STUDENTS' REVELS

Otago Witness, Issue 3196, 16 June 1915, Page 85

STUDENTS' REVELS

OTAGO UNDERGRADUATES PROCESSION.

It was a sawn-off sort of procession, not half the usual length, and shorn of most of its glory, that left the University buildings on Thursday morning for the annual tour of the city. ’Tis sweet to play the fool in season; but there is a strong section of public opinion that would deprecate pure looling at present. It was a happy thought to use the procession as a scheme for collecting money for the wounded soldiers. The gay humour of the students appeals to the public, and they were sure of a good response. The absence of many of the * "stars*” who have swelled former processions to a great length, and have stirred quiet Dunedin into a. bewildcrng mid-day activity, was apparent ; but, it the quantity was small, the quality was good, and the few tableaux were smart and amusing. On one motor lorry reverend prelates, audaciously lifelike, laid a “foundation stone” of beer bottles, and, pipe in mouth, cracked jokes with the laughing crowd, while one, with open disregard of episcopal dignity, danced the “bunny-hug” with an attractive soubrette. A nurse sat by the side of a wounded soldier, and was an open reminder of the more serious purpose of the revelry. A longhaired musical trio—the “Chew-ur-Yiskors” —displayed their virtuosity on another lorry, and, incidentally, rendered good service at a late stage as accompanists, and the “Mayor,” quite a good imitation of the Chief Magistrate, in robes and chain, was driven in dignified state in a carriage. The Allies wore represented by proxy, and a host of clowns and pierrofcs and “ladies,” much decollete and liberal with their legs, made up the loose ends of the procession. Everybody collected vigorously with rattling boxes and widely-reeeptive sheets. The “Mayor’- addressed the multitude from the Town Hall steps, and explained the purpose of the collection —for the wounded soldiers, and not for the “German Navy sinking fund;” as at first intended. Kisses from the ruddy lips of a Zulu maiden were offered for 2s 6d, and the public responded liberally to a chorused appeal to “Throw, throw, throw” their money into a spread-out blanket, an empty kerosene tin—anything offering. £44 Is 2d was gained during the day for the Wounded Soldiers’ F nnd. Having amused the crowd for a while, and augmented the Wounded Soldiers’ Fund materially, the students went off back again, and the fun was over. THE GAPPING CARNIVAL. The revels were continued in the evening, when the Capping Carnival was held in His Majesty’s Theatre. The theatre was filled, ground floor and dress circle, as is usual on the occasion of the annual carnival, and the show was quite good. At these carnivals the students place their spontaneous humour and gaiety as a set-off to their amateurishness, and as a rule spontaneous fun wins out, despite the absence of theatrical tricks and accomplished stage management. The gay undorgrads filled in three hours pleasantly, and what their entertainment lacked in professional polish it gained in whole-hearted fun, into which the students themselves entered as fully as their audience. After tuneful opening choruses, in which figured the principals of the mididay procession, the audience was introduced to a more or less realistic Zeppelin raid, in which the Kaiser and the Crown Prince made themselves ridiculous in manner the most satisfactory, and many dignified l Otago professors appeared in costumes anything but dignified, and aired their eccentricities. The private affairs of a former youthful Mayor of Dunedin were searcliingly examined and commented upon, and many local topics treated with gleeful irony in the choruses which interspersed the chief items. An amusing farce called “ Spriggins” concluded the first part of the programme. A well-known local journalist formed the chief subject of the opening skit in the second half and the same gentleman’s alleged eccentricities were satirised in a “National Reserve Scene,” in which many local celebrities figured, one gentleman, unmistakably not a Gentile, being particularly well represented. A large man named “ Captain Loophole M‘Longlegs ” was represented by a youth who is probably the biggest man in the University, and is not unskilful at throwing the - hammer. “M'Longlegs” showed himself very proficient in mysterious means of physical discomfiting athletic opponents, and everyone seemed to recognise whom he was intended to represent. The Kaiser was again masterly dealt- with in a doleful song with the recurring refrain “Look at me now!” and another ditty ascribed the clivities of the “ undergraduate knut ” to the attractions cf the “flappers” at a local girls’ seminary. This was understood to bo much exaggerated. More choruses were followed by farcical tableaux of medical recruits being examined for the front._ and of the governing body of a large local institution, the lady members in the latter case not being spared. Altogether the students’ carnival was most successful, from the point of view of the audience and also of the players, whoso topical hits, keen and shrewd as they wore, were redeemed from being in the least degree offensive by their kindly humour and genuine cleverness. Half the proceeds went to the Wounded Soldiers’ Fund.