Flora Stone Mather College - Polychronicon Yearbook (Cleveland, OH)

Page 27 text:

Ourselves and escorts went. Of other years I can recall No feat extraordinary. We edited, we hopped, we played, And of exams were chary. Like other classes thru the years, Or like the world as well, Who e'er we were, whate'er we did Was best and non-pareil. VVithout reference to notebook, the one thing I remember at all clearly from a course in Economics is a remark the professor made to the effect that prevarications were of three sorts: lies, dashed lies and statistics. Taking this in the nature of advice, I will refrain from asking you to draw conclusions from the number of us who are teaching school, who are librarians, who are married and mothers, or who are just living at home. We all have a very soft spot in our hearts for Alma Mater. The life we spent within her walls stands out now, not so much for what we learned or the good times we had, as for the ideals we were uncon- sciously forming about the institution. STINA DAY DOUHET '03 This year when I have been spending tedious hours correcting papers and notebooks with conjugations and most uninteresting Latin sentences, I have longed for some of the hours that the majority of us Wasted dur- ing the four years of college. While I was abroad in 1908, I spent several days at Newnham Col- lege, Cambridge, England. The diiference between English and Ameri- can college girls was very striking. Although the majority of English girls are kept in the nursery until they are sixteen years of age, when they do emerge, they seem much older than our girls of the same age, and are much better informed in the things going on in the world around them. In their leisure hours at college they discuss Labor Problems, Tar- iff Reform, Socialism and all the great Fabians fthe least radical social- ist society in Londonj-Bernard Shaw, G. K. Chesterton, and H. G. Wells. At that time, they were especially interested in Woman's Suf- frage, which, of course, is a very vital question to the girls of Newnham College, for although they take the same courses as the boys at Cam- bridge and many of them take high honors, they are given no degree,- it would be almost a sacrilege to the conservatism of Cambridge to grant a degree to a woman. During my visit there, the suffragettes were mak- ing money for the cause by Washing the hair of the Anti-Suffragists at a shilling a head. Notwithstanding their supposed independence, it would be hard to imagine any of our American college girls of eighteen and twenty years of age, driving around the country in a gypsy wagon, making suffrage speeches, as the Cambridge girls do. Even if they can't do that, I think all our college girls, whether they believe in sufrage for women or not, ought at least to know enough of the question to realize that it is to the Hrst Women's Rightersn that they owe their privilege of attending a College for Women, and of being able to obtain a degree. I am glad to hear that a branch of the College Equal Suffrage League has been formed at Reserve. I hope that the undergraduates there now, spend their time more advantageously than some of us did, page thirty-one

Page 26 text:

I have been asked to represent dear old '01 in the Annual this year- a great task, I feel, for who can adequately represent the flower of the family , and a flower with a decennial coming on, at that! Since I came to the Hub of the Universe to live, I have not seen many of the girls, but some have penetrated even to these fastnesses dur- ing their summer vacations or on their way home from Europe. That, however, was in early Pioneer days before I had finished learning that in Cambridge, you call people who work by the day Uaccommodatersf' buy your lettuce and beans at the butchers and pay more per pound for codfish in large quantities than in small. But in spite of all this, and even though the push-buttons for stopping the street-cars are merely for ornament, and that President Eliot thought Tom Johnson a great re- former until I enlightened him, I iind Cambridge the best possible sub- stitute for my native village-only I wish they were nearer together. I thought I was going to be able to get through without reminis- cencing, but I find my thoughts straying back in spite of me to the days when some of us perhaps, found as many larks as labors in college, and wore ourselves to thin white fringes over our own Annual, which I do solemnly assure you, was the best ever. There, I told you we were the flower of the family-a modest, shrink- ing violet! I have lots more to say Calways did havej , but must stop. HELEN THOMAS BLACKWELL '01 To the roll call of classes, 1903 answers Present Seven years have passed since we were college seniors anxiously trying to find a place for ourselves in the world. We have succeeded so well that more than half of our number are married and a large proportion ,of the remainder are engaged-in educational work. We can fairly say that the class of 1903 is a teaching force, some teach Household Economy, and some teach Algebra and Latin. Meanwhile we have learned a little of our lesson of life and have found that pleasure is the result of something accomplished. We believe in ourselves and in the ability of everyone to get what he is determined to gain, that no one can fail so long as he has faith in him- self. We believe in loyal friendship, in kindness and in good cheer. With thanks to the Annual Board for an opportunity 'to speak once more within college walls. We are, we are, Nineteen Three. CHARLOTTE PARKER '03 An occasion like this sets an old grad to thinking and rememberingg -recalling the scenes of a short four years at college with pleasure and amusement. My recollectest tho'ts are those Which I remember yet, as the poet says, And bearing on as you'd suppose, The things I don't forget. The day I came to college, oh What fear assailed my heart When I enrolled and felt myself Of learning's whole a part. In Soph'more year we broke a rule Or rather precedent. We gave a dancing party and page lhiriy

Page 28 text:

and instead of discussing the merits and demerits of their friends and enemies, Will argue about suffrage. Thanking you for the privilege of Writing for your Annual, I am V Very sincerely yours, ELIZABETH C. KELTON '07 Dear Daughters of Our Common Alma, Mater: Out of the fulness of the heart, so the saying goes, the mouth speaketh, and so for the benefit of the in collegio part of the College for Women sisterhood, and particularly for those members who contemplate teaching as a means of securing a meagre livelihood, it is quite natural that I Write of the genuinely joyful phase of pedagogical life in a small town. When I found myself the homesick incumbent of a high-school posi- tion in a modest-sized community, life presented many strange pictures to my bedimmed eyes. But none of the new experiences Was more re- markable or more pleasing than the ease with which I slipped into the life of the place, and Was' made, by its kindly occupants, to feel at one With them. VVould you believe that the very house-furnishings are so- ciable? Nor is the good cheer confined Within the dwellings, it gladdens the streets and turns the school-room from a scene of daily grind to a meeting-place of kindred spirits. This alone is enough to make life Worth While, but added to it the fact that the great out-of-doors is fairest of the fair, the situation really approaches the ideal. Had I the faintest imitation of the pen of the immortal Ruskin I might try to paint for you the wondrously gorgeous splendor of the au- tumn, When every tree is a miracle and the sunset glory of the sky stills unbelief and crowds out of mind the accumulated littlenesses of the day, or the grandeur of the Winter When, in a single night, creation is trans- formed into a fairyland of gleaming purity and the shadows are blue on the snow 5 or the ineffable sweetness of the spring When it comes stealing softly, oh, so softly, with the most delicate, tenderest Whisperings of gladness in storeg the sound of the Waters rushing over the rocks, and the cheer of the first clear calls of birds, the freshness of the earth and, Wonder of Wonders, the wayside fields empurpled With violets, and then the soul-stirring loveliness of the blossoming orchards. After all it must be lived to be felt! You didn't Want to hear about the disagreeable element in guiding the young to paths of intellectual blessedness, did you? I thought not. The best thing that I can Wish for you is that, when you make your venture, you may meet with as much true happiness along the Way, as the present scribe. I'm all loyalty to my native city and I make this obeisance to the home of my adoption. Yours for the dear Alma Mater, VERA SMISEK '08 page thirty-two