The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-05-26
GREENSBORO FEN1ALE
G0lLE@E GO|M]ND|EEUGLEDAUN1IEDV1 ]

came an old girl, literally, and find great
pleasure now in meeting with the other
integers which make up that fourth term,
the Alumnae Association no longer an
unknown quantity, but an active agent
for good in the life of the college.
"When | was a school girl IS n refrain
which sounds familiar 20 all, and yet
the cadence falls with 4 different echo
| on each heart The Then ard Now
seem so different and we pause to ask II
| this difference is in us, or in the times.
| We find great changes in both, but prin-
| cipally in the customs of the times.
| when | was school girl we had then.
what we called our society papers one
| for each literary society. Now III accord
ance with the spirit of united strength,
the societies together send out "The Mes
sage" in printed dignity. Those papers
| were called respectively ard affectionate-
w "The Gem and 1.-THE Carrier Dove
and were uncompromising rivals Oh liter
airy lines only, for politics had not even
| stirred the widest ina glnation of any
girl in that day. | was the editor f
| The Gem, but l was called the editress
which was considered 4 digniiied and
womanly title, bearing in its feminincness
no faint of woman's rights, and no CLEAN
| of the progress which a decade was to
| witness. SO very careful were we in re-
gard to gender that l assure yol an cdl-
| tress in those days. did not cv.n think
| about the boys, much less admit them &c
| her cOlumms-nOt even to her advertising
| Da ges We had no subscribers. no clrcu-
| lation, and our papers were not even
| type written, but written by hand, on
| foolscap paper. properly lined INTO col
| umns with red ink and read aloud in So
ciety meetings.
THE Gem over which | presided,
often scintilated with the wit Of many
| bright girls, but it's light was hid under
| the bushel of modcsty and the world
| lost the benefit of its editorials / con-
graduate THE Message" on the change
| II represents.
| When this college first began its career
| Of usefulness, college education for wo-
men was an experiment which old and
wise heads gravely debated, and many
| doubted its benefits. Later, when i
| was Il school girl and came to reap lis
benefits, it had become an assured bless
| ing coveted by all girls, and gained by
| many Now it has become Il necessity.
and the day is speeding toward Us when
absence of educatioal opportunity.
| The benefits from SO much education
| are so apparent that now but few OBJ
| stacles remain to be overcome. Factor
after factor has been added TO the
strength of the tide until it has become
flood. Colleges are being endowed for
women, universities are welcoming them
| to their hitherto forbidden classic shades,
Ii
When / think how much women have
done to promote the education of men.
and how slow universities and colleges
have been to share their advantages
with women-I-.well-I only sigh. When
| remember how much has been done by
women for our own University, and then
remember that now, higher education
has become assured, and even Harvard
has yielded itself to the embrace of Rad
cliffe College-that our own University
only cracks open it's door to permit our
women glimpse of its advantagesr-well,
when | remember all this / only Sigh
again, and feel that some time il VIII
. awaken TO its own loss-for woman's edu-
cation is not retarded thereby. So fast
, us she fits herself for higher study she ST.
cures somewhere the opportunity.
! Obstacles are only stimulants to her III
the pursuit of the knowledge whicll shall
fit her for the high destiny to which
since Creations dawn she has been CALLED
as mans helpmeet mans peer. bnan's
simulant to progress. The barriers Of eX-
pertinent and prejudice have been Moken
down by the good use to which woman
has put their educGition, and everw year
witnesses new triumphs for her in Etera
tuTe, science, and art. Free TO roam at
will-no longer forced to apply Mr. en-
ergy to overcoming obstacles, shs now
begins to turn her attention to selecting
her lines Of work and deciding WHICH de
partments of opportunity will best suit
her needs, and develop her abilities. She
is a dainty creature, this educated woman
of the 18th century. She has been taught
that it is her womanly prerosativc &c
rule, and her privilege 10 pluck from
life its daintiest blossoms. Yet she has
ruled by the power of love, and now her