Page 72 - To Dragma May 1930

MAY, 1930 69

Our "To 'Dragma" Qrows Up

IN M A Y , 1915, upon the occasion of a report by the business manager of To
DRAGMA, Isabelle Henderson (Stewart) prefaced her financial statement w i t h the
following:

" I do not believe that M a r y Chase of Gamma chapter, when she thought out
and designed the attractive cover of this issue, knew that she was making a birthday
dress for a child of ten winters. To DRAGMA celebrated in January, her tenth
birthday!

"You will pardon the feminine gender—for, to the editor and contributors who
have so ably molded and shaped her formative character, and the business managers
who have striven to pay the bills for food, education, and wardrobe—why To
DRAGMA is simply throbbing and pulsating w i t h l i f e ! "

Fifteen years have swept past since Isabelle voiced the feeling that every editor
has had of the magazine. Our To DRAGMA is no longer a little girl w i t h pig
tails and mother hubbards; she has achieved womanhood. Her development has
been that of a human being, certainly, for she started out life causing those who
had inspired her much worry, work, and financial burden, the desire of all,
the care of a few. She passed through those baby years, a healthy child, yet some-
times undernourished by contributors and often too poor financially to make a
quarterly appearance. Then came youth, and she began to thrive. Her contributors
were generous—they had caught the spirit of the editors engendered during those
younger years of trial and education. She began to have fewer financial worries.
Adolescence found her recording the letters of knitting collegians, the names of army
brothers and sweethearts, articles from the front, for the World War had quickened
her pulse and made her patriotic. Then came the post-war days, and she came
upon a firm financial footing through a life subscription plan. W i t h her money
problems less crucial, she began to show f o r t h more decorations in the f o r m of
numerous pictures.

Each year as she becomes more affluent, we like to picture her in the f u t u r e ;
we like to think of her appearing in public a bit oftener—we like to think of
her gaining a bit more weight, and adding features which she cannot afford now.
We sit and dream of the day when the editor need not think of the cost of her
Upkeep.

Yes, T o DRAGMA does have life, for behind her pages are the dozens of the
People who make her possible. Those who supply her allowance are no longer
so personally prominent, for like any individuals or groups entering upon an auto-
matic or compulsory system, they are known now chiefly as the initiates or the
alumnae in groups rather than as M a r y Jones or Susan Smith. But the contributors
0 1 content w i l l always be individuals. They are the group who make this editorial
Same such a delightful one, for to the editor they have become close friends,
though i t may never be her privilege to meet them. They are the beings who
keep life alive in the magazine.

I t is a joy to be the editor on this t w e n t y - f i f t h birthday of T o DRAGMA.
May all of you enjoy this issue as much as your editor has enjoyed its prepara-
tion. She hopes it is a fitting climax for these twenty-five years of development.