pialelte
The DIALETTE is the official news
paper of Montreat College, and is published
monthly by the Staff of Student Publica
tions. Its purpose is to give the student a
fair and unprejudiced view of campus life.
EXECUTIVE STAFF
Editor-in-Chief Betty Marshall
Associate Editor Colleen Story
Business Manager Jolene Parks
Literary Editor Ellinore Krieger
Advertising Managers Joan Douglas
Helen Duke
EDITORIAL STAFF
Feature Editors Elinor Ammons
Elizabeth Stewart
Reporters Margaret Leech
Hilda Flecker, Joan Hunsberger
Sports Editor Olivia Bishop
Humor Editor Shela Gregory
Art and Publicity I,eta Miller
BUSINESS STAFF
Typists Frances Bridges
Margaret Langston, Freida White
Asst. Advertising
Manager Jo Ella Dunaway
SPONSOR—Miss Elizabeth Maxwell
Merry Chrisimas,
HEIDE
“Christmas Joy” is a phrase too often
talked about at Christmastime and never
displayed. This year here at Montreat,
Christmas Joy became a reality to every
student as the true spirit of Christmas
prevailed.
The one receiving the greatest joy was
Heide Funke, w’ho, at 4:.S0 P. M., on Tues
day afternoon, December 11, was pre
sented with a bus ticket and a deposit
in the Student Bank to cover eating ex
penses on her trip to Grants Pass, Oregon,
where her parents, three sisters, and a
brother are living.
Heide left Germany in January, 1950
to come to our country. She lived in Aiken.
South Carolina, (where she first heard
of Montreat) until September of the same
. year when she arrived in Montreat as a
Freshman. Heide has not seen her par
ents since then. They are not expecting
her until next summer. What a surprise
they are in for!
As Christmas drew near, the Montreat
college students and faculty began think
ing about “angels and mortals”, which
is always a Christmas project here. This
year, they felt impelled to lay aside that
fun and give all their efforts to helping
Heide go home for Christmas, and noth
ing could have given greater joy to ail
than to see Heide receive that precious
gift.
Heide’s message to all Montreaters and
friends is.
WORD FROM A
CHINESE ALUMNA
Thirty years ago a young Chinese
girl entered Montreat College.
She was a “scholarship” student, hav
ing no funds for tuition, board—or for
the extras, we so often call “the little
necessities.”
She was an enthusiastic and excellent
student in all subjects. It was discovered
that she also possessed unusual talent as
a pianist. This talent was developed
through concentrated instruction and in
terest by the Music Department. Upon
graduation, she was retained as a member
of the College music faculty. Two years
later she returned to China to spread her
gift.s among her native people.
Direct correspondence was maintained
for many years, and her letters combined
with messages received through missionar
ies on leave, revealed her rapid develop
ment, not only as an excellent teacher, but
also as a concert pianist of wide recogni
tion. Then the long war years and the
final occupation of the Communists in
China caused correspondence first to
dwindle, and then to become a total blank.
Whether or not she had survived the
Communist infiltration was unknown.
Until . . . one afternoon this fall, a
stranger approached the sick bed of Mrs
p-osby Adams, and said, “Ten Seng sends
her love.”
The stranger was a missionary school
teacher only recently returned from China.
- e had been an intimate friend of Ten
Seng’s for many years. She made no at-
c'-nt to bridge those long years in de
tail for Mrs. Adams. Instead, she said,
simply, I want to tell you of my last
visit with your friend.” Here is the story
5?he told:
It was one afternoon last winter, dur
ing the peak of the Christian purge, when
a very talented young girl approached the
Chinese pianist in her apartment wanting
The talent was ouickly recognized and
fh? agreed to instruct
the girl. The girl then wanted to discuss
he possible fee. Ten Seng, fully ^
of the girls circumstances, jokingly sug
gested the equivalent to ten cents fn
American money.
to eat.’^ ®
“How much I appreciate this gift, —ie
IS like a fortune to me. It's hard to telh
but words are never necessary—only to
learn in English class—So please excuse
this erode “thank you” but it comes from
a heart full to the brim with happiness
Merry Christmas.” t'i'mebh.
MONTREAT TO RECEIVE
CHIMES FROM A TEACHER
“Once upon a time, in a far-away
country,” a very little boy placed a very
small silver piece on the altar beside large
and expensive gifts to the Christ Child.
It was the small boy’s gift which
caused the spiritual chimes of a great
cathedral to ring after many years of
silence. The story is Raymond Alden’s
greatly loved Christmas tale: Why the
Chimes Rang.
The imaginative story comes to life
with a recent gift made to the Christ
Child at Montreat. And soon, very real
chimes will peal softly over the Mon
treat valley — not only at Christmas, but
all through the year.
The chimes represent a $1,600 gift from
a small salaried school teacher, who as
a child silently promised someday to give
her home missionary parents the music
they loved — and needed — for their
evangelistic work. The gift, then, is ®
fulfillment of childhood prayer, and the
large amount is an accumulation of many
small silver pieces (no larger than the
small coin placed on the great altar), ex
tracted from a very small salary, over
a period of many years.
This is a very wonderful gift, hut it
isn’t of great significance only of itself
but, rather, as a very definite illustra
tion of all that exists at Montreat.
For everyhing at Montreat represents
countless spontaneous and selfless gifts
to the Christ Child. They are gifts made
without the expectancy of chimes, with
which the throngs carried expensive of
ferings to the Cathedral altar imaginative
story.
So it is — thus the fulfillment of e
childhood prayer has brought about the
miracle of the Montreat Chimes.
Ten Seng smiled and said, “I mean. I
want to GIVE you the lessons!”
The girl looked at the pianist with an
exnression of surprise and love—and yot
with a bit of disbelief. Then she con
fronted Ten Seng with a very pointed
question.
“Are you a Christian?”
It was the time of the purge, the most
critical period when Chinese Christians
often were killed without provocation and
when many students acted as Communist
agents.
But Ten Seng replied without hesita
tion to the girl’s direct question.
“Why, yes ... of course. You see, when
I was your age, I went to a very wonder
ful Christian school in the United States
It was there a very lovely person
did
the same for me. Now I can pass their
gift on to you.”
Dialette