The Saturday Society

After the lecture the audience was allowed to scrutinise several exhibits which were examples of the rock structure of Guernsey.

Mr. Le Tocq's lecture was followed with a short speech by Mr. Ping about the total eclipse of the moon due on Monday, 7th November. Mr. Ping also showed three slides of an earlier eclipse.

We regret to say that the audience was deplorably small for such an interesting lecture.

On Saturday, 3rd December, Mr. D. K. Crews gave a lecture entitled " Mysteries of the Ocean." He gave us a detailed description of everything that is known about the depths of the seas. He accompanied his lecture with a number of pictures of the types of fish seen by the two men who descended in the " Bathyscophere " several years ago. These pictures were projected, using the epidiascope. Some of the fish were extremely wonderful, for they had luminous patches all over them and carried long tentacles with luminous bulbs at their ends. They use these to attract smaller fish to them. As there is no vegetation at these great depths the fish have to live on one another. We heartily thank Mr. Crews for an extremely interesting lecture.

Owing to the number of evenings taken up by the Saturday and Debating Societies, there have only been three meetings of the Scientific Society this term.

Saturday, 1st October.

The School was entertained by Mr. Wingate Kirk, who gave an exhibition of conjuring and ventriloquism. He had for a helper a very life-like doll in a page's uniform. In one of his more interesting acts, he described the creations of a butler by means of a coloured folded paper pattern. This butler was a very ingenious man, as whenever his master asked for anything, he used to produce it at a moment's notice. With a few deft movements of his fingers, Mr. Wingate Kirk conjured up these articles as they were mentioned from his pad of coloured paper. It was altogether quite an entertaining performance. Saturday, 15th October.

Mr. Ernest Sewell came to entertain the School. Some of the senior boys will remember the excellent performance he gave them last year.

He started off by giving us a few entertaining conjuring tricks. In one of these tricks he required an assistant. One of the boys from the senior school readily complied and stepped on to the stage. Mr. Sewell requested him to sit on an ordinary cane chair, whilst he prepared his trick. The victim sat down, but almost immediately jumped up again with an expression of acute agony. He tried another chair, with the same result, only this time he gave a short yelp as he shot up. Meanwhile, the whole audience was expressing its enjoyment with loud roars of laughter. After these varied convulsions on the victim's part, he was then coaxed to sing a song with Mr. Sewell's ventriloquist doll, which seemed to be mainly about an extraordinary plant called a " Vegetable." This was followed by an exhibition of paper tearing, in which the assistant was supposed to copy Mr. Sewell. Each started off with a large sheet of white paper. Mr. Sewell finished up with an exquisite design in paper, whilst all his assistant had to show were a , few shreds of mutilated paper.

The performance terminated with a stage show featuring three small marionettes. One a sailor, another a Scotsman and the last a pianist.

We are pleased to say, Mr. Sewell quite exceeded our expectations.

Saturday, 29th October. On this occasion we witnessed a very fine performance of Shakespeare's " Macbeth," ably acted by the Martin Harvey Company. The play lasted from 7 to 9-10 p.m. The accompanying music was very realistic, especially in the scene where Macbeth meets the three witches. We congratulate the company on their very able use of a rather small stage. We are sorry it was not larger. Special praise ' is due to Stanley van Beers for his excellent portrayal of Macbeth. Incidentally, Mr. van Beers is also the Manager of the Company. We would also like to congratulate Lady Macbeth and the other players for their excellent support of the leading character. 1 Saturday, 12th November. On this occasion Mr. Harry Pegg Carr and Mr. Lamont

Kennaway entertained the School. Mr. Kennaway was the pianist, and played several rather classical pieces, which, we are afraid, were not fully appreciated by the School.

Mr. Carr entertained us in between these pieces with several amusing poems and recitals. Especially one concerning three gentlemen, A, B and C, well-known to all our able mathematicians.

Saturday, 26th November.

Mr. John Woods, who visited the School last year, gave an interesting lecture entitled " This Modern Art." With the aid of an easel, a number of large sheets of paper and a charcoal pencil, he produced an illustrated lecture on the growth of art from dark antiquity up to the present day. He first described how the art of each civilization went through three periods : spring, summer and autumn. He pointed out that the spring of art was the period when artists were thinking of new ways to express their ideas. The summer was the period when the art was fully developed and at its best. In the autumn period the art was still very good, but people were beginning to look around for new things to paint and new methods of doing them. He terminated his lecture with a few sketches showing the type of Surrealist paintings that were being produced at the present day. One of his drawings was of a human face with an express train coming out of its forehead and a padlock for a mouth. Altogether a most fearsome looking object.

Saturday, 10th December.

Mr. Stanley Bell's second performance at the School proved an even greater success than his last. He did two very amusing sketches with a little conjuring in between. His first sketch was of a small boy trying out one of those machines where you put a penny in the slot, grip two handles and get an electric shock. As Mr. Bell rightly predicted, it needed no words. His next portrayal was of a village meeting to discuss what was to be done about the weather-cock on the church, as it would not go round. First the old squire got up and made a speech, then the sexton, an old nurse, Percy, the lad of the village, and last of all a concluding speech by the vicar. The net result was that the weather-cock was left unmolested.

Tuesday, 25th October.

Mr. Heinz-Smith gave an interesting lecture on Dr. Barnardo's Homes. He illustrated his lecture with slides, showing how the Homes were managed and the life of waifs from the moment they entered the Homes to the time when they left after having got a job, thanks to the Homes. We thank Mr. Heinz-Smith for a very interesting lecture, and sincerely hope he will visit us again.