The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-08-03
Shaped for Usefulness.

splendid account of the COLLEGE. it
stands to-day as one of the greatest
forces of constructive society in that II
is shaping young men and women for
usefulness in that station of life which
they are to occupy. At first sight it
may seem somewhat paradoxical to say
that the college aims to make man
useful where he is, and yet inspires him
to seek higher things But the two do
not conflict. In giving the boy new
horizon, the college shows him the
opportunities of that before him.
The college boy, be it remembered.
comes from home where there is
seldom way Of comparing him with
the general standard of young man
hood, but he enters college where are
men whose life's study has been to learn
boys Faults which parent may not
detect are apparent to the teacher,
abilities which doting mother has
magnified are given their proper value,
inclinations upon which a practical
father has frowned are encouraged if
found worthy. The boy is shaped up,
in word, put on the scales and
weighed, measured by the mighty yard
stick of the ideal and trained to attain
thereto. And day in, day out he is
taught that his life is worth while only
as he employs it for others.
Given New Friends.
Nor in reckoning the advantages of
college life, must we neglect what some
are inclined to minimize social
life which begets new friendships and
forms new ties. A man is mighty as he
is friendly. Take the intellectual
giant of the day and make him unsocial
give him no friends and fix on him
the curse of a morose, repulsive man
ner What manner of giant have you?
His strength is gone and he is impotent.
Take the veriest pigmy, make him
gracious and urbane, give him friends
and weld him to his brother men. His
strength is tenfold multiplied.
This is what the college does. TAX
ing boys at the most impressionable
age of life, it cultivates their social
nature, bids them make new friends
and encourages them to tie to their
brothers. The result is that in our col
leges of to-day a man may learn to
know his brother in California, may be
the friend of lad from Michigan. He
shakes hands with the world, in short,
and becomes powerful in proportion.
A striking instance of what this may
mean was recently called to our atten-
ton. A lad from New York college
went West, and, after the wont of
boys, managed to spend all the available
cash he had. In due season he found
himself stranded in Seattle without
money enough to telegraph his en-
ployers But he remembered his
affiliations of college days and went
into the streets looking for man who
would help him. And as he went he
gave the whistle of his college society,
one of those mystic tokens so dear to
the college boy. He had not walked
three squares down the main street of
the Western city before window was
opened in an office building, and an
answer greeted his whistle In fifteen
minutes he found himself in the midst
of friends who were willing to take him
in on the simple credential Of that col
lege whistle! Surely in this day of
unlimited social intercourse the ability
to find friends anywhere is worth
having!
Last of all among the gains which
come from college life is that of knowl-
edge-and last only in that it is lasting.
The college teaches the boy, and were
it to do no more it would justify it's
claim. The lad is given to know, when
to know is to be master. The end of
knowledge, of course, is not the bare