PAGE SIX
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1940.
The Kansan Comments-year that Thanksgiving would be celebrated week earlier than the date which the calendar makers had been led to expect, a great hue and may arose from interested parties.
EDITORIALS
BOOKS★
PATTER★
Congratulations
THE Oklahoma board of regents has appointed Joseph A. Brandt president of the University of Oklahoma.
Brandt will succeed Dr. W. B. Bizzell whose designation is effective Aug. 1. President Brandt, or rangy, (our own Chancellor is over 6 feet) sed-haired man, won a Rhodes scholarship and while at Oxford earned three degrees. He enred newspaper work on his return to the United States and became city editor of the pulaa Tribune.
Mr. Brandt's appointment is remarkably similar to the action of the Kansas Board of Regents two years ago, when they chose Deane W. Malott to head the University of Kansas.
President Brandt follows an effective administration. The people of Oklahoma have every right to expect that with his splendid record, he will be a great credit to the state and in inspiration to the students of Oklahoma University. Congratulations!
President Brandt is 41 years old; Chancellor alotl was 42 at the time of his appointment. Both are considered young for the high offices they hold.
Brandt is Oklahoma's first alumnus to return as president of his alma mater; Malott has the same distinction here.
In his undergraduate days, Brandt was editor of the Oklahoma Daily, student newspaper at Oklahoma University; Malott took his major in the department of journalism here and was a member of the Kansan Board.
Both Joseph Brandt and Deane Malott were graduated from their respective schools in the same year—1921.
WHEN President Roosevelt proclaimed last
Unity at Home
Governors of many states, including Kansas, refused to accept the President's proclaimed hate (which they had a perfect legal right to do) on the grounds that it would be historically incorrect.
Thirty-two states will celebrate Thanksgiving on November 21, this year, the date proclaimed by President Roosevelt. Sixteen states will celebrate on November 28, the last Thursday in the month. Among the states which cling to the "last Thursday" date are South Carolina and Tennessee, always strongly Democratic. This would indicate that the objection to the shifting of the date is not political but arises from a strong respect for tradition.
But is it? An examination of history shows that the first Thanksgiving was proclaimed by Governor Bradford of Massachusetts to celebrate the first harvest of that colony. The exact date of this holiday is not recorded. Later Thanksgivings were observed in celebration after drought-breaking rains, or after good harvests.
The practice of setting aside a day for giving thanks was taken up in all of the New England colonies and these days were observed whenever proclaimed by the Governor, usually following the harvest. The days were not always observed every year. The first national Thanksgiving days were proclaimed after the Revolutionary War.
In 1830 New York state decided to make the festive day an annual celebration. President Lincoln in 1864 fixed the date of Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday in November. All of the states accepted this day, but later came to observe the last Thursday in November.
LETTERS★
This tradition, however, stems from no definite event that would give particular significance to the date of its observance, Independence Day (4th of July), or Armistice Day are celebrated every year on the same day because the event which they commemorate happened on that day.
Thanksgiving day, however, has always been an arbitrary date. It was set by the Governors or proclaimed by the Presidents on any date which best suited the convenience of the majority of the people. President Roosevelt has decided that Novehmber 21 is a better day to celebrate Thanksgiving than November 28, and the majority of the states in the union agree with him. Why shouldn't Kansas and the fifteen other dissenting states follow the democratic practice of accepting the decision of the majority and celebrate Thanksgiving with the rest of the nation?
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Student Paper of
THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Lawrence, Kansas
Subscription rates, in advance, $3.00 per year, $1.75 per semester. Published at Lawrence, Kansas, daily during the school week, and published as second matter September 17, 1910, at the post office at Lawrence, Kansas, under the Act of March 5, 1879.
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS OFFICIAL BULLETIN
Vol. 38 Tuesday, Nov. 19, 1940 No. 47
Notices due at Chancellor's office at 3 p.m. on day before publication during the week, and at 11 a.m. on Saturday for Sunday issue.
---
GRADUATE CLUB: The Graduate Club will meet this evening at 7 o'clock in room 113 Frank Strong Hall. The topic for the evening will be "Color Does It."—Edith Borden, publicity chairman.
JAY JANES: Jay Janes will meet at 4:30 in the Pine room of the Union building tomorrow.—Ruth Spencer, president.
KAPPA BETA: Kappa Beta meets this evening at 6:30 in Myers hall. The speakers is Mrs. A. J. Mix.
-Lois Worrel, president.
PORTUGUESE: A course in Elementary Portuguese will be offered next semester, provided at least fifteen students indicate their interest in advance. Since it is necessary to prepare the second semester schedules by the end of this month, students are requested to leave their names in my office (115 Frank Strong Hall) before November 28. The course will be Portuguese 70, for three hours credit, and will be taught by Professor Osma. Prerequisite, ten hours of Spanish. Since the course is a junior-senior course, sophomores must petition if they want to take it—W H. Shoemaker.
NOTICE TO SENIORS: Seniors graduating in February can now make appointments for physical examinations at Watkins Memorial Hospital.—Ralph I Canutson.
QUILL CLUB: Feoh rune of the American College Quill Club will meet at 7:30 Thursday evening in the Pine room.-Mary Elizabeth Evans, chancellor.
W. S.G.A. TEA: There will be a W.S.G.A. tea for all University women tomorrow from 3 to 5 in the lounge of Frank Strong hall.—Jean Klusman, social chairman.
SIGMA XI: Dr. A. J. Mix of the Botany department will give an illustrated lecture tonight on "The Genus Taphrina", at Blake Hall, at 7:30 o'clock.-W. H. Schoeve.
THETH E SIGMA PHI: There will be a meeting of Theta Sigma Phi at 3:30 Wednesday, November 20, in the sky parlor of the Journalism building—Polly Gowans. secretary.
TAU SIGMA: There will be a Tau Sigma meeting this evening at 7:30.-Carolyn Green.
NOTICES★
Alumna's Letter---
Tells of Nazi Bombs
Near American Embassy
Tales of Nazi bombings on London seem more real to remote mid-westerners when related to them by an eye-witness, especially when that eye-witness is a former Jayhawker.
In a letter to E. M. Hopkins, retired professor of English, Mrs. H. W. Head, the former Ethel Frances Nowlin, who was a student here from 1918-20, gives a realistic account of a bombing which nearly took her life.
Mrs. Head has been connected with the American Embassy in London for several years.
From her temporary home at Coworth Park in North Sunningdale, Berkshire. Mrs. Head wrote:
"It was the morning of Friday the 13th, at 3:30. I was in bed sleeping when four bombs fell nearby. A high explosive bomb tore away the back part of a picture house 20 yards from where I was. One incendiary bomb fell on a post office across from my front window, and another set the gas main in the street afire. The fourth made a large crater in the street and slightly damaged the far corner of our building.
"It was a tremendous shock, for when the high explosive bomb struck is sounded as if the house were coming down on top of me. There was a crashing, tearing sound as steel girders were twisted like bits of string and large pieces of masonry were hurled in all directions.
"I rushed out into the hall and found others congregated there. We sat about until dawn waiting to see what else would happen. There was some talk of perhaps having to evacuate the building if the fire spread. This did not happen as the air raid wardens and fire brigade were on the spot at once. The fire which leaped up from the broken gas main was still burning when I went to work that morning at nine.
"We're all wondering how the election will go and betting on Roosevelt getting in again. If so, I hope that will mean more help for Britain. It would make Americans rise up in arms if they could see what Hitler is doing to London—so many old churches hit — St. Paul's among them."
"After that I never slept in Chelsea again. The Embassy had been lent a big country house by Dord Derby, and they opened it up for the employees at the Embassy. Now 22 of us are living here."
ROCK CHALK TALK
By REGINALD BUXTON
TUESD
BEING a wag or a wit is one of the most difficult of all tasks, as any wag or with will tell you if he's really honest. So just to help those who have chosen funniness for a hobby we're going to fill up this space with advice to the witty.
One of the most recent and sure-fire gags is one that doesn't involve too much practice. You walk into a cafe and sit down. Stay there for some time—long enough to eat two or three meals—and then walk out as though you were trying to beat the check.
The cashier will undoubtedly hail you in a tough voice so you just sidle over to the desk with a leer on your face. This gets her mad so she bawls you out in front of everyone. This draws a bigger crowd and you're ready to give her the works. You ask for a piece of paper and then write down "1004180" (hope the proof-reader is on his toes. This calls for accuracy). The cashier doesn't know it but you have just pulled her leg. With great gusts of laughter you explain to her that you have written "I owe nothing for I ate nothing." Killing, isn't it? Pull that a few times and news of you will get around. . .
... And then if you are really hard up for something to make you popular go to some very nice sorority party where all are conducting themselves like gentlemen and ladies. They are not expecting anything out of the ordinary except a good, quiet, enjoyable evening. This is where the surprise element, as expounded in one of Max Eastman's pleasant but heavy essays, comes in. You don't act like a gentleman. In fact, you act like Steinbeck's Casey On a Bat. You leer at women; blow your boozy breath into the faces of all the lovely pledges and rushes (the latter are there to be impressed); dance and, or, stagger about like a ship without a rudder; and, finally, (this will floor you) look tough and threaten all the good-natured stags there. In summation, make yourself as obnoxious as possible. You're out to be different, aren't you? The result will be a first class paradox: there will be a few persons who won't know you afterwards and there will be a few persons who will want to know you. Think this over thoroughly before going into it, though, or otherwise you are likely to wake up feeling like an awful heel—which you are but such is the fruit of fame, or infamy, as it were ...
Now one of the most unusual wags we know is a fellow who asserts his originality by walking around nonchalantly during the dinner hour with his plate balanced on one hand, nibbling daintily with the other, and all the while bursting in on other dinners with bon mots of the 19th century. When he reaches the meat of the joke—the nub, in the humorists' parlance—he goes off into maniacal fits of laughter. Of course, his mouth is invariably filled with partially masticated potatoes, succotash, or whatever Penchard of Brick's has on the Special. But up to the present writing this particular wag has cracked precisely 9,879 Sour Owl caliber jokes and never lost a calory. It takes a good man to do that. . .
Conf?
(?) My d
bered.
the wa
After:
critic c
say ho
music,
fellow
I ha
against
to an a
auditor
The
this W.
anthe G
b sor
chestras
forman
so they
The then tren contrik the gr e the "A they w overly tor. Th ubim "My S
---
The
Come
"Judas
George
momere
are ab
the car
HEI