Rockford College - Recensio / Cupola Yearbook (Rockford, IL)

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high tenor. She did not know, yet she was glad she had heard the serenade. Then, when Goodnight, Ladies, was followed by a last cheer for Rockford and a final tribute to that neigh- boring college, she turned sleepily toward the hall to dream that she was a Junior throwing a Senior's commencement roses from the Gym. window to a football eleven in shining yellow suits, singing in the road below. So, in her dream, she had her wish and was once more a part of that eventful and joyful College world. She was no longer the despised or respected Old Girl. -M. P. 1. -.O O .'o ' 9: O P hfqaigg z s 1 944.531 n A . iv S1 il ffff fill 1. 212 i pl 1 wg gg :fr fi 7 ' tif , I 331' f,?.g,,.:gg 3 J' 'A ffl? Ngo . sigh' If 5 l , 1 gl 've f I 5, 3315? t- Slg . 0 2. 1:1 o q-Figs: . JI' s.b.' ,lv t V. Q :Ash ' L. v HR. ' ' '51 5331-1 ' 13A

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she had felt forlorn but not forsaken, for she had known that twenty-three others were in the same plight. Company certainly is an antidote for misery. But she had lacked even this poor conso- lation when four years later she had left behind her not only home, but her dear Alma Mater as Well, and had stood for the first time facing her classes The ordeal of being the 'fnew teacher came vividly back to her. She saw herself on that first Monday morning, standing at the head of the long flight of stairs as that endless stream of nameless humanity filed curiously past her. She could still feel their searching gaze noting the details of her white shirtwaist and black tie. She could almost hear their comments as to the length of her skirt and the way she Wore her hair. She wondered if they knew immediately that she had never taught before. Does the college Freshman suffer such pangs? But that first month had at last dragged itself out, and gradually those giggling girls and awk- ward boys had become her appreciative friends and trusted comrades. It was they who had in some measure filled the place of those other friends back in old Rockford. But blue Mondays and restless Fridays no longer troubled the Old Girl. She was back in her former haunts. To be sure, the Freshmen had regarded her with cool indifference and had won- dered how long ago she had been there. But that mattered very little, for many of her old friends were back, and, although she knew she was no longer a part of the college life, yet she felt athome. The room she had was not hers, it was a long, narrow room on the second floor which looked bare enough in the white light of the June moon. Not a poster, not a photograph, relieved the monotony of bunch after bunch of staring red carnations: the closet had no curtains: the bureau was without a cover, yet all this made her feel that she belonged here, for, like the college family proper, she was allowed to make the best of inconveniences so that the older old girls might occupy the more habitable guest rooms. , l-low dear it all was to her! Yet there was a change. The question which had so agitated the girls in Middle Hall that morning was not so vital to her as it had been a year ago: or, at least, now she could see both sides so plainly that she wondered how she could ever have cared so much either one way or the other. So this is my first anniversary, she mused: in two more years I shall be even less closely bound to the girls personally, but perhaps all the more closely to the Alma Mater herself, whose personality is the sum total of all those who have been sheltered within her warm walls. l-lere the subdued tuning of banjos interrupted her meditation, and from the front steps floated the familiar strains of that old serenade, She Sleeps, My Lady Sleeps. As the melody of those fresh young voices sounded in the quiet campus, now proclaiming that they'd been workin' on the railroad, and now that they were loyal to their own Alma Mater, the girl in her bare room felt for the first time alone, for this was not for her. She knew that up in the library was gathered a group of whispering girls who could distinguish whose was the rich baritone voice, and whose the l2

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lN51gMNj.ll all I R-o- c -it - F- o-R-o R..i,....R..i,..i.R..i,... W... Glee Club past year marked the beginning of a new enterprise at Rockford College, the f. AW organization of a glee club, consisting of about sixty voices, trained by Mrs. Daisy Force 'sg Scott, head of the department of vocal music, assisted by Miss Parsons as accom- 5 Jg. panist. In addition to singing at all college functions, the club made three public 5,2 I L9 appearances during the year. The first was a vesper service in the Second Congrega- ' W-ig.. tional Church of Rockford at which Mrs. Scott, Mr. George Nelson l-folt and Miss Mae ' 119 V Snyder assisted as soloists. This vesper service was repeated one week later at the First Congregational Church. The third appearance was an Old Polk's concert given inthe Second Congregational Church. The club was assisted in this concert by Mrs. Scott, Mrs. Bollman, Mr. Myron Barnes, Mr. Carl Ross, Mr. Ross, Mr. Charles Olson and Mr. Harold Clark. The success of the first year in the history of the organization has been due to the sympathetic and capable leadership of Mrs. Scott, and to the able accompanist, Miss Parsons. The club has contributed largely to the musical and social life of the college. .G Fireside Talks lsn't it Shakespeare or Mark Twain, who says in fine irony that eventually a woman's hap- piness centres in a fireside and a cat? Could Shakespeare have peered into the future and have seen our fireside and our cat, wouid he have made that caustic generalization? We wonder. If Mr. Clemens could have spent a happy evening with us at our Friday evening talks, and maybe could have petted Miss Kingsburys prize tabby, and could have thawed and beamed under the irresistible charm of a crackling blaze and a homey, happy lot of girls, would he, could he, go out into the cold, cold world and freeze into his old, cynical self again, and say trite things of a cat and a fireside and a woman's happiness? Hardly! Our fireside talks are the best evenings in the week. There is a certain charm in a fire place, a homey atmosphere, that makes everyone happy and contented and genial. It has been our great pleasure to be entertained during the past year by Mrs. Etta Mardin, on Education in Turkey, Prof. Towney, of Beloit, on The Epic of the Inner 1.ife3 Prof. Hat field, of Northwestern, on New Wine in Old Bottles, james Speed on Nature Study, Dr Dana Munro, of the University of Wisconsin, on Student Lite in the Middle Agesf' and Mrs. Alice Peloubet Norton, of the University of Chicago, on The Place of Domestic Science in the College Curriculumf' thus giving us a more beautiful perspective of lifeg showing us a broader world in science, and giving us a better knowledge of things than we could ever gain alone. So we can all stand as the proving exception to that sarcastic statement, of doubtful origin, about a girl, a cat and a fireside. 14 i i ., ie. ,S ' l awhxi A