Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

Page Two THE MERCER CLUSTER December 16,1921 The Mercer Cluster Published weekly by the students of the fourteen schools and colleges in the Mercer University System. George M. Sparks, Managing Editor . The Cluster Staff: C. J. Broome, Editor-in-Chief; Robert if. Gullible, A. B, Cochran, W. K. Wynne, John P, Rabun, Edwin S. 'Davis, E. C. Hulsey, John C, Vincent, C. F. Brusington, Associate Editors; Romeo B. Morris, Circulation Mana ger, H. II; Ware, Jr.; Assistant. Subscription Rates, one year, $1.50. Advertising rates oh request. HOME AND BACK Every man who leaves Mercer to spend the Christmas, holidays at homo should form a strong resolu tion to return to college promptly at the opening of the winter term. It is of high importance , that no man of -our . student body should quit school at this'time. ft is true that a great number of men are finding it increasingly hard to meet their financial obligations, and many cuilnot meet them at .all. But now is the time for the hard,- ' pressed man financially to" show tire stuff he is made of. Any man can’ go ,to college"when ‘'(lad", foots the-bill, and when money is easy to get, but ■ it takes a man with lots of sand to stay in' school,'when the “panic" is »n; and money, is difficult to get. Fellows, you cannot afford to Stay out of college after Christmas. When onee you stop, it ,'vyili bo ten •times harder to start again, arid if' you ever , come back, you . will be behind , your class, - ami -face .a. discouraging situation. • Let us all come, back to Mercer for the winter term ready to take Up our studies, ready to help out in the Greater Mercer, program, ready to show ourselves, as having the" grit to 's' iek until we got'our diplomas. , CHRISTMAS licly celebrated in ancient times. 'St. Nicholas was supposed to have lived about 300 A. D. In Germany his feast is still observed. ' The yule log was another event in tile Christmas celebrations. A great fog of wood was brought into the ■house ..with, great-ceremony on Christ- was Eve, laid in the fireplace and lighted with the brand of last year’s fog. While it lasted there was great drinking; singing and telling of tales. Generally the only light in the house ■was the light from the blaze of this log. The log wus. to burn all night; if it went out, it wus considered a sign'of ill luck that would govern the. ensuing year. . .There hus also developed the cus tom of giving your best friends pres ents-of various kinds, at the Christ mas season. However, outside of the .l'eutqiiie. countries, Christinas pres ents are unknown, In many coun tries, where this custom is unknown, tile exchange of presents takes place •on other dates, notably on. the first .day in 'the year, but in most -.coun- tries -Christmas has superseded ull other dates us a day of rejoicing and n.uking gifts. THIS CHRISTMAS By A. B. Cochran Karl F. Brusington Hid you know that the 25th of De cember is not Christ’s birthday ? Christmas day is the day on which the birth Of Christ, is celebrated, but if is almost certain that this day was not in December for this is ..the rainy season in*.Judea, and shepherds could hardly be watching ’ their flocks by night in- the plains at that time. ■ The earliest identijicafon of. the 25th of December with the birthday of Christ is in it passage of Theophi- lus of Antioch, preserved in Latin by the Magdburg.ccnturjutorji.’ The next mention of this date is in Hippolytus’ commentary on Danjel. .There were, however, many ^pecu lations as to this date. The uuthor. of a Latin tract, written in Africa, puts the date oft March-ZS,- The Sy rians .and Armenians clung to the Oth qf January. . ... ‘ As a Whole the Christians Hold De cember 25th as • the anniversary of the birth," of Jesus. -The Chinese on the same dato: celebate tile birth of Buddha while numerous Indian tribes keep the Yuletide as a religious fes tival.. Persia' honors the, birth of Mithras at this season. The first certain traces of the Christmas festival are found abopt the time of. the Emperor Comnfodus .(180-192 A: D.). The birth was cele brated Jyj May, April and January by the early. Christians. During the • Christmas season at the present time carols ure sung in commemoration of the sorigs of the angels to the shepherds at the na tivity. These beautiful songs were at first manger-songs, telling the story 6f Christ’s birth.. : The - Christmas tree with all its hanging toys was a . custom borrowed from the Romans; and'is told about by the poet. Vergil. Now the visit of Santa Claus bearing gifts to the children is a corrupt con- 1 traction of . St (Nicholas, the patron saint of children. The old custom was to celebrate the'6th of,, December, the birthday of this saint, by distributing gifts to the "good children.” The nearness of this date to .the Christ mas festival, caused the two to be come confused and .now fhe visit of Santa Claus has been transferred to Christmas. In Catholic countries St. Nicholas is .especially the patron'of the young and particularly of schol ars. In England his feast was pub- Tliis Christmas, three years ago, the present administration of Mercer, c. diversity ended its first term of work', its faeulty at- that time num- oeriiig eighteen, but at present nuro- oiiqng tilty-on'e professors'. With Dr. ffulus ,VV. Weaver as'president, this laeulty composes one of the strongest - ,)1 any Southern university, in addi- aon to the many changes toward a Greater Mercer.- since 1918 one of the most outstanding is that passed, by .lie present Georgia Baptist, C'onven- uon in session at. Savannah, which recommends that Mercer University oe selected for the site of a great theological' seminary as a memorial • ailing for live' millions of dollars to oe expended. President Weaver has put forth every effort during the .past ,three years toward tile realization of his vu,xt dream of a ' Greater Mercer," which is rapidly taking form every day. This great plan wus tnude pos sible • largely through' the support of the Southern’ Baptist in the form of flic Seventy-five Million Campaign, which gives to Mercer the largo sum of ohe-half million dollars towurd the new seminary to. be erected here in the neat future. In- place of a sixty-two acre cam pus threo years ugo there is now one hundred acres covered, dotted with buildings, and one of the s niost : mod ern athletic fields,' Alumni Field, in the South. This field was begun largely under the. instruction of Dr. W: G. -Lee; another .Mercer man, who fiu's done muih toward Mercer’s growth. The three newest .and most Modern buildings, on the eiimpus ure the president’s mansion, the faculty apartment ,and the large dining hull which will accommodate six hundred students. A [urge number , of large private - residences ; have • been pur chased by the university and turned into up-to-date 1 dormitories for stu dents. • ' These,.new dormitories Had to .be built in order- to accommodate the large increase of students which lias Vapidly, increased during the past tinea years. In U)'l8 there were only 300 students in the university and only . eighteen 'frame buildings for student?.'whereas now there ure over ■500 students and thirty-one frame buildings, chiefly used by the married students. •, The curricjilus df Mercef Univer-. sity hns been raised much .higher since-the Christmas of 1918 and in stead’ of the, three Schools of Arts and' Science, Law, and Pre-Med., there .are now .eight which includes in addition to the above three, those of Commerce, Christianity, Educa tion, Journalism, arid Pre-Engineer ing. AH of theke schools ire making great progress and it is the belief that each will, be larger next year, which will mean, the breaking of the record of the largest enrollment ob tained this year. Each school is rais ing its standard of requirement each- year'and'the deans of each depart ment are realizing and overcoming the needs' of their schools with! the able co-operation, of' President Weaver, The' Mercer Cluster, Weekly publi cation' of the .University System, is run chiefly by the students of the School oil! Journalism and is man aged by the (publicity director of the university, Mr. .George Sparks. This weekly is putting out a better paper eueh year and is now t considered as one of tile best of the college papers of any college.. ’ Since 1918 .M erect has succeeded in entering the athletic world onee more and under the.-direction of her two couches, Cody and TIPS AND TAPS By Bob Gamble We Almost Got Married Standing Four Feet From the Groom Well,. We're back again. ' Yep, got back Tuesday sometime - after- the Cohen she ■' train left .'where we got on. Course lias brought to I herself, honor this >'»« know ’where we’ve been, but in year as well' tus last in this phase of *■’»»«' >’«“ recollect, will say the college activity. The football season Ci.lyumist was’ a groomsman was indeed a success and though seV- [ wedding Tuesday, thut same wedding oral games were lost the foundation we’Vc • been writing about for some- ha s been formed and.next year 'prom- time. ises to be the greatest in its history. I We are now reudy to announce our it .is believed that in the next two or wedding plans. But first, we will tell three years Mercer will put. qut .teams I >’°u. about the. wedding down in every phase of athletics that will he worthy .of entering contests with those of the- largest. colleges and universities of the South as well us some of the North. j Mofcor’s- .financial situation is in deed, the brightest in its'history and instead of. an indebtedness of $240,- Sehley county Tuesday lust. '•.Firstj. they almost had to. call off the wedding, because the other. day when wjb had on our green suit which we were plunnihg to huve dyed blue for the wedding, we were gonna get on the street car coming down a hill. That was our plu'n. The inotorman 000 in 1918 she now .owes nothing 1 suw ds and sorter slowed down his and in--addition has increased her en- trolley but just as we -went to step downient from $529,4-16 to that Of up on the step, the car lungftfyfor- $799,252; her- equipment from $40,- 1 ward and dragged us about thirty 000 to $80,000 and her total assets yards on the pavement, that is, from $773,422 to that of $1.‘507,7?9,! dragged us on the pavement whut With the -backing of the Southern time we were not on our knees! Well, Baptists as she now has, Mercer ! to make a long story short, as we University has one of, the brightest; would like to- have made the'distance if not the brightest futures of. any ( Wt ’ slid on our knees thinly clad in university in. the .South. WORK AHEAD green trousers, we finally , pulled our self into the cur which never did stop but went faster. When we got on an qua!' footing with the conductor, r ! who hadn't seen us, the human cash Mrrcyr is now,completing the first ],register turned around and said - just l-ip of the 'race to get the new U.ieo- aB nonchalantly to us: " ’ • . . logical seminary; Some Mercer sup-1 "Why, hello there, Sergeant, where porters seem to think that the mat-1 | laN c , y„ u b,een?" - ■ ter lias already bex'-n decided, but '. , )f „U the nerve! He couldn’t there is .yet a long rqail to travel- be-j f ua ze iis, though, cause we came right, fore, we cun call the seminary our ' bat k at him. with lots -of zip and told j him that we had been trying to'get Mercer's'chances are bright, if all ,, ur , lf an ,| ()U r green' suit off the Mercer men but work at the job with hard pavement’ and into his trolley enthusiasm und determination, But ear -for about' forty yards and ten course we hod to stand in the receiv ing line to receive the folk* who came to receive whatever we. had to offer in the way of ice cream, etc. Well, no, that isn’t exactly what they came for, but that’s, what they got the "etc.” consisting of pretty iced cakes, nut cocktail—that is, it wasn’t 1 nut on the halfshell—and lots of other things. Many Hands to Hold We sho' do like to be*in receiving lines, cause wc ain’t never held so many girls’ hands at one standing in all our life, that is, in public. Of course you understand. And they all said they were glad to meet us, or, •‘How are you?” or. something like that. After much tete a tote and ice cream and punch, which everybody {rank, cherries and all, the reception was pronounced a grand success and everybody dispersed for the night. That is, everybody except the grooms men, and they had to hang around and keep the glia’ hands from getting cold. We . always did have warm hands and so that was just^our style, We would have held hands with a girl if wc hadn’t been so shy; that is, if we, hadn’t had both hands occupied already, generous all over, that's us, Cupid.'_ • ,' The wedding was qujte a success, due, of course, to the groomsmen, one of whom we were which and tallest. The wedding march was played, ami ,>f' course we started down the aisle during the prelude, which We .should not have. But we just acted like we were catching step or something and finally got -in time, that is, our left root, went down when our right foot lUghtcr, which was pretty good for jft, being so tall and so far from our b.rajn to our feet. We weren’t a hit nervous. Wc were too scared to. he nervous. Knees Do the Shimmy Finally, we reached the 'Stopping place up neur the front of the church, about three miles from where, started keeping incorrect time with the march. When we got there, w (topped, at least we-didn’t take any more steps, but our knees jazzed back and forth, in circles, in squ nrt *s and intermittently, doing everything but keep time with the music. Wc-knew that jazz was out of place in church, hut we.couldn’t any more control the wigwagging of our knees than we could that of. our head, which quiv cred in harmony, ut least, ..with our knees. We weren’t scared, oh, no. It was just the indecision of our knees which ■ worried us and made it see that we were nervous or something, Two or Three months later it all over'ani! the prettiest maidwulkvd ut with the .relieved groomsman us, and that walk was the best of all We got to. the train, kissed the bride and WANTED to kiss the maids, but ouldn’t, ’cause they' didn’t have any belter half, to toll ’em that it, would be iiH right, even for just one' little one. And' ou,r heart went- pit-a-pat Wedding- I’luns Announced „ It’s all over now and we gladly we-should remember that the hardest minutes. He couldn’t kid us! That’s part',.of the way is yet to be goone tbl . kind of feller we are; Well, we over. It is the Southern Baptist looked at our. green coat anti vest Convention that will decide as t-° i w hD-Ji were all present and accounted whore the, new institution, is to. be f,, r j bu j when we looked ut our green located, und also as to whether or trousers—Horrors!, there, wasn't any not the seminary will- be joined 'with green where the knee should have a university. ThCse weighty prob- bt . t . n and our'knee looked like a por- lems are both, very much undecided' teYhpUije Steak, all raw and cut up yet, and Mercer- must not be over- j an j everything. Still; we weren’t confident, . 1 1 fe'uzed but just sorter embarrassed, Therefore it is fitting that every RO W e showed the conductor how in Mercer man, student, alumnus, and dependent we were when we got off friend, should continue td do all pos- {he ear and went back home to sible in the way of convincing the change our clothes.. - - Unconcerned, Baptists of the South that Mercer is tjiat’s *us all over, Cupid the logical place for both the theo logical seminary and the proposed Greater Southern . University; Mer cer’s. uppeal for the institution is based on reason, on principles of economy, ami on ft desire for - the highest good for the whole Southern - Baptist constituency'. .All together ‘ now for. the consum mation of the' plans' so glorioiisly de veloped thus far. While we’re deciding whether to sue the street car company for $7,500 or- a pair of green trousers and bottle pf new skin, weT% tell you about the wedding which wc got to after wc had our green suit mended .with a few blades of Bermuda grass. Did Well in Rehearsal Wo- went to the rehearsal - Monday night at the Methodist'church. What do you think of that? ; We, - Presby terian by birth and Baptist by asso- wedding in • .There are worse things than en- thusiasin, and the visionary j^Uon." taking'in'. „„ * ... deserves respect for his disinterested the Methodi8t church i CosmopoliUn, zeal. Even, if hts judgment be Pp® r , that , 8 us al) over> Cupid, he is worthier of respect than the, Th< , rehearsa| went ofT .Height; at hard-head, whose, ideas are sound >ut I ^ th ^ toW M it ^ We ^ 80 who is too selfish to take the trouble b thinking about the pretty maid to propagate them.-ljoss, Sociologst whp ^ arn> we> ag . groomsman, — ’ 7 were -going to hold going out of the* Church, that we didn’t ■ think about anything else, even the rehearsal. And you know, we didn’t even get nervous; that is, before the wedding, Course they had a reception and of ' In Engliah Clasa.—Prof.: “Whnt. do you know about Fielding?” Stude.: “Nothing much. I wns always a pitcher on the team when ever I played.”—The Orphan. announce .our own wedding plans as follows: ' "Tips and Taps announce that due to stage fright in Ellaville, Ga., No vember 29, the" wedding of their chaperon, Bob, is everlastingly, post- poneil unless, a set of blind, deaf artd dumb witnesses, attendants, preach and so forth can be located to look on, listen and comment during thf ceremony.” . ’ TO A FAIR WOMAN John Milton Samples O loveliest creature of . beauty and grace, The work of the Master Hand, As Comely of form as' fgir of fae' The fairest of all the land. Modest and sweet and gentle and kind, With smiles and tears united By affection’s golden chain confined. With eyes' Imvc’s torch has lighted- I. marvel at all the charms I - see ■ To which God made you heir, Then gave them.ail to' me with yds Thehr wondrous wealth to share 1 gaze in admiration long, ’.Where love: and beauty dwell, I listen to your voice in song, . And see your bosom’s swell. My heart acknowledges^ your power To soothe and charm and cheer, When gloom’s dark clouds above • lower, I speak with * heart sincere.