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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.