Page 28 - To Dragma May 1930

M A Y , 1930 Z5

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RALPH M. KROSCHER

A portrait of a
i lady tvtth white

hair. Our Alice,
a * 1930.

accomplish said Purpose—heaven forbid, I was to have been a Greek
professor—but we kept it right in the back of our heads and took col-
lege very seriously. We had to go four years, generally to the same
place; we had to "get our B.A." and if once in a while some frivolous
maiden decided to leave and marry, we rather pitied her, I give you
my word that's true, though we really were not so unattractive to men.
Fifteen out of our little class of 105, were wearing solitaires in their
"Tiffany settings" on graduation day. One of the fifteen, I recall, had
been engaged three out of her four years, and they set up housekeeping
with their two diplomas, neatly framed, and "lived happily ever after."
And I'm sure she has never begrudged the time she gave to college.
But now—you tumble into college as Freshmen and before you are
Sophomores, you are brides, or else you go one year to one place, next
year to another, and possibly come back to finish at Alma Mater Num-
ber One. What do you get? Atmosphere, perhaps, but not college
spirit.

I don't think we were especially to be commended, nor this genera-
tion to be blamed, for our different attitudes. We had to work—teach-
ing was all we had open to us—we had to get diplomas to show we could
be teachers—hence we went to college and secured the said diplomas.
So it was grim necessity, not nobility of character that inspired us. Why
should the young woman of today, with every fascinating job in the world
°Pen to her, settle in grooves like we did? Those of us who escape
settling, were just paving the way for you who take your freedom for
granted. But just the same, don't pity us. We were all in the same
Victorian predicament and knowing no better, were perfectly happy.