The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-07-25
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WOMEN STUDENTS WHO WORK.
How Poor Undergraduates Manage to
Mako Ends Meet.


Miss Alice Fallows is the author of
an article In the Century which Is en-
titled Working Ones Way Through
Women's Colleges" with pictures by
Charlotte Harding.
"Just within the entrance of the
gymnasium at Smith College is small
square room which looks like a booth
at q church fair. The bulletin boards
on It's walls are covered with blue
prints. copies of Gibson pictures.
painted frames. college flags. bright
colored class banners. pincushlons.
pillow-covers and n score of other
fancy articles which seem the pastime
OF an Idle hour. In reality. each one
represents the serious investment of a
girl who Is working her way. The
Smith College calendar hanging in Il
corner took one girl half through the
term. The picture frame opposite paid
the incidental expenses of another for
a year, while the jolly pair of football
players, constructed ont of tissue
paper and pecans, sitting on the win
cow sill made the temporary fortune
of their inventor. A day after she
had slipped in and put them there they
became the college fad, and for weeks
she could not turn them out fast
enough to fill her orders Then sud
denly their popularity waned; no one
wanted them. and now, faded and COW
cred with dust, the two fayorites of n
past hour sit neglected in their cor
ner, n pathetic warning of The incon-
stancy of college demand.
Like Smith students college girls
everywhere try these picturesque
methods of making money. The
pretty tribes which they sell might
seem to poet the spontaneous express
sion OF the feminine instinct FOR grace
and beauty, but they Illustrate rather
a poverty OF financial opportunities.
a college man in his effort to support
himself is limited only by his capacity,
He can brcal; stones in the road or
publish paper. as bis talent provides.
lie is free TO enter any trade or bust
ne3s in the town, or invent a new one
If he pleases. He may wander where
he will along economic highways and
byways. No one ;hnAs OF putting an
obstacle in his way.
But when a girl, out of the fulness
OF her desire, determines to work her
way through college, she must first
rid herself of the notion that she can
copy her college brother. Otherwise
she viii meet with disappointment,
for long ago Mrs. Grundy set dis
tinction between labor fitting for men
and for women, and our colleges for
girls SIN respect it. During under
graduate days. at least, they believe
in an emphasis Of the woman woman
ly. The selfsupporting girl, therefore,
finds before many an industry open to
her college brother sign on which
custom or the college president has
written the uncompcomis.ng words
No Admttance.' she can neither
weed lawns nor dig gardens, clean fur
naces nor shovel snow. The girl who
should turn grocery clerk or who be-
came n component part of bakers
or butchers or hotel-keeper's staff in
her college town would be focus for
the puzzled attention of the whole
faculty, while a student dairymaid
fruiterer or butter merchant within
the confines OF the colleges would
raise q storm of protest from Maine
to California. Yet college men in Sim
liar positions meet only praise and
cOmmendatlOn
Doubtless some of the occupations
In the diminished list for girls de-
clared official by college censors will
seem trivial enough to the masculine
s-udent-merchant who sells milk by
the thousand quarts and butter by
countless pounds. Nevertheless, the
college girl invests as much energy
and strength and originality in her
tasks as the college man in his. If
she earns as much money as he, her
effort must be almost doubled. Few
girls. under the circumstances, have
the physical exuberance necessary to
meet the strain OF self-support. They
must stop short at sel1-help. But the
attitude of woman's college is
strongly paternal. Though restric-
lions are laid on the student who
works her way, scholarships and
loans, as far as they go, are the COM
pensations, and, when these are eX-
hausted, protective care and watch
fulness which seldom fall to the lot
Of the college man"