College News, 1931-05-13, Vol. 17, No. 22

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The College News
Vol. XVII, No. 22
Haverf ord Prof essi
Reviews 'Lantern'
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WAYNE AND BRYN MAWR, PA, WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 1931
Price: 10 Cents
To Study Dry Law
Dr.    Reitzel    Finds    Character
Well Drawn But Sense of
Incident Weak.
CONTRASTED     TO     MEN
Verse   Is   Lauded   as   Having
Something Worth Saying.
High Level Seen.
By Mr. William Reitzel, of the Eriglish
Department of Haverford College
To read "The Lantern" for the first
time, especially if one's knowledge of
undergraduate magazines is bounded by
the work done in men's colleges, is an
eye-opening experience. It draws . one
toward an essay rather than toward a
review; for, larger than any question of
quality is the interest of a contrast. To
this interest the present reviewer bows.
Most striking is this point: in all the
stories in "The Lantern" (I have also
read back through several numbers in
search of further light) a surprising
grasp of character is shown. In Mill
Darlington's Hero two difficult concep-
tions are laid down, followed, and
brought to a finish with sureness. In
Miss Grant's The Waitress, whenever be-
havior is being observed, the writer's
mind works neatly and accurately. But
the sense of incident is poor and the
movement of people through a series of
scenes is fumbled. Miss Einsiedler's
Water for My Stain is a case of this
fumbling, most obvious perhaps because
most ambitious. Very little of the writ-
ing done by young men shows so much
sense of the way human beings are made;
but the sense of these human beings en-
gaged in an activity of being alive is
weak. Character has been observed,
thought about and recorded; but incident
is taken on trust, which means that it
has chiefly been taken from the books
one has� read. Perhaps young women
have a faculty for observing others; they
certainly show a more developed com-
mon sense about people than do young
men.
The contrast is significant. No piece
of fiction written by a man (I mean
exactly between the ages of 18 to 22)
shows any experience of other people,
any awareness of the impact of other
minds and other behaviors. Young men
scarcely know what it is to hate or to be
hated, so indifferent are they to these
important bases- of social intercourse.
They believe that y6u love or hate your
fellows because of their political opinions.
They do not know that the ground of
dislike can be a pasty complexion, that
the ground of affection is often the line
of a profile. Everything I have read in
"The Lantern" shows some appreciation
of these simple foundations. When' a
young man tackles fiction, the fuddling
of character is the consequence. His
conceptions are borrowed from his read-
ing.    But  an   incident   he  handles   with
do; but she can dfteTT fell you they do it.
Muscular Vs. Emotional Effort
Another curious contrast is to be seen
when one considers the verse in "The
Lantern". These poems have something
to say; the poems of young men most
often are mere grab-bags of words. I
suspect that the quality of the poetry in
"The Lantern" comes from one of two
causes. The writer is able to see clearly
something other than herself. This
would. explain such a piece as Miss
Kirk's Two on a Lawn, Young wo:
are consistently "romantic, hence are
* aware of what it means to be romantic,
hence can state a romantic moment with
Continued on Page Three
�*�hoto by Wm.  Shewell  Ellis.
DR. SUSAN KINGSBURY
who has been appointed to the Col. Amos
Woodcock's Advisory Research Council.
Collegiate Styles Are
Scored by Miss Park
"You can get accustomed in a year or
two" thus ended the spring song with
which Miss Park began her discussion
of spring dress at college. We believe
(hat Miss Park believes that the conduct
of the students is in their own hands.
But now she is inclined to push a slight
reform for which we will all feel better
off for we can get accustomed in a year
or two. Miss Park, in carefully reading
her Vogue, has discovered that a period
of elegance and charm is coming which
hides behind formality.
There are two areas of the campus in
which Miss Park hopes this new world
of formality will lift its head: on the
upper campus and at the dinner table.
Apparently the upper campus is regarded
as a bathing beach while in reality it is
more like Rittenhouse Square in its free
admittance to the public and its general
look. Therefore our appearances should
be drawn from Rittenhouse Square and
not from a beach. Shorts and drying
hair belong to one and not the other.
Miss Park hopes that the new way will
firsj reach the area of the campus.
While Miss Park does not belong to
the school where Englishmen in igloos
or an African jungle dress for dinner, she
does believe that if the dinner hour can
be detached from the fever and heat of
the rest of the day by a feeling of leisure,
given by a sponge, a comb, powder and
Continued   on   Face   Two
Miss Kingsbury On
Prohibition Council!
Garden Party Dancer
Effects   to   Be   Studied   Along
Scientific Lines.   Graduate
Students to Help.
Dr, Susan M. Kingsbury. director of
the Graduate School of Social Econ-
omy and Social Research, at Bryn
Mawr College, is to serve on the pro-
hibition advisory research council or-
ganized by Colonel Amos VV. W.
Woodcock. The purpose of the coun-
cil, which is composed of ten 'econo-
mists and sociologists from leading
colleges and universities, is to study
the effects of the dry law "along purely
scientific lines."
The research will be carried out as
graduate study under the direction of
the members of the council. Such sub-
jects as "How has the operation of the
Eighteenth Amendment affected child
delinquency?" and "How has it
affected juvenile drinking?" will be
investigated.
Beside obtaining information on
certain angles of the problem, it is
hoped that the commission will stir up
interest in prohibition enforcement
among educators.
Dr. Fenwick Rewarded
for Current Events
After a stimulating half hour with Dr.
Fenwick's five hour plan, which.he pre-
sented in condensed form at the year's
last current events lecture, Miss Helen
Bell, erstwhile president of the Under-
graduate  Association,  arose.    "Dr.  Fen-
wick," she began, "I have a question to
--He-ean-tel! rou what people ask you.    Do you tliiiiji�it   right  that  a
Recent elections to the Under-
graduate Board have created the
following officers: Anne Knapp,
'33, secretary; Lulu Bowen, '34,
treasurer; Nancy Hoyt. '33, first
junior member; Beulah Parker,
'33, second junior member; Helen
Bowie, '34, sophomore member.
man who has^_ -muGO-toJ^-frf- you art-
said to have, should devote half an hour
every Tuesday night, as well as the time
given to preparation, to presenting the
facts of the world (in convenient and
sugar-coated doses) to a group of girls
who know nothing about it, with no
better recompense than the sound of their
applause? I have asked you'a question,
but I shall not ask you to answer it. In-
stead I shall ask you another. Do you
think that the time may come when the
news of the  world shall run out, when
nations shall have disarmed and there
shall be no more tariff, and when Mary-
land shall have sunk into a dismal bog?
When that time comes, you will have
more leisure and you may be able to
occupy your time and perhaps find the
answer to my question in these." She
theri presented him with an edition of
Warren's "The United States in the
Supreme Court," and Beveridge's "Life
of Marshall," a gift from the Under-
graduate Association-in appreciation of
Dr. Fenwick's enlightening Tuesday night
Continued  on Pate  Two
convic-
i m �\ eat:
tion. The actors gave the impres-
sion of sincerity, but the playwrlters
had obviously bitten off more than
they could.chew.
The last play. Phaeton, was un-
doubtedly the most successful, more
ambitious in its production�both set
and costumes were charming. It dealt
with a situation more within the scope
of college dramatists. It concerned a
clever intrigue in the court of Louis
XIV. Miss Coxe, author, director and
actres.-., .as the machiavellian Chevalier,
Treshmen Write and
Produce Three Plays
On Tuesday night the Fpreshman
class presented three of the one-act
plays written in their Required English
Course. The first play of the evening
was a comedy entitled "The Habit of
Habit," written and directed by C.
Duany. The plot concerns a middle-
aged gentleman, unusually "set in his
domestic habits (even for a middle-
aged gentleman), who is imposed upon
for twenty-four hours by a visiting boy
scout who camps out in his breakfast
room, much to the dismay of his well-
ordered domestics. The point of the
play seems to be the similarity in the
rigidity of the habits with which time
had imbued Mr. Stickney, and the Boy
Scout code, this rosy-cheeked young
hope of the nation. The performance
was distinguished by the pantomime of
Miss Schwab as Mr. Stickney, Miss
Parsons' characterization of the Irish
housekeeper, and some lovely touches
by Miss Smith with bacon, setting-up
exercises and tents.
Wat, a tragic episode written by C:
F. Grant, who not only wrote and
directed her own play but supervised
the whole produftion, followed. Joce-
lyn Todd (Miss Carpenter), given the
opportunity of marrying her fiance
(Miss Boyd) before he sails to
France, probably to die, sends him
away because with the disheartening
example of her widowed sister (Miss
Carter) whose future is "a blank." she
cannot "believe there is any real hap-
piness." While the idea is an inter-
esting one we felt the brevity, wordi-
ness   and   insufficient   characterization
gave the most convincing performance of
the evening. The last line was an excel-
lent finishing touch.
In following the precedent of last year's
Freshman Class, 1934 has carried on a
tradition   Which   we   hope   will   become
firmly  established by succeeding classes.
C. C. and J. M.
The casts were as follows:
I
THE   HABIT  OF  HABIT
C.   Duany
Annie ...................................... J. Parsons
Continued on Page Three
The Mikado' Fulfills
High Expectations
Choruses    Are    Powerful    and
Effective�Splendid Cast
of Good Voices.
MISS RUTH PAGE
who is to dance in the Cloister Garden on
Tuesday evening, June 2.
Varsity Tennis Downed
by Merion Cricket Club
/Varsity  t�iiniy  niff�r�H  n  ^rniul  t�>.
back Saturday, this time at the hands
of the Merion Cricket Club. Unfortu-
nately the German oral prevented a
large attendance and anyone else who
might have come was having her pic-
ture taken as a member of the
"Mikado" cast.          .   .
Allen was the first to' fall, being
beaten 6-0, 6-2, by Mrs. Lasky. Her
game was quite good, but she was
clearly  outclassed.
Mrs. Gardiner beat Collier 6-1, 6-4.
During the second set there were some
good rallies and the playing was
fairly even.
Anne Page defeated A. Lee' Harden-
bergh, 6-4, 6-3. They both play a
similar type of game, standing on the
base line and driving at their oppon-
ents' feet. There were a good many
long rallies which Miss Page was gen-
erally able to end.
The best match was that in which
Miss Townsend beat Margaret Hask-
ell. During the whole first set the
playing was^very even. Haskell often
got Miss Townsend on the run and
then finished off the point with a well-
placed shot to the side lines. Her best
point winner was a stinging drive
which bounced about an inch inside
of the base line. Because of the lack
of sufficient good competition at col-
lege   Mis*   Haskell   was   not   able   to
f
Continued   on   Vagf   Two
Modern/Architecture
Simple and Useful
On Wednesday, April 29, Mr. C. H.
Van der Leeuw gave a lecture, illus-
trated with slides, on "International
Architecture." Mr. Van der Leeuw
is not only a prominent Dutch indus-
trialist, president of the International
Industrial Relations Association, but
also a recognized exponent of modern
architecture.
Architecture has a variety of aspects,
historical, aesthetic, hygienic. Its
beauty is psychological, differing in
different people and from one age to
another. Many people do not like the
modern phase, but if they would look
at it without prejudice they would see
how adequately it answers the needs
of this age. It should be remembered
that "modern" does not mean "modern-
istic^------Eighteen�seventy    began'' a
period of extremely ugly architecture
without any relation to its surround-
ings. In reaction to this the artist
came to the front and for a time every-
thing was ornate and lacked utility.
Windows were not for lif^ht or air, but
for ornament. The proposed Radio
Cityv to be built in New York, is
criticized by conservatives for having
too much of this artistic decoration.
Buildings should be simple; their pur-
pose is to form sheltering walls. The
ultra-modern    criticize    the    plans    of
Continued on Pace Three
The Glee Club's long-awaited produce
tion of "The Mikado" on Friday and
Saturday nights contributed more than
one straw toward the collapse of an old
adage, for it fulfilled every feature of
our hopes, and our readers know they
were fond.
With the Vising of the curtain' upon
the "gentlemen of Japan," in the bright
M-tting ot "many a vase and jar," the
tone was set. The arrangement of the
gentlemen was effective as well as suited
to their humorously stiff movements.
They came to life nicely, however, both
vocally and physically, in response to
Xanki-Poo's "song of the sea," and in
their greeting to the Lord High Exe-
cutioner missed none of Sullivan's ex-
ploitation of color varieties. They even
overcame their femininity to the extent of
providing a real contrast to the "train of
little ladies" whose Muttering entrances
and delicate singing contributed more
than their costumes, especially the wigs,
to the effect of the shy and wondering
schoolgirl, as charming as she is rare.
As the populace, the two choruses
"with joyous shout and ringing cheer,"
made quite a powerful ensemble, while
in their dramatic silencing of Katisha, not
overplaying Sullivan's grand opera style,
which is not too happy a lapse from the.
vein of light musical satire exemplified by
Ko-Ko.
It was in this compliance to the de-
mands of comedy that Miss Bell, whether
speaking or singing, excelled as the
shameless upstart, for she brought out the
ludicrous and the pathetic in his char-
acter. Her entrance was incredibly
superb, but her young sword-bearer comes
in for a share of the credit quite incom-
patible with his size.
Miss Bell's untraditional stature was
a decided asset to her appeal, and, for a
tall person, helpless from a softening of
the heart, seems just too pathetic for
words. The list song, of course, appealed
to a common emotion, but even Ko-Ko's-
refusal to execute himself, or his both-
ering the flowers that bloom in the spring
made him something to be loved. As
with the harassed "Major General" of
the "Pirates," played by Miss Bell last
year, one wanted to pick him up and
soothe his ruffled spirits. It is no won-
der that Katisha succumbed to "Tit-
Willow," for, in contrast to the usual
clowning, it was sung with an air of
simple sincerity which would have moved
the heart of the most skeptical.--
Concerning the "three little maids from
school."   it  has  been  said  that   at   their
Continned on Pate Three
Athletic Assn. Election
President
Gertrude H. Woodward. 32, of
Chestnut Hill, was elected pn-i-
dent of the Athletic Association for
1931-32. Miss Woodward is a
graduate of Springside School. She
has been on the Athletic AMOCU-
tion Board since 1929, when she
was freshman representative, being
sophomore member in 1930 and
treasurer for the past year. Miss
Woodward has played left half-
lack on the varsity hockey team
for  three  years.
/ 7iv President
Helen  Leidy,  '33. of Baltimore.
Graduate of the Bryn Mawr
school. Member of the varsity
hockey iquad tor two years and
captain of the 1933 cla-- basket-
ball team.
Treasurer
Sylvia C. Bowditch, '33. of BosJ
ton. Winsor School of Self-Gow
iniment Board (oc two years/:
second varsity basketball team and
varsity swimming lor two years;
Secretary
Susan Daniels, '34, Long Island.
Shipley varsity swimnung teanl.