PHI BETA KAPPA CELEBRATION

The midyear celebration of the Alpha of New Hampshire, Phi Beta Kappa, occurred Tuesday evening, February 17. On this occasion, for the first time-in the history of the chapter, men were admitted at the close of the first semester of senior year. The basis of admission was a standing of 85 or above in 63 semester hours. The men received were C. A. Edson, E. H. Elkins, J. N. Hazen, J. T. Marriner, and }. B. Shields. Eight other seniors had been received into membership at the beginning of the college year, and a third group will be received at Commencement.

After the initiation, which took place in the faculty room of the Parkhurst Administration building, the members and invited guests listened to an address by Percy MacKaye, a member of the Harvard' chapter, the mother chapter of the Alpha of New Hampshire. Mr. MacKaye spoke on the Masque as a department of dramatic literature, illustrating his remarks by the reading of his Bird Masque, "Sanctuary", which was presented so successfully last autumn at the bird sanctuary in Meriden, X. H., by members of the Cornish colony, under the patronage of Mrs. Woodrow Wilson.

After the address, the members of the chapter with the invited guests adjourned to the Hanover Inn, where, to the number of seventy-five, they sat down to the annual banquet of the society. The old custom of an anniversary poem was this year revived by the reading of a poem by Professor Page, a noble appeal to high ideals in life and scholarship.

Professor Bartlett paid a fine tribute to the memory of Charles Francis Richarson, recently president of the society. I his was largely made up of quotations of testimony rendered by various pupils of Professor Richardson to the peculiar charm and influence of his teaching and personality.

In introducing the next group of speakers, Professor C. D. Adams, the president of the society, said that the committee that had planned the exercises of the evening had determined to make the central idea of the meeting that of Neighborliness in Things Intellectual, with particular reference to the relation of Dartmouth to the intellectual renaissance of the North Country. He spoke of the high type of the intellectual life of many of the little hill towns in the early days of the College, and of the large number of men who in those times, living in these small towns, controlled the affairs of the State and of the College. Professor Adams Expressed the belief that a revival of the intellectual life in these hill towns is to be hoped for, and has, indeed, already begun. The guests of the evening had been invited from among those who are active in this movement.

President Nichols spoke of the College as related to the life of the State. He emphasized the fact that the fundamental work of the College for the State is to send out into all the communities men trained to do sound and intelligent work, each in his own place. This work, not spectacular nor easily measured, is the greatest service that any institution can do. He spoke also of the wide public service undertaken by the state universities of the Middle West, and of the differences between their conditions and our own.

Mr. J. T. Reardon, one of the first scholars of the senior class, and a member of the group received at the beginning of the year, spoke on "College Fellowship in Things Intellectual". He made a strong plea for more of intellectual stimulus among undergraduates by closer contact of one man with another. His suggestive remarks ought to lead to some organized activity among the younger members of the chapter throughout the college year. If, as is hoped, a room in Robinson Hall is assigned to the society, such activity will be easy and natural.

Mr. MacKaye was introduced as representing the unique community of artists and literary men at Cornish, in our own neighborhood. He spoke in a charming way of the stimulating life there, with its admirable combination of solitude for work and fellowship in social life. He was most cordial in the expression of the desire for close, neighborly relations between the Cornish community and the college circle, and very suggestive in his view of the possibilities of increased intellectual activity in the undergraduate body. He has followed closely the significant movement in Dartmouth dramatics, and expressed his confidence in the large promise of growth along this line. He spoke warmly, too, of the possibilities -of helpful contact with the less favored people of the hill towns, illustrating his remarks by the example of the young boy of the neighborhood who. went into St. Gaudens' studio to do odd chores, and under the influence of the master revealed artistic, gifts that have already won for him a place in the world of art.

Mrs. R. W. Husband responded to the toast, "The Intellectual Neighborliness of the College Woman". She showed by the record of alumnae of her own college, Vassar. that the college woman has proved her ability to take her full share in the larger life of the nation in the widest range of public service, and that, too, without weakening her hold on her traditional place in her home.

Rev. H. H. Wentworth of Orford, representing the Williams chapter, was introduced as one doing the impossible in putting the new wine of higher criticism and modern theology into the old bottles of a typical country church Mr. Wentworth spoke with great significance of the extent to which the country community has drifted away from religious belief. He declared that it is not traditional orthodoxy that is hindering religious progress in the country towns, but the almost universal lack of any religious belief at all, and he made clear how strong and vital and how productive, the new theology can be made in such communities by a man who thoroughly believes in it and in them.

Mr. J. R. McLane '07, a member of the Alumni Council, and a former Rhodes Scholar, made a convincing presentation of the opportunities for the college man in the direct service of the state. His enumeration of the members of the Alpha Chapter who are now in positions of high trust in New Hampshire was most impressive, and he showed how the state is increasingly demanding the service of college men in the investigation of social problems and in service on' state commissions. His remarks reinforced the exposition that President Nichols had given of the central work of the College as related to the state.

The final and indescribable part of the program was the response of Rev. Donald Fraser of Wells River, Vt., a graduate of Edinburgh, to the toast, "The Country Boy and His Ambitions". Mr. Fraser's delightful pictures of university life in Edinburgh, of some of its great teachers, of the struggles of the Scotch boy, and of the sacrifices of the mothers in the little homes in the hills, carried his hearers from laughter to tears, and made it easy to believe that an intellectual renaissance is possible when men like Mr. Fraser are gladly giving themselves to the life of our country towns.

The sinking of some of the familiar Latin, English, and German student songs, under the leadership of Professor Licklider, was a pleasant feature of the evening.

The high quality of all the speaking, the serious purpose that pervaded it all, and the cordial response of the Society, made it evident that the resolution to make Phi Beta Kappa one of the vital forces in the every day life of the College is in the way of being fulfilled.