William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 1

[129] not only to win their pupils but to keep them long; time being required for building up those habits of thought which a Jesuit thinks essential to the Christian life. We have a brass band, a gymnasium, a fencing alley, a playground. We count an Owl Association, a base ball club, a dramatic society, and a junior dramatic society. Acting of plays is one of our great amusements, and our theatre is popular with the young men in our college, and with young and old men beyond our gates. We sing operettas, and trip through farces and conversation pieces. We are fond of picturesque dances, which Father Mallon, one of our French professors, puts on the stage with an artistic eye. Of course, we suffer from the lack of female help, but Father Mallon dresses up his boys in skirt and bodice, so that folks before the curtain think them rather pretty girls. He gets the freshest music from Paris, and we are very rich just now in that of Monsieur Lecocq. But we are capable of higher things than acting Furnished Apartments; we have tried our luck at Hamlet, and have played Macbeth with some applause. Shakspeare is our poet, though we cannot put Othello on the stage so easily as we can Cherry Bounce.