Towson University - Tower Echoes Yearbook (Towson, MD)

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fought. yes. but in a situation like this. the Nazi would know what to do. The Buud leader was amused. The German Govern- ment stoop to S25? Impossible! However. the govern- ment was not responsible for the action of its oflicers. If the censor received Iason's letter and letters of others like him. it would be a mere matter of cooperation with a Gestapo oticer to do a little profitable collecting. Then. that was worse! In a small place like Emden. the oiiicials ruled. Twenty-live dollars went back on the next boat to Emden. At Emdeu greedy hands took in many twenty- iives and sums in larger figures. There was a split of the loot and a check was placed by a name for that month. W .-. .r. ... -.- an -.- -Q- England declared war! German citizens refused passage on ships back! ... .i. .., .-. as -v- -.- -f Iason could not get back to Gemiany. He could not find out why there had been another white envelope. He could not understand why he had not heard from his mother again. uban Wedding IUANITA GREER OUR FIRST visit after arriving in Havana via Pan- American Airways was to Mercedes Church. an artistic treasure. famous for its age. lovely archways. pillars. and exquisite paintings. A monk spent eleven years of his life decorating the church with murals and frescoes. Vforkmen were busily shining brass. removing pews and making an improvised hedge on either side of the central aisle which extended the full length of the mass- ive church. When we inquired the meaning of all this. our guide explained that a very fashionable wedding was to take place there at 9 P. M. The daughter of a banker was to wed the son of a fabulously wealthy brewer. Our great enthusiasm prompted our guide to speak to the priest concerning the possibility of our attending the wedding. The priest was delighted at our interest. and we were shown to a side entrance where our guide told us we were to meet the Father at 8:30 that evening. Before the appointed hour our car was parked as near Mercedes Church as space would permit. which was blocks away. Vfe hurriedly followed our guide along narrow winding streets until we reached the designated entrance. Throngs of excited people gathered near the church. Scores of policemen milled around in the crowd trying to maintain order. XYe were escorted in great style into the interior of the church. An orchestra played soft music from a distant balcony. There were no pews. The green hedges were banked on the inside bv a solid mass of white flowers. Near the 8 hedge were gladiolas. next shaggy chrysanthemums, then a single row of gardenias lining each side of a grassy aisle. The altar was lighted by candles from twenty candel- abra arranged to fomi a cross. Soon the orchestra began to play the familiar wedding march and a maid of honor appeared beneath an arch at the rear of the church. Slowly she and the bridesmaids walked down the magniiicent aisle. Each was gowned in a chartreuse pen de lis frock. of a slightly deeper tone than the preceding one. and each carried a bouquet of orchids and wore a diamond necklace. Following them came the bride whose gown was of white crepe rosolba. Her long tulle veil was caught with a halo of brilliants. She. too. carried orchids. but white ones. and wore a diamond necklace, Almost miraculously the groom, the witnesses. and the parents of the bride and groom ap- peared. The audience gazed and moved about in the space on either side of the central aisle. In about twenty minutes the music became more lively and the figures began to descend from the altar. XVe realized that the wedding was over. I simply must add that we went to Sans Souci. very smart night club. immediately following the wed ding and were delighted to ind that the reception was being held there. Then. two days later. when we Hey back to Miami. Mr. and Mrs. lose Rionda were among our thirty-three passengers. - TOWER LIGHU

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others For Ransom CATHERINE GRAY j Qlld. Note: This story is based on actual facts.j l jj' A S O N G U E R LIC K stared back over the widen- jing stretch of water at tl1e docks where stood his mother. xl-le waved a thin white hand in answer to a wisp of handkerchief and a grey head behind it. lt was a noble ihead, erect and stately, set delicately upon a gentle body. ,It was a head that had seen much trouble, much sacri- fice, many joys and now. disaster of a sort. jason was going to America. He was born in Bohemia, a place later to become a part of Czechoslovakia, and because of a 'job that led him to Germany, had taken his widowed mother to live in Emden near the sea. Several months ago a German friend had told him that the depression was not so bad in America. There was a depression, of course. but wasn't it all over the world? The standards of living were higher over there and it had been hard jsinee he had lost his job. There was no reason to go back to Czechoslovakia - no work - and both could not live on his mother's pension. That night he and his mother had talked. Many emotions came close to the surface during that conversation, but only cold facts Jroke through. So today, jason strained his eyes to get 1 last glimpse of the woman who must remain behind 1I'lCl wait: wait for money from America: wait for a son to come back with money enough to take her back :O her homeland. In the years that passed jason was not a brilliant suc- cess. but he had a S25 sales position in a downtown dc- oartment store. He lived alone: ate littleg enjoyed no lux- jiries. and banked the larger part of his salary. Gradually. sie became accustomed to the liberties in America - free jzpeeeh, free press - and his letters to his mother re- jilected the change. He became sensitive to the fact that iihe new ruler of Germany controlled the press there hnd that the German people learned only what they j.vere permitted to learn. He felt himself a privileged per- jzon every time he bought a newspaper or turned on fthe radio. Because of his mother's great desire to know pow he was and what his new surroundings were like. jie wrote letters telling her more and more about the lljtlnited States and gradually more and more about what ,ire had learned of Europe. One day a lightning bolt struck. A man sent thousands bf soldiers into a tiny country called Austria. lt seemed to climax a series of Germany's internal social rearrange- 'HDCTOBER . 1939 l'llC1lt El1lCl consequent expulsion of certain peoples. ja- so11 was shocked! hllusie by famous composers was burned! Books by immortal authors were destroyed! Diseoverers of great seientihe principles were driven from their l101'l1CSl jason wondered that his placid Ger- man friends could do such things, lt was impossible! Then came the crowning blow - his mother country absorbed! Poor jason and his American-German friends! He could contain himself no longer. Obviously his friends abroad and the great mass of people were being deceived. Their press and radio must be government- eontrolled. lt's too bad he forgot that censorship ex- tended over inore things than press and radio! The same night that found tl1e Slavs struggling, found jason and a Bund leader in a blistering argument. lm- mediately following this, he wrote to his mother in paf thetie tones - - - Dear Mother, VV hat has happened to my friends? XVhat are Fritz Humber and Otto, the butcher doing? ls the foot of this power-crazed man 011 their necks? Do you not know what is going on? Here in America. the German people are de- spised and it is because of one man .... Days passed. The ship that should have brought his mother's reply, returned to Germany. No letters. But. one day a large white envelope was delivered to jason. It was postmarked Germany. XV ith great curiosity jason ripped open the flap and read. His eyes fell on one sentence. 'Unless payment of S323 in American money is re- ceived. Mrs, Gerlick will remain at the ljmden Conf eentration Camp - indehnitely - for espionage. Espionage - an undiplomatie letter from abroad, jason fell into a state of semi-consciousness. His mother behind barbed wire: whipped: driven: subject to countless indignities: coarsely clothed: coarsely fed. He must get the money instantly. lt was simple. llc had saved much more than that. llc could have sent a thou- sand dollars - S25 was nothing. But wait. If it was nothing to him. it would be less to the German Govcrmnent. The Bund leader would know. Perhaps he would tell him something. They 7

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Trios of Teachers y ruins G. IETT AT A TIME when established thoughts are being changed by new thinkers, education and consequently teachers seem to assume an air of radicalism. Three such periods are outstanding in history, and the present- T day effects of the last of these periods are so tremendous as to make it logical to consider this the beginning of a fourth era in the evolution of education. The slow drift toward civilization and the search for knowledge culminated in Greece, first of all. That search was long characteristic of mankind. Various schools of philosophy had been established in Greece by 500 B. C. These were, for the most part, philosophies of material- ism. The physicists, Demoeritus and Leueipus. were con- , cerned with the atomic structure of the universe. Others .wrote their theories of the clockwork of the universe. Into the midst of these thinkers came Socrates, the father of Greek Idealism. It is not the universe, but our- fselves which we must study, said he. Plato, his most ,brilliant follower, took the hint of the great teacher. iThe material universe became merely a concept in the minds of men. The idea was responsible for everything conceived-an extreme idealism, and far too extreme for the unready masses. So great was the hatred of change that Socrates was condemned to death because of his teachings, which, the Sophist said, had poisoned the minds of the young men of Greece . Change must come slowly. Plato pub- lished The Dialogues years after Socrates had gone. This T publication was followed by The Republic. an expository T treatise on a Utopian form of political state. Meanwhile, Aristotle came under the influence of Plato's teachings. . The last of the great trio of Greek contemporaries, Aris- ' totle became an omniscient teacher - a physicist, biolo- r gist,zoologist, rhetorician, mathematician, and physician. i Even after Christ, the works of the great Greek teacher were the basis of science and literature. He had modi- . fied, standardized, and firmly established the new school 2 of thought which had woven its way into the Greek so- i ciety of his time. in The greatest teacher of them all was Christ. Christ, ,the psychologist, who had based his religious teachings ion an universal human emotion-love. And because he ijunderstood human nature, he was successful in upsetting 'tithe Old Testament standards of Iudaism. Thus he won g,Lnot A race. but RACES, of people. This was the second iiigreat period of upheaval in basic thought and affected fthe peoples of Asia Minor. The resultant changes spread i'lOCTOBER 1 - 1939 throughout the world. The teachings of Christ were seized upon by the Ro- man authorities and molded into a single body of thought - a religion. From then on religion fostered education. Christianity throve in Europe, where it found confused pagans, ready to accept so pleasing a philosophy of life after death. They adopted Christian- ity, and Christianity, in turn, adopted them. Learning and education became the two principle functions of the Church. Today the governments of the various coun- tries have assumed this responsibility. XVhat finer thing could religion have done than to have stimulated a desire for truth through knowledge? The smooth-working machinery of the Church was interrupted by the Renaissance - the third revolution of thought. Out of it emerged the heretics, Luther, Cal- vin, and Zwingli. The new learning found a way into the monasteries of Europe. Martin Luther, a German monk, was the first to grasp the importance and logic of some of the revived doctrines. He at once took advan- tage of a dissatisfied people and the intermittent absence from Germany of Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Ro- man Empire. Charles moved frequently between Spain and Germany. attempting to control the affairs of both nations. At the same time. his sympathies were with the Pope, at Rome. Under such circumstances. the Reforma- tion took root in Germany. In France. Iohn Calvin, father of Puritanism. an- swered the roll call of heretics. He was driven from France to Switzerland and it was from there that his teachings, which show the infiuence of Luther. spread through an already infected Germany, into Holland. and thence to England. Peter Zwingli, a native Swiss, spread similar doctrines - alike in general thought. but dif- ferent in detail. He studied Luther's works. picked what he thought was good. added some original ideas, and won followers. Another trio of contemporaries had up- set established beliefs! The revolutionary trends in education today probably mark the beginning of another era. from which pure science and logic will emerge as the final way in seeking truth. How can there be a known truth when there are doubts? The fact that changes occur. and are accepted and refuted shows that men arc not certain as to what the truth is. Let us be happy. then. to go forth as be- ginning teachers in a beginning era. Perhaps we shall find what others have sought and fought for. 9 13-'citfti