College News, 1930-10-08, Vol. 17, No. 01

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T

The College News
VOL. XVII, NO. 1
BRYN MAWR (AND WAYNE), PA., WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1930
PRICE.   10 CENTS
Variety of Activities Mark Freshman Week;
President's Reception Culminates Events
1934 Triumphs Over 1933 in Annual Parade Night Competition;
Sophomores Fail to Retaliate With Parody.
Third Time in Five Years.
------------------------      #
SELF-GOVERNMENT RULES AROUSE STRANGE QUERY
(Specially   contributed   by
Helen, BtU,  '31)
"The  work  of  the  forty-sixth  aca-
demic year begins at 8:45 A. M. Sep-
tember 30."    This appears in the col-
lege calendar and evokes images of a
college suddenly bursting into activity
and  life  at  8:45  A.   M.  on   Tuesday
morning.    But, although  this activity
was  very  great,  it  was  preceded  by
six  days   which   were   not  noteworthy
for being idle ones.    Freshman Week,
in short, was the beginning of the col-
lege  year  for  a  large  and  important
fraction of the undergraduates.
It   was  a  well-filled   week   for  the
upperclassmen   who   had   come   back,
and a spasmodically active one for the
newcomers.    Many varieties of occupa-
tion   were   proffered   (and   required):
One could pay an academic visit to the
Dean, or  an   introductory  one  to the
President.     The   gym   was   open   to
visitors�on the principle of the spider
and the fly�from 9 until 6 and one's
secrets    about    poundage    and    fallen
arches  and  number  of cigarettes per
day were discovered.    Then there was
the lure of advanced standing examina-
tions in French, and the English Place-
ment Test, to say nothing of the Self-
Government exam, to inveigle one to
the   classrooms   of   Taylor,   while   in-
formative tours through the stacks and
seminaries   drew   one   to   the   Library.
And all this was merely the executive
side of life.                  ________
The  social  side was  equally  replete
with   opportunities   for   the   interested
young woman with ambition and fore-
ght.    Wednesday  night,   ginger  ale
and pretzels  were issued in each hall,
and the functions gradually took on the
air of friendly get-togethers where gen-
ealogies, schools, and  "my dear, do you
know's"  echoed  from  ceiling to floor.
On   Thursday   night,   the   question   of
Self-Government    was    explained,    on
Friday,   that   of  the   Athletic  Associa-
tion, on  Saturday, the  Undergraduate
Association;    and    at    Sunday    Night
Chapel, the Bryn Mawr League�with
the result that the Freshmen are now
completely  conversant, naturally, with
each  and  every   phase  of our  college
life.    There were also Commons Room
teas   on. a   number   of  days,   and  an
al fresco supper on Wyndham's porch
where a large number of potato chips
bit   the   dust,   and   even   more   people
found joy and comfort in the fact that
someone else used to know that Janet
Jones who was fired from  Miss Wil-
son's two years ago.    The President's
Reception was the true culmination of
the social events, as the elegance of the
young women's dress as they left for
Miss   Park's   house   most   eloquently
testified.
Monday was the day of retrospection
and reckoning. Upper classmen were
beginning to arrive surrounded with
suitcases and old friends. Freshmen
were beginning to feel less and less
jords of theNsituation. And a few oc-
togenarians w�re still pondering over
a question, that one of the Freshmen
had asked after hearing an explanation
of the Self-Government rules: "Is it
true that Princeton men are the only
approved escorts for Bryn Mawr
girls?" What puzzles us is: who does
the approving?
ing under Pern Arch by all classes fol-
lowed the prarade and bonfire.
Freshman Song
Stop, look, listen, watch!
Every sad Sophomore.
Parade Night's come and you've been
left
By 1934.
Self-Government
On Saturday evening, October 4, the
Freshman class was formally welcomed
at the Self-Government reception, with
President Park, Dean Schenck of "the
Graduate School, Mrs. Chadwick-Collins,
and Lois Thurston, '31, President of the
Self-Government   Association,   receiving.
Although entertainments of this sort
are becoming less necessary and seem
less apt to fulfill the purposes for which
they were originally intended, neverthe-
less this one had its bright spots. Among
these was a talk by President Park ad-
dressed to the incoming class. She
stressed the point that Freshmen enter-
ing Bryn Mawr would not find their
path too easy but leading toward inde-
pendence and responsibility and the fuller
development of the individual. Some-
thing of the history and significance of
the Graduate School was explained in an
address by Dean Schenck, with the final
announcement, accompanied by an invi-
tation, that the Graduate School would
be "at Home" in Radnor on Thursday
afternoons.
Following these instructive and enter-
tainingly informal speeches the orchestra
struck up a lively tune for the dancers
and an opportunity thereby for the '34s
to make acquaintances among the upper-
classmen. " Gertrude Chisholm, '33. and
Beulah Parker, '33, won the competition
dance, with K. Coleman, '32, and her
partner victors in the "Lucky Number"
feature. These frivolities were inter-
rupted by a prolonged, but eventually
well worthwhile struggle for refresh-
ment, "Home, Sweet Home" concluding
the evening and this annual entertain-
ment of long-standing importance in the
traditional   activities  of   Bryn   Mawr.
Goodhart Stage Charred
in Post-JM'dnight Fire
On Monday night the college was
roused by the ringing of Taylor bell
and the shriek of the power house
siren, followed by the clatter of fire
engines to Goodhart Hall, where
si Ue was rolling up in thick clouds.
T fire was discovered by the night
w. hman, Mr. Graham, and it was al-
re* well under way beneath the plat-
fon.. of the stage when the alarm was
sounded. Mr. Graham's only key was
to the service entrance, where the
smoke was thickest, making entry im-
possible. A side door of the audito-
rium was forced to make a passage
for one of the hose lines, which was
dragged at great risk across the stage
and played through a hole in the floor
(on the flames). A second, Jine was
led through the window at the service
entrance. The firemen were mate-
rially aided by Mr. Willoughby, who
made his way, through smoke so thick
that lanterns were extinguished, to
open the doors of the auditorium and
investigate the switchboard back stage.
Owing to the splendid efforts of the
Bryn Mawr Fire Department the fire
was under control within a half hour.   I
The cause of the fire is not known.
The last person left Goodhart at 10:30
as usual.
Damage by the flames was limited
to the back and under stage regions,
the curtains of the main auditorium
being but slightly singed. Chemicals
and a preventive baptism of water
blackened and streaked floors, walls,
and ceilings of the office rooms. The|
Common Room was untouched, and
the Music Room escaped serious de-
facement, though it was completely
filled with smoke and inundated by
the hose play above. The dangerous
section of the stage, where the foun-
dations had been charred, was roped
off by morning, and the debris was to
a large extent removed by Chapel
time, when President Park spoke of
the fire as already in  the past tense.
President Park Gives Address at Official
Opening of Forty-sixth Academic Year
Freshman    Class    Enters    With
High Average; #10,000 Given
For Scholarships.
Marion Edwards Park
Freshmen to Receive
Lanterns Friday Night
Interview With Nightwatchman
The career of Mr. Joseph Graham,
the familiar figure who for many years
has patroled the Bryn Mawr campus
ip the watches of the night, suddenly
reached its climax on Monday morn-
ing, October 7, at 1 A. M. .with his
discovery of what might have been a
serious fire in Goodhart Hall.
Mr. Graham has described this event,
which he considers   the  most exciting
Continued on  Pace  Six
In the Library cloisters this Friday
night the class of 1934 will receive from
the Sophomores its blue lanterns. This
year's Freshman class will be the forty-
fourth to be thus initiated into the ranks
of Bryn Mawr scholars: the institution
of L�tntern Might is almost as old as
the college itself. Its origin was in 1886
when the class of 1890, the second class
in college, received its "lamps of learn-
ing." The ceremony as we know it
now, however, is quite dissimilar to that.
from which it has been evolved.
To quote a 1919 College News:
Lantern giving was originally only an
incident in the impromptu outdoor en-
tertainment which the Sophomores gaz'e
the l:rcshmcn. The earlier classes re-
ceived their lanterns in broad daylight
after an outdoor play and had first to
undergo a sereve oral quizz at the hands
of the Sophomores. Later the ceremony
was transferred to the night when the
Freshmen received their caps and gowns
and was moved from the campus to the
cloisters.
Originally new Lantern Songs were
composed by the Freshmen and Sopho-
mores every year. Since the class of
1901 first sang it, however, 1893's class
song, Pallas Athena  Then, has been thej
Continued on  Pace Six
Though I have not outstripped the
rest of you by much I have at least
been here long enough already to wel-
come the faculty and students, grad-
uate and undergraduate, on this final
day of September which begins the
forty-sixth year of Bryn Mawr�to
welcome you with warmth. For the
Bryn Mawr which I have thought of
in these nine months of absence has
not been the silent buildings disposed
picturesquely on empty greensward to
which I actually came back two weeks
ago, but the livelier, noisier, and more
gayly-colored place which half woke
when the freshman class arrived on
Wednesday and came to itself entirely
this morning. To this Bryn Mawr I
rejoice to return. In the folder of
one of the Zermatt hotels appears a
sentence,   "In   the   Alpine   heights   of
Miss Thurston and Miss Nichols
Give Impression of Freshman   Week
As 1931 Sees It
Parade Night
Parade Night last Wednesday was
successful for the third class in the
' past five years. The Freshmen kept
their song a secret "and marched to the
Lower Field exultantly singing to the
tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat,"
to the great discomfort of '33.    Sing-
(Specially   contributed   by   Lois   M.
Thurston.  '31)
The   chief    criticism    of    Freshman
week in  the past  has   been that there
was not  enough for the  Freshmen   to
do.    This  year,   I   think,  was  an  im-
provement in  that respect,  because of
the tennis and hockey tryouts, the ten-
nis tournament, and the teas in Good-
hart.    Nevertheless,   I   am  afraid   that
there  w\tre  a   fairly   large   number  of
Freshmen   who   felt   themselves   in   a
strange place surrounded by strangers.
Once classes start one slips easily into
the routine and the passage of time is
much less slow; but   in the first days
with little or  nothing  to do, after or
before the various interviews or exam-
inations have taken place, it is difficult
to make adjustments, as the conditions
to which Freshmen must adjust them-
selves are to them more  or less un-
known   quantities.    Before   Freshmen
week   was   inaugurated   the   difficulty
was that of  having  too many adjust-
ments to make at once.    The present
system certainly has many advantages
over the former, but it might be better
-if - freshmen �eelr were -made a~ little
shorter.    This probably would be hard
to manage since even now it is difficult
for the President and Dean to have in-
terviews with all the Freshmen before
college starts. Another possibility is
that, often-suggested before, of starting
Lantern Night practices. This could
be done if, with the help of the Junior
song-mistress, the voice tryouts could
>e   finished   sooner.
However, although some of the
Freshmen may find the � week rather
tedious, it is on the whole a valuable
institution. It gives them an oppor-
tunity to orient themselves, and to the
upperclassmen who return for it a
chance to meet and become acquainted
to a certain extent with the entering
class.
As 1934 Sees It
(Specially   contributed   hy
M. Xichols. '34)
Was it only two weeks ago that we
boarded  the   Paoli   Local   f�r me  nrst
tune, hoping, whispering, and speculat-
ing   on   the   possibilities   of   the   girl
across   the   aisle?     And  then  the  taxi
dumped us into the seething confusion
of   our   partners   in    adventure,    who
smiled,   shrieked,   or   wondered   until
ginger ale," pretzels and an'upperclass
man launched us on our erratic course
through Freshman Week.    -
FresftmerMearn lots of astonishing
things those first few days: that one
really does have to be vaccinated, that
there's a Self-Government exam to be
passed, and that infirmary services are
free: but hardest of all to believe is the
fact that a short while ago there was
no Freshman Week. When. Miss
Park told us this, we smiled a smile
of pity for those poor unfortunates who
used to find themselves at Required
English class, tortured by a mental
picture of a frenzied dean plotting re-
venge on the missing victims of inter-
views, who were so pressed for time
that we're surprised some didn't drink
the H2S04 when they finally did ar-
rive at Chemistry Lab.
Fortunately, that tarly fog has
swiftly- and smoothly lifted, cleared
under the various guidance of the Bryn
Mawr League, the Undergraduate Asso-
ciation and Self-Government. Any one
of us will tell you that silence must be
observed in the Library and which are
the Senior steps in IfflBt 01 lUylW. C�
tain well known college figures begin
to stand out. The Chairman of the
Executive Board, President of the Ath-
letic Association and President of Var-
sity Dramatics, Freshman week did
so much for us that we can tell�But
wait, here comes- the editor of the
News!--------:----------------t------------�;�
Zermatt the weary and the pessimist
may assuage their moral lassitude."
And here to Bryn Mawr I h,ave come
to assuage mine. But it is the only
lassitude I need to cure! That "dying
lady lean and pale" who tottered forth
among you last year has gone forever.
A   good   part   of   the  light-hearted
pleasure which filled all my holiday
to overflowing is due to the combined
kindness and competence of many
people, faculty, staff and students,
above all to the Acting President and
Dean of last year who not only at-
tended to all college affairs to iny com-
plete satisfaction but who were gen-
erous enough to carry through the
business of the. year with hardly a
cable to disturb my peace. It was not
until I came back to my desk that I
realized with what complicated and
long pieces of business they had dealt.
My only alarm is that having been
necessarily away from the elementary
instruction on the schedule which was
administered. I hear, to the faculty and
the students I shall never understand
it! I thought of them with insufficient
but still deep gratitude through the
year and that gratitude is more in-
structed and deeper now.
Fewer   Undergraduates
The    college    opens    formally    this
morning   with  397   undergraduate   stu-
dents as contrasted with the four hun-
dred  and   nine  of   last   year's  opening
day.     Every  ro.om  again is  filled,   but
happily there  are   fewer  non-residents
awaiting   residence   and   watching   for
a   vacant   room.     The   freshman   class
numbers   one   hunTrred   and   seven   as
contrasted     with    one    hundred    and
twenty last year and onc^hundred and
twenty-seven   the   year   before.     This^.
twice   repeated   decrease  in   the   fresh-
man class is due.to a healthy and re-
assuring fact: namely, that in the last
two years  there are  fewer  rooms   left
vacant by the upperclass students, de-
spite the fact that this year in June an
unusually large senior class was grad-
uated.     It   is  a   more  profitable   piece
of  work   for   the   college   to  carry   its
students   through  four  years  of train-
ing, of which the last two are the most
interesting   to  both  parties   concerned,
than to accept a large number ^f first-
year students each autumn and find a
considerable fraction leaving after one
year or two with no experience of or
pn.lii from advanced work.    The small
number    of    vacant    rooms,    however,
made the problem of admissions diffi-
ettk and *g�m � Urg�r number of girU
who had completed all requirements of
entrance had to be refused admission.
With such pressure on the college it
seemed impossible to give up the use
of Bettws-y-Coed and the, house is,
established again this year with its
quota   of   freshmen   and    Miss    Mary
CutUtii �� r*t�