College stories, American; Princeton (N.J.) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Princeton University -- Fiction
About three weeks ago a young man was sitting in the grand stand one
sunny afternoon watching the baseball practice, and wondering whether
the nine would beat Harvard, when one of his clubmates came along and
asked him for a match. He complied with the request, and said, "Don't
mention it." Then the borrower of the match asked if he were going to
the dance, and as he admitted his intention of doing so, he was handed
a preliminary card which had your name at the top of it. Then, after a
little more conversation, he put his name down for No. 2, and handed
it back to your host, who thanked him. And again he said, "Don't
mention it." That was the man who is about to dance with you. At that
time you were unknown to him. The other names were secured in various
ways. In the midst of a lecture your card was passed along to some
fellow on the end of the row, who, with the same pencil with which he
was taking notes on "Post-Kantian Philosophy," secured for himself a
_deux-temps_ with you. Other men were hailed out in front of Old North
when the seniors were singing, or at the club dinner tables, and in
the lounging-rooms when they were talking baseball, or when they were
at the billiard table and had to walk across the room to where their
coats were hanging to see their cards. Perhaps your host took a night
off to it, and went out on the campus and yelled "Hello, Billy
Wilson!" under Billy Wilson's window to see if he were in before he
ran up the stairs to his room and demanded to see his dance-card; and
went on thus from entry to entry as if he were out after
subscriptions, except that he went to his friends. Sometimes it is not
an easy task to fill five or six cards, especially when every one is
feeling rather down-hearted over an unfortunate athletic season. Of
course if the girl has been down before, and is well known and
popular, there is no difficulty of this kind. Probably the next time
you come down you won't need a card.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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