not only of the details of the beginning of this, the first woman's college, but also of the rare spirit of its founder, Mary Lyon. Mrs. Mallory is a member of the Brooklyn Society but Miss Anna S. Jenkins who spoke for Smith College, and Miss Alice Stevens who treated of Wellesley College, were honored guests. Both of the speakers emphasize earnestly the special aims of her alma mater, its history and achievements, till the members, who represented largely the college of matrimony, were only comforted for the loss of their youth and opportunities by the conviction that choice between Smith and Wellesley would be perplexing indeed. Mrs. H. Brooks Day, one of the society's talented musicians, rendered most excellent piano selections and Mrs. Emma G. Beveridge, chairman of the entertainment committee, sang with charming simplicity two groups of songs. Miss Joseph, another of the society's guests played the accompaniments with care and taste, while a cordial letter from California from the society's president. Mrs. Moore, completed the afternoon's enjoyment.

San Francisco the first of the Pacific Colonies. is growing rapidly in numbers. calling to her membership women that represent the finest ancestry - names that

have helped make the history of our Republic. We of the East are righteously proud of the achievements of Colony 10. They have alrea y printed their Constitution, By-laws and membership list-the latter numbering upwards of eighty. Their secretary, Miss Jennie Partridge, sends the following: The New England Colony held its regular meeting last Friday at the California

Clubhouse. The Colony is growing in interest and numbers, many new names being presented for membership. An interesting feature is that several presidents of other clubs are among its members, so that the working force is greatly helped thereby, and there will be no danger that business will not be carried on in the most parliamentary way! The committees are as follows: Membership. Mrs. Fernando Pfingst; literary, Mrs. Clare O. Southard; music, Mrs. E. De Los Magee; refreshments, Mrs. Eli P. Burr; reception, Mrs. John Jay Scoville; decoration, Mrs. A. J. Tinker. Mrs. Southard read a paper on the Early History of New England up to 1620, beginning with the Algonquins and their characteristics, of their agglutinative and polysyllabic language; speaking of the slave system of woman, polygamy. etc.; then giving the beginning of the Pilgrim movement and their leaving Delfthaven in the leaky "Speedwell" and later sailing in the

"Mayflower" with one hundred passengers. Mrs. John Bakewell of Oakland gave a paper on the Home Life of Early New England, describing the conflict of France and England over the Colonies, the thirst for adventure which led men to brave hardships, and sail for the New World, Bartholomew Goswell being the first to land in 1602 on Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod. George Weymouth next sailed for Cape Cod and coasted north to Kennebec which resulted in the formation of two great stock companies, one under Sir John Popham, who started an expedition which landed at Kennebec in 1606. In 1614 Captain Smith explored from Penobscot to Cape Cod and named it New England. The "Mayflower" arrived in 1620, and lay in the harbor for five weeks, the women landing every day and cooking supplies, and the men scouring the country for game, forty-six dying that awful winter, one of whom was the beautiful Rose Standish. By spring seven houses had been built, and twenty-six cleared. Mrs. Bakewell gave interesting details of daily life. Miss Rahout gave two piano solos, one by Liszt, and Mrs. Southard read a beautiful poem, "Daffodils," by Mrs. Grace Hibbard, whom we are happy to claim as a member. A Grace Hibbard Day is in preparation by the literary committee. Refreshments were then served and the members enjoyed a social hour.

acres

Mrs. George Frederick Ralph (Cornelia Marion Barnes Ralph), President of Colony 9, National Society of New England Women, has a highly honorable and interesting ancestry. Through her father, the late Sylvester Wallace Barnes, she is eighth from Thomas Barnes who signed the New Haven Colony constitution in 1644, ninth from Captain Isaac Johnson who fell in King Philip's War, tenth from Captain John Johnson, "Surveyor of all ye King's Armies in America," and ninth from Justice Edward Howell, leader of the founders of Southampton, Long Island, in 1640.

Her Topping line is interesting for an unbroken succession of military titles. It runs as follows: Captain Thomas Topping, Captain Elnathan Topping, Captain Stephen Topping. Lieutenant Daniel Topping, Southampton, Long Island; Sergeant Daniel Topping, seven years' veteran of the New York Line in the Revolution; Lieutenant Jared Topping, War of 1812; Lucina Topping, Sylvester Wallace Barnes, Mrs. Ralph. Captain Thomas Topping, in 1635-39 of Wethersfield which he represented in General Court, was an original proprietor of Milford, 1639-44, leading man of Hempstead, 1645-50, and in 1651-1664 of South

ampton, where he was captain, magistrate, deputy and assistant. Of Milford and Branford subsequently, he commanded all the New Haven troops in 1672, and from 1674 to 1684 was Assistant of Connecticut.

Through her mother, the late Cornelia Augusta Chevalier, Mrs. Ralph is linked with the very earliest founders of both New England and New York. Eleventh from Stephen Hopkins and tenth from his children, Giles and Constance, she descends from three "Mayflower" passengers. Again, she is ninth from Joris Jansen de Rapalie and Catalina Trico, the only two whose names are certainly known among the company of French and Walloons who in 1623 established the first permanent settlement in New Netherland.

Mrs. Ralph's other early New York ancestors include Anneke Jans, Dominie Bogardus, Resolve Waldron, the Tellers, the Chevaliers, the Renandets, the Van Vechtens, the Hooglandts. Her New England ancestors include the Holts, Collines,

Bartholomews, Dakins, Perrys, Swifts, Prentices, Benjamins, Burgesses, Porters, Snows, Deanes, Cheneys, Kings, Freemans and Merricks.

She is eleventh from William Collier, Commissioner of the United Colonies, assistant and richest man of Plymouth; and is tenth from Constant Southworth, assistant and treasurer of Plymouth Colony. Through the latter a descendant of the ancient and knightly Southworths of Samlesbury Hall, Lancashire, Mrs. Ralph is an "American of royal descent," claiming as ancestors the crowned Plantagenets of England, William the Conqueror, Alfred the Great, Charlemagne, "Emperor of the West," various Roman Emperors of the East, and innumerable other royalties of early and mediaeval Europe.

Reports from the other Colonies arrived too late to be use in this number of the NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE. It will be interesting to know that the various Colonies now aggregate a membership of nearly seven hundred.

A celebration unique among the anniversaries which the people of historic New England remember, was held not long ago in North Hadley. The occasion was the one hundredth birthday of an old-time teacher, widely known, feared and loved as "Aunt Betsey." "Aunt Betsey" herself died twenty years ago but her memory is still bright as a gathering of one hundred and twenty-five in Bartlett chapel to commemorate the little red schoolhouse days bore witness. Still brighter were the remembrances of many a method, many a wile of hers to reward her pupils in the paths of righteousness and to maintain good sound obedience to discipline. There are few New Englanders who do not remember before the days when systems and theories were much talked of, some gaunt woman fond of learning, very lovable, very fearful, for to the naughty and the stupid ones she was as uncom promising as truth. Other memories also linger about such a teacher of old daysthe clutter of school room life, the bleak winter and the big stove, the little half circle of the reading class, her awful severity and the thrill of her kindness. These qualities and more must have been accentuated in Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Baker, "Aunt Betsey" of the one hundredth celebration, to keep so warm an affection in the hearts of her boys and girls. The

exercises of the day began with calling the roll, and the pupils present responded. One seventy-one year old boy told in his speech how he got shut in a dark closet with a girl who had to wear his hat while her hood was tied on him. His wife, another pupil, recalled "Aunt Betsey's" warming her apron on cold days and wrapping little Helen's chilled hands in it, but when the same little girl brought rag dolls to school and hid them under the fold of her dress, with one sweep of the teacher's arm, the dolls were in the fire. One absent scholar wrote, "For me, she and not David composed the twenty-third Psalm. The 'green pastures' have always been those of Mount Warren that I saw from the east window of the school room. We all came out strong on the last verse because she did." Another one recalled "Every afternoon as surely as the recess bell rang which ended the day for us little ones, she rose impressively from the arm chair, walked slowly across to the throne end of the room, mounted its height, raised the cover of the desk, and from behind and beneath it produced something for every good child according to the degree of his goodness. Sometimes it was a raisin, sometimes a lump of sugar, sometimes only a half one, sometimes a big red peppermint." Speeches were made by principals of schools in Hadley and Hop

was

kins and Clifton Johnson, the author, also made a clever speech; an address given by the principal of Westfield Normal school where "Aunt Betsey's" good courage and love of knowledge led her to become a student at the age of forty. The Normal school was then considered new-fangled. But "Aunt Betsey" had attended the public school at its first opening in North Hadley. This was her first regular school career. The next year she began school teaching and followed her profession with great success and honor for thirty years till 1881. There was an interval of a few years when she was married. After her husband's death she resumed school teaching. She taught largely in North Hadley, and also in Hadley Centre, Haydenville, Leverett, Dockanum and Plainville. For many years she lived in her home village, taught her school and cared for her old parents. Her family was a large one and numbered one hundred cousins, many of whose children went to school to her. Little toddlers were sent to school at an early age in order that they might say in later years that they had been under Aunt "Betsey."

*

The orthodoxy of New England has been popularly considered to be a fixed quantity. The sporadic declaration of advanced opinions from time to time has had but limited welcome from the recognized leaders, and it has been a frequent remark that in the reception and adoption of new thought and belief the pews have been in advance of the pulpit. That this has been apparent rather than real appears from the revelations of opinion and belief published by The Congregationalist in the number of March 8th, celebrat ng its ninetieth anniversary. It asks of seven representatives of the Baptist, Congregational, Episcopalian, Methodist and Presbyterian churches the question "The Religion of the Next Ninety Years-What Will it Be and Do?" The answers are most significant in their unanimity in practical surrender of a theory of dogmas on which great stress was formerly laid, and insistence on the authority of enlightened reason and established science in interpreting the Bible. Thus Rev. Dr. Frank W. Gunsaulus says: "After all readjustments are made in the study of the Bible and its higher appreciation according to the truer views of to-day, that to-morrow marks the new era for a civilization when the child's heart hears and answers the child's Savior." Professor Henry S. Nash, D. D., says: "The Old Testament is disclosing itself to us in its true character. It is the book of the nation. We are ceasing to take it as

a body of infallible teaching in the field of doctrine or of inerrant prediction of future events." And later: "We no longer speak without effort about predestination in the theological sense. Something more terrible than the foreordination of souls to damnation is confronting us. Can we contemplate, without sinking of heart, the possibility of social conditions which doom and damn little children to misery and hopelessness?"

Rev. James R. Day, D. D., says: "The working creed will be the thir teenth chapter of second Corinthians, which has its climax in the heart of Christ with which it closes. 'Now abideth faith, hope, love, but the greatest of these is love.' Professor William N. Clarke, D. D., says: "Much of the present unrest is due to the seeking after reality, with its abandonment of the unreal; and the eyes of hope are turned to the day when religion shall be understood to consist in a genuine life, in the realities that are eternal." Rev. Charles E. Jefferson's thought is: "Since the Reformation era Protestantism has been handicapped by an intenable doctrine of Holy Scripture, which has produced in each generation a host of skeptics and filled the heart of many a saint with perplexity and misgivings. By the scholarship of the last ninety years the power of that conception has been forever broken, and clergymen hereafter instead of squandering time on questions incidental will be free to attend to the one thing essential-God's revelation of Himself in Christ." Rev. Dr. George A. Gordon says: "The worship of the Bible. the subjection of the conscience to it is, for the educated man. no longer possible. In the best sense of that uncertain and perilous adjective the Bible has become a natural book. It has ceased to be the Lord of conscience; it has taken its place as the supreme servant of the conscience." Rev. Dr. Robert F. Coyle closes the symposium with this thought: "The regeneration of the individual will be sought with increasing earn estness, not simply, however, that his soul may be saved and that he may go to heaven, but quite as much that he may save and serve society and produce a little more of heaven on earth." And Rev. Dr. A. E. Dunning, the editor of The Congregationalist, in summarizing this symposium says of the seven men quoted, they "speak in this number in words as divinely prophetic as those of the Old Testament." He also says: "There is a voice of authority not limited to any past period nor confined to any one book. It is a living voice to living persons." Those of us who are not very old can recall a time when this group of sentiments could not be uttered in the ears of orthodox New England without raising a storm of protest and innumerable

heresy trials, and there would not be disclosed in the community a sufficient number of supporters to establish a respectable schism. This publication emphasizes the record of a progress in religious thought which has been so quiet as to attract but little attention. It will do much to crystalize this evolution of thought, and it should operate as a powerful incentive toward a more general eagerness to learn and appropriate the new forms of truth which mark the opening of this new century.

The Congo Reform Association has issued the following address to the people of Massachusetts. Governor Guild, who has headed a petition to the President and Congress, asking for an investigation of the atrocities in the Congo, is a vice presiIdent of the Congo Reform Association. and has united in the preparation of this address.

TO THE PEOPLE OF MASSACHUSETTS :

was

The Governor of the Commonwealth, the Lieutenant Governor, every member of the Governor's Council, the President and every member of the Senate, the Speaker of the House and an overwhelming majority of its members have signed a strong petition, urging the attention of the Presi dent and Congress to the terrible condition of affairs now prevalent in the Congo valley. There can be no mistake about the conditions, the official report of the Commission, whose appointment forced from King Leopold, admits that the people of that unhappy country are chained to the soil like serfs and forced to turn in rubber to the agents of the king and his concessionary companies. The theory of law under which the king acts is that the entire land and even the wild products of the forest are the king's property, and that those who gather them may be proceeded against as "poachers" -to use the language of the report-and those receiving them may be proceeded against as "receivers of stolen goods." It is a matter of official record, supplemented by the evidence of photographs, that the unhappy natives who do not collect the exorbitant amount of rubber demanded of them are hunted like animals by organized bands of savages in the royal employment. Women are outraged. Men, women and children are tortured, mutilated and massacred. The first country to acknowledge the flag of the Congo State, now controlled by the King of Belgium, was the United

States. It seems to us that the United States, therefore, should be the first country to resent the awful conditions under which this once fertile district is becoming not only barren of produce but of population. All citizens of Massachusetts, who desire to support the Governor in his appeal for an investigation by the State Department. are invited to send to the Congo Reform Association, Room 710, Tremont Temple, Boston, where copies of the petition headed by Governor Guild may be obtained for circulation. G. Stanley Hall, President; Hugh P. McCormick, secretary, Congo Reform Association.

The traffic in india-rubber is as nearly a monopoly as any great commercial enterprise can be, but there is a shadow of hope that relief is coming from an unexpected source. A Colorado farmer had a valuble ram, which died of indigestion. An autopsy disclosed a mass in the animal's stomach which chemists have decided was practically india-rubber. Then the farmer gathered samples of all the vegetation to which the animal had access, and their analysis revealed one plant from which excellent rubber can be secured. There are uncounted acres of the weed already growing, and an unlimited area open to its cultivation. Capitalists have already begun to exploit the discovery and Colorado rubber promises to speedily compete with the gum of Brazil and the Congo Free State.

The recently revived agitation of the question of the propriety of shortening the sufferings of incurables by the taking of life has brought out a counter movement which seems to be a preposterous interference with the right of individual opinion and candid discussion. A New York assemblyman has introduced a bill in the legislature which provides that any person who by word of mouth or by written or printed circulars, documents, articles. etc., advocates or teaches the propriety of putting to death persons afflicted with incurable mental or physical diseases shall be guilty of a felony. The proposition is farcical and if enacted it would do more to popularize the idea it proposed to suppress than anything its advocates could accomplish. Free thought and free speech are too firmly established here to tolerate such a limitation.