The Normal Star (San Marcos, Tex.), Vol. 11, No. 10, Ed. 1 Saturday, December 9, 1922 Page: 1 of 4
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The Normal Star
Published Weekly During the School Year by the Students of the Southwest Texas State Normal College
VOLUME XI.
SAN MARCOS, TEXAS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1922
NUMBER 10.
S. S. HENRY ARTIS? FIFTEEN IS NUMBER lINTER-NORMAL DE-
MAGICIAN PUTS ON
A FINE PROGRAM
Third Number of Lyceum is Suc-
cess; Sand Paintings Ex-
tremely Beautiful.
[One of the most interesting programs
of the lyeeum course was given on last
Saturday night by Mr. S. S. Henry and
his two assistants. The entertainment
was in the form of magic allusions,
psychic phenomina, and art work with
crayon and with sand. What besides
his mastership of the art which he so
fittingly represented gave enhancement
to is performance, was the costuming
the elaborate drapings and hangings
stage settings and the specially equipp-
ed and suited lights which he used to
bring out the elaborate setting.
In the first part of the program Mr.
Henry amused the audience by the
clever tricks which he performed. Many
of the things he did seemed unbe-
lievable; yet seeing is one thing and
believing is another. More than his
tricks were enjoyed was the low train
of speech which he kept running
throughout the exhibitions, and which
was very witty and keen indeed. Of
course we don’t profess to know where
the handkerchiefs came from, or what
became of the rats, or how it was pos-
sible to shoot the guiniea pig into a
sealed box.
Mr. Henry gave the audience a simple,
so he called it, illustration of how the
magician works. The illustration was
spicy indeed. He made the thing per-
fectly clear, only to fill the audience
with wonder again, after they had mast-
ered the trick, when he cracked the egg
and produced its natural contents.
The second part of the program was
very interesting and beautiful. The
drawing of “Fate” was brought into
sight on a canvas by the concentration
of the minds of the audience. This is
what Mr. Henry called “spiritual pho-
tography”, The next selection was
quite clever. Three white handkerchiefs
were passed through a tube, the first
remaining white, the second turning
blue and the third red. Again passing
them through the simple piece of paper
which he rolled up for a tube, he pro-
duced a minature American flag.
Cartoon drawing then amused the
audience for a while. A more serious
study was h i s drawing upon
the canvas a tropical scene and
his reading of “Mandolay” accompan-
ied by one of his assistants at the piano.
Following this and in contrast with it,
he produced a snow scene and read in
connection with its drawing “The Spell
of the Yukon”, by R. J. Service.
Of the greatest interest of his entire
program were his sand paintings. To
one, a snow scene, Mr. Henry quoted,
“The House by the Road.” Different
shades of light were thrown upon the
drawings, which made them very beau-
tiful.
OF FOOTBALL LET-
TERS EARNED 1922
Indications Are Good For Strong
Team Next Year; Ten
Men to Return.
The football season is over. Fifteen
heroes of the gridiron will be awarded
their well-earned rewards for finishing
the season through a row of grinding
contests. Next season’s outlook is of
the brightest and we expect to have an-
other championship team like that of
1921, for we lose only four or five of
this year’s stars, if we can credit the
information on hand at present. Then,
remember the Kittens and the Normal
High squad who will be here to try out
for the team next year.
Letters were earned by the follow-
ing men: Claud Kellam, captain, Jes-
sie Kellam, A. D. Hildreth, Jack Hor-
ton, Alfred Weir, Terry Lowman, How-
ard Brown, Ed Kallina, John Coers,
Rodgers Storey, Bill Cole, Max Harris,
Turner Kaderli, Emmett Shelton, and
Frank Allensori. The two Kellam
brothers have played with the Bobcats
for_ four years and will graduate this
spring. Lowman has played with us
for three years, and will be back next
year. Hildreth, Horton, Weir, Kallina,
Coers, Brown, Storey, and Cole have
each played two years on the varsity.
Hildreth will probably graduate. Hor-
ton and Weir are planning to teach and
coach next year and finish here in the
next summer. The other five men will
have two years each to represent the
Normal College and will be back next
year. The first year letter men are:
Harris, Kaderli, Shelton, and Allenson.
The first three have three years be-
fore them and Allenson is a Sophomore.
Next year’s captain will be chosen at
the annual banquet next week.
Although the five stars that are
leaving this year will be missed very
much indeed, the chances are great
that we will have another champion-
ship team next year. With ten letter
men back and a large array of'Kittens
and Loboes, there will be much compe-
tition for each position on the team.
We all know the great record that
the team made this year and therefore
i*. is not necessary to say anything
about it. But, examining all avail-
able data of each game played, it is
apparent that the greatest weakness of
the Bobcat team was the lack of a pun-
ter. They were also weak on break-
ing up passes; for it was very notice-
able that no opposing team could make
any marked gains except by forward
passing.
Judge: “What’s your occupation?”
Rastus: “I’se a business man, yo’
honor. I'se manager ob a family
laundry.”
Judge: “What’s the name of that
laundry?”
Rastus: “De name ob de laundry is
‘Liza’, yo’ honor.”
S. W. T. N. BANQUET AT HOUSTON BIG SUCCESS
About 70 loyal ex-students and tea-
chers of the Southwest Texas State
Normal assembled at the Bender Hotel
during the T. S- T. A. meeting in Hous-
ton recently and enjoyed a couple of
hours of unusual social pleasure. This
showing was exceptionally good when
everything is taken into consideration
It shows a growth of about 600 per
cent as compared with the showing
made in Dallas last year. If this part
of the Alumni work is properly handled
next year, a much better showing
should be made so far as numbers are
concerned.
The program rendered was one of
varied nature but constructive in its
suggestions. The Alumni took this as
an opportunity to explain to those pre-
sent the plan of home-coming that has
been adopted for use for the next 25
or 30 years. Mr. H. A. Nelson ex-
plained this plan very thoroughly and
carefully. He explained trat it was
the duty of everyone present to tell all
ex-students and teachers of the S. W.
T. N. C. that the graduates of 1903,
1904, 1912, 1913, 1921, 1922, and 1923
were especially urged to be present at
the home-coming at the spring com-
mencement next year.
Following the explanation of the
home-coming plan, Mr. Harry pointed
out in a very effective way the oppor-
tunity the Alumni have of helping the
Normal to put over its building pro-
gram. He made it clear that the Alum-
ni could exert a wholesome influence
over our representatives and senators
at Austin at the opportune time. He
also pointed out that this could be done
more effectively if the Alumni were or-
ganized on a more permanent basis.
Miss Neal, a member of the Normal
Board of Regents, gave a nice expres-
sion of her appreciation of being pre-
sent at th^banquet and we are all glad
that she could be with us as our honor
guest. She prepared the way for Mr.
Vannie Perkins to point out that the
Alumni could and should stand back
of the Bobcats. This he pointed out
could be done in more than one way
and he showed that it was being done
by the Alumni of other schools.
In order that the Alumni might have
a vision of the future of, their Alma
Mater, Pres. Evans painted a word
picture of Ten Years Past and Ten
Years of the Future of the S. W. T. N.
C It made all of the loyal hearts beat
fast with pride to hear our President
grow eloquent as he gave this appro-
priate resume of the past and vision
of the future.
Following this treat, came a fluent
soul-thrilling appeal to the Alumni by
Pres. A. W. Birdwell of the Stephen
F, Austin Normal at Nacogdoches to
those present to support the worthy
plan to raise a loan fund. Rado Leo-
nard, a debating and football hero of
past Normal life, followed with some
timely remarks. And Mr. Lolier, ano-
ther old-time debater, gave us a very
nice little expression of the efforts be-
ing put forth and urged cooperation.
All this speech making resulted in over
$400 being subscribed to the loan fund.
The fololwing is a list of the subscrip-
tions made:
Novella Goodman_____*_______$30
Nell R. Freeman Vogel________30
(Continued on page Two)
BATE PLANS ARE
NOW BEING LAID
Question Selection Varies From
Method Used In Previous
Years; Debators For S.W.T.N.
to Receive Intensive Instruc-
tion and Relative Credit.
At a men’s meeting last Friday morn-
ing after general assembly much inter-
est was exhibited in making plans for
the debaters squad for the coming in-
ter-normal debates to be held the sec-
ond Saturday in April 1923. Mr. Ar-
nold, in an inspiring talk, aroused the
interest of the men of the two literary
societies, the Chautauqua" and the Har-
ris-Blairs, by telling them that if we
are to be a true college, we must de-
velop as strong debating teams as the
athletic teams, and that as much en-
thusiasm should be shown over the de-.
bates as the athletic events. He urged
all the men to take up the literary so-
ciety work as it would be valuable
training for them in thinking on their
feet.
On the fololwing Saturday morning
a group of men interested in debating
met and disculssed some questions for
the coming debate. It has been the cus-
tom in the past for eadn normal school
to hand in three questions to the sec-
retary of the debating league. These
questions turned in by all the normals
were returned to the several schools
and voted upon by the ranking system,
the one question receiving the most
first places being the one debated.
This year there are several who want
this system changed, tor1 the claim is
that it takes too much time to weed
cut the question, and that there is no
one school which can act as judge of
the question and as to the interpreta-
tion thereof. The following is the ten-
tative plan that is being worked upon
by the Normal Colleges. Each school
is to select three modern, debatable
questions and is to send them in to
the oldest Normal College in the state,
that is the one first established. This
Normal will not be allowed to hand
in three questions, but is to select a
question from all the questions turned
in by the other Normal Colleges.
This Normal, which will be the Sam
Houston Normal this year, as it is
the oldest one in the state, will act
as interpreter of the question in addi-
tion to choosing the question. Of course
it would not be fair for this college to
hand in a list of questions since it is
to choose the one question and be in-
terpreter thereof.
In a meeting of the men interested
in debate in S- W. T. N. C. it was de-
cided that this Normal College would
favor the old system that has been used
heretofore.
Each year it has been the custom for
the Chautauqua Literary Society to fur-
nish two of the school’s debaters and
the Harris Blairs to furnish two, there
being a Harris Blair and a Chautau-
quan on each debating team. But this
year the old system has been changed.
Any man in the Normal is eligible for
the debating teams due to specifica-
tions in the college catalogue. The fol-
lowing is a copy of the debating course
offered in the college especially for the
training of the school’s debaters :
“English 115—The Debating Squad.
This is a practical course in debating.
At the beginning of each winter term
there are chosen on a competitive basis
eight students from among the men en-
rolled in the Normal College who will
constitute the debating squad. From
this squad will be chosen two teams to
represent the Normal College in compe-
tition with teams representing other
Normal Colleges of Texas, and four
alternates. The students who consti-
tute the squad will .be assigned to
coaches appointed by the President of
the Normal College from members of
the faculty, with whom they will meet
regularly, and to whom they will be
accountable as to the teacher in any
other course. They will be graded and
for successful completion of the course
receive three term hours credit; pro-
vided, however, that such credit shall
not absolve any part of the eighteen
term hours in English required" for a
diploma or for a Bachelor’s degree.
“Application for admittance to the
course must be made to the head of
the English department at the begin-
ning of the winter term.”
This year we will debate Denton
Normal in Denton and Commerce Nor-
mal here. So far there are not but
two former inter-normal debaters in
school in S. W. T. N. C. this year, and
these are Harold Simon and Alfred J.
Ivey, Mr. Simon and Mr. Stromanwere
winners in the debate in 1919 against
(Continued on page Two).
STATE TEACHERS MEETING IS GREATEST
IN THE HISTORY Of THE ASSOCIATION
GOVERNOR NEFF DECLARES TEXAS LAGGING IN
EDUCATION; ADVANCES ELEVEN POINTS.
S. W. T. N. Sends Large Representation to Meet
The Forty-fourth Annual Convention
oi the Texas State Teacher’s Associa-
tion met in Houston on the first and
second days of December and in its
session promoted and did some of the
greatest work ever undertaken in any
meeting of its kind in the state.
For the first day the general theme
of the association was “Reorganization
of Our State School System”. Taking
for his text, “People Perish for Lack of
Knowledge”, Hosea 4:6, Gov. Pat Neff
addressed the teachers in a great,
broad, open-minded speech. Ignorance
is dangerous, damaging and deaden-
ing, the governor declared, and he
urged the state to purchase the best
education system obtainable, claiming
that the State lags in education and
that every child in the state is entitled
to a fair education. His speech follows:
In the preparation of this address, I
selected both a text and a subject. The
text is found in the Book of Books, and
is couched in these few words : “Peo-
ple perish for lack of knowledge”. My
subject is found in my own earnest
desire to know the truth, and is ex-
pressed in this query: “Is Texas really
ir? the market for an adequate educa-
tional system?” It is as true now as
in biblical days that people perish for
lack of knowledge. The Bible at no
time or place commends ignorance.
It says knowledge is “better than
rubies,” “better than gold”, “better
than choice silver”, and finally declares
that “those who have knowledge in-
herit substance, and have their treas-
uries filled.” Ignorance is dangerous,
damaging, and deadening. There can
be no tomorrow of greatness to any
people unless the builders of today
provide for the education of the youth
of the land. The world is replete with
statistics by which the truth of that
statement can be proven with mathe-
this intelligent audience by presenting
these statistics.
Early Educational Ideals.
As a native son of Texas, I am
happy in the thought that our fore-
fathers wrote into the Declaration of
their Independence that they would
not live under a government that did
not make ample provision for the edu-
cation of its boys and girls. They de-
clared that, “the cultivated mind was
the guardian genius of Democracy, and
that knowledge was the only security
that freeman desired.” Sam Houston
said,“ The diffusion of knowledge
among the people is essential for the
preservation of a free government.”
“The wealth of this country shall edu-
cate the children of this country,”
proclaimed even the fathers of the
Texas Republic. In the dream of our
early civilization, far-visioned patriots
not only made generous provision for
the support of the public schools, but
projected the foundation for a “Uni-
versity of the first class.”
Education of State Government.
It is clearly seen that the early
pioneer of our Statehood recognized
public education as a vital function of
the State government. With the de-
velopment of modern Democracy, con-
sciousness of the obligation on the
part of the State to maintain and de-
velop education, has been steadin-
g-rowing. Educational thinkers and
philosophic statesmen have long since
agreed that education is not only a
function of the government, but its
most important constitutional obliga-
tion. No government whose people are
uneducated is safe. Education is an
investment that builds up the State;
ignorance is a tax that destroys it.
Ignorance is the prolific mothc - of
crime. Criminals come mostly from
the ranks of the uneducated.
Every child in Texas, from the poor-
est to the richest, is entitled to a fair
education. Not only is the child en-
titled to it, but the - State must see
that the child has it. The cost of this
education is a proper and legitimate
charge against the public treasury. It
will cost the State more to let the
child alone, than it will cost to edu-
cate it. This responsibility cannot be left
solely to local communities. Some lo-
calities are poor in purse and some
are poor in brains; to each of these,
as well as to all others, the strong
and far-reaching arm -of the1 State
should lend a helping hand. With the
conviction that the State is primarily
responsible for the education of the
youth of the land, I come on this oc-
casion to this great gathering of
teachers, the vanguard in the battles
of peace, to think out loud with you
in an earnest ecort to ascertain wheth-
er or not Texas is really in the market
to purchase for this State an adequate
educational system.
Adequate School System.
As to what is an adequate school
system, many suggestions can be easi-
ly _ made and theories advanced. Cer-
tainly, at this time TetfaS has no such
system. We are graded" in school effi-
ciency 34th from the top among the
States of the Union. This being true,
whatever may be our merit, it is plain
that we have many weak points. The
first thing to do, it seems to me, would
be to determine what are our elements
of strength and what are our elements
of weakness. To ascertain this it will
be necessary to have a thorough, scien-
tific, impartial survey made of our en-
tire educational life. In advance of
this information a discussion of de-
fects must necessarily be of a general
nature. Some of our defects, however,:
are fundamental. That our system of
financial support should be altered and
strengthened, is clear. That we should
have, to represent the State as a big
unit in the administration of our edu-
cation system, a strong State Board
of Education, comprised of men and
women representing our best educa-
tional thought and highest business
ability, there can be no question. With
the information furnished to this Board
by the Survey Committee, the entire
educational life of Texas should be
studied to the one high end that the
administration of education in our
State may be simpliled, unified, har-
monized, and invigorated from top to
bottom. This State board of education
ought to be able to take up the slack,
stop the leaks, and eliminate the waste
and duplication in our entire educa-
tional system. They should be able to
matical accuracy. I shall not reflect on^jput on the market in this State an
adequate educational system. By an
adequate school system is meant a
high-grade school teacher in a com-
fortable, well-equipped school build-
ing, whether that school building be
at the forks of the road or on univer-
sity hill, with its doors, wherever
these institutions stand, swinging wide
to the boys and girls of Texas, for at
least nine months in the year.
The Rural Schools.
In working out an adequate school
system the rural schools of the State
should not be overlooked. Under the
present sfstem only a small per cent
of rural children ever enter a high
school. Our country schools are the
colleges for the masess. We must build
up our common schools; this is urgent
and imperative. Our institutions of
higher learning should be adequately
equipped for the benefit of the 'fortu-
nate few, but our rural schools should
be generously supported for the Demo-
cratic many. The country child should
have as good a school as the city youth
It has been wisely said: “If the rural
schools fail, rural civilization, fails; if
rural civilization fails, American civili-
zation fails.”
Texas should buy the best school sys-
tem there is on the market. We should
have the best. The best is not too
good. It is to our everlasting shame
that the average boy and girl in Texas
does not, have an equal educational op-
portunity with the boys and girls of
other states. If this statement is true,
and no one questions it, then to every
man’s good right hand this sword
should leap, to fight for these equal
rights. In this conflict for equal rights
for the children of Texas, I am ready
to lead or follow the vanguard of bat-
tle. No state in the union is richer in
actual or potential wealth. Our prop-
erty valuation aggregates ten billion
dollars. First in territory, first in
stock, first in agriculture, first in oil,
first in cotton, and 34th in educa-
tion. Wealth untold is here at our
command. If as citizens of a state so
full and so furnished, following pur-
suits So pleasant and so profitable,
circumstanced with incentives so in-
spiring and so invigorating, we falter
and fail in providing an adequate edu-
cational system for the boys and girls
oi the state, then we prove ourselves
the unworthy descendents of illustri-
ous sires. Let us balance our bounty
with our boys, and lay our gold by the
side of our girls, and challenge the
world to produce a. higher, nobler, or
better educational .citizenship than is
found where falls the light of the Lone-
Star.
(Continued on page Three)'
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The Normal Star (San Marcos, Tex.), Vol. 11, No. 10, Ed. 1 Saturday, December 9, 1922, newspaper, December 9, 1922; San Marcos, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth614264/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Texas State University.