The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-07-05 00:00:00

LADIES in the LONDON UNIVERSITY.

For the first time in this country a lady has just
attained the degree of Master of Arts (says the Daily
News). The lady in question, Miss Mary Clara
Dawes, passed the matriculation examination in
January, 1879, gaining the forty-seventh place in the
Honours Division. Last year, at the B.A. Examina-
tion, having obtained a place in the First Division at
the Pass Examination, she gained also honours in
classics, with the first place in the second class. At
the examination just concluded she is placed
fourth in the list of the Masters of Arts of the
year, who hare taken the degree in the first branch
of examination—that is, in classics with ancient and
modern history. The two other branches are mathe-
matics with natui al philosophy, and mental and
moral philosophy with political economy. In the
second and third branches there are only three
successful candidates, who are all men. For the in-
formation of those who are not conversant with the
usages of the University, it is requisite to say that
the places at the M.A. examination have no definite
and absolute value, but have reference only to the
relative proficiency of the candidate as compared with
others who have chanced to present themselves at the
same time. The candidate who is fourth one year
might be first at another time, or vice versa,
there being no class - list to mark absolute
proficiency. This latter fact is somewhat remark-
able, as the M.A. examination in both classics
and mathematics is the highest in the University.
Although the ladies have as yet only one M.A., fifty
of them have obtained the degree of bachelor of arts,
three that of bachelor of medicine, and eight the
degree of bachelor of science. No lady has yet
attained to the doctorate. The ladies who have
passed the matriculation examination amount already
to several hundreds. At the examination for matri-
culation just held, the total number of candidates
rose to nearly a thousand. The number of ladies
was pretty nearly the same as last year, about a
hundred and twenty. The male candidates showed
an increase of some thirty or forty. But on the
whole the contingent of ladies in the University seems
likely, if things go on as at present, to become before
long _ one of very considerable importance in the
numbers added to the lists of members.

CUTTINGS FROM AMERICAN PAPERS.
In Philadelphia carrier pigeons are used to take
returns of baseball matches. A carrier pigeon can
get the start of a messenger boy. The bird doesn't
stop to peep throught tlie fence knot-holes to see a
bit of the next innings.
"Do you believe in cremation?" asked a dude of
Miss Dudine. "Yes, my deah. Ice cremation.'
Poor dude clapped his hand on his empty pocket, and
fainted.

A Burlington marble dealer, who was instructed to
make a tasteful little tombstone for a departed
pet cat, with a suitable inscription, decorated the
stone with the following: " Tabby : Requies Cat in
Pace."

A Wethersfield gentleman, just returned from
Florida, says that most of the land there isn't worth
a cent., but the climate is worth a thousand dollars an
acre.
A Pittsburgh man who put in the summer on the
fifth floor of a City boarding-house, truthfully insisted
that most of his vacation had been passed at a
" mountin' resort."
In one of the Indian languages the word "woman"
is rendered " kewanojawjaw,' with marked and earnest
emphasis on the last two syllables.
"Was early man a savage ?" asks a magazine
writer. That depends. If the early man Was dress-
ing to catch the 4 a.m. train, and his collar button
fell behind the bureau, the probabilities are that he
was about as savage as they make 'em.
A mover's waggon, which reeently passed through
Ityde county, bore this inscription: Moving West
to satisfy our creditors."
Of forty-eight pupils in a Philadelphia girls' school,
One can make bread, one can fry oysters, three know
how to cook beefsteak, forty-seven can dance, and
*very individua, one of the forty-eight can embroider,
, Lovely weather, isn't it?" said one hotel man to
titiOther ; "brings everything out of the ground
blooming." "Great Scott !" said the other, "I hope
not, for my chief creditors are buried."
This is a boy's composition on girls: "Girls are
the only folks that always has their own way. Girlf
is of several thousand kinds, and sometimes one girl
can be like several thousand girls if she wants to do
anything. This is all I know about girls, and ray
father sass the less I know about them the better.".,'

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