And, for a time, youth takes to rhyme –
Exuding sticky sonnets
Inspired by girls with radiant curls
Projecting from their bonnets.

This curious germ works for a term,
Producing pain and sorrow;
In love with May or Maude today –
In love with Madge tomorrow.

You’re stricken, now, with Abstract Love –
And while the bug is touring,
You’ll see a face, ‘most any place
Resistlessly alluring.

Douglas’s Anonymous Limericks (Part 2)

by Ronald R Johnson

From the Michigan Daily (the student paper of the University of Michigan) sometime in October 1919.

This is Part 2 in a short series of posts about some anonymous limericks Lloyd Douglas wrote for the Michigan Daily, the student paper at the University of Michigan, in the fall of 1919. These were meant as advice to incoming freshmen. “The Newcomer” tells about himself and an “Old Timer” (an upperclassman) offers advice. This one was printed sometime in October 1919 and it was titled, “Concerning Etiquette”:

The Newcomer Says:

I love this free Democracy
Where all of us are brothers;
But where I eat on Duroc Street
They also board some others.

My Uncle! You should see this crew –
Their arms up on the table –
Our food supplies they vocalize
As loudly as they’re able.

And when the feat is quite complete
And they have mopped the platter,
They find a stick and gouge and pick
Where anything’s the matter.

Now I was taught that men of thought
Are persons of good breeding;
Please tell me why this rule’s awry
When college men are feeding.

The Old Timer Replies:

My cultured friend, you need not mend
The maxim you have quoted;
Most men of thought, as you were taught,
Are for good manners noted.

But don’t you know someday you’ll go
From out these halls of knowledge?
All sorts you’ll meet – and with them eat
(For all you’re trained in college).

We could not bear to send you there
Unused to sights revolting;
So, for your good, you take your food
Where some are skilled at bolting.

And afterwhile you’ll sometimes smile
To see their feats courageous;
Be careful, though; we’d have you know
The habit is contagious.

[I will continue sharing these limericks over the next two posts.]

Douglas’s Anonymous Limericks (Part 1)

by Ronald R Johnson

For the past few months, I have been sharing Douglas’s preaching and published articles during the 1919-1920 school year. He also wrote anonymous limericks in the Michigan Daily, the student paper at the University of Michigan. These were all meant as advice to incoming freshmen. “The Newcomer” tells about himself and an “Old Timer” (an upperclassman) offers advice. The first of these limericks was printed sometime in October 1919 and it was titled, “Concerning Confusion”:

The Newcomer Says:

I like the looks of my new books;
They cost me three weeks’ wages;
Therefore I fain would ascertain
What’s written on their pages.

But every day, where I now stay,
The racket is increasing –
A dreadful din, a mandolin –
And chatter without ceasing.

Oh how, indeed, is one to read
In such wild agitation?
I’ve lost my poise in all this noise:
Please deal with this vexation.

The Old Timer Replies:

You’ve told the truth, oh wretched youth;
The tumult here is awful!
We also used to feel abused,
Declaring it unlawful.

But every year, this earthly sphere
Grows noisier than ever:
Our peace of mind we’ve left behind,
To be recaptured never.

‘Twould be unkind to train your mind
To think in peace and quiet,
Then shout someday, ‘Get in the fray
You cloistered monk – and try it!’

So: to have noise, we’ve hired some boys
To furnish great confusion;
They think that they are here to stay
But this is mere delusion.

If you can toil in this turmoil,
And practice concentration,
You will agree someday with me
That it was your salvation.

Editor’s Note: The above verses with some others which will appear in later issues of The Daily were written by a prominent man of Ann Arbor who is very much interested in student affairs but who, in his own words, wants his ‘anonymity carefully preserved.’ They were written for the purpose of printing them in a booklet for the freshmen. As the latter plan did not materialize, he has given them to The Daily for publication.

I will share the rest of his limericks over the next few posts.

Editor’s Note at the bottom of Douglas’s anonymous limerick, “On Confusion.”

Douglas’s Advice to Students on Stowing Away Knowledge

by Ronald R Johnson

From the June 1920 issue of The Intercollegian.

The following is from “A Suggested Valedictory for Class Day at AnyCollege,” by Lloyd C. Douglas, in the June 1920 issue of The Intercollegian (the monthly magazine of the YMCA). Douglas had already done something similar a year earlier under the title, “A Truthful Commencement Address,” given by the college president. This time he’s pretending to be a member of the graduating class:

“Honorable Board of Directors, Members of the Faculty, Distinguished Guests, Alumni, Fond Parents, Fellow Students, Dear Classmates, Ladies and Gentlemen, and — have I forgotten anybody, I wonder?

“We are about through. One more long, trying session in these flowing robes — appropriately so-called because of their perspiration-exciting capacities — and we shall float out of them upon the sea of life.

“It is a well-known fact among us that only a few skippers of our gladsome fleet are aware of their next port of call. Most of us are concerned with the business immediately at hand — that of standing on the bridge, waving our handkerchiefs to the crowd on the wharf.

“Personally, I have an uneasy misgiving about my cargo. For some years, the stevedores have been dumping it into my hold, and I have stood by, checking the items: two B’s of this, three A’s of that, and ten C’s of something else, with an occasional D or two of something else — but making no effort to store the stuff in a manner that may permit of its being unloaded. Indeed, as I have looked into the hold now and again, of late, I have been quite worried over the problem. I find that I have been considering certain consignments as mere dunnage which really are of great value. There are huge bales of priceless wares chucked down in the bilge, probably water-soaked and half rotten by this time, that I could market for a fine price if only I had known earlier how important it was to preserve them.

“Moreover, I have my cabin piled high with boxes and cartons of merchandise which, a little while ago, seemed tremendously valuable, but now appear to be useless.

“I recall with a shudder how I laughed on the day that the big bale labeled ‘Political Economy’ broke loose from the grappling hooks and fell through to the very keel of me and smashed; and I said, ‘Oh, well; it amounts to little anyway! Let it lie!’ That same day, I was toting up to my stateroom packages of stuff which were so precious I wouldn’t let anyone else touch them — all about the movie stars, the latest crinkle in jazz, the last sartorial yip from the haberdashery.

“I would give much today if I might escape this Turkish bath for a few hours to dig about in my hold and lay hands upon some of the discarded and water-logged possessions of mine and fish them out.

“But that seems impossible. The engines are chug-chugging, and the band is um-pah-ing, and our admiring friends are bidding us ‘Bon voyage!’ We must be true to form and see the event through, according to the best traditions. Forgive us for wearing serious faces. We cannot help being reflective. Every mother’s son of us knows that he is embarking with a badly-distributed ballast.

“As for myself, I am aware that there isn’t a scrap of machinery in me capable of hoisting a single bale of my cargo up out of the hold. I hooted at the Literary Society and called the Oratorical Association funny names. I never learned how to speak in public and am considerably at a disadvantage when it comes to expressing myself clearly in private. I do not know how to write, convincingly or any other way. It is difficult for me to compose a readable letter of fifteen lines. In other words, I am full of knowledge up to my quarter deck, and I have no equipment for disgorging it.

“O ye who follow us — a word with you! Be careful how you store your cargo. Don’t emulate our folly who have debated, hours, on the respective merits of Gish and Pickford; who wrote long editorials admonishing the local play-houses against showing such an excessive amount of advertisements on the screen to the loss of our time who had come rather to see Deadeye Pete and Mexico Jake save the life of the Queen of Bronco Bill’s Dive; who had no time for concerts, lectures, art exhibits, or the paleontological museum — half ashamed, indeed, to be caught with an interest in such things — I say, don’t try to perpetuate our foolishness!

“Store your cargo so that you can get at it again. Be sure that you rig some windlasses and donkey-engines on your decks, to be used at various ports! And Heaven help you if you toss down into the bilge-water merchandise of great value. I know some of you. Already well on toward committing the same blunder that today causes us unrest. Nobody could persuade you to appear in a collar one-quarter inch too high — and you pooh-pooh the idea of trying to find out what ails Russia!

“Farewell! We are off! In many respects, we have been off all along. Farewell! Just toss that rear hawser in, will you? That’s a good fellow! Thanks!”

Summer Vacation Advice to Students

by Ronald R Johnson

From the May 1920 issue of The Intercollegian.

The following is an essay by Lloyd C. Douglas in the May 1920 issue of The Intercollegian (the YMCA magazine). It was entitled, “Vacation,” and it was Douglas’s advice to students on how to spend their summer months.

“WANTED — Student willing to earn $75 per week during summer vacation. Inquire Mr. Al. Luminum, Room 13, Coldstream Memorial Dormitory.

“WANTED — Thoroughly reliable students (upperclassmen preferred) for vacation employment. Easy work. Salary guaranteed. Three hundred dollars per month and railroads. Lykelle, Box 23, Local.

“Again, the man with the encyclopedia, and the man with the brushes, and the man with the book on ‘30,000 Thoughts for the Thriftless,’ have taken up temporary quarters in the Slocum Hotel, or in the dorm, and have sent out beguiling invitations for eager, peppy, and ambitious young collegians to call and assure themselves that next September will find them with money in all seventeen pockets. (Note: the antecedent of the last them is at the Slocum House. [In other words, it’s the salesman who’s going to end up with all the money, not the hapless students he talks into working for him.]

“Before signing anything, o youthful friend o’ mine, hie thee to the office of Brother Jones, ’04, who dispenses justice in his second-floor front across the way [the Dean of Students, in other words], and ask him to read your contract and tell you where the little joker is. It will be so much funnier if he points it out to you in May, than if you should discover it for yourself in September. Jones will do this for you free of charge. He still recalls how he went out one summer to sell, in four bindings, The Royal Pathway to Success, on a salary of $40 weekly, and how he owed the company $5.68 on the first day of October.

“Of course, you will want to do something profitable during your summer vacation. Even if you are not required to earn money, you will be greatly benefited by the experience of doing something useful. No matter how wealthy you are — even if you are the son of a plumber — go out and exchange a little perspiration for a few dollars.

“But — before you go, arrange to spend ten days, immediately at the close of the last semester, at the nearest Student Conference.

“The men who laid out these various conference grounds and planned the programs which are rendered there each year were students who knew the state of mind in which the average college man finds himself at the close of an academic year. The sites of these camps are notable for their natural beauty. An air of peace and tranquility pervades these places. They afford excellent opportunities for the man who really wants to think a few things through.

“Especially if you are to have any part in the leadership of your fellows in college next fall, you should spend this little group of days in association with the picked men of all the other educational institutions of your zone; get acquainted with them; play baseball and tennis with them; swim with them; take afternoon hikes with them into the mountains and along the lakeshore; sit with them, mornings and evenings, in an auditorium, to hear inspirational addresses by internationally-known student leaders. This is a part of your education. You cannot afford to miss it.

“The cost, in money, is insignificant. The benefits are incalculable. Forty years from now, it may not make very much difference whether you started out to sell pots and pans on June sixth or June sixteenth. But it will surely make a tremendous difference whether or not you exposed yourself to a ten-day period of inspiration!

“Some of you have been appointed to positions on Association cabinets for next year. You almost owe it to your job to learn, at the feet of men who understand the peculiar problems of student life, something of the possibilities of that job. Indeed, you cannot hope to put your best into your particular department next fall unless you shall have had this experience.

“Inquire for the detailed information about this Student Conference now, while the matter is fresh in your mind! Be a booster for a large delegation from your college! Perhaps the most valuable piece of work you will ever do in your whole life can be accomplished through your urging some strong comrade of yours to accompany you to the conference.”