Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1901-07-12
MAKING ENDS MEET.
Their Way Through the Cnivcr-
sities-Strange Occupations.

meat shop in side street of Boston on
Saturday night, when the rush of trade
is greatest, will find there an extra
clerk, distinguished from his fellow
clerks only by an unusually intelli-
gent face, writes Alice X. Fellows, in
Century. Like them, he wears no coat,
and he manages his long white apron
as easily as they. His smile and quick
repartee make him popular with the
waiting throng, and he saws through
the bone of a porterhouse steak, wraps
up the meat and hands it to its owner
as quickly and deftly as a professional.
If the customer will go to dingy little
grocery store little farther down
the same street he will find another
man backed up against a kerosene bar
rel, patiently rehearsing the price of
eggs, butter and soda to bulky ma
tron of the middle class, keeping his
temper when she informs him that all
these commodities are two cents
cheaper at rival store, and even smil-
ing a cheerful good-by when the virago
slips four cents worth of Goldfish into
her basket as the result of 20 minutes
haggling and squeezes through the
door.
If the same customer happens to be
in Harvard square the following Mon
day, at the end of a collegiate hour,
he will probably feel like the victim Of
a modern fairy tale when he recognizes
in two students swinging across the
yard with note books in their hands
the butcher and the grocer OF Saturday
night.
In the modern development of un-
dergraduate self-support, such meta
morphoses from student to workman
and back again are so common that a
| stranger within half days distance
of any of the well-known colleges for
men is likely to meet with a similar
| experience. The students themselves
take these Transformations as a mat
ter of course, but the conventional Wis
itor in large college town may be per.
mitted a start of surprise when he
learns that the tactful person at an
evening party who looked after the
comfort of the guests effectively and
unobtrusively, and who set the social
wheels in motion skillfully when they
| threatened to run down. was in reality
student, earning dollar or more an
evening for his services. 1t is rather
disconcerting also for one with care
fully regulated social ideas to discover
in the class orator at commencement
the night clerk of his hotel. But ma
tion which allows one of its sons to
work his way from canal boy to presi.
dent could not, if it wished, escape a re.
hection of democratic ideals even in its
most aristocratic educational institu.
tions.
The opportunities for self-support
vary in the different colleges, accord
ing to their size and location. Occupa-
tions practicable for students in n
small town are soon exhausted. For
this reason the self-supporting student
in Princeton. Williams, Dartmouth
Amherst, Leland Stanford, Jr., and
some other colleges must make the
best commercial use possible of the
college public, and not rely tco great.
ly on the limited supply of outside
work. But the man earning his way al
the Chicago university, Columbia. Yals
or Harvard has whole city full of pos
Sibilities to choose from, if the college
body proves unremunerative. Wher
the prospective student of one of these
universities consults the list of under
graduate industries from the safe van
tage of his own home, indeed he feel,
as bewildered as woman before sam
pies of all the dress goods in store
Her choice at first seems unlimited
But only few encounters with the ac
tual difficulties of earning his living
serve toreverse his ideas Of his own i'm
portance, and to make him thankful tt
do the first profitable thing his hands
find to do.
The freshman, particularly, discov
crs before him very hard row to hoe
Lack Of capital ignorance of the col
lege public its supplies and its needs
a scarcity of friends and acquaintance
all these things he must conten,
against Upper classmen may b
choosers, but freshmen, like beggars
must be content with what they cal
get. They may be among the fortu
nate ones whose high grades are to b
rewarded by scholarships later or
But this vague possibility will no
keep the wolf from the freshman
door mat in the meantime, and he vii
have to bestr himself or go hungry
Fear of hunger is strong motive, an
it drives hard bargains with its vic
Tins; but an expedicnt that would b
a tragedy in the life of an older ir
e tellectual man becomes pastime t
D the student who looks on ii as ten
e porary measure, and he shovels o.
: sidewalks blithely and cleans furnace
TO a song