ston, who was a classmate of Miss Shafer's, tells us that there
were two courses at Oberlin in that day, the regular college course
and a parallel, four years' course for young women. It seems that
women were also admitted to the college course, but only a few
availed themselves of the privilege, and Miss Shafer was not one
of these. But Mr. Allen remembers her as "an excellent student,
certainly the best among the women of her class."

After graduating from Oberlin, she taught two years in New Jersey,
and then in the Olive Street High School in St. Louis for ten years,
"laying the foundation of her distinguished reputation as a teacher
of higher mathematics." Doctor William T. Harris, then superintendent
of public schools in St. Louis, and afterwards United States
Commissioner of Education, commended her very highly; and her
old students at Wellesley witness with enthusiasm to her remarkable
powers as a teacher. President Pendleton, who was one of those
old students, says:

"Doubtless there was no one of these who did not receive the news
of her appointment as president with something of regret. No one
probably doubted the wisdom of the choice, but all were unwilling
that the inspiration of Miss Shafer's teaching should be lost to
the future Wellesley students. Her record as president leaves
unquestioned her power in administrative work, yet all her students,
I believe, would say that Miss Shafer was preeminently a teacher.

"It was my privilege to be one of a class of ten or more students
who, during the last two years of their college life (1884-1886)
elected Miss Shafer's course in Mathematics. It is difficult to
give adequate expression to the impression which Miss Shafer made
as a teacher. There was a friendly graciousness in her manner of
meeting a class which established at once a feeling of sympathy
between student and teacher.... She taught us to aim at clearness
of thought and elegance of method; in short, to attempt to give
to our work a certain finish which belongs only to the scholar....
I believe that it has often been the experience of a Wellesley
girl, that once on her feet in Miss Shafer's classroom, she has
surprised herself by treating a subject more clearly than she
would have thought possible before the recitation. The explanation
of this, I think, lay in the fact that Miss Shafer inspired her
students with her own confidence in their intellectual powers."

When we realize that durin