The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-08-28
CHEAP LIVING AND LEARNING.
hou." OF Small Means Who Went
Through Seminary aud College.
New York Sun.

Living and learning were very ohean
al some oi the Masssc husetts educational
wust,tutlons I'm old times, said New
.ss VINO spoke from experience;
az All Oh them. About forty wears ago
! was student at Williston Seminary'
whlch was then an important prepara
tory school for college and our seminary
Duluihgs were crowded with American
youtns preparing 10 enter Yale, or
AhneIst, or Williams. The students at
our seminary were mostly the sons of far.
lneIs, or ot business people, or OF profes-
hional men, or OF mechanics and oil ~
US lived as plainly as Erasmus SAID that
oudding scholars ought TO live. and an
pii1o ourselves 10 our studies as closely
~ Lrasmas ever applied himself to his.
~ was before the mania for sports had
taken possession OF students, and. so far
as remember, IL was only on Saturday
afternoon that we had some fun an the
GROUNDS or upon the slopes OF Mount
Tom, near which the seminary is situated.
or upon the water. The students worked
as nara and Jared as cheaply as the man
and women employed I'm The biz factory
OF the place, and j know that | pored
over my books Of Greek Latin. and ma
tnen,atlcs for hours OF the night after
tps factory people were asleep.
Our seminary fees were not more than
w term, and the payment was not re-
- hAN NaoN VI a. HluQtnt VINO con-
iessed inability TO meet them. while pres.
luent Clark was especially gracious 10
such student, of whose iniperuniositv no
one else was ever made aware The rent
OF my room In the seminary was. IL re-
member correctly, III a month; and every
Iooiii was good enough for ITS purpose.
AS Tor the price OF table board I'm the
houses In which students boaraed. n
ranged from a.. 20 week up TO perhaps
twice that amount, for all 4 know I
paid III. 70 week for victuals thrice a
DAY A lot Of US formed ourselves into
club, one of the memb bers OF which
s ment OUT INTO the town and negotiated
VI ,VI rates OF payment with some house.
keeper OF economical mind who could ac-
eoniIhodate perhaps twenty or thirty OF
us al long table in her house There
nere olner clubs at which the prices
were higher than at ours; but we were
Ine opartans, and did not care for that.
hy Q, the students boarded at the
houses OF factory workers, whose wives
prepared the meals. As for the dearer
piaees, 1 doubt II there was any of them
at Wnich The charge was over 10 a week.
At our cluD we had enough OF that nour-
snlng provender which is the very best
lhlng Tor young students who mean to
apply their whole mind TO their studies
without distinction. We had good mush.
with maple molasses; we had corn bread
anu mix; we had fish; we had hash,
ana other things. Every day of the
week we had change; ana Sunday was
the best day OF the week. There was not
scrap OF waste at our table In our club.
which was for those of the students who
nao no coin TO waste. 1 remember how
proud We We're of our scholastic poverty.
am sure that the cost for me OF liv-
ing and learning at Williston Seminary
In Massachusetts,, forty years ago. was
Tess than slOO year, and / earned that
sum Dy my work during vacation. 1t
was lar easier then than II Is now for
young man OF narrow means TO get a
classical education. The training at the
;. seminary was OF the very best kind and
ntted student for any, college. | went
there TO prepare TO enter Amherst College.
al which had friend in the person OF
the genial sage, Professor W. S. Tyler,
aiterward president Of the college.
AS IL was necessary for me TO count
my dollars after left the seminary. / Wis
ited both Yale and Amherst for the pur-
pose Oh fnding out the cost of living and
learning at each OF these collegiate insti-
tutlons. The cost at Yale was less than
nan as much as II is now but that at
Amherst was yet less. i found ] could
get as good board for s2 week when
there as bad got for 81. % a week when
at the seminary; and i found that the
tuition fees were within nv narrow
means. Everything there then was for the
sons oil ordinary folk, and | was told by
PROFESSOR Tyler that plenty OF the stu
uents earned during the months of vaca-
lion part, II not all, the money which !
they needed for college expenses. Forty |
years ago Amherst was a good place for |
IN aspiring youth not overburdened with |
nlthy lucre who wanted TO get classical |
education; and II had faculty the mem- |
oers OF which encouraged student of |
hat kind. One of the very best of the
professors there then was DIR. Edward /
hitchcock, the distinguished American
yeologist
when | began to get my education at |
ne seminary, there were among my fell
ow students not few young men who
'ince then have won fame or fortune. / |
Nould IKE TO give you the names of sew.
'ral OF them who are now among the fore
most citizens OF New York; but It is pos
'lDie that they would not care TO be re-
minded OF the days OF mush.
thlnk IL Is TO be regretted that che |
'heap old times at our American educa-
lonal institutions have departed and
hat the chances for the poor young as
)irants are not as good as they used to
De. The amount IL would cost one OF my
ons to go through seminary and college
n these days would be at least twice or
hrice the amount ii cost me- When 1 |
old my Oldest boy about my expendi-
ures as a student, nd how / earned
hen, ana how studied day and night,
he smiled.
II read in Macmilan,s Magazine while
go an account of the meagre living OF
many OF the students OF the old Scotch
universities forty or fifty years ago, when
he writer OF the article was freshman
Il one OF them. lie told of farmers boys
rudging atoot over the mountains from
helr homes to the college, carrying ON
heir backs sack of oatmeal, out of
Which they would make their own por-
ldge Tor month or longer, till they
vent home and got another sack, besides,
'erhaps, string of red herrings. Ashamed
u their poverty Not bit. They were
'olrg to be great scholars, and the
hought OF that made the porridge and
'uttermilk the pride OF their life. IL was
earning they were after, and happy they
we're to cultivate il on oatmeal. / did
lot suffer any such pressure i'm my col
ege years in Massachusetts,, but the read
ng of that essay in Macmillan's Maga-
Inc brought back those happy years to
ny mind, and taught me that even our