Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters, and Journals Part 21

It was, at first, held in the evening, but during the last years was a breakfast party, its character in other respects remaining the same.

Little tables were spread under the dome, around the big telescope; the flowers were roses from Miss Mitch.e.l.l's own garden. The "poems" were nonsense rhymes, in the writing of which Miss Mitch.e.l.l was an adept.

Each student would have a few verses of a more or less personal character, written by Miss Mitch.e.l.l, and there were others written by the girls themselves; some were impromptu; others were set to music, and sung by a selected glee-club.

"June 5, 1881. We have written what we call our dome poetry. Some nice poems have come in to us. I think the Va.s.sar girls, in the main, are magnificent, they are so all-alive....

"May 20, 1882. Va.s.sar is getting pretty. I gathered lilies of the valley this morning. The young robins are out in a tree close by us, and the phoebe has built, as usual, under the front steps.

"I am rushing dome poetry, but so far show no alarming symptoms of brilliancy."

A former student writes as follows about the dome poetry:

"At the time it was read, though it seemed mere merry nonsense, it really served a more serious purpose in the work of one who did nothing aimlessly. This apparent nonsense served as the vehicle to convey an expression of approbation, affection, criticism, or disapproval in such a merry mode that even the bitterest draught seemed sweet."

"1881, July 5. We left Va.s.sar, June 24, on the steamer 'Galatea,' from New York to Providence. I looked out of my state-room window, and saw a strange-looking body in the northern sky. My heart sank; I knew instantly that it was a comet, and that I must return to the observatory. Calling the young people around me, and pointing it out to them, I had their a.s.surance that it was a comet, and nothing but a comet.

"We went to bed at nine, and I arose at six in the morning. As soon as I could get my nieces started for Providence, I started for Stonington,--the most easy of the ways of getting to New York, as I should avoid Point Judith.

"I went to the boat at the Stonington wharf about noon, and remained on board until morning--there were few pa.s.sengers, it was very quiet, and I slept well.

"Arriving in New York, I took cars at 9 A.M. for Poughkeepsie, and reached the college at dinner-time. I went to work the same evening.

"As I could not tell at what time the comet would pa.s.s the meridian, I stationed myself at the telescope in the meridian-room by 10 P.M., and watched for the comet to cross. As it approached the meridian, I saw that it would go behind a scraggy apple-tree. I sent for the watchman, Mr. Crumb, to come with a saw, and cut off the upper limbs. He came back with an axe, and chopped away vigorously; but as one limb after another fell, and I said, 'I need more, cut away,' he said, 'I think I must cut down the whole tree.' I said, 'Cut it down.' I felt the barbarism of it, but I felt more that a bird might have a nest in it.

"I found, when I went to breakfast the next morning, that the story had preceded me, and I was called 'George Washington.'

"But for all this, I got almost no observation; the fog came up, and I had scarcely anything better than an estimation. I saw the comet blaze out, just on the edge of the field, and I could read its declination only.

"On the 28th, 29th, and July 1st, I obtained good meridian pa.s.sages, and the R.A. must be very good.

"Jan. 12, 1882. There is a strange sentence in the last paragraph of Dr.

Jacobi's article on the study of medicine by women, to the effect that it would be better for the husband always to be superior to the wife.

Why? And if so, does not it condemn the ablest women to a single life?

"March 13, 1882, 3 P.M. I start for faculty, and we probably shall elect what are called the 'honor girls.' I dread the struggle that is pretty certain to come. Each of us has some favorite whom she wishes to put into the highest cla.s.s, and whom she honestly believes to be of the highest order of merit. I never have the whole ten to suit me, but I can truly say that at this minute I do not care. I should be sorry not to see S., and W., and P., and E., and G., and K. on the list of the ten, but probably that is more than I ought to expect. The whole system is demoralizing and foolish. Girls study for prizes, and not for learning, when 'honors' are at the end. The unscholarly motive is wearing. If they studied for sound learning, the cheer which would come with every day's gain would be health-preserving.

"... I have seven advanced students, and to-day, when I looked around to see who should be called to help look out for meteors, I could consider only _one_ of them not already overworked, and she was the post-graduate, who took no honors, and never hurried, and has always been an excellent student.

"... We are sending home some girls already [November 14], and ---- is among them. I am somewhat alarmed at the dropping down, but ---- does an enormous amount of work, belongs to every club, and writes for every club and for the 'Va.s.sar Miscellany,' etc.; of course she has the headache most of the time.

"Sometimes I am distressed for fear Dr. Clarke [Footnote: Author of "s.e.x in Education."] is not so far wrong; but I do not think it is the study--it is the morbid conscientiousness of the girls, who think they must work every minute.

"April 26, 1882. Miss Herschel came to the college on the 11th, and stayed three days. She is one of the little girls whom I saw, twenty-three years since, playing on the lawn at Sir John Herschel's place, Collingwood.

"... Miss Herschel was just perfect as a guest; she fitted in beautifully. The teachers gave a reception for her, ---- gave her his poem, and Henry, the gardener, found out that the man in whose employ he lost a finger was her brother-in-law, in Leeds!

"Jan. 9, 1884. Mr. [Matthew] Arnold has been to the college, and has given his lecture on Emerson. The audience was made up of three hundred students, and three hundred guests from town. Never was a man listened to with so much attention. Whether he is right in his judgment or not, he held his audience by his manly way, his kindly dissection, and his graceful English. Socially, he charmed us all. He chatted with every one, he smiled on all. He said he was sorry to leave the college, and that he felt he must come to America again. We have not had such an awakening for years. It was like a new volume of old English poetry.

"March 16, 1885. In February, 1831, I counted seconds for father, who observed the annular eclipse at Nantucket. I was twelve and a half years old. In 1885, fifty-four years later, I counted seconds for a cla.s.s of students at Va.s.sar; it was the same eclipse, but the sun was only about half-covered. Both days were perfectly clear and cold."

CHAPTER X

1873

SECOND EUROPEAN TOUR--RUSSIA--FRANCES POWER COBBE--"THE GLASGOW COLLEGE FOR GIRLS"

In 1873, Miss Mitch.e.l.l spent the summer in Europe, and availed herself of this opportunity to visit the government observatory at Pulkova, in Russia.

"Eydkuhnen, Wednesday, July 30, 1873. Certainly, I never in my life expected to spend twenty-four hours in this small town, the frontier town of Prussia. Here I remembered that our little bags would be examined, and I asked the guard about it, but he said we need not trouble ourselves; we should not be examined until we reached the first Russian town of Wiersbelow. So, after a mile more of travel, we came to Wiersbelow. Knowing that we should keep our little compartment until we got to St. Petersburg, we had scattered our luggage about; gloves were in one place, veil in another, shawl in another, parasol in another, and books all around.

"The train stopped. Imagine our consternation! Two officials entered the carriage, tall Russians in full uniform, and seized everything--shawls, books, gloves, bags; and then, looking around very carefully, espied W's poor little ragged handkerchief, and seized that, too, as a contraband article! We looked at one another, and said nothing. The tall Russian said something to us; we looked at each other and sat still. The tall Russians looked at one another, and there was almost an official smile between them.

"Then one turned to me, and said, very distinctly, 'Pa.s.sy-port.' 'Oh,' I said, 'the pa.s.sports are all right; where are they?' and we produced from our pockets the pa.s.sports prepared at Washington, with the official seal, and we delivered them with a sort of air as if we had said, 'You'll find that they do things all right at Washington.'

"The tall Russians got out, and I was about to breathe freely, when they returned, and said something else--not a word did I understand; they exchanged a look of amus.e.m.e.nt, and W. and I, one of amazement; then one of them made signs to us to get out. The sign was unmistakable, and we got out, and followed them into an immense room, where were tables all around covered with luggage, and about a hundred travellers standing by; and our books, shawls, gloves, etc., were thrown in a heap upon one of these tables, and we awoke to the disagreeable consciousness that we were in a custom-house, and only two out of a hundred travellers, and that we did not understand one word of Russian.

"But, of course, it could be only a few minutes of delay, and if German and French failed, there is always left the language of signs, and all would be right.

"After, perhaps, half an hour, two or three officials approached us, and, holding the pa.s.sports, began to talk to us. How did they know that those two pa.s.sports belonged to us? Out of two hundred persons, how could they at once see that the woman whose age was given at more than half a century, and the lad whose age was given at less than a score of years, were the two fatigued and weary travellers who stood guarding a small heap of gloves, books, handkerchiefs, and shawls? Two of the officials held up the pa.s.sports to us, pointed to the blank page, shook their heads ominously; the third took the pa.s.sports, put them into his vest pocket, b.u.t.toned up his coat, and motioned to us to follow him.

"We followed; he opened the door of an ordinary carriage, waved his hand for us to get in, jumped in himself, and we found we were started back.

We could not cross the line between Germany and Russia.

"We meekly asked where we were to go, and were relieved when we found that we went back only to the nearest town, but that the pa.s.sports must be sent to Konigsberg, sixty miles away, to be endorsed by the Russian amba.s.sador--it might take some days. W. was very much inclined to refuse to go back and to attempt a war of words, but it did not seem wise to me to undertake a war against the Russian government; I know our country does not lightly go into an 'unpleasantness' of that kind....

"So we went back to Eydkuhnen,--a little miserable German village. We took rooms at the only hotel, and there we stayed twenty-four hours.

Before the end of that time, we had visited every shop in the village, and aired our German to most of our fellow-travellers whom we met at the hotel.

"The landlord took our part, and declared it was hard enough on simple travellers like ourselves to be stopped in such a way, and that Russia was the only country in Europe which was rigid in that respect. Happily, our pa.s.sports were back in twenty-four hours, and we started again; our trunks had been registered for St. Petersburg, and to St. Petersburg they had gone, ahead of us; and of the small heap of things thrown down promiscuously at the custom-house, the whole had not come back to us--it was not very important. I learned how to wear one glove instead of two, or to go without.

"We had the ordeal of the custom-house to pa.s.s again; but once pa.s.sed, and told that we were free to go on, it was like going into a clear atmosphere from a fog. We crossed the custom-house threshold into another room, and we found ourselves in Russia, and in an excellent, well-furnished, and cheery restaurant. We lost the German smoke and the German beer; we found hot coffee and clean table-cloths.

"We did not return to our dusty, red-velvet palace, but we entered a clean, comfortable compartment, with easy sofas, for the night. We started again for St. Petersburg; we were now four days from London. I will omit the details of a break-down that night, and another change of cars. We had some sleep, and awoke in the morning to enjoy Russia.

"And, first, of Russian railroads. When the railroads of Russia were planned, the Emperor Nicholas allowed a large sum of money for the building. The engineer showed him his plan. The road wound by slight curves from one town to another. This did not suit the emperor at all.

He took his ruler, put it down upon the table, and said: 'I choose to have my roads run so.' Of course the engineer a.s.sented--he had his large fund granted; a straight road was much cheaper to build than a curved one. As a consequence, he built and furnished an excellent road.

"At every 'verst,' which is not quite a mile, a small house is placed at the roadside, on which, in very large figures, the number of versts from St. Petersburg is told. The train runs very smoothly and very slowly; twenty miles an hour is about the rate. Of course the journey seemed long. For a large part of the way it was an uninhabited, level plain; so green, however, that it seemed like travelling on prairies. Occasionally we pa.s.sed a dreary little village of small huts, and as we neared St.

Petersburg we pa.s.sed larger and better built towns, which the dome of some cathedral lighted up for miles.

"The road was enlivened, too, by another peculiarity. The restaurants were all adorned by flags of all colors, and festooned by vines. At one place the green arches ran across the road, and we pa.s.sed under a bower of evergreens. I accepted this, at first, as a Russian peculiarity, and was surprised that so much attention was paid to travellers; but I learned that it was not for us at all. The Duke of Edinboro' had pa.s.sed over the road a few days before, on his way to St. Petersburg, for his betrothal to the only daughter of the czar, and the decorations were for him; and so we felt that we were of the party, although we had not been asked.

"We approached St. Petersburg just at night, and caught the play of the sunlight on the domes. It is a city of domes--blue domes, green domes, white domes, and, above all, the golden dome of the Cathedral of St.

Isaac's.

"It is almost never a single dome. St. Isaac's central, gilded dome looms up above its fellow domes, but four smaller ones surround it.