The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 7, 1906, Page 11

uld hope that Think of it! What a tribute to the woman comme: bjecting lawy ., and st ge as s y—its " N white 5 ob le key, locks , mark chime. “The from the meories of girls” “Mills’ e—many of m Mills’ ers in their turn are re is treasured because of little woman y crossing the rose- and cianking the knocker. & wonderful who sits be old at & is has just got through cele- aling ber gightieth birthday, but her » brow eves beam bright and clear and rest through her spectacles. ught is s for others, and lity befofe everything, for rain is chill- offer of a hospi graclous tea is cheering—and interviews physical ac- e up the well be excused drizzle and picking footing of a course of construction, but doesn’t sit by her fire and send th me. She comes herself in g qu along the path, e way, actually h offering me a wit her never-failing the keen intellect t! nd with- us never ate understand- began her life whe: zed me the Mills College and to me it is the story be done ut the will to do. 1 Dr. and Mrs. was no with your years ago, W there uni- séhool, Califoraia. no means ation in ars ago there .-was but land, with here and ump of live oaks, where now groves and gardens halls and lawns of Mills. Coyotes and wild- 2 ed their voices where gilish laughter now are heard. ing could have been more un- establishment of had to find their ated than the Its the world to med Mills College. founders around wor w Englanders both, Dr. Mills grad- from Mrs. Mills n Mount Holyoke; they married and, nt to Ceylon as Batticotta Williams and g of one mind, w \aries to teach In Coliege By ill health of from their work there to Oahu College, Honolulu, and from there again to California. lere they took charge of the Young Lad Scminary at Benicia. After a few years there, the ill effects of life tropics still continuing, they to retire—to rest, having prospered financially. ‘My husband,” Mrs. Mills tells me, Ithough he was a minister, good business a good financier, and we could have given up teaching. We 1d, like many others in those carly days, have bought corner lots and made a fortune.” But it was not writter In the book of fate that Mrs. Mills should settle down to the possession of corner lots, the giving of teas, and, perhaps, the read- ing of papers at clu.s. While the husband and wife were they were driven in was a man, co in doubt and said still consultation Dr. Mills quaintly * and reverently: “We have been emptied from vedsel to vessel to he made ready for cosmopol- California,” and Mrs. Mills, un- satisfied with the corner lot prospect of dull affluence, ran across a little poem that came like a personal mes- sage to her. It said: itan Finj 1 thy work, the time is short sun is in the West; he The night is coming down; till then Thiuk not of rest. finish ALL thy work, then rest, en, rest mever: St prepared for thee by God st forever, is Finish thy work, then go in peace, Life's battle fought, and won; Hear from the throne tdy Master’s voice, “Well done, well done!™ little poem chanced upon and Mrs. Miils' grateful memories of Mount Holy- oke cast the decision against corner lots Mills was ement and rest. and founded, out in the open pasture land, buiid: with one a big. comfortable, le bulld: nd as a rls' seminary. otes and the has said, out where the cc wildeats reamed, but Emerson *I1f a man can write a better book, preach a bett n or make a better mouse- the world will trap than his neighbor, ) his door.” prophecy, the trail e which is now Mills Col- wake a beaten path And, to ¥ Mills Seminary, le true has beeome more marked and broad- er and clearer year by year, until now it is a highway At first Mills. Seminary was “just an extension of the home,” and never has it lost that *“home” quality. Th the home is in-he long, dim, softly-carpeted corridors, where you spell of can hear the tinkle of girlish laughter $hile you wait in the simple, pleasant, old-£; ned parlors. The spirit of the 187 bhome is in Mrs. Mills’ own room, where the mementos of her life line the walls and cover the tables und where the girls come during her “hour at homc” every evening to open their hearts and have their little perplexities unraveled, and where Mrs. Mills is Mother Mills. The pleasantness of home is in the girl each with its two little white , its comfort and warmth and pretti- rooms, bed. n The freedom of home is in the girls’ big * sitting-room, with its pictures and piano. And the coziness of home is even in the tiny with its carpets and little alcoves, its warm coloring and general \ snugness and prettiness—the little library, which is being replaced by the bigger, handsomer Carnegie library, now almost finished. Mills Seminary was the private prop- erty and private venture of Dr. and Mrs. Mills at first—the investment that took the place of corner lots. But as it grew and prospered and enlarged its scope their private interests faded in the light of its future. Dr. and Mrs. Mills deeded it to a board of trustees, a charter was secured from the State and Mills Seminary became a public instead of a private undertaking. Then in a little while, in 1584, Dr. Mills died and Mrs. Mills was left alone “'to carry out his plans,” she faithfully saye. So for twenty-one years Mrs. Mills has been at the head of Mills College. She bas been the movigg, guiding spirit. Things do not grow by themselves. Behind every human undertaking there is a personality, and behind Mills College there has been always Mrs. Mills. Her touch, her influence, is every- where felt. In the high standard of scholarship—and In the housekeeping, for she says simply, as if keeping house for 200 girls is the easlest thing library, ) possible: “T have always been my'own housekeeper.” Mills has grown from wild pasture land into beautiful gardens and groves. It has grown from the one first building to a large cluster of build- ings. st has grown from seminary to col- lege. And all under Mrs. Mills' effort and supervision. She has seen every cor- ner-stone laid, every roof tree raised. 1t has grown from the little cluster of girls that’'gather first in the ‘“ex- tension a until there are more than 3000 Mills girls scattered over the world, most of them happy and successful and a credit to their alma mater. K Mrs. Mills, far-reaching Inter- est and affection, “keeps track” of all her girls and of her girls’ girls, too; and the list of distinguished Mills girls is a long one. At the head of it stands Emma Ne-, vada, of course, whose beautiful voice was discovered and saved at Mills and Mrs. Mills tells me, with fond rec- ollectlon, of how Emma Nevada— Emma Wixom, a miner's daughter— came down to Mills from a mining camp, a shy, motherless girl of 16, of how sweet and gentle she was, “a very of how her voice had already strained by singing in the hills and how it was saved and tended; of how the claim of the girl's great gift was urged upon her father and how, at last, she was sent abroad to study. Then Mrs. Mills tells me of how the most distinguished Mills girl carhe home in triumph, with her honors ‘ thick upon her, and, having sung for the big, big dollars here in San Fran- cisco, she went back to Mills for a visit and pourgd out those silvery notes of lhiome,” with religious girl,” been 7////’//' JURS. SUSAN ™ in prodigality, not for money, but just for love and auld lang syne. “She sang fifteen times for everything she thought would please us,” Mrs. Mills tells me with a sudden softening of the bright brown eyes, “and she spoke to every girl that was here. She had something to say to each that each could treasure up, some little word of compliment or advice that was entirely personal. There was one ‘crippled girl liere and when she came to her she suddenly stooped and kissed her. She ‘When I saw her 1 was so thankful In my heact that my own little girl was stralght and sound and unafilicted.’ “And after she was gone the crippled girl said, ‘She spoke to all the others, but I was the only one she ‘kissed— I wonder why she kissed me.’" But reminiscences pf Emma Nevada, the most distinguished student, are not all of Mrs. Mills' treasured rem- us— said to me afterward, dear iniscences. With pride she runs jover the Mills girls who have gone out to honors and to usefulness. There is Mrs. Fanny Rouse Carpenter of New York, who has fame as a lawyer, who went out from Mills and married, and having lost her little child wrote Mrs, Mills that her hands and heart were empty, what could she do? She found solace in study, and fame In her profes- sion. ~ There’s Edith White of Los Angeles, whose work in flower painting is so beau- itful. o There are Annie and Carrie Blowers of ‘Woodland, who went back from che halls of Mills to become fruit ranchers, and successful ranchers at that. There's Mary Jeffries of Sycamore in the Sacramento Valley, who became man- ager of a large wheat ranch. There's Annie L. Sawyer, librarian; Jennie Leyman Klink, professor of sociol- ogy in the International College, Spring- field, Mass.; Mary Barnard, opera singer; Helen Scofield of the Salvation Army; Luclla Carson, dean of the women's de- partment of the University of Oregon; Mrs. Dita Hopkins Kinney, head of the women nurses in the army; a dozen Mills’ girls besides, who have become nurses; Cora Cressy Crowe, writer; Dr. Char- lotte B. Spring. bacteriologist. But why particularize? There are Mills’ girls in every walk of usefulness. % “But most of them,” says Mrs, Mills, “are mharried and in their own homes— _Just good wives and mothers.” And she tells me with a special nride and tenderness of this Mills’ girl, that has ten children and that, that has thir- teen, and says by way of postscript: “We gim above all to make women of 1LLes “BOYE Al il \ 1 | ase o - PHOTO our girls, women fitted for woman’s life.” It was because of this aim so earnestly adhered to that Mrs, F. M. Smith made her splendid gift to Mills—3$30,000 to es- tablish a chair of domestic science. Mrs. ith made her gift conditionally, that it was to be co erred if Mills Col- lege succeeded in raising the other half of its annual $100,000 toward the coveted endowment fund of $1,000,000 that Mrs. Mills has set as goal. It was the wish of Dr. Mills that the school they had founded should have an assured future, and to that end it was chartered. it is the wish of Mrs, Mills that this hope of her husband’s should be realized, and to that end she has set herself the task of securing an emndowment fund of $1,000,000, to be raised at the rate of $100,- 000 a year. The first $100,000 has already been raised, and the gift of Mrs. Smith for the domes- tic science ¢hair was the first half of the sccond $100,000. If the other half, the other $50,000, is raised by Founders’ day n May, then the domestic science chair is assured. This was the condition named by Mrs. Smith in ber gift before her sudden death brought = surprise and sorrow to her friends. The beautiful campanile that holds the Mills chime of bells was also the giff of Mrs. Smith, together with her husband, and both were so warmly the friends of Mills College that Mr. Smith will no doubt carry out his wife's wishes In regard to her later gift of the' domestic sclence chalr. One of the most beautitul and grati- fying tributes to Mrs. Mills' lifework is in the way the gifts have come to her to assure the future of Mills Col- lege. S Not only outside friends ‘w philan- thropists have given, but the alumma: from all parts of the compass have comd| bearing gifts great and small. They have gone out, not only with the culture and tralning given by Mills, but with the Mills’ traditions in their hearts—the simple ceremonies and sen- timents, the established feasts and in- nocent follies of their school. ‘Wherever a Mills’ girl is she remem- bers that at Mills her birthday.was al- ways remembered with a cake. She remembers that at Mills Hal- loween and Washington's birthday dinners were made occasions of special festivity. That at Mills the chime of bells was named Faith, Hope, Peace and Joy, Gentleness, Goodness, Self-control and Longsuffering; that the biggest bell of the chime was Love and rung only on Christmas day, on Founders' day and on their dear presideqt’s (Mother Millg) birthday. ,‘ died Nl } )= ‘And they remember with glee that the littlest bell was Meekness. But they remember above gentleness and wisdom of the baired, brown-eyed little president. They remember they =o and in whatever life brings to them her admonitions summed so briefly and emphatically under three heads. They remember how to each new girl and each new class she has sald: “First of all—be GOOD. ‘Then—be HEALTHY. “Then—be WISE.” There’s a story told of a Mills girl whe went out from Mills among dire tempta= tions, and who when Mother Mills came to the city where she was went to her and sald: . “P've always remembered Mills, and T've always remembered what you sald. I'm good, Mrs. Mills, I'm good!"* and then she recalled the night before she left Mills to go out into the world of tempta= tions, when Mrs. Mills, the president of Mills College, came to her room and knelt with her beside the little white bed, and prayed with her, youns. obscure and am< bitious girl that she was, that no mattes what trials assalled her she might stil} remain good. “and I 44" sald the Mills girl with passionate insistence. “I rememocred that—and I AM good!™ It is things like this—as well as the birthday cakes and the holiday festivi~ ties and the larks and the chiming bells with the beautiful names—that shrines a name in hearts, And it 1s no wonder that Mrs. Mills, who, when a recreant, penitent girl burst out with “I like you, Mrs. Mills, X DO like you!” answered softly, “Like 18 not enough. I hope you will come te love me,"—it is no wonder that Mrs. Mills finds herself on her eigthtieth birthday, crowned with honors, loadw ed with/gifts for herself and her college. And it will be more than a wonder if she fails to make up by Founder’s day inv May that remaining 350,000 that will fn= sure the gift of the first 350,000 I ask Mrs. Mills to what she owes her success in the doing of her big work, for to make a college of high standing and world-wide reputation out of & rolling pasture, and hope and high purpose, sa very big work indeed, and she says: To high ideals. To thorough, faithtul work. To careful attention to detalls. To faith in God. To the earnest desire to know and to do my whole duty. And she adds parenthetically’ almost in palliation of all the good that has come to her: “1 have only tried to do as I would be gons V.t ann the white wherever