A Society of Their Own

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A SOCIETY OF THEIR OWN

Chapter AI, Green Bay

Arranged by Mary Walter and Ruth Troup

Setting:A parlor of 1869 which contains a small piano or an old-fashioned organ, a mirror, some books on a small table, a Victorian sofa and a few smaller chairs. A curtain is not absolutely essential as the actors can enter from the wings and exit or reappear for tableau as the narrator proceeds.

This can be a very quaint and lovely bit of pageantry if costumes and properties are found. Pictures of our P.E.O. Founders were the best guide.

The little parlor scene has no people in it when the narrator begins, and should be planned to set the mood of Founders’ Day which builds to a climax with the final tableau and the participation of the audience in the final song.

NARRATOR:Today we pay tribute to the seven young women who met on a college campus in 1869— _____ years ago—and organized themselves into a “society of their own”. They did this because first of all they were friends and enjoyed meeting together. They also seem to have had objectives beyond their own social pleasures and we today are making our traditional affirmation and pledge to uphold their ideals and inspirations. It has become customary to light a candle to the memory of each of their names, but today let us rather recall that brighter light that lives and shines in all that our P.E.O. association means. The light of their lives continues to glow in CotteyCollege, in the Memorial Library, in the Educational Loan Fund, in the many philanthropic projects of local chapters as well as in the spirit of friendship and service among our members. These seven whom we honor today, lived and met the challenge of their time, passing on to all who have come after, their example of service and devotion. Their times were stirring ones, no less than ours. We, today, face many questions—atomic energy control, racial discrimination, cancer research, United Nations support, unrest in the Middle East—to name a few, just as their young minds and hearts were challenged by all the unrest which followed the cruel Civil War. Let us look at our Founders—what did they think and do? We shall begin with Alice Bird, the writer and public speaker of the group and the first president.

Alice enters from back left, carrying a book of poems. She advances to center, leafing through her book as narrator continues

NARRATOR:It was Alice who wrote our Objects and Aims and the first Constitution of the sisterhood. Visitors who came to chat and to listen to Alice noticed that the latest books were always to be found on her library table. In that year of 1869 a young author, named Robert Browning, published “The Ring and the Book.” The stories of his romance with Elizabeth Barrette and the flight to Italy with her must have been the subject of gentle gossip even in literary circles. Alice may have preferred the poetry of Elizabeth.

Alice reads a selection from Robert or Elizabeth Browning—or just a short bit from each. Suggestions: How Do I Love Thee? Just For a Handful of Silver, or Love Among the Ruins.

NARRATOR: Perhaps Alice was one of the first to discover the fun and tenderness in a book published just a few years before by Louisa Mae Alcott—

Alice has closed the book of poems and taken another from a small table from which she now reads a familiar passage from “Little Women.” During the final sentences, Alice exits to Right, still reading. Narrator continues as she leaves

Ella enters from back Left; pauses to study books or magazines on the table, finds one, takes it to the organ or piano stool where she seats herself and looks through it as narrator continues. Ella supposedly finds a picture of the football team mentioned and holds it up to view.

NARRATOR: Ella Stewart had somewhat less time for reading than Alice enjoyed, for she had to leave college before she received her degree and she spent much of her life campaigning for juvenile courts and help for wayward boys. Dreadful conditions in prison camps during the Civil War became a political issue in the elections of 1872; but the exposès also showed very plainly to people like Ella that peace-time prisons were not much better. Young boys were thrown into filthy prisons with hardened criminals and received little mercy or leniency regardless of their age. I’m quite sure the activities of the Ku Klux Klan must have concerned Ella. In 1865 young men just released from the Army of Robert E Lee were bitter and bored after the excitement of war. They first gathered just for diversion, but their weird nocturnal ceremonies began to spread throughout the south, arousing superstition and dread among the newly freed Negroes. This proved to be a weapon against the excesses of the northern carpet-baggers in some cases. Although officially disbanded in 1869, Klan night riders in their white robes and black whips continued to spread terror. Congress passed the Ku Klux Klan Acts to enforce the new 14th and 15th amendments, the Supreme Court held part of the Acts to be unconstitutional. Yes, Ella Stewart was much concerned about matters concerning boys and young men. She must have noted with great interest that very first intercollegiate football game played in 1869. It was Princeton against Rutgers and there were 25 men on each side!

Ella rises, holding paper or magazine page which supposedly contains pictures and looking at it, she exits Right front. Narrator continues as Mary comes in from Right back with box containing hats. She approaches a mirror, puts box on a chair and tries on hats as she takes them from the box. Empress Eugenie model is tried first and then several others, finally returning to Eugenie model to wear as she exits Left front.

NARRATOR: Mary Ellen Stafford was a happier sort. She was always fond of parties and of fine clothes. Women’s skirts were frilled and tiered and the most fashionable gathered at the back over a wire cage or bustle. The great style innovation was the introduction of separate skirt and blouse combinations. The most popular hat of the day was the Empress Eugenie style. It was small and worn tipped rakishly over the forehead. Mary Allen probably spent many hours studying the drawings in the Godey’s Ladies Book. And what for fun and entertainment? Well, there was lawn croquet, which was considered lady-like. There were minstrel shows, but real ladies might not be in attendance there. There were some great celebrations, country-wide in scope, to commemorate important national events—such as the completion of the first continental railroad. When the news came in from Ogden, Utah that the last spike had been driven, cannons were fired in New York and a Thanksgiving service was held in Trinity church. Philadelphia rang the Liberty Bell and Chicago had a seven mile procession.

Mary returns to the Eugenie hat at this point; puts others in her box and exits to Left front while narrator finishes.

NARRATOR: The construction of this railroad, however, was actually investigated in Washington. Some astonishing and shameful facts were revealed: The Union Pacific Co. had received $73,000,000 from Uncle Sam for work that actually cost only $50,000,000. Many members of the government were involved. This phase of the story I’m sure was of considerable interest to another of our Founders, Franc Rhodes.

Franc Rhodes enters from back Left. She seats herself in a small chair which is drawn up to a small table and she then becomes busy with a notebook and pencil which she has carried in her hand. She selects a book from the table from which she reads and takes notes, keeping busy until the narrator mentions “Susan Anthony”. On this cue, she closes her notebook and picks up the book from which she has been reading; she rises and moves out to sit on the sofa until the cue “Walt Whitman” is heard from the narrator.

NARRATOR: Franc Rhodes’ (Elliot) main political interest was women’s rights—or rather, the lack of them! In 1869, some states permitted women to own property, to retain their own earnings, to make contracts, and to sue and be sued. The national right to vote was, however, still many long years away. An article published in 1869, written of course by a man, stated that the woman’s vote proposal was “an attempt to make trumpets out of flutes and sunflowers out of violets.” The New York World said that Miss Susan B. Anthony had “the proportions of a file and the voice of a hurdy-gurdy” and that suffragettes in general were “mummified and fossilated females.” Progress was made, however. Miss Anthony voted in 1872. She was fined $100. but never paid the fine. The territory of Wyoming gave the vote to women in 1869 and refused to enter the Union as a state without women suffrage. Virginia Woodhull, sometimes called the “terrible siren” was the first woman candidate for president in 1872. Franc Rhodes became a good friend of Julia Ward Howe, author of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”. Francis Willard, the Wisconsin woman who became known internationally for her part in organizing and heading the Women’s Christian Temperance Union was another acquaintance. She also knew John Greenleaf Whittier—and I’m quite sure she relished the virility and shocking ideas expressed in the poetry of that bold individual, Walt Whitman.

Franc here begins reading the Walt Whitman selection from her book; rising from her seated position to read out to audience; she turns and exits Left front on the last lines of the reading as the narrator continues.

NARRATOR:All this might have been a trifle too strong for the more conservative Hattie Briggs.

Hattie enters from back Right carrying her Bible in her right arm. She advances slowly and thoughtfully, standing there with slightly bowed head until the narrator mentions “Clara Barton”. She then turns, faces front, steps out front and proceeds to exit at Left front while narrator finishes.

NARRATOR: Hattie was the daughter of a Methodist minister. Conversation around the family dinner table in her home most certainly touched upon Mary Baker Eddy and the new religious theories attracting such a following in Boston. Then too, those ideas that Charles Darwin had dared to mention! Just think of it—saying that, contrary to the Book of Genesis, modern man had come to his present form through evolution. No wonder that theologians were fighting bitterly against this concept and decrying such a suggestion from their pulpits. Hattie had suggested the organizing of a society to her college friends. She certainly had a great example and ideal set for her, too, in the person of Clara Barton, a real organizer who brought hospital service to Civil War casualties and then went on to advocate better social conditions for young women as well as to the founder of the Red Cross in the United States.

Hattie Briggs has made her exit. Alice enters back Left carrying some flowers and a vase. She advances to the piano and becomes busy arranging a bouquet during the narration concerning her.

NARRATOR: Alice Virginia Coffin was the idealist of the founding group. She proposed the star as the symbol for P.E.O. Although Kentucky born, she was descended from the earliest New England settlers. Indeed she could well use all the courage of her ancestors in New England to face her chosen task of teaching school in 1870s. In the founding year of P.E.O., the average U.S. citizen had just 3 ½ years of schooling. There were just 500 high schools in the entire country, and there were slightly less than 600 newspapers. What did she think of President Johnson’s impeachment ordeal—and the graft and corruption that took over in Grant’s administration just a few years later? Alice must have been much interested in news about those settlers who moved west soon after the Civil War—their struggles with nature, and aroused Indian tribes whose territory and natural rights were so often ignored. Idealists were really needed in 1869.

Alice exits to front Right, finishing her flowers on the cue “President Johnson”, then moving out front and across to exit Right as narrator continues and Suela enters from back Right with some music. She approaches the piano and pausing briefly to let audience view her costume, she sits on the stool and opens music to score of Brahms’s Cradle Song which she plays for a few bars when the narrator pauses after mentioning the name of Brahms.

NARRATOR: Suela Pearson is the last of our seven. She was blessed with both dramatic ability and a pleasing voice, and, of course, could play the piano. Mozart, Bach and Beethoven were old favorites. There was a new composer too, just becoming well known in 1869. His name was Johannes Brahms.

Music of Cradle song played here for a few bars

Although never a professional on the stage her love of the theater certainly made her dream of at least seeing in person those well-known Barrymores, and the new French actress, Sarah Bernhardt, who was being acclaimed for her interpretations of Cleopatra, Portia, and Camille. How often that first P.E.O. chapter must have enjoyed singing around the piano as Suela would play one of those new songs written by Stephen Foster.

Suela strikes first chord of “My Old Kentucky Home” while all return to the scene and form a tableau. In this pose they sing in unison one verse and chorus of “My Old Kentucky Home” to Suela’s instrumental accompaniment.

The tableau stays in position while narrator addresses the audience

NARRATOR: Let’s all join our seven Founders in singing together a verse of this significant and familiar song, and thus bring to a close our Founders’ Day observance.

Suela plays opening bars of “Blest Be the Tie That Binds”

At the close of the singing, the tableau breaks up and participants step out to receive greetings of the audience.

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