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Rh Miss Ellen C. Sabin, President of Milwaukee-Downer College, was contemporaneous with Clara at the University of Wisconsin. The following extract from a letter from President Sabin to the editor gives us a picture of Clara's college days:

"It is a privilege to offer to you a few words of remembrance of Clara Bewick as a student in the University of Wisconsin. The contrast between college entrance preparation of the present time and the entrance requirements of just fifty years ago is striking. The student who had reached a suitable age, fifteen years or more, applied by personal presentation of himself at the University, selected such studies as he thought profitable, entered classes, and sank or swam as he was able to do. While there were instances of failure, certainly almost every one succeeded in his or her work and "conned out" was a term and an experience reserved for a later day. Probably only those of some promise entered the ranks of university students, and certainly no one expected any achievement except through his own effort. The student was not restricted as to hours of study, the only limitation being his powers of endurance.

Hence, Clara went from the district school with its very meagre opportunities, her chief attainments being the power to read and wrest the meaning from the printed page,