Page 16 - 1918 November - To Dragma

TO DRAG MA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI ™

32 TO DRAG MA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI i t was train time, and Viola had to throw her belongings into her
JuiTcase and exit hastily, leaving all her new ststers feelmg a btt lost
you could have seen them! But you'll just have to take my word for
how nice they looked and how pretty their dresses were, and I ' l l hurry beTteshended the installation of Phi Chapter, and so Alpha Omicron
on to the installation. P i camVto assnme its place in Kansas University. May .t hvo long

We had shut off the two living-rooms for a chapter-room and and prosper! KATHERINE LVON M,X, E , '16.
admitted the girls through the dining-room. Viola conducted the
installation and the remaining three of us assisted. Edith Phenecie, Assistant Installing Officer.
who was the president of the local, was the first girl to be taken in,
and then came the charter members and remaining active members. Does your chapter subscribe to a good weekly? Is it in evi-
As each girl was received into the chapter she was given one of the dence on the library table? Is it read?
red roses which had been sent by the Zeta Chapter, until the room
was lined with roses, the symbol of our fraternity. There were also
several pledges and alumnae to be initiated and Edith, acting as
president, took them in. I t was very beautiful and impressive, and
f u l l of the solemnity which comes with the acceptance of new vows
or the renewal of old ones. The only unfortunate circumstance was
the length of time which it necessarily consumed. I t is hard to stand
up very long in your best satin dancing pumps, and I saw several
slippers surreptitiously kicked off, while their owners enjoyed a few
moments' blessed relief in their stocking feet. But at last it was all
over, and there were fifteen new A O IPs in Kansas.

You'll know by this time that we all had most un-Hooverlike
appetites for the banquet which was held that evening in the Eldridge
Hotel. The long table was decorated with red roses and ribbon
streamers, and the only light came from red shaded candles. We
had all kinds of good things to eat, with music between the courses.
When we had fed ourselves quite f u l l , and sung ourselves quite hoarse,
the toasts were given, with Patty Hart presiding. The subjects of the
toasts had quite a martial sound: "The Western Front," "The
Advancing Line," "Taps," and "The Eastern Front," but upon being
de-coded they were found to refer to various phases of our fraternity.
They were responded to by Charlotte Uhls, Edith Phenecie, Viola
Gray, and myself. After the toasts we sat through several agonizing
moments while the photographer made the event immortal. "Only a
small flash," he said, but Heaven preserve me from his idea of a big
one! Then we all went home to dream about it.

I hope that no one who knows how impossible it is to install a big,
healthy chapter in one day will be troubled by the use we made of the
Sunday which followed it. We just couldn't help it. We had to
have both a ritual and a business meeting, and there was no other
time. There were a hundred and one things to be done and they all
needed Miss Gray's personal attention. I t took all the morning and
a good part of the afternoon, with a short recess for Sunday dinner,
and a bit of a sing afterward. Then before we knew it, someone said