The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-08-16
GRAY HEADS AT COLLEGE.
FulI.GroUn Men Not Uncommon AmOnl
the Freshmen in These Days.


the Freshmen in These Days.
1T is remarkable" said man who will
| go back To college as a senior next month.
! "how many full-grown men there are In
, the colleges to-day.
Il have compared notes with fellows from
other colleges, and find that it is quite COM
| mon to see freshman with gray hair, who
| will never see his thirty-ffth and possibly his
fortieth birthday again. They are chaps
for the most part who wish to take special
course or two, or if they start out with the
Idea of getting a degree they usually give
1t up and either disappear or devote them
selves to one or two branches.
In the technical schools you will find
full-grown men boning upon one or two
lines, men who are doing we'll in their bust
ness, but feel the lack of college training
and have the idea that they can do much
better after year or so Of study. OF
course hundreds of men feel this way, but
only a small percentage of them have the
grit to go to college among men 20 much
younger and sit side by side with them in
the class room. Then, again, it is not every
man who can afford to leave his business
for such a purpose.
1t is very strange to see these men at
work, to note their struggles 10 master
the days lessons. 1t has surprised me
many times to see men who have done
well in their business struggling over
lesson which came as easy as pie to us
youngsters. 1t il one Of the best illus
trations of the wonderful difference between
youth and even early middle life that l
expect ever TO have presented to me.
IL know one man who entered college
when over 80 and brought with him his
wife and two small children. He had no
money to speak of and no was determined
to get Il full college education, classical.
His wife was "A plucky little woman and
she was right there at his elbow at every
stage OF the game.
This was in a small New England college.
The mans wife opened an eating club and
the man looked after the business end of il.
How that woman looked after the two
babies and ran that club l don I know, but
she did. She WAS a wonderful cook, and
soon the club had a reputation all through
the town, and the other eating club folks
began to say unkind things Of this man
and his wife But they lived 1t all down.
The man had fierce time Of it keeping
III the class for the first year. Half dozen
professors advised him to quit, but he hung
on and won out. BY the end of sophomore
year he hadn't a condition, and he gradu-
ultt WIN HlS GLASS. ne wash l. AT inc Dol
tom of the list, either. He got his college
education and supported Il wife and two
children while he was doing IL.
when was freshman u cert ain man
came TO college with his son. The boy took
full academic and the father was special
The father was a busting business man,
and | have often wondered how they ever
let him come even IA q special.
He would make the funniest of breaks
in recitation. Fortunately for the boy,
he and his father were in different classes.
The father was good fellow, though, and
when he realized what the bull was that
he had made he would laugh as loud as
any one.
He had any amount of rocks, but WAS as
simple and AZ unaffected az child over IL.
He seemed to enjoy nothing so much az
being in u room full Of thoroughly good fol-
lows, although he never lost his dignity.
and he never went anywhere near the
carousing gang, He only stayed year,
and within year after that he died. When
they opened his will they found he'd
left two OF three hundred dollars TO the
college