Reed College - Griffin Yearbook (Portland, OR)

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1781 In the last semester of this year, literature again came to the fore. The specific fase of inquiry was the drama. Discussions and readings of von H-offmansthal and Schnitzler culminated in the presentation of two one-act plays on Thurs- day evening, March twenty-fifth. Schnitzlerts satire, Die Literatur, was playd in German, and von Hoffmansthalts tragedy, Beth and the F001, was given in translation. While the Deutsche Verein has had an intellectual aim for its prime purpose, it has by no means slighted the social. The German customs of Lieder singing and Kaffce drinking hav added to the plesure of the informal social hour after the program. They ar always regarded by the members as among the most delightful and distinctiv features of the Verein gatherings. CLASSICAL CLUB HE Classical Club was organized in the winter of 1913 by Dr. Rees and the twenty-flve students in the department. Their purpose was to gain some g of that 11knoledge by the way, of Greek and Roman life and letters which the work of the k9 clasroom does not giv. During the two years of its existence the club has met monthly; it has pland a regular course of study for each year and arranged as wel for two REED COLLEGE ANNUAL 4- 1915 lectures by outsiders. Dr. Wilson spoke at one of the regular meetings on Troy as a trade-route, and at another meeting Miss Mary Frances Isom gave an interesting account of her trip thru Greece. These talks wer, however, only interludes in the regular work of the club. During the first year attention centerd 0n the drama, since it had been decided to stage the Antigone ROMAN BANQUET 1915

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REED COLLEGE ANNUAL for the study of English. In cooperation with the Amanda Reed Association a handbook for new students is to be put out next fall. During the present semester a talk was given at the college by Dr. Mason of Seattle under the auspices of the association. Discussions wer held to consider missionary opportunities in China for fysicians, chemists and teachers; Mr. McClellan, fleld secretary of the Student Volunteers of America, was here at the time. The association sent four Reed men to the Northwest Yung Men's Christian Association Student Conference at Columbia Beach, Oregon, in June, 1914, and this spring two men wer sent to the College Yung Menls Christian Association Conference held at Newberg, Oregon. DEUTSCHE VEREIN HE Deutsche Verein was organized in 1912 as a club for the study, interpretation and appreciation of all fases of German life. In pursuance of this $ aim, monthly meetings hav since been held, at which the members hav heard lectures on filosofy, literature and art, thereby increasing and enriching their comprehension of German culture. Under the presidency of Arthur Hauck, several interest- ing talks wer arranged. One evening was devoted to a dis .. I .. -4.-. 4.361.; .4.vnn + 1 9 1 5 1771 cussion, by Mr. Stahl, 0f the poetry and filosofy of Nietzsche; another, to the reading of Sudermannys Illagda. Dr. C. H. Chapman gav two talks; on the social dramas 0f Hauptmann, and on the filosofy 0f Rudolph Eucken. Bismark, the man of ilblood and iron was presented to the Verein in a direct, anecdotal fashion by Reverend A. Krause. Another evening was given to Dr. Edward O. Sisson, whose personal contact with the filosofer, Friedrich Paulsen, made possible an in- timate description of this versatil caracter. The Verein en- tertaind its frends with a lecture-recital by Mr. Lucien Becker, in which compositions of Schumann, Strauss and other musicians of the Teutonic strain wer presented. On another occasion, Miss Henrietta Eliot interpreted the art of Holbein and Diirer. In the fall of 1914 the Verein was reorganized into a regular departmental club with Helmuth Krause as Varsit- zender. Since the Great War is now closest to the hart 0f the German, art, literature, and filosofy wer relegated to the fringe of discussion, except as they bore upon the present struggle. Mr. Stahl spoke on some fallacies concerning the Emperor and the war, and Stephenson Smith gave a com- prehensiv talk on William of Germany. Nucia Niemiec de- scribed the Civilization and position of the Poles, giving such a talk as only one can whose whole hart and soul is in her subject.

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REED COLLEGE ANNUAL + 1915 late in the spring. Papers wer red dealing with the origins of tragedy, with the beginnings of comedy, with the Greek theater, and with modern recasts of Sophoclesl O'cdipus Tyrannus; a play of Aristophanes was red aloud and discust. At the end of this course of study the club put to the test its knoledge thus gaind by presenting a tragedy of Sophocles, and so completed the work of the first year. During this last year the club has made a brief survey of the facts about Greek and Roman society. At successiv meetings different members hav traced upper-clas Greek and Roman thru their lives. Their customs in matters of birth, nursing, pedagoging, marrying and buryinOt; their work and their play; their duties as citizens, in the agora and forum; their religins duties, as priests of their households; their dres and manners; their modes of social intercourse; their ideas regarding the position of women; these ar the salient points coverd in the second year's study. Again, putting to the trial the practical value of a theoretical course, the club gave a dinner in the style of the early Roman Empire. The members, all in tnnics and togas. reclined at 10 tables; they drank the helth of the poets, proposed by a pseudo-Maecenas, in grape-juice Falernian; listend to a Greek bard Chant Theocritus; watcht bnffoons and dancing girls, and feasted all the while on classic pabulum above reproach,-both mere food and Latin cone versation. And as at the banquet. so thruout the year, n'from eg to appleil work and play hav gone on wel together. FRENCH CLUB HE members of liAcadcsmic wer not, so far as any- one can recall, brought together by any dominant or earnest purpose, and to the present time there has l: $ been no constitution, by-laws, or other instrument to insure the perpetual existence of this body. There is no charter, no code of procedure; the election of offisers has never been cald to mind. Roberts' Rules of Order hav never been studied by IiAcadi'ml'eJ-and all the members may talk simultaneusly if they wish. In short, the one common tendency, and the one regular habit of the group is to support the rule, clzaczm faz't comme 1'! lm' plait. The business of llAcadcgmie has been to amuse itself with anything in French that makes an appeal. Readings and con- versation in a more or les pure form of Gallic diction ar prac- tist when the members come in session. Moliere has his ad- mirers among those of the members who ar inclined toward comedy, and consequently several of the meetings hav been devoted to selni-performances of the Bourgeois Gentilhonmir. The members say they wil do a great deal more presently, and possibly they may persist in their intentions. There wil soon be several complete sets of plans to cover the activities of l'Acadeiizic for several years to come. Accordingly the mem- bers, if their minds hold, wil sometime put several perform- ances of favorit French dramatic masterpieces before the pub- ,ffjrv-i w J .4351-