Extols Palmer

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

When the October 8 to 18 issues of the CRIMSON reached me on the same day (fie on the circulated department!) I read all of them with my usual avid interest. In the issue of October 8 was a feature story on The Dana Palmer House, written by Maxwell E. Foster, Jr., and I thought rather brightly--but...

When it got down to George Herbert Palmer the best, or worst, Mr. Foster could say in characterization was "a well-known classical scholar." Now somehow that puts Professor Palmer in such a distant historical epocli and causes the background to appear to faded and blurred that my sense of loyalty was aroused. True, Palmer was a classical scholar--his translations of Homer are proof of that; but that is not why he was a great personality--one of the Great Quintette in Philosophy as characterized by Rollo Brown in that fascinating book (which no doubt is on the CRIMSON bookshelf) "Harvard Yard in the Golden Age."

He was a great teacher, the clearest lecturer I ever heard, in language so beautifully chosen that the ideas just sparkled. Emerson was always crowded when he gave Philosophy A, and his Philosophy 4 became famous as the locale of a great Owen Wistar story.

Yes, in the words of the Apocraphs, "Let us now praise famous men"--and there is no better time than when writing about their house. Seward C. Simons '11   Oakland, Cal.