Bethany College - Bethanian Yearbook (Bethany, WV)

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by ROBERT MARTIN HELEN HAYES, last seen on the stage as the queen in Vic- toria Regina , put aside her royal robes for the first time in eight years and returned to the Nixon last week in Ladies and Gentle- men , a play written for her by Ben Hecht and Charles MacAr- thur. Co-starred with Miss Hayes was Philip Merivale, who played opposite her in Mary of Scot- land. Ladies and Gentlemen defin- itely is not a starring vehicle for Miss Hayes, and is not the sort of thing one would expect of her after Victoria Regina. It is more an entertainment than a play. If the piece is remembered at all it will be because it brings Miss Hayes back to us as a fresh, modern star, for in it she demon- strates her ability as one of the stage ' s ablest ladies and one of its brightest comediennes, too. The play is concerned with 12 men and women, who are trying a screen writer for murdering his wife. Miss Hayes plays the part of Terry Scott, the sympa- thetic secretary of a movie Midas, who wheedles the jurors into changing their votes to acquita!. The play abounds with choice witicisms, spread out nicely a- mong Miss Hayes; Connie Gil- christ, the dull-witted Swedish mother; Joseph Sweeney, the burial magnate; George Watts, the owner of a faithless wife ; Pat Harrington, the practical joker; William Lynn, the beleaguered sheriff; Evelyn Varden, the right- minded representative of 20,000 women; Roy Roberts, the rising young nephew of a yacht-owner; and Frank Conlan, the alternate with a mind of stone. Throughout the play Mr. Hecht PROSPECTUS- These are troubled times in some parts of the world, but there still is, in this land of ours, a little beauty, a bit of unspoken thought, a thread of fancy, and the whisper of a song. We are having the grim re- alities of life-struggle thrust upon us in all its sordid ugli- nesses. The art treasures of England, France, and Germany may be buried under sandbags, but we are not going to let those forces over which we have no control rob us of our portion, meager though it may seem, of those things which make civilization out of sheer barbarity: art, drama, music, and poetry. Our campus is but an insig- nificant corner of the world, but we can keep alive in it these arts which have ' heen forgotten in warring nations. and Mr. MacArthur fling jibes at the movies, big business, Yale, the jury system, women ' s clubs, justice and whatever other vul- nerable subject comes into their scurrilous minds. CONCERTS by top-ranking vo- cal and instrumental artists, in- terspersed among grand opera, choral and dance performances, constitute the attractions that May Beegle has announced for the 1939-1940 season at Syria Mosque. Fritz Kreisler, violinist, opened the season October 13. On Octo- ber 27 the San Carlo Opera com- pany will make an appearance, giving Puccini ' s Madam Butter- fly . Featured will be the Japan- ese prima-donna, Hize Koyke. Devi-Dja and her Bali and Java Dancers, an Oriental group which has been appearing in Europe and will not arrive in this country until sometime next month, are scheduled for November 11. Lily Pons sings on December 5 and Marian Anderson on Janu- ary 9. A program of sacred and folk songs, followed by a costume operetta, Tales of the Vienna Woods , will be given by the Mozart Boys ' Choir, February 6. Returning to America after an absence of four years, Vladimir Horowitz, pianist, will appear March 26. Horowitz has been described by Paderewski as the greatest of the younger gener- ation of pianists. The season will be brought to a close by Nelson Eddy, April 19. An extra attraction, not includ- ed in the subscription to the ser- ies, will be the performance of Argentinita and her company of Spanish dancers on February 17. Subscribers have the choice of this event or the Bali and Java Dancers. MAURICE EVANS, who brought his record-breaking Richard II to Pittsburgh last year, returns this week to the Nixon theater to present his latest Broadway success, Ham- let . During its tremendously popular run in New York, Mr. Evans ' Hamlet was acclaimed by critics and public alike as the finest Hamlet of our time. This is the first time in over a hundred years that the play has been given in its entirety. PAGE EIGHTEEN

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Bethany Dawn Short Short Story by E. F. Brown Dawn was showing in the East. A young couple, sitting dejectedly on the worn steps of Old Main, stared with unseeing eyes at the wisps of fog which the glinting rays of sun were chasing to bed. We can ' t go on like this, said the young man dully. Here I am, unable to continue. 1 can ' t obtain any more money and I have so many bills due. Sometimes I think I ' d like to chuck the whole thing overboard. Well, I don ' t know, there isn ' t much else, she admitted slowly. Shall we do as we had planned? It is the last thing that we can do together. I know Mr. Strasser pretty well, I think he would let us have the keys to the tower, he said, now aroused and excited. She toyed with the button of her coat be- fore answering. Do — do you think we really should? This rather hesitant. Impulsively, he took her arm and started up the steps, where they found Mr. Strasser putting out the lights that had been on all night. I don ' t think I should, hesitated Mr. Strasser in answer to their request for the key to the tower. Aw, come on, Mr. Strasser, just a favor. You know what I mean. The young man shifted from one foot to the other. Well, all right, grumbled Mr. Strasser. Here is the key. The steps were tortuously small and wind- ing. Their path was punctuated by weak shafts of light that filtered in through the narrow win- dows which appeared at regular intervals in their ascent. Their footsteps resounded hollowly on the worn treads as they tramped their way into the The author is a fresh- man majoring in Journalism. The steps were tortuously small and winding eerie dimness. Near the top of the steps, she said in a small, frightened voice, I ' m afraid, dear. Don ' t worry, it ' s going to be all right, he as- sured her, with an attempted air of bravado. At the top of the one hundred and twenty-sixth step they found themselves out on the narrow con- fines of the stone walk that encircles the tower. Oh-h-h, isn ' t it far down to the ground, she breathed as she peered over the railing. It is pretty far, he admitted; somewhat taken back by the enormity and sheerness of the drop. Well, here we go. The man climbed up the wrought-iron railing. Balancing himself against the slight morning breeze, he put down his hand to help her up. Are you ready? Yes-yes — 1 guess so. Give me your hand, he said quickly, and ridded, do you want to be first? No, she replied. You take the first picture; after all, it ' s your camera. The end PAGE SEVENTEEN

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I trust that I shall do right by Harrow was Baldwin ' s speech to Parliament upon becoming prime minister to England. This showed that a public school educated Englishman put his old school even above his country. But let us first study the background of the English Public School system. An English- man ' s education starts upon entering prep school at the age of eight; there he spends about five years prepar- ing for the common en- trance examinations. On passing this exam- ination he has the choice of either enter- ing a state owned grammar school, or a public school owned and operated by a govern- ing body made up of the arch-bishop of Canter- bury and some titled alumni. This is similar to an American prep-school, in the sense that the student pays tuition un less he wins a scholar- ship. At the public school he is alloted a house which is under the su- pervision of a house master and there he boards, sleeps, and does his home-work. Five monitors, who are the elder boys of the house, supervise all that goes on in the house. They also see that the small- er boys don ' t get them- selves into mischief by seeing that the rules of the house are strictly observed. Up to this point the monitors have absolute authority and it is only when it comes to beating a boy for some major offense like going out of bounds that the house- master or even the Building Empire Builders Foreign educated student ex- plains English public school system. by Ned Metal Charter house. England, where the author spent four years. This picture, taken and developed by the author, was exhib- ited in the Oxford University Camera Club Gallery. head-master, who is in charge of the whole school, has to be consulted. In his first year the boy is made a junior fag. In this position he is expected to answer fag — calls from the monitors who have him run mes- sages to fellow monitors in other houses. His other jobs include serv- ing them at meals, bringing them wash water in the morning and if he is a study fag (a monitor ' s spe- cial fag) he is expected to clean out their stud- ies every Sunday and to keep their personal belongings in order. After the second week a fag ' s exams take place. Fags who have been prepared for this by their fathers (like our little brother system) are expected to know every date concerning the school but ques- tions concerning the nicknames of the new mas- ter ' s fiancee are not rare. Failing this exam- means singing or doing any other entertainment before the monitors. As the boy proceeds in his career the fag- ging will gradually de- crease as Newbugs (this, a name applied to new boys) takes his place. Nor will he be expected to observe so many postees. These are petty privileges. such as walking on the road or carrying an um- brella after the second year at school. Al- though this may seem silly to a stranger, no member of the school would ever think of giving them up as this would mean destroying the age old traditions which the school has continued on pJge 22 PAGE NINETEEN