ave entire freedom of jurisdiction.

In 1896, Domestic Work was discontinued. This was a revolutionary
change, for Mr. Durant had believed strongly in the value of this
one hour a day of housework to promote democratic feeling among
students of differing grades of wealth; and he had also felt that
it made the college course cheaper, and therefore put its advantages
within the reach of the "calico girls" as he was so fond of calling
the students who had little money to spend. But domestic work,
even in the early days, as we see from Miss Stilwell's letters,
soon included more than the washing of dishes and sweeping of
corridors. Every department had its domestic girls, whose duties
ranged from those of incipient secretary to general chore girl.
The experience in setting college dinner tables or sweeping college
recitation rooms counted for next to nothing in equipping a student
to care for her own home; and the benefit to the "calico girls"
was no longer obvious, as the price of tuition had now been raised
several times. In May, 1894, the Academic Council voted "that
the council respectfully make known to the trustees that in their
opinion domestic work is a serious hindrance to the progress of
the college, and should as soon as possible be done away." But
it was not until the trustees found that the fees for 1896-1897
must be raised, that they decided to abolish domestic work.

Miss Shackford, in her pamphlet on College Hall, describes, "for
the benefit of those unfamiliar with the old regime," the system
of domestic work as it obtained during the first twenty years of
Wellesley's life. She tells us that it "brought all students into
close relation with kitchens, pantries and dining-room, with brooms,
dusters and other household utensils. Sweeping, dusting,
distributing the mail at the various rooms, and clerical work were
the favorite employments, although it is said the students always
showed great generosity in allowing the girls less strong to have
the lighter tasks. Sweeping the matting in the center of the
corridor before breakfast, or sweeping the bare 'sides' of this
matting after breakfast, were tasks that developed into sinecures.
The girl who went with long-handled feather duster to dust the
statuary enjoyed a distinction equal to Don Quixote's in tilting
at windmills. Filling the student-lamps, serving in a department
where clerical work was to be done, or, as in science, where
materials and spec