Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1913-03-26
The Story Of His Life
From the Cradle to
the White House
By WILLIAM BAYARD HALE
Copyright. 1911. 1872. by Doubleday. Page
4 Co
CHAPTER III.
Of to College.


gusta to Columbia. S. c.. in
I5fS6SS' the autumn Of 1870, the Rev.
80 DR.. Wilson resigning his pas
torate In order to become professor
IN the Southern Presbyterian Theolog-
1cal seminary. His chair was that Of
pastoral and evangelistic theology. He
retained It four years.
Tom appears to have retreated here
into the more exciting scenes Of an i'm
aginatfve life. He forsook in mind the
streets Of the commonplace town and
the dreary banks of the Congaree and
adventured forth in search of exploits
In farof lands. All boys do some
thing Of the sort, hut there can be no
doubt that in the case of this young
dreamer rhe exercise Of imagination
was constant and vivid and that dur
Ing great part of his days he lived. so
far as his mind was concerned. in one
or another of the various characters
which he had invented and assumed.
Thus for many months he was an
admiral Of the navy aud in that char
acter wrote out daily reports to the
navy department. His main achieve
ment In this capacity was the dis
covery and destruction of nest of
pirates in the southern Pacific ocean.
1t appears that the government. along
with all the people Of the country, had
been terrified by the mysterious disap-
pearance of ships setting sail from or
expected at our western ports Ad-
miral Wilson was ordered to investi-
gate with his fleet After an eventful
cruise they overlook one night a pr
ratical looking craft with black hull
and rakish rig. Again and ?c~an the
chase eluded the admiral FA,lly the
pursuit led the fleet to the neighbor.
hood of an Island uncharted and hith-
erto unknown. Here lay the ships of
the outlawed enemy and the disman
tied hulls of many of their victims.
And it may be believed that the brave
American tars. under the leadership
of the redoubtable admiral. played a
truly heroic part in the destruction of
the pirates.
There are two things worth noting
about this story: First. the length of
time-several months-in which the
boy lived the greater part of his wax
j ing hours in the character which he
had Invented. and, second, the veri.
similitude with whlcb the "details re-
Z lating to the great adventure We're set
forth in the daily "reI~rts.
About this time Woodrow was read.
ing Cooper's sea tales and Aarryat's
yarns, and, though he had never seen
ship in his life-never even seen the
ocean-he knew every particular ot
every class Of type of sailing ship
the name. place and use of every spar
= sheet and shroud.
At Columbia Woodrow. as he began
now to be commonly called, attended
the school kept by Mr.. Charles Hey
ward Barnwell. But his real education
continued to be conducted by his ia
Their.
He was now approaching the age fo1
: college. In spite of his late start a.
books, he had rapidly qualified in thu
ordinary preparatory studies. and a
seventeen, in the autumn of 1873, b.
was sent off to college.
Davidson college, in famous Mecklen
burg county. N c.. is Il prosperous in
stitution now and forty years ago wa
q stanch school. The fact that DR.
Wilson had been approached in connec
4 ton with Its presidency may have hat
something to do with its choice TO
Woodrow.
Living was rather primitive: the boy