Wellesley College - Legenda Yearbook (Wellesley, MA)

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HEHRY FOWLE DURAHT, JR. HENRY FOWLE DURAHT. PAULINE A. DURANT.

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Preface. 7 --- T ' lIEN the present Board first undertook the task of publishing; a Legenda for the 111 Class of ' 94, it was with a very definite idea of what a Legenda should be. J- We believed that it was primarilv intended as a memor ' book for the students, wherein they might find the record of one vear of College life; and that, like all memory books, it should deal principally with the lighter side of that life, — the pleasant ex- periences and amusing incidents, rather than the academic work and intellectual growth. In our attempt to embody this idea in concrete form, we have, of course, n:elwithmany practical difficulties. One of the matters which have been most perplexing to us is that of personalities. When last spring the Class of ' 94 asked permission to publish a Legenda, it intimated its intention of excluding from the book all personal grinds. These the present Board understood as meaning cjuotations with names or initials attached. In the course of our work the suggestion came to us that some might understand the term as meaning any allusion to personal peculiarities or weaknesses, whether in the form of quotations or other- wise. There had been, and is, not only in the Board, but among the students at large, so strong a sentiment against such allusions that it had not occurred to us to define our position in regard to them. They had been excluded as a matter of course. We were therefore per- fectly willing to accept this new definition, which, though wider, reallv limitetl us less than the other, but we still considered ourselves bound by our first interpretation. With this exception, the whole matter of jokes has been left largely to our own discretion, and we have conscientiously tried to make our book satisfactory to both Faculty and students. We feel, therefore, that whatever our mistakes, they are not due to a lack of effort or of desire to please. To those members of the Faculty who have aided us liv their interest and sympathy, to our classmates of ' 94, and to other students who have rendered us assistance, we wish to extend our hearty thanks. The Editors.

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Tt)e Poanders of UJeUesleY. HE beautiful storv of tlie founding of Welleslev College is widely known. Sketches of Mr. Dinant ' s remarkable career have not infrec[uentlv appeared in print. The present article aims to be SLipplemental rather than complete in itself, presenting somewhat fully, eyen at the expense of proportion, such data as are new. More- over, previous accounts of the foimding of Welleslev have, naturally enough, thrown the man ' s work and the man ' s life into the foreground. But Mr. Diaant himself would not have had it so. Xone recognized more clearly than he the equal share borne bv ]Mrs. Durant in all the sacrifice, thought, and labor vhich went to the making up of their great joint gift. In the will of 1S70 occurs the emphatic sentence : All the provisions in this will are made with the knowledge of mv beloved vife, and to carr ' out our mutual plans and wishes. Welleslev has two founders. It is proposed in the present sketch to deal more particularly with the woman ' s life and work. Yet, in reality, the two histories are one. The separate life-streams early blend into a single river, known by music and bv shining, by burdens borne and toils promoted, by happy countries watered, bv fear- less flow through sun and shadow to the eternal sea. Irs. Durant comes of a distinguished ancestry. Her mother ' s family bore the name of de Cazenove, honorabh known in France for nearly a thousand years. The Huguenot branch withdiew from their native land at the Revocation of the Edict of Xantes, and estab- lished themselves in Geneva as bankers, dropping their titles as inconsistent with a business career. The deep religious feeling, innate in their Huguenot blood, no less than their financial station and authority, and their alliance with the nding families of Geneva, soon gave the de Cazenoves a high influence in that stronghold of religious liberty. Presently there were to be numbered among them not onl ' successors to the office of Premier Syndic, and other powerful positions, but theologians of eminence. Mrs. Durant ' s grandfather, Antoine Charles Cazenove, was educated for a military career, but developed a taste for financiering. Going to England, he spent three years in the great banking house of the Cazenoves, then ranking with the largest bankers of London. He returned to Geneva on the eve of the Jacobin Revolution, — a miniature copy of the Reign of Terror. He himself, with his father and elder brother, were seized by the mob and thrown into prison, several hundi ' cd