New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1878-05-29
Dothegirls Hall.


tus, it may at once be said that the terms
were arranged; the explanation as to the
college not being then quite prepared for
habitation, being in process for redecoration,
was satisfactory, and on the 10Th of Febru-
ary last the young lady duly entered
on the engagement. From the pro-
spectus before us we learn that t principal
of ''The College. Mount Pleasant, Sunbury-
on-Thames,' is, or rather was, Mrs. Pate.
The principal sis assisted by six resident
English and foreign governesses and an eff
Gent staff of masters The terms indicate
that the scholars belong to the fairly well to-
do middle class, ranging from forty guineas
per annum for young ladies over Is years of
age to thirty guineas for those younger.
Governess students, i. g., pupils who give so
many hours weekly to assist in the tuition of
juniors, are charged from twenty five guineas
for the first year to fifteen for the third.
1.-The college is delightfully."- situated. * x
The ground consists of nearly seven acres of
garden and pasture land, affording ample
space for outdoor recreations. It contains
hot and cold baths. * x pony kept
to ride or drive. x * Home baked
bread: a plentiful supply of milk: diet un-
limited, and of the best quality
At the commencement of the term, in
February last, the young ladies duly assem-
bled to spend joyous period in this scho-
lastic paradise at Sunbury. A few, fresh
from cheerful homes, were somewhat dis
concerted at the badness of the mansion, at
its forsaken look without and baroness with
in; but these girlish bubbles were quickly
scattered by the principaps assurance that as
soon as the plasterers were out and fresh
arrived, everything would be perfection.
Meantime considerable number, if not all,
the term-fees of the young ladies had been
paid in advance. So anxious. however, was
the principal to hasten the completion of the
domestic comfort, that she negotiated loans
with her juvenile clients. Certain it is that
the principal borrowed being temporarily
short of ready cash-sundry sums from each
girls pocket money, soaring as high as %
shillings in the case of moneyed govern
ess-student, yet condescending to accept an
humble shilling from girl barely in her
| teens. These transactions were conducted
! in strict privacy, until circumstances occur
red rendering mutual condolences inevitable.
! Che s0t-disdnt "foreign governess" there
| was, but then her chief duties were per-
| formed in the capacity of kitchen domestic.
The tuition resolved itself into mutual in
atruction by the pupils themselves; but this
| concerned their happy souls far less than
certain statements in the prospectus. It
| was true that the grounds were excellent for
creating an appetite, but there grew dole
| full doubt whether the ''pasture lands'' were
intended to foster the practice of
vegetarianism, or ''the pony to tempt them
to experience in hippophagy. The
hours of meals came, but not the "diet
| unlimited For breakfast at 1880 there was
| thick slice of new bread, innocent of but
ter, thrown into bold relief by small basins
| of teal tinted fluid. The dinner bell never
heralded anything but concoction, consist
ing of bone-scrapipgs, overwhelmed in q
mess of potato-squash. Dinner time came
occasionally at o'clock: oftener at 4 or 5, or
6 o'clock. and sometimes not until the day
! after. Tea was repetition of breakfast,
Of the forty live unhappy young lady pupils
sitting room door, knocking for their tea. It
was then II o'clock at night. The girls had
no pocket-money left to buy their own
loaves, as they did at first. All their letters
passed through the principals hands,
and there remained, for not ono es-
capped to the postofice. In al
fortnight the girls became weak andsspirit
less. One tainted four times in one day,
and, being unable to rise from her bed on
Sunday morning, February "a, the principal
sent up single bit of dry toast, without any
thing else, saying, eff she was hungry she
would eat that Other girls tainted FREE
quently, and one poor orphan went delirious.
repeating, with painful emphasis, II a0sD
! have bread, papa SAID Twas to have bread!'
Almost crazed with the treatment, one young
lady risked her secretly kept last shilling on
a telegram to her parents, sixty miles away.
No response came. By a desperate strategy
she herself crawled with smuggled letter
to the post. and by the earliest train
her mother hastened to the rescue. 1t was
4:3O P. N. on her arrival, and the lady
found the forty-6ve girls clamoring for their
dinner, which was not then forthcoming. "A
ghostly regiment they looked. Mrs. Pate
preserved her GOODNESS throughout this
scene with wonderful success. On the tele-
gram being mentioned and her charged with
keeping the shilling, it was reluctantly re-
turned. The young lady's clothes were out
at wash. and would be sent home in due
course, but no penny of the prepaid fee for
the term could be extorted. Glad to escape
the painful scene Of the emaclated girls, the
lady left the house with her daughter, whose
health had been cruelty undermined by that
fortnight of starvation and robbery. Her
companions shed bitter tears at her good
fortune in leaving them.
The sequel may be told briefly. Upon
Energetic measures being taken to communi-