The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-08-29
FROM HOME TO COLLEGE.

In these summer days many young
girls are happily and eagerly anticipating
their first real departure from the shell
ter Of the home and the brooding care
of the mother, flight from the nest full
of Importance and full of possibilities
| for the future. writes Margaret E Sang
ster in the Congregationalist. Mothers.
| too, are wistfully and tenderly regarding
the daughters for whom they desire the
broadening influences and the intellect
ual discipline which college life affords.
These fast flying weeks, for the girl the
last of her childhood, for the mother the
last of her daily eye to-eye and hand to-
hand watchfulness, are very sweet and
sacred.
What will college do for this girl of
miner" the mother asks, in the solitude
of her own chamber in the hallowed 81.
| lence of her closet. And the twin ques-
ton follows closely: What shall this
daughter of mine do for her college?'
Reciprocal obligations and interchanged
| Impressions are the order in our life as
| fellow beings. We cannot be entirely
Independent, nor is it desirable that in
| any social life on earth we should be.
Probably to all eternity we will go on,
mutually helpful, often modifying one
another, growing by what we give, Civ.
| ing from soul to soul.
From the young girl who steps from
her quiet home into the great world of a
large college. the first lesson is perhaps
recognition of, in certain sense, her
personal insignifcance. She is no longer
dictator to younger brothers and sis
ters. no longer even the first person
thought of and considered, as in the
household economy of an ordinary home
the dear eldest girl is apt to be. One of
great number, she falls into line as the
soldier on drill does, and presently she
finds herself merging individual pre-
ferences and petty ambitions in the class
feeling. She is of her class and for it,
and insensibly she slips the sheath of
home narrowness and unfolds like bud
j. ITO sweeter bloom. Next she becomes
aware of certain things. strong and fine
but alien to her previous experience,
for no young person can be admitted
| into ocial environment to which North
and South, East and West, send their
representatives without learning that
much of good exists beyond her former
pale.
Does it seem contradiction that the
girl, at first conscious almost to the
point of surprise that she counts for lit
tie, is able to do something definite for
her college, indeed cannot avoid doing
something for it. the measure of accom-
plishment being the measure of her own
character? To the college of her choice
each new student brings all that her
home has made her, and her influence
apparently limited to the little group of
her intimates is felt through the whole
assemblage OF girls, not the less really
that it is silent and imperceptible to the
outward eye. No sincere girl carries her
consistent Christian life to college with
out being a torch bearer. No true
hearted, high minded girl but impresses
her noble ideals, her pure thoughts. her
singleness of aim on all the rest. Good
has vitality surprising evil, and every
mother who sends sweet. pure, conse-
Grated daughter from her own care to
that of the college is sending blessing
to the mothers daughters of the land.
We have arrived at the days, long ia
miliar to youth Of the other sex, when
mothers and daughters belong to the al
umn@ associations of colleges, and
when mother, taking her child to the
dear scenes of her own girlish struggles
and triumphs renews her pleasant men,
cries of the past. None the less is the
step from home to college step to be
prayerfully contemplated, though JOY
fully taken. God bless the dear girls
who are soon to make it. From their
ranks will be drawn the most influential
women of the future. = Philadelphia
Ledger.