College News, 1925-04-29, Vol. 11, No. 24

              The College News
Vol. XI.   No. 24
WAYNE 4ND BRYN MAWR, PA.". WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 1925
M. ESTEVE TEUS OF
BYRON'S INFLUENCE
Price 10 Cents
Byron,   Bitter,  Satiric,   Wayward,
Grand, and Sometimes Wretched,
Rules in Studio and Salon
GLEE CLUB TO GIVE OPERETTA
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY EVENINGS
Gilbert and   Sullivan's   "Pirates   of
Penzance" WUI be^erformet
"SONGS OF COWBOY" DESCRIBED,
SUNG BY FOLKLORE COLLECTOR
BYRONISM  LASTS   FIVE    YEARS
" 'Byron revealed the men of his time
to themselves and not humanity to itself
for all tinfe'r said M. Edmond EstSve,
professor of French Literature at the
('diversity of Nancy, speJrkjng under the
auspices of the French Club in Rockefeller
Hall last Saturday night.
The  Bojiaparte of the  literature of his
day,   his   reputation   grew  steadily  from
1812, the date of the publication of Childe
Harold, the English poet grew in France,
in Spite of the wars. A translation came
out in 1810, Byron met Mme. de Stael,
Chateaubriand, possibly Lamartine. The
influence of the man. which Michelet felt
like a "liquer forte," was especially strong
among the younger5 generation, and among
women. One lady wrote, "J'ai vu Lord
Byron. Je voudrais etre jeune et belle."
Daily he gained ground among the distin-
guished litterati of the Restoration.
Scandal surrounded his name, his own
writing suggested all kinds of suspicions.
On the boulevards, in the newspapers, at
the theatre, lie was an alluring and familiar
figure, who came to exercise a sort of
literary empire in   France.    .
By his career and writing he shocked
and .satisfied both the classicists, who
were political liberals, and the romanti-
cists, who were conservative politically.
His sacrifice for Greece was the finishing
touch.
Discussed everywhere. Byron was cop-
ied in writing, in career, in subject mat-
ter. His influence was carried even into
llie plastic arts.
For five years after his first appear-
ance in France it was Byron the bitter,
the satiric, who gave men what amounted
to a literary intoxication. Then came a
new generation, to see him in a more
normal light. It was, Byron the-slandered
and guilty, Byron, the wayward, grand
sometimes, sometimes wretched. So
( hilde Harvlde and Don Quixote to the
front, and the poet ruled and kept on ruling,
in studio and salon.                            .
Young Prance, disagreeing in idea, but
one in the intensity of their feeling, and
their hatred of the bourgeoisie, played
their fylc of fate-himted Byrons/ gnawed
by passion. There was morcVMittcrature
frenctiquc" and not a sign of modera-
tion. In the salons too there was emo-
tion, drawn from the disillusionment of
(hildr Haroldc and ' the cynical nature
of Don Juan. Social lions, a la Byron,
black of "brow and small of hand, walked
always on the edge of fatality. Mussct.
the spoiled darling of romantic circles,
was thought fit to be called "le frerc dc
Byron."
A reaction set in after five years of this
Byron worship. Some laughed at him:
some, in the interests of moral and philo-
sophic poetry, looked askance. There
were "Byronicns du dernier hcure"�
among them Flaubert. I'atclin, Leconte de
Lisle�but they were never disciples, and
the rage was past at Parrs
Byron did not create romanticism-
Voltaire, Rousseau, and Chateaubriand
had gone before�he was its living incar-
nation. By his personal charm he won
his ascent, which was of some note in the
prose and drama of the day. but most
conspicuous  among  the   great  romantic
CONTINUED ON PACE 3
"A rollicking band of pirates, we," one
of the songs of the famous pirates in "The
Pirates of Penzance," strikes the temper
of the whole operetta. "The Piratos of
Penzance" will be given by the Glee Club
in Roberts Hall, Haverford College, on
Friday, May first, and �aturday, May
second, at 8 P. M.�
Gilbert  and   Sullivan,   the   authors,   are
at their best here, writing in their char-
acteristic,   mock-serious   vein�gentlemen
writing     for     their    own     amusement.
Sprightly maidens, rollicking pirates and
blustering   policemen   lend   more   than   a
| picturesque   atmosphere   and   a   gay-col-
ored,   animated   background   to  the  main
plot.    While they quarrel and make love
among themselves, the principals engage
in an intrigue offering all the allurements
of amusing situations,  conflict,  mystery,
and romance.    The lines are a delight in
themselves, and the songs are nothing if
not "catchy."
TlnP noble-minded hero, Frederic, falls
in love with Mabel at sight. He is, how-
ever, a captive of the pirates. Now
Mabel's father . . . but it would be
wiser to let the performances of Friday
and Saturday nights divulge the rest.
The cast is as follows:
Pirate King ............M. Constant, '25
Samuel ....... R. Tuve (graduate student)
Kreder'c................A. Matthew, '27
Sergeant of Police........K. Adams, '27
Major General Stanley.....E. Parker. '27
MabcI   ...................F. Thaycr, '27
Edith   .................H.  Hcnshaw, '25
Katc....................E.  Hinkley, '25
Isabd  ........����..........R. Foster, '25
Chorus of Pirates: A. Adams. '20; E.
Amram. '88; E. Brooks. '28; M. M. Dunn,
'Mi M. Ferguson, '25; C. Field. '28; L.
Gucker, '28; M. Hopkinson, '28; M. Hup-
Rollicking Ballads of Old Trails Show
Vigorous'Spirit of Cowboy
"Oh, roll your tails, and roll 'cm high,
We'll all be angels by and by."
So sang an irreverent cowboy to the
rhythm of his trotting pony, as he drove
a herd of long horns up the long trail from
Texas to Montana. His ditty is one ex-
ample of the extensive and varied group
of cowboy ballads, originating in the
long,-lonely months on the prairie trail,
handed on from one cowboy to another,
DR. FOSDICK SPEAKS
ON PRACTICAL RELIGION
Start    From     Where   You   Are;
fyiild Character by Contact with
the Best and Reliance on Faith
SUBSCRIBE    TO    NO    CR�EDS
CO.VTINUKU ON PACE 6
DARK BLUE WINS THE FIRST
ROUND OF TENNIS FINALS
and now collected and published by Mr.
John A. Lomax, of the University of
Texas. Mr. Lomax was formerly Sheldon
fellow for the investigation of American
Ballads, and twice president of the Ameri-
can Folklore Society. In his "Songs of
the Cowboy." a lecture in Taylor Hall
on Friday. April 24, he described vividlv
the origin and character of these quaint,
jolly relics of a swiftly passing American
type.
When he wandered through the West
to collect old songs, Mr. "Lomax found
only rude manuscripts, Texas students'
scrapbooks, and the memories of ex-cow-
boys, to help him in gathering the cow
lullabies, the talcs of wandering, the
melancholy complaints and the rollicking
nonsense with which horse wranglers and
eowpunchers entertained themselves and
kept their herd peaceful.
As   (he  cowboys rounded  up   the rear,
they blandly assured the young cattle,
"Git   along,   git   along,   git   along,   little
doges.
You goin' to be beef stew by and by."
Sonu-time-s  in   their  weariness they sang
bitterly,
"How happy I am when I go to bed�
A rattlesnake hisses a tune in my head;
A gay little centipede, all without fear.
Crawls over my pillow and into my ear."
or. more solemnly.
CONTINUED ON  PACK .'[
Caris Deoison '26, Gains Two Matches
With Her Brilliant Game
The first two teams of 1926, the four
teams of 1927 and the two last teams of
1928 reached the finals of the tennis tour-
nament.
In the first round of the finals. 1826's
first team was victorious, winning three
out of the live matches played.
Beatrice    P.tney   defeated    D.   O'Shea.
'2<>.   in   a   very   good   match.     The   hard
forehand    drive    of    B.    Pitney,    not - in
evidence   in   the   beginning,   when   every
point was hotly' contested and first one
won a game and then the other, stood her
in good stead at the end, when she played
to win with sure strong strokes.       \   '
Playing with very pretty form. C. Deni-
son,  '20.  subbing   for  W.   Dodd.  '26,  de-
feated first M. L. Jones. '27, whose steady
defensive   gfc^e   was   no   match   for   the
brilliant shots of her opponent, and then
D.  Kellogg, '27. who also  was powerless
!.*forc     the     beautiful     technique-    and
strength of C. Denrson.
Defeating F. Jay, '26, If. Kennedy. **7,
played a short, not powerful, but infallibly
steady game. She covered the court
amazingly and seldom missed a shot, al-
though when she did so she sent the balls
in the net with a choppy stroke.
CONTINUED ON PACK �
SANDWICHES AND BICYCLES
KEEP THE COLLEGE DRIVING
-  '
Under graduate! Aid Endowment Drive
Through Useful Agencies
Financial perspicacity is becoming a
prominent trait of the Bryn Mawr under-
graduate. Food and amusement, the res-
taurant and the theatre,"recognized aids
to wealth, arc supplied to the campus for
the benefit of the Music and Auditorium
Drive. The School for Scandal and
especially the morning sandwich satisfy
certain strong human desires. Witness
the wolvish hordes crouching over the
bread boxes on TayJor steps, while the air
vibrates with hoarse cries of "One to-
mato!" or "two eggs!"
Perhaps one of the greatest sacrifices
for the Endowment is the mute acqui-
escence of the Traditionalists (our own
type of Fundamentalists, believing in the
divine inspiration of Tradition), to the
desecration of Senior Steps, upon which
any Freshman or Sophomore nowadays
may drip her Russian Dressing in -the
cause of the Students' Building.
An illustration of the modern tendency
to amalgamation in business is the Lomas-
Lcc-Saunders Bicycle Company, head-
quarters under Pembroke Arch, which,
for a small sum. makes trips to the village
easy and rapid. And all for the good of
the Drive!
"The world has reached its limit," in-
sisted Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, "in-
sofar as it is attempting to solve Us
problems, from the outside in." How t_
change its method of approach was the
subject of his talk last Wednesday eve-
ning in the gymnasium, under the aus-
pices of the Christian Association.
Moral autonomy, the capacity of the
citizen to run himself from within, is the
real foundation of the State, the ultimate
hope of society. The legalists would sub-
stitute for this a complex system of laws,
which are, of course, good, and important
in the present state of civilization, but
their danger lies in their being used as
a crutch, and leaned lieavily upon. Many
think that people can be made good by
law. but the refutation of that seems to
lie in Mark Twain's statement, "Honor
is a harder master "than the law."
America has two great needs, real edu-
cation and real religion.    Both are neg-
lected,  perhaps  the  latter more.    In the
eighteenth    century   the   approach    from
inside  out   waf really   stressed.     This   is
rather   otherworldly   and   not   essentially
attractive to us�wc^hink we can escape
the problem by disregarding it,  but con-
sideration  shows that  this is impossible.
The division between religion and physi-
cal science must be considered in the light
of  comparative   necessity.    According   to
Dr.   Fosdick. the world could well  man-
age to Ket along with the present scientific
achievements and no more, but it would
be   impossible .to   go   forward   with   the
present   inadequate  solution of the prob-
lems of the spirit.
Christianity seems to offer four contri-
butions at least, to help in the solution.
In the first place, Christianity at its best,
looks at  humanify in terms of potential-
ity.      It    was   particularly   noticeable   in
Jesus, who looked beyond the outside evi-
dences   of   deterioration    in    people    like
Mary   Magdalene   and   Nicodemus,   and
found their real selves worthy of his at-
tention.    This was not unreasoning sym-
pathy,   or   kindness,   but   a   true   insight,
the very sort of insight which Browning
displayed  in 'finding inside the covers of
� a yellowed pamphlet the story for one of
his great  works,   The  King and the Book.
It  seen?s almost   inevitably true that,  the
best minds see the most possibilities.
The beginning of character-building is .
to introspect as if Jesus were Himself
looking at you�for He would see you
as more than you are. more than you
have, and more than you have done. To
Him you would be worth what you have
it in- you to l)ccome.
A second function of Christianity is to
furnish faith. To Dr. Fosdick, faith is the
moral dynamic which unifies and organ-
izes life. This meaning; js coincident with
that of the New Testament�if we are to
consider it chronologically. This does
not mean faith in the New Testament, or
faith in the church or creeds, for it ante-
dated them. It was a personal committ-
ment; they had fallen in love with Jesus.
"Faith is the giving yourself to the best
that is in you" and therefore an intellec-
tual process. Fear, the antithesis of faith,
paralyzes, depresses, narrows, sickens and
saddens life, and faith does the exact
opposite.
CONTINUED ON PACK 3