Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-02-28
AN ENDOWED STUDENT
Will Makes William Cullen B.
 Kemp CoIIegian For Life.
HOLDER OF SEVERAL DEGREES

Columbia Man Who Has Been at the
 University Many Years Must Keep on
 Chasing Knowledge, Else His $2,5oo
 Annuity Will stop-Is Still One of
 tho "Boys."
 William Cullen Bryant Kemp, IL. B., IL. M., A. B., A. M., 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 a doctor of phi losophy.
 The Kemp who was named after the poet who, as mere boy, wrote Than atopsis" is an older element 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 endeayor in the world, but Kemp has stuck, and the years have seen him still the col lege boy, working for degree, with his hair growing sparser and his form taking on gradually that rotundity of the well fed man of the fortles.
 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 all lowed he found the name of William Cullen Bryant Kemp recorded as out for the IL. E. in 1S93-that was fif- teen years ago-and the newest book of record had him down as out for the Ph. D.
 h these maturer college days of Kemp-one report has 1t that he has been a student for twenty-seven years he appears ever and anon in khaki knickerbockers and with 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 ades is no longer a mystery. There Is hardly boy who has been at the unl- versity for two years who has not heard it told and told 1t in turn. It 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 fair show along with the most diffident 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 S2,500 year. the same to be paid him as long as he remained at Columbia university and to cease when be 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 a 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 S2.5O0 a year could be put brought him to a sense of veneration for the pursuit of knowledge. and he began to nurse the curriculum for all it was worth.
 From 1896. when he got his IL R.. to 1900 were years of leanness in the gathering of degrees for Kemp. but he accumulated the easy A. B. in 1900 and during the following year made a squirt and picked up the A. NJ. and the IL. NJ. But this was exhausting too rapid ly the degrees that might be attained during a 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 bonlng 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 Student Kemp now. Just how old he Is his fellow students profess not to know. Some say that he has finished with the forties and Is trudging along toward sixty In his khaki knIckerbock- CTS. with his Looks under his arm and his chrysanthemum in his jacket lapel
 With the Ph. n. the endowed student will have used up the last of the scholarly degrees offered by Columbia. but may % 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 up Kemp may cast about and select de grees in the mOre practical and mate risl lines of mental accomplishment. There viIl be mining. electrical enzi- neering. civH engineering. architecture. pharmaceutical chemistry. mechanical engineering. and that win be the eni- He will either leave college without an income Or bc removed at the head of a procession of carriages