The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1882-1884, 1883-06-14


er or later must be compelled to sell,
or abandon their farms under the
preset ruinous fence system
Patriot. r.: . u... d. :
HOW THEY PAID THEIR WAY THROUGH
COLLEGE. -. ... 49,.
SHIFTS and Experiences Of College Life.
The United States has very aptly
beer termed the Land of Self Made
Men. Large numbers of its most
famous and successful men have
been born, if not in poverty. in at
least but very humble circumstances,
and have rlsen to eminence mainly
by their own unaided exertions.
1t is said that in some of our col
leges from one-fourth to one-half of
the young men who have been gradu-
ated, have paid their expenses with
money they have earned by their
own labor.
At the college where the writer
was student, twenty-six of the one
hundred and eight students who
were then obtaining an education
there, depended upon their own earn
ings fo- obtaining every dollar that
their education cost them. ~ ,
Various were the expedients to
which these aspirants for academic
donors and liberal education were
sometimes reduced; yet l doubt
whether. on the whole, the favored
of wealth enjoyed college life more
than did these young men.
remember one in particular whose
means Of earning money were ex.
ceedirgly meagre, and who used to
aboard himself" in his room. During
Tone fall term of fourteen weeks, he
felt that he could spare for the whole
term but seventeen dollars for food,
a sum which certainly did not admit
Of many Injuries.
SqIashes were very plentiful and
cheap that season, and he came to
the conclusiun that there was a great
deal of nutrition in a mealy "Hub.
bard' squash. : His stove had a little
oven in the top of it, in which he
baked half a squash at time.
! A spoon, with salt and pepper and
now and then ball of butter. which
his mother sent him, completed his
culinary and dining outfit, for he
too k his squash in the shell and fol
lowed it with hearty Graught. o.
water at the. pump He certainly
seemed to- thrive upon this diet, ant
it took good man to play better
first base" than did this sturdy
going vegetarian.
Some of the young fellows Otter
. joked him about his SOU ash dinners
but he swas9always read with
quick, Cheerful retort. He maze NJ
secret of his poverty. and was no
; ashamed.ofit. He knew very well j
/ was not his fault that he was pons
: And they might have known il, toe
, had they given the mattersone seri
Gus thought. r.
, This young man actually 60
, through that term fat the rate of
, dollar a week for food, which lei
u him three dollars of the seventeen h
had set apart for that purpose an
e with the three remaining dollars h
: bought a Smiths Classical Dictior
airy. 1 hardly need add that h
e achieved success in life. He is no
n a prosperous publisher. As' ffs u
III Several of the twenty six yo1n
r. men above named were SO fortuna at
a as to have friends who advance
9: them money, at six per cent. interes
& which was to be repaid after they hs
IS graduated and had time to earn j
,e 70 secure the debt, in the event
i their death, they insured their liz,
for fifteen .hundred dollars each, pa
i. ing the annual premiums on the 20
a.icy, but allowing the interest on Il
III money borrowed to accrue.
$. Such method permits the st,
i'd dent to give his whole time to b
~ stutiess while in college. but real
ed does not tend to develop the sci
ed reliance thatscomes from being ind
$, pendent Of favors from friends, !; !
bel Another student, who was vas a { elias