Some items in the TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections may be under copyright. Copyright information may be available in the Rights Status field listed in this item record (below). Ultimate responsibility for assessing copyright status and for securing any necessary permission rests exclusively with the user. Please see the Reproductions and Access page for more information.
College news, December 11, 1935
Bryn Mawr College student newspaper. Merged with Haverford News, News (Bryn Mawr College); Published weekly (except holidays) during academic year.
Bryn Mawr College (creator)
1935-12-11
serial
Weekly
6 pages
digitized microfilm
North and Central America--United States--Pennsylvania--Montgomery--Bryn Mawr
Vol. 22, No. 08
College news (Bryn Mawr College : 1914)--
https://tripod.brynmawr.edu/permalink/01TRI_INST/26mktb/alma991001620579...
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation.
BMC-News-vol22-no8
he College News
v
enemas ee
VOL. XXII, No. 8 BRYN MAWR AND WAYNE, PA., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1935 Gopsright, BREN, MAE PRICE 10 CENTS
° : ; ° ° .- ee 99 e
Four Soloists: Selected Colleze Calendar Hilda Smith Discusses Swan” Production
Bryn Mawr Is Chief
Recipient Under Will
Miss Thomas Bequeathed Funds
of $280,000 for Deanery,
Awards, Annuities’
%
—————
ESTATE IS .IN REALTY
(Reprinted from the New York
Times.)
Miss M. Carey Thomas, president-
emeritus of Bryn Mawr College, made
the college. the chief ultimate bene-
ficiary of her estate in a ninety-three
page will, filed for probate here today.
Although trust funds totaligg $280,-
000 were provided for the college if
certain real estate were sold, Miss
Thomas revealed that her estate had
been reduced to such an extent
through benefactions made during her
lifetime and by the financial depres-
sion that she was not sure how many
of the legacies could be paid.
The personal estate was listed at
“$25,000 and upward,” with the value
of the real estate undetermined. The
realty, it is understood, consists of
1077 acres in Maryland, most of which
is'in wooded land, with seventy-seven
acres within the Baltimore city limits.
Miss Thomas inherited most of the
estate of Mary Elizabeth Garrett,
daughter of John W. Garrett, for
many years president of the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad.
“When my late friend, Mary Eliza-
beth Garrett, died on April 3, 1915,”
the will states, “and left me her
executor and residuary. legatee, she
had made gifts in her lifetime that I
know of amounting to over $2,000,000,
and she made many others probably:
that I did not, know of.. She had kept
for herself only enough to live on
comfortably and continue her support
of the causes in which she was inter-
ested. She believed that personal gifts
made during one’s lifetime were more
useful than legacies after one’s-death.
Gifts Beyond Safety Limit
“In accordance’ with her practice
and with what I believe would have
been her wishes had she been able to
carry them out, I have given away
during my lifetime as much, and as it
has récently proved, more of my estate
than I could safely part with. More-
over, the size of my estate and its
sufficiency to pay all the legacies I
have herewith appended, has been so
materially téduced durihg the current
-severe financial depression that the
‘payment of ‘the legacies -will depend
upon the amount which my executors
may realize from the sale of my real
estate.”
The executors are Mrs, Caroline
McCormick Slade, of New York, an
alumna and director of Bryn Mawr
College; Miss Thomas’ niece, Mrs.
Millicent Carey McIntosh, of New
York, also an alumna and trustee of
the college, and James Barton Long-
acre, of this city. ©
The first part. of the will, which
was executed in London.on August 29,
1934, deals with the gifts of personal
articles to members of the family of
Continued on -Page Four —
lance will begin precisely at 8 o’clock.
For Handel’s ‘*Messiah”’
On Sunday, December 15, at 7.30
P. M., the College Choj awilh, 3o” the
Princeton Choir in a performance ar
The Messiah, which will be given in
the University Chapel at Princeton. :
It will be assisted by four soloists and |
twenty-nine members of the Philadel- :
phia Orchestra. . é
Because of the length of the Ora-
torio, the Bryn Mawr performance
given on Monday, December 16, will
begin at 8 o’clock precisely,. and no
reserved seats will be held after 8.25.
The chorus will consist of eighty
members from the Bryn Mawr Choir
and sixty from the Princeton Choir.
The soloists will be: Eleanor Eaton,
soprano; Anne Simon, contralto;
Royal McLellan, tenor; and Leonard
Treash, bass.
On August 22, 1741, Handel, at the
age of fifty-six, began the score of
The Messiah. This work ranks among
Hiandél’s greatest and was completed
in the amazingly short time of twenty-
four days.
The initial performance took place
in Dublin on April 18, 1742, and was
not given in London until March 23,!
1743. At this London performance the
audience was exceedingly affected by
all the music, and at the part of the
“Hallelujah Chorus”—‘“For the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth’—they were
so transported that they all, including
the king, rose to their feet and re-
mained standing-until the end of the
chorus. The tradition of standing for
the “Hallelujah Chorus” has always
been observed ‘in England since this
date.
In 1789 Mozart wrote additional or-
chestral accompaniments to The Mes-
siah to take’the place of the ‘“Con-
tinuo” parts which were always im-
provised at the organ or harpsichord.
The orchestration which will be used
at Bryn Mawr will be the Mozart
version.
The orchestra will consist of the
following: Six first violins, four sec-
ond violins, two violas, four violincel-
los, two double basses, two flutes, two
oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two
horns, two trumpets and one tym-
panum.
Busses -To Transport Choir
On Saturday morning, December
14, The Messiah. will be rehearsed by
both the Princeton and Bryn Mawr
Glee Clubs, accompanied by part of the
Philadelphia Orchestra and _ soloists.
The Bryn Mawr Glee Club and the
orchestra will leave Bryn Mawr at
1.30 Sunday afternoon in four busses.
A rehearsal of The Messiah will take
place in the Princeton Chapel at 3
o’clock. The performance itself begins
in the Princeton. Chapel at 7.30 and
will last for three hours. On Monday
the Princeton and Bryn Mawr
choruses will rehearse without the or-
chestra at 5 P. M., after which Mrs.
Collins will serve dinner to the
Princeton Glee Club in the Common
Room. The Monday night perform-
Low-Brow Appeal In High-Brow Package
Makes Books Sell, Says Clifton Fadiman
Deanery, December 8.—“It is very
rarely that a really great book. be-
comes a best seller,” said Mr. Clifton
Fadiman, literary editor of the New
Yorker and consulting editor of Simon
& Schuster, New York publishers.
The subject of his discussion was
“Why Best Sellers Sell Best,” and he
gave a very systematic answer by
enumerating eleven ways in which a
book can be made by the author, pub-
lishers and others into a best seller
and describing thirteen appeals which
make a book popular with the reading
public.
Among publishers, the most simple
formula for writing a best seller is
_ “wrapping low-brow appeal in a high-
brow package.” Everyone likes to
read traditional melodramatic ro-
mances, but they enjoy most those
which are not only well wriften, but
. injeeted with some real or fallacious
philosophy. Charles — s The
Fountain had a very simple plot which
could be compared with a typical
Kathleen Norris story, since it con-
sisted of a narrative of the emotional
experience of two people who wanted
to be married, but were prevented by
certain practical considerations. Mr.
Morgan filled in this framework with
a goodly amount of badly under#tood
and oversimplified Platonism and Neo-
Platonism which was of considerable
satisfaction to the readers and
prompted the publishers to bill The
Fountain as a philosophical novel.
The Bridge of San Luis’ Rey is an-
other example of a similarly written
book.
Some other appeals of all descrip-
tion which may or may not be
wrapped in deceptive coverings are
sex, the better life, timeliness,- scan-
dal, fear and the illustrious reputa-
tion of the author. The sex interest
is a significant one, because often
Waediaodas, December 11: In-
dustrial Group Supper. ‘Com-
mon Room, 6.30 P. M.
College Council, Miss Park’s
House, 6.30 P. M.
Saturday, December 14: Mr.
Hensche will. demonstrate por-
trait painting for the Art Club.
Common Room, 10 A. M. °
Sunday, December 15: Per-
formance of The ‘Messiah.
Princeton Chapel, 7.30 P. M.
Monday, December 15: Per-
formance of The Messiah. Good-
hart Hall, 8 P.M.
Tuesday, December 17: Bryn
Mawr League party for chil-
dren of the Summer Camp:
4.30 P. M. .
Restoration Drama Is
Sharply Defined Field
Major Dobree Believes Comedy
Reflects That Era Better
Than Tragedy.
FORM CYCLE COMPLETED
Goodhart, December. 9. — Restora-
tion drama is* a large, yet clearly
limited literary field, said Major Bon-
amy Dobrée, noted English author
and critic, in giving the Sheble Lec-
ture for 1935. Between the years
1662 and 1720, both comedy and
tragedy completed a neat cycle of
form which was uniformly peculiar
to the time, yet clearly differentiated
within itself. Unless this simultane-
ous unity, and variety is understood,
there can be no appreciation of the
Restoration theatrical art.
Tragedy in general can be defined
as a means man uses to test himself
against the horrors with which he is
beset. It is a picture of something
splendid meeting ruin and defeat. It
is man pitted against fate. In the
case of comedy, the definition may be
given as man’s attempt to regard
himself as an individual in society.
It is necessary, however, to make dis-
tinctions under this definition. First
comes free—comedy,_in-which people
are completely irresponsible and life
is a mere game. In this form there
is no purpose other than amusement,
but in the second and more common
type, there is an aim to cure men’s
excesses by criticism and satire. Rar-
est of all is the third type, the comedy
of . disillusionment, which contains
the pity of. tragedy under the surface
of laughter.
Restoration comedy appeals _ to
modern taste far more than Restora-
tion tragedy, because it is more
alive; it comes nearer to every-day
existence. For any art to live, it is
requisite that it deal with the crucial
problems of its time. That is not to
say that art must solve these ques-
tions, or pose them, but it must use
as its material the emotions arising
from them. If the emotions are
truly vital in the beginning, they can
never become dead or obsolete. Al-
though there may be lapses of power
because of ignorance or prejudice,
vitality will renew itself. Restora-
tion tragedy, however, seemed to
evade crucial problems and to offer
instead an escape from them. By in-
version, then, it actually did reflect
its period, but comedy reflected
directly.
Although superficially concerned
with fads and affectations, comedy
was actually centered on the danger-
ous condition of sexual libertinism
which was manifested in court cir-
cles. All Restoration gentlemen were
not rakes; many were prim and
proper and read theological disserta-
Continued on Page Three
Mid-Y ear’s Schedule Posted
The Dean’s Office wishes to
call attention to the schedule
for the mid-year examinations
which has been posted recently.
Students are requested to con-
sult the schedule at once and
report conflicts immediately to
the Dean’s Office, in order that
all difficulties may be cleared
up before the Christmas holi-
7.
Education of Workers
Common. Room, December 5.—
Hilda Smith, director of the Federal
Workers’ Educational Bureau in
Washington, traced the history of edu-
cation for workers and discussed Gov-
érnment educational projects.
Bryn Mawr College, with’ Miss
| Thomas as its head, made the first
and successful attempt to provide sys-
/tematized training and general infor-
mation for workers, in the Bryn Mawr
Summer School. Other colleges and
universities in the mid-west, Califor-
nia and the south followed. with sum-
mer schools and evening classes. In
the east the same thing happened,
especially in New York City. Miss
Smith related the exciting story of
one large elass for men and women
that was held for a while in the New
York Museum of Natural History: it
was at one time strenuously objected
to as radical and ejected before being
approved by an official investigation.
Such cases were numerous. The
Hearst papers particularly made, and
still make, a practice of exploiting any
rumor of radical activities.
Miss Smith spoke also of the diffi-
culty that college people met every-
where at first in gaining the confi-
dence of the workers and convincing
them of their genuine concern and
their intention of trying to be sub-
stantially useful. But the workers
who attended the schools- declared en-
thusiastically and continued to declare
that the experience was the most won-
derful of their lives. It released them
particularly from total bewilderment
and from the common feeling of lone-
liness. The students at the Bryn
Mawr Summer School, for example,
came to learn with: the feeling that
they were emissaries, responsible to
their associates, and must bring back
for them all the knowledge and train-
ing which they could get, in order to
apply it to their personal, family and
economic difficulties.
Teachers are in great demand to
carry on this work properly. The
Federal bureau—the FERA—has re-
cently been trying to’ train large
eroups of unemployed_teachers:direct-
ly for workers’ education, besides sup-
plying buildings and money.
Miss Smith confined herself at the
tea to giving the essential outlines of
all these problems. A ‘complete and
detailed discussion and explanation of
the subject was afforded by her sub-
sequent formal lectures on December
5, 6 and 7.
Artist To Paint During
Lecture on Technique’
Mr. Henry Hensche, of Province-
town, Massachusetts, will give a lec-
ture and demonstration of painting
technique in the Common Room at
ten o’clock on Saturday morning, De-
cember the fourteenth. He will paint
the portrait of a student and will .ex- |
plain step by step the actual process
of painting. This unusual opportun-
ity to study the technique of painting
in actual work is a gift of one of the
directors of the college and is open
to all who are interested.. Members
of the Art Club are particularly
invited.
Mr. Hensche is a working artist of
excellent standing from the well-
known colony at Provincetown. He
was one of the most brilliant pupils
of the late Charles Webster Haw-
thorne, after whose death he took
charge of the latter’s school, now
called the Cape Cod School of Paint-.
ing. He is highly recommended both
as an artist and as a lecturer who
has much new material to offer to
his audiences. He is particularly in-
terested in the use of color, as a re-
cent statement of his on_ color
technique proves: “Through color
tones forms are created, and the worth
of a painting depends upon the fine-
ness of these tones.”
Self-Government Election ©
The Self-Government Associ-
ation announces the eleetion of
Sarah Meigs, ’39, to the Execu-
tive Board. *
Shows Upward Trend
| Play Choice Judged Poor, Whole
Without Serious Defect or . -
Highlight
—_—_
INDIVIDUALS ACT WELL
Goodhart, December 6.—The per-
formance of Molnar’s The Swan by
the Varsity Players and the Cap and
Bells of Haverford proved that the °
faults which marked Pygmalion and
Cymbeline have been almost eradicat-
ed and that the ability which dis-
tinguished The Knight of the Burn-
ing Pestle has not completely passed
away. The play had neither glaring
defects nor obvious highlights. ‘The in-
dividual performances were, as a rule,
superior to the play as a whole, which
lacked a unifying force. That the play
itself is a poor choice for amateur
players was proved more than once,
and shown significantly by the hero-
ine’s misinterpretation of her role.
The play concerns itself with the
plot of Princess Beatrice, head of a
deposed royal family, to marry her
daughter to the heir of a reigning
house. Complications which arise
through the presence of a tutor in love
with the daughter and. who stirs her
heart throughout the second act,
threaten to prevent the intended
match; needless to say, the swan-like
daughter of the house, having settled
her faint cardiac qualms, prepares
to glide toward her rightful position
in royal circles.
Isabelle Seltzer, in the leading réle
of Alexandra, never seemed to be at
home in her part. She was the swan
who should glide gracefully over the
waters, “proud and dignified,’ but
who should “never touch the shore.”
The difficulty with Miss Seltzer was
that she continually bounced back ‘and
forth on the shore with great rapidity
and little grace. Her gestures were
too often forced and artificial. In the
second act, where she was supposedly
overcome by one glass of wine, Miss
Seltzer discarded the more obvious
gesticulations and acted with more
ease and presence.
The best performance in the play
was that of William H. Reaves, Jr.,
in the role of Prince Albert. Excel-
lently made up,and costumed, he ap-
peared completely at ease on the stage
Continued on Page Five
Radio Work Requires
.Technical Experience
Common Room, November 6,—Mr.
Frank Arnold, former director of com-
mercial development of the National
Broadcasting Company, addressed a
number of Bryn Mawr students on the
possibilities of positions in the execu-
tive side of broadcasting work. That
| the advertising business.
field, as it exists today, is a part of
Broadcast-
ing as a medium for advertisement
has become amazingly successful and
profitable since 1926 when WEAF and
WJZ merged to form the NBC net-
work.
Entertainment connected with com-
mercialism seems to fit into the in-
tuitive knowledge women have of what
people will like. This is exceedingly
necessary, for the success of radio is
entirely dependent on the audience.
Mr. Arnold sincerely warned those
women who are seeking positions after
graduation from college that at least
a year of training is needed in any
field to learn the language of some
particular business. If a_ college
graduate is interested in an executive
position in a large broadcasting sta-
tion, she must have training in a small
local station in order to gain a knowl-
edge of its terminology and technique.
Mr. Arnold stressed seven types of
positions which, with effort and intel-
ligence, can be obtained if one is will-
ing to start at the bottom and work
up. The lowest rung of the ladder
is the clerical job. There are 200
women who now hold this type of
position in NBC. Last year 600 ap-
plied for the job, but most of them
were turned away because of lack ét
training. A large station does not
have the time to take new material .
Continued on Page Three
Continued on Page Six
1