clothes and tuition, if I would live with him and provide wood, keep
rooms in order, build fires, cultivate the garden, milk cows, feed
horses, and cultivate a small crop in summer vacation. I accepted and
entered his service in September, 1867. I hauled wood two miles, cut
and placed same in place for fourteen fires, swept schoolrooms and
built fires; attended to horses, cows, and garden; went to the country
for feed, flour, meat, and live beef and butchered it; cultivated
vegetables, potatoes, and corn in summer; did sundry errands for Dr.
Long; and recited lessons when other duties did not prevent, and kept
up with my classes.
In 1869 I taught the Graham Public School and in the spring I entered
the store of Col. A. C. McAlister in Company Shops (now Burlington)
as clerk. In addition to my store duties, and with the consent of my
employer, I attended to the morning express train and sale of tickets
at four o’clock. My pay as clerk was board, laundry, and $10.00 per
month; and I received $10.00 per month for attending to the early
morning express train. At the end of the year Col. McAlister paid me
$5.00 per month more than he had promised.
In the spring of 1871, I spent four months more in the Graham School,
and entered the sophomore class in Trinity College, N. C., in
September, 1871. I graduated from Trinity in June, 1874, in a class of
thirteen.
The first half year in Trinity I boarded myself by renting a room from
a minister whose wife prepared meals for me and another young man, who
is a distinguished judge. The son of the good woman who prepared our
meals worked his way through college by sweeping rooms and building
fires. He became a fine judge.
Two years and a half I boarded on credit with W. S. Bradshaw and his
good wife. At the end of the spring term of 1872, Mr. Bradshaw asked
me if I was coming back in the fall. I told him I would have to stop
and make some money and would come again. He replied: “I will board you
till you get through, and wait with you for the money.” I said, “I have
no security to give you.” He replied, “I will trust you and take the
risk.”
After I finished I paid for my board with interest, paid my tuition in
full (though the college did not charge ministerial students), and made
a donation of $100 to the college. In addition to this, I secured a
$100 subscription from each of the other twelve members of our class to
be paid in four equal annual instalments after graduation.
Friends and churches aided me in the sum of two hundred and forty-nine
dollars. Since then I have paid to the church in cash more than twice
as many _thousands_ as I received _hundreds_.
After leaving College seven hundred dollars in debt, I taught with Rev.
D. A. Long and Judge B. F. Long in Graham, and preached as assistant
pastor of New Providence Church till 1877, when I entered the
University of Virginia. That was the only institution where I accepted
_free tuition_; but I paid all other fees.
About the easiest task of my life was to work through college; and,
if I may make one remark, it would be that the danger of schools is
to make education too easy. The armor used by Roman soldiers in camp
exercises was twice the weight of that which they used in battle. This
made battle easy as compared with drill. It seems to me that college
life ought to develop human powers by double strain so as to prepare
for life’s big task. Hot-house methods cannot make men of greatest
endurance and usefulness. That is why so many men drop out suddenly in
the prime of life. They cannot stand the strain of great public service.
_Suffolk, Va._
STARTING WITH FIVE DOLLARS
I graduated from high school in 1907 with less than $5 left from my
previous summer’s earnings. Although, when younger, school attendance
had been distasteful to me, I was now fully determined to get a college
education, and that without asking financial aid from my parents. I
had been reared on a farm and was used to hard work; but I felt that
my education should now count for something, and that I should be able
to get something better than manual labor. I made a complete canvass
of the town and obtained offers of two very lucrative positions. The
first on a local paper (I had already made some progress in learning
the printer’s trade) at the enormous salary of $2.50 per week, and the
other as assistant bill clerk in a wholesale house at $3 per week. I
decided to accept the latter, as it offered the better chance of a
quick rise, but the offer was rescinded before I could accept it. I
then returned to the paper, but found that they no longer needed a
“devil.” I saw then that it was the overalls for me.
My first position was in a lumber camp in the Smoky Mountains at $1.40
per day of eleven hours. Next I took work with a gang engaged in
grading at $1.25 per day. It was in July and slightly “warm around
the edges,” but I was getting along fairly well when I was offered the
position of “devil” on the other local paper at $4 per week. I accepted.
I worked for this paper for over two years and my wages were steadily
raised. Our week consisted of fifty-four hours, but I frequently worked
from ten to twenty hours a week overtime, in addition to walking back
and forth from my country home and doing the chores night and morning.
I frequently spent only my pay for overtime, and deposited all of my
regular salary in the bank.
I well remember the fall of 1908, when, in a big rush the other two
printers got on a big drunk and quit, thus leaving the whole burden
on me. The strain was heavy, but I stood it and as a result got the
foreman’s place long before I had served a four years’ apprenticeship.
By the summer of 1909 I had saved $575. I had never commanded a large
salary, as I quit just when I was becoming efficient enough to hold
down a position in a bigger office. I was offered a chance to learn the
linotype, but refused and entered college in September.
I did no outside work until the following spring when I started to
working in a local printing office at odd times. I picked up $25 in
this way. During my sophomore year I made $50, and started with the
same work in my junior year, but was offered work correcting English
papers and made $60 in this way during the year. The first summer
out of college I worked at my trade and saved about $100. The next
summer I took an agency with the Aluminum Cooking Utensil Co., which
has, I suppose, helped more boys through college than any other one
company. I was absolutely inexperienced as a salesman, but worked hard
and cleared $200. The next summer I took the same work, but as I had
secured an instructorship which would pay the expenses of my senior
year, I “loafed on the job” and saved only $75. I have since sincerely
regretted this wasted summer.
By these financial means, without any assistance whatsoever, I
completed my college course, and on the day of graduation I could have
paid all of my debts and railway fare home, and still have had $25 to
my credit, or $20 more than I had when I finished high school.
When I landed in my college town I knew absolutely no one and, although
I had very little money to spend and the college has the reputation
of being somewhat aristocratic, I haven’t made such a bad record.
In my freshman year I won the English scholarship; in my sophomore
year the history scholarship; and in my junior year the endowed
scholarship, under which I took the instructorship. I have served as
president of the literary society and have twice represented it on
public celebrations. I have been on the intercollegiate debate, and was
elected to the position of valedictorian by the senior class. I was
also elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa and Delta Sigma Rho (both
honorary). I mention these facts merely to show that a fellow without
money need not be denied an active part in college life and activities.
In looking back over the past six years I attribute my ability to do
what I have done to perseverance and good health. Too much emphasis
cannot be laid upon the latter. Any young American with determination,
good health and reasonably good sense, who has no one else dependent
upon him, can get a college education to-day.--“_ZANK REIN._”
_Lexington, Va._
FROM GOOD TO BETTER
REV. W. E. SWAIN, D.D.
I was born and reared on a little farm in Washington County, N. C.,
near the present site of Creswell. My father was poor. Four years of
service and suffering in the Confederate army so wrecked his health
that he was able to do but little after it was all over.
There were no schools of any consequences near, and had there been,
they were barred to me, for my father was not able to pay tuition, and
there were no public schools in that section.
When I was nearly fifteen years old a gentleman living near by employed
me to grub new ground. This work had to be done at night after my day’s
work at home. By piling the brush and firing them two hours’ work
could be done before the light was entirely gone. It took about eight
nights to do a “task” which was a piece of ground sixty feet square.
After having finished three tasks, the gentleman paid me. With the
money so earned a bottle of ink, six pen points, half quire of paper,
a pen staff and a “blue-back speller” were purchased. The speller was
necessary that the script letters might be learned. Having made a small
rough table in which a drawer was placed to hold writing material, the
task of learning to write was begun. To me this was much more difficult
than grubbing. Even after I had learned to make the script letters I
did not know how to spell. As a substitute for this lack more than half
the speller was copied. By the time this was done some of the simpler
words had been learned and so I began to write. About the same time I
undertook to work “sums” in Greenlief’s Arithmetic. This was painfully
slow. Ben. Spruill, now Capt. Spruill, of Creswell, N. C., taught me to
reduce a fraction to a common denominator. This was done with the sharp
point of a cotton burr, the figures being made in the sand between the
rows of cotton.
On August 12, 1880, I arrived at Yadkin College, now Yadkin College
Institute, engaged board, matriculated and began to cast about for
some work. Mr. James Benson, long since dead, was a large merchant of
the place and employed me to make drawers to place under the shelves
in the store. I made the first one the best I could and tried to
make every drawer better than the preceding one. This work was done
on Saturdays, and when it was finished he employed me to stay in the
store on Saturdays and paid me really more than I was worth. Soon his
health failed and I was out of a job. On March 24, 1881, I began work
at house carpentry and tried to keep up my studies by sitting up late
at night preparing the lessons for the next day. At commencement I
had my speech prepared and stood my examinations, passing on all but
one study. During the vacation of 1881 taught school and saved a few
dollars to begin the next term.
When school opened this was soon gone and something had to be done.
A small unused room was secured, a pair of scissors, two razors, a
comb and brush and a barber shop was opened. The boys were kind and
long suffering, so the business prospered. Thus another term was
finished,--and no debt. Again during the vacation of 1882 I taught.
At the close of this vacation I was elected town constable. This was
by no means to my liking, but something had to be done, or quit. This
business frequently broke into my school work and made it hard to keep
abreast of the class. However, in this way I managed to pay expenses
for the term and saved a few dollars besides. During the vacation of
1883 I taught school near Denver, N. C., and in the meantime served as
pastor of Fairfeld Church. Both together made it possible for me to
have more money than I ever had at one time before.
On returning to college at the close of vacation I was elected a tutor.
In this way I earned ten dollars a month and kept up my own studies.
This work was more in keeping with my general taste than anything I had
hitherto tried. It was a fine opportunity to review what I had done and
was perfectly agreeable to me. The amount thus earned was ample for all
my real needs, and so the difficulties began to give way. Hope that
had been groping amid the shadows began to mount up, and resolution
grew strong. Thus, sustained by a kind Providence and encouraged by
friends, my college course was finished.
I feel that this would be incomplete were I to omit to speak of Rev.
John Parris, D.D., who gave me so much encouragement and help. When I
was yet a boy, never having been to school a day, he, somehow, learned
that I was anxious to read. Knowing I had no books he would borrow them
from Capt. T. J. Norman, becoming personally responsible for their safe
return, and bring them to me. When bringing them he would say, “Now,
young sir, if you damage this book I may not bring you another.” He not
only brought the books, but would question me on the contents when he
returned. He was a man who seemed stern and repulsive to the young, but
when better known was as gentle and sweet spirited, loving and tender
and patient as a mother.
_Mebane, N. C._
A TASK WITH A MORAL
HON. FRED J. TRAYNOR, A.B., LL.B.
There is nothing remarkable about my experience in working my way
through college. I do not deem it worth the telling, except that it
may help to encourage the boy who thinks that it is more than he dares
undertake to obtain an education without means to back him.
I was born in Ontario, Canada. I was fortunate in being able to get an
excellent common school training and three years of high school work
before having to get out and dig for myself. Since the age of fifteen,
when my father died, I have been at all times self-supporting, and,
before coming to North Dakota at the age of twenty, I had taken such
employment as was obtainable. In the summer of 1898 I had saved enough
money to make the trip to North Dakota, looking for opportunities.
Teaching seemed to be the most feasible stepping-stone, so that fall,
after having spent three months as a farm laborer in this State, and
having saved what I had earned, which, together with a little I had
left of what I had brought from Ontario, made about $90, I entered the
preparatory department then in existence at the University of North
Dakota.
It was a month after the opening of the school year when I entered
school that year with the idea of taking a winter course for teachers
in order that I might take the state examinations for a teacher’s
certificate in the spring. Instead of taking the course intended,
however, I fitted in as nearly as I could to the regular course of
study for the last year of the preparatory department and used what
spare time I could obtain to study the common branches upon which I
would have to take examination for a teacher’s certificate. By close
application to business I was able to carry along the regular course
of study and also to secure the coveted teacher’s certificate in the
spring.
I left the University that spring at the end of the winter term, March
22, or thereabouts, and taught school from then until about the last
week in October. I left the University on Friday and commenced the
term of school on the following Monday and had no vacation during
the summer; and, in addition to that, I succeeded in obtaining the
permission of the school board that had employed me to teach six days a
week during the last five weeks in order that I might get back to the
University a week earlier than otherwise. My salary was $40 per month.
I had barely scraped through from November 1 until March 22 on that
ninety dollars, and had to make a loan of twenty dollars from a friend
to tide me over until I got a month’s salary. At the end of the term
of school I had paid back the $20 and saved about $110.
During the spring term of the University, while I was teaching, I
continued my studies as if I had been at the University, endeavoring to
do the same work that my class-mates at school were doing and reporting
from time to time to the professors. I burned midnight oil many nights,
but North Dakota spring weather is healthful and invigorating, and
I gained flesh on it and was able to take the examination with my
classmates in June to get better than a pass mark in all subjects. Then
I commenced on the subjects. I expected to begin on in the fall, as I
knew I would be about a month late entering college.
The story of my life for the next twelve months is much a repetition
of the previous year, except that I did not have the extra work of
preparing for teacher’s examination. I had to borrow about $36 to tide
me over until I got my first month’s salary, but I paid this back
during the summer and returned to school late in the fall as usual with
about $120. The following spring, in fact, before the winter term had
ended, I was “broke,” as each year seemed a little more costly than
the previous. President Webster Merrifield, then and for many years
previous at the head of our University, was the good angel who came to
my rescue. Every boy was his friend and he was the friend of every boy
in the institution. Always looking for an opportunity to help those
he thought worthy, he divined my need and offered to help me with a
loan that would tide me over the spring term. At first I declined the
tender of aid, but later thought better of it and accepted a loan of
$60 and gave my note, payable one year after the expected date of my
graduation. That summer I took a position as timekeeper for an extra
gang doing surfacing work on the line of the Great Northern Railway in
Minnesota and returned to school at the opening of the school year that
fall with about $75 ahead.
The University of North Dakota, at that time, had about two hundred and
fifty students, including those in the preparatory department. A little
book store and postoffice was conducted by students in one of the
University buildings. President Merrifield controlled the appointment
of the postmaster and manager of the book store, but the students
getting the positions had to finance the book store themselves. I
applied for and received appointment in the book store and postoffice,
and retained an interest in it during the three years following. I had
to do some skirmishing to borrow $100 to add to my $75 to provide my
share of the capital necessary to make advance payments on our stock of
books, and was denied a loan from friends I thought knew me well enough
to trust me. Again a generous professor in the person of the dean of
the college of arts came to my aid and made me the loan. I shall not
soon forget his kindness.
During those last three years of my college days while completing the
courses of arts and law I was able, writing life insurance among the
students as a side line in addition to doing my share of the business
in the book store and postoffice, to make my entire expenses and leave
school free from debt.
_Devil’s Lake, N. D._
FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF DENVER BULLETIN
Benjamin Eitelgeorge arrived at University Park the 6th of September,
1905, With $45.00 on hand. He took the severely plain quarters in the
basement of University Hall and worked for his room rent and tuition.
He did his work well. He went from house to house in search of work for
Saturdays and afternoons. At first no one seemed to need him. Later
on, however, there was all the work offered which he could do, in
house-cleaning and other work, at twenty cents an hour. He won a prize
in that first year and was made head janitor at the college. In the
second and third terms he had the care of a cow and a furnace. So the
first year closed with a new sense of self-reliance.
In the summer he went to summer school, working for his tuition, and
had the care of a cow, pony and lawn for his room and $15.00 per month.
In the fall he was made head janitor at $15.00 per month, with room
rent and tuition added. Saturdays he had all the outside work he could
do. This brought him through the year in comfort and with a still
deeper sense of self-reliance.
Now he was given charge of the church at Black Hawk, on request of the
people there who had heard him preach, and he has kept that service
for four years. Indeed, the people at Black Hawk desire to have him
appointed as their pastor for life. He now preaches at three places
each Sunday. Of course, this left Mr. Eitelgeorge no opportunity to
get into all sorts of college sports. He took part in all inter-class
games, however, where the object in view is the pure fun of the game.
He was active in the debating club, and made the honorary debating
fraternity, Tau Kappa Alpha. He was conspicuous in all the Christian
activities of the college. Mr. Eitelgeorge says he enjoyed college life
as much as any student who ever went to college, and that he would not
take anything for the experience and satisfaction of having worked his
way through college. He was graduated with the A.B. degree in 1911.
This sort of discipline creates men who can do things. If Benjamin
Eitelgeorge were shipwrecked on an island which was peopled by rude
savages he would know what to do at once. With a prayer in his heart,
and that everlasting smile on his face, he would begin at once at the
task of creating a Christian nation out of the raw material. And in
twenty-five years he would have trade relations with other countries,
an ambassador of his government at Washington, and a Christian college,
with the whole faculty from the class of 1911 in the University of
Denver.
John F. Sinclair’s story reads like a romance. In February last he made
an address at the Denver Y. M. C. A. to the high school and working
boys on “How to Work One’s Way Through College.” From that speech
the following facts are taken: Mr. Sinclair came to University Park
with Mr. Eitelgeorge from New Mexico in September of 1905. He had $20
in his pocket and plenty of pluck, but with no certain ideas about
how he could make a living. He went with Eitelgeorge in that first
canvass for work, but no one seemed to want them. There were plenty of
discouragements at the start, but presently he had more work offered
than he could do. He roomed in the basement of University Hall and did
honest work to earn his tuition and room rent. At that time we had a
boys’ club where the fellows kept in prime condition on two dollars
a week. For two years he made his way with odd jobs. He “waited on
tables, washed dishes, cooked meals, scrubbed floors, washed windows,
cleaned furnaces, built fires, chopped wood, beat rugs (the most
despised job in the curriculum), cut out weeds, mowed lawns, spaded
gardens, painted, calcimined, solicited, sold peanuts and pop-corn, ran
errands, etc.”
This sort of discipline for two years made him very self-reliant and
resourceful. Now he found more permanent sort of work. One year he
served as boys’ secretary in the North Side Y. M. C. A. In another
he made good money in charge of a laundry agency. In the following
year, his fifth, he did janitor work in the city in a down-town office
building. In his sixth year he has made a good living in teaching
mechanical drawing at night in a country high school and has sold
mail boxes. He cleared several hundred dollars in one summer selling
books to the farmers in Kansas. Sinclair says that some of his friends
have done well in carrying papers on regular routes, in reporting for
newspapers, in playing musical instruments, in growing mushrooms and
in tutoring. He says jobs come to the fellow who sticks and works.
Each year he has found it easier than the year before, and each year
he has had more profitable work than the year before. He wears good
clothes and lives in a first-class college room now. Sinclair played on
the college baseball team four years, and, of course, was in all the
interclass games of his class. He made his “D” in baseball. He counted
it his first duty to make his living, his next duty to keep a high rank
in his classes, and his third duty to get into such athletic sports as
were possible to him and necessary to his health.
The popular conception of a student who earns his living is that he is
a lank and lean boy who burns the midnight oil in a poor room in an
attic. Sinclair says he found it profitable and conducive to health to
live in an airy room and to sleep seven or eight hours every night.
So he has been in superb health every day since he came to college.
Sinclair believes in concentration and in being wide awake. The rest
of this story must be reported in his own words:
“In spite of my participation in athletics and in other activities,
and although I’ve worked hard for a living, and even though I’ve never
burned the midnight oil and never studied on Sunday, yet I’ve made
high grades, averaging over ninety. I count myself only an ordinary
chap, too. Get your lessons day by day and you will find time for other
important things.
“I took part in the other activities of the University. I sang in the
glee club one year; was a member of the Y. M. C. A. cabinet almost
every year; was president of the freshman class; acted as treasurer of
the debating club; served on the students’ commission; was yell-master
last fall; and besides was actively engaged in church work. It is the
old story that the more you do the more time you find in which to do.
This active school life prepares one for strenuous life in the world.
However, there is great danger in overdoing this matter. College life
should be secondary to your studies. We go to college to learn and we
must not sacrifice our mental and spiritual training for minor things.
A man should not neglect his social training, either, but this, too, is
a secondary matter.
“The working student is treated as a social equal by most people in
most colleges. I have never been snubbed. On the contrary, I have
become a member of one of the national fraternities; I have dined with
a professor’s family often; when I was janitor in the city the people
called me Mr. Sinclair and not Mr. Janitor; I was welcome company to
the best girls in college. A working student is highly respected if he
conducts himself as a gentleman should.
“In conclusion I would offer these suggestions: If you have a strong
desire to secure an education, to serve the world efficiently, and are
free from ill health and family encumbrances, go to some educational
institution with a determination to stick it out. Have faith in
yourself, in your fellow-men, and in God. If you are a Christian your
struggle will not be so hard. I cannot give too much weight to my
religion as a factor in making my college work successful and my life
happy. I doubt whether I could have withstood without my faith in God.”
THE FRATERNITY OF WORKERS
REV. EDWARD VAN RUSCHEN, A.B.
During the winter of 1897-8, after a campaign lasting for more than
two years, I came to my last stand and finally surrendered to the call
of Jesus Christ to enter the Gospel ministry. I had completed the
eighth grade in my fourteenth year and had spent two or three years
working with my father at the carpenter’s trade. I began now to gather
information about colleges and the cost of getting an education. I
soon found that to wait until I could earn enough money to pay my way
through college would take a long time. I had no friends or relatives
to help me pay even a part of such an expense, and I realized that I
must either work my way through or give up my vocation. The long and
bitter struggle that preceded my decision to become a minister left me
but one alternative. I was determined to get an education which would
fit me for the work I had chosen. I felt that a minister must know men
as well as books, and that whatever would give me a touch with folks as
they are would add to future efficiency. I liked work, carpenter work
or any other kind. I had never known what it was not to work, even as
a child, and so it was but natural that I should look about for an
opportunity to work while attending school. This is _why_ I worked my
way through college.
One man’s need is often another’s opportunity. In the fall of 1898
the Synod of South Dakota found it necessary to close its university
at Pierre, after a long struggle against great odds. It was finally
decided that its academy at Scotland should also be closed and a new
institution started at Huron, the best location available. Huron had
a large four-story brick hotel building unoccupied for several years.
This building became the home of the synod’s new educational venture
and became known as Huron College. Rev. C. H. French, the President
of Scotland Academy, became the new president of Synod’s College. I
had become acquainted with President French during the summer of 1898,
and with the opening of Huron College he found an opportunity for me
to help put the old hotel building in shape. So it happened that I
landed in Huron, South Dakota, about December 1, 1898, having about $25
in money and my chest of tools. I went to work at once repairing and
remodeling the college building, and for five years I was the college
carpenter (_ex-officio_). I had been there about two weeks when one of
the boys, Ray Scofield, found a place for me in a small hotel where I
received room and board for three or four hours’ work a day waiting on
tables, buying provisions, etc. I remained in this hotel three school
years. Railroad men and other common laborers were the boarders at
this hotel, and I learned to know this class of men in a very intimate
way. Odd jobs of carpenter work, or perchance scrubbing office floors,
carrying coal, cleaning rugs or cutting wood, added a little now and
then to my cash account. During the first two summer vacations I worked
with my father and helped him to carry the unequal burdens of life.
During the summer of 1900 I read Latin in the evenings and made up one
year’s required work in that subject, thus enabling me to graduate from
the academy department the following commencement.
In the spring of 1899 I signed the Student Volunteer Declaration, and
began to look forward to service on foreign mission fields. I had
become active in Y. M. C. A. work, and became treasurer of the local
association. During the fall I began to give talks to Sunday schools
held in country schoolhouses, and in December, 1900, I took charge of a
country church about thirty-five miles from Huron, preaching regularly
every two weeks. Often the alternate Sunday would find me supplying
some other pulpit near Huron. This added a little to my income, and
gave me plenty of opportunity for studying different kinds of people
as well as learning how to reach them through preaching. From this
time forward there was rarely a Sunday that I was not out of the
city preaching somewhere. The school year of 1901-2 I spent at home
working with my father, though I continued to preach on Sundays. When
I returned to my school work in the fall of 1902 I was absent from my
classes for over a month at the request of the president, in order that
I might be able to fit up additional dormitory rooms on the fourth
floor. I might have paid my way through college that year, but my
habits of work made the boarding club less desirable for me. I rented
a room in a private home and secured work at a large café where I
received my board for waiting at table three hours a day. I took great
delight in study, just for its own sake, and found in my outside work
a wholesome check to the tendency to forget that books and real people
are often very far apart. The claims of both were ever present with me,
and to respond to them both I found it necessary to keep on working.
That became another reason _why_ I worked my way through college.
There are perhaps few men in whom poverty extinguishes the desire to
give to others. It is one of the prerogatives of free sovereign manhood
to bestow gifts on others. This is one of the primitive instincts that
remains amid the evolutionary changes of the human race. Under the
influence of Jesus it has become a form of the highest act of worship.
It was this impulse that led me to form habits of giving in college.
In looking over my college accounts now, I find that during those
seven years I gave to church, missions, Y. M. C. A. and other objects
from $500 to $800 in money. In addition I paid my own expenses to the
Student Summer Conferences at Lake Geneva, Wis., three times, attended
the International Y. M. C. A. Convention at Buffalo, N. Y., and the
International Student Volunteer Convention at Toronto, Ont., all at my
own expense. At the close of my college work I had a library of several
hundred volumes. Now, after eight years, I can look back and feel
that were I to do it over again I would, without hesitation, follow
a similar plan. I am now finding almost constantly that my college
experiences are to my advantage in many ways.
To the young men and women who may read this brief story I would say:
Be never afraid of work, but honor it by doing it in the very best
manner possible. Add to your strength, efficiency, to efficiency a
noble purpose, and with it all be loyal to Jesus Christ whose moral
grandeur and spiritual transcendence have made the honest laborer a
member of the world’s best aristocracy.
In the hope that this story may nerve another for the struggle to
breast the current which sweeps humanity onward, ’mid hopes and fears,
’mid agonies and tears, to destinies unknown; and with the prayer that
the vision of far off success may inspire another to do and dare in the
search after Education’s Holy Grail, I send forth this little message
to all who belong to the great fraternity of Workers.
_Plankinton, S. D._
HOW THE PHYSICAL SIDE HELPED
HON. FRANK C. WADE, LL.B.
In the summer of 1903, at the age of twenty-five and with very little
high school training, I determined to go to college. I had no money
and my people were too poor to give me anything but encouragement. I
had taught one country school and spent one summer in the West selling
maps, but the most I could scrape together, in addition to experience,
was a slight equipment of clothing and $30 in money. With these stored
in my old trunk, I landed in Bloomington, Indiana, a few days early
to report for football practice and to look for work. I was given a
try-out at football before any arrangement was made for permanent
quarters.
I shall never forget that first afternoon football practice. Nature
had been kind to me in giving me a strong body and good judgment, and
I felt I could tackle any fellow that ever carried the pig-skin. I was
well seasoned, having spent the summer working on the section, and
it was lucky that I was. We kicked and fell on the ball for a while
and then the coach lined us up for a little line-bucking. This was in
the days when the line man on the football team selected his opponent
who played opposite him and fought it out with him. The modern, open
and better style of football had not yet invaded the game. I had
always played the position of tackle and it was there I was tried out
that first afternoon. Captain Clevenger took the back field to run
down punts and Coach “Jimmie” Horn took us heavyweights for a little
line-bucking. I happened to be the only lineman that was an unknown
quantity to “Jimmie” and he promptly proceeded to get acquainted, in
the peculiar way that coaches sometimes have. He first lined me up
against “Cube,” but as he was fat and soft from his summer vacation,
he was put to snapping the ball and Smith, Shirk and I tried it. I was
not tried out much on the defensive that day but was asked to open up
a hole between that big tackle and guard for the man who was coming
through with the ball just behind me. We worked at that for about an
hour. I do not know how well I succeeded but there never was a time
after that first practice that I ever feared losing a place on the team.
The coach and manager knew of my financial condition and, as that was
the days of the training table, my first job was purveyor for the
training table. It was really the best snap I ever had. All I had to
do was to collect the money from the other fellows at the end of the
week and turn it over to the manager. Things moved along well until
the football season was over and the training table broke up. I then
took the job of waiting on a table and washing dishes at one of the
high-priced boarding clubs. This lasted until I was given a job by a
friend.
One Sunday afternoon when I was feeling unusually blue, because of
the fact that my books and incidentals had drawn very heavily on my
$30 college fund, one of my friends, a senior by the name of Payne,
called in to see me. Just as he was leaving he handed me a $5 bill and
said that “Jake” Buskirk had sent it to me and said to tell me that
he admired my playing and wanted to make me a little present. I shall
never forget the feeling I had when I realized that it meant he was
giving me $5. I was overjoyed at getting the much needed five, but
studied for a long time whether I should keep it or return it. I felt a
little like I was being bribed. However, when I invoiced my assets the
feeling somewhat subsided and I decided to keep it, but for a long time
I told only one or two of my very best friends about it. That was the
first I knew there was such a fellow as “Jake” Buskirk, but the next
afternoon at practice, in compliance with his promise, my friend Payne
was there and gave me a real introduction to “Jake.” I do not know just
what I said; I only know that I tried to thank him and thought that he
looked like the best man I had ever seen. I met him a number of times
afterwards that season and later became very intimately acquainted
with him and I have never yet changed my first opinion of him. Before
Christmas “Jake” asked me how I would like to come up and stay with him
and take care of his furnace and horse. He explained that he had a
large roomy house and could fix up a room for me without much trouble.
I was glad of the opportunity and made my home with his family, which
consisted of himself, his good wife, one of those splendid Southern
ladies, and his two boys, Kearney and Nat. At the end of the winter
term, however, my money was gone and my clothes were worn. I determined
to leave school and work until the beginning of the following year.
During my short stay at Bloomington, I had met and made many friends
who were anxious to assist me in any way they could.
When I left school I took a job as brakeman on the Illinois Central,
but as I had to provide for extra board I made very little more than
expenses. When school opened in the fall I accepted a position as
teacher in the city schools of Linton, Indiana.
In the spring of 1905 I learned through some of my friends at
Bloomington that there would be an opening in the Co-Op, the university
book store. I immediately applied for the position and obtained it. I
had saved up a little money and stocked up in clothes. When I entered
school in the fall of 1905 I felt like a new man, full of hope.
The Co-Op was a book store owned and operated by the University for the
benefit of the students and, aside from a business manager who was a
member of the University office force, it was managed by students. It
took three to run it. By dividing our time we were able to attend our
classes and keep the Co-Op open from nine to twelve in the morning, and
from two to five in the afternoon. We were paid on a per cent. basis.
With what money I could make during my vacations I was able to graduate
in the class of 1908, receiving the degree of LL.B.
We do not go to college merely to develop our mental self, but we have
a physical and social self which I believe is as essential to train
and develop while in college as is the mental. I have always been a
large, strong physical fellow and many of my less fortunate companions
have laughed at the notion that my college training has helped me
physically; but, my college has done as much for me both physically
and socially as it did mentally, and I believe the former two are as
important elements in a young man’s make-up as is the latter. Thanks
to my college athletics, I contracted physical and mental habits that
have made me a better and more useful man and I think will prolong life
several years.
I was one of the more fortunate self-supporting men while in college
and, while I do not disclaim all credit for sticking to it and pulling
through, yet I often wonder if I would to-day be the proud possessor of
a college diploma had I been small of stature and not able to make good
on the gridiron.
_Fredonia, Kans._
THE WAY ALWAYS OPEN
C. M. WALTERS, A.B., PH.B., M.A., M.D.
After attending the Burlington High School one year and spending all
the money I had except one dollar, I decided to take a business course
in Elon College. I arranged with Dr. J. U. Newman, Dean of the Faculty,
to get my tuition, room rent, fuel, and light for ringing the College
bell. I also collected and distributed laundry to help pay my expenses.
With the money collected in this way and from doing other small jobs
about the College, I succeeded in paying all my expenses for the first
five months except $65. I secured my diploma in the Business Course in
June, 1900.
Realizing that my preparation in English was not sufficient for me to
command the best positions in the business world, I decided to take
the regular college course. So in September, 1900, my brother and
I organized the first boarding Club at Elon College. I was elected
manager to collect for board, buy all provisions, hire a cook, and
have general oversight of the Club, all for the small salary of one
dollar a week. I still held my job as laundry agent, but I gave up my
position as bell boy for the College. By sweeping, dusting, lighting,
and building fires in the Psiphelian Society Hall I made twenty-five
cents a week. I was also janitor for the Philologian Society part of
the time at the same salary, and two years later when the acetylene
gas lights took the place of the old oil lamps in the Society Halls, I
had charge of the gas generator, which paid one dollar a month. I also
made stretchers for the art room and did other small jobs of carpenter
work, cut wood, and did most any little job I could get to do to make
money. Of course I didn’t have any time for play, but I worked enough
to get plenty of exercise and graduated in four years with high honor.
I gave notes for my tuition except for the last year. I was laboratory
director during my senior year, which paid my tuition.
From the time I was a small boy in the public school, too young to
study Physiology, when the class recited I would stop studying and
listen to them and long for the time to come when I could study
medicine. This dream was realized in the fall of 1904 when I entered
the University of North Carolina, and began the four years of hard
work which was required to get my M.D. It was during the Christmas
examinations of this year that my eyes failed, due partly to using
a microscope too much, besides the hard strain of late study hours.
I could not see how to read, but I managed to get some one to read
for me and I passed my examinations. During my second year at Chapel
Hill, I secured boarders, collected for board, and kept books for a
regular boarding house to help pay my board. I also acted as laundry
agent, managed a pressing club, and taught English and Latin to medical
students who did not have sufficient preparation in these branches to
study medicine.
My last years in the medical course were spent at the University of
Maryland. The first year I distributed tickets and posters for the City
Y. M. C. A. meetings during my spare hours, for which work I received
$2.50 a week. There was so much walking in this I would be so tired at
night that I could not study, so I soon gave it up and devoted all my
time to my books. I secured an appointment as medical assistant in the
hospital (which was awarded to the best students in the class), for my
senior year. Owing to the difficulty we had in securing good board near
the hospital my class mates persuaded me to organize another boarding
Club, which I managed for a few months; but because my hospital
work required so much time, I had to turn it over to someone else.
I graduated with the class of 1908 from the University of Maryland
and passed the State Board examination in June of the same year, and
located at Union Ridge, N. C., where I have enjoyed a very lucrative
practice. I have been asked to write this for the benefit of other
young men who are working their way through school. While it has been
a hard struggle, and I have seen a few dark days when it seemed that I
would have to give up for want of means to go forward; still when the
time came that I had to have money, I always found some way to make it
or some friend kind enough to lend it to me. So my college career has
been a very pleasant one.
_Union Ridge, N. C._
THE VICTORY THAT OVERCOMETH THE WORLD
REV. E. A. WATKINS, A.B., A.M., D.D. PRESIDENT PALMER COLLEGE
I have been asked to tell the young people of to-day how I planned to
meet college expenses without money with which to start. In the hope
that some young man may be encouraged to undertake the task of securing
a good preparation for life, whether he has any money or not, I am
giving a brief outline of the struggle I had to secure what little
training I happen to have for life’s responsible duties.
I was born and reared on the farm. From my childhood, I had impressions
that God wanted me to be a minister of the Gospel, and had always
expected to make the necessary preparation, and give my life to the
task of this kind of special Christian work. I had finished the graded
school of my neighborhood, and had done one year’s work in high school,
when, in the following summer, I injured my spine permanently by riding
on a harvesting machine over some very rough ground. This occurred
when I was seventeen years of age, and for nearly ten years I suffered
intensely from this misfortune; the greater part of the time unable to
earn a dollar. During this period, I became discouraged and decided to
give up the idea of ever being able to secure the training that would
fit me for my chosen work, and finally decided to turn my attention to
some other pursuit. At this time I married the woman who must be given
the credit for the greater part of what little success I may have had.
After I had spent nearly ten years casting about to adjust myself to my
surroundings, I somewhat recovered from my injury and again turned my
thoughts to the ministry. “There is a divinity that shapes our ends,”
after all; a Siamese missionary came to Old Charity Chapel, in Shelby
County, Ohio, my home church, and told the story of the Cross. I do not
remember a word he said, but I do know that he inspired me with a new
vision and a new determination to undertake the task for which I felt
that God had endowed me; and out in the barn, on the old home farm, I
settled the question and decided that God would have to lead the way.
I had spent practically all the money that had come into my hands,
seeking to recover from the harvester accident. That summer I earned
a little money and on the first of September I had just $33 saved up,
with which to start to college. I lived 125 miles from Merom, Ind., but
I had decided the matter, and the limited amount of money could play
no important part in my purposes. I had entered a little partnership
with God, as the senior member of the firm, and I was only to furnish
the effort, consecration, application, toil and faith, and He was to
furnish the balance. How well He played His part, subsequent events
have told. On the fourth of September, 1898, with this small sum of
money, $33, in my pocket, my wife and I went to Merom, Ind., where I
entered Union Christian College. Tuition must be paid, room rent must
be provided for, and we must both be provided with board. Dr. L. J.
Aldrich, the president of the college, assisted us in finding suitable
quarters, and also assisted us in finding some suitable employment for
the wife. She secured employment at the Harper House, where several of
the students boarded, I boarding at the College Club, which was much
cheaper. She earned enough to pay her own board and mine. Thus we were
able to live very comfortably for a while. But after a little, several
of the boarders left the Harper House, and she lost her place. Nothing
opened for us then, and it seemed for a time that we would have to
return home. These were dark days and our faith was tried. At last I
went to President Aldrich and laid the matter before him. After going
into the details of the situation, he thrust his hand in his pocket
and gave me a $20 bill. I never saw $20 look as big as it did that
night. He told me to take it and make it go as far as possible, and
pay it back when I was able. Arrangements were made by which we could
pay tuition and room rent the next summer and the good wife secured a
place where we roomed, earning her board by assisting the family with
household duties. I earned a little supplying for some of the ministers
then at Merom and by holding a revival during the vacation. But this
was not sufficient to pay necessary expenses. I borrowed $20 of my
brother, and then, to make ends meet, I reduced the number of meals at
the club and ate only breakfast and dinner, in order to reduce the cost
of board to $1.10 per week. During the remainder of the year, I did not
eat supper, and because I was denied this luxury, the wife also refused
to eat supper, and thus we passed away the evening hours, just over the
kitchen, where the tempting flavors from the supper table below came up
through our room, to add to our hunger.
The following summer I canvassed for a magazine in Piqua, Ohio, and
sold nearly 500 subscriptions, and earned enough to pay all the debts I
had contracted during my year at Union Christian College.
During this summer vacation I was called to preach at Houston, Ohio,
where my father had preached forty years before. This was within 100
miles of Antioch College, and in the fall we went to Antioch, Yellow
Springs, took up our abode in two of the old south dormitory rooms,
and I entered the Academy for a course of study. Our income was small
and a large part of that must be spent for car-fare. Again the good
wife proved a helpmeet indeed, by very materially assisting in taking
care of the expenses. However, we had to live without meat and other
luxuries. I continued at Antioch three years, at which time I went
to Muncie, Ind., and entered the New Palmer University, and remained
there until Mr. Palmer’s death, two years later, which made necessary
the closing of the school. During this time I went out and preached on
Sunday and returned to my work on Monday. We then went to Defiance,
Ohio, and entered Defiance College and continued there two years and
graduated in the class of ’07, after which we went to Cincinnati
University, where I entered the Graduate School and in the spring of
1908 received the Master of Arts degree, receiving the honor of being
one out of four who carried an average grade of “A” in five courses out
of six.
During my course of study in these institutions I received in gifts
from friends not more than $25. I suppose that during this period we
spent not less than $300 for doctor bills. But through it all God has
opened the way. There were times when it seemed that we would have to
give up the quest, times when we did not know whether we could make
ends meet longer or not. It was not smooth sailing nor was it an open
sea. But it has been worth while. As I see it now, it developed those
elements of character that serve one best when obstacles mountain-high
appear before him. Those years are the best investment of my life.
If I had it to do over again, I would be willing to sail the same
choppy sea, rather than face life without that little I succeeded in
gathering up during those years of struggle. Humbly submitted for the
good of “somebody’s boy.”
_Albany, Mo._
OPPORTUNITIES MAKE US KNOWN
PROFESSOR WM. F. H. WENTZEL, B.S., M.S.
I was born in a humble home in the backwoods of Berks County,
Pennsylvania. I had few companions outside of school hours in the
little country school where we studied in English and played in German.
I had no one of intimate acquaintance who had any appreciation of
higher education or of professional life. The awakening of a moderate
ambition was largely due to the influence of a devoted mother and an
inspiring teacher.
With three months’ cramming in a summer normal, I changed from a
student to a teacher in the little red school house. During the long
vacations that followed I attended Perkiomen Seminary, where I was
graduated in 1902. When I passed my twenty-fifth birthday I had given
eight years of service to our schools at a salary of $238 per year. I
had paid for my preparatory education and had saved $200. At this time
I also had signed an anti-saloon petition which efficiently barred me
from further employment in the same school. This predicament put me
to thinking what would be the next best step. My prep. school was an
excellent eye-opener for college possibilities for poor boys, yet I
never before realized what it could mean to me. However, in one month
after my downfall I was making my exodus to the Pennsylvania State
College. I was without a friend that could give me advice or direct me
to means by which a young man might work his way. My $200 was dwindling
to a small margin as I got my equipment of books, uniform, instruments,
fees, board, room, etc. I soon hailed an opportunity to husk corn on
Saturdays.
Time progressed slowly, work became scarce, football enthusiasm rose
to a high pitch. Most of the boys were planning a trip to see our team
face its foremost rival of the season. It seemed evident that a three
to five dollar outlay on such a trip could not include me. There were
more meetings, music, yells, and speeches; and the fellow who refused
to go either had poor spirit or he felt real mean. I was one of those
who felt mean. So did my room-mate. We raised a question and forth came
the solution. I suggested that we go at the lowest possible outlay. On
the morning of the game when the band led the march to the depot we
were in line. The enthusiasm and the victory seemed to be fully worth
the price. When the noon hour arrived and the boys resorted to the
hotels, chum and I sauntered down along the railroad, secured a box of
crackers, and with some dried beef that I had brought from home, we
made the noon-day meal. On our return to college we proceeded to work
out the balance of the program: that was to board ourselves until we
had saved the amount. With a tin tomato can hung above our student
lamp as a cooking outfit we proceeded with our experiment in domestic
science from Thanksgiving to Christmas. We were so elated with the
success and the economy that we returned with well packed trunks after
Christmas and continued the experiment until Commencement week, when
we both secured positions as waiters. This scheme made a nice saving,
as it cost us less than $1.25 per week each for our board. I waited on
tables for my board for the remaining three years of my college course.
The first year closed with my financial rating $200 less than it was
at the opening of the school year. It was the close of my hardest
year. With my fragmentary preparation and several entrance conditions
I found it necessary to work to the limit of my ability, mentally and
physically.
I adapted my summer vacation to my needs and divided my time between
farm work and canvassing for the “Wearever” Aluminum Cooking Utensil
Company. I saved enough to equip myself with clothing, books, etc., to
start my next school year.
I started the work without definite plans for the finances of the year.
I gave some assistance to a student agent selling drawing instruments.
This line of work put me in touch with the commercial possibilities for
a student to earn his way. I noted the pennant agent, the pin agent,
the clothing agent, the laundry agent, etc. Yet was I too sensitive of
my backwoods instincts to move myself from the outside of this field
to a top notch competitor with upper class agents. Various college
activities seemed to prevail upon my time and I could not curb that
inner desire to be active along these lines when the finance seemed to
be within my control. However, in my junior year I accepted partnership
in the drawing instrument business which netted me a considerable
income for the opening week of the school year. In my senior year I
made my only real commercial venture. I gave security for my stock and
took $1,000 worth of instruments on the field. I secured a store room
where I had a good window display, took in second-hand uniforms, which
I sold on commission, and, too, late in my college career, I learned
the commercial possibilities open to the student who will do things
in a business way. I gave students from 20 per cent. to 40 per cent.
discount on instruments and yet cleared enough in two weeks to aid me
greatly in my senior year.
Amongst other means of support I shall mention a few of a general type.
I was chapel monitor for over two years which was worth one dollar per
week. For two years I was marshal in my lodging house, which reduced
my room rent. I worked in the library and took advantage of many minor
opportunities. My summer vacations were spent similarly to the first
one. Throughout the course I always was within a margin of the means at
my command.
You will note that my financial career at college was rather
promiscuous, without plan or system. I therefore hope to make this
sketch doubly helpful by adding a discussion on “advice” and another on
“college activities.”
A little experience in earning, saving, and learning the value of a
dollar before entering college never comes amiss. However, the fellow
who puts off college entrance because he enjoys fair earnings, or
because he wishes to accumulate a comfortable sum, usually never
gets there. Don’t expect too much in earning ability during your
first term at college. It is far more important to make a good
start intellectually, as that is the paramount business in college
attendance. It is one of the sad things to see a young man give up in
discouragement because he failed to place emphasis on application to
study. Therefore, when entering college, plan to give the first few
months to the college business without direct interference by any other
obligations or diversions.
Plans for the first year’s finance might include an attempt to
locate friends at college who might aid in finding a waitership
or some other work that does not break directly. Such work at the
start should not be discouraging, as those places naturally belong
to older students who have worked up to the situation. It is well
to recognize that others have rights and needs similar to your own.
Again to start, as one who is given a preference by pull, is not the
most agreeable situation. Another first year plan is the securing of
agency privileges from some good firm, let’s say for college jewelry.
Several weeks before Christmas vacation, when your work is well in
hand and your acquaintance with classmates established, first canvass
your classmates, then other students, for the holiday orders. During
one week it is possible to do your studying while others play and your
canvassing while others study. In a large college such a canvass may
net $100 profit. As business acquaintance and reputation grows, other
lines can be added and much trade comes with limited effort.
I look upon the tutoring opportunity as one of the errors of my college
efforts. I mean by this, my neglect to give it any attention. My advice
to a young man is: work up your class standing from the beginning,
especially in subjects where others are wont to fall. It may take
excess time at first, but it makes easy sailing later, and the more
you earn the stronger you become as a student; a fact which is usually
to the contrary in other financial means at a student’s command. It is
also rather lucrative as students make it net from 50 cents to $5 and
$10 or more per hour.
Vacation specialties are a boon to many a student canvasser. It is not
undesirable for any student to try his hand in dealing with people of
various types. However, it is remarkable how many students fail in
successful canvassing. The nervous strain on the fellow that fails,
while he feels the waste of much needed time and money, is great and
has a tendency to crush out even the little ambition that remains.
Vacation work should be rest from mental strain, it should be open air
work, and it should be in a measure manual. It is hoped that the reader
will note that money is not the only nor even the first consideration
in a wisely planned effort to work his way through college.
“College Activities” may seem an oddity in this discussion. I pity
the student who thinks because he is poor he should get all and give
nothing. I had a college debt of $400 when I finished, but the energy
put into non-required college activities would have canceled the debt
several times.
For four years I served on the Intercollegiate Debating Team, during
which time my Alma Mater rose from last place to first in the League.
For two years I was a member of my class debating team. In my junior
year I served as editor-in-chief of the college annual published by the
class. At the close of that same year I took first place in the Junior
Oratorical Contest. In religious work I had charge of Bible groups for
three years, was treasurer of the Y. M. C. A. in my junior year and
president in my senior year. At the close of my course I was elected a
member of “Phi Kappa Phi,” and was chosen valedictorian of my class.
Catch my creed. There is no harm in a little college debt. Be willing
to give as well as desirous to receive. If you are in want make an
honest effort to find the means necessary, but thereafter place your
college above the dollar and the good time. There is nothing seriously
wrong with the fellow who accumulates a thousand above expenses during
a college course, but if he fails to give a reasonable portion of his
energy to the higher purposes of his Alma Mater, the fruit of his work
is chaff rather than grain.
_California, Penn._
MAKING PLAY OUT OF WORK
A. L. M. WIGGINS, A.B.
The same problem confronted me that confronts the great majority of
college boys when they decide to go to college--the financial one.
Three financial plans were open. I could borrow the money necessary
for a college course and pay it back after completing the course, or
I could work two or three years and save the necessary amount before
going. The only other course open was to earn my expenses as I went.
Any one of these plans would have incurred a hardship, so I selected a
part of all three of them. I am convinced that this was the very best
course.
The day I decided to go to college, twelve months before I entered,
I was financially about even with the world. By good luck and close
saving during this following year my savings amounted to five
hundred dollars, which represented my total capital when I entered
the University of North Carolina. As a freshman, I had very few
opportunities to make money, and by the end of the year my capital was
reduced to one hundred and fifty dollars. A position the following
summer on a weekly newspaper netted expenses and experience, and I
therefore started back the next year with only the hundred and fifty.
Expenses were provided for this year by means of work with the
University Press and the management of a boarding house. Newspaper
reporting furnished a few dollars and some good experience, and a
campaign for subscriptions to a popular magazine was also productive.
About this time I found it necessary to use my original hundred and
fifty for an object not connected with college, and so it was paid out.
But the end of the session found me practically even financially and
with all debts paid.
At the beginning of my junior year, I had less than one dollar
capital. The management of the Press was given me at this time at a
salary of sixty-five dollars a month, and I continued to manage a
boarding house. A number of side schemes, including the management of
telegraphic athletic reports, selling advertising novelties, newspaper
reporting, an interest in a fruit store, etc., brought in irregular but
substantial returns. During this year I managed to meet all expenses
and save about three hundred dollars. This amount added to a lot of
nerve with which I borrowed twelve hundred more, gave me capital for
an investment, which later netted a profit of two hundred and fifty
dollars.
During the following summer, I spent the three hundred in traveling and
entered my senior year without a cent but the two hundred and fifty,
which was tied up in such a way that I couldn’t get it for some time.
I leased the print shop this year and did other work such as selling
shoes, advertisements, visiting cards, etc. The larger part of my time
this year being taken up with some of the more strenuous “college
activities,” my income was cut down and it was necessary for me to
borrow less than a hundred dollars from the University. At graduation,
I could have paid off all debts, and had left two hundred dollars or
more.
FINANCIAL STATEMENT.
Total amount spent during four years
with amount of scholarship included
(time includes three vacations) $2,700
Cash on hand at beginning $500
Value of Scholarship 240 740
---------------
Total $740
Balance $1,960
Investment (later realized) 250
---------------
Total earned during college course. $2,210
From this statement it is clear that I spent much more money than was
necessary. Five hundred dollars could have been saved out of this
amount if I had cut out a few of the luxuries, but as the money was
earned, I felt free to spend it.
My conclusions and advice are that any boy can go through college if
he is prepared to enter and is willing to work. The working college
boy is the happiest because he is always busy and doesn’t have time to
get blue. He can enjoy his pleasures without thinking that he will some
day have to pay the money back. His activities are so diversified that
they do not become monotonous, and making money becomes to him as much
sport as playing baseball. He can go broke for three weeks and sell a
few books to raise money for a midnight lunch and have more fun out of
it than another boy with a barrel of money and a new automobile. All it
takes for a boy to go through college without money is nerve to try it,
grit to stick to it, and a happy attitude toward life to enjoy it.
_Hartsville, S. C._
NOTHING SUCCEEDS LIKE SUCCESS
MISS AGNES R. WRIGHT, B.A.
The University of Wyoming situated at Laramie, Wyoming, on the
broad plains which roll away to the hills and blue mountains capped
with snowy peaks, is surrounded by an air of freeness and democracy
characteristic of this great equal-suffrage State.
After finishing the preparatory course of the University, I was
determined to complete the fours years of college; and, thus in the
fall of 1909, I found myself a freshman in the College of Liberal Arts
of the University of Wyoming.
My home was on a ranch some twenty-five miles out of Laramie. I
therefore accepted gratefully the opportunity of staying with my aunts
in town in order that I might go to school.
Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard, Professor of Political Economy and Librarian
at the University, made me her assistant in the library. Through the
fours years of my college course Dr. Hebard, who is a noble woman, was
my guide, philosopher, and friend, helping me in every way possible. I
remained assistant librarian through my entire course with a raise in
salary each year. Since my salary from this source was not sufficient
to meet all my expenses, and believing thoroughly in grasping every
opportunity, Dr. Hebard urged me to try for some of the literary prizes
in the University.
The first one I tried for was an essay on the “Overland Trail in
Wyoming.” I worked on this essay during one of my summer vacations
and in the fall received the prize of $50. Other prizes which I
was successful enough to win were: “A Place in Wyoming Worthy of a
Monument,” $10; “Opportunities Wyoming Offers to Technically Trained
Men and Women,” $25, two times, (different years) making $50;
“Principles of Free Government,” (two times) making $50; a short story
contest at the State Fair, second prize, $50.
This essay work not only gave me experience in writing and some
valuable information, but also meant a great deal in a financial way.
It was necessary in connection with the library work that I take
typewriting. With the practice gained in the library, together with the
work in class, I was able to typewrite fairly well at the end of the
first year. Many times I made a little extra money doing typewriting.
On one occasion I made $2.50 for four hours of such work. Typewriting
has been one of the most useful subjects which I took in college.
In the last half of my freshman year my sister and I economized by
keeping house in two rooms rented in a private home. The next three
years we were able to live at the girls’ dormitory. My sister, too, is
earning her way through college, and we will never regret doing so.
In my sophomore year I decided to take up drafting, and was allowed to
elect sixteen hours in the College of Engineering. In the spring of
both my junior and senior years I was offered the position as temporary
draftsman at $100 a month by the United States Surveyor General
in Cheyenne, but I refused, as I wished to graduate. This merely
illustrates how college people may receive good positions.
In my junior year I was elected editor-in-chief of the college paper,
for which I received $10 a month and credits in English. During my
senior year I was also editor and received $15 a month, the paper
having been changed to a weekly.
One might think that, with being editor of the paper and assistant
librarian, the remainder of my time would have to be devoted entirely
to my studies; but far from it. The fact that I was devoting a portion
of my time to earning my way gave me the best of training. I had my
work down to a system, and when I studied, knowing just how much time
I had, I learned to concentrate to such an extent that it was no
trouble to study in a room when four or five people were carrying on a
conversation. I did not take the minimum amount of work either, for at
the beginning of my senior year I had just twenty-two credits to make
and upon graduation had eleven credits too many.
I engaged in athletics heartily. I played on the basketball team, being
captain one year and manager the next. For four years I was a member of
the Young Women’s Christian Association Cabinet, the Mandolin and Glee
Clubs, and took part in dramatics and other social activities. Besides,
I devoted some of my time to Pi Beta Phi, of which I am a member.
I did not take library work with the intention of making it my
vocation, but merely as a means of going through college, but there
was an opening in the State Library and on July 1, 1913, I accepted
the position of Assistant State Librarian in the State Law Library at
Cheyenne, Wyoming.
On June 12, 1913, I received the degree of B.A. I was nineteen years
old, but I came out of college with developed ideas of how to go about
making my own living in a manner which I could have gained in no other
way.
To work my way had not injured my health, as I always took plenty of
outdoor exercise, walking, skating, etc., and each summer was spent
at home on the ranch, fishing, riding and camping in the mountains,
besides working at home.
With parents and relatives making sacrifices and determined to give my
sister and me the opportunity to gain a higher education, and with the
encouragement of friends, I have attained, and my sister will attain
next June, a college education.
It is worth the effort a thousand times. The spirit of the University
of Wyoming is greatly in favor of students helping themselves. The
leaders in social life, athletics, and in every phase of the life of
the University are wide-awake young men and women who are willing to
help themselves.
The men or women with a good education are being sought after in the
business world to-day. To know that you have gained this education by
yourself, makes you independent and places you on the road to success.
(Since writing the above Miss Wright stood a civil service examination
for clerk-draftsman and passed fourth highest in the United
States.--COMPILER.)
_Cheyenne, Wyo._
WORK A STIMULUS TO AMBITION
I entered the engineering department of the University of Texas as a
freshman in the fall of 1892 at the age of seventeen. I graduated with
the degree of C.E. in the summer of 1900, eight years later, having
spent four years of that interval as a student at the University. With
the exception of about $130, I bore all the expenses of my university
education.
During my first year I lived with a relative and did chores about the
house in return for my board and lodging. My total expenditure in
money during this year, including two months’ preparation for entrance
examinations, was about $130. The most rigid economy was necessary, of
course, to keep expenses down to this amount.
After the first year I was out of school four years, the chief reason
therefore being lack of funds. These years (1893-1897), as will be
recalled, covered a period of financial depression, especially 1893
and 1894. Being untrained in any trade or profession, I was obliged to
be satisfied with whatever wages I could earn, and at times I was glad
enough to make a living. A long spell of typhoid fever kept me from
work for six months, and my finances suffered a corresponding setback.
I matriculated at the University again in the fall of 1897. During
the session of ’97-‘98 I earned both my board and lodging by doing
light chores and tending rooms occupied by boarders. My four years’
savings, aggregating $200, were sufficient to cover other expenses,
close economy being practiced. The first part of this year was the
most discouraging period of my university life. My outside duties were
distasteful, not through discouragement, but by reason of continued
contact with people who greatly underestimated their value. I had
become unaccustomed to study, and I had reached the years when I felt
that I should be earning an income somewhat different from higher
education. But a tenacious nature prevailed, and after a few months it
became clearer that I was on the right track.
During the vacation following my sophomore year I tried very hard to
earn something toward the expenses of another year, but it was a dull
season and work of any kind was difficult to find. Late in the summer
I got a job, and in the three remaining weeks of vacation I earned a
little more than enough to pay my fare to Austin.
I landed in Austin with $3.20, and without any plan whatever for
meeting the expenses of further work in the University. But with
confidence resulting from the optimism of youth, combined with the
experience of previous years, I fully intended to continue my
university studies, and this I did. I visited the home where I had
lived the year before, and the lady of the house kindly offered to
let me work out my board until I could make permanent arrangements. I
immediately wrote to a relative asking the loan of $50 with interest.
Although I was unable to offer security for the loan, a check came
promptly, and I was in a position to matriculate and purchase the
necessary books. I then joined a student club and remained a member
during the year, the cost of living in a club being less than in a
regular boarding house. During the year a small business in handling
student supplies netted a profit of perhaps fifty dollars. The club
paid me a small price for chopping the stove wood, and this brought in
a few dollars, although the work was done principally for exercise.
Early in April of that year I left the University to accept a position
on a survey party at $35 a month and expenses. I owed at that time
bills aggregating about $40, but these were paid by savings from my
wages before the end of the session.
At the beginning of the succeeding fall term I gave up my work with the
survey party and returned to the University to complete my course of
civil engineering. Permission was granted by the heads of the various
schools to take up senior with the understanding that junior work
omitted in the spring be made up during the year. The savings remaining
from my summer’s wages amounted to a little more than $100. I lived
at low rate boarding houses this year, except two months when I worked
for my board. My business in student supplies, this year on a larger
scale, netted about $100. I also earned a small sum during the year
by working a few hours each week in the office of an engineer in the
city, the hours of work being arranged so as not to conflict with my
lecture hours at the University. At the close of the session I had a
few dollars left over. I graduated with the degree of Civil Engineer.
Being fortunate enough to obtain at once a paying position, I was able
within two months to pay back with interest the fifty dollars borrowed
two years before. I could then follow my chosen line of work free of
debt. In regard to the benefit derived from my connection with the
University, it is always difficult to picture “what might have been”;
and also one is apt not to realize all the advantages that have come to
him as the result of higher education. In my own case I know that my
university training was well worth the time, labor, and sacrifice that
it cost; for it equipped me for entrance into a remunerative vocation,
and through the knowledge and training acquired in the four years’
course I was able successfully to complete a civil service examination
for an appointment in the technical branch of the Federal service
immediately upon graduation. Advancement and corresponding growth
of income have followed, accompanied by the advantages of extensive
travel. Furthermore, in my own case, which doubtless is typical, the
years devoted to higher studies stimulated ambition and developed a
self-confidence; otherwise, these qualities probably would have been
wanting to prompt and sustain an effort to make the best use of my
natural powers. Not the least benefit derived from a few years spent
as a student at the University is the social pleasure and practical
assistance afforded by the mutual interest of ex-students, many of whom
are now filling prominent and responsible positions.
During the last two years of my university work when tempted to quit,
or when “practical” persons suggested that I was prolonging my school
days late into life, or that I “knew enough already,” I strengthened
my purpose and met those arguments by the answer that while out of
the University I made little more than a poor living, whereas in it I
not only made a better living, but was acquiring valuable education
as well. During my struggles with financial problems when at the
University, I always received from my officers and faculty of the
University practical assistance, and this without doubt will be the
experience of any other student similarly situated.
That no young man or young woman of receptive mind, who possesses the
requisite physical and mental strength and has the necessary ambition
and determination, need be deprived of the advantages of a university
education by reason of financial limitations, has been repeatedly
demonstrated in the past. I fully believe that the result in every
case is worth the effort; but the unavoidable outside duties and the
cramped finances narrow the horizon of self-supporting students. I
would, therefore, offer to students the suggestion that they guard
as much as possible against narrowness in the acquisition of their
education and in their university life, and that they endeavor to
correct in their subsequent life after graduation any such resulting
defect.--_The University of Texas Bulletin._
THE UNIVERSITY AS A GOAL
“BY A COUNTRY GIRL”
I am writing this piece of personal history, not because it contains
any great amount of interest for people in general, but because it may
be an inspiration for some young woman who may chance to read it--and
she may be induced to step out and try a similar plan for herself.
Therefore, prosaic though it be, it will be, nevertheless, a true story
from first to last.
I was born and grew up like many another healthy youngster, with no
marked precocity. Because there were no good schools near by, the
children of the family were taken to a village in the county, and
placed in what was then the best private school in that part of the
State. I was then eight years of age, and this trip of sixteen miles
in wagons across the snow one January day was my first glimpse of
the outside world. I recall vividly now the impressions that came
to me that first night and during the first days. There were in the
family two older sisters and a brother, and four or five cousins and
half-uncles. I had heard them discuss the wonders of this new world
before we made the move. We had a play-house in the barn. It was in
this barn that the marvelous stories were told, and plans were made
for what we meant to do and to be when once we were there. I remember
that I would dig my toes in the ground, standing ready to swing, but
listening open-eyed, and then let myself go high in the air, dreaming
of the great future. So, the village, quaint and quiet, except for the
school, was to my youthful imagination a part of Paradise.
We lived in this village and attended this school for three years. My
mother died the first year, and a married sister came to take charge
of the household, which was coöperative in its nature, every member of
the family having his share of the daily tasks. The school was a good
one, not only for its time, but judged even now by modern standards.
It knew little of the principles of pedagogy, and had meager equipment
in library and laboratory, but for a period of a quarter of a century,
under the influence of its one principal, it had the power to transform
the lives of hundreds of crude country boys and girls. What was taught
was well taught, and the men and women who went from the school are
known to-day in places of great responsibility. But the facts learned
were a small part of that school’s work. Somehow, under the inspiration
of that principal and the assistants whom he had the wisdom to employ,
the school had a spirit akin to that of Rugby.
And so my story is more than half told. When once the mind is awake and
the soul is stirred, there is something within that bids us neither
stand nor sit, but go!
After this I had two years in school nearer my home. When I was fifteen
I was offered a position as assistant in a school and in my ignorance
as to its responsibilities I accepted. I liked the experience, and
decided that I had found my calling. The way opened for me to attend a
normal, and in one year I was graduated--full fledged, with a permanent
certificate. (I count this year as one of the best of my life, because
of the influence of one teacher there, and for this I can pardon the
absurdity of permanent certificate.)
The five years following this graduation I taught in the public
schools--five busy and happy, but hungry and unsatisfied years. During
these years I had the joy of waking up other boys and girls, and during
these years at night I had my first opportunity to read good books.
And then the way opened for me to go to the University. I had saved
what I thought was enough money to put me through, and though some
people thought I “knew enough,” I dared to lay down my work and go.
I have never regretted it for one day, in spite of the sacrifice,
hardship and anxiety when funds began to fail, I had the foolish idea
that I must get my degree before I stopped. And I did. Now, I should
say, go as long as you can with health and comfort--physical and
mental--and then, if you can not make your way, teach and go again.
You will be the better for the discipline, perhaps, and the university
the richer for your maturity.
But, a teacher may ask, why set the university as my goal? “If I have
a good position, and have managed by great privation to go through a
normal school, am I not entitled to rest a while and let well enough
alone?” Let me answer that no university claims to be the final goal.
Take your respite, teach with all your might with the best light that
you have. But go up for some summer session. You will catch the spirit;
you will soon see that you need the university, and if you have in you
the right fire, your university needs you. Then if you are too timid
to give up your position, ask your board for a leave of absence and go
back as you can and take your degree.
But my heart turns to the girl away back in the country, to the girl
who has felt her soul stir within her, but has curbed every hope
because she thinks herself shut within walls that cannot be broken
down. Don’t believe it. Keep the fire alive. Let the university know
who you are and what you want, and if you cry loud enough and long
enough--and mean it, some one will come to your rescue. Take my word
for it.--_The University of Texas Bulletin._