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Published by Alpha Omicron Pi, 2015-08-13 16:56:23

1932 May - To Dragma

Vol. 27, No. 4

96 To DRAGMA

Scholarship Officer Committee on Jewelry

Mrs. Edward J . Nichols, K, Centra] Chairman, Mrs. George H . Perry,
Office, State College, Pa. A, 9 St. Luke's Place, New York,
N.Y.
Committee on Examination
Julia L . Tillinghast, N, Box 469,
Chairman—Examining Officer Grand Central Station, 110 East
45th Street, New York, N . Y .
Atlantic—Mrs. E . Arthur Beavens,
HA, 2915 Connecticut Avenue Trustees of Anniversary Endowment
Fund
N.W., Washington, D . C .

Southern—Catherine Underwood, Chairman, Mrs. George V. Mullan,
A, 25 East 83rd Street, New
KO, 232 Jones Street, Memphis, York, N . Y . Term expires June,
Tenn. 1933. Josephine S. Pratt, A, 135
West 183rd Street, New York,
Ohio Valley—Mrs. R . P. Austin, I , N . Y . Term expires June, 1935.
Hagerstown, Ind.

Great Lakes—Mrs. Henry H . E r s - Constitutional Revision Committee
kine, I , 7051 Oglesby Avenue,
Chicago, 111. Chairman, Grand Secretary, Execu-
tive Committee, Registrar, Assist-
Mid-Western—Winafred Steele, Z, ant Registrar.
Malvern, Iowa.

Pacific—Elsie Jones, A P , 1080 Mer- Song Committee
ges Drive, Portland, Ore.
Chairman, Janet M . Howry, T,
Committee on Nomination 1664 Van Buren Street, St. Paul,
Minn.
Chairman, Elizabeth Heywood VVy-
man, A, 19 Outlook Place, Glen Dorothy Jane Hines, T, 500 Fry
Ridge, N.J. Street, St. Paul, Minn.

Members, Alumna Superintendents.

O F course you want a copy of the
new Alpha Omicron Pi Songbook
so that you won't be caught among the
silent when Alpha O's burst into song-
It's complete and very attractive in its
shiny red cloth cover stamped in white
ink. It's sewed so that it will lie flat when
placed on the piano music rack. Use the
order blank below:

Send me the Songbook .. . Here's my dollar bill-'

Name 9
Street i
City and State *i

THE N E W S O N G B O O K SELLS A T $1

M A I L T O A O n Central O f f i c e , S T A T E C O L L E G E , P A

TO DRAGMA

•of Alpha Omicron Pi

V o l u m e 27 Number 4

co TENTS

Day Dreams Frontispiece
Steps 3
A-Rushing We Will Go I 6
The Lady from Hinds 11
Mother Makes the Household Harmonious
Alpha O Wins Honors at U.C.L.A 13
Wherein I Drive in Persia Again 15
Sorority Philanthropy W i l l Extend Down the Ages 17
Survey Shows Chapters Approve Our Philanthropy 22
AOIl's Short Stories Are Published 33
Why? 33
Alpha Gamma Chapter Is Second in Scholarship 34
Washington State Passes T h r o u g h T r i a l Years 38
Memories for Sale 40
T i n y Bookshop Succeeds 42
D i n n e r f o r 12 or 1200 45
Circulation Librarian Belongs to N u Omicron 47
Dormitory Life W i t h Fraternity Centers in Lodges Ideal for Group 49
The Quiet Corner 50
Co-operative Buying Cuts Expenses 55
Alpha O's in the Daily Press 56
The World Looks at Alpha O's 59
The Active Chapters pictorial
The Alumnae Chapters 72
Directory of Officers 89
106

• MAY • 1932 •

ACTIVE CHAPTER ROLL

A L P H A [A]—Barnard College—Inactive. N u OMICRON [NO]—Vanderbilt Univer-
sity, Nashville, Tenn.
Pi [ I I ] — H . Sophie Newcomb Memorial
College, New Orleans, La. Psi [+]—University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, Pa.
Nu fN]—New York University, New
York City. P H I [ + ] — U n i v e r s i t y of Kansas, Law-
rence, Kan.
OMICRON [O]—University of Tennessee,
Knoxville, Tenn. OMEGA [il]—Miami University, Oxford,
Ohio.
KAPPA [K]—Kandolph-Macon Woman'*
College, Lynchburg, Va. OMICRON P I [Oil]—University of Michi-
gan, A n n Arbor, Mich.
ZETA [Z]—University of Nebraska, Lin-
coln, Neb. A L P H A SIGMA [AI]—University of Ore-
gon, Eugene, Ore.
SIGMA [ Z ] — U n i v e n i t y of California,
Berkeley, Calif. X i [S]—University of Oklahoma, Nor-
man, Okla.
THETA [0]—DePauw University, Green-
castle, Ind. Pi DELTA [ITA] — Univeraity of Mary-
land, College Park, M d .
BETA [B]—Brown University—Inactive.
TAU DELTA [TA]—Birmingham-Southern
DELTA [ A ] — Jackson College, Tufts Col- College, Birmingham, Ala.
lege, Mass.
KAPPA THETA [KG]—University of Cali-
GAMMA fT]—University of Maine, f o r n i a at Los Angeles, Los Angeles,
Orono, Me. Calif.

EFSILON IE]—Cornell Univenity, Ithaca, KAPPA OMICRON [KOJ—Southwestern,
N.Y. Memphis, Tenn.

RHO [P]—Northwestern University, A L P H A R H O TAP]—Oregon Agricultural
Evanston, 111. College, Corvallis, Ore.

LAMBDA [A]—Leland Stanford Univer- C H I D E L T A [XA]—University of Colo-
sity, Palo Alto, Calif. rado, Boulder, Colo.

IOTA [I]—University of Illinois, Cham- BETA THETA [B6]—Butler University,
paign, 111. Indianapolis, Ind.

T A U [T]—University of Minnesota, Min- A L P H A P I [ A l l ] — F l o r i d a State College
neapolis, M i n n . for Women, Tallahassee, Fla.

C H I [S]—Syracuse University, Syra- EPSILOX ALPHA [EA]—Pennsylvania
cuse, N . Y . State College, State College, Pa.

UPSILON [T]—University of Washing- THETA ETA [Oil]—University of Cincin-
ton, Seattle, Wash. nati, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Nu KAPPA [NK] — Southern Methodist BETA T A U [BTJ—University of Toronto,
University, Dallas, Tex. Toronto, Ont.

B I T A P H I [B+]—Indiana University, ALPHA T A U [AT]—Denison University,
Bloomington, Ind. Granville, Ohio.

ETA [n]—University of Wisconsin, BETA KAPPA [BK]—University of British
Madison, Wis. Columbia, Vancouver, B.C.

A L P H A P H I [A*]—Montana State Col- A L P H A G A M M A [AT]—Washington State
lege, Bozeinan, Mont. College, Pullman, Wash.

ALUMNAE CHAPTERS

NEW YORK A L U M N A — N e w York City. O M A H A A L U M N A — O m a h a , Neb.
SAN FRANCISCO A L U M N A — S a n Fran- SYRACUSE ALUMNA—Syracuse, N.Y.
DETROIT ALUMNA—Detroit, Mich.
cisco, Calif. NASHVILLE ALUMNA—Nashville, Tenn.
PROVIDENCE A L U M N A — P r o v i d e n c e , CLEVELAND ALUMNA—Cleveland, Ohio.
MEMPHIS ALUMNA—Memphis, Tenn.
Rhode Island. MILWAUKEE ALUMNA—Milwaukee, Wis.
BOSTON A L U M N A — B o s t o n , Mass. BIRMINGHAM A L U M N A — Birmingham,
LINCOLN A L U M N A — L i n c o l n , Neb.
Lcs ANGELES A L U M N A — L o s Angeles, Ala.

Calif. OKLAHOMA CITY ALUMNA—Oklahoma
C H I C A G O A L U M N A — C h i c a g o , 111. City, Okla.
INDIANAPOLIS A L U M N A — Indianapolis,
CHICAGO-SOUTH SHOWS A L U M N A — C h i -
Ind. cago, 111.
NEW ORLEANS A L U M N A — N e w Orleans,
MADISON ALUMNA—Madison, Wis.
La. BLOOMINGTON A L U M N A — Bloomington,
MINNEAPOLIS A L U M N A — Minneapolis,
Ind.
Minn
BANGOR A L U M N A — B a n g o r , Me. DKNVEB ALUMNA—Denver, Cola
PORTLAND A L U M N A — P o r t l a n d , Ore. CINCINNATI ALUMNA—Cincinnati, Oni*:
SEATTLE ALUMNA—Seattle, Wash. TULSA A L U M N A — T u l s a , Okla.
KNOXVILLE ALUMNA—Knoxville, Tenn. A N N ARBOR A L U M N A — A n n Arbor, Mich.
LYNCHBURG ALUMNA—Lynchburg, Va. FORT WAYNB A L U M N A — F o r t Wayne,
WASHINGTON A L U M N A — Washington,
Ind.
D.C.
DALLAS ALUMNA—Dallas, Tex. ST. LOUIS A L U M N A — S t Louis, Mo. '
PHILADELPHIA ALUMNA—Philadelphia,
ROCHESTER ALUMNA—Rochester, N.Y. '
Pa.
KANSAS C I T Y ALUMNA—Kansas City, DAYTON ALUMNA—Dayton, Ohio 1

Mo. SAN DIEGO A L U M N A — S a n Diego, Calif-

<^Alpha Omicron ^Pi

V O L . 27 M A Y , 1932 NO. 4

ragma

EDITOR

Send all editorial material to

W I L M A SMITH L E L A N D

313 Twelfth Street,
Neenah, Wisconsin

REGISTRAR
ALICE CULLNANE

Box 262
Masonic Bldg.
State College, Pa.

T o D R A G M A is published by Alpha Omicron Pi f r a t e r n i t y , 450 Ahnaip Street,
Menasha, Wisconsin, and is printed by The George Banta Publishing Company.
Entered at the Post Office at Menasha, Wisconsin, as second class matter under
the Act of M a r c h 3, 1879. Acceptance f o r m a i l i n g at special rate of postage pro-
vided f o r i n section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized F e b r u a r y 12 1920.

To DRAGMA is published four times a year, October, January, March and May.
Subscription price, 50 cents per copy, $2 per year, payable in advance; L i f e

Subscription $15.

G

By E D N A L E E CCOMBS, Xt

AU day long I follow the clouds
. That go drilling across the sky;

All day long I follow the crowds
Of ships tli at go sailing by-
The waves dash high, the foam and spray,
The surface swells, sea horses play;
M W hile all day long I follow the gulls
Sail up and out and away.

Gjhe he zJJUWaayy To T)%DA^gQ^MA

>

S T SPS
By V I V I A N E L L I S H O W A R D , Beta Phi

ST E P S are beautiful things; great, high, man-made things that are
inspiring in that they lead always up towards something. They
are always upward paths whether they are broad or deep, winding
or straight, beautiful or unlovely.

Steps are very necessary in this little portion of the country where
tall hills surround us and cut us off by their own high crowns and those
of their trees that tower higher still. One must climb steps to reach al-
most any place he wants to go; and that is the joy of steps: that we
may climb them and find at the top, the clearing atmosphere, the broad
space of quietude and a pinnacle from which we may gaze straight into
eternity.

It has always been an especial weakness of mine: to love steps. It
is, as well, a weakness to fall down them. I do that quite often, but in
my whole lifetime, I have fallen up steps, only three times. I think it
must be that as one goes up steps, he keeps his eyes raised, his head
UP, and his heart is eager with anticipation at what he may find at the
top. He thinks, "When I climb this flight of steps into the classroom,
Knowledge is waiting for me"; or, "At the top of this staircase, Love with
a rose in her hair, a smile on her lips a welcome in her eyes, is waiting."
Then, when after an absence from his own home, he turns eagerly into
the low gate of the front yard, he knows before he can see her, "Mother
, s waiting for me at the top of the porch steps."

How joyously, how willingly it is that we climb steps when we know
the great things await us; and even should we fall, we would get hur-
riedly to our feet again, leave all impeding articles and hasten on; en-
tirely forgetful of pain, remembering only that some dear desire, some

4 To DRAGMA M

longed-for happiness is waiting until we have the courage, the ambition t
to climb the steps and take what is ours for the climbing. a
a
Perhaps, sometimes, it is only golden sunlight and singing winds v
that greet us at the top; but these were enough for an artist whom I h
knew. He had built his home and studio at the top of a very high hill.
It was reached by four separate flights of steps and really was an ardu- t
ous climb; but when one reached it, he knew it had been named cor-
rectly, "The House of the Singing Winds." When the artist was quite
old, a friend suggested that it would be better if he would move down
on to the single village street that ran through the valley; but the old
man shook his head.

"I could not bear it," he said. " I would suffocate! I could not be
hemmed in with things so close to me; my lungs would never be full
of air; and the only noises I should hear would be my next-door
neighbor clattering dishes, fixing the furnace or scolding children. I
would not know when the birds waked early in the morning; I could
not hear my trees singing when the fresh breezes caressed them; I
could not see my tall birches sway in the winds that whistle round my
home. Oh, I must be at the top of my hill! If there were ten flights
of steps, and each one ten times as steep, I would gladly climb them,
only to reach at last, my 'House of the Singing Winds'!"

It seems that that is nearly always true: the most beautiful things
are at the top of the highest, most wearying steps. At least, that is the
situation of a little chapel in a certain small village. It is of native sand-
stone, with a bright red roof, and it is almost entirely covered with
beautiful green vines that curiously always seem green. They have
climbed over it until now the great painted windows and the doorway
are alone without the vines. The rest seems gently enfolded in the
kindly embrace of the strengthening greenery. The vines have not
stopped with the body of the chapel but have climbed on up to the
belfry, and they keep going upward as if they were trying to reach the
great gold cross at the top of the tall gold spire. All this one cannot
see nor appreciate unless he climbs long, exhausting flights of steps
that rise almost vertically. Neither can he enter into the sacred peace
of this little chapel and rest in its quiet, watch the sunbeams drift
gently over the shining brown pews, and see how gently they touch
the gold organ pipes, how lingeringly they fall on the snowy altar.
There is a beautiful color that touches it all from the light through the
windows; and it is said by those that love the place best, that after
one has been here, the beautiful light goes with him and he sees, there-
after, all the things and people of his workaday world softened and
made more human by this rose hue.

However, for some people, broad and shallow steps have a fascina-
tion; but it must be because they are so much easier to climb. I once
saw a beautiful little flight of steps—low, far apart, and with a nar-
row little walk connecting them on the level places. All along the sides
were beds of hyacinths and jonquils; and just beyond these, forming
a background of shining green, was a hedge of lilacs and goldenbdj
that almost took one's breath when they burst into bloom and added

MAY, 1932 5

their beauty to that of the flowers in the beds. As the seasons changed,
the flowers along this walk changed, until, the whole year 'round, it was
an enchanting place. The first time I went up these steps, I stopped
at every little level place and looked back along the three or four steps
I had just ascended—at the flower beds, the delicate lilac sprays, the
velvety green lawn. But, when I arrived at the top, that feeling of ex-
hilaration and of breathlessness that unexpected beauty brings did not
come - I had looked back too often on the way. Oh, so much better it
is to hurry, to run up the steps, to keep one's eyes and heart uplifted,
to prepare one's spirit for the beauty that will greet him when he ar-
rives at the top. Then, he may either have it lay in glorious panorama
before him; or, when he turns, he finds that he has ascended through
beauty on either side; and the steps up which he toiled are the most
splendid beauty of it all!

Life is sometimes said to be as a flight of steps up which we toil.
Step by heavy step, the human race is represented as climbing, ladened
and oppressed, to its inevitable doom. Oh, it is not so! So much more
glorious, so much more godlike it is to approach the top, leap by happy
leap, hardly knowing there are steps underneath us except as they are
aid to us in reaching our desire, with our hearts and souls eagerly,
anxiously awaiting the beauty, the broad, blue space of eternity, the
wide, white expanse of peace that shall greet us when we arrive at the
top. Then with all our doubts and fears left at the bottom of the steps,
we find and know to our complete satisfaction and everlasting joy, that
the Last Step is the most perfect, the happiest, the best step of all!

it

mi

Cjfor . . . ?

By MILDRED E . W I L L I A M S , Alpha Pi

What if coming steps thud slow,
Remembering your feet,
What if no smile holds my heart
And no lips rest as sweet?

Slow steps bring you honest bread out
And thrify fruitful years,
They do not dance your slippers
Or break your heart with tears.

i

I

To DRAGMA M

UDSH H

r
i
a
W

CAUCE(CRUSUEE.)IM W O N D E R L A N D

" 7 Ac Daily Oklahoman" of Oklahoma City
published this cartoon by William R. Lor-
ing, husband of Kathryn Douglas Loring
( i ) , before rushing.

Stella Sypert (S), and Alice Cullnane (B
are all dressed up for a kid party dur

rush week.

W I L M A S M I T H L E L A N D , Tau

the sorority

chapter," said Barbara'TraskVlark (V), when we asked her about I
rushing ideas. "Scurrying around to get together the materials lor
the parties, making sure that every detail is attended to, is a strain on *
every member of the chapter. •
W
"Upsilon is beginning to systematize her rushing parties, using tM a
same general idea year after year. This simplifies the arrangements, since M
the 'props' collected for last year can be used again next, without the
necessity of finding new ones for a new idea.

"We had seven parties this past fall, following a formal tea one after*

noon. Since Panhellenic limits the amount we may spend, and form<s

favors other than those that may be construed as place cards, we W#j

forced to use much ingenuity. In the hope that some of the ideas ma)

help other chapters, I am outlining the parties. r

"A wash-day lunch on Monday saw the waitresses in mop caps, tne^

sleeves rolled above their elbows, their dresses covered with volununo

aprons. Lines criss-crossing the dining room held various items of aP

parel flapping jauntily. Clothes-pins neatly labeled held the napkins a

marked the places; the dessert was served in paper cups painted to

semble wash tubs.

MAY, 1932 7

Husking We Will go!

I The ^oyal 1(oad to 'Hushing \

^ \ "Becomes Smoother With "Planning /

"That night found the tables in two decorous rows down the dining
room with an aisle between. Down this hurried black-faced Alpha O's
in starched white jackets. On each table was a stack of travel literature,
and the air was rent with cries of 'Waiter, when do we reach Chicago?
Waiter, are we in Texas now?' You guessed it. Dinner in a diner. This

takes little preparation, and the
time tables and folders on the
national parks can be saved
from year to year. The rest is
merely a matter of folding your
napkins in neat pyramids, black-
ing your waitresses and decking
them in white coats and dark
trousers.

"The rushees journeyed to Ha-

SEPTEM,BEEliq, 1931

Eleanor Watson (1", Z). and lira Jer- A
I vis (P, H ) , wore real Dr. Denton's at O
T
the kid party at Xi.
FESTIVAL
*aii the next day, and ate their

•uncheon seated on the floor, which

Was covered with straw matting

and cushions. Star fish, large shells,

Models of out-rigger canoes, fans,

w a r clubs and so on were strewn

ajjb^ouulteleth. eTfhloeorw,awllsithwearne occasional
hung with

kD a r tapa cloth in its rich shades

0 1 I'rown. The place cards were

small squares of the tapa cloth with

white cards pasted in one corner,

they might equally well have been

CREI>e paper leis in gay colors.

Tallies at an alumna' pre rush party at X i

8 To DRAGMA

"Hula skirts and numerous leis clothed the serving girls. A talented
dancer did a hula—or something that bore a resemblance to a hula, any-
way. The luncheon, which was typical Island food, consisted of baked fish
and sweet potatoes, fruit punch and bananas. A whole bunch of the
bananas, bought at wholesale, hung in one corner of the room and were
chopped off by the waitresses. Another hula-skirted maiden passed a
wooden bowl filled with pieces of fresh coconut. All the decorations for the
party were borrowed from alumna? and from a curio shop which was glad
to loan them for the small amount of advertising we could give.

"The easiest party of all to give was the kindergarten luncheon. Small
tables were centered with dolls and toy animals. The members came
garbed as children, while one was the bespectacled school-marm. Luncheon
consisted of box lunches of sandwiches, tiny containers of potato salad,
pickles, cake and an apple, with cocoa served piping hot.

"The entertainment consisted of childish songs and recitations and
the engaging antics of the usual 'bad boy,' who drove the teacher nearly
frantic and the guests nearly into hysterics with his practical jokes (prac-
ticed only on the members) and his pungent comments on his school-
mates.

"Chapter talent was displayed in the night club idea, which featured
blues singing and dancing along with the confetti, serpentine, and noise-
makers. A neat cigarette girl furnished chocolate 'smokes' to accompany
the coffee.

"A party which we have given successfully for three years, and which
we rate highest of all our parties save the formal AOn dinner with which
we always conclude our rushing, was the mock wedding followed by
the wedding breakfast or supper, as the time of day may indicate.

"This year we were fortunate to have as the bride, Peggy Yeaman
Kane, who wore her own wedding gown and veil and carried a bouquet
of white asters tied with the ribbons of the shower bouquet which had
served a short time previously at her own wedding. Her three attendants,
who had been her bridesmaids, wore their picture frocks of organdy in
lavender, pink, and green with matching hats, and carried asters in
lavender and pink. A hilarious mock wedding ceremony, couched in the
newest slang, was performed by a minister garbed in black pajamas,
worn hind-side before. The happy couple were united with a pair of
handcuffs borrowed from an obliging police station.

"The supper which followed the ceremony was lovely, served buffet
style from a lace covered table centered with a bridal cake. As the
guests left they were showered with rice and presented with tiny squarw
of wedding cake, neatly wrapped and tied with silver ribbon.

"The next night the guests were registered at the Aopian Hotel,
and were treated there to a royal dinner. As they entered the door, the)
signed a huge register and were given a pass key with a neat red tag 'a t
tached. White lettering stated that this was the Aopian Hotel and other
information. The menus, in typical menu French, served as place cards.
Waitresses in demure caps and aprons served the four-course . ^ 'c n n n e
During the meal, each guest was paged by Dottie Reid in a smart be

MAY, 1932 9

hop's uniform. On answering to A O PI-IRATE.
her name, the rushee was pre-
sented with a telegram w7ith S H E S i l l S TUE UlGH SEAS lM*FMIERf*r/swiP^
some foolish message based on
what we knew about her." SHE WEAK THE (ZED RUBY AND PEABLS

Other chapters have equally wwfReAND FINDS ATEACH PORT s*e W R K W HSRCRWT
clever rush party ideas. For
chapters who do not live in .4 -yz 'j
chapter houses, Gamma's pro-
gressive dinner might solve one r
problem. One attractive form of
invitation was a rose cut from <
rather soft cardboard in such a
way that the petals folded one 5i-
over another. On the inside of
each petal was written one word Xi used these tallies and the AOPi-rate
of the invitation, so that on un-
folding the petals one by one, theme at fall rush:ng.
the message might be read. The
menu varies to some extent, but
the manner of serving is the
same; soup and the main course
at one house, salad and rolls at
another, and dessert and coffee
at a third, where the favors are
usually given. Though the menu
varies, one dish is invariable;
the salad, which is made of ba-
nanas, pineapples, and peaches,
arranged in the letters, AOI1, on
crisp lettuce, is an unchangeable
feature.

Another scheme for a progressive dinner could follow Psi's " 'Round
the World" party or this would make a clever house party. The favors
were toy dirigibles inscribed with the itinerary, and with AOn on the
control room. Each room of the house represented a country, and the
girls who served the food at each stop wore native costumes. White
crepe paper, cotton batting, and electric fans turned one room into the
Arctic where a girl in a fur coat served Eskimo pies. Hawaii, with
topical atmosphere created by potted plants, a grass hut, a blue crepe
Paper ocean, was the background for a ukulele player. Small idols, in-
cense, an opium pipe, a mandarin, oriental scarfs, and a model of a
bamboo house represented China. On to Monte Carlo, the guests played
roulette for the rest of the evening.

.. A "backwards" party such as Alpha Phi has given would tend to lend
informality to rushing. The invitations were written in mirror-writing.
When the guests arrived, each with her dress on backwards, they were
Ushered into the house and up the stairs backwards. At a jolly back-

1

10 To DRAGMA

wards supper, they searched for their backwards place cards and tried
to decipher the backwards menu. After the supper, which began with a
fruit dessert and ended with consomme, the "backward" girls were given
an opportunity to become thoroughly acquainted, and they sat in a circle
and sang Alpha Omicron Pi songs.

Your new song books will help in a rushing "sing." lie sure to have
enough so that you can offer books to the rushees. Mildred C. Larson
(Y), has written a rushing song called, "It Happened in September."

Once upon a time, it seems, a girl to college came,
With resolutions strong and brave to strive for Phi Bete fame.
Clothes and friends and men and fun just simply didn't rate,
And toivard the Greek sorority she nursed a scornful hate.
"Well, this will never do," cried Fate, "Oh, something must be done.
This girl her life will ruin long before it has begun."
So, cleverly she turned away the girl from iveary books,
And caused her eyes to rest upon Greek pins with wistful looks.
Pi Phi hearts were shot with arrows, others locked with Kappa keys,
Some held fast by D.G. anchors, others worn with ease.
Suddenly she came upon a badge of pearls and gold,
A, symbol of a promise and sincerity untold.
A O I I it simply read, she knew her search had ended,
Fate stood by and smiled and said, "Just as I recommended."
Now that girl's an A O I T , she's sitting in our midst.
Just think if she hadn't pledged, the life she would have missed.

A Chinese party is recommended by Chi Delta. Theirs was a breakfast,
and they borrowed the properties for it from Mrs. Mae C. Luyties. a
former housemother who had just returned from a trip around the world.
They included a print of a wedding procession, the wedding procession
in ivory figures, Chinese newspapers, Mandarin coats, lanterns and kites.
Chinese tablecloths covered the long table. The ivory figurines formed
the center piece. An incense burner, formed by a kneeling Chinese girl
holding an urn, was set before each rushee's place. In the urns were
small charms. Chi Delta members had taken the small plaster of pans
figures, lacquered and painted them so the cost of the favors was slight.
On the walls hung Chinese newspapers, and placards which the girl^
had copied from the newspapers. Lanterns and kites were suspended
about the room. The members wore pajamas and Mandarin coats. The
food consisted of chop suey and choy sauce, boiled rice and tea.

A collegiate party with the characters of the Harold Teen >trip was
a success at Tau. "Gedunks," footballs and pennants gave atmosphere.

One chapter suggests that the Europe-going members bring back
the necessities for your special party. Planned this spring, summer and
homes will make rushing arrangements fairly simple for you.

Some chapters are allowed more freedom in rushing, and their pa ^rt,e
may include a swimming party in a private pool, a caravan party W
cars to "shanghai" the guests and a ride over a circuitous route with stops
for refreshments and entertainment. The invitations, a.- \ u .-ugge> s
might be tiny, gay maps, outlining your route and plans. Gipsy camp.
a picnic and steak fry may make a welcome change from tea and frost
cakes if your rushing rules allow such informality.

(Continued on page 54)

MAY, 1932 11

The J^ady from Jfinds

y

ce

The Mississippi State Capitol is located in Hinds County.

By A N A B E L P O W E R

ENTLE, LUCY mary Election, Au-
\ J f womanly, SOM EXV I L L I gust, 1931. She
acted as Speaker
distinct- HOWORTH, of the House of
ly feminine, with Representa-
a charming person- Kappti tives for the day of
ality, is Lucy Som- March 7, 1932, a
erville Howorth merited honor be-
(K '16), of Jack- stowed by the
son, Hinds County, Speaker of the
Mississippi; yet a House Honorable
big factor in the Tom L . Bailey,
House of Repre- when members of
sentatives of the the Jackson Busi-
Mississippi Legis- ness and Profes-
lature where she sional Women's
represents the Club were in
county of Hinds in charge of State,
Which the State County, and City
Capitol is situated, affairs for the first
a post she won by day of National
a b i g ni a r g'i n Business Women's
against s e v e r a l Week and was ac-
Worthv opponents corded quite an
, n the State Pri-

12 To DRAGMA

ovation by her fellow members. Mrs. Howorth is one of three women who I
are members of the Lower House with a membership of one hundred and
forty. Her colleagues admire and respect her and have confidence in her,
and her ability is recognized by House leaders as evidenced by her ap-
pointment on some of the most important committees—Chairman of
Committee on Public Lands, Secretary of Committee on Constitution,
Secretary of Committee on Conservation, Member of Judiciary "A"
Committee, and a member of the Joint Committee of House and Senate
on State Reorganization.

Lucy's mother, Mrs. Nellie Nugent Somerville of Greenville, one of
Mississippi's most brilliant and distinguished women, was the first woman
in Mississippi to be elected to a seat in the State Legislature. That was
in 1924. And when her daughter was sworn in, on January, 1932, her
mother was with her in the hall in which she had formerly taken the
same oath of office. This was the first time in the history of Mississippi
that a mother and daughter had been elected to representation in the
State Legislature. On Mrs. Howorth's desk were beautiful flowers from
the Business and Professional Women's Club of Jackson, of which she
is an outstanding member, being former chairman of its legislative com-
mittee, and from other organizations and friends.

Lucy literally ''inherited" her profession. Her maternal grandfather,
the late Colonel William L . Nugent of Jackson, was one of the state's
greatest and most beloved jurists. Her brothers and brother-in-law are
all lawyers of prominence in the state and her mother, who is nationally
known, was one of the pioneers in Mississippi for women's rights. Lucy
was born in Greenville, educated at the Delta College Preparatory School
in Greenville, received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Randolph-Macon
College in 1916, did postgraduate work at Columbia University and re-
ceived her L L . B . from the University of Mississippi, after which she
became a partner in the law firm of Shands, Elmore and Causey in Cleve-
land and remained with them four years. She then practiced alone in
Greenville until her marriage, a year later, to Joseph M. Howorth, promi-
nent young attorney of Jackson, and now she is a partner, with hej
husband, in the law firm of Howorth and Howorth, Jackson, Mississippi-
Mr. Howorth is a member of I1KA and served with the Marine Corps,
A.E.F., during the World War. They met as students in the Law School
of the University of Mississippi.

Mrs. Howorth was asked to give some of her first experiences and

replied: ''There isn't much to say. My colleague in our first case said.

'Skirts give women an undue advantage, for we can't see their knees

when they shake.' On the whole, these undue advantages of women are

over-balanced by the traditional monopoly of men. People generally

have been exceedingly kind and considerate of me, however, and I can-

not and would not complain."

Mrs. Howorth is a member of the recently created Research Com-

mission of Mississippi numbering twenty-five members, three of who

are women. ."

She was a delegate to the International Conference of WorkwD

(Continued on page 54)

MAY, 1932 13

« <JM other*

n" • 1
« •
I '<///. •
<
• i

OS

>

^Stakes the Jfousehold harmonious

WHO is it keeps the average American home moving smoothly;
who finds all the lost or misplaced things; who settles the ques-
tion of ownership and of proprietorship; who hears the tales
of triumphs and defeats; who helps to plan our parties and our clothes?
She is that mother of whom John Galsworthy says, "She was one of
those English women who seem to count for little, but for that very
reason count for a good deal. She was unobtrusive, gentle, and always
busy. In a word, she was background."

In the fraternity house, she who makes the atmosphere of the home
in what otherwise might be merely a boarding and rooming house is
known as the housemother. How much of the success of the chapter
in social achievements, harmonious living, general happiness, and men-
tal health, in scholastic triumphs is due to the housemother is inde-
terminable, but alumna? closely associated with chapter problems know
that the barometer of these successes rises and falls with the going and
coming of the women who preside as hostesses and housemothers.

Far more important than the pledge class—just as important as
your chapter president—is your housemother. If you are to select a
new one, bear this in mind, and if you have one who is a rare gem, ap-
preciate her. You will, of course, give her the same respect and cour-
tesies that you would give to your own mother or to your friend's
mother. You will accept her advice just as you would your mother's,

you will probably confide in her. Many a troubled mind has been
eased by a hajf hour's chat with a friendly housemother.

No doubt there are times when she will find each of you trying;

L

14 To DRAGMA M

times when you'll think a change might benefit everyone, but think
well before you decide on that change. Remember that to mother a
houseful of co-eds is not easy; that she is responsible to your school
governing body for your welfare; that she forms a link or background
between those alumna? who have gone away and who would be strang-
ers to all of you in four short years; that she is the balance which
keeps your house from being just another campus residence.

She, in turn, has her responsibility toward you. Mrs. Elizabeth Tem-
pleton, the Mother T of Lambda chapter who knew seventeen senior
classes at the Stanford house, sends the following suggestions to house-
mothers, new and old.

"I send these suggestions, hoping they may make life easier for
housemothers who are not familiar with sorority life. You must be
loyal to your house and girls. Never repeat anything that happens in
the house or that affects the house to outsiders. Consider sacred any
confidences of the girls, treating them as you would your own daughters.

"It is appreciated if you look after the house linens, keeping them
in repair, et cetera. Always be present at all social affairs and preside
at the dinner table whenever there are guests. When the occasion arises,
suggest but never interfere with the girls, unless it is necessary for
their own good or the standing of the chapter, not forgetting then that
the house president is the 'head.'

"It means so much to a chapter (as in our own homes) to keep
alive traditions. We are apt to forget this in our busy life. It seems
desirable, too, for the housemother to have her place in the social life
of the campus, to know the faculty and to encourage the girls to know
them. It makes for better understanding and benefits every one in
many ways.

"Kindness and thoughtfulness in a housemother make for a better
understanding with the girls and create a happier home."

Queries

By H E L E N J E N K S D I E T R I C H , Phi

My consolation is but poor and plain
Beside the strength yon kill imparts,
How can you seek and hope in me,
When red and golden sunsets burn more bright
Than e'er my spirit flame . . .
Do not the birds that sing, the air that cools
Mean anything to you, beloved one,
Who holds faith with me?

Away now from the heat of life
Where men ne'er dream of nature's thrill
1 ask thee, heart to 'whom I am so close,
What, pray, is this our universe?
A day's work, a moment's play—
Desires not filled—only in part satisfied—
Will then come to us e'er this treasured sight,
A radiant sunset at the close of day?

MAY, 1932 15

Kappa Theta ^Alpha 0 Wins

Betty Johnson is
[resident of the
Physical Edticatton
• Club: a talented
dancer
organizer
and skater.

By

MADELINE

HANNON.

Kappa
Theta

*

^Many Jionors for

T H E twelfth annual Hi Jinx had just come to a close on the
U.C.L.A. campus. Thirty-one skits had been presented by the
various women's organizations. Everyone was sitting tense, await-
ing the announcement of the winner. Soon it came: "The Physical Edu-
cation Club wins first place for their skit called 'Gazookae on the
Stretch.' Will the president please come forward to receive the cup?
And the president was none other than our own Betty Johnson ( K 0
'32). And furthermore Blythe Ringquest (K® '33), designed the clever
animal costumes which played such an important part in the skit.

And, by the way, Betty is one of the most outstanding figures in
lhe physical education department at U.C.L.A. Her work has been of
such an unusual caliber that she has been singled out for many honors.

Last year, while only a junior, she was asked to begin her teaching
a t the training School, a year earlier than is the custom; this was be-
cause of the aptitude she had shown in teaching her major subject. As

If) To DRAGMA

a result, she finished a most successful season of coaching various grades
of small boys in the intricacies of hockey. This was the first time that
the game had been taught to a group as young as the one Betty had,
and her success was exceptional.

She is in charge of various Girl Reserve groups in several junior
high schools, where she teaches games and also acts as adviser.

Besides having teaching ability, Betty is a finished ice skater. In
fact, she took a prominent part in the ice carnival held at the Holly-
wood Winter Sports Club, and her picture appeared not long ago in
the American Dancer magazine. Because of her talents in this line she
has appeared in several motion pictures, among them .Maurice Cheva-
lier's "The Big Pond."

And besides all this Betty is head of dancing in the Women's Ath-
letic Association!

* £ink of §old *

* Sn the Chain of JNfe" *

By M A R Y D A N I E L S O N D R U M M O N D , Alpha Phi

SH E hoped that the story of the Heavenly Mansions would prove
true; that the streets would be paved with gold; that the angels
would not require a nurse's care; that the harps would not re-
echo the infants' wails nor the agony of mothers in travail; nor reflect
the dumb misery of man in abject poverty.

She was so tired, so tired, but duty took her to this cabin, to that
family to alleviate suffering, to aid babies in their frenzied fight for
an entrance into a world they knew not of. Her horse had carried her
across tumultous rivers, along miserable trails, through forests, down
steep hills, by day and by night. Fever and pain surged through her
body. Her duties done, able to do no more she returned to Hyden.
Death took her gently in his arms, closed lovingly the tired eyes. She
who had served others so well went to be served herself.

A strange procession wound its laborious way down the hill from
the hospital through Hydentown. A gentle wind stirred the leaves of
the magnolia trees as six mountaineers with bared heads bore a casket,
ever down, over boulders, through a stream, down a street hemmed by
sad houses. At intervals six others relieved the bearers. A mile and a
half must be traversed in this manner. Behind the casket bearers came
a horse with saddle empty, stirrups reversed. Twenty-seven mounted
nurses in the Frontier Nursing Service uniform followed, grief over a
departed comrade written on their faces. Slowly they picked their way
down Rockhouse, across a swinging footbridge, where a truck waited to
carry away the casket with its precious burden.

A last farewell, and sorrowfully the cortege returned. The sun shone
bright, the hills were serene. Only the wind whispered reflectively m
the magnolias.

MAY, 1932

—: •E

-

ft

A huge Bengal tiger, still warm, shot by the Maharajah of Baroda and brought to
the Palace of the Maharajah of Gwalior just as L.S. was bexng taken
through the Palace.

Wherein $ Drive in 'Persia ^Again

By L I L L I A N S C H O E D L E R , Alpha

I SPENT several days with friends in Singapore (while one of the
big world cruises was in port, incidentally—and perhaps after see-
ing those mobs and hearing their complaints, I didn't appreciate
even more than ever the blessings of single vagabondage!!), and one
day went to buy a ticket for my next destination, Colombo. Next to
me at the ticket-office counter were some tourists whom I heard say,
"We would like to go to Java." It made me so homesick for a last look
at Java before I left that part of the world that on the spur of the mo-
ment I bought a ticket for Java also instead of for Colombo! And to
Java I went—for the fifth time—spending a wonderfully happy week
visiting friends there, and going over old ground. Back to Singapore
then, and on- to Colombo finally, by the best of luck catching the same
ship on which my friends, the Cobbs, from Kyoto, Japan, were going

18 To DRAGMA M

home. The boa German one) stopped en route at Sumatra, and

gave a chance for a final visit to Medan also, and a trip through the

primitive Batak country which I had seen so thoroughly and enjoyably

in 1926. We reached Colombo finally on March 25.

I had spent several months in North India last year, and knew that

part of the country more than averagely well, but this was my first

visit to Ceylon and South India. Ceylon proved in many ways not so

different from Java in its tropical beauty and richness, but for all that

there was much that was new to see and enjoy. I explored Colombo

thoroughly, went to Mt. Lavinia several times for tea and the sunset,

went south along the coast to Galle, with its old Dutch fort on the edge

of the blue sea; to Kandy, where are the world-famous Peredinya

Botanical Gardens, the Temple of the Tooth which shelters a revered

Buddha relic, a lake and lovely drives, and a place in the river (Katu-

gastota) where all of the elephants come for their daily baths and

manicures! From Kandy we went by motor to Nuwara Eliya, Cey-

lon's well-known hill station, so high in altitude that, although we baked

in Colombo, we froze while driving around Nuwara Eliya's plains and

mountain passes. And finally I went to Anuradhapura, the most famous

of Ceylon's "buried cities," with its imposing ruins of ancient temples,

monasteries, dagobas and palaces, its temple-crowned hill of Mihintale,

and its celebrated 2200-year-old Bo tree, the oldest historical tree in

the world.

Leaving Ceylon, then, I crossed the narrow strait that separates the
rich little island of Ceylon with all of its fresh green vegetation, from
the burnt, arid, brown mainland of South India, and went to Madura.
There I saw the vast and wonderful Dravidian temple, with corridor
after corridor full of carvings and worshipping throngs—fascinating
enough by day, but doubly so by night when thousands and thousands
of tiny oil lamps furnished the only illumination for endless picturesque
shrines and altars and long, pillared halls. Then I went to Trichinopoly,
with its famous Rock, to the top of which I climbed through inner stair-
cases cut out of the living stone, past caves and chapels to the temple
and viewing-place at the summit, and where I visited also two other im-
portant Dravidian temples. "Trichy" will always remain green in my
memory, however, as the place where the standard rate for taxi hire
—for fine new cars, with a chauffeur and a second man on the box—•
was a rupee (37c) an hour I I stopped also at Tanjore, with more tem-
ples and an interesting palace, and finally reached Madras, with its
beautiful seaside drive, the Marina, its Cathedral of St. Thome where
St. Thomas is said to be buried, its "Black Town," the native Tamil
section of the city, and so on. From Madras I went direct by train to
Bombay, a hot, sticky, thirty-six-hour trip, and after a few days of vis-
iting with friends there, and chores, I boarded a train on April 8 for
Persia, again via Duzdap as last year, except that I went to Quetta
this time via Hyderabad and the Sind Desert instead of via Delhi.
Constantinople was my destination (perhaps!)—and my great longing
to get back to Persia after my memorable trip of last year made the
overland route via Persia, Iraq, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Turkey a

M A Y , 1932 [9

Lillian Schoedler enjoyed the novelty of taking some heavily veiled Persian uomen
for a drive into the desert outside of Meshed, in the northeast comer of Persia.

much-more-to-be-preferred one than the usual sea route via the Red

Sea and the Mediterranean.
Just before I got on the train at Bombay a telegram came from

Kashmir, inviting me to go there again as the guest of the people who
had been our hosts last year, and who were again there on a house-
boat. I replied regretfully declining, in view of my already-puchased
ticket for Persia. In the middle of the Sind Desert, however, I found
that there was a junction station at which I could break by journey to
Duzdap and go quite simply to Rawalpindi, and on the spur of the mo-
ment I decided to do it. I had an amusing afternoon in Hyderabad
trying to get the necessary funds for the extra ticket, with banks closed,
and no interest in American dollars, but I managed it with the help of
the fates, and got to Kashmir—"just for a few days"—but it was more
than two weeks before I left.

If last year in Kashmir was wonderful, this year was even more
so, not only from the point of view of the valley's beauty in the more
advanced spring and with the resultant added flower and foliage rich-
ness, but also from the point of view of all we did. My friends had a
beautiful large houseboat on which I had my private room and bath;
they had a large new Oakland car in which we drove up from Rawal-
pindi, and which was practically mine (I driving it myself) for all of
the time I was there. Each day we went on some new trip or picnic—
up the mountains by car and horse into the snows at Gulmarg, to Wular
Lake, to Manasabal Lake, to Bannihal, to Gandera bal, to the source
of the Jbelum River in a picturesque well at Verinag, to the springs at
Islamabad, to the old imperial garden at Achibal, etc., etc. And so often

20 To DRAGMA

we took marvelously beautiful and peaceful trips by shikkara (a long,
slim, gondola-like skiff propelled by four or six boatmen, in the bow
of which we rested among colorful soft embroidered cushions) to the
Dal Lakes or the Jhelum River, or to the fountain and flowerful gar-
dens at the Shalimar or Nishatbag or Nasimbagh or Chashma Shahi.
1 was in Kashmir for the full moon—and our outings then were ravish-
ingly lovely. One day on an automobile trip we even went part of the
way to Leh, in Ladak. I had a chance to go absolutely free of cost on
a month's trek into Ladak, incidentally—a trip that meant taking along
full camping kit, food, etc.—but it would have meant a six weeks' wait
in Kashmir until the passes were sufficiently cleared of snow to make
traveling possible, and I did not feel that I could afford all of that
time, wonderful as the opportunity and the trek would have been, and
easy as it would have been to stay on in Kashmir for the additional
six weeks. Mr. and Mrs. C , my hosts, embarrassed me beyond words
by refusing to let me pay for a single thing, again, for all of the time
that I was with them, and for all that they did for me.

On April 2 9 , I finally tore myself away from the charmed life of
our Kashmir houseboat and actually started for Persia. The trip, via
Rawalpindi and Lahore, where I spent another day in Kim's tracks
and in exploring the old Fort, and so on, was surprisingly cool and
dustless. Two interesting experiences, however, enlivened it. The first
was a really novel one. I was alone in a passageless compartment on the
train with a woman fellow-passenger who gave birth to twins right in
the compartment one midnight between stations, while the train was
under way! She lived, and they lived, and after the excitement was
over, I spent the rest of the night in a compartment with a strange
Englishman because there was no other place in which I could sleep.
It is a good but long story. I will tell it to you sometime! The other
diversion was that the next day, on another train, I met an American
actress ill with dysentery, but booked to dance between pictures at the
local moving picture house in Quetta, in Baluchistan, to which we were
both headed. She was ordinary as could be—a middle-aged woman from
some tiny town in Nebraska, bleached-blond and tawdry, but with a
heart of gold! Out there in the middle of nowhere, we struck up a firm
friendship, which endured during my whole stay in Quetta. I not only
went to see her "show," but helped to set up the scenery for it in the
little theater in which she was playing!

The last leg of the journey into Persia—the trip from Quetta to
Duzdap through the endless arid desert that was so trying last year
—wasn't even warm or dusty this year, whereas last year we were al-
most buried under sand and parched with the heat. I reached Duzdap
to find the same little mud bungalow that I had occupied last year,
and this year I lived in it again, taking my meals at the British Vice-
Consul's home. When time came to find out about means of transporta-
tion to Meshed, I learned to my amazement that the Indian merchant
whose guest I had been in Meshed last year, and who was the General
Motors agent for East Persia, had ordered a big seven-passenger Buick
for his Meshed branch, but had left it behind in Duzdap to await my

MAY, 1932 21

I It I «•

i

This tiger was shot bv the Maharajah of Baroda, and here you see no less per-
sonagej than Lillian Schoedlcr and the brother of the Maharaiah. The grounds

belong to the Palace of the Maharajah of Gwahor.

arrival so that I might use it for my journey to Meshed—with his
compliments! So up I came in the wonderful vehicle, with a chauffeur,
but driving the car most of the way myself, and covering the six hun-
dred-mile trip over the rough roads in record time.

I am living again in the Indian merchant's home, with the big
seven-passenger Buick, a five-passenger Buick, and a new Chevrolet at
my disposal. I have taken out a chauffeur's license, in order to drive
them, and the excitement about it has been high, for I am the first
woman ever to drive a car in this part of the country, and I don't know
for how large an area besides. The frank and openly-expressed amaze-
ment of the natives at seeing a woman at the wheel of a car is inde-
scribable—and takes one back to the early days of automobiles. You
would have to know more about the backward position of women in
Persia to be able to appreciate the surprise and novelty that it means
to them. And you should see my photograph in the Police Office frames
—not only the only woman but the only European among hordes of
Persian, Armenian, Turkish, and Russian chauffeurs! I am getting some
tennis again, but I get the greatest thrills and pleasure of all from tak-
ing out driving the three lovely young daughters of a Turksman family
here, who never move out of doors without their all-enveloping black
chaddars. They look like so many huge crows perched in the seats of
the car! They are dear people, and I am with them a great deal. I
was present at a dinner party in their home one night at which as a
special event, the girls took off their chaddars before my Indian host
for the first time in their lives, although he had known them and their

(Continued on Page 105)

To DRAGIW MA

^orority 'Philanthropy "Will S

4

;


nil

'•

e philanthropy of Pi Beta Phi provides employment for many Tennessee mountaineers.
Here are a basketu-orkcr and his son.

By M A R Y D A N I E L S O N D R U M M O N D , Alpha Phi

AS CAN be expected, faculties, students, fraternity members and
persons outside the college walls have different views in regard
*to fraternities. After looking upon fraternities with great disfavor
at first, faculties came to regard them as an asset in relieving a housing
problem. Undergraduates of fraternities undeniably look upon them-
selves as rather superior persons, and non-fraternity students regard
these organizations as breeding grounds of snobbishness. Persons out-
side the colleges see them as country clubs which play havoc with fath-
er's pocketbook. All, however, have one thing in common in that they
visualize these organizations as being of value only during college days,
and sometimes of a doubtful value at that, when, as a matter of fact,
the undergraduates form only a very small portion of the fraternity.
Hating it as they might, they must perforce grow up and take their
places in the rank and file of an adult world.

It might be interesting to find out what influence some of these
members exert after leaving the campus. We know, of course, that
most of them form closely organized national bodies which govern
the active chapters, foster their ideals and formulate their policies.
They determine in what direction active chapters shall go. Beyond that
our knowledge of their activities is rather hazy.

AY, 1932 23

Sxtend Down the <^Ages

r

Here is an old woman weavino at the Pi Beta Phi School at Gatlinburg, Tennessee,
in the Great Smoky Mountains.

This does not pretend to be an exhaustive study of the subject, in
fact, it is rather casual and covers only the sororities with whom I have
had correspondence and whose publications I have read. Nevertheless
it is rather interesting to take a bird's-eye view of their activities and
to find that they practice effectively what they preach. They feel that
they cannot pride themselves upon age; upon the number of chapters;
upon the lustre shed upon them by famous members, but that the value
of their organization must be estimated in the service rendered to mem-
bers and to the world.

Corporations composed of alumnae of twenty-two sororities listed

in "Baird's Manual," own and control five hundred thirty-one houses

with a real estate value of over $16,000,000. I do not know to what

extent these homes are owned by the colleges and universities, but I

venture to say a goodly portion is taxable property. It is said that a

program of overbuilding has been pursued, placing a burden upon the

active and alumna? members, to say nothing of the parents who pay

the bills. The blame cannot be laid entirely upon the sororities since

circumstances out of their control sometimes determine the building

policy.
Loan funds amounting to thousands of dollars are provided by so-

rorities for the use of members who otherwise would be unable to re-
main in college. Other thousands, in the form of fellowships, are out-

,'4 To DRAGMA M

right gifts to graduate students both in and out of sororities. Kappa i
Alpha Theta was the pioneer in this work, and established a fund which
at present amounts to $10,000 with one hundred twenty live loans out- r
standing. A fellowship of $1200 is given annually to a selected member
and funds to undergraduates are loaned at low rates of interest with
a stipulated time of payment after graduation.

Pi Beta Phi maintains two loan funds, one for undergraduates and
one for graduate members. A fellowship of $500 is also granted yearly.

A campaign was begun in 1922 by Alpha Chi Omega for the es-
tablishment of $100,000 fund, $30,000 of which is available at the
present time. A fellowship of $150 is granted yearly. An additional fel-
lowship is given to a qualified member who desires to do research in
any field at home or abroad. One thousand dollars are granted yearly
to any qualified artist, musician or novelist who wishes to study at
the McDowell Colony. At this time twenty high school students are
benefited by scholarships which are gifts from Alpha Chi Omega. This
fund, which might properly come under philanthropy, is included here
since it takes the form of scholarships.

Alpha Omicron Pi has a fund of $70,000 which aids members in
building chapter houses, and grants loans to undergraduates who are in
need of such aid. Three $1000 fellowships are given biennially, two to
members, and the third to a non-member.

Alpha Phi has a fund approximating $50,000 of which $15,000 is
available to chapters for building purposes. The interest from these
house loans is available to members who need assistance in completing
their college work. The Alpha Phis feel that since they are primarily a
college organization, and that there is room for helping college girls,
the welfare of members should come first.

Alpha X i Delta established a scholarship fund in 1920 which
amounts at present to $10,000 of which $500 is administrated by the
American Association of University Women. An additional scholarship
of $1000 is granted every year.

The Delta Delta Deltas have $15,000 out in loans to undergraduate
students. A fund of $100,000 is being built up, and members of this
group hope to complete it by 1938. The income from this fund will be
expended annually to promote higher education for women.

The Mary Gordon Holway Student Loan Fund of Beta Phi Alpha
enables their undergraduates to complete their college courses. As the
fund grows, it is hoped that it may be available to non-members as
well.

Alpha Gamma Delta maintains a Scholarship Fund, loans being
made only to juniors and seniors.

Sigma Kappa's Loan Pund has been in operation since 1922. Not
less than $50 nor more than $350 may be loaned to any one indi-
vidual. The fund consists of $10,000.

It is conceivable that in a large membership there would be indi-
viduals who would be in need of assistance financially aside from funds
needed for undergraduates to complete their college work. The Rose
McGill Fund of Kappa Kappa Gamma fills this need. The interest

MAY, 1932 25
r I

4-

a Center"
Zeta Tau Alpha has centered her philanthropy around this cottage called "Health to

in the mountains of Virginia. She has carried better health and sanitation
hundreds of poor families.

from this fund is used both for members and non-members who may
find themselves in such circumstances. Another fund of $100,000 is
maintained, the interest of which is used as a loan fund for undergradu-
ates. This money is loaned without interest with the understanding that
the borrower shall pay it back as soon as possible.

While figures are not obtainable in every case, and there may be
other groups having funds for educational purposes, the sum total of
those mentioned above amounts to a little over a quarter-million dol-
lars.

Every year more and more sororities engage in some national philan-
thropic work. They feel that as soon as their organization is on a
sound basis they should extend their sphere of usefulness. They feel
that privilege brings responsibility which cannot be denied. Again,
few figures are available, but the nature of the work will show it to be
°f inestimable value.

Alpha Gamma Delta opened a summer camp for underprivileged
children in 1920 at Crispell Lake near Jackson, Michigan. The camp
l s open every summer, and other camps are planned as soon as funds
Permit. In twelve years of activity in this field $50,000 has been spent,
?nd $6000 is kept as a reserve fund. This sorority feels that the work
l s "the heart of our organization."

26 To DRAGMA

The Alpha Chi Omega scholarships to high school students have
been mentioned above. This group thinks their work has a nationwide
appeal and application.

The Maine Seacoast Mission is Sigma Kappa's national work. The
sorority gives $2500 annually in cash as part salary to two workers who
live among the people of the Maine coast as teachers, nurses, and
preachers. Contributions of clothing and old stockings furnished by the
sorority are used in the rug-making industry sponsored by the Mission.
Practically every chapter, active and alumna? send nearly a one thou-
sand boxes to the children every Christmas. Miss Myrtice Cheney,
philanthropy chairman of Sigma Kappa, also gives her services without
salary as secretary of the Educational Department.

Kappa Delta's philanthropic work is centered in the Crippled Chil-
dren's Hospital in Richmond, Virginia. In addition to the annual support
of four beds at a cost of S600 each, they have equipped a gymnasium
and a dental room for the children's use. Gifts such as rolling chairs,
radios, and useful toys have been provided for these handicapped mites
of humanity.

Eight sororities are doing social service and educational work in the
Appalachian mountains. There is no field in the whole United States
more fertile. It is not beside the point to tell something of this region
to illustrate the value of the work done by these groups. It is estimated
that five million people live in the Appalachians in an unbelievable state
of poverty and ignorance, with no access to the outside world, with no
knowledge of the civilization in which we take pride. These are the
people who in truth can call themselves one hundred per cent American.
They are the descendants of early English and Scotch settlers, living
in one of the most inaccessible parts of a country, devoid of anything
that can be dignified by the name of road or bridge, and where the
speediest mode of travel is by muleback. In some localities there are
no schools. In others the schools are ramshackle buildings without
equipment. Small wonder that the people are kept in abysmal ignorance
of what an education might mean, and yet they have a native intel-
ligence of a high order and are avid of learning when shown the way.
Mrs. Evelyn Bevier, a New York social worker, quoted in a sorority
magazine said, ''The basic need is for trained social workers making
constant visits to the cabins to see that instructions in sanitation and
cleanliness are carried out. Money alone will not change the squalid
living conditions." One and two-room cabins may house from five to
thirteen people. Water from polluted wells and streams kill thousands
each year with typhoid fever. Sanitation is a thing unknown. Ignorant
and superstitious midwives deliver the babies, the majority of whom
die in infancy. Xurses and doctors are non-existent in many places.
It is here that these sororities are doing a work which places them
high among those agencies rendering service to the nation.

Beta Sigma Omicron has her Pine Mountain School in this district.
The first school began near Hazard, Kentucky, in 1922, in what the
natives called a "cloth-house." A mountaineer by the name of Creech
came forty miles to see what these "fotched-on women" were doing.

MAY, 1932 27



,..

Summer camp work for poor undernourished children is the work of Alpha Gamma Delta
Here is their summer cottage at Jackson, Michigan

He said " I don't look after wealth for them, (meaning his people) I
look after the prosperity of the nation. I want the young 'uns taught
to serve the living God. Of course, they will not all do that, but they
can have good and evil laid before them and they can choose which
they will. I have heart and cravin' that our people may grow better."
With "this heart and cravin'," he deeded land to Beta Sigma Omicron
on which to build their schools. The "cloth house" is replaced by a
school building, infirmary, barn, poultry houses, toolhouse, church,
workshop, girls' dining room, office, electric plant, reservoir, swimming
pool, and playground. The "good has been laid before them" in form
of history, geography, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, reading, spelling,
writing, grammar, weaving, furniture making, sewing, cooking, laundry,
educational psychology, Latin, agriculture, physiology, general science,
literature, nature studv, home-nursing, and piano.

For its field of service Pi Beta Phi chose Gatlinburg in Sevier
County, Tennessee. The work began in a one-room school in 1912, and
it has now an institution with ten grades, nine teachers, and one hun-
dred seventy pupils, a ten-room residence for the teachers, four modern
school-buildings and other equipment has been added, even to a grand-
stand at the athletic field. A district school six miles from Gatlinburg
is also operated. One nurse travels through this district, and clinics are
conducted at the Health Center. The subjects taught almost duplicate

IS To DRAGMA M

those of Beta Sigma Omicron. Classes in practical housekeeping for I
adults form a part of the program. Pi Phi has also created a market I
for mountain-made articles by establishing the Arrowcraft Shop which
sells products of the loom, baskets and furniture. A woodcraft shop
has been added recently which employs adults as well as students. The
history of Pi Phi in the hills is an interesting one. They brought the
wonders of learning to this part of the country, and the natives besought
them to build more schools and furnished land for sites. Through their
influence and guidance roads have been improved, and new ones built.
Pi Phi was also instrumental in bringing the state hook-worm specialist
to this region with gratifying results.

The Delta Zeta Community Center at Vest, Kentucky, although
much younger in the work than the other two, operates a grade and
four-year accredited high school where five teachers are employed. A
dormitory houses twenty-four to thirty girls, and all the work is done
by the girls themselves. The school building has five rooms including a
library, and the parents have the use of the building for community
gatherings. Facilities for fireside industries have been added and many
other improvements are under way. This center is located in the heart
of the mountains, eighteen miles from the railroad.

Theta Upsilon maintains a Health Fund administrated by Berea
College. The purpose of this fund is to provide essential medical care
to those students who cannot afford it. Each year, between forty and
fifty students have benefited by the provision of glasses, care of the
teeth, and minor operations.

Alpha X i Delta supports a teacher at the Carcassonne Community
Center in Letcher County, Kentucky.

Zeta Tau Alpha is established in the Blue Ridge Mountains in
Virginia, where not more than a hundred miles from Washington, D.C.,
live a people who have never heard of the Capital nor seen an Ameri-
can flag. Ignorance, filth and disease is the common lot of these citizens.
Zeta Tau Alpha operates a Health House, two tonsil clinics, and a
garden and canning club. The aim is to teach the mountaineers proper
ways of living; to instill a desire among them to improve their own
conditions and so be helped to help themselves. A great deal of work
is done also to interest the parents to improve the school conditions.
The Zeta Tau Alpha national work is only three years old but "well be-
gun is half done."

A Healthmobile working under the state board of health and with
state furnished personnel of physician, nurse and chauffeur-movie op-
erator is sponsored by Phi Mu in Georgia. This Healthmobile which
is a large truck equipped with modern instruments for child welfare
work serves hundreds of thousands of children. Work is done in mid-
wifery and infant care. Teaching laws of sanitation and hygienic living
as well as control of preventable diseases is part of the program. A
$50,000 fund supports the venture.

The latest among sororities to find opportunity for service in the
mountains is Alpha Omicron Pi. A Social Service Department of the
Frontier Nursing Service has been underwritten. The latter organiza-

MAY, 1932

*


»

Summer camps for undernourished children is Gamma Phi Beta's philanthropy.
This camp is located near Denver.

tion is unique and internationally known for its work in a one thousand
square mile area in one of the most inaccessible parts of the Appalachi-
ans of Kentucky. The work done by this organization began as an
experiment to prove the efficacy of a nursing and health service among
the mountaineers. It is now past the experimental stage and is men-
tioned here only because it points out what can be done by persistent
effort and broad vision. Nine nursing centers and an eighteen-bed
hospital are the results of six years' work. Childbirth is no longer the
great danger to the life of the mother and child as in the past. Typhoid
fever has been routed almost entirely. Alpha Omicron Pi is privileged
} n joining forces with this organization. One social worker is already
•n the field, and others will be added as soon as funds permit.

Nothing has been said of the work which is nearly always part of
the program of local alumna; and active chapters. Considerable sums

30 To DRAGMA

.-

1r •
i



At Vest, Kentucky, Delta Zcta has a school and educational center for the po
mountain whites of that district.

of money are spent by practically all sororities in aiding less fortunate
human beings. There are, to mention only a few, clinics, endowed beds
in hospitals, scholarships for crippled children, lunch-money and carfare
for high school students, clothing for the poor, Christmas baskets,
layettes for babies, vacations for mothers, camps for children, equip-
ment for schoolrooms and kindergartens, and so forth.

Thus the alumna? of sororities spend much of their time, thought
and effort. The undergraduate years are the apprentice years the
adolescent stage of the fraternity. With maturity comes vision and
understanding, responsibility and courage; with a keen realization that,
instead of being apart from the world, one is part of the whole. Dr.
Adler in his book, "What Life Should Mean to You," says that "con-
tribution is the true meaning of life." He goes on further to say, "If
we look around us today at the heritage we have received from our
ancestors, what do we see? All that survives of them is the contributions
they have made to human life. We see cultivated ground; we see road-
ways and buildings; we see the communicated results of their experience
of life, in traditions, in philosophies, in the sciences and the arts, in
the technique of dealing with our human situations." These organiza-
tions we have studied realize not only the immediate need of their
fellow-men, but also strive to build for the future. Their influence will
extend down the ages.

M A Y , 1932 31

purvey ^hotvs Chapters A

^Approve Our Philanthropy

•By V E R A A . R I E B E L , Rho-

EA R L Y in January, the Social Service Committee sent out a letter
asking for the opinions of and reactions to our new National
Social Service Work. The answers from the active and alumna?
chapters are quite interesting and give us the "pulse" of the fraternity
at present.

Before 1 give any excerpts from the letters, there are two or three
facts to be mentioned. For years our charitable work has been carried
on chiefly by the alumnae chapters. Each alumnae group has had some
worthy local cause which it sponsored. Sometimes this meant that an
alumnae chapter paid for a bed in a hospital; again, it meant giving
money and service for a dental clinic; or, the support and sending to
school of a crippled child. All of these enterprises took money, but they
were so close at hand that every alumna had her sympathy aroused,
because she could actually see what was needed. And during all these
years of service in money-giving the alumnae have wished for a single
national project for which all AOIl's would be working and planning
together. Xow we have a unified philanthropy. The alumna? are most
enthusiastic about it, but they have a problem—a weighty one. At pres-
ent money is scarce. The old pet local charity must not be abandoned
after all these years, and the alumna? chapter must raise a "quota" for
the new National Social Service Work. There is one idea to keep in
mind, and that is that all alumnae chapters are having the same diffi-
culties, but all are working together and must help iron out some of the
problems that present themselves in any new undertaking. Let us turn
for a bit to these answers that you may see first hand how these alumna?
and actives feel, and how they are handling the situation.

Omaha Alumna? chapter believes not only in words but deeds, and
they surely have been more than prompt as this quotation shows: "We
voted to send $100 for the National Social Service Work. It is to be sent
•n installments. Twenty-five dollars of this amount has already been
sent to our Grand Vice President, Muriel McKinney." We say "more
power" to such energetic chapters. Perhaps Omaha Alumnae chapter
could tell of some of the ways it raised this money.

From the Dayton Alumna? chapter we hear that they are "unani-
mously and heartily enthusiastic." Even though this chapter lost all its
funds in a bank failure, they are working "doubly hard" and are "pleased
to do their share in our unified philanthropy."

Chicago South Shore Alumna' are enthusiastic about the work, but
feel that with only twenty-five members on their mailing list that the

32 To DRAGMA

quota of $100 is too much. They have been aiding a Summer Camp for
Crippled Children for a number of years, which would mean that the
local charity work would have to suffer. This is a problem which they
have set about to meet and still be fair to both projects.

Rochester Alumnae have begun their activities by sending out let-
ters to all those alumnae who live in the district. The Buffalo group
responded to this letter by sending in $11 to the Rochester Alumna*
toward the National Social Service Work.

The alumnae group at Nashville feels that our new National Social
Service Work "has inspired many of the members, and they are work-
ing diligently to raise their quota."

The Milwaukee Alumna* show their enthusiasm by saying, "There
is no doubt of the need of such a work. To have all chapters, active and
alumnae, working for one common worthwhile philanthropy will give us
all a more unified feeling. You can count on Milwaukee Alumnae chapter
to support this new program."

Since the Ann Arbor Alumnae group numbers but seven, they feel a
bit helpless in attempting anything big, but they show a fine spirit when
they say, "We will give our strength and interest to help Mahomet move
the mountain."

The members of the Detroit Alumna* chapter have felt the depression
so keenly, their city being such a large industrial center, that they are
having a very trying time in just attempting to pay chapter dues, let
alone raise money for any project. They feel that "the work may be too
localized and that mountaineers are a race unto themselves and that
their tendencies will never be changed." However, they are busy trying
to do their bit toward this great undertaking.

The alumnae at Bloomington, Indiana, say that it will be hard for
them to contribute their share to our new project, for they feel a great
responsibility for their active chapter house. All their members are will-
ing to help in this national work if the cost will not be too great, for they
feel it is a splendid project.

Now let us turn to the active chapters. With one accord they are all
boosting for our new national project. Omicron, Kappa, Gamma, Eta,
Phi, Omega, Omicron Pi, Tau Delta, Theta Eta, and Beta Kappa all
write most enthusiastic reports about the work, but they do not tell us
the way in which they are going to raise the funds.

The following active chapters are raising money in various ways. Nu,
in co-operation with the New York Alumnae group, is giving a benefit
bridge. Delta and Pi Delta are also giving bridges. Epsilon chapter writes
that each girl in the house has given or pledged $1 and sends a check in
advance toward the fund. Alpha Phi girls are using a "canteen" in the
house to help raise money.

Even in these bad days we are experiencing, all AOlI's alumnae and
undergraduates, are showing such wonderful enthusiasm for our new
project that it will be backed one hundred per cent as soon as we can
get all the machinery in running order. How proud every Alpha 0 ought
to feel that her fraternity can undertake and will eventually achieve suc-
cess in such a worthy cause!

M A Y , 1932 33

AOU's £hort ^tories <^Are 'Published

Q O M E time ago Alpha O's in Birmingham were pleased to find two
of their sisters bursting into print. The Birmingham News-Age-
Herald publishes a short story in its magazine section each Sunday.

The author must never have sold his or her fiction previously. Artemus
Calloway, a staff member, fiction writer, teacher, and critic judges the

stories.
So you may imagine the pride of Birmingham Alpha O's when on

one Sunday there appeared a story "Just Too Bad" by Felicia Metcalfe
(O), a member of the faculty of Ensley High School, in the foreign
language department, and an announcement that on the following Sun-
day "Country Girl" by Evelyn Coffin (TA), would be published.

Felicia's play, "Dark Prelude," won first prize in the Birmingham
Little Theatre play-writing contest in 1930. Her story tells of the meta-
morphosis of Junie to Jeanne Le Bruit via a contemplated trip through
the stratograph.

Of Evelyn's love story we'll quote from the newspaper:
Miss Coffin is author of "Country Girl," the short story which will be pub-
lished in the magazine section of the Birmingham News-Age-Herald, Sunday,

(Continued on page 105)

JI -,\ I O O j j A D ^ j j g . F * ^ h ^ J ^ = = r r z i COIM ( i l R l -B> Kr.lvn l »//m

- i—i —

8r)

34 To DRAGMA

w j{ y?

Of Women,
Hy Women,
CJ<or Women."

I N T H E quietly restful, taste-
fully appointed reception room
of the National Board Build-5
inn of the Young Women's Chris-
tian Association, New York City, I]
waited. Next door was the Central
" Y " Building where countless time3
I had dropped in for lunch in the

Annie-Kale Gilbert ( K ) , worked on the By L O R R A I N E J O N E S
program for the Y.W.C.A. Convention.

cafeteria, or, just to rest. I remembered the keenly interested feeling I'd
had on those occasions of all the activity going on. Girls, from the teen
age upward, sauntered, walked, or bustled about and all with that very
"doing-something" air. Leaflets and bulletins had described to me the
work being carried on, the clubs and the courses, the sociables and the
entertainments. I had always been impressed by the good spirit of fellow-
ship and fun that pervaded the place.

But never before had I been in the National Board Building. It was
therefore with no little feeling of awe that I sat waiting to meet one of
the "powers behind the throne" of that very interesting organization, the
Y.W.C.A.—who, it had also turned out, was no less than one of my own
sorority sisters, Annie-Kate Gilbert!

Then, after only a few minutes of waiting, she walked briskly into the
room, cordially smiling her welcome. I sensed immediately that Annie-
Kate Gilbert was a very jolly person indeed, and a very real and sincere
one, too. She was most generous in her explanation about her work with,
and the larger work of, the Young Women's Christian Association.

I was curious, of course, to know how she had got started in the Asso-

MAY, 1932 35

Relating
How

Annie-Kate
Gilbert

Became a
Leading
Figure in

the
National
Y.W.C.A.

National headquarters
of the Y.W.C.A. are
on Lexington Avenue
in New York.

M C N A L L Y , Nu

ciation work. Annie-Kate was not quite certain herself, however, as to
what had prompted her to "go in" for the work, except that while she'd
still been at Randolph-Macon, she had attended several student confer-
ences of the Y.W.C.A. in Blue Ridge, North Carolina, and had met a
number of the " Y " secretaries.

" I got interested in the discussions at those conferences," she said,
"and the subjects that were discussed. You know," she added, twinkling,
"I began to understand that there were things going on in the world that
were equally as important as those of the campus."

After graduation from Randolph-Macon in 1913, however, she post-
poned the start of her career for three years, and it was not until 1916
that she actually began working. At that time she became local Student
Secretary of the Y.W. at the Oklahoma State College for Women. It was a
young college, and she found many things of importance to organize. For
instance, it was her job to assist in the formation of the student-govern-
ment body a new thing for the college—and to work with the girls in
trying to apply Christian principles on the campus. She remained at the
college for two years—until January, 1918. After that, for the year and a

36 T O DllAGMA

half following and until the fall of 1919, she traveled about in many
southwestern states, such as Texas and Oklahoma, doing much the same
sort of work as Student Secretary as she had done at the Oklahoma Col-
lege.

It was in the fall of 1919 that what perhaps might be termed her
"apprenticeship" ended. She came to New York then and began working
with the Girl Reserves—the 'teen girls of the Y.W.C.A. A year later—
1920—she started doing administrative work at national headquarters,
and it was from that point on that her executive responsibilities in-
creased. Her progress along the way was not made by skips and jumps,
of course, but rather step by step—steps certainly of untiring and cease-
less effort. One of these steps, for example, was her place as Executive
Secretary of the National Girl Reserve Department of the National
Board, a place held for three years; others were the many, many con-
ferences throughout the country which she attended.

As we visited together, I watched her and saw very plainly an enthu-
siasm for her work which is still carrying her on. At present she is work-
ing on the program for the National Biennial Convention of the Asso-
ciation to be held this year at Minneapolis for six days, from May 5 to
11, Those to attend this Convention are the National Board members,
the National Secretaries, and representatives from all of the local asso-
ciations over the whole country. The work will be much the same as at
all conventions, deciding on the policies of the Association and their ap-
plication for the next two years. A Public Affairs' program will consider
such subjects as the Association's attitude on the entrance of the United
States into the World Court, the question of world peace and the Asso-
ciation's methods of co-operating with other organizations on this vast
question. The Convention in general, as Annie-Kate explained, will be
much like a glorified discussion group which will give direction to the
work of the National Board.

We are all more or less familiar with the routine of Conventions. But
there probably will be no one so appreciative of the work being done now
by Annie-Kate as those who served on the committee—the chairman of
the committee in particular—of our own National Convention. Annie-
Kate, of course, is responsible not only for helping to get ready the routine
program of the Convention but must, together with other committee mem-
bers, formulate the subjects to be discussed from data gathered from
sources all over the country.

Like myself, there are probably any number of you who have visited
at your local " Y , " have even perhaps participated in some of its activities.
Like myself also, however, you have probably never guessed exactly what
was going on "behind the scenes" of that enormous organization. It was
quite a revelation, therefore, to learn from Annie-Kate some few of the
facts which she explained to me in connection with its work.

The Association, she said, was organized in the United States 'way
back in 1866—just after the Civil War when women were first finding it
necessary during the Reconstruction period to undertake all sorts of work
outside the home. It was not precisely a new idea springing out of the
needs of this country; England, for several years previous, had been form-
ing and running just such an organization.

I

AY, 1932 37

;<-•

1 '• 1



-



••

Girl Reserves provide the 'teen aged girls with wholesome activity.

The fundamental principle of its beginning was religious in effect and
the founders sought to "afford a channel of expression for women and
girls along lines of Christian principles." Toward this aim it has operated
ever since. Here Annie-Kate's face broke into a broad smile. "Of course
I admit," she said brightly, "we don't always accomplish what we set out
to though we earnestly try to do it. Still, there are always criticisms—and
our self-criticisms are as severe as any."

Coming down to the more intimate facts about the " Y , " I was inter-
ested to know something about the various clubs and courses. Did the
National Board decide just what sort of clubs and programs the individual
Associations were to have?

"For the most part," Annie-Kate explained, "each local Association
discovers for itself the needs of its community and organizes such clubs
and courses by itself."

All the while Annie-Kate was talking, I tried to get at the keynote of
the work done by the Y.W.C.A. I'd had a splendid visit with her and had
gained a deal of information. But, still, up to that point, I'd not been
able to fathom the keynote of the Association's work—the thing or idea
which gave the glow to her eyes while she sat talking. Then, quite sud-
denly, after I'd gathered up my pencils and paper, and without either of
us being aware of it, she let it drop.

"By women and for women," she said. "That is really what the Asso-
ciation stands for. Women seem to have a flare for making the community
socially what it ought to be. They get it from their experience in home-
making."

(Continued on page 53)

38 To DRAGMA

^Alpha Qamma Qhapter

This large group of Alpha Gamma alumna u-ill return to Pullman for installation.

By E V E L Y N K R A U S E , Alpha Gamma

A L P H A GAMMA was founded October 29, 1921, by a group of ten
X I girls including Vivian Whalen, Jean Stewart, Marjorie Cook, Ethel

Van Eaton, Kathryn Watt, Maybelle Tardy, Hilda Mullen, Mil-
dred Hunt, and Alice Tardy—with Mrs. C. A. Isaacs.

At first the girls held informal meetings every Monday at the home
of Mrs. Isaacs until 1922 when they bought our present house and lot.
The girls planned the badge and pledge pin; a scroll unrolled and a scroll
rolled, respectively. They chose as their colors, coral and gray, and as
their flower, the pink sweet pea.

A number of traditions have been handed down through the years.
They include a Christmas party, an Easter Sunday formal breakfast,
housemother's tea, Founders' Day banquet, pledge tea, and Hallowe'en
party.

Rushing is done throughout the year, starting with formal rush at the
beginning of the fall term. We rush according to Panhellenic rules as we
have two representatives in Panhellenic.

Initiation requirements of Alpha Gamma are: Scholarship, 85 per

MAY, 1932 39

^econd in ^cholarsh

» • ! iMll—l III

Alpha Gamma includes: front row, Evelvn Krause, Evelyn V'oge, Rose Jones, Lucille
Htbbard (president). Opal Jenkin, Kathleen Nealex, Florence Brock. Second row,
Alma Schierman, Inez Ingling, Flox Lewis Victoria Hansen, Mabel Smithex, Edna
Berkey. Third row, Irene Rude, Ruby Haslett, Dorothy Clithero, Lenore Morse,

Lucile Buckhoh. Last rcnv, Adria Velckc, I.ydia Palmer, Hazel Plaskett.

cent average; three campus activities; the vote of the sorority. We have
a scholarship plaque for the freshman girl making the highest average,
and also a plaque for the most outstanding senior girl, graduating with
the most activities.

Our officers are: the president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, and
alumnae secretary, house manager, rush captain, and social chairman.

We give several dances during the year including a formal, semi-
formal, informals and firesides. Last year we gave our first Creative Arts
reception in honor of the prominent townspeople and faculty. Our campus
activities include the winning of the ASP Debate cup in 1927 and 1932.
We also had an act in the Junior Vodvil in 1928 and 1929. The last
semester Alpha Gamma was second among the Greek-letter scholarship
groups in scholarship, and third on the college list of forty-seven or-
ganized groups.

Alpha Gamma has eighty-four alumna;. Their dues are five dollars a
year. An alumna; association has been formed in Spokane under the

(Continued on page 71)

'Washington £tate Trasses I

By V I C T O R I A H A N S E N , Alpha Gamma s
s
; N T H E thirteenth day of January, 1892, the State College of Wash- s
ington first opened its doors for instruction. At that time, the col- r
lege was composed of one small brick building nicknamed the T
o
"crib" of the infant institution. This same building now constitutes a f
minor part of the girl's gymnasium. A single wagon track circled the s
commons of the hillside known as College Hill. Nearly a mile away in a
the valley could be seen the "business" district of the village of Pullman. t
The little college standing on the hill seemed bleak, cold, and lonesome r
g
• with not even a shrub or tree to lend it atmosphere. At that time, the town
of Pullman had only 350 inhabitants and the city of Spokane less than t
20,000. E
l
• The first annual catalogue of the State College of Washington, pub- f
lished in the summer of 1892, gives a list of twenty-one freshmen and c
sixty-three preparatory students. The president at this time was Dr. b
George Lilley, whose faculty staff consisted of five members. The depart- s
ments were very few. v>
$
The period, 1893 to 1899, is known as the period of reorganization. c
The first year had naturally been very difficult, and for a while the school
tottered on its foundation. In 1893, however, a new Board of Regents was ,
appointed, a better financial condition established, and a few new poli-
cies started. Two new buildings were erected, one of
which was a dormitory, the girls to occupy one sec-
tion and the boys the other. These early years were
hard and discouraging. Even the "campus" itself

Mwm

Unusually beautiful is the campus of Washington State
College. This is the Engineering Building.

mm

Through The auditorium and library is sur-
mounted by a clock tower and is
Trial
called the Enoch A. Bryan Hall.
years

radiated only bareness and de-
sertion with its few sparsely
scattered buildings and treeless
skyline. By 1895 things were
running a little more smoothly.
The institution had added an-
other dormitory and three or
four more buildings, trees and
shrubs had been planted, and
above all the State College was
the proud possessor of a healthy,
robust-looking football team.

By 1897 the school had or-
ganized a glee club which gave

concerts in the different towns,
and every year some dramatic
event was given to lighten up the
college life.
From 1899 to 1907 the college really developed rapidly. The grounds
took on the appearance of a real campus. The president at this time was
Enoch A. Bryan, a man who really took the college to heart, and who was
loved and highly respected by everyone. Under him the college became
firmly established as an institution. In 1916 Dr. Ernest O. Holland be-
came president, in which capacity he still serves.

During the last four years the college has grown greatly. In 1928 a
building was erected which is the finest home economics building of any
state institution in the union. In the same year a 5750,000 gymnasium
v>as erected and also a $140,000 Memorial Hospital. The next year a
$250,000 field house was erected next to the gymnasium. A new mechani-
cal engineering building with all the latest equipment was the last build-
ng to be erected.

42 To DRAGMA

<SMemortes...

for ^ale

By

D O R O T H Y D U N C A N , Rho

FUN, friendships, and facts, a popular
professor at Northwestern tells us, are
what we may expect to find in our col-
lege life. Their import-

ance, he believes, stand in

that order, which no doubt

accounts for his popular-

ity. With or without

Franklyn Bliss Snyder's

permission, 1 am borrow- St. Peters at Rome is
ing his overworked trilogy a magnificent edifice.

for my own purposes. It loveliness of a trip abroad
gives me a definite open- into neat little packages
ing paragraph that will which I can share with
help to tie the intangible
you.

House of Parliament Summer is playtime, re-
on The Thames in gardless of the exigencies o\
London is included on business or household care>-

the itinerary.

From the first restless

tal stirrings of spring, W!*»

the smoldering wanderiu-

blurts suddenly into flam,

one heedless, windy day. we are PreP*Jj]2

ourselves for the relaxation earned dunflB

-the winter's work. Fun has been earned. ^

only question is what—and how.

where? .v a

Perhaps I'm prejudiced; or perhaps a

cation without the thrill of adventure

the unknown would only be half a vaJ^.

to me. All during the unpleasantness oil

ter, dull routine, and sometimes bor

with things as they are. I find my nlinujstle.
ing ahead to the sound of a boat •

For a moment I can close my eyes an ^

the crowded docks; smell the brine oyoi*;
North River and the heat of Net*

M A Y , 1932 43

and then once again that long "whoooooo," sending shivers to the toes of
the most unresponsive. If you know anything else in the world that will
give you the same chills of excitement, you are fortunate. It takes a boat
and an unfathomable stretch of blue sea to satisfy the gnawing wander-
lust that lives within me. I don't much care where the boat is going. Some-
day I'd like not to know, as long as the end of the trip brings me to a
foreign harbor, new faces, sights and sounds.

This year, when steamship rates have been reduced and European
hotel managers are offering all kinds of extras to entice us over, it is
cheaper to go abroad than to vacation at home. England, France, Switzer-
land have never been so close before. Unbelievable and unprecedented
opportunities make a veritable bargain counter of vacation trips . . .
bringing the fulfilling of dreams within reach of our finger-tips. It can't
be such a dreary world, in spite of all we hear about its fallibilities and
faults, if these same weaknesses make it possible for you and me to wan-
der as we will.

Long ago I decided that I preferred to invest in memories instead of
bonds. Economists wouldn't agree; but then, I never could understand
economics in college. Consequently, at the present time I own no depre-
ciated securities in a bank vault, but the memories I have acquired since
leaving college six years ago I wouldn't trade with anyone on earth.

Fun . . . and friendships. Memories are your own personal property
that no one can possibly take from you; they are more yours than any
material possessions you will ever acquire. But sharing them only serves
to increase them, in a strange manner. So we treasure particularly those
friends that our holidays bring to us.

Last summer, when the main part of the tour was over in Paris, five
of us had planned to go to Switzerland for a week of rest and beauty. By
the time we were actually on our way there were eleven . . . all drawn
together by an intangible something called congeniality for want of a
more penetrating expression. Mildred Schneider (Y), is teaching in Corn-
wall, New York. We haven't seen her since the sunny afternoon we left
her standing in front of the hotel in Paris. But the memory of the fun
shared last summer in Interlaken and Montreux (she was so attractive
on the dance floor of the Kursaal, smiling up at her tall, blond young
Swiss) will bring us together again this summer somewhere on our travels.

Perhaps we'll find our way back again to the shores of Lac Leman
and the rose-arbored garden of the Villa Elisabeth. What does it matter
how late the spring may be, how many disappointments the winter has
handed me, if I can close my mind to immediate surroundings and find
myself walking along the quai between Montreux and Territet.

Facts? . . . oh, yes. Museums, dates, history, names. But that isn't
what I mean. It is the vast minutiae of sensations taken in by your eyes
and ears without your mind telling them to see this and remember that,
that matters. All of the reading you manage each day, whether it be
novels, biography, newspapers, or magazine articles, will suddenly take
on color and depth. You'll find your understanding of foreign policies,
racial temperaments, and descriptive background amazingly clear and
interesting, without your being quite aware of what has caused the
change.

11 To DRAGMA

You may spend your life reading books that attempt to define the
reasons for a natural antipathy between the English and French, but a
few weeks spent in each country will tell you more than all the books pub-
lished on the subject. Compare the excitable, volatile nature of a French
railway station with the calm, orderly efficiency of Croydon Airdrome;
watch the quiet loading of provision and cargo onto a big liner from the
docks at Southampton in the morning, and then from the same deck
watch and listen to the noisy transference of passengers from a tender in
Cherbourg breakwater late the same afternoon.

It may be strong prejudice in favor of ocean travel and the stimula-
tion of trying to make oneself understood in a foreign tongue, or it may
be no more than mere habit. The fact remains that when the end of June
comes I find myself listening for that long-drawn-out "whooooo." And
when its deep reverberations and the sound of the anchor chains tell me
that we're ready to move out into the river and head for the open sea,
1 m thoroughly happy once more, richer than all the money in the world
can make me . . . on my way toward adventure and the accumulation of
new memories.

1$ho Presents Qrandma ^amzell

i YOU know your Founders and
your Grand Officers, and you
know other dignitaries who shed
H I luster upon the fraternity, but you
- do not know Grandma Samzell, and
we of Rho hasten to remedy this de-
fect in your otherwise up-to-date
knowledge. Grandma Samzell is the
mother of Mrs. Johnson (hostess of
- Rho). We believe that Grandma, as
she is affectionately called by all the
girls, is the only person who has un-
dertaken to grandmother a whole
chapter, if not the fraternity itself.
Let anyone cast even a slight malev-
olent eye upon a member or upon
the organization and there will rise to
a magnificent defense, a most charm-
ing and patrician lady one would wish
to see, namely Grandma Samzell.
Ever cheerful and sparkling with hu-
mor her ways of spreading benefits
are subtle and far-reaching. It has been known even that she has of-
fered, secretly and privately, to relieve temporary financial distress ot
individual members. Those seeking comfort of whatever kind need never
turn away disappointed from her door. She epitomizes age beautifully
and gracefully attained. A toast to her never-failing humor, good sense,
and everlasting youth!

MAY, 1932 45

fyookshop §( U o

ft 5
'N C/3

By L I L I A N C A M P B E L L , for the Central Press Association

)

<

i N BUSINESS it's ;eeds today, as numer
ous Bmuetrgienrsthaetteasrtts il aking that is apt to appeal,

as witness the little theater, the small cozy tearoom that smacks of exclu-

siveness, the diminutive bookshop in which folk can browse at will, un-

disturbed by a sales conscious clerk.

Possibly the psychology of the small venture accounts in part for the

success of the little bookshop kept by Mr. and Mrs. George Kirk (fi), in

Greenwich Village, New York City.

It is only six feet wide by 50 feet long, but Mr. Kirk declares, accord-

ing to his wife, that their shop takes the place of the old-fashioned bar, be-

cause everyone drops in to get or give the latest gossip of the village or to

receive consolation for their woes.

46 To DRAGMA

"They come in to tell us of the coming of a new baby," says Mrs.
Kirk, "or to weep on our shoulders when things go wrong."

The Kirks advertise "Books: new, old and rare: bought and sold."
And "Books and pamphlets on criminology and criminal trials our spe-
cialty." And on this last phrase hangs a tale, for every summer the Kirks
go ascouting in New England for rare old books and manuscripts.

"In early days," states Mrs. Kirk, "pamphlets were written on special
crimes, with atrocious sketches of the victim, scene of the murder, etc.

"Then there were what were called 'Broadsides,' which were about the
size of a newspaper and contained a poem about the execution of the
murderer with a gruesome sketch of the gallows with the body hanging
thereon.

"These are dated in the 17's and early 18's. They are interesting as
Americanna, and also are eagerly snapped up by modern mystery and
detective story writers."

Mrs. Kirk is particularly interested in first edition books. She has
some rare ones in her collection—a first edition of "Pickwick Papers" in
book form; Thackeray's "The Newcomes" in the pamphlet form in which
it first appeared; a set of Lafcadio Hearn's Japanese fairy stories printed
on hand-made paper and illustrated in charming colors, also first edition.

Mrs. Kirk was formerly Lucile Dvorak of Cleveland, a newspaper,
advertising and publicity writer. She has learned the book business since
her marriage. "But please don't say I'm an expert," she pleads. "I'm still
very much of an amateur."

MU

Toward Jfarmony

By PRUDENCE MACKISSOCK, Delta

The earth is peopled with the folk ivho be

Born each with his own uniquity,

And all in vain each seeks to find
Those who coincide his kind,

Hoping thus to soon reveal

Points which nature does conceal.

All egotists we now appear
To think that nature might adhere

To our minute and petty ways

And thus make happy all our days.

Let us turn from this disgrace,
Let us possess the lesser place,

Adjust ourselves to laws that be

Discovered—finer harmony.

M A Y , 1932 47

a

7

IRENE OLSEN.

Dinner for 12 or 1200

FLORENCE A. ANDERSON, Y

Tells Hozc Irene Olsen Manages It

DI N N E R parties, teas and banquets are mere routine in the daily
life of Irene Olsen (H '25), who is in charge of the catering for
special parties which are held in the Memorial Union, the new
student center of the University of Wisconsin.

This spacious new building is not only the center of activities for the
students, but is used by town alumni and faculty as well. A glance at the
bulletin board in the hall of the Union never fails to show at least a half
dozen private luncheons and dinners all scheduled for that day.

Irene has complete charge of all the parties which are given in the
Union. She interviews the people planning the parties and assists them
in preparing the menu. She then places the kitchen order and discusses
the meal with the chef. As carefully as for a party in her own home she
supervises the setting of the table and watches the serving of the meal,


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