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University Daily Kansan Thursday, Feb. 7, 1963
Road to Fame Is Here
Kansans are missing a tremendous opportunity to make a name for their state.
It is so simple and so obvious that it never before has been considered. The key is the state bird. Kansas may know what their state bird is, but people outside the state do not. Kansas should have a symbol that would catch the public fancy and bring the state its rightful fame.
JUST CONSIDER WHAT would happen if the ostrich were designated as the official Kansas state bird. Kansas would be hailed across the nation for its appropriate choice.
Since some Kansans are aware only of the zoo variety, they might protest that the ostrich is not a native of their state. Granted the North American ostrich, Kansas variety, is difficult to distinguish from an ordinary homo sapiens. First glance reveals no outward differences. Only through careful observation of his habits and conversations can the true Kansas ostrich be singled out from the homo sapiens scattered among the flock.
HOWEVER, THERE ARE some places where the Kansas ostrich can be observed in his natural habitat with little difficulty. Those with particular interest in ostrich-watching should go to the state legislature, where they can find outstanding examples of the North American ostrich as well as a wealth of evidence that there are many more throughout the state.
Last Tuesday was an exceptionally good day for ostrich-watchers at the capitol. Senators Lamb and Wunsch were there in person with lists of fellow Kansas ostriches and ample evidence that they are true members of the species.
The able senators each presented two petitions protesting the passage of any bill authorizing the sale of liquor by the drink in Kansas. It seems that the nasty old state hotel commission
wants to push through legislation authorizing the sale of liquor by the drink in restaurants with 30 or more booths.
JUST THINK OF the shame of it all! Liquor would be sold right out where all could see, not just in key clubs and veterans' and fraternal organizations and bars, whose owners know the right people.
After all, the best way to control drinking is to hide it. It does not have to be hidden very well—just trading the word private for public somewhere in the name of the club solves the problem.
THIS IS THE TELLTALE clue that always reveals the North American ostrich. And the Kansas variety is by far the most refined. It does not need any sand to stick its head into. It needs only to write some words on a piece of paper. The evolutionary advances made by some creatures are really amazing.
It is really very simple. Anything that cannot be seen does not exist. And by carefully looking only in the right places, Kansans will not see anything that they do not want to exist.
If only the ostrich were adopted as the official symbol of Kansas, the anonymity that has plagued the state could be abolished forever.
Kansans venturing out into the civilized world would no longer have to be embarrassed by puzzled expressions when they tell outsiders they are from Kansas. With the ostrich as its symbol, Kansas would be well-known by all. Kansans then could mention their home state casually and watch the gleam of recognition preceding the neals of laughter.
"I know where Kansas is," the outsider would say after he had calmed himself, "that's where all those American ostriches live."
—Dennis Branstiter
Liquor Laws: Kansas Farce
"Awright, closing time," a bar maid in a nearby Kansas town called out over the noise of a juke box. As she pulled down the window blinds in the tavern, beer drinkers guzzled their last glass-fuls for the evening and prepared to leave.
It was midnight. All over the state scenes similar to the one above were repeated in tavern after tavern.
That's the law in Kansas.
BUT SOME TAVERNS vary this closing procedure somewhat. After pulling out the juke box plug the bar maid opened the front door. Most of the occupants left—then she locked the front door and opened the back room for the remaining customers.
There were no beer taps in the back room. Instead, a small bar was lined with what legislators call "intoxicating liquors." There were also slot machines, a dice table, and a poker table with a woman dealer.
THE KANSAS ATTORNEY general's office has had to wrestle with liquor complaints ever since the sale of liquor by the drink was banned by the state constitution. Threats and raids by state liquor agents have controlled the increase of violations, but they have been unable to stamp them out.
Business had reopened. But instead of the front door leading to the street, a back door which led into an alley admitted trade. Between midnight and 1 a.m. business began booming again.
Now a senator from Emporia has introduced a resolution into law anyway. Even though the law bans drinks by the shot, everyone from the town wine-o to the city court judge has somewhere he can go to buy a drink in many Kansas towns.
The Kansas liquor situation hardly reflects observance of the the Kansas Senate to repeal the constitutional ban.
A payoff to the police insures the tavern owner of a telephone call before each raid. Sheriffs turn their heads to liquor activity at veterans' and fraternal organizations because their vote determines whether the sheriff keeps his job.
THE LITTLE MAN enjoys his vice in the back rooms of midnight taverns. Merchants drink at local veterans' clubs. And the executive set enjoys its after-dinner cards and liquor at private fraternal organizations.
IT'S JUST HUMAN nature to gamble and drink regardless of the law.
So why fight it? You won't win.
Byron Klapper
Letters Block Seating
Terry Murphy's editorial (Feb. 5) regarding the book store and the student council was well taken, although a bit premature. If he had waited a few days he could have included the entertainment and ticket policy of the Student Council.
After a full semester I was beginning to wonder what my activity card was for, except to cash checks or check books. Finally some "name" talent in the form of the Smothers Brothers is brought in. The timing was awkward though as there seems to be a scarcity of tickets, and these in the second balcony. Evidently all the tickets were bought before going on sale by a "Mr. Block." I wish someone would advise me who he is so I could join his club or change my name to block—as in ticket, not head.
Roger Alberty
Olathe special student
***
Sorority Rush
Editor:
Despite laudatory articles in the Lawrence Journal-World which approach the excesses of the panegyric, and despite the journalistic use of euphremism which labels little girls "women," some of us doubt the utility of the sorority system in a university which aspires to excellence. The recent sorority rush brought to mind the words of the eminent British historian, C. Delisle Burns:
"In barbarism . . . all the members of the community are as far as possible alike in opinions, tastes, occupations, and interests. Society is homogeneous. Established custom and belief control daily life and prevent variation. One man, or one caste of magicians or lords, provides the rules for thought and action. And therefore even in civilized communities the simplicity of barbarism has an attraction for minds weakened by personal distress or confused by social unrest.
Edward Coomes Kansas City, Mo., graduate student
By Thomas Coleman
Instructor of Drawing and Painting ABOUT PRINTS. by William Stanley Hayter (Oxford, $12.50)
Stanley William Hayter at 61 is the acknowledged dean of modern printmakers. Even among the sizeable number of printmakers and collectors who see his greatest influence upon printmaking as having taken place a decade or two ago, there is agreement that no one has had a more far-reaching influence upon the making of modern original prints.
From Hayter's Atelier 17 in Paris in the early thirties there has come a steady stream of skilled and imaginative printmakers to carry his approaches to printmaking around the world. Atelier 17 has been established variously in France, England and the United States in the years since, so that today what might be called a third generation of printmakers works under the stimulus of Hayter and his students.
"ABOUT PRINTS" IS A GENERAL SUMMARY of the print-making situation today rather than an explanation of Hayter's own ideas on technique, as appeared in his first book, "New Ways of Gravure." As Hayter states, this is not a "recipe" book, but one for the layman, the beginning collector, and one who wants to know about modern prints and the circumstances under which they are made. It should take its place beside William Ivins Jr.'s "How Prints Look" as a basic introductory work on prints and print collecting.
The print is taken from its origins in the autographic mark through the relief print and into the modern approaches to intaglio, relief and planographic printmaking. Hayter's account is wonderful reading, but for a book of this price lacks the numerous photographs which are necessary to visualize differences in intaglio effects.
For instance, in his explanation of the spatial contexts that are given to lines or white areas which appear to be above, upon, and below the print surface, he does not provide the close-up photographs which would make this important feature of modern prints immediately clear. In choosing reproductions he has selected prints by both the famous and the little-known to illustrate the great victory of prints, rather than offer a cross-section. Many will naturally find his choices more interesting technically than artistically.
TO EXPLAIN THE SOURCES OF MODERN printmaking Hayter discusses the relation of artist and printmaker to workshop and printer, tracing the progress and decline of independent printmaking studios, and analyzing the situation in Europe and the United States, including the advantages and limitations of cooperative studios and university-based workshops.
The most interesting remarks are upon print selection and examination, and especially about the degrees of originality in prints, how to distinguish the original, and how prints are marketed. Original prints are placed in the categories of (1) the "major work," conceived first as a print and executed only in terms of the print; (2) the "Autograph," displaying for a ready market the print of the well-known artist and often demanded for the name it displays; (3) the reproduction of the artist's work in another medium, executed as a print by the artist and probably printed by another; (4) the reproduction of the artist's work by another craftsman, often signed by the artist but not executed by him; and (5) the good quality commercial reproduction, with which the artist has little or no direct connection.
FOR THAT EXPANDING AND INQUISITIVE group of amateur print collectors, this is the most informative section of the book, as it clears up to a large extent the confusion which faces the person confronted by an "original" print, bearing a known artist's name, signed either in pencil or in the print, and selling for what seems a reasonable price.
It is not Hayter's objective, however, to uncover the deception of the unknowing buyer but rather to point out the differences in prints and how they are produced. He admits that it is "difficult to find a common measure between the value of a print as a work of art and its demand and sale at any given moment." It is, rather, the appeal of the print to the spectator and the feeling of the viewer for the print, regardless of rarity or authorship, that Hayter desires to make the criteria for selection.
Hayter mentions ways of detecting originals, and discusses print collections and their value in showing fine work for relatively little cost.
"About Prints" is thoroughly enjoyable reading for anyone desiring to know more about prints, or anyone wishing to graduate from the dollar reproduction to originals. That is not to say that reading will equip one as a connoisseur of prints, but combined with study of the originals, such as are in the fine print collections of the KU Museum of Art, one can be introduced to a rewarding experience.
Dailüj Fransan
University of Kansas student newspaper
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