A FAMOUS WOMAN SCHOLAR.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 413, 23 January 1909, Page 11

A FAMOUS WOMAN SCHOLAR.

-'"-'.The;-Mikado' [has: singled out for special honour an . American' .woman...who" for nearly twenty years has been professor at Vassar University. ...Professor i'Abby 'Leach, who hails from - Massachusetts; .was".;'the (first student at Radclift'e' College,, at that time an annexe of: Harvard,'but'took'her degrees of Bachelor.,;and Master of ■ Arts at 'Vass'ar,' and afterwards studied'at the"tJniversity-oi Leipsio.-', 1n,1889. sho became a professor; at Vassaf.,- She ,is ho.w.ai member, of. the Fellowship; Committee "'of/t the American School at Athens, and vice-presideiit'of the; School and.College organisation"of the Middle States and Maryland. ;She has been president' of the ..Philological Association;'- and is a -.frequent Contributor to philological-journals. ■';:''.;,' J, :■'... .;■' -,;-."■''-, '■■• Last; May Miss Leabh was

a guest of honour at a din- • ner giyenat the. Hotel Astor by, Consul-General Midziihb", ,'■ one of the.gudsts being "also -.. Ambassador Takahira. .The other,!'guests were /persons ■ who' had received decora- _ tions r from the. Emperor, and Miss- Lpach; was then ,in- ; formed that the Emperor : 'wished, to bestow a- similar honour upon her.'-. It is the custom ot the Japanese Em'perors to" present ;cups ; ';of ) gold or silver or lacquer to those,"whom, they- wish, to horibur, and to Miss Leach .. his./ Imperial Majesty , ; has

-.■'•'■ .:' sent:a;golden cup in recog; : nition'of. her services to the cause of,education. The ■ honour?' came through Viscount Kaneko, now.:a.:member of. the .Emperor's Privy- Council, and.;the special, envoy "of Japan to America during the Russo-Japanese War.:. > '/.'.- '. : {{;>-' .; The cup is of. solid gold, .very heavy and of' graceful 'design,''/It came wrapped in. a double square .of Habutai silk, of a kind made only for Imperial use, while. the box is of chrysanthemum wood, which is-also dedicated to Imperial use. ./Inside the bowl is engraved a chrysahthemuni, : the Imperial emblem. It is .'.-a lovely present, .and one any- woman would like, to: arid probably the object, of :tho Mikado in , sending ,it"iwas to mark, his' approval of the scholarly type of woman. His owii country is as yet too young to have produced a' woman so'learned in the lore of the; West as is Professor Leach and this may have directed his gift to her!