The Chautauquan, Vol. 05, March 1885Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Science
The Chautauquan, Vol. 05, March 1885
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Chautauqua Institution -- Periodicals; Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle -- Periodicals
“Sister and I got up long before light to prepare for the first
day at school. We put all our books in mother’s satchel; had a
nice tin pail full of dinner. I study arithmetic, geography,
grammar, reading and spelling, which takes up every minute of my
time. Stood next to Pat O’Donahue in spelling, and Pat stood at
the head.”
From my pupil’s diary, a few months later, take this extract:
“I am thinking seriously about my future. Perhaps this is
premature, for I am only in my freshman year, but I have just
about decided that I’ll study medicine.”
From mine, at a similar age (you see precocity was not among my failings):
“Sister was sick, and I brought out all my little bottles of
sugar, salt and flour. Besides these medicines, I dosed her with
pimentoes and poulticed her with cabbage leaves, but she grew no
better, quite fast, so mother called another doctor. Dear me, if
I were my brother, instead of being only a girl, we’d soon see
whether I’ve a talent for medicine or not.”
From my young friend I quote again:
“I am greatly interested in the question for debate in our
literary society this week, especially as I am chief disputant on
the affirmative. It reads as follows: _Resolved_, That the votes
of women are needed to help put down the liquor traffic.”
From mine:
“It is election day and my brother is twenty-one years old. How
proud he seemed as he dressed up in his best clothes and drove
off with father to vote for John C. Fremont, like the sensible
‘Free Soiler’ that he is! My sister and I stood at the front
window and looked out after them. Somehow I felt a lump in my
throat, and then I couldn’t see their wagon any more, things
looked so blurred. I turned to Mary, and she, dear little
innocent, seemed wonderfully sober, too. I said: ‘Wouldn’t you
like to vote as well as Oliver? Don’t you and I love the country
just as well as he, and doesn’t the country need our ballots?’
Whereupon she looked scared, but answered, ‘Of course we do,
but don’t you go ahead and say so, for then we should be called
strong minded.’”
From my pupil at seventeen I quote once more:
“The recent articles by members of the ‘Women’s Congress,’ some
people would call radical, but they express precisely my opinions
on the dress question. It is time for me to assume the garb of a
young lady, but upon two things I am determined: First, I will
never trail my garments on a filthy pavement while I live. If I
am the only young lady in this university, who, when she walks,
wears walking costume, I will still be true to my individual
sense of cleanliness and taste. I will also carry the jewel of an
_unpunctured ear_ through life, though, by so doing, I oblige Mr.
Darwin to confess ‘a missing link’ between me and my evolutionary
ancestors.”
Finally, from mine:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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