Modern Americans / A Biographical School Reader for the Upper Grades

by Chester Milton Sanford; Grace Arlington Owen

A thrilling event in the life of the lad was the day when Augusta had its first street cars. The bob-tail cars, with their red, purple, and green lights, and drawn by mules, afforded all sorts of fun for the boys. To make scissors by laying two pins crosswise on the rail for the cars to pass over was one of their most pleasant pastimes.

In those days there were no free public schools with their beautiful buildings for Woodrow to attend, so he was sent to a private school that was held in rooms over the post office. With Professor Derry, who was in charge of the school, spanking was the favorite form of punishment. While Woodrow and his chums differed very decidedly with the Professor’s views regarding spanking, the boys were never able to convince him that their views were right. Finally, the lads discovered that pads made from the cotton that grew in the fields on every side of the city served them well whenever the evil day of punishment arrived. After they had made this discovery they were more reconciled to the Professor’s views.

The best chum Woodrow had was his father. Busy as he was with the cares of his large church, he never was so occupied that he could not find time to chum with his boy. For hours at a time he would read to his son the worth-while things that Woodrow enjoyed hearing. Then, too, the busy pastor was in the habit of taking a day off each week to stroll with Woodrow in field, factory, or wood as the case might be. On these long strolls the father and son talked over many of the problems that 208 were of interest to the lad. Little wonder, then, with such comradeship, that Woodrow rapidly developed along right lines.

Like all boys, he was fond of building air castles. Dwelling much in the realm of fancy, he imagined that he occupied all sorts of positions and did remarkable things.

Mr. William Hale in his excellent story of the life of Wilson describes one of these flights of the imagination as follows: “Thus for months he was an Admiral of the Navy, and in that character wrote out daily reports to the Navy Department.

“His main achievement in this capacity was the discovery and destruction of a nest of pirates in the Southern Pacific Ocean. It appears that the government, along with all the people of the country, had been terrified by the mysterious disappearance of ships setting sail from or expected at our western ports. Vessels would set out with their precious freight never to be heard from again, swallowed up in the bosom of an ocean on which no known war raged, no known storm swept.

“Admiral Wilson was ordered to investigate with his fleet; after an eventful cruise they overtook, one night, a piratical looking craft with black hull and rakish rig. Again and again the chase eluded the Admiral. Finally, the pursuit led the fleet to the neighborhood of an island uncharted and hitherto unknown. Circumnavigation seemed to prove it bare and uninhabited, with no visible 209 harbor. There was, however, a narrow inlet that seemed to end at an abrupt wall of rock a few fathoms inland. Something, however, finally led the Admiral to send a boat into this inlet––and it was discovered that it was the cunningly contrived entrance to a spacious bay; the island really being a sort of atoll. Here lay the ships of the outlawed enemy and the dismantled hulls of many of the ships they had captured. And it may be believed that the brave American tars, under the leadership of the courageous Admiral, played a truly heroic part in the destruction of the pirates and the succor of such of their victims as survived.”

Thus he dreamed dreams, studied, and chummed with his father until the eventful day arrived when he must go away to college. But where should he go? What college should he attend? A small Presbyterian college in the South was chosen. Before the end of the first year he was taken sick and had to leave college. Then it was that he decided to go to Princeton University, a decision that had much to do with his future career. Life in Princeton proved to be just the stimulus that he needed. Here, surrounded by the keenest, most alert young men of the country, he developed rapidly. Interested in every school activity, from baseball to debating, he won for himself a prominent place in the student body. So great was his thirst for knowledge, however, that his graduation from Princeton did not satisfy him. Accordingly, he next went to the University of Virginia where 210 he was graduated from the law school in 1881. But even this did not satisfy, so he spent two years in Johns Hopkins University, receiving in 1885 the degree of Ph.D., the highest degree that any university can give.

Thus equipped, he became a professor first in Bryn Mawr College, then in Wesleyan University, and finally in Princeton. So pronounced was his success as professor in his beloved university that in 1902 he was made President of Princeton. So able was his leadership in Princeton that the state of New Jersey called him to be its governor. Could a University President make a good governor? The politicians were very much in doubt. It is needless to say that all watched him with deepest concern. Soon, however, it became apparent even to the most skeptical that he was destined to be New Jersey’s ablest governor. Gradually, because of his strength, his popularity grew until the eyes of all the nation were fastened upon him. From the governor’s chair he rose to the highest honor the Nation could bestow, he was elected to the Presidency of the United States.

Little did he realize when he accepted this honor that with it would come the heaviest burdens that any president save Abraham Lincoln had been called upon to bear. For eight long years he patiently bore those burdens and heroically faced every responsibility. Great as were the demands made upon him, he always proved himself equal to the emergency.