College News, 1914-11-05, Vol. 01, No. 06

              The College News
Volume I.     No.  �>
BRYN MAWR, PA., NOVEMBER 5,. 1014
Price 5 Cents
CALENDAR
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3
President's At Home to the Graduate
Students at The Deanery.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4
8.30 p. m:�Informal Debate, 1917 and
1018, in Room F.  .
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6
4.20 p. m.�Intcrclass    Hockey     Matches
begin.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER, 6
4 p. m.�Meeting of the History Club in
the Chapel.
8 p. m.�French Artistic Lecture by Mme.
E-. Guerin (Sarah Granier). Dramatic Illus-
trated Lecture on Marie Antoinette, delivered
in French, five different Costumes and Slides.
In the Chapel.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7
10 a. �i.�Varsity vs. Gcrmantown. __'.___
UNDERGRADUATES    PETITION    THE
FACULTY .
5  P. m.�Banner Night.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8
6  p. M.�Vespers.   Leader, A. P. Smith, '16-
8 p.m.�Chapel.    Sermon by the Rev, W
P. Merrill, D.D.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11
8 p. m.�Miss Palmer's Bible and Mission
Class.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13
8 p. m.�In the Chapel.    Formal Debate,
1915 and 1916.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14
10 a. k    -Varsity Hockey Match vs. Lans-
downe.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER IS
6 p. m.�Vespers, leader, K. Chambers, '11.
8 p. m�Cltfpel.   Sermon by the Rev. H.
Lubeck.
At the meetings held October 27th and
30th, the Undergraduate Association de-
cided to petition the faculty in regard to
the rule regulating attendance at lectures.
The petition asks for the repeal of the
cut rule and for a period of probation
(the-year 1914-15). "during which the un-
dergraduates may have the opportunity
to convince the faculty of the College that
with the present understanding of the
faculty attitude, cutting can be regulated
as satisfactorily by the undergraduates
themselves as by a rule regarding attend-
ance at lectures." The petition states
that the students feel that the undue
amount of cutting has been due to a mis-
understanding on the part of the under-
graduates as to the faculty point of view;
that the statistics on which the rule is
based do not fairly represent the amount
of cutting since many cuts were taken
as unexcused in the past which might
have been excused; that under the pres-
ent system the lowering grades seriously
affects scholarship; that the difficulty in
obtaining excuses will force students to
attend lectures when they should not;
that a student can no longer put consecu-
tlve hours on one piece of work; that stu-
dents cannot be away from College for
important legitimate engagements, and,
finally, that "the students' feeling of self-
reliance in regard to their academic work
will  be  weakened."
OFFICIAL N0TICE8
Reserved Desks.�It seems best to
make some changes in the privilege of
reserving desks in the Reading Room of
the Library as we find that some of the
students have abused the privilege by
asking for reserved desks and keeping
them most of the semester by renewals�
in that way depriving others of their use.
There are more students in College than
there are desks, and. in order to give
everyone a fair chance, we have decided
lo grant a reserved desk only when a
student is working on a definite report
which requires a number of books, and
to limit the time to a period of two weeks
with one renewal, when absolutely neces-
sary. No reserved desks can be granted
during the se^nester examination periods.
I.. A. Rkkd.
i ;> mnasiiiin classes begin this week.
C. M. K. Appli.hi i
THE NEW BOOK  ROOM
The Loeb Classical Library
I hope that the students who Eraquenl
the New Book Room this winter will turn
now and then from the harrowing litera-
ture of the war. from the volumes on
"Railroads and the Philippines" and the
engaging records of the "Lives of In-
sects," and teak an hour's solace in the
modest red and green volumes of the
Loeb Classical Library. We owe them to
the enterprise of Mr. James Loeb. who in
founding the library and getting the
translations done by American and En-
glish scholars, aimed at providing the
general reader with a standard version of
all the Creek and I>atin authors. The
original is printed on the opposite pay
for the ln-iii'in of those �li" know or have
known some Latin and Creek and lik�vto
see the original there, even though thej
may not often consult it. In time there
will be hundreds of these volumes, but no
I more will be issued during the war. The
| Latin authors are bound in red, trie Creek
in green, and I should advise the reader
who has not read the classics systemat-
ically to begin with the Creek volumes,
"Theocritus." for example, or the "Argo
nautlca of Apollonius of Rhodes." that
strange epic which tells the tale of Jason
and Medea. The reader who should do
this would perhaps have visions that
might make her less forlorn. She. would
see how the atrocities of war can be
transmuted into literature, and would be
able to estimate the war poetry dated
1914 by comparing it with that inspired
by a very trivial affair conducted without
a single howitzer, the Siege of Troy. For
whatever may spring from this war one
tiling certainly will not: there will be no
Homer to make it immortal in verse; no
Thucydides to engrave its horrors in un-
dying prose. There must be many a gen-
eral now as brave as Agamemnon (who
wasn't after all especially brave), but he
will not enjoy Agamemnon's tremendous
luck in having an .Kschylus to write the
tragedy of his home-coming.
I respectfully urge any student wtio
embarks on a determined course of read
Ing in these translations to keep. two
things in mind. The first Is that a taste
for the classics of any language Is an ac-
quired taste. Not to acquire it Is to miss
the only pleasure that will never grow
stale. The second thing to remember is
to look out in these tales of "old unhappy
far-off things and battles long ago" for
the counterpart of the events and trage-
dies of the present day. The fact that
i ;isar first labeled the Belgians "the
bravest of them all" makes that page of
falser at any rate interesting for us. But
analogies, if not- forecasts, will leap out
of every page of the classics, and the
better the author the more striking they
will be. There will be more of them in
Homer than in Apollonius and in .Kschy-
lus than in Seneca. It is their presence
that does most to ensure the life of a
classic.
\\ ii.mi.k Cave Wkimit.
1916 NOTICE
Competition for a member of "The < al-
lege Haws" Editorial Beard from the
class of linn is now open The success
ful candidate "ill be announced in De-
cember.   Apply Immediate!)
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