The Normal Record. November 1904

              12
THE NORMAL RECORD.
we had better get out, but he broke out with
"No! he's balked, that's what's the matter;"
then and there giving away what must have
been a stable secret for years, for certainly
this horse proved to be an old hand at it. We
tried honeyed words and words not so honeyed;
apples, the whip, pulling, coaxing and all sorts
of persuasions to no avail. A crowd of workmen on the opposite side of the river, shouted
encouragement from time to time. Among
other words that reached our ears were, "And
her name was Maud". Some one suggested
building a fire under the horse, but we girls
had an idea which finally proved effective. We
unhitched the team and pushed the wagon up
the steep embankment. The horse seemed to
have a better disposition when he had only
himself to take care of and went briskly up the
hill. On the level road again, the horses went
without much trouble. However, the rest of
our journey was not without reminders of the
ferry, for every time we struck an extra large
lump of dirt, the horse imagined he was encountering another hill and acted accordingly.
Our nerves were in a bad state when we
reached Colusa, for how did we know but that
we would stop "never to go again" in the middle of the main street of the city of Colusa.
Wouldn't we have been proud of such an introduction?
After we arrived, we had barely time enough
to refresh ourselves before we were rushed
off to the game. We girls did not make much
of a showing in number, when compared with
the crowd who were Colusa's champions. We
did not get faint-hearted, however, but gave
our yells, most of which, had been composed
on the way over, making as much noise as our
small number permitted. There was a man
on the grounds with a megaphone who said,
"All the Colusa people be quiet and listen to
the Chico girls yell." We paid no attention to
him and learned later, that, although our number was small, we could be heard on the
grounds. The man with the megaphone, by
the way, although Colusa's rooter, was in no
way connected with the High School.
After the game, some High School girls
came up to the hotel to call on us. When
they first entered the room, it looked doubtful
whether they would find a place to sit, as every
chair in the room had been used as a hook on
which to hang a dress, but they finally made
themselves comfortable on the edge of the bed.
They came to invite us to attend a bazaar in
the evening, after which, was to be given a
dance. We shall not soon forget the courtesy
extended to us by the girls of the High School
and in fact the courtesy received from all the
school.
It was a pretty weary lot of girls that found
themselves on the way back to Chico the next
day. At first, I confess, the return trip looked
dubious, when the hotel proprietor told us that
our horse had been used on the stage for about
twenty years or more and had always balked.
But the feeling that he was going home, seemed to cheer him up for he proved to be the
most pliable creature possible during the remainder of the trip. Obtaining no excitement
from this quarter, puns and anecdotes were
told to keep life in the crowd. One of the puns
is, "Why is Dayton like the hereafter?" "Because it is beyond the grave." Another is,
"How many girls would it take to stretch from
Chico to Colusa?" "Forty-seven, because a Miss
is as good as a mile."
At half-past five we rolled into Chico a hungry, dusty crowd. But we were happy, because
"we went, we saw, and the boys conquered."
On Slang.
If you ask one of the students of the Normal
what she speaks, she will answer, "English, of
course. What a ridiculous question!" Yet this
same Normal girl was coming down the steps
when her foot slipped and caught in her skirt,
making a nasty rent. The fair maiden looked
at the rent with an annoyed expression on her
face, and turning to her companion, remarked,
"Wouldn't that jar you!" Her language certainly did jar.
Our grandmothers used to say, "He writes
a poor hand." The granddaughter says,. "He
slings a nasty quill." And again she will say
some one "got on his ear." Now, this girl
knows better. It is not because she lacks
culture. She has had training in the Normal
that has taught her better, but still she will
use slang, knowing how vulgar it is, because it
is "odd" and expresses "just what she wants