age of 100 to celebrate the 75th year of his graduation and receive the degree of LL.D. He also visited the President and both houses of Congress in Washington. Washington Bissell, a graduate of Union College, had a similar experience in receiving an LL. D from his Alma Mater in 1920 at the age of 100. He died in March, 1923, in his 103d year. We find no other college with such a percentage of nonagenarian graduates as Wesleyan University-per contra, perhaps no other American college has such a record for short-lived presidents, the ten presidents ranging in age from the youthful first president at 47 to 84, while from the time when Mr. Chase, the first man graduated, reached 90 till now, Wesleyan has had a high percentage of nonagenarian graduates.

FAMOUS WOMEN OF NINETY PLUS.

Three greatly celebrated women for their war record, inspirational writing and public appeal are Florence Nightin-70 gale (1820-1910) of Crimean War fame and founder of the Red Cross; Clara Barton (1821-1912), conspicuous in our Civil War and in the Spanish-American War, and founder of the American Branch of the Red Cross; and Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910), author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Other nonagenarian women are:

Fannie Crosby (1820-1915), the most prolific and popular hymn writer of America; Edna Dean Proctor (1829-1924), author of "Columbia's Banner" and other patriotic songs; Mary Soemrville (1780-1872), the astronomer; Empress Eugenie of France (1826-1921), the wife of Louis Napoleon and most influential woman in Europe from 1853 to the FrancoPrussian War in 1870, then an exile for fifty years; Sarah E. Doyle (1830-1923) Principal Providence Girls' High School for many years and President R. I. Society for Collegiate Education of Women; Rev. Antoinette Louisa Brown Blackwell (1825-1921), Woman Suffragist and writer; Dr. Elizabeth

?

Blackwell, her sister-in-law, the first woman doctor in America, passed away in 1910 at nearly ninety-to whom Charies Kingsley said: "You are one of my heroes"; Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, American educator and historian (1804-1894); Baroness Burdett-Coutts, wealthy philanthropist and benefactor of the needy (1814-1906); Mrs. Mary R. Pike, born September 11, 1815 in the house where her father Rev. John Brodhead and others projected Wesleyan Academy, the oldest Methodist educational foundation in America (opened two years later, September, 1817). She died two years ago in her 107th year. Her father and husband were preachers, educators and congressmen and she entered intimately into all their beneficent activities. Mrs. Lois S. Parker, widow of Bishop Edwin W. Parker, now past ninety years of age, founded the first boarding school for girls in North India and was associated with Mrs. William Butler, who died recently at the age of ninety-three, in founding the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, in organizing the Isabella Thoburn College, and in the intellectual and spiritual uplift of the women of India for sixty years. Mrs. Parker is thought to be the oldest active missionary in the world; Mrs. Russell Sage (1828-1918) philanthropist, gave ten million dollars to Sage foundation for social betterment, also one million each to several institutions. Phebe Ann Hanaford (1829-1921), preacher, editor, poet, historian, was ordained to the Universalist ministry in 1868, the first woman ordained in New England; Julia Elizabeth Ward, for thirty years connected with Mt. Holyoke Seminary as student, teacher and principal, died in Lowell Aug. 14, 1921, in her ninetieth year.

Boston and other cities as well as some ministerial organizations accept the Psalmist's estimate of "three score years and ten" as the period of man's activity and the proper age for his retirement. De facto this is so nearly correct that quite as many find it wise to retire before reaching that age as are ambitious to continue strenuous activities beyond that time. But we have in President Eliot's "A Late Harvest," in

Dr. J. K. Hosmer's "The Last Leaf," in Louis Carnaro's "Treatise on a Temperate Life," in Cornelius Cole's autobiography, in William E. Gladstone's "Gleanings from Past Years" (8 volumes), published in his 86th year, proof that there may be an aftermath of service and productivity not less valuable than the imperative official duties of previous years. There is certainly no assignable point in life when an educator is de necessitate an old man, though it may be wise to count 70 years as the limit of exacting duties and the entrance upon Elysian Fields of voluntary service when one has greatly enlarged freedom of individual expression. Senator Cole, writing from the life-prolonging climate of Southern California tells of three persons who have reached the ages of 112, 123 and 135 respectively, though recognizing that on general principles "Centenarians do not last long" and that Dr. Morrison 103 and himself are the only surviving members of their Centenarian Club. The question of long life is quite as much a question of psychology as of physical strength. Virgil's description of the winning rowers in the boat race is highly illustrative: "They can because they think they can." It has been a great satisfaction to me to have known most of the American nonagenarians above referred to and to have sat at the table with many of them. Chauncy Depew says of his friends that they "speed me on to the century mark." The words of counsel and experience from our old friends are not only "apples of gold in pictures of silver," but are an inspiration to us to "go and do likewise."

How Shall a Teacher Invest Her Leisure Time

GEORGINE RITLAND HARRIS, MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA.

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OME colleges offer courses in orientation to help their freshmen become adjusted to their environment and it would be well if young teachers could have such an opportunity to learn how to accommodate themselves to their new surroundings in order that their stay might be the most profitable to themselves and to the community.

The person who has found the work for which he is especially fitted is extremely fortunate, and if in addition to that he is happy in his environment so that his leisure is a joy then he is indeed favored among men.

It is especially to the teacher's leisure time that I shall devote my attention here and let others who are more competent continue to help her with the problems about her work. (Since the majority of teachers are women, I use the feminine pronoun for the generic term.)

Teachers give so much of themselves during their working hours that they need to build themselves up again, to recreate and to grow during their spare time. How can they do this to the best advantage? As I attempt to answer this question please bear in mind that I am now considering the teacher's welfare and growth and happiness, and whatever the community may gain shall for the time being be incidental.

I hope that we are not taking too much for granted when we assume that all teachers have some leisure. If an eight or at most a nine-hour day (with no sweat-shop work) is long enough to give workers in industry a living wage, surely that might be considered the maximum day for such enervating work as teaching. If you have to spend more time than that in order to do your work well, you might better teach "lower down" even though it should mean a smaller salary or else take time off to get a more thorough preparation. Or you

should at least be reasonably certain that you will want to teach the same subjects the next year so that if you live through the first year without losing your health or nerves, you may know that you will have smoother sailing henceforth.

We sometimes hear it said that the people in a town do not help to make the teachers feel that they are a part of the community, that they do nothing for them. I wonder whether many teachers really want things "done for them." That savors of charity which even many poor people resent. There was a time when ministers' salaries were paid in kind, but a self-respecting minister who has an adequate salary does not want to have things done for him if he cannot make some compensation. A teacher's salary pays for her services, and anything that she gives or receives aside from that should be given as if she were a bona fide member of the community. If when you are teaching in a town, you are invited to enjoy someone's hospitality, pay your social obligations as you would if you were one of the citizens. Do not get the mistaken idea that it is less work for people to entertain in their homes than at a hotel. We entertain at home because in serving our friends there we feel that we are taking them a little more into our hearts and sharing with them what is very dear to us. You need not necessarily pay in kind (although folks who keep house enjoy eating at a hotel occasionally or going out for a bacon bat or a beefsteak broil), there are many ways of returning hospitality. Of course it is not a question of repaying but it is important for you to show that you are as eager to give as to receive and that it gives you fully as much joy and satisfaction.

Happy is she who has found her place in the life of a community. Those who have not may get some help from these suggestions.

The first essential to a profitable leisure time is to forget all about your work. If when you lock your door at the end of the day, you can lock up there every thought about your problems until the next morning, you must of necessity think