The times., 1901-06-16
BosToN's GIRL STUDENTS.
How They Live, work, Suffer, and
Sometimes Succeed


Sometimes Succeed.
1t is a mystery why all the clever girls
who do such stunning things, do not make
more Of a financial success. Perhaps a
business head and an artistic tempera-
ment do not belong to the same mortal.
Art students work like fends, yet they
seem to be content to drudge on simply
for the sake of making better pictures
every year. They do not appear to care
how poor they are or whether or not any
one ever hears of their work. Doubtless
they would sell you sketch if you went
to them, but they would not be likely to
call to see you until you bought some
thing to get rid of them. It is seldom. in
deed, that one hears of ar art students $
doing anything but study. no matter how
many years she has been in the work.
The most talented girl / know writes
a correspondent to the Transcript in
reference to student life in Boston, has
been seven years at the same school. get
ting a scholarship year after year. and
living on less than it takes to run
Chinaman, and hoping that something
viii turn up so that she can get to Paris
to study
Economy is 4 subject that Is pretty
thoroughly understood by the students.
They know where to get the most for the
least money-that is they do after their
first year But. oh, that first year, The
alacrity with which they accept the in
vitations Of grandmamma' and Uncle
Johns stupid Old friends Ito run out to
Dorchester and Newton often and just
have a plain home dinner" is something
appalling Last year four girls living to-
gether never asked one another what en-
l. ,r.a.ty
but instead We'll, girls, what square
meals have you in prospect Frequent
ly a girl living this way does not take
board by the week because she is apt
to be in one part of the town at noon and
somewhere else at 6 o'clock. So she gets
a sandwich and a cream puff for lunch
con, and at night she Is too tired to care
about anything to eat, so she decides not
to so out again in the rain, but stay in
her room and eat some fruit. And so it
goes, until enough friends speak Of her
paleness to make her wonder what the
matter is. Girls have to learn the import
ance of regular meals and wholesome
food. They economic in the wrong place.
But the second year they are likely to
have more to eat, and go to the theatre
less.
l met a girl a year or two ago who
went one entire winter without either um-
brella or rubbers. She said she could not
afford TO have them. This girl had a
scholarship al one of the art schools and
she lived on what she could make dec
Grating dinner cards and calendars and
candy boxes for shops. She used to wash
her clothes in the bath tub and wear them
rough dried. She got her own breakfast
IA cup of cocoa, made with condensed
milk, and a shredded wheat biscuit. OFTEN
she had no luncheon because she was too
much interested in her canvas to leave it,
and she dlned wherever she happened to
be, and to the extent Of whatever she
happened to have. What in the world
are you thinking of to give your health
so little consideration? | asked her one
day. We'll, was her highly satisfactory
answer, at lunch time 1 think it won't
be long till dinner time If | work hard
enough. At dinner | am usually too tired
TO think, and at breakfast | think what a
calamity it would be if / were to get TO
eating my broom brush by mistake some
morning.. Yet one occasionally sees this
girl at the Symphony rehearsals, and
some way she has managed to buy copies
of most of the poets. | have found her in
her tiny room buried in a volume of Long
fellow when II was easy to see that she
was not having the common necessities
of life, but she was always bright and
ready to chat about this book and that,
and the recent art exhibitions.
In referring TO visit TO a student
friend, the writer says: Il found her
sitting in the middle Of the floor with a
hammer in her hand and pieces of wood
lying all about her How do you dO?'
she said. Come right in and don't be
frightened. l haven't suddenly gone TO
running a sawmill. This is only a spin
ming wheel that | got of a fossil up in
the hills Of New Hampshire this summer.
/ thought | would begin another year of
study and starvation by getting a com
paniou. / am sure the wheel and | will
be congenial friends-that is, If 1 get it
again. Take this chair. That
couch really isn't safe We had a lively
chat for a few moments when she said,
Oh wouldn't you like to see my new
kitchen with hot and cold water, gas
range and all the comforts of Il hOme?'
She had taken a cracker box, put hinges
on the cover so il opened down, and set
ii on top OF a trunk in small StoreroOm
which was next to hers. 1t was a most
amusing affair She had driven tacks