Evening star., 1936-03-15

were leaving for their Summer vaca.
ton she was discovered to be the
author Of certain highly humorous
but derogatory poetical take-of upon
certain Of her preceptresses. Although
her possessions were packed and in
the front hall waiting for the porter
to place them in her fathers con-.
veyance, Jessie was detained to do
lonely penance, not for the gift OF
humor, but for the unkindly barbs
with which she had winged it.
Quite at random from the old cata-
logue which was once the property
of Mary Virginia Adler. mother Of
Miss Katharine and Mrs. William T.
Wheatley Dougal of present-day
Georgetown I noted the names Of
these day pupils-in themselves they
reincarnate the spirit of Georgetown's
past-Elizabeth c. Addison, Jane c.
Abbott, Mary Virginia Adler. Emily
Corcoran, niece of w. w. Corcoran
and mother of Mr.. Henry S. Matthews,
president of the Peabody Memorial
Rooms trustees; Margaret Edes, the
1OC0 10 AL 4ACA
Josephine Gordon, Mr.. Holdsworth
Gordon's sister; Mary Ann Riley, the
daughter of old DR.. Riley: Mary Cath
arine Matthews, mother Of Miss Lucy
Dorset, librarian upon the staff Of the
Public Library; Emily S. Rittenhouse
and a score more. AS turned the
catalogues yellowed pages I noted.
too, how divergent was Miss English's
geographical constituency, as is 'ap-
parent in the foregoing list: Louisa
C. Carr. Upperville, Va: Elizabeth
Brawner, Charles County, Md; Maria
French, Nashville. Tenn: Ellen Vir-
ginia Butler, Wilkes Barre. Pa; An
tonia S. Magruder, Bardstown. KY;
Mary Louise Wadell, Florida, and Eliza
Moughan, Louisiana.
The recollections Of one of those
pupils of the long ago tell of the ad-
justment of the daughters of Senator
Bagby of Georgia to their new en-
vironment at Miss English's. Accus-
toned all of their little lives to per-
sonal maids and body servants their
plight for time was sad one espe-
cially as to their struggles with tieing
their shoestrings and arranging their
curls. Evidently. their gentle help
lessness, the jolly songs they knew and
their skill upon various musical in
struments so enthralled their fellow
pupils that they Wed with each other
in helping them untangle unruly
snarls in their hair, put their dresses
on right-side out and button them up
as they should be.
Social Event of 1869.
June Of the year 1849 marked one
of the social events in the schools
history which has gone down to
posterity. Certain of its pupils par
ticipated as bridesmaids in the we'd
ding of their fair l6-year- old class
mate, Harriet Williams, to the g.
year-old Russian diplomat, Baron de
Bodisco. In between the ceremony
and the elaborate dinner afterward
at the baron's home they are chron-
icled as having taken maps on sofas,
their billowy laces and furbelows care
fully arranged about them to keep
them from being crushed or crumpled.
The seminary was located upon the
side of one of Georgetown's sloping
inclines with its front door directly
upon the street. Such was the build
ing's arrangement that If you walked
from the entrance straight through its
front hall you would presently find
yourself in the third floor hall of the
schools main building. The schools
general assembly room and largest
class room was on the first floor. Its
central building had three porches.
Under the lowest porch there were
wooden swing, where the pupils were
wont to swing themselves up Into the
air and over the garden wall" not
flguratively but literally.
These porches played part in the
schools life not originally planned for
by Miss English. Despite the strict
surveillance of the time, tradition has
1t that many a romantic note and
tempting basket of forbidden sweets
were conveyed to Miss English's fair
pupils by means Of ropes daringly let
down from these self-same porches
and excitedly pulled up as occasion
demanded.
A pump on the opposite corner from