THE

HE ways of the London Woman's Club woman are wicked. Now and then there echoes across the Atlantic the wail of some penitent one who would be good if the customs of her club would let her. That explains why she loses so much money at bridge, why tea as a tonic is insufficient and whence comes the odor of after dinner cigarettes which lingers in her gown the morning after. To the prim, masculine censor these things seem not nice for woman. It may be the exalted masculine idea of feminine morals or a certain narrowness of view which confirms man in the opinion that the honor of the family must be upheld at all costs, and that it is woman's place to do it; but whatever it is, man feels that these things are neither right nor

wise-in woman at a woman's club.

But that is not the worst of the story from London. If it were, the whole might well be dismissed with an indulgent smile by mere man who merely pays the bills and who wants woman to have what she wants provided all it costs is money. But there are things for which money cannot pay. One of these is the reputation for common honesty and that seems in danger both as to individuals and collectively in the London Women's Clubs. Here's what an English club woman says about it:

"In one woman's club it is common knowledge that a tablet of soap does not remain five minutes in the dressing-room; and at another, accounted among the most fashionable, even the table silver has been known to disappear. I belong to a woman's club whose reputation is admittedly one of the best. Yet I dare not leave things in the cloakroom, and have to warn my guests not to do so either. And I shall not forget my surprise when a friend. who took me to one of the largest and best-known of the women's clubs, said I had better carry my furs about with me! In one club it is reputed that if you drop anything. walk half the length of the room. and turn round to pick up your property, you will find it has disappeared. A purse containing a good deal of money was once dropped in another club, and picked up shortly afterward, empty."

These matters are all petty, and in this lies their seriousness. The London club woman is evidently unconsciously wicked. One believes that if the American club woman is wicked, she knows it. But is she wicked? Let Sorosis answer.

T

I

Wellesley College

By ALICE STEVENS

HE founders of the early New England colleges for women do not seem to have differed essentially in their motives. Each had admired and respected women whose individual development had been hampered by the lack of systematic training. It was the object of each to obtain for women a sound intellectual training in order thereby to increase their efficiency and usefulness. Earlier women had attained learning, but generally at the expense of health and of practical efficiency, as in the case of Margaret Fuller. It was as a protest, perhaps unconscious, against a one-sided development, such as hers, that the colleges were founded.

The idea of a college for women was taking shape in the minds of various people in the years between 1825 and 1865. The development of this idea coincided with significant social and economic changes. The Irish famine set in motion. the vast immigration of the unlettered which has not since ceased and which has created social and educational problems new of their kind in the history not only of America but of the world. The Civil War forced upon women business and civic responsibilities for which they found themselves insufficiently prepared. The enormous industrial development of the country accompanying and following the Civil War called into existence problems connected with features of life hitherto unknown this side of the Atlantic, or known only on a small scale-the slum, the factory, child labor, sanitation, tenement houses.

All these changes increased the need for highly trained intelligence combined with sympathy, and created fields needing the labor of women.

The years 1825 to 1865 coincided also

with the great age of Victorian literature. It would be interesting to know what was the reading of Miss Lyon and of Miss Smith, in their country homes, and of Mr. Durant, in his more elaborate "place" near Boston. Carlyle or Ruskin or Emerson with their enthusiasm for high moral ideals of conduct and of social service; Browning and Tennyson, with their exquisite pictures of womanhood as seen with the poet's vision; Thackeray's keen studies of the worldly women which a rich and complex civilization produced; Dickens's Mrs. Jellaby and Mrs. Hominy, showing what a combination of ignorance and vanity might effect: all these must have played a part in forming ideals and defining the evils to be shunned.

Smith and Mt. Holyoke Colleges were founded by women representing the plainness of living, the severe standard of personal conduct, the relentless common sense which all of us who know New England know and love. Wellesley was founded by a man, by a lawyer, by a cultivated gentleman. The moral ideal strongly emphasized by the women founders of the other colleges was no less strongly insisted upon by Mr. Durant. Its spirit is epitomized in the college motto he selected: "Not to be ministered unto, but to minister." No college can claim a monopoly of this ideal. The class motto of '91,

«Εἰς καλὸν κἀγαθόν”

"To the beautiful and the good"-expresses a more intimate peculiarity of the college and of its founder. Wellesley is known to all its graduates as "The College Beautiful," the name given in its best college song, and the heart of its founder was set on making it that during all the years that he labored at its creation. "Other people will give them necessities," he said, when some one pleaded for a laboratory instead of more pictures and statues and a statelier campus, "let me give them beauty." It was with this ideal in mind that he urged the study of Greek and of English poetry, and it is pleasant to know that the courses

still most generally elected are those having a strong cultural value.

There is afloat in some communities a strange notion that an advanced education is desirable only for those women who expect to need it in earning a livelihood. It is difficult to reach those possessed of this delusion because they do not understand that the best return any woman ever gets for the years and money given to her college life is in the pleasure of the life itself and of the command of her own powers which it assures her. Women's colleges are not institutions for the promotion of celibacy. If celibacy is on the increase there are deep-seated social and economic causes which we all know magazine articles and public discussion will not remove. But college life for women does in many ways furnish mitigations for the hardships of celibacy.

Contrast the useful freedom of thousands of cultivated women to-day with the dependence of unlucky spinsters of sixty years ago, leading a life of scorned or pitied helplessness, from which the only ecape might be a humiliating or at best a distasteful marriage. And often college life turns out what Charles Lamb called "incomparable old maids!"

II

Smith College

By ALICE S. JENKINS

Madam President and ladies of the New England Women's Club

For the last week or so I have been trying to decide whether to forgive Mrs. Lewis or rot, for my share in this afternoon's program. You see we are so accustomed to having her call us up and courteously ask us whether we will kindly perform this or that new and frequently unexpected duty that I said "certainly" when she asked me if I would talk for a few minutes upon the topic "Smith College," without a thought of what I might be promising. Only much later did I discover that she had laid the train for a family quarrel by asking mv housemate to speak of her own and rival college. And not until I was asked for my specific topic did I learn that this was to be a "paper." But it occurs to me to leave to you the solution of my problem to decide after I sit down.

But we college women are in much the same state of mind in regard to our own college, as the small girl, who sitting in the car in the seat ahead of me, asked about two minutes after we had passed

the state line on our way from the west, "Are we in Massachusetts"? And to my reply, "Yes, we have just crossed the line,' with a beatific smile exclaimed, "Isn't Massachusetts a great deal nicer than New York"? We were only two miles over the line, but she was back home, and that made all the difference in the world to her in the landscape. So with our alma mater. In externals we can easily sum up the striking differences. I could pardon either of my friends to-day if they hinted that our campus would make a good-sized door mat for theirs. But we set the fashion for small dormitories and we have them still. We began with an unusual proportion of men on our faculty and we hold to that principle still. But these are only externals.

Our aim as expressed in the catalogues for years is, "To give to women a broad and liberal culture and to develop at the same time the characteristics of a perfect woman." Or as President Seelye tersely put it to us at an alumnae luncheon not long since, "We aim not to train you to do any one thing but to fit you for life." Requiring in college two languages, one ancient and one modern, one science, Bible. literature, philosophy each to be studied for a year by every student, the modern and classical seems to be fairly well balanced in the curriculum. No marks are ever announced and a student knows her standing only when below grade or when in her senior year she is received into the Phi Beta Kappa, but in neither case is she told anything but her general average. "Work because you are here for that," is the president's advice to the freshman, and few there be that fail to heed it. And therein lies perhaps the great secret of our esprit du corps and of similarity of product-the fact that we have been blessed throughout our entire history with the same president, and that he has taken time every fall to deliver to the freshman a course of six lectures on the "Aims and Methods of the College."

But

Of rules as you may know, the college makes but one, "Lights out at ten." woe betide the girl who thinks that liberty to observe the rules of polite society means license. She finds the frowns or open disapprobation of her mates more potent than many a lecture on manners. You will pardon me for stating that I met last spring, quite by accident, a Wellesley graduate who had just been at Smith to visit an old pupil and who commented enthusiastically on the courtesy which the students had displayed to her an entire stranger to all but one.

It was a Smith girl who wrote, "Work right well and then mix in some right good fun and play." That is the spirit of

the college, only unfortunately the fun and play appeal to the average reporter more than the work and so you do not hear of that side of college life often and we are in danger of being called frivolous.

But after all aims are not results, as many of us, alas, know to our sorrow! What are the results of a college with these aims? Will you bear with me while I run over a hastily written list of some of my college acquaintances and their professions?

Two prominent settlement workers in New York, a successful magazine writer, the dean of Barnard College, a lawyer, a clergyman, Sunday School superintendent, the head of large New York girls' school, the head of a new girls' school in Lakewood, the head of a school just opened in Montclair by request of many to be patrons, two missionaries in China, the director of the American excavations in Crete, and the only woman instructor in anatomy, who was called to that chair at John Hopkins last year.

I may be permitted to remind you that of five women who have held the classical fellowship in the school at Athens, three were Smith alumnae. I said "good-bye" on the steamer last summer to a wealthy young married woman who is giving her leisure and strength to the Y. W. C. A. work to meet in Berlin a few hours later another alumna who was passing a year there in advanced psychological work. At Yale where our diploma is accepted without question as the pre-requisite for advanced work, we are told that Smith girls always say, "I have studied it but I don't know anything about it," and then go ahead and do unusual work! Nor are we forgetting home and all that to have a home may include, as the ever lengthening procession of alumnae who return to show the president their children at every commencement or college luncheon proves.

To sum up in the words of one of our own number who discussed this very question at an alumnae meeting not long since, "we expect each other to be capable, executive, broad-minded, eager to work and ready to make experiments, ready in short for the unexpected in life."

III

Mount Holyoke College

By MARY PHILLIPS MALLORY

It is difficult at this age, when education is so universal, to realize the conditions existing in New England seventyfive years ago. Then girls were allowed to

attend the public schools, for a few weeks of the year.

In the life of Mary Lyon published in 1858, is this statement-"When Miss Grant left Derry to found the Ipswich school, she had become exceedingly interested in the idea of a seminary, which should be to young women what the college is to young men, so valuable that the rich would be glad to attend it, and so economical that persons in moderate circumstances would be equally accommodated. Miss Grant naturally conversed much with Miss Lyon, who assisted her in teaching, on the subject of establishing a seminary with buildings-library and apparatus owned as colleges are; where succeeding generations of young women might be trained for usefulMiss Lyon entered into the project very slowly-'Never mind' she many times said between 1824 and '29. 'Never mind the bricks and mortar, only let us have living minds to work upon.' Miss Lyon. however, became convinced of the importance of such a school and was interested rot merely from sympathy with Miss Grant, but from her own firm conviction that the thing was both desirable and necessary."

ness.

Miss Grant married (as do the Brooklyn teachers of the present day) but Miss Lyon weighed carefully the probabilities of her comparative usefulness in married life and in teaching. The latter in her view predominated, and she declined an offer. which she thought held out a prospect of love and happiness, to give her undivided attention to the advancement of education for young women. She turned from every school and service that promised pecuniary reward, and undertook a long warfare to found an institution.

Her idea was, that there should be a seminary exclusively for young women, preparing to teach, and exert an influence in a variety of ways, in the cause of both religion and education.

All the colleges had been founded by commencing operations, forming a nucleus, and then calling for assistance.

Seven trustees were appointed to obtain an act of incorporation, but after holding several meetings, passing sundry resolutions, and making inquiries in reference to the object; finding the public mind indifferent to it, the zeal of most of them failed and it was judged expedient to dissolve their connection as a board. These apparently fruitless efforts were not without their uses. A portion of the community had become familiar with the idea of founding a permanent seminary, and some were sorry that the scheme had failed.

Miss Lyon did not despair, for she had a distinct conception of the school she was to found, and laid her plans for building

in an economical manner. She understood that she must look for aid, not to the honored and wealthy, who were laden with responsibilities and drained by constant calls for charity, but to men comparatively unknown. She saw that it might be necessary to commence operations on a small scale and by the experiment win public confidence and aid, to assist more largely in the enterprise. She was convinced that the argument of superior literary and scientific advantages in a permanent school, could not be relied on for gaining attention and securing interest from all; but that some peculiar and tangible feature, addressing itself to the perception of the middle class of society, must be used as a lever for moving public opinion and obtaining the needed funds.

Not a man of wealth had at this time given her his aid, even the religious press declined to publish the articles she sent them. Very few ministers were interested, and the public were in quiet ignorance of her plans. A few gentlemen who had known her long and well, gave her their influence, and the young women who had received her instruction were her intelligent and efficient friends.

The first contribution toward the funds came from her pupils, and an offering of $269 was the result. She applied to the ladies of Ipswich who contributed $475. and then went from house to house to solicit subscriptions until she had raised $1,000. This money contributed by women Miss Lyon called the corner stone of the edifice. "Well do I remember." says a Holyoke student, "standing with Miss Lyon at her open bureau drawer. when she took up several silver dollars bearing the traces of fire. Her eye kindled as she said, 'These were among the first contributions to our seminary. They were given by two sisters whose house was burned, after they had subscribed one hundred dollars each. We felt that they were released from their obligation, but they paid the whole. These dollars gathered from the embers were a part of their donation. They seemed so precious that I replaced them with my own money and keep them as a memento of God's goodness to us.' The largest subscription to the first building was $500. Money was collected in small sums until $27,000 was raised. Two subscriptions of six cents each were received, and eighteen hundred persons contributed.

Another committee was appointed and stood before the public as the responsible agents for establishing the proposed semi

nary.

The question of location was settled in 1834. South Hadley, Massachusetts, promising to raise $8,000. This little village is situated on a hill overlooking

the Connecticut valley with charming views of Mt. Holyoke on one side and Mt. Tom on the other side of the beautiful river. The act of incorporation passed both houses of the state legislature February 10, 1836 and was signed by the Governor the next day. The instrument named the trustees, and empowered them to hold real and personal estate not exceeding $100,000. to be devoted exclusively to purposes of education. The site for the building was selected in May and the corner stone laid October 3, 1836. The seminary was opened November 8. 1837. The faculty was represented by the principal, associate principal, two teachers and three pupil assistants. Room was prepared for about eighty students but more than that number gathered; the second year four hundred students were turned away.

The domestic arrangements were peculiar in two respects-first, all the students were required to room within its walls in order to exclude all adverse outside influence. Second, the having a large part of the domestic work performed by the students. At the outset of the undertaking in 1834, Miss Lyon incorporated this feature into her project as a means of lessening the expense and of gaining the attention. approbation and assistance of the people of New England. As she dwelt longer on this plan the argument of the mere saving of expense sank into comparative insignificance. In a circular "published before the school opened, she gives the object, to promote health, improvement and happiress of the students. In one of her letters, she says, "It woud be well to have the domestic work done by the members of the institution,not as an essential feature, but as an appendage which should not give the name of manual labor to the scheme. Might not this simple feature do away with the prejudice against female education among common people?" Holyoke has never had any teaching or system of domestic science; though in the early days, much of the service was performed by the students, now they are not allowed in the kitchens, and the brush and duster describes the arc of domestic duties.

So Mt. Holyoke, the first permanent endowed school for women was founded, with these objects in view-first, to increase the number of well qualified female teachers second, to induce many who have already become teachers to make further improvement in their education; third, to exert an influence in bringing as much of the labor of instruction into the hands of women. as propriety will admit; fourth, to lead the way toward the establishment of female semiraries in our land.

As the demands for higher education appealed to more people, Mt. Holyoke re