Chicora College for Women - Nods and Becks Yearbook (Columbia, SC)

Page 33 text:

The brilliantly lighted ballroom of the hotel in a celebrated summer resort next came up before me. Here a great crowd of people were gathered from every State and peals of laughter betokened mirth and enjoyment. A great many beautiful women were here, but one especially was talked of as the reigning belle of the season. She, with her partner, was to lead the dance, and as they stood waiting for the music to begin admiring glances were cast upon them, for they were indeed a well-matched couple. The next morning the paper announced that Miss Renter Farmer and Mr. Charles Osmond led the dance the night before. The reading-room of one of the public libraries of New York supplanted the ballroom. Around a table a number of people were gathered and a lively discussion was going on as to who wrote some verses which had come out in one of the late magazines and caused quite a sensation. The signature affixed was 22, 6. Some one suggested that they count down the alphabet and find out what letters corresponded to these numbers. This was done and the poet’s initials were found to be V. F. I recognized in a dash that this was no other than our class poet, Vivian Folger. Scarcely had the reading-room faded from view when a school building in one of the rural districts arose. It was recess, and a score or more of small urchins were playing at leap-frog, while from within the school-room came the droning sound of kept-in truants’ voices. After a little the school- mistress came to the door to ring the bell, and a passer-by asked of one little fellow loitering behind who his teacher was. Immediately came the answer, “ Miss Lila Folger, and she’s a good un, too; bur she’s awful strict.” A rapidly growing and well ordered institution for young ladies in West Virginia followed the school building. An election for the Mathematics chair had just been made and the new teacher was Lncile Humphreys. Reports concerning her had preceded her. It was told that she had aston- ished the male students at Vanderbilt by leading her class, and every day when the different classes assembled her intellect was envied by all. “ And still they gazed and still their wonder grew That one small head could carry all she knew.” The college was succeeded by the slums of the city of Anderson, which had been greatly changed. In the windows of the tenement-houses were beautiful flowers imparting their cheery brightness to the inmates and exhal- ing perfume as a sweet incense, blessing all those who came in contact with it. The children of these tenements were neatly dressed, clean-looking, rosy lads and lasses who had a goodly amount of learning in the elementary 27

Page 32 text:

The hospital was supplanted by the little village of B-, at the foot of the Adirondack . Quite a commotion was being made among the inhabitants of the village by the arrival of a tall, stately young woman who announced herself as Miss Dorroh, and an inventor. A woman inventor! The bare mention of such a thing so astonished these timple-minded people that they demanded an explanation as to what led her to he such a thing and what she had invented. She told them her curiosity and then began producing her wares to convince them of the truth of her statement. • First came a tumbler- dryer which would thoroughly dr}T seventy-five tumblers in the space of a minute. Then came a most wonderful machine which would remove the soiled linen from eight tables, putting in their places spotless cloths. The women and girls took to her immediately, and she was allowed to remain. Soon, by her inventions and discoveries, she established for herself an ever- lasting fame and became the wonder of the surrounding country. The next scene was a courthouse in a certain city of our native State about which was thronged an enormous crowd of people of every description. A visitor, not knowing that this was court week, would naturally enquire the occasion of such a crowd. Having been told that a big case was being tried, I elbowed my way through the crowd and into the building. My notice was at once attracted by a young woman pleading most earnestly for the prisoner at the bar. I enquired of the gentleman at my right if she were merely a witness, when to my astonishment, lie told me that she was sole lawyer for the criminal. My attention waxed stronger and I watched her every movement which, strange to say, seemed familiar. At last she finished and the jury went out and came back ere long with “ Not guilty.” “Due entirely,” as the judge announced, “to the successful pleading of the criminal’s lawyer, Ema Douglas.” The scene was again changed, and the main street of a flourishing Virginia town came up before me. About half-way down the street was an immense building, covering a square of the city. This was a department store where a wealthy young man was carrying on a large and lucrative business. The young man, in company with a friend, was standing near the main entrance of the building, evidently waiting for some one. He was a handsome young man, of medium height, with black hair and dark brown eyes. Presently a young lady entered and, advancing to meet her, lie pre- sented her to his friend as his better half. When she turned to speak 1 recognized the familiar face of Dee DuPree. 26

Page 34 text:

branches and much pride in keeping this up. The mothers were contented and happy. Ask them why such a change, and they will tell you it is all due to the sweet influence of Louise Johnson, whose praises they continually sang and who they said remained beneath the parental roof and was proving a blessing to her parents in their old age and to the community in which she lives. A beautiful town in Florida next claimed my attention. On one of the principal streets was a neat building known as the City Sanitarium. This was the sole property of Olive Kelley, whose ambition was always to be a first-class physician. Shortly after leaving school Olive was joined in blissful wedlock to an officer of our native State. Hut after the honeymoon was over and they began to face the stern realities of life she realized that this was not to be her life-work, so she, along with her husband, decided to move out of this State and fulfil the end for which she believed sbe was made. The Indian Territory took the place of the Florida town, and I noticed a vast change in the condition of the inhabitants. They were being educated and civilized and were fast becoming good and useful citizens of our country. A number of men and women had nobly sacrificed their lives to educate and Christianize these poor benighted creatures. Among this number was Patti McAuley, of whom would be expected just such a noble work. The interior of China, that most interesting of mission fields, I then saw. Here 1 found only one of our band, and we can all guess who that was. It was our little Alice McCarley, who was always the ringleader in all that was good and ennobling and which tended toward the highest form of education —the training of our spiritual life. She was spending and being spent to advance the kingdom of Christ and to kindle a light in this great darkness. The quaint old city of Charleston rises up before me and on one of its principal streets was a beautiful modern borne. The plate on the door told the passer-by or caller that a physician lived here. While I was admir- ing the gardens, with their flowers, statuary, and fountains, the ponderous gates swung back on their hinges and a carriage, drawn by two spirited bays and driven by a liveried servant, came out. As it passed by I glanced into it and looked right into the face of Edith McCutchen, who had become the wife of Charleston’s greatest physician. The scene again changes, and a suburban home in one of the cities of Alabama arose before me. Here an electrician of great fame and wealth 23