Page two
THE TWIG
December 17, 1954
I WISH YOU ALL A MERRY CHRISTMAS
Every Christian nation has made of Christmas time something beauu-
ful, made of the Christmas festivities something especially its own. And
in every country except ours, Christmas is a strictly religious festival—
as indeed it should be. Scandinavians scour their houses and hang
paper streamers, let the children seek out their little hidden gifts, go to
church through starlit fields of snow at midnight, and scatter grain for
the birds’ Christmas. An Italian Christmas is not complete without the
revered “praesipio,” and Spaniards go to midnight mass on the “noche
buena.” Bavarian children look forward to painted toys and ginger
bread menageries. In Holland they carry the great Star of Bethlehem
on a pole through the streets. French children find lucky coins in the
big Christmas cake and little cakes with sugared Christmas child on top.
In Tyrolese villages they sing lustily and happily on Christmas Eve.
South of the Danube there is feasting, all seated on a straw-strewn floor,
and on Christmas day great oak trees are felled and children sing to
cows in their stalls for milk to bathe a new-born Babe on the birthnight
of “The Little God.”
And here, in America? We exchange washing machines, checks, and
mink coats; our pianos are silent and the radio sings our Christmas
carols for us; no fragrant scents come from our kitchens days before
Christmas—we are too “emancipated” for that—and our children give us
Christma.s lists, instead of cherishing what we might give them of our
own volition. They, and we, are poor indeed. We Americans have lost
the art of simple happiness. We have forgotten what the true spirit of
Christmas really signifies.
When I wish you all a Merry Christmas, it is the simple joy and the
spiritual beauty of a peasant Christmas that I am wishing for you. May
your “presents” be less and your happiness greater. From my house to
your house—a kindly, sincere hope that this Christmas may more nearly
approach the lovely, holy thing it should be—in your house and in my
house.
—Jean Austin.
Our Greatest Unexplored Resource
A statement credited to one of the women elected to Congress in the
recent election should be of interest to Meredith students.
Mrs. Martha W. Griffiths, five foot five and one half inch Democrat,
who will represent the 17th Michigan district when Congress convenes
January 5th, says, “The greatest unexplored resource of this countrv
is woman’s brain power.”
As .students at Meredith, we can be proud of the part this institution
has taken and is taking in the higher education of women. From its
earliest days its first emphasis has been on sound scholarship and the
important contribution that a small liberal arts college can make to the
cultural life of a state and nation.
Fr«s
Sentoy- Su.J'te.ouSCt.
cL/it'ia'tmcc.s
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
APPRECIATION FROM A FRESHMAN
Dear Editor,
With the joyous occasion of Christmas vacation being so near, I
would like to express my appreciation, and, I am sure, the appreciation
of many of the students here at Meredith, to the Student Government,
the Athletic Association, the Baptist Student Union, other individual
organizations, and to the school as a whole, for the many nice events
planned for the student body during the Christmas season. Just to
mention a few: the Christmas concert, the playhouse production, the
Christmas banquet, the caroling, the hall parties, the decorations around
campus, the special chapel events, and many more!
These things have truly added to our Christmas spirit, and we all ap
preciate your kindnes.ses!
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and we’ll see you back in time
for exams!
—Patsy Barrett.
rissockied CoDeftiOte FVag
EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor Peeler
Assistant Editor '..Pat Dowell
Managing Editor Barbara Sellers
Feature Editor Barbara Snipes
Art Editor Sally Drake
Music Editor Leah Scarborough
Sports Editor Mary Jon Gfrald
Photo Editor Virginia Morris
Columnists Pat Allen, Margaret Ann English
Reporters — Joyce Herndon, Barbara Stanley, Anne Tunstall, Janette
Honeycutt. Marjorie Jackson. Deloris Blanton, Julia Abernathy.
Typists — Mary Lib Delbridge, chief; Frances Carr, Anne Middleton,
Joyce Jones, Mimi Roy.ster, Myra Bristol, Ophelia McLean.
Faculty Sponsor Dr. Norma Rose
BUSINESS STAFF
Business Manager Peggy Smith
Advertising Manager Kathleen Clemmons
Advertising Staff—Joan Allen, Mamie Alice Shutt, Nancy Corzine, Anne
Ranson, Betty Ann Smith, Becky Miles, Alma Lou Pierce, Lois Pond
Circulation Managers Kitty Holt, Maxine Grant
Entered as second-class matter October 11, 1923, at post office at Raleieh
N. C under Act of March 8. 1879. Published semimonthly luring the
months of October, November, February, March, April, and May; monthly
during the months of September, December, and January ^
The Twig is the college newspaper of Meredith College. Raleigh North
Carolina, and as such is one of the three major publications of the institu
tion—the other two being The Acorn, the literary magazine, and The Oak
Leaves, the college annual.
Meredith College is an accredited senior liberal arts coll'^ge for women
located m the capital city of North Carolina. It confers the Bachelor of Arts
and the Bachelor of Music degrees. The college offers majors in twenty^ne
fields including music, art, business and home economics
Smee 1921 the institution has been a member of the Southern Association
of Colleges ond Secondary Schools. The college holds membership in the
Association of American Colleges and the North Carolina College Conference
Graduates of Meredith College are eligible for membership in the American
of University Women The institution is a liberal arts membe?
of the National Association of Schools of Music. memuer
Subscription Rates: $2.45 per year
Dear Editor,
Well, here it is almost Christmas
time and, of course, everyone is
looking forward to Christmas at
home. Just think of all that food
upon which we may gorge ourselves!
Many times we think too much of
all the presents we will receive and
give and all the delicious food we
will eat during the holidays, and
somehow forget the real meaning
and importance of Christmas. The
real significance of how Christ was
born and what he was to do for us
gets pushed into the background by
the commercialization of the Christ
mas time. Let’s try to think more
of the meaning of Christmas as we
celebrate it this year.
Mary Catherine Cole.
Editor’s Note: Barbe White was a
history major at Meredith last year,
and is now a graduate student at
Columbia University in New York.
New York
November 20, 1954
Greetings to Friends at Meredith;
Here I am at Columbia University
as a graduate student in history.
Perhaps you would be interested in
following briefly the career of a
graduate of ’54 in her new life in
New York City.
Barbe highly recommends grad
uate school to all Meredith girls.
Consider several aspects of this life.
I am living in a dorm for graduate
women which houses over four hun
dred students coming from sixteen
Kim Spends Her Last Christmas
In Korean Leper Colony
By PRIVATE JIM DEMPSEY
{Editor s Note: This article was
written for and published in The
Daily Californian, Berkeley, by a
former reporter who is now sta
tioned in Pusan with the Public In
formation Department of the 7th
Transportation Command. He is a
June, 1953, graduate of the Uni
versity of California, with a major
in journalism. This article came to
The Twig through the ACP Feature
Service.)
Today I made a trip over muddy
back roads to a leper colony located
about 10 miles outside of Pusan.
Seeing is believing, they say—and
I saw.
I saw what few human eyes have
seen. I saw the tailings of humanity.
I saw 1,600 of the saddest people
on the face of the earth.
There are a lot of nasty places in
Korea, but this one really takes the
cake. Here human dignity has hit
a new low. Scantily clothed, under
fed and housed in shacks, these peo
ple have nothing to live for. They
are truly “the forgotten people.”
They live in the mountains, away
from civilization. It is a little town
-the town with no name, Korea.
It’s very peaceful there. You’d
never know that 1,600 people are
dying.
Take six-year-old Kim Sook Ja,
for example. She’s a healthy-looking
girl. You’d never guess that this will
be her last Christmas. Of course
not—how would you know that the
dread disease is systematically go
ing about its deadly work inside her
frail body.
Kim doesn’t know either. She
just plays with a raggedy doll some
one gave her. She doesn’t know
that what took away her mother and
father will soon take her. She plans
to see Santa Claus many more times.
And who has the guts to tell her
otherwise? Who has the guts to go
around to 400 other children and
tell them that they’d better play
hard while they still can—that they
had better hurry and live fast, be
cause leprosy won’t wait.
But even in her last days, Kim
doesn’t have it easy. Life is hard,
even for a six-year-old. She lives
in a small, crowded room with five
or six other people. She spends her
nights on a straw mat, searching
for warmth that just isn’t there.
What chance has a straw mat and
one worn dress against a bitter
Korean winter?
Her play is confined either to her
well-worn raggedy doll or the mud
puddles. No one ever comes to see
her, nor can she go see the world
she has never known. She must stay
behind those big red and yellow
signs that say: “Keep out—leprosy
—keep out.”
The only people Kim sees are
those five or ten “sick people” that
come to the gate of the town each
day. They never come in. There
is no room. They must go back to
Pusan to spend the rest of their
foreign countries all over the world,
from Puerto Rico and Hawaii, all
of the forty-eight states and the Dis
trict of Columbia. Needless to say,
this is a delightfully cosmopolitan
atmosphere. My meals are served in
the dorm, and the food is quite good
—so much so that in spite of my
efforts to acquire a Dior silhouette
I am gaining weight. Although I
haven’t much time to watch, we
have TV in the dorm—all the com
forts of home!
Listen to my schedule, girls, and
then make plans to join me. I have
two classes each on Monday, Tues
day, and Wednesday, and then am
free for the remainder of the week.
Of course, Thursday, Friday and
Saturday are free to read history,
write papers, and do research. On
the other hand, these days may also
be used for sightseeing, trips through
the art galleries and museums,
browsing in the libraries, and for
lo-o-ong week-ends. But then, who
ever heard of a grad leaving his
books to do such an unscholarly
thing!
Some of my happiest hours are
spent in conversations. Barbe fre
quently becomes so engrossed in
such exciting conversations that she
forgets to eat, and these discussions
may last well into the wee hours
of the morning.
Other diversions are to be en
joyed. There are the many little
specialty shops tucked away in the
Village (Greenwich Village). Barbe
has spent some hours in the maze at
Macy’s—the dime store where you
may buy furniture, groceries, im
ported perfumes, or have your hair
styled. And yes, the subways—over
a period of some months, after many
times having ended up in unknown
regions at odd hours of the day,
Barbe has finally learned to get
about in these formidable under
ground passages, and now has be
come quite proficient at reading the
Times while hanging onto a strap
in the Broadway 7th Avenue Ex
press!
New York is many personalities.
If one can learn to be quite philo
sophical about its dirt, noise, crowds,
and confusion, one can enjoy its
colorful complexity. The city at
night can be brilliant and gay, or
mysterious and frightening. One can
feel terribly alone in the midst of the
bustle of Times Square, yet one can
find the City warm and friendly. The
endless miles of buildings can at
times become a huge concrete
prison but one can look again and
see it as a magnificent three ring
circus, an artist’s palette, or a reser
voir for the psychologist’s study, de
pending on one’s mood.
All this to say that Barbe finds
life as a graduate student in New
York tremendously interesting and
infinitely rewarding.
She thinks often of her friends at
Meredith, and enjoys reading The
Twig which helps to keep her in
formed of life at Meredith. She was
especially interested in a recent arti
cle concerning the student views on
the Supreme Court Decision on
Segregation, and was pleased by the
liberal attitude represented. Let us
work toward that time when the
entire student body at Meredith
will come to hold such views, to ap
proach the matter with an open
mind and refleet what positive re
sults this can bring about in the
South.
Barbe White,
Class of ’54.
agonizing days. Even Kim is better
off than they.
Hunger also plays a big role in
her little life. Most little girls her
age get about six handfuls of rice a
day. Km gets four. And it’s barley,
uuf rice. Second grade barley at
that. She doesn’t know that outside
her little world that type of barley
is fed only to horses.
The people sometimes grow a
few vegetables but there is never
enough to go around. Kim eats her
barley, and for her, it’s the only
food in the world. She doesn’t know
about ice cream cones, banana
(Continued on page three)