The Elon College Weekly
VOL. 1. New Series
BURLINGTON, N. C. TUESDAY, MAY 10. 1910.
NO. 13
And Elon College, N. G.
A Patriot, After All.
Helen Randolph had never been i
abroad. All her twenty summers had
been spent in New York, and when her i
aunt proposed to take her abroad she j
was filled with delight. All during
those long hours at the dressmaker’s and
milliner's she never uttered a single word j
o{ complaint. She was to be presented
at court, both in London and Paris, and '
she envied the grand titled ladies of
whom she had heard her friends speak
so much. Several of her friends among
the rich had married titled foreigners,
and she sometimes wondered if she might
not some day be a Lady or a Duchess.
She herself was beautiful and rich.
After she had waved her "adieu" to
her friends, from the steamer deck, she
hurried to her stateroom and there in a
vase was a large bouquet of American
Beauties. She glanced at the card, |
"John Dtew," She was neither sur-1
prised nor pleased; her thoughts were
full of things ahead. She could almost
see those foreigner* in their stately uni
forms she had heard spoken of.
In London Helen was sorely disap-
puiutcd. Stic uu longer eiivieu tlie gtauu
ladies who could hardly speak except
when her chaperone was around. She
was prouder than ever of her freedom.
She lived in hopes that Paris would be
better. But things were no better there.
She pitied those pretty French girls, who
were not even allowed to select their
own husbands.
All the while her aunt was talking
of the Count de Bienville, his famous
ancestry and his gracious mother, and al
though she had only met the Count, she
often caught herself thinking about him
and wondering if the Count really cared
for her. The day he was to call, she
had dressed with unusual care and won
dered why she was so nervous. Aunt
Rachel was out, and when her maid
brought up the Count’s card, she be
came more excited than before. She
glanced in the mirror to see if everything
was all right and then hurried down.
When she offered him her hand he
bowed almost to the floor, and taking it
in both of hij, he kissed it. She drew
back, rather astonished, but as he showed
no indifference of manner, she supposed
it was the custom of his nation. The
Count was at his best and conversed
brilliantly, but she was not accustomed
to hear men talk so much about them
selves and their family as did the Count.
As the evening wore away she noticed
that he became more and more familiar.
He even questioned her about her per
sonal affairs, which she did not care to
talk of. Finally, before she could think
of what he was going to do, the Count
was on his knees, his hands over his
heart, pouring out all the soulful ex
pressions of an ardent lover. She was
too much astonished to know what he
was saying. Her first thought was to
laugh; her next to flee from the room.
She listened to the Count now and
heard him say, "Darling Helen,—of
course I may call you that,—ever since 1
first met you 1 have lived as if in a dream.
You are the beautiful creature of whom
1 have long dreamed, and I can almost
see you as mistress of my castle, which is
now delapidated, but with your money i
can be restored to its former grandeur.” |
She did not allow him to get any further.
Her hot American blood rushed to her tem j
pies and she arose and standing in front
of the Count, said, "Count Bienville, in my
country we women are accustomed to be i
wooed for our charms, and not for our j
money," and, holding her head high'
with an air that an actual countess might i
have envied, she walked across the room, |
and as she reached the door, she bowed |
to the Count, as she had bowed to the
King, and was gone.
How she reached her room she never
knew. She afterwards wondered how i
she ever reached the door. Her first
thoughts were of her aunt, her next of'
John Drew.
While she was still undecided as to
what to do, her aunt returned and com
menced at once to ask question* about
the Count. She asked if he had pro
posed, and to Helen's reply that he had,
she said, "I'm so glad; only this morning
he called and asked for your hand and
about your fortune, and besides your own
I promised to give you a goodly dowry
myself, without which, of course, no sen
sible person would marry.
Helen was now thoroughly angry, but
how could she quarrel with Aunt Rachel,
who had meant it all for her good ?
Various thoughts rushed through her
troubled brain, but finally she arose and
said, "Aunt Rachel, 1 appreciate all you
have done for me, but I cannot accept
your offer, nor the Count's, for I'm en
gaged to John Drew ; and, as she had
bowed before the King and the Count,
she now bowed herself out of the room
' before her aunt and was gone.
Safe in her room once more, Helen re
read John’s letter, recieved a few weeks
ago. He asked her to share his humble
lot. He knew she herself had money,
but for that he cared nothing. He told
her of his increasing success in business,
of how hard he had worked, and said
that for her he would work even harder.
He wondered why her letters had been
so brief and at such long intervals. With
a heart more tender than ever before,
she wrote him such a letter as she had
never written before, and he, on receiv
ing it later, was happy.
Following that fateful cifternoon, her
aunt having refused to see her any more,
Helen left Paris with her maid for Lon
don. A week later she stood on the
steamer's deck watching the shores of
England fade from sight. She won
dered that she did not feel sad on leaving
London, which she had been so eager
to see. She was surprised that she was
supremely happy with such happiness as from Caesar," said the chairman; "we II
she had never dreamed of. | have him tell us now what the students
Far across the ocean, in his cheerless think of the Faculty.
office, John Drew, tired from his day's
work, looked across the tall New York
buildings to the sea, and in his heart there
thrilled the same happiness—a wireless
message from the kingdom of love.
Caesar rose amid a great
applause, and entered upon
outburst of
the dis
cussion with confidence and dignity.
! "There is a great gulf between us and
j the Faculty. The ties that once united
! us are sundered. The Faculty do not
! understand us. They stand aloof.
We stand apart. We have met them,
but we do not know.
They have met us, but they do not
know us. Say, gentlemen, let's get ac
quainted. Now many of us have said
The Unexpected Seven.
Yesterday morning as those vain and
lonesome chanticleers, who occupy prom
inent places in the barnyards of Drs.
Watson and Newman, contended with j lots of hard things about them, and many
mighty chorus for first honors in welcom- of u* think that we know them like a
ing the new day, and as those seven val-i book, from Genesis to Revelation.
iant watchmen which form the " Ursa
Many of us think that the Faculty is
, mean and abomninable, simply because
Major," sank slowly into the yon ethereal | gyr opinions and the opinions of the
sea, the Seven Stars of Elon College Faculty do not happen to coincide. We
once more convened in their club rooms, make mistakes, they make mistakes,
which are situated on the second floor There ought to be a way of compromBing
, , 1 11- I • L I c 1 i this thing. When we are in trie class-
of the new buildmg which Col. Saunders ! professors talk of Math., Latin,
will build on the corner of " Possum Greek and what not; when they meet
Avenue " and " Last Street." us outside they talk about the same
The meeting was called to order by things. It s no wonder to me that the
"Bonus Pater," Epicureus, and " Benev-i 8°some other way rather
1 o I ■ 1 II I I than risk the chance ot meeting ttiem.
olus Scriba." Shakespeare called the talk and do serious
roll. Every man answered " present" things all the time. 1 guess it has been
and seemed to be in great good humor, j jo long since they were boys, that they
After the cj»lllng of the roll " R- ^ rcmcsibc. how boy: and
ter" said, "Well boys, we haven't seen ; wont to do. (laughter.) We don't wan*
much of each other during the past to be old folks yet, nor do we want the
week; we'll let the ink on Caesar's speech
dry a little, while we smoke some cigars
and spin a few yams. " Hiram Demos
thenes " is scratching his " top-knot" as if
to bring to the surface some forgotten
idea. " ' Hiram,' let’s hear from the in
side of that globe of yours."
"Well boys," said "Hiram," "I heard
a pretty good one on ' Bonus Pater' this
week. I’ve just found out why he wanted
to call this organization the ' Unexpected
Seven,' and I have a blamed good no
tion to bolt. Last fall, une Sunday af
ternoon, when the rules were jlispended,
' Bonus Pater' went over to ' West Dor
mitory' sent up seven cards, and the only
thing he got for his trouble was the ex
perience. 'Bonus Pater' said he thought
at first that he had bumped into a hos
pital scrape. Next day, however, the
young ladies were all able to be out
again. I guess it was a sort of 'sickness
in case of an emergency,' " said he finally.
We’ll excuse you this time Epicurius,
since you used your cagrin as an incentive
to accomplish greater and better things.
At this juncture of his speech "Bonus
Pater" interrupted him, "Hiram, that will
do for you; we'll now hear what John
Socrates has for us."
i’ll be dinged if I didn’t think that
Spring was over, but the green things
keep on coming. Why, only the other
night some of that boneheaded crowd at
"Elast Dormitory" tied down the whistle
cord, and thought that they had done a
brand new stunt. Can some one suggest
a new one for them ? "Julius Caesar," I
suspect that snipe hunting would be new
to them."
"Well I guess it^is time now to hear
(. ;1 - .
Faculty to get ancient.
We think that we ought to be jollied
a little once in awhile. Even though the
members of the faculty have finished their
courting days and settled down, we need
their assistance in reconstructing our col
lege spirit. We do not want to do some
of the things which they want us to
do, and they do not want to do some of
the things which we want them to do.
The mules in both factions need breaking
before they will pull together.
When the girls play the piano, they
do not always play so sweetly as to
cause all the rats to leave their home
sweet home, but frequently they play
things that sound just about like the tune
that killed the old cow. In the tune of
life there are just such discords as the
girls make in playing the piano, and like
those which Socrates makes in singing.
Now some of the fellows, and all of the
girls, think that all this discord can be
ath-ibuted to the fact that the rules have
not been suspended since Easter. I
think myself that the next time they are
suspended, a reception ought to be pro
vided, because they will have to be in
troduced again.
Now to sum up the whole mater
briefly. The faculty think they under
stand our wants better than we, and we
think that we understand their attitude
toward us better than they do. Both
sides aremistaken.
This concluded the speech-making for
the evening, and another meeting of the
" Unexpected Seven" passed into history.
TTie subject for next week will be, " The
Girls We Have Liked."