“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, being about ten dollars a month—­which sum also includes payment for a lyceum ticket and for two hats per annum.  Uniforms are worn by all, these being very simple navy-blue suits with sailor hats.  Seniors and juniors wear cap and gown.  All uniform requirements may be covered at a cost of twenty dollars a year, and a girl who practices economy may get through her college year at a total cost of about $125, though of course some spend considerably more.

Many students work their way, either wholly or in part.  Thirty or forty of them serve in the dining room, for which work they are allowed sixty-five dollars a year.  Others, who clean classrooms are allowed fifty dollars a year, and still others earn various sums by assisting in the library or reading room or by doing secretarial work.

Unlike the other departments of the college, the musical department is not a tax upon the State, but is entirely self-sustaining, each girl paying for her own lessons.  This department is under the direction of Miss Weenonah Poindexter, to whose enthusiasm much if not all of its success is due.  Miss Poindexter began her work in 1894, as the college’s only piano teacher, giving lessons in the dormitories.  Now she not only has a splendid music hall and a number of assistants, but has succeeded in making Columbus one of the recognized musical centers of the South, by bringing there a series of the most distinguished artists:  Paderewski, Nordica, Schumann-Heinck, Gadski, Sembrich, Bispham, Albert Spaulding, Maud Powell, Damrosch’s Orchestra, and Sousa’s Band.