Page Two.
THE SALEMITE
Friday, October 9, 1942.
Salemite
,£e CUh
Published Weekly By The Student Body
of Salem College
Member Southern Inter-Collegiate Press Association
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EDITORIAL DEPAETMENT
Editor-In-‘Chief Ceil Nuchols
Associate Editor Bobbie Whittier
Make-up Editor Mary Best
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Business Manager Mary Margaret Struven
Ass’t Business Manager Mary Elizabeth Bray
Advertising Manager Betty Moore
Circulation Sara Bowen, Ellen Stucky
ADVERTISING STAFF
Margy Moore, Elizabeth Beckwith, Katie Wolff,
Jane Willis, Nancy Vaughn, Corrinne Faw, Martha
Sherrod, Becky Candler, Doris Nebel, Adele Chase,
Nancy McClung, Sarah Lindley, Allene 6'eville, Eliza
beth Griffin, Margaret Kempton, Harriet Sutton, Ruth
O'Neal, Yvonne Phelps, Elizabeth Bernhardt, Edith
Shapiro.
OPEN FORUM
I>ear Editor:
Last year, and to no avail, I wrote rather
fervently for an uncut production of “Stage
Door”; this year, I’m pleading for “The
Women.” It would seem, perhaps, that I am
making a brief for “oscenity” in my repeated
outbursts . . . that is, it would seem so to the
superiieial reader. I choose to make my pleas
openly in these columns, not because I want
us to be educated in the lowly ways of life,
but because I want a concession to our in
tegTity. Somehow it has occurred to me that
the students are .iust about old enough to be
gin doing their own censoring; or at least old
enough to begin learning how to weed the
worthy from the worthless.
“The Women,” T am told, is “a bit too
much for Salem.” I have just finished read
ing it, and I find myself no more base than I
was before . . . though in a considerably better
frame of mind. It is light, ^blase, quite cos
mopolitan. But I cannot, for the life,of me,
find it demoralizing. Clare Boothe has so
cleverly satirized this ultra modern era of
frequent Reno trips that we all might laugh
with her at the shallowness of sophistication.
AVe might even draw a moral lesson thereof
while brushing up on our beauty salon jargon.
We would all laugh, of that I’m sure, and I
think even the least of us could do well with
an extra laugh amid all that is of necessity
sad, sombre, frightening, and serious. From
a practical standpoint, “The Women” is one
of the few plays that Pierretts can produce,
since all available men have gone to Uncle
Sam. The characters are such that might eas
ily be drawn from our actresses. And the plot,
quite a nice variation from “Hans Brinker, or
the Silver Skates,” which the club has been
asked to present for the children’s schools.
Seriously, if there are objections to such
a productiou more constructive and meaning
ful than “it just isn’t done,” I think w^e are
all entitled to them. AVe are not trying to be
wild-eyed anarchists showing our contempt
for the well-ordered and the decent, but we
are rebels against boarding school hangovers.
Show us reason, and we’ll heel quietly.
—An Inquisitive Playgoer.
L'e navire glissant sur les gouffres amers.
A peine les ont-ils deposes sur les planches,
Que ces rois de I’azur, maladroits et honteax,
Laissent piteuaement leurs grandes ailes blanches
Comme, des avirona trainer a cote d’eux.
Ce voyageur aile, comme il est gauche et veule!
Lui, nagucre si ,b eau, qu’il est comiqug et laid!
Li’un agace son bee avec un brule-guele,
L’autre mime, en boitant, I’infirme qui volait!
Le Poete gst semblable au prince des nuees
Qui hante la tempete et se rit del’archer;
Exile sur le sol au mileu des huees,
Sga ailes de geant I’empechent de marcher.
Baudelaire
Before we go one bit further, we want to say that Mr. Holder was
absolutely precious in Chapel Tuesday ... he practically had us re
lapsing into the old state of adoration that was habitual with us before
he. hiked off and got all married. Really, we hadn’t realized quite how
glad we ivere to have him home again until we caught ourselves unable
to sleep through chapel.
And while we) are in the compliment department, there’s another
one we’d like to make . . . Katherine Manning did a grand research job
on the history of Salem; which, incidentally, is running these days in
your collegei newspaper. She has managed to unearth all the interesting
tid bits of Salem’s past that few of ua have ever bothered to wonder
about. A gold star for you. Ivy . . . even with all the handicaps of
having the history not fit and being consequently ended right in the
middle of a sentence, you did really entertain at least us proof-readers.
Since one thing seems to lead to another, we may as well unburden
further. During a French hour this week, the editorials of last week’s
SALEMITE busted into the open for airing . . . but, from a class of
some twenty young women, there was only one who could keep in there
pitching. The Rea,son? . . . there was only the one who had so much
as scanned the editorial page!
And now for the gayer side of things, we turn again to Doris
Nebel ... I tell you what^s the truth, she has worn her trousseau plumb
to shreds parading up and down the alleys of L. W. B. Building. Fur
thermore, if there has been any constructive work going on up on the
eave, it has been done absolutely on the sly. Grand business!
For the best joke of the week, we glance at Wooten the elder.
Maybe you ain’t had the pleasure yet, but there’s a freshman about who
knows EVE-RY-BO-DY at V. P. I. So it was that Wooten manufactured
a glamorous name; and, sure enough, the freshmen in question knew^ hiiE
too. It’s a small world!
Founders’ Day was a gay thing, but we’ve been baffling about ever
since trying to figure out just how they found a cornerstone big enough
to hold all that extraneous material . . . and why they didn’t just go
on an embalm a body to make thei job complete.
To Miss Reid go honors) for) the first announced quiz of the/ season
. . . for the unannounced variety, ask the Bible classes how many
Books they have in THEIR Bibles. The newest version of the New
Testament runs something like this; Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Tim
othy, and Revelations. Ain’t pops fine?
Did you all know that the'Honorable (alias Frank Jones) has be
taken himself off to the wars? It’s going to be a mighty piddling fun
to have photographers doing things efficiently this year. And do you
know what happened to his little yellow limousine? . • • Bebie Ran
dolph’s got it for the duration! Them’s the things that hurt.
And another question . . . golly, we’re hot tonight! . . . remember
the blondish music co-ed with the satchel and an appelation of Irwin
Cook? He’s uniforming too, please.
Much as it distresses the soul, the body can’t stay at this one
singlel other minutej without a piece of meat. Hence, in view of the old
eirculation, we take ouit fondest leave until next week .... Hmmmmm.
TO BE OR
NOT TO BE:
That is the question which has reared its
ugly head in the minds of us who strive to
make the Saleniite (from cover to cover) a
cross section of the thought and action of
Salem College students. Is it worth while to
spend valuable time, effort, and money* to pub
lish every week a four page paper whose third
page (containing the gossip column) is the
only page read ? This is not a sermon against
you readers of gossip columns. In a round
about way we are writing this editorial in your
defense. You few who are not addicts of “I
Heard It This Way” will be interested in what
we have to say also.
First of all, the avid interest in what the
gossip column contains shows that you want
to know what other people are doing; what
they plan to do. These people are girls you
probably do not associate with every day. They
may not even live in your dormitory. The
gossip column contains something which is
really new to you. Certainly the front page
contains nothing new — its been rehash of talks
given in Tuesday and Thursday’s chapel: a
story of a student recital which has already-
been announced by the time the Salemite goes
to press; articles about nominees or winners of
campus elections whose names have previously
been posted by the Student Government; a
story about Myoptic Mary who has been elec
ted to Who’s Who in American Colleges and
U;niersities. You know the type of thing we
mean only too well. You are perfectly justi
fied in turning to the gossip column since we
offers nothing better on the front page. No
doubt you will CONTINUE to read the gossip
column if we do not put “honest to goodness”
news stories on page one.
It is possible that this could be done. The
Salemite has been known (in our generation at
Salem) to scoop an election, a coming speaker,
a civic music attraction). Before we leave Sal
em we would like to see the scooping of im
portant news about campus personalities, fac
ulty, students, and guests, become the accept
ed thing. AVe believe that, with a bit of co
operation from the faculty and students, we
can make the Salemite a paper which is read
from cover to cover — a publication which is,
in the true sense of the word, a newspaper and
not a record of past events.
AYe are welcoming comments through let
ters to the editors on our most cherished am
bition of the year. AVe shall attempt to answer
any objections which may be given to allowing
The Salemite to scoop. One objection already
voiced is that nobody reads the Salemite and
therefore important occasions would pass un
noticed. We ask you — if you had no other
Way of finding out what was happening on the
campus except to read the paper wouldn’t you
read it? We think so — everybody likes to
be “in the know.” Most news now travels by
the grapevine system which reaches the ma
jority of people when the news is stale. Some
one makes an announcement in chapel or the
dining room or on the bulletin board or thru
the city papers. None of these facilities con
tacts EA^ERYONE. All students and faculty
receive the Salemite. What better facility
could there be for furnishing the news?
This editorial started out with that y-
liliquey of Hamlet’s which begins:
To be or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against 'a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them']
We’ve chosen the lattei' course — of ac
tion ! Will you help ? '
—B. W.