Page 105 - 1914 February - To Dragma

214 TO PRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

busy getting better acquainted with our new sisters. First, there
was our annual pledge luncheon at Marshall Field's where we
proudly introduced the new girls to several of the Chicago alumna;
who met with us at the dainty luncheon. Then came our cozy little
dance in honor of our pledges, held at the Evanston Woman's Club.
Weren't we proud of them too, when in the "pledge extra" only the
pledges and their partners were on the floor while the rest of us
admired! Hazel McCoy from Greensburg, Ind., a Theta sister, has
been in Chicago the last few months and we all welcomed her at
the dance. Edna Betts, Betty Hiestand, Vera Riebel, Louise Nor-
ton French, Estelle Martin and Marie Vick were with us, too.

Two weeks later our pledges became really and truly A O n's at
the ceremony held in Mrs. Row's home. Here we initiated Louise
Noyes, our jolly P. G. ( I wish you could hear her sing), Ruby
Peek, Esther Vincent, Katherine Aldrich, Athene Nachtrieb, Ruth
Bond and Gertrude Nizze. Twenty six Alpha O's sat down to the
little round tables decorated with our flower, at the initiation ban-
quet held at the "Red Rowen Inn." Caroline Piper Dorr, Julia Nor-
ton, Avaline Kindig, Marie Vick, Elizabeth Hiestand, Vera Riebel,
Hazel McCoy, Estelle Martin, and Marguerite Symonds, all were
there to join in the songs and be proud of Alpha O. Of course,
the toasts were witty, and the songs the pledges had written, clever!
For every Rho pledge is required to compose the words for an A O I I
song, or words and music, and stand alone to sing it at the initiation.
This ordeal always brings groans when announced to the unmusical
and unpoetical, but no one has ever succumbed.

Just before the girls went home for vacation we had our annual
Christmas party at Marie Vick's. Each of us had drawn a name
and bought some toy, attaching a limerick or joke to the little present.
The gifts were put in a huge tarlatan stocking, and as our names were
called we must step to the center of the expectant circle, and read
the sometimes embarrassing jokes. Later the toys were collected and
sent with food and clothing, to children in the Chicago slums where
the Northwestern settlement is located.

Julia Fuller has been appointed chairman of the social committee
of the senior class in college and will plan all the festivities when the
class of 1914 meets for its last celebrations.

Examinations are approaching and we must pick up all the stray
ends of knowledge necessary, and not be among the number "who
have not let study interfere with their college education."

May the year 1914 be f u l l of happiness and success for all our
sisters in Alpha O.