Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-05-16

I up into the wilderness to help to build the Choctaw railroad. The boy was taken i'll and for a month he was in bed. Then he started to. find his father and located him twenty miles up the river, where he had to make his way in canoe.
 He got there and saved $50 for his college expenses. During the summer he wrote to President Andrews of Tal. ladega college, Alabama, that he want ca to enter there in the fall He got reply telling him to save what he could and President Andrews would write him again.
 The matter evidently slipped the presidents mind for Picken's didn't hear from him again. On the day be- fore college was to open he bought himself new overcoat and then a ticket to Talladega which cost him $15. Twenty-four hours later he presented himself to President Andrews and handed him $30, and said he wanted as much education as it would buy The president was so taken back that he had to tell the students of it when they assembled in chapel the next morning. When Pfckens was called up for ex- animation Latin was the first subject that the professors proposed to try him on. After asking him how much he had read the instructor opened the book and told him to read on. It was Caesars Commentaries and Pickensa knew it by heart. He went straight ahead till the examiner told him to halt; that that would do. Then he tried him on other Latin and then he turned to the other members of the | board of examiners and said:
 Wed better put this boy in the l sophomore class"
 During his three years at Talladega he took all the prizes offered and stood at the head of his class.
 The first summer he was at Talla- dega he earned $40 by teaching a sum- mer normal school. The second year he travelled with club from the school soliciting funds for the. college. In his travels he came to New Haven, and then and there determined to study at Yale if he could get the cash. About this time Booker T., Washington be- came interested in him and invited Pickens to speak with him on several occasions, He was graduated last year at Talladega and from there he | went to Chicago to work in a mill. Late in September he landed in New | Haven with a trunkful of books and | $2O in cash. +aE D. Stewart Dodge of New York. a | cousin of the Rev Anson Phelps Stokes, | secretary to the Yale corporation, sent him a check early in the fall and again 1 at Christmas time. Friends in the city l got him employment in a, restaurant for three hours 8 day so that he was. enabled to keep on with his work here. He was invited to give dialect readings | at private entertainments. and in this way he has earned quite little sum | of money
 During the fall term he lived in a boarding block in the city. but after 1 Christmas arrangements were made so that he could come to the campus. He rooms now in White hall.
 Tn speaking of his Yale experience, | he said: -.
 ''I was very anxious to come to Yale, but I knew that 1t would cost more than could raise. Finally. after talk I ing with Mir Washington. thought I would make a try for it.
 "After reaching here was fortunate in getting a place in restaurant, where by working three hours day I could earn my board. Mir Dodge helped me considerably with my tui- ton, and I managed to get on for my first term. e.
 1T earned considerable outside, but it all took time from my studies. Just after Christmas I was studying the catalogue. and I read of the TenEyck 1 prize and the subject of the essays.
 Most of the men had their essays partly written by that time. but I thought would read up on Hayti! I got. so interested in my subject that couldn't sleep one night and got up at o'clock in the morning and wrote my essay before church. 1
 "It was the Sunday before the es- ] says were to be handed in. didn't change the essay much, but handed it in as had written it. The rest is an old story. as much of surprise to me as to any one. m
 '"rhe recent story about my going to Hayti is an imaginative yarn and | is all nonsense. received the letter from the southern association, but that was all there was to 1t.
 "If I have luck I shall finish here next year, and then I shall have more time to consider propositions of gov ernment." s.
 Tn appearance Mir Pickens is of stall wait d 1LLlIC dboFC tAiS SAoSoS in height He shows considerable mus cular development. especially across the. shoulders and back. In his con- versation he shows the advantage of close c,pIcation to books.
 His proficiency. in his studies has been the result to a large extent of close application as we'll as natural aptitude. When in the grammar schools he used to learn history by heart, so that he could recite it page by page. Tn this way he became fa- miliar with good expression, and he says that this early training has been of great advantage to him. When he ] finished his history he could begin at the beginning and recite it every word 1 from cover to cover.
 His proficiency in mathematics shows that his ability does not lie in his good memory alone, for since be- ginning the study of mathematics he has never yet failed yet on problem. I In his early high school days and
 even before that he spent all his