College News, 1936-10-21, Vol. 23, No. 03

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The College News
VOL. XXIII, No.' 3
BRYN MAWR AND WAYNE, PA., WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1936
Copyright  BRYN  MAWR
COLLEGE NEWS. 1936
PRICE 10 CENTS
Philosopher Must
Make Metaphysical
Basis  for  Science
Northrop Thinks All Branches
Of Knowledge Are Related
On This Ground
SUGGESTS FOUNDATION
FOR GROUND RESEARCH
Common Room, October 15.�"To
suppose that man can meet the intel-
lectual and social demands of the
twentieth century with a philoso-
phical outlook devised for the scien-
tific ideas and practical demands of
the seventeenth century is absurd."
With these words from the paper
which he read for the Philosophy
Club this evening, Professor F. S. C.
Northrop, of Yale, emphasized the
need at the present time for research
in the philosophy of contemporary
science.
Since science itself is concerned
with the application of its theories to
concrete facts and practice, it cannot
likewise perform the opposite task
of enlarging these theories into meta-
physical principles. Yet such prin-
ciples must be formulated, because
previous systems of metaphysics can
no longer stand in the light of the
discoveries which modern physicists
and mathematicians have made. Nor
can the social sciences, which derive
their ends from philosophical concep-
tions, advance with any certain direc-
tion and effectiveness, unless the ends
which they follow are related to con-
ceptions that hold today. Even if
the natural sciences are to progress,
they must devote more attention to
reconstructing their fundamental as-
sumptions, since the discoveries to be
made from examining the apparent
fact or from proceeding according to
established theory are almost ex-
hausted.
In order to formulate new philoso-
phic concepts, it is necessary that
there be specialists who devote all
their time to interpreting the new
mathematics and physics for the
world just as Leibniz, Spinoza, Hume,
and Kant gave all their lives to re-
vealing what the far less complicated
science of Galilei and Newton really
involved. These specialists must be
philosophers trained for the handling
of abstract concepts. They must un-
derstand and be ready to use a
method which both the Greeks and
the thinkers of the seventeenth cen-
tury, faced with the same problem of
reconstructing their philosophy to fit
their science, proved to be not only
successful but logically correct. Ac-
cording to it, "one cannot proceed di-
rectly from a technical scientific fact
to a specific philosophical conclusion,"
but only indirectly through "the
more general principles common to
Continued on Pace Four
COLLEGE CALENDAR
' Friday, Saturday and Sunday,
October 23, 24, 25.�Alumnae
Weekend. Schedule of event3
in lead article, Page 1, of this
issue.
Saturday, October 24.�Hockey
game. Va/sity vs. West Jer-
sey.    10 a. m.
Surulay, October 25.�Recital by*
Horace Alwye, F. R. M. C. M.
5.30 p. m.   In the Deanery.
7.30 p. m.�Chapel Service
directed by Reverend Alex-
ander Zabriskie. In the Audi-
torium of Goodhart Hall.
Monday, October 26.�Deutscher
Tag. Wilmington, Delaware.
Hockey game. Second Team
vs. Rosemont. 4 p. m.
I Tuesday, October 27.�Grand
Rajly of International Rela-
tionkClub, American Students
Union and Industrial  Group.
Wednesday, October 28.�Recep-
tion for graduates by Presi-
dent Park.
Freshman Class of 114
Smaller Than Average
Size of College as Whole Larger
Than Usual; Undergraduates
Are   525   Strong
20    ALUMNAE    MOTHERS
Lantern Hymns Sung
In Steady Drizzle
Sophomores Falter Vat Start But
Sing "Pallas"  Clearly
In  Semi-Circle
'O, SUSANNA" IS REVIVED
Friday, October 16.�Under the
worst weather conditions that could
possibly have prevailed, the Class of
1940 received their light-blue lanterns
from the Class of 1939 in the Cloisters
of the Library. Lantern Night tick-
ets stated that the performance, which
was scheduled for 8 o'clock, would be
postponed in case of rain, but the
downpour, which continued all through
the ceremony, began after the specta-
tors were all gathered on campus, so
that the freshmen and sophomores
were forced to go through with it.
To the spectators on the Cloister
roof, huddled under umbrellas, the
darkness and rain made the dark and
silent entry of the freshmen imper-
ceptible. The long line of sophomores
entered rather more slowly than
usual, and at first one of the two
lines sang almost a beat behind the
other. By the time they had gathered
in a semicircle they sang together and
clearly, the sopranos and altos being
especially good. The freshmen, on
the other hand, started out well and
continued in unison until just before
they left the cloisters.
The juniors and seniors greeted the
two lower classes with a large repre-
sentation under Pembroke Arch.
After the college had repeated the
two Greek hymns, the freshmen sang
for the first time their class song,
which is written to the tune of Fin-
landia, and revived that old favorite,
O, Susanna, as their lyric song.
Lantern Man Has Faithfully Escorted
Late Bryn Mawrters for Nine Years
After   Years   of   Practice   Has
Nightly Hikes to Station
Timed Exactly
One of Bryn Mawr's unsung heroes
is the familiar Lantern Man. Every
night from dusk till after midnight
he swings along, lantern in hand, to
greet the outbound Paoli Local as it
periodically grinds to a stop in the
Bryn Mawr station. He is- the silent,
but never-failing guardian of the hap-
less college girl who, returning from
a large weekend, faces the dark walk
from station to campus alone.
The Lantern Man, whose real name
is Joseph Haggerty, has been the of-
ficial after-dark train-meeter for
nine years. Ten years ago he came
to this country from his native town
of Donegal in the north of Ireland.
Long before he left the Emerald Isle
for America, he had planned to join
his-fcroll1 -.1� had tak�n up resi-
dence in New Zealand. Before he
got there, however, the war came
along and for a time he completely
lost trace of the brother.    Meanwhile
he signed up for service in France,
but being a government worker, was
not sent. Later he located the long-
lost . brother, but not before he had
decided against New Zealand as a
home in favor of America.
After nine years of practice meet-
ing trains has become a fine art with
the Lantern Man. His timing is per-
fect; it takes him exactly eight min-
utes to walk from Taylor to the sta-
tion. After meeting the last train at
12.45 a. m. he comes back for a gen-
eral round of the campus and goes off
duty at 3.30 a. m.
He has walked a good many miles
since he first took the job in 1927,
but he likes the exercise. He never
has time to be bored or lonely, for
trains come at surprisingly frequent
intervals, and when there isn't a train
in the offing there are odd jobs to be
done.
Long years of association with the
college have made him very loyal to
it. When questioned, he observed with
a smile that the Bryn Mawrters were
very nice girls to escort home.
Music Room, October 15.�How
many, where they hail from, their
genealogy, and their mothers' and
fathers' education were the subject of
the first of President Park's two
chapel speeches on Freshman Statis-
tics. The class is small, 114, counting
the seven transfer students, in com-
parison with the average reckoned
from 1922, 117.
Geographically speaking, the new
class varies a little from normal.
From 1922 up to 1933 an average of
65 per cent of the class came from a
rectangular strip with New York at
the north, Washington at the south
and Paoli at the west. In '33 this
dropped to 43 per cent, in '34 it was
53 per cent, and this year is in keep-
ing with the trend of the last couple
of years, with 44 per cent of the
class coming from this area. The
Middle West comes in a very poor
second with 18 per cent which is
about normal; and New England is
well above average, contributing 17
per cent. The "also rans" are Upstate
Pennsylvania nine per cent, Upstate
New York fiye per cent, the Coast four
per cent, southern States three per
cent, and Mexico, England and Can-
ada with one each.
In accordance with many women's
colleges, Bryn Mawr freshmen have
a very high percentage of American
born parents and grandparents. Sixty-
one per cent have parents and four
grandparents born in America, and
15 per cent report one grandparent
only born out of the United States.
Fathers are either more predomi-
nately English or else "vaguer as to
their family stock" than mothers, be-
cause 63 per cent of the fathers report
their ancestors came from the British
isles while only 43 per cent of the
mothers' families do.
The percentage of students whose
parents have both had college train-
ing or are college graduates is on the
increase (34 per cent this year),
while the percentage of students
neither of whose parents have had
college training is on the decrease
(this year 21 per cent). Forty-four
per cent of the class have one parent
with college training. Of the moth-
ers with college training, 20 are for-
mer Bryn Mawrters.
News Tryouts
Attention, Sophomores!
The College News is open for
regular positions on the editorial
board to sophomores only. In
addition a sports editor and a
correspondent to cover musical
events are needed. All inter-
ested sophomores are urged to
come to the News office Thurs-
day afternoon, October 23, at 5
o'clock.
Alumnae Week-End
Will Include Visits
To  Friday  Classes
Literature as an Art
Interests Dr. Fiesel
Visiting   Linguist   Completing   New
Etruscan Grammar
October 20.�In its preparation the
class of 1940 shows wide diversity.
Twenty-three per cent were prepared
by public schools and seventy-seven
per cent by private schools, the last
showing a rise of eight per cent since
1932. The. freshmen have been in 80
different schools within the last three
years. Twenty schools, including
Baldwin, the Brcarley, Dalton, Made-
ira's, Shipley and Winsor, sent at
least two girls to Bryn Mawr this
year. Forty-one schools, among which
were 23 private schools and 18 public
schools, sent one girl.
In entering, 90 girls took College
Entrance Board Examinations, under
Plans A, B and C, 4, the New York
Regent's examinations and 12 took no
examinations at all, either under Plan
D or through the Progressive Edu-
cation Experimental Group. An esti-
mate of the Admission Committee
Continued on Page Five
"Chance brought me to my work,
but fascination held me there," said
Dr. Eva Fiesel, eminent Etruscan
scholar and Visiting Professor of
Linguistics at Bryn Mawr. During
the war Dr. Fiesel served as a nurse,
but because of an illness had to give
this up and returned to studying. She
worked under one of the two great
Etruscan scholars of modern times,
Professor G. Herbig, who urged Dr.
Fiesel to investigate special linguistic
problems in his field.
The obscurity which envelopes the
origin and language of the Etruscans
had already been investigated by
Italian humanists as early as 1500.
The Etruscans, who are believed to
have originated in Asia Minor, ar-
rived in Italy probably about the be-
ginning of the first millenium B. C.
Although the Etruscans had a great
cultural influence on ancient Italy, we
are not as yet able to translate their
inscriptions. Dr. Fiesel, feeling that
new methods of investigation arc
necessary, has specialized her ap-
proach to the subject and is now com-
pleting a book on Etruscan grammar.
Having obtained her Ph. D. in 1921
from the University of Rostock, Dr.
Fiesel spent much time studying
Etruscan remains in Italy and lec-
tured at the University of Munich
from 1930-33. For the past two years-
she has been doing research work with
the Department of Linguistics at
Yale.
In New Haven Dr. Fiesel found no
trace of Yankee aloofness, but saw in
"the amiable humor" and lack of "ter-
rible hurry" the same qualities which
she had encountered in.the coast town
where she was born. "Open-hearted�
exciting because of a history built in
an amazingly short time,\ these are
to Dr. Fiesel the predominant Ameri-
can  characteristics.
Not only literature as an historical
development, but literature as an art,
engages Dr. Fiesel. Music is, how-
ever, probably "most necessary" to
her. She is particularly fond of Mo-
zart. Though Dr. Fiesel and her
daughter have had little o
to travel in America, she
mated herself particularly
American systems.
Many  Entertainments  Plain
Including Dance and 1
Recitals
PURPOSE IS CONTACT    '
WITH   COLLEGE   LIFE
On the weekend* of Friday, October
23, to Monday, October 26, the usual
privacy of classroom and campus to
which the undergraduates are accus-
tomed, will be broken, so that alumnae
will be able to see college girls as
they really are. In past years grad-
uates have returned only when stu-
dents were cutting, capers on the
quadrennial May Day or when classes
were no longer in session as at Com-
mencement time.
A need was therefore felt to have
a reunion when classrooms and labo-
ratories would be open for visitors.
Last year the Fiftieth Anniversary
gave ample opportunity for alumnae
to see their alma mater again, but
this year there will be no activity en-
ticing enough to lure the graduates
over great distances for a reunion.
Consequently the Executive Board
of the Alumnae Association has chosen
this year to have the -first Alumnae
Weekend. This idea has been used
in other colleges and served to keep
alumnae in contact with college life.
Similar success is hoped for at Bryn
Mawr.
The project is being supervised by
the Alumnae Executive Board with
the assistance of the Deanery House
Committee, headed by Mrs. C. Town-
send Ludington, 1922, and a Special
Hospitality Committee supervised by
Mrs. Philip Hepburn, 1927. The
president of the Executive Board is
Ida Lauer Darrow, 1921, and Yvonne
Continued on F-aire Five
MR. ALWYNE
BACH AND
Mrfunity
as  accll-
well   to
PLAY
SCHUMANN
Denbigh and Rock to Give Dances
Pre-quiz grace is being made the
most of on the campus. On October
81, Denbigh Hall is giving a dinner-
dance from 7 to 11.30. The eight
pieces of Bill Sharp's Chestnut Hill
Orchestra will play for about sev-
enty-five dancers.
On the following Saturday, Rocke-
feller will repeat its successful ven-
ture of last year and will again give
a dance, preceded by a buffet supper.
Walter Howson, of the University of
Pennsylvania, Margaret Howson's
brother, and his seven-piece orchestra
will supply the music.
On next Sunday afternon, October
25, Mr. Alwyne will give a pianoforte
recital in the Deanery at 5 o'clock
as part of the entertainment of Alum-
nae Weekend. The program begins
with two selections from Bach,
Chorale Prelude, "Wacht auf, ruft
uns die Stimme," arranged by Busoni,
and Pan's Dancing Son, from Phoe-
bus and Pan, arranged by Rummel.
Haydn's Andante.con Variazioni in F
minor is next. The second part of
the program is a series of twelve selec-
tions from Schumann's Papillons, Op.
2: "Waltz," "Entry Rowdy Masks,"
"Dance of the Big Boots," "Vult,"
"Vult and Wina," "Pierrot and Co-
lumbine," "Serenade," "Dance of Vult
and Wina," "Dance of the Butterflies,"
"Dance of the Lovers," "Polanaise;
Intermezzo amorosso," and "Grand-
father Dance; End of the Carnival."
The third part of the program begins
with Chant Polonaia by Chopin-Liszt,
then Liszt's Legend: "St. Francis
Preaching to the Birds," followed by
April by Ireland, Goosens' The Mari-
onette Show and- BarberinCs Minuet
by Bauer.
Political Views Welcome
At  Symposium  on  27th
Speakers Will Defend Various Party
Planks; Discussion Urged
Common Room, October 20.�Con-
fronted by the possibilities of either a
political symposium or a meeting pre-
ceded by a rally, the members of the
A. S. U., the Industrial Group and
the International Club decided on the
former. It was urged that a rally
might make it difficult to establish the
correct atmosphere for the speakers.
The forum will be held in the Gym
at 8 o'clock on Tuesday, October 27.
Choir rehearsal and Dr. Fenwick's
Current Events lecture have been
changed for the occasion. Dr. Fair-
child will present the Communist's
positjon, Dr. Miller that of the Social-
ists'and Dr. Wells will do the same
for the Democrats. A Republican
speaker will be secured.
As discussion will be encouraged
after the speeches, students are urged
to go to the following to obtain litera-
ture concerning the various platforms:
Naomi Coplin, Communist, 62 Den-
bigh; Irene Ferrer, Democrat, 16
Rockefeller; Eleanor Taft, Republi-
can, 7-9 Pembroke East, and Sylvia
Wright, Socialist, 23 Pembroke West
LATIN CLASSES WILL
GIVE MOSTELLARIA
A performance of the Mostellaria
of Plautus, translated into English
by Margaret Lacy, '37, and directed
by Miss Lake, will be given in Good-
hart Hall on the evening of Satur-
day, the 24th of October. As the
production is scheduled for the week-
end that the alumnae will be visiting
the college, admission will be free.
Theopropides, M. Otis, '39; Grumio,
D. Heyl, '39; Tranio, J. Ham, '37;
Simo, G. Dolowitz, '39; Philolaches, D.
Hastings, '39; Scapha, S. Meigs, '39;
Callidamrtes, V. Lautz, '37; Delphium,
M. L. Eddy, '37; Pheniscus, U. Meigs,
'39; Pinacium, S. Meigs, '89; Misargy-
rides, M. Howson. '39. Costumes. K.
Kniskern, '37; Make-up, M. Sands,
'3g; Faculty Advisor, Miss Lake.