CHAPTER XIII
Kindergarten Pupil at Twenty-five:
College Professor at Fifty
Fifty years ago Aaron Drucker was born in a small Russian village far inland. His parents were so poor that they were often on the verge of starvation, and when Aaron, at the age of ten, started out from home to make his own way in the world there were apparently no objections from his people. The little lad wandered from one place to another, often finding it extremely difficult to supply his few wants. At the end of two years he returned to his home.
One of the few exciting experiences which came his way was the sight of a soldier in a smart uniform. To Aaron Drucker, without education and often without the necessary things of life, it seemed that to be a soldier must be a very fine thing. Then one day some man—no doubt some one who had friends in the United States—told him that America was a wonderful place; a land of great opportunities. “Can a common man get on there?” Aaron asked. “Why, a common man can soon become a general in America,” said his informer; “wild Indians are being put down, and young men are needed. No education is required.”
From that day the greatest ambition of Aaron Drucker was to get to America; how, he did not know; but get there he must. He was at that time just twelve years of age but he started out to walk to America. He wandered here and there; doing odd jobs, and living on as little as he could. After much hardship he arrived at Odessa. From there he sailed to Constantinople only to be discovered by government officials, deported to Odessa, and then ordered to return home.
This would have been enough to discourage most boys, but not Aaron Drucker. Some one told him that he could best reach America by going through Germany and he promptly started to tramp in that direction. After some weeks of exciting and very often discouraging experiences he arrived at Memel in Germany with very little money in his pocket and with hardly the faintest idea of where he was and in what direction America lay. He obtained employment at a hostelry that catered to Russian emigrants. One day he assisted a woman to the steamship office. She needed small coin and giving him a thousand-ruble note asked him to change it for her. He was gone longer than the woman expected and she became excited and called the police, but there was no need of their help, for Aaron Drucker just then appeared. He had become hungry and had stopped to eat. The officials of the steamship company were surprised and pleased at his honesty and offered him a position which he eagerly accepted.
He was now earning a regular salary for the first time in his life and he began to save his money. He was as determined as ever to get to America, and help to put down the wild Indians about whom he had heard, and no doubt he still had visions of himself parading about in a general’s uniform. At last he saved enough to cross the Atlantic and he arrived in New York harbour one Saturday morning in October, 1891. The first thing he did on Monday morning was to seek out a recruiting office and try to join the army. There he met with a bitter disappointment. He was told that a knowledge of the English language was necessary for military service, and so his hopes were shattered. He knew only a few words of English and could not carry on a conversation. A severe illness followed and all his savings vanished. He found himself alone, in a strange land, without friends and without even a knowledge of the language. His plight at that time was a serious one. He searched everywhere for employment but without success. Often he walked the streets of New York, penniless, hungry and discouraged. At one place where he tried to get work he was told that he looked too seedy and unkempt. The man led him to a mirror and he had to admit that he was a sorry-looking specimen. His clothes were torn and dusty and he looked as though he hadn’t had a good wash for months. He was given soap, a towel and a brush, and soon he looked like another person. That same night he got a job.
He worked as a shirt-packer in a sweatshop. The hours were long and conditions far from pleasant, but Aaron worked with all his might and found that he could earn eighty cents a day. It seemed a good deal to him at that time and he was just beginning to congratulate himself when a strike was called and he went out with the others. Soon after he secured employment in a shirt factory. In that factory was a young man named Steve who had organised a workers’ education movement. One day this man asked Aaron Drucker to join the class studying English. Perhaps it was because he felt ashamed of his ignorance, but he hesitated and did not seem eager to attend. “Can you read or write English?” asked Steve. Aaron admitted that he could not do either. “Have you a mother?” persisted Steve. Upon being told that she lived in Russia, he said: “If you could read and write you could hear from her. Then you would know what is going on in the village where you were born, and you could let your mother know where you are and how you are getting along.” That decided Aaron. He admitted that he had not heard from his mother for five years and that day he began to attend the noon class.
He was twenty-five years of age and did not know the alphabet. He began then as a kindergarten scholar. Soon after he attended the evening classes and made remarkable progress. He attended the classes for four years and then Steve entered his name for entrance examinations in the College of the City of New York. To his own amazement Aaron Drucker passed the examinations, but soon after the Spanish-American War broke out and his boyhood dream of being a soldier revived and once again he offered America his services and this time he was not refused.
Upon his discharge from the Army he entered Columbia University and was graduated in 1901. Shortly afterwards he received a summons to return to Russia because of a crisis in his home. While he was there he was seized for military service. His experience in the Spanish-American War made his services valuable but the Russian officers resented his education and independent manner. All manner of insults were heaped upon him. Finally it became unbearable and one day he took his own part and struck back at an officer. He was tried and sentenced to Siberia for life but when the American Ambassador, who also was a graduate of Columbia University, learned of the circumstances he intervened, and made it possible for Drucker to return to America.
As soon as he returned to America he went to Chicago and took post-graduate work at the university. He spent one year in social service work in Denver, Colorado, and later took further studies at Columbia University. Then came his appointment as a teacher in the Commercial Department of Colorado College. Soon after he was appointed to the important position of Dean of this Department, which he has held ever since.
Although a busy man, with heavy responsibilities, Professor Drucker has for several years devoted nearly all his spare time to helping men, who, like himself, are immigrants in America. He has never forgotten the days when, sick and friendless, and with no knowledge of the English language, he walked the streets of New York looking for a job. Many a new-comer to America has had reason to be thankful that he ever met Professor Drucker.
A group of working men in Colorado Springs decided to form a night school. They believed that there could be a class of one hundred if they could only secure some educator who would lead them. When they asked where such a man could be found all agreed that the one man most desired and best fitted, was Doctor Aaron Drucker. He was asked and responded readily, and with the help of some of his colleagues at Colorado College the evening classes began with the result that, in less than one year, over two hundred and fifty students were in attendance. Dr. Drucker has given of his time and strength to this work most unselfishly because he remembers with gratitude the men who gave him assistance when he stood so badly in need of it.
Aaron Drucker, now Professor Drucker, with important degrees from both Columbia and Chicago universities, has become a highly-respected and most valuable citizen of America. Because of his keen interest and practical knowledge of the much-discussed subject of immigration his views have considerable weight. He is anxious that the great host of immigrants to America should receive a friendly welcome and should receive such information as will make it possible for them to get a good start in the land of their adoption. The college professor of fifty has not forgotten that at twenty-five he was a pupil in the kindergarten.