19 lo;] East versus West 



had crossed the continent several times, had tramped 

 widely over France and Switzerland, and always 

 proved himself equal to any demand. The Bostonian 

 had graduated — with distinction — from Harvard, 

 but though of well-to-do family had but once in his 

 life been away from home, and then only to Provi- Provin- 



dence. dalism 



Both went with me to dinner at Radcliffe, where I 

 lectured one evening. On the way my city-bred 

 helper explained that "Harvard men take no interest 

 in the Radcliffe women, ungraceful, dowdy blue- 

 stockings." He was accordingly amazed to find the 

 girls not only intellectually clever but better looking 

 and more tastefully dressed than those he met in 

 social circles. The following day, as we went by train 

 to Mount Holyoke, it appeared that he had never 

 even been in the country, which filled him with sur- 

 prise. And he artlessly asked if the long series of 

 narrow ponds near the track in the neighborhood of 

 Lake Quinsigamond extended all the way to Cali- 

 fornia ! 



This case was, of course, not wholly typical, and I What is a 

 must also admit that men of the West are, for the "^^^'^'■«" 

 most part, only "Eastern men with additional ex- "'''"■' 

 periences" — a fact not always grasped, however, 

 especially not in Philadelphia. During one of my 

 visits there, a senior at the chapter house of a leading 

 fraternity, learning my name and title, inquired 

 affably: "And is this your first visit to the East, sir.?" 

 This salutation may be conventional in the "City of 

 Brotherly Love," however, for at a banquet my 

 neighbor, a lawyer of some prominence, asked the 

 same question in the same words when we were 

 formally introduced. 



C 279 ^ 



