In This Issue

Readers will find a stark juxtaposition of stories in these pages—light and dark, frivolity and a somber reminder of human failings.

Three offerings focus on amusements: the childhood memoirs of John Held, Jr., whose prose is as whimsical and cuttingly to the point as are his famous cartoons; the life of the beautiful and graceful actress Sara Alexander; and the ups and downs of the lakeside Provonna resort.

Within the entertainment of these narratives, however, are embedded glimpses of darker things: resentments, deceptions, oppressions These imperfections lie quiet, almost invisible, as they usually do in day-to-day affairs. But what happens when some disruption brings them to the surface? Resentments can turn into rage and small deceptions to outright perjury. A habitual oppression of weaker groups can become the catalyst for violence.

Under such circumstances citizens of Carbon County lynched black miner Robert Marshall in 1923 Our final article analyzes the grim consequences of the act and of the attitudes that produced and afterward excused it.

As anomalous as a lynching account seems beside lighter topics, there is a poignant connection: for the participants the lynching, with its atmosphere of eager anticipation and celebration, itself became a form of amusement. The strange juxtapositions in this issue, then, urge us to examine the attitudes that lie embedded within today's social fabric and, indeed, beneath the veneer of our own lives.

Photo - Family at Castle Gate, 1924, probably taken after the March mine explosions in which two African Americans were among the 172 men who lost their lives. USHS collections.