The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-29
FRANKS OF vAssAR GIRLS.
Coasting and ''IIitching on''-Outwitting thu
Faculty in the Interest of Reaux.

of q West-side residence at the snow, the other
day, and began to laugh. Then she said, by
way of explation:
II wonder if the girls at Vassar College are
having as much fun with their little red sleds,
this winter, as they had when went to school
there. Vassar girls were a wild set in my day,
and got into as much mischief as college boys
ever did"
will you relate some of your adventures!'
was asked Of her
"In order to fully appreciate the pranks of
Nassar girls said the lady, 'you must renem-
Der that one of the greatest burdens on the
shoulders of the faculty of the college is
to keep the scholars from clipping with
designing young men and getting married with
out their parents permission. Whenever
marriageable male strays inside the high
cedar hedge which divides the Vassar gounds
from the rest of the world he is regarded with
suspicion by twenty pairs of eyes until he has
satisfactorily accounted for his presence there.
The girls, as natural consequence, form no &C
quaintances worth mentioning among the oppo-
site sex. Naturally, then, they have to amuse
themselves as best they can On Satu. days,
whenever there is snow, the long hills to the east
of Poughkeepsio are alive with Vassar girls,
coasting on their little red sleds You would be
astonshed by the dash and vigor displayed by
these elegant young ladies' when there is no
young man around to look at them. Taking
headers down rocky hills and screening with
mirth when they meet with n mishap is con-
sidered having grand time. When they get tired
of such sport they hitch on behind any farmers
sled which chances to pass. One day an old
Duchess county farmer, who had a string of
Vassar girls tagging behind, trotted his team
five miles into the country without stopping to
give them q chance to unite their sleds. They
screamed and grew mad, and hurled slang and
damaged chewing gum at him during most Of
the distance, but he merely chuckled to himself
and drove on. When he finally turned them
adrift they had to trudge back through the snow
to the college on foot, as no teams came along to
give them a lift That experience taught the
girls to hitch on after the manner of boys, leav
ing it in their power to free themselves at any
instant
''Now something moro about young men.
There are generally several girls in Vassar who
have been sent there by stern parents because
they have contracted undyng passions which are
net approved of at home. These young
persons with broken hearts in my day
always had a sentimental following Of other
girls who were not in love, but who were
dying to be. The sentimental satellites
were always ready to assist in any romantic ad
venture that had a young man in it. Conse
quently runaway marriages were not altogether
unknown in highly proper Vassar. Let me
confess that ! assisted in one. A naughty girl
from New York city mad been sent to college
because she insisted on marrying wealthy and
we'll born youth The parents on either side
were willing that the match should come off
within five or six years, but not very much
earlier than that. The young folks insisted on
marriage at once, but the parents, to end the
matter, packed off the girl to Vassar and the boy
to Harvard. But back window in the base
ment of the college, through which 1 and an
other girl poked the would be bride into the
would be brldegroom's arms, and night ride
over the hills to Peeksklll. and minister, de-
feated the old folks and made the young folks
happy. When the marriage had taken place.
the bride came back to school by herself in
a rickety old stage coach, and the bride
groom took a train for Boston. 1t was
some months before the parents found
out what the children had been about, and when
they did find 1t out there was storm, but the
marriage turned out happily enough in the end
Then there was tragedy in my day which
hate to speak of. A pretty girl was sent to the
college and guarded carefully. We other girls
came to understand that there was young
man in the case, and of course we were deeply
interested; but we never learned any particulars
as thesgirl made conidante of none of us. She
pined away and grew i'll in a way that all the
girls agreed was bewitchingly romantic. But
one day an awful Shrek rang through the CORR
doris. The pretty, pale girl found lying
fatally hurt at the bottom of the elevator shaft
Did she throw herself downl don't know.
but the reason l began to talk on this sub
ject was because wanted to tell story about
girl, her lover, and her little red sled. She
was beauty, and as proud and saucy as
queen. She had been sent to Vassar to be pro-
tected from a dreadful young man who
was in love with her 1t presently came to the
ears of the faculty that this bold young man
had followed her to Poughkeepsie, and was lying
in wait to steal her and carry her off. The fac
ulty did not sleep wink for week. At the
end of the time Romeo had not appeared, and
the faculty began to breathe more easily. All
this time the poor girl had been allowed no ex-
ercise except what she could get by coasting on
the little hill in plain view of the college win
dows. She always chose to go alone but little
boy in short trousers, red stockings and red
mittens, would come over to the hill and steer
her sled and drag it up to the top of the slide.
That poor foolish old faculty doesn't know to
this day that tho little fellow in boys clothes
VINO came and played with their captive every
day under their very noses, was the dreadful
young man they were all so much afraid of. The
young people had too much sound sense to elope
with each other. but they managed to get good
deal of enjoyment out of riding down hill on the
same sled"
do Vassar girls ever play truantl"
II have frequently known them to run away
to New York on Saturdays, when they had only
been given permission to go shopping in the
town. Perhaps that is not exactly playing
truant, however. remember an experience l
had in running off with another girl to see Bern
hardt in New York We went to the evening
performance, and, in order to carry out the af-
fair in proper style, we hired the biggest messen-
ger boy we could find and rented dress suit for
him. Then he escorted us TO the theater and
made q very distinguished looking escort too
The only trouble with him was that he insisted
on going out between the acts to buy peanuts.
OF course we couldn't allow him to eat them in
the theater, so he always came back after the
curtain had gone up and dropped into his seat
with dissipated swagger which was really APP
palling. Well that night we were intending to
go back home by way of the Hudson river on
board the Mary Powell to enjoy the moonlight,
but we missed her as we'll as the early Hudson
river trains. We got back to Pouehkeepse at
dreadfully disreputable hour, and were under
suspicion for a month at the college in spite of
all the fbs we could invent"
what other college pranks do you remem-
bert"
II must not forget our theater. We had
stage fitted up with drop-curtaln and scenery,
and there we gave famous theatrical perform
ances. One of our favorte pieces, | remember,
was She Stops to Conquer The actors were
all girls and so was the audience. But portion
of the audience wore handkerchiefs tied around
its right arms, and the girls composing it were
understood to be gentlemen. Of course they