Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1901-10-18


fancy articles which seem the pastime
of an idle hour. In reality, each one
represents the serious investment of
girl who is working her way. The
Smith college calendar hanging in
corner took one girl half through the
term. The picture-frame opposite
paid the incidental expenses of an
other for year, while the jolly pair
of football players, constructed out of
tissue-paper and pecans, sitting on the
window-sill made the temporary for.
tune 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
suddenly their popularity waned; no
one wanted them; and now, faded and
covered with dust, the two favorites of
a past hour sit neglected in their cor
ner, a pathetic warning of the incon-
stancy of college demand.
Like Smith students, college girls
everywhere try these picturesque
methods of making money. The pret-
ty trifles which they sell might seem
to poet the spontaneous expression
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 break stones in the road or
publish paper, as his talent pro-
vides. He is free to enter any trade
or business in the town, or invent a
new one il he pleases. He may wander
where he will along economic high
ways and byways. No one thinks of
putting an obstacle in his way.
But when girl, out of the fullness
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
will meet with disappointment, for
long ago Mrs. Grundy set distinction
between labor fitting for pen and for
women, and our colleges for girls still
respect It.. During undergraduate
days, at least, they believe in an en-
phasis of the woman womanly. The
self-supporting girl, therefore, finds
before many an industry open to her
college brother sign on which GUS
tom or the college president has writ.
ten the uncompromsing words: "No
Admittance." She can neither weed
lawns nor dig gardens, clean furnaces
nor shovel snow The girl who should
turn grocery clerk or who became q
component part of bakers or butch
er's or hotel-keeper's staff in her col
lege town would focus for the
puzzled attention of the whole faculty
while a student dairymaid, frhiterer
or butter-merchant within the con
fines of the college would raise ;
storm of protest from Maine to Cali
fornla. Yet college men in similar pc
sitions meet only praise and com
mendation.
Doubtless some Of the occupations
in the diminished list for girls de
clared official by college censors will
seem trivial enough to the masculine
student-merchant who sells milk b,
the thousand quarts and butter b,
countless pounds. Nevertheless, tn,
college girl invests as much energ.
and strength and originality in he
tasks as the college man in his. If sh
earns as much money as he, her effor
must be almost doubled. Few girls
under the circumstances, have tn
physical exuberance necessary t.
meet the strain of entire self-support
They must stop short at self-helr
But the attitude of womans colleg
is strongly paternal. Though restric
tions are laid on the student VIII
works her way, scholarships and loans
as far as they go, are the compensa
tions, and, when these are exhausted
protective care and watehfulnes
which seldom fail to the lot of the co
lege man.