me it is to go alone to such a place. However sweet
girls may be as individuals, or in small groups, they are in the mass
diabolically cruel, and their cruelty is directed especially against
men. I know. I have walked up to a college building to pay a call, while
thirty girls, seated on the steps, played, sang, and whistled an inane
marching tune, with the rhythm of which my steps could not but keep
time. I have been the only man in a dining-room full of college girls. A
hundred of them put down their knives and forks with a clatter as I
entered, and a hundred pairs of mischievously solemn eyes followed my
every movement. Voluntarily to go through such experiences alone a man
must be in love. And certainly I was not in love with any girl at the
Industrial Institute.

"We both have an engagement," I said.

"I can't go," he returned.

"Why not?"

"I have two sketches to make before train time."

"You're going to make me go over there _alone_?"

"I don't care whether you go or not," he replied mercilessly. "You made
the engagement. I had nothing to do with it. But I am responsible for
the pictures."

Perceiving that it was useless to argue with him, I reluctantly departed
and, not without misgivings, made my way to the Industrial Institute.

I am thankful to say that there matters did not turn out so badly for me
as I had anticipated. I refused to visit classrooms, and contented
myself with gathering information. And since the going to gather this
information cost me such uneasiness, I do not propose to waste entirely
the fruits of my effort, but shall here record some of the facts that I
collected.

The Industrial Institute and College is for girls of sixteen years or
over who are graduates of high schools. There are about 800 students
taking either the collegiate, normal, industrial, or musical courses, or
combination courses. This college, I was informed, was the first in the
country to offer industrial education to women.

Most of the students come from families in modest circumstances, and
attend the college with the definite purpose of fitting themselves to
become self-supporting. The cost is very slight, the only regular
charge, aside from board and general living expenses, being a nominal
matriculation fee of $5. There is no charge for rooms in the large
dormitories connected with the college. Board, light, fuel, and laundry
are paid for cooeperatively, the average cost per student, for all these,
bei