The Press. (Stafford Springs, Conn.) 1883-1935, 1901-10-03
!; HIS OWN PETARD
-s5os-
: A Story of the Higher Edu-
) cation of Women.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..

"Woman," said the professor, twas
made for the home. There she stands
on a pedestal, from which it is a griev-
GUS thing to see her step down."
Now the professor is acknowledged
to be one of the wisest men in Europe,
and it was impossible that a girl of
Sibyrs age should contradict him. Be
sides, Sibyl has been very nicely
brought up and wouldn't think of con-
tradicting a person so much older than
herself, even if he had been merely an
undergraduate instead of a professor.
So she looked very politely interested
in the remark and said nothing.
Silence on the part of the other per-
son always lures on man to say more
than he ought.
Il am sorry" the professor contin-
ued after a pause, ''to hear that you are
coming up next term. l had hoped that
your dear mother-one of my Oldest
and best friends-would have had 9th
er views for you. She at least knows
we'll that l disapprove, deeply disap-
prove, of this most unseemly attempt
of women to enter upon university
life"
But, professor, that isn't very kind"
Sibyl was obliged at last to remon-
strate. II understand that 1 shall have
the pleasure of attending your lectures.
That is, if l get through my eXamina-
ton, and I'm going up for it next
week"
Eyes, 1 am sorry to say mean,
am glad-ah-h-h- Won't you take
another cup of tear" Sibyl is the kind
est hearted of girls and wouldn't hurt a
fly unnecessarily, and so she said she
would like another cup of tea very
much.
woman" the professor repeated
when he had returned to his usual alb
straction, stands on a pedestal in the
domestic circle. 1t is truly grievous
that she should be willing to join in
the struggles of masculine life" He
had attended, as an experienced person
will perceive, the last Union debate on
the degree question. and the eloQuence
of the debaters was echoed from the
lips of the professor.
Sibyl tried to consider herself from
the point of view of her domestic cir
Gle, but failed to remember that their
mental attitude in relation to her had
ever been that of those who look up ad-
miringly toward the statue on it's ped
estal.
Professor, l will not struggle" said
she. 81 promise to submit to your au-
thority on all questions, whether of dis
cipline or of Arabic. l promise never
to join in 9Th of November row, and
you know that women students are al
lowed neither boat races nor bump
suppers."
The professor answered that she was
evading the question at issue. He said
that ladies usually do SO, and Sibyl
went home with provisions of universi-
ty life a little less bright than they had
been before. But she was none the less
determined to go up and to devote the
next period of her life to the studies
which were illustrated by the pro-
fessor.
s.
Three years later the professor sat
in SibyPs room at BFowning-it was a
charming little room, looking on the
terrace-and he congratulated her. Was
she not the most famous person of the
week? Had not every morning paper
a leading article in praise of woman as
personitied in Sibyl and all the evening
papers portraits of her. portraits whose
only point of similarity was their un-
likeness to Sibyl? Editors were asking
her for an article on the education of