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Working Americans Vol. 4: Their Children

1892 Profile: Private High School Student from Connecticut

Upper Class

Seventeen-year-old Clarissa Strobel has found great freedom and friendship at Miss Porter’s, a private girls’ school in Farmington, Connecticut, known for developing women of character and intellect.

Life at Home

  • For the past two years, Clarissa has been summering with her mother, attending Miss Porter’s School, and thinking about her future.

  • Her mother is often mystified by Clarissa’s serious thoughts, mingled with a mischievous nature.

  • Secretly she is happy that she doesn’t know everything her daughter, the last of three, is up to.

  • Clarissa and her mother summered in York Harbor, renting one of the Twin Dominick Cottages, where they were able to play tennis in bright sunshine, “while our friends on the ocean are in a damp fog,” her mother liked to say.

    Clarissa Strobel enjoys the companionship at Miss Porter’s School.

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  • In addition to tennis, Clarissa has learned to swim, mastering various strokes with the help of a friend and a new book on swimming.

  • Her father, a major industrialist, has earned millions since the end of the Civil War; her mother is talking about building a place of her own.

  • Clarissa loves taking pictures, which everyone calls Kodaks; she believes that the modern camera is so easy to use, anyone can do it, but her mother seems reluctant to try.

  • The film is loaded into the camera at the factory, and after taking 12 pictures, the photographer sends the entire camera straight to Kodak, where the pictures are developed, printed and returned by mail along with the camera, newly loaded with film.

  • Recently, Clarissa took pictures of her friend Mary Sprague and was most upset that a young man who admires Mary took one of the Kodaks without her permission.

  • She is not only angry about the theft, but also feels bad that the boy now has a picture of her friend, which is not proper in the least unless Mary gives her consent; it might give the wrong impression.

  • In addition to her camera, one of Clarissa’s prize possessions is a delicate doll with a bisque head known as Miss Elizabeth, which she dresses in a white silk gown.

  • When she returned to Miss Porter’s School last fall, the doll was carefully boxed and wrapped, but her head was broken during the trip; after several trips to Hartford, her father was able to locate a new head so that Miss Elizabeth could be put whole again.

  • In Farmington, where fashion is always important, the girls are now wearing sweaters.

  • Clarissa has discovered that sweaters can be found in red, white and black, but chiefly in dark blue.

  • Most of the sweaters were originally made for small men, she believes, but at least one girl at school enjoys the distinction of owning a sweater that was made to order and obtained through Harvard by a friend on the varsity team.

  • It is dark red, with an extremely wide double collar, which is open with lacing a few inches from the throat.

  • In addition to her many skills, Clarissa is an accomplished palmist, and is believed by many to be capable of telling fortunes.

  • During visits home, on more than one occasion, she has been called upon during gatherings to tell someone’s fortune and character by looking at the shapes, lines and suppleness of the person’s hands, which she firmly believes are a window to the soul.

Life at School

  • Clarissa’s room at Miss Porter’s School is decorated with great care; she is using a Spanish theme, dominated by Spanish shawls and pictures taken by a cousin while traveling in Spain.

  • She hopes to include Spain on her traveling itinerary when she takes her grand tour of Europe next year.

  • For most of last semester, she used an elaborate assortment of Japanese fans to spark up the room, but that grew boring.

  • Her room is also filled with fresh flowers, which she buys almost daily.

  • Flowers, she and her roommates agree, make life more pleasant and the room a joy.

What Your Hand Means, New York Sun, 1892:

A soft hand, said Mr. Heron-Allen, in his lecture, indicated a fervent but fickle lover, while a hard hand denoted a long, enduring, though possibly smothering, love. A spatula hand, wherein the tips of the fingers are broad and flat, denoted inconstancy, desire for change and love of locomotion. It was found in jockeys and colonists. A hand with conically tipped fingers indicated inspiration, instinct, Bohemianism and generosity.

A hand with squarely built fingertips showed order and arrangement, particularly when the joints throughout were prominent. A scientific hand was irregular to a marked degree, the joints lumpy and highly developed—altogether a malformed conglomeration of knots and twists. This sort of hand is invariably small, while the analytic hand is large. The hand of the idealist is the most symmetrical of all and the most useless in every sense.

A supple hand indicates generosity. A hand, the fingers of which, when placed together and held to the light, exhibit transparency, and between which no rays of light penetrate, shows avarice or, in other words, closeness. Fingers submitted to the same test which will not fit alongside each other without openings and which are denser, indicate curiosity and loquacity. People with hands that are always white are egotistical and have no sympathy.

  • Currently, she is attempting to help select a new reading for her book club, which she and several friends started last term, and which now consists of six members.

  • Others are asking to join the group, but she believes that restricting the size of the club is important.

  • For pleasure, they read The Dancer’s Jewels, The Witch of Prague and Laut Plario.

  • They are now reading Villette, but it will be finished soon.

  • With the onset of winter snow in Connecticut, she and her friend Louise were able to go coasting, or sledding, on the hills near the school.

  • Directly after dinner, they donned leggings and undertights, and went straight away to the stable for a sled.

  • Unfortunately, only two were available, both rather high and long, which made them more suitable for gentle slopes than daunting hills; Clarissa, who had not been on a sled in seven years, was timid at first.

  • Louise offered to take her along on her sled for the first trip, but she declined; she likes to learn quickly and by experience.

  • When Louise prepared herself to go down the hill, Clarissa watched carefully as her friend gathered the rope in one hand, rested a hand on either side of the sled, then ran a step or two before throwing herself full-length on the clipper for the trip down the slope.

  • She thought Louise’s legs looked comical sticking up in the air as she zoomed down the hill.

  • When Clarissa took her turn, she found it easy and exhilarating, discovering how quickly she could gain more speed, and left the slopes feeling quite proud of herself.

  • Although her height is five feet, four inches, she is often considered small at Miss Porter’s because her three roommates are all five feet, eight inches tall.

  • She does not like to be compared to them, and sometimes gets so angry that she does not even like to hear compliments about her many good features, such as her voice.

  • She loves pink ribbons, placing them on every possible article of clothing she owns; during a recent round of goodnight calls within the dormitory, she wore a very dainty pink jacket with long pink ribbons.

  • She planned for the calls to take only a moment, but found her friend Lucy busily sewing and in need of help; Lucy’s brother has written her asking for a gown to wear to a dance given at Williams College.

Clarissa is currently helping to select a new reading for her book club.

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  • He also asked for gloves, a fan and a handkerchief; both girls agree that he will look quite amusing in white muslin.

  • Although Miss Sarah Porter is still involved with the school, occasionally conducting a class when a teacher falls ill, the day-to-day leadership of the school falls to Mrs. Mary E. Dow, Miss Porter’s trusted associate of many years.

  • In recent years, critics have said Miss Porter’s School has paid small heed to the requirements of a modern education.

  • Instead the school has endured by ensuring that its students carried away the ideals of the meaning of life, appreciation of culture, love for the place and the traditions that are found in a natural home.

  • Approximately 125 girls attend the school, many of them daughters and relatives of the “ancients” or graduates who came before.

  • Because of demand and limited space, admission is a privilege extended to few outside the immediate family circle.

The “AHS” in a Girls’ School, John Chinaman Illustrates a Lecture, New York Semi-Weekly Tribune, June 18, 1892:

FARMINGTON, CONN., JUNE 18—Everyone knows about the prosperous school for young ladies which is so conspicuous a feature of the life of this New England village. At least everyone who knows of Farmington must know the school, for the school is Farmington. Without it, the village would be quiet and staid enough. Having it, the village possesses an animation and spirit which seems to fire even the woods and mountains with purpose. It lies back in the hills a few miles from the railroad station, secluded among great groves of elms and maples and oaks, where the bracing air bears no other freight than the perfumes of flowers and the songs and birds, and where nothing interferes with the spirit of education and refinement which this school has cultivated during half a century.

Its proprietress, Miss Porter, the sister of the former president of Yale College, is a progressive woman. She utilizes everything and everybody that can serve to improve the minds of her pupils or to throw light upon their studies. Perhaps nothing better illustrates this fact than the lectures on music which her musical director, Mr. Boekelman, has instituted. The last of these, delivered on Tuesday evening by Mr. H. E. Krohbiel, was on the subject of Chinese music, a theme that, at first sight, scarcely looks suggestive of much that could assist the study of the musical art in its present stage, and yet before he was done, the lecturer made it clear that the lowly Wings and Hos and Kiangs and Tiems of the Celestial Empire, the home of His August Mightiness, the Son of Heaven, know a good deal about music.

  • Clarissa writes daily in her diary, taking care to detail her day so that later she can enjoy it all over again; several of her roommates envy her discipline and have discouraged her from working in her theme book so frequently.

  • For her, writing is a task and a joy; her thoughts flow fluidly from her pen no matter how tired she might be, and the writing process itself seems to give her new energy and many personal insights.

  • Recently a young woman entered Miss Porter’s from Ohio, arriving at the school with her entire family.

  • Clarissa realized quickly that the new girl was not accustomed to restraint and did not understand that her actions must be more circumspect in a town such as Farmington.

  • The new girl is 16 and thinks men useful only as dancing partners, but make poor substitutes when feminine society can be found.

  • She was quickly and clearly informed by the girls that men are the only enjoyment in life; a girl who could not boast of at least two or three admirers was considered a “stick” by her girlfriends and other men.

  • On George Washington’s birthday, Clarissa was assigned the task of writing about the celebration, but she has grown discouraged.

  • Even though there is a flag in the hall downstairs and the homes in the village are decorated, she finds most people rather unpatriotic, or at least undemonstrative of their loyalty to the Stars and Stripes.

  • As the spring grew warmer and the flowers bloomed, she and her roommates organized a daisy party; for an entire afternoon they picked fresh daisies in a field, decorated hats, ate lunch and even made a daisy banner with a large “92” crafted in flowers.

Current fashion emphasizes a tiny waist.

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Life in the Community: Farmington, Connecticut

  • Farmington, located only nine miles from the center of Hartford, is considered one of the mother towns of Connecticut because it formerly included land that has been divided into nine other towns.

  • Land for the settlement was purchased from the Tunxis Indians in 1640; by 1645, enough people lived in the area to apply for incorporation and the name designation of Farmington.

  • In the summer of 1841, the 37 freed slaves of the ship Amistad lived in the village, awaiting return to Africa.

  • A school was maintained for them, and seats provided at church services, which they attended as a group.

  • For most of the century, Farmington has been renowned for the quality of its private schools, including Miss Porter’s.

  • The village is also known for its historic sites, including the Elm Tree Inn, erected around a seventeenth-century house in 1865 by Philip Lewis, and the Congregational Church, built in 1771, with its tall steeple topped with an open-belfry spire.

  • Until recently, a free library started by a public-spirited lady was housed in an old building on one end of town; two years ago it was consolidated with the village library.

  • Efforts are under way to revitalize some parts of Farmington; running water has been introduced, sewers are being constructed, and highways have been graded and, in part, macadamized.

  • When attempts were made to cut trees in the village to make way for a trolley line through Main Street, the people rose almost en masse and halted the project.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
"1892 Profile: Private High School Student From Connecticut." Working Americans Vol. 4: Their Children, edited by Scott Derks, Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=WA4_0011.
APA 7th
1892 Profile: Private High School Student from Connecticut. Working Americans Vol. 4: Their Children, In S. Derks (Ed.), Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=WA4_0011.
CMOS 17th
"1892 Profile: Private High School Student From Connecticut." Working Americans Vol. 4: Their Children, Edited by Scott Derks. Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=WA4_0011.