SUSANNA PHELPS GAGE rf 
to the larger world, and she loved to go where she could see 
these wide views; and her subsequent career showed that she 
heard also the call to the larger world beyond the hills. 
The early education was like that of practically all children 
in the more settled parts of New York State between 1860 and 
1870,—the village school, with its variety of teachers, young 
men aspiring to the ministry or the law for the winter terms and 
young women also preparing for the real work of life in the sum- 
mer. The difference, and it was a fundamental difference, lay 
in the fact that the mother, with her fine instincts for teaching 
and sound training, supplemented the regular school work and 
saw to it that there was a thoroughness in the elements which 
should lay the foundation for any attempts which time or cir- 
cumstance might make possible; and in the mother’s mind was 
the hope for some college training such as women were just com- 
ing into the possibility of having at that time. 
As the years advanced and the eager zest of the young woman 
for learning and the better things of life manifested themselves 
with her growth, the college decided on for her was Vassar, and 
' preparation for entrance was undertaken at the then famous 
Cazenovia Seminary. There she came in contact with some of 
the high-minded advanced teachers who gave uplift in those 
days to so many young men and women and showed the beauty 
and the possibilities in the intellectual and spiritual life. She 
was especially inspired by the teacher of Latin, Isaac N. Cle- 
ments, later the head of the school. This man had had the 
stern training of the Civil War and knew life and its savagery 
as well as the blessed side represented by the gospel, of which 
he was one of the ministers. -In the home of his one-time 
pupil he recently told the husband and son of the enthusiasm, 
fullness of life, and intellectual vigor of his former student. 
As stated above, Vassar College had been in mind for the 
young woman and was the choice of the mother. But the 
father had been stirred by the accounts he had heard of Cornell 
University. The father especially could understand and appre- 
ciate the splendid promise of the new institution and was cap- 
tivated by the dreams of Ezra Cornell for the education of the 
