Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1908-04-09
AN ENDOWED STUDENT
viii Makes William Cullen B.
Kemp CoIlegian For Life.
HOLDER OF SEVERAL DEGREES

OuNSISihJ co' '"aSh fNSSP VIZ
Chasing knowledge, Else His $2,5oo
Annuity VIII Stop-ls Still One of
the Boys"
William Cullen Bryant Kemp, LII.
B., LII. NJ. A. B., A. NJ. has started
In with his accustomed jauntiness of
spirit to take the degree of Ph. d. at
his old stamping ground, Columbia
university. in taking this degree more
time than for any other degree is al
lowed by the university. He may have
five years in which to grasp political
economy and the kindred subjects that
equip one for rank as q doctor of phi
losophy.
The Kemp who was named after the
poet who, as a mere boy, wrote Than
atopsis" is an older clement in the
contemporaneous history of the insti-
tuition than many of the great build.
ings which cluster around the dome of
the library building, says the New
York Times. Generations have flowed
into the dormitories and class rooms
and flowed out fitted for endeavor in
the world but Kemp has stuck, and
the years have seen him still the col
lege boy, working for a degree, with
his hair growing sparser and his form
taking on gradually that rotundity of
the well fed man of the fOrties
In the registrars Office the other day
the clerk smiled and said that of
course he knew Kemp. Kemp was
there when the clerk was in linen pin
afores at home and before he got in
touch with the registration books. AS
far back as his means of research al
lowed he found the name of William
Cullen Bryant Kemp recorded as out
for the Ii. B. in 1S93-that was tif-
teen years ago-and the newest book
Of record had him down as out for the
! Ph. D.
In these maturer college days of
Kemp-one report has it that he has
been Il student for twenty-seven years
he appears ever and anon in khaki
knickerbockers and with a chrysanthe
mum in the lapel of his we'll fitted
jacket In Livingston hall, where his
snug rooms are, he shares in the
bright cheerful dormitory life of the
scores of youngsters when he is not
boning away for exams.
The mystery of Kemp's student dec
AIDES is no longer mystery. There is
hardly a boy who has been at the uni
versity for two years who has not
heard it told and told ii in turn. 1t is
to the effect that Kemp when youth
displayed an antipathy TO the regular
course of study and that he would not
be ready on any examination day or
gather enough of book learning to
make even Il fair show along with the
most diiident OF students
To remedy this Kemp, the boy was
provided for in the will of wealthy
| relative who was wise in his day and
generation and given to the under
standing of human nature. This rela-
tive provided an income for Kemp of
$4,000 year, the same to be paid him
| as long as he remained at Columbia
university and to cease when he left.
Kemp was in no danger of brain
fever from overwork at the time this
arrangement was first made, but it is
said that he managed thereafter to re-
main on the college register as stu
dent and draw the first years money
coming to him. He could have been
graduated many, many years ago, of
course; but, the students say, the real
iZation of the practical uses to which
$500 a year could be put brought
him to sense of veneration for the
pursuit of knowledge, and he began 10
nurse the curriculum for all it was
worth.
From 1896. when he got his LII. B.,
to 1900 We're years of leanness in the
gathering of degrees for Kemp, but he
accumulated the easy \. B. in 1900 and
during the following year made a squirt
and picked up the a. NJ. and the Ii.
NJ. But this was exhaustng too rapid
ly the degrees that might be attained
during goodly space of years on a
comfortable inheritance paid yearly.
The seven years until now have been
leaner than any of the other stretches,
and Kemp is boning away on the long.
est of all the stretches, the five years
allowed for the acquiring of the Ph. d.
Learning has become a profession with
StuueHl hellp low. just now ola he
is his fellow students profess not to
know Some say that he has finished
with the forties and b trudging along
toward sixty in his khaki knickerbock-
ers, with his books under his arm and
his chrysanthemum in his jacket lapel.
With the Ph. d. the endowed student
VIII have used up the last of the
scholarly degrees offered by Columbia,
but may go back for postgraduate
courses and get a bachelor of science
degree in two classes. Moreover, when
these resources in the battle against
the tread of time have been used I'D
Kemp may cast about and select de-
ereeS in the more practical and mate
rial lines of mental Accomplishment.
There will be mining. electrical engi-
neerlng, civil engineering, architecture,
pharmaceutical chemistry, mechanical
engineering, and that will be the end.
He will either leave college without an
Income or be removed at the head of
procession of carriages.
Should the faculty body take no ac-
tion for the relief of Student Kemp
about twenty years from now, when
the last degree is tackled to his name,
they will behold him cast adrift with
out a cent-William Cullen Bryant