The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-02-28
LOVE BETWEEN WOMEN.
INSTALLATIONS OF SCHOOL oIRLs.
OF THE ALICE MITCHELL TYPE.

INFATUATIONS OF SCHOOL 81 ais,
OF THE ALICE MITCHELL TYPE.
Known in Every Great Woman's Col
observation-disclosures Common Among
School Girls Removed From Home
Influsnces-Their Effect on suscepti-
BILE Natures-Youth Not Alone Given
TO Them.
From the Chicago Herald.
The infatuation OF one girl for another,
resulting In the terrible tragedy at Mem
phis, for which Alice Mitchell Is now await
ing trial, is not 80 uncommon as one might
suppose.
1t would be safe to say that there Is not
q woman's college or: seminary in the land
in which such infatustion is not rife, and,
though not accompanied by such awful re-
suits as in the case Of Miss Mitchell and Miss
Ward, yet heartaches and heartbreaks from
this cause are Of everyday occurrence.
1t is subject upon which every college
girl is reticent, unless among her own fra
ternity. but it is also a subject with which
every girl is fully acquainted, and In almost
every case she knows IL by experience.
There really is such a thing as woman's
love for woman, and IL is developed in all
the ardor of the divine passion" in those
communities where girls live exclusively
among themselves. A girl is sent away TO
school at the time when she is most suscep-
tible to the sway Of her affections. She is
separated from the tender, sheltering home
love; she Is isolated from the healthful COM
panionship of her brothers and their friends.
Her first condition at school is one of help
less and miserable homesickness. Her heart
yearns for the home caresses. In this yearn-
ing condition some one comes and. in the
careless bon honme of school life, puts an
arm around her or kindly presses her hand,
and presto. the deed is donel
AFFINITIEs BETWEEN SCHOOLGIRLS.
Or even in such morbid Inconsistencies not
so much as this is needed. A pretty dress,
pretty face, clever recitation may be
the lodestone that first draws the love that
must have some outlet. After this stage
the operations are much alike. This clever
girl in the pretty gown, or with the dis
tinguished air. etc., must be wooed aud
won. Flowers and candy. calls and drives.
notes and poetry flow like water to the
lucky girl who has found such an admirer.
E1If the recipient of all these attentions be
new girl herself, she will probably quickly
surrender the fort, and there will be the
common talk and gossip OF the new affin-
tiles" or these new afflnities one will do
all the room work, write all the exercises,
make all the sacrifices, and both will be
perfectly, adorably happy. Lessons will
suffer, appetites lail, all other interests
lapse, and the ends for which the girls come
to college be defeated. They pull through
their course somehow, but they wonder
afterward how they managed to do it.
IL the object OF these ardent attentions be
not a new girl she will either hold her ad-
mirer to her as long as she can, for selfish
reasons, or, II she be girl Of principle, will
show that she is already ATTACHED, :" and
does not care to form a new alliance. But,
Oh the jealousies aud heartburnings, the
plots and intrigues, the cutting Of the old
friendship for the new, the flirtings and de-
captions, the playing with affections, the
real tragedies that occur In these affairs of
the heart
THE GRIEFS AT PARTING.
These attachments seem to be in the air.
The teachers and gray-haired professors
have them, and in the latter case are the
sport of the school. But the real strain
comes when the partings must take place.
Vacations are hideous affairs, and the daily
letter does not in the least atone for the
separation. The yearly commencement,
with its flowers and gayety. covers an I'M
told amount of woe and grief--a grief that
cannot be accounted for alone by the break
ing of the ordinary school ties, but which
results from the tearing apart of hearts that
have Lived. moved and had their being" in
each other.
After such an absorbing passion the lone
illness and wretchedness that follow separa-
ton are almost unbearable. The quieter
love Of home fails TO satisfy the heart which
has lived at boiling temperature for four
years. Society. home datles, young men.
have no attractions for such one Some
times these "two hearts that beat as one"
succeed in finding some position as teachers
which enables them to still be together.
Then the old life goes on in the sweetness of
united love. 1t Is all satisfying; nothing is
missed from out their lives. There is a
tenderness, a delicacy, q refinement of in
tense love, that no other relation Of life can
give or supply.
1t is strange phase of girls life, and is
in truth, a never ending mystery to herself.
But struggle against it as she may, it is
nevertheless very real phase, about which
volumes might be written If the girls would
only confess, And in her heart of hearts
the girl of such love often questions: "Is
it wiser rs it rightW as it bestr But
who can fight against Cupid when he comes
In this formi Such realm Of love chains
one unconsciously. as though she were in
the land OF the lotus eaters, where she could
not get away IL she would, and would not IL
she could.
This one fact remains, that most girls,
who have gone deepest into these afiinities,
when they once recover what they suppose
Is meant for their normal condition and set
tie down to married life. resolve that theirs
daughters shall be educated at a coednca.
tlonal school. This may be the factor after
al, that shall NOW down the woman's COL
lege and put all learning on coeducational
base