Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-04-03

SOCidI lie among tHc StoucN"
selves. involving multiplicity OF de-
partmental organizations. such as the
English Club, the Duetscher Nereili'
the French Club, Classical Clup'
Semitic Club, History Club. Scientls'
Club, and all the rest. There Is the
Idier. famous for its dramatlcs ana
other activities, to which every stuueh'
is eligible. There are, too, the various
athletic associations. Radcliffe e'riS
go into athletics just as their sister
students at Wellesley. Bryn MaWr U,
Ann Arbor do, with great energy anu
enthusiasm. playing such games DIS
basketball AMI English hockey.
To a considerable extent, however.
the life of the school plays into that VI
Cambridge and indeed of the greater
city. In the case of the dramatics tiis
participation is particularly noticeapie'
Radcliffe theatricals are beginning 10 De
more than a school affair, while they
differ from those at some otners Vi 'he
women's colleges in that they are siih-
DIV a part of big list OF similar aliaiiS
and not. so to speak, the Wnole SHOW.
Interest in amateur performances III
tho college has for many years Deen
Keen so much so that from 20 to rs
nlavs are now produced by different
prouns of students each year. Every
p0ssible effort is made by the various
clubs to bring out the best talent avail
able. sometimes for the performance of
PLAYS by Shakespeare and the other
E,lizabethan dramatistS, the English
comedies of the eighteenth century or
even of dramas in the ancient Ian
guages. In other instances student
productions are staged or little farces
and comedies of the kind that are so
popular among amateurs throughout
the country. Most of these perform
ances are given only before the stu
dents, but now and then one of them is
performed before a more general audi
ence with the effect of bringing the
community to the college and the col
lege 20 the community. Thus there is
shortly to be given for the benefit of
the Radcliffe College Library an ambi-
tious performance of the "Mikado' to
take place in Jordan Hall in Boston
with number of Radcliffe graduates
and Harvard graduates in the cast, and
with all the social accessories that are
familiar to such performances in most
American cities. These efforts of asso-
Citations of amateurs. whether it be the
Bank Clerks Association, the New
England Woman'S Press Club, the Ca
diets or the celebrated Vincent Club
composed of Boston and Brookline So
ciety girls. have come of late years to
NO M ~ of l,n g
social season in the New England cap
ital. The entrance of Radcliffe into
the list of associations presenting
plays with lists of socially prominent
patrOnesses and all the other adjuncts
is really a working out of the Radcliffe
ideal, which is that every girl student,
in so far as she consistently can with
out neglecting her main purpose in 60
ing to college, shall live as an active
member of the community in which she
is studying.
In less spectacular ways Radcliffe
girls are nowadays very much in evil
dence in Cambridge and Boston life.
The conditions under which they live,
the freedom with which they are al
lowed to come and go from their places
of residence, under only just such re-
StrictionS as a girl would be properly
subject to in a well ordered home
these make it easy to attend the de-
lightful little dinner parties and teas
and all the rest with which Cambridge
people manage to keep acquainted with
each other. Only a small part of the
student body is at present located in
the colleges one dormitory. Bertram
Hall. A majority live necessarily with
private families approved by the COL
lege authorities; and the members of
these families are persons of refine
ment and cultivation, interested direct
~ in phases of the social affairs of the
university city.
This mild participation of the Rad
cliffe girls in social events has come to
Cambridge as more or less of a surprise
for back in the eighties whether right
ly or wrongly the Annex girl, as she
was then called. was popularity sup
posed to be six feet tall, wear specta-
cies. and spend all her waking hours in
severe study of Plato. Today although
the students at the women's college
probably study harder than the Har-
ward boys the ideal of isolation. if it
ever existed, has entirely passed The
cloister principle has never been en-
couraged at Radcliffe for it is not be-
lieved to be good for young women to
be shut up closely within the walls of
an educational institution. spending
four years apart from the world in
which they will later have to live and
play their little part