lecturer has studied; and finally, by giving a short list of his publications, indicates his specialty. If circumstances will allow, a year at either an English or a German university, or better than that, successive courses at both, will be most profitable, and at the same time will greatly increase the pleasure of postgraduate study. Indeed a professor at one of our large universities used frequently to say to his graduate students: "My notion of an ideal education would be an undergraduate course at one of the very best institutions in this country, three years at an English university, and three years at a German university." Unfortunately most students have neither the time nor the means at their disposal to attain to this ideal, and the rapid development in postgraduate schools in this country renders a sojourn in a foreign land much less imperative than it was formerly. To any student who is considering the advisability of postgraduate study the writer would say,-Go forward in the certainty that one of the richest experiences of life is before you. LEONA MAY PEIRCE '86. A business meeting of the Western Massachusetts Association of Alumnæ and non-graduates of Smith College was held at the house of Mrs. Dana Pearson, 10 Henshaw Avenue, Northampton, Saturday, November 17, 1900. The President, Mrs. Mills, presided. The secretary's report was read and accepted, and the constitution was read for the benefit of new members, after which there was a general discussion as to the future work of the Association. At the suggestion of Mrs. Clarke a motion was made and carried to appoint a committee to amend the by-laws of the constitution. After further discussion a motion was passed that a committee be appointed by the Executive Board as a "News Committee," whose duty shall be to furnish information of College affairs to the various alumnæ branches. Miss Caldwell, the present chairman of the Students' Building Committee, presented the matter of the fair to be held on the fifteenth of December, asking help of the alumnæ, since, by a vote of the Faculty Committee having such matters in charge, the fair must be abandoned unless it could be under the management of the alumnæ. Feeling that a large sum of money must be lost to the Students' Building Fund by giving up the fair, a motion was passed that the Western Massachusetts Branch assume its management for this year, and a committee, consisting of Mrs. Higbee, Mrs. Williams, and Miss Cable, was appointed to have general charge. It was also moved that subcommittees be appointed by the chair to aid in further arrangements. The matter of the appointment of electors was next submitted, and Miss Caverno and Mrs. Drury were unanimously chosen to serve. Mrs. Clarke called attention to the $1000 prize offered by the Association for Promoting Scientific Research by Women, and Miss Thatcher explained the aim of the Western Massachusetts Branch of the Association of Collegiate Alumnæ now being formed. The meeting then adjourned, and a social hour followed. Thirty-five were present. YSABEL SWAN '98, Secretary. The Association for Promoting Scientific Research by Women hereby announces the offer of a prize of one thousand dollars for the best thesis presented by a woman, on a scientific subject, embodying the results of her independent laboratory research in any part of the field covered by the biological, chemical, and physical sciences. The theses presented will be judged by a regularly appointed Board of Examiners, consisting of twelve specialists, representing the departments above named. The Association reserves the right to withhold the award of the prize, if the theses presented are not, in the judgment of this Board, of adequate merit to deserve the award. The theses offered in competition are to be presented to the Executive Committee of the Association and must be in the hands of its Secretary before December 31, 1902. The prize will be awarded at the annual meeting in April 1903. Each thesis must be accompanied by a sealed envelope, enclosing the author's name and address, and superscribed with a title corresponding to one borne by the manuscript. Executive Committee:-Caroline Hazard, President, Wellesley College; Sarah E. Doyle, Women's College in Brown University; Ellen H. Richards, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; M. Carey Thomas, Bryn Mawr College; Lilian Welsh, Woman's College of Baltimore; Elizabeth L. Clarke, Treasurer, Williamstown, Mass.; Florence M. Cushing, Secretary pro tem., 8 Walnut Street, Boston, Mass. Contributions toward the "Smith Room" in the Intermediate School for Girls in Spain may be sent by alumnæ to Louisa S. Cheever, 21 Prospect St., Northampton. All members of the college-faculty and students-who intend to visit Washington during the holidays are requested to send their Washington address and the dates of their visit to Mrs. J. A. Clarke, Library of Agricultural Department, Washington, D. C. A book has been placed in the Reading Room in which all alumnæ visiting the college are asked to sign their names. The list of visitors is as follows: The class of '96 has given two hundred and fifty dollars towards the Students' Building Fund. Contributions to this department are desired by the second of the month in order to appear in that month's issue, and should be sent to Ruth L. Gaines, Morris House. '83. Mrs. A. W. Hitchcock (M. M. Osgood) will move from Newburyport to Worcester, Massachusetts, where her husband is to be pastor of the Central Church. '84. Vida D. Scudder had an article on "Ill-gotten Gifts to Colleges" in the November number of the Atlantic Monthly. '92. Harriet A. Boyd addressed the Connecticut Branch of the American Institute of Archaeology in New Haven, in November. '95. Rose Fairbank sailed October 5 for India, to become the head of the Jean Hough is teaching French and history in the High School at Rutland, Vermont. Agnes Hunt is now Assistant Professor of History at the Western Re serve University, and is also doing some college settlement work. Grace M. Page has announced her engagement to Mr. M. S. Bennett. '98. Frances Bridges is traveling through the Southern states as Secretary of the Young Women's Christian Association for the Colleges. Leila Foster is teaching French and German at the Taconic School, Lakeville, Connecticut. Another book of Smith College stories, "Sister's Vocation," by Josephine Dodge Daskam, has just been published by Scribners. Vera Scott has announced her engagement to Mr. James S. Cushman of New York. '99. Clara M. Austin is Assistant in Latin and English at Lasell Seminary, Auburndale, Massachusetts. Miriam F. Choate is studying history and sociology for a Master's degree at Columbia. Myrtle L. Kimball was married May 23, to Mr. Allan H. Wilde. Address, 58 Mountain Avenue, Malden, Massachusetts. Edith E. Rand is teaching in the St. Agatha School, New York City. 1900. Mary S. Conant is teaching at Martha's Vineyard. Madeleine M. Chase has taken up the study of Spanish, and will continue her other languages and music during the winter. Lela Foster is at present taking two literature courses in Northwestern University, and in January will go to Mexico for the rest of the winter. 1900. Caroline Grier has announced her engagement to Mr. Herbert Jameson, Princeton '97. Mary Belle Holt is studying medicine at Tufts College. Carolyn Lauter is attending the Indianapolis Normal School. Margaret Lyman is an assistant teacher in the grammar department of Miss Brook's private school in Chicago. Mina Kerr is the head of the English Department in the Woman's College in Frederick, Maryland. Ella Kirkley will spend the winter studying music at her home in Toledo, Ohio. Clara Kneeland has charge of the English Department at Albert Lea College and Preparatory School, Albert Lea, Minnesota. Emily Locke spent the summer at Woods Holl, taking a course in botany in the Marine Biological Laboratory, and has returned to college to act as an assistant in the Botany Department. Dorcas Leese will return to college the second semester to complete the work missed during her absence in senior year. Olive Mann has entered the State Library School at Albany, N. Y., for a two years' course. Charlotte Marsh is teaching rhetoric and English in Washington Seminary, Washington, Pa. Elizabeth Meier is spending the winter in New York City. Her address is 253 West 85th Street. Mabel Milham has been appointed Intercollegiate Secretary of the Student Volunteer Movement, and will have her headquarters in New York City. Helen Ober is teaching English, Latin, and French in the High School at Hanover, Mass. Helen Story is taking a special course in German literature and history at the Bridgewater Normal School. Carol Weston spent the summer in Nova Scotia and Canada, and will spend a part of the winter in Kansas City. Mary Wiley is principal of the grammar school in Chester, Mass. Elizabeth Whitney sailed for Europe August 30, to be gone until the end of November. Mary Sheafer Whitcomb is a member of the staff of workers of the Brookline Public Library. Her winter address is 10 Auburn Place, Brookline, Mass. ABOUT COLLEGE There is very little which the modern college girl can not claim and obtain at the hands of the world. Fame is freely granted her for study, for athletics, for success, social and financial, for nobility, charm, and College Loyalty sincerity of character. Yet in the face of this, one reservation is often made; we are seldom credited with a spirit of college loyalty. College girls, they say, are all alike outside of college; they do not show that devotion and enthusiasm for their own college that their brother collegians feel for theirs; in short, they are remiss in the true spirit of college loyalty. Why is it we are supposed to lack loyalty? Surely, no one who has ever attempted to criticise before a college girl any feature of her college and its life can boast a satisfactory and dignified victory in the discussion that inevitably ensues. "Have you ever been a student there? Well, then, how do you know?" is the first return shot; and from that time on, the assault turns to defense and a lame retreat is the usual outcome and, not unfrequently, ignominious retreat. Comparison with other colleges ought surely to be allowed, from a spirit of fair play. Secretly, each thinks her own college the best possible, and says so, courtesy permitting. Yet it is quite possible for a girl of average sense to perceive advantages in possessions desirable for others, even if not for herself and the spirit of petty jealousy plays a small part in her college world. The idea of an easy supremacy without a struggle is never particularly attractive to girls, and this, apart from considerations of courtesy, may account for the very limited extent to which we "run down" each other's colleges. It is indisputably much more satisfactory to feel collectively superior to other very fine institutions than to persuade oneself that the others amount to nothing anyway, and hardly need enter into our consideration. If we are confident of our own strength, why belittle our competitors? Certainly an aggressive attitude toward other institutions of learning is not a requisite of college loyalty. our life practically This is the system Outside, people may In The real evidence bearing on the subject is a phase of unknowable to those who have never been college girls. by which girls are given their rank in the college world. rank according to family, position, wealth, anything the world pleases. this smaller world, intrinsic worth is the determining power. There is a place for the society belle, in which the figures vary slightly from year to year, vanishing with scarcely a sound. The athletic girl is idolized, photographed, applauded; her departure is mourned as an irremediable loss. But her place is quickly filled, and to the third subsequent class she is practically |