College News, 1930-02-12, Vol. 16, No. 12

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The College News
VOL. XVI, NO. 12
BRYN MAWR (AND WAYNE), PA., WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1930
PRICE.   JO CENTS
Balzac's Life in 1835               Three-Period Year Idea
Described by Bouteronl              Open For Discussion
A lecture entitled "l'ne Annee de la j     In chapel Tuesday. February 4. Act-
Vie   de   Balzac"   was   Riven   on   Tues-   ing-President Manning spoke concern-
,                       ~ ,             ,' .     -     - . .   ing  further  investigations   being  made
dav evening.   Februarv 4. in Loodhart   ,,_..-         .            ...
"   "                         a by the Curriculum Committee.    Presi-
Music   Room  by  Monsieur   Marcel^otfl den,   p   .     before  ,eaving  for   j.-^,,
suggested that the committee consider
Co-Ordination Is
Thrilling Portrayal of
Cause of Revolt      *&*** Expedition Given
teron. Chevalier de la Legion d'Hon-
neur. Monsieur Bouteron is the head
librarian of the- Institute of France,
and Balzac editor and scholar. The
lecture was in French, and illustrated
\Vith lantern-slides. Monsieur Bouter-
on was introduced by Monsieur Jean
Canu.
Monsieur Bouteron took as his topic
the vear 1835. and described the
crowded sequence of events that filled
it. stressing Balzac's visit to Vienna,
and its influence upon him. Pictures
of the places with which Balzac was
most intimately connected, cartoons of
Balzac himself, portraits of his friends,
and facsimiles of his manuscripts were
shown as slides. M. Bouteron opened
� his talk with a detailed description of
' the novelist's Parisian apartment, and
went on to tell of Balzac's appearance,
his habits of work, his inability to keep
himself as a man of -null estate, and
his pretentious to nobility. M. Bou-
teron led up to the eventful year with
mention of Balzac's travels abroad in
Russia. Switzerland and Italy, during
which time he was nevertheless always
working, and  finished "Lc   Pere  Gori-
ot," and "I.e Recherche de 1' Absolu."
On his return to Paris he led a gay
social life in the salons, but in order
to escape from_ the Garde Nationale,
he was finally compelled to hide^, behind
the name of Mine. Veuve Durand, in
a magnificent apartment, later pictured
by him iff wI.a Fille aux Yeux d'Or."
White he was in retreat the Ambassa-
dor of Austria sought him out,- and a
somewhat ironical interview was given
him "by Balzac. Balzac was invited by
the Ambassador to visit Vienna, and
he-soon yielded to the inducement as
lie ult that he must travel somewhere.
When he arrived in Vienna he received
a tremendous popular ovation as a
great novelist, and was also enter-
tained by the cream of Vienna society.
One of the most lasting impressions
during his trip was obtained by Balzac
from his visit to the Napoleonic battle-
grounds and monument; in one of his
later works. Balzac pictured the battle
with a remarkable simplicity and mel-
ancholy. The most historic moment of
Balzac's Viennese experiences was his
interview with Chancellor Metternich,
the conqueror of Napoleon and the
founder of the Holy League; Metter-
nich   insisted that   he  had  read   none  of
doing away with mid-year examina-
tions. The Bryn Mawr year is as
short as that of any institution in the
country, and the curriculum would be
so revised in order to lengthen the col-
lege year, and to give time for a read-
ing period in preparation for final ex-
aminations and also for papers and
reports; the period between the end of
Chrfstmas vacation and the present
schedule of mid-year examinations is a
poor time for preparation. The main
disadvantage of such a change, as ap-
parent to the L'ngergraduate Curricu-
lum Committee, would be the necessity
to remember a course for more than*
one semester, a necessity that might
be thought an advantage by the Fac-
ulty. Mrs. Maiming hopes that the
change might improve the character
of   the  examinatioiis^bid   make   them
general       4fl � comprehensive.
Such changes in trwBysteni, however,
would have to be accomplished by a
more careful regulation and schedule of
quizzes; there might be under the new
system an arrangement to break the
year into three parts instead of two.
The Curricula-m'"" Committee is
scarcely beginning to discuss the sub-
ject, but there is no reason why the
undergraduates should not know that a
change has been suggested so as to
have the opportunity of discussing the
possibility themselves. The investiga-
tion will be continued by the Curricu-
lum Committee during the second se-
mester as a part of their general pro-
gram.
Exercise Enlivens the
Minds of the Lazy
Contlnncd   on Page Three
Odyssey  Movies Shown
-On Thursday, February 6, at 8
o'clock, Mr. B. D. MacDonald showed
moving pictures of the Odyssey cruise
to a small group of students in the
Auditorium of Goodhart Hall. The
Odyssey cruise offers acquaintance
with the small and historic islands of
the Ionian and Aegean Seas which
"large cruisers are forced to omit.
Starting at Venice and boarding the
()dy-sey at Ragusa, the member's are L
carried to Corfu. Corjnth, Athens,
Crete and Rhodes, up the cost of
Turkey and through the Sea of Mar-
mora to Constantinople. The return
trip follows the northern coast of the
Aegean back to Athens, the Gulf of
Corinth and Venice. Many inland
trips to historic spots such as Delphi,
Knossus and Troy are included, and
the 1930 Odyssey for young women
and adults arranges for a trip up the
Danube and on to Oberammergau for
the   Passion  Play.
The good felowship of the "cruise was
stressed as well as the unusual educa-
tional offering^ of its itinerary. Swim-
ming is a favorite sport, and one of the^
interesting feats is to cross the Helles-
pont. The membership of the trip is
limited to fifty, with twelve carefully
selected young men. The Odyssey
cryjse is under the direction of B. D.
MacDonald and his assistant, Mrs.
Byjtciie C. Anderson. The address is
5-' Vanderbilt Avenue at 45th Street.
New York City.
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III chapel Thursday, February 6,
Miss Josephine Petts announced the
new changes in the system of the
Physical Fducation Department. Miss
Petts prefaced the announcement with
an explanation of the part physical
education plays in college activities.
Physical education in almost all col-
leges requires four periods of exercise
a week for four years; the plan at Bryh
Mawr. however, is different�only two
periods of required exercise for two
years. The object of an exercise re-
quirement is the essential building up
of vitality; the department wishes to
feel that when students graduate their
trained minds are supported by agile
^(.bodies and an established habit of ex-
ercise. In most colleges gymnastics
are required during the first two years,!
and- the exercise of the last two years
is left to the students' choice; here the
activities are absolutely elective from
the beginning. Tlie department be-
lieves that no gymnastic system is ap-
plicable to the problem of the college
student, although there are certain
good gymnastic exercises�such as
those to be used on getting up�that
the individual may be interested in.
Exercise, possibly more than any-
thing else, contributes to aliveness.
The department has worked out the
schedule so that it may be enjoyable,
for exercise is wasted if it is not en-
joyed. Further, the reasons for the
requirement of only two years, are
that in two years students should at-
tain skill in one activity and that the
only way to impress the essentiality of
exercise upon the students is to -let
them learn by experience, so that in
the Junior year will come a slump, but
in the Senior year a returli to the fold.
Even as early as Ovid it was said: "See
how idleness the lazy body destroys.
How water in the lake without move-
ment spoils."               ,
Having arranged the minimum of re-
quirement, the department holds the
studeirts to "strict accountability" for
the attendance of classes; people who
do not come, do not learn anything; a
perfect    progression    must    be    gone
Contlaurd   ��  Pm�x Faar
Middle  -Ages     ReWftA Against
Plato and Progress-by
Modifying.
PERSUASION OVER FORCE
Professor Whitehead in his second lec-
ture under the Flexner Foundation
began:
"We will glance at accessory causes
and criticize the humanitarian ideal gath-
ering strength since the nineteenth cen-
tury. And wc will include the sketch
of a reply to thjs criticism.
"The growth of technology about the
seventeenth century is the greatest of
accessory causes weakening the success
of slavery. The organization of a well-
fixed order of society in a well-man-
aged feudal system must not be con-
fused with- slavery. The adjustment of
big business in modern finance involves
a closer analogy to feudalism than
feudalism to slavery. Individualists and
socialists are debating the details of a
neo-feudalism which modem industry re-
quires. The problem of social life is
the problem of co-ordinati(Ui of activities.
Thanks to the growth of technology con-
currently with the advance of civiliza-
tion, the European races have avoided
slavery. The economic movement of the
eighteenth century with the growing
sense of the kinship of man, urged civ-
ilized governments to extirpate slavery
from the world. Before and during the
nineteenth century several strands of
thought opposed the humanitarian idea.
"Throughout the eighteenth century, the
intellectual life of England was negligible
so far as intellectual originality was con-
cerned. But after 1790 there was a
reconstruction, of England's intellectual
influence on the rest of the world.
Whereas in the seventeenth century
France looked to England, where the
great men were Bacon, Locke and New-
ton, yet it is FYance in the eighteenth
century who carried the white man's
burden   of advance.
Continued on Pace Three
Seniors Urged to File
Vocational Interests
One usually thinks of an employ-
ment or appointment bureau as an
agency which definitely takes the initia-
tive in seeking positions for those who
register with it. For various reasons,
the Bureau of Recojnmendations at
Bryn Mawr is not equipped for this
kind of service. What we can do,
however, is 'to secure information
about your academic record, collect
your recommendations, and have these
facts in shape to give out, if and when
you are interested in securing a posi-
tion. Our object is really 'two-fold�
first, to be of some service to Bryn
Mawr graduates who arc looking for
positions, and second, to have more
names in our files to suggest for what
is sometimes an embarrassingly large"
number of call-.
This year the Bureau is making a
special effort to have on file some rec-
ord of each Senior's present interest
and probable tendencies, before she
leaves college, even though not all
Seniors expect to go into some kind of
work immediately. It is particularly-
important, for the best interests of the
Bureau and the individual, that we
secure recommendations from your
professors while you are still fresh in
their minds, and before they have left
the college for" sabbatical years or for
more protracted absences. We hope,
therefore, that every Senior will fill
out the cards which may be obtained
from the Bureau of Recommendations
or from .the wardens, and hand them
in to the Bureau as soon as possible.
All those who are seriously interested
in position! in the near future are
B9ked to see Miss Crane in the Bu-
reau, which is located in the Dean's
office.
�   The   largest    number   oj. calls   are
usually   for teachers in the .secondary
school's!      However,   during   the   past
Contlnoed  an  Pafl
On Friday evening, February 7, and
Saturday afternoon, February 8, Mr.
Harry Whitney spoke and showed mo-
tion pictures in Goodhart Auditorium
for the benefit of the League of Wom-
en Voters in Philadelphia. Mr, Whit-
ney was with the Peary Polar Expedi-
tion in, 1908 and published a book on
his studies of the Eskimos. In 19,10
he returned to Greenland to bring back
animals for the Bronx Zoo. In 1928
and 1929 he was back in Alaska get-
ting animals for the Philadel|>hia
Academy of Natural Sciences.
Mr. Whitney's pictures we're a rec-
ord of his most recent trip in Alaska
in which he succeeded in getting splen-
did specimens of the caribou, the
grizzly bear, and especially of the little
known Dall white mountain sheep.
Much of the phonography was excel-
lent, and included beautiful views of
the Alaskan and Vukon landscape as
well as some remarkably interesting
and artistic shots of the animals which
he was hunting. Very fantastic re-
sults were obtained when Mr. Whitney
was photographing the sea' lions on
Seal Rock from a small boat on rough
water. The [ions obliged him with
fierce �and continual" antics which
amused and roused the admiration of
the audience. Several sympathetic
studies of huskies, which will soon
give way to the airplane as mail car-
riers, and of bear cubs were shown.
Then the trip to the Yukon was made
to procure specimens of the numerous
caribou, which travel almost entirely
in herds. When the migration of the
international herd begins it takes two
or three weeks for some million cari-
bou to swim the Vukon River. Many
views H these large, but graceful ani-
mals swimming in groups were pre-
sented.
Mr. Whitney and his guide then
went up the Nanna River to the great
mountainous sheep country to locate
the Dall white mountain sheep of
which he attained extremely beautiful
pictures at the expense of a great deal
of difficulty. The handsome white crea-
tures with their dignified horns and
solemn gait arc a splendid <ight against
their barren, almost inaccessible back-
ground. The cleaning and preparing
of the skins and bones to be brought
back to the museum was also strange
and interesting.
Mr. Whitney's last trip1 was into the
Kenai Peninsula, the greatest moose
country in the world, where he hunted
moose on  the  shores of   Lake  Tustu-
Contlnued on Page Three
Palpitating   Pinafores!
It is generally the consensus of
opinion that pinafores are unsophis.
ticated garments, with none of the
glamour and romance which surrounds
various othjjr feminine raiment, cir-
cumspectly known as "undies." Any-
one who thinks this has a lot learn!
But it can be learned enjoyably, for
the Freshmen arc going to teach you.
In the Freshman show Saturday night
you will see PALPITATING PINA-
FORES, which will open your eyes
and make you gasp. PALPITATING
PINAFORES! Don't you thrill to
the name, and in it the possibilities of
a bewitching revue? Doesn,'t your
own heart palpitate at the prospect?
The Freshmen hate to keep you in
suspense for three whole days. But
your enjoyment will be all the greater
when on Saturday, the fifteenth, you
at last will see this superb LITTLE
SHOW of Bryn Mawr and other
places of interest to you. The tickets
are only a dollar, and the hour is 8:15
I*. M. No effort is being spared to
make this a clever, melodious, spec-
tacular and interesting revue.
The class "of '33 extends a most
hearty invitation to all the reader- of
the News to be present in Goodhart
Auditorium Saturday night at 8:15 to
witness its fascinating, witty and peppy
presentation. PALPITATING PIN-
AFORES.
'Cello, Violin and
Piano in Concert
Beatrice      Harrison      Interprets
Number Composed  For
��         Her by Delius.
SERIES    FOURTH    EVENT
In Goodhart Hall on Wednesday eve-
ning a concert was given by Beatrice
Harrison, 'cellist: Boris Koutzcn, violin-
ist, and Horace Alwyne. pianist, as the
fourth event in the  Bryn' Mawr Series.
Miss Harrison and Mr. * Alwyne
Opened the program with the Brahms'
StHMta in It motor. Long, deep-sounding
Iwss notes characterize the first move-
ment of this composition; in the second
the lighter dance measures of an Alle-
grelto quasi Minuet to relieve this elegiac
intonation; and with the gladsome mood
carefully sustained [he .sonata closes in
an . Illegro movement.
There followed a Hungarian Sonata
written expressly for Miss Harrison by
Kodaly. This'composition is unique sd\
that it is entirely unaccompanied. In Ad-
dition Kodaly has put many new tech-
nical ideas into the formation of the
piece,   and   the   'cello   is   strained  to   its
utmost musical capacity. Miss Harrison
gave a superb rendition of this difficult
composition, while in her happy choice
of an encore she counteracted the daz-
zling technicalities of the Sonata with an
antidote of pure melody.
The third and fifth numbers in the
program were written by Delius, a com-
poser little recognized in America, al-
though he is very well known in Ger-
many and in England, where recently a
whole week- was set apart for a music
festival in honor of his works. As Mr.
Alwyne explained, � Delius is one of the
most tragic figures of contemporary
music, since he is now paralyzed and
quite blind. His works have a certain
distinguishing wistful quality and aloof-
ness which Is well brought out in the
Simula No. 2 in C. This composition is
written in otic continuous movement
(con moto�lento�vivace) for the violin
and piano. Mr. K.outzcn. who began
somewhat stiffly, gave a creditable per-
formance.
The moody thoughtfulness of Delius
VMS expressed by Miss Harrison and Mr.
Alwyne in the Sonattr; which the com-
poser had dedicated to Miss Harrison
in whose garden he often wrote. It is
a composition with an impassioned theme
well adapted to the 'cello. Of this same
vibrant sonority is Eltffii by Faure,
which Miss Harrison played assisted by
Vernon Hammond's accompaniment;
while in direct contrast to such deep-
woven harmony is Scott's Pastorale and.,
Reel, where the 'cello becomes a more''
frivolous instrument and sings perhaps of
a hundred shepherds competing in a bag-
pipe playing contest. Indeed, undar Miss
Harrison's skillful hands the violoncello
became a most astonishingly versatile in-
strument, at times almost as gay as a <
piccolo and a.t other times as plaintive
as a violin.
The program was as follows
Violoncello and Pianoforte: Sonata
in E minor. Op. 38. Brahms; Allegro
non troppo. Allegretto quasi Minuetto,
Allegro.
Violoncello: Hungarian Sonata for
cello alone, Kodaly (written for Miss
Harrison); Adagio (esprcssiohe), Al-
legro molto vivace.
Violin and Pianoforte: Sonata No. 2
in C, Delhi-: Con moto�Lento�Vi-
vace (in one continuous movement).
Violoncello: (a) Elcgie. Faure: (b)
Pastorale and  Reel. Scott
Violoncello and Pianoforte: Sonata
(Dedicated to Mis- Harrison), Deltas;
Allegro non troppo�I.ento�Allegro
(in one continuous  movement).   '
Calendar
Wednesday evening, February 12�
Curtis   Institute  Orchestra.
Saturday    evening.    February    15-�-
Palpitating       Pinafores,       The
Freshman Show.
au"