The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1882-11-01
18Th Cong
.47th Con- II
dnfi
A State Female College, VS.. The Edu-
cation of the Sexes.
VIEWS OF "a MISSISSIPPI WOMAN"

VIEWS OF "a MISSISSIPPI WOMAN"
EDITORS CLARION: As several of the
newspapers are ascribing to d" A Mississippi
Woman" the honor of having secured the
opening of the State University to females,
it becomes necessary to enter a disclaimer,
and to say that if Mississippi woman
brought about that result ii was rather in a
negative way. Your correspondent has
been, and is now opposed TO the co-educa-
ton of the sexes and assigns the following
reasons for her faith
If women are educated as men, and wi th
men, they are apt to become mannish and
unwomanly, desiring to do q mans work
and in mans way. In support of this
may be cited those females in States where
co-education is practiced, who are clamor-
ing for the privilege ofthe ballot and pressing
their way into professions designed exclus-
lively for men, or at least, which women
cannot enter without laying aside their
womanliness, and failing to do their
heayen-designed duty as women. 1t is not
education per Sc that effects this change,
but wrong system of education.
Here, in the South it has been the Gus
tom of the most prudent parents to keep
their daughters out of society, and for the
most part, away from the masculine in
huences during the most susceptible period
of their lives, from fourteen to eighteen
years This, perhaps, has given us the
beautiful type of woman we have had, mod
est and retiring, yet intelligent and self-re
liant; and a gentle dignity of demeanor
coupled with willowy grace of figure, has
placed the Southern woman among the most
attractive in the world It is difficult to
understand how any Christian mother can
pray Lead us not into temptation" and
yet send her daughter at this formative Pc
riod of her life, before the judgment has
ripened sufficiently to control the emotions,
away from home and mothers restraining
influence, to be surrounded by youths and
young men from an parts of the State,
some of whom are ''neither Chesterfelds
in manners nor Josephs in morals" This
is not intended to reflect specially upon the
young men of our University; they COM
pare favorably, no doubt, with the same
number of young men in any State.
Again, the opening of the University
does not answer the demand The need is
for an institution where girls may receive
literary instruction and also be taught in
the lighter mechanical arts. This besides
fitting them for teachers, would enable
them TO earn livelihood in ether pursuits.
And what a twiee-blessed mercy would this
be, blessing the receiver and in turn bless
ing the giver Giving to Mississippi we'll
trained teachers, aud independent, intelli-
gent women who as mothers would train up
her youth in the way they should go, and
freeing woman from the bondage of drudg-
erv imposed by ignorance and dependence.
Where thirty girls might attend the Uni
yersity, three hundred would go to State
Female College suited to their needs; and
vet drawn as they areat the a. & NJ. College,
from every county in the
State. no school would be injured. Copiah
i. or is nearly the largest white county in
the State. and yet only seven scholarships
are allotted her in the A. s NJ. College.
Now. as to the action of the Board Of
Trustees. II, in opening the University TO
females, the board meant to recognize the
right of the women of Mississippi to higher
education by the State, and thai they do not
mean longer to erclifde females from the Unl-
Yersity IN case they acish to dftelas this action
might be accepted with some grace by the
women of the State. But il il means that
the University il to be opened to girls
70 areid the expense to the State Of separate
institution for females, then i Is indeed
Coupled with the action q
the Legislature Of 1882 it says in effect, Go |
D. now, you women Of Mississip ippi-you say
var desire education, which, however. many !
q ns doubt. You have built tower /
mo air-castle-draWn magnificent pic |
= =. 81 an institutfon. which because of its
sy,,,t;,,ass. and. as We believe, general use
Iasssness. Ne viii call . Sentimental Uni-
versitv.h Do yon not know that this kind |
I e z 4 s.sst,,ts..,, rra,nlA n09k 4 hundred |