Philadelphia High School for Girls - Milestone Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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foot-stools. Bugs came next. It took a lot of coaxing and gasoline to bring them together in one box with pins through their squirmy bodies. Much valuable information was gained. One girl found' that cock-roaches and Heels belong to the same family. You have- to kill them every day for a week before they Will admit that they are dead. Girls! Will you 'ever forget the day our whole section got d for following an ant across the gym floor on our hands and knees? Everywhere we went we returned with our pockets full of grasshoppers and things. We sometimes found a stray spider or cricket under the pew in church on Sundays. When we came back to- school, we were informed that by the latest medical authority, a box of bugs. was not considered necessary to our mental existence. Most of us were broken-hearted UD. We have gotten over it, but will never be the same. U At this date we wore red ties on our gym suits, and climbed the stall bars like professional monkeys. And the gam-es and re-lays! Every Friday afte-rnoon, we stood on the wind.ow-sills in the gym and yelled class yells until we were hoarse. Then, like Poe's Raven, quoth we, never again, only to descend from the window-sills, go down town for an ice cream soda to mend our poor vocal chords, and decide to go the next Friday, and do the same thing over again. Oh, the joy and sorrow of being a Junior!! Only 'those who, like us, began their High School career in an annex, can appreciate the sorrow. We were glad and proud to be in the Main Building, but we missed our back yard. Well, the only thing left for us to do was to play Chinese Tag and Leap Frogi' in the narrow aisles, bumping our shins more than occasionally. We still continued' the solemn practice- of playing Tit-tat-toe, Squares and Hang-a-man on the blackboard, even though the teachers did unreasonably object to having their verbs, nouns, blossoms and triangles erased to make room for our pleasure. By this time we began to look forward to being Seniors. But Chemistry! That was one of the highest hurdles in the race. However, most of us managed to get over, even though we did break a few social bones in so doing. ' Last February we became Seniors. We did not grow two feet in the night,?' or anything extraordinary. The only difference we could find in ourselves was that some of us had put our hair up, and our dresses further down. At heart we were as young as ever. Then in the spring, the Washington Trip! It may Well be Written in capital letters. There are some experiences which bring bliss beyo-nd compare. This Was one of them, The incomparable privilege of going to bed at three o'clock and eating breakfast at seven-thirty! We had, all of us, at some remote time or other, eaten breakfast at seven-thirty, and ditto for retiring atthree A. M., but never :L-v4 1 1

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Gllzms Jiintnrg CA5J have come from all parts of the world, our little world, which, after all, is not so small as you might think. We are long, short, dark and fair, plus many peculiarities, charming and ,other- wise. Taking us altogether, we are a delightful bunch, even though we did' come from Shippen, Stephens, Keystone, and Broad and Green. Under ordinary circumstances, you might expect us not to be congenial. In reality we are all kindred spirits, especially at class meetingsf'?J, and bent upon making everyone else happy fprovided she takes it that wayjg if not, miserable. 3-, '1 ij Freshmen are the same all over the world, says the philosopher, but we disagree with him. We say, Freshmen are never the same, no matter Where you may find them. They all get lost, to be sure, so do Juniors, when they come for the first time to the Main Building. We won't tell on the Seniors! How proud we were to be Freshmen! What joy to own a real gym suit, and to wear a pink necktie with it! How blissful and dignified to be dubbed Miss, until the faculty learned our real names! Which one of us did not have a particular hobby, to ride upon all occasions, appropriate and otherwise, to let everyone know we were High School Girls',! . Then came the Sophomore year, when some of us thought we could aiord to descend from our dignified position as Freshies, and play Ring around a Rosy and Jumping Rope in the annex yard. We talked in stage whispers, for the benefit of the Freshmen, about geometry and equally elevating subjects, which were now ours to pursue. We no longer studied physical geography, but plunged into tracing the family relations of Johnny-jump-ups with a zest to be envied, and sported long family names in Latin, whenever the opportunity presented itself, and sometimes when it didn't. During the spring we made botany trips. Upon these excursions we got lost from our chaperons and munched chocolate buds until it was tim'e to go home, frequently omitting to collect specimens. And in the summer we collected trees in the vicinity of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and glued them on bristol board. They may be used in place of red plush albums, but are too slippery for

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if V I .. . , , , . . . .., i. . I .ii. .,. , before had the unusual combination been made. If we wished to make a chemical equation, we might add them and obtain good spirits plus tired bones. We ate Martha Washington candy, and brought some home with us. And lessons went begging! The excitement before the trip was exceeded only by that which followed it. We brought home with us White House paper-weights, to keep our essays from blowing out of the window after we have written them, and pencils with brooms on the other end, to brush the dust and tell-tale crubs from our desks, before the -teacher appears. Now we are A primes We did three landscapes in water colors during the summer. They are all master- pieces f?D. After the announcement that it would be necessary to pass an examination to enter Normal School, it was voted that we all commit suicide or get married. Somepreferred a la Elaine. But our curiosity got the better of us, we wanted to see what would happen when we should open the floodgates of our wide- info-rma- tion, and swamp the School Board, plus all the teachers in the city. Besides, it wouldn't be at all romantic for three hundred Elaines to do the same thing. The tale would lose interest by so much repetition. As I was saying, when they read our examination papers, the Board and all the teachers in influential positions will resign, and give their positions to us, the more competent. I have not decided which I want to b'e, Superin- tendent of Schools, or Principal of the Normal School. Mr. Baker, I suppose, will be the only one who will know more than we do, and in consequence be able to hold his position. Then, too, his popularity has to- be con- sidered. We can modestly say that none of us could hold his p-osition as successfully as he does. If all this comes to pass, it will do so only because of the splendid' opportunities which the Board has presented to us for acquiring knowledge. Our section pins are sehr gut, but our class rings are more than we expected. One of our peculiarities, as a class, is our extreme honesty UD. Some of our rings had diamonds CID instead of amethysts, so we sent them right back. , In a sub we gave a benefit, f'The Governor's Lady. Gur friends are still talking about the great success We had. This winter came our benefit dance. What a good time everyone had! And last, but not least, we made some money. MARTHA S. GILL.