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THE CAMPUS MIRROR
7
SHOULD APRON STRINGS
BE BROKEN BY COLLEGE
FRESHMEN?
(Continued from Page 1)
liar friends; teachers are lenient and sympa
thetic ; schedules are about the same as those of
advanced grammar grades; and—“Oh well," he
thinks, “High school is about the same as gram
mar school, only a higher course.” Then too,
“Mother and Dad” are perfectly delighted to
have a son. or daughter in high school; so they
will give, or send, money and even boxes without
requests. The girl, or boy is still tied tightly
to the apron strings, even being dragged by
them sometimes.
But alas! To the baffled youth, college pre
sents a different aspect. Nine times out of ten
he is sent a distance from home. Here he
meets brand new people. Then, the very first
task of his freshman year, is to develop a per
sonality which will win friends for him. There
are new circumstances, new environments and
difficulties to deal with. Financial demands are
greater, and he must learn to plan his own
budget. “Gentle mercy” has abandoned the
hearts of the college “Profs,” and “Stern
Justice" takes her place; therefore lessons must
be mastered, or a dismal failure lurks in the
shadows.
Not only does the freshman find that external
affairs have changed, but that within himself
new ideas have sprung up from various hints
or impulses. Probably, most of the new ideas
are elevating and will burst forth some day in
glorious fruit; but, sad to say, some ideas
gathered from wrong sources, or misconceived (
notions, tend to cause the college youth to grow
apart from his parents and to look upon them
in a different manner. Gone is his former pride
in their ability to care for him and in his close
relationship with them. He loves his parents,
he says, “Oh, yes,” but that gentle understand
ing and depth of feeling which he once held for
his parents, even the pal-like companionship the
daughter once had for her mother, is slipping
away. In other words, the parent is considered
an inferior (of course, this is regarded with a
sympathetic attitude by the college person).
The young man, or woman thinks that he, or she
is sufficiently independent and able to break
the apron strings and say goodbye to the past.
But should they ignore the past and disregard
their parents training?
I firmly believe that every young man and
woman should utilize his and her independence
by developing originality and the ability to cope
with any situation. The highest tribute children
can give to their parents is loving care prompted
by understanding hearts, for “all that we are
and ever hope to be, we owe to our angel
mother.” But break the apron strings? Never!
Instead, let the freshman lengthen them. He
will then have plenty of space for expansion
and yet remain firmly attached to the influences
of his home life and best of all to those who
love him and are interested in his welfare.
Professor: Miss I)—. wouldn't you like
to be married to a thrifty man?
Miss I): Yes, I should like to marry one,
but I should not like to be engaged to one.
MISS HAMILTON
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Training School, then located in Dallas, Texas.
She was appointed in 1910 by the Baptist Home
Mission Society to come to Spelman Seminary,
now Spelman College. Here she taught Mis
sionary Training classes until that work was
discontinued; then she became Bible teacher for
Spelman High School and Elementary School
and continued as Bible teacher at Spelman until
June, 1927. Since leaving Spelman College
community, Miss Hamilton’s work in Nash
ville, Tennessee, had been in the Lockland
Baptist church where she was an active; worker
in the Woman’s Missionary Society, taught
a Sunday School class of adult women, also
found other pleasant services to perform similar
to the ones she had done during her years in
Atlanta, and she was associated with a very
dear friend, Miss Grace M. Eaton of the Fire
side School.
Being truly a missionary, both in mind and
spirit, the services of May C. Hamilton included,
besides her teaching in the class room, efforts
that were probably more numerous than any one
besides herself ever knew. She had a large
circle of friends whom she interested in the
needs of the individuals and groups that she
sought out and tried to lift to better ways of
living.
Rachel Davis, one of Miss Hamilton’s pupils
at Spelman, gives the following appreciation
which voices the thought and feeling of the
large number of girls who knew Miss Hamil
ton and who acknowledge a deep debt for the
influence she exerted on their lives.
Miss Hamilton was always enthusiastic about
her class work as well as her other missionary
activities. Of her Bible classes in school she
would say, “I always enjoy the work of the
first semester because I have six classes study
ing the Life of Christ and one high school
class studying Old Testament History.” So
enthusiastic was she about the children she
taught that before each school year was over
she would find time to visit the homes of
every one of her day students and know their
parents and their home conditions.
As often as she could do it, she would in
vite groups of her pupils to her residence room
and entertain them with stories and, to help
them feel at ease and happy, she would have
for them dainty refreshments of cakes, fruit
or nuts and small gifts of pictures and books or
other needed things to carry away with them.
The children of Leonard Street Orphanage
and large numbers of children besides have the
name and personality of Miss Hamilton asso
ciated in their minds with scripture passages
she taught (hem, such as the Beatitudes, the
23rd and the 51st Psalms, the Ten Command
ments and others. She was a frequent visitor
at the Orphanage and interested in the success
of all details of Miss Chadwick’s work with the
girls.
Not only did she visit the homes of her
students, but she found her way to the homes
of many other people, it mattered not how poor
or needy, and in all these homes she would, if
the people wished it, read the Bible and talk and
pray. The home conditions of children, she
knew, were often relieved in times of need or
Dr. Maurice A. Bigelow, Professor of Biol
ogy and Director of the School of House
hold Arts, Teachers College, Columbia Uni
versity, stopped December 16 on bis way
to Florida to call on Miss Kugel and see
the home economics department. Dr. Bige-
Low is the author of "Sex Education," "Ado
lescence," a text book in biology, and numer
ous pamphlets and magazine articles.
From the December, 1929, Journal of Home
Economics.
The Negro coming into his own. Housing
18. 110-113 (1929)
An account of the group of new modern
apartment houses which are to occupy an
entire city block on the south side of Chi
cago and house dl7 Negro families and for
which Julius Rosenwald is responsible. Four-
room apartments will rent for from $58 to
$72 per month, and the aim is to demonstrate
that by large-scale mass operation, attrac
tive, modern, healthful homes can be offered
within the purchase price of the tenants and
on a basis of 6 per cent return on the in
vestment.
of distress, through the efforts and care of Miss
Hamilton. She thus taught practical mission
work, saying by her deeds, “Do thou so unto
others.”
From 1915 until the close of her services in
Spelman community, Miss Hamilton was Super
intendent of Spelman Sunday School and she
went regularly from this service to Shiloh
Baptist church on Greensferry Avenue and
taught a Sunday School class of boys. The
protest of friends that she was doing more
than her strength warranted, did not change her
in the slightest. After attending nearly every
religious service on the campus on Sunday, she
would often attend other services in the city in
the evening.
Her pupils agree, without one dissenting
voice, that she was a woman who was full of
kindness and generosity. Her manner of greet
ing and conversing was simple, frank, kind—
putting every one at ease, from tiny tot to co
workers or strangers. Spelman girls say,
“Wherever we would meet her, whether in her
class room, in her living room or on the campus
or street she would give us some word that was
helpful and encouraging.”
Although a most active Home Missionary,
Miss Hamilton usually had some missionarv
project for foreign people that she worked on
quietly and for which she accepted assistance
from her friends who liked to join hands with
her in these efforts for spreading the king
dom of God.
lit one of her last letters to a faculty member
at Spelman she told of a plan she had for col
lecting money in order to buy testaments to send
to South America and Mexico. The faculty
members of Spelman College have organized for
a May C. Hamilton Memorial Loan Fund in
honor of this nohlc woman.
More: "I hear your roommate is a triple
theater."
House: 'A es, lie plays a saxophone, per
forms on a ukulele and sings tenor!"