The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1916-07-15

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day than any other boy in college"
Rather a remarkable statement for a college
president to make concerning a college student,
yet hardly more remarkable than the institution
which the student is neutrality-suspicious. col
lege at Carliuville, Ill.
Blackburn, as Il matter of fact, occupies q POSI-
ton unique among institutions of learning in this
country. No other college, perhaps, is conducted
along exactly the same lines. Its aim is to train
young men to be not only scientific, but practical
farmers, intoxicating in them at the same time a
love of the soil, and to make of girls and young
women practical housewives, who will be able to
cook and sew, and to take care of a home. Also,
and this is where the unique feature comes in, 1t is
conducted upon a plan of ~self-heIp, whereby young
men and women of the most limited means are af-
forded an opportunity to avail themselves of a
standard college education.
The plan has been tried only a year, but during
this period it has proved so successful, literally
knocking the high cost Of living all to pieces, that
the great problem next fall will be what to do with
the students.
The charges for the year at Blackburn have
been placed ut 500, and three hours work per
day at some sort of manual labor. This pays for
a furnished room with steam heat and electric
light, board and tuition.
The first thing one is likely to say on hearing
this is, ITS too cheap; II can't be done" That
was exactly what the college trustees said when,
after calling DIR. William NJ. Hudson to the presi-
dency, they listened to his revolutionary scheme
for rejuvenating Blackburn.
But Doctor Hudson had some convincing figures
out of his past experience. He was optimistic and
persistent. So finally the trustees agreed they
might MS well try it for a year. st may blow us
up they said, 'but better that than rotting down.
At any rate, an explosion will attract more atten-
ton"
1t was nearing the noon hour when l reached
the little group of college buildings nesting in a
grove of fine old elm and oak trees on the outskirts
of Carlinville, and the president suggested that
we would better go down and see the girls getting
dinner.
Here was something new. In the present age,
when the average college girl spends a goodly por-
ton of her time in social amenities and athletics,
the idea of students preparing their own meals
was decidedly novel. Yet there they were, a dozen
of them, in school dresses covered with long
white aprons, busily engaged in preparing a menu
which had been written on a blackboard In the
kitchen-a kitchen, by the way, as immaculate as
the most exacting housewife could desire.
This combination of earning and learning Is one
of the unique features of Doctor Hudson's plan.
The young women get the theory of domestic
science in the classroom and then put 1t into prac-
tice in the kitchen. They do all the cooking, with
the exception of a certain amount of help from
some of the young men students. That they also
do it scientifically and well was attested by the
meal that followed a little later. This meal con-
sisted of cream of tomato soup, roast beef, baked
potatoes, creamed celery, bread and butter, tapi.
oca and cake, and there was an abundance of each.
l madea bold to ask If dinners like that were
served every day.
Certainly" replied Doctor Hudson. tits not a
visitors menu by any means. We didn't know you
were coming, and if we had We would have gone
along just the same"
"And the costT' l inquired.
For answer Doctor Hudson beckoned to Miss
Sparks, the capable head of the domestic science
department, who not only teaches the subject, but
plans the various meals and figures down the cost
to a quarter of a cent, not even emitting such small
things as the -four In the gravy and the salt in the
potatoes, and repeated my query.
"The cost per capita for the Materials" sale
Miss Sparks, twas q fraction under eight cents
BY way of making the lesson more Impressive. she
added that the only other expense, since the stu
dents do all the cooking and serving, was for thu
fuel consumed In the range, an amount so small
that it could hardly be figured out as so much pei