El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-06-03
Schurman's Upward Life.

At 10 years of age a country lad on
backwoods farm on Prince Edward
Island. At Is he had become a clerk
| in a country store at a salary of $50
a year. AT IS he was college stu
dent, supporting himself by working
in the evenings as a bookkeeper. At
20 he had won a scholarship in the
University of London, in competition
with all other Canadian students. At
25 he was professor philosophy in
Acadia college, Nova Scotia. At SO he
was appointed president of Cornell
university. At A he is chairman of
President McKinley's special commits
sion to the Philippines. In this sum-
mary is epitomiZed the career of Jacob
Gould Schurman. 1t is a romance of
real life, such as is not unfamiliar in
America. Mr. Schurmar's career diff
fers from that of some other self-made
men, however. Instead of heaping up
millions upon millions, he has applied
his talents to winning the intellectual
prizes of life, and has made his way,
unaided, to the front rank of the lead
ers in thought and learning. His ca
reer is source of inspiration to all
poor boys who have their way to make
in the world, for he has won his pres
ent honors by his own unaided efforts
President Schurman says of his early
life: 1T is impossible for the boy of
today, no matter in what part of the
country he is brought up, to appreciate
the life of Prince Edward Island as it
was forty years ago. At that time it
had neither railroads nor daily news
papers, nor any of the dozen other
things that are the merest common
place nowadays, even to the boys of
the country districts. 1 did not see
railway until late in my teens. 1 was
never inside a theater until after was
20. The only newspaper that came to
my fathers house was little provin-
cial weekly. The only books the house
contained were few standard works
such as the Bible, Bunyan's Pill
grim's Progress, Fox's Book of Mar
tyrs, and few others of that class.
Remember. too, that this was not back
at the beginning of the century, Lut
little more than a generation ago, for
1 was born in the year 1854. My ia
Their had cleared away the land on
which our house stood. He was a poor
man, but no poorer than his neighbors.
No amount of land, and no amount of
work could yield much more than the
necessaries of life in that time and
place. There were eight children in
our family, and there was work for all
of us.
Our parents were anxious TO have
their children acquire at least an ele-
mentary education; and so, summer
and winter, We tramped the mile and
a half that lay between our house and
the district school, and sometimes,
when it was at its worst, our father
would drive us all to school in a big
sleigh. But no weather was bad
enough to keep us away. That would
be looked upon as poor kind of
school nowadays, I suppose. The
scholars were of all ages, and every
thing from A, B, G, to the Rule OF
Three was taught by the one teacher.
But whatever may have been its de-
ficiencies the work of the school was
thorough. The teacher was an old
fashioned drillmaster, and whatever he
drove into our heads he put there to
stay. 1 went to this school summer
and winter until I was ID, and by that
time 1 had learned to read and write
accuracy. At the age of IS, 1 left
home. 1 hadn't formed any definite
plans as to my future 1 merely want
ed to get into village and to earn
some money. My father got me a
place in the nearest town-Summer-
side-a village of about 900 inhab-
itants. For my first years work
was to receive $50 and board. Think
of that young men of today. Thirty
dollars year for working from in
the morning until 10 at night. But l
was glad to get the place. It was a
start in the world, and the little vii |
lage was like a city to my country |
eyes,"