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

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.. aitee at JSrpn ££ator IN reading my diary over. I set-. under March 15, 1907, the day of our Freshman Show, the words: Lots of people think it the cleverest thing given at college. That sounds truly like ll»10, and might be said to be somewhat prejudiced, hut even the Typ says it was one of the best plays ever given in oolkg We think so, of course; and of all the marvelous feats that we have performed in college, I think we will all agree that Alice at Hryn Mawr gave us most fun and means most to us. even now. in the dav when Susanne assembled her show committee to decide between the glaring Dctihcigh Melodrama and Mary Worthingtoifs upt application of Alice in Wonder- land to Hryn Mawr, we lived Freshman Show. In the true spirit of 1910, every member in the class tried for the part of Alice : and Jeanne and U tty still speak with tears in their eyes of the afternoon when their tiny corridor was overflowing with l ' .Mo. dressed in short white frocks, pink sashes and socks, and with hair down their hacks. The choice was diffi- cult, but Habhy proved to be all that was most ingenue and delightful. The rest of the caste was not so difficult, and soon every idle moment was spent learning parts. Such was our industry that P ' ames. our idlest, was found to be restraining her propensity for social tubs, and using those few daily moments repeating her lines to the four porcelain walls. Copies of the play had to be made, and for days Susanne ' s floor was covered with sprawling figures, scratching off parts. The costumes, of course, were most elaborate, and none but the ingenious heads of 1910 could have devised the ways and means necessary to manufacture them within the few hours allowed to each member of the class. Division of labour was carried to such a fine point that it wss Boggsie ' i one and only task to make tails for the snimals. so

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to pass the time of day upon a chance encounter might get an answer in kind, but such wanton exposure was at one ' s own risk; furthermore, we were never to telephone. What on earth, I wondered, should I ever want to telephone her about; little did I foresee the exigencies that beset the path of Required English Composition. Dear class-mates, now that you are four years wiser, can you conceive of yourself in the impious act of asking Jennie please to tell Miss Fullerton to step to the telephone. I shrivel before the picture my wayward imagination has summoned. But Miss Hoyt reiterated, we were never to telephone to Low Buildings — unless, indeed, struck down on our way to an interview. Even then it was better etiquette to send a committee down in a carriage to wait upon the outraged interviewer — not with any hope of propitiating her, however. Then Miss Hoyt passed out a key to the abbreviations that would be used in correct- ing our themes, but neglected to elucidate the situation by another key for deciphering their penmanship. For my part, I basked cheerfully for half a semester in the assurance of an H. C. before I learned that the sprawling SS all over the vacant half of my themes wasn ' t an 88. Miss Hoyt went on to tell us the one and only way to get papers deferred : Write a note to Miss Crandall on your best paper, recopy until without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, deliver in person, standing on one foot to show you aren ' t presumptuous; Miss Crandall with then tell you coldly that she has nothing to do with it, and will send you to Miss Maddison ; you will seek out Miss Maddison, and, in front of one or two secretaries and stray members of the faculty, you will say how you haven ' t been very well, and that Miss Crandall sent you, etc. ; and Miss Maddison will look at you as if she thought you had come to throw a bomb into the inner office, and will tell you icily that the office has no power — no. After which you return home and write the said theme. This, as I too distinctly remember, is the one and only official course for the deferring of English papers. The rest of the morning and the next six general meetings, together with intervening division meetings, were taken up with the exposition of the proper manner of folding and endorsing an English theme. Very simple? Well, it takes a Bryn Mawr English Reader to make you feel that just about the most complicated and all-round tricky job you ever had to turn out was the time you wrote your own name across the top of a page of foolscap. I may say that, stimulated by Miss Hoyt ' s circumlocution, the Class of 1910 invented seven- teen different ways, and all were wrong except Katharine Liddell ' s, to whom, for her per- spicuity, Miss Hoyt promptly gave High Credit for the Course, which she certainly earned. Ruth George. 19

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Helen Hurd and Janet Howell spent every free minute performing wonderful tricks with brush and paint, and, needless to say, the scenery was most realistic. We didn ' t realise it, however, at the time — we didn ' t realise anything except that it was work, work, work, and then we didn ' t see how things could be finished. Everyone chipped in earnestly and eagerly, and with a few rehearsals scattered here and there, in less than a week, the curtain was ready to go up. Four o ' clock that aftcnoon of the performance, on realising that there was no way of making our glorious dragon-fly visible as it soared upward in the black realms of an unlighted stage, I had hurried to town for an unknown quantity named luminous paint. No wholesale dealer had heard of it, and finally some divine power directed my steps to a strange basement paint-shop, looking more like a Chinese junk-shop. There the valuable article was found, and with trembling steps I arrived at college, just in time to paint the precious animal before the curtain rose. What was my horror, as we broke forth in song in honour of our beauteous dragon-fly, to discover no sign of the insect. I could see Mary Boyd and Pinky Ashton pulling the ropes, but no insect. The paint, after all, wasn ' t working I After that everything went wonderfully. Alice won the hearts of the audience; Kate ' s Baked potatoes yesterday! Baked potatoes to-morrow! Always baked potatoes to-day! and even Jeanne ' s and Peggy ' s jokes about Taylor ' s tardiness — stale at that stage to us — brought down the house. All went well till the black list animals entered and stumbled around the stage, quite unable to see through their masks, and endeavouring to do a little of everything, sang their plaintive song, keeping time with dumb-bell exercises. In their breathless exit they quite overlooked Humpty Dumpty, and overstepped him as well, knock- ing him flat. The dances under Pat Murphy ' s management — rather a joke, don ' t you think, consider- ing Pat ' s rapid promotion in the dancing classes? — were all that is delightful; and the take- off on the gym class most amusing. The babies and kittens were adorable, and Bill ' s Cheshire smile kept the gym in gales of laughter. The whole play went as on greased wheels — need it be said, with Elsa as a stage manager? and soon we were singing Thou Gracious Inspiration! the ninety of us crowding on the stage at once, overwhelmed with the glorious success, and Betty Swift, having lost part of her usher ' s costume in her excite- ment, standing in her nightie arrayed. That Alice was a great success, no one can deny, and 1910, of course, appreciated the fact even more than the highly-appreciative audience. Annie Jones, thrilled even by playing the accompaniments, rushed behind the stage and, clasping poor, little, dazed Cabby, 91