This is one of Edison Company's later shorts, made after the times of the Kinetoscope, William Dickson, and the various experiments that Edison made during the first years of his film company. He moved on to other things, such as this film, "Seminary Girls", which, as Brandt has pointed out, served as a piece of voyeurism which would excite male audiences. And indeed it must have been pretty darn titillating for 1897, as the young women portrayed here are practically Tom Boys. How offensive that is! Well, at least for its period. Today it's rather harmless but 100 years have passed, thus our values have changed.
However, is it complete? On the film notes on Kino's "Movies Begin" a description from the Edison catalog says that the film began with the Seminary Girls smoking to start their romp. If it is true that this is not quite complete, and the smoking scene was indeed part of the film then oh boy! Would that have shocked audiences. And, another thing: was this short made before the Georges Melies film "After the Ball" from the same year? I really wonder if audiences would have found this one to be so erotic if they'd seen "After the Ball" before seeing this. (I won't explain why I think this but if you see the film I'm referring to you'll get what I'm talking about).