Evening star., 1937-04-08
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY

Twenty years ago, when WAS q fresh
man in college, the campus was haunted
by queer, gnomelike old man whom the
bows called Johnnie the Lion. His Rus
sian name was unpronouncable. He was
dwarfish of stature, with long white hair
covering his shoulders and wearing a
threadbare, impressed black suit. It got
to be a custom to say Good morning,
doctor" just for the pathetically exag-
gerated bowling and smiling with which
he responded.
Johnnie the Lion was . professor In
the university. He was listed In the
catalogue as lecturer in mathematics.
He taught one course. Some years he
had one or two pupils, some years none.
The fact is that even advanced candt-
dates for doctorates in mathematics
didn't know what he was talking about.
One of them, now a member of the Ma
tional Academy of Sciences, once told
me so.
A freak-I don't know. Certainly .
strange figure In New England indus
trial town-a strange figure even on the
campus of very liberal university. But,
I am assured, his mathematics were
sound, he had made some notable con-
tributions to the science, he had been q
musician of note and in his head was
packed more abstruse learning than could
have been gathered from the faculties OF
one or two of the graduate departments.
Some years later Eamonn de Valera
visited the city, whose preponderantly
Irish population gave him a triumphal
reception. The only man in town who
could talk Gaelic was this same Johnnie
the Lion He welcomed the Irish leader
at the station in that tongue and the
two professors of mathematics had q
long chat while everybody else was kept
waiting. AS long as De Valera re-
NAMED old Johnnie stayed with him.
Some of the business and professional
men, who had arranged the reception,
were rather put out over it, Never
thereafter were they quite so enthusiastic
about freeing Ireland. Their hero, the
rebel and politician, sank sadly in their
estimation from his familiarity with a
freak scholar.
Among the undergraduates at the COL
lege lot of legendry grew up about
Johnnie the Lion. He was an escaped
Russian exile from Siberia He con-
versed freely In forty languages. He
had squared the circle. He had found
the fourth dimension. Oblivious to all
this, the old man took his morning walks
about the campus. I remember him best
with his long white hair blowing In .
Winter snowstorm. He was so gentle,
dignified, courteous, kindly and glamor-
Gus that don't think even the most
irreverent freshman ever quite regarded
him as freak. One couldn't quite
smile at him, there was such aura of
other worldliness about him. He was
about as near a supernatural figure
the adjective Is used advisedly-as I
personally ever encountered.
Johnnie the Lion, it may well be, had
sailed far on the seas of thought be-
ysnd our bounds of space and time. He
had stepped through the one gate which,
this side of the grave, opens into the in
describable reality which encompasses
mans cosmos Of sight and sound. He
never had been quite able to find his way
home again. He was pleading, so gently
and fearsomely, on the other side Of the
gate for somebody in the world Of man
- open It foe him.
There are two gates opening from
mans heatn upon stgauoo, 2ay plaza