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

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Whenever Bryn Mawr girls get together, some complain, they just gotta sing. There is step - singing, oral - singing, and dining-room singing (which probably works on the medieval principle that most idle chatter occurs at meals) so we can ' t blame those who ' ll look back on their college career as one long larkish warble. Big May Day was scrapped last year because too many agreed with Miss Robbins ' statement that it was energy wasted on a fertility cult . . . out of date 500 years ago. However, we still expose ourselves to a few sarcastic columns in the Philadelphia papers every first of May, and all the classes dance around May- poles set up on Merion Green and the seniors roll their hoops down Senior Row. ■ ;. Page seventeen

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Even though the Lantern Night tradition is as old as the college, anyone who thinks that she is singing an old Greek hymn has another thought coining. Pallas Athena was the class song of 1893, and Sophias is part of a Russian service by a man named Lyoff. But, it is true that the second class in college received its lanterns from the class of ' 89 in order to light them through the maze of the group system . However, as the system is no longer in force, and we simply major, we are sometimes at a loss as what to do with our lanterns. There are a number of red ones in various nooks and crannies around Haverford, and one we know of has even gone as far as Princeton. Parade Night, originating in the fall of 1911, was instituted in a different kind of spirit. It was substituted for a kind of rough-and-tumble Rush Night which was fast developing into an annual brawl, not suitable to young ladies. Hazing of the freshmen is now considered primitive and barbaric, and so today we work off our animal spirits by howling at the top of our lungs over the firemen ' s band and prancing like banshees around a bonfire. Page sixteen

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LEAGUE Don ' t worry, baby, I ' ll pay your fine. SELF - GOV. If you give young women self -government Bryn Mawr will be closed within six months, prophesied ex-president Eliot of Harvard. In spite of the odds, the first self-gov. in any women ' s college was organized at Bryn Mawr in 1892, and despite the girl who went before the board with the excuse for being late that the motor dropped out of her date ' s car, Self-Gov. is still going strong. Early rules were decorous. Stockings were not to be rolled down on any conditions and men were not admitted to plays because some of the actresses would be wearing trousers. Chaperon- age was strict, but in ' 17 a brother over 18 was recognized as a suitable chaperon, so long as Sis ' roommate was not along to tempt him. Bryn Mawr was the first women ' s college to allow smoking on campus, and because it was so liberal, as far back as ' 05 Bryn Mawr was thought fast and free. Rumors that the girls smoked, wined and gambled went hand-in-hand with its blue-stocking reputation. Even today sister colleges are aghast to learn that we can go out, if escorted, any and every night till 2. And we, self-conscious about our freedom, are contin- ually irked by the realization that seniors at Mt. Holyoke can have cars. This best argument in favor of this for us too is the worn-out condition of Haverford tires! In 1910 the Christian Association was born from the union of two organizations: The Chris- tian Union, a philanthropic club criticized as works without faith and the Bryn Mawr League for the Service of Christ, a religious organization equally criticized as faith without works. This occurrence caused such a burst of religious fervor that the student body marched in a joyful procession around campus, singing Onward Christian Soldiers at the top of their lungs. But by 1926, interest was lagging. At the end of their tether, the students suggested con- verting the Christian Association to the League for social services and religious activities on campus . Today, the religious activities are dele- gated to the Chapel Committee, and the League concentrates on social work on and off campus. So, after years of fumbling in the dark, the League has found its raison d ' etre and is here to stay. The League not only collects money for the Bryn Mawr Summer Camp and the Hudson Shore Labor School, but collects soda-jerkers, readers for the Blind School and counsellors for the Summer Camp. They send Red Cross workers to the Valley Forge Army Hospital, volunteers for the Home for Incurables and the Haverford Community Center. But, best of all, they super- vise the classes and carolling of the maids and porters, and direct the Gilbert Sullivan op- eretta that never fails to bring down the house. Page eighteen