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

Page 28 text:

M. Carey ' s Chicken It was my firm and determined purpose to keep it a dark secret. I had been brought up under the shadow of P. T. ' s greatness, and the prospect of entering Bryn Mawr stamped as her niece filled my soul with terror. No one shall know, I swore valiantly to myself. Then if I do anything dreadful, She will not be disgraced. Only her Secretary knows what passed between us in that first interview. If I were you, she said from the depths of her red velvet throne, I shouldn ' t lay too much emphasis on the fact that you are my niece. Oh innocent dream of childhood! I little knew the sleuthing instinct of Bryn Mawr. The first thing to foil my plans was The Neivs. A quarter of a column on the front page revealed my illustrious heritage in full to the charitable college eye. For four days I managed to dodge behind the fact that I was one of three M. Car (e)ys in the class. But on Sunday the race be- tween me and my identity began. I woke to find on my door a large parchment invi- tation to dinner at the Deanery. I could not refuse — that was evident — but how could I get there without being observed? And what could I say to Virginia Kneeland, who had asked me to a picnic at one o ' clock? I finally made an embarrassed exit from V. K. ' s room, progressed to the Deanery by way of Pen-y-groes and Yarrow, and slid past Ada ' s disapproving face into the dining room. After lunch I made the acquain- tance of four winged animals, six clawed beasts, and two bronze peacocks in the gar- den, and was introduced to sundry .pictures, whose painters I valiantly pretended to know. I was then wrapped in three rugs and deposited on the front seat of the Franklin. Our cyclone exit from Pembroke Arch almost caused the death of a fasci- nated group of my classmates, who stood staring after us with their mouths wide open. After missing Mr. Chandler ' s Saxon by an inch, we skidded into a group of dignified Seniors. I hesitated whether to bow grandly to Peg Thompson, or to crawl under the three layers of alligator-skin cover, and succeeded in doing neither. I breathed a sigh of relief when we reached the open country; it seemed safer. It was just five o ' clock when the delighted choir witnessed my hasty exit from the Franklin tonneau. I staggered through their midst, followed by that unmistakable voice: Millicent, don ' t forget to do your work regularly. The rest was lost as I tore madly down the path. The next night found me one of a group of Freshman who were being fed muggle by Beany Dubach, while she amused us with her vivid analogies between the Facultv and the animals adorning her room. She w r as outdoing herself in her description of the appropriateness of P. T. ' s Princeton Tiger, when she was clutched by a frantic hand from the rear, and Jinky ' s loud stage-whisper recounted my identity in full. Oh, unspeakable curse! Why was I born a member of the Thomas clan? The amus- ing but painful incidents of that year would fill a book. The Freshmen in Pern, had the inestimable privilege of eating with the Prominent Alumnae. I was always late -Title insisted on by the editors. 24

Page 27 text:

To Pembroke East Aristocracies are always conservative, and Pembroke East is no exception. We shall not dwell on the aloofness, the dignity, the chill repose that stamps the cast of Verc de Vere, for these have been characteristic long before 1920 came on the scene. We prefer to treat Pembroke from an angle that has become very popular recently, the psychologist ' s. If mental tests were not strictly sub rosa. we could show very interestingly how Pembroke exhibited Mediaeval reactions by replying ' ' hierarchy of the blessed angels, the sin of gluttony or heresy when we named certain less fortunate halls, for Pembroke has all the traits of the midmost of the Middle Ages. Nowhere does this show more clearly than in the way they look at the world. Stationary at the center stands Pembroke; around it revolves the rest of the cosmos. (We consider it more tactful not to mention the relative distances at which the other members of the system revolve.) They have never dreamed of evolution; they still await their Darwin, murmuring, Because a thing has been it always will be. We do not wish to seem personal in a scientific article, but when Miss says: Madame President, I move we go to chapel three times a week. You know chapel going is a tradition and we ought to keep it up. You have a case in point. The mediaeval position is most clearly defined in religious matters. While not exactly advocating an inqu isitorial policy, their attitude can hardly be called one of complete toleration. (For data on the subject, see minutes of the class meeting Feb- ruary 19, 1920. and February 24, 1920.) They mortify the flesh by going to all re- ligious meetings indiscriminately, and with a typical crusading zeal they rally around the Church Millicent. Pembroke East recognizes its own peculiar interest, and guests of the History Club are always entertained there at tea in order to have a chance to study a phase of past civilization at first hand. We regret to see, however, that modern western ideas are already encroaching and one of their number takes a more than lively inter- est in journalism for women. But the mass of the people are still true to their tradi- tions and it will be long before they realize that the world does not share their senti- ment: Better a carrot in Pembroke than ice-cream in Rock, or Radnor. From Rockefeller 23

Page 29 text:

to meals. At breakfast my hair was held up by three invisibles; at lunch I was covered with ink; at supper my collar was invariably coming off. And ever I could hear Miss Patty Thomas, in measured and monotonous tones, pointing me out to All Those Present as the President ' s Niece. One day, I returned to my room garbed only in a kimona to see Meenie escaping from the door with her hair in curlers — I entered to find Dr. Simon Flexner sitting on the window seat and P. T. measuring my wall for a desk. I did the only thing possible under the circumstances — rolled under the bed. Chapel was always a thrilling occasion. Every time She would come out with any- thing amusing or startling the entire audience would turn and look at me. What did they expect me to do? was not responsible. At Senior singing every time P. T. was mentioned, I was watched to see if I would jump. There are many other incidents which are stamped on my memory in letters of scarlet. I shall never forget my state of mind after the Fight in the village, for which I was partly if not directly responsible. The joy of combat carried me through Wednesday undisturbed, but the next morning I met Her coming to chapel, brandish- ing a newspaper, with fire in her eye, and I didn ' t stop running till I reached the Gym. Once my family visited me en masse. We migrated to the gym in a formidable proces- sion, and my brother and I marched up the aisle just behind P. T. to the re-echoing strains of Anassa Kata Kalo Kale, uttered loudly by my irreverent friends. I don ' t think my brother ever recovered. Oh! life was full of excitement in those days, and it has seemed very tame this year without her. I have been reduced to reading over and over again her letters from the oases of the African desert, and from Monte Carlo, and to listening to the innocent comments of Freshmen who know not the Dark Secret. Millicent Carey IiN THE SPOTLIGHT If I were but a debutante And lovely as could be, I would not mind a tiny bit If limelight fell on me. But when my hair is three long strings, And ink is on my face, And then they take my photograph, I call it a disgrace! D. E. P. 25