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CAMPUS MIRROR
3
Bessie Helena Mavle
On Friday evening. January 6. at eight
o’clock, in Howe Memorial Hall, the mu
sic department of Spelman College pre
sented Miss Bessie Mayle, Spelman
alumna, in a song recital. Miss Mayle,
who is a lyric soprano, was accompanied
by Miss Dorothy Ellor.
Group One was devoted entirely to the
classic works of Mozart, of w'hich the
first number was Ah! Lo So! followed by
the brilliant Alleluia. The Aria Dein Bin
Ich, Ja Dein Auj Eivig concluded this
group. The violin obligato to this num
ber was played by Mr. Drew Days.
Following this group, Mr. Days as as
sisting artist, played the lovely Serenade
Du Tsigane by Valdez.
M iss Mayle returned to present songs
of a later era—initiating the third group
with the Fete Galantes by Hahn. Two
works by Strauss constituted the remain
der of this group. They were Nachtgang
and Schlagende Herzen, both possessing
a love theme and most sympathetically
rendered by Miss Mayle. As an encore
she sang An Old Spanish Song.
The Spelman College Glee Club ap
peared to sing Snowflakes by Cowen.
They returned to sing the number again
as an encore.
The fifth and last group was composed
of four numbers, the first of which was
The Little Shepherd’s Song (XIII Cen
tury) by Winter Watts. The second num
ber was Spring Had Come With All Its
Splendor by Coleridge-Taylor. Walk
W ith Me by William Rhodes was next,
and as an encore after this, Miss Mayle
sang Jesus But His Head in the Window
by Flail Johnson. The concluding num
ber was Honor, Honor, also by Hall John
son. M iss Mayle returned several times
to the stage to acknowledge the enthusi
astic applause engendered by her clear
lyric soprano voice which is also pos
sessed with a round, warm quality of
tone.
Miss Mayle created a charming picture
gowned in a black dinner dress, cut on
straight lines that flared at the knee, with
full sleeves and a cowl neckline. With
this costume Miss Mayle used a gold
sequin belt, scarlet handkerchief and
matching jewelry.
Dinner Party
Eunice Freeman, ’39
Mrs. Flora G. Willis entertained her
girls at a Christmas Dinner, December
21. 1938, in the guest dining room of
Morgan Hall. The table was beautifully
decorated with a bouquet of rosebuds, and
holiday colors. There were roses for fa
vors. Guests of honor were Dean Lyons
and Miss Anne Ruttkay. After dinner
the hostess presented each girl with a gift.
The student guests were: Thelma Bufford,
Eunice Freeman, Eula Jones. Ira Wallace,
Fiffie Harris, and \nnie Rowland. All
declared it a delightful affair.
End of the Underground
Railway
A report on two noted eases, namely:
1. The Robert Sims case.
2. The Anthony Burns case.
Georgia M. Oswell, ”40
The question of slavery in this country
was finally settled on the battlefields of
the Civil War. With the abolition of the
institution came the end of the necessity
for the Underground Railway. It had
done a remarkable work, and it had done
this work in opposition to the law of the
land as embodied in the Fugitive Slave
Laws of 1793 and 1850. The results of
this curious invisible system showed, as
has been shown many times, that a law
repugnant to the sensibilities of one sec
tion of the nation may be and probably
will be successfully flouted, at least in
that section, by enraged and aroused pub
lic opinion.
The two laws noted above did produce
violence in the North in several outbreaks
against the Federal officers who had come
to this part of the country (my home is
in Worcester, Mass.) to enforce the hated
law. To he sure these officials had behind
them the whole force of the United States
government, but in few cases were they
successful. One of the most famous of
these cases was that of Anthony Burns,
in Boston, although the case of Thomas
Sims made an almost equally profound
sensation at nearly the same time.
There had been formed in Boston, soon
after the passage of the Fugitive Slave
Law of 1850, a Vigilance Committee,
whose purpose was to render all possible
assistance to runaway slaves. Of this
committee, Thomas Wentworth Higgin-
son, pastor of the Free Church in Wor
cester, was a member. Sims had been ar
rested as a fugitive slave. A meeting of
the Vigilance Committee was called, and
measures were taken to release Sims from
his captors. He had been confined in the
old courthouse in Court Square. The
plan involved the purchase of a number
of mattresses, which were to be placed
below the third-story window of the room
in which Sims was confined. Sims was to
drop out of the window upon the mat
tresses; a carriage was to be waiting, and
the fugitive was to be spirited away to
safety. Unfortunately the authorities got
wind of the plot, and strong iron bars
were placed across the window of the
room, thus preventing the escape.
The Anthony Burns affair was much
more serious. It occurred in May. 1854,
three years after Sims had been returned
to captivity. Burns was a fugitive slave
from Virginia. He had escaped some time
before, had settled in Boston, and was
employed by a clothing dealer in Brattle
Street. He had written to In'- brother in
Virginia, and had sent his letter by way
of Canada. But all letters to slaves were
opened by their masters. Burns’ retreat
was discovered; officers of the Federal
Spelman College Exhibits
Dance Photographs
A new and interesting exhibit w r as
sponsored by Spelman College January
8-14 in the Atlanta University Exhibi
tion Gallery. It was a showing of con
temporary dance photographs.
In recent years there has been a wide
spread interest in the dance as an ex-
pressional art form, and colleges and uni
versities have joined with the contem
porary professional dancers in an attempt
to bring the dance to a larger audience.
These photographs on view were col
lected by the department of the dance at
New York University from schools offer
ing special courses in the creative dance.
Included in the collection are photo
graphs of the Hampton Institute and the
Spelman College dance groups. There
are also photographs of the work of the
four leading exponents of the modern
dance—Martha Graham, Charles Weid-
man. Doris Humphrey, and Hayna Holm.
government came to Boston, arrested
Burns, and imprisoned him in an upper
room in the courthouse. A mass meeting
was called in Faneuil Hall, and plans
were formulated for a rescue.
News of the attempt at rescue was cir
culated throughout the town, and when
the handful of men interested in the res
cue reached the courthouse a considerable
crowd had gathered. Nevertheless, a
beam was secured, and the door of the
courthouse was forced. Mr. Higginson
and a free Negro sprang inside but were
immediately attacked by several police
men who were on guard inside the build
ing. In the resulting melee a deputy mar
shal was killed, by whom it w T as never dis
covered. The attempt failed and Burns
was marched through the streets of Bos
ton, guarded by United States troops. He
was placed on a United States revenue
cutter and carried back to Virginia. For
years the day on which this event took
place was known as Black Friday.
Mr. Higginson and others who were
known to have participated in the attempt
at rescue were summoned into court, hut
through some flaw in the indictment were
never brought to trial. Ultimately the
slaveowners and the Federal authorities
came to the conclusion that it was better
to let the runaways remain in the North
or in Canada rather than risk the danger
and the expense of attempting to recover
them.
With the coming of the Civil War and
the ending of slavery in this country for
ever, the Underground Railway passed
out of existence. It had had a remarkable
career, had aided thousands of slaves to
escape, and it had shown the difficulty of
enforcing a law, municipal, state, or Fed
eral. if public opinion is against it.