College of St Marys of the Springs - Yearbook (Columbus, OH)

Page 48 text:

N041 us II KNQQII pw!! V PWIC a NWI! f XW46 2 lzwlg WHA There, too, were taught the useful arts, The power of speech, whereby the hearts And minds of men may be so moved, That in themselves they see the things That other men have been and done,- The wondrous power of make-believe. And one there was. whose constant place It was, to so unfold the plot, That all might know each actor's part And all the story's sequence. So I, like Chorus, in the days of old, Stand here before you in that self same partg Our hearts shall here again unfold The drama of our early lives. To marlc each act and entrance here, Shall be my part, and you shall be The actors and the audience,--all in one. I pray you then, be ready, for the act is on. SCQIIQ l The first to come before you and to claim The sweet attention of your hearts and eyes. Is Madge, and she with magic skill and power Shall wave her wand and lo! behold! The mask of years shall drop away, A miracle shall come to pass,-- For age and youth shall so confounded be, By her strange, subtle power, That those whose years do bid them pause Shall be as children, in this very hour. untold Response to Coast--- Reminiscences of School Davs ml'S. mddQC 0'DOIllI2ll Cl7lIl1lllQS After all Alma lVlater's most careful training. I find myself prefacing this--which l hope to be my masterful effort-by a transgression against the usages of good form and against the canons of good literature. With an apology to Oliver Wendell Holmes for this parody on his celebrated alumnal poem. l rush madly on: ls there any old girl In this gay, giddy whirl? Ifithere is lead her out, With small fuss about: Hang the Almanac's cheat And the catal08UC'S Spitei Old Time is a Liar. H We're eighteen tonight. 41

Page 47 text:

SOUTHWEST VIEW OF COLLEGE A RECEPTION ROOM

Page 49 text:

We f 1-We li We lc Wa we :We We lf :Wa We You young girls, with the--Beyond the Alps lies Italy, over the sea is Spain,-lighb of-promise-in-your-dreamy-eyes, are wondering why your beautiful vision is blurred by the appearance of an older one trying to act a gay and giddy part, and she, the mother of sevenl and the oldest a l9l l graduate of her own Alma Mater. But she would have you remember, O Youthful Maiden, that the woman heart is perennially young. But there, we did not come here to preach nor to teach, but dutifully to respond, and our dearest wish is, that your school days at old St. Mary's contain half the happiness that these reminiscences are bringing back to us. ' 1' Here you are, with your eighteen-year later curriculum, your Paris styles, your many pleasures, and splendid opportunities, and I know very well that the first thing you will do will be to make fun of my graduating gown. ll was cream colored and made with a basque! but in one way, it excelled yours-it had a capacious pocket in it. You with your vacation time crowded to the utmost, with motoring parties, house parties, bridge parties and dancing parties, are smiling at our holiday time--jogging down on the Sugar Grove road behind old Dobbin, our picnics, our euchre games and our occasional parlor dance. You may even think our course of study old fogy, but we practiced our music just as unfaithfully, conned our Latin exercise just as faultily, read the great English masterpieces with the same misunderstanding as you yourselves, and as all careless girlhood have done. But the study of Church doctrine, the ethical training which made for Chris- tian, Catholic womanhood-these have remained to be our guide and defense long after the accomplishments have been gone from our minds, busy with the weighty cares which life in its fuller meaning brings to us all. I came here today to do something really splendid. When I received word that I was expected to respond to a toast. all the dormant vanity in my nature was aroused, and I made up my mind that the brilliant, witty, scintillating remarks which were to fall from my lips would be quoted both by word of mouth, and in St. Mary's Year Book for ages to come. But alas, the words, so brilliant, so witty, so scintillating would not come. They seem so easy to say, when one is buoyed up byi vanity. And as if to help out unkind Fate, Mark Twain's words came to my mind: By an error in the planets, things go wrong, end first in the world. Invitations. which a brisk, young fellow should get are delayed. and impeded, and obstructed, until they are fifty years over due when they reach him. When I was a boy in Missouri, he remarks, I was always on the lookout for invitations, but they always miscarried, and went wander- ing through the aisles of time, and now-they are arriving when I am old and rheumatic, and can't travel, and must lose every chance. Young women, I am not fifty: neither am I old nor rheumaticl I remarked previously that I did not come to preach, but this patronage of St. Mary's is so overwhelming, and like Banquo's ghost will not clown, so that when I failed to be witty, I tried to be wise: but failing in both, I am back with you, dear old Convent girls, to join in the march of the hopes, the ambitions, the joyousness, the purity, and the loveliness. timed to the heart beats of glorious eighteen. I Illltfllldt It hath been said for was it but a dream, That Music, that hath power to charm, Is not a common earthly thing. 42