THOMAS GUY.
Thomas Guy and Peter Parker printed Bibles for Oxford, had four presses in use within four months of their undertaking the Oxford work, and showed the greatest activity, skill, and energy in the enterprise. Their work was excellent, and some of their Bibles and other volumes are still found in the English libraries.
These University printers, Parker & Guy, had many lawsuits with other firms, who claimed that the former had made £10,000, or even £15,000, by their connection with Oxford. Doubtless they had made money; but they had done their work well, and deserved their success.
Concerning Oxford Bibles, a writer in McClure's Magazine says, "In these days the privilege of printing a Bible is hardly less jealously guarded in the United Kingdom than the privilege of printing a banknote. It is accorded by license to the Queen's printers, and by charter to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; and it is, as a matter of fact, at the University of Oxford that the greatest bulk of the work is done. From this famous press there issue annually about one million copies of the sacred book; copies ranging in price from tenpence to ten pounds, and in form from the brilliant Bible, which weighs in its most handsome binding less than four ounces, and measures 3½ by 2-1/8 by ¾ inches, to the superb folio Bible for church use, the page of which measures 19 by 12 inches, which is the only folio Bible in existence—seventy-eight editions in all; copies in all manner of languages, even the most barbarous."
The choicest paper is used, and the utmost care taken with setting the type. It is computed that to set up and "read" a reference Bible costs £1,000.
"The first step is to make a careful calculation, showing what, in the particular type employed, will be the exact contents of each page, from the first page to the last. It must be known before a single type is set just what will be the first and last word on each page. It is not enough that this calculation shall be approximate, it must be exact to the syllable.
"The proofs are then read again by a fresh reader, from a fresh model; and this process is repeated until, before being electrotyped, they have been read five times in all. Any compositor who detects an error in the model gets a reward; but only two such rewards have ever been earned. Any member of the public who is first to detect an error in the authorized text is entitled to one guinea, but the average annual outlay of the press under this head is almost nil."
As soon as Thomas Guy prospered, he gave to various causes. He gave five pounds to help rebuild the schoolhouse at Tamworth, where he had been a student a few years before; and when a little over thirty years of age, in 1678, he bought some land in Tamworth, and erected an almshouse for seven poor women. A good-sized room was used for their library. The whole cost was £200, a worthy beginning for a young man.
A little later Mr. Guy gave ten pounds yearly to a "Spinning School," where the children of the poor were taught how to work, probably some kind of industrial training. Also ten pounds yearly to a Dissenting minister, and the same amount to one of the Established Church.
When Mr. Guy was a little over forty, he gave another £200 for almshouses for poor men at Tamworth; and the town called him, "Our incomparable benefactor."
When Mr. Guy was forty-five years of age, in 1690, he attempted to enter Parliament from Tamworth, but was defeated. This was the second Parliament under William and Mary. In 1694 he was elected sheriff of London, but refused to serve, perhaps on account of the expense, as he disliked display, and paid the penalty of refusing, £400.
In the third Parliament, 1695, Mr. Guy tried again, and succeeded. He was re-elected after an exciting contest in 1698, and again in 1701 and 1702, and in two Parliaments under Queen Anne.
While in Parliament he built a town hall for the people of Tamworth. In 1708, after thirteen years of service, Mr. Guy was rejected. It is said that he promised the people of Tamworth, so much did he enjoy Parliamentary life, that if they would elect him again he would leave his whole fortune to the town, so they should never have a pauper; but for once they forgot their "incomparable benefactor," and Thomas Guy in turn forgot them.
"The cause of Guy's rejection," says the history of Tamworth, "is said to have been his neglect of the gastronomic propensities of his worthy, patriotic, and enlightened constituents, by whom the virtues of fasting appear to have been entirely forgotten. In the anger of the moment he threatened to pull down the town hall which he had built, and to abolish the almshouses. The burgesses, repenting of their rash act, sent a deputation to wait upon him with the offer of re-election in the ensuing Parliament, 1810; but he rejected all conciliation. He always considered that he had been treated with great ingratitude, and he deprived the inhabitants of Tamworth of the advantage of his almshouses." His will provided that persons from certain towns might find a home in his almshouses, his own relatives to be preferred, should any offer themselves; but Tamworth was left out of the list of towns.
Mr. Guy already had become very wealthy. During the wars of William and Anne with Louis XIV., the soldiers and seamen were sometimes unpaid for years, from lack of funds. Tickets were given them, and they were willing to sell these at whatever price they would bring. Mr. Guy bought largely from the seamen, and has been blamed for so doing; but his latest biographers, Messrs. Wilks and Bettany, in their interesting and valuable "Biographical History of Guy's Hospital," think he did it with a spirit of kindness rather than of avarice. "It is at least consistent with his general philanthropy to suppose that, compassionating the poor seamen who could not get their money, he offered them more than they could get elsewhere, and that this accounts for his being so large a purchaser of seamen's tickets. Instead of being to his discredit, we think rather that it is to his credit, and that he managed to benefit a large number of necessitous men, while at the same time, in the future, benefiting himself."
Mr. Guy also made a great amount of money in the South Sea Company. With regard to the South Sea stock, says the Saturday Magazine, "Mr. Guy had no hand in framing or conducting that scandalous fraud; he obtained the stock when low, and had the good sense to sell it at the time it was at its height."
Chambers's "Book of Days" gives a very interesting account of this "South Sea Bubble." Harley, Earl of Oxford, who had helped Queen Anne to get rid of her advisers, the Duke of Marlborough and the proud Duchess, Sarah, with a desire to "restore public credit, and discharge ten millions of the floating debt, agreed with a company of merchants that they should take the debt upon themselves for a certain time, at the interest of six per cent, to provide for which, amounting to £600,000 per annum, the duties for certain articles were rendered permanent. At the same time was granted the monopoly of trade to the South Seas, and the merchants were incorporated as the South Sea Company; and so proud was the minister of his scheme that it was called by his flatterers, 'The Earl of Oxford's Masterpiece.'"
The South Sea Company, after a time, agreed to take upon themselves the whole of the national debt, £30,981,712, about $150,000,000. Sir John Blount, a speculator, first propounded the scheme. It was rumored that Spain, by treaty with England, would grant free trade to all her colonies, and that silver would thus be brought from Potosi, and become as plentiful as iron; and that Mexico would part with gold in abundance for English cotton and woollen goods. It was also said that Spain, in exchange for Gibraltar and Port Mahon, would give up places on the coast of Peru. It was promised that each person who took £100 of stock would make fifty per cent, and probably much more. Mr. Guy took £45,500 of stock, probably the amount which the government owed him for seamen's tickets. Others who had claims "were empowered to subscribe the several sums due to them ... for which he and the rest of the subscribers were to receive an annual interest of six per cent upon their respective subscriptions, until the same were discharged by Parliament."
The speculating mania spread widely. Great ladies pawned their jewels in order to invest. Lords were eager to double and treble their money. A journalist of the time writes: "The South Sea equipages increase daily; the city ladies buy South Sea jewels, hire South Sea maids, take new country South Sea houses; the gentlemen set up South Sea coaches, and buy South Sea estates."
The people seemed wild with speculation. All sorts of companies were established; one with ten million dollars capital to import walnut-trees from Virginia; one with five million dollars capital for a "wheel for perpetual motion." An unknown adventurer started "a company for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is." Next morning this great man opened an office in Cornhill, and before three o'clock one thousand shares had been subscribed for at ten dollars a share, and the deposits paid. He put the ten thousand dollars in his pocket, set off the same evening for the Continent, and was never heard of again. He had assured them that nobody would know what the undertaking was, and he had kept his word.
The South Sea stock rose in one day from 130 per cent to 300, and finally to 1,000 per cent. It then became known that Sir John Blount, the chairman, and some others had sold out, making vast fortunes. The price of stock began to fall, and at last the crisis brought ruin to thousands. The poet Gay, who had been given £20,000 of stock, and had thought himself rich, lost all, and was so ill in consequence that his life was in danger. Some men committed suicide on account of their losses, and some became insane. Prior said, "I am lost in the South Sea. The roaring of the waves and the madness of the people are justly put together." The people were now as wild with anger as they had been intoxicated with hope for gain. They demanded redress, and the punishment of the directors of the South Sea Company. Men high in position were thrown into the Tower after it was found that the books of the company had been tampered with or destroyed, and large amounts of stock used to bribe men in office. The directors were fined over ten million dollars, and their fortunes distributed among the sufferers. Sir John Blount was allowed but £5,000 out of a fortune of £183,000. The fortune of another, a million and a half pounds, was given to the losers. One man was treated with especial severity because he was reported to have said that "he would feed his carriage horses off gold."
Mr. Guy, fearing that there was trickery when the stock rose so rapidly, sold out when the prices were from three to six hundred, and thereby saved himself from financial ruin. He was now very rich, having always lived economically. When he was a bookseller it is said that he always ate his dinner on his counter, using a newspaper for a tablecloth.
The following story is told by Walter Thornbury in his "Old and New London:"—
"'Vulture' Hopkins, so called from his alleged desire to seize upon gains, and who had become rich in South Sea stock, once called upon Mr. Guy to learn a lesson, as he said, in the art of saving. Being introduced into the parlor, Guy, not knowing his visitor, lighted a candle; but when Hopkins said, 'Sir, I always thought myself perfect in the art of getting and husbanding money, but being informed that you far exceed me, I have taken the liberty of waiting upon you to be satisfied on this subject.' Guy replied, 'If that is all your business, we can as well talk it over in the dark,' and immediately put out the candle. This was evidence sufficient for Hopkins, who acknowledged Guy to be his master, and took his leave."
Notwithstanding Mr. Guy's penuriousness, he had the grace of gratitude. Thousands forget their helpers after prosperity comes to them. Not so Thomas Guy. The Saturday Magazine for Aug. 2, 1834, relates this incident: "The munificent founder of Guy's Hospital was a man of very humble appearance, and of a melancholy cast of countenance. One day, while pensively leaning over one of the bridges, he attracted the attention and commiseration of a bystander, who, apprehensive that he meditated self-destruction, could not refrain from addressing him with an earnest entreaty not to let his misfortunes tempt him to commit any rash act; then, placing in his hand a guinea, with the delicacy of genuine benevolence he hastily withdrew.
"Guy, roused from his revery, followed the stranger, and warmly expressed his gratitude, but assured him that he was mistaken in supposing him to be either in distress of mind or of circumstances, making an earnest request to be favored with the name of the good man, his intended benefactor. The address was given, and they parted. Some years later Guy, observing the name of his friend in the bankrupt list, hastened to his house, brought to his recollection their former interview; found upon investigation that no blame could be attached to him under his misfortunes; intimated his ability and also his intention to serve him; entered into immediate arrangements with his creditors; and finally re-established him in a business which ever after prospered in his hands, and in the hands of his children's children, for many years in Newgate Street."
Those who knew Mr. Guy best declared that "his chief design in getting money seems to have been with a view of employing the same in good works." He gave five guineas to Mr. Bowyer, a printer, who had lost everything by fire, "not knowing," said Mr. Guy, "how soon it may be our own case." He also gave in 1717 to the Stationer's Company £1,000, to be distributed to poor members and widows at the rate of £50 per annum.
"Many of his poor though distant relations had stated allowances from him of £10 or £20 a year, and occasionally larger sums; and to two of them he gave £500 apiece to advance them in the world. He has several times given £50 for discharging insolvent debtors. He has readily given £100 at a time on application to him on behalf of a distressed family."
In 1704 Mr. Guy was asked to become the governor of St. Thomas's Hospital, partly because he was a prominent and able citizen, and partly because he might thus become interested and give some money. Mr. Guy accepted the office, and soon built three new wards at a cost of £1,000, and provided the hospital with £100 a year for the benefit of its poor. When patients left the hospital they were often unfit for work, and this money would provide food for them for a time. He had given already to the steward money and clothes for such cases of need. He also built, in 1724, a new entrance to St. Thomas's Hospital, improved the front, and erected two large brick houses, these works costing him £3,000.
Mr. Guy seems to have given constantly from his youth, and always with good sense in his gifts. He was growing old. He probably had meditated long and carefully as to what use he should put his wealth. Highmore, in his "History of the Public Charities of London," tells this rather improbable story: "For the application of this fortune to charitable uses the public are indebted to a trifling circumstance. He employed a female servant whom he had agreed to marry. Some days previous to the intended ceremony he had ordered the pavement before his door to be mended up to a particular stone which he had marked, and then left his house on business.
"The servant, in his absence, looking at the workmen, saw a broken stone beyond this mark which they had not repaired; and on pointing to it with that design, they acquainted her that Mr. Guy had not ordered them to go so far. She, however, directed it to be done, adding, with the security incidental to her expectation of soon becoming his wife, 'Tell him I bade you, and he will not be angry.' But she soon learnt how fatal it is for one in a dependent position to exceed the limits of his or her authority; for her master, on his return, was angered that they had gone beyond his orders, renounced his engagement to his servant, and devoted his ample fortune to public charity."
In 1721, when Mr. Guy was seventy-six years of age, he leased a large piece of ground of St. Thomas's Hospital for a thousand years at £30 a year, to erect upon it a great hospital for incurables; "to receive and entertain therein four hundred poor persons, or upwards, laboring under any distempers, infirmities, or disorders, thought capable of relief by physic or surgery; but who, by reason of the small hopes there may be of their cure, or the length of time which for that purpose may be required or thought necessary, are or may be adjudged or called incurable, and as such not proper subjects to be received into or continued in the present hospital, in and by which no provision has been made for distempers deemed or called incurable."
While Mr. Guy had primarily in mind the poor and incurable, and the insane as well, in his will he directed the trustees to use their judgment about the length of time patients should remain, either for life or for a short period. Mr. Guy at once procured a plan for his hospital, and in the spring of 1722 laid the foundations. He went to the work "with all the expedition of a youth of fortune erecting a house for his own residence." The original central building of stone cost £18,793. The eastern wing, begun in 1738, was completed at a cost of £9,300; the western wing, in 1780, at a cost of £14,537.
Mr. Guy lived to see his treasured gift roofed in before his death, which occurred Dec. 27, 1724, in his eightieth year. In a little more than a week afterwards, Jan. 6, 1725, his hospital was opened, and sixty patients were admitted.
After the death of Mr. Guy one thousand guineas were found in his iron chest; and as it was imagined that these were placed there to defray his funeral expenses, they were used for that purpose. His body lay in state at Mercer's Hall, Cheapside, and was taken with "great funeral pomp" to the Parish Church of St. Thomas, Southwark, to rest there till the chapel at the hospital should be completed. Two hundred blue-coat boys from Christ's Hospital walked in the procession, and sang before the hearse, which was followed by forty coaches, each drawn by six horses.
Mr. Guy had not forgotten these "blue-coat boys" in his will, and left a perpetual annuity of £400 to educate four children yearly, with preference for his own relatives. The boys from Christ's Hospital always interest tourists in London. They wear long blue gowns, yellow stockings, and knee-breeches. No cover is worn on their heads, even in winter.
This school was founded by the boy king, Edward VI., for poor boys, though his father, Henry VIII., gave the building, which belonged to the Grey Friars, to the city of London, but Edward caused the school to be established. It is a quaint and most interesting spot, where four queens and scores of lords and ladies are buried,—Margaret, second wife of Edward I.; Isabella, the infamous wife of Edward II.; Joan, daughter of Edward II., and wife of David Bruce, King of Scotland; and others. Twelve hundred boys study at the hospital. Lamb, Coleridge, and other famous men were among the blue-coats. The latter tells some interesting things about the school in his "Table-Talk." "The discipline at Christ's Hospital in my time was ultra-Spartan; all domestic ties were to be put aside. 'Boy!' I remember Boyer saying to me once when I was crying the first day of my return after the holidays, 'boy! the school is your father; boy! the school is your mother; boy! the school is your brother; the school is your sister; the school is your first cousin, and your second cousin, and all the rest of your relatives. Let's have no more crying!'
"No tongue can express good Mrs. Boyer. Val Le Grice and I were once going to be flogged for some domestic misdeed, and Boyer was thundering away at us by way of prologue, when Mrs. B. looked in and said, 'Flog them soundly, sir, I beg!' This saved us. Boyer was so nettled by the interruption that he growled out, 'Away, woman! away!' and we were let off."
While Mr. Guy remembered the blue-coat orphans, he seemed to have remembered everybody else in his will. So much were the people interested in the lengthy document with its numerous gifts, that the will went through three editions the first year of its publication. Mr. Guy gave to every living relative, even to distant cousins—in all over £75,000. These were mainly gifts of £1,000 each at four per cent, so that each one received £40 a year. These legacies were called "Guy's Thousands." If the recipients were under age, the interest was to be used for his or her education and apprenticeship.
One thousand pounds were given for the release of poor prisoners for debt in London, Middlesex, or Surrey, in sums not to exceed five pounds each. About six hundred persons were thus set at liberty. Another thousand pounds were left to the trustees to relieve "such poor people, being housekeepers, as in their judgments shall be thought convenient." The interest on more than £2,000 was left for "putting out children apprentices, nursing, or such like charitable deed."
Then followed the great gift of nearly a million and a half dollars for the hospital. After the buildings were erected, the remainder was to be used "in the purchase of lands or reversions in fee simple, so that the rents might be a perpetual provision for the sick." Considerably over a million dollars were thus expended in purchasing over 8,000 acres in Essex, a large estate of the Duke of Chandos, for £60,800, and other tracts of land and houses.
About six years after the death of the founder, a bronze statue of him by Scheymaker was erected in the open square in front of the hospital, costing five hundred guineas. On the pedestal are representations of the Good Samaritan, Christ healing the sick, and Mr. Guy's armorial bearings. In the chapel a marble statue of Mr. Guy, costing £1,000, was erected by Mr. Bacon in 1779. The founder is represented as holding out one hand to raise a poor invalid lying on the earth, and pointing with the other hand to a person carried on a litter into one of the hospital wards. On the pedestal is an inscription beginning with these words,—
UNDERNEATH ARE DEPOSITED THE REMAINS OF
THOMAS GUY,
CITIZEN OF LONDON, MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT, AND THE SOLE
FOUNDER OF THIS HOSPITAL IN HIS LIFETIME.
In 1788 the noble John Howard visited Guy's Hospital; and while he found some of the wards too low, being only nine feet and a half high, in the new wards he praised the iron bedsteads and hair beds as being clean and wholesome.
For over one hundred and seventy years Guy's Hospital has done its noble work. Departments have been added for special treatment of the eye, the ear, the teeth, the throat, etc., while thousands of mothers are cared for at their homes at the birth of their children.
In 1829, at his death, another governor of Guy's Hospital, Mr. William Hunt, left £180,000 to the hospital. He was buried in the vault under the chapel by the side of Thomas Guy. After some years, Hunt's House, a large central block, with north and south wings of brick with stone facings, was erected, the whole costing nearly £70,000. From time to time other needed buildings have been added, such as laboratories, museums, etc. There are now in the hospital over seven hundred beds. Only a few beds are reserved for those who can afford to pay; with this exception patients are admitted to all parts of the hospital free of charge. "The Royal Guide to London Charities," compiled by Herbert Fry, says, "No recommendation is needed for admission to this hospital. Sickness allied to poverty is an all-sufficient qualification." A fund has been established for relieving the families of deserving and poor patients while they are in the hospital. This is not only a blessing to the dependent ones, but prevents the anxiety and worry of the suffering inmates.
Guy's Hospital now receives into its wards yearly over 6,000 patients, and affords medical relief to about 70,000. The annual income of the hospital is about £40,000. Saving, industrious Thomas Guy wrought even better things for humanity than he could have hoped. It paid him to use a newspaper on his counter instead of a tablecloth for his meals, if every year thousands of poor men and women could be cared for in sickness without money, walk about his pleasant six acres during convalescence, and bless forever the name of Thomas Guy. What a contrast such a life to that of one who spends his wealth in fine houses, parties, expensive yachts, and self-indulgence!
In 1825 Guy's Medical School was opened in connection with the hospital, and has proved a great success. "It has become world-famed," write Messrs. Wilks and Bettany, "and has received pupils from all English-speaking lands, and not a few foreigners." Of Guy's Hospital Reports which began to be published in 1836, they say, "Nothing, perhaps, has done more to establish the reputation of Guy's Hospital abroad than these Reports. They may be found in the best libraries in Europe and in America, and have been well perused by many of the leading men on the Continent."
Those who wish to study medicine at Guy's have to pass a preliminary examination in arts, and take a five years' course. During four years "the time is equally divided between the study of the elements of medical science and clinical instruction in the practice of the profession." The last year is chiefly devoted to hospital practice. With this amount of study it is easily seen why Guy's Medical School takes high rank.
On March 26, 1890, a college built of red brick was formally opened by Mr. Gladstone. It cost £21,000, and is for the resident staff and students. A gymnasium was built also in 1890.
Guy's Hospital has been fortunate in the noted men who have been connected with it. One of its early surgeons, John Belchier, lies buried in the same vault with Thomas Guy. He fell in his office; and his servant, not being able to lift him, as he was a heavy man, offered to go for assistance. "No, John, I am dying," he said. "Fetch me a pillow; I may as well die here as anywhere else." It is related of him that, seeing the vanity of all earthly riches, he desired to be buried in the hospital, with iron nails in his coffin, which was to be filled with sawdust.
The learned Dr. Walter Moxon, who has been called from his combination of tenderness and ability "the perfect physician," was associated with Guy's Hospital for twenty years. Dr. Wilks says, in the garden of Dr. Moxon, "In the winter lumps of suet and cocoanut sawn in rings were hung upon the arches and boughs for the benefit of the tits, and loaves of bread were broken up for the blackbirds, thrushes, finches, and sparrows. Always before taking his own breakfast on a winter's morning, Moxon first saw to the feeding of his feathered friends."
Dr. Richard Bright, whose name is given to the disease which he so carefully studied, was for years connected with Guy's Hospital. He wrote valuable books, and was an untiring student. "He was sincerely religious, both in doctrine and in practice, and of so pure a mind that he never was heard to utter a sentiment or to relate an anecdote that was not fit to be heard by the merest child or the most refined woman."
Sir Astley Paston Cooper was associated with Guy's for twenty-five years. His father was a clergyman, and his mother an author. It is said that he was first attracted towards surgery by an accident to one of his foster-brothers. The youth fell from a heavy wagon, the wheels of which passed over his body, tearing the flesh from the thigh and injuring an artery, from which the blood flowed freely. Nobody seemed to know how to stop the blood, when Astley, a boy scarcely more than twelve, took out his handkerchief, and tied it tightly around the thigh and above the wound, thus staying the blood till a surgeon could be brought. Sir Astley used to say this accident, which resulted so well, created in his mind a love for surgery. His uncle, William Cooper, was a surgeon at Guy's, and encouraged his nephew's inclination for the medical profession. At twenty-three Sir Astley married a lady of wealth, lecturing on surgery on the evening of his wedding-day without any of the pupils being aware of his marriage. The first year of his practice he received £5 5s.; the second year, £26; the third year, £54; the fourth year, £96; the fifth year, £100; the sixth year, £200; the seventh, £400; the eighth, £610; the ninth, £1,100. When he was in the zenith of his fame he received £21,000 in one year. One merchant paid him £600 yearly. For a successful operation he was sometimes paid one thousand guineas. Each year he is said to have given £2,000 or £3,000 to poor relations.
"In his busy years," writes Dr. Samuel Wilks, "he rose at six, dissected privately until eight, and from half-past eight saw large numbers of patients gratuitously. At breakfast he ate only two well-buttered hot rolls, drank his tea cool, at a draught, read his paper a few minutes, and then was off to his consulting-room, turning round with a sweet, benign smile as he left the room." At one o'clock he would scarcely see another patient. "Sometimes the people in the hall and the anteroom were so importunate that Mr. Cooper was driven to escape through his stables and into a passage by Bishopsgate Church. At Guy's he was awaited by a crowd of pupils on the steps, and at once went into the wards, addressing the patients with such tenderness of voice and expression that he at once gained their confidence. His few pertinent questions and quick diagnosis were of themselves remarkable, no less than the judicious, calm manner in which he enforced the necessity for operations when required."
At two o'clock Sir Astley Cooper went across the street to St. Thomas's Hospital to lecture on anatomy. "After the lecture, which was often so crowded that men stood in the gangways and passages near to gain such portion of his lecture as they might fortunately pick up, he went round the dissecting-room, and afterwards left the hospital to visit patients or to operate privately, returning home at half-past six or seven. Every spare minute in his carriage was occupied with dictating to his assistants notes or remarks on cases or other subjects on which he was engaged. At dinner he ate rapidly, and not very elegantly, talking and joking; after dinner he slept for ten minutes at will, and then started to his surgical lecture, if it were a lecture night. In the evening he was usually again on a round of visits till midnight."
Sir Astley received a baronetcy and a fee of £500 for successfully removing a small tumor from the head of George IV. He wrote several books, and was president of various societies. He was as famous abroad as at home. The king of the French bestowed upon him the decoration of the Legion of Honor. He died of dropsy in 1841 in his chair, surrounded by his friends, saying, as he passed away, "God bless you; adieu to you all," and was buried under the chapel near Thomas Guy. His only child died in infancy. There is a statue of Sir Astley in St. Paul's Cathedral, and a bust of him in the museum of Guy's. He said of himself: "My own success depended upon my zeal and industry; but for this I take no credit, as it was given to me from above." He is said to have left a fortune of half a million of dollars.
The beloved Frederick Denison Maurice was elected chaplain of Guy's Hospital in 1836, when he was thirty-one. He wrote to a friend, "If I could get any influence over the medical students I should indeed think myself honored; and though some who have had experience think such a hope quite a dream, I still venture to entertain it." There seems no reason why a medical student, or any student indeed, should be rough in manner or hard of heart. A true man will be a gentleman not less in the dissecting-room than in the parlor. He will be humane to the lowest animal, and tender and considerate in the presence of suffering.
Sir William Withey Gull, the son of a barge-owner and wharfinger in Essex, who rose to eminence by his power of work and will, was for twenty years physician and lecturer at Guy's Hospital. Going there as a student when he was twenty-one, he was told by the treasurer, "I can help you if you will help yourself." He used to say that his real education was given him by his sweet-faced mother. He won many prizes, acted as tutor to gain the means of living, and made friends by his winsome manner as well as his knowledge. The lady to whom he was engaged died, but her father was so attached to young Gull that he left him a considerable legacy. Mr. Gull afterwards married a sister of his friend Dr. Lacy. He rose rapidly in his profession, and was made F.R.S. in 1869, having been made LL.D. of Oxford and Cambridge the previous year.
His knowledge was profound on many subjects,—poetry, philosophy, and of course medicine. His industry was astonishing to all, and his personal influence remarkable. "Not many years ago," says Dr. Wilks, "we heard an old student of Guy's descant on his beautiful lectures, and especially those on fever. On being questioned as to what Gull said which most struck him, he said he could not remember anything in particular, but he would come to London any day to hear Gull reiterate the words in very slow measure, 'Now typhoid, gentlemen.' ... When Gull left the bedside of his patient, and said in measured tones, 'You will get well,' it was like a message from above.... It was not penetration only which Gull possessed, but endurance. It was ever being remarked with what deliberate care he went over every case, as if that particular one was his sole charge for the day."
Dr. Gull attended the Prince of Wales in his very severe illness from typhoid fever in 1871, when his life was despaired of; and for this he was created a baronet, and Physician Extraordinary to the Queen. He died of apoplexy, Jan. 29, 1890, leaving a fortune of £344,000 (over a million and a half of dollars), largely earned by his own industry and ability. His son, Sir Cameron Gull, has founded a studentship of pathology at Guy's, worth about £150 per annum. Sir William was buried, by his own desire, in his native village, Thorpe-le-Soken, beside his father and mother.
Thomas Guy has slept for over a century in the midst of the great work which his fortune began and still carries forward. Who shall estimate the good done every year to six thousand suffering persons, mostly poor, who need the care and skill of a great hospital, and to seventy thousand, or two hundred daily, who come for medical treatment? The fact that Thomas Guy became rich through industry, economy, and business sagacity will be forgotten; the fact that he was a member of Parliament for thirteen years is of little moment; but the fact that he gave his wealth to bless the world will be remembered as long as England lasts, or humanity suffers.
Miss Sophia Smith, the founder of Smith College, came from a family of savers as well as givers. Self-indulgent persons rarely give.
She was the niece of Oliver Smith, whose unique charities have been a blessing to many towns. Mr. Smith, who died at Hatfield, Mass., Dec. 22, 1845, left to the towns of Northampton, Hadley, Hatfield, Amherst, and Williamsburg, in the county of Hampshire, and Deerfield, Greenfield, and Whately, in the county of Franklin, about a million dollars to a Board of Trustees, to be used as follows:—
To be set aside for sixty years from the time of his death, so as to double and treble itself, for an Agricultural School at Northampton, $30,000. In 1894, forty-nine years after Mr. Smith died, this fund had become $190,801.15, so rapidly does interest accumulate. This will be used to purchase two farms, one a Pattern Farm, to become a model to all farmers; the other an Experimental Farm, to aid the Pattern Farm in the art and science of husbandry and agriculture. Buildings are to be erected on the grounds suitable for mechanics, and workshops for the manufacture of implements of husbandry of the most approved models. If the income will warrant it, tools for other trades may be manufactured.
There is also to be a School of Industry on the farms for the benefit of the poor. The boys to be aided must be from the poorest in the town, are to receive a good common education, and be taught in agriculture or in some mechanic art in the shops on the premises. When twenty-one years of age they are to be loaned $200 each, and after paying interest for five years at five per cent are to receive the $200 as a gift, if they have proved themselves worthy. Three years before they are twenty-one, each is to have a portion of his time to earn for himself.
After a bequest of $10,000 to the American Colonization Society, Mr. Smith's will provided that his property should go to poor boys and girls, poor young women and widows. The boy, not under twelve, of good moral character, should be bound out to some respectable family, and receive at twenty-one, if he had been a faithful apprentice, a loan of $500, and after five years the gift in full to help him make a start in the world.
The girl so bound out, if maintaining a good moral character, should receive $300 as a marriage portion, if the man she was to marry seemed a worthy man. If he was unworthy, the girl was to be aided in sickness or mental derangement up to the full amount of the marriage portion.
SOPHIA SMITH.
Each young woman in indigent or moderate circumstances, if she were to marry a sober man, could, by applying to the trustees, receive a marriage portion of fifty dollars, to be expended for necessary articles of household furniture. Each widow, with a child or children dependent on her for support, could receive fifty dollars; and this might be given yearly if the trustees thought wise.
Mr. Smith lived and died unmarried; but he knew that the pathway of many struggling lovers would be made easier if the young woman had even fifty dollars, or, if the girl had been bound out with strangers, $300 would make many a little home after marriage comfortable.
Mr. Smith has been dead over half a century, but his quaint and beautiful gift has been doing its work. During the year 1894, 51 boys and 17 girls were placed in good homes, and reared for useful lives. Nine received their marriage portion, and sixteen were helped in sickness. Thirty boys received their loan of $500 each, and thirty their gift of a like amount. There are now apprenticed 137 boys and 38 girls. Marriage gifts were made to 118 young women, and $50 were paid to each of 116 widows. Last year 289 persons received gifts to the amount of $30,785. What happiness this money means to those for the most part just looking out into the cares and work of life! How many fortunes are built on that first $500 so difficult to accumulate! How many homes kept from dire poverty by that first $300 with which to make the place attractive as well as comfortable! What an incentive for a boy or girl to be industrious, saving, temperate, and upright! What a comfort to feel that after we are silent our work can speak for us through a whole State, and even a whole nation!
Mr. Oliver Smith depended much upon his nephew, Austin Smith, a successful and wealthy man, to carry out his wishes. Austin and his brother Joseph were members of the General Court of Massachusetts. When their father died, though he was not wealthy like Oliver, he left his two sons the larger part of his fortune, and his two daughters, Harriet and Sophia, enough to support them with close economy. The father was a soldier in the Revolutionary War; and the grandfather, Samuel Smith, was commissioned lieutenant in 1755 by Governor Phipps.
Sophia, who must have been a sweet-faced girl, judging from her appearance in later life, was eager for study; but there was little chance for a girl to obtain an education, and little sympathy, as a rule, with those girls who desired it. She was born in Hatfield, Mass., Aug. 27, 1796. When Sophia was a little girl, Abigail Adams, the noble wife of John Adams, our second president, wrote to a friend in England, "You need not be told how much, in this country, female education is neglected, nor how fashionable it is to ridicule female learning."
Mrs. Samuel D. (Locke) Stow, in a history of Mount Holyoke Seminary, shows how meagre were the early advantages for girls. "Boston did not permit girls to attend the public schools till 1790, and then only during the summer months, when there were not boys enough to fill them. This lasted till 1822, when Boston became a city. An aged resident of Hatfield used to tell of going to the schoolhouse when she was a girl, and sitting on the doorstep to hear the boys recite their lessons. No girl could cross the threshold as a scholar. The girls of Northampton were not admitted to the public schools till 1792. In the Centennial Hampshire Gazette it was stated: 'In 1788 the question was before the town, and it was voted not to be at any expense for schooling girls.' The advocates of the measure were persistent, however, and appealed to the courts; the town was indicted and fined for this neglect. In 1792 it was voted by a large majority to admit girls between the ages of eight and fifteen to the schools from May 1 to Oct. 31. It was not till 1802 that all restrictions were removed."
These summer schools from May to October were of comparatively little worth. All children brought their work, braiding, sewing, and knitting, and were taught to read and write, and to have "good manners," according to the accepted notions of the time. "At first arithmetic and geography were taught only in the winter, for a knowledge of numbers or ability to cast accounts was deemed quite superfluous for girls. When Colburn's Mental Arithmetic was introduced, some of our mothers who desired to study it were told derisively, 'If you expect to become widows, and have to carry pork to market, it may be well enough to study mental arithmetic.'
"The first school in New England," says Mrs. Stow, "designed exclusively for the instruction of girls in branches not taught in the common schools, is said to have been an evening school conducted by William Woodbridge, who was a graduate of Yale in 1780. His theme on graduation was, 'Improvement in Female Education.' Reducing his theory to practice, in addition to his daily occupation he gave his evenings to the instruction of girls in Lowth's Grammar, Guthrie's Geography, and the art of composition. The popular sentiment deemed him visionary. 'Who,' it said, 'shall cook our food and mend our clothes if the girls are to be taught philosophy and astronomy?' In Waterford, N.Y., in 1820, occurred the public examination of a young lady in geometry. It was the first instance of the kind in the State, and perhaps in the country, and called forth a storm of ridicule. Her teacher was Mrs. Emma Willard."
Sophia Smith's girlhood was passed during this indifference or opposition to education for women. When she was fourteen, in 1810, she went to school in Hartford, Conn., for twelve weeks; and four years later, at eighteen, she was for a short time a pupil in the Hopkins Academy in Hadley. She studied diligently with her quick, eager mind, and was thankful for these crumbs of knowledge, though she lamented through her life that her opportunities had been so limited.
Year by year went by in the quiet New England home, her sister Harriet taking upon herself the burden of household cares and business, as Sophia was frail, and at forty had become very deaf. Her mind had been broadened, and her heart kept tender to every sorrow, by her Christian faith and devotion to duty. The town of Hatfield had capable ministers, who were intellectual as well as spiritual helpers, and Sophia Smith enjoyed cultivated minds.
"By reading mostly," says the Rev. John M. Greene of Lowell, Mass., "she kept herself familiar with the common events and occurrences of the day. Probably what she and others called a calamity was a blessing to her. She had fortitude to bear the trial, and the wisdom to improve the reflective and meditative powers of her mind, far beyond what the fashionable and gossiping woman attains. Deafness is an admirable remedy for insincerity, shallowness, and foolish talking. It sifts what we hear, and compels us to try to say what is worth attention."
Miss Smith attended the services of the Congregational Church, of which she was a member; and though she could not hear a word of the sermon perhaps, she felt accountable for the influence of her presence. She loved the Bible, and would quote the words of Sir William Jones: "The Bible contains more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, more pure morality, more important history, and finer strains of poetry and eloquence, than can be collected from all other books, in whatever age or language they have been written." She had the strength of character of the typical New England woman, yet possessing gentle manners and most refined tastes.
She loved nature; and in Hatfield, with its magnificent elms and beautiful river, Miss Smith had much to enjoy. Some of these great elms measure twenty-eight feet in circumference, three yards from the ground.
In this charming scenery, reading her books, and doing good as she had opportunity, Miss Smith was growing old. Her sister Harriet had died a little before the time of our Civil War, and the lonely woman bent her energies towards helping other aching hearts. She worked with her own hands to aid the soldiers and their families, and when she had the means used it generously.
Her brother Austin died March 8, 1861; and very unexpectedly Sophia Smith became the possessor, through his gift, of over $200,000. "God permitted him," says the Rev. Mr. Greene, to "gather the gold, preparing all the while the heart of a devout and Christlike sister to dispense it."
Miss Smith at once felt her great responsibility. Some persons living all their lives most carefully would have rejoiced at the opportunity to buy comforts,—a carriage for daily riding, attractive clothes, more books, or take a journey to the Old World or elsewhere. But Miss Smith said at once, "This is a large property put into my hands, but I am only the steward of God in respect to it." She very wisely sought the advice of her pastor, the Rev. John M. Greene, a man of broad scholarship and generous nature. Dr. Greene was a lover of books; and finding so much happiness for himself in a student's life, he rightly thought that woman should have the bliss of possessing knowledge for her own sake, as well as for her increased influence in the world.
Miss Smith desired so to give as would accord with the wishes of her brother Austin were he alive, but could not be sure what were his preferences. She wished to give the money for education; for that was her great joy, mingled with regret that her way, as that of every other woman at that time, had been so hedged up by mistaken public opinion.
She longed to build a college for women, even when learned doctors wrote books to show that girls would be ruined in health by study, and that they were mentally inferior to the other sex. It was said that women would not care for higher education; that if they went to college they would not marry, and would cease to be attractive to men; that in any event the intellectual standard would be lowered if women were admitted to any college.
Miss Smith said, "There is no justice in denying women equal educational advantages with men. Women are the natural educators and physicians of the race, and they ought to be fitted for their work." When the foolish and untrue argument was used, that educated women do not make good wives and mothers, Miss Smith would say, "Then they are wrongly educated—some law is violated in the process."
Miss Smith had read history, and she knew that the Aspasias and the De Maintenons are the women who have had the strongest power with men. She knew that an educated woman is the companion of her children and their intellectual guide. She knew that women ought to be interested in the welfare of the state, rather than in a round of parties and amusements. She had no love for display, though she had taste in dress and in her home; and she longed to see all women have a purpose in life other than frivolity and pleasure-seeking. But Miss Smith feared that $200,000 would not be sufficient to found a college for women, and gave up the idea. Two months after her brother died she made her will, giving $75,000 for an Academy at Hatfield, $100,000 to a Deaf Mute Institution in Hatfield, and $50,000 to a Scientific School in connection with Amherst College. Six years later Mr. John Clarke provided a deaf mute institution for the Commonwealth, and Miss Smith was at liberty to turn her fortune into another channel.
The old idea of a real college for women, a project as dear to Dr. Greene as to herself, was again upon her mind. She read all she could find upon the subject. She loved and believed in her own sex, and knew the low intellectual standard of the ordinary boarding-school. She said, "We should educate the whole woman, physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual." She insisted that the education given in the college which she hoped to found should be equal to that obtained in a college for men.
"There is a good deal that is heroic," says a writer in Scribner's Monthly, May, 1877, "in the spectacle of this lonely woman, shut out in a great measure by her infirmity and secluded life from so many human interests and pleasures, quietly elaborating a plan by which she could broaden and enrich the lives of multitudes of her sex, and give increased dignity and power to woman in the generations to come."
In July, 1868, Miss Smith made her last will, stating the object for which she wished her money to be used: "The establishment and maintenance of an institution for the higher education of young women, with the design to furnish them means and facilities for education equal to those which are afforded in our colleges for young men."
"The formal wording," says M. A. Jordan in the New England Magazine for January, 1887, "hardly tells the story of self-denial, painful industry, commonplace restriction and isolation, that lies behind it in the lives of this brother and sister."
Miss Smith wished the college to be Christian, "not Congregational," she said, "or Baptist, or Methodist, or Episcopalian, but Christian." She hoped the Bible would be studied in the Hebrew and Greek in her college, so that the students could know for themselves the truth of the translations which we have to-day.
Miss Smith gave about $400,000 for the founding of Smith College,—the fortune left by her brother had increased,—with the express condition that not more than half the amount should be used in buildings and grounds. It required much urging to allow the college to bear her name. After counselling with friends, Miss Smith decided that the college should be built at Northampton, which George Bancroft thought "the most beautiful town in New England, where no one can live without imbibing love for the place," with the provision that the town should raise $25,000, which was done. Northampton seemed preferable to Hatfield, because more easy of access, and possessed of a public library and other intellectual attractions. After her brother's money came into her hands, Miss Smith continued to economize for herself, but gave generously to others. Often in her journal she wrote, "I feel the responsibility of this great property."
She subscribed $5,000 to the Massachusetts Agricultural College if it should be located at Northampton, $300 for a library for the young people's Literary Association in Hatfield, $1,000 towards the organ in the church, $30,000 for the endowment of a professorship in Andover Theological Seminary, and to many other objects. "She gave to them all," says Dr. Greene, "Home Missions and Foreign Missions, the Bible Society and Tract Society, the Seamen and Freedmen,—to all the objects presented. In her journal she writes: 'I desire to give where duty calls.' ... Before her death she had great satisfaction and comfort in her Andover donation.... When she was considering whether or not to make her donation to Andover Theological Seminary, Professor Park asked her if he might consult a mutual friend, an eminent lawyer and business man, about it. With uplifted hands and almost a rebuking gesture she replied, 'No, no; I'll make up my mind myself.' One of her most intimate friends, a graduate of Mount Holyoke Seminary, remarked, 'I never was acquainted with a person who felt more deeply than Miss Smith her accountability to God.'"
Miss Smith's life declined pleasantly and happily. In 1866 she wrote in her journal: "Sunday afternoon. It is a most splendid day; have been to church, although I have not heard. I feel the presence of Him who is everywhere, and who is all love to him that seeketh Him and serves Him.... I resolve with His blessing to give myself unreservedly anew to Him, to watch over my thoughts and words, and to strive after a more perfect life in all my dealings with my fellow-men, and strive to make this great affliction [deafness] a means of sanctification, and make it a means of improvement in the divine life."
May 9, 1870, she made her last record in her journal: "I resolve to begin anew to strive to be better in everything; to guard against carelessness in talking; to strive for more patience and sense, and to strive for more earnestness, to do more good; to strive against selfishness, and to cultivate good feelings in all; to live to God's glory, that others, seeing our good works, may glorify our Father in heaven."
Such golden words might well be cut on the walls of Smith College, that the students might imitate the resolve of the founder, who believed, as she said in her will, "that all education should be for the glory of God and the good of man.... It is not my design to render my sex any the less feminine, but to develop as fully as may be the powers of womanhood, and furnish women with the means of usefulness, happiness, and honor, now withheld from them."
One month after writing in her journal, June 12, 1870, Sophia Smith passed to her reward, at the age of seventy-five. She was in her usual health till four days before her death, when she was prostrated by paralysis. She was buried in the Hatfield Cemetery under a simple monument of her own erecting. She had provided for a better and more enduring monument in Smith College, and she knew that no other was needed. The seventy-five-thousand-dollar academy at Hatfield would also keep her in blessed remembrance.
The thought of Miss Smith, after her death, began to shape itself into brick and stone. Thirteen acres of ground were purchased for the site of the college, commanding a view of the beautiful valley of the Connecticut River; and the main building, of brick and freestone, was erected in secular Gothic style, the interior finished in unpainted native woods. On the large stained-glass window over the entrance of the building is a copy of the college seal, a woman radiant with light, with the motto underneath in Greek which expressed the desire of the founder: "Add to your virtue knowledge."
The homestead which was on the estate when purchased was made over for a home for the students, as the plan of small dwellings to accommodate from twenty to fifty young women had been decided upon in preference to several hundreds gathered under one roof.
The right person for the right place had been chosen as president, the Rev. Dr. L. Clark Seelye, at that time a professor in Amherst College. He had made a careful inspection of the principal educational institutions both in this country and in Europe, and his plans as to buildings and courses of study were adopted.
Smith College was dedicated July 14, 1875, and opened to students in the following September. President Seelye in his admirable inaugural address said, "One hundred years ago a female college would have been simply an object of ridicule.... You have seen machines invented to do the work which formerly absorbed the greater portion of woman's time and strength. Factories have supplanted the spinning-wheel and distaff. Sewing-machines will stitch in an hour more than our grandmothers could in a day. I need not ask you what we are to do with force which has thus been set free. The answer comes clearly from an enlightened public opinion, saying, 'Put it to higher uses; train it to think correctly; to work intelligently; to do its share in bringing the human mind to the perfection for which it was designed.'"
Dr. Seelye emphasized the fact that this college was to give women "an education as high and thorough and complete as that which young men receive in Harvard, Yale, and Amherst." "I believe," he said, "this is the only female college that insists upon substantially the same requisites for admission which have been found practicable and essential in male colleges." He disapproved of a preparatory department, and other colleges for women have wisely followed the standard and example of Smith. Secondary schools have seen the necessity of a higher fitting for their students, that they may enter our best colleges.
Greek and the higher mathematics were made an essential part of the course. To this, exception was taken; and Dr. Seelye was frequently asked, "What use have young women of Greek?" He answered, "A study of Greek brings us into communion with the best scholarship and the acutest intellects of all European countries.... It would simply justify its place in our college curriculum upon the relation which it has had, and ever must have, to the growth of the human intellect."
Dr. Seelye favored the teaching of music and art, but not to the exclusion of other things, unless one had special gifts along those lines. "Musical entertainments," he said, "have generally been the grand parade-ground of female boarding-schools. All of us are familiar with the many wearisome hours which young ladies ordinarily are required to spend at the piano,—time enough to master most of the sciences and languages; and all of us are familiar with the remark, heard so frequently after school-days are over, 'I cannot play; I am out of practice.'"
President Seelye had to meet all sorts of objections to higher education for women. When he told a friend that Greek was to be studied in Smith College, the friend replied, "Nonsense! girls cannot bear such a strain;" "and yet his own daughters," says Dr. Seelye, "were going, with no remonstrance from him, night after night, through the round of parties and fashionable amusements in a great city. We question whether any greater expenditure of physical force is necessary to master Greek than to endure ordinary fashionable amusements. Woman's health is endangered far more by balls and parties than by schools. For one ruined by over-study, we can point to a hundred ruined by dainties and dances."
Another said to President Seelye, "Think of a wife who forced you to talk perpetually about metaphysics, or to listen to Greek and Latin quotations!" This would be much more agreeable conversation to some men than to hear about dress and servants and gossip.
When Smith College was opened in 1875, there were many applicants; but with requirements for admission the same as at Harvard, Yale, Brown, and Amherst, only fifteen could pass the examinations. The next year eighteen were accepted.
Each year the number has increased, till in the year 1895 there were 875 students at Smith College. The professorships are about equally divided between men and women. The chair of Greek, on the John M. Greene foundation, "is founded in honor of the Rev. John M. Greene, D.D., who first suggested to Miss Smith the idea of the college, and was her confidential adviser in her bequest," says the College Calendar.
There are three courses of study, each extending through four years,—the classical course leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts, the scientific to Bachelor of Science, the literary to Bachelor of Letters. The maximum of work allowed to any student in a regular course is sixteen hours of recitation each week.
Year by year Miss Smith's noble gift has been supplemented by the gifts of others.
In 1878 the Lilly Hall of Science was dedicated, the gift of Mr. Alfred Theodore Lilly. This building contains lecture rooms, and laboratories for chemistry, physics, geology, zoölogy, and botany. In 1881 Mr. Winthrop Hillyer gave the money to erect the Hillyer Art Gallery, which now contains an extensive collection of casts, engravings, and paintings, and is provided with studios. One corridor of engravings and an alcove of original drawings were given by the Century Company. Mr. Hillyer gave an endowment of $50,000 for his gallery. A music-hall was also erected in 1881.
The observatory, given by two donors unknown to the public, has an eleven-inch refracting telescope, a spectroscope, siderial clock, chronograph, a portable telescope, and a meridian circle, aperture four inches.
The alumnæ gymnasium contains a swimming-bath, and a large hall for gymnastic exercises and in-door sport. A large greenhouse has been erected to aid in botanical work, with an extensive collection of tropical plants.
There are eight or more dwelling-houses for the students, each presided over by a competent woman, where the scholars find cheerful, happy homes. The Tenney House, bequeathed by Mrs. Mary A. Tenney, for experiments in co-operative housekeeping, enables the students to adapt their expenses to their means, if they choose to make the experiment together. Tuition is $100 a year, with $300 for board and furnished room in the college houses.
Smith College is fortunately situated. Opposite the grounds is the beautiful Forbes Library, with an endowment of $300,000 for books alone, and not far away a public library with several thousand volumes, and a permanent endowment of $50,000 for its increase. The students have access to the collections at Amherst College and the Massachusetts Agricultural College, also at Mount Holyoke College, about seven miles distant.
There are no secret societies at Smith. "Instead of hazing newcomers," says President Seelye, "the second or sophomore class will give them a reception in the art-gallery, introduce them to the older students with the courteous hospitality which good breeding dictates."
There are several literary and charitable societies in Smith College. Great interest is taken in the working-girls of New York, and in the college settlement of that city.
None of the evil effects predicted for young women in college have been realized. "Some of our best scholars," says President Seelye, "have steadily improved in health since entering college. Some who came so feeble that it was doubtful whether they could remain a term have become entirely well and strong.... We have had frequently professors from male institutions to give instruction; and their testimony is to the effect that the girls study better than the boys, and that the average scholarship is higher."
"The general atmosphere of the college is one of freedom," writes Louise Walston, in the "History of Higher Education in Massachusetts," by George Gary Bush, Ph.D. "The written code consists of one law,—Lights out at ten; the unwritten is that of every well-regulated community, and to the success of this method of discipline every year is a witness.
"This freedom is not license.... The system of attendance upon recitation at Smith is in this respect unique. It is distinctively a 'no-cut' system. In the college market that commodity known as indulgences is not to be found; and no student is expected to absent herself from lecture or recitation except for good reasons, the validity of which, however, is left to her own conscience. Knowledge is offered as a privilege, and is so received."
As Miss Smith directed in her will, "the Holy Scriptures are daily and systematically read and studied in the college." A chapel service is held in the morning of week-days, and a vesper service on Sunday. Students attend the churches of their preference in Northampton.
All honor to Sophia Smith, the quiet Christian woman, who, forgetting herself, became a blessing to tens of thousands by her gifts. At the request of the trustees of Smith College, Dr. Greene is preparing a volume on her life and character.
All honor, too, to the Rev. John M. Greene, who for twenty-five years has been the beloved pastor of the Eliot Church in Lowell, Mass. His quarter century of service was fittingly celebrated at Lowell, Sept. 26, 1895. Out of five hundred Congregational ministers in Massachusetts, only ten have held so long a pastorate as he over one church.
Among the hundreds of congratulations and testimonies to Dr. Greene's successful ministry, the able Professor Edwards A. Park of Andover, wrote to the congregation: "The city of Lowell has been favored with clergymen who will be remembered by a distant posterity, but not one of them will be remembered longer than the present pastor of Eliot Church. He was the father of Smith College, now so flourishing in Northampton, Mass. Had it not been for him that great institution would never have existed. For this great benefaction to the world, he will be honored a hundred years hence."