Mount Holyoke and Mount Tom, in the Connecticut Valley of Western Massachusetts, look down on a goodly company of educational institutions; Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Williams, Smith, and Trinity Colleges, Hartford Theological Seminary, Easthampton School, and many of lesser note are all within their range. But the Mount Holyoke College of to-day, founded nearly sixty years ago as Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, by the ardent lover of her kind, Miss Mary Lyon, has, to many eyes, and perhaps to the mountains themselves, a deeper significance than any other of these excellent institutions. The Seminary was founded in the days when a girl's education was supposed to be complete where that of her brothers was barely commencing, and was considered a very doubtful experiment. Mount Holyoke College has begun its career with the excellent precedents for thorough, healthful, practical, Christian education by which the Seminary was always known. The graduates sent out by the Seminary were famous for their unselfish devotion to the highest interests of humanity; the College aim is not less lofty, though its methods are far different, and its steps of progress are well in line with the advance of other college for women.
Very dear to the hearts of students are the picturesque lines of the Holyoke range of mountains which slope down to the Connecticut River and completely girdle the horizon. From the rooms of students, whether looking north, south, east, or west, from the Observatory and the new Scientific Hall, and from stately, handsome Williston, rarely beautiful views of Mounts Tom and Holyoke, Nonotuck, "the Notch," that famous pathway to Amherst, and the diversified slopes of unnamed peaks, combine with the silver windings of the Connecticut to form pictures of unusual grandeur.
Within the walls of the main building, whose construction Miss Mary Lyon watched with happy anxiety in the early days of 1836, the work of her thorough builders has been extensively supplemented by the modern decorator. The old parlors, in their handsome new furnishings of oak, with modern pictures and bric-a-brac, form an inviting entrance to the main corridor. Just opposite, a new reading-room, with broad, cushioned window-seats and an ample supply of the published wit and wisdom of two continents, at once introduces one to the student's life of the college. Here the dignified senior, in cap and gown, is poring over the foreign quarterlies with an eye to her impending essay; the ambitious junior has a debate on hand, and is storing her mind with facts from all sources; the irrepressible sophomore and the giddy freshman still lean with affection toward the magazine serials from which the upper classwomen are forced to turn away.
The busy bee has always been the figurative, if not the literal, emblem of Mount Holyoke, and one may expect to find no drones in this hive of learning. For many years before the existence of women's colleges, Mount Holyoke held up the highest standard for admissions and graduations; and now as a college she retains the same high standards, and, accepting few certificates from preparatory schools, she grants her degrees with deliberation.
The college curriculum, now four years old, has gently ascended from the advanced collegiate course of seminary days, and is a marvel of opportunity. Of the noble three hundred students from all parts of the country, three from Japan, forty-nine from Connecticut, sixty-seven from Massachusetts, forty-one from New York, one each from Texas, Utah, and Washington, over one-third are found in the literary course, which is unusually rich at Holyoke. You may take your choice of fifteen special courses in old, middle, and early English, and the modern poetry and prose of Europe and America. There is essay work which tries girls' souls. The secrets of the transcendentalist are sought for; the philosophy of Coleridge, Arnold, and the pre-Raphaelites, and a study of the stern influences of Calvin's creed, call for thoughtful, close application. Over in pleasant Williston, whose class-rooms for literature and modern history are bravely furnished with pictures and statuary which tell the story of the ages, there is a Professor of History who could give points to Macaulay himself, - at least so the students aver; and for her are preparing themes on home rule, the reform bill, and the far-reaching influences of the Renaissance.
In the class-rooms devoted to the languages, Horace and Euripides, Moliere and Schiller, and Italian and Spanish authors are holding sway. In the dining-hall one finds a French and a German table, with native teachers in the seat of dignity and usefulness. Hebrew has recently been added to the language courses, and a flourishing class is under the direction of a lady who received the degree of S.T.B. after four years of study at Hartford Theological Seminary. In this connection it is interesting to notice that of five women now students at the Hartford Seminary, four are Mount Holyoke graduates, and have taken prices for excellence in scholarship.
Scientific Hall, recently finished at a cost of fifty thousand dollars, the gift of alumnae and trustees, adds new and fascinating opportunity for individual work, but we still find a large number of scientific students busy in Williston. The botany classes are dissecting and analyzing the remotest constructions of ferns and flowers. The botanic garden is a valuable recitations-room for students on pleasant spring days, for here one may see all the flowers that bloom in the wild-woods, bloodroot and anemone, pitcher-plant and columbine, ferns great and small, and showy orchids, without the trouble of tramping across the country to find them. The animal life of all ages, on land and sea, is at the bidding of the zoology students in their pleasant laboratory, and so rich is the Connecticut valley in tracks left by gigantic creatures of geologic time that a whole floor scarcely suffices for the museum of remains of this early prehistoric life. A busy group of students in mineralogy is found in the section-cutting room, and they are cutting into the heart of the rock by steam power, and studying, under the microscope, the formations of this realm of science. In the handsome observatory, given by and named for that benevolent Northampton trustee's family which knows no weariness in the service of the college, is a splendid equatorial telescope with an eight-inch object-glass; also a meridian circle, an astronomical clock, a chronograph, a sextant and spectroscope, and a hand of wisdom to use them all. Besides the literary and scientific, Mount Holyoke offers a complete classical course, which is elected by over one-third of the students.
But what is the recreation of the college girl at Mount Holyoke? In truth, she lacks nothing in this particular. She studies with happy freedom from the annoyances which the rigid rules of the old seminary course entailed on her mother and aunts, and her stock of knowledge is not lessened because of this freedom. But as for her recreations, - the mountains are always tempting her to a scramble. The Pass of Thermopylae, Titan's Pier, Bittersweet Lane, Moody's Corners, and the Gorge, a nearer climb up Prospect Hill, rows on Lake Nonotuck in boats safer than the Ark itself, an impromptu picnic in the pavilion irreverently named the "pepper-box," a lively game of tennis in preparation for the tournament, or a delectable rush in a game of basket-ball, - these are a few of the Mount Holyoke College student's recreations.
In general she greatly inclines to an out-of-door life, and briskly snubs the old gymnasium when she can, in favor of tramps and drives. With seventy acres of grounds she can ramble far without danger. She delights in "spreads," like all other college girls. The ever-open, ever-full cracker-barrel of the storeroom forms a lunch supply, with marmalade and jelly, a tasty Welsh rabbit, confections and pickles, and a dainty cup of tea as accessories.
She is not averse to clubs, the Holyoke girl. There is a debating club, conducted on strict parliamentary principles, to which she may belong if an upper classwoman and among the first fifteen in scholarship. There are three Greek-letter societies, and she is very proud if she chances to be one of the favored members of the Sigma Theta Chi, because through their exertions the old senior class-room has been transformed into a handsome new reading-room. Or if she be a Xi Phi Delta she has much to tell of the course of reading in preparation for travel, undertaken by the club, with visits to Berlin, Dresden, London, and Paris, and a charmingly real tour to the spot near at hand which Holland's "Katrina" has made famous, with purely social affairs thickly interspersed; or she may belong to the exclusive Kappa Phi's.
If she be a senior, looking toward a degree at commencement, she likes to sing in chorus,
"Oh, to be a senior,
And wear a cap and gown!
The glory of the college,
The wonder of the town."
And she wears her mortarboard and floating black robes with happy insouciance.
Lawn fetes for the summer and senior theatricals in the winter are numbered among the Holyoke student's special joys. She delights in the comedy, and divides her interest between Shakespeare and Howells. The grand avenues of old trees form a fine setting for a lawn-party, and perhaps Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, and Maid Marian may invite you to an archery party down by the bridge, some day.
When a Presidential election is at hand the Holyoke student, with the class in political economy as a quieting power, enters into all the excitement of the campaign, and goes through the form of voting, with regularly printed ballots and as much dignity as if her poor little feminine vote had a real value; and stowed away in the north attic, you may find some of her campaign banners. If she be a member of the glee club she can tell of delightful trips to New Haven, New York, and Worcester, and sings with a will,
"H-o-l-y-o-k-e,
Holyoke, Holyoke, are we."
Perhaps she belongs to the photograph club, and under the tutorship of a chemistry teacher takes charming little pictures, which she develops and prints with great skill; or, at an early morning hour, she may be off through the dewdrops, in the interest of the Bird Club, with an opera-glass, to study the ways of birds who love to swing their nests near the college. If musically inclined, and ambitious, she joins the Mendelssohn Club, whose object is to accustom its members to appear in concert exercises.
Of course, the editorial staff of the "Mount Holyoke" is always seeking "copy," and very credible copy is furnished. Here is a chance specimen:
"Summer has gone and what has she brought us?
Birds, bees, and flowers,
Gay dashing showers,
And many's the lesson of beauty she's taught us.
"Summer has gone and what has she taken?
Soft moonlights tender,
Bright starlight's splendor,
All have gone with her and left us forsaken.
"Summer has gone and what has she left us?
A memory, a longing,
And many thoughts thronging
Toward the days that are past of which she's bereft us."
The institution lost its ancient aspect and mediaeval air when the grim code of rules that held it as with chains of iron was forever abolished by the first president of the college, the present able and acceptable incumbent of the office, Mrs. Elizabeth Storrs Mead.
To the surprise of the devotees of the old regime it has been proved that the Mount Holyoke girl does not take unfair advantages of her freedom, and that her sense of honor is as lofty as that of her sisters at Vassar or Bryn Mawr, who have long lived happily and successfully with no restrictions except those usual in families of refinement. No prohibitions whatever fetter the Holyoke student of to-day, unless we consider the ten o'clock retiring regulation, and attendance of chapel and once at church on Sunday, in the light of prohibitory laws. Each is on her honor to act for the comfort and convenience of the family; and despite the forebodings of old-time friends, life never more quietly and successfully within the walls than now, and never did a more delightful, wide-awake, progressive class of students gather there. The seats at chapel are always full; "recess meetings" of the olden days give place to the Young Women's Christian Association, or class meeting, in which perfect freedom is enjoyed.
Of necessity, Holyoke still holds her purse-strings with a careful hand, in order that no girl who wishes a college education need be debarred from it for financial reasons. The low rate of board and tuition are made to secure a refined, handsome home, with steam heat, electric lights, elevator, ample recitation-rooms, and other conveniences of the modern college buildings, at which the visitor greatly marvels; and he leaves the friendly walls of Mount Holyoke College with admiration and reverence for the spirit of that young New England school-teacher whose devotion to her own ideals, sixty years ago, opened the way for this institution, and through it for the higher education of women.
Helen Marshall North