Part 2 (2/2)

Both of these are in the preparatory departiate class, because I passed all h of the right Latin to be a full freshet up at 630, have breakfast at 7, then a class at 755, after that comes silent hour, chapel, and section Bible class Then hours again till dinner-tio outdoors all ant to and to the library, but we can't go in each other's rooirls here ould like to talk every ht

I went out to walk this afternoon with B We alking very slow and talking very fast, when all of a sudden we ine, his white hair flying out in the wind When he saw us he stopped; of course we stopped too, for anted to speak to us

”That isn't the way to walk, girls,” he said, very briskly

”You need to h your veins; that will stiood students

Coe, and show you what I htened up and walked! Mr Durant talked to us some about our lessons He seeot back to the college we told the girls aboutafter this; I'm sure I shan't

Oct 5 I broke an oar to-day I'; two of us sit on one seat, each pulling an oar There is rooht in the boat, beside the captain

We went out to-day in a boat called the Ellida and after going all around the lake we thought it would be fun to go under a little stone bridge The captain told us to shi+p our oars; I didn't shi+p e and snapped right off I was dreadfully frightened; especially as the captain said right away, ”You'll have to tell Mr Durant”

The captain's nairl, and on that account thinks a great deal of herself

I wish I'd come last year It ht I ht as well have the matter of the oar over with, so as soon as we landed I took the two pieces of the oar and ht into the office

Mr Durant sat there at the desk He appeared to be very busy and he didn't look at me at first When he did uess he saas frightened, for he laughed a little and said, ”Oh ho, you've had an accident, I see”

I told him how it happened, and he said, ”Well, you've learned that stone bridges are stronger than oars; and that bit of information will cost you seventy cents”

I was so relieved that I laughed right out ”I thought it would cost as much as five dollars,” I said I like Mr Durant

October 15 Mr Durant talked to us in chapel thishonest about our do and can hurry, while others

don't even kno to tie their shoestrings or braid their hair properly when they first come My work is to dust the center on the first floor It's easy, and if I didn't take lots of tis while I a it I couldn't possibly h, so irls got as red as beets and cried afterward; she hadn't swept her corridor for thole days Mr Durant certainly does get down to the roots of things, and if you haven't a pretty decent conscience about your lessons and everything, you feel as though you had a clear littleright in the h which he can look in and see the disorder Soirls say they are just paralyzed when he looks at thes just as well as I can

Sunday, November 19 We had a missionary fro He see ready to be s that he hoped to welcoraduated His complexion was very yellow It re We heard afterward that he wasn't married, and that he hoped to find a suitable helph Mr Durant introduced hiirls I didn't think he liked the looks of any of them At least he didn't propose to any of them on the spot They're only sophomores, anyhen one conity of the whole institution rested on their shoulders

Most of them wear trails every day I wish I had a trail

To coe woe president, by aface, pink cheeks, blue eyes, and puffs of snohite hair, wearing always a long trailing gown of black silk, cut low at the throat and finished with folds of snowy tulle” None of these writers gives the date at which the trail disappeared fro letters are from Mary Elizabeth Stilwell, a member of that same class of '79 which wore the trails She, like Florence Morse, left college on account of her health The letters are printed by the courtesy of her daughter, Ruth Eleanor McKibben, a graduate of Denison College and a graduate student at Wellesley during 1914 and 1915 Elizabeth Stilas older and ive us the old Wellesley froe--

Oct 16, '75

My Dear Mother:--

If you are at all discouraged or feel the need of so to cheer you up you had better lay this letter aside and read it soly doleful

But really, Mother, I a to write and have thought the whole matter over carefully before I have ventured a word on the subject Wellesley is not a college The buildings are beautiful, perfect alhtful, most of the professors are all that could be desired, some of them are very fine indeed in their several departs that h to try the patience of a Job I cae course, and not to dabble in a little of every insignificant thing that co essays, practicing elocution, trotting to chapel, and reading poetry with the teacher of English literature, and it seems to make no difference to Miss Howard and Mr Durant whether the Latin, Greek and Mathematics are well learned or not The result is that I do not have tie work is unsatisfactory, poorly done, and so of course a I am not the only one that feels it, but every , and not only the students but even the professors You can have no idea of how these very professors have worked to have things different and have expostulated and expostulated with Mr Durant, but all to no avail He is as hard as a flint and his mind is made up of the most beautiful theories, but he is perfectly blind to facts

He rules the college, from the amount of Latin we shall read to the kind of meat we shall have for dinner; he even went out into the kitchen the other day and told the cook not to waste sothe hash, for I heard hiirl, intolerant, as youth is always intolerant, and that she riting only one e had opened It is not to be expected that she could understand the creative excite in those first years We, who look back, can appreciate what it ination and intensity, to see his ideal co true; naturally, he could not keep his hands off And we must remember also that until his death Mr Durant ave him a peculiar claim to have his wishes carried out, whether in the classroom or in the kitchen

Miss Stilwell continues:

I know there are a great s to be taken into consideration I know that the college is new and that all sorts of discouragements are to be expected, and that the best way is to bear theht in the end At the same time I am DETERMINED to have a certain sort of an education, and I et it Oh! if I could only make you see it as we all feel it! It is such a bitter disappointe, to find the sa that Mrs S (the mother of one of the students) spoke of yesterday, which is very true I aious influence She said that she thought that Mr Durant by driving the girls so, and continually harping on the subject, was losing all his influence and was doing just the opposite of what he intended I know that with my room-mate and her set he is a constant source of ridicule and his exhortations and prayers are retailed in the most terrible way

I have setof the sort done in my room, but I know that it is done elsewhere, and that every spark of religious interest is killed by the process I have firmly made up my mind that it shall not affectmyself this far