The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1904-06-26

Cambridge, Mass, June 25.--Undoubt-
eddy the most remarkable girl gradu-
ate of the season is Miss Helen Keller,
who will receive her bachelors de-
gree from Radcliffe College next Tues
day. That she has passed the fun four
years course with honors, In spite of
being deaf, dumb and blind, and that
she has done her work under precisely
the same conditions as her more nor
NAL classmates who become bachelors
of arts at the same time; is proof OF
the extraordinary development In the
so-called higher education of women
during the past quarter century.
Radcliffe, which now becomes Miss
Keller's alma mater, is the college for
women afiliated to Harvard University
and is the legal successor of the Soci-
ETY. for the Collegiate> Instruction of
Women. known to fanSe as the Harvard
Annex" which was organized in 1879.
It's purpose is to afford the college
girls the same systematic instruction
by the sRme professors and teachers as
their brothers and cousins find at Har-
ward. The relationship between the
woman's college and the great univef-
sity is peculiar. The requirements for
admission to Radcliffe are the same as
those for admission to Harvard; It's
courses are identical with courses in
the larger lHt SdIlC CAuni-
nation papers are used when 1t is pos
sfble, and papers of the same standard
always; the same teaching force is en-
ployed, and in some of the advanced
work men and women meet In the same
classes Yet the relationship Is in no
sense educational and, although the
Radcliffe degree represents exactly
what a Harvard degree stands for and
Is countersigned by President Eliot, the
governing boards of the college and the
University are distinct. In other words
the university guarantees the standard
of instruction TO be its own, while the
college alone is responsible for all
matters of discipline and finance.
In the last year. however, the con-
nection between the two institutions
has been made closer, and at the COM
mencement exercises next Tuesday the
girls will receive their degrees for the
first time from an officer of the mems
college-Dean LaBaron r. Briggs. of
the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, who
was chosen active president of Rad
cliffe this year to fill the vacancy left
by the retirement as honorary president
of Mrs. Louis Agassiz. whose husband
was the famous naturalist.
The manner in which Miss Keller has
met the requirements of the highest
educational standard in this country
is particularly interesting. Born in
Alabama "a years ago, she had per-
fectly developed faculties until when
she was about years old an illness de-
prived her of sight. speech and hear
ing. The training which has made pos
sible her quite unusual scholarship be-
gan when Miss Sullivan of the Perkins
Institution for the Blind in Boston
went South to undertake the education
of the child who was then seven years
old. Five years later Miss Keller came
to Massachusetts. where she has lived
ever since with Miss Sullivan as a
constant companion. Although she
learned to speak, to hear by touch and
to see through the eyes of those about
her under her teachers guidance she
was put in the hands of a special tutor
in preparing to enter college. and all
the while she has been a student at
Radcliffe she-~has depended upon her
| own wonderful memory and her keen
| understanding to much greater ex-
| tent than the average college girl has
| to do. Miss Sullivan has been her ears,
| so to speak, sitting beside her In the
class room and yiecture han and re-
peating to her verbatim, hour after
hour, by the touch of her fingers on