If the principal of it should tell the story of his life, how he walked
eight miles every day for three months of the year to learn to read and
write; how he worked for 20 cents a day to raise enough money to get away
from his limitations for an education; how he became bell-boy at a hotel
until he earned enough to buy a grammar, an arithmetic, and a dictionary;
how he found himself at last at Fisk University with $1.25 with which to
continue his studies for eight years before he could graduate; how he
worked his patient way along teaching in vacation, pulling himself up hand
over hand, it would pay one to stay over a day for it. There were only a
few times during the eight years in Fisk when he had money enough to stamp
a half dozen letters at once. This story, however, differs only in its
incidents from that of other students at all of our colleges. The story of
their struggles is the story of their strength.
"Shock and strain and struggle are
Friendlier than the smiling days."
All of the teachers at Enfield are graduates of Fisk University, and they
each have their own story how heavy-weighted with poverty, they kept
"inching along" with a resolute faith that had divinity in it. Are they
not the very ones to help upward the poor boys and girls about them who,
until this year of grace, never had one chance in life, and never dreamed
of one? We will keep our eyes on the school at Enfield.
[[Illustration: YOUNG MEN’S HALL, ENFIELD, N.C.]]