DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Adelia M. Hoyt memoir and photographs

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Page 28

28 UNFOLDING YEARS
father being in good circumstances paid for her tuition. She always dressed well and had plenty of money to spend, with which she was most generous. After leaving school that spring Ena never returned. We corresponded for a while. She married a man with sight and gradually drifted out of our lives, and I never heard from her again. Emma was a fine musician and returned the next year to take a post-graduate course in music. Once more I was to room with my former friends---Emma, Nan and Blanche. 
This was Blanche's last year. She was full of ambitions both for herself and her companions, and initiated many schemes which she carried through successfully. One is worthy of mention. She proposed that a few of us put on a play. At that time, except for our Literary Society with an occasional old-fashioned dialogue, we had no training in dramatics. Finally, we obtained the consent of the Superintendent and a play, "East Lynn," was selected. The head teacher agreed to train us. We four girls and four boys who were our special friends made up the cast. The part of "Sir Archibald" was taken by a bachelor teacher who had partial sight. Blanche was "Lady Isabel" and I was "Barbara Hare," the second wife. We even made up an orchestra among us to play between acts under the guidance of our music Director, Professor T. S. Slaughter, who was blind. The whole matter was kept a profound secret from the rest of the school. It was lots of fun stealing away evenings to some basement room for rehearsals. 
The date fixed for the play was March 25th. It had been advertised in the local papers as a free performance and we hoped for a good crowd from outside. We had to depend largely on country people for our audience. Imagine our dismay when the day arrived--dark and threatening; soon it began to rain and settled down to a steady downpour which lasted all day, turning the roads into streams of mud. Well do I remember coming out of class in the middle of the forenoon and standing by the hall window, disconsolately listening to the steady drop, drop of the rain outside. Here I was joined by Professor Slaughter who was in our confidence. He pretended to laugh at

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28 UNFOLDING YEARS father being in good circumstances paid for her tuition. She always dressed well and had plenty of money to spend, with which she was most generous. After leaving school that spring Ena never returned. We corresponded for a while. She married a man with sight and gradually drifted out of our lives, and I never heard from her again. Emma was a fine musician and returned the next year to take a post-graduate course in music. Once more I was to room with my former friends---Emma, Nan and Blanche. This was Blanche's last year. She was full of ambitions both for herself and her companions, and initiated many schemes which she carried through successfully. One is worthy of mention. She proposed that a few of us put on a play. At that time, except for our Literary Society with an occasional old-fashioned dialogue, we had no training in dramatics. Finally, we obtained the consent of the Superintendent and a play, "East Lynn," was selected. The head teacher agreed to train us. We four girls and four boys who were our special friends made up the cast. The part of "Sir Archibald" was taken by a bachelor teacher who had partial sight. Blanche was "Lady Isabel" and I was "Barbara Hare," the second wife. We even made up an orchestra among us to play between acts under the guidance of our music Director, Professor T. S. Slaughter, who was blind. The whole matter was kept a profound secret from the rest of the school. It was lots of fun stealing away evenings to some basement room for rehearsals. The date fixed for the play was March 25th. It had been advertised in the local papers as a free performance and we hoped for a good crowd from outside. We had to depend largely on country people for our audience. Imagine our dismay when the day arrived--dark and threatening; soon it began to rain and settled down to a steady downpour which lasted all day, turning the roads into streams of mud. Well do I remember coming out of class in the middle of the forenoon and standing by the hall window, disconsolately listening to the steady drop, drop of the rain outside. Here I was joined by Professor Slaughter who was in our confidence. He pretended to laugh at