College News, 1938-04-27, Vol. 24, No. 23

              The College News
VOL. XX
IV, No. 23
BRYN MAWR AND WAYNE, PA., WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27,  1938
Copyright TRUSTEES OF
BRYN MAWR COLLEGE, 1938
PRICE 10. CENTS
Apes Grasp Issues
In Problems, Never
Repeat  Same  Error
Dr. Kohler Shows Anthropoids
Understand Causes, Though
beam   by  Imitation
FOOD LURES MONKEYS
TO ANTICS IN MOVIE
Music Room, April 20�Dr. Wolf-
gang Kohler, author of The Mentality
of Apes, gave a lecture of the same
title, illustrated by a brief moving pic-
ture. Dr. Kohler's aim was to prove
the intellectual behavior of anthropoid
apes. Intelligence, he said, has to do
with insight, which is an awareness of
relationships in a problem and an
ability to recognize the principles in-
volved. The anthropoid ape has this
insight.
As an example of the difference be-
tween the reaction of an ape and an-
other animal in the same situation,
Dr. Kohler cited an experiment in
discrimination made by Yerks in his
Yale laboratories. The most stupid
animal used was the hen. The error
curve per unit group of hens dwindled
ultimately but very gradually to zero.
When it was the turn of the anthro-
poid ape, represented by Julius, an
orang utang, to perform the experi-
ment, Julius preferred to turn somer-
saults. His error curve, which began
about like the hen's, stayed consist-
ently ai a high error level. Yerks,
who had expected quite different re-
sultsrwas almost ready to prove that
apes ar$ actually stupider than hens,
when Julius discovered the correct
way of performing his task, and made
no more mistakes.
An ape must first know what he
is working for, and must recognize it
as an agreeable stimulus. Then, if
he cannot solve his problem, he must
be shown how to. His use" of this help
is significant. Just as the student has
himself to comprehend the relation-
ship of a cause and its effect before
his teacher's use of the explanatory
"because" means anything, so the
ape's accurate copying of his instruc-
tor's actions involves a preliminary
awareness of their relevance.
A chimpanzee accustomed to re-
trieving bananas from outside his cage
with the help of the stick, was given
a coil of wire in place of the stick.
Continued on Pas* Four
Havcrford, Bryn Mawr
Present Wilde Comedy
Importance    of     Being     E(a)rnest
Shows Excellent Acting
When a comedy has become a class-
ic, can it remain a comedy? The an-
swer � when--the comedy is the Im-
portance of Being Earnest and given
by the Haverford Cap and Bells Club
�is unreservedly yes.
Even in a year remarkable for tech-
nical excellence, their production was
outstanding in its sound acting and
thorough craftsmanship. Except for
one rather lurid garden-scene�when
lias there been a good garden-scene?
�the sets were not only handsome,
but firmly constructed and smoothly
run, in spite of the innumerable prop-
erties and the quantities of food re-
quired by the action. From the tech-
nical point-of-view, too, the acting was
excellent; not a line was slurred or a
piece of business unconvincing, except
for Ernest and Algernon's rather un-
fortunate belief that confusion and
alarm can be expressed only by run-
ning an index-finger violently around
the inside of the collar.
Algernon, played by William H.
Reaves, Jr., was easily the outstand-
ing character of the play. Strongly
resembling the younger Oscar Wilde
in appearance, slim, drooping-shoul-
dered and detached, "Algy" varied his
expression between a remote snigger
and a poignant look of martyred in-
nocence. He was the one character
who seemed perfectly at ease in the
languid rambling satire and the deli-
cate -perversions of the cliche that
make up the Importance of Being
Earnest. As his friend and fellow-hero
John Worthing, Wilfred Simmons
could not quite attain his supreme
abandon, but made up for it by his
vigor and enthusiasm.
Unfortunately, however, Wilde's
elaborate and epigrammatical style is
hardly so well suited to the other
characters of the play. It is particul-
arly inappropriate to the two heroines,
Gwendoline and Cecily, who are sup-
posed to be young girls in love with
John and Algernon. Caroline Shine,
'39, as Cecily, played intelligently,
steadying her part greatly by making
Wilde's blase observations with an air
of innocent unexpectedness. Elise
Ruhl, '41, however, had a hard time to
keep Gwendoline from swerving off
into over-self-conscious coyness.
The style of the play showed to bet-
ter advantage in the benign speeches
of S. Allen Brown as the Rev. Canon
Chasuble, and. the fine fluttering per-
ConUnued on Page Four
First Year Geologists Make Merry With
Crinoids and Corals in Spring Field Trip
Led by, Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln Dry-
den, Mr. Edward Watson, Miss Lois
Schoonover, ,and Tonto, the Dryden's
spaniel, the first year Geology class
took off for its annual long field trip
at 8.30 a. m., Friday morning, April
22. The streamlined Greyhound bus,
with Mr. D. Martyn, later christened
"Darwyn", at the helm, was surround-
ed by former geologists shouting con-
flicting bits of advice on how to com-
bat the motion of the bus, or how to
find Life in Stroudsburg, Tamaqua,
and points west
The bus was followed by a contin-
gent of four Haverfordians, who were
handy later in tracking down Barbara
Bigelow, '39, after her attempted de-
sertion at Chestnut Hill. With Dar-
wyn, they also lured a number of the
less sleepy members of the party off
to a coal miners' barn dance in Tama-
qua on Saturday night.
The Penn-Stroud Hotel in Strouds-
burg, "metropolitan center of the Po-
conos," housed the expedition Friday
night, and required-two hours to feed
a dozen of the hungrier geologists.
Mr. Dryden had some difficulty in
persuading the management to give
him an unopened bottle of milk to so-
lace Tonto's canine hunger next morn-
ing.  A native  of  Arizona,  Tonto  is
already beginning to live up to his
name and station. When unleashed
and unwatched he burrows avidly for
rdcks and' eats them. '
Saturday morning the bus set off
along back roads to tKe strains of:
"What shall we do with a bouncing
breakfast,
What shall we do with our prancing
prunes,
What shall we  do "with a  flouncing
fried egg�
Early in the morning.
Hooray, up she rises . . . etc."
The fossil localities disclosed a
quantity of finds, but no major dis-
coveries. Eleanor Emery, '40, stum-
bled upon a large Crinoid, almost two
inches in diameter, and a number of
tribolite parts were found. At Weiss-
port the search was distracted for a
time while Miss Schoonover recovered
after having a potential museum piece
rolled down the bank upon her.
From Stroudsburg to Tamaqua the
route lay through a. succession of over-
turned beds, plunging synclines, and
pitching anticjines, which left every-
one in a weakened condition. At the
Majestic Hotel in Tamaqua a good
bath was had by all, though some re-
ported that the water was a deep grey
before they started. After dinner,
Continued on Part Four
COLLEGE CALENDAR
Friday, April 29�Glee Club
performance of Patience. Good-
hart, 8.30.
Saturday, April SO � Glee
Club performance of Patience.
Goodhart, 8.30.
Sunday, May 1� Camera Club
Exhibit begins. Common Room.
Lecture on Russian Folk Music
by Prof. Alfred J. Swan. Dean-
ery, 5 p. m. Leslie Glenn to
speak in chapel. Music Room,
7.30.
Monday, May 2�May Day.
Fifth Flexner Lecture by Dr.
Edwin Gay. Goodhart, 8.20.
Tuesday, May S � Current
Events, Mr. Fenwick. Common
Room, 7.30. A. S. U. meeting,
Sol Rosner will speak. Common
Room, 8.15. Two-piano recital
by Edward Steuermann and
Michael Zadora. Goodhart, 8.30.
Wednesday, May k � Indus-
trial Group Supper. Common
Room, 6.30.
Thursday, May 5 � Dance
Forum.   Gymnasium, 8.20.
Friday, May 6�One-act Plays
given by the Players' Club.
Goodhart, 8.30.
Sunday, May 8 � Hampton
Quartet, Deanery, 5 p. m. Dr.
Donald Aldrich to speak in cha-
pel/MtiSfc Room, 7.30.
Monday, May 9�Sixth Flex-
ner Lecture by Dr. Edwin Gay.
Goodhart, 8.20.
Tuesday, May 10 � Current
Events, Mr. Fenwick. Common
Room, T.30. International Club
Meeting. Common Room, 8 p.m.
Six   Colleges   Attend
German Entertainment
Goucher, Haverford, Princeton,
Johns Hopkins Are Guests
At  Bryn  Ma*r
Goodhart Hall, April 23 � Bryn
Mawr was host to members of six col-
leges at supper and an evening of
German entertainment. Princeton's
scene in a Bavarian Wirtshaus star-
red in a program which included a
play by Swarthmore and one given by
Bryn Mawr and Haverford in collab-
oration. There was also skillful folk-
dancing by John Hopkins, and dia-
logues and scenes from Snow White
by Goucher.
Miss Marion E. Park welcomed the
colleges and introduced Mr. Max Diez
who proposed the formation of a per-
manent central committee for Inter-
collegiate German Days. The need of
such an organization was apparent in
the program, for although each per-
formance was well executed, the total
was too long. In an evening of so many
numbers the lighter elements should
predominate, so that aspects of every
performance could be appreciated by
those with a slight knowledge of Ger-
man. The presence df two pretentious
plays on the program deprived each
of the emphasis it deserved.
The Princeton German Club is an
organization which meets weekly for
beer and German singing. Four days
ago the need to present a skit on Sat-
urday inspired Bier Her. Disguised in
pillows and a bartender's apron, Phil-
ip Davidson, '39, only officer of the
club, served beer in the Bavarian
Biergarten to three natives in Leder-
hosen with pipes and to three Ameri-
cans in checked coats with how ties.
(The beverage, although poor of its
kind, was the first beer officially re-
corded on the Goodhart stage. Ed.\\
The foreigners, shown by their clothes
to be "Princeton Men," attempted to
organize a pleasant evening with the
natives which resulted in puns, songs
and horseplay.
One reason for the enthusiastic re-
ception of Princeton's skit may have
been that no knowledge of German
was ; required. Wilder Penfield, '41,
recounted the^aust Saga in intelligi-
ble Pennsylvania Dutch. No one
could misunderstand the crude, de-
lightfully German parlor trick with
Continued on Pas* ThrM
-
Steuermann,   Zadora
To Give Piano Recital
Compositions     of    Late     Ferrucdo
Busoni   Will be  Played
Under the auspices of the Busoni
Society the College Entertainment
Committee will present a program of
the compositions of Ferruccio Busoni
for the piano on Tuesday evening,
May 3, in Goodhart Hall. Michael
Zadora and Eduard Steuermann, the
artists of the program, have both
studied under Busoni and are among
the leading interpreters of his work.
The society has been formed to stim-
ulate public interest in Busoni's work,
which^ its members feel, "definitely
exemplifies certain high and new
aesthetic principles for the establish-
ment and understanding of which
Busoni was an active pioneer." Dur-
ing his lifetime, he received little un-
derstanding and many harsh notices
from critics in this country.
Michael Zadora, president of the
Busoni Society, was born in New York
City, but has spent most of his life
in Berlin, where he was at one time
the teacher of Horace Alwyne, direc-
tor of the Bryn Mawr Music Depart-
ment. Zadora studied under Lesche-
tizky in Vienna, and later became a
pupil and intimate friend of Busoni.
After playing in many important
cities of Europe, South America, and
the United States, in 1913-1914 Za-
dora was head of the piano depart-
ment of the Institute of Musical Art
of New York.
Originally known as a modernist,
Eduard Steuermann has often broken
away from this group and concen-
trated on the classics in his recitals.
Mr. Steuermann was born in Poland
and began giving recitals at the age
of nine. After working under Busoni
in Basle, Switzerland, he was intro-
duced by ,the master to Arnold
Schoenberg, with whom he studied
composition in Berlin; later, he be-
came an active member of the group
of modernists gathered around Scho-
enberg.   __________________________
The program for the evening will
be:
Fantasia Contrappuntistica
Michael Zadora and
Eduard Steuermann
Cartnen Phantasy
Paganinesco
Michael Zadora
All'Italia
Turandot
Eduard Steuermann
Busoni-Mozart: Phantasy for a
Clockwork
Busoni-Mozart:    Duettino   Con-
certante
Michael Zadora and
Eduard Steuermann
Internal   Friction
Caused Breakdown
Of Craft Industry
Restrictive    Gild    Organization
Made Industrial Progress
Impossible
GAY   TRACES  GROWTH
OF CONTRACT SYSTEM
I.
II.
IIL
IV.
Goodhart, April 25�In his fourth
lecture on Industrial Organization in
England during the Renaissance, Dr.
Gay pointed out that the method of
trade developed during the sixteenth*
and seventeenth centuries was the be-
ginning of free competitive industry
and of our modern capitalist system.
The development proceeded slowly, al-
most imperceptibly, until the differ-
ence between the first and last steps
finally appeared so grelt as to give
the two systems separate names.
Dr. Gay showed that many parallel
cases could be found between the agra-
rian disputes and the industrial con-
flicts. Both the open-field system and
the handicraft method, based on the
principle that evt�ry man should have
an equal economic opportunity, fell
chiefly because of internal weaknesses
and not only because of the enclosure
movement in one case or the new in-
dustrial  organization in the other.
In his examination of the records
in the .Court of Requests, Dr. Gay
found that out of 700 legal agrarian
disputes approximately 50 dealt with
enclosures and 80 with copy-holding
rights; a much larger number between
a lord and his tennants or tennants of
a neighboring manor dealt with the use
of waste land. As the continual nib-
bling off of this land upset the main-
tenance of fertility, it became a pri-
mary cause of the failure of the open-
field system. �
The handicraft system, Dr. Gay ex-
plained, depended on a limited local
market and specialized labor. The in-
efficiency of this specialization, along
with the government's attempt to eli-
minate the chaos of overlaping crafts,
resulted in a movement to amalgamate
many gilds. The new system led to dis-
tinction between the rich and poor
members of the same organization, an
increased number of country crafts,
and a large working class that pro-
duced for wholesale merchants and
carried out their operations through
the new class of middlemen.
Although the handicraft system ex-
isted long before the gilds and contin-
ued long after the latter's elimination
in the middle ages, the gilds provided
a social sHUl in which the handicraft
Continued on Page Six        �
Cornelia Otis Skinner Makes Recording;
Gives Impressions  of American  Speech
The latest achievement of the voice-
recording department, headed by Miss
Mary Henderson, is the commence-
ment of a series of recordings of fam-
ous voices connected with Bryn Mawr.
The first of the series is Miss Cornelia
Otis Skinner, who covered one and a
half 12-inch records with her mono-
logue Times Square, and gave<^)few
of her impressions of American
speech.
The process of recording is familiar
to the freshmen and to various mem-
bers of the English Department who
have heard their speech immortalized
in aluminum. Miss Skinner went
through the routine preliminaries by
making a test remark in front of the
microphone. Miss Henderson then ad-
justed the machine, started it hum-
ming and waved her arm as a starting
signal.
Times Square is really a cross-sec-
tion of national speech, the most inter-
esting that Miss Skinner could have
chosen both to illustrate the enorm-
ities of the American language and
her facility in imitating them. At the
same time, it has an extraordinary
emotional range, which is as much
the result of situation as of accent.
The first character is a querulous old
Italian woman, chiefly remarkable for
the ferocity with which she curses her
bambino, in contrast to a calculated
whining sales-talk. She is followed
by> a auccession of �� different types* / /
the socjety woman, fanee and affected,
who is the ne jAiut ultra of bastard
British, with a trough-tongued r
(Waquct Club) thrown in for good
measure; the Southern girl who is
best characterized by her pronounc-
iation of "scared to death" as "scayad
to dayeth;" the tough chorus girl and
the ingenue working-girl. Then there
is the sailor's moll and the opium
addict, and the heroic wife who is
sending her husband out to Arizona
to be cured. At the end, the circle is
completed by the reappearance of
the Italian woman, her voice trailing
off into the distance.
During the recording, Miss Skinner, .
with her back towards her small au-
dience,-was instinctively moving her
hands in character with the part she
was portraying. Whenv.she^had fin-
ished the monologue? she signed the
record with a stylus and handed it to
"posterity" by proxy three undergrad-
uates: Julia Grant, '38, Eleanor Taft,
'39, and Mary Meigs, '39, while the
press flashed in the background. When
Miss Henderson asked her if she
wanted to hear herself, she said, "No,
Continued on nn four