Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-28

There were six OF us We were Exten-
sioners. 1t was Oxford in the summer time.
We were all teachers, except Bet, whose
real name was Bethany Bet was an artist.
Three of Us taught in high schools. Kit
whose baptismal name, of course, was Kath-
arine; Christian, whom we all called Chris;
and our handsome Hannah. Then there was
Tiny, tall young woman, who taught
small boys in a grammar school; and l,
Euphrosyne Inkle, a board school mistress.
Euphrosyne is a mouthful, admit, and my
familiar friends called me Syn. Bet and
Chris were sisters, and Kit and Tiny were
not only sisters, but twin sisters. This was
our party.
All kinds of people come up to Oxford in
the long vacation to attend lectures, chiefly
women, aud women who teach. Then there
is fair sprinkling of intelligent working
men, few parsons and city men, few en-
thusiasts, an odd lot of foreigners, who
come to study the movement, and few
ubiquitous and enterprising Americans,
who want to know all about it that they
may go home and copy. But the women
predominste feariully.
Jhe fippant undergraduate who sang of
The throng
OF sisters, cousins, aunts and nieces
Who crowd the streets, and fill the schools
With love OF lectures still unsated,
Who are subject to no kind OF rules,
And can't be proctorized or gated,
envied us our liberty in the city of dons,
deans, doctors and proctors while he mar
Yeled at our appetite for lectures.
We six had been up before several times
and Kit used to boast that she had never
missed a summer meeting in Oxford. They
say that the English take their pleasures
sadly, and possibly frivolous females might
consider q course of lectures and confer
ferences a somewhat sad way of spending a
holiday, but we liked it, and so did the
other sisters, cousins and aunts" who dis
ported themselves at Oxford We were
having q good time. Most of us went to
five and six lectures in the day, and got in
a college visit or two, a conference, an
afternoon tea, an organ recital and con-
versazione into the bargain. We didn't
waste our time in Oxford by any means.
Our domestic arrangements suffered some
times, but such trihes as eating and drink
ing troubled US little.
"Can we bre akfast at a quarter to eight?"
one of us would ask anxiouslv. 81 want to
get to the theological lecture early."
"How shall we manage with lunch?" an
other would demand. I'm at a lecture until
half-past one"
"And go to lecture at $780," another
would exclaim.
az shall start with a botanical party ct
- would be the cry of another of US.
Tea never seemed to fit in. We would
arrange to have tea at 8.
81 am at lecture from 4:40 to 5:40,"
would be the cry.
"And want to go to lecture from
until Z.
81 am in the Bodleian from until 4 +"
We could never TT in, so we took our
meals how and when we could.
At $50 p. NJ. we were always due at some
conversations, concert, or special lecture
by some great specialist on art or Literature,
aud our days work finished at 1870 p NJ
Sometimes we suffered severely from mental
indigestion. but we didn't admit it, at
least some of us didn't but after a time
Chris and began TO flag and sometimes
missed q lecture. Hannah, and Tiny, too,
tell away from the paths of virtue, and
occasionally went to the swimming baths,
or q tennis match, or took canoes up the
dreamy Cherwell. Bet went off sketching
after doing conscientiously three lectures,
and turning up at garden parties, concerts
and all the evening part of the programme;