The New York herald., 1922-04-09
BY Margaret Searle,


"Mother, may go to Columbian
"Oh, yes, my darling daughter.
But settle down on Morningside,
And stay there, like you oughter."
90 mother sends us forth from the
=. little gray home in the West, with
letter from the minister to the
pastor of a Madison avenue Presbyterian
church who used. to attend the same theo-
logical university he did, and with sundry
other things, such as the napkin ring that
had our initials engraved upon 1t when
we were one month old, and some pretty
patterns for our embroideries.
And we come to New York and become
college girls, and settle down on Morning
side.
perhaps the Editor had better interpo-
late here. There has been so much sGid pro
and con, about college girls lately, and the
goodness and badness of Neao York as
college towm, the Editor thought it might
be aoeH to 90 to the fountain head for Gu-
thentic informdtion--to the college girl
herself, aoho assnredly aoonld be best fitted
to dispose of the question tor all time.
Certainly there mast be something differ
ent about Nelc York as a college tol0n from
other college cities. Just aohdt that differ
ence is none could be better equipped to
r:.. o,ho In b0J
experience not only of Neao York but other
college centers as ioeH Hence Miss Sedrle,
soho first crplored the envir0ns OF VGssdr
and then descended upon Columbia after,
as she puts it, restless interim at the
little gray home in the West. Miss Searle
continNes:)
But once having arrived in New York
to be college girl, does daughter obey
; dear mothers orders?
She does not.
She has her own ideas upon the sub
ject of her duties in the worlds largest
college town. She duly presents the letter
OF Presbyterian credit to the Madison ave-
nue. pastor, because she knows IL she
didn't there would be disturbing letters
from home; but even while she listens to
the pastors friendly advice to do as mother
said, "stay on Morningside," she deter
mines that her winter in the city shall be
broadening. Surely a college girl should
take advantage Of every opportunity to be
mentally broadened.
Even as she elects her nominal subjects,
she signs herself up for a course in New
York life-a course which might be called
applied metropology.
I'm haste zoe turn to our dictionaries.
Yes, zoe aoere right. There Is no such toord
as "metropology" That is, there ,Uasn't.
But now there is. Miss Searle Is quite non
chalant as she remarks, "Oh, ycs-the col
lege girl in Ne,o York just has to create
neto acords NTH iohich to cypress herself.
Her thoughts and emotions are far beyond
all established vocabuldries. My definition
of metropology aoould be--the science of
metropolitan eGistence, diurnal, nocturnal
and Terpsichorean."J
NOWdudyS edCH COllc6e girl, any WutTc,
has her complex" Only very few have
discovered Freud, and those who have, as
a rule, dismiss him as nut" but they
all have common complex. just the same,
when they reach New York. 1t Is the
sightseeing complex" They form a dis
tinctly unique group, several thousands
OF young persons outside the parental
eyeshot the telephone number of the Madi-
son avenue pastor not included in their
notebook treasury OF such things-and
most of them still in their fapperhood. all
determined to see what they can do to the
country's largest and liveliest city while
they have an unchaperoned chance at it.
(SnreIy this Is an innocent compiler"
and harmless one. Also, IL is delightfully."-
explanatory. 1t Is the same desire that
dctndtcs grave statesmen and political
economists: only processes are differently
Tackling their self-appointed jobs. the
college girls have all the familiar earmarks
OF the amateur New Yorker-the card in
dex state of mind. tabulatory Of all expe-
riences, and wholly conscientious OF such
matters as the Statue of Liberty and the
Metropolitan Museum. Each college girl
/, in New York knows that she must write,
within two weeks after her arrival. to the