Letter From Miss Elizabeth Roggy.
(Miss Elizabeth Roggy (Class of '92) is one of the most loyal daughters of Mt. Carroll Seminary. It gives us pleasure to know that she is enjoying to the full the advantages of the Chicago University. At our request she sends us a brief description of University life as she finds it.)
I will try to give you a glimpse, for I can do no more in a letter, of the University of Chicago and the varied and absorbing interests which engage the student there.
The buildings in their present stage of completion number eleven, two Divinity Halls, Graduate and Cobb Halls, Kent Chemical Laboratory, Ryerson Physical Laboratory, Walker Museum, Snell Hall for men, Beecher Kelly and Nancy Foster Halls for women, each named in honor of the donor. Work for the building of the Haskell Oriental Museum is under way and another Hall for Women will soon be built.
The life in and about these buildings is marked first and most noticeably by an earnest determination to work. Every student feels and is stirred by the great possibilities of the University. Pride in what has already been accomplished and hope for what is yet to be accomplished stimulate the ambition of the students to the highest degree and make the class-room the primary center of activity and interest. Work is the common bond which unites the one thousand students. Work, faithful and conscientious, is forming the atmosphere which shall prevail in the coming years. The best in every line is here offered the student and he strives to make the best use of what is offered.
The center of the social life of the University is in the Women's Halls. These halls in the arrangement of their rooms and in the furnishings have all the equipments and artistic touches of a comfortable and elegant home. The term dormitory as it is commonly understood does not apply to the Women's Halls of the University of Chicago. A special social feature is the weekly reception given in turn by the Halls to the members of the Faculty, the students and their friends in the city. Private parties and teas are also given by many of the young ladies for special friends. Another pleasant social occasion is the informal dinner party given each week for members of the Faculty. In this way the students and instructors are brought together in delightful intercourse.
Even in a glimpse of University life one cannot overlook athletics, which are beginning to take a prominent part. Care is taken, however, to prevent the abuses so common in college athletics.
Tennis courts are numerous on the campus and tennis is a favorite athletic exercise. On certain days the women substitute this game for the regular gymnasium work.
The religious life has its outlet through various organizations. the Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. and the Christian Union being most important. The University settlement is under the direction of the Christian Union. The Y. W. and Y. M. C. A.'s beside their work in the University are carrying on a mission in another part of the city.
The Women's Halls and the care which has been taken to make them pleasant and home-like have already been mentioned. These, added to the free-dom ef opportunity and unqualified privileges which the women enjoy leave nothing to be desired by the women students. The question of Woman's Rights, as far as Chicago University is concerned, is settled. All without regard to sex on the basis of intellectual capacity only, may work for the same degrees and honors. The fact that there are eighteen women among the fellows and scholars shows their willingness and ability to improve the opportunities given them.
For both men and women life at Chicago University contains the stimulus to noble ambition and the hope of a prosperous future. All feel the power to contribute to this future by forming such traditions and such a spirit as shall do honor to the University through all time.
ELIZABETH ROGGY.
I do not think that I should ever have thought of life and of teaching in just the way I do, had it not been for the spirit of truth which pervades the Seminary life. —FANNY E. GIBBS. [Teacher in the public schools of Elgin. Ill.]
BOOKS.
We have received from the American Book Co., "Myths of Greece and Rome," and "Myths of Northern Lands," edited by H. A. Guerber. These books possess special merit, and are worthy of a much more extended notice than we have space to give. The subjects treated are of the first importance in laying the foundation for a proper interpretation of the literatures of the world. So equal in importance are these subjects that it is time wasted to discuss which should have the preference. We hope soon to make separate and distinct studies of both.
We have also received from the same house, "Illustrated School History of the World," by J. D. Quackenbos, and the "New Eclectic History of the United States," by Mr. E. Thalheimer, both of which we have under examination with a view of introduction. We think them eminently worthy of such consideration.
Of the "Eclectic English Classics," issued by the same publishers, we cannot speak too highly. The selections are fine, the editorial work good, the mechanical execution sensible, and the cheapness of the whole series is a marvel. There is nothing that can meet the literary needs of our time like old English —" pure and undefiled." To pass these books by is certainly not to know a good thing when you see it.
The "Primer" series, published by this house, comprehending Science, History and Literature, are already known by those who know anything about books, to be unrivalled. To this series is now added "Primer of American Literature," by Mildred C. Watkins. It is not so great a book as Stopford Brooke's "Primer of English Literature," in the same series, because if it was, it would be the recent best book on a given subject in the world. It does not make emphatic enough what is essentially distinctive in American literature and American thought, but it is ahead of any summary we have yet seen, and plenty good enough for the use of those who want and deserve the best.
