Page 13 - 1918 November - To Dragma

26 TO DRAG MA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI TO PRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI 27

THE INSTALLATION OF PSI CHAPTER desires of all our hearts—all bound together by the symbol of the

To the little group of nineteen girls at Pennsylvania who had called jack rose and the ruby in our pins.
themselves Pi Sigma, the installation of Psi Chapter came as the
realization of a dream of the distant future. We had been organized Miss Henry talked to us of the founding and expansion of Alpha
two years and during that time had held many serious conclaves in Omicron Pi and the things for which it stood. At the close of this
regard to petitioning a national fraternity. You can hardly realize very interesting speech she read this telegram from Mrs. Stewart:
our happiness and exuberant spirits when the word arrived, telling
us that the national organization of our selection had granted us a "Alpha Omicron Pi wishes Psi to know how gladly she received
charter. I t was rather an event on campus, for since women have you into her keeping, extending to you a most cordial welcome to the
been in Pennsylvania there have been chapters of only two national ranks of the sisterhood. We know you are to be a source of strength
sororities here—first Kappa Kappa Gamma, then later, Delta Delta to us and trust you will find inspiration in Alpha Omicron Pi.
Delta. I t is good to know that Alpha Omicron Pi takes her place
as third in fraternal history here. Isabelle Henderson Stewart (signed)."
Then indeed did we feel ourselves members of a great national
A little over a month after the coming of the good news, our kind fraternity reaching from one end of the country to the other. And,
friend and advisor, Miss Helen N . Henry, came from New York to too, we realized that just as much as Alpha Omicron Pi gave us
initiate us into the beautiful secrets of Alpha Omicron Pi. On strength and inspiration we must work and give our best for i t .
Friday, April 12th, we had a tea to introduce Miss Henry, Mrs. Dear sisters, we are glad to be one of you and hopefully trust that
Kathryn March Thomas, an Alpha Omicron Pi from Kappa and one we will be worthy of the confidence you have placed in us.
of our patronesses, and our other patroness, Miss Pinckney Lee Estes,
to the girls and members of the faculty. The reception rooms of R U T H S. COTTON,
Sergeant Hall, the girls' dormitory, were thronged despite the fact
that we were favored with one of those late snowstorms that tricky- For the Chapter Editor.
April sometimes brings. In the evening two of our alumnae, Beatrice
Barrington and Violet Abbott, carried Miss Henry off downtown for Have you diagnosed your table conversation this year?
dinner and the theater afterward. Poor Miss Henry! I'm sure that
she must have been desperately tired that night.

Next afternoon, Saturday, the thirteenth, we gathered in Miss
Henry's room at the Hotel Normandie. I t was good to find that not
a few Alpha Omicron Pi's from other chapters were there to help
welcome us into your ranks. Some had already been kind friends to
us, the others we were happy to meet for the first time. There were
Mrs. Thomas and Genevieve Glasgow from Kappa, Ruth Bond from
Rho, Helen Schrack and Emily Tarbell from Chi, Katherine Holden
from Delta, and Grace Woodleton from Nu. A l l of them contributed
in introducing us into the beautiful sisterhood of Alpha Omicron Pi.

After the petitioning members and the alumnae had been initiated,
we pledged the freshmen and a little later initiated them. They
were the quietest, most subdued freshmen that I have ever seen or
ever expect to see. When we had all become sisters in Alpha Omicron
Pi, we hustled into our evening clothes and had a banquet with songs
and toasts in the Rose Room of the hotel. Mrs. P. M . H a l l from
Gamma joined us for this. I t was the climax to one of the greatest