The Falls City tribune., 1910-04-15
"reminiscences of a Wayfarer

mean by success | VIII Try 10 eA-
plain later on. My notion in that
respect is probably somewhat differ
ent from many others.
| therefore add a third element to
the rule of the wise consolidation.
| And that | may not be misunderstood.
| remark that I do not use that
word in its popular sense, namely,
the education that people get from
what is written in books and taught
in the schools. That is the smallest
part of the real human education
that is received by the individual, from
the moment of birth to the moment
of death. 1t may be urged with some
real pl%ausability, that this element
| am disposed to think it does, but
there is still a distinctive difference.
Books are merely the record of the
experiences and thoughts of others
in times precedent, but as men were
before books, the education | refer
to, made them possible. Language
and thought preceded all others which,
coupled with the art of writing by
which they might be made intelli-
gible to others, the education of the
schools came into vogue. Environ
ment forms the character, not the
schools, and the best education nan
ever received is not from the text
books of the schools and the great
institutions of learning so called, but
from the vast and inexhaustable cur
part, and with which he is constant
ly in contact as he passes through
life. What he gets from books are
valuable aids in properly understand
ing the things he meets with, be-
cause others have Travelled the same
road and met the same things and
studied them, and their recorded
conclusions serve as milestones on
the broad and never ending highway
of existence. But unless the way
farer thinks for himself, the edu-
cation he gets from books is a mere
parrot accomplishment dull re-
peating of what somebody else has
said or written.
None of us needs a guide to teach
us ignorance, as at the outset of life
nature furnishes us with a tolerable
supply of the kind without Interior
aids, in the shape of teachers, though
| have frequently thought that some
of our university students have
been to a school where they do that
kind of educational stunt, for they
have returned more jolter-headed, if
that We're possible, than they went.
The new-rich and the old-rich, as
we'll as the no-rich, are equally anxi-
the best their means will procure, if
for no other consideration, than the
name of having gone through some
educational mill. The u~nimportant
fact, that in the process they have
received no real practical education
to speak of, .euts no figure SO they
come out with a diploma. That
takes the place of everything else,
and fills to repletion, the measure
of their ambition. 1t is prima facie
evidence of a university education
and that is enough. 1t is another
evidence of the controlling force of
fashion. For all that, it must be
set down to their credit that they are
proud their children have been in the
classic shades of some imposing in
stitution of learning and have its
authority for saying they graduated
from it, though the very diploma
that certifies to the fact, is couched
in a language the student in many
cases knows no more about, than he
does of the Choctaw.
But | like those simple people, if
for no other reason, than that their
chief desire was, to give their child
rem advantages they never had them
selves.
Something over forty years go, it
fell to my lot to assist in founding
one of the many state universities
that abound in our great republic,
and though l have been in the city
where it stands hundreds of times,
| have never been inside of it, nor
am | conscious of the fact that |
ever wanted to be. 1t was a mat
ter of pride with all of us that a
generous general government had
given us out of its great bounty, man
broad acres of the public domain as
a fund out of which to build it. 1t
was our tribute to a growing educa-
tional fad that has become general.
At the same time, and located in the
coma oitv Wa nroUidad for two Other