The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-24
F 1 COULD GO
 ID COLLEGE AGAIN What One Man Would Do With
 Another Chance HE WOULD MIX MORE
With Fellows Than He Did in Under Graduate Days-Lost Much by Being Grlnd-Devote Time to
 Public Speaking.

Rev. W. T. Bartley in the Congrega-
 tionalist.
 One of my friends at Yale once said that had been less changed by going to college than any one else that he knew. If I were to go again. should try to be changed more; I should want to let the college 'benefcent1y assimulate" me- ] should remember that to catch the 'FYale spirit one must be open to it. should know that not books only, but the men who teach and the men who study, influence the student in ways of value.
 I should want to know the men better. When I remember how much lived by myself; how I had only a speaking ac- quaintanee with some who roomed in the same entry and for the most part did not know where were their homes, or how they lived in college: when remem- Der that out of some 200 classmates there were a few whom I did not quite surely know by sight at the end of the course, wonder that I was so unsocial. Some of those men have already climbed to high places. It would have been well to know them better during bright college years" I did not know then-nobody did that the youngest boy in our class, whose voice was just changing when he entered, would be today physiologist of international reputation; or that an- other would become a surgeon who could operate successfully on the brain; or that man above whom I had ranked in a 8 Der of a presidents tennis cabinet;" but I now see that it would have been as wise to know those classmates as to know Green To have sung college songs oftener with them on warm evenings at the fence would have been as profitable as it would have been pleasant
 s try to know more of what young men think, were I to go to college again. Often, as minister I have felt that if I only knew peoples hearts bet ter I could better meet their needs. Knowing their ways of thinking, I could be not only well-meaning. but able to express my good meaning have been spending years in a slow and careful study of human nature, but might have got much of that knowledge long ago among my fellow-students had I known them better. In lookin for Ia sh stand ing I lost sight of tn .gs more useful. When the mouths of those young men spoke out of the abundance of their hearts, ought to have been listening.
 If I had another chance I should do more with the English language should give more attention to our own literature. should try to become a good writer. Reporting for the News and trying for .t,f,, how but supposed had no time.
 I should try to become a good speaker and should work for a place in some of the public contests. By all means should go into debating. Quick thinkers and ready speakers are needed every where In short, I should add to the direct influence of studies the indirect influence of comradeship and should re- member that it is better to handle the English language well than to be versed in several languages now dead.
 An uncle of mine, who had lost con- siderable sums by unfortunate invest ments used to exclaim. "If only mans foresight were as good as his hindsight!' make the same lament over my college course. And yet much would still be the same. I could not relax my moral stand ards. There were ways of speaking and acting in which could never have joined, even for the sake of being good mixer.' still believe that young man should be something of a Nazarite at college. The college town is not a Rome in which must do as the Romans do-unless it is right.
 In studying languages I probably should not use translations. I used to regard them as I now regard Sunday news papers, with loathing. If did use them at all Gin taking my course a second tme,) it would only be after thorough study, to straighten out some tangle that had baffled me. Because I used to trans late without 'ttrot I have for many years reaped the fruits of that self-denial. for it forced me to weigh words carefully and choose them well.
 So if went to college again, I should do differently. in the hope of getting more of the benefits worth getting. Yet not withstanding all thankful for what did get I learned to love my college and my classmates, even if did not know them well, and I follow their course now with keen interest
 Even as it was, my studying won for me the salutatory-just what President Taft had-and the fourth place in rank. have today an appreciation for the literature of several languages, and have little trouble with the meaning of phrases in ''unknown tongues; and if anything is "all Creek to me, it is quite easy. These tastes give me much pleasure and help me to love my library.
 Therefore, if in college I was such a "grind" as to let many good things go by, I am not harping on the sad words, Tt might have been!' Though I should do many things differently if I could have my chance again. I am thankful as it is for the good gifts that come to me from alma mater Yale.