The guardian. [volume] (Boston, Mass.) 1901-1960, 1952-08-23

to his parents exclaimed "My
father and my mother, do not let
them give it to me, rather let
me die. He did not take the
liquor and he did not die but
lived to be president Of Harvards
first Total Abstinence League
which he organized among his
class mates and whose vice-presi-
dent was William Lloyd Garri-
son Jr., son Of the great aboli-
zionist.
After his High School days he
worked all summer at odd Jobs
that he might have the satisfac-
ton of paying his first years
tuition at Harvard, though his
father who was Recorder of
Deeds in d. O., having succeeded
the great Fred Douglass, had
ample means out Of his $4,000 a
year salary to defray his sons
college expenses. In fact he re-
manned out the whole year to
earn his own money for his coll
lege expenses.
Chapter 2
Finally, he entered the FRESH
man class full Of zeal and ambi-
ton to excel. He applied himself
assiduously to his studies, ranked
third in a class of five or six
hundred I'm the four years he
never fell below the rank of six)
and was graduated Summa Cum
Laude. He had earned his Alb.
and Am. degrees in the four
years and he became the first
colored student to be a member
Of Phi Beta Kappa, having stood
among the first eight in his class
Of several hundred.
During his college years he
lived first in College House, a
college domitory just outside the
grounds and in his last year sue
ceeded in having a room in Hol-
worthy Hall, inside the yard. He
attende dthe First Baptist Church
at Central Square, was president
of the G. E. Society, went to all
the church outings and socials
and became very popular with
the membership. Cat that time he
knew nothing about separate
churches). His father told him
not to shun colored students but
to make friends among the boys
in his own class. He chose three
Klein, a German, Fairlee, a
Scotsman, and Marshall, an
American. The four were insep-
arabic and the other three often
spent week-ends with their
friend at his home in Hyde Park,
Mass, Monroe continued to work
hard at his books Gle did not 60
in for athletics) won many prizes,
deturs and scholarships so that
at the en- dof his Freshman year
he had enough money to pay for
his second year.
And then in 1892, his father
died and the boy of 10, in his
mid-year Freshman class, stood
ready to interrupt his schooling
still further il his mother needed
him to assist her in the manage
ment of the real estate invest
ments the father had made in the
last two years Of his life. But the
mother proved equal to the task
to carry on. In those last two
years, in feeble health the after
math Of the double pneumonia
which felled him two weeks after
his confirmation as Recorder of
Deeds, the father had built two
2 family houses identifying a
point Of land which HE town
commended him for, purchased
several other pieces of property
and finished payment on the
home house, - the estate serv-
ing amply to educate the daugh-
tiers in the family, the elder at
Wellesley and the younger one,
Bessie, at the New England Con-
servatory of Music and Emerson
College of oratory and maintain
the mother in independence the
q years she lived after the death
of her husband.
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