Bee, 1926-01-25

              the bee the greater university of buffalo weekly vol 6 university of buffalo jan 25 1926 no 14 walter pritchard eaton speaks on english drama divides history of theatre into three periods advises aspiring writers to use permanent language at the senior girls convocation on wednesday morning january 20 in the girls room at foster hall walter pritchard eaton poet essayist and dramatic critic spoke most delightful ly to a large number of students and members of the faculty all who heard mr eaton agree in saying that he is one of the most interesting and entertaining speakers heard at the university mr eaton is most interested in the restoration period in english litera ture and his talk concerned the re storation of the eighteenth century plays and comedies according to the speaker there are three creative periods in the history of the english theatre the first of these as we all know is the eliza bethan period of which shakespeare beaumont and fletcher are the out standing dramatists interspersed throughout the talk were personal ex periences of mr eaton and this made for greater interest and a feeling of familiarity mr eaton described the way in which he was taught shake speare and added that as people are coming to realize that shakespeare wrote living characters into a play to be presented before a living audience methods of teaching shakespeare are improving the second period or epoch is that of the restoration plays of this per iod are considered immoral by some people even to this day when charles ii came to the throne he found that all the theaters of london had been closed by cromwell where upon he reopened two theatres which were patronized by the court and the exclusive leisure class this class demanded presentations of their kind just as shakespeare's plays were written for his audiences in this way the comedy of manners arose for this gay crowd had style which was their very life mr eaton's big point here was that in those days the english language was used it was incumbent on a man or woman to be able to come back at any argu ment with a witty epigram not with the slang phrase of today so's your old man oscar wilde was mention ed as an example of the witty retort and repartee seventy-five years after the restora tion period richard brinsley sheri dan wrote a restoration comedy the school for scandal which is coming to buffalo next week this play written for the express purpose of putting the drury lane theatre on its feet was presented in 1777 and ran for 78 consecutive performances qual to a run of three or four years in new york today the language used by sheridan in written language which was also at the time sheridan wrote the play the spoken language the third period began in 1890 and centuries up to the present time ac cording to mr eaton we are in the midst of this third creative period to tlay a bit of advice was given to all aspiring to write and that was write in the permanent body of writ ten language not in the spoken lan guage the sort of slang dialect of to day george kelly an aspiring young playwright stands as an ex ample of those using slang in a play his show-off is an interesting piece hut though only two or three years lj d is fading into oblivion because the signage of the play is dying zat's so an other current head-liner done in patter is doomed to a sure and harsh death at an early date slang mr eaton said is utterly ephemeral and fades and passes herein is contained the main idea mr eaton had in conveying this message — that language to be remem bered must be good language the speaker concluded his remarks only too soon for the listeners by advising all who are interested in the language to see sheridan's play the school for scandal former head of english school lectures here compares english and american school systems montague j kendall former head master of winchester school pre sented the third of the fenton lec tures on wednesday january 20 at townsend hall dr rendall's subject was a con trast or comparison of the english and american public school systems he said the title public school is a lust and proper term in both instances but it stands for a different thing in ach case the english public school does not take one cent of money from the public funds and is so-called be cause of its intimate connection with public service and because it is so closely associated with church and state the american system of course is so-called for an entirely dif ferent reason dr rendall illustrated his lecture with slides of winchester school win chester is the oldest of england's pub lic schools having been founded by william of wickham in 1394 eton college was founded 50 years later by a head-master of winchester eton is the second oldest public school in england and is nearly as rich in tra ditions as the mother school an interesting difference is the usual absence of bugbear examinations in the english schools when boys enter winchester many of them pass their college entrance exams at that time thus the rest of the time spent in school can lie devoted to learning for its own sake in this instance england must be acknowledged super ior dr rendall spoke to an appreciative audience his subject is one which always appeals to students and the general public dean macdonald at seaside convention dean macdonald took a very inter esting trip to atlantic city she was a delegate at a convention held there for the purpose of comparing all the different happenings on all the uni versity campi in america the name of the organization is north atlantic section of the american association of university women the dean made a report on the buffalo branch of the association the purpose of the convention was to find out what is being done by each branch an interesting feature of the convention was presented by certain representatives who gave bird's-eye views of novel experiments on each particular campus another feature was round table conferences dr lilli skonhoft a noted nor wegian who is a member of the couu cil spoke on sunday which concluded the convention professor sine tells story of 0 henry's life large audience learns secret of author's genius 0 henry — entertainer and artist was the subject of the faculty lec ture given by professor edward w sine at the grosvenor library tues day afternoon january 19 professor sine's lecture was one of the most pleasing of the series and was at tended by an unusually large audience 0 henry's life and fame were lik ened to the couplet although his sins were scarlet his books were read he early began the training which made his short stories so famous later on while attending a small school conducted by his aunt there was a custom of each week developing a story the story would be started and then developed by the pupils doubtless the choicest of the lot were 0 henry's later on he worked in his uncle's drug store in greensborough north carolina and as many of the villagers collected there to gossip and tell tales he gained much material a gift for drawing cartoons appeared then and it is possible that 0 henry might have become a popular cartoonist he was sent to texas by his family and there he collected material and also was accused of misappropriating money of the bank for which he worked a crime of which he was not guilty 0 henry was a true type of south ern gentleman chivalrous but very sensitive he feared not the convic tion but the ordeal of the trial and finally ran away to escape it he went to new orleans first staying long enough to get the atmosphere of the place enough to use in his writings then to honduras where he met the jennings brothers who chartered a tramp steamer and toured several south american towns where 0 henry gained material for writing cabbages and kings hearing that his wife was very ill he returned sur rendered for trial and was sentenced to five years in federal prison there he was appointed drug clerk the tragedy of o henry's life brought out all of his skill for it was in prison that he began writing and developed a market for his work he had served on papers in texas and knew what the public wanted he knew that the world needs more sym pathy and it was his desire to make the four hundred step into the shoes of the four million he was a genius in treading on all fixed rules of writing and establish ing rules so good that others tried to follow them his stories have effect snap dash and go with nothing un desirable 0 henry was interested in com mon humanity and queer people to him were interesting people like charles lamb he was friendly with the people left over in life he tried to make people understandable and succeeded menorah society the next meeting of the menorah society of the university of buffalo will be held on sunday afternoon february 7 at 3:00 o'clock it is hoped that mr hurwitz national chancellor of the society will be present to address the members everyone is invited to attend blues lose in alien seas but win in home battle both debate teams now preparing for next endeavors constitutional amendment against child labor mew topic lile question to be most widely de oated in the next semester is that of curing the evil of child labour through constitutional amendment doth men's and women's teams are now preparing it for their not far dis tant struggles the women will de bate it with syracuse elmira and st lawrence the men with syrause hobart pittsburgh and wyoming whose team is to make an eastern lour in april the first engagement is late in february when pittsburgh comes to buffalo who will defend the negative of the proposition that the pending federal child labour amend ment should be ratified this meet ing will mark a resumption of rela tions between pittsburgh and buf falo — relations which bid fair to be continued through the next and fol lowing years , wyoming is to be met in early april when buffalo will defend the affirma tive side of the same question wyom ing promises to be an opponent in deed formidable having in the last four years won forty-five out of fifty four debates in competition with the leading colleges in nebraska iowa indiana illinois kansas colorado idaho washington utah california and west virginia and which is per haps even more noteworthy in com petition with teams from canada and england the rise of buffalo's pres tige in debating may be indicated by our engagement of so strong an op ponent hobart is an older rival than any of the other three and syracuse in that the meet with them is to occur so soon after their defeat by us ful ly iiuite as keen it is unfortunate that there are no more veteran de baters out but it is also reassuring that among the new ones are some of real ability and power of whom hu bert nagel and morris opler might be mentioned prominently with these seconded by brownstein and others the university ought to make a cred itable showing art powell still in critical state at buffalo general mid years provide rest period for team sans coach the varsity traveled to rochester on january 15 19l>6 to take oil the team from the dead city contrary to expectations the fine record of our coys was spoiled by an unexpected ueatiug to the tune of 33 — so buffalo uad defeated several teams who held victories over rochester but the change of atmosphere destroyed the play of the bulls and a fine lacing was received by the varsity rochester was primed for buffalo and had a night on they caged the ball from all angles and were ahead all the way for buffalo harrington was the star while in the rochester camp was a true luminary of the con test in the person of curtain who rang up five baskets for his night's work an alibi is always poor sports manship but it is only fair to the team to say that the illness of art powell the coach was a big handi cap art is now in the general hos pital critically ill but is expected to recover the following night the team con tinued their trip to hamilton where they opposed the colgate team it was expected that the game would he played on the new gym floor but the building was not completed and the contest was played on the tiny floor of the old gym this together with art's absence was sufficient to bring defeat and the boys took another trim ming 33—24 hal kennedy of former masten fame was the big gun for colgate while bob harrington did more than his share for buffalo i-ist wednesday january 20 1926 the varsity jumped back into the win column by decisively trouncing nia gara 37—22 niagara was rough and crude and the refereeing spoiled any good play they might have shown the varsity was not pressed and sank every shot that came their way ed ylanguso with 11 points was high scorer while harrington threw 4 bas kets for his 8 points the brilliant passing of the syra cuse game was lacking but with the boys sinking the long ones no cri tism can be found however if they start missing those there won't be much left individual play is fine when the shots go in but when they rim the basket it looks bad and spells defeat art powell was still absent but de spite this file boys carried on luck ily no games come now till february 5 1926 so a breathing spell is at hand and will give the boys a chance to hit those old midyears for a loop harvard astronomer will lecture here on friday evening prof harlow shapley director of the harvard observatories will lec ture in buffalo under the auspices of the ruffalo society of natural sci ences on friday february 5 at 8:15 o'clock the lecture will take place at hutchinson high school and is ipi'ii to the public no admission charges the subject of prof shapley's lec ture is the wonders of space and time prof shapley is a distinguished astronomer and holds a high place in his profession prof shapley was in buffalo last year luring the time of the solar eclipse and worked with dr moore of the arts college in making photo graphs of the phenomenon dr moore recommends the speaker very highly and suggests that the lec ture will lie of general as well as technical interest dr riegel lectures before french club at the last meeting of le cercle francais held on thursday evening january 14 at the grosvenor library the french enthusiasts listened to a delightful illustrated lecture by dr itiegel on strasbourg et metz miss mabel schoepflin pleased the group with two piano selections the hungarian rhapsodic and chopin's waltz in d flat the meeting closed with a short informal discussion the president of this organization mr william cook announced that at the next meeting scheduled for feb ruary 11 student talent will hold sway ibeiaeiaisisib/sisisiaisisjaiamsiaiajajsisjaiafsi i notice during the mid-years in the s arts college there will be no m publication of the bee the j next issue of the bee will b therefore appear on friday s february 12 ibibiaiamsmaiaisfaiajsmajama/a/ajaisraiaisibi