The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1911-02-16
SWEETBRIAR GIRLS
ARE NOT SMOKERS

LYN c lib r C, VA..-SpeciaI-
Wanted-To locate IAN aristocratic
and fashionable girls SCHOOL, where
girls smoke cigarettes after bedtime
and get expelled for their naughtiness
in squads.
Some enterprising man with evil
IDENTIFY faulty nose for news started
the whole thing. Some of the morn
ing papers contain authoritative fat
denials from the Institutions at first
named. and others print the whole
wild and mysterious story.
The story has been traced down an
follows:
a Harrisonburg correspondent OF
several papers-judging By the wide
publicity 80 the repOrt--got hold of "a
report" that reached Harrisonburg."
inns repO,t Was received by the Ad-
vance Thursday. but was too indef-
mite to the published without careful
investigation. 1t went TO other papers.
and at least one metropolitan journal
published IL this morning as follows
"Harrisonburg. Va. Feb. A re-
port has reached Harrisonburg that
twenty girls have been expelled from.
the fashionable Greenbriar Institute
north of Lynchburg, in Amherst coun-
| ty, for smoking cigarettes. II appears
that the school authorities made every
effort TO keep secret the expulsion
but IL is reported that a student from
the Valley wrote to her father TO as
sure him that she was not one OF
the girls that had gotten in trouble
about smoking cigarettes This let the
story out.
"Greenbriar Institute draws it's stu
dents from the wealthiest and most
/ aristocratic families in Virginia. II is
said that the score of girls. so sum-
marily dismissed from the school.
| quickly packed their trunks aad dis
persed TO their homes on one Of their
! periodical visits.
1T is reported that the girls would
! gather in certain rooms after taps
and enjoy their smokes. When the
| matter reached the ears of the ia
Guilty. IL is said. ii was at once decided
that drastic steps would be taken to
break up the growing cigarette habit.
The wholesale expulsion was the re-
suit"
Inquiries from more careful papers
began to come into Lynchburg last
night about that mysterious Green
briar Institute" Owing to the fact
that ii was said to be located some
where in Amherst county, 1t was nat
urally thought that SWeetbriar Col
lege was meant, and President Mary
X. Benedict was called up over the
telephone. Dr. Benedict at once en-
phatically denied that any young la
4 dies had been expelled for cigarette
smoking or for any other reason. 9th
er close friends OF the college in the
city, who are in daily touch with the
institution, today did the same, and
kAI unQueStlOnaDly appears that there
has been not the slightest ground for
connecting the well-known Amherst
institution with the report that was 50
unfortunately given publicity.
Where then, was this fashiona bic
and artist ocratic seminary where young
ladies sat up after lights OUT and
smoked in the wee sma' hours? It Oc-
CURED to some one that there was a
Greenbriar county in West Virginia
and that there was a girls school In
that county blue-stoching Preeby-
terrain school, at that. so suspicion
was directed there. The LynchourE
correspondent of a Roanoke paper
wired a personal note to the editors
that the report might be investigated
there. Accordingly. the Roanoke
U Times in its story this morning says
il called up President r. L Tellford. OF
"Greenhriar College," at Lewisburg
w. Va. The Times says:
when told of the rumor that was
distracting newspaperdOm in Virginia
and of the suggestion that the Green.
: briar College was the school referred
to in the Harrlsonburg dispatch, he
said that SC far as the Greenbriar in.
stitution was concerned, there was Alb.
solutely on foundation for such a re.
: port; that the school did not have now
and never had had any such trouble
VI No cigarette smokers at Green.
briar College" Cor the Lewisburg Fe.
4 male College, as its real name happen,
to be) either
So II looks mighty like somebody