PAGE 4 — •—•
Date Of Easter, Pushed Around by Sun
And Moon, Still Follows a Set Law
Easter, step-child of the calendar- 1
pushed around each year by the
arbitrary behavior of the sun and
moon, in 1940 will give the Chris
tian world the second of three
March appointments scheduled for
the twentieth century.
The festival this year is March
24, just three days later than the
earliest possible date it can be set
and one day later than the earliest
observance in this century. Easter
in 1913 occurred March 23, and the
only other March celebration be
fore the coming of the year 2,000
will occur March 25, 1951.
As the spring equinox is the
basis for computing the date, the
earliest day that can be fixed is
March 21 and the latest April 25.
The spring, or vernal, equinox is
the day the center of the sun is
over the equator and day and
night everywhere are of equal
length.
Many times since the turn of the
century Easter has fallen near
April 25, but will occur on April
25 but once in the twentieth cen
tury—in 1943.
The irregularity of the Easter
date and how it is determined has
been the puzzle of the ages, even
to many well-informed persons,
TOUGH DAY?
When you’ve had a
tough day in class or
have a bad one ahead,
when you’ve finished a
tough grind of study or
have one ahead - drop in
and visit our fountain. A
bite to eat or drink,
along with a visit with
the crowd you’ll always
find around will send you
away feeling refreshed
and light hearted and
much better fitted to
turn that tough day into
an easy and pleasant
one! See you soon?
GEORGE’S
“■but the process is according to
fixed laws.
First, Easter must fall on Sun
day—the Sunday nearest the four
teenth day of the full moon of the
spring equinox which occurs regu-
Tarly on March 21.—Hence, the
Easter date can not be before
March 21 or after April 25. This
year the new moon appeared be
fore the vernal equinox and that
explains why Easter comes at the
extreme inner side of the possible
cycle of dates.
Of several reasons for the proc
ess of determination, churchmen
place first the sacred tradition of
Christianity. The foremost prac
tical reason is that the time of
year chosen for Easter approx
imates the season designated by
history of the Resurrection Day.
In the early days of the Chris
tian church, Jewish converts used
their calendar and others the Ju
lian, the discrepancies bringing the
issue to a head in 325 A.' , l). The
eastern portion of the church had
celebrated on the day after Pass-
over, the fourteen days after the
vernal equinox, regardless of
whether the day was Sunday. On
the other hand, the western por
tion of the church observed the
Sunday after the fourteenth day
of the spring moon.
Pope Leo the Great convoked a
general council at Nicaea, which
settled the matter in favor of the
western church, and the practice
has been observed since.
Should sporadic movements to
reform the Gregorian calendar
(arranged by Pope Gregory XII)
succeed, division of the year’s 12
months into four equal parts would
make immovable such movable
days as Easter. Most objections to
a new calendar are based on re
ligious grounds.
A new calendar could not be
adopted, however, except with a
year beginning on Sunday, and the
next Sunday, January 1, does not
roll around until 1950. Therefore,
most folks for the next 10 years
will depend on calendars and early
arriving greeting cards to know
Easter Day unless they take a tip
from this, scan the moon track
about March 8 and do a little ex
ercise in mental arithmetic.
The N. Y. A. college program is
reaching 18.8 per cent more youths
this year than last year.
Confectionery
Students of Connecticut College
for Women annually conduct their
own flower show.
GREATER PALACE
Wed. - Thurs. - Fri. - Sat.
Prevue -11 p. m. - Sat. Night
Shirley Temple
—in—
“BLUEBIRD”
Shown Sunday - Monday - Tuesday
GO HOME
EASTER HOLIDAYS
in comfort, safety,
at low cost - by train!
Rest and relax in AIR-CONDITIONED cars while
the engineer drives you over smooth steel rails.
Southern Pacific offers you outstanding service
TO HOUSTON TO DALLAS
and intermediate stations
. . . connections at Houston and Dallas for
points beyond.
Ask the agent how cheap it is with our
LOW ROUND-TRIP FARES!
Southern Pacific
T. A. BLACK, Agent PHONE NO. 9
THE BATTALION
Last Aggie Conference Champs -- Till 1939
if!
nil
.... j
s-:\
Above, the last Southwest Conference champions of Aggieland until the 1939 season—the 1927 title-holders, who won their crown by
defeating Texas University on Kyle Field, 28 to 7. The 1927 Aggies were tied once, by T. C. U., and won the other eight games. Front row:
Mortellra, Rektorik, Mills, Dorsey, Ish, Snead, Burgess, Holmes, Cody, Ewell. Second row: Wylie, Bartlett, Varnell, Alsobrook, Captain
Joel Hunt, Sikes, Petty, Davis, Richter. Top; Coach Dana X. Bible, Deffenbach, Mosher, Brown, Pister, Sproutt, Holleron.
Aggie Instructor Has Met AH Types
Of People on His Recording Journeys
Dr. Kemp To Give Series of Lectures
On Practical Geophysics Here In April
By Bob Nisbet
Having made numberless trips
to and from all parts of Texas,
Louisiana, and the Southwest, mak
ing recordings of native songs and
music, naturally A. & M. English
instructor Bill Owens has had deal
ings with all types of people. The
stories he can tell about his trips
would run far into the night, and
they would leave the listener beg
ging for more. That his forth
coming lecture tour over the Unit
ed States and Canada will be suc
cessful is a surety. He is a real
enthusiast in his field, and he is
a most interesting speaker. His
records tell the story of the de
velopment of folk music of this
section of the country.
One of his more humorous stor
ies is about “chasing the devil” on
a trip into south Louisiana mak
ing records of “Cajun” music. He
was in Bayou Blue on Friday where
he had just made a record of a
Cajun girl singing “O oui Helene”.
After she had finished the re
cord, she very seriously told Mr.
Owens that the “devil” had visit
ed a dance hall a few nights be
fore and had danced with one of i
the women. In Lafayette the devil
had visited a “honky-tonk” known |
as the Blue Goose and had been
shot at by a white policeman. Sto
ries of visits by the devil followed
Owens until he got back to Texas;
he lost him at the border. The pe
culiar twist to the tales was that
the places were so bad that the
“devil” himself had come to clean
them up. Always the devil had
been there a few days before; he
Dr. Chandler Is
Added to Summer
School Staff Here
Dr. Robert F. Chandler Jr., now
Assistant Professor of Forest
soils at Cornell University, will join
the summer school staff of the
Texas A. & M. College for the first
term, June 10-July 20, according
to an announcement by Dr. Ide
P. Trotter, head of the Department
of Agronomy.
Dr. Chandler will offer advanced
undergraduate and graduate
courses which Dr. Trotter be
lieves will be of especial interest
to professional agricultural work
ers in the fields of soil conserva
tion, agricultural extension service,
farm security administration, for
estry, land use planning, agronomy
and agricultural education.
Dr. Chandler has had a funda
mental and varied type of train
ing and experience in soils and re
lated subjects which will enable
him to offer courses of particular
value to those interested directly
or indirectly in the agronomic and
particularly the soils problems of
areas like the East Texas timbered
region. His background includes
thorough training in the general
plant sciences with later special
training in soils and the soil prob
lems of forest regions.
Dr. Chandler holds the only en
dowed chair of forest soils in the
United States, and if there are six
or more students who are especial
ly interested in the problems of
forest soils a special course of this
type can be taught.
could never be caught.
One of his many records was
made of an old man who insisted
on making the record in a saloon.
During the recording one of the
audience, bored with the proceed
ings, started playing the slot ma
chine. That, too, was recorded.
However, Mr. Owens’ lectures
are by no means intended to be
only presentations of funny sto
ries. They are to tell the story of
Southwestern folk music, and cer
tainly they do that. Records have
been made of cowboy music, ne
gro music, Mexican, Cajun French,
German, Czech, and Italian music,
all of which have contributed to
the growth of music in the South
west.
Mr. Owens’ records coptain Mex
ican fiestas, Cajun renditions of
popular music, negro spirituals,
the German music of Fredericks
burg, Schulenburg, and New
Braunfels. There are a few Italian
recordings in the group, one being
the “Rosary” as sung at St. Jo
seph’s altar by two Italian women.
A “Hot Mamma”
A “Pretty Baby”
’Way Back in 1906
They used to ^ay “skiddoo” and
“twenty-three” when they meant
“scram” or “beat it.” A “pretty
baby” meant what we call a “hot
mamma” or “qookie” today. The
crazy house was the “booby hatch”
in the good old days of 1906.
These and many other vagaries
of slang of thirty years or so ago
have been compiled. Many of those
people who used that slang can not
remember it. Slang has gradually
changed in the past thirty years
until it is another language. As one
learns the new terms he forgets
the old ones.
Many expressions of the period
came from popular vaudeville acts
with people like Bert Leslie, billed
as “King of Slang,” creating new
and laughable words.
“Says you,” for instance, was
created by Harry and Emma Shar-
rock and has been popular slang
to this day. “Joy ride” first saw
the light as a slang phrase with
James J. Morton.
STUDENT PEACE GROUP
HOLDS DEMONSTRATION
ON FRIDAY, APRIL 19
NEW YORK CITY.—The Unit
ed Student Peace Committee has
announced the date of the sev
enth annual student peace demon
stration against war—Friday,
April 19.
The first demonstration was held
April 6,1934, at which time several
thousand students participated in
a strike against war, and demon
strated their opposition to measures
which lead to war.
Each year, the demonstration is
held in April as near to the sixth
of the month as possible, as it was
on April 6, 1917, that the United
States entered the World War.
It is estimated that a million stu
dents will demonstrate this year
that the “Yanks Are Not Coming”
to aid in the present imperialist
massacre in Europe. They will be
joined from coast to coast by non
student groups—youth of all oc
cupations—who are determined to
live, not die, for democracy.
A three-day conference on prac
tical geophysics will be held at
Texas A. & M. April 4-6, with Dr.
Garrett Kemp of Dallas, a distin
guished geophysicist and engineer,
as special lecturer.
The conference will be one of
a series of such meetings being
held at A. & M. under direction
of Dean Gibb Gilchrist of the En
gineering School. Outstanding
lecturers on various phases of
engineering have been obtained for
the conferences.
The Kemp lectures have been
planned especially for petroleum
engineers, geologists and others
who are strictly specialists in
geophysics, and will give an insight
into this important phase of the
petroleum industry to all oil men.
Dr. Kemp will deliver eight illu
strated lectures, and round table
discussions will follow each meet
ing during the conference.
Dr. Kemp, at present, a Dallas
consulting ‘ engineer, formerly was
supervisory geophysicist with the
Atlantic Refining Company for 13
years, and for 20 years he was
professor of physics at the Univer
sity of Illinois and at Purdue Uni
versity.
Prof. Henry Emmett Gross of
the A. & M. Petroleum Engineering
Department who will be in charge
of, Dr. Kemp’s conference, has ex
tended a cordial invitation to engi
neers, geologists and others direct
ly or indirectly interested in the
oil production industry to attend
the conference. During the con
ference visitors will be taken for an
inspection of the entire A. & M.
campus and buildings.
John Held Jr., famed cartoonist
is now an artist-in-residence at
Harvard University.
An apple originally meant any
friut of a round nature.
•TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 1940.
A. & M. To Stage
Wildlife Short
Course April 12
Signalizing its first graduating
class of students in the department
of fish and game conservation,
Texas A. & M. will sponsor its
first annual wildlife short cdurse
here on April 12 and 13 in coop
eration with the Texas Wildlife
Federation, Texas Nature Federa
tion, Texas Game Fish and Oyster
Commission.
A handful of students will be
graduated in June from the De
partment of Fish and Game Con
servation after four years of inten
sive study. One transfer student
received his degree last summer and
is now employed by the state; but
the June graduates will be the
first who have taken the full four-
year course at A. & M.
The program for the wildlife
short course will be as practical
as is possible to make it, with
representatives of all the coop
erating agencies contributing their
part.
A feature of the short course will
be a series of conferences help
ful to county agents, game war
dens, teachers of vocational agri
culture, ranchmen, farmers, and
sportsmen, in dealing with the
problems of wildlife conservation.
Special features in connection
with the program will be exhibits
of wildlife photographs, displays
of game foods and exhibits of the
bird, animal and fish life of Texas.
The most important foods of the
bobwhite quail which will be grow
ing luxuriantly at the time of the
short course, will be on display.
Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., Harvard
law student and son of the Ambas
sador to Great Britain, will be a
delegate to the Democratic nation
al convention.
C. A. A. pilot training students
have flown 80,000 hours without
a serious accident. Some 3,700
students have soloed.
Creighton University medical
students and faculty members
last year treated free of charge
30,000 patients.
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