The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-01-19

a grass grown parade ground sur
Grounded by rectangle or empty build
ings, where once the place had swarm
ed with blue coats. Now the 5000 odd
acres have been divided between two
great institutions, this Normal school
and the agricultural experiment sta
ltion, each most important IN It's own
/ The fog closed down on US as we
drove out on the broad street leading
to the school, and the icy walks made
locomotion difficult, but once inside
the warmth and light and cheer made
outside dreariness very far away. 1
found two large buildings, of substan-
| tial Iimestone,-so strong that can
| imagine them still perfect When our
childrens children are going IN and
| out through the portals. Don't ask me
! the school of architecture. only
know that they are most SATISFYING,
and look as much part OF the iano-
scape as the winding creek and the
stretches of wild grass And know
that as 1 stood at one of the easement
windows in the square tower OF the
gymnasium and looked OF through the
| fog had a sort of an early English
| feeling-that goes with moats and
drawbridges, and Saxon maids with
great plaits of hair, and portcuIllses-
whatever they are
But better than everything else,
found We're the students, fine. clean
Young men and women, erect and Wig
orous with eyes that meet yours even
ly and clearly, and the breath ana Tree
dom of the open tablelandS In tnelr
bearing Search as you may. You can
not find in the length and breadth OF
this land as many young people VINO
are leading more sane and wholesome
lives than these.
And why shouldn't they? With
well-eouipped teachers, whose meth.
DDS arc up-to-date, and with all out of
doors for their own. AS we drove over
| the athletic grounds, where are sep
arate allotments for baseball. basket
/ ball and tennis, looked across the golf
course and down the windings of the
! creek which furnishes skating in the
winter and boating. bathing, and fish
ing in the summer. I read reason
/ for the bright eyes and rosy cheeks OF
the students
Within the last year three hundred
have been enrolled at this school, but
| there is one grievance which the fac
ulty holds. They are not allowed to
keep their students. Teachers who
have attended here are in such demand
that superintendents come from all
over the western part of the state and
carry them off to ca captivity in the dis
| trict schools, where they command the
highest salaries that are paid. The
schools seem to like it. but 1T affects
the graduating classes of the normal
school.
1t was a morning all too short, yet
| long enough to create in me an i'm
mense admiration for Prof. and Mrs.
Picken and their assistants and a feel
branch of the normal school asks of
| the state of Kansas ought to be grant
ed, for the possibilities of the institu-
ton are almost incaleulable.
And back to town, through the
dampness, in time for a luncheon at
one o'clock, in the artistic home of
| Mrs. Geo. P. Griffith home in which
the smiling, blue-eyed hostess seems to
| a al IN, coff
were laid for twelve. The table was
| decorated with gold and brown, club
and federation culors. the favors be-
1 ing little Sketches-in water color, il
Illustrating quotations from Macbeth
and LAS You Like It." these being the
plays studied this winter by the Satur-
| day Afternoon club. After a most de-
| lightful repast came dish of con-
versation," which was disposed of only
when the frightening shadows warned
US that it was no longer afternoon.
Then delightful dinner at the home
of Mrs Ward, with Mrs. James Reed
er and Mrs. Alex Philip as fellow
| guests. (NNhy can't the state presi-
| the days when she has to stand up at
n railway station lunch counter and
cat a cast-iron sandwich and drink
| what is called coffee. but what is real
ly decoctiOn of concentrated lye?)
And then. in the evening, came the
gathering of clans for which Mrs.
Ward had planned this visit. when she
| entertained the old and ever-progres-
sive Saturday Afternoon club and the
New Cultus club, which she has just
| organized. The house was decorated
in yellow with white carnations. About
fifty were present, and again had the
opportunity of speaking about our
work to an audience of rare intelli-
gence.
Saturday came and, even though the
homing instinct was strong within me,
it was almost with reluctance that
turned my back upon the pleasure OF
the past days, and climbed aboard the
train which was to bring me back to
the gray cat, the over-crowded desk
and the best man on earth--I think
the sequence is rigft-but 1 was up
held by the enga gements 1 have made
to go over the same ground next year
mot as a club woman, but as a
friend"
| These are some of the things that
pay for days and nights of drudgery,-
and the dividends are large