HOBART COLLEGE BULLETINS 
 
 Vol. vn 
 
 October, 1908 
 
 No. 1 
 
 KbbxtBB to % Alumni 
 
 ffiprnmg nf William Swttlj (Efllleg* 
 
 Announr?m?nt0 
 
 Published by Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y. Issued quarterly. 
 
 Entered October 28, 1902, at Geneva, N. Y., as second-class 
 
 matter, under Act of Congress of July i6, 1894. 
 
I 
 
ADDRESS TO THE ALUMNI 
 
 Gentlemen of the Alumni: 
 
 The opening of the academic year saw also the opening 
 of William Smith College, and a full account of the pro- 
 ceedings is contained in the present Bulletin. As a pref- 
 ace to this account I beg leave to present a short state- 
 ment for your special consideration. 
 
 When due allowance is made for the hard times, which 
 have affected to an exceptional degree young men of 
 moderate means as well as those who are dependent upon 
 their individual exertions to meet their College expenses, 
 the size of the entering class gives good ground for en- 
 couragement. Forty-four new men have already regis- 
 tered together with twenty-two young women, making a 
 total of sixty-six. Sixty-one former students returned 
 to College out of the seventy-eight which remained after 
 the graduating class left Geneva and we have therefore on 
 our roll today one hundred five men and twenty-two 
 women or one hundred twenty-seven in all. The num- 
 ber of the entering class of men is slightly above the 
 average of the past five years and is the third largest 
 among the six classes which have presented themselves 
 during the present administration. The total increase 
 for the past five years over the preceding five years is a 
 little more than ten per cent. Now when it is remembered 
 that up to the present time we have not only been unable 
 to offer courses in Biology or Political Economy but have 
 also been without a Gymnasium, any increase in the 
 student body, competition with better equipped institu- 
 
4 Hobart College 
 
 tions being what it is, is more than could have been 
 rationally expected. We have at last, however, a full 
 College Faculty with the possible exception of a chair of 
 Geology. Such a state of things is one in which all loyal 
 Hobart men should rejoice and we may now in all reason 
 look for better and greater growth than ever before. 
 
 Nevertheless, although we have good ground for 
 expecting bigger Freshman classes in the future than we 
 have had in the past, we cannot afford to rely exclusively 
 upon our improved equipment for results. Hobart Col- 
 lege is not by any means as well known as many other 
 institutions of similar size and quality and, therefore, a 
 campaign of aggressive work upon the part of the Alumni 
 all over the country is urgently needed. There never 
 was a time in the history of their Alma Mater when such a 
 campaign could be more conscientiously and enthusiasti- 
 cally undertaken than now. There are indeed some sons 
 of Hobart who never fail to send us students every year 
 and their activity and success are clear indications of 
 what might be accomplished if the rest of the family 
 would but follow their example. 
 
 On the other hand it is undoubtedly true that the task 
 of obtaining students for the small College is a difficult 
 one, while the further task of retaining the students after 
 they have once registered is far from easy. In this con- 
 nection it is best for me to frankly tell the Alumni that 
 Hobart seems always to have lost an unusually large pro- 
 portion of her students, or to put the same thing in 
 another way she seems for a long time to have graduated 
 but a relatively small number of those who come to her. 
 Many causes have no doubt contributed to this discon- 
 certing and undesirable result. There are, however, two 
 causes in particular which because they are the most 
 
Address to the Alumni 5 
 
 potent ones should be squarely faced and understood. 
 
 The first of these causes is the admission of special stu- 
 dents or of men who desire to do a year or so of college 
 work but who never expect to take a degree. It is but 
 right the Alumni should know that I have seriously con- 
 sidered the elimination of all special students whatsoever 
 but that I have been deterred from taking this step 
 because of a strong disinclination to withhold from many 
 worthy fellows the modicum of college training they are 
 able to afford. In these days of technical schools many 
 young men, who because of limited means or of adolescent 
 impatience feel they cannot afford a full college course, 
 wish to have at least two years of collegiate training as a 
 propaedeutic to their professional studies. In the interest 
 of such men in particular and of the community in 
 general it seems desirable that they should receive all the 
 education they are willing to take. At the same time it 
 ought to be said that we have striven to lessen the num- 
 ber of special students and to limit them to those who 
 have some serious purpose in view. To this end we now 
 demand of special students twenty-five counts for en- 
 trance instead of the twenty formerly required and also 
 try to assure ourselves that their intention in coming to 
 college is to work and not to play ball. It remains a 
 fact, however, that the special student does not receive a 
 degree and his presence in college is one undoubted rea- 
 son why the proportion of men who graduate is as small 
 as it is. 
 
 But the presence of the special student is not'the only 
 reason for the losses which the student body yearly sus- 
 tains. Another principal cause of these losses is the 
 slender pecuniary capital of a number of our students. 
 These men are compelled to work hard during term time 
 
6 Hobart College 
 
 as well as through the vacations to provide money for 
 their board and clothing. In many cases they are com- 
 pelled to give up and drop out. Geneva does not provide 
 positions for self-help which larger cities such as Rochester 
 and Syracuse afford, and therefore many of our men 
 leave us for colleges with bigger scholarships and ampler 
 facilities for earning money. 
 
 j Now I have brought these facts to the attention of the 
 Alumni in order that they may better understand the 
 situation in Geneva and not expect of us the impossible. 
 We have had great difficulties to contend against but we 
 believe that in time we shall in large part overcome them. 
 The present condition of affairs is one of emphatic im- 
 provement. I am happy to report that we have managed 
 to hold an increased number of students during the past 
 three years and that a larger proportion of the last Fresh- 
 man class became Sophomores this September than in any 
 previous year of my administration. These are but a 
 few of the favorable signs that are visible today and I 
 trust that the Alumni with more hope than formerly and 
 with a better comprehension of our task will do what in 
 them lies to send us students and the money wherewith 
 we may educate them and provide for the needs of Alma 
 Mater. 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 Langdon C. Stewardson. 
 
THE OPENING OF WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGE 
 
 The Opening of William Smith College took place on 
 Saturday afternoon, September 19th, in Coxe Hall. 
 After prayer by the Chaplain, President Stewardson 
 made the following introductory remarks : 
 
 "In the name of the Trustees of Hobart College, I here- 
 with declare the William Smith College for Women open. 
 
 "The entering Freshman class numbers twenty-one, 
 which, with the forty-three new men who have just 
 entered Hobart College, makes a total enrollment of 
 sixty-four new students. Others are still expected to 
 register. This showing we are glad to state puts to rout 
 the gloomy forebodings of some people that our new 
 venture would fail of itself as well as diminish the number 
 of undergraduate men. 
 
 "The President has received hundreds of congratulatory 
 letters and telegrams from Alumni and Trustees of 
 Hobart College and from sister institutions of learning. 
 It will, of course, be impossible for him to read all these 
 messages of good will but he has selected a few of them as 
 demanding special recognition on this occasion. These 
 are from President Thwing of Western Reserve Univer- 
 sity, Bishop Paret of Maryland and Miss Emily Black- 
 well, M.D. 
 
 "With a larger entering class than we expected and 
 with the best wishes of our friends, the birth of this new 
 department of Hobart College is an auspicious one and it 
 should fill all Hobart men with hope and courage. In 
 particular, are they aboundingly grateful to Mr. William 
 Smith, who is on my right hand today, for his munificent 
 
8 Hobart College 
 
 gift. This is indeed a time of magnificent benefactions, 
 and yet this gift of Mr. Smith stands second to none in 
 the fact that it constitutes by far the larger part of his 
 fortune. In the name of Hobart College I extend to him 
 the profound appreciation of the Trustees and Faculty, 
 the Alumni and students, and pledge him their hearty 
 co-operation in the carrying out of his central idea. 
 
 "What is this idea? It is briefly this, that the system 
 of education should be so shaped as to develop men and 
 women for nobler and ampler qualities of life and that its 
 object should be to inspire its recipients with a desire to 
 render the conditions of life more propitious for the evolu- 
 tion of man's entire capital — physical and intellectual, 
 moral and spiritual. In speaking with Mr. Smith the 
 other day, I reminded him that he had endowed three 
 new professorships, Biology, Psychology and Economics 
 and Sociology. "Ah," he said, "but have you appointed 
 a professor of the spiritual life?" I said, "No, because 
 the spiritual life is the monopoly of no one class or profes- 
 sion. The spiritual life expresses itself in many ways; 
 in language and science, art and letters, religion and 
 morals; therefore each true professor seeks to make his 
 special branch of learning or research a minister of the 
 spiritual life. Every good teacher seeks not only to 
 instruct men in the knowledge and technicalities of his 
 chosen subject of study but also to show them how this 
 study may bring about a more completely rounded life. 
 We are all then dedicated by our office and ministry to 
 the glad task of inspiring human life and bettering its 
 conditions, and we assure Mr. Smith that each man in his 
 sphere and station will be alive to the claims of life and 
 eager to give these claims their due acknowledgment and 
 Binple satisfaction." 
 
The Opening of William Smith College 9 
 
 MAYOR ROSE'S ADDRESS 
 
 President Stewardson then introduced Mayor Rose in 
 the following words : 
 
 "It is an ancient and beautiful fable that the fairies 
 come to bless the new born life with their gifts. There 
 are those here today who have brought with them those 
 beneficent gifts of sympathy and good will without 
 which no institutional or human life can prosper as it 
 should. The pleasure of introducing them to you is the 
 privilege of my position. 
 
 "The first is an honored citizen of Geneva and a beloved 
 Alumnus of this College, one who is busy in season and 
 out of season in the works of beneficent and high minded 
 life. He is here today as the especial representative of 
 the Alumni of the College. I have the gratification of 
 presenting the Hon. Arthur P. Rose, Mayor of the City of 
 Geneva, Hobart, '62." 
 
 Mayor Rose spoke as follows: 
 
 "Dr. Stewardson has asked me to say a few words in 
 behalf of the alumni of the college, on this occasion of the 
 opening of the Smith School for Women. Though I can- 
 not claim the title of oldest living alumnus, yet I have 
 been more or less connected with, or familiar with, the 
 college and its alumni for more than half the period of its 
 existence, and doubtless on that account Dr. Stewardson 
 has considered me competent to speak for them. 
 
 "It has been a question in the minds of many what 
 effect this new departure of a Women's College would 
 have upon the minds of the alumni, in whose days such 
 a departure was not thought of. And here I am reminded 
 that not all of our alumni are of the sterner sex. The 
 house that we are to open this evening is named after a 
 
io Hobart College 
 
 most distinguished alumna, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell — still 
 living, the first woman to graduate from a medical col- 
 lege in this country. 
 
 4 'It must be confessed that there is a strong prejudice 
 against co-education in the mind of the average young 
 person of the male sex. The small boy looks down upon 
 his sisters as being not as strong as he, and not able to do 
 the athletic 'stunts' and play the games in which he 
 delights. It is a severe punishment to be sent to sit on 
 the bench with the girls, in the school. And I think that 
 this feeling is accentuated by the fact that the girls have 
 a way of leading their classes and taking prizes which is 
 quite disgusting to the average boy. I do not think the 
 'co-eds' are popular with the young men in any institu- 
 tion where they exist. We all know that the influence 
 of woman is refining, and all that, but how can it be 
 exerted if the young men refuse to recognize or associate 
 with the young women? 
 
 "If it had been designed to make of Hobart a co-educa- 
 tional institution, I do not think that the alumni, old or 
 young, would have taken kindly to the plan, or would 
 have kept up all of their present interest in the college. 
 But fortunately, such was not the design of the founders 
 of the Smith School. It has been determined, most 
 wisely as I think, that the Smith School for Women shall 
 be co-ordinate to the College proper. 
 
 "It is my firm belief that this new departure will be 
 welcomed by all the alumni of Hobart, old and young. 
 At least, I have not yet heard a dissenting voice. Those 
 who arc to follow me will tell you just what is proposed 
 to be done. I (lose by saying that the increased facili- 
 ties and opportunities offered to the undergraduates, 
 both young men and young women, will make us older 
 
The Opening of William Smith College ii 
 
 alumni regret that we cannot take our college course over 
 again." 
 
 MRS. COMSTOCK'S ADDRESS 
 
 The next speaker was introduced in these words: 
 "In perfecting the plans for the William Smith College 
 the President has had the assistance of many able and 
 worthy counsellors. One of them has kindly consented 
 to address you today. She has helped us by her sound, 
 good sense and knowledge as well as by her large woman's 
 heart. She is a valued instructor at a neighboring uni- 
 versity and she is also a Trustee of this College, Mrs. Anna 
 B. Comstock, of Hobart and Cornell." 
 
 Mrs. Comstock spoke as follows: 
 
 "In coming before you today, it has seemed to me a 
 privilege to speak to you of the ideas and hopes which 
 have led to the foundation of this new College. To pre- 
 sent to you an outlook upon the methods of education to 
 be followed here, — the studies to be here emphasized. 
 
 "The inaugural of the William Smith College is some- 
 thing more than the mere opening of a new college for 
 women. It has come to mean something more to those 
 of us who have been associated with the Founder during 
 the past three or four years, and who have thus come to 
 know his ideals. He has from the first had in mind a 
 distinct type of education for women which this college 
 should give ; and to those who are interested in the his- 
 tory of education and who can, in a measure, predict its 
 future, it has seemed that our honored Founder has 
 reached out through the educational mists and found his 
 way to the citadel of truest learning. It has been from 
 the first his desire to fit women for living and to found a 
 college that shall give to them, in greatest measure, the 
 
i2 Hobart College 
 
 fullness of life ; that shall give them the power to control 
 life instead of being driven by it — the power to bring into 
 each day a consciousness of the richness and potency of 
 life — the power to take the day and its duties as a refresh- 
 ing draught instead of something to be swallowed as 
 quickly as possible and out of the way; the power to 
 overflow with exhilaration of life instead of the fatigue of 
 it; the power to deal meaningly with life instead of to 
 putter with it. 
 
 4 'It behooves those of us to whom this enterprise has 
 been entrusted to think well before we allow the trammels 
 of established educational methods to fall upon us with 
 paralyzing force ; it behooves us to look thoughtfully on 
 the higher education of the past and the present, that we 
 may choose only that which shall carry out the ideals of 
 our Founder. 
 
 "In the past every age has developed its own definition 
 and methods of education to fit the special needs of those . 
 whom it sought to educate. But whatever the age or the 
 time or wherever the place it is true that colleges have 
 been built and college courses planned for some special 
 class or classes of pupils; and those not belonging to 
 special classes yet who desired an education had to take 
 what was prepared for others. They were not permitted 
 to gather the crumbs from the educational table accord- 
 ing to their taste, but were obliged to gorge the whole 
 menu and digest it as best they might. This has been 
 true of men in the past and still more true of women; 
 and because of the effort of the many to use one kind of 
 learning for all kinds of work, we finally came to define 
 education as simply the power to use the mind. We sub- 
 ordinated the idea of gaining mental riches and put all 
 stress upon mental li veliness and agility ; we gave the pupils 
 
The Opening of William Smith College 13 
 
 mental power to attain without giving them any very- 
 clear ideas or worthy ideals of what there was to attain. 
 
 'To be sure there were always the riches of the classics 
 and other literatures and philosophy, and to some, there- 
 fore, the college course flung open the gates to wider cul- 
 ture and interest ; but I ask of any of you who have taught 
 these subjects to answer this question: "What propor- 
 tion of your pupils went far enough in these subjects so 
 that you felt sure that they would prove in the future a 
 comforting resource, a well of refreshment to spirit and 
 mind?" 
 
 " Within the memory of most of us there came the 
 reaction against the old learning, and the college curricu- 
 lum was widened and changed to fit the needs of the 
 many. Technical colleges were established ; the sciences 
 found great buildings and laboratories in which to grow; 
 domestic science and manual training were made part of 
 college work and introduced into the secondary schools. 
 There can be no doubt that the tendency of the college 
 and university in America today is to fit pupils to do 
 whatever work the world gives them to do. A great step* 
 forward surely, but it seems to me that although we fit 
 pupils to do what they may have to do we have signally 
 failed to fit them to be all that they might be. While 
 doing and being are close partners yet they are two very 
 different elements of the personality, and the question 
 before educators today is how to make our institutions of 
 learning equal to fitting the spirit and mind as well as the 
 physical body ; to form ideals and character as well as to 
 train the mind ; to send forth pupils with all that is good 
 in them well developed, to enable them to give to the 
 world the full measure of their capacity, and to receive 
 from the world the full measure of what it has to give to 
 
14 Hobart College 
 
 those who are fit to receive. In other words, making 
 them capable of receiving life in it? fullest measure. This 
 problem lies before the Trustees of the William Smith 
 College almost as a condition of our foundation. How 
 are we to solve it ? 
 
 "It is not to be done by widening our curriculum to a 
 great extent and permitting or requiring our pupils to 
 cover a wider range of subjects. This is, in fact, the 
 weakest place in our present educational system both in 
 secondary schools and universities, and it is a peril which 
 we have not yet learned to cope with. By trying to 
 learn too many things nothing is learned well. It has 
 led to a development in our pupils of what one eloquent 
 college youth terms a 'thoroughly lubricated hundred 
 horse power forgettery.' They have learned to remem- 
 ber up to the day of examination rather than to have 
 learned the subject. A memory so expedient as this can 
 scarcely be termed a memory, but is instead, a specially 
 developed sense. 
 
 "This calls to mind an incident: Just before the holi- 
 days one year I was going to New York and noticed in the 
 car a number of young men whom I could not place. 
 They did not seem like college boys nor like ordinary 
 boys. Four of them sat in facing seats ahead of mine and 
 began a spirited argument; but the topic argued was 
 unknown to me and so were the authorities quoted. 
 One seemed to have made a statement that was quite 
 heretical and the other three were seeking to convince 
 him of his error. I was quite bewildered, but I finally 
 concluded that they must be theologians and later dis- 
 covered that they were from a Catholic seminary in 
 Rochester and then my bewilderment was quite explica- 
 ble because i had been trained at theologyless Cornell 
 
The Opening of William Smith College 15 
 
 where Dr. Schmidt says 'we do not know a heresy when 
 we see it.' Meanwhile the law was being laid down to 
 the heretic in front of me; one said to him, 'Where is your 
 theology to back you?' and another said 'You can find 
 no authority for this in philosophy,' and another sharply 
 demanded, 'Where is your logic?' But he remained 
 stubborn and the argument waxed until we neared Scran- 
 ton when the four arose and prepared to leave the car, 
 and the heretic said in a conciliatory manner, 'Well, we 
 are getting near home and now for two weeks we can for- 
 get our philosophy and our theology and our logic,' at 
 which his seat companion said, sliding his arm affection- 
 ately around his shoulder, 'Ah, Jamie, you will have a 
 hard time forgetting the things you never knew!' 
 
 "It is true that today many of the subjects which our 
 pupils take they never know, and the result is lament- 
 able. Not that it would be for the memory to be bur- 
 dened with everything one has to learn, but today this 
 taking of subjects to forget them, smacks too much of the 
 process by which the ancient Romans enabled themselves 
 to gorge at their banquets. 
 
 "I am not so sure that the methods of Mohammedan 
 Universities are so dangerous. I had the pleasure last 
 winter to visit a Mohammedan University in the Gamia el 
 Azhar in Cairo and had an opportunity for seeing this 
 other extreme of educational method where everything 
 learned must be remembered. There in that great 
 courtyard and its surrounding arcade were a fair share of 
 the four thousand students in present attendance at this 
 greatest of Mohammedan institutions. The mosc of 
 them were sitting on the ground and were rocking to and 
 fro and repeating their lines over and over aloud, mak- 
 ing perhaps less noise than we hear at one of our large 
 
i 6 Hob art College 
 
 receptions. For every thirty of forty pupils was a 
 teacher, long bearded and with huge turban, also sitting 
 cross-legged on the floor, and when a pupil wished to recite 
 he drew near the teacher and still weaving his body to and 
 fro recited his lesson, and the teacher in listening often 
 moved his body to and fro and muttered the lines in con- 
 cert. And this university has a library of thousands of 
 volumes, all of which are the Koran or grammars of the 
 Koran. These pupils had no use for a 'forgettery,' they 
 were packing the Koran away in their memories so that 
 they would never forget a word. 
 
 "Somewhere between these two extremes of studying 
 and forgetting and studying and remembering must lie 
 the golden mean, which we must discover for the future 
 of the William Smith College, a college where woman 
 should gain her education by best methods and least 
 waste of energy. 
 
 "As to our curriculum, let us ask ourselves first, what 
 are the educational needs of women which must here be 
 ministered unto. As a woman and from a life spent with 
 college women may I be pardoned if I formulate some of 
 the things which seem necessary to the development of 
 any woman whatever her walk in life, whether she be the 
 mother of a family, an educator, or a professional woman. 
 
 "(i) Her spiritual training should be broad and pro- 
 gressive, for though in the past many a woman through 
 the heart's alchemy has transmuted a cast iron theology 
 into the gold of a beautiful life, yet history gives us too 
 many examples of the evil wrought by good women with 
 a narrow spiritual outlook. Too much has woman's 
 spiritual life been emotional, and it would surprise many 
 a woman to be told that spiritual life is not just feelings 
 nor is it just convictions. It is a force and should be 
 
The Opening of William Smith College 17 
 
 made an intelligent force. It was for this that our 
 honored Founder wishes a thorough training in psychol- 
 ogy to be made the knowledge basis for the spiritual train- 
 ing in the William Smith College. 
 
 11 (2) Her character should be built high with integrity 
 and yet on the broad foundations of sympathy and under- 
 standing of her fellow beings. It is a platitude that 
 character building should be a part of College life; it is 
 always a part of college life, but teachers have perhaps 
 less to do with it than the fellow pupils. In this new 
 college of ours may we not hope that the college home, 
 the close relations of the women in it may be such in this 
 respect as to supplement the teacher's influence and the 
 college course. 
 
 "(3) She should be fitted to be a social factor in the 
 life about her. I do not mean by this that she should be 
 merely what we are pleased to term a society woman ; she 
 should know how, for the woman who does not know how 
 to meet the world with pleasing manners is sadly handi- 
 capped. I am glad to have the William Smith College 
 co-ordinate with Hobart for social reasons, for I believe 
 that a fair amount of social gaiety during a college course 
 is the proper part of a girl's development. I know it has 
 been a great help to our Cornell women, and right here I 
 should like to make a statement concerning the social life 
 of the women of Cornell. I have been as student and as 
 Faculty member for thirty-four years closely connected 
 with the women of Cornell, and I think that any one who 
 knows me will also say that I have been as widely in 
 touch with Cornell men of all classes. You doubtless have 
 heard many of the rumors that there are a certain class 
 of young men who always have been opposed to co-educa- 
 tion, and they are the ones who give their opinion to the 
 
1 8 HobartXollegeJ| 
 
 world, especially when they are freshmen and sopho- 
 mores. But the large number of the men who are with 
 us take it as a matter of course that the girls are there and 
 do not give the matter much thought. I should say a 
 fair proportion of the student body, those who have been 
 educated in our high schools, look with favor upon the 
 presence of the young women. In any case our women 
 have plenty of pleasant social life, all rumors to the con- 
 trary. The last time I was present during a calling even- 
 ing at Sage College there were more men present than 
 women. Our young women learn to be charming hostes- 
 ses; their college experience gives them greater social 
 resources. But not only should the woman be fitted to 
 meet society pleasantly, she should also be given the 
 power to vivify her social surroundings. Her human 
 interests must be alert and sympathetic, and from her 
 nature must be eliminated jealousy and pettiness which, N 
 are perhaps the chief feminine vices ; and for the elimina- 
 tion of these there is just one surest method, and that is 
 to give women broad interests and plenty of healthful 
 intellectual activity. These so-called vices are, I am 
 convinced, not so inherent in the feminine character as 
 they are the result of narrow thinking, of limited intellect- 
 ual life and consequent ingrowing egotism. 
 
 44 (4 j As a corrollary to character building and to 
 social power is the next great need in woman's education, 
 and that is a wide and thorough intellectual training 
 along the lines of her chief interests. And she should 
 specialize in some subject until she masters it, and should 
 gain only the subject matter as a store of riches for future 
 !. but she should have the mental equipment to 
 enable her to add to it. The subject she chooses is not 
 important so long as it is to her interesting. It may be 
 
The Opening of William Smith College 19 
 
 the classics or modern literature, philosophy, mathemat- 
 ics, science, art, or music. I care not what it is so long 
 as it is some line of intellectual activity in which her 
 interest is so strong that it shall, in the future, keep her 
 from that other not wholly feminine failing dilettanteism. 
 Scattering her forces and wasting her time dabbling in 
 many things has been not so much woman's fault as the 
 fault of her education and circumstances. But if she 
 gains a keen interest in some study during her college 
 course, it will remain to her what any woman or man 
 needs, and the busier and harder the life the more they 
 need it, i. e., an absorbingly interesting avocation; some- 
 thing that lifts one completely out of the hard and fast 
 grooves of every day duties and sets the mind, the spirit 
 and even the tired body free so that when they return to 
 the routine they are not only refreshed but energized. 
 And, above all others, the woman who is the wife, the 
 mother and the home-keeper needs such a resource to 
 keep her spirits refreshed and her thoughts from becoming 
 morbid. The sanest woman I know, and men too for 
 that matter, are kept sane and rested and active because 
 of this interest in some subject which brings riches from 
 afar into the necessarily monotonous grind of daily duties. 
 It is as the shadow of a rock in a weary land. There are 
 some who criticize the feminine energy put into bridge 
 whist these recent years ; but this has always seemed to 
 me another evidence of woman's need for an interest 
 outside the routine. Her college training should give 
 woman such a wide vision of things worth while to do 
 that she need not necessarily be forced into gaming 
 because of this inner need. 
 
 "(5) A part of woman's college training should fit her 
 for making a home what it should be. Whether she 
 
20 Hobart College 
 
 marries or not this need remains ; a woman needs a home 
 by nature even more than a man. Today all over our 
 country teachers and the women who are working in 
 professions or otherwise are uniting, three or four to- 
 gether and making homes. No woman is competent for 
 life unless she is trained for home-making. Thorough 
 courses in domestic science and all the attendant home- 
 making subjects are the chief factors of this part of 
 woman's preparation, and yet they are by no means all. 
 Everything she gains in her whole college course must 
 necessarily go to make her more competent and so 
 develop her tastes and individuality that as you enter her 
 home you feel her presence and her personality permeat- 
 ing everything to make the place more home-like. 
 
 "(6) A college education should also teach women 
 how to care for and educate children. Whether they are 
 her own children or those of other people, if she is a true 
 woman she will find her own important place in influenc- 
 ing the young life about her. She will meet life better 
 if she has a sympathetic and healthful attitude toward 
 the children of the world. One thing our colleges and 
 universities of today have done is to make the mother 
 capable of sharing the intellectual life of her children ; not 
 as a dominating force, but as an intellectual companion. 
 I know of no more beautiful relationship than I have 
 witnessed in many instances where the boy struggling 
 with his high school studies turns naturally and inevita- 
 bly to his mother for help and sympathy; it gives her 
 another strong hold upon her son at a period when her 
 companionship counts for most. But in addition to this 
 which follows naturally from a college training, there 
 should be in every woman's college a course in education 
 and in psychology and child study that shall give the girl 
 
The Opening of William Smith College 21 
 
 a scientific as well as a sympathetic basis for her future 
 relation to the young. 
 
 "Last, but not least, she should know how to preserve 
 her health and energy. She should have scientific physi- 
 cal culture, a knowledge of hygiene and a rational theory 
 of physical life. But physical culture is not all there is 
 to a truly healthful life; the spiritual outlook has as 
 rnuch to do with health as does physical training and the 
 two react upon each other. Woman's entire college 
 experience should come to her aid and give her food for 
 thought and a broad culture which will make her world 
 so wide that she cannot rationally feel that she is the cen- 
 ter of it, the pivot on which it whirls, a state of mind 
 never conducive to health. On the contrary, she will 
 find it such an interesting world that she will rejoice that 
 she is even an infinitesimal part of it ; and the person who 
 is at heart optimistic and full of faith and who has plenty 
 of mental and physical occupation is never sick through 
 mental invitation. Even the unbiquitous microbes 
 seem to avoid such ones; the diseased microbes cannot 
 withstand sunshine and perhaps mental sunshine is as 
 potent as solar light. 
 
 "It is not too much for us to hope that the William 
 Smith College will do all of these things for women and 
 more; because if it does these things it must do more. It 
 will develop and build the woman within herself so that 
 whatever her environment, whether her feet tread 
 marble halls or follow the paths of the lowly, whether she 
 lives in the retirement of a home or goes out to work for 
 the world she shall be equal to the tasks which come to her 
 hand. Such strength as this, such power to look frankly 
 and cheerfully and understanding^ on whatever fate 
 may bring can only come from a strength and sweetness 
 
22 Hobart College 
 
 builded within. College education cannot do all of it; 
 thank Heaven there are women now and in the past who 
 have attained this height without this help ; otherwise, 
 the world would not have been gladdened by their 
 presence. But the right college education can bring 
 many up to this standard who could not attain it other- 
 wise. 
 
 "That the William Smith College may thus train the 
 women of the future we have the faith to believe, but it 
 will not do it by being another boy's college for girls, nor 
 by following slavishly, lines of education laid down by 
 other women's colleges. It must somehow take the 
 individual and develop her as she needs to be developed, 
 to prune her as she needs pruning, at the same time not 
 coddle her individuality which is the most fatal mistake 
 of all. She should find simply in this college, opportunity 
 to develop all her latent powers of the right sort, so^that 
 when she goes out she and we shall feel that her growth 
 has been so sane and normal and vigorous that we shall be 
 serenely glad to give her to the world and the world to 
 her; then shall both the women and the world call 
 blessed this William Smith College, and then only shall 
 we have fulfilled the ideals of our honored Founder. 
 
 DR. DOWNING'S ADDRESS 
 Dr. A. S. Downing of the Education Department of the 
 State of New York was the next speaker, and was intro- 
 duced as follows: 
 
 "The opening of William Smith College is an event 
 which is welcomed by the Educational Department of the 
 State. I am glad to announce that this department is 
 represented here this afternoon, and by one who has been 
 loni/ associated with educational interests and who has 
 
The Opening of William Smith College 23 
 
 but lately been appointed First Assistant Commissioner 
 of Education of the State of New York. I have the 
 honor of introducing the Hon. Augustus S. Downing, 
 LL.D." 
 
 Dr. Downing spoke briefly of the interest which the 
 Educational Department felt in the new College, wishing 
 the enterprise success and prosperity and promised the 
 assistance of the department in any way possible. 
 
 DEAN TURK'S ADDRESS 
 
 The last speaker was Dean Milton Haight Turk, Ph.D., 
 who was introduced by Dr. Stewardson, as follows: 
 
 1 'There is upon the platform this afternoon a member of 
 the Faculty of Hobart College, to whom Mr. William 
 Smith and all who are connected with the new institution 
 owe a debt of gratitude. By knowledge of academic 
 affairs and mastery of their details, by tact and patience 
 and ability, he has qualified himself for the new and 
 arduous duties he has undertaken. Much of the good 
 work already accomplished is due to his wise judgment 
 and painstaking labors and it therefore affords me a 
 peculiar pleasure in presenting to you my valued colleague 
 the Dean of William Smith College, Dr. Milton Haight 
 Turk." 
 
 Dean Turk spoke as follows : 
 Mr. President: 
 
 "Your Faculty is mindful of the importance, the 
 seriousness of this occasion. Long years of service have 
 led some of us to this day, and we feel deeply its signifi- 
 cance. It is not alone that such events as this dignify 
 our quiet lives. We see before us new problems, new 
 interests, new opportunities. We cannot but share the 
 inspiration of this hour of beginning, and the confidence 
 
24 Hobart College 
 
 born of new enterprise — that extreme blessing of man's 
 lot — is ours today, as it has, we trust, through these past 
 months been yours. For the larger work which we have 
 now to do we pledge you, Sir, an equal loyalty and an 
 undiminished zeal. 
 
 4 'Among our own people, whose ancestors saw a college 
 open its doors here so many years ago, and through the 
 wise generosity of our fellow townsman, we are happily 
 gathered to inaugurate this new undertaking. In a very 
 real sense, however, in a very deep sense, we cannot open 
 a college today. This college for women will open itself, 
 the soul and life of it — only as the hearts and lives of men 
 and women are poured into it from day to day. After all, 
 personality is the great privilege and power of institu- 
 tions as it is of men, and personality comes to them, as it 
 comes to all of us, with the human years. 
 
 "Yet we need not be denied our day of untfammeled 
 hopes. We believe that this college, enduring long after 
 we are forgotten, will watch, as others her sisters have 
 watched, the solution of destinies — fearless of her own 
 fate, seeing that her sole object is the people's good. It 
 may be trite, but it can never be idle, to reflect upon the 
 young life that shall pass through her doors. We were 
 all of that goodly company once. Some of us have lived 
 since ; we all lived then. And it may be not the least of 
 the functions of education so to inform the spirits and 
 enlarge the lives of men and women as to prolong youth 
 beyond its allotted years. We trust at least that such 
 may be the fruits of this new endeavor; more to do, more 
 to think of, more to care for, some help thereby toward 
 the hard lessons of sympathy and charity — to judge gently 
 and despise nothing human — the blessing of a broader and 
 a brighter and a sweeter life. 
 
The Opening of William Smith College 25 
 
 "And, finally, I would desire my students to remember 
 this. Nothing that I can say here can avail with the least 
 that each one of us may do here. We that live in this 
 college must remember that we have also to live for it. 
 We have to earn not merely to receive its future at 
 God's hands. The excitement and the elation of this 
 hour recede: we turn to the years of duty and oppor- 
 tunity that await us." 
 
 BLACKWELL HOUSE 
 
 On the evening of the same day, Elizabeth Blackwell 
 House, the women's dormitory, was opened with a recep- 
 tion given by President and Mrs. Stewardson. This was 
 largely attended by guests from Geneva and those who 
 had come from other places to attend the exercises of the 
 day. It is said to have been the largest reception ever 
 held in Geneva. 
 
CHANGES IN THE FACULTY 
 
 As has been stated previously three new professorships 
 are made possible upon the William Smith Foundation 
 and these are filled this fall for the first time. 
 
 Professor Elon Howard Eaton, A.B., 1890, A.M., 1893, 
 Rochester University, fills the chair of Biology. He has 
 taught in Canandaigua and Rochester and done post- 
 graduate work at Columbia University and at the Marine 
 Laboratory at Wood's Holl. 
 
 Professor James M. Williams, A.B., 1898, Brown, B.D., 
 
 1901, Union Theological Seminary, Ph.D., Columbia, 
 1906, has been appointed Assistant Professor of Eco- 
 nomics and Sociology. For four years he was engaged in 
 research work in various parts of the country under the 
 direction of Columbia University. He was professor of 
 Economics in the New York College of Liberal Arts in 
 1906-7 and lecturer at Vassar College, 1907-8. 
 
 Professor Foster P. Boswell, A.B., Hobart 1901, A.M., 
 
 1902, Ph.D., 1904, Harvard, is assistant professor of 
 Psychology and Mathematics. He was assistant in 
 Philosophy at Harvard University, 1903-04, and assistant 
 in Psychology at the University of Wisconsin, 1904-05. 
 He studied at Berlin, Leipzig and Freiburg in 1905-06 
 and was Voluntary Assistant in Physiology at Berlin. 
 He was assistant in Psychology at the University of 
 Missouri during the year 1907-08, and has published a 
 number of papers in German and American Psychological 
 periodicals. 
 
 Mr. Stoddard Stevens More, A.B., 1908, University of 
 Michigan, has been appointed instructor in Modern 
 
Changes in the Faculty 27 
 
 languages, a new position made necessary by the work in 
 William Smith College. Mr. Ernest W. Dean, A.B., 1908 
 Clark College, comes as instructor in Chemistry to fill the 
 vacancy due to the resignation of Mr. Stokes. 
 
 The following appointments are exclusively for Wil- 
 liam Smith College: Mrs. Katherine M. Hussey of 
 Northampton, Massachusetts, as Mistress of Blackwell 
 House, and William Irving Lyon, Esq., of Rochester, as 
 Head of the Department of Music. 
 
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