THlE MICHIGAN DAILY
CHIGAN DAILY
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ells, and Greta Garbos to the very much more
interesting Henry's, Napoleon's, Lenin's, Holy
Roman Emperors, or any of the others. Of
course it must be borne in mind that Henry was
a rouge of the first order, but then,.
There is a riotous comedy pornographically en-
titled "Not Tonight, Josephine." Paul Tompkins
is good.
AT THlE MAJESTIC
"ROMAN SCANDALS"
**MORE GALAXIES
OF YOUNG GIRLS
Eddie Cantor, the Jewish pun merchant with
the rolling eye-balls, was overrated by the re-
viewer in the J-Hop issue. He shouldn't have
gotten away with three stars for "Roman Scan-
dals." The Scandals are good musical fare, Eddie
sings several songs in a setting of Roman pois-
onings, orgies, and rose water baths, and for the
Cantor fans, there is no limit to its desirability.
As for others, it is OK to see after you have seen
Henry,
-G.M.W., Jr.
A .M - ~~~~~- ~- ~^ --- -
on the following supposition. There are certain
broad principles which dominate good drama,
and which must be followed for the most part
in order that a play may be a good one. Fur-
ther, any two critics with the same degree of
analytical skill will agree as to the detailed ele-
ments which compose a play. But whether those
details are "good things" or "bad things" is, in
many cases, a decision which depends on the
psychology of the individual critic.
In brief, a critic's general judgment on a play
is in most cases likely to be accurate; but whether
an individual component of that play is good or
bad must be determined by each playgoer. And
these detailed judgments may be influenced by
very trivial things: what did the gentleman have
for supper? was the lady's gown in the desired
condition when she donned it? what gossip has
the playgoer heard about the leading lady? or,
is the dramatist known to have a predilection for
garlic?
A reviewer whose mental angle is fairly sane
will consider, then, that he is acting as a guide
and not as a dictator. He may write with cer-
tainty, because he is certain of his own reactions;
but he will expect his readers to accept his de-
cisions cum a pretty bulky grano salis.
Published every morning except Monday during the
University year and Summer Session by the Board in
Control of Student Publications.
Member of the Western Conference Editorial Association
and the Big Ten News Service.
. ociatided daliEiate zs .
-= 1933NATIOI4t ) 1934
MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Associated Press is enclusively entitled to the use
for republication of all news dispathces credited to it or
not otherwise credited in this paper and the local news
published herein. All rights of republication of special
dispatches are reserved.
Entered at the lost Office at Ann Arbor, Michigan, as
second class matter. Special rate of postage granted by
Thir~d Assistant Postmaster-General.,
Subscription during summer by carrier, $1.00; by mail,
$1.50. During regular school year by carrier, $3.75; by
mail, $4.25.
Ofces: Student Publications Building, Maynard Street,
Ann Arbor, Michigan. Phone. 2-1214.
Representatives: College Publications Representatives,
Inc., 40 East Thirty-F'ourth Street, New York City; 80
Boylson Street, Boston; -612 North Michigan Avenue,
Chicago.
EDITORIAL S.TAFF.
Telephone 4925
MANAGING EDITOR..........THOMAS rK. CONNELLAN
CITY PEDITOR ........,.......BRACKLEY SHAW
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR.............C..HART' SCHAAF
SPORTS EDITOR............ ....,ALBERT H. NEWMAN
DRAMA EDITOR................JOHN W. PRITCHARD
WOMEN'S EbITOR.....................CAROL J. HANAN
NIGHT EDITORS: A. Ellis Ball, Ralph G. Coulter, William
G. Ferris, John C. Healey, George Van Vleck, Guy M.
Whipple, Jr.
SPORTS ASSISTANTS: Charles A. Baird, Arthur W. Car-
stens, Sidney Frankel, Roland L. Martin, Marjorie
Western.
WOMEN'S ASSISTANTS: Marjorie Beck, Eleanor Blum,
Lois Jotter, Marie Murphy, Margaret D. Phalan.
REPORTERS: C. Bradford Carpenter, Ogden G. Dwight,
Paul J. Elliott, Courtney A. Evans, Thomas E. Groehn,
John Kerr, Thomas H. Kleene, Richard E. Lorch, David
G. Macdonald, Joel P. Newman, Kenneth Parkor, Wil-
liam R. Reed, Robert S. Ruwitch, Robert J. St. Clair,
Arthur S. Settle, Marshall D. Silverman, Arthur M.
Taub.
Dorothy Gies,. Jean Hanmer, Florence Harper, Marie
Reid, Eleanor Johnson, Ruth Loebs, Josephine McLean,
Marjorie Morrison, Sally Place, Rosalie Resnick, Kathryn
Rietdyk, Jane Schneider.
BUSINESS STAFF
Teleplhone 2-1214
BUSINESS MANAGER ...........W. GRAFTON SHARP"
CREDIT MANAGER .. ......BERNARD E. SCHNACKE;
WOMEN'S BUSINESS MANAGER ... . . K
......... .... ...CATHARINEMC HENRY
DEPARTMENT MANAGERS: Local Advertising, Fred Herr
trick; Classified Advertising, Russell Read; Advertising
Contracts, Jack Bellamy; Advertising Service, Robert
Ward; Accounts, Allen Knuusi; Circulation, Jack Ef-
roynson.-
ASSISTANTS: Meigs Bartmess, Van Dunakin, Milton Kra-
mer, John Ogden, Bernard Rosenthal, Joe Rothbard,t
James Scott, David Winkworth.
Jane Bassett, Virginia Bell, Mary Bursley, Peggy Cady,
Virginia Cluff, Patricia Daly, Genevieve Field, Louise
Florez, Doris Gimmy, Betty Greve, Billie Griffiths, Janet
Jackson, Louise Krause, Barbara Morgan, Margaret1
Mustard, Betty SiIonds.
NIGHT EDITOR: GUY M. Wy]HIPPLE, JR.
I
Student Health.
HEALTH HAZARDS
OF HELL WEEK
"HELL-WEEK" will soon commence again in
some of our fraternities. This "week," tra-
ditiorially and obviously appropriately named!,
comes in a winter season in which we have this
year a steadily increasing number of severe
"colds" with a special selectivity of the bronchial
tubes and lungs. These complications in the
lungs we have already noted in recent months
with a marked and sudden increase of pneumonia.
The same type of infection of the nose and
throat passages persists at the present time, and
we have had five more cases of bronchopneu-
monia admitted to the Infirmary recently.
The Health Service has not heretofore made
any official comments on the so-called "hell-week"
and its special activities. We have, however, been
interrogated directly and indirectly regarding
casualties assumed to be caused by these activi-
ties. Therefore, officially for the first time we de-
sire to criticize certain phases of "hell-week" and
ask for their discontinuation in order that certain
students may not be predisposed to serious illness.
One phase which we criticize is "The Trip" or
"Trips" that pledges are called upon to make at
night to nearby towns, villages, and hamlets,
sometimes to "nowhere"! Of course, they walk
and are asked to execute errands most of which
usually keep them out all night. It is said that
some have been found next morning sleeping in
a convenient farmer's corn-crib, etc! We have
found that these "Trips" cause extraordinary
hardship, exposure to extreme cold temperatures,
severe fatigue, etc., all of which predispose the
pledge to acute illness - severe colds. Thus, some
of the unfortunates wind up in the Infirmary in-
stead of at the festive board of the formal initia-
tion banquet.
Severe respiratory infections and the sudden in-
creasing incidence of pneumonia (with its in-
creased mortality) is by no means localized to
Ann Arbor. Reports from many localities about
this and adjoining states indicate that the preva-
lence of pneumonia this winter is widespread.
This article, then, is directed against a particu-
lar initiation activity, namely, "The Trip," in
order to prevent a fatal illness befalling some
pledge. Those houses which persist in this prac-
tice, or similar practices fraught with the same
anticipated hardship, will receive our most severe
criticism.
While we do not wish to be extreme in pro-
testing against initiation practices, the occasional
injuries of a mechanical nature suggest that more
reason is required in the amount of physical vio-
lence to which students are subjected.
Some fraternities have sent their pledges here
for an examination prior to initiation. We have
never been quite sure whether these requests grow
out of a desire to protect the initiate or to add
another item of annoyance or anxiety. We have
feared that a statement of health would be taken
as a license for going the limit with the boy. We
do not encourage such examinations and issue
only the regular health card relative to activities
of which the University approves.
J-Hop And
irman Singleton.
- 0
About Books
DAYS WITHOUT END, By Eugene O'Neill: Ran-
dom House (1934), $2.50.-A Review.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Professor Campbell wrote this
review for The Daily shortly before his departure for
California to engage in literary studies,
By OSCAR JAMES CAMPBELL
EUGENE O'NEILL'S latest play, "Days Without
End" has completely bewildered most of the
critics. The course of his genius has always been
unpredictable. That is one reason for believing
him an authentic creative artist; but this time he
has not only surprised, he has baffled. This mod-
ern miracle play is, in brief, the spiritual history
of a soul who, having turned away from God, has
sought hopelessly in the various "isms" of the
contemporary world for a faith that would bring
him peace and happiness. Half hating and half
fearing the Christian beliefs of his youth, he sins
not through passion but deliberately and de-
fiantly, first by committing adultery and then by
attempting murder.
The subjective essence of the plot is revealed
by having the personality of John Loving split
into two parts, each played by a different actor.
One is the earnest striving seeking self; the other
is the evil mocking self - the part that has sinned
and is damned. Stanley Ridges, who plays this
role in the Theatre Guild, production of the play,
wears a mask, the face of which is twisted into
an expression of cruel cynicism. He is not seen
by the other characters, though often he speaks
for the visible self, to the latter's surprise and an-
noyance and to the irritated confusion of his in-
terlocutors. The most interesting and most moving
scenes in the play are those in which the two
parts of John Loving debate with each other. The
crisis is such an excited colloquy when John kneels
before a figure of Christ on the cross and his alter
ego stands behind him resisting every effort of the
soul to surrender itself to God. At last when
John quotes the lines "Thou art the Ressurection
and the Life, and he that believeth in the love, his
love shall never die," the devilish self reconizes
that he has been conquered and "slumps to the
floor, dead." Then John ends the play with this
line:
"Life laughs with God's love again,
Life laughs with God's love."
This speech may recapitulate the course of the
entire play, but it is verbally and poetically inade-
quate for so exalted a moment. This is an example
of a serious blemish in the drama that most of
the critics have noted. Throughout the action,
O'Neill has failed to write in language of high
enough imaginative ecstasy or even of enough
poetic intensity to communicate the emotions
which the action is designed to evoke. Many of
the great moments fall a little flat and leave one
with a feeling of emptiness, of a spiritual void
dark and amorphous.
In the history of the author's career this "mir-
acle play" assumes an important part. His earlier
works displayed men and women as mournful
waifs in a hostile universe. At the end of Mourn-
ing Becomes Electra Lavinia shuts herself up with
her memories in the old colonial mansion. That
is, the soul turns to itself to discover what mean-
ings and satisfactions it can find, in meditation.
In "Days Without End" the soul emerges, to be
driven by the Hound of Heaven, past atheism,
socialism, communism, past the mysticism of the
East, even past the best that philosophy offers,
back to the altar of God in the Holy Catholic
Church.
Collegiate Observer
By BUD BERNARD
Final examination boners have always had
a peculiar fascination for me, and the follow-
ing beauties, authentic University of Oregon
creations, seem particularly meritorious:
"The sailors were singing merrily as they
toiled at their wenches."
"A virgin forest is a place which the hand
of man has never sullied."
* **
At the University of Maryland it is a custom
that freshmen shall not wear tuxedoes or full
dress. The rule originally was made in order
to spare freshmen the expense of purchasing for-
mal evening wear.
* * *
A story from the University of Indiana
campus tells us that a boy at that institu-
tion calls his co-ed "heart dissipation," be-
cause she is beginning to tell on him.
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T HE campus hat is off to Phil Sin-
gleton and his committee for their
ccessful J-Hop.
Through his and their efforts the lowest price
recent years was attained, and an attendance
rger even than that of last year was attracted.
ecorations and orchestras were on a par with
e high standard of J-Hop tradition.
The dance went over the top financially.
The best indication of the success of an event
this kind is the enjoyment it provides .its
trons; the praise of those who attended this
ar's hop attests to its high quality.
A personal tribute to Chairman Singleton must
added. Work for the hop comes at the most
convenient time possible - just before and dur-
exams. Yet Phil breezed through with five A's
d a B. And to cap the climax, when ,the roll
s called in his Monday morning eight o'clock
sterday, he was among those present.
We could do with more Singletons.
Screen Reflections
AT THE MICHIGAN
"THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII"
-*gg AN AMOROUS AND FAT
KING WELL DEPICTED
Very weighty, six-foot four-inch Henry VIII,
e amorous Bluebeard who ruled the Island Em-
'e in the first portion of the Sixteenth Cen-
'y, is most admirably depicted in "The Private
'e," now appearing at the Michigan. The cast
all English, and all good. Mr. Laughton, of
irse, is now familiar to American movie-goers
ough his appearances in "The Island of Lost
uls," "If I Had a Million," "The Sign of the
oss," and the submarine picture whose name
s somehow slipped the reviewing memory.
En "The Private Life" Laughton takes fullest
vantages of his opportunities to portray the
hly human monarch who, in the words of our
itemporary billboards and extravagant pub-
ty sheets, "didn't ask 'em, he axed 'em."
nry's first wife, Catherine of Aragon, is dis-
ased in a foreword with the curt "she was re-
ctable so of course Henry divorced her." When
i see something like that, you can well know
at a different picture is coming. And it does.
nry's affairs with the dark Anne Boleyn; the
autiful No. 3 who gave Henry his first son;
e fourth - the card shark Duchess of Cleves;
The Theatr
THE ART OF PICKING
CREATIVE TEETH
By JOHN W. PRITCHARD
"'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none
Go just alike, yet each believes his own."
-Brother Pope
IN SOUTH AMERICA there is a bird whose sole
business in life is picking refuse from the teeth
of alligators. The reptiles, with docile condes-
cension, open wide their jaws and allow the little
scavengers to perform their dental operations.
The birds thereupon become exceedingly insolent,
forgetting a rather obvious fact: no alligators, no
sijstenar ce. There is some sentiment among
writers, dramatists, and the rest of their kind that
critics are as vainglorious as this ornithoid tooth-
pick.
A critic is, of course, foolish to suppose that his
function approximates the importance of that
of a creative producer, and relatively few critics
are so assinine. There is, however, a rather
widespread error in critical minds: the illusion
of infallibility - or, as a corrolary to it, the idea
that any given production can create only one
correct impression. One or two people have ac-
cused me of such papal tendencies. The purpose
of this squib is to make quite clear the point of
view from which I criticize drama - and I whole-
heartedly admit that my slant on the subject may
be quite as wrong as many of my other judg-
ments, although it is right for me.
The verdict handed down by waspish Mr. Pope
Ohio State co-eds think that the
should be a cross between a dancing
ideal man
angel and
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