The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-07-20

Then, for three, four, or even for five
years, these girls lived at the seminary.
They went home during vacation, and
sometimes during the holidays, but
they felt that the seminary was as much
part Of their life as their fathers
freside.
In it's educational standards the
seminary was not to be despised. Com
pared with the modern college, it's
course Of study seems scant and bare,
but measured by the side of the system
which it succeeded, the seminary
offered remarkable facilities. A girl
was grounded, first of all, in grammar,
arithmetic, spelling and writing. And
how they learned their lessons! How
they could spell, and what refined,
delicate script was theirs! Thus given
the rudiments Of their education, the
girls were introduced to Latin, to
geometry, to French and to literature.
Caesar and Cicero they read, the
delightful old comedies of Moliere
they studied, DR.. Johnson's ELVES Of
the Poets" they knew, and over the
verse of that scapegrace Byron they
wept in sympathy. One need only
glance, if he may be so privileged, at
the schoolbooks of a girl Of the fifties
to recognize that she was no poor
student. Her Shakespeare is well
thumbed and brown with age, her
French books show how hard she
studied, her "memory-book" and her
autograph album, with their faded
Spencerian lines, seem even now to
breathe the spirit of young aspiring
soul. The cynical may laugh at their
Overlooking, their irrepressible senti-
ment; but the man who remembers
that they were the mothers, the wives
and the sweethearts of the Confederate
soldiers must respect their training
and admire the educational system
which could produce such women.
No small part of the average girls
course at the seminary was her training
in music and in the "fine arts" as some
of the schools pretentiously dubbed
their instruction in painting. Attached
to the seminary, either as member of
the faculty or in a private capacity, was
the music-teacher, under whose direc-
ton the girls practiced every day.
They were taught the old music of
Mozart and Haydn, we're introduced
to the masterpieces of Beethoven,
learned to sing the songs of Donizetti
and Rubini, and were told of the
wonderful things being done in Paris
by those young musicians, Frederic
Chopin and Franz List Perhaps the
music instruction so given was not
thorough compared with that offered
to-day in all our schools, but it was the
first general effort ever made in the
South to diffuse through the people
true appreciation of music, and it was
richly rewarded. Little by little there
came love Of music, reflected in the
world of song, good, bad and indif-
ferent, which was poured forth during
the war.
Notable Service Done.
In at least three respects the semi
nary system of training girls performed
a valuable service to the South-one
that should not be forgotten in the day
of greater things. In the first place, as
has been noted, it marked the establish
ment of woman's right to know and
gave her recognized place, not only in
the social, but in the intellectual, life of
the South. In the second place, the
seminary was of notable service in that
it offered the first opportunity ever
afforded the woman of the South for
genuine intellectual commingling. Be-
fore the seminaries were opened, what
channel was there by which the young
women Of North Carolina could know
their sisters of Virginia or those of
Maryland meet the daughters of the
Old Dominion? If they were wealthy,
they might see one another at the
springs; if their fathers were in public
life, they wintered in Washington. But