Page 25 - 1917 May - To Dragma

2 3 4 TO DRAG MA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI
the girls got me a badge—a white one; that meant a real delegate,
and I went on over w i t h the mother of one of the girls, herself an
alternate. Before I really realized that I was a delegate, I had
had to answer so many embarrassing questions as to my interest i n
the various meetings, etc., that I was almost forced to hide myself in
a corner—much to the amusement of the girls.
But a little incident of my visit there that will persist i n sticking
happily in my memory, was the occasion just before dinner one night
when I met one o f their patronesses, and impulsively she exclaimed,
" W h y , I don't see why the girls had to be a f r a i d of you—you're just
one o f t h e m ! " A n d that is so exactly what I have wanted a l l along
to be—"just one of them"—that i t gives me a w a r m feeling of grati-
tude just to remember it. When I left the girls the next afternoon,
I f e l t I was leaving friends of long standing, so dear had they
become to me i n those few days.
Then came the long trip to Lincoln, and I ' l l confess I arrived
rather tired. But with time f o r a little rest between whiles, I was
g l a d to be taken through L i n c o l n — n o t nearly so flat as I had looked
for it to be—and to visit the campus and the agricultural college
on the edge of town. I found the Zeta girls most zealous in every
effort to make my stay pleasant, and I recall with pleasure the faces
of them a l l as I read their reports and letters. T h e i r house is about
as pretty a f r a t e r n i t y house as I saw i n L i n c o l n , but they w i l l have and it had nothing to do with Alpha O! But my husband tele-
to leave i t this summer, as it stands on ground that the university has
condemned f o r use i n its extension work. There are many alumnae
in Lincoln, too—you remember that Zeta is the oldest chapter i n
this district—and I was very much pleased to meet them at a luncheon
they gave for me. O f course, I had met Viola Gray, the Chairman
of the N e w Chapters Committee, and had been so interested to hear
of all her work in the interests of expansion. One night I spent
most r e s t f u l l y w i t h the alumnae chapter president, and she was con-
siderate enough to let me rest even f r o m a l l thoughts of A l p h a O
—matters that had been so continuously on my m i n d f o r so long, that
I had to throw them off for a while. But I must not forget to tell
you of the game between Kansas and Nebraska that I attended at
which I cheered as heartily f o r Nebraska as i f i t were my own
college.
And you w i l l want to hear of Tau, too, and of my stop in beautiful
Minneapolis. Once again it was like getting home to be greeted
by so many o f the girls that I had met on my visit to them the year
before. I t was Sunday morning when I arrived, and fortunately
the weather had moderated enough to give us a splendid opportunity
TO DRAG MA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI 235
for seeing the town. I fell in love with it, and know of no other
place I should rather live in—except, of course, dear o l d smoky
Chicago. But the t w i n cities must certainly be the pearls of the
northern cities, and the university itself has a l l the beauty o f bluff
and river and ravine to make it attractive. I do not wonder that
those who have once lived there hate to leave i t f o r any other place.
I wonder i f you w o u l d be interested to know of a rather striking
circumstance in the fraternity l i f e there. I found that the majority
of the " U " students come f r o m the t w i n cities, and that the houses
are run for only six to nine girls—doesn't that make a difficult prob-
lem in the running of a house? The Tau girls do not own their own
home but live i n an attractive l i t t l e brown house which seems com-
modious f o r nine girls. They are gradually putting aside money f o r
a house f u n d , however, and some day w i l l b u i l d their own home. A n d
I want to tell you a l l that little T a u had in process of f o r m i n g the
best exhibit f o r the Convention of a l l those that I saw!
We have a new alumnae chapter in Minneapolis, too, you w i l l
remember, and I spent one day w i t h them at a d e l i g h t f u l luncheon
at the home of Mrs. Jackson who hails from Gamma. They were
all so interested and active i n their social service work, and i n any
effort to strengthen A O I I .
I must tell you, too, of the happiest day I -had at Minneapolis—
graphed me that he could spend a day with me there on his way
to N o r t h Dakota, and it had been almost three weeks since I had
seen h i m ! T h e girls were t h o u g h t f u l enough to give us almost a l l
the time to ourselves, and i t was like a second honeymoon. I d i d
give him a chance to meet the girls after their reception f o r me; and
he pronounced them almost as nice as the Rho g i r l s — w h i c h was t r u l y
a compliment from him.
A n d once more I have come to the end of my visit; of my stop
at Madison I have told you elsewhere, and of my trip to Rho I am
too modest to speak. I cannot tell o f my own chapter w i t h o u t some
p a r t i a l i t y I k n o w ; so I w i l l ask you to stop to see them on your way
through Chicago to the Convention and judge for yourselves.
I t has given me a happy morning to recall to myself a l l the details
of my t r i p ; I can only hope i t w i l l seem as w o r t h w h i l e to you.