College News, 1929-04-17, Vol. 15, No. 19

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The College News
VOL. XV, NO. 19
BRYN MAWR (AND WAYNE), PA., WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17. 1929
PRICE.   10 CENTS
Joint Production
Proves Successful
Dr.  Herben Praises  Casting of
'The Admirable
Crichton'.
L,ACK  AMATEUR  FEELING
Robert Edmond Jones
Robert Edmond Jones, artist
and designer of stage sets, will
speak at college early next week
under the auspices of the Speak-
ers' Committee of the Undergrad-
uate Association.
t
Mr. Jones gave a series of lec-
tures through the west two years
ago in the interest of the develop-
ment of the theatre in western
gities. ,He alsp gave a series of
lectures at the summer session of.
tlje University of California dur-
ing the season of 1927. He writes
very interesting articles on the
theater, and among the plays for
which he has designed the sets are
John Barrymore's 'Hamlet, Machi-
nal. Holiday and Serena Blandish.
Mr. Jones also designed the sets
for the Metropolitan's .version of
the' modern ballet, Skyscrapers.
Dr. Swindler Acquaints.
College With Breasted
In a talk- at "Wednesday's chapel in
the Music Room, Dr. Swindler ac-
quainted the college with Prof. James
H. Breasted and his work. "Probably
you all have read a part of Mr.
Breasted's work, and so it is not un-
familiar to you," Dr. Swindler began,
and went on to say that as a lecturer
he was the first choice of the Mary
Flexner Foundation, that.aj| a scholar
he is a most distinguished Orientalist
and historian, and that at present he
is director of the Oriental Institute of
the University of Chicago.
Professor Breasted has recently
been enabled through endowments to
euler into the projects of excavation
in the East which are usually handled
only by professors oh sabbatical leave,
and he is at present carrying out his
plans in six important enterprises. A
few years ago an expedition was ar-
ranged by Mr. Breasted to trace pre-
historic man in Egypt, and the dis-
covery of tool? embedded along the
N'ile ha* formed significant proof of
the relation of the Egyptians to the
ancient Europeans. In another site
the excavation of Hittite discoveries
has led to a classified stratification by
pottery, and much important historic
data has been gathered. Several groups
of scholars'under the direction of Pro-
fessor Breasted are doing research
at various museums all over the world,
and at Cairo Professor Breasted is
finding out the coffin formulae and
pyramid inscriptions from which early
material the Book of the Dead was
compiled in the eighteenth dynasty.
Mr. -Breasted is ahwt. hunting down
the fab.ulous talcs of the Orient;' in
Mesopotamia the sources of these in-
vestigations are paintings, such as of
a scorpion-man with castanets, or a
dog carrying an altar with a leg of
lamb upon it. The fable can be
traced back to 3500 B. C, and in
India probably farther. The tales of
our negro population form an inter-
esting analogy to this ancient mate-
rial. At Thebes an expedition is under
way similar to that of the Metropoli-
tan or Boston M'useums.
. Professor Breasted is a very busy
man; and it is only the friendship of
the Flexners which has brought him
here. The four lectures to be pre-
sented at Goodhart Hall form a series
named The New Crusade: Thursday.
April 11th. Dr. Breasted will speak on
"The Place of the Near East in Hu-
man Development;" Friday, April
19th, on "The Scientific Responsibility
of America in the Near East and the
Salvaging of the Evidence:" Friday,
April 26th. on "The Evidence and
Man's Conquest of Nature;" Tuesday.
May 7th. on "The Evidence and the
Emergence of Social Idealism." Also.
on April 20th. the most famous Ori-
entalists arj: to be gathered at the
Philosophical Society in Philadelphia,
and a debate will be held between Dr.
Breasted and former Professor Bar-
ton, of  Bryn  Mawr.
Dr. Swindler spoke besides of the
"thrilling" and "exciting" as well as
interesting side, of Professor Breast-
ed's  lectures. ,
Miss Carey Honed
Has Been Appointed HeadJVlistress of
Brearley SoKi
Miss Millicent Carey' has been ap-
pointed head mistress of the Brearlev
School in New York.,- Miss Carey
plans to assume her �i�w position in
October, 1930. AlthouglVe congratulate"
her most heartily, we are thoroughly
convinced that we express the unani-
mous opinion of thffeollcge when we
say that Miss Carey's departure will
be a source of deep regret to us.
Miss Carey graduated- from Bryn
.Mawr in 1920,, and , was given her
Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins in 1926, after
Studying one yeai� at'Cambridge Uni-
versity, and three years in Baltimore.
She taught English at .Rosemary Hall
in 1922-23, and since 1J26 she has
been an instructor in English at Bryn
Mawr.                           <
Last spring Miss Carey was ap-
pointed assistant to the Dean of the
College, which position she held dur-
ing the first semester of this year.
When Mrs. Manning was granted
leave of absence for the second sem-
ester. Miss Carey became acting Dean
of tin- college.
Debate  With Swarthmore
The debating team of Bryn
Mawr College will meet Swarth-
more at eight o'clock on Thursday
evening, April 25,- in Goodhart.
The affirmative side of the sub-
ject, This-house deplores the in-
fjuchce of advertising on public
welfare, will be upheld by the
Bryn Mawr representatives, Mary
I.aiiiHt%t, Elizabeth Linn, Adele
Merrill; and alternate, Janet Wise.
The debaters will speak for- eight
minutes each, with, a rebuttal of
three minutes.
Self-Goverifment Board
'   Submits Annual Statement
The Self-Government Board of the
past year, under the Chairmanship of
Rosamund Cross, has submitted the
following statement to the college:
"The Executive Board has felt that
the college has not understood the
full meaning of special permission. In
the Self-Government regulations, it is
required for "inotoring and several
other rules, but people seem to regard
this as its sole function. Consequently
when they want to do something that
is~ hot mentioned in the rules, they
either do not do it, or else do not try
to get special permission, and break
the rule. The Board .feels that this is
not the real meaning of special per-
mission; it exists primarily for cases
that are not mentioned in the rules,
when a person w'i.shcs to do-something
for which there 7�"y perfectly good
I reason, but which She's trot;apply to
enough people t>> haw' *3 rule about
it. We. therefore, wish, .to urge people
to try to get special permission in-
stead of breaking rules wljen they arc
doing  perfectly   legitimate  things.
"There is still a small group of
people who teel that tHey"are perfectly
�able to take care of themselves and
si- are above all rules. This is an
absolutely selfish attitude which
shows an entire lack of responsibility
toward the college coinmunity and to-
ward the college itself. Any set of
rules has to be for the community as
a   whole:"* special   permission   is  given
Dean Manning Combines
Praise With a Warning
In chapel on Monday Mrs. Man-
ning reported that Miss Park was
making splendid progress and was
getting on as well as possibly could
be dxpected.^After issuing such wel-
come news the Dean proceeded to dis-
cuss briefly the production of" varsity
dramatics on  Saturday evening.
Echoing the opinion of. the major-
ity, Mrs. Manning said she felt it
rather a pleasant relief to tieare both
sexes represented and to have those
"formed by nature" for the parts act-
ing \^n the various roles. The hondrs
of the performance she conceded to
the maje actors, and particularly to
Lord toam_ and"to Ernest; Crichton
seemed to be not absolutely at .'home
in his pa/t. and thus failed to be con-
vincing. Hie three sisters were very
charming. Altogether the play pas
good, although based on a wholly ar-
tificial situation and containing dia-
logue of a less brilliant sort than that
in some of Barrie's other plays.
In regard to a repetition of such
a delightful experiment the Dean felt
that a long talk with Miss Park would
be necessary before she took any defi-
nite stand upon the matter. In our
desire to do things well Mrs. Man-
ning feared that we would lose sight
of the fact that thc<inc*t difficult thing
to do well is our own individual
achievement: and that the greatest
difficulties arise in an effort to learn
To do things well by ourselves. So
in conununity productions there is
always the danger of taking the Whole
thing too seriously. This year, 'how-
ever, we sceu.i to have taken the per-
formance in  qui^e  the  right  spirit.
Breasted States '
Debt of Moderns
Development    of    Egypt
Near East Traced by
* Scientist.
and
.INTRODUCTORY        TALK
Oil Thursday. April II, in the Good-
hart auditorium, Professor- H.
Breasted, director of the Oriental In-
stitute of the. University of Chicago,
spoke on "The Place of the Near East
in   Human  Development."  the first of
a series of lectures which Professor
Breasted is giving under rhe terms of
the Mary Flexner lectureship. Mrs.
Manning introduced the Well-known
scholar id a short speech, explaining
Bryn Mawr's associations with the
Flexner family, and the lectureship
fund given by Mr. Bernard Flexner,
of N'ew York, in memory of his sister
Mary, a Bryn Mawr-graduate of the
class of 1895. -The fund Provides for
lectures to be given by scholars inter-
ested in the humanities, in the broad
interpretation of the word, and for the
publication of these lectures afte* the,
scries has been completed.
Ancient Near- East Little Known.
Professor Breasted began his lec-
ture with .the statement that the new
>vorld is abjef-tly subject to the past;
yet most 'people arc unconscious of the
past. The majority qf the orthodox
thinkers only go Alack to the date 1492
in history, and they gain their largest
glimmering of the Near East in the
Old Testament of Abraham and
Moses. For the women's clubs there
seems to be a peculiar thrill in the
Near East, and they sit in rapt con-
templation of the lofty truths which
issue therefrom. It is unreasonable
to revert only to Oriental religion, and
to assume this attitude of false rever-
ence to the N'ear East as a source of
wisdom.
CONTINUED  ON   PXOE   3
Mr. Duell to Paint
Varsity Players
Grateful for Aid
(Specially contributed by Annabel
Learned)
In the absence of full committee lists
on the program of The Admirable Crich-
ton, we would like to express thanks to
all those (there were a great ipany)
who gave generous time and un-
tiring   interest   to' the   work   of    pro-
duction.     The   significance   of   this   to
for exceptions   to these..  The  growth | V'arsity Dramatics stands out now be-
of a strong public opinion and an in-
creased sense of responsibility seem' to
be   the  onlj   possible   solutions  for  a
,situation   that   has  existed  for   a  long
! time.
"The Executive Board feels that
this year the college as a whole has
shown a much better spirit toward the
regulations of the association. This
may, perhaps, be due to the fact that
practically |he only rules in existence
are "safety rules" such as any think-
ing person can easily sec are necessary
iii, a giels' college. The Board hopes
that this same spirit of co-operation
will continue throughout the coming
rear."
Miss Park Is III
Mrs,   Manning   spoke   in   chapel   on
I Monday morning. April 8, and told us
! that President Park had had an opera-^
jtion   in   Baltimore/and that   she  was
'very   glad   to   report   that   Miss   Park
was   recovering   with   all   due   expedi-
ence.    Mrs    Manning went on   to an-
nounce that' she would be acting presi-
dent until Miss Park's -return and that
she  would ..keep   Miss , Park's   office
hrrs �
cause, although we have long desired
to avoid the use of professional work-
men, it was only the co-operation of
so many people in this first trial that
made the experiment successful, and
the policy possible for the future. With
experience and planning, it should be-
come a very good thing, both for
dramatics and  for  the college.
A word of thanks must be expressed
to certain other workers on produc-
tion, unnamed as such, in the persons
of the Princeton cast and Dr. Herben.
who came to the rescue when we were
pressed for time, and labored heart-
ily, even on the day of performance.
Most especially has credit been in-
adequately given to all that was done
by Bretaigne Windust. President of
the Theatre Intimc. who not only-
acted and directed, but who contrived
by his fund of knowledge and untiring
work to be a mainstay of every aspect
of the production.
Awabf.i. Learned: I
.   -----------------_
Chapel                 #
The" Sunday evening service of tht
Bryn Mawr League will be led by
Dr. Marion Parris smith on April 21.
As   Guggenheim    Fellow    Will   Copy
Wall   Paintings   at   Tarquinia.
^Mr. Prentice Duell, of the Depart-
ment c.i Archeology, has been appointed
a Guggenheim Fellow for next year to
study Etruscan painting of the fifth
century B. C. at Tarquinia, Italy, and
to make _archeofogically accurate
copies in color of the wall paintings
in the best preserved tombs of this
period.
This work will be similar to that
which he did some years ago in con-
nection with the Tomba del Tri-
clinio, probably, the finest tomb ?t
Tarquinia. The copies which he made
of the paintings in this tomb, after
being shown at the aiuial exhibition
of the American Academy in IJome,
were reproduced in color in Vol. VI
of the  Memoirt of the Academy.
Tarquinia, the home of the Tarquin
kings and probably the chief of the
twelve cities of Etruria, is situated
north of Rome near the coast. The
tombs of the ancient necropolis are
located along the highway leading
southwest from modern Tarquinia.
These tombs are under ground and
consist of one or more chambers. The
walls arc covered with paintings;
some of them were most likely done
by Greek artists, in which case they
remain the only examples of monu-
mental Greek wall-painting of the
finest period. They have never been
scientifically studied or accurately
copied.
Since the tombs are in almost t�tal
darkness, the work will be done in
the white light of powerful acetylene
lamps which show's the colors in their
true value. The copying will be done
at a large scale and in water color.
Mr. Duell intends to make some
thirty paintings in all; his* special in-
terest lies in the technique and meth-
ods employed by the artists and in
the pigments at their  disposal.