News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1915-03-17
Picking Up knowledge
by the Way
(copyrlght. Meclure Newspaper syndicate
BY oRlSON SWEET MARDEN.

| copyright, Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.
l often receive letters from young
people, complaining that it is impos-
sible for them to attend school or
college because they have to work.
and therefore have no opportunity
to acquire an education.
Did you ever stop to think, my
your complaining friends, that a
great many of the most prominent
l do not mean that they have worked
| their way through school or college,
| but that they have actually gained
| an education in it's widest and best
sense by their own efforts, with little
or no actual schooling.
Thomas A. Edison had only a few
months regular schooling for his
parents were poor, and at twelve
years of age he had to earn his own
living. But he began reading solid
books" very early. When only ten
he was absorbed in Gibbons Rome"
and Hume's England" and had al
ready read the biographies of many
great and noble men.
Andrew Carnegie had only an ele-
mentary school education, but by
reading and studying in his leisure
moments he acquired the culture that
has fruited in several books and many
magazine articles on topics of world
wide interest, to say nothing of his
business achievements.
Prof. William J. MCGEE, who recent
ly left the United States bureau Of
ethnology after remarkable geologic
and chronological achievements, was
blacksmith in Iowa when he began to
study geology, the higher mathemat-
les and languages. He was chief of
the department of ethnology at the
Louisiana Purchase exposition. He is
now editor of the National Geographic
cal Magazine.
You who complain that you have no
opportunity to get an education, read
the lives of men who have lifted them
selves into place and power by self
education, biographies like that of
Franklin, of Lincoln, of Vice-Presi-
dent Marshall, men who from the
direst poverty, by sheer force of their
own will power, have lifted them
selves into the highest stations Of
life.
Did it ever occur to you that you
are right now in the greatest of all
universities, the university of life,
where you are meeting people every
day from whom you can learn some
thing valuable, no matter how humble
they may be?
If you are ambitious you can alb
sorb knowledge every moment of your
life; every piece of work you do, every
human being you meet is a study for
you.
If the young people who long for
knowledge and think they are de-
prived of it because of their unfor-
tunate position as wage-earners could
only realize what a marvellous oppor-
tunity is theirs to drink in wisdom
at every breath, to absorb invaluable
knowledge through their very pores.
The results of all the schools, of all
the colleges and universities of the
past are spread out here before or
eyes in the civilization that now is.
There never was such a time for
gaining an education as the present.
To the busy worker our free public
libraries, art galleries and museums,
which are now opening their doors to
evening visitors, offer splendid ad-
vantage for picking up knowledge.
The greatest characters in history |
have been noted for their perpetual |
self-improvement habits; they were |
always absorbing knowledge, power, |
from their experiences and surround: |
ings, treasuring up gems of thought, |
deductions.
1t does not matter what your &C. !
every day, no matter how busy you /
may be, you will add a little some
thing to your general improvement,
you will absorb something that will
make you a little larger, fuller,
broader man or woman. Keep your
eyes and ears and your mind open
and you will be astonished at the num-
Der of useful things you will learn
every day.
If you want to improve yourself
form the habit of carrying pad or
notebook and pencil and jot down
things you would like to be able to
You will be surprised to
see how much you will gain in this
way in single year.
1t is astonishing what the passion
Tor self-improvement, the determine
lion to get an education, will do for