The Van Buren press., 1893-08-12
IN WOMAN'S BEHALF.
COLLEGE-BRED WOMEN.
CO-EducAti0n Has Proven Her Frau's II
tellectual Equal.

vvOUGVVs
Co-Education Has Proven Her Frau's In
teiiectual Equal.
From every college where coeduca-
ton has been installed, in England as
we'll as the United States, come reports
of the successful student work of wom-
en- in the class of 1898. At majority
Of the institutions the year 1898 marks
the graduation of the first class OF wom-
en- entered for the the full academical
course of study. 1t may be claimed
in regard to these "co-eds." that the
higher education of women has now
been tried, and that from and after this
date the world will perceive the fruits
or the blasted hopes of the innovation.
Let us say at the outset that we be-
lieve the fruits are certain to come
And yet it seems best not to expect too
much of the higher erudition impaired
to this sex during the first period OF
its effect and influence. The college
bred man has not always proved that
he has satisfactory reason for exist
ence When he graduates he is often
thrown all at sea by contact with prac-
tical life, and from his utterances in
orations on graduation day it might in
many cases be concluded that he will
never get his bearings. He is, indeed,
! peculiar factor in our everyday life.
The world does not always know what
to do with him, and often can not afford
10 let him do what he wants to.
Only the people who judge very has
lilly for anything but gradual results
from the higher education of the aver
age woman. There must be an upbuild-
ing of the subtler qualities of being
throughout the line of life which pre-
sents that average representative to us,
and the result of so much inbred sta
bility of character will naturally pro-
luce its own effect in its own sphere.
That this leaven is already working
within calm, enlightened and con-
servative field in our life people some
times forget There have for some
years been several colleges in this
country where not only the degrees
which give rank in the scholastic world
are dealt out to women, but also the
secrets and treasures of thought offered
by education. Vassar, Wellesley, Smith
and half dozen other institutions have
given thousands of young women fin
ished classical educations. Spectacles
and short hair are not typical of the
students at those colleges. They are
after an education for the pleasure of
enjoying its advantages, not solely for
the purpose of becoming great thinkers.
But it has not been easy to compare
these women with college-bred men,
and everybody has demanded the COM
able to think of any better way of find
ing whether the woman comes up to
the men. Coeducation furnishes the
opportunity desired At Cambridge,
England, and at nearly all our Amer
can institutions the reformers have
been woman placed right beside man.
The newcomers have everywhere stood
.he test admirably. Ten women at
Cambridge University recently passed
,or the mathematical tripos, two be-
coming wranglers. The enthusiasts all
,ay that this settles it-woman is equal
Or superior to man intellectually-and
n the fine fibers of spirit as we'll.
Not long ago Edmund Gosse stated
n magazine article that all the
women of literature in all ages had
written everything ascribed to their
names in just one spirit, by force of a
concentrated individuality. He pointed
out that they had written well, but
that they had asserted themselves in
but a single way at any time, which
was to suit themselves. If that is typ
ical of the sex in other intellectual mat
ters also, we may still, in spite of the
trammels of prescribed work, look for
bright things from woman's mind and
pen and hand in her highly educated
future. But the larger number of
women do not possess genius. They
are creatures with chaotic minds like
their brothers the men. and nothing
but hard work and study will shape
their original brain power SO that it
will be useful and essential to our civil
ization. TO beat the young man at the
young mans own game and on his own
ground means nothing in itself. If,
however, the same victorious woman
should beat the same man when he has
grown to the period at which his pow
ers of intellect are most fully devel-
oped, it would mean far more. If,
furthermore, a large number of women
can manage to acquire, by higher
education, the ability to stand up with
the men in the battle of life, the
achievement would be wonderful