Kansas University Weekly.
189
Many of these specified other qualifications besides mere scholarship in certain lines. "She must be a model for our girls" says one;—"We want a lady, one who dresses neatly and is attractive in appearance" says another. One to Prof. Palmer of Harvard asks for "a first-class Greek teacher, a man with correct table manners."
The time is past when an educated woman (or man) will be forgiven for carelessness in dress and manners because she knows Sanscrit, or is acquainted with the calculus. It is necessary therefore that an atmosphere of refinement should surround our young people during their college days, an impressionable period of life I am particularly impressed with these things when I visit the Women's Halls of the University of Chicago. There are three now occupied while a third is soon to be built by the women's clubs of this city. Every Monday afternoon a reception is held at one of these halls. Cards are sent out for them at the beginning of the season to prominent society people and friends of the university. A reception committee exists in each house, which has charge of the entertainment, the passing of tea and wafers in winter, of cakes and ices in the warmer months, while the guests are received by the Dean assisted by young ladies selected each week by her. There are always a few flowers, each house having a chosen blossom with which to decorate. Beecher Hall has the violet, Kelly Hall the white rose, and Nancy Foster Hall the pink carnation. The quiet elegance of the rooms, the bright flowers and the tasteful, but inexpensive gowns of the girls make these occasions very attractive.
There one meets some of the professors for a few minutes. Many of them are too busy but I have had a glimpse in this way of Dr. VonHolst, a hasty chat with Prof. Laughlin of financial fame, and others. The wives are usually out in force and many of the older students. Chicago ladies of wealth and social position drive out to these informal receptions, showing their interest in our great educational institution The line of private carriages outside bespeaks the refinement of wealth, which the most democratic must confess to be an important factor in civilization.
There is no lack of societies and clubs, secret or otherwise, and these are more or less given to hospitality; so the "season" (which dates from October to May) is as gay as the routine of college work will admit.
It is a fact that many of the young girls come from homes where the aesthetic in life is not a matter of consideration. These will enter a room very awkwardly at first; their self-consciousness will be painful to behold; but a few weeks in the atmosphere of Beecher or Kelly or Foster Hall will usually metamorphose them into well-bred young ladies, interesting in conversation and charming in manner.
The everyday life in these halls is of course not so familiar to me. But it is safe to say that the pleasant intercourse of the girls themselves goes on as far as studies will permit. Most of the rooms have but one occupant, and the girls, like those at Vassar and Wellesley, vie with each other in ingenuity in furnishing their "dens." The single bed becomes an oriental couch when its nocturnal duties are over, and exchanges its fair burden for a bewildering mass of sofa cushions. Screens disguise the toilet arrangements and one of these rooms bears very little resemblance to the average bed-room and study of an ordinary students' boarding house.
To come down from the aesthetic to the grossly material we must not leave out the culinary department. One thing our civilization has not taught us yet—what food will best strengthen and sustain us for our daily tasks. But practical science is finding out these things and the time is coming when a knowledge of them will be as common as an acquaintance with decimals or with the contour of the South Sea Islands. Our daughters will be taught how to conserve the health and strength of their families. A department of domestic science, which will teach the scientific choosing and prepairing of foods, is under the management of Miss Marion Talbot, dean of women in the university. But as Rudyard Kipling would say, that is another story.
The authorities of the university wished to