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THE SKYSCRAPER THE SKYSCRAPER Official Monthly Newspaper of MUNDELEIN COLLEGE 6363 Sheridan Road Chicago. Illinois Mundelein Chicago's College for Women Unber the Direction of TnE 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. NOVEMBER 20.1931. NO- 2. 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, June Burns, Vera Carson, Frances Davidson, Alice Duplantis, Pauline Duzeski, Marcie Glasscock, Magdelene Kessie, Ann Lally, Margaret Lud low, Virginia Mangold, Majella McDonagh, Virginia Meagher, Helen Jane McNellis, Helen O'Gara, Mary Catherine Schmelzer, Betty Smith, Mary Jane Sullivan, Ruth Tangney, Virginia Woods. Telephone: Briargate 3800 doubt its popularity. And we've heard they ask for work Why? Because there is a real delight in impersonation; it is the age-old love of make-believe, the urge to feel oneself in positions foreign to every-day experience. For these reasons we glory in the play. And although the plays do fulfill one of the primary aims of education in providing for the student actor and the spectator as well a worthy use of leisure time, they do more than that. They are one of the finest means of cultivating poise, of developing self- control and the ability to adapt oneself to different situations. More over, plays advertise a school. Most of our work is done in the class room or laboratory, and however praiseworthy our achievement, few people will ever know of it. But they will know about our dramatic performances, and these will militate either for or against the reputation of our college. Herein, then, can the student do some thing for her college, either by taking part in the plays or by patron izing them herself and encouraging her friends to do so, and which ever role she may assume, that of player or that of spectator, she is adding to her own store of knowledge and experience, and she is contributing to the welfare of her college. TJhe Sky-j ne AMERICAN HEARTHS It was in gratitude for the first harvest that the pilgrims cele brated the first Thanksgiving clay over three hundred years ago. We can easily visualize the scene. It is a log cabin with crude home made furniture, and very little of that. A woman in a gray dress, with a large white apron and cap, is preparing the turkey for that first Thanksgiving feast. The door opens, letting in a breath of cold, frosty air, and a man enters with an armful of logs, which he places on the fire before he removes his tall pilgrim hat. He is followed by a group of eager children, their little faces alive with anticipation. They dance excitedly around the fire, warming their feet and hands, and watching the turkey turn a beautiful golden brown. Perhaps by the time the dinner is prepared other families arrive with baskets full of food, and the cabin is filled with quiet yet joyously festive people. They are quiet because the strain of the season has been great, and they are pilgrims in a far land, but the God of their fathers has guided them and they are grateful. When everything is ready, they gather around the table and bow their heads in Thanks giving for all the blessings they have received. And down through the years, the descendants of these strong, quiet folk have set aside a day to give Thanksgiving. It is a dis tinctly American holiday, this festival of the late fall, and it is a day of great significance to the American home. It is a time for family reunions, and for weeks ahead the housewife plans a special menu for the occasion. If she has a son or daughter coming home from school, she will take care to have Jack's or Betty's favorite dish included. Everyone is gay and happy when the great day arrives, and there is a feeling of glad togetherness in every home. Perhaps there are candlelight and flowers, perhaps just the ruddy glow from the fireplace. Perhaps, even, there is no family reunion or no returning sons and daughters. It makes no difference. There will be some special preparation. Even if there are no extras at all, there is, nevertheless, a different spirit at Thanksgiving. It is a spirit peculiar to the American home, and back of all the gay festivity which may attend it, there is the radiant glow of gratitude for home and country, and a strong and noble pride in nationality. We, the American college students, may look forward to Thanksgiving as a glad holiday with a splendid game in prospect. It may mean chrysanthemums and college songs to us, but it will mean more than that. Not one of us but will be conscious of the cheery geniality, the kindliness of feeling, that characterizes all Americans on their great national holiday. We will be glad our selves, and perhaps it may be within the power of some of us to help someone else to feel the joy of Thanksgiving. THE PLAY'S THE THING As we check over our news columns, we are somewhat surprised to find the amount of space given to activities in dramatic art. Not so many years ago the School of Speech was one of the smaller departments of a college, if, indeed, it merited the dignity of a department at all. Students were trained as teachers, artists, mu sicians, and later for work in the business world, but until recently dramatic art was not a foremost subject in the school curriculum. Professional actors were looked upon as rather mysterious folk, and there was much glamour and mystery about the footlights. Today the glamour is still there, but how different is our atti tude The decade past has seen a growing interest in amateur theatricals, and now we have come to see in dramatic work a fine means of educational development. Colleges and universities are giving interested students the opportunity to learn the rudiments of acting and to put them into effect in school dramatizations, and the Thespian art has come to be one of the most enterprising and popular of school and community activities. Neighborhood groups through out the country have organized themselves into Little Theatre Guilds for their own enjoyment, for educational purposes, and for financial reasons. The Little Theatre movement has found its way into our col leges and universities, where it is one of the most popular activities. If we judge by the number of students belonging to the Laetare Players in our own school or working for membership, we cannot CATHOLIC LITERATURE The national observance of Book Week, November 15-21, the literary reviews in nearly all of the daily journals, the tremendous circulation of books in public and rental libraries, and the activities of literature committees in all scholastic sodalities, illustrate the wide spread influence and prominence of literature. For the student at a Catholic college, one would naturally sup pose Catholic literature would hold a special interest. In many cases, it does, but in some where the experience of the student has been exclusively with devotional literature, enthusiasm is conspicuously absent. It is not that the Catholic students have rejected the liter ature of their faith, but considering it as being of only one type, they have not a true realization of its worth. They do not appre ciate the fact that the names of Catholic litterateurs are to be found on the pages of every survey, and that some of the greatest literary productions are those which have been inspired by Catholic thought. Nor do they realize that in our own decade authors like Belloc, Chesterton, Maynard, Kaye-Smith, Cather, and innumerable others are producing work thoroughly modern in viewpoint, and genuinely delightful in style. /Willa Cather*s name is mentioned in the list to emphasize the fact that, to be Catholic, literature need not be written by an author who has formally accepted Catholicism. It Incidentally, it is encouraging to note that Miss Cather's latest novel, thoroughly Catholic in tone, has been a best seller for the past five or six months. During the final years of formal education the individual devel ops and establishes a system of reading independent of curricular requirements. There is a tendency to read a book because it is pop ular. Although some exemplary volumes have graced the list of best sellers recently, is it altogether wise to accept as criterion the choice of a group whose essential ideas may be contrary to one's own? It is, rather, a more satisfying plan to develop sound judg ment and personal discrimination in reading. The purpose of the Catholic literature committee in the college sodality is to inculcate within the student mind a genuine, well- founded appreciation of literature which embodies Catholic thought and ideals. If it meets with a cordial, open-minded response, much can be accomplished. The students are encouraged to read the sodality bulletin board, to buy a pamphlet occasionally, and to demonstrate a little interest in the suggestions proffered during this month. All the committee members ask is that they be allowed to prove that their enthusiasm is not unfounded, and that they have something worthwhile to offer. Are we going to co-operate? New Things or Old? By Evelyn Lincoln We are modern young women We are twentieth-century to our finger-tips. And few of us there are who have not often re joiced that we have been emancipated from the rigors of the Vic torian era, and the barbarism of preceding epochs. Indeed, in an unguarded moment, some of us may even have said that it must have been a stuffy, unprogressive world for our grandmothers. And then we turn to our history books with a consoling sigh that, even though these medieval studies are at times almost intriguing, nevertheless we would not trade our golden age of athletics for the days when knighthood was in flower, and we reflect that the face which launched a thousand ships was never tanned on a Girl Scout hike. We pride ourselves on our fleetness; we are, some of us, run ners of merit, but who among us could compete with Atalanta, the most swift-footed of mortals, who, according to Greek mythology, playfully put so man)' of her suitors to death because they could not outrun her? Verily, here was an athlete. And on Friday afternoons we don our riding habits and take to the bridle paths. Yet history tells us that in the sixth century gentle ladies of Britain galloped over the moors of that fair land, clearing obstacles that the modern woman would shudder at and prudently ride around. Charming ladies they were, too, with booted- feet and gauntleted hands. And then we eye the target and carefully draw the bow here if anywhere we are modern sportswomen, following the recent vogue for archery. And again the historians paint glowing pictures of the banks of the Nile and the Ganges, yea, even of the Thames, and declare that archery was an every-day accomplishment of the prim itive Egyptian, Indian, and English maidens who often, like Old Mother Hubbard, found an empty cupboard while Father was off to the war. No matter what sport we turn to, we find that our great-great- grandmothers were centuries ahead of us. Even the courts and the golf links are of ancient lineage. As early as the twelfth century royal maidens played at tennis, while even a species of golf found ardent devotees in the Dutch and Scotch lassies of the fourteenth century. The historians are right. Our intellectual studies are age- old and our sports, smart favorites of the moderns, are but another heritage of the epochs we so sceptically survey. Merrily we roll along, roll along, roll along, Merrily we roll along, hoping for a C. * * * Truly, Laetare Players are realistic actors We hear that when two of them were rehearsing a stormy scene on the stage this week, our vigilant night watchman rushed to the spot to challenge the disturbers of the peace. * Graces and laces is all that I hear, Slippers and gowns fit to kill. And I've sesquipedalian Greek verbs to learn How I wish those good Greeks had kept still The Student Princess. * * * The melancholy days have come And gone again. Exams are done. * * * The Home Economics students call their association the Alpha Omicron. Now had we been naming them, we would have deemed Alpha Pi a more appropriate title, all things considered. * * * Senior, at Fall Festival: Doesn't it look funny to see Peter and Paul down there dancing? Sophomore, rapturously: Oh, I don't know. That's my idea of heaven. * * * Song of the Simple Students: Opus 2. It's three o'clock in the morning We've studied the whole night through, And daylight soon will be dawning Just four more chapters to do. Our eyesight will soon be failing; It never xcas made for this class. 0 thus shall we ever be wailing As long as we've history to pass. Peter and Paul. * * Volunteer scorekeeper at senior bridge: Who is we ? Senior, helpfully: They. * * Was the teacher who spoke of a cer tain type of storm occurring four times a year and destroying everything in its path referring by any chance to the quarterly examinations? * * * A freshman theme presents the fol lowing phenomenon: The judge deliv ered the sentence in an intense silence. * * * We'll paste these in and stick to it, said the make-up editor, after a protracted discussion as to the order of items in the column. * * * What was that gruesome figure, walk ing down the hall? Why, that was but Svengali, who graced the costume ball. Silvae. * * * First frosh: Hast read the Medieval Mind? Second frosh: Do I look like a psy chologist? * * * Bloodthirsty Bohemia. Art student, surveying a half-fin ished sketch of a comrade's profile: I wish I could draw a person's head right off. * * * A self-confident French student gave the following sight translation of the passage, Mon pere m'a dit, il y a deux semaines, lorsque je I'ai quittd A New York: 'Pierre qui route n'amasse pas mousse.' My father said to me two weeks ago when I left him at New York: 'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church.' * * Dancing to the sweet strains of Jim my Garrigan's orchestra at the cotil lion, a fair student remarked, My, hasn't Paul Whiteman lost a lot of weight Her glasses were home on a shelf. Such is the price of vanity. * * * Katherine Brennan, during a recent trip to Greece (real or imaginary?) was conducted on a tour to points of interest. When the party had mount ed a high hill the guide paused and said, You are now standing on the Acropolis. Miss Brennan, after looking about for some time, obviously wrapt in his toric meditation, inquired, And where are the four horsemen? * * * The students in the sports class are all a-quiver. They are taking up arch ery. Algebra Kate. * * * When the daughter of Minos was maiden The girls wore their curls bound in fillets; 'Till a Latin class student, inclined to be prudent, Read, She stood with her head wreathed in skillets. The Student Princess.
title:
1931-11-20 (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