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The Women's Fourth of July.

yoke-fellow of Mrs. Mary A. Livermore in the days when a sanitary fair meant victory. I shall never forget the morning when this woman, one of the few truly great whom I have ever known, stood up in a meeting of ladies in the Evanston Presbyterian Church, of which she was a leader, and told us to preempt at once the coming fourth of July, the University campus and the Chicago press, in the interest of "our girls." Forthwith, we said we would, and verily we kept our vow. But Mrs. Hoge had never recovered from the rigors of her army work, and she had many cares besides, hence could only give us the splendid impetus of her magnetic words and presence. It remained for the new "college president," minus a college, to show what she could do, and to carry out the plan. Two years of foreign study and travel were hardly the best preparation for a work so practical, but it was a case of "sink or swim," and I took my lessons in the middle of the stream as many another has been forced to do. For three months I slept and woke FOURTH OF JULY. It haunted me like a ghost, nay, it inspired me like a good fairy. Men and women rallied to my help as if I were their very own.

Although ours was a Methodist college, Episcopal ladies were on the Committee, Presbyterians bore the battle's brunt, Congregationalists cheered on the battalions and did not a little of the fighting, while Baptists were outdone by nobody, and Methodists headed by Mrs. Mary F. Haskin, president of our Board of Trustees were "at it and all at it," intent upon making "The Women's Fourth of July" celebration what it was, the most complete ever known in the Northwest and the most unique ever held upon the continent..

As a key-note I prepared a circular, of which the following is a synopsis. It went out by cartloads, indeed Uncle Sam's special express was our chief base of operations, next to the newspapers:

CIRCULAR LETTER.

Addressed to all who are interested in the girls of the Northwest:

It is a very easy matter to sneer at the "Girl of the Period," to discourse upon her frivolity, lack of perseverance, and general "shiftlessness." It is a less easy, but not at all an impossible matter to cure her of these faults.

Is not this last the more excellent, as it is the more generous, way?

The Girls of the Northwest.

203

How can we better begin this cure than by proving to the period's much. berated girl that we set no higher value upon any member of our complex American society than upon herself; that we believe her worthy of the best we have to offer; that we regard her faults, not as inherent, but, rather, as the result of a defective training, for which, not to put too fine a point upon it, she is to be pitied, and we are to be blamed?

We believe the common sense of the American people has arrived at this conclusion, and that a higher education for women is demanded by the spirit of the age.

Perhaps this sentiment has nowhere found a more correct exponent than E. O. Haven, LL.D., to whose efforts women owe their admission to the foremost University in the United States, that of Michigan, and, more recently, to the Northwestern University at Evanston, near Chicago, of which Dr. Haven is now president.

And perhaps no attempt to utilize this new and noble public sentiment has been so commensurate with its progressive character as the establish

ment of the

EVANSTON College for WOMEN,

under the control of a Woman's Board of Trustees, and intended to supplement the advantages of the

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY.

To foster the interests of this new institution, an

EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION

has been formed, of which Mrs. A. H. Hoge (whose name is endeared to all hearts by her devotion to the "Boys in Blue" throughout the great Rebellion), is the President, and of which prominent ladies, connected with the various denominations, are officers.

Under the auspices of this association, it is proposed to hold at

EVANSTON,

NEXT FOURTH OF JULY,

A GRAND CELEBRATION,

at which time the corner-stone of the new building will be laid; orations will be pronounced by some of our most celebrated countrymen, and

A BANQUET

worthy of the occasion will be served.

Notice is hereby given of the PRE-EMPTION OF THE FOURTH OF JULY in the interest of

THE GIRLS OF THE NORTHWEST.

Then followed an appeal to editors, pastors, etc., to help in the new movement; also a call for "supplies" for the tables, fancy articles, flowers, "and any curious or useful objects which

204

Laying of the Corner-stone.

will add to the interest and profit of the occasion." The call was signed by the "Committee on behalf of the Evanston Woman's Educational Association," consisting of Emily Huntington Miller, corresponding secretary Ladies' Board of Trustees; Mrs. Mary B. Willard, recording secretary of the same; Mrs. General Beveridge, Mrs. Sarah B. Bradley, and myself, as president of the college.

We went to the village authorities and modestly asked for one of its parks as the building site of our college, and, to their everlasting credit be it said, they gave it. We had the foundation laid for the elegant Woman's College Building and arranged that the corner-stone should be set in place at the great celebration. We induced the famous Ellsworth Zouaves to come and drill inside an inclosure on the campus, for an admission fee; we got a generous jeweler to give a silver ball for which the College base-ball-ists of the country were invited to compete. On the lake we arranged (that is, Gen. A. C. Ducat did) for a regatta with a winner's prize; in the University chapel we had an amateur play, in which our young "society people," led by my friend, Kate Jackson, performed three separate times that day to crowded audiences, at so much a head. A general of the army (afterward Gov. John L. Beveridge) was persuaded to act as marshal; a United States Senator, Hon. J. R. Doolittle, of Wisconsin, pronounced the oration; a distinguished public reader, Prof. R. L. Cumnock, gave the Declaration of Independence; Gov. John Evans, of Colorado, for whom our town is named, headed a subscription list that aggregated thirty thousand dollars, and the ladies served three thousand dollars' worth of dinners, notwithstanding all the picnickers that filled our groves. The Chicago press had during three months given us ten thousand dollars' worth of free advertising; special trains and steamboat excursions bore the people to our feast with waving flags and bands of music, but there was no clang of war; no cannon, fire-cracker or torpedo was tolerated at the Women's Fourth of July. The climax of the day was the laying of the corner-stone, a woman, Mrs. Haskin, assisting in the ceremony, at which a beautiful dedication song by Emily Huntington Miller, one of our trustees, was sung. On this occasion we all walked over from the campus to the park in long procession, and my place was beside

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205

my brotherly and prescient friend, Rev. Dr. E. O. Haven, who told me, as we went, how deeply he rejoiced in all the on-going movements by which women were coming to their kingdom. 'When they are fully come," he said, with that beautiful smile not to be forgotten by any who have seen it, " there will be peace, even as here to-day they have preserved the peace for us; never before was there a Fourth of July without noise or accident."

It now became my duty to present the plan of the new college to good people wherever I could get a hearing. The Congregational Church in Evanston was the scene of my first appearance, and the ordeal was difficult, but Dr. Haven also spoke, and that made my trial less. Rock River Conference welcomed me most courteously, and in many towns of the Northwest I sang the praises of the great "Northwestern" and its sturdy little sister, the Evanston College for Ladies. All that summer we planned the course of study, and my pen was busy in pursuit of pupils, who, on the opening day, filled the old college where I had graduated twelve years before, and which we had leased until our new building should be completed.

Our pupils of the Evanston College for Ladies were to have all the school privileges of the University at the regular tuition rates; they were to take music, art, and several other studies at our own college building, and were to be under our care exclusively as to morals and manners. For those who did not wish to pursue any of the University courses, one having a larger proportion of English and modern languages was carefully prepared. As planned by Dr. Haven and ourselves, we had, in fact, five departments; Modern Languages, Fine Arts, Music, Health, Home and Home Industries.

CHAPTER IX.

SELF-GOVERNMENT FOR GIRLS.

As I follow, in these later years, the thorny path of a reformer, I sometimes think how good and pleasant would have been the quiet life, so universally approved, of a teacher of girls. But one confident belief gives me grace and courage to go on, and it is this:

"My bark is wafted to the strand

By breath divine,

And on the helm there rests a Hand

Other than mine."

In Evanston College for Ladies, for the first and only time in my history as a teacher, I was for one year free to work my will as an elder sister of girls-for this was then my idea of my relation to them; now, I would say, "a mother to girls."

Dr. J. B. Chess, of Chicago, yearly gave a gold medal for good manners, which keyed the whole school to a higher ideal, and Miss Kate Jackson, who had the French classes, joined me in offering prizes for neatness and tastefulness in rooms.

Every Friday afternoon a lecture was given in the College chapel at which the "Church Roll-Call" was had, to which all lady students were expected to respond. History, biography, books and reading, art, travel, manners, health, and many other kindred subjects were brought forward. Mrs. Kate Doggett, President of the Fortnightly (Chicago), gave several illustrated lectures on art; Rev. Dr. L. H. Chamberlain, spoke on his favorite "Philip Van Artevelde," and a lawyer of Evanston, Mr. L. H. Boutell, gave his reminiscences of Margeret Fuller Ossoli. My own talks were frequent, and related chiefly to what I am fond of calling "Moral Horticulture." Every day each pupil had twenty minutes alone in her room. We did not at all prescribe what should be done, but what we hoped was perfectly well known-it was a breathing place for heavenly thoughts. I valued this time more than any other except evening prayers.