Mary Baldwin College - Bluestocking Yearbook (Staunton, VA)

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TIIK AUGUSTA SEMINARY ANNUAL. 23 — nothing. We warn one of them that there is never a rose without a Thorn. To Laura Hagood and Mary Irwin, our painters, — as it is only a question of time before they reach the ultima thule of artistic aspirations, and make Claude and Turner, and all such lesser lights, wild with envy, we leave the canvas and the brush. May their clouds all other clouds dispel ! For Pearl McCreery and Mary Jones, we predict a bright literar} ' career. We give them the blue ribbon, but beg that they do not affect the blue stocking. To Evelyn Morton we give a small time-piece, — that runs a little fast. Time waits for no man. •• For Nora Simpson, There ' s pansies, that ' s for thoughts. Betty Coffee will be a journalist, Eliza Anderson and Eloise Butt fashion-reporters; the former also a stenographer, and our zealous and untiring business-manager, Mary Guy, proprietor of The Staunton Boomer. To these we offer the scroll and pen. In less than three weeks the class of ' 91 will be but a thing of the past. Before the curtain falls, however, we hope to make a last appearance before the public to receive and bear off in triumph the long coveted sheep-skins. As we retire under cover of the d eafening applause of the assembled thousands, the mantle of our wit and learn- ing will descend upon the shoulders of the Intermediates. May the} wear it gracefully and well ! Ring down the drop, — The Act is o ' er ! A. Lucille Foster. Since our Class -Prophet, Lucille Foster, who has so generously showered upon us, kind wishes, and valuable legacies, has stolen from Apollo, the gift of prophecy; from Mercury, the god of eloquence, her glorious talent; has thieved away Cupid ' s own eyes, while the little god, in con- sequence must ever more be blind, there is nothing left, which, we, poor mortals, can bequeath to her, except our very heartiest wishes for her success and happiness in life.

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22 THE AUGUSTA SEMINARY ANNUAL. tributes of both the Muses and the Graces, for take us all in all, you ne ' er shall look upon our like again. Let me now call forth individually, the members of this band, and leave with them the last will and testament of the class-prophet. First, to our song-bird, the fair representative of St. Cecelia ' s art, Duncan Williams, we bequeath a new and rare song, which, we are sure, will show to the best advantage her notes of linked sweetness long drawn out, Treat it quietly — it is sacred: Little Annie Rooney. To the book-worm, Edna Baer, that unto Logik hadde longi-go, we present for summer reading, three dime- novels from the Sea-side Library : The Advancement of Learning, Hobbes ' Leviathan, and Sartor Resartus. To our wit, Margaret Epes, with deepest gratitude we dedicate our most precious possession — the almighty Semi- nary joke: Caution ; Too frequent use may dull the point. To our Army-girl, Emma Baldwin, our sole represen- tative of the Wild West, we give an Arabian steed, and a tin sword. May she never quail (?) before the Bomb-shells of life ! A palette and brush is our legacy to the artist of the class. Sue Stribling. However, let us give a parting injunction not to paint things red. To the two who remain of this ' ' Dream of Fair Women , ' ' Mary Guy, Whose due feet never fail, To walk the studi- ous cloister ' s pale, and Lizzie Hanger, a scholar, and a ripe and good one, as a fitting gift we leave a bust of Pallas with the bird of wisdom. Besides the eight members of the class -proper, that is the applicants for Literature certificates, there are other members of our circle who all deserve more than a passing mention. Therefore, we overstep the bounds of a con- ventional class-legacy, and read what is recorded in the tes- tament for them. To the beauties, Mamie Richmond and Eva Bowe, we present two mirrors, (triple-plated,) — Look, and looking, look again, For thou mayst see what none e ' er saw before

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24 THE AUGUSTA SEMINARY ANNUAL. News from ttie Old Girls. NO. I. T HAVE BEEN ASKED to write something about the - - old girls, at least that rather disrespectful term is the only one that occurs to me as the title for my items of gossip. Perhaps the oldest would be better pleased, if fol- lowing the example of a recent writer to the Central Presby- terian, who wittily described Staunton as a town full of lunatics and school-girls, I were to dub the old girls es- caped lunatics. ■• The new girls, who are now reveling in the exquisite humor of time worn jokes directed against the Seminary, would call that escaped a peculiarly appropriate adjective, but honestly, though you all won ' t believe me I know, after one leaves the dear old Sem., that oft sneered at dear comes straight from the heart. It is not that By the river of Babylon we sit down and weep when we remember Zion; this world has not yet become to us the Babylon, the wisdom of the oldest would represen t it. Some of our shadowy dreams have shapened into pleasant realities; still as one and two years have rolled away, the wounds that Conic Sections and Gildersleeve inflicted have healed, leaving, instead of .scars, the most soothing conviction that we wei ' e the stars in the school firmament, a conviction greatly confirmed by the flattering statement of our home papers that each one of us had been graduated with the highest honors in everything. And then I wonder whether, after a while, the memory of the light hearts and unsullied beliefs of those sheltered school girl days may not come to us in wistful thoughts that have, The lingering charm of a dream that has fled, Ivike the rose ' s breath when the rose is dead, Like the sunset glories that follow the snn. Like the echo that comes when the tune is done, Everything tender and ever3fthing fair That was, and is not and yet is there. I think I would better tell all I know about the girls, and a little of all I have heard ; to tell one-half of what I have heard would be a colossal undertaking, possible only