Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-01-11

Mad Franks of College Girls-Adepts B
Coating and "Hitchinc On"

WINDOW or q west Side residence at the
snow the other day and began to laugh,
says the Chicago Herald. Then she said,
by way Of explanation:
81 wonder if the girls at Vass tr College
are having as much fun with their little
red sleds this winter as they had when l
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 rome Of your adven-
turesT' was asked of her.
Sin order to fully appreciate the pranks
of Vassar girls" said the lady, ''you must
remember that one of the greatest bur-
dens on the shoulders of the faculty of
the college is to keep the scholars from
clipping with designing young men and
getting married without their parents
permission. Whenever q marriageable
male stTays inside the high cedar hedge
which divides the Vassar grounds from
the rest of the world he is regarded with
suspicion by 20 pairs of eyes until he has
satisfactorily accounted for his presence
there. The girls, as a natural cOnse-
quence, form no acquaintances worth
mentioning among the opposite sex.
Naturally, then, they have to amuse
themselves as best they can. On Satur-
days, whenever there is snow, the long
hills to the east of POughkeepsie are alive
with Vassar girls cOasting on their little
red sleds. You would be aston
displayed by these elegant young
ladies when there is no young man
around to look at them. Taking headers
down rocky hills and screeching with
mirth when they meet with a mishap is
considered having a grand time. When
they get tired of such sport they hitch
on behind any farmers sled which
chances to pass by. One day an old
Duchess county farmer, who had a
string of Vassar girls tagging behind,
trOtted his team five miles into the cOun-
try without stopping to give them a
chance to unite their seds. They scream
ed 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 col
lege on foot, as no teams came along to
give them lift. That experience taught
the girls to hitch on after the manner of
boys, leaving it in their power to free
themselves at any instant.
"NOw something more about young
men. There are generally several girls
in Vassar who have been sent there by
stern parents because they have con-
Cracted undying passions which are not
approved of at home. These young per-
sons 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
adventure that had a young man in it.
Consequently runaway marriages We're
not altogether unknown in highly proper
Nassar. Let ME confess that | assisted
in one. A naughty girl from New York
city had been sent TO college because she
insisted on marrying a 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 girlstO Vassar and the boy to Har-
ward. But q back window in the base
ment of the college through which l and
another girl pOked the Would-be bride into
the wOuid-be bridegroOm's arms and a
a minister defeated the old folks and made
the young folks happy. When the mar
riage had taken place the bride came back
to school by herself in a rickety old stage
coach, and the bridegroom took tram tor
Boston. 1t was some months before the
parents found out what the children had
been about, and when they did find it
OuC tuSl6 was 5lUIIH3 DuG Tue
turned out happily enough
in the end. Then there was
a tragedy in my day which l hate to speak
of. A pretty girl was sent to college aud
guarded carefully. We other girls came
to understand that there was a young
man in the case, and of course we were
deeply interested; but we never learned
any particulars, rs the girl made a conf !
dant of none of us. She pinned away and |
was bewitchingly romantic. But one day |
an awful shrek rang through the CORR |
doris. The pretty, pale girl was found |
lying fatally hurt at the bottom OF the |
elevator shaft. Did she throw herself |
down? i don't know.
''But the reason l began to talk on this |
subject was because l wanted to tell a
story about a girl, her lover and her little |
red sled. She was q beauty and as proud |
and saucy as a queen. She had been sent |
to Vassar to be protected 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 mad followed |
her to FOughkeepsie and was lying IN !
wait to steal her and carry her Oft. The |
faculty did not sleep a wink for week. |
At the end of that time Romeo had not |
breathe more easily. All this time the |
poor girl had been allowed no exercise |
except what she could get by |
coasting on the little hill in |
plain view of the college windows. |
She always went alone, but a little boy |
in short trousers, red stockings and red |
mittens would come over the hill to |
steer her sled, and drag it up to the top |
Of the slide. That poor, foolish old fac /
ulty doesn't know to this day that the lit |
lie fellow In boys clothes who came aud |
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 man.
aged to get a good deal of enjoyment out |
Of riding down hill on the same sled"
"DO Vassar girls ever play truant?"
81 have frequently known them to run !
away to New York on Saturdays, when
they had only been given permission to go
shopping in town. Perhaps this is not
exactly playing truant, however. I re-
member an experience / had in running
off with another girl to see Bernhardt in
New York. We went to the evening per-
Torrance, and, in order to carry out the
affair in proper style, we hired the big
gest messenger boy we could find and
rented a dress suit for him. Then he
escorted us to the theatre and made a
very NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. 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 theatre,
so he always came back after
the curtain had some up, and dropped
into his seat with a dissipated swagger
which was really appalling. Well, that
night we were intending to go back home |
by the way of the Hudson river, on board |
the Mary Powell, to enjoy the moonlight, |
but we missed her as well as the early |
Hudson river trains. We got back to |
at a dreadfully disreputa- |
BILE hour, and were under suspicion for |
month at the college in spite Of all the |
fbs we could invent"
"What 9th college pranks do you re- |
memher|
81 must not forget our theatre. Wehad |
a stage fitted up with drop curtain and
scenery, and there we gave famous theat- |
rical performances. One Of our favorite
pieces, l remember, was She Stops to
Conquer The actors were all girls, and
so was the audience. But a portion Of the
audience wore handkerchiefs tied around
its right arms and the girls composing 1t
were understood to be gentlemen. or
course they escorted the ladies to the play
ana stamped their feet on the floor to eX-
press their appreciation of anything par
ticulaTly fine. When the curtain fell at
the close Of an act the gentlemen all
grabbed their hats from under the seats
and rushed out into the hall. There they
paraded up and down in front Of
4Loo4ro chnnfinn m Cfbnr.