Page 27 - 1917 May - To Dragma

TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI 237

M r s . Schoppe, whom Gamma knows as Peggy Pilsbury, and I
discovered these girls two years ago. Then some ten of them had
formed a local. Alpha Phi, nationals at that time being forbidden by
the f a c u l t y of Montana State. T h e y came to us because they knew we
were fraternity women, f o r help and advice, they knowing noth-
ing of Alpha O and we knowing little of them. Then began a
mutual comradeship, we being designated by the awe-inspiring term
of "patronesses"—which comradeship blossomed in the spring of
1916 by the decision of the girls to work for Alpha Omicron Pi and
by the glad assurance on our part that we would help them all.

From the very beginning helping was such a pleasure. Because
of it the Installing Officer was younger on her thirtieth birthday
when she installed A l p h a Phi Chapter than she had been i n years.
The girls went to work with might .and main to win the highest
scholarship in college, to achieve the highest standing i n the respect
o f the faculty, and to be of some service i n the college and com-
munity world about them. A l l these they have achieved. Their
scholarship is the highest at Montana State; in their petition recom-
mendations you know of the regard they are held in by the f a c u l t y ;
if you want to know of the service they are giving to their ccollege,
you may ask the dean. Already I fear I have exceeded the most
liberal bounds of enthusiastic praise.

I t was on January 28th that we received news of the granting of
our charter. T h e girls claim they sat on one bed i n H a m i l t o n H a l l ,
ate a l l sorts of indigestible things, and hugged one another u n t i l
three A . M . and I am inclined to believe it. The granting of the
very first national charter in the history of the college demanded
some extravagance! T h a t you w i l l gladly admit.

Installation took place on Friday afternoon, February 23, at Mrs.
Schoppe's new brown bungalow, w h i c h seemed expressly built f o r
the occasion. I f the Installing Officer, ably helped by the assistant,
succeeded i n giving to the girls one-half the loyalty which flooded her
own heart, I think our beautiful ritual service must have been impres-
sive. The girls' eager, glad, earnest faces in the candle-light told
me that i t was impressive, and as I looked f r o m one to another of
them I knew, as I have come to know even more surely, that the
destiny of A l p h a Omicron Pi is safe w i t h them.

W e were sorry that the many feet of snow, which has carpeted and
buried a l l Montana, kept our three sisters scattered about the state
from coming, sorry that the mountains and two thousand miles of
country separated Upsilon and Gamma f r o m us, though they were
w i t h us i n the pins they so k i n d l y sent. But we rejoiced i n the many