Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-09-22
FRESHMAN SlGHTSEERS AT
PENN ARE TO BE ENvIED
Something Of the Real Dignity and
splendor Of a Great Unlver-
slty Is Apparent TO Their
Keen Youna Evns

n N'LAA ueaL OF cAJrcmely earnest sight
seeing is being done in particularly
animated section Of West Philadelphia today.
Something more than the superficial acute
moss of tourists inspires these observers, since
their pilgrimage ends amid the scenes con.
corning the traditions and significance OF
which they are intensely eager to be in.
formed.
Possibly a considerable number of the
freshmen of the University of PENNSYLVANIA
will be bit dazed by al the novel points
OF contact against which they are suddenly
thrust. Here is not merely a new home for
hundreds Of students registered as nom
Phiadelphians, but new spiritual and
mental environment.
The student guides, drafted from the upper
classes. cannot be expected to elucidnte all
the Subtleties Of the last chapter of Youth
or rather the innumCrablc and diversified on
portunities of the prologue to manhood and
cultural citizenship. There will be mach
talk of topography and the location of de-
partments. The attractiveness of Houston
Hall will carry it's own sympathetic mes.
sage The great library, architecturally
blzarre and yet not wholly without objective
appeal is likely to seem for the moment
rather too formidable an ally. There is no
rompanionship in unopened books.
Direct current of appreciation can, Of
course, be established with Franklin Field
with the deliberate yet effective exotic charm
of the museum, If not with all its contents:
with the grace and ingratiating atmospheric
values of the dormitorics and with the inn.
posing new buildings that bespeak the iusti-
ned assurance of leading institution of
higher learning.
Even the old greensboro structures College
Hall and Logan Hall, lend the note of dig
nifty to the externals of the scholastic SYM
phony. The seventies, during which decade
the Inlversity moved to the right bank of
the Schuykill, are sentimentally enriched by
the soothing 'pathoS of distance" The
lines of College Hall have seemingly softened
and that rare old plant" the ivy, pleads
for tolcration of its haunts.
Naturally, the novitiates Just enrolled will
mentally eliminate what to them are the nom
essential factors Of the University. The
stately Georgian Law School, the handsome
medca. buildings and the scientific eouin.
ment in the engineering departments will
mean vastly different thing to alert and
vastly different eyes.
IL Is trlte but none the less fascinating to
reject upon the reactions upon personalities
by so many facets Of culture
Ihe opening of a college year in anv in
stitution worthy of its pretensons inevitably
marks revolution in thought. The regul-
!arity OF the event dulls the edge of wonder
ment especially in communities as lnrre as
Philadelphia and dcbarred from special
ldentlhcation as college town. What is
sometimes called ''SlowneSs" in this citv is
in reality a kind of complacent sophistica-
ton.
we are used to the University, accustomed
to acknowledge its eminence in MANY folds
and then to dismiss it as we do such con-
ventional phenomena as day and night. The
practice may denote balance. and as such
contrast favorably with irritating forms of
braggadocio prevalent in newer population
cPntcrs.
And yet Philadelphia manners as they
exist with reference TO this theme are un-
deniably chilling. The high status of III,
University, its achievement and it's noten.
tlalities cannot be cheapened by luSty en-
thusiasms.
Furthermore. our own self satisfaction in
poisc is scarcely authentic during the foot
ball season. Then there is often much cx
pressed regard for the University and pride
IN athletic victories scars to emotional
heights. The surrender to simplc senti
ments is healthy enough. 1t is an iuviporat.
ing experience to watch Philadelphia ex-
citing Itself over gridiron sensation but
the sense OF proportion is not stimulated nv
the spectacle. Franklin Field is an enlivon.
ing auxiliary in the function of the Tnivor-
Sity of Pennsylvania As a symbol of in
trinsic vitality of the institution it is feeble,
woefully inadequate.
Joseph McCraCken, an old foothau stor
and OF course well remembered was an in
terested visitor at the University yesterdov
while the registration Of cxpectant NOT IA
say mystifed, freshmen was at its height
Doctor McCracken is a medical missionary
with a brilliant record in China. In the
fourteen years of his career in the Orient the
meaning Of the University as a constructiy.
force in civilization was doubtless MANY
times eXemplifcd
What he saw on his return was evidence
of growth which cannot have failed TO be
strengthening to that Interpretation. Tho
University, unchanged in basic principles is
in resources greatly altered since he was a
student. Money in the amounts necessary
to 50 authoritative an institution has nor
swc!led the treasury. Great inheritances
such as have been the portion of sister lIni
versities, Yale, Harvard, Princeton and the
others, have not been it's portion. Endow.
ment fund machinery on a suitable scale and
requisite state appropriations have been lack
| ing And yet the progress of the University.
a product Of fine, unsefsh loyalty by re-
! spolsbe factors in its management has
| been exceedingly impressive. The popularitv
Of the institution among the college. going
classes Of the land also has been notable,
When "Joe" MCCracken played guard for
| one of George Woodruf's winning teams tho
population of the University was about
1000, 1t is estimated that the number Of
matrculates this year will reach 10, 900.
distributed in courses which comprehend
education in its broadest aspects.
The University may without exaggeration
be termed An agency of universal knowledge.
Within It's halls may be gained education in
the classics general cultural subjects and
languages ancient and modern, chemistry
science, engineering, medicine, law. eco.
Monies, sociology, biology, architecrure-in
fact, virtually everything that can be sys.
tematized and classified into a branch OF
| learning.