Omaha daily bee., 1899-01-29
INSPIRED BY LINCOLN'S LIFE
Story Of the Early Struggle and Brilliant
Rise Of q College President.
CAREER OF JACOB GOULD SCHURMAN
Advancing from a Clerkshfp In .
Country store to the Presidency
of Cornell University-
How He Did 1t.

Thirty-one years ago Jacob Gould Schur-
man was working in a country store In
Prince Edward Island for $50 a year and
his board. Six years ago, at the age OF 30,
he became president OF Cornell university,
and he is now looked upon as one of the
leading educators of the country. The trans
formation from country clerk 20 university
president was brought about entirely by Mr..
Schurman's own efforts. From the time he
was 10 he did not have a dollar except what
he earned. In spite Of this handicap he OBJ
tanned a thorough education, making a
record for scholarship that probably has
never been equaled under like circum-
stances. How 1t was done Is told by Presi-
dent Schurman as follows:
when l read the life OF Abraham Lin
coin / was deeply impressed by 1t, and I
said to myself: Here is a man whose boy
hood was like my own For this reason I
think that / can understand and appreciate
Lincoln better than most men Of the younger
generation are capable Of doing. l know
what 1t is to grow up in a new country, to
feel the pinch OF poverty and the heavy
burden Of toll that always accompany such
a life, to struggle hard for advantages which
come quite in the natural course Of events
in more settled communities.
by this / do not mean to say that my
father was worse off than the general run
OF settlers In Prince Edward Island in the
year 1854. when ! was born. He had gone
into the island a generation before and had
hewed a home out Of the forest. At the time
Of my boyhood he had upward of 100 acres
cleared and under cultivation. But no
amount Of land and no amount Of toll could
give one much more than the bare neces-
stiles in that time and place. There was
not a railway on the island, nor a daily
newspaper, and as for theaters, l was never
inside of one until after / was 20. The
only books in my fathers house were the
bible. Fox's Book OF Martyrs Bunyan's
Pilgrims Progress and a few others OF
that standard class. My earliest book was all
outdoors, and ! think that 1t is not a bad
text book for a youngster, either.
Working for Ten Cents a Day.
when / was 10 years old l was hired for
a day by one Of our neighbors to help with
his threshing. The work assigned to me was
TO cut the bands OF the oat sheaves and pass
them to the man who fed the grain into the
drum OF the separator. 1t was not easy
work. The sheaves went through the ma
chine as fast as the man could handle them
and the boy who cut bands had to make his
hands fly. ! worked at that from sunrise to
dark and at the end proudly carried home my
pay-sixpence! As the money Of the Do
minion stood then 1t was equal to about 10
cents. A cent an hour for the hardest kind
OF manual labor a boy could perform! That
was the way money cam in Prince Ed
ward Island In those days But 1t was big
money to me, for 1t was tbs first ! had ever
seen that ] could call really my own.
'.Wnen I WAS II I left home I had forpa1
the idea that ] wanted to get into a store.
] don't know that l had any clear idea about
my future. ] merely wanted to get into the