description:
THE SKYSCRAPER Volume I. MUNDELEIN COLLEGE, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, MARCH 27, 1931 Number 3 HIS EMINENCE GIVES ORGAN T0 C0LLEGE Craftsmen Push Work on Assem bly (or Dedication. The superb Kilgen liturgical church organ, the gift of His Eminence, Car dinal Mundelein, is being installed in the auditorium of the college. Work was begun on the construction of the organ even before the announce ment of the Cardinal's gift, which was made early in the fall, but it is only within the last four weeks that the actual placement has begun. Skillful workmen are building this delicate in strument, painstakingly fitting each small piece into its proper place, pains takingly fitting each small piece into its proper place. The magnitude of the work may be understood from the fact that it has taken an entire month to assemble the great instrument, and three weeks are required to complete the tuning. The organ consists of a console of three manuals, with thirty-seven stops or control keys regulating every type of tone from the deep, sonorous bass tones to the delicately sweet flute notes. The console is placed in the orches tra pit, to the right of the spectators. Two sections of pipes are concealed behind the delicate white grill-work on either side of the proscenium arch. Of the four divisions of the organ, the great organ, swell organ, choir or gan, and pedal organ, the first three are controlled by the organist's fingers on the keyboard of the console. The fourth is regulated by the pedals, wnicu are also arranged in piano-key order. The pipe organ, dating from about 200 B. C., has reached a high degree of perfection. It is remarkable that throughout the centuries it has been used and improved constantly and that today it is considered the most complete of modern instruments. It is capable, too, of producing the hu man as well as the instrumental voice. Its sustaining possibilities are a satis fying factor in musical expression. As a liturgical accompaniment, the organ has been used for the music of the Western Church since the days of Pope Vitalian in the seventh century. The organ is the most recent and the most elaborate instrument in the audi torium equipment. It will be used for the first time at the dedication of the college. CLEPSYDRA STAFF IN ACTION CHESTERBELLOC FORMS THEME OF LECTURE Notre Dame Professor Praises Moderns as Poets. Laetare Players Admit New Members The joyous and beautiful Mass of Laetare Sunday opened the ceremony of the day when the Laetare Players held a formal initiation of their pledges. The Reverend Raymond Bel- lock, S. J., students' spiritual director, celebrated the Mass for the intentions of the players and their benefactors. After Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, Father Bellock gave a short sermon urging the members of the club to remember that, of all the arts, the drama is most truly the child of the Church, fostered by her since the miracle and morality plays of the Middle Ages. Catholics have ever been con spicuous in the theatre world as actors, playwrights, and patrons of the drama, Father Bellock said. Breakfast was served in the cafe teria. Tables were arranged in the form of the letter L, and the decora tions were carried out in the club's colors, black, silver, and cardinal red. At her place each member received a program, a card containing some lines on Ideals, and a little plant with silver petals and centers of red in a black flower pot. Between courses, toasts were given to the club moderator, the Sisters, and the pledges. The girls then adjourned to the Little Theatre, where each mem ber pledged by candle light her fidel ity to the ideals of the organization and generous service in all its under takings, and signed her name in the Laetare Players' Book. (Continued on Page 3, Col. 2) Scholar Praises Faculty Member An illustrated periodical, Puerto Rico Ilustrado, whose editorial page describes it as a world review of literature and the arts, contains an article in Spanish, of course by the celebrated Dr. JosG A. Balseiro, uni versally recognized as one of the fore most living critics of Spanish litera ture, and of English literature in Span ish. A Porto Rican by birth, he has spent some years in Madrid, is a mem ber of the Spanish Royal Academy, and a poet, essayist, and novelist of distinction. The article is entitled The Advanc ing World, and in it the writer states that one of the most interesting expe riences he has had in his scholastic career was last year when he was in vited by the University of Illinois to form one of the examining jury on the doctoral thesis of Sister Mary Ber- narda, of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This non-Catholic scholar writes at some length, and in a most charming style, of Sister Mary Bernarda's thesis, the subject of which was Antonio Perez (1534?-1611), one-time secretary of Philip Second of Spain, and made the subject of a doctoral thesis because he was a master of most precious prose. Confessing to the fact that his curiosity had been stimulated by the Sister's choice of a subject, the writer recounts her very condensed life his tory, which he had sought out in the university records, and her previous educational career. He then goes on to say that her grasp of the religious and political sit uation in the reign of this most in- transigeant of Catholic monarchs showed the Sister to have no super ficial knowledge, but to be the incar nation of a veritable scholar. (The italics are the author's.) He dilates on the character of the examination, naming the six examiners: Drs. Car- naghan and Oliver, professors of French letters; Dr. William F. Rob ertson, professor of Spanish history; and Drs. Van Home, Hamilton, and the author, professors of Castilian lit erature. The examination was pointed and searching; but never once, he adds, did the candidate refuse a question, nor attempt to evade the point of an ob jection or an inquiry. On the contrary, she maintained her thesis consistently. She did not defend the absolutism and intolerance of Philip's reign, but dis cussed it wisely. She refused to admit that Perez had had so great an influ ence on French prose as was claimed for him, and maintained her point ad mirably, citing instances in support of her contention. Asked if Perez were the first to write an autobiography in Castilian, she at once brought forth an earlier name, that of Petro Mexfa, of Seville. The author then comments on the Sister's marked sincerity as a scholar, both in written and oral Spanish; and concludes that she might indeed have been a pupil of the great Doctor Teresa of Avila herself, or of Sister Juana of the Cross. Sister Mary Bernarda is head of the Department of Romance Languages at Mundelein College. SKYSCRAPER HAILS COLLEGEMAGAZINE Student Creative Work in Clepsydra The SKVSCKiPEB welcomes the Clepsydra, a literary magazine and a sister publication, and extends con gratulations to its staff. The Clepsydra appeared yesterday, in an autumn dress of red and gold and brown, bearing on its cover a golden Clepsydra, or water clock, guarded on either side by replicas of our lovely entrance angels. The cover is charming and its significance well T*,ted ;,o our lake side college. It is fitted, too, to be the title of our literary publication since in ancient Greece the Clepsydra measured the time for legal speeches and thus, by limiting the minutes of delivery, proved an incentive for the perfection of their form. But it is of the contents we would write. The Skyscrapkr is a news pub lication; the Clepsydra is entirely literary. It contains sparking short stories, clever essays, interesting sketches, and excellent poetry. An important feature of the Clepsy dra is the chronicle history of Munde lein College from the first day of registration. It includes accounts of all parties, programs, and lectures that have taken place during the year. It records, furthermore, with delight ful detail the establishment of the customs which will one day form the traditions of Mundelein College. This chronicle will be particularly interest ing to the students in future years when college days are only a memory. The staff of the Clepsydra expects to issue a second number in June. Editors-in-Chief Dorothy Riley and Helen O'Gara. Chronicle Editors Mary Lally and Virginia Fischer. STUDIO NOTES. Department of Art Eleanor Joyce. Department of Dramatic Art Clare Allender. Department of Music Chesa Wol niewicz. Athletic Editor Annamerle Kramer. Sodality Editor Vera Carson. Exchange Editor Marion Young. Students Hear New Director I have come to serve you in every possible way, the Reverend Raymond F. Bellock, S. J., spiritual director and adviser at Mundelein College, told the students in a short introductory talk at the general assembly, Tues day, March 10. His kindly and friendly manner made an instant appeal to the stu dents. He went on to say that he was here not only as a confessor but also as a friend and adviser outside the confessional. Father Bellock has had experience as a students' spiritual director, hav ing been at one time in charge of the Women's Sodality at St. Louis Uni versity. He is at present a member of the faculty of Loyola University. Father Bellock is at the college on Wednesday afternoons. Recounts Story of Irish Theatre Harry C. Phibbs. one of the original members of the Irish Theatre move ment, and associated with such re nowned dramatists and actors as Wil liam Butler Yeats, Sydney Morgan, Scan 0 Casey and others equally famed, gave a delightfully informal talk to a group of students in the Little Theatre on the afternoon of March 18. His entertainment was intellectual in tone and contained excellent dra matic information and criticism. Mr. Phibbs told of the beginning of the Irish Theatre Movement, which, though immensely interesting in itself, was made doi'bly so by the personal flavor injected into it by fie speak er's own experiences. The audience was fascinated by his :5tory of a group of young men of whieh Mr. Phibbs was a member, who gathered in a little gas-lit room in Dublin almost every night to discuss literature and to make plans. Then one night a young man by the name of William Butler Yeats thought they might as well try to do something about the drama, which at that time was ornate and impossible, either too sentimental or too tragic. Mr. Phibbs then pictured the characters invaria bly found present in the plays: the satanically bad villain, the impossibly noble and gallant hero, the excruciat ingly beautiful clinging-vine hero ine. Such gross exaggeration of life finally forced itself upon the atten tion of this group of young enthu siasts and their desire to present more natural plays led them to write their own. The first of these to be presented was Cathleen ni Hoolihan, by Yeats. It was simple, quiet, and true to life. They began to realize that what was being unfolded before them could and did happen. Ireland calling her sons to war And thus started the Irish Theatre Movement. Mr. Phibbs related many bits of familiar information about persons whose names are well known to us now. One of the most interesting of these concerned the time when Mr. Yeats burst into the tiny room on his return from Paris, shouting, I have just the person we need. He turned back to the door and ushered in a tall, lanky, rather aesthetic-looking person with long, black hair which he continually brushed away from his eyes. He announced, This is John Synge. Yeats had discovered him in Paris, an Irishman writing criticisms in French for a local newspaper. Thinking he might find fresher ma terial among a more primitive people, the new member of the circle set out for the most remote district of Ire land, the Arran Islands, just off the west coast. Here he lived among the almost primitive race of people, who made their living by fishing, as the islands are so barren that it is diffi cult to raise even potatoes in the thin soil. On his return, Synge wrote a short play which this enterprising group produced. They thought it rather good as plays go. But when (Continued on Page 3, Col. 4) The Chesterbelloc that mysterious giant of the contemporary world of thought and literature came vividly before the minds of the Mundelein students when Professor R. W. Rauch, of the University of Notre Dame, lec tured in the auditorium on Tuesday, March 24. The Victorian ideal, to which the Chesterbelloc reacted so vigorously, was one of Progress spelled always with a capital P, of evolution. The Victorians, according to Mr. Rauch, were following, particularly in the nineties, the corpe diem philosophy of the ancients, cultivating the numbness of Tennysonian material ism and the determined decadence of those who ate, drank, and were merry because they had not the springs of true happiness within themselves. Into this atmosphere of materialism and dilettantism, of Victorian com promise, the Chesterbelloc boomed like a thunderbolt. It is greatly to the credit of these two crusaders, in sisted the speaker, that in opposing the philosophy of the decadents, they never became puritanical. In his deep, rich voice, Mr. Rauch read a number of their poems, upon which he commented decisively, choosing always the graphic word for each description. Among other selec tions, The Unborn will be remem bered by the hearers as a fine anti- decadent poem of Chesterton's, and and The Donkey and Gloria in Pro- fu'ndis as examples of typical Ches- tertonian paradox. The speaker gave a keen analysis of the character and writings cf - t u gt; two striking personalities. He co.. trasted the satire of Belloc, brilliant, incisive, and touched with a bitter ness at once profound and subtle, with the broader irony of Chesterton, miti gated somewhat by the ever-present vein of humor. He illustrated this contrast by Belloc's To Dives and Chesterton's Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Mr. Rauch's just appreciation of the enthusiasm and joy of these two stal wart champions of optimism versus decadence incited in his audience a like feeling. His selections of poems and passages, and his comments upon them, were original and scholarly. This was indeed an interesting lec ture, delivered in colorful language by a pleasing voice. Mundelein Col lege will look forward to hearing Mr. Rauch again. Mass Story Told In Vivid Pictures The Sacred Love Story of the Mass, the sweetest, saddest, strong est, most beautiful, and most inspir ing story ever told, was presented by the Reverend George Keith, S. J., in the college auditorium on Thursday evening, March 5, before a large and appreciative audience. Father Keith is a Jesuit of the Chi cago province who has gained great renown through his beautiful illus trated lecture on the Mass. He has spent thirty years, the labor of a life time, in collecting these pictures, which depict scenes from the life of Christ and of the Blessed Virgin, the history of the Holy Sacrifice, and the ceremonial of Masses for different oc casions, and also scenes of the Mass offered in the trenches. The idea of the catholicity of the Church was brought out in pictures of the cele bration of the Mass in camp, on the mountain tops, in the trenches, and at the Eucharistic Congress in Chicago. Some of the slides are copies of rare art treasures from the old cathedrals of Europe, and have been purchased at great expense to make this presen tation as beautiful and interesting as possible. One of the best portrayed topics was the explanation of the parts of the Mass and their significance. Father Keith gave a lucid account of the value of the Mass and also outlined the reasons why the different vest ments are used. His slide showing (Continued on Page 4, Col. 1)
title:
1931-03-27 (1)
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:
This image is issued by the Women and Leadership Archives. Use of the image requires written permission from the Director of the Women and Leadership Archives. It may not be sold or redistributed, copied or distributed as a photograph, electronic file, or any other media. The image should not be significantly altered through conventional or electronic means. Images altered beyond standard cropping and resizing require further negotiation with the Director. The user is responsible for all issues of copyright. Please Credit: Women and Leadership Archives, Loyola University Chicago. wlarchives@luc.edu
coverage:
Chicago, Illinois
coverage:
Mundelein College