St Ignatius College - Ignatian Yearbook (San Francisco, CA)

Page 21 text:

Alma maint anh the Mugs Brain hy ily: Autlmr at the Alumni Banqurt, Nun. EE, 1511 - i -. li l T happened, not so very long ago, That Alma Mater, always keen for knowledge, Chanced in an idle hour to glance through A catalogue of St. Ignatius College. You're all familiar with the book in question 5 It's issued at the time of graduation- Contains a mass of stuff you've never read, Compiled in fact for strangers' admiration. A prosy pamphlet full of names and figures, High sounding courses, Greek and Latin data, With lists of prizes, teachers, scholarships And quite a lot of other useless chatter. Turning the leaves at random Alma Mater Came to the list of those who had degrees, Arranged by years in uninviting rows Of staid A. M.'s and quite as staid A. B.'s. Now Alma Mater, if the truth be told, Although a creature oft by poets sung, Is not a blushing sweet-and-twenty girl- The brutal truth is, she's no longer young. 'Tis not polite to talk of ladies' ages, And yet her birth the records sternly Hx g Though well preserved, unwrinkled, rather pretty, She's not a year this side of fifty-six! Being thus far advanced in years our Alma Is gifted with a tireless verbosity,

Page 20 text:

Photo by Bushnell

Page 22 text:

IGNATIAN And being true daughter to her mother Eve, Is not untinged with female curiosity. Small wonder then that as she idled o'er The prosy book of which I've just made mention, The list of graduates spread page on page In stern array, attracted her attention. She read the names in rather listless fashion And as she read a curious suggestion Obtruded o-n her active woman's brain, Framing itself in something like this question: In all this roster of imposing names Drawn from all countries underneath the sun, ' I wonder which of all these alien races May claim to be the most illustrious one? I read here names Italian, Irish, Spanish, Names French, names German and names Japanese, All sorts of names in fact-and so I wonder Which is the most illustrious of these? Which country that has sent its students to The halls of St. Ignatius may make boast That in my silent busy class rooms it Is represented by the mightiest host? As thus she mused in idle yawning mood Our dear good aged Alma Mater slept And through her sleep a pageant as of dreams With motion strange and stranger language stepped First came a laughing, freckled, blue-eyed priest, His thinning golden hair without alloy, And bowing low to Alma Mater, said: I represent the French, I'm Father Joy.