St Josephs College - Footprints Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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Wanted — More Degrees IF there is any accomplishment you would like to acquire, college is the place for you. Not having wide experience, I cannot vouch for every college, but I am sure that St. Joseph ' s provides the broadest training possible. Ostensibly you come to college for a degree, usually in arts; and if you are an earnest and thorough student, success will probably crown your efforts. Yet how many more degrees could, deservedly, be awarded at the close of our college career. In the first place, there is not one of us who would he unable to preside oxer Congress. Long experience with meetings conducted under the most strict observance of Parliamentary Law has made even such an occasion as the above seem nothing. 1 suppose committees for all sorts of events from an athletic meet to one ' s Senior Prom might also be included under this heading. But to my mind it certainly is an art in itself and worthy ot special merit to be able to convince the proprietor of New York ' s most exclusive hotel that a mere reduction of half his price is nothing compared ■ itli the privilege of having his place the scene of a St. Joseph ' s prom. Domestic science, also, holds not tin- least terror for us who have sur- vived a series of college teas and class days. If in years to come the literary market is flooded with hooks on this topic, 1 venture to say that the students of our Alma Mater will form no small percentage of their authors. The various little tricks that form a useful addition to the knowledge of any ■-killed cook are also among our accomplishments. There is not one of us who is not equal to an) emergency from opening cans without the conven tional can opener to that time-honored custom of stretching the soup supply by means of a glass or two of water. And. of course, the art of serving with speed and perfection is quite second nature. Basketball games and lectures naturally bring with them the necessity for colorful decoration, especially in the lunchroom; and so in this way the artistic side of our nature is developed. Hut it is not until Senior year that this all-round training reaches its completion. The Sanctum is the final test the application step, if 1 may call it such, in the lessons of general usefulness. It is certainly a summary of all previous experiences with several new ones for good measure. First of all. there is the acquisition of furnish ings, paint, draperies and cushions -to say nothing of the innumerable inci- dentals sure to crop up at the most unforeseen moments. There really is a decided thrill to purchasing them, although it is as nothing compared with the feeling of gratitude that comes when some very public spirited parent decides to do his share towards furnishing our room o ' dreams by a most welcome contribution of cretonne, paint or rugs. f course the most exciting time is during the painting. For obvious reasons, the particular brighl blue of Twenty-Six ' s Sanctum will be ever present in our memories, or at any rate, as long as most of our wearing apparel is in existence. Really, there seems to be no limit to the opportunities a college course at St. foseph ' s offers for acquiring general, useful knowledge. Our onlj regret — and time may dissolve even that — is that, through some oversighl oi the Faculty, all the labor and time expended on these courses is not rewarded by degrees. M ( RKT CROWLEY, ' 26. ■ 4 1 5 f -

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6. Golden yellow, signifying that wealth has been added to the world, for Science. 7. Blue, Oxford color, for Music. 8. Olive, for Pharmacy. 9. Russet, for Forestry. In German universities, we note the strange fact that the hood is never used or given when a degree is conferred. German professors, teaching in America, have a special system for signifying their Alma Mater. They wear hoods lined with the official color of the German university from which they were graduated. On this lining is laid a triangular chevron of black, white and red. For example, a purple lining with a black, white and red chevron, signifies the University of Berlin, green lining with this chevron signifies University of Cherbourg, light blue, Munich, and red, Heidelberg. Caps and gowns and hoods are significant not so much because they are outward expressions of learning, as that they emphasize the existence of a true, the only true, democracy, that of learning. Whenever I see a group in caps, gowns and hoods. I wonder whether this democracy of learning is really appreciated. Could there be so many unbelievers, agnostics, and atheists among this group had they with time and open minds, delved into the facts of historical sciences, especially that of the history of the Roman Catholic Church? Toiling under false colors, true to untruth, how can they, rational beings, fail to see the light? They are debtors to Mother Church for the fact that there is such an institution as learning. They are indebted, even for their outward expression of erudition, to ecclesiastics. Yet they claim that the Church and learning are two human organizations which always have been, and always will continue to be irreconcilable. AGNES McSHAXK, ' 26. 4 14 r -

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The Fourth Dimension IF you were to tell someone that a flexible sphere might be turned inside out without tearing, that an object might be removed from a closed room without penetrating the walls and that the links of a chain might be separated unbroken, he would say Impossible, Absurd. No more so than is the idea that the earth is round or that it revolves about the sun. These tacts are as contradictory to the senses as are the former and yet they are accepted as established facts. So, too, as time goes on, perhaps, the idea of a fourth dimension may be received with equal credulity. It is impossible to form a mental picture of the fourth dimension. To gain a partial idea of it one must resort to analogy with dimensions of a lower order. By imagining two-dimensional beings living in a plane and incapable of understanding our world of three dimensions, we get an idea of our relation to the world of four dimensions. Suppose we place a two- dimensional being, a flatlander, in a circle. He would go all around the circle but finding it closed would despair of getting out, as we would, locked in a closed cell. But we of the third dimension could step over the boundary to the outside o! the circle. In like manner, if we place a four-dimensional being within the six walls of a cell, he could get out without breaking ceiling, walls or floor. He could do it as easil) as we pass over the circle — so won- derful to our friend in llatland. We might call the space enclosed within the fourth dimension hyperspace. The question now arises, bias ' hyperspace ' a real physical existence? If so. our world must have a slight extension in the fourth dimension, other- wise it would be nothing but a shadow cast by a more real four-dimensional world. The existence of a slight extension in fourth dimension would simplify many scientific theories. Hyperspace has been brought somewhat into disrepute because the spiritualists have assumed its existence to give a local habitation to their imaginings. Nevertheless, no one has yet found the possibility of its existence to be in conflict with any scientific fact, and the limit of space to three dimen- sions is therefore empirical. MARGARET JOHNSTON, ' 26. Prayer I wandered through the moonlit woods alone. The night was still: no leaf stirred in a breeze. A pond I sought, but. in its place I found A pool of liquid moonlight ' mid the trees. And while I gazed, a dazzling angel came Bearing on high, a star bedimmed, once bright, And dipping ' neath the pool his burden great, He drew from thence a blazing, blinding light. ( )h, God, give me the ever constant will To plunge into Thy ] 1 of living grace. That, shining like another deathless star. I ever may give joy before Thy face. MABEL I. BARTON, ' 26. 16}S --