College News, 1935-05-01, Vol. 21, No. 22

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The College News
VOL. XXI, No. 22
ijRYN MAWR AND WAYNE, PA., WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1935
Copyright  BRYN   MAWR
OOLLfcKJK     NEWS,     1935
PRICE 10 CENTS
Leach Affirms Verse
Popular In America
Poetry Should Aim To Arouse
Emotions But To Preserve
Equilibrium
MacLEISH   BEST   MODERN
Deanery, April 28.�"I will lie an
idle ball," was the theme, selected
from Alcmon's Lyra Graeca, chosen
by Mr. Henry Goddard Leach for his
lecture When Verse Becomes Poetry.
Mr. Leach expressed his conviction
that any definition of poetry and the
region where verse turns into poetry
should be entirely personal. His own
attitude represents no school of phil-
osophy, no conception of poetry, no
theory characteristic of any magazine.
Contemporary verse is perhaps
more contemporary than any other
Amercian art. There are about twelve
million Americans extremely interest-
ed in it, and of these a great many
are young people still in schools and
colleges. The corn belt especially ex-
eels in the productivity of young
poets. Much of the poetry of modern
young writers takes the form of vets
lihre, and much verse developing from
vers libre becomes more American and
more contemporary. "More than half
of the young girl poets," he said, "be-
long to tomorrow."
Poetry, according to Aristotle, is a
relief, a cleansing of life. "My defi-
nition," said Mr. Leach, "is that it is
the art of the patterned word." The
definition of poetry, then, depends
upon that of art. A century and a
half before Aristotle, Confucius said
that the state of art exists when all
the emotions ai-e actively in being, but
in a state of equilibrium and his deli-
nation is better than Aristotle's. Art
should not stir one to action,�one's
emotions arc aroused, but they arc in
a state of equilibrium. A college edu-
cation of the emotions is needed more
than an accumulation of fact or added
thought.
Verse becomes poetry when it be-
comes etched on the emotions of a
generation unborn at the time the poem
was written. In spite of the many
objections raised against the tactics of
the American Poetry Society�objec-
tions to too great popularization, and
to too marked promotion of quality�
�it seems to�be the function of editors
and college professors to decide which
Continued on  Pace Three
Science Building Plans
Show Steady Progress
The new Science Building will be in
two sections, one for physics, chemis-
try and mathematics and one for biol-
ogy and geology. The plans for the
physics, chemistry and mathematics
section are completed.
The building will be of gray stone,
quarried locally, and will be in keep-
ing with the architecture of the other
buildings on the campus. Its simplic-
ity is well suited to its purpose, a sim-
plicity, however, that is reached by
combining complicated, unbalanced de-
tails into a balanced' whole.
The first year physics laboratory
has sound-proof and dark rooms for
sound and light experiments. A high
voltage room will allow a Vandergraf
apparatus to be used with no danger
of flying sparks. A cork-lined dark
room, with a separate floor from the
rest of the building so that there will
be no possibility of vibrations, will
house the Rowland grating' already
owned by the college.'1 The. large lec-
ture rooms for first year classes have
preparation rooms behind them in
which experiments can be set up for
class demonstration. Ten small rooms
for graduate research are provided.
The library for physics and chemistry
with reading room and stacks is to
be given by the Class of 1918 as a
memorial to Marjorie Jefferies Wag-
oner, A.B., Bryn Mawr, 1918; M.D.,
University of Pennsylvania, 1922;
College Physician from 1922 to 1984.
The chemical laboratories are equip-
ped with a modern ventilating system
to carry off the gases. The receiving
and storage rooms are adjoining and
the balance room is placed to avoid
vibrations. Wherever possible, steam
will be used in experiments for which
heat is necessary, so that the lire risk
will be reduced to the minimum.
The new building will not only.pro-
vide such modern equipment as is es-
sential to carry on experimentation,
but will make possible a valuable ex-
periment in the teaching of science.
A plan for correlating the sciences
with each other and with mathematics
has been worked out in detail and will
he put into effect as soon as the new
Science Building is available. Bryn
Mawr College was a pioneer fifty
years ago in demanding that .science
be part of the required work for the
A.B. degree. Now it is to be a pio-
neer in a new plan of teaching science.
The cost of the building for physics,
chemistry and mathematics will be
$500,000 equipped.
Summer School to Take Place This Year
At Art Workshop Camp, Mt. Ivy, New York
Goodhart, April 29.�The plans for
the summer of nineteen-thirty-five of
the Bryn Mawr Summer School for
women in industry were discussed at
a meeting held by the Summer School
Committee of the Bryn Mawr League.
The speakers were Mrs. Dexter Otey,
1901, who will be the director of the
school this summer, Miss Betty Fry,
who was at the school last summer,
and Miss Katie Graver, of Berlin.
Mrs. Otey discussed the purpose of
the summer sessions for women work-
ers, which is to teach them a prac-
tical course in the social sciences and
to help them realize how they can bet-
ter their own economic positions. The
group is most varied, including girls
from all over the United States and
often from several countries of Eu-
rope, who are of every political per-
suasion. The school was the first of
its kind in America. Its former di-
rector, Miss Hilda Smith, is now di-
recting a similar movement under the
FERA in Washington. This Summer
the School will not be located on the
Bryn Mawr campus as usual, but will
open on June seventh at a summer
camp of the Art WorkshofTTJeague at
Mount Ivy, Pomona, New York.
Usually the school is composed of
one hundred girls sent on scholarships
from their various communities, who
live in Pembroke and have classes in
Denbigh and Taylor Halls. This year,
the number of girls has to be limited
to fifty, and there will be no Library,
Gymnasium, nor any facilities for
studying at night.    Because the Art
Workshop League needs the camp lat-
er in the summer, the session of the
summer school wilj begin a week
earlier than usual. This may make
it necessary for many of the profes-
sors, whose college positions do not
end until the third week in June, to
arrive a week late. Another difficulty
is the withdrawal of the grant which
was instituted to send negro workers
to the summer school.
Miss Fry outlined the courses of-
fered each summer, which include
Kuglish and economics, as required
subjects, elementary sciences, correc-
tive gymnasium, sports such as tennis
and swimming, and dramatics. There
were twenty second-year students in
the group of one hundred. One of
the problems with which the adminis-
trative board of the Summer School
are experimenting is whether to in-
clude the second-year students in the
same classes as the new students, in
order to give the advantage of their
progress to the whole class, or to start
special, more advanced classes for
them.
Although at present the girls arc-
accepted for only two years at the
most, the knowledge that they gain
in the two summers is manifested by
a desire for further learning which
continues through many years. As an
evidence of her appreciation of what
she had learned at the Bryn Mawr
Summer School, Miss Fry left her
position in Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
for the afternoon, especially in order
to speak at the meeting.
COLLEGE CALENDAR
Wednesday, May 1: ,Mr.
Archibald MacLeish will give
the Sheble Memorial Lecture.
Goodhart, &20 P. M.
Thursday, May 2: Little
May  Day.
VSaturday,   May"4:     German
OraVExamination.
Saturday, May 4: Varsity
Tennis Match.    10.30 A. M.
Tuesday, May 7: Recital by
Mr. Guy Marriner. Deanery,
5.00 P. M.
Bryn Mawr Students
Compete In Oratory
Interpretation    of    History    of
Acadcmie Is Presented In
Winning Speech
DECISION WON BY JONES
Goodhart, April 24.�Bryn Mawr
has been distinguished this year by
being the first women's college to
hold the Concours Oratoire France-
Amerique. Tl^ese concours have
hitherto been held only at some of the
outstanding universities such as Har-
vard, Yale and Leland Stanford. It
offers to the undergraduates and to
[�graduate students who have received
their A.B. degrees not more than a
year ago an opportunity to pursue
certain problems connected with the
study of French in America,�prob-
lems of vocabulary and of presenta-
tion as distinguished from ordinary
conversation or written theses. This
year there were three candidates, two
seniors, and one graduate student,
Francoise Queneau, Mount Holyoke,
'34; Mary Pauline Jones, Bryn Mawr,
"35, and Elisabeth Morrow, Bryn
Mawr, '35. The jury, consisting of
M>le Consul-General de Verneuil, M.
Schinz, of the University of Pennsyl-
vania) and M. Cons, of Columbia Uni-
versity, awarded the decision, after
some deliberation, to Miss Jones.
The subject of the winning address
was the true significance of the
Academie Francaise, which lies not in
its history, but in the interpretation
of that history. It is in the spirit of
the Academie that its real importance
lies, and in the fact that this group of
forty men of letters stands, and has
always stood, as a symbol of author-
ity. Its decisions as regards lan-
guage, laws, or contemporaries elected
to the body may not necessarily be
final or binding, but they set a stand-
ard for the rest of the intellectual
world.
This principle of authority was
found in the first Academie, which was
merely a gathering of the littera-
teurs of the early seventeenth century
under the protection of Cardinal
Richelieu, who wished to keep these
men dependent upon him for their
ideas and opinions. Even during the
days of the Revolution, when the
Academie was suppressed for a time,
the principle persisted and was in-
corporated in the revived society.
There have been many attacks made
on the Academie: men have said that
in it the intellect is subordinated to
politics, that it is not the true expres-
sion of a period, since many illustri-
ous men are not members, or that,
after all, it is only a manifestation of
the conventional rather than of the
great. All this may be true, but the
Academie remains a guiding force
and provides a system of values which
cannot be over-estimated.
Missv Queneau was interested in Vol-
taire and his connection with the
Academie. His opinion of it varied
to the point of being self-contradictory,
and in this, as in other respects, he
represented the very soul of the
French spirit. Atjirst he scorned all
Cont4nued oi�*Par� i'ouf
Dhan Mukerji Explains
Hindu Mystic Methods
Lantern Elections
Editor-in-Chief � Elizabeth
Wyckoff.
Editors � Elizabeth Lyle,
Barbara Merchant, Margaret
Kidder, Sally Park, Elizabeth
Putnam.
Contributing Editors � Mary
Mesier, Augusta Arnold.
Deanery, April 23.�"True Hindu
contemplation is for the sake of se-
rene and noble action in life rather
than escape out of life," said Mr.
DltSu Gopal Mukerji as a prelude to
his explanation of the method Indians
use to attain to this contemplation.
He warned that mystical experience is
a dangerous goal even for those ac-
customed to meditation, and when it
actually occurs, its surest evidence is
its effect upon character, not any
fabulous tales of dragons or divini-
ties.
Hindus are trained in the. art of
meditation from their earliest youth
until it becomes a habit with them
that cannot be broken. When par-
ents sit quietly at sundown for this
purpose) they make their children sit
quietly also. Although the children
may be only three years old, and al-
though they may cry, or stamp, or
fight with each other, no attention is
paid to them for twenty minutes. By
i lie time they are six, they can re-
main perfectly still throughout the re-
quired time. Then they are given a
picture of Buddha to look at, which
they must separate from every ad-
jacent thing. That is, they must he
aware of the image, while unaware of
the frame or the wall where the frame
is hung. The tense concentration used
during study for examinations is only
a hindrance in learning how to medi-
tate; the mind should be absolutely
relaxed. As soon as children have
achieved the ability to relax and still
to focus their attention on one ob-
ject, they are told to observe not the
image of Buddha itself, but the idea
of the image�serenity. Through con-
templating the bare idea, exaltation
is sometimes reached, and always the
quality of the serenity which they see
enters into the children's lives.
Mr. Mukerji himself was not nat-
urally inclined to meditation. During
the twenty minutes when he was sup-
posed to be still, he would run off into
the jungle. His mother understood
and tried to teach him another way.
"Can you hear the silence in the jun-
gle?" she asked him each night at
bedtime. He could not, so she told
him to listen to the wind as it blew
through different things. After he
had listened closely, he distinguished
six different sounds, one made in
grass, another in trees, another in the
house, and others in various places.
"But Jhe music of the wind," said his
mother, "is made by the silence be-
tween the sounds. If there were no
silences, there would be no music; only
one long, unvaried note." Then he
heard silence. In all music, he dis-
covered, it is the pauses in between
that make the beauty, just as it is
the hollow in a cup, not the glass,
which holds wine. His ability to
focus.his mind on this idea which
transcends mere stillness gave him the
ability to meditate.
In spite of India's misery, the se-
renity and detachment gained by medi-
tation endures. Because of it, indeed,
the men of India are beyond hurt and
can survive their trouble. All over
the world as well, in these times of
stress and sudden change, detachment
Continued on   I'age  Four
Varied Piano Recital
Given By Mr. Alwyne
Perfect Technique Is Combined
With Charm and Sympathy
of Rendering
ROMANTIC   EMPHASIZED
Denbigh Over the Top
It is announced that Denbigh
is the first hall to fill its quota
for the Million Dollar Drive,
with Merion and Rockefeller
following close behind in second
and third place. Denbigh and
Pembroke East share honors for
having contributions from one
hundred per cent of the resi-
dents. The class of 1935 has
won Mrs. Slade's prize for the
first class in which all members
have contributed. The amounts
received to date from the vari-
ous halls are as follows:
Denbigh  ............$1,748.50
Merion .............    1,261.00
Rockefeller  .....:...    4,030.00
Pembroke West.....    2,800.00
Pembroke  East  .....    3,269.00
Wyndham   ..........       580.00
Non-Residents   ......       400.00
Tota
.$14,088.00
Goodhart Hall, April 23.�In the re-
cital which Mr. Alwyne gave for the
benefit of the Undergraduate Quota
of the Million Dollar Drive, his per-'
formance was remarkable not only for
perfect technique, an outstanding
quality of Mr. Alwyne's playing, but
also for color, sympathetic rendering,
and humor. The program was well-
balanced between abstract and pro-
gram music, serious and lightly ro-
mantic selections. The performance
as a whole was characterized by a
char, sparWmg quality of tone and
the few old favorites received a fresh,
new charm in Mr. Alwyne's playing.
The program opened with llarh's
Fuiitisic in C Minor which, because
of its. smooth flowing rhythm, formed
a very good introduction. Haydn's
Andante con Variazioni in F Minor
which followed had more color and
variety. Mr. Alwyne displayed his
fine technique in this number, which
was full of ornanuyitations and con-
trasts in volume, tempo, and expres-
sion. The trills and runs were rapid
and smooth under a light, but unhesi-
tating touch. Scrupulous accuracy, so
evident in this piece, is an element of
Mr. Alwyne's perfect technique. The
Schubert-Zadora Lachen tiud Wcimn
came next on the program and showed
by its sympathetic rendering that
technique is only one quality in Mr.
Alwyne's art. The Gluck-Brahms
(in mtte which ended the first section
of the program is such a well-known
favorite that its performance often
hicks interest. Mr. Alwyne, however,
because of his beautiful touch and the
smoothness of his performance,
brought out the hidden beauties of this
piece.
PnppillotiA, Opus 2, by Schumann,
was the high point of the program.
This piece, which is divided into
twelve parts, is so called, Mr. Alwyne
explained, not because of its flutter-
ing quality, but because it is derived
from a number of short phrases. Rep-
resentatively it portrays the last chap-
ter of a novel by two young men sow-
Contlnued on  rage Three
Kimball  Lectures To Art Classes
Taylor, April 24.�The History of
Art classes enjoyed a rare opportun-
ity to see the point of view of the
working artist when Mr. Maulsby
Kimball addressed them on the subject
of The Composition of the Italian
Masters of the Renaissance as Work-
iiuj Artists. Mr. Kimball is.himself a
working"artist and conducts a fine arts
school in Buffalo, where he combines
the study of the history and the prac-
tice of painting at the same time. He
believes the study of the history of
painting invaluable to the working
artist and himself draws greatly from
the works of the masters in matters of
technique and composition. A study
of the latter in Renaissance Italian
painting led him to the discovery of
the organic and flowing linear move-
ment ami, in particular, of several
forms of composition used again and
again by artists of that period The
figure eight, which occurs frequently
as the basis for the movement of com-
positions, shows in many of these pic-
tures how the totality of many flowing
lines about an axis creates an or-
ganic whole. Throughout his lecture
Mr. Kimball illustrated his points with
reproductions of the Old Masters, ac-
companied by his own line analyses of
the composition in each picture.
As the artist sets to work on a
picture he is faced with an infinite
number of possibilities for filling the
canvas, from all of which he must
select the proi>er ones which, in com-
bination, will produce a work of art.
Types of line and of rhythm found
in pictures are innumerable, but Ren-
aissance artists for the-most part em-
ployed a flowing line movement con-
verging about an axis. In this form
of composition the eye moves in one
Continued  on  Page  Five