Page 9 - 1913 May - To Dragma

166 TO PRAGMA OF ALPHA 0 MIC RON PI

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF COLLEGE WOMEN

"Each deed thou hast done
Dies, revives, goes to work in the world; until e'en

as the sun
Looking down on the earth, though clouds spoil

him, though tempests efface,
Can find nothing his own deed produced not,

must everywhere trace
The results of his past summer-prime,—so,

each ray of thy will,
Every flash of thy passion and prowess, long over,

shall thrill
—whole people, the countless, with ardor till

they too give forth
A like cheer to their sons, who in turn, fill

the South and the North
With radiance thy deed was the germ of—"

—From R. Browning's "Saul".

How little we realize the responsibility which rests upon our
shoulders as we go about this w o r l d of to-day! We little know who
w i l l hear of and see our actions or what one may be criticized or
even what ones copied. Unconsciously we are influencing others and
sewing the seeds of our f u t u r e f r u i t .

Each nation has its customs, laws and types of people and with
these, it moulds its characteristic features by w h i c h it is distinguished
f r o m other nations. So i t is w i t h the different units which make up
the smaller divisions of society—but this I mean—there are certain
qualifications which designate what is good and what is bad. But
let us deal w i t h our own American nation and here let us even
narrow it down still further and speak about the college woman and
her influence. As to types of women, surely the American college
women as a whole, stand f o r the w o n d e r f u l development of broad
mindedness, true intellectualism, nobility and culture. But why
shouldn't they? These are the qualities, the colleges and universities
strive to p r i n t on the characters o f their students. I t is therefore,
the college woman's duty of today and the future, to keep this little
sentiment of Browning's i n her m i n d and to see that her l i f e can
be called an example. N o two have the same personality and so
the influences differ. Yet almost everyone w i l l admit that there are
l i t t l e actions which stand out as gracious, sincere, pure and w o r t h
while in some people—while f r o m the lack of proper attention they
are missing i n others. O f t e n , the college woman has studied so much
in the sciences, that she thinks there is no need of spiritual reflection
or religious principles and does not appreciate the lyrics of l i f e ,