New-York tribune., 1905-06-04


| through the wall
and yet knowing
well enough that you never could find one, and
believing that you were doomed to tumble and
butt away at the foot of that wall all your life
| say, if you should have such visions as that in
the night it would come pretty near being a
nightmare, wouldn't 1t
EsWell, l had all the mental effect of that
thing happen to me in real life. l certainly
was up against it and with the consciousness that
it was through no especial fault of my own, and
also that struggles of mine could change
conditions. Ever and ever butting away at the
wall and hunting for hole to crawl through!
"The end of it? Why, climbed up that
wall and over it on live wire, astonishing my
self all the time while l was doing it. And L
ished, too, at the way it all came out Here's
how it happened:
Z" l wasn't of the submerged tenth class or
a down-trodden serf or anything of that sort, you
understand, but chap pretty moderately comfort.
able, as the world looks at it, But L tell you,
my friend, there isn't any real despair to equal
that of the fairly intelligent chap of the middle
classes with family and ambitions, who has
fallen into rut of a job, and feels that he
hasn't got the right technical education to suit
his activities and aspirations.
al had been a carpenter for ten years and at
the end of the time knew had reached the
limit of my earning capacity in that line, no
matter how zealously applied myself.
"When we sawdust lawyers talked such
things over, as we ate our noon dinners out of
our pals, the fellows 1 worked with asserted
that getting up somewhere in life all depended
on how chap started, for after he got to
certain age man had sort of mortgaged himself
to the future by what he knew how to do best
and so he was tied to the treadmill. You see,
at that time L didn't have any idea that some
one had planned out way by which chap
could climb over the wall
s'I think l said as much to stranger who
called at my house one evening and stated that
he represented some kind of an educational
system taught by mail
81 had never heard of the International
Correspondence Schools or what the idea meant
to : man in my position. But when he asked
me whether l believed l had just the right kind
of an education to fit in with my ambitions,
why, that gave me chance to launch out
on my favorite topic. But the man pro-
ceeded to show me that not only had someone
anticipated the growl that was coming from such
as ], but had figured out way around the diff
fculty Why, when he found out that 1
had a hankering electricity wards, he said 1
could become electrical engineer, if wanted
to be one, and needn't lose clip of work. I'll
own up that at first crack it sounded as though
he was assuring me that my rosiest dream W ould
come to pass and expected that | would believe
him. But he kept at it and told me about other
cases and in the end | decided to find out
whether or not the 'sawdust lawyers were
mistaken.
al wasn't very ambitious at the start. 1 be-
gan in the wiring and bell-worll course. That's
what l meant when l said | got over that wall
by climbing on a live WIRE 1t was a mighty in
teresting end of wire that came dangling toward
me; it was just full of the tingng electricity of
helpfulness. The moment l grabbed hold of it
felt awake all over l want you to understand
that there are some lively batteries attached to
the business end of the l. c. S. wires. It's
soggy material, indeed, that they can't put the
thrill of accomplishment into.