description:
THE SKYSCRAPER THE SKYSCRAPER Official Monthly Newspaper of MUNDELEIN COLLEGE 6363 Sheridan Road Chicago, Illinois Mundelein Chicago's College for Women Under the Direction of the Sisters of Charity, B. V. M. Entered as Second Class Matter, May 1, 1931, at the Post Office at Chi cago, Illinois, under the Act of March 3, 1879. 1.25 the year. VOL. II. DECEMBER 18, 1931. No3. Editor Margaret Roche News Editor Bertille McEvoy Feature and Sky-Line Editor Justine Feely Society Editor Janet Ruttenberg Athletic Editor Evelyn Lincoln Reporters: Rose Boland, Mary Frances Burke, Frances Davidson, Alice Duplantis, Anna Marie Erst, Mary Flannery, Marcia Glass cock, Margaret Hoyne, Magdalene Kessie, Ann Laily, Margaret Ludlow, Virginia Meagher, Mary Catherine Schmelzer, Mar)' Jane Sullivan, Ruth Tangney, Virginia Woods. X N (Newspaper f U?-Jfe', *J Mem ber) Telephone: Briargate 3800 CHRISTMAS, OLD AND NEW Christmas in lands of the fir tree and pine, Christmas in lands of the palm tree and vine, Christmas where snow peaks stand solemn and white, Christmas where cornfields lie sunny and bright, Everywhere, everywhere, Christmas tonight. Phillips Brooks. Carols and candles, starshine and snow, and silvery bells in the night that is Christmas at Mundelein, the Christmas which begins the last day of school and continues during the glad vacation days until the New Year brings us back again, resplendent with resolutions Tradition steps in at the Mundelein Christmas, the traditions that have come down through the years since that first Christmas night and have grown more dear for the passing. Time has hallowed these customs, and successive generations have added to their beauty and festivity. So it is with all traditions. Into them are woven the dreams and ideals of a people, and through the years they live as a link in the past. Perhaps the tenderest and best loved traditions are those of the Christmas season. Yuletide is a time when we want to renew the old customs. It is a time when repetition brings joy and love. There comes a feeling of satisfaction in the realization that we are commemorating the hallowed feast in the time-honored way. We are awed to think that the crib is a representation of the manger at Bethlehem, and that the gifts are the symbol of the Magi's gifts. The years have added to our customs. From England, France, and Russia come many of the legendary practices essential to the day, while the Christmas tree which we joyously trim is borrowed from Germany. The Christ Child's candle in the win dow, the merry carol singers, the holly wreaths and the mistletoe, all go to make up the festive atmosphere of Christmas. Through the ages each race holds Christmas sacred some not knowing why and down at the heart of it all is the beauty and the holiness and the love of the first Christmas night. Here at Mundelein we have our own budding traditions, and the events of the calendar take on an added significance as they pass into the ranks of our rites. The clubs and the class parties, the programs, and the all-college ceremonies, assume a definite personality and at mosphere by reason of the customs which grow up about them. And Christmas week we have some of our loveliest observances, especially our beautiful carol-and-candle procession. In the dusk of the evening the voices of the students are raised in the old and beautiful carols; the Stille Nacht of Germany mingles with the A Belen of Spain and the Noel of music-loving France. We are united in song and in spirit with the people of every land and for a brief hour the grief and the sorrow that fill the world are forgotten. As the winding cavalcade of carolers ascends to the upper floors, coming out upon the roofs high above the city and lighting tapers on its way, we all give thanks for Mundelein, for tradition, and for Christmas. And then, as we come down, still singing the Adeste, perhaps, to pay our final tribute at the foot of the Christmas crib, we remember that splendor and song but announced the gift of the Savior, peace upon earth, and that that peace was promised only to men of good will. HISTORIC BACKGROUNDS Since Mr. Frederick's recent lecture on American literature, we have come to look upon the shelves in our library which harbor tales of our own, our native land, with pride, and we must admit with some surprise. We had perhaps never thought of it before, but here in these fascinating volumes, both old and new, is a veritable treasure trove of historic background, that absolute essential for the good citizen of our country. Perhaps when we pay tribute to Willa Cather as the foremost American writer of the time, we have never reflected that in her books she presents a vivid and realistic picture of pioneer life in the Middle West and that from our perusal of them we gain an insight into the actual settlement, growth, and develop ment of our section of the country. Nor is Miss Cather the only writer who gives us stories that send their roots deep into the soil of our homeland. With the new interest in sectional literature, a host of splendid books have come out, all dealing with the actual history of particular people, whether they live to the right of us or to the left of us, whether they come from the northland or the south. We use the term American very broadly. We are accustomed to meet people from all over the United States, to hear them sing, or speak, or cheer, as the case may be, from radio stations in almost every city in our land. But do we ever think of the vast difference in environment and in ancestral heritage which distin guishes these fellow citizens of ours? True, we are all of one nation. We have the same general characteristics. But we are different, and often interesting in proportion to our difference. And in the characteristics of the real men and women who come to life in the literary-historic books so popular today, we can become acquainted with the various types of our fellow citizens; we can come to an appreciation of their difficulties, of the severe trials many of our pioneer Americans endured; and, incidentally, we can perhaps come to a more sympathetic understanding of what we might term old-fashioned ideas and customs. 7Jhe O/cy-aCi'ne SONS OF ILLINOIS Vachel Lindsay is dead. The wandering minstrel of American poetry, who throughout most of his life tramped as a vagabond over the roads and pioneer trails of Florida, the Carolinas, and Kentucky, now perhaps, as he so beautifully wrote of his fellow citizen of Springfield, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, walks, over the warm stones in our little town, and will not rest. Perhaps they walk together, Lindsay and his hero, Lincoln, the tall, gaunt figure of the great emancipator leaning on the strong arm of the vagabond poet. How can they sleep in peace when a sick world cries out at the pains which rack its frame? The poet pictured the great President mourning because presi dents and kings still quarrel, nations snarl at each other distrust fully, and men tear at each other's throats in their mad scramble for wealth or position. Lindsay, the reformer, recalls sorrows and troubles that burdened those whom he encountered as he roamed through our land chanting his poems in exchange for food and a place to sleep. Now he has joined the leader who could not rest because he carried on his shoulders the bitterness, folly, and pain of the earth. Two sons of Illinois, they are widely different in character; Lincoln, a national figure, reverenced by all because he lifted a race from the bondage of slavery and because he gave his life for the country he loved; Lindsay, an eccentric poet, sometimes writing with exquisite beauty and feeling, at other times scarcely rising above the level of the commonplace, yet always striving to encour age and give life to the half-hearted dreams and noble ideals hidden away in the hearts of men. There is a pathos in the poet's dream about the President, writ ten in 1914 before the crushing tragedy of the War and the financial crises of the last few years. Doubtless Lindsay still pictured the great American mourning the trials of his country. And now he has gone to join in the waiting for the shining hope of Europe free, a Worker's earth, and peace to Cornland, Alp, and Sea. And Illinois adds another name to the list of gallant sons who have dreamed high dreams for her, and have carried the wreath of fame into her prairies. HONOR ROLL The quarterly reports show that a representative group of students won honors for superior scholarship and excellent con duct during the quarter just past. The scholastic standard of Mundelein College is professedly high, and its requirements for honors are therefore exacting. This is in accordance with the trend of the best recent educational policy, as being better cal culated to spur each student on to her highest level of achieve ment. The following students have merited honors: Seniors Mary Bruun Helen Demetry Doris Barnett Elizabeth Doyle Cecilia DeBiase Gretchen Kretschmer Sylvia Aronian Gloria Barry Katherine Brennan Alice Durkin Morel Farmer Irene Galvin Mary Josephine Greer Evelyn Lincoln Catherine Manske Betty Jane Agnew Theodora Alexopoulos Luci'.e Barrett Frances Burke Helen Driscoll Elinor Egan Anna Marie Erst Agnes Gill Margaret Grace Ruth Hazle Grace Horky Virginia Fischer Elaine Krambles Mary Lally Juniors Norcen O'Malley Margaret Mary O'Neill Margaret Stiel Sophomores Evelyn McGowan Olga Melchione Helen Newhouse Rita Patterson Emer Phibbs Lillian Ryan Betty Smith Valeria Sriubas Mary Jane Sullivan Secretarials Alice Duplantis Freshmen Ruth Hottinger Ann Lackner Mary Ellen McOracken Lucretia Michels Mary Margaret Morrissey Ruth Padnos Marybeth Sehrt Ruth Tangney Mary Agnes Tynan Marguerite Walker Virginia Woods Mundelein Mother Goose Merry, merry Christmas fairy. How do your fir trees grow? With sugar and spice and everything nice. All in an evergreen row. * * * Little Jeanne Horner sang in a corner. Unwrapping her fifteenth tie, Had I but a collar a dillar, a dollar No one would be smarter than I. * * * Won't some nice foreign correspond- dent advise the dispenser at the North Pole about our need for Stop-and-Go lights near the bulletin board? Stop- and-Read, and Go, Do-as-Directed sig nals, please. * * Art student: Do you know how Washington combed his back hair? Uninitiated: No. Why? Art student: I have to draw his pro file and I have nothing but a front view of him. * * Mundelein College, December 18, 1931. Mr. Santa Claus, Esquire, Dear Santa: We beg to report and remind you that we and all our playmates have been good children all year. We've made a passing grade in all our tests and we've been careful not to over cut, in fact, tee have a couple of cuts left over for next year. We hope that the weather hasn't been too cold for your lumbago, and that you and Mrs. Claus, and all the gnomes and reindeers and everybody have been feeling all right. We have a rather long list this year, but we hope you'll notice that most of the presents are for everybody else. You see, we've found a lot of new friends here at Mundelein College that we want you to be sure to remember, and we thought that in case they didn't have time to write to you we'd better do it for them. First of all, if you can do it, please make it snow. And then see that it's a particularly nice and happy Christ mas for the President, and the Dean, and the faculty, and all our friends. Will you do us an extra special favor, please, and send the President a basketfull of free days? And will you make up a box of cuts for the Dean so that she can give them to us free when we come back? And when you're going by the door of the facult poet, hang a silver star on her doorknob and leave a large-sized jar of insight and imagery beneath it for her poetry class. Our librarian has been pining away since she finished the last N. C. A. report, so maybe you might find an other in your toy shop for her to play with. A sleigh-load of the newest books would be ever so nice, too. Please don't forget a box of lovely, lovely feature stories and a crate of real funny jokes for Skyline. Leave them in the Journalism Department. We'd like to have a great big trunk full of made-to-order-and-ready-to-hand- in-for-an-A-grade term papers, and book reports, and zoology drawings, and original forensics for the students. For the seniors, please bring some red and green alphabet blocks for them to spell out their A. B.'s with. We'd like to have some paint books for the juniors, too, please, sir; and roller-skates for the sophomores; and teddy-bears with green ribbons on their necks and electric lights in their eyes for the freshmen. If you can manage it, may we have a red satin bow for Prince, and a bone for his Christmas dinner? And it would be real Christmasy to have a nice big holly wreath for the front door. Maybe you could find a red bow for that, too. We think it would be lovely if you could put a crib in the Chapel; and as long as you're a saint, maybe you could ask the little Babe to bless us, every one. We're ever so grateful to you, and when you have some extra time, would you please tuck in a pair of skiis fbr PETER AND PAUL.
title:
1931-12-18 (2)
publisher:
Women and Leadership Archives http://www.luc.edu/wla
creator:
Mundelein College
description:
Student newspaper for Mundelein College
subject:
Newspapers
subject:
Religious communities--Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
subject:
Students
subject:
Universities and colleges
subject:
Women's education
relation:
Mundelein College Records
type:
Text
language:
English
rights:
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coverage:
Chicago, Illinois
coverage:
Mundelein College