Bryn Mawr College - Bryn Mawr Yearbook (Bryn Mawr, PA)

Page 15 text:

Banner tg )t When Banner Night arrived we knew only vaguely what to expect, except that we were to receive our proud banner, glowing already with the hereditary fame of the Red. But 1907, with its tutelary wisdom, saw fit to enhance the occasion with the jolliest of shows. When first we burst into the gym (for in those good old days there were no gradual and lingering arrivals; enthusiasm banked us deep against the back door, half an hour early), when first we streamed in, we found our- selves in the midst of a Country Fair that was simply buzzing with rural and fakir life. There were jugglers and fortune-tellers, freaks and celebrities of all kinds — even including Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt. There were booths for cider and apples, peanuts and doughnuts ; racimose clusters of balloons ; grab-bags with clever pres- ents and cleverest rhymes — all the delights peculiar to a country fair, and many more peculiar to 1907. Then suddenly we found ourselves seated in orderly rows — and the fair had melted like magic into a play. The Princess was our first experience of an orig- inal show, and of 1907 ' s powers of burlesque. There is nothing like burlesque when it is produced by Tink ' s pen and interpreted by Eunice ' s acting. In our parox- ysms of merriment and applause, we forgot everything, even to hold onto our prizes, and silently one by one, in the distant gymnasium rafters, blossomed our bright balloons, the fragments of the Juniors. After the curtains had closed on the sealed fate of the Princess, there came an expectant silence, and when they parted again it was to disclose to our eyes for the first time our great Red Banner, — the banner which we ' ve watched fondly ever since and are watching still, as it shrinks and fades, growing more enhanced with romance year by year. Pleasaunce Baker.

Page 17 text:

£0ap 2E ap The May Day Fete, arriving in accordance with the well-ordered cycle of the Bryn Mawr universe, found our class in its first irresponsible months of college life when all things alike look rosy. It is no worthy tribute to May Day, therefore, that we liked it immensely and that it holds for most of us, since we have forgotten our weariness and our trials, memories quaintly colored with romance. Of course there were some chosen spirits whose dramatic ability was early dis- covered, and who were made to flinch in every Freshman sensibility while being coached into roles of Elizabethan brilliancy; and others, responsible characters, who bore on their shoulders the burdens of management. But for the most part we danced and wound garlands with care-free hearts, enjoying only the pleasanter aspects of the preparations for May Day. Even one long, nagging day of rehearsal did not daunt us, and in the evening we danced like elves in the cool moonlight to the music of our own tinkling bells. But soon after the beautiful, fair dawn of the first of May, we began to be annoyed by the arrival of relatives, who came in large numbers, and with charac- teristic promptness, to condole with us because we were distractedly busy. But with the conviction that it is an ill wind that blows nobody any good, we set mothers and aunts to sewing bells on our caps and pleating our ruffles, while all available fathers and brothers were lured to the battlements of the towers, from which, at the peril of their lives, they were induced to hang out banners at the encouragement of dairy- maids, court ladies, and clowns below. Besides these difficulties we had trials even harder to bear ; the amiable cupids began to remonstrate that the sun had an evil, blistering effect on their necks, which, after all, their ambrosial locks left but poorly protected ; then for the first time it oc-