UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THEATRE VARSITY
TONIGHT ONLY
A Thos. H. Ince Production,
"THE MORAL FABRIC"
5 Parts
With Frank Mills, Howard Hickman and Edith Reeves.
Tomorrow—Carlyle Blackwell in
"THE SHADOW OF DOUBT"
Also a two-reel Comedy.
SHAKESPEAR POPULAR
Students in Colleges and Universities Should Know Him Better
MONTH'S WORK EXTENSIVE
Many Have Celebrated The Memorial Season
The school and college are the natural conservators of Shakespearean culture says Richard Burton of the University of Minnesota in a recent issue of the Bellman. In them, if anywhere, folk in the formative period should get sufficient acquaintance with the master expressionist of the big playwright, which shall be fed and fostered into a habit of later life. This is a great responsibility, all the greater because, in the United States, it is not shared by the home. In the right sort of home, of course, there should be such co-operation with institutions of learning—a horrid phrase—in this matter of making the young familiar with the poet-dramatistic attitude toward him, that the business of school and college and university would be mostly supplementary and more definitely directive than stimulative.
But we cannot assume the right sort of home in America. The hordes of young people who come to our "seats of learning," so called to them, sit down leisurely in them to sit down leisurely to do anything, are simply barbarians in respect of literary training and aptitude, and Shakespeare to them is a great name only in the sense that he is a great man or an incubus of examination tests.
HARD TO TEACH APPECIATION
The school and college, therefore, have the hard job of leading the young up to grace with regard to an appraisal of life in the poet-dramatist, reveler of the human heart, might master of life and letters. And this article essays another hard job: to ask in a spirit of sweet reasonableness, What is being accomplished? And to answer it in the interests of education, of Shakespeare, of truth, of St. Bernardius himself has told us will, though cognious to earth, rise again.
Let us begin with a burst of honesty, and say that offerer the teacher of literature, with mighty searchings of heart, wonders if all his attempts to awaken love for the so-called classics of literature will yield success. It is positively astonishing how many mature people one meets who declare with every appearance of sincerity, and not infrequently with heat, that to this day the mere mention of Milton or Shakespeare sicken them and only receive praise for their attraction offered by those hours was carefully eliminated by the misdirected efforts of some wise Ph. D. to elucidate the mysteries. The plain truth is that the greatest poet of the race is so associated in many minds with dull linguistic exercises, with contempt and beauty that a chief enjoyment of post-scholastic or post-academic years lies in the fact that you need never touch him or go near him again. I am not exaggerating at all. Delherrately do I assert myself for a writer like Shakespeare because of the way he has been presented in the days of schooling, early or late.
DUE TO TEACHING METHODS
The reason for this deplorable result is of somewhat complex nature. In the first place, it is due as likely as not to the fact that he is a man and that he is so muddy a medium as to obscure the shining virtues of his subject,—perhaps obliterate them totally. Why, in heaven's name, should you expect the young person to warm up to a writer of whom he hears from a professor with a squeaky voice and a dry, restricted personality whose interest in the subject lasts longer than the latter is an excuse for the airing of philological knowledge? A comprehensive, interpretive treatment of Shakespeare, and by this I mean that which gives a clear general view of his plays and a generous, rapid reading of a sufficient number of them to show the various aspects of his power, is much more often. More often, the study is confined to a play or so, or even to one, in the interests of that fetish "intensive study"; and the progress is so crabble, tortuous, that all sense of unity is lost, and the
teacher drones along, stopping an unconceiving time at one scene. By the time the drama has been waded in, the audience is reached, interest has died still-born somewhere in the first act. The study is regarded as less drama than letters, and less letters than language; thematic value is the last thing considered.
SHOULD READ OR STAGE PLAY
The teacher may not have the slightest idea of what the dramatic really is, and there is a probability he quite lacks the ability to convey drama well. He is often limited by the amount of dramatic expression—but what of that? He has a Ph.D., and all is well. Our false academic ideals have so discouraged what is most valuable and precious in the understanding of Shakespeare (and of all literature) in this lesson. He must be a vital, warm reading of a play straight through—of all methods the one surest to win admiration for the poet-playwright and implant a permanent love for him in the human heart—would be looked at askance by the merely reeling attention, in fact, horrible dicta, as one nothing more than an elocationist. And yet, if in school and college, and especially in the latter, real interpreters of the play were to read them, show them as living organisms, as units of art, if the great writer was interested in how it should then so discussed as to relate them to the dramas were presented by the students on a stage. I venture to say that all thus instructed would go into life genuine friends of the dramas were presented merely knowing that he ought to be in their library, but caught often with his books in hand. Instead, he is killed for them by those twin nuances, pedantry and pedagogy: the former, a misplaced parade of useless learning, the latter, a foolish assumption; the former, the latter, substituted in teaching for the only thing of real moment—personality in the teacher.
TEXT BOOKS STIFLE THE POET
Accessory to this crime of stifling Shakespeare is the textbook. The eager commercial instincts of publishers are responsible for the majority of all such manuals, which, so far from helping the appreciation of the master, distort his true image and create an erroneous impression of him. He glosses, irrelevant and trifling facts are foot-noted, and instead of inspiration, information rules supreme. In books of the kind for school use, the integrity of the page is ruined by placing alleged helps in the way of notes at the bottom of the page, and masterizing words in the body of the text in order that you may know that light awaits you below! Of course, any synthetic enjoyment of poetry is out of the question under such circumstances. There are just two things you can accomplish, so pull so should be expected to do: commit suicide, or, and better, murder the instructor.
As a generalization, textbooks cumber the earth; and as to those who make them, such manuals are the refuge of second-class minds. The honourable exceptions are as few as hens' teeth.
ARE GRADES RESPONSABLE
Have you ever tried to or two myself, I take a special, naive and vicious pleasure in making the statement. Let one who is partieces criminis say it: Shakespeare has been well-nigh edited out of existence. But furthermore, I believe that, back of me as an adult, I have serious question whether literature should be taught in such a way as to associate it with tasks and tests; with the mechanism of marks and the mental forcing-house of examinations?
ARE GRADES RESPONSIBLE
A writer like Shakespeare is for joy, stimulation, or he is not hard. And how can the mood for the appreciation of poetry be produced if the study be shaped toward the one inflexible goat, who cannot answer? So to conduct what should be a delightful indoctrination in life expressed in terms of power and beauty is to use Shakespeare for a base, utilitarian end, and in all likelihood to inhibit the good which might have caused him. The pupil reads some great passage because he must, perhaps commits it to memory because he must, or uses a dictionary to look up the etymological history of the words it includes—again because he must. But the student is uninteresting and unimportant facts, promptly and gleefully to be forgotten the next day—when he
should have been trembling with Hamlet at the ghost's advent, or weeping with Cordelia over the body of Lear, or agow with the gallant love-making of Orlando in the leafy cottage, and to see, this losing the forest for the leaves, this putting the cart before the horse, this substitution of jejune and meaningless intellectualism for the charm of music, the thrill of situations, the sense of fun and struggle. A newspaper boy in the top gallery can get much of what Shakespeare offers as he follows with intense interest the trial of Shylock, where a college class of young men, equipped with all the skills they must be and submerged in a library of criticism, miss anything entirely.
A BRIGHTER DAY IS DAWNING
Shakespeare is for the masses just as truly as the classes; he applauds an application to the school class gives a fresh meaning to the words. At times, I am almost inclined to feel that it would be better if all formal literary study were confined to good writers who were below the greatest, leaving the confessed masters untainted by the cheap headwork and unilluminated paving of medicine. Talks he makes, the principles acquired in this fashion, let the pupil be then turned on to Shakespeare, to browse at his own sweet will; not driven to liking a thing, but allowed to find out for himself, and take the initiative in so doing. That largely explains the anemic nature of much literary teaching—the teacher does not know of waving kind), the scholar not enough. Exaggeration in all this? Maybe a little; but exaggeration is but the italics of argument, if you please.
A BRIGHTER DAY IS DAWNING
There is a brighter side to which I turn from these rather lugubrious reflections, glad to present it; it often is lugubrious to tell the truth about anything! A change for the better in the teaching of literature in general and of Shakespeare in particular has begun. For one thing, there is more sympathy to the text, with vital real elements than the text, either by the regular instructor, or by some trained person who is brought in from outside for the purpose. The difference between elocation and interpretation is coming to be understood.
Again, Shakespeare is now in wideawake institutions coming to be appreciated, not only as a poet and thinker, but as an Elizabethan playwright; and his poetry is studied as drama, best to be enjoyed when it is frankly approached as such. In this attitude he draws from this attitude the pupil is having it suggested to him that he should lose no opportunity to see a Shakespeare play acted in a theater, thereby supplementing the analytical process of the classroom with that free and happy contact with an author who did not make plays to be read primarily, as is proved by his indifference to publication, but to be played too often or poorly that the very boy plays something played.
Closely connected with this encouragement to attend the playhouse, and to get into touch with Shakespeare as he really is, may be found the teacher's habit of helping the student in school and college to act in Shakespearean productions, and so penetrate into the innermost secret of the bard's power and passion; with indentification in this way with his characters, his thought and feeling expressed in action and scene, is ten times greater than that any possible analytic, intellectual work that may be done with him. In good schools all over the land now, no year is let pass without some such participation of teachers and students in Shakespeare production; and no self-respecting college student may be left through its English department, fails to regard such Shakespeare attention as a serious and important part of its literary activity.
TERCENTENARY MAY BE GOOD
It would be appalling to give performances over the country in this memorial month in Shakespeare annals. It is conceivable that, in an explainable reaction from too little Shakespeare in this practical way, we shall have him too much. But that the residuum of good will be decided, through the popularization of the post-dramatist, there can be no reasonable doubt. it will lead to first-hand contact, vital co-operation, and the path of life as the past has not shown. Personally, I look hopefully forward to a day not far distant when visiting interperters of Shakespeare will be recognized, regular part of Shakespeare culture as provided for school and college. After the more intellectual labor of the classroom, such persons will come like a waft of spring to breathe on the bones of analysis and make the instruction desert blossom like the rose of Sharon. And if a pupil be called on from his seat to read Hamlet's soliloquy, he will not approach the task in the spirit of a galley slave, and speak the lines as if he were afraid to let his lips come into contact with them, but chant them, sing them, pass them might before was Hamlet in the play, or Horatio, or Laertes, and so can understand the situation.
TERCENTENARY MAY DO GOOD
during the present Tercentenary Celebration of Shakespeare, however crude the attempts hither and yon to reproduce something of the glamour and grace of this master stage-poeet, it all has one supreme merit; it is the ability to put himself in putting him where he belongs, in the theatre, instead of chaining him to the instructor's desk and asking thousands on thousands of young people to seize the fact that three hundred years ago William Shakespeare, the best playwright and to get inspiration from it, not by committing to memory the dates of his birth and death, but by witnessing his mighty dramas, playing in them, and so getting into their blood as well as their brain the music of his message and the magic of his vision. The playwright should restore him to the democratic masses; it is the right way also to vitalize sim in school and college.
MAY FAMILIARIZE SHAKEPEARE
Whatever mistakes may be made
The Title of the Geology Song is Old, But So Is the Study
BRING IT BACK TO ME
W. H. TWENHOFEL
Near the mouth of the Elba river off the coast of Germany is the Island of Helgoland. Through the attack of waves this island is gradually being washed away, having decreased from a circumference of one hundred and thirty miles in the water to 600. Upon this geological fact the Geology Society of America has built the song which follows:
The Germans once bought them an isk-
"RING RACK"
They called the place "Helioland," but the island waddened into the ocean. But the people of Helioland
CHORUS
Bring back, bring back,
Bring back, help Ireland to me,
Bring back, bring back,
Oh, bring back my island to me.
"OH GLOBORUS GELOGY"
In student days when fancy free,
Globorus lets you meet meters to the growing earth
Sans trouble, care, and fuss;
Another song for which the geologist
wrote, "I bear the title 'Oh Glorious Geology'
'Oh Glorious Geology'."
But now, alas, we work so hard
We've studied and we've wrote,
To place our names upon the scroll
Of scientists of note.
Oh for geology -ology -ology -oh!
Glorious -iology -ology -ology -oh!
Geology -iology -ology -ology -oh!
Oh! Oh! for the early days of man
Pree-Pleiscene at least;
The only theories current then
be the heart, or the beast;
Our heads were small, but our arm
were strong
And our belles were like a vat;
And no such thing did then occur
As talking through your hat.
Oh, the differentiation of
Sub-crystal magma tanks,
or the abyssal assimilation
Of their own retaining banks;
Give us a pain—but oh, the ache!
That comes to us for fair.
When we try to stope off fragments
of salic braitainre.
K. U. MINERS FIRST TO HAVE NATIONAL AFFILIATION
Some eight years ago, C.M. Young, then Associate Professor of Mining, having an enquiring turn of mind, began to ask himself, and Professor Haworth, why the miners should not have a society connected with the American Institute of Mining Engineers, on the same plan that other engineering societies were organized at K. U. Professor Haworth echoing the sentiment of "Why not?" Professor Young, him a mentor, corresponded with the proper authorities of the institute and obtained their concurrence in the plan. The result was that the idea of having affiliated student societies of the A. I. M. E. was adopted in the latter organization.
The K. U, student society was the first affiliated society to be organized in the world. It was organized with membership compulsory on upper classmen. Since then the membership extinct, except for phoromores. Officers are elected yearly.
The scheme was widely and favor-
able commented on in the mining
press.
The plan inaugurated here has spread widely and rapidly, all the mining schools of the country of any prominence having affiliated societies. They report their proceedings. The committee is E. M. E., and the committee in charge of this branch of the latter's activities gets these reports together in the form of
a bulletin and sends a copy to every member society.
This plan has been the means of much improvement in, and cooperations, as well as putting the men in touch with the biggest organization of mining engineers in the country, several years before they would orchard their own land, in contact with it. Which in itself is an enormous advantage to a student about to start out in his life work, when that work is mining.
Moreover, this organization is the means of getting many men noted in the mining world to address the students on live questions of the profession. Students and faculty men also address the society. Open discussion follows the reading of a paper.
The officers are; president, L. E. cole; vice president, L. E. Fisk; secretas, S. F. Kelly. Meetings are held every Wednesday at 4:30 in Haworth Hall. Twice a month they meet in conjunction with the Geology club. Non-attendance results in non-graduation.
There was a young man from the West
Who loved a young lady with zest
And when he did press her
To make her say, "Yes Sir"
He broke the cigars in his vest.
There was a young man from Chicago
Wanted to see a buzz-saw go.
He got his face
Too near to the place
And the doctor said: "Where did his law go?"
PRICE OF HAIR CUTS
RAISED IN KANSAS CITY
The barber shops in Kansas City have decided to raise the price of haircuts to thirty-five cents. The action is based upon the claim that soap, hair restorer and laundry work have risen in price lately. Some students who have their hair cut when they make a trip to the city are speculating the new price will last as long as it did in Lawrence.
Sigma Tau, the honorary engineering fraternity, had a smoker at the Pi Upsilon house Tuesday evening.
Isn't good life insurance, properly handled, attractive enough in itself without being overdrawn?
L. S.Broughly
This is an Age of Co-operation
One often hears—"Community Building"—"Pull Together"—"Civic Loyalty"—
But few know the real meaning of the words.
They deal concretely in dollars and cents.
For an admirable example of co-operation—business-like, hearty pulling together with a real vision—take the four issues of the University Daily Kansan last week.
Realizing that the men on the paper were exerting special effort to send the visiting editors away from Lawrence in good spirits and with a kindly feeling towards the town and the University, Lawrence merchants doubled up on their advertising.
They did not expect to invest three dollars on any certain day and have the whole town flocking to their store the following day to buy them out. They saw into the future. They realized that a little money spent for the good-will of an editor would mean that he would say some kind thing about Lawrence and K. U. They knew that a few kind words in this connection might bring ten students—or maybe a couple of families—to Lawrence next year or the year following.
A certain amount of the advertising in the Kansan is "good-will" advertising. But the fact that the most reputable firms in the United States spend thousands annually in like manner is sufficient proof that it pays in dollars and cents.
And the increase in advertising in the University Daily Kansan is sufficient proof that Lawrence business men look on the paper as a good medium.