Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-22
Successful Men Offer Some Sugges-
ti0nS and Advice to the COL
lege Graduate of To-Day.
ALL MUST BEGIN AT THE BOTTOM.
Millionaire Huntington Says They Can
Soon Become Cresuses by Buying
Up African Rubber.
GOV. CAMPBELL THINKS WORK is GOOD.
Views Of Ben Butler, Richard vau1 Editsr Taylor
John wanamaker and Others.

DuL OuCc yCdAs OhS 10 AO"g &C
in Junes past, nearing her dock, her decks
crowded with the youth of the land, and will
in few days discharge her passengers for
1890 upon the shores of the city of active
life.
Each bears his diploma, certificate of
intellectual health. The passengers are all
ambitious to win q conspicuous, or, at least,
lucrative, place in the, to most of them,
unknown land of business and professional
competition. Their lives, thus far, have
been spent in great part in and about this
big school ship, steered by the rudder of
parental direction and means, with little to
think about except the studies of to-day or
the examination of tomorrow. Some few,
of course, have had hard row, unassisted,
to reach the ship in the first place, but they
are a meager minority. Probably one-third
of the youthful passengers will have friends
at the wharf to meet them, who, taking them
in the carriage of plenty, will drive directly
to the point where the life opportunity made
bv fatner, brother or other relative awaits
them. The great majority, however. will
land with no helpful hand to greet them.
ADVICE FROM SUCCESSFUL MEN.
The DISPATCH, wishing to be helpful to
them, has as it were invited TO the dock to
meet the graduates, men OF conspicuous eI-
perience and recognized success in nearly
all lines of desirable endeavor, many of
them who landed, few years ago, just as
these young men will now, to make single
handed struggle Surely their ideas and
observations must be of value. The letter
which has brought these generous responses
was as follows:
DEAR SrR-Tn nrenarinc an article of fnter
est and of benefit TO the multitude of young
men who will graduate from college month
hence, we earnestly ask an answer from you to
the following question: What should college
graduate Of to-day do?
Our idea is to create a symposium of views
from the most advanced thinkers and most
successful men of affairs, whose suggestions,
based upon practical knowledge of the
worlds ways and opportunities, must have
great value to young men about TO enter life
OF which they are anxious to make the most
The answers that have come are full of
suggestions not only to college students, but
to every young man who desires to make his
future better, happier and more successful
thah his past. Every man who writes here
is leader in his column of the human
army. Many of them have business inter-
ests that compass the world. Here are the
responses to the letter above given:
MEDICINE Oh CIVIL ENGINEERING.
"The law and ministry used to open the
largest professional field for graduates of
colleges. The Law is now overstocked, al
though there is plenty of room at the top.
The religious inclinations of the graduate
must determine as to the ministry. Assum-
ing that the graduate has a taste for the
physical sciences, good address and good
patience, let him enter the medical probes
sion. But if he has at all turn for mathe-
MATES let him study civil engineering, in
cluding hydraulic and mining engineering,
as a profession. That is the great field now
open to young men. 1t requires hard work,
but everything else that is going to be sue
cessful requires hard work. If had son
who had just graduated from college and
had at all a mathematical mind, 1 should
put him into that profession as the best
hope for his future.
BENJAMIN F. BUTLER"
"You ask, What should a college gradu-
ate of to-day do?' The reply which suggests
itself can be thus formulated. Have faith
in God. Use your brains. Learn to think
knowledge is to be acquired as life work
There is no terminal period to learning.
Take no theory for granted. Investigation
and energy are the tools to build up truth.
Expert scientists so called, either elude or
delude. A training that qualities for this
work is the best instruction of the college
graduate for this life.
RICHARD vAUx."
AWAY WITH KID GLOVES AND CANES.
"What young man should do when he is
graduated from a college is question that is
very hard to answer. 1t depends upon the
young man himself, his ambition, his capac-
ity in any given line of work or thought,
whether he is DOOR or rich, lazy or industri-
Gus. The first step should be to find ont
what his steps are and what his particular
ability is. Having sscertained his fitness
for anv kind Of business or a profession he
should take the first opening that he can find
that is directly or indirectly in sympathy
with the special avocation for which he
thinks he is ft
His kid gloves and cane must be dis
carded and he must not care how hard he
works or how many hours he is employed.
de must be active, intelligent, self-reliant
and put through whatever he attempts at
any cost. One cannot give a recipe for sue
cess IN lite as a physician can prescribe for
the cure OF disease. Artemus Wards ad-
vice to man as to what he had better do in
case OF an emergency is really as good a
recipe as L have ever seen. 1t was to rise
up and cave In the emergency's head Life
Is series OF little and big emergencies, and
man who succeeds is a man who caves in
the head OF each one as it comes across his
path. CHARLES II. TAYLOR"
"What should college graduate of to-
day do? 1t depends entirely upon the na-
ture OF his preparation, his native talents.
tastes, his health and habits. The advice
that 1 would give to one person would not
at all suit another. / should have TO be |
governed by circumstances, taking each case |
by itself. JOHN WANAMAKER."
SUPPLEMENTAL TRAINING NECESSARY.
1.-THE first thing for a college graduate to
learn is that only a small percentage of his |
college education is capital available for i'm
mediate use; that bv far the larger part can
be used only when he has climbed far
higher, and that it may prove at last to be
merely the gliding OF a career achieved
through other agencies. A college educa- |
ton In itself affords no guide by which
young man may shape his course in life. |
mat is almost invariably determined by |
natural proclIvities, by pressure of circum- |
stances or by accidental opportunities. The |
learning that man possesses is valuable in |
proportion as 1t strengthens his natural 2pti- |
tuoes, fashions him to his environments or |
hts hlm Tor exceptional conditions in pro- |
iesslonal or business pursuits
There is no one pursuit that more than |
another affords opportunities to the college
graduate The law offers him no greater
reward than it offers to the self.taught man.
except that 1t be by reason Of greater facility
OF verbal expression, and this like the /
faculty OF ornate and forid eloeuepce. has
lost its impressiveness and col.eoneptIv its
value, at the bar, and almost c everywhere els.
except in the pulpit; and of the cultivsted
habit of concentrated and disciplined stten-
finn which will never lose its .,.;1;.-. |