I
Time Is Right To ‘See The Blazing Yule Before Us
Jean Erdman
To Perform
January 10
Jean Erdman, contemporary
choreographer, will give a recital
of creative dance January 10, in
Memorial Hall at 8:30 p.m. This
is second in a group of four events
brought to campus by the Salem
College Lecture Series committee.
Under the sponsorship of the
committee and in co-operation with
Miss Bryson and the modern dance
classes. Miss Erdman will also be
on campus Friday, January 11.
From 11:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.
she will give a demonstration in
the gymnasium for the dance
classes. Following the dance
demonstrations, Miss Erdman will
be the guest of Salem Academy
for lunch.
A native of Honolulu, Jean Erd
man c'ombines Oriental, primitive,
European, and American traditions
in her interpretations.
Doris Hering writes in Dance
Magazine: “There are certain
things we have come to expect of
Jean Erdman, things like impec-
JEAN ERDMAN
Under Miss Riegner’s aclvisor-
and sets, a genuine feeling for
theatre, and fresh, unconventional
dance movements smoothly per
formed.”
Under Miss Reigner’s advisor-
ship, a crew has been organized to
set the stage for the Thursday
evening recital. Members of the
crew are Mr. Britt, Mr. Yarbo
rough, Lynne Hamrick, Sarah Ann
Price, and Sissie Allen.
During her visit at Salem College,
Miss Erdman will stay in the
Alumnae House.
Fund Enlists
Robert Wendt
On Commute
Mr. Robert Wendt, member of
Salem College faculty, was ap
pointed to the Social Service Ex
change Advisory Committee of the
United Fund at a meeting held last
Week.
The committee’s main work is to
co-ordinate both the private and
public social agencies in this com
munity. It serves individuals by
directing a person to the agency
which can best handle his problems.
Mr. Wendt said that “most peo
ple that ask for help have inad
equacies all down the line.” Most
of them have to make use of not
one but various organizations. Mr.
Wendt’s committee keeps the agen
cies from overlapping each other.
Mr. Wendt has been asked to
help with the family and adult
agencies of the community.
Hungary, November, 1928. Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938) is writing a letter:
The street opened into a kind of square before the church: it was
Obvious that this w^as the center of the town. There W'as a brisk
business going on in the market place among the fruit and vegetable
peacllers, and dozens of men hung around in groups, loafing and gos
siping at the}' do in our small towns.
I made straight for the church, after having provided the whole mar
ket place with a new subject for gossip.
Hungary, November, 1956. Free-lance photographer John Sadovy is
writing a coverage.
We came to a square with a park in the center of it. We heard
shooting, and then we saw a tank facing a big building on the square
. . . Bullets began zinging past our ears. I tried to hide behind a
young tree.
One of the tanks kept turning its turret in full circle, very slowly,
and ever so often I would be looking straight into the barrel of its
gun. They were rebel tanks . . . You would see three and four men
lined up behind a tree. Look again and the men were four bodies on
the ground.
The rebels brought out a good-looking officer. His face was white.
He got five yards, retreated, argued. Then he folded up. It was over
with him.
I could see the impact of bullets on clothes. There was not much
noise. They were shooting so close that the man’s body acted as a
silencer.
From Thomas Wolfe’s letter: ,
The young men in groups of twenty or thirty were stationed at vari
ous places around the square; the married women elsewhere; the
older men still elsewhere; and the young girls, likewise in groups of
twenty or thirty, marched back and forth and around and up and
down.
The explosion of color that simply turned that grey day into a pageant
came, mostly from the girls. I can’t , go on to describe the costumes,
for they were infinitely, varied—the one uniform detail came, in the
wonderful shawls they wore over all the rest of the bewildering
business. The shawls were' of some delicate material—silk, probably—
with a great variety of patterns around the neck. They were fringed
with a great thick border of woolen thread—this was a solid color
and was either a brilliant yellow, or crimson, or red.
As the girls go up and down in groups, the young men stand together,
or march off in columns of twos—they all grin and snicker among
themselves, but they act otherwise as if the other is not there.
From the diary of a 17-year-old Hungarian boy—November, 1956.
I was finished checking guns and ammunition among my friends vyhen
the girl we had listening to the radio ran out. “The Russians are
coming,” she yelled. “Our people are betrayed.”
We all looked at her. I think everyone knew in a way this would
happen. Someone cursed. Then he apologized to the girl.
They are coming now. The first tank rams through a barrier we put
up during the night . . . The Russians are making a big ring around
us. Then they make the ring smaller. Then it becomes a few rings.
It will be a miracle if any of us survive.
We made it through the streets to join another force. They had
enough ammunition for perhaps another day. They also had some
bread which they naturally shared with us.
Some of us thought that w-e might shave. A curious thing to think
about. As a rule we shave at our a.ge about twice a W'eek at most.
Somebody explained that we were just thinking about dying as clean
as possible.
Thomas Wolfe:
For a wdiile after leaving Budapest there were low hills and rolling
dismal looking country—possibly everything looks dismal nowv Then,
for the greater part of the journey, there was a vast muddy plain,
stretching aw'ay infinitely until it was lost in the steam and haze of
the horizon.
This great plain is one vast farm: the land is stripped with bands of
plow'ed field and bands of green unploughed field, and these long bands
stretch away as far as the eye can travel. This also adds to the im
pression of hopelessness.
The rain had collected in pools all over the place and the big fat ducks
and geese were everywhere. I was terribly depressed. I thought Rus
sia must be like this. But I heard a church bell ringing away in the
distance.
A Times correspondent, Elie Abel, writes from Austria:
They come across the muddy fields and over the back roads from
Hungary these wintry days, stripped of everything but the shabby
clothing on their backs and at best a briefcase stuffed with papers,
family mementos, a bit of bread or a heel of salami.
A miner from Komorn, w'ho trudged across the wintry fields to Aus
tria with his wife and tow-headed twin boys of three, is willing to go
almost anywhere.
“I am 34, in good health, and I expect to work hard,’’ he says. “In
Hungary under the Communists it was a constant losing struggle to
support my family. I want these boys to have a better life than Hun
gary ever offered me.”
This is a strange migration. These are not the huddled, storm-tossed,
masses, yearning for relief from the quarrels and oppressions of Eu
rope. They left their homes because they were marked for deporta
tion or death, once the Russians re-established control.
But they look ahead, not behind, and the future as they see it does
, not exclude going back to fight once again if their country can some
how be wrenched from the Russian grip.
Thomas )VoIfe, in 1928, wrote:
We say the world is a small place—but the fact is, it is much too
large a place. What does the man in Nebraska know, or care, about
this people or their troubles? Yet they have an extensive literature,
a great capital, a history thousands of years old, and the honor of
saving Europe twice against Turks who came storming up out of the
East.
They were themselves a nomad Eastern people who settled upon these
plains many hundreds of years ago—and now their young village men
wear embroidered aprons, and the old men great coats of white wool,
and the young girls are swaddled in elaborate costumes, every stitch,
every pattern, every design of which has some meaning.
But what do they know about this in Newark; or what do they know
about Newark here? What does it all mean? I think I have found
a little meaning, a base of culture and understanding that is universal.
Someday I shall tell you what it is.
There may be “a base of culture and understanding that is imiversal.”
This base could be what changes silk-shawled girls into radio-listening
informers. It may be hatred of oppression.
-J. s.
Seniors Wind Up Campus
Contributions To Season
The Christmas holidays officially
begin at 12:00 noon, December 18.
Sign-outs must be completed not
later than 12:00 p.m. tomorrow.
The Senior class has already re
ceived one of their Christmas pre
sents in the form of the Christmas
banquet given in their honor Wed
nesday night. Other traditional
Christmas events for this week will
be Senior Vespers and Christmas
caroling by the class of 1957. The
“Y”-sponsored Christmas party at
the Memorial Industrial School was
given this afternoon.
Vespers
“O Come All Ye Faithful” will
resound again through Memorial
Hall Sunday night as the seniors
walk down the aisles for Senior
Vespers, a Christmas tradition at
Salem.
The program will begin at 7:30
^vith a prelude by Miss Margaret
Vardell, organist for the service.
The scripture, invocation and bene
diction will be given by the Rev.
John Johansen with meditations by
Dr. Edwin A. Sawyer.
Music for the program will in
clude a hymn with the seniors and
congregation, “The First Noel”.
Suzanne Gordon, violinist, will ac
company the Senior class in sing
ing “Silent Night” and Juanita
Efird will sing a solo, “O Holy
Night”.
Alice McNeely
To Be Added
In Admissions
Miss Alice McNeely, Salem class
of 1954, has been named assistant
in admissions for Salem College
under Dean Ivy Llixson and Miss
Edith Kirkland. Miss McNeely
wall begin work on January 20, 1957.
While at Salem, Miss McNeely
was president of the Student Gov
ernment Association qnd majored
in sociology-economics. She was
active in the W'ork of the “Y”, the
I. R. S. council, and Sights and
Insights.
She was a marshal, a member of
the Order of the Scorpion, and in
cluded in the 1954 Who’s Who
selections. Miss McNeely is from
Mooresville.
Seniors Keep
Victory Slate
Untarnished
The seniors captured the campus
volleyball tournament Monday
afternoon with a close 38-28 victory
over the sophomores. The class
of 1957 has won every team sport
tournament since fall of 1953.
Later the same day the faculty;
showing amazing endurance, de
feated the students 34-30 in the an
nual student-faculty game. The
student team had eight players and
substituted frequently. 'The faculty
could accumulate only six players
—Miss Palmer, Miss Bryson, Mr.
Workman, Mr. Shewmake, Mr.
Wendt, and Mr. Johansen.
With the close of the volleyball
season, the A. A. attention turns
to badminton, the first individual
sport of the year.
Students are urged to bring an
opponent and come down to the
gym at 5 :00 on any week day after
noon. '
The badminton tournament will
be held after Christmas. Jeane
Smitherman is badminton manager
for the A. A. council.
During an organ interlude, can
dles will be passed to the congre
gation and the Christmas Vespers
will be concluded with the seniors
and their pages singing, “Morning
Star”.
The recessional hymn, “Joy to
the World” will be followed by the
benediction.
Caroling
Next Monday night, December
17, the seniors will talqe off on
their annual Christmas Caroling
party. At 7:30 they will start out
to visit and serenade the entire
campus area with familiar Christ
mas carols.
The last stopping place will be
at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Gram-
ley where refreshments will be
served.
Among the homes to be visited
are those of Dr. Samuel Pfohl, Dr.
Fred Leinback, Bishop Kenneth
Pfohl, the Rev. Dr. Edwin Saw}?er,
Rev. Mr. Hughes, Mrs. Ruby' J.
Pfohl, and the Gramley’s.
The seniors will also sing in
front of the Salem Old Ladies’
Home, the Academy, the infirmary,
and all the campus dormitories.
Y Party
This afternoon at four o’clock
almost half of the student body of
Salem motored in chartered buses
to the Christmas party at Memorial
Industrial School. They took part
in an annual “Y”-sponsored event
that has become one of the high
lights of the Christmas season.
During the party Christmas carols
were sung, refreshments served and
special entertainment provided by
students from Salem as well as the
Memorial School.
The party gave the Salemites a
chance to meet the children for
vdiom they play Santa Claus each
Christmas. They seemed to be
having even more fun than, the
wide-eyed children and came away
with the realization that things, do
go on beyond our square.
News Briefs
The two newly-elected members
of the Board of Trustees for Salem
College are Mrs. Charles Babcock
and Mr. Charles Wade.
Along, with the election of new
members, the Board last week
authorized an addition of four full
time faculty members for next year
in the departments of modern lan
guage, English, history, and phy
sical education.
The Board also authorized the
retention of architects to see what
could be done to expand the gym
nasium and Main Hall.
On Monday afternoon, December
10, a committee of the Board made
final inspection of the power plant
and accepted it officially.
* * ♦
Dr. C. Wylie Alford will be visit
ing professor of economics-socio
logy during second semester. He
is a member of the Wake Forest
faculty.
* * *
The candles for the Senior Christ
mas Vesper service were “dressed”
with red crepe paper around the
bottom by Moravian students and
faculty wives under the direction of
Mrs. Gramley.
>|5 * *
The F. T. A. held a monthly
meeting Tuesday night in the base
ment of Bitting. One item of busi
ness, screening for Miss Student
Teacher, was dealt with prior to
the program. As coffee and dough
nuts were served, Ann Darden read
the group a Christmas story, Happy
Christmas, by Dauphne de Maurier.