Girls Meet Boys

Stephens Junior College in Columbia, Mo. is a "progressive" finishing school, attended by the daughters of well-to-do doctors, lawyers, diplomats, Army and Navy officers. Less costly ($950 a year) and less swank than such Eastern schools as Miss Porter's (Farmington) or Foxcroft, Stephens nevertheless has luxurious dormitories. a stable of 36 horses, a country club and other necessary equipment for turning out elegant young ladies. But fertile-brained James Madison ("Daddy") Wood, Stephens' president, believes that elegance is not enough. Eighteen years ago he hired an expert to find out what women do besides being elegant, learned that they busied themselves with 7,400 activities. To prepare his students for these--including a variety of professional careers--he installed a "functional" curriculum.

Today he teaches 1,500-odd students from 46 States and six foreign countries not only how to ride a horse but how to make up their faces, talk, dress, take dictation, be smart consumers. Because one of woman's most important activities is getting on with men, Stephens sees that its girls meet boys at frequent intervals.

Last week, accompanied by publicity-wise Daddy Wood, two nurses and 20 faculty members, one-third of Stephens packed its bags and went off on the school's annual junket to see some of the country and a few new boys (cost per student: $165).

First stop was Washington. There the 520 student junketeers had tea with Eleanor Roosevelt, kissed (without relish) Congressmen and Vice President Garner, and danced with the newspaper correspondents' corps, the diplomatic corps and students of three local universities. Next day they hurried on to Annapolis to dance with the midshipmen, then, after their train had been delayed 17 minutes by one tardy dancer, pushed on to West Point. They liked West Point better than Annapolis because it provided two cadets for each girl.

Whooping into Manhattan, which many saw for the first time, the party took over three floors of the Roosevelt Hotel, busied itself for two days with mass shopping expeditions, visits to museums, theatres, night clubs. At a luncheon where the girls badgered celebrities, Stephens' tall, brown-haired Kay Leftwich was picked by a professional models' agent as "most beautiful American schoolgirl." Third day, having lost only three overcoats a day, reported only one case of illness (cause: overeating) and absorbed considerable informal education on woman's 7,400 problems, the girls embarked in two ships for Florida. There they dated the University of Florida.

This week, before they returned to Stephens from their 4,500-mile, fortnight's junket, half the girls went to Texas for some unfinished business: a date with Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College. The boys of Texas A. & M. were to call for them in Army trucks.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.