The Belles of Saint Mary’s
The Faculty Corner
In each Issue THE BEUjES devotes one
column to faculty matters particularly, and
towai’d this end asks a different faculty
member to write this column entirely as
he or she pleases.
There is accumulating in my office a_ set of
peeuliar words, not found in any dictionary.
They are meant for English, but many are hard
to identify, even with the aid of “simplified
spelling” rules.
These words are being collected from stu
dents’ current writings and are being studied
with the idea of trying to work out some reason
for these strange perversions of our beautiful
English, and perhaps getting a remedy.
Is it carelessness, poor training, faulty eye
sight, that makes a girl write warter crest,
licquard, desizes (diseases) teasur (tissue) phe-
monia (pneumonia) vestagiables, veried diie
(varied diet) ?
It is probably a combination of these and
something more. Inability to spell is surely
tied up with the reading habits—with the mea
gerness of reading—^with the laek of thought
put into it. One writer has said:
“Despite the modern educational principle
that a student’s ability to read depends on how
well he has been taught to read, we hold to the
antiquated belief that reading—and by that we
mean thoughtful reading—is more a matter of
effort and perseveranee than anything else. The
idea that Johnny can sit down with Gibbon’s
“Decline and Fall” (probably with the radio
playing at the same time), and dash through
it as effortlessly as he would the funny paper
just because he has been taught by the latest
Teachers’ College technique, does not make
sense.
What Johnny, or anybody else, gets out of a
book is just about proportionate to the amount
of energy Johnny puts into the process of read
ing it. Arnold Bennett once wrote some wise
words on this point: “It is impossible to read
properly without using all one’s engine-power.
If we are not tired after reading, common-sense
is not in us.”
“Better reading methods, certainly and by all
means. But the fault, dear Brutus, is usually
not in our teachers that we are poor readers,
but in ourselves.”
The dictionary defines illiterate as “unable to
read.” Bad spelling is usually called illiteracy.
At any rate it is the mark of the poorly edu
cated and is a serious handicap to anybody.
A good speller cannot be turned out over
night, even with the best of intentions and with
a number of private seances in a certain office.
But do something about it, if you are on the
black list. Don’t accept bad spelling as inevita
ble, as cute, as an inheritance from grandfather.
Don’t blame your elementary teacher who
“didn’t teach us anything.” Get busy, BEAD
MOEE BOOKS, LOOK AT THE WOKDS,
THINK OF THE WOKDS. Put some energy
(not engery or egenry) into it and take Saint
Mary’s out of the class of adult illiterates.
M. Cbuikshank.
With a nervous hand I pulled the bell cord
of the Luxemburg Consulate—and was sud
denly assailed by a fresh fear. Suppose the
consul did not speak English. Paralyzing
thought! Eumor had it in Geneva drawing
rooms that he had received the appointment
because Madame his wife had political pull. I
was prepared to cope with his deficiencies in
statesmanship, but oh my goodness, was I going
to have to do it in French ?
The door opened. No, Monsieur was not in,
but would Mademoiselle mind waiting in the
bureau? I was shown into a room which ap
peared to be a cross between an office and a
lady’s boudoir. Various under-garments were
draped in disarray over the furniture; a tired
looking bedroom shoe slouched against a chair
leg. But my horrified gaze lingered on the
massive desk of the consul, where, among the
papers of state, reposed an old corset. My
inspection of this amazing room was suddenly
interrupted by the entrance of Madame, who
bore down upon me with a rustle of taffeta
skirts and a torrent of French mixed with
English. Time had dealt harshly with the old
lady, but Madame had retorted with the rouge
box and a bottle of red hair dye. Her bright
old eyes danced at me from beneath plucked
brows.
Far from sharing my embarrassment over the
looks of things, my hostess retrieved her prop
erty from the consul’s desk and immediately
took me into her confidence regarding a prob
lem connected with it. She had bought a gadget
to replace a worn-out one, and now, how in the
world did the thing work? Would Mademoi
selle mind to show her? The mysteries of the
gadget were unfolded. You put pressure here
and the thing opens there. See? Then said
Madame, her bright eyes upon me, “You Amer
icans are so clevaire. Would Mademoiselle
mind to feex it #or me ?”
And that is how I came to be sewing on a
corset when the consul arrived.
E. Johnson.
LETTER CLUB SAYS STAND UP
STRAIGHT AND GET YOUR MAN
The Letter Club presented an object lesson
in posture in Assembly on Wednesday morning,
February 21. Letter Club members slumped,
shuffled, fioated, and slinked across the stage.
The basis of their actions was a posture skit,
read by Hak Kendrick, written by Miss Diggs
and Miss Jones as a parody of Hiawatha by
Longfellow.
Virginia Trotter, Sue Noble, Laura Gordon,
Sara Bell, Annie Hyman Bunn, Honey Peck,
Tibbie Tucker, and Dixie French demonstrated
not only the grace and smoothness of good pos
ture but also the distressing ailments, lordosis
and kyphosis.
This skit was one of the features of Posture
Week in which all Saint Mary’s girls have been
participating.
BISHOP PENICK VISITS SAINT MARY’S
TO CONFIRM FIVE GIRLS
The Right Reverend Edwin A. Penick,
Bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina, con
firmed five Saint Mary’s girls on Sunday, Feb
ruary 18, 1940, in the Chapel. They were
Eleanor Grant, Carolyn Reed, Virginia Trotter,
Frances Barrett, and Sue Britt. Afterwards he
preached the morning sermon.
He took his text from St. Paul’s Epistle to
the Romans: “Whatsoever things written afore
time were written for our learning.”
This an age of change, but not all change
decays. Civilization has always been tottering
like a wall, always sinking rapidly from bad to
worse. A better civilization might be erected
from one that does fall. . . .
Jeremiah spoke two years before the fall of
Jerusalem, saying, “God has judged you guilty.”
.. . Then armies went into the temple at Jerusa-
lem, carried away the sacred vessels, and the
whole population was prisoners of war. God’s
sentence had been pronounced. Above the noise
a voice rang out, “Comfort you, comfort you,
says your God.” Jeremiah cried hope when
there was none.
How did the Christian Church look on them ?
How did it seem to see conservatives burned at
stake in the Middle Ages ? _ In the 18th century,
how did it seem ? Morality and religion had
been divorced. In the 19th century people were
frightened by the introduction of new ideas,
evolution for instance.
The Church is here with ever increasing its
membership. The Bible is still here with au
thority. The moral judgment of the world
today condemns and loathes war. Fact enables
us to have that irrepressible something. The
God of hope fills us with the peace and joy of
living.
Zimbalist Never
Reads Program—
Plays What He Like^ _
Efrem Zimbalist, violinist, performed for oa
of the largest crowds that has attended th|
year’s Civic Music Concerts in the Memorii
Auditorium on the evening of February l|
“Because he never looks at the programs,” Ziif
balist had the audience a little confused I?
playing many pieces that did not coincide wit
the regular program. His managers, it seeni
had provided the wrong ones. ■
Four Workshop Plays To
Be Dramatized By First
Year Expression Pupili,
Selected Members of the Faculty to Act
Judges of the Best Play on Bases of
Characterization and Diction
The following girls are in the cast of “Ne^
School for "Wives”: Kathreen Massie, Virgin'*
"Williams, Lucie Meade, Catherine Powell, Mat!
Alexander Wells, Elizabeth Belvin, Sad
Kitchin, Mary Claiborne. Those in “Red Cat
nations” are: Mary Lauriston Hardin, Martli*
Ellen, Sarah Hardison. Margaret Parke*'
Helen Ford, Margaret Arrington, Mary Swa*
Dodson, and Clara Anne Gardner will make "f
the cast for “Maid of France.” Those in tb*
“Happy Journey” are: Betty Harris, Phoel)*
Withers, Caro Bayley, Susan Britt, Mary Da"'
iels, and June Makepeace.
The students’ production committees for tl*
four plays are composed of Hortense Mille*'
Mary Claiborne, Kathreen Massie, Catherit*
Powell, Virginia "Williams, Mary "Wells, Eliif'
beth Belvin, Patricia Booth, Sara Kitchi*
Mary Lauriston Hardin, Martha Ellen, Sara*'
Hardison, Margaret Parker, Margaret Arriwf
ton, Mary Swan Dodson, Helen Ford, Clad
Anne Gardner, Martha Kight, Ellen StucW'
Isabelle Montgomery, June Makepeace, Ca"*’
Bayley, Susan Britt, Mary Daniels, Betty Ha^'
ris, and Alice Yount.
WILLIAM H. JONES DIES
(Continued from page 1)
his summers abroad, his special delight bei^
to tour England from London, where regulat||
he heard the famous Westminster Boys’ Chw
and studied closely the Gilbert & Sullivan
ductions of the Doyley Carte Company.
In addition to being a fine musician,
Jones was a keen student of literature and
authoritatively familiar with the works
Zola, Henry James, and James Branch Cab^''
Mr. Jones is survived by a sister,
Charles Hancock, of Charlottesville; a ha||,
sister, Mrs. George H. Williams, of Ealeig^!
and by numerous nieces and nephews, axao^
whom are Miss Florence Jones and Major G* ^
land Jones, of Raleigh, and by grandnieces a**
grandnephews. ..
Funeral services will be held in Saint Mar/?
Chapel at 3 J)0 o’clock Saturday afternoon s’*
interment will be in Oakwood Cemetery.
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Four workshop plays, “New School \
Wives,” “Red Carnations,” “Maid of France;
and “The Happy Journey,” will be present#
in the auditorium on Monday, February 2t
at 8 .-00 o’clock p.m.
These plays will be produced under the diref
tion of Miss Florence C. Davis and participate
in by first year expression students. FaeuW
members will act as judges to select the b^
play on the bases of characterization and dif
tion.
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