A secret world on the ceiling tiles of the old Language Training Mission

James B. Allen and John B. Harris

I n 1977 the Language TrainingMission of the Mormon Church(LTM - as it was known then)

moved from Knight-Mangum Hall onthe campus of Brigham Young Uni-versity (where it had been since 1968)to the newly-built modern quarterswhich became the Missionary Train-ing Center. As soon as Knight-Mangum was vacated, the universitybegan to renovate it for use as officespace by several departments. One

day in the midst of tl~e repair work,Professor Louis Midgley of the De-partment of Government noticed thatworkmen were discarding some ceil-ing tiles from the old missionary dor-mitory rooms. The ceilings of theserooms consisted of suspended two-foot square tiles, any of which couldeasily be removed. But Midgley also

observed that the backsides of thesetiles, normally hidden from view,were scribbled with names, slogans,drawings, and messages left by theformer occupants of KMH. He sal-vaged a tile or two and then, almost inpassing, mentioned it to us. In-trigued, we began to explore the ceil-ings all over the building and found,to our delight, that many of the tileswere covered with missionarymemories. We had happened upon asecret world of self-revelations.

Some of it, we thougl’it, surelymust be worth saving. We applied forand received a small research grantfrom BYU1 to cover photographic ex-penses and obtained permission fromthe administrators and professors in-volved to examine the ceiling of everyoffice in the building. It was a tiring,dirty, and time-consuming job--climbing on chairs and ladders, seek-ing for appropriate tiles, andphotographing--but rewarding. Wefound hundreds of tiles filled withgraffiti, and undoubtedly manyothers had been destroyed in the pro-cess of renovation. Curiously, severalof the rooms (some probably served asoffices or classrooms rather than bed-rooms) contained none. Enough wasthere, however, to provide some fas-cinating insights into the "other side"of missionary life at the LTM.

How seriously should one takesuch graffiti as an objective social re-cord? Much of it is little more thanspur-of-the-moment scribbling. Too,it could have been created by self-selecting and therefore non-representative groups. But when graf-fiti becomes more than names onwalls (or ceilings), it usually takes the

March-April/27

form of some kind of message whichreflects what someone was thinkingabout at the time and is interpretedvariously as hostility, rebellion, sex-ual neurosis, well-meaning humor, orsimple vandalism. Nonetheless, graf-fiti is a form of expression, and, like alloutward expressions such as poetry,art, drama, and essays, it can be asymbol of the inner needs and motiva-tions on the part of the originator.2Even the best literature, in fact, is

Fi{~u re 5

words include expressions of faith,comments on the "privilege" of suf-fering for conscience sake,philosophical utterances, politicalexortations, and the recordings ofdates and days. In 1540 Thomas Sal-mon wrote that he had been in thetower for 8 months, 32 weeks, 224days, and 5376 hours. In 1589 Philip,Earl of Aurndel, wrote in Latin, "Thegreater the misery we endure forChrist in this world, the more glory

quick-drying paint and then set asidea wall especially for graffiti, wherepeople could record anything theywanted during the day but by the nextmorning it would be painted over,waiting for another round. 6

Graffiti has occasionally beenknown to help mental patients. At St.Joseph’s Hospital in Chicago, graffititherapy started quite by accident as anattempt to communicate with anagonized schizophrenia patient who

often somewhat autobiographical, inwhich authors use characters or situa-tions to reveal themselves.

Graffiti goes back in history towhen man first used an instrument ormedium to put an image on a surface.Some scholars have even used graffitito reconstruct the social life of Pom-peii.3 Graffiti has appeared in diverseplaces and for a multitude of reasons.Certain walls in the Tower of London,for example, are covered with mes-sages dating back to the fourteenthcentury. Prisoners of all sorts, fromkings and nobles to the common rab-ble, have left their mark there. Their

we l~ave with Him in the next."4Graffiti artists have sometimes

caused urban problems. In New YorkCity the city fathers once werespending nearly two million dollarsannually to clean it off the trains andsubway walls. Among many of theghetto youth it had become a mark ofsome prestige for an "artist" to havehis work on more trains or in a moredangerous location than any others,sStockholm, Sweden, was oncespending $36,000 annually to clean upits graffiti until the Chief Architect ofthe Parks Department got an idea. Hehad the chemists develop a special,

had rebuffed every attempt to com-municate with him. One day ablackboard and chalk were inadver-tently left in the hall and, when no onewas looking, the patient wrote someremarks about his feelings upon theboard. A perceptive head nurse wroteback, and soon a regular exchangebegan. Eventually a new program wasadopted in which the walls were cov-ered with paper, and patients andstaff scribbled messages to each other.In that situation, graffiti became aninvaluable tool, not only to break thecommunication barrier, but also as anaid to diagnosis and therapy. 7

Unfortunately, because much graf-fiti is salacious and obscene, a largeportion of the professional studieshave dealt primarily with this aspect.One pair of researchers describedtheir excursions through the toiletstalls in the restrooms of certain col-lege campuses searching for such"latrinalia," lamenting the crampedquarters and the need to useflashlights attached to the walls bymagnets so they could read and copythe inscriptions from the oppositewalls.8 Such researchers may havedistorted their conclusions by ignor-ing anything but sexual graffiti; infact, they wrote that "the bulk of non-

Sunstone~28

sexual inscriptions are of little inter-est.’’9 By contrast, the collection fromKnight-Mangum Hall contained prac-tically no sexual matter (only one ortwo of all the tiles even hinted at any-thing), and yet we found it fascinat-ing. Missionary life was strenuous but"upbeat," and the graffiti generallyreflected it.

Why, then, missionary graffiti? Wethink that there are a number of pos-sible reasons. 10 One was a need sim-

Figure 7

ply to vent frustration. Even if ayoung man had long expected andplanned for his mission call, even if hehad been told what discipline awaitedhim, the rather sudden change inlifestyle may have been dramatic.Imagine the feelings of a nineteen-year-old Mormon boy, a lover ofsports, full of energy and mischief,relatively unrestricted in his choice ofactivities and conversation topics,proud of his appearance and clothing,possibly involved romantically withan attractive young female. Take thisyoung man, shear him of his proudlocks, dress him in a dark, conserva-tive suit, white shirt and tie, separatehim from his family and friends, givehim the title "Elder," and then propelhim into an intensive language train-ing program. There he will be forcedto speak primarily in the language heis trying to learn; he will be assigned a"companion" who will accompanyhim for the most part of his wakinghours; he will have his schedule com-pletely outlined for him. And what aschedule: 11

6:00- 6:30 Arise, shower,dress, personalprayer

6:45- 7:20 Breakfast7:20 - 7:45 Zone meeting7:45 - 8:00 District meeting8:00 - 10:00 Memorization drills

10:00 - 11:00 Leadership trainingon Wed.; Scripturestudy Tues. &Thurs.

11:00 - 12:00 Memorization drills12:00- 1:00 Lunch1:00- 4:00 Language class4:00- 5:00 P.E. onTues. &

Thurs.; culturallectures, Mon.,Wed., Fri.

5:00- 5:45 Dinner5:45 - 6:00 District meeting6:00- 7:00 Language laboratory

work7:00- 10:00 Group study

10:00- 10:30 Group prayer andlights out

He will be allowed no dates, no visitsor calls from home, no outside read-ing, no movies or TV, no leaving thehall without his assigned companion,and only one day off in which to do hislaundry, write letters, shop for neces-sities, mend clothes, or complete allthe tasks which have piled up duringthe week. The nearest thing in Mor-monism to monasticism, someoneonce observed. And even though themissionaries had chosen to serve amission, gladly, excitedly, and eventhough they may have understoodthat the rules and restrictions weredesigned to assist them in theirstudies and to help them become bet-ter missionaries, it is easy to see thatthey might need an outlet for theirfrustrations.

Another motive for leaving graffitiwas obviously a need felt by some topreserve identity, a "self," recogniza-bly separate from the sea of hundredsof elders being molded in the samepattern. "We had first names," be-moaned one writer. Writing on theceiling was like leaving a time capsule,reported an elder who did nothingmore than sign his name. Somepasted up their driver’s licenses,others glued photos of themselves,alone or with former girlfriends. Theygave themselves nicknames andsketched caricatures. They left mapsof the places they were going and in-

March-April/29

dications of where they were from.They left records of how many lessonsthey had learned in what amount oftime. All of these were attempts to dis-tinguish themselves from the throngsof missionaries pumped through theLTM.

A third motive had to do with thesemi-secrecy of the graffiti tradition.Clearly, many of the missionarieshoused in Knight-Mangum Hall be-tween 1968 and1977 knew nothing ofthe opportunity. Others were not ofthe temperament even to experimentwith the overhead tiles to see if theywere moveable. Still others undoubt-edly thought it was a form of van-dalism which conscience could notallow. Some believed it was againstthe rules. (We have been unable to de-termine if, in fact, it was specificallyprohibited by the leaders.)When wecontacted one former missionary foran interview, he was at firstreluctantmfearful that he might stillbe disciplined for his part in the crea-tion of graffiti.

Because many did not, those whodid find and participate in the graffitiproduction formed a sort of secretbond, an inner circle which operatedpartly by tradition and partly bychance. Finding the graffiti-filled tileswas easy for some elders, accidentalfor others. In most cases the elderswould replace the tile as soon as theyfinished their work so that a casualobserver would notice nothing amissin the room. And even though manyelders did not tell anyone what theywere doing, most intended or as-sumed that their tile would be foundone way or another. The hiddenworld of graffiti was repeatedly dis-covered when an elder climbing in orout of a top bunk would hit his arm orhead on a tile and displace it. Havingfound the work of a predecessor,sometimes all four elders in the roomwould set about looking for othertiles, and then decide to do their own.In other instances, the elders pur-posely left the tiles turned outward,proudly displaying their artwork to allviewers. Thus the tradition becamewell-established in some rooms. Instill other cases, those who had beenthere awhile would verbally convey to"greenies" the suggestion that theylook in the ceiling. The most curiousamong the newer ones did so. With

discovery came desire to continue thechain and thus perpetuate the "secretsociety."

There were those, then, whoscrawled graffiti to follow the lead oftheir predecessors, to maintain whatthey believed to be a long-standingmissionary tradition. There were alsothose who wanted to insure that thetradition was carried on after them,who offered advice and wisdom to

Figure3

those who would follow. They left"last wills and testaments," sugges-tions of where to eat and not to eat,what to do and not to do. They left of-ferings of hope informing the. new el-ders that someone had gone throughit all before them.

Lastly, some missionaries did it forfun. It was like writing one’s name onthe tablecloth of the nearby pizzaparlor, one told us. It was a way "toget into the cookie jar without anyoneknowing about it." It was a challengeto see if you could do it and not getcaught.

The types of materials and qualityof workmanship varied so much thatit is impossible to generalize about theamount of time or money spentcreating the graffiti. It seems appar-ent, though, that it was not art inordi-nate amount in either case. The eldersused pens, colored pencils, felt tipmarkers, and, in a few cases, oils to dotheir work. One panel was made ofconstruction paper (Fig. 1). Anything

Figure 1

See page 35

and everything they could find withintheir constraints was used to make animage.

Most of the graffiti was not elabo-rately planned but rather spontane-ously expressive. And even thatwhich was obviously premedi-tatedmcolored maps, cartoons, andbeautifully illustrated messagesmmust have been done in betweenother activities on days off. In a fewcases the tiles were prepared, almostceremonially, some days before thegroup departed for separate destina-tions, thereby producing a collectivesymbol of an enduring emotionalbond. In these instances the elders in-volved became very attached to theirtiles. The story of one such tile is illus-trative.

A group of elders going to Mexicoentered the LTM on January 7, 1977,and were formed into a district called"Distrito de Cananea." The best artistin the group was Elder David Brad-shaw of Garden Grove, California.Other members of the district camefrom such diverse American locations

Sunstone132

as Big Piney, Wyoming; Mesa,Arizona; Logan, Utah; Aitkin, Min-nesota; Orem, Utah; Billings, Mon-tana; and Glendale, California. It wasElder Bradshaw who decorated thetile with a map of Mexico on whichtwo major cities were designated withlarge stars~ He also lettered in thenames of the elders and finished thetile at the bottom with a quotation inSpanish ’from the Doctrine and Cov-enants 4!5: "And faith, hope, charityand love, with an eye single to theglory of God, qualify him for thework" (Fig. 2). The missionaries all

Figu re 2

See page 33

placed their signatures under theirnames, and then they had picturestaken with the tile. In 1980, a year afterhe had ~:eturned from his mission,Elder Bradshaw knocked on the doorof 218 Knight-Mangum Hall. Hewanted to look at the ceiling. He hadnot heard of our graffiti project, hejust wanted to see if his tile was stillthere. As the student looked at theceiling where several tiles had beenturned so that the graffiti was visible,a clearly perceptible disappointmentcame over his face--his tile was notthere. When the elder described it, weremembered that his tile had beendamaged by workmen putting in alight fixture and so had not beenturned over like the others. It was asimple matter to climb on a chair andreverse it for him. The expression ofpleasure and relief that came overyoung Bradshaw’s face when he sawhis tile still intact is indescribable. Ob-viously for some, making the tiles wasa meaningful experience which theyfondly remembered years after theirmissions were over.

The ceiling tiles fall into severalcategories. The first might be called"desire for immortality." This cate-gory includes the names, nicknames,brief self-descriptions, self-portraits,and self-photos of the various mis-sionaries. "The Mean Machine," oneelder called himself (Fig. 3). "Downwith Castro," wrote another whoidentified himself as the "crummyPuerto Rican" (Fig. 4).

Figure4

Figure8

One elder gave his name and thensaid of himself, "He will be remem-bered as a missionary who kept asmany of the rules as he was able. Hisown words, ’I never met a rule Icouldn’t bend.’ His ambition in life isto become rich enough to buy his wayinto the Quorum of the Twelve."

In this category also fall the tileswhich we call "the rogue’s gallery."These are the self-caricatures. Underthe personal photographs on one tile(fig. 5), the missionaries left not onlytheir names but also their nicknames,"The Gentile," "The Animal," "EasyRider," and others. In other instancesthe elders xeroxed their driver’slicenses and pasted them to the ceilingtile archive, while the missionaries instill another group caricatured them-selves as monkeys (Fig. 6).

Figure 6

See page 36

In February, 1973, the missionariesin room 402 pasted candy chickensand eggs on their tile ("We’re sort oftrying to get the ball started," theywrote. "You can play with it, butplease replace it and add on to it.")They also included a photograph ofthemselves together and, not wishingto have one of their number forgotten,they made it clear that there was anelder missing from the photographbecause he was taking the picture.They also recorded the number of les-sons they had learned and whether ornot they had received their visas (Fig.7).

The "desire for immortality"category includes group as well as in-dividual tiles. Some named them-selves as a group like "The FourCheerios" (Fig. 8). Others inventedofficial seals for their districts such asthe road runner (Fig. 9). One group of

Figure 9

See page 33

missionaries created a colorful tile inwhich their slogan, "Azulito," be-came the symbol (Fig. 10). "Azulito"

Figure 10

See back cover

is the Spanish word for "blue," andthis reflected a practice in the LTM ofplacing the missionaries’ progress inlearning the language on a chart. Thecolor blue on the chart indicated thatthe missionary had a perfect record,and since all the elders in that districthad a perfect record, their chart wascompletely blue. It became such amatter of pride with them that theybought felt-tip pens to record all theirnames and signify the impressiveachievement.

One tile showed the unity andcomradarie of a district, "Campeche#1." "This is to testify," wrote theirscribe, "to all whom [sic] may havethe great privilege to live in 303 and301 that you have been preceded bythe greatest, wildest, funniest districtto ever have bombed the LTM." Then

followed a detailed report that thisgroup had had the most meetingswith the zone counselor, was unde-feated in basketball and football (theybeat the "Frenchies" 21-0), learnedmore variations of the lessons, hadmore absentees from class and "reten-tions" (individual study sessions),had prayer earlier than any other dis-trict, and played the widest variety ofmusic (their five tape recorders playedeverything from Cream to Andy Wil-liams to Dionne Warwick).

A second category of tiles is "de-scriptions of the place." This includes

And it was the beginning and themorning of the first day, whereonwe were brought to that great tower,wherein there was an exceedinggreat amount of confusion.

And the language therein was con-founded. And the me and the himwere thrust together, and our lan-guage was confounded, as weremany therein.

And it came to pass that the him wasa companion to the me, and the meto him. Thus commenced the reignof companions.

And therein they worked and found

("Really tricky," the key indicated),while Item 4, the rain, stood for thecold showers that woke the elderseach morning. Item 5, the ball on thenose of the seal, depicted the jugglingact the missionaries went through fortwo months of many-pronged ac-tivities, while Item 6 was their :retreat,"Y mountain," where, they said, theycould go in their "grubbies." Finally,at the bottom, appeared a term thatwas sometimes affectionately or unaf-fectionately used to describe the LTMitself--the Rock, also called in the key,the "depths of despair." The seal

/,.~, ,~ ~...~..~. &,

Figure 17the spectrum of responses to the LTMenvironment. There were those whowrote, without hesitation, "I love it."There were a few others (and it wasonly a few) who expressed the oppo-site view. One said he had learnedfive lessons in eight weeks and alsolearned to hate snow, hate Utah, andhate half the people there. (He alsoposted the name of his girlfriend witha picture of the two of them in a tightembrace.) And one sad elder scrawledat the end of a small message: "I hatethis place." Most of the descriptions,however, expressed mixed emotions,mostly positive. One tile used Dick-ens to sum it up for the others: "Theywere the best of times, they were theworst of times." Most of the tiles inthis category showed very goodhumor, often making light-heartedfun of the trials and frustrations ofmissionary life. "The First Epistle ofMacoa" is a clever example (Macoawas an LTM missionary district):

In the beginning was the me and theme was with him. All things weredone with him, and without himwas not anything done that wasdone, save it be the bano!

others which had the same tongue.And they found ten others andformed a district. And they calledthemselves Macoa!And it came to pass that they wereexceeding strong among otherswhich were known as Ramas.And after eight weeks in the tower,the me and the him and two otherswere to leave. So I make an end tomy writing and I know not who willmake an end to this record but Ileave it unto those Columbians whoweren’t as fortunate in obtainingvisas.

The "Great Seal of Republica" (Fig.11) contained several clever symbols.

Figure 11

See back cover

Item 1, the sun, represented the in-structors who were symbols them-selves of light and truth. But Item 2,the clouds, suggested frustra-tions: "the discussions as they floatout of your head." Item 3, a trainedseal, was the missionary district itself

(missionaries) has not, however, de-scended into those depths, he is stillon top of the Rock (LTM).

One of our favorites shows the car-toon characters, Snoopy andWoodstock (Fig. 12). Snoopy, with a

Figure 12

See page 33

book under his paw, is repeating inSpanish one of the then official slo-gans of the LTM, "Live Your Lan-guage, please," while Woodstock issaying, "It is very important."Another took the form of a movie ad-vertisement, part of which describesthe plot as "a moving and touchingstory about four young men togetherin a room for the purpose to serveGod" (Fig. 13). A Mormon historical

Figure 13

See front c~wer

Sunstone/38

flair was added when this was cited as"a quote from the LTM Expositor."Still another artist tried to sketch whathis group would be doing in the mis-sion field--taking the message to theNavajo (Fig. 14).

Figure 14

See front cover

Missionary life in the LTM obvi-ously included a certain longing forfamily, home, and girlfriends."Chicks are Heaven in ’77," a group of1975 elders wrote. Said one lonesomemissionary of his forthcoming trip:

As I fly to Paris to begin my laborI’m even gonna miss my town ofTaberEven with this, all would be wellIf only I was taking Lorrie MaxwellAnother had somewhat wider in-

terests: "Elder C.K. Rudd slept underthis tile and thought of Sharon, Bar-bara, Cindi, Pam, Julie, Christ-ine .... " Thirty-three names in all,"plus all those others!" Still anotherelder listed only four female names,then asked, "What do I do if they allwait?"

One missionary simply wroteunder his photograph, "Say hi toMom for me," while another moaned,"A nice place to visit, but I miss myCamaro."

One of the most clever tiles (Fig.15) included gentle digs at BYU cam-

Figure 15

See front cover

pus, the girls, and Provo itself."Hurry, Hurry, Hurry," the legendon the map says, "step right up andcatch the ugly blue bus to the mall,"and it gives the time and price. "Tothe mall and other neat stuff," thearrow points, and around the edges ofthe map is a guide to eating estab-lishments. "The Golden Scone" isjudged to be fair, but the "Cougareat"on BYU campus is labeled less thanfair. No cafe is called excellent,though "Jerry’s" is labeled "a real ex-perience." Perhaps the most in-teresting part of the tile is the centralwarning against "serpents." In LTM

Figure 16vernacular the word "serpent"meant, appropriately enough, thegirls whom the missionaries con-stantly encountered while walkingaround campus and who, undoubt-edly, planted distracting thoughts intheir not-fully-disciplined minds. Sothe warning: "This is the Campus.Beware. It is full of serpents. They willtry to talk to you. Resist! Train yourmind to be lifted up in the highestthoughts of the LTM. Think of some-thing else---contemplate salmon loaf.But if you want to have a real goodtime, call Peggy, 375-0012."

In this category of descriptions oflife at the LTM there are those we callthe "prison syndrome." On one tile,for example, the rogue’s gallery wascombined with a representation of amissionary.in prison clothes, drag-ging a ball and chain (Fig. 16). Onanother, a group of Korea-bound el-ders depicted the LTM as a prison andrecorded that they had been "sen-tenced" in June and "paroled" in Au-gust (Fig. 17). One missionary drewhimself chained to the wall with theletters LTM on his t-shirt, indicatingthat he had been "booked" on Sep-

tember 17, 1969, and "pardoned" onNovember 19 (Fig. 18). Using the term

Figure 18

See page 36

"the Rock," as synonymous to prison,another group expressed the mixedemotions of most by recording at theend of their stay, "GOD BLESS THISROCK."

This category is perhaps best rep-resented by a tile which combines ar-tistic lettering, clever cartooning, andmeaningful sentiment (Fig. 19). Here

Figure 19

See page 36

we find inscribed the names of thefour elders who have lived in the sameroom and fought the good fight to-gether for two long months. He alsopictured Snoopy (possibly repre-

March-April/39

Figure 20

senting the typical missionary), atophis doghouse saying, simply, "It isgood to have a friend."

The final category of tiles we havecalled "advice to future mis-sionaries." These include "up-and-at-em" type slogans such as, "Go ForIt; .... Give ’Em Heaven; .... If you can-not give the Lord your very best, whocan you give it to?; .... Never get dis-couraged; .... The district that breaksthe rules together, stays together;""Start each day with prayer, a smile,trust in the Lord; .... Mind over Mat-tress, Get out; .... Work like__ or gohome; ....Salvation Sally says.., eatem up; ....On behalf of us, enjoy yourstaymit can be great!" Then there’sthe more tongue-in-cheek encour-agement: "Lift up your spirits and beof good cheer. Give thanks to the Lord

Figure21

See page 34

you’re not here all year" (Fig. 20). Wealso found a message or two of teasing

Figure 22superiority: "Every time you rookiesspeak Spanish you subtract from thesum of human knowledge" (Fig. 21).

Some ribbed those who would gosearching for ceiling tile graf-fiti: "What are you doing looking uphere?" said one. "You won’t find yourchick up here--She’s probably mak-ing whoopie with some other guy!How’s that grab ya? .... Missionariesaren’t allowed to lift ceiling tiles,"warned one message. Another con-tained a clever caricature of a GeneralAuthority, Elder Neal A. Maxwell,saying, "Do you always rip down theceiling when you stay at somebodyelse’s place?--Put this back rightnow!" (Fig. 22).

Some missionaries felt the desire toexplain the realities of life in the LTMto their hapless successors. One tile,for example, offered suggestions onhow to "stay alive" (Fig. 23). "1.Watch out for the salmon loaf [thismust have been a particularly dislikeddish, for several scribes commentedon it]; 2. Hide the screens in the closet[evidently the window screens couldbe removed]; 3. Smother the meat loafwith catsup; 4. Jump out of theshower when the toilet flushes[whenever the toilets flushed, theshowers turned hot; a favorite way ofinitiating the rookies was to get themin the shower and then flush all thetoilets at once]; 5. Become goodfriends with the executive secretary."

Figu re 23

See page 34

Last in this category is the "last willand testament." Wrote one group, for

example, "We have found this emptyboard in our long search for paper forour last will and testament. We leavethe unused space of all ceiling panelsto the poor wayfaring missionarieswho, in their desperate search for ex-citement, resort to the reading of an-cient scripts. Signed, the deceased."

And so they wrote, scrawled,scribbled, recorded, chronicled, de-picted, printed, scratched, pasted,painted their hopes, frustrations,needs, fears, ambitions, friendships,past, present, future---themselvesmonthe underside of the ceiling tiles inKnight-Mangum Hall. We have pre-sented their record here simp]ly as anenjoyable and interesting assessmentof one side of the lives of the youngmen who once went through the mis-sionary training program at Knight-Mangum Hall.

Notes

1. Allen took primary responsibility for the photo-graphic activity while Harris arranged inter~¢iews withseveral of the former missionaries, some of whosenames are on the tiles and who had returned to BYU asstudents.2. Norton Mockridge, The Scrawl of the Wild, What

People Write on Walls-and Why. (Cleveland and NewYork: The World Publishing Company, 1968), pp.33-36.3. For a general text on the symbolism and use of

language, see S.I. Hayakawa, Language in Thought andAction, (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc.,1964). For a general social and psychological analysisof graffiti, see Ernest L. Able and Barbara E. Buckley,The Handwriting on the Wall (Westport, Connecticutand London: Greenwood Press, 1977). See also thebibliography.4. J. Lindsay, The Writing on the Wall: An Account of

Pompeii in Its Last Days (London: Mueller Company,1960); H. Helen Tanzer, The Common People of Pompeii(Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1939); M. D’Avino,The Women of Pompeii (Naples: Loffredo Press, 1964): allas listed in Buckley, The Handwriting on the Wall, pp. 4,21.5. E.A. Humphrey Fenn, "The Writing on the Wall,"

History Today 45 (June, 1969), pp. 419-23.6. "Subway Painting--Vandalism in the Guise of

’art,’ ’" U. S. Neu~s and World Report, June 24,1974, p. 41.7. Alexander Frater, "Stick it on the Wall in Stock-

holm," Holiday 45 (1969), pp. 85-86.8. "Graffiti Helps Mental Patients," Science Digest,

April 1974, pp. 47-48.9. Lee Sechrest and A. Kenneth Olson, ’"Graffiti in

Four Types of Institutions of Higher Education," Jour-nal of Sex Research 7 (February, 1971), pp. 62.-71.10. Most of the following information is gleaned fromthe John B. Harris collection of interviews with re-turned missionaries, copies in the files of both writers.11. This schedule is a composite built on discussionswith and journals of missionaries who went throughthe old LTM in KMH.

JAMES B. ALLEN is professor of history atBYU. He is co-author of the book Story of theLatter-day Saints and is former institute directorand Asst. Church historian.JOHN B. HARRIS is chairman of the EnglishDept. at BYU. He received his Ph.D. in Englishfrom Wayne State University.

Sunstone/40