Towson University - Tower Echoes Yearbook (Towson, MD)

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THE TOWER Lzour Library and Librarian ,NEW face greeted us this year upon our first visit to the library. Yes, Miss Osborn, or Mrs. Odell, as she later became, is gone, and in her place has come Miss Hiss. Miss Hiss has had varied experience at teaching. She has taught in the schools of South Carolina and also in Maryland, both in the elemen- tary and high school departments. Her study for library work was done at Columbia. I was, in a way, already familiar with Miss Hiss, since she taught at the high school from which I graduated, but I never realized she was so shy about telling of her experiences . . . she just didn't seem to think anything she might say would be of interest. I'll wager that before the year is over we will find out many interesting things about her. We are fortunate this year in having several departments improved in the matter of books for reference use. There are a series of Smith- sonian Scientihc study books that should prove valuable to those students who are now, or who will later take science courses. Then, there are several dozen more of Meredith's Hygiene, of which we all know there was not enough last year. Smalley and Gould have been added to those growing lists of hygiene references. Among the fiction, Stars Shine over Alabama will afford several hours of pleasant reading for any interested. Dorothy Canfield Fisher has her latest book on the fiction shelves. There are many more new books, in all departments. just take a few minutes off some day and you will be surprised to see all of them. I'm sure the alumni have little idea of the growth of the library in the last few years. I wonder how many of us realize we have here at Normal the largest collection of books dealing with Education of any college below the Mason-Dixon Line. We wonder why such a spirit prevails in the library every day! It is not unusual to find every available chair and table space being used for some study. We wonder just how many books are checked in the course of a Week, or even a day. There is much about the library work at which we may wonder. There surely must be something intriguing about it. It seems to hold those who do such work under a spell. Certainly it draws a splendid type of person. By the time for the next issue of THE TOWER LIGHT we have been promised several good reviews of new books. Don't wait for THE TOWER LIGHT, read enough to make your own reviews. T. JOHNSON, Senior Sp. 1 1

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THE TOWER LIGHT Lycopodium T is a very easy matter to go to your favorite apothecary and ask for five cents' worth of lycopodium, which is often used as a dusting powder for chafed skin. Do you know What this lycopodium is, what its uses are, and where it is found? Lycopodium is a club moss known scientifically as a cryptogamous plant belonging to the pteridophyta or fern group. The powder, which the druggist sells, is the spores of the lycopodium plant. Each plant produces thousands of these spores-each one the same relative size. The individual spore contains 50? fatty oil Qoleinj SW to 6? nitrogen and 44? to 47 W2 of carbohydrates. A lycopodic acid found in the fatty oil crystallizes, becoming silky needles, and is doubly refractory like quartz. The spores are not wetted by water, yet when boiled they sink to the bot- tom of the container. I Formerly this interesting powder was used as a decoction and em- ployed in cures for rheumatism, and diseases of the lungs and kidneys. It is used now on chafed skin, even when better grades of powder are available. The pharmacist uses it to facilitate the rolling of pills. Often, in homeopathic medicines, when they are pellets, lycopodium powder is to be found in the container. The spores are used in rockets and fire works and light up the zenith with their glare. The inflammable quali- ties of this powder can easily be seen when a little is thrown upon the flame of a match or candle, it explodes with a brilliant lightning-like flash. As a result, it was often used back stage when a storm was in progress-you know-the crash of sheet tin, the din of rolling balls, the shriek of the wind machine, the lightning-like flash of the lycopodium! This interesting plant is to be found in Europe, Asia, and North America. It grows very abundantly in Maryland. Its dainty green adds color to many Christmas wreaths. The commercial lycopodium product is collected in Ukraine, Poland, Switzerland, and Germany, it is shipped in bags to us form Danzig, Hamburg, and London. Why buy it? Go collect it. Most of us will brush it from our clothes after a tramp through the woods, and promptly complain about the lack of rain to keep the fyellowj dust down. EARL H. PALMER, Senior III. Chemistry Prof.- What is the most outstanding contribution that chemistry has given the world? Frosh- Blondes ! -Cougar? Paw. 1 0

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THE TOWER LIGHT A Few Notes on Music AS any one of you ever stopped to consider what good music really is? Many people, especially we moderns, do not care about the music written by the great masters. We think only of the present with the hot-cha blues songs, the whirling tempo of the dance tunes, and the syncopating rhythm of the jazz music. The popularity of these songs lasts but a few days, then a new song catches the fancy of the modern public. On the other hand, however, the music written by the great masters has a lasting quality. For several centuries, this music has been sung and played, and yet it always seems to have that certain something which holds the interest of the public. The masters seemed to have put their Everything and their whole life's toil into their works. They really discovered new tunes and strove for originality. Today's writers, or rather composers, are vastly different in regard to their mode of composing. There is no originality whatsoever. A modern composer takes an old song, quickens the tempo, adds a few simple words and juggles the notes around a little, and presto, he has a new song-hit! This song-hit enjoys popularity for a little while and then a new one takes its place. I leave the question with you. Wlmich is the better type of music, the type which has lasted through centuries or the type which enjoys immense popularity for a short time and then passes into complete obscurity? CHARLES A. HASLUP, Freshman VII. 120 What Do You Think? HAT is your opinion of music? Do you like it, are you in- different? The great majority of us like it as far as we can understand it. Let's skim through the pages of history to find what various outstanding characters thought of this fine art. Confucius, the Chinese sage, claimed that he could tell how well a country's government was run just by listening to its music. Martin Luther is quoted as having said, I verily think, and am not ashamed to say, that, next to divinity, no art is comparable to music. There is deep meaning in the following lines of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice where Bassanio is about to choose one of the three caskets: 12