28o 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



ords of our alma mater, the class who 

 did not use each other's christian 

 names in the freshman year and never 

 walked the halls in embracing couples, 

 incurring thereby a reputation for 

 utter lack of sentiment. But the bond 

 that held us was all the stronger for 

 not being flaunted abroad, and the 

 children of the married members are 

 all ' our babies.' 



I put down the magazine and thought 

 of our ' class baby,' our first born, with 

 her splendid, sturdy little body and 

 equally sturdy and independent mind. 

 Not only her mother but her grand- 

 mother as well is a product — and a 

 notable one — of the higher education, 

 yet our class baby already possesses a 

 baby brother, two years younger than 

 herself and equally a model of physical 

 and mental health. 



Then came a picture of another of 

 ' our babies,' ' the adorable,' with ^lis 

 sunny locks, his starry eyes and his 

 gleesome laugh, always on tap. I 

 thought of his mother as I used to see 

 her crossing the campus, with her fine, 

 high-bred face, her superb carriage and 

 the movement that not even modern 

 draperies could disguise, the very lines 

 of bouyant grace which the ' Winged 

 Victory ' has made so familiar. 



Then my thoughts strayed to our 

 ' new baby,' the little daughter born in 

 the west with two philosophers for 

 parents and fair ' Mistress Wisdom ' 

 herself for godmother. The mother 

 writes: 'My nurse says that health 

 like mine is a thing to be conceited 

 over,' and I know she will meet all 

 the problems of wifehood and mother- 

 hood with the same serene clearsighted- 

 ness that earned her college nickname 

 of ' the Philosopher. ' 



Two others among my pictures I 

 must mention, amateur photographs 

 both, of sleeping babies. T — was 

 about a year old when that was taken 

 — tousled curls crushed on the pillow, 

 lashes sweeping the rounded cheeks, 

 soft pouting lips, bare dimpled arm 

 and Bleep-curled lingers — sweet tran- 



quility and health breathing from 

 every line of the relaxed little figure. 



The other is the picture of a wee 

 girl, just a week old. Her mother was 

 the best biologist among the under- 

 graduates of her college. This tiny 

 maid and her sister two years older 

 have spent all their long summers, both 

 before and after birth, in a secluded 

 cam]) on an Adirondack river shore 

 and something of the woodland in- 

 fluence has entered into their being. 

 They are as shy as young partridges — 

 and as near to nature. 



Now the question naturally arises 

 whether the difference between my ex- 

 perience and that of 'alumna', is an 

 accident, or whether it can be explained 

 ! by a consistent theory. One suggests 

 itself to me which may or may not be 

 correct, that the difference is due to 

 the different kind of girl who is going 

 to college now. Only a short decade 

 ago women's colleges drew practically 

 all their students from what might lie 

 called the abnormally intellectual class. 

 The girl who went to college, whether 

 rich or poor, whether struggling to es- 

 cape the demands of society life, or to 

 scrape together money enough for her 

 tuition, was the girl who made matters 

 intellectual of paramount importance 

 and was ready to sacrifice for them, 

 from the grammar school up. College 

 was either an outlet for insatiable 

 mental activity or a technical prepara- 

 tion for the teacher. To girls of that 

 sort domestic life was not imperatively 

 attractive, a fact which may have some 

 bearing on the low marriage rate. And 

 when a woman of this type did marry 

 she was too apt to furnish just such 

 a woeful example as those cited in 

 ' Alumna's ' article. 



It was the author of 'Harvard 

 Stories,' 1 believe, who aptly classified 

 all students, as 'grinds, sports — and 

 just boys.' The 'just girl * was for a 

 long time in the minority at women's 

 colleges, but happily she is no longer 

 so. On the contrary she is rapidly 

 securing an overwhelming majority. 

 ■ ■lust girl' she is, 'just woman' she 



