However, this sanitary motive may have been outgrown. Granting it has, the other explanation offered is that it is "unfair to entertain guests at the expense of the college." Just where the expense to the college is involved has never been made clear. The system of signing "white cards" at the table makes it impossible to cheat the college of the price of a meal, and if the students furnish their own extra couches, hair mattresses and bed-clothes, they cannot be accused of wear and tear of the college property in the entertainment of their guests.

In a year in which the whole community is striving to find some satisfactory plan for adjusting the regulation of the life of the college to suit the changed conditions which have developed since the last regulations were made, this notable example of inconsistent policy should be considered, and some logical position taken on a matter which lies so near to the interest and enjoyment of every girl in college.

Dorothy Stabler, 1916

THE EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE

Professor George P. Baker of Harvard University spoke to us last Monday af ternoon on The Experimental Theatre and its Effect on Recent Drama. He began by making the distinction between the crdinary repertoire theatre or the stock company and the experimental theatre. He told us something about the management of the regular public theatre. It is in the hands of the business man who runs it for business reasons and not for purely artistic purposes. Hundreds of plays by promising young authors are handed in and read by the big managers but because of the heavy investment which presenting a play means, these managers can't afford to run risk of not pleasing a very exacting public. Hence the untried author stands little chance of having his play accepted in the larger theatre. Professor Baker called the public theatre the house of conservatism, of lost artistic causes, for it rejects new material in favor of the authors of established reputation.

the

roused did not fail. Following this in 1899 the London Stage Society, in which Shaw was especially interested, began its presentation of new plays though it had to take many precautions against the intervention of censorship. Everyone has heard of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin founded by Yeats and Lady Gregory for the purpose of reviving the interest in Irish literature. They have revolutionized the old idea of the typical Irishman, they have succeeded in creating a group of Irish dramatists and have encouraged and inspired the work of other theatres all over the world. Miss Horneman is attempting the same work in the Gaiety Theatre at Manchester where she gives the people of this district the chance to represent their local life and to put it before the public. The Scottish and Liverpool Repertoire Theatres do much the same work for their locality. At Birmingham there is perhaps the best equipped and best managed of all these experimental theatres which is bound to bring good results because it is run with intelligence and enthusiasm. The Cott Theatre in London though not absolutely independent ventured to put on many new plays. Why is it possible for these theatres to give new plays? Because they are financially independent. Then, to them, "the Play's the Thing" and acting is more important than scenery. They aim to help the promising dramatist and not always to present a masterpiece. They possess what is so lacking in most theatres of to-day, the spirit of assistance. Their audiences go wishing to see a new author reveal himself and not as the average public goes, to see the latest play by an author of established reputation. The manager tries to make the play reveal the author and not the manager. Instead of laying down the law he asks advice and takes the author's suggestions. A second advantage is that the dramatist who pictures local life is adequately represented, and after receiving the stamp of local approval he is more certain of a wider success. If we had such theatres in the different parts of our country, New England, the West or the South, which would give honest pictures of local life, the essentially American drama would be gradually developed.

Professor Baker closed with an account of his own work at Cambridge where he manages a co-operative theatre. He puts a play before a very critical audience of four hundred carefully selected people who after their year and a half of strict training, are able to give intelligent, helpful criticism. Here young authors are trained in the essentials of play writing through fair minded criticism and by hard experience. This

theatre is a school where those of promise but not of assured skill can be heard.

THE ZOELLNER QUARTET

Vassar was again favored with a very delightful recital of chamber music on Wednesday evening, December 2nd. It was apparent from the very start that the members of the Zoellner quartet were artists. The excellence of their ensemble playing was of course of prime importance, but there were plenty of occasions on which each player was able to show his or her individual skill. There was absolute unity about the playing. In faultless execution as well as in variety of artistic interpretation they showed themselves to rank with the best quartets that I have heard.

The program offered interesting contrasts. The first thing presented was a suite consisting of five numbers, "Romantische Serenade" by a modern Dutch composer, Brands Buys. The whole tone of these compositions was weird, unusual, but most fascinating, particularly in the first number which was played on united strings and gave a strange, almost uncanny effect. The harmonies were extremely modern and very interesting throughout.

Then followed two numbers by a contemporaneous Russian composer, "Humoresca-Presto," and "Intermezzo: Allegretto." These, while of a different character from the Dutch compositions, were also of a more or less modern nature. Both the numbers were very charmingly played, and gave such universal pleasure that an encore was demanded and received. This encore, Minuet, on Theme of Beethoven by Glinka was distinctly classical and therefore a sharp It contrast to the preceding music. was a light and graceful little thing and very effective.

In

conclusion the Beethoven. quar tet opus 18, No. 2 was played. In spite of the interest that one feels in the nov elty and unusualness of modern works, I think one is always glad to return to the great masters of classical music. This quartet was full of brightness and sweet melody and very characteristic of Beethoven in his happiest moments. In its rendition, the artists showed themselves to possess the true classical spirit which the composition demanded. Another encore followed, Andante Cantabile from Quartet in F by Tschaikowsky, an exquisite thing played with great sweetress and finish, which left the audience in a most exalted and inspired frame of mind. The whole concert was one of the most enjoyable performances of the

year.

G. M. Watson, 1916

"SPIRITUAL ASSISTANCE"

Conversation at the Sunday dinner table frequently touches upon, sometimes centers about the morning sermon. Not only there, but at various other places where discussion takes place it is evident that many members of the undergraduate body are seriously looking for an intellectual basis for their religious beliefs. and are hoping to find this basis partly through an understanding of the social teachings of "The Church."

Plainly some of the help these people desire may come from the sermons which the ministers of the Church give on Sunday mornings. Would not their sermons be of infinitely more practical value if there were some opportunity for questioning them? It would not only clarify our "dinner table discussions," but give us a redoubled interest in the sermon itself, were further explanations of statements necessarily compact, since they come within the compass of a short sermon, a possibility. The nearest approach to this sort of assistance from "visiting clergy" comes from the "interviews" sometimes given by the speakers procured by the Christian Association, and in the "question meetings" held by Dr. Lyman Abbott.

It will probably be urged that this would take more time than it is fair for us to ask. Consider, however, the program of the minister after the service. Unless he has to catch a very early train, he goes to Senior Parlor for perhaps half or three-quarters of an hour before dinner. He probably has at least as much time as this after dinner. It does not seem illogical to ask that fifteen or twenty minutes from one of these periods be reserved for discussion. It does not seem logical either that any minister would let "time" be an excuse for refusing such a request. We leave the question to the consideration of whom it may concern.

F. T. M., 1915 L. H. S., 1915

THE SPIRIT OF A STRONG MIND

To each of us after leaving college there comes at some time the question of what we believe concerning God and the Bible and we will be representing Vassar when we answer. Shall we make our reply a casual statement of the same belief or lack of belief that we had when we entered college, or can we speak with conviction from having thought it out, clear down to the rock at the bottom? Is our belief a question of the will, the heart, or the mind, or all three? Have we discussed the Bible from a secular standpoint, comparing Genesis with Classic Myths and Exodus with Homer. Have

we compared Christ's teachings with those of the philosophers before Him? If we have done this, have we traced the history of the Bible since it was compiled, since it was translated and given to the people? Have we compared the moral, educational and economic conditions in the countries that have it with those that have not? And finally have we compared the homes where it is read with those where it is considered no more than the text of an outworn system of philosophy?

Saint Paul says: "God hath-given you -the spirit of power, and of love and of a strong mind."* Let us use this spirit now in laying the foundation of a faith that will grow with our experience throughout our lives. *11 Tim. 1:7.

F. M., 1915

DECEMBER MISCELLANY REVIEWED

From the Miscellany for December the reader carries away an impression of promising material within an unnecessarily circumscribed field, and of workmanship sometimes auspiciously good, but too often careless. The limitation in range, manifesting itself particularly in the complete absence of the reflective essay and of editorials devoted to anything other than practical suggestions for the here and now, is seemingly a defect common to collegiate writers; it can be fully counteracted only with growing richness of experience, but may be overcome in part through such efforts as are recommended by Miss Choate in her review of the November Miscellany and by the Mt. Holyoke student quoted in the current number (Intercollegia, p. 140). The faults of workmanship are indubitably within the writers' present powers of correction. They are represented by misleading punctuation, probably attributable as often to contributor as to compositor, vague reference, and words clumsily fitting the meaning, "obscuring lineaments like a mantle" rather than "cleanly adhering like an athlete's skin." We read of "one course" in college "giving an assignment"; of war cartoons that do not "emphasize nationalism," though the meaning seems to be that they do not touch the purely national, as opposed to the international, phases of the struggle. Careless English most obviously pays its own penalty in the short stories, where the requisite incisiveness and economy are sacrificed by such loosely-strung sentences as these: "So now she came to see those rice grains and pass judgment on the proceedings and Pierre with his apron arranged, regarded her with an anxious frown, and Joe respectfully in the background stole side

long glances." From such retarding clumsiness only one of the narratives, Keeping Watch, is free.

It is a pleasure to find promising work in all the different fields of expression. The Mountain Spirit, instinct with the life of the forest, bears the impress, al most if not quite unbroken, of genuine and individually realized experience; the descriptive art is excellent especially in the picture of the pool of fire. The other significant achievement of the issue is likewise in poetic description; By the River is notable for its effective suggestion of form through words of motion:

The white hot sky

Leans heavily. The distant hill declines In slow red folds....

The shadows of the leafless bushes cut
The shimmering sand.

Towards the close the repeated use of "and" is weak; the initial semi-regularity of rhyme is discarded with not wholly satisfying effect. In comparison with this reproduction of intense visual experience, Autumn Drouth, though potentially similar, seems mere verbal exercise.

Of the other verse, The Apprentice bears well the inevitable comparison with Fra Lippo Lippi. The speaker's attitude is sharply defined, but the expression lacks virility; there is weakness, tonal and structural, as in the closing line, The Statue Room gains a definite effect by the recurrence of liquid names and lines. Swing in the Swing is pleasantly rhythmic and simple, true to the child's love of pretending, and to his swift changes in engrossment.

Keeping Watch is the one commendable story. It owes its success to its convincing reality, its economy and swiftness. The writer does not seem, however, like Turgenieff, to know everything that has concerned her characters up to the opening of the story. If Jim is known to the police as the murderer (and here the various indications are contradictory), his wife's hasty flight from their home is pointless; if he is not suspected, it is a fatal betrayal. The title is false to the emphasis of the narrative. The unhackneyed theme of Mister Pierre's Cat calls for concentration, clarity, and delicate humor; instead, it receives diffuse treatment, unpleasantly near the facetious. The use of dialect is inconsistently sustained, and the close is weak. A Civic Affair does not redeem its triteness by any excellence of method beyond an easy handling of dialogue; the writer's point of view is uncertain, the episodes are tedious and irrelevant.

The essay, The American Cartoons of the War, presents interesting material,