The record-union., 1897-09-24
BEAUTIFUL ANITA HEMMING.
STORY OF THE VASSAR GRAD
UATE BORN OF NEGROES.
She Kept the Secret of Her Birth
for Years From Her
Roommate.

This is the story Of Anita Hemmfng
of Vassar, 81 In all the news of the
past week there has been nothing more
dramatic than the story of this woman
and the sudden revelation of the secret
she had kept so well, says the New
York World" The public was told
that one of the most beautiful, the
most brilliant, and the most charming
graduates of this years class at Vas
sar was a negro girl. The public was
intensely interested, but to no one did
the revelation come with such over
whelming surprise as to the classmates
with whom Miss Hemming had been
so closely associated for four years.
In no mind, until very recently, had
there been the slightest suspicion of
the truth.
The story of Miss Hemming's college
life and of the influences and charac-
teristics that made her what she is will
be told here. There is interest in it, as
well as a moral lesson. There is inspi-
ration, too. in the splendid triumph of
this young woman who came into life
so heavily Handicapped for the career
she has achieved. These are the things
that she has done. How she has ac-
which-she has surmounted all obstacles
viii be told in detail later on
In 1888 she was graduated from the
Prince Grammar School, Boston, at the
head of her class.
In 1890 she completed, with the high
est honors, the full course of the Girls
English High School in Boston.
Subsequently she attended Dwight L.
Moody's School, at Northfeld, Mass.
and there prepared for the entrance ex-
animation Of Vassar, astonishing her
teachers and associates by her brilliant
work
In 1893 she entered Vassar, from
which she has this year been graduated
with high honors.
During her four years at college she
was a prominent and brilliant figure in
the life of the great institution. She
became a leader among the girls, a
member of the most exclusive college
societies, a guest in the best Pough-
keepsie families, and the idol of a large
following of enthusiastic freshmen. She
was lovingly called ''the beautiful bru-
nette." It was supposed that she had
Spanish or possibly Indian blood in her
veins. No one dreamed that in little,
modest Boston home there lived an hon.
est mulatto who was the father and
a prepossessing mulatto woman who
was her mother. Both of these We're
light in color, with the mixed blood
of their race regular features and
clear olive complexion which many a
white woman would give much to pos
sess.
To these parents Anita was born
twenty-five years ago. Her father was
a clever and industrious man. He
worked hard, and almost from the be-
ginning he was able to give his family
the advantages offered by the average
white husband and father of the mid
die class. Anita had a happy child
hood. She was sent to school, where
she associated with the white children
of her age At this time there was no
effort made by her parents to conceal
the negro strain in her blood. 1t was
probably the unconscious shrinking
away from her of some playmate that
first taught the colored child her own
aloofness and showed her that she
must make much of life's journey alone
The thought did not discourage the
ambitious little girl, who quietly laid
out the plan of life which she has SO
consistently followed In her wish for
an education she had her fathers af-
fectionate support and aid. She en-
tered the Prince Grammar School in
Boston, where she is still remembered
as one of its brightest pupils. At the
end of two years, during which she
easily distanced all Of her associates,
she graduated at the head of her class.
This honor secured her entrance TO the
Girls, Enolish High School. where for