The Eastman College, devoted to the work of preparing young men for business, has also been long established and is widely known; but to a great many thousands of educated women all over the world Poughkeepsie means " Vassar. " When Matthew Vassar conceived the idea of doing something of public value with his wealth, he hit at first u]3on the plan of erecting a monument. It should be a thing to look and wonder at, something to commemorate the most important event in the historv of the river, namely, its discovery. He would build a monument to Henry Htidson. Some one suggested Pollopel's Island as the proper location for such a work, and Mr. Vassar, full of the project, announced it in the local papers. To his disappointment no one so much as spoke of it. and he then resolved to give to the world a greater and worthier monument than he at first imagined. So the first college in the world to be devoted exclusively to the higher education of women was founded. It solved in the only practical wa}' a question that had been fruitlessly discussed for years. Through all the ages there had been exceptionally favoured women who had been specially trained, in the way that men were trained, and had left such records of intellectual achievement that the world generally regarded them as peculiar creatures, excessively endowed. There was alwavs, in the minds of the ma-

Fishkill to PouL;"hkecpsie 423 jority even of educated men, a doubt whether the whole fa]:)nc of social life would not go to pieces if women were granted equal intellectual ad\'antages with men, even supposing their brains could stand the strain. To meet such objections the only effectual reph^ must come in the way of an object-lesson, and this lesson Vassar College has furnished.