Philadelphia Purist

Our dean is short and bald and fat, He's almost nude without his hat; Lookitt what his forehead did, Came right down behind his lid.

Though they sang of him thus irreverently, most Princeton men were sorry when in 1925 Dr. Howard McClenahan, physics professor and dean of the College since 1912, left to become secretary of Philadelphia's Franklin Institute. Esteemed as an able teacher and wit, he was always ready to stop for a friendly chat on his cane-clumping jaunts about the campus. But he had another, official manner--head back, eyelids drooping, speech slow and precise -- which made many an under graduate quake.

Upon Philadelphia's Board of Education last week fell that same stern gaze when Dr. McClenahan, a member since 1931, uprose to announce that the Board was "guilty of sending out illiterate reports of its own proceedings." In its published minutes he had found a split infinitive, a singular noun followed by a plural verb.

"How, gentlemen," cried Purist McClenahan, "can such a situation exist? Such glaring inaccuracies are discreditable to the Board of Education. Such grammatical mistakes are inexcusable in any case, but it is inconceivable that this body, representing the educational system of this city, should allow such glaring errors to appear in its records."

"May I ask," enquired a member, "how serious this is?"

Snapped Dr. McClenahan: "Indulgence in any solecisms is serious in the Board of Education."

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