Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-04-03
COLLEGE GIRLS AND SOCIETY.
The Social Life Of Young Women in a
University City.

How college girls amuse themselves
in towns where they have practically
everything to themselves-as in North
ampton, or Poughkeepsie. or Welles-
ley-has been described a great many
times. The social life of young wo-
men students in city colleges affiliated
with mems universities necessarily
presents many points of difference. 1t
would be hard to say that the social
opportunities and enjoyments open to
the collegian in Cambridge, in New
York or in Chicago are better than
those i'm smaller places-their value va
ries with the character of the in
dividual girl-but it can be said truth
fully that they are not precisely the
same.
Probably nowhere else in the United
States are women college students
brought into SO close contact with the
general social activities Of a university
community situated in a metropolitan
centre as in Cambridge. A possible
exception is at Barnard which is also
in residential quarter of a great city.
1t may be doubted, however, if the
conditions in the neighborhOod of
Morningside Heights are at present as
favorable as in Cambridge to making a
young woman feel that she has part
to play in the community in which she
is studying The conservatism of
Boston and it's suburbs has resulted in
the preservation of a great deal of
simplicity and general neighborliness
while in New York you hear it on
every hand that the old-time sociabil-
ity of the metropolis has gone, spec
tacular events there are galore, but
the house to house friendliness Of the
old days when Washington Square
was the centre of refined and cult
waited New York has practically dis
appeared.
Cambridge has certainly retained
more of the simple social life than
NOSE cities in the East, and of this life
the Radcliffe girls. probably to a great
er extent than the Harvard students
with whom they rank as co-equal in
study, form a distinct part. Society
Furthermore in such a city has char
acter that is particularly appropriate
to the needs of studious young women.
Boston and Cambridge, despite the
passing of the great New England
writer's, still have a distinct literary
atmosphere given by the presence of a
very large body of literary craftsmen
and publishers. and the number of peo-
pie devoted professionally to art and
music is vastly greater than in the
days when LongfeIlow and Lowell
taught at Harvard. To larger eX-
tent unOuestionably than in any other
American city the activities of people
in these and kindred professions cond.
ton the whole social life and consti-
tute an influence that is felt by most
women college students. Even those
who never acquire the habits of the
scholarly at least get to know what Il
scholar is like outside as well as in
the classroom.
And the basis of admission to the
everyday social life of Cambridge is
fortunately one of personal character
rather than wealth or birth. The
Radcliffe girl who wishes to get the
fullest benefit from her educational
opportunities-the kind of young wo-
man on whom nothing is lost-is pretty
aptst to see at least little of it in her
four years of college life. Much of
the activity outside the school she
cannot, naturally, very we'll afford to
engage in. The courses of study. laid
out along exactly the same lines as at
Harvard. are severe and exacting
Furthermore there is, Of course, the