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MacCoy, Marjorie Newell | to Family, 17 May 1908

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Date
1908-05-17T00:00:01Z-1908-05-17T23:59:59Z
Abstract
VC 1911
Transcript file(s)
Details
Identifier
vassar:56228,Box 41; VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_010
Extent
1 item
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: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_010_001
May 17, 1908


Dear Family - 
            Such a busyness as we have had this week!
    In the first place, Miss [Tibbals], our English instructor, invited six of us to go on a picnic with her down the river. We were going to take a little boat at Po’keepsie [Poughkeepsie], and go to [Milton], a little way down the river on the other shore, and then walk back to a [little] lake, and have our supper, getting back in time for chapel. Of course it was a lovely day Wednesday, and then Thursday all the buckets of rain in Heaven were upset, so we’ve had to put it off till next week. All Thursday, however, the Freshman were all wildly sewing on their costumes for the basketball games the next day. We were afraid it was 

 


: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_010_002
going to rain Friday, too, but it held off sufficiently. The Freshman all assembled at the gap in the circle hedge opposite the gym., (not by Music Hall!) all clad in green and white jester’s costumes, consisting of a kind of shirt (!) half green and half white, with the green sleeve on the white side, etc., and little caps of green and white with everything trimmed with bells, and each girl had a bauble with green and white streamers and bells galore. They were very cute and awfully effective, especially when we marched in singing our song to “Jingle bells” which goes like this:-
    “Here the Freshmen come, out for basketball
    Cheer them one by one and a hearty cheer for all.
    They look promising, sure is [unreadable] they’ll [bring]
    For the class will urge them to it

 


: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_010_003
    And you bet your boots they’ll do it!
   
“|| Jingle bells || jingle all the way
    When you see the Freshman class coming for the fray
    || Jingle bells || 1911 is here
    When we [come] out for basketball we’ll give a hearty cheer!”

    When we sing the chorus we wave our baubles wildly, and it sounds be-aut-iful! The Sophomores came next with the Field Day Banner besides their own, and then 1909 came with their white jumpers, green ties, and little round sailor-like hats. The Seniors came in last, with yellow crepe-paper parasols, and a big bass drum which they insisted on beating even in their cheers! 1908 and 1910 played first, and that fresh class of 1910 beat

 


: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_010_004
the Seniors -- who are considered the best in college! We are all [unreadable] for fear they get the Basketball Championship, and they’re quite stuck up enough now without that! We played 1909, and of course got licked [to] death, but we played pretty well in the second half.
    That night we had the Republican Convention for primary elections, and we had to have it in Assembly Hall because “Much Ado about Nothing” was using Phil. First - second Raymond were Maine, and third and fourth were Virginia. I was a reporter for the “Weekly Wasp,” [Squeedunk], Va [Virginia], and I and three other reporters had a [fine] [time] up on the platform, where we could see everything. We nearly rolled off our chairs it was so 

 


: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_010_005
funny! California came in first and they had orange badges and carried large oranges in their hands, and they bore a transparency which read “Vote for Taft” and on the other side “Stick of Taffy.” Some of the others had “Pull for Taffy” and the Knox puns were many. All day the trees on the campus bore wonderful placards with pictures to match. All the states were represented - even Indian Territory by three Indians - the off-campus people were Indian Territory and Texas! Hughes, Fairbanks and Lafollette [La Follette] graced the candidates box, but the hit of the evening was Taft -- who was Laura Herring added to by many sofa pillows and a gay moustache! I thought I would burst when I saw her she was so 

 


: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_010_006
funny! Messenger boys flew wildly around and Taft was given a large bottle of milk to drink! The reporters were threatened with expulsion by the police because they all fought for a “scoop” - a Black-Hand message to Taft. We had a camera (without any film!) and we kept snapping people all the time. The Roosevelt family graced the gallery, and Teddy [Jr.] kept letting things down from the gallery on the heads of the unsuspecting spectators below! One of the speeches -- Ruth Flanigen’s - started with “Mrs. Longworth, gentlemen and ladies.” And another one, “Ladies, I know we are all gentlemen here.” And Cody [Edgcomb] made an impassioned appeal for Foraker with the words “who is the only republican senator who dares to disagree with the diabolical deeds of that demagogue Roosevelt!” All the speeches were funny, and especially so when they would each one 

 


: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_010_007
pause, after the rhetorical question, “Who I ask you, will be the best for these United States,” and a perfect chorus would arise of “Hughes, Knox, Taft, Foraker,” etc. (Dinner bell’s ring, more anon!) Taft was finally elected. 
                [unreadable] Supper.

Last night came Fourth Hall Play - “Much Ado about Nothing,” and you ought to have seen the people tear out of chapel. L. and I simply beat it for Sunrise, but there was a mob at the gate by the time we got there, so we didn’t have very good seats. But although we couldn’t hear very well, we could see beautifully, and the stage was the loveliest thing you ever saw. The pines, of course, made background and a light at the side made it seem like moonlight. There were many stiff little English trees sitting around, and an adorable exit through an arbor where Beatrice and Benedick each sat while their friends said how much they were in love. Inez was Benedick, and she was absolutely

 


: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_010_008
satisfactory. (Don’t be afraid, I haven’t fallen by the wayside, though Dorothy Sutphin has!) Beatrice was very good and so was Dogberry. The others were very fair. They say this performance wasn’t as good as last year’s, but we are most enthusiastic. It seemed like a dream to be sitting outside watching a play when the scenery was so real - it seemed as if it couldn’t be a play at all, and the wind went softly around in the tops of the pine trees. I should love to be in one sometime, but I’m glad I saw my first one. 
    This morning we had a very bromide gentleman to preach, but the music was lovely. This p.m. I went to a tea in Dorothea Gay’s room in North for her mother. She is Margaret Calhoun’s cousin, and Margaret was there at the tea. I saw her for a longer time Saturday afternoon, and she certainly is a stunner. 

 


: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_010_009
    Then I trotted over to Lathrop to help serve lemonade at a little tea that Cody [Edgcomb] and her roommate Edith Dunn were giving for a friend of Edith’s. Julia [Lovejoy] and Dorothy White and I were “servants,” and I never laughed so much in all my life. In the first place nobody came at all till nearly four o’clock, and the first person who did come in was fairly [mobbed] with joy! Then so few came for awhile that those that had been there kept coming back again -- if Katherine Taylor came once she came five times until we finally “struck” on serving her anymore lemonade! Finally we were trotted off and [decked] ourselves out in the most wonderful [garb], as if we’d just been automobiling, and came [unreadable] in. [Unreadable] [Babbett] was there for part of the time, and she nearly fell off the sofa she laughed so hard, so you can 

 


: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_010_010
judge how funny we were! After our hostesses had gone to the Inn for supper, we had a lovely time turning down their beds, and we left a sign of “Home Sweet Home” on the door! Weren’t we sillies? 
    I have written volumes but it [unreadable] interrupted so many times, I’m afraid it’s decidedly incoherent. 
    It’s after two now, so I must stop. 

        Most Lovingly
            Marjorie

P.S. I found a note on my doorblock this p.m. saying “Do you remember me? Debby.” I’m so sorry I missed her. Wasn’t she nice to look me up? 

 


: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_010_011
NO.I.
Postmark:    POUGHKEEPSIE MAY 18 2 PM 1908 N.Y.
        Dr. Alexander W. MacCoy
        Mrs. William P. Logan
            Overbrook Ave. and 58th St.
                Philadelphia

 


: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_010_012
This paper is all I had and it’s too bulky to get all in one envelope. So the 2nd one contains the rest of the epistle