The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1891-04-09
In WOMAN'S BEHALF.
A BURNING QUESTION.

A BURNING QUESTION.
Shall Women Undergraduates Wear tho
Cap and Gown:-CharIes Dudley war
ner's Views.
One OF the burning questions now in
the colleges for the higher education of
women is whether the undergrad
uates shall wear the cap and gown. The
subject is a delicate one, and should not
be confused with the broader one.
What is the purpose of the higher edu-
cation? Some hold that the purpose is
to enable woman to dispense with
marriage, while others maintain that it
is to fit woman Tor the higher duties
Of the married life. The latter opinion
will probably prevail, FOR it has nature
on its side. and the colrse Of history,
and the imagination. But meantime
the point Of education is conceded, and
whether .irl is to educate herself into
single or double blessedness need not
interfere with the consideration of the
habit she is to wear during her college
life. That is to be determined by weigh
ing variety of reasons
alton whether the cap and gown habit
is becoming. If it is not becoming. it
will not go, not even by an amendment
to the constitution of the United
States; for womans dress obeys al
ways the higher law. Masculine
opinion is of no value on this
point. and the Drawer is aware Of the
fact that if it thinks the cap and gown
becoming, it may imperil the cap-and-
gown cause to say SO; but the cold truth
is that the habitg gives plain girl distinc-
ton, and handsome girl gives the
habit distinction. So that, aside from
the mysterious working of feminine
motive, which makes woman law un-
to herself, there should be practical
unanimity in regard to this habit.
There is in the cap and gown subtle
suggestion of the union Of learning
with womanly charm that is very cap
tivating to the imagination. On the
other hand, all this may go for nothing
with the girl herself. who is conscious
of the possession of quite other powers
and attractions in varied and con-
stantly changing toilet, which can re-
feet her moods from hour to hour. So
that if it is admitted that this habit is
almost universally becoming to-day, it
might, in the inscrutable depths Of the
feminine nature-the something that
education never can and never should
change-be irksome tomorrow, and we
can hardly imagine what blight to a
young spirit there might be in three
hundred and sixty-fve days of uniform
ity.
The devotees of the higher education
will perhaps need to approach the sub
ject from another point of view, name
ly, what they are willing to surrender
In order to come into distinctly schol-
astic influence. The cap and gown are
scholastic emblems. Primarily they
marked the student, and not alliance
with any creed or vows to any religious
order They belong to the universities
of learning, and to-day they have no
more ecclcsiastic meaning than do the
gorgeous robes of the Oxford chancel.
lor and vice-chancellor and the scarlet
hood. From the scholarly side. then,
if not from the dress side. there is much
to be said for the cap and gown. They
are badges Of devotion, for the time be-
ing. to an intellectual life. They help
the mind in its efforts to set itself
apart to unworldly pursuits: they
are indications of separateness from
the prevailing fashions and frivoli-
ties. The girl who puts on the cap
and gown deyotes herself to the society
which avowedly in pursuit of larger
intellectual sympathy and wider in
tellectual life. The enduring of this
habit will have . confirming influence
on her purposes, and help to keep her
up to them. 1t is like the uniform to
the soldier or the veil to the nun-a
sign Of separation and devotion. 1t is
difficult in this age to keep any historic
consciousness, any proper relation to
the past. In the cap and gown the girl
will at least feel that she is in the line
of the traditions of pure learning And
there is also something of order and
discipline in the uniforming of com.
munity set apart for an unworldly pur-
pose. Is it believed that three or four
years of this kind of separateness
marked by this habit in the life of girl
will rob her of any desirable womanly
quality?-Charles Dudley Warner, in
Harper's Magazine.