The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1877-07-12
st. Mary of the Springs.

We clip the following deserved tribute
to st. Mary's from the columns of the
Columbus Sunday Herald
EDITOR HERALD:-It was my happv
privilege to be present at the Commence
ment exercises" of this institution, which,
during these late years, has become so dear
TO the hearts of us old Columbians. Ii is
difficult to divest ourselves entirely of our
personal feelings, and hence, for sometime
past. your correspondent has been over
hauling his predictions in favor of St.
Mary's, with view to assertion whether
they were well founded or whether they
were not least in part, the offspring of
partiality. The result has been to estab
lish me still more firmly in the conviction
that we possess one Of the very best insti
tutions for the education of young ladies,
of which the United States can boast.
Among the many unfortunate tendencies
of our times, there is, perhaps, none to be
more sincerely regretted than the direction
which our so-called "higher education" is
taking, especially in the establishments de-
signed for the education of young ladies.
In many of these the chief if not the sole
aim of the instructor seems TO be to prepare
the candidates for making IL fashionable
appearance in society. Hence it is that we
so very frequently meet, in society, young
ladies whose education is altogether super :
| fetal, if indeed, it can be called education
at all. They will talk hippantly and flu
emily on all the common place subjects OF
conversation. They are "well up" in the
light literature of the day; they are famil-
lar with the newest and incest novelties Of
expressions; they will belabor you with
quotations from Longfeilow and Tennyson
but take them into the realms of real edu
cation, and you will find that they are quite
innocent ofany useful requirements. With
edge their intellects as the "ta5uIa rasa
of the schoolmen. They can hardly tel
you the difference between the Talmud ant
Telemaque; between Richard the Thirt
cube root and comic sections I have JUS
now forgotten what European tourist i
was who lately declared that she found tn
generality of American woman dipped il
a weak solution of accomplishment"
am glad to know that in at least one of on
academies all this glitter and tinsel ar
estimated at their proper worth, and tha
education in its highest and best sense,
conscientiously impaired.
OF the music | need only say that it wa
fully up to St. Mary's standard. The in
strnment pieces we're executed with muc
= spirit and percision, whilst careful vocal,
alton added new beauties to the charm {
three or four pure, sweet soprano voices.
y trio by Nicollac, and Whittier's descriptiv
song, Barbara Frietchie, were especial
well rendered. The latter subject, exqui
itely treated in oil, was one of the chic
attractions of the late exhibition at tn
National Academy of Design"
But the characteristics of the teachir
- were best revealed in the two "essays'' t
4 which the audience was treated "Natnr
o Mysteries" by Miss Efie Leonard, di
played sue wondrous wealth of poet
p thought arrayed in faultless verbal attii
i as we rarely find in an undergraduate :
o Then we had musings" by Miss Fam
y Maratta-Rueh musings" as Pascal h
,f given us, here and there, in his Thought
m "a marvellous piece of composition for
10 school girl, evincing high intellectual CT
IN ture, as we'll as the purest and lofti,
n moral training. Either of these essa
h would have done honor to any graduate
At the land.
s. But l find myself 'musing" beyond 1
20 limits on the excellence of the last cont
o. button of St. Mary's to our intellectual c
no joyment. l shall, therefore, bring my
m marks to close by expressing the no
re that the coming year may increase t
is catalogue of St. Mary's pupils to a numt
10. proportionate to the merits of this mt
IRA excellent academy, in which all our citize
10, should take a local pride. THEMIs