Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-10-20
EDUCATING THE GIRLS.
What it Costs to Get Them Through SOME
of Our Colleges.


This is the time of year when ambitious
girls in the different parts of the country
are counting the costs of a school educa-
| tion. Fortunately for them the scale OF
expenditure in the colleges open to women
, has not risen high enough to make the
most economical damsel uncomfortable
among her richer classmates. Practically
without exception, the standards Of dress
In the girls college are simple, and more
than that, the plucky young woman who
Is working her way through four years
course on short commons CT pocket money
is often elevated into something very like
a heroine.
At Vassar College the smallest sum on
which girl can pay her bills, aside from
scholarship aid, is about $3.50 Of this
| amount Sl00 is for tuition and $500 for
board and washing. A genius in thrift
and NasSar sees such genius now and
then-can buy her books and stationery
and supply herself with the small incl
dentals dear to school girls for the remain
ing 500. Car fare, if she goes home be-
tween terms, and the larger items of dress
are not included. Necessary expenses at
Smith, Wellesley and Bryn Mawr do not
vary greatly from these figures. Five
hundred dollars would represent the aver
age yearly expenses of no small proportion
OF the girl students in the Eastern schools
SIX hundred dollars is liberal allowance.
ana 500 more than luxurious The largest
sums spent hardly rise above the mini
mum, which the President of Harvard
deeaed necessary for comfort and peace of
mind at Cambridge.
Boston University of the co-educational
schools has no dormitory system, and girls
from distance exercise no small ingenuity
IN housing and feeding themselves without
overweening board bills; S4 week, vixen
necessary, some of them find it possible to
live for, or S14S for thirty-seyen weeks in
the city. Add 800 for tuition and $50
for books, car fare and incidentals, and
a years schooling is provided at cost
of $500.
Some of the country colleges, while Civ
ing substantial education, treat the poek-
etbook with great leniency st. Lawrence
University in the northern part of New
\ ork, for instance, tutors young women as
well as men for $40 year, and the towns
people take them to their hearts and their
best guest chambers for So 80 week.
Education there still costs substantially
what it used to at the older schools in the
pioneer days.
To work ones way through college un-
aided is hard task, but now and then
accomplished by sturdy girl. A large
eyed brunette, not sturdy, but fragile look
ing, graduated from Boston University
few years ago by finding a situation as
waitress in restaurant, wearing the
white apron during the rush hours at
,,o-l~3
son the day through. To save is some
times easier than to earn, and | have in
my mind one group Of five girls two from
Boston University and two at the Harvard
Annex, who engaged two adjoining rooms
in a quiet house in Boston and boarded
themselves on an average of $3 20 per
week. Their rooms, cost So, or 81 25
each. They took breakfast at a small
restaurant, where oat meal and steak cost
twenty cents. They ate an apple and
slice of bread for lunch and at night they
pooled resources, spreading napkins on the
top of trunk and feasting on bread and
taste of canned meats. Once a neighbor
surreptitiously inserted six glasses Of Jelly
in the bureau drawer which served as COM
missary department, and they dined royalty
for days. The food cost them each thirty
five cents per day and not one of them
suffered in health by the experiment.
Their expenses for clothing were no greater
in proportion. One member of the quartet
possessed single gown, weli-worn black
cashmere. Being invited to Professors
reception one evening she remained away
from days recitations while she sat in
cloak and petticoat cleaning and pressing
and freshening with ribbons her only
apparel. At night she enjoyed herself
quite as thoroughly as the rest OF the COM
pany.