Saturday, November 1, 1919

Damp mild disagreeable day. Rain at night. To college 7:45 to 11. Fooled around. Took nap in P.M. Helped candle eggs. To college at night to hear lecture on Burns with H.H. & Wilber Hayes. Fooled around church. To bed 11:30 P.M.

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I'm concerned about this growing trend of fooling around! Stanford speaks of it almost daily now. Tsk, tsk! What will become of him?

I'm not sure what this lecture on Burns might be about, unless it's about burns (with a small letter) rather than someone by the name of Burns. If it is about the injury of burns, it would certainly be a pertinent topic in 1919 after veterans of WWI returned with terrible injuries, many of them burns caused by the chemical weapons used in that war. Another reason burns might have been of real interest, especially in an industrial town like Schenectady, was the concern over industrial accidents that might result in burns.

On the other hand, this being November of 1919 and the World Series that was to go down in history as the Black Sox Scandal recently concluded, and since one of the principal players involved in that scandal was Billy Burns, it's possible the lecture was on that topic. 

Bill Burns

But since Stanford makes no mention of the series or the scandal in any earlier entry, it's unlikely that he was referring to the disgraced baseball player. 

What other Burns is possible? Well, perhaps Robert Burns, the poet, is meant.

I guess we'll never know. Alas!