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THE AMERICAN-SC AN DIN AVIAN REVIEW 
is the workshop of a genius. Beautiful carvings and inlaid work from 
his own hand decorate it. On the walls hang portraits of the old mas¬ 
ters of music, whose faces, solemn and inspiring, look down as if to 
direct the work. In a corner of the room hangs a cello on which is 
inscribed: 
“When David played for Saul, the evil spirit left him.” 
“The gift of music is a blessing from above.” 
Danish China: A Personal Association 
By Gilbert P. Chase 
If there is anything distinctive about the 
tableware that we use for a number of years, 
nothing will make a more lasting impression 
upon us, for there is nothing with which we are 
more constantly associated. Danish china was 
used in the first Navy mess that I joined 
twenty-five years ago. To me there was some¬ 
thing distinctive in the appearance and char¬ 
acter of this blue-figured china. I believe my 
feeling towards it was much like that of my 
shipmates. For years I never saw anything 
but Danish china on a Navy mess-table in the 
ward room or junior officers’ quarters. I had 
grown to look upon it as an essential part of 
the United States Navy, an article inseparable from the life of the sea. 
Alas, how unstable is the economic condition of the world in which 
we live. The Danish china was given up to make way for an 
inferior article of domestic manufacture; much to the disgust of 
every officer whose opinion in the matter has been revealed to me. 
To show how the officers feel about this change in the equipment of 
our vessels, when the New Hampshire was in Danish waters in nine¬ 
teen eleven, the ward room officers equipped their mess completely 
with Danish china at their own expense, and stowed away the Gov¬ 
ernment mess outfit. When I joined that ship as executive officer 
four years afterwards, little of the Danish china was left. When the 
Government supplied the ships, the tableware was made of special 
design, thick and heavy, to stand ship usage. The officers providing 
for themselves had no choice but to take the commercial pattern. 
This was too thin and delicate to endure long against the rough 
