great poet of seeing his life's work successfully completed, and of winning the substantial appreciation of his fellow men. In January, 1896, he completed the thirty-fifth year of his professorship in the University of Bologna. The festivities extended over three days and were of a character rarely shared by even very distinguished personages. The king, the court, and the government participated, representatives from foreign countries, and universities near and far away. The national parliament granted him by a special decree an annual pension of 12,000 francs, the same that Alessandro Manzoni held previously. The Queen Margherita imitated the generosity of that patron of letters Cosimo de' Medici and purchased Carducci's library for 40,000 francs, in order to present it, after the poet's death, to the city of Bologna. Lastly, the Nobel prize placed the capstone upon these worldly honors. Carducci passed to his long rest. He had proved himself the father of the new generation. What Cavour had done as a statesman and Garibaldi as a warrior, Carducci had accomplished as a poet. His work in his art, like theirs in politics and in war, was a struggle for liberty and then for unity. His great distinction is that he achieved both and restored poetry to Italy.

T

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN.

Caroline S. Atherton, A.B., '84.

HE Association of Collegiate Alumnæ is an organization of college women for practical educational work. It has something over 3,300 members, graduates of twenty-four institutions whose standing has been approved by the committee on corporate membership. These colleges are Barnard, Boston University, Bryn Mawr, Chicago, Cornell, Leland Stanford, Jr., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern, Oberlin, Radcliffe, Smith, Syracuse, Vassar, Wellesley, Wesleyan, Western Reserve, and the Universities of California, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Wisconsin. There are thirty-two branches, in Boston, San Francisco, and between. The branches have frequent meetings. and determine their own work. They study public-school questions, civics, philanthropy, settlements, the juvenile court, libraries, child labor, home economics, as well as literary and educational subjects. Branch meetings. greatly promote social intercourse. If an alumna goes to some distant home she realizes that membership in the A. C. A., if we may be allowed

to abbreviate the long name, gives her an educational standing. She is fortunate if she finds herself so situated that she can belong to some branch. She is no more a stranger, but has her place at once in a congenial circle of educated women.

The A. C. A. has maintained twenty-three foreign fellowships of $500 each; ten American, of $250 or $350; has coöperated with the Woman's Education Association of Boston in awarding its twenty-seven foreign fellowships; and has an annual sociological fellowship in conjunction with the College Settlements Association. Competition for these fellowships has brought out brilliant work, and the fellows have helped materially in the opening of foreign universities to American, and also to foreign, women. The Association has given women the opportunity to show that they can do original work of the highest order. The fact that only three alumnæ of Boston University have received appointments to these fellowships may mean nothing more than that very few have competed.

In addition to the annual magazine, which is always of great interest and value, statistics have been gathered and published regarding the development of children, compensation in certain occupations of college women, graduate scholarships and fellowships, the health of college women compared with that of their non-collegiate sisters and cousins, and a bibliography of the higher education of women, etc. The Association is held as a bureau of information on everything that concerns women's education, and is constantly appealed to for facts by inquirers at home and abroad.

The Committee on Educational Legislation jealously guards the college degree and has more than once persuaded legislators that institutions that are below collegiate rank ought not to have the right to grant degrees or receive the name of college. The committe helps good educational legis lation and tries to hinder the passage of undesirable bills, that often win their way because nobody knows or cares. Eternal vigilance here has brought considerable results.

This and much else has the A. C. A. accomplished. Why does not the alumna who is in sympathy with such aims express her sympathy by becoming a member? In some cases one has a right to ask, "What shall I get by joining a given organization?" as with our College Club in Boston, a social club with a ten-dollar admission-fee in addition to the annual fee of the same amount. With the A. C. A. it is a different matter. Here it is a question not of getting but of giving. Here is a chance for every alumna to ally herself with other college women in an organized effort in behalf of education. If she does not herself aspire to a fellowship, she can help to

make fellowships possible for others. Increased membership will multiply such opportunities. Whether she is using her education in earning a living, or is putting that training into daily practice in her home, she may well lend her moral and financial support to an organization that aims to extend to others under constantly improving conditions such educational privileges as she herself has enjoyed. She can at least pay an annual fee of one dollar and belong to the general association. If she has time to attend meetings and do active work, she will connect herself with some branch. The fee in the Boston Branch is one dollar and a half, including membership in the Association, with all its privileges. The meetings are held at the rooms of the College Club, 40 Commonwealth Avenue, from November to May. Mrs. Ellen H. Richards is president; Mrs. Edith Talbot Jackson, B. U. '83, is secretary- treasurer. This branch, in coöperation with the one in Rhode Island, is at present investigating the living wage of college women. It is to entertain the Association November 5-9, 1907, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of its founding. A great occasion is promised socially and intellectually. Among the speakers invited are Ambassador James Bryce, the Commissioner of Education, and college presidents and professors from far and near. It is especially desired to increase the membership of the branch before that time, all who join now being offered the balance of this year and the whole of next year, till the first of October, 1908, for one fee.

I appeal to Boston University alumne who have been out of college several years, as well as to those who have just graduated. Now is the accepted time. Our representation is far below what our numbers warrant, not more than one of us to ten of Radcliffe, Smith, or Wellesley alumnæ. If Boston University had not been admitted to membership, if her graduates were not eligible, we should be making to-day a great effort to win admission, as certain other Massachusetts institutions are doing. A fresh instance has come to the writer of the wide acceptance of the standards set by the A. C. A. In a distant city I found a college club, and learned with what pains membership was confined to graduates of colleges of high rank. I asked, naturally, if any Boston University girls belonged, and was told that they were not eligible. It took about one minute to learn that the standard was that fixed by the A. C. A., and then to rescue my Alma Mater from the company of sundry Southern institutions of very low rank with which it had been associated in the mind of this Wellesley graduate, and to get at the facts in the case, that there were no Boston University girls in the city. Our honorable standing in the A. C. A. accomplished what hours

of detailed explanation might not have sufficed to effect. This experience is not unique. Boston University is not well known outside of New England, its educational rank is not understood, and some of our number do not begin to appreciate what it means, this institutional membership in the A. C. A.

It is extremely difficult to bring such a matter to the attention of the student body. No woman dean explains from time to time the relation of our alumnæ to the world and to other alumnæ. We graduates have very little communication with the undergraduates — partly because of the nature of our Epsilon Chapter of alumni. If one wished to speak to the Seniors, it is well nigh impossible to catch more than a third at any one time. It is the spoken word, not the printed circular, that must influence the young woman who is bewildered at the large number of worthy organizations she is asked to join as soon as she leaves college.

This is a call to the Boston University alumnæ who have never heard the message before, and incidentally to those who have heard but heeded not. If those who have read to this point do not at once apply to the undersigned, it is merely because she has proved herself incapable of presenting the claims of the A.C.A. on every eligible woman, young or old, married or single, at home or abroad. You say you help in personal and private ways to pass on to others what has meant so much to your own life? Let us all continue the personal benefactions. But let us not fail to add our little to the vast total of trained and devoted service that can be rendered by an association of educated women, pledged to practical educational work, and so let us together accomplish what no one alone, nor even the few, can achieve. Every one who is eligible hinders the work just as far as she withholds her help - help that it is a joy and a privilege to give.

Address, for membership-blanks and further information, Caroline S. Atherton, '84, 82 Ruthven Street, Roxbury.

The Boston Post of Friday, June 7, contains an appreciative editorial on the University. The concluding words are as follows: "Boston University has proved its place in the less than forty years of its existence. It is a factor to be recognized in the evolution of our community along the higher lines of endeavor, and the possibilities of its expansion in the future are unlimited."