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

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Drives She told us that every loyal Bryn Mawr student would want to support the Gar- rett Memorial, and that we as Freshmen, with our reputation to make . It was Miss Helen Harris herself who thus appealed to our highest instincts, cooped up in one of our very first class meetings. We were young and gullible, and with an enthusiasm as eager as it was pathetic, we rolled up our sleeves and dedicated our- selves to various high callings — dish washing, rousing our elders after closing their windows and turning on their thermies, opening beds, running in lingerie ribbons, boot blacking — I espoused the last, ruining my fingernails, and flunking my re- quired science on the strength of it. And then, one sacred day, the Fire Fairy rose in Undergrad meeting and desired to commend the Freshmen for being the first to raise their quota. A little later the first flush of our enthusiasm had perceptibly paled when the above mentioned amiable lady informed Milly that the fund still lacked a few hundred dollars, and since we were the youngest class in college, the least that we could decently do was to supply the deficit. I, for one, flunked required English in helping to fulfill the obligation. Anyway, we consoled ourselves — the money is raised. Our first act on arriving Sophomore year was to subscribe with passionate patriotism to the creation of a Service Corps. I don ' t know where we thought the money was coming from, but with the Alumnae looking confidently to the Under- graduate body, and the Undergraduate body looking reverently to V. K., we ignored all such sordid considerations. The campus burst into commercialism as it bursts into measles. This time I took in mending. To be sure, it left me no time to study Minor Ec, which I flunked, but then what was Ec. compared to a Service Corps? I have hazy recollections of stocking darning, an abortive public speaking course, marking the ath- letic field, (I contrived to smash the baby carriage in the process), and subscribing to Liberty Bonds like a drunken sailor. Thrift Stamps were exposed temptingly for sale outside the dining room doors, while Belgian babies and French fileuls were com- manding tremendous prices, in accordance with the supply and demand theory that I was so painfully trying to learn. I bought, subscribed, adopted; and late in May, my family was besieged with frenzied telegrams for enough money to get home. What happened to my Bt.g an baby I can ' t say. I don ' t recall just what folly we committed ourselves to next. But I do re- member signing a pledge for a vast sum of money — and then forgetting it. Anon came the Victory Loan; and with at least one Liberty Bond unpaid for, I willingly subscribed, trusting that the Lord would provide. Apparently I had wearied Providence with a too blind faith. Anyway, one day in spring Darth asked me for my pledge. As always happens, it had slipped from my mind as completelv 21

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One of our very pleasantest recollections occurs in connection with an apology, made after Hel had been locked out of her room. Hel, through long practice, had be- come as adept at receiving apologies as 1920 was at making them, but on that occasion she outdid herself in graciousness. I cannot understand why she did not immediately win over to the ranks of her admirers the hardened reprobates whom she encountered. Unfortunately, they remained in the group of those who detested her, for as every- body knows, 1920 could be divided into two distinct groups: Those Who Loved and Those Who Loathed. This classification included everyone in the class. I can ' t see why Hel should have felt as she did on the subject of practical jokes. There is a traditon that ' 17 had once been fond of them, but the story may have been invented by their enemies. But at least in Hel ' s case, there should have been some gratitude, for without 1920s attentions, how could she have stayed on the map? For the matter of that, how could 1920 have stayed on the map without Hel? Now I come to a very sad phase of Hel ' s career. After she had gotten her A. B., a mad ambition for a higher degree possessed her and she rashly returned to the scene of her former glory. Alas, her throngs of satellites had gone. Even the con- tinued devotion of Miss Nearing and those prolonged kisses that !we heard through the door of the Prophet ' s Chamber (where Hel slept) were not like The old, old: love we knew of yore. Even Corny showed signs of falling off. and the sandalled train had gone long since. Hel, since 1918, has been an unlaid ghost. Let us speak no evil of the dead ! Conundrum When ' 19 once again we see ' 20 is glad as glad can be, I wonder now — can someone tell, Why don ' t we feel the same toward Hel? Doris Pitkin They didn ' t. PERIODS OF EXERCISE When we first came to B. M. C. We only had to sign up three. When no ' jw at exercise we rage, We call that time the Golden Age. Some distant day, the students sad Will weep, ' Twas only four they had. D. E. P. 20

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as the money had slipped from my checking account. So it happened that the next day I went to town, obscured behind a heavy veil, to hock a Liberty Bond. History repeats itself. Again we are in the midst of an Endowment Fund. And when it is for $2,000,000. it is on a truly grand scale. Let us be generous, however, and acknowledge that the Alumnae are doing the actual money getting. It is for us to display our charms to the public and make them believe that superwomen are a species worthy of maintenance. (How wise not to leave that part to the Alumnae.) There are, of course, minor drives that flourish with unabated vigor, as when we follow the red line in Taylor. And that reminds me that I have signed a pledge — I forget how much. Alice Rood Swinburne to His Hockey Stick stick in my hand held so tightly, stick that I smite with and use, Of fabulous fields I dream nightly, Of spots where no coaches abuse: 1 am sick of the pain and the passion Where the first with the first team doth strive, And I know it is not in the fashion, But let us seek Team No. Five! There no wrath of the rampant shall wake us, Nor cries of the captain, nor team, No powers athletic shall shake us To break the delight of our dream: Motionless, moonsmitten, marvelous. No one shall think us alive; Let us leave the first team with its laurels For the lilies and languors of Five! Doris Pitkin 22