204 THE BOOK OF THE CLASS OF NINETEEN-ELEVEN
O do justice to this subject of garden parties one really should have a band playing
T somewhere in the distance by way of suggestion and stimulus. Had I only known
that this honour was to be thrust upon me at the last moment, I should have gone to -
the function in question with a paper and pencil concealed beneath my cape and thus have
_ not only got the benefit of the band but justified the cape as well.
In my opinion the band is entirely responsible for Garden Party. It is true we send out
the invitations and make other elaborate preparations for this event, but in the end if
anything were to intercept the band I believe we would all be as helpless as babes. In
this fearful extremity we really could do nothing but send the guests home. Think of the
hopeless apathy out of which this gaiety emerges. With such material could we create
any excitement at all? Recall the campus during the dull dismal hours from two until
four when everything is hushed in silent dread of the first drop of rain. It is then that
one limply carries out a rug or two after which one sinks down upon a couch in exhaustion.
At four one decides to give up Garden Party for this year, just as one’s next door neighbour,
finding the dreary landscape too fatiguing for words, comes to the same decision; and so
on down the corridor. Think of a situation like this and guests at that very minute on the
road!
