College Men Without Money

by Carl Brown Riddle

PART II

WORKING TO MAKE HIMSELF A MORE USEFUL MAN
F. M. BASSFORD

I am making my own way through college because there was no one at home able to send me aid or to pay my expenses.

I am making my own way because I wanted to be a college man; to graduate from college; to become more intelligent educationally along general lines; to be able to take my place in public, whether on the platform, before an audience, or in polite society at social functions, with ease and grace instead of embarrassment. I was told a college man could succeed better than a man without a trained mind. I found the educated men advancing beyond me in position and salary, even though younger, at the office where I worked. I always looked up to college men and women, as to my elders, with a certain respect and admiration for their superiority—derived as I believed from their college course. I had a desire every time a public speaker referred, in my hearing, to ancient history or to some event, poem, or historic personage, to delve into those mysterious realms of learning so that I might appreciate more fully the point he was trying to make clear, by an understanding of the circumstances connected with the reference which would enable me to make the application to the speaker’s topic.

I am working my way through college because I had read before coming, and I have discovered for myself since coming, that many students succeed in securing a thorough college course by their own efforts and God’s blessing.

I am working my way through college because I have nothing to lose and much to gain thereby.

I am devoting part of my time—usually half of each day—during the school days, and all day Saturdays, of the two semesters comprising the school year, to the clerical work and such other duties as I may be called upon to perform under the direction of the president and the registrar in the administration department of the College located at Adrian.

During the summer vacations, holidays, and such other spare time as is at my disposal, I canvass with such articles as hosiery, underwear, neckwear, sweaters, and books, both among the members of the student body and the citizens of the municipality in which our school is located.

I get on by keeping everlastingly at it, steadily, day by day and year by year, and by a careful expenditure of the money earned, for necessities and such worthy causes as I choose to support, avoiding most of the luxurious and expensive pastimes for the three-fold purpose of conserving time, money and energy.

I am encouraged along the way by the assistance, the kindness, the moral and financial support of a host of much appreciated friends and customers, and by the manifold blessings of God, such as health, strength, a normally perfect body, which in His mercy He has seen fit to bestow upon me, a poor, ignorant, ambitious boy, an humble and unworthy follower of the Great Teacher.

Adrian College, Adrian, Mich.

MANY LANES OF USEFULNESS
BEBE BOSWELL

My early education consisted of the three R’s learned at home with my father as teacher, and a half-dozen two-month terms in the public school. There being no high school nearer than twenty-five miles, father kept me on the farm about three years after this and then sent me to a preparatory school for two years. These two years fixed my moral and religious ideas and gave me a great faith in the possibilities and rewards of human effort. After this he sent me to a private school in the West for one year, and the following summer to the North Texas State Normal. During this year, especially, my desire to be self-sustaining had grown to be very strong, and it led me to obtain a six-year first grade certificate to teach in that State.

Scarcely had my certificate been issued when a call came to return and take charge of a private rural school. The call was accepted, and school opened immediately upon my return. During this year I made up my mind to attend Peabody College and secure a life certificate good in a number of Southern States instead of returning to Texas for a permanent certificate. All I needed to carry out this plan was the money. Father had helped me until I was able to help myself. I was not willing longer to spend his money. There was only one thing left me to do, and that was to enter the world’s workshop.

The next two years found me very busy, on the farm, in the log woods, and teaching rural schools. These two years rewarded me with enough money to pay my expenses during the two-year normal course I had planned. My application for entrance showed I had almost enough credit for college, and my plan was immediately changed from a two-year to a four-year course.

Having only two years provided for, I felt the need of doing outside work, but with a little entrance requirement to make up I found only enough spare time to work in a grocery store on Saturdays to pay my room rent. When the next year came the duties of business manager of the student monthly magazine, which left me no time to earn anything. Success in this enterprise, however, opened up greater opportunities the following year. The faculty committee made me joint manager of the college book-store. This work paid me enough for board and room. To provide for my other expenses I joined a crew of college men who were going to Virginia to sell books for a local publishing house. Besides furnishing the necessary means this work gave me a most valuable experience, and an opportunity to travel about twenty-six hundred miles, visit a large number of cities and see ten States.

Every expense of my junior year was now provided for, but this did not satisfy me. My eyes had been opened to see another opportunity. During this year in addition to my work in the classroom, in the book-store, and in the literary society, I found time to edit both the student monthly magazine and the college annual. Besides this I would use spare moments in taking orders for class pins, graduation invitations, and in soliciting business for a clothing house and a local jewelry establishment. I also joined my room-mate in organizing and conducting the annual Thanksgiving party to Mammoth Cave. These various sources yielded me half enough for my expenses the next year, my senior year.

But before my junior year had closed came the radical announcement that Peabody College would be discontinued for reorganization and rebuilding. This left me at sea, with insufficient means for a whole year and the disadvantage of selecting a new college. I decided to finish in one of the larger universities at a greater expense. This was met by another contract with the same publishing house. This contract was for six months and netted me above all expenses over one thousand dollars. Then I entered the University of Chicago, where I could pursue my work during the winter and continue with the publishing company during the vacation, helping not only myself, but many other ambitious young men secure the means for an education, and a practical experience that will serve them to advantage all their lives.

Wildersville, Tenn.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE WILLING HEART
GLENN DAFT

Why am I making my way through college? Like all normal young men I am possessed with an ambitious, enterprising spirit, which continually urges me to do things and be somebody. I am led by a natural inherent desire to press forward. I feel that, sometime in the future, when the greater part of my life is behind me, I shall look back over the years that are gone, and shall measure what I am with what I might have been. At that time, whenever it may be, I feel that, if I am not able to say that I have not lived in vain, life will seem empty and meaningless to me. I want to be, in every respect, a success in life. In short, I am ambitious.

Ambition may manifest itself in one or many of several ways. In days of yore, it rushed the impetuous youth into battle field. To-day it is very apt to express itself in a desire for a higher education. Everything depends on the attitude one takes toward higher education. I feel that the great problems of the day demand the attention of the best and broadest men that the age affords, and that no uneducated man can ever hope to realize his best. I think that any man, in order to do the most good for himself and for his fellow beings, must be able to plunge into the battle of life unhampered by lack of preparation. I realize that many walks of life are open only to those who have a college or university education.

Here, then, is why I am working my way through college: because I feel that by so doing I can broaden myself physically, mentally, and morally; that I can fit myself to cope with the questions of the day, and conquer; that it will enlarge my possibilities in life almost beyond comparison; that it will not only enable me to become a success, but, if I apply myself rightly, that it will leave me in a position to do something of value for coming generations; and that, for my having lived and done, the world may, in some way, be bettered.

Many are the means which I employ to accomplish this end. It requires not only the making of money, but the saving of money as well. It requires a systematic arrangement of time, and a constant concentration of energy to the task at hand.

During the school year I have done almost all degrees of physical labor, ranging from folding papers to shoveling coal and digging tile ditches. My motto is, “anything that is honest.” A college town always affords plenty of employment. I find that steady work of some kind is much more satisfactory than depending upon odd jobs. I wait on tables in a hotel for my board and like the plan very much.

I spend the summer months in the country, generally at farm work. I sold books one summer. Last summer I spent a month and a half at tiling, and find that it pays very well, but the work is rather severe for a student. I am able to save from $90 to $125 during the three summer months. With this much in hand I am able to meet expenses very well.

Working one’s way through college demands economy, hard work, and determination; but the end in view justifies the means. It is a real pleasure for one to feel that he is doing things himself. With the possibilities that are open to the young man to-day it seems that everyone ought to be willing to devote a few years to preparing himself to better understand and deal with the conditions under which we live.

Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa.

DIFFICULTIES PREPARE FOR REAL WORK
ERMIL B. FRYE

In every college town there are many openings for the young man and woman who wish to earn their way through college. There are always men who will make room in their homes or in their place of business, for that young man who is anxious enough about acquiring an education to work for it with his hands. Seldom do we find such a person making his way through school by working at the same thing each year. More frequently we find them working at the best thing that offers. It is in this way that I have made and am making my way.

Usually young ambitious persons work their way through school because it is their only means of acquiring an education. In other words, they are self-supporting. Others, however, who are not forced to do outside work in order to go to school, find it very advisable to take upon themselves a certain amount in addition to their studies.

The first thing I asked myself was: Am I able, physically and mentally, to work my way through school? Some are not physically able to do outside work and to carry their school work at the same time. Others are not mentally qualified to pursue their studies in an official manner while making their expenses, in whole or in part. I have found, however, that by making a definite schedule for each day, I can give a certain amount of time to outside work, though the time allotted to each of my school subjects may possibly be more or less than the time required by others for those same studies. It may be seen that it is not for everyone to carry regular work in school and while doing so to earn his expenses. Yet if a man can he is better off to busy himself with work that is bringing him an income. In taking outside work, I feel that I can do it without detracting from the time required for the preparation of my studies.

Again, I have always been taught that for a man who has never been placed under obligations to himself in any way, it is better that he bear a little responsibility. The young men who jump out into the whirl of life’s battles are at a great disadvantage, but the young men who, while in school, have learned how to contend with impending circumstances, will be enabled to cope more successfully with the circumstances which will surely confront them after their school days have ended. I believe that every thinking person will bear me out when I say that the strongest college graduates are those who have known what it was to roll up their sleeves and to help do the ordinary commonplace things. If, by being responsible, one acquires a new experience and added strength, it is essential that we assume some responsibility. Therefore, I feel that I am making my education twofold in value by working my way through school.

To many there comes the opportunity of doing some work along the line of their intended profession and in such cases outside work is to be encouraged. Such is my privilege. I am studying for the ministry and have been preaching for four years in connection with my school work, earning in this way the greater part of my expenses. In that four years, I have written, in outline form, three hundred and ninety-two sermons. To some this may not represent much, but to me it represents a great deal, including extensive research along different lines and the task of putting together my thoughts in a logical form. I feel that I will be more capable of preaching my first sermon after leaving school, having had all these experiences in the pulpit and in the study.

Furthermore, practical experience brings us into close touch with people. In this manner, have I learned the different ways of the church and I have become acquainted with the various classes of people which are represented in the church. This means a great deal to any man, for there are many complex situations in connection with the church, and there are also many matters associated indirectly with the church, which demand solution.

The first means by which I made a part of my expenses was by scrubbing halls and washing windows. This I did in compensation for my board and a part of my room rent. It was new work to me; for I had never scrubbed a floor in my life. Yet it enabled me to see the world from the standpoint of the porter and I frankly confess that, after I had once gone through this experience, I had a different regard for the men and women of this occupation.

Later by selling and delivering papers, I got to see the world from the standpoint of the newsboy. This proved to be a valuable experience to me. For the first time in my life I faced the mobs of the street and transacted business with them. The many faces into which I looked made impressions upon my life, some of which have been lasting. The care free and the burdened; the hilarious and the melancholy; the custom-bound and the independent; the victims of disease and those to whom disease was unknown; in fact, people representing every condition and every class of life were among those with whom I came in contact. The good which I received from dealing with these widely different and distinct types of humanity is measured only by the resolutions that a man makes when he sees the beautiful and the unattractive, the uplifting and the debasing, the efficient and the inefficient, all within the experience of a day.

After my experience as a newsboy, I secured a place in the college dining hall to carry off and to scrape the dishes. This I did for a school year. Though I had little liking for this work, I am better off because I did it and I have more sympathy for the housewife, the daily routine of whose duties every true mother must endure. From this place I was transferred a step higher. I began to wait on tables—a good place in which to cultivate one’s temper and to learn the art of being patient. Here one deals with all kinds of temperaments. The waiter must listen to the reasons (given by the girl who came in late) why toast is better buttered before it is served, and why coffee ought to be eliminated from the menu. Of course, he comes in contact with others who do not care what they have to eat, just so they have enough of it, and so it is hot. Hence, such work is valuable experience, and the waiter who for two or three years finds these faults repulsive to him and then allows himself to drift into the same sort of thing, deserves little pity.

At the present I am holding a student pastorate in the Methodist Episcopal Church. I can reach my appointment by leaving Saturday night, being able also to get back in time for my first class Monday. A great deal of fault is found with the student preacher, and usually this criticism originates within the college halls. In some schools he is regarded as one who cannot do anything else but preach—a sort of abnormal being; in others, however, he gets the respect which is justly due him. We do not need to investigate very far to find that most denominational schools owe their very existence to the never-tiring work of the clergy. By making my school life twofold, I am enabled to state my theories and conclusions from actual experience; for each day I receive incentives which serve to promote the line of work which I am pursuing and if I should once more go through the process of finding my place in the world, I am of the opinion that I would be drawn into the work of a student preacher.

We often hear that the college is a place where preparation for the work of life is made. Our elders tell us that the work of the college serves to broaden our horizon by changing our perspective; but the college, to the man who has never supported himself, will not mean a revelation to the world’s activities in their most true and real form. After graduating from college a man will find that he has awakened in a real world in which men are bearing responsibilities, and will realize that in every phase of life the world is calling for men who have had the most experience, who have received the strength which comes only from carrying a load.

Indianola, Iowa.

PLUCK RATHER THAN LUCK
F. D. HENRY

The demand of to-day and to-morrow will be for men who have had a college training, while the men who have little or no education will be compelled to fill the mediocre places in life. This fact was profoundly impressed upon my mind while yet in the grades of our common school. The per cent. of the men who have made good under adverse circumstances awoke in me dissatisfaction with my surroundings and circumstances. I resolved to attain some better station in life.

The fact that Abraham Lincoln, in spite of his physical appearance, financial condition, and many obstacles, any one of which would discourage the ordinary boy, attained the highest honors in the gift of our nation, was an inspiration to me. Marshall Field at one time was a poor boy, a clerk, in a country store, who, upon visiting Chicago, resolved to become a great merchant.

I perceived that the keynote of the greatness of such men as Lincoln and Field was not only in having an ideal, but that, never ceasing, never flinching, never faltering, they kept their ideal before them. These men realized there was no victory in retreat. They were men with a mission and an aim. They had faith in the standard they were striving to attain, and consequently they were truly successful.

Because of the fact that the world has an unlimited field for the man with a college education, while the uneducated man is forced to mingle with the mass in the lower walks of life, a college education became my ideal. Circumstances were such that I had to work my way through college, if I ever attained my ideal. At first the barrier seemed insurmountable, and I allowed myself to think of a college education more as a dream than something which I might actually obtain. After coming in contact with some college men, however, I found that my dream of an ideal might become a reality. Through many discouraging difficulties somehow I clung tenaciously to my ideal, broke down every barrier that arose, and came to Simpson College.

Everything was entirely different from what I had pictured. However, my ideas are not changed so much as they are strengthened and broadened. The vital question of work while in school, which at first seemed dark and gloomy, has changed its aspect entirely. In the first place the thing that impressed me most forcibly was that the boys and girls who take class honors are students who are compelled to work their way through college. It is not that any of us lack talent. We all have sufficient talent, but where we are deficient is in will-power to persistently keep our ideals before us and attain that ideal with the vigor of a Field or a Lincoln.

The next thing that I readily perceive is that the student who earns his way through appreciates his opportunity. He realizes that fortune smiles upon those who roll up their sleeves, put their shoulder to the wheel, and have backbone and stamina to fight the battle, and not turn aside for a little dirt or hard physical labor. The student who strikes the word “luck” from his vocabulary waits for no psychological moment, loiters not for a miracle to occur, but rather creates the miracle, makes his own opportunities.

In our college, here in the Middle West, the manner of earning one’s way varies a great deal. We are blessed with a rich country and the greater per cent. of the people are prosperous. The majority of students canvass during the summer vacation. I was formerly employed as a clerk in a hardware store before coming to college. Next summer, however, I will take up some form of canvassing. Canvassing has two distinct features that should appeal to the student; first, the opportunity to study human nature, and secondly, the fact that the harder you work the more you earn. Next school year I will have a position whereby I can earn my board and room, and with my summer earnings I shall be able to return for another year’s work.

My first reason for working my way through college was because of financial necessity. Now if I were to choose between the two avenues of securing a college education I would cast my lot with the boy who works his way. His conceptions of life are broader, and he is better fitted for the battles of life he will meet when he leaves college. Thus, in many ways I consider the necessity of working one’s way through college not a detriment, but a blessing in disguise, which gives one a greater knowledge and a broader conception of what a life worth while really means.

Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa.

POVERTY IS NOT HIS MASTER
BYRON E. JOHNSON

It has been my misfortune, or fortune, to be reared practically in the arms of poverty. I have spent the most of my days on a little farm in southwest Arkansas, the family consisting of six children and father and mother, living in an old log house on the farm. Just at the time when we were getting to where we could make a crop without buying everything on time, we lost about all we had on account of the ill health of my mother.

I was eighteen years of age when I finished the seventh grade. I thought then that I had enough education for any ordinary man. I had finished geography in the high school, I knew United States history fairly well, and had been through fractions in arithmetic; so I thought I was prepared for life. Besides having enough education, as I supposed, mother’s health was very bad; so I decided that it was time for me to stop fooling with school and go to work.

The next school term came around and mother’s health was no better; so as I had to stay at home, I decided to attend school. Three days after school was out, mother died. “Now as mother is gone and I have finished one grade more than is necessary, I must get out and make something to replace our loss,” was about as high a thought as ever entered my mind.

Along in the summer I went to New Mexico. There were several children where I stayed, and when they started to school, the thoughts of the dear old school days came to me, and I wished that I were in school. As soon as I could get money enough, I returned home and entered school. Although I had learned enough to begin to realize my ignorance, I was still determined to make something to replace our loss. With this in view, I went to Texas, before school was out, to take a position at $30.00 per month and board. This was more than the average man received; yet it did not take me long to realize the fact that competition is too hard for any ordinary man to earn enough by honest labor to place himself in good circumstances in twelve or fifteen years. I had come to desire a nice home surrounded by the comforts of life, and when this desire dawned upon me, I decided to finish the high school.

I returned home and entered school at the beginning of the term. After some insisting on the part of my professor, I decided to go through college. I had practically two years of high school work before me, and I had no money at all; still, the more I thought about it, the more determined I was to take a college education.

By working hard and doing without many necessities, I managed to graduate from the high school at the end of two years, with first honors. As the time of my departure for college drew near, I found that my determination increased. I borrowed a little money with which to make the start. I arrived at Fayetteville, Arkansas, September 18, 1912. As the old boys have nearly all of the work about the University, it is hard for a freshman to get work. But after school had been going on a week, I secured a position which paid me $5.00 per month. I soon made a good many friends, including the commandant. With their help I have been able to get enough work to carry me through my first year. I wish to say to those who read this, that I never could have made my way this far without these friends, and a determination. I try to make all the friends I can, but I never let a friend come between me and duty.

University of Arkansas,
Fayetteville, Arkansas.

DEFEAT DOES NOT MEAN FAILURE
ROBERT JOHNSON, JR.

Have you succeeded as yet on the way to success
Or has your life been one of despair?
Have you taken life in its daily process,
Or chosen your path with a care?

A defeat so long as it is not on the roll of the Grim Reaper is not a defeat but a victory. You cannot win without experience, and defeat is only a blazer to the goal of success.

You can afford to take the harsh treatment from the hands of the world, because it means that later on in life you will be able to undergo the same without flinching.

Set your mark and keep your eye on it. When every chance seems gone and all the world fighting, you look towards your goal—stop and think—do not rush off into the old road of “I give up.” Life is worth more to you than a complete failure—you can succeed half way and be a howling success. Keep your eye on your mark.

Failures are recorded from the mere fact that a man quits at the first mile in the race of life. From the time you start in until the end has arrived, form a determination to succeed in some way or another. Make it a persistent effort even though failures pile high on your list.

You cannot gain the determination in a day nor a year. Every day of your life beats the time as a pendulum of a clock, and every day you must try to get that determination. In the end even though you haven’t shone as a brilliant star, you have formed an idea of what it means to be determined.

A man who has not suffered defeat is the man who will utterly fail when defeat does come. Experience is teacher of belief, and in the defeats you receive you learn to love the battle of life. The realization comes that life is a little of your own making and not at all a matter of course.

Work is an excellent developer of the mind. It winds you in and out through the different roads of humanity and you come to a point of seeing the realness of life. The unreal is left standing as a skeleton, weak and frail. From your position in which you are toiling for an education you cannot fail to choose the reality. It has a determination and all views are in accordance with yours—a persistent effort to succeed.

Shurtleff College, Alton, Ill.

“START RIGHT”
WALTER A. JOHNSON

I am glad to be numbered in that group of students who are working their way through college. It has fallen to my lot for many years to make my own way in the world. Early in life I decided that the best thing I could do was to obtain a good practical education as soon as I could, and then I would be better able to make a living.

I had no means with which to go to school, as my parents died when I was quite small, leaving me none of this world’s goods; but, through a friend I heard of a school near my home in Georgia, where one could go without much money. So I applied for admission, and entered The Berry School of Rome, Ga., in 1908. It is a Christian industrial school for country boys whose means are limited. I remained there four years, working at the school during the summer to pay all expenses for the following year. I finished there in 1912.

It was while I was at The Berry School that my vision of life was broadened, and I was determined that my main object would not be simply to make a living, but to be of some service in the world, especially to those who were less fortunate than I. I decided, therefore, to go through college, if possible. It was the influence of the noble founder and teachers of Berry School which gave me a desire to go to college, and it was they who helped me financially through my first year at college.

This is my second year at Davidson College, North Carolina, and I believe I can finish the four-year course without very much more outside help. The first part of last year, I put in a good deal of my spare time in working for some of the professors, but in the spring term I spent the time in collecting Kodak films to be sent off for developing, for which I received a liberal commission. I found this work to be much more profitable than the other odd jobs I had been doing. I still have this agency, and besides, my room-mate and I represent a laundry and a shoe repairing establishment of Charlotte, N. C. The three agencies take up very little more time than one, yet, our profits are more than trebled.

For the spring term I will wait on tables at one of the boarding houses, and this will pay my board for the term. I also have the monitorship of our class, and this pays well for the time it requires. I don’t say that with all this work my studies are not somewhat neglected, but with systematic work I do not believe it will interfere very seriously with my classroom work.

Last spring when I was looking out for work for the summer, my attention was called to that of canvassing. I never thought I would like this work, but knew that there was good pay in it, so I decided to try it. I liked the work much better than I expected, and it is very profitable business. I believe that the average student who works hard could make at least $100.00 per month canvassing, and meeting with different people throughout the country and studying human nature is certainly profitable educationally. I know the experience has helped me a great deal, and I would not take a considerable sum of money for the training I received while canvassing. I am going into the same work next summer.

I don’t believe that any young man should deprive himself of a college education, simply because he thinks he cannot afford it. My advice is to start right in, and some kind of work will present itself, enabling you to work your way to graduation.

Davidson College, Davidson, N. C.

THE REAL QUESTION
H. E. JORGENSON

To-day if a young man or woman lacking financial means wishes to get an education, the question is not: Am I able to get it? It is: Am I willing to work for it? I have not completed my education, but I am working for it. With the hope that it may encourage someone who thinks working for an education is a colossal task, or that it may suggest a way, I shall tell how I have been working my way through college.

At fourteen I debated whether I should complete my high school course or not and ended with the belief that a commercial school would give me a more practical education than the high school and would put me on a salary basis when I was through. There were six of us children at home; as they would grow up the expense of keeping our family decently would soon exceed father’s income, for he was a wage earner. It would cost about $15.00 per month to go to the commercial school. This father could spare out of our month’s savings, but it would be a sacrifice; yet he was willing to do it. I decided to get a business education, but determined to pay the expenses myself. At Laurium, Mich., two miles from my home, was the Laurium Commercial School. The day after my father and I had agreed upon the course I should follow, I went to Laurium and had a talk with the principal of the school. He needed a janitor and I offered to do the sweeping, dusting, window-washing, firing and all duties incident to a janitorship in return for all expenses. He hesitated, for I was young, and small for my age. Finally he agreed, and one day after the opening of the regular fall session I was at work on my Bookkeeping.

It was hard work, especially when winter came, when I had to trudge through the deep snow, and sometimes it was dangerous, when a northwestern blizzard would come sailing over us from Lake Superior. The stoves of the school had to be fed during the months between October and April. It was necessary to carry the fuel from the basement to the third floor at convenient times and to arrive early in the morning to enliven the fires. It was hard work on the muscles, but my heart was seldom heavy, for the students were considerate and kind and they made me feel inspired rather than humiliated; in fact, I was one of them. I succeeded in covering as much work as the average student and at an average standing, and in a year and a half I had completed the combined commercial course.

Just before leaving the commercial school, I made application for a position with a commission house in our city. They took me on trial and for awhile it seemed as if they would not keep me. But I succeeded in sticking and by burning some midnight oil, and a lot of digging managed to fall in line with the work, and it was a task, for the accounting system used was a cost-finding system and made the work of the bookkeeper difficult and a matter of great responsibility. I remained in this position three years when I resigned to accept a position with a lumbering firm during one winter’s operations.

I had long come to learn that my education was inadequate and many times regretted that I left the high school. To make the best of it, I spent most of my evenings in the public library and in my room covering lost ground. As my ignorance made itself more and more manifest, I began to think out some plan by which I could get to college. The winter I worked with the lumbering firm, I was employed three evenings a week tutoring a class of men in a large coöperative department store, who wanted to make ready for promotions. This work brought me some money and experience. The money I had saved would not keep me more than a year in college, but I thought that with a little more preparation I could teach the commercial subjects in some college in return for my expenses. So I resolved to take my earnings and attend the Zanerian School of Penmanship, Columbus, Ohio, that I might be capable of teaching Penmanship as well as Stenography and Bookkeeping; but father was stricken with pneumonia and disabled for six months and I gave him the greater part of my savings to help him out, and retained only $150.00, which would pay all traveling expenses, tuition and room rent, but would leave nothing for board. Yet I went to Columbus, and a week had not passed before I had a place as waiter in one of the best restaurants in the city, where I worked 2-1/2 hours a day and got my three meals, and the work did not interfere with my classes. Numbers of students in the Ohio State University and other colleges of Columbus earned their board that way. I made many acquaintances through my connection with the church, Sunday school and Y. M. C. A., but my being a waiter in a restaurant did not seem to hurt my standing with them.

Before eight months had passed my money was spent and I began to seek a position. It would not have been difficult to get employment as a bookkeeper or stenographer, but I wanted to teach. I was not seeking long. Mr. Zaner, principal of the school, called me to his desk one morning and asked me if I wanted to go to North Carolina to teach. I replied that I would. After a short correspondence I had my contract with the Bingham School, Mebane, N. C. At this time it was necessary to borrow some money, which I did, and after making a little pleasure trip through the eastern states I arrived at Bingham School and began to teach Bookkeeping, Shorthand and Typewriting. That was last year. During the day I taught and during the evenings I studied history, literature, mathematics and science. The reading I had done came to good stead, and I found that I was not so far behind in my education after all. Before the year was half gone I came in touch with Elon College about fifteen miles away. Learning that the institution had a commercial department, I wrote to the president, offering my services as a commercial teacher for expenses in the college. My offer was finally accepted. When spring came I had paid all debts and saved some money. With it I went to Rochester, N. Y., and attended the Rochester Business Institute, securing a teacher’s diploma.

Last September I entered upon the work I am doing here. As a student I have twenty hours of college work per week and I am teaching bookkeeping and stenography. Altogether it amounts to about thirty-two hours of work per week. It gives me much to do, yet I am not sorry, for I have no chance to waste any time and there is not much tendency to fall into lazy habits. Besides my regular work I give one and one-half hours daily to gymnasium and spend every Monday evening in literary society work; in fact I enjoy as many privileges and opportunities as any other student has time to enjoy, and I believe that I would not be doing any better if someone else was paying my expenses. Now the way is open before me to get my college education. When the proper time comes it is my plan to enter the University of Michigan to study for a profession. At the present time my purse is empty, yet I am sure there will be a way; there always was a way when I was willing to pay the price, namely, a little hard work and a careful management of my time and means. Of course, there have been times of doubt and disappointment, when I have been among strangers, or when temporary pressure of work has made me feel that I could not hold out another minute; but those incidents have been eclipsed in the regular progress of better experiences and now I feel that I would not have the past to be other than it has been, and I face the future with a hopeful heart.

Elon College, N. C.

WILLINGNESS TO WORK A GREAT ASSET
ALLEN L. MOORE

After graduating from a high school in 1907, I was thrown upon my own resources. The possibility of entering college and paying my own way seemed only a faint hope. I had read of such things but, at the time, it seemed too great a handicap with which to burden myself. For three years I worked at the collection window of the First National Bank in my home town, and in September, 1910, quit my position and left for Minneapolis, determined to take at least a year or two at the University of Minnesota. I had four hundred dollars in my pocket, the result of three years’ savings. My first work was given to me by the secretary of the University Y. M. C. A., and for two years I took care of the Y. M. C. A. building and the university observatory on the campus. For this, I received twenty dollars a month, which helped considerably,—especially in view of the fact that I had joined a fraternity and my expenses were somewhat higher than the average. My first summer vacation was spent in a machine shop and I saved $150.00 from my summer’s wages. This and what I had earned while the University was in session paid my expenses the first two years. By this time I had decided to finish my course at any cost. The second and third summer vacations were spent at outdoor carpenter work which proved both remunerative and healthful. In my junior year I was given the care of the furnace at the fraternity house, in which I lived, in return for my board. I was also advertising manager of the Gopher, the junior annual, and solicited advertising on a commission basis. In the meantime, I was active in college activities and had been elected to an associate editorship of the Minnesota Daily, the student newspaper. In the spring of last year the students elected me to fill the position of managing editor, carrying with it a salary of twenty-five dollars a month. The amount has since been raised to thirty dollars a month for the nine months of the college year. At odd times I have done newspaper work for metropolitan newspapers. At the present time I am receiving, besides my regular salary, from five to eight dollars a week from Minneapolis newspapers for reporting university news. The University is also paying me $5 a month for drilling as captain in the cadet corps, making my total earnings from $50 to $60 per month at the present time. I am carrying full senior work in the University and, although it keeps me busy handling it all, I expect to graduate next June without any conditions or failures.

What has been accomplished is no more than any young man can do. I have been especially favored at all times with the best of friends, who have pushed me forward at every opportunity. A willingness to work is, I have found, the best asset.

University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, Minn.

KEEP ON TRYING
PAUL P. OMAHART

Being filled with the determination to force the future to surrender its best opportunities to me, and fully realizing that this determination must be the mainstay of my confidence in my own powers to accomplish whatever end I had in view, I set out for college one September day, the goal of my educational dreams. I had forty dollars in my pocket and possessed hopes of securing several jobs that would furnish me board, room, and a little spending money.

I spent most of my days around and about Dayton, Ohio, prior to this time and had never been in a larger city. Columbus, Ohio, the capitol of the State and the location of Ohio State University, appealed to me as being a place that must surely afford me an opportunity to earn my way through college.

Having arrived within her borders, I immediately hastened to the vicinity of the University and rented a room. I soon found a room-mate, the room costing us seven dollars. I had decided that if necessary I could sleep in a hay-mow and I would have done that very thing before I would have turned my steps homeward.

I next picked out a restaurant. The proprietress came forward and gave a smile which encouraged me to present my cause to her. It was not very many minutes before I secured a promise of a job,—to be taken on probation. This was what I wanted, as I knew I could soon impress her that I meant business.

But this only guaranteed me my board. I then sought a job up town as clerk. I had had a little experience in a shoe store at home and felt rather safe in tackling such a job in Columbus. At the second store to which I applied, I was able to make a bargain to serve as clerk nine hours every Saturday for three dollars. This made me feel that my present college problem was solved.

Before the year was up I lost my shoe store position and applied at a haberdasher store. I had little experience in this line, but felt that if I should heed instruction carefully and work diligently I could hold down the position. Owing to this fact I was never disappointed by losing work due to my inability to “make good.”

During the summer, at the close of the first year, I was able to secure a position as stenographer. I obtained my stenographic knowledge the year after I left high school, working during the day and attending a business school in the evenings. I might also state here that I was able to supplement my earnings during my first year at the University by little jobs of typewriting to be had about the campus. The money that I earned during the summer had to be partially diverted into other channels, and left me but little more to start the second year than I had the first. I was a little more familiar with surroundings, however, and knew just what avenues to take for remunerative employment. I went about it almost as I did the preceding year. I first obtained a restaurant job. Then it was not long before I heard of a stenographic position open requiring several hours of my time each evening. This was the most lucrative channel I had yet entered. It was not permanent, however, as the employer realized that for two more dollars per week he could command the services of a girl for full time each day. I then returned to the restaurant, and now claim it to be my only salvation.

If I may add a few words of advice to this experience of mine for any who are similarly determined, I would say, “Don’t give up the ship,” even though you are unable to see from whence your next dollar is coming. Make every possible avenue refuse you first. Enlist the services of your professors, make application with every employment bureau, go up one street and down the other searching for work. This I have done and have met with success. If you will do it, your college course is an assured reality. If you are a man of this caliber, your studies will not be neglected. After your graduation you will enter life, having met all its requirements for success.

Ohio State University,
Columbus, Ohio.

OPTIMISM IS AN ASSET
EDGAR B. OXLEY

I had never seriously considered going to college until, during my junior year in high school, a visiting university professor, who addressed the student body on “The Advantages of a College Education,” offered statistics to show that, while only two per cent. of the high school students of this country ever graduate from college, about seventy-five per cent. of the successful men to-day are college graduates. This came as a surprise and a revelation to me, and set me to thinking seriously about what advantages a college education really had to offer, with the result that I decided that it has many in this day and age. And so I resolved to go to college.

Then there arose the question of finances. I consulted my parents; they encouraged me in my ambition to continue my education, but told me that if I went away to school it would be on my own resources. However, I knew that there were a great many self-supporting students in the colleges of the United States. I had sufficient confidence in myself to be willing to make a trial at earning my way as others were doing.

I entered the University of Arizona in the fall of 1911. The first two or three weeks I made expenses by beating carpets, hoeing weeds, and mopping floors; then a newly made friend, the superintendent of the University dining hall, gave me a job there waiting on table. I was the only student waiter. There were, in addition, eight or nine Japs serving as waiters, with whom I managed to get along all right. From that time on I have had easy sailing. To-day, the Japs are no longer in the mess hall, but in their places are thirteen student waiters. This is indicative of the rapid growth of our college, and particularly of the number of self-supporting students who enter every year. Ninety per cent. of the men students of the University of Arizona are self-supporting; this is said to be the highest average of any college known.

There are three essentials that the young man who enters college with the intention of working his way must possess. First of all, he must have stamina. Call it what you will: “grit” or “sand” or “pluck,” it all amounts to the same thing, that he must “screw his courage to the sticking point,” and, in the face of disappointments and rebuffs, keep it screwed there.

The fellow who can best do this is the one who has the happy faculty of looking on the bright side of things. For the young man who starts out to work his way through college, an optimistic temperament and a flat pocket-book are to be preferred to a pessimistic disposition and a purse with $25 in it. The college or university man working his way should take to heart that little rhyme which says:

“It is easy enough to be pleasant
When life goes by like a song,
But the man worth while
Is the man who can smile
When everything goes dead wrong.”

A third essential is inventiveness and originality of mind. Many a fellow has worked his way because he could invent opportunities, while others sat and waited for them to come their way. The young man who goes to college ambitious to work his way ought not to become discouraged when he gets there because he finds the usual occupations taken. Let him consider that they are not the only possible ways of earning money; that there are others, dozens, yes, scores, of other ways, and that it remains for him to invent the way.

These three essentials just discussed are those that are demanded of the young man. And in return he gains from his experience—what?

For one thing, a stronger confidence in himself; a deeper, more abiding faith in his own abilities; he puts them to the test, and finds them not wanting. And if he finds any wanting, he feels stronger in realizing his weaknesses.

Another thing that he gains is a surer appreciation of the value of money. He may never have had to earn much before. But when at college he is thrown on his own resources, when he gets each dollar by hard work, he appreciates its value—and he will be slow to waste it.

Grit, an optimistic outlook, and a quickness to discern or to invent opportunities, then, are the three essentials for the young man ambitious to earn his way through school. And when he has achieved his ambition, when his college days are over, and someone asks him, “Was the experience worth all the hardships it cost you?” he can unhesitatingly answer, “Yes, many, many times over.”

University of Arizona,
Tucson, Ariz.

THE DESIRE FOR SOMETHING BETTER
FRED I. PATRICK

When a boy at the age of sixteen, I lived with my father on a very poor, rocky, stumpy farm near Joplin, Mo. My education and financial condition were very limited. I attended the country graded school until graduation. One day as I was toiling among the stumps on our little farm, it came into my mind, “What good am I doing here, and what good might I do had I the opportunity?” It was only a few weeks before I received a circular letter from the Joplin Business College, offering me the opportunity of attending this school and of making my expenses while there. I had only $25 and to me the task seemed hard and the burden heavy; but within there was a burning desire for something better, something more elevating than the companions with whom I had associated.

On the 19th day of November, 1909, I entered the Joplin Business College. I enrolled and graduated in the bookkeeping, stenographic, and penmanship departments within a period of two years. I was compelled to earn entirely my board, room, and clothing while I was attending school; and, in order to do this, I waited on tables in restaurants, mowed lawns on Saturdays during the summer, did janitor’s work at the business college, was janitor at the Presbyterian church, read gas meters for the Joplin Gas Company, and worked in a shoe store on Saturday nights.

After graduating, September 1, 1911, I was chosen as assistant secretary of the Y. M. C. A., Pittsburg, Kansas. I had been with the Y. M. C. A. only one year when I concluded that my work in that department was limited, and that I needed more education in order to be of service to my fellow-men. The boys’ secretary assisted me in getting the position as private secretary to Dr. Campbell, President of Cooper College, which I am now attending. In this way I am able to make my expenses and carry regular college work at the same time.

During the summer months I travel as field representative for the Pittsburg Business College. In this way I make enough to buy my clothing and pay incidental expenses during the winter.

Every man who makes his way for three or four years in a college of any kind realizes in a full measure the value of his time and money. He learns to have confidence in himself; he learns to be more dependent upon himself; and in many ways he learns the ways of the world.

Many times during my business college career I went without meals in order that I might have enough money to meet the other expenses of the month. My tuition was paid, only as I could make enough over my board and room to make payments on it.

My desire is to become a Y. M. C. A. secretary, and it is to this end that I am working. I hope to attain this blessing by making my own way through college.

Cooper College, Sterling, Kansas.

DETERMINATION VERSUS POVERTY
LEROY W. PORTER

At the age of twenty-one Leroy had developed the idea that he ought to do something for mankind and for the world in which he lived. One day he sat in the shade of a large tree pondering over this matter, and he thought, “I can never do my part in making the world without an education.” And he thought that every man had a part; for he had come to see through his reading that most men who had accomplished things were educated. But as he turned these things over in his mind, he remembered that somewhere he had heard of young men working their way through college, and he said, as if speaking to the ants that were ascending and descending the trunk of the tree, “If others have done that, I can.”

After he had rested, he got up, went into the house and said, “Mother, I believe I will go to college.” But his mother said, “Why, my dear boy, you have no money, and your father could not help you, for he is not well and cannot support the family. You have been so very good to stay at home after you were of age to help us and give us the money you have earned at spare times.” Leroy said, “Well, Mother, others have worked their way through, why can’t I?”

On January 22, 1908, Leroy arrived in a college town in the Middle West. After he had introduced himself to the treasurer of the College, he was questioned as to his means, and replied that he had but 58 cents left. When he was asked how he expected to go through college without money, he answered, “By work.” That was a satisfactory reply, so he was assigned to a room.

The weather was bad for some time, and work was scarce, but after a while things got better. One day a fellow student said to him, “I know where you can get work for your board and room by taking care of a cow.” He investigated and accepted the work, and held it until school was out in June. During vacation he worked on a farm and on a railroad section, and returned to school in September. Everything was all right until February eleventh, when he, along with a hundred other boys, was put in quarantine with smallpox. For eleven days he was in the hospital. When he came out his arm was so sore he could not work, and his eyes were so weak he could not study. He had to go home.

The next fall, after cutting corn and picking apples until winter, he returned to school and found work as janitor. He occupied the basement of a large building, receiving his rent for firing the furnace. He earned his board this winter washing dishes in a fraternity house. Later he decided to “batch” and lived chiefly on rice and beans.

After selling books through vacation the time came to return to school, but his father fell sick, and for days lingered between life and death. After he began to recover he went West to recuperate, leaving the support of the family on Leroy. When September came again, his money was gone. He found a position as night operator in a telephone office, and continued here until school was out.

Looking back over the past, he says, “They who trust in God and work will gain the victory,” and he assures the world that he is not sorry that he made the effort, and assures every young man who has good health and determination that he who wants an education can get it.

Liberty, Missouri.

THE REAL NEEDS OF THE WORLD
CARL E. RANKIN

At present there is much discussion as to whether a young man should earn the means for his own education or not. I shall try to give, in this paper, my reasons for working my way through college, and the methods I am using.

My reasons for obtaining the money for my education by my own efforts are threefold. In the first place, I believe that I can get more out of my college course if I have to bear my own expenses. The student who goes to college with the purpose of working his way through will strive harder to make every moment count than the student who has no such responsibility. Secondly, I believe that by working my way through college I will be better fitted for life through training in economy. Economy is something that is essential to success and happiness. We can acquire it only by long and incessant practice, and surely there is no better opportunity for practicing this important acquirement than during our college days. Last of all, I believe that I should work my way through college because in so doing I will be of more service to the world. Before a man can be of the most service to the world he must have a broad education that has trained him to reason and observe. He must be able to see the needs of the world and must have the ability to cope with them. Thus it is to be seen that if I will be better equipped for my life work by educating myself I will be able to see the real needs of the world, and surely if I am better equipped to see those needs I will be better fitted to take my place in life and cope with them.

There are three methods I am using to earn money to bear my expenses: First, by working during vacation. Last summer I worked on my uncle’s farm, and was able to save about eighty dollars. Secondly, I do some kind of work during my spare hours while I am at college. In this way I have been able to pay my board. I find the most profitable employment to be that of agency work of some kind, such as selling clothing, ties, college and class pennants, and stationery. In the third place, I borrow some money each year. I am paying interest on this money, and hope to be able to pay back the full amount within a few years after I finish my education. In addition to the money that I borrow, since I am a ministerial student, I receive some money from the presbytery each year. In this way I count on a total of about two hundred and sixty dollars a year.

Davidson College, Davidson, N. C.

THE ONE WHO SUCCEEDS IS THE ONE WHO TRIES
MARGARET HELEN SCURR

I am a freshman at Simpson College, and am working my way through. When I graduated from high school last spring, I did not think that I could be in college this fall. My mother could not afford to send me. I had no means of my own. I would be too young for two years to be entitled to a teacher’s certificate; and in the little town where I live, it is very hard for girls to find for themselves any other employment. I was sorely dissatisfied with the thought of being out of school so long; for though I dearly love to study, I knew I could not make much progress without good books and teachers, which in private study I would not have. I was fully resigned to the necessity of postponing my college course for several years. How foolish I was I soon found out.

One of my high school professors had been asking me repeatedly why I didn’t go to college. At last, in desperation, I told him I didn’t want to be asked that question any more, because I couldn’t afford to go. He calmly responded, “I don’t see how you can afford not to go to college. These are the most vigorous years of your life, and one of them spent away from your studies will make school work much harder and much less interesting to you. A year of idleness will dull your appreciation of, and keenness in, all that school can give you. If you wait until you have saved money enough to go, it is very probable that you will become discouraged, and your ideal will retreat from you. Go now! Work your way through! It will be easy!”

I wish someone would say words like those to every high school graduate. To me they were a revelation. Work my way through? Why, nobody but boys ever did that; how could I? But finally I allowed myself to be persuaded that, since others had done it, I could at least try. One thing was greatly in my favor: as honor graduate, I had been awarded free tuition at Simpson College, for one year. Immediately I set out to provide for other expenses. I made tatting by the yards, and sold it to whomsoever I could. I gave music lessons, but, since there were so many other music teachers in town, I could not make much in that way. I was very well satisfied that I was able to make enough to pay for my carfare to the college town, my term fees, and my books. A friend found a place where I can work for my board and room, so that my expenses now are practically nothing. I am in a private home, and help with the housework. My work and my classes are so arranged that I often have several hours in which I can do extra work, which is nearly always available. Thus far, I have not had to borrow. I should not advise students to borrow unless it is quite necessary. I do not like the idea of incurring upon myself the responsibility of a debt. But most colleges have a loan fund, and I should surely prefer to avail myself of that rather than to stop my school work. So here I am, making my own way, doing what I thought was impossible; and I am happy.

“But does not the work take so much time and strength that none is left for studies and for social functions?” someone will ask. Here, indeed, a little optimism is necessary; but, once get the work properly systematized, and there is no waste of time. The studies will be sure to find themselves a place, as do most of the social functions. And who cares for being a little tired? I am young and strong; I can laugh fatigue away.

I am sure that I shall appreciate my college course much more, if I get it for myself, than I should if I were dependent upon others for it. If it were given to me, and if I passively received the gift, I might fail to understand its value. Whereas, if I myself must put forth the effort for it, I shall be brought to realize how much it is worth.

Then, too, what a splendid tonic for self-respect it is to be doing things for one’s self! It makes one feel strong and independent, an individual capable of serving one’s self and others, and not a poor weak thing for everybody to stumble over or stoop to assist. I fondly cherish the idea that the independence thus gained will help me to carry on whatever profession I may choose as my life work with greater facility than I could otherwise. The ideal of any true profession is to help humanity; if my education, whether gained within the walls of the college or in the great school of life, but fits me to be helpful to my fellow creatures, it will have fulfilled its purpose.

Does anyone still ask why I want to work my way through college? In return I ask, “Why should I not?” There is no reason why any girl should not have a college education if she sincerely desires it. Money counts for little; it equips none with armor wherewith to face the battles of life. In getting an education, as in all things else, health and pluck are the only requisites. Individual effort must be exerted. The girl who succeeds is the girl who undertakes all kinds of work, in school or elsewhere, happily and heartily.

Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa.

THE HELP YOURSELF CLUB
ALBERT ELDON SELLARS

When I first conceived the idea of going to college I thought such an undertaking was entirely out of the question, for I was a boy without means. But I had a good supply of enthusiasm and so determined to try it. I decided that I would have a better chance at a small college, so I chose Hanover. Upon my arrival there in the fall of 1910, I began a series of very interesting, often embarrassing, but always amusing experiences. I had just enough money to pay my board for one week, but I used my brains more that week than I ever had before in my life. I soon found a grocer who needed help on Saturdays and he said he would give me a position that would pay $1.25 per week.

The first night I was in town I noticed that the evening mail arrived at 9 P. M. and that only a few people were at the postoffice, so the next day I called on about a dozen families and agreed to bring their mail to them each evening for ten cents a week. This turned out to be a gold mine, for after about a week I had fifteen families on my list. These things, with a few hours of rug-beating and window-washing occasionally held me up during my first year at college.

When I went back the second fall I started a shoe-shining parlor, and soon worked up such a trade that I had to get an assistant, and finally as my work in the grocery took more and more of my time, I turned the shoe-shining business over to him and spent all of my spare time in the store.

I have many times lain awake at night and thought out schemes to make self-help money for myself and others. Last year we organized a club, calling it “The Help Yourself Club,” of about twenty or more boys. I was “Chief of the Employment Department,” and when we became known we had all the work we wanted to do. Anyone wanting any kind of work done from shorthand dictation to cistern cleaning, called or telephoned to me and I sent a man to do it and saw that it was done. Our plan proved even more successful than I had thought it would, and the club is to be a permanent one.

This year we are planning to go into business on a large scale. One of our members is to start a lunch counter. The shoe-shining and repairing shop is to be resumed, and I am thinking of setting up a penny picture studio.

In closing this, let me say, “Rah! Rah! Rah!” for the boy who has worked his own way through college. He learns to depend upon himself and that is the greatest lesson one may learn at college or elsewhere.

New Castle, Ind.

THE HOW AND THE WHY
R. F. SHINN

I was born in the Arkansas River Bottom in Pope County, Arkansas, and reared on the farm. My parents had practically no education, but plenty of practical “bay horse” sense. Both father and mother were real Christians, and taught us children those principles.

I am the sixth child of twelve. Father died when I was eleven years old. At thirteen I broke away from mother’s teachings. I went to working in the coal mines and worked there and on the farm until I was twenty-two years old. I used tobacco in every form, swore, danced, drank whisky, and in fact I committed the entire catalogue of crimes.

I was converted at twenty-one, under the ministry of Wild Bill Evans. Immediately God called me to preach His gospel. I felt as distinct a call to get ready as I did to preach. At this time I did not know that Hendrix College was in the world, although it was just forty-five miles from home, nor did I know of any other college. Somehow God began to open my eyes, and old Shinn began to work with Him.

I was the oldest child at home at this time. Mother said that she could live without my help, and if I thought I could get an education by myself she was willing for me to go. I packed my little bundle of clothes in a little canvas suit-case, and walked across the country to Hendrix. This was in August. When I arrived here I saw the president, Dr. Stonewall Anderson. I “batched,” and cut wood for him three weeks. I found out that I could not enter even the Academy of Hendrix. I went back home, went to a little country school in the fifth and sixth grades, then to a little better school that winter, made a crop and worked at the mines until September, 1907. Then I came again to Hendrix and entered the first year Academy. I had no money to begin with, and I have managed for every dollar I have used. I have never asked for a job of work of any kind. I was a few days early and I did general cleaning up, from mowing the campus to washing windows. My work was of such quality that the matron chose me as one of the waiters in the dining-room. I was asked to run the dairy department the next year. I did this work four years. Last year I did the buying for the dining hall. I have the dairy department again this year. I cut meat, clean up the basement, and the campus, and keep up all odd ends that I can.

I have played baseball two years, and this is my fifth year in football. I was business manager of our College Magazine last year. I have been our representative to the Y. M. C. A. conference at Ruston, La., twice. I preach during the summer vacations.

I have worn clothes that the boys gave me every year since I have been here. I sometimes buy a reasonably good suit, coat, or trousers, from some of the boys very cheap.

I have not missed a meal nor a class on account of sickness since I have been here.

This is the “How.” And the “Why” is because there is no other way for me to get through. This way suits me. The best time of my life has been since I have been in college.

Hendrix College,
Conway, Arkansas.

MAKING USE OF EVERY OPPORTUNITY
SHEPPARD O. SMITH

It was my vague wild dream, the dream of returning to school, ever since in my sixteenth year my days at the country school ended. My father had purchased forty acres of land, every acre of which bristled with giant pines, hemlocks or spruces. To subdue and turn this into a farm without capital made my presence at home most necessary at the earliest possible time, I being the only son at home large enough to saw and roll logs.

But ever my soul welled up within me as I thought of the world’s tasks; and at times forbidden tears came as I realized my inability to add my part. For from early boyhood I had dreamed day dreams of usefulness. The words of the poet ever taunted me as I repeated them,—

“In the world’s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of life,
Be not like dumb driven cattle,
Be a hero in the strife.”

At nineteen, my younger brother having grown out of the country school and into workdom, I went to seek my fortunes in the beckoning West.

Four years of “bumping against the world” served only to increase my desire for knowledge. But the thought of entering school at twenty-three with little boys and girls embarrassed me, till happily my attention was called to St. Paul’s College at St. Paul Park, Minnesota, about forty miles from where I was then employed, where, I was told, other men of similar ages and circumstances had found suitable environment. I got into correspondence with the president of the institution, told him I wanted to go to school, but didn’t have much money. Anxiously I waited for an answer to that letter. It came. I could fire a boiler in one of the heating plants and help take care of the campus. This would pay my board and room rent. Other odd jobs, he suggested, would help out in tuition and incidentals.

School began on Tuesday; so Monday found me speeding for college, with ninety dollars to begin a college career. Never did a man approach a college with less of self-confidence than I. The cows, as I crossed the fields to the college with a number of students-to-be, seemed to look at me with hungry eyes; for why should I not suppose that even the cows around a great institution of learning were sufficiently educated to know a green freshman.

I soon acquired the combination of the heating plant, so that I could roast or freeze the dormitory inmates at will. (Some say it was mostly the latter.) However, things passed along very successfully, save an occasional dilemma announced by shrieks of terror-stricken girls in rooms where spirting radiators demanded immediate presence of the janitor. At times I was offered odd jobs by professors and neighbors, not the least in importance of which was the milking of the president’s cow night and morning, the same cow whose wistful gaze I had so loftily interpreted on that first day, an opinion which I was soon forced to surrender, for I found that she had made poor use of her opportunities to acquire culture, unless it were physical culture or athletics, for occasionally, and without warning, she chose to dismount me from the milking stool and stick her foot in the milk pail in a very uncivil manner. These employments, with an occasional opportunity to help in the college laundry, added very materially in making my first year in college.

My first vacation was spent in a partially successful attempt at selling books in Saskatchewan, Canada. The latter part of the summer was spent threshing in western Minnesota.

I returned to school about five weeks late that fall with scarcely as much money as on the previous year. The president had written to me that he would employ some boys in the kitchen and dining-room that year and offered me one of the places, a proposal which I promptly accepted. This work brought about the same pecuniary returns as the firing had, and left some time as before for odd jobs.

The second summer was spent in my home vicinity in northern Michigan after what seemed a necessary absence of nearly three years. But September soon came again. My summer’s work had not netted so much as the previous summer’s earnings, but experience and familiarity with conditions at the school added faith for another venture.

I had resolved to try rooming out and boarding myself. A room was offered me by an aged widow and her daughter who taught in the public school. In payment for the room I was to tend the furnace. The work was a pleasure, the home was an exceedingly pleasant one in every respect, and I was made welcome in all parts of the house; and, save in one respect, I was contented in my situation. This one thing was in boarding myself. Though I believe that, too, would have succeeded had I had a room-mate to share the domestic duties. My hostess in her kind, motherly thoughtfulness saw my discontentment and suggested that I add a few more of the domestic duties to mine and take one meal each day with them. This I consented to do, though I felt, and still feel, that the service rendered was insufficient to pay for what I received. I intend some time to clear my conscience by, at least partly, making up the deficiency.

During this year I found almost regular employment in the college laundry on Saturdays, which, with the other earnings mentioned, carried me through my third year.

During these three years I had made use of every opportunity to broaden my intellect and develop my small talents. The Literary Society, the Y. M. C. A., the Temperance Society and the Epworth League, aside from class work, offered splendid opportunity for practice in composition and public speaking.

Commencement had come again. Another graduating class went out from our dear old college halls to enrich the world.

Again the question of earning the funds for school faced a few of us, who were fortunate enough to have to “paddle our own canoe.”

After working a few days in the vicinity of the college, a fellow student, of similar circumstances, and I went into North Dakota, where we spent about two months working on a farm. A minister in the town near which we were employed, hearing that we were students, invited us to his home where he consulted us concerning doing some substitute work in filling a number of Sunday charges which happened to be vacant at that time. Though quite inexperienced in pulpit work, upon being urged, we consented to do our best. There was something at once humorous and long-to-be-remembered in this situation, as, on account of scant room in the farm house we were obliged to take our suite in the barn hay loft, which we heartily christened “our first parsonage.” And who will deny that the cackling of chickens, the bawling of calves, the whinnying of horses and the grunting of pigs in an adjoining building, together with the other barnyard dialects, was an inspiring atmosphere for spiritual reflection? This work, aside from the practice and added self-confidence (for, modestly, we did have a degree of success surprising to ourselves), added considerably to our funds.

School days approached again, but owing to an unprofitable move on my part, my acquired capital did not inspire me with confidence to return to school. But through the kindly interest of a friend I was offered, in loan, an amount sufficient to make it possible for me to return. Not many weeks passed before I again secured the work of firing one of the college heating plants. This year the work of firing was facilitated by an apparatus which I invented and constructed, by which the drafts were opened at any desired time in the morning by means of an alarm clock, the boilers having been coaled up before retiring. The machine worked perfectly and added an hour to my sleep in the morning, thus lightening my labor and increasing my rest.

Still the time required for all the work mentioned, together with the added responsibilities of the senior year, constituted a load not easily carried, but when accomplished, gave all the more pleasure.

My experience in largely making my own way through school is no tale of heroism. The same can be accomplished by any man with ordinary ambitions and circumstances, and an appreciation of higher education. There are just a few essentials. Let the man who hopes to work his passage in school take with him a worthy aim, a sturdy backbone, strict habits of dependability, a good set of morals, and best of all, a consecrated Christian character, for the confidence which his conduct commands will be his best, and at times his only capital.

I am sure that no one who ever accomplished his own support through college will deny that it was made possible very largely through the interest and kind thoughtfulness of some generous souls who find the worthwhileness of life in helpfulness to others. In my room beside my table hangs a card which reads,—“When on top, don’t forget the folks who run the elevator.”

I look with thankful memories, as does many another student, toward those whose carefulness has enriched my life; to the president who proved a kind and prudent school father; to the professors and school-mates whose words of courage brought me out of many a slough of despond, and not the least to those who proved true, unselfish friends in the exigency of trying circumstances.

My dear friend with worthy dreams, do not hesitate to make the plunge, out from which you will come strengthened and invigorated for life’s battles. Have you missed, in your earlier years, the educational advantages due every man and woman? Your experience has but fitted you to better appropriate knowledge. And let me add, your maturity will make it possible for you to lay a larger service upon the shrine of school and college life.

St. Paul’s College, Onaway, Mich.

EDUCATION WORTH THE PRICE
MARY E. WEST

The first several years of my school life passed pleasantly enough in the little district school at the corner of my father’s farm in Southampton County, Virginia. They are remarkable to me now not so much for the attainment which I made in the three “R’s,” as for the fact that they gave me the desire and ambition for a well-rounded education. I remember quite distinctly the first money I ever earned. I was ten, I think, and the amount paid me by an uncle for some nominal service, the nature of which I do not recall, was one dollar and sixty-five cents. My aunt asked me how I would spend it. I considered and then replied that I would save it, add to it as I got money and when the time came, go to college. She laughed, and her skepticism was justifiable, for the treasured sum was soon gone, leaving behind it, however, something of infinitely more value than the trifles purchased by its commercial value, namely; a definite hope for a college education.

When I was thirteen, my mother died, the home was broken up and I, the oldest of five children, went to the little town of Wakefield to live with my great-aunt, a widow of some means. It was her intention to educate me, giving me the advantages of college training, and at her death to leave me her small fortune. Fifteen months later while I was convalescing from appendicitis and typhoid fever in a Richmond hospital, she died after a short illness. She was delirious to the last and died intestate; therefore her property went to her nearest relatives and I returned to my father. He was and is a lumberman, owning at that time a sawmill in partnership with a younger brother. Naturally, I could not remain for a great length of time in a sawmill camp. The other children were with my father’s people. He considered for a time putting me in Corinth Academy, a Quaker school of Southampton County, but finally decided to continue me in the district school of Wakefield. I returned to this town to board and attend school. I finished the grammar school that year. During the summer the People’s Telephone Co. organized, and put the exchange in the hotel where I boarded. For the novelty of the thing, in the week preceding the beginning of the fall high school term, I learned to operate the switch-board with no idea of ever becoming its regular operator. Two weeks later the chief operator resigned to accept a position in the city, the assistant became the chief and I found myself the new assistant. It was my first year in the high school, and when the novelty of the new work was gone, and the demands of heavier school work became insistent, I found that I had taken upon myself no light task. My office hours were long, from five to ten in the evening on emergency duty, a night bell in my room from ten at night to six in the morning, active duty again to seven, and one hour at noon to relieve the other operator. The work was not heavy or hard, but extremely irritating and nerve racking, especially the emergency duty. Those first months were hard indeed, but I steadfastly refused to give it up. It had gratified me exceedingly to write my father that I could bear a part of my expenses and the idea of resigning my position never occurred to me. My salary was small, twelve dollars a month, but to me it meant independence and I was immensely proud of it.

But there was another thing working in my brain which gave me no rest. The other children were dissatisfied. We had been separated three years and I wanted to bring us together again as one family. Father could not be with us on account of the nature of his work, so a sister of my mother agreed to stay with us, and when the New Year came we were once more together in a little cottage not far from the telephone office and quite convenient to school. The active work of the home did not fall upon me, but the responsibility did. To me, father directed all instructions, made all checks, and of me required all reports. I think I am safe in saying that in the four years we endeavored to hold together barely a paper of pins was purchased without my knowledge and sanction. I planned and thought out everything about the home from the daily menu to the hanging of the garden gate, kept up my office and school work, attended Sunday School and church regularly and did my best to live before my brothers and sisters a life which should stand for truth, honor and square dealing.

The years of my high school life came and went and often I despaired of the end. The state of family finance fell low. The business venture of my father failed to make good, through no fault of his nor of anyone else that I know, but because of conditions of the market and so forth. At any rate, I know that the small amount which I earned was welcome in the family purse, and I remember very well a period of perhaps two months when we depended solely upon my efforts.

Those years were by no means easy. There were conditions of which I may not write that were trying in the extreme—days when I despaired of the future—nights when I very nearly lost hope of ever attaining any degree of the cultural training upon which I had set my heart. It is by no means an easy task to finish a full high school course with credit, even with plenty of time and no serious problems of living to face. I have never been and am not a brilliant student—I make no claim to more than average intellect in any branch of study, and in some subjects I am hopelessly dull. But I had a strong determination to win if it was humanly possible, and a very strong incentive and inspiration in the continued love and trust of those about me. To the faculty of the Wakefield High School I owe much for the encouragement they never failed to extend me when I became more than usually depressed. To Professor J. J. Lincoln and his wife, I am especially grateful. They not only gave me encouragement and inspiration in many difficult places, but kept alive in me the desire for education.

I finished at length the high school work, having earned in the four years about five hundred dollars and taken five prizes offered in the school for excellency of work, two of these being medals, and the other three, money prizes. Until the last year of the high school work I had entertained no hope of college. The desire and ambition were quite as strong in me as ever. The thought of the end to which I had devoted my childish earnings for a time, never left me. But it looked quite impossible and I resolutely faced the certainty of teaching once I had attained my high school certificate, and to this end I prepared myself. That last year, however, things looked brighter. Father’s business prospects brightened and I began to wonder if after all a college course was not possible. The idea of attempting it at my father’s expense at a time when he was beginning to straighten up past deficits and bearing at the same time a heavy running expense, I did not like. I conceived the idea of taking a course in stenography during the summer and by means of it, paying a part of my way through college. We broke up the home and a week following my graduation were in Salisbury, Maryland, boarding with relatives, and my sister and I attending the business school. I saw directly that the time was too short to gain any satisfactory degree of efficiency as a stenographer, but my ships were burned behind me and there was nothing to do but work as best I could until the fall opening of Elon College, North Carolina, which school I had determined to attend.

We intended to make another home in the college town to which we were going and with this intention arrived there a week before the date of opening. I was tired. I still did not lack the desire, but the strong purpose which had before held me up could not longer spur me to the effort necessary to undertake the task before me. I realized that it was utterly impossible to manage a home and attend school. A way out of the dilemma was suggested by the President of the College. We became members of the Young Ladies’ Club, an institution conducted on the coöperative plan. My sisters and I became college students and my brother and two little sisters entered the graded school of the town.

It is nearing the close of my freshman year in college. With the exception of my tuition for which I had a scholarship from Professor Lincoln, I have been dependent upon my father for this year’s financial requirements. To continue my course in college at his expense is from my point of view, quite impossible, willing and ready though I know him to be. His expenses, past and present, are heavy, his business status though steadier and daily growing better is still unassured, the other children are to be considered; so I have definitely decided either to teach the coming year or return to college, paying my own expenses. How I may be able to accomplish the latter, I do not know just now, though I have a plan which if it materializes will assure me the coming three years in college.

Of one thing I am assured; a college education is a desirable thing and worth the price to be paid for it. It is not quite as easy for a girl to pay her way through as it is for a young man, her opportunities are fewer and as a rule not so good, but even at that I have a feeling that if she desires it strongly enough and puts herself in a position to be worthy of an opportunity it will come quite as surely as to him and she will make a stronger, finer woman for having faced serious problems and grave difficulties and won out over them.

Elon College, N. C.

WORK NO CLASS BARRIER
LUCILE WRIGHT

Upon finishing my preparatory course at the University of Wyoming I desired to enter the University proper, and in order to do so, determined to earn money by teaching. For seven months I taught a country school about two miles from my home on the ranch.

Although it was rather discouraging to enter college a year behind my class, I did so, and during most of my freshman year kept house with my sister in two rooms rented from a private family. It kept us very busy getting our studies and keeping house, besides working in the musical clubs, basketball and Young Woman’s Christian Association.

The next year my sister and I lived at the girls’ dormitory. I earned most of my way by helping clean the girls’ rooms. Sometimes I made extra money by addressing bulletins, or fixing seals on diplomas, etc., in the secretary’s office.

Last year I helped in the dining-room at the dormitory, thus earning my board and room. Since I am specializing in household economics, I was given the position of teaching sewing in one of the classes in the Training School of the Normal School of the University. With this aid I was able to pay all of my expenses.

This year my mother is in town sending my two small sisters to school by boarding several of the university students. I assist her with this work and also have my sewing class in the Training School again.

My sister and I agree that at the University of Wyoming no distinction is made against a person who is earning his or her way. On the contrary, he is encouraged and respected in this work. And why not? A proof of the statement which I have just made is in the fact that I am a member of Pi Beta Phi, of the Y. W. C. A. Cabinet, the Girls’ Glee and Mandolin Clubs, and I take part in various other university activities.

When I graduate in June I expect to secure a position as instructor of home economics in a high school. This position pays a good salary, and is interesting work, and I am sure that I shall never regret the time which I have spent in attending college nor in doing work to make my college education possible.

University of Wyoming,
Laramie, Wyo.