Daily Yellowstone journal., 1888-01-22
THE PRESIDENT OF MEXICO.
Hew He Gained His Education-A Lucky
Chance Success.

Hsw He Gained His Educational Lucky
Chance Success.
President Diaz is an ardent friend Of
educational progress, and an intelligent
oo-laborer with all men working here to
better current educational methods. He
gained his own education most labori-
ously, and his career from boyhood to
early manhood wa one long struggle for
knowledge. The son of honorable but
poor people in Olxaca, he went to the
elementary schools, and, like Cleveland,
elerked it for awhile in a grocery, or
rather a general country store. This he
did to help his excellent mother, who
seems to have been made of that superior
sort Of stuff that we always find in the
mothers of great men. Curiously enough
young Diaz was intended for the church,
there being a hereditary c~haplaincy in
his family, which was reserved for him.
An uncle, the protector of the family,
urged his taking a theological course,
and he accordingly was entered at the
famous seminary of Oaxaca, where he
ground away at the dry bones Of doc
trine for a number of years, all tie while
feeling an inclination toward the law,
which was frowned on by his uncle.
1t was young Diaz's idea to help his
mother by taking the shortest cut toward
m independent position such as the
church would give him, but the struggle
within him was a sharp n between in
~clination and the duty he felt toward a
mother for whom he had the warmest
love and reverence. He took private
pupils TO exc out his maintenance in the
seminary. and was early marked by older
men about him s q lad Of singular firm
ness of character. Finally, by a lucky
chance, the way opened for him 10 enter
the civil institute or college of Oaxaca,
where he could study law. His uncle
disowned him when he made up his mind
TO enter q new profession, but his excel
lent mother said to him: II will not try
to bias YOU; do as seems best" To help
his moth n he took more private pupils,
and thus, by teaching and studying hard
and at unreasonable hours, be gained his
education, entering afterward the law
Office Of Juarez, who was Subsequently
president Of the republic. In later years
he took up the military profession, in
which, as every one knows, he made a
brilliant success, and handled consider
able armies, having at one period over
90, 900 men under him.
/ cite the case Of President Diaz as IL
Illustrative Of that hunger for learning
and that determination in securing an
education 50 frequent among ambitious
Mexican young men People who assert
that Gen. Diaz is an uneducated. rough
man either purposely lie, or are totally
Ignorant Of his career. Like many
another man Of eminence. lie may be said
TO be the son of bis own works. or the
leading men of this republic, at the pres
emit day, ! know few who were not poor
lads at the outset, gaining an education
by hard work. One eminent lawyer be-
gan peddling vegetables to earn his
schoolbooks, and cared for his mother
while studying nj school. This flial af-
lection is universal among Mexicans. The
father and the mother are not neglected.
Family ties are strong, and in many
families there IL q fine spirit Of mutual
helpfulness City of Mexico Cor. Boston
Herald.