Mary Baldwin College - Bluestocking Yearbook (Staunton, VA)

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8 The Annual of held in the Normal School building a short distance from the city, and we had chapel, dining hall, and rooms all in the same building. Miss Seevers, who was then a secretary of the In- ternational Committee, was the leader. Among the speakers were Miss Price, General Secretary of the International Com- mittee, Miss French of the Southern Presbyterian Mission, Mr. Stud of the China Inland Mission, and Dr. Schofield of Massachusetts. Our plans for the day were as follows : breakfast at half- past seven ; at eight, morning prayers, after which was a class led by Miss Seevers, who told us how the work of the Young Woman ' s Christian Association should be conducted in colleges and gave us plans for the next year. This class lasted for an hour, then came the Bible Class with Mr. Jamison, of South Carolina, as leader. We took up the book of Acts and studied it carefully, comparing the Authorized Version with the Re- vised. After this was the class for the study of missions, which often met out under the trees or on the porch. From twelve to one Mr. Jamison held a Personal Workers Class, in which the study of the Bible in regard to its use in personal work was discussed. The afternoons were given up to rest, preparation for the classes of the next day and sometimes to drives and walks. At five we all met in the Mission Room, a room in which were gathered together curios from many lands, books, maps and other aids for the study of missions. Here Miss French talked to us of the Chinese among whom she had been laboring for seven years. This meeting lasted till six, our supper hour. After supper we all wandered off by twos and threes around the grounds, and had a quiet twilight talk for a half hour, then met again for Vesper services. At night all assem- bled in the chapel for a talk or lecture. One night Mr. Stud talked to us of his work in China and told many thrilling stories of his experiences away in the interior of that country. Dr. Schofield gave us three lectures on the ' ' Holy Spirit and the Inner L,ife. These evening lectures were attended not only by the students but by many of the Asheville people.

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The Mary Baldwin Scwinary. 7 needy ; and the poor and wretclied received not only his hard earned shillinj s, but his love and sympatliy. To prove his tender, generous heart, we need but recall the house of John- son in Gough Square, where he spent the greater portion of his life in London. There, for some time before the death of his wife he had begun to gather about him a family group made up of a strangely assorted set of pensioners on his char- ity : Mrs. Williams, a poor blind woman; Dr. Robert Levett, an odd little man who practised among the poorest people in London and frequently received his fees in liquor; Frank Bar- ber, a faithful negro servant; and an old cat Hodge. These and other dependents surrounded Johnson in his poverty, and have become as familiar to us as objects that surround us from day to day. On account of his rough manners, John.son was nicknamed the bear; but Goldsmith said, No man alive has a better heart, he has nothing of the bear but the .skin. We might recall other noble qualities that adorned the character of Johnson, but are not courage, truthfulness and generosity, united with a high order of genius enough to secure for this great and good man the first place in our love and admiration? Elizabeth H. Turnbull, Durham, N. C. ASHEVILLE ' 97. Three years ago, it was decided by the International Com- mittee of the Young Woman ' s Christian As.sociation to have a summer school in the South, similar to the ones held at North- field, Lake Geneva, and Mills College. The first school was held at Rogersville, Tennessee in 1895. It was such a success that the next year the school was again held and this time at Asheville, North Carolina. La.st year it met in the .same place and this was the meeting I attended. The Conference lasted from the fifteenth to the twenty- fifth of June, and was attended by about forty or fifty regular students besides a great many visitors. The meetings were

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The Mary lialci ' u ' hi Scvihiary. 9 Aiiionj; the many delightful features of the Conference were the drives and walks which we took while at Asheville, and the drive to Biltniore I remember especially. We started earl} ' in the afternoon and had a pleasant drive before we reach- ed the ' anderbilt estate, and then such views! Just as you enter the grounds for some distance flows the river all overhung with trees and vines, which sometimes for an instant hide it from view. The house is a veritable castle surrounded by magnificent grounds We had a wandering drive of many miles before we were at last out of the estate. The last evening was a fitting close for the Conference. It had rained in the afternoon, but just before twilight the clouds began to break and the sun came out. The mist still hung over the mountains and from every leaf quivered a rain drop, but through a rift in the clouds the sun was shining brightly, turning every drop into a diamond. As we watched the changing colors of the sky the prayer rose in our hearts that God ' s smile would always so glorify even the clouds and tears of our lives. Pknelope Crocherox, Gadsden, Alabama. FROM MISSISSIPPI. Uncle Fountain, as the villagers call him, must have long ago passed the limit given by the Psalmist; for his hair is gray, his figure bent, and his steps are tottering. His energy, how- ever is undiminished. He is always busy and walks as if he were going for the doctor. There are four in the family be- sides himself: his wife, two children now grown, and a parrot, his companion for years. I have never, however, heard it utter any words except Praise the Lord in a v-ery sanctimonious tone, right throug h its nose with the twang of a country preach- er.