South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1921-04-20
KNIFE AND FORK
CLUB HEARS TWO
WELL KNOWN MEN
Carl Sandburg and Pro f.
Baumgardt Feature Din
ner Card at Oliver.

Carl Sandburg, pOet-laureate OF
the Chicago stociyards and hailai
by host OF critics as being the lead
ing poSlc voice OF the nation, In
company with Prof b. r. Baum
gardt Of Los Angeles. supplied the
entertainment at the seventh month
~ dinner OF the Knife and Fork
club at the Oliver hotel Tuesday
night.
Sandburg was n revelation as far
as person and poetry were cor'
cerned. About so years old and re-
sembnng a business man instead or
the conventional Longfellows, he
read from his own productions.
Smoke and Steel and "Cornhusk-
ers." poetry. representative OF thu
new era OF the art that amazed his
hearers for its force, candOr AMI
simplicity.
His work contains a dearth OF
fair women. moonlight, nightingales
and roses but is crowded with
smoke. steel. hogs stencil, stock
yards and graft The New Poetry
movement TO which he belongs is
trying to throw off English affilia-
tons and striving 10 express what
is representatively American.
Baumgardt Lectures.
To Sandburg. Chicago is Hog
Butcher for the World" and he pic
lures it as filled with vice and graft,
which he justifies by showing it a.
young giant climbing faster 10
place Of supremacy than any city In
the world, saying that such cond.-
tions are necessary to its develop
ment.
In addition to reading from his
poems. he sang several ballads
which he classified as classic Amer
lean gutter songs" accompanying
himself on the guitar. These SONGS
are OF primary literary and musical
quality according to Sandburg and
EXPRESS the soul Of the people ber-
ter than individual compositions.
The song Of the Mailing Crow-bar"
was especially well received.
Prof. 3. +, Baumgardt, who
preceded Sandburg. delivered lee
ture. "On the Frontiers Of the Uni
verse" which he illustrated by
slides.
The lecture was based on astron-
omy and the professor bewildered
the throng by declaring that beyond
the frontiers of the planetary sys-
\ tenn there are embryonic worlds,
/ yet unknown. that are whirling into
| existence. These unborn world s,
| billions OF miles from earth, stated
the professor, will flourish when the
planet we inhabit is a deserted area,
burnt out by the action of volcanic
craters.
Photographs of the moon, taken
by powerful photo-telegcopic APP
paratus at Observatories on the Pa
cific coast, brought the moon within
/ "a miles of the audience. The pho
/ tographs displayed the moon as be-
ing a mass of hardened lava,
brought about by the disintegration
Of heat, and the lecturer said that
the earth will have this same fate
in aeons of time to come.
NefT is TOastmaster.
The rings of Saturn were ex-
planned by the theory that the
rings were once a part Of the main
+. land of the planet, but by cosnlo
forces became detached. forming
seven boundaries about the planet
The study OF astronomy leads to be-
wildering conclusions. the lecturer
said. Some of the embryonic worlds
are situated at such interminabl'
distances that it takes the light
shed by them 100000 years t.
reach the earth.
The insignificance Of man can be
realized by a study OF the star;
quicker than any other means, said
Prof. Baumgardt. The earth existed
for countless ages before he inhab'
tied il, and will exist for as many
more after aeons of conditions oil
absolute zero make it impossible fol
him to live upon it.
Joseph Neff presided as toastmas-
ter in his usual capable fashion, and
following his habit gave a quotation
from Shakespeare which he saic
bridged the gap between poetry anc
science which the club had to Offer
by way of entertainment.