Skyline (verse)
Ryan, Kathryn White
184 THE COMMONWEAL June 19, 1929 must repair to these schools for an intensive course in English, usually of one year's duration, before they can matriculate at a university; and in the case of...
...It touched Ely's simple fancy when he saw it...
...Around the poverty-stricken house, with the air of Abel's blood crying out for vengeance on the ruthless fellow and his ax, stand the countless desolate stumps of poplar trees that Ely pettishly hacked down because they gave too much shade...
...The charcoal lines are smudged from curious fingers, or dimmed...
...Plainfield sadly shook its head: "His father, not to mention Ely, played under them as a boy...
...It is listless, but seemingly contented in its forlorn condition...
...with a peculiar same- ness of procedure and language...
...Is this not a feasible plan...
...and in the case of American universities, before they can even receive a passport for their journey...
...Strangely enough these exclusive English schools do not by any means abound...
...All could be directed to the clubs already described, if such things existed in America's scholastic centres, and were in the hands of a few zealous priests aided by a few live young American boys as liaison officers...
...At any rate, Maryknoll is opening an exclusive English school this year, as one step in the program...
...It must be, because it is working even now in Paris and Louvain, where Father Mollat and Father Boland respectively are having great success with it, and making not only friends but converts...
...S. Likely Plasher, the renowned black-and-white illustrator, caricatured Ely the summer he spent his vacation on a farm near Plainfield...
...184 THE COMMONWEAL June 19, 1929 must repair to these schools for an intensive course in English, usually of one year's duration, before they can matriculate at a university...
...And as out of its confused complexion simpers the unshaven face of Ely, it is actually more a likeness, indigenous as it is to its gallery, than it was in its glossy, gleaming newness...
...He is just a lonesome youngster now, but take a good look at him, for he will not be a lonesome youngster long...
...And this is the opportunity...
...Thoughtlessly glaring, in her slovenly ill-shapen dress, she stood by, a stolid witness to the atrocity...
...And when the artist had replied, "You can have it," Ely took it tenderly in his unkept fingers, and gloated over it as he trudged down the road...
...The destiny of a great nation may hang on the issue...
...And racing in, he artlessly tacked it to the one sound portion of the parlor wall...
...But Plainfield has heard that every winter, and now no longer takes stock in it...
...It will be conducted by Father Cairns in his mission at Sanning, as that is the most convenient point within reach of the bulk of the university students from the Maryknoll districts...
...Some few might even be successfully directed to Catholic universities...
...Ely, in his imbecile way, often squints at its scrofu- lous face, runs his long fingers through his thatch of shaggy brown hair, thoughtfully rubs the week's growth of black cacti-like pins on his chin, and mut- ters, "Aimin' t'paint 'er white with green trimmin'-- this spring...
...There he stands in your midst, the Chinese student...
...It is stained, sooted by the coal smoke from the kitchen range, greasy from cooking vapors...
...Let us see to it that the good predominates...
...If each Catholic mission in China could operate some- where in its territory one exclusive English school, it would have under its tutelage for one year the pick of the students who leave its particular .section for university education abroad...
...It is twenty years and more since its parched siding has tasted turpentine...
...Plenty of both is dispensed in our universities...
...Aimin' t' buy it from you, sir, if you don't want too much fur it...
...POPULAR SUBSCRIPTION By VINCENT J. DEMPSEY E LY MARKS'S shack stands on the edge of Plain- field, Ohio, a town of some five hundred families...
...KATHRYN WHITE RYA~r...
...That is a long enough period in which to make friends of these boys...
...It is frayed now and its edges have crept to- ward the centre, like the feet of a baby with colic...
...Columbia with its big group of Chinese students would be a logical locale for the first experiment...
...A bulge of tobacco extends his cheek, and his over- size Adam's apple jerks spasmodically in his long, scrawny throat as he voices his opinions...
...Not so felt Minnie, Ely's wife...
...e yline The city, bulked there at the sea, Spills high its sun-gold, sharp debris: The sky is trampled by the towers, The stars are crushed like wayside flowers...
...What will America give him to bring back as his contribution to his people ? Will it be good or ill...
...A few short years will bring him back to his place among the 4oo,ooo,ooo and from all indications it is to be a high place indeed...
...Will not somebody start a club on the other end...
...Moreover, they are not aided by the preliminary contact of the English school in China, but must seek out the Chinese students as perfect strangers...
...It is a stupid, frumpy, small dwelling...
...or luxuriates in the sun in front of the teeming corner garage and filling station...
...Ely tramps the Post Road with his leisurely, rangy, slouching stride...
...There it has hung through winter and summer ever since...
...They are distinctly few and far between...
...Its roof sags in a crestfallen manner, and its chimney sticks up awry, like a silly, depilated feather on an old, shabby woman's hat...
...grad- ually browning, like crisp bacon...
...Heard a feller say just yisteday--from town, he was--that...
...He is their chosen leader...
...If somebody could be found to pay the first year's lease of a suitable hall not too far from One Hundred Sixteenth Street, there would probably be little else of a serious nature to hinder the realiza- tion of a splendid work...
Vol. 10 • June 1929 • No. 7
