THE BOOK OF THE CLASS OF NINETEEN-ELEVEN 29
We left it at that, as I really couldn’t explain any further, but he must have thought we were
going to give a pretty gay show with four tavern doors in it.
It is almost beyond comprehension that we never suspected that anything was wrong
even after our Senior friend in the gallery had announced in clarion tones that the scene
shifters were “disgusting fools,” and Frances Browne, in a sort of last agony of despair
had made us remove the sign “Well of Mimir C. T.”’ from the stage. We threw all our
young energies into the show and thought we were doing ourselves proud. But not long
afterwards our eyes were opened and we realised the worst. I always thought that the
criticism of the show in the Tip was worded with wonderful skill. Practically all it said
was that the play had the great merit of ending better than it began. What a mixture
of truth and caution that statement is; it can be interpreted any way you want to take
it and still not lay the writer open to the charge of having said anything definite. But in
spite of its failings our Freshman show was funny; in looking back I think it was one of
the funniest things that ever happened to us. Besides this, it has been useful as a model of
what a Freshman show should not be, and so we can be sure that its glory will never be
lessened by unworthy rivals, but that it will go down to fame in lonely splendour. And
if, as our Senior song says:
“We came to startle fair Bryn Mawr
With things she’d never seen,”
we certainly fulfilled our purpose and set a high standard for the rest of our career.
Leita HouGHre.ina.
