College Men Without Money

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,—

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.

PART III

HOW TO WORK ONE’S WAY THROUGH COLLEGE

How to work one’s way through college is a minor question compared with the question of character, ideals, purpose, faith and all that makes a man faithful to his nobler impulses. The chief asset for the attainment of a college education is a passion for knowledge, knowledge of the truth which sets a man free from all forms of error and false ideals. Our life is a constant struggle against our limitations. And the first asset of a cultured mind and heart is, that the soul shall be sensitive to the finer things in life, shall “see visions and dream dreams” until the soul in its thirst for the great things of earth and heaven shall break beyond the stars and catch a vision of the Soul of all truth. A young man with such a fire burning on the altars of his heart, with the sweet incense of his morning and evening prayers ascending as an expression of the God-ward aspiration of his soul is on the sure road to true culture and a genuine appreciation of life and all its issues.

How is a boy ever to come into the possession of this soul hunger, this restless discontent with himself and things as they are? There are some souls at whose shoulders wings seem to play, lifting them to great heights where they can hear things “unlawful for them to utter.” But there are others to whom the incentive upward must be imparted; in some way their ears must be attuned to the finer voices; the moral soul must be brought into a conscious realization of its own powers and the possibility of coming into the sun-burst of God’s presence, and thus make a man forever discontent with himself. Where is the average boy to get this blessing, this first incentive to culture and nobility of life? If the atmosphere of the home is not such as to give it, either he must get it around the altars of the church, or from the personal touch of some friend, or preparatory teacher. So many people live under a low sky, “in the dull stagnation of a soul content” that the contagion is as heavy as the frost of winter upon the young and sensitive spirit. Once a young fellow has caught the vision, once he has heard the higher voices calling him upward, he will follow the beck of the spirit through college halls and on to high endeavor and noble living.

As I said, at the outset the question of HOW to work one’s way through college is a minor question. It depends on what you can do. If you are ambitious, begin to prepare yourself for college, also for working your way by learning to do something that everybody else cannot do. Remember that the world needs men with big hearts, clear minds and skilled hands. You can be all this. Why not resolve to-day and go forward, following the guiding star of a Christly ambition in the spirit of Browning,—