SEE
'THE HEIRESS'
TONIGHT
THE TWIG
Newspaper of the Students of Meredith College
ENTER
THE SAFETY
CONTEST
Volumne XXVII
MEREDITH COLLEGE, RALEIGH, N. C., FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1952
No. 4
PLAYHOUSE PRESENTS "THE HEIRESS” TONIGHT AT 8:00
Excellence in scholarship and leadership gives these students recognition in “Who’s Who Among Students in
American Universities and Colleges.” They are, left to right: Kitty Barbehenn, Betty Ann Highsmith, Jean
Dula, Pat Smathers, Ann Partin, Janet Stallings, Betty Jo Welch, and Betsy Brooks McGee.
EIGHT iSENlORS
RECEIVE HO^OR
m ^‘WHO’S WHO”
Eight seniors have recently
been chosen for national recog
nition in “Who’s Who Among
Students in American Universi
ties and Colleges” for the 1953
edition. These students were
recommended by the Student
Government Council and a facul
ty committee. They are Kitty
Barbehenn, Jean Dula, Betty
Ann Highsmith, Betsy Brooks
McGee, Ann Partin, Pat Smath
ers, Janet Stallings, and Betty
Jo Welch.
Selected on the basis of
scholarship, co-operation, and
leadership in academic and ex
tra-curricular activities, citizen
ship and service to the school,
and promise of future useful
ness, these students will receive
certificates of recognition at
graduation.
The honor of being recog
nized in the current “Who’s
Who” carries with it the use of
a placement service conducted
for the benefit of seniors and
graduates whose work has re
ceived this recommendation.
The College Newspaper
Contest on Safe Driving is
now open for entries. You
may be a winner of part of
the $2,100 in cash prizes. The
purpose of the contest is to
encourage safe driving among
college students through the
medium of the press, and all
you have to do is submit an
editorial, feature, cartoon,^ or
photograph on safe driving.
Entries must appear in a col
lege publication to be eligible.
See the editor of THE TWIG
if you would like to enter.
Chapel Talks Give
Inspiring Thoughts
Editor’s Note: Because mem
bers of The Twig staff feel that
the chapel talks being presented
each morning contain many
worthwhile thoughts that Mere
dith students would like to re
members, The Twig, each issue,
will publish excerpts of these
talks. If any student or faculty
member finds a thought or an
idea that she would like to pass
on to other readers, bring it to
a member of The Twig staff.
Any idea of this nature is eligi
ble for print in this column.
“When I was a college fresh
man, I announced to my mother
that I was getting married
Christmas. She asked me calm
ly to sit down and discuss the
virtues and vices of Louis. ‘Well,
he doesn’t drink,’ I began slow
ly. ‘He doesn’t swear, and he
never misses going to church.’
My mother answered quietly.
‘All negative virtues.’ And so I
instantly saw that the goodness
of Louis, in this case, was bore
dom. Be certain that your life
has a positive outlook. Nega
tive virtues are worthless.”
“Life is not a vessel to be
drained, but a cup to be filled.”
Dr. Elizabeth Vaughn,
Head of Sociology Dept.
Meredith College
November 10, 1952
dent who is struggling with that
same subject which no one else
can do. When you get papers
back bearing 96’s and 97’s and
98’s, do you look around to
smirk like Jack Horner, or do
you reach out to assure some
contemporary? ‘This thing is
not the voodoo kind of mystery
which only the seventh daugh
ter of a seventh daughter of
Meredith College can under
stand, but this is something
which any girl like you and me
who speaks the English lang
uage can see — if she looks
aright.’
“When in putting on your last
and best nylons, you find a great
run in the place where it will
show, when you struggle to
the front of Johnson Hall and
(Continued on page 3)
Cast Uses Period Costumes^ Antique Furniture;
IHr. Dorsett Plays Role of Arroyaut Father
o—— ■
By ALYCE EPLEY
The curtain goes up tonight at
8:00 on “The Heiress,” opening
production of the season for the
Meredith College Playhouse.
Grease paint and props have
finally been assembled; period
costumes have been ordered and
antique furniture has, been ob
tained for the stage setting of
the play, which is enacted
against the background of Old
New York.
“The Heiress,” adapted by
Ruth and Augustus Goetz from
the Henry James novel, Wash
ington Square, manages both to
capture the mood created by the
novel and at the same time to
provide for those sudden crises
without which the subtlest at
mospheric effects leave a theatre
audience unsatisfied.
The plot of the production is
concerned with the character
and emotions of private individ
uals. Hysteria is veiled with
stately, stylized candlelight and
shadows, and the entire story is
built around an individual act
which is examined coolly and
scientifically through a micro
scope.
Mr. Harry K. Dorsett, splen
didly plays the role of Dr. Aus
tin Sloper, a cold and arrogant
Victorian father, whom one
might find it difficult to believe
in if Jane Austen had not pro
ceeded him and Victorian litera
ture did not take it as a matter
of course. He rightfully tries to
protect his daughter Catherine
from the advances of an obvious
fortune hunter, but he gives the
implication that “No one could
possibly' want you except for
your money.”
Charlene Swanzey poignantly
portrays the daughter, Cather
ine, making us believe in her
dullness and lack of charm, yet
being very interesting and
charming as she does so. She is
characterized by a desperate,
reckless passion when she al
lows herself briefly to believe
she is loved, and at the last by
a proud stoical acceptance of a
life which will be completely
devoid of love and happiness.
Ellen Westmoreland gives di
mension to the heroine’s Aunt
Lavinia Penniman, a silly, ro
mantic sister of the doctor, while
Mary Cobb Dickens renders a
splendid performance as the doc
tor’s other sister, Mrs. Almond,
handsome woman in her for
ties.
Mrs. Almond’s pretty, viva
cious daughter Marian is enacted
ay Fay Walker, and Marcel Mar
tin very silkily performs as Mar
ian’s fiance, Arthur Townsend.
When Marian and Arthur
make their first appearance on
the scene, they bring Arthur’s
cousin, Morris Townsend, into
the Sloper household. Gordon
Berkstresser plays the part of
Morris, who has recently re
turned from Europe and is liv
ing with his widowed sister. The
sister, a Mrs. Montgomery, is
portrayed by Betsy Cannady,
and Kitty Waynick acts as par
lormaid for the Sloper’s.
Tickets for the play, which is
to be presented both tonight and
tomorrow night have been dis
tributed to Meredith College
students and will be on sale at
the door to other interested par
ties. Student dates are to be ad
mitted for fifty cents, and adult
tickets will sell for seventy-five
cents.
This year’s officers for the
Playhouse are Betsy Cannady,
president; Beth Morgan, vice-
president; Fay Walker, secre
tary; and Lyn Belton, treasurer.
The traditional after-the-play
party for members of the cast
and production will be held to
morrow night immediately fol
lowing the play in the Hut.
“Every year I become more
convinced that with increasing
maturity, teachers become in
creasingly useful and effective.
But—there are things which a
student who really understands
that part of a subject which she
has mastered can do for a stu
Campus Elects
May Queen, Court
Dot Stell and Alma Brigman
were elected May Queen and
Maid of Honor, respectively, in
an election held by the Meredith
student body on Thursday night,
November 6, 1952.
These two were chosen from a
number of Meredith beauties,
among which were Jane Cate,
Sue Bunn, Ruth Cole, Daphine
Stephenson, Jean Dula, June
Eller, Mary Ann Godwin, Lucy
Parker, Betty Jo Welch, and
Meta Mae Williams.
May Court representatives
elected from the Junior Class
were Lyn Belton and Shirley
Graham, and those elected from
the Freshman Class were Liz
and Joyce Jones. Sophomores
chosen were Lou Ann Griffin
and Phoebe Barnhardt. The
Senior Class chose Betsy Cox
and June Eller.
Dr. Yarbrough
Receives Honor
Dr. John Yarbrough, head of
the biology department, has re
cently been designated a mem
ber of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science.
Membership into the association
means that Dr. Yarbrough is a
Fellow and also a member of the
National Council.
Dr. Yarbrough has also been
named secretary-treasurer of
the North Carolina Academy of
Science for a three year term
which began last May. The
North Carolina Academy jn-
cludes all sciences and has as its
function an annual meeting for
reporting research. The next
meeting of the Academy will be
held in Raleigh in May 1953
with State College as hostess.
Dr. Mary Yarbrough is also a
member of the Academy and a
former vice-president. She is
now chairman of the high school
1 exhibits committee.
Home Ec Club Helps
Methodist Orphanage
Continuing to place its em
phasis on the home, a “Founda
tion of Stone,” the Home
Economics Club is centering its
activities this month around the
theme of “Open Doors.” The en
tire meeting on November 3 was
devoted to a project for helping
our less fortunate friends. On
that afternoon, the sewing lab
was the scene of much excited
activity as the members all
joined in to help make bean-bag
clowns. These colorful little toys
will be distributed at Christmas
to the children at the Methodist
Orphanage here in Raleigh.
Dr. Keith Edits
Blount Papers
Dr. Alice B. Keith, associate
professor of history, has just
completed Volume I of the John
Gray Blount Papers, a collec
tion of some 520 letters and
documents written between
1764 and 1789. Having edited
the first of this series. Dr. Keith
is now working on material for
two more volumes.
John Gray Blount, a prosper
ous merchant, businessman,
and land speculator of Washing
ton, N. C., was one of the most
important figures of his day. His
letters and papers were de
posited in the Department of
Archives in 1933.