Auburn High School - Follies Yearbook (Auburn, IN)

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SOPHOMORE CLASS. Harrison Rohrbaugh, Verah Myers, Mildred Wilson, Ilif Brown, Grace Hines, Esther Baxter, Leo Scott, Velma Suman, Alice Rakestraw, Hazel Platter, Burgess Fitch, Amber Quince, George Emanuel, Fay Tucker.

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alee At eon mt OP FI Coy By RUTH B. KEERAN ew ee ee ey, =D cS = AvsurN, Inp., JUNE 2, 1929. My Dear Frienp, Miss B—, Tonight I find it impossible to erase from memory the events of twenty-five years ago. I wonder if you remember as well as I that it is just that long since we, eleven girls of 1904, re- ceived our diplomas from the Auburn High School. Since then the wheel of time has revolved and its revolution has brought the members of the class to their various destinations, toward which we resolutely set our faces June 2, 1904. There was that mixed feeling of joy and sadness that those who have experienced saying good bye to school days can best define; joy because life with its possibilities was before us and we thought of the words of our motto, ‘ Excellency or Nothing,’’ and | think we all silently resolved that night to keep this thought in mind and by using the weak powers which God had given us reach the highest goal attainable. However, above all our ambitions was that mutual deep feeling ofsilent sadness as the thought came that the time had come to cut the bonds of that pleasant class fellowship which had marked twelve long years of our school life. How we talked it over that night. How we dreaded to say good bye to the good times which a school girl alone understands how to have. We seemed to think that all was over until some one quoted that little stanza, thinking it especially applicapable to our case. « Dreamer, waiting for darkness with sorrowful drooping eyes, Linger not in the valley bemoaning the day that is done, Climb the eastern mountains and welcome the rosy skies, Never was the setting so fair as the rising sun.”’ But I must stop my soliloquy, for that is not my purpose in this letter. It has recently been my great pleasure to learn the whereabouts ofall the spinsters of 1904, and thought you would be inter- ested in hearing of them too. I met several of the girls, for which I must still call them, recently at Washington, D. C., where I went to attend the inauguration. I arrived at Wash- ington the night of the third of March, and went to tne hotel. The next morning as I was in the dining hall I was attracted by the appearance of a young lady and an elderly gentleman at a table opposite my own. ‘There was a facination about the young lady I could not resist for J thought I had seen her somewhere. Later | encountered the same people. ‘The gentlemen was a very distinguished looking man and as I came upon them, a gentlemen whom | knew to be our

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The STAR state senator stepped up to him and shaking him by the hand said, « Well Judge, so you have them home at last.’’ I soon learned that this was the chief justice of the U. S., and when the daughter said with the sweetest voice I have ever heard that she was going to Indiana in a few days to join her mother, who was at Auburn visiting girlhood friends, my curiosity became aroused, but J soon had it satisfied when I learned that this was the daughter of our old friend Zoe Gibford. learned that mother and daughter had been abroad for about I atterward three years while the daughter was cultivating her voice. That day I attended the inauguration and I only wish you could have been there. It was an event which I shall never forget. It brought tears to the eyes of many and still I could not tell why. After having been conducted to the white house by a splendid escort, in which detachments of the regular troops took part, Miss Joy Shutt, laying her hand upon the Bible, took that oath which has been taken thirty-four times betore and for the first time by alady. The inaugural address was given from the eastern portico of the white house ina voice so clear and distinct that it could well be heard by the vast multitude. The American people certainly should be proud of their government, for have they not something to be proud of, Miss Joy Shutt as President, and Miss Julia Mott Hodge as Vice President. The next day I thought I would doa little sight seeing. I oy first went to the government printing office and after visiting the press and also the composing rooms I was ushered into the editor’s private office and there seated in the office, opposite the editor, a lady, who the moment | entered rushed up to me and shook hands so familiarly. I could not remember ever having met her before until she laughingly placed her card in my hand upon which was engraved, ‘‘Senatrix Swander.’’ I knew Miss Swander had gone west immediately after finishing school, but I never supposed for a moment that her purpose was the study of law. But I understand that she won such honors in which she attended that she was elected to fill Miss Swander told me that she intended starting for a visit to her old home the law school the vacancy made by Senator Smoot of Utah, the next day. I had not intended returning so soon but thought I would accompany her. However, | wanted to visit Washington’s monument so we decided to return via Mt. Ver- non. We spent about one-half day at Mt. Vernon and while there we noticed a group of sight seers among whom was a lady We both spoke of her, saying she looked so strangely familiar but could not place her. At last we both spoke of Floride Lackey, but thought it could with dark wavy hair and blue eyes. not be she, but we were mistaken for at that moment she recog- nized us and then we spent the remainder of the afternoon with her, She told us that she was mistress of a country seat in Florida. Her husband but she said that Was not with her,