| Show women at college Pyo professor fessor angell president of michigan university in h his is speech atthe at the laying of the cornei corner stone stung of bf sa sage 0 e college cornell university sits sItZ lately said so far as I 1 have observed the tho objections in the main to this course sum themselves up ar or group themselves under two or three heads tho farst one which used to be cited much more frequently than now and which has been answered so completely I 1 need not advert to it is this that women women are not capable of attaining to this culture well my friends that has all been taken care of one would think from hearing these persons talk that the young gentlemen who wilo carry onn off the degrees of A B and B P had same marvelous attainments tain ments in literature and science well weil we wont deny that among ourselves undergraduates but the world at large vrho who have been through college are mostly convinced that theres there thero is not 8 so 0 extraordinary an accumulation of kno knowledge wl but that many mapy a bright girl can g get et it and they do get it I 1 give the result of the work at our university without any disparagement to the young men and I 1 say in all frankness that in all departments of study st u d I 1 the young ladies have fully held heid li eit elt their own to say the least and no less in the higher mathematics than in the departments of literature they have shown the same variety of aptitude the same variety of skill that the young men have some have been brilliant some less so some broken at examination that that is forvour for your encouragement young gentleman because we are aie impartial another objection or class of objections sum themselves up under this head and to my mind m 1 ind a much more formidable one namely that they had not the physical endurance to go through the course and I 1 do not doubt but women mothers who hear me here today to day think the same that it would be to heavy a draft upon the nervous strength and that they would break down and come home in vali ded now the only way this can be answered is of course by experiments peri perl mont ments any lady that can endure the draft that modern diess dress and modern society make upon her can certainly endure any college course coarse so far as physical endurance is concerned I 1 am simply hereto heme here to bear tes tei testimony inthe in tile plainest laii lall iest lest way to what our experience pias rias has shown I 1 have made it an oh ob eject of particular examination and r scrutiny cru tny aud and am thoroughly convinced that there is no dan danger e which need be ba considered wort wont worthy Y of mention in any young 0 woman in intolerable tolerable good health pursuing the regular course prescribed nor has it actually been the case that they them have been impaired in health by the course the third class of the last I 1 shall name sum themselves up andar this head that there will be some kind of moral embarrassment that will be unpleasant or that there will wil I 1 be ome lome L sacrifice of that peculiar charm that delicacy which wo we describe by the term womanliness none certain ly can nold noid more to his opinion than I 1 and if there w was as to be the sli sll slightest haest sacrifice of that charm th that thal a t delicacy which la Is to woman what color is to the flower that alwer nameless something which poets strive to describe de scribe scriba but cannot that something which attracts us to woman if this were to be lost it were indeed in my judgment too great a cost to pay if we were to make masculine women or blue stockings then for one let jet me have the privilege of resigning my position W but t I 1 wish to testify tosti testily fy so far as my experience has gone I 1 give it only a as s ahr three ee years experience I 1 must say I 1 see no possible tendency in tills this direction we all know that american men according to the testimony of europeans are proverbially courteous to ladies ladles and from students of colleges you may be bb assured you may rely upon courteous treatment toward ladies so faras far as I 1 know though we have no regulations or rules in regard to the matter at all but have left the tile whole thing to the innate good sense and courtesy of the students I 1 have yet to learn of the fira nira fir A thing in which I 1 see the tiie least apprehension upon this point I 1 a speak eak with great plainness and emall emphasis asis because I 1 know this thi isa is a point upon which wh leh ieh there has been great concern and upon which there was in my mind at one time so go much for fur V these thesa three points I 1 believe you will never have occasion to recur to it here the rhe T the argument has been made madland rand fand the verdict rendered it ita is looming up in stone before me toi to stand fod for ages 11 |
