The Portland daily press., 1890-12-18
WESTERN BAPTIST SOCIAL UNION.
First Meeting Of the Revived Society
Last Evening.
Remarks by President Small Of Colby
and Others.
An Address by Miss EmeIIne m. EIet-
cher Of the Senior Class OF Colby.

The Western Maine Baptist Social Union
met last evening In the new Bosworth Post
building on Free street. This was the first
regular meeting Of the revived society which
has been in existence for upwards of sixteen
years. Organized In 1874, the Union held
meetings and dined together on number of
occasions. at the Falmouth Hotel and else
where, but the following year the meetings
were discontinued and the Union practically
ceased to exist. The present year 1t was
thought best to revive 1t. on plan very like
that Of the Congregational Club.
November 10Th, 1890. about fifty gentlemen
met at Free street vestry to consider the
advisability Of reviying the Union. Rev.
DR.. Small, Rev. b. l.. Whitman, Rev. DIR.
Burrage. Rev. w. Moore. kev. j. B. Mower,
Rev. G. s. Chase. Rev. B. F. Turner, Rev. j.
B. Wilson. Judge Bonney, II. NJ. Mailing,
| Mayor Melcher. G. F. Morse, Fred Brunei
and others voted In favor or organizing the
Union. Rev. DR.. Burrage, Judge Bonney
and A. B. Hall were chosen a committee to
arrange for the next meeting Of the Union.
This In brief, is the history Of how last
| nights meeting came to be held. In the
| commodious hall Of Bosworth Post. Hon.
| George F. Emery called to order the gather
| ing of nearly one hundred ladies and gentle-
men. The committee reported the following
| list of officers for the coming year and they
were unanimously elected; President, Hon.
George F. Emery; vice president, Rev. G. S.
Chase; secretary. +. Brunei; treasurer, Geo.
5. Rowell; executive committee, A. b. Hall,
A L.
c. f. Morse.
A constitution was read and adopted.
After an hour or less Of social conversation,
the party proceeded to the dining hall in the
basement of the building. There four long
tables were quickly filled and an appetlziDg
repast was served ry Robinson, the caterer.
After the supper had been disposed Of
Hon. George F. Emery, the president, called
the club to order and Shaw's quartette OPEN
ed the exercises with finely rendered selec-
tion.
The president then introduced President
A. W. Small of Colby University, as the first
speaker of the evening. He said he hoped
the Baptists of Maine would adopt the idea
that Colby belongs to them, that they are
themselves participants In the higher educa-
tion Of the state. A merchant of this
city once asked him IL college
education does not spoil boy
for anything afterward. There is common
idea, that is, that liberal education is not
practical. and the only practical man is the
man who Is earning dollars. He thought IL
low idea Of life to be paying attention sole
ly to dollars. The idea Of a higher educa-
tion is medium between the two ideas of
education and dollars. The higher educa-
tion trains the mind to correctly apply
knowledge to practical life. Baptists are
said to be enthusiasts for education. yet
there are not one-quarter Of them In Maine
who have any direct connection with the
cause Of education. The Baptists should
have the idea impressed on them that they
have inherited an extensive educational sys-
tenn from their fathers. The plant of Colby
represents over million dollars. 1t would
be good thing If the fund could be given
up and replaced by direct pecuniary int, 7
est of all the Baptists in Maine In the scho, J.
The speaker said he had an idea of inducing
the Baptists Of Maine each one to give 10
cents apiece for the benefit Of the educa-
tional work. 1t Is not the money he wants
but the direct Individual interest. He said
that 10000 individuals so contributing would
mean that number of earnest workers and
intelligent friends of the college in all parts
Of the state.
After another selection by Shaw's Quar-
tette the president introduced Miss EmeliDe
a. Fletcher, of the senior class of Colby
University. Miss Fletcher spoke in clear
and pleasant tone easily distinguished in
every part Of the hall. Her remarks we're
on "What College Education Should Do
for Young Women" and are printed in full
She said:
The timo is past for calling into question
the right OF young women to higher eduea
tion than that of the preparatory schools, or
their right, il they wanted, to the same edu-
cation which Is pursued by young men in
colleges. And since so many young women
each year are availing themselves of the
privileges Of college training, society may
justly ask in what respects the world may
demand better work from these women.
There is class of people who seem to ex-
pect that women who have graduated from
college are going to inf1ict themselves upon
society as noisy advocates of woman suf-
frage; as "strong-minded," In the obnoxious
sense; and, worst of all. as contemptu0us
critics OF the opposite sex. 1t cannot be de-
unlovely description, but are they college
graduates? Some of them are, but it is un-
| safe to argue from a few instances to a gen.
eral conclusion. 1t is quite possible that sta
| tstics might show that something has been
attributed to the influence of a college course
which belongs elsewhere. But, however
that may be, society may justly demand Of
| college girl that she should know that her
| work In this world Is w0man's work, and
that she should have clearer idea Of how
| to set about that work than she would have
had without the four years training of body,
| mind and heart.
| First, then, to look at the subject from
| ply sical s:andpoint. 1t is true that girls
break down In college. They also break
down at home, In the factory, and behind
the counter. Shall we then argue that no
| girl can endure home, factory or store life !?
Let us look at the subject more nationally
/ and consider for moment in what direc-
tions the college girl is bettered physically
Do you think after studying the marvellous
symmetry of the human frame, the won
| derful adaptability of its minutest functions
t. each other and to the whole our college
graduate Is going to remodel the house that
| God has given her after the monstrous edi
tions of Paris fashion plate? viii she
| not herein do better than her venerated
| grandmothers who were not sure whether
the liver surrounded the heart or the lungs
the liver, and who supposed tnat all three
had an extravagantly large place allotted
them by the Creator, and so did their best to
| reduce them to snug quarters?
| Or will you find the college girl in the
| ranks OF HaDDy, pale Iaceu WOLneD, VINO IT,
oulre an atmosphere Of smelling salts to sup
mort life and whose happiness Is made or
marrtd by a poodle? We think not
Society will not get all that 1t asks from
every college gtr1. of course, but 1t should
expect from her the knowledge that diet aud
headache have some connection; that lungs
should have room to expand. and that her
nerves were given to her to serve a good
purpose, not to be curse to her family.
She ought to know enough to see that her
husband and children are not made victims
of heavy biscuit and half-cooked or too
much cooked meat. She ought to have
aims in life that will steady her against
yielding to the absurd demands of fashion
| she ought to have some knowledge of the
amount Of work she can do without reaching
nervous state that unfi her for human so.
ciety, and she ought to have enough to re.
fuse any demands upon her strength beyond
those which she can meet without losing her
balance.
but 1t Is along intellectual lines that the
college girl is supposed to be most conspicu
Ously developed, and in this respect again
we ask, what can society justly expect from
her? She has had opportunity to learr
Greek and Latin, to become acquainted
throughthe study Of those and other ianguag
es with the thought of other nations and o
| other generations. She Is supposed I,
kpow little, perhaps her brothers have told
her, "as much as a woman can know" OF m,
l Of h.