Newspaper Page Text
Campus Mirror
Published During the College Year by the Students of Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia
Vol. XXII FEBRUARY, 1946 No. 5
A Thought For
St. Valentine’s Day
Charlie McNeill, ’46
One of the special features of the year
is St. Valentine’s Day, which is observed
by sending appropriate sentiments and
greetings. This has been a tradition dat
ing from at least the fourteenth century,
and probably earlier.
There are many accounts of the origin
of St. Valentine's Day, and one writer
has said that it is the survival of an old
Roman February feast called the Luper-
calia. On this occasion, young Romans
put into a box the names of young maid
ens, then drew the names by chance for
the coming Lupercalia Festival. This ac
count seems symbolical of the trend to
day, for we choose to send some token
of remembrance to our parents, friends
and especially our sweethearts.
Of the many expressions which I have
come upon, none speaks more beautifully
the thought of St. Valentine’s Day than
does Elizabeth Barrett Browing in her
Sonnets From The Portuguese:
How do I love thee? Let me count the
ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and
height.
My soul can reach, when feeling out of
sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle
light.
1 love thee freely, as men. strive for
Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from
Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood s
faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,— I love thee with
the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! and. if God
choose,
1 shall but love thee better after death.
“How jar that little candle throws its
beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty
world."
Anauta Visits Spelman
Ella Lett. ’46
On Tuesday morning, January 29th
we assembled in Howe Hall for one of
the most fascinating features of the year.
Anauta, a native of Baffinland, took us
to “Eskimo Land " to live as the Eskimos
do.
Our interest was first aroused by the
type of dress that the Eskimo women
wear. Anauta made her discussion of
the women’s dress very thorough as she
had only to point out the various features
of her own costume. She explained that
Eskimo women made all of their clothing
and quite a lot of pride and care they
took in making them, because the men
single out the girls with the prettiest
costumes to be their wives.
Anauta told something of the life of
the Eskimos, how they live in one snow
house (not ice as our geography books
tell us) for no longer than five days.
Since all Eskimos are hunters, men and
women, it is necessary for them to move
about so that they will be close to the
game. Perhaps the most sought animal
is the deer. This is true because the
deer supplies at least four valuable prod
ucts to the people: first, the deer skin
which produces the warmest clothing;
second, the meat which is used for food:
third, the bones make wonderful needles
with which the tiny colorful beads are
padded into intricate designs on the
clothes; and last, the sinews from the
deer’s legs from which is fashioned fine
but sturdy thread.
During the midwinter season, there is
no daylight at all for four months, An
auta told us. How do the Eskimos find
deer and seals in the constant darkness?.
In answer to this Anuta described the
phenomenon of the Northern Lights.
This is how it happens: the hunters
go to the area where the deer are believed
to be. and then quietly watch the soft
glow of the “Northern Lights'* in the sky,
until they see the light - shimmer faintly
At this point the hunters rush to the
place where they have noticed the shim
mering of the lights, and there they find
the deer, because the shimmering in the
lights was produced by the vibration of
an electric current from the deer s an
thers.
The Fourth Annual University
Center Convocation
Charlotte Arnold, ’46
The fourth Annual University Center
Convocation was held in Sisters Chapel
on January 27. 1946. Dr. Rufus E. Cle
ment, who presided at the convocation,
referred to it as “an outward symbol of
the thing we are doing here in Atlanta."
He went on to explain that the Univer
sity Center, made up of seven Negro
Colleges, has come to be recognized as
one of the most important centers of co
operation in education on this continent.
Miss Florence M. Read, president of
Spelman College, read the Scripture les
son and Dr. James P. Brawley, president
of Clark College, offered the prayer. An
inspiring address was delivered by Dr.
Benjamin E. Mays, president of More
house College.
Dr. Mays began by describing two
groups of people who are ever in con
flict. One group is made up of those
persons who are willing to work or fight
for their goals; the other, of lazy or timid
persons, those who sit back and say
“Certainly this should be done, but the
time is not right.”
Dr. Mays also talked to us of freedom.
He stated that the freedom that he re
ferred to was the kind that made it pos
sible for John Bunyan to sit in jail and
at the same time preach the gospel—or.
for Nehru to sit in jail and write a great
biography.
This “real freedom" cannot be ob
tained through an emancipation procla
mation, through education, nor even
through economic security. “Real free
dom,” the speaker said, “is of the
mind." No man can be free as long as
he debates the outcome of his actions.
Man must not fear to act when he knows
that he is right or, he will not be free
Dr. Mays concluded by quoting John
Oxenham’s beautiful poem, “To Every
Man There Openeth \ Way. and Ways,
and a Way . . ."
This impressive service also included
the following musical presentations:
Newo s Hear us. Oh Father, by the Clark
College Sextet: a spiritual. Sometimes I
Feel Like a Motherless Child, by John
Neilsen of Morris Brown College; and
Tschnesnokov s The \ngeTs Song, by the
\tlanta Morehouse Spelman Chorus.
Sh akespeake.
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