oped character, however, the fulness of city life, the inspiration which comes from seeing and knowing great men and women, are of inestimable value. Perhaps the greatest charms, however, of purely class and college fellowship are found in the smaller colleges.

The second question: "Can I work my way through college?" can be answered more definitely than the first. I unhesitatingly answer, Yes, you can, not only because I did it myself, but because I have known hundreds of other college graduates who earned their entire expenses while going through college.

A youth must, to be sure, possess pluck and determination, and must be prepared to endure some hardships and to forego some of the less important pleasures of college life, if he intends to work his way. Yet, there is no question but that any boy of average ability who has health and stamina can earn all of his expenses as he goes through college.

If one sets out to earn his way through college, he will gain much if he can do most of his earning in vacation rather than in term time. The student who spends a large part of his time in working to pay his way loses a great deal of what is best in a college course. He does not have time for social gatherings, for debating clubs, for fraternity rhetoricals and mock trials. He loses the education which comes from the playground, that not only

develops the body, but also brings health, vigor, and freedom to the mind. There is no exercise in the world so good as the vigorous, outdoor recreations of students. There is an abandonment which calls out the best in one, makes him spontaneous and enthusiastic. The mind as well as the body is always on the alert for a quick retort, the happy reply, the joke, the bit of humor—all of these things are great powers in self-development.

It should also be noted that the larger universities naturally afford more opportunities for working students. For instance, of the five thousand students connected with Harvard University, more than five hundred are almost or entirely dependent upon their own resources and they are in no sense a poverty-stricken lot. From $700 to $1,000 a year is by no means an exceptional earning for students who have a capacity for newspaper work or tutoring. There are some men of special abilities who make far more.

Senator Albert J. Beveridge entered college with a capital no larger than $50.00, borrowed from a friend. He served as a steward of a college club, and added to his original fund of fifty dollars by taking the freshman essay prize of twenty-five dollars. When summer came, he returned to work in the harvest fields and broke the wheat-cutting records of the country. He carried his books with him morning, noon, and night, and studied persistently. When he returned to college he began

to be recognized as an exceptional man. He had shaped his course and worked to it.

At least a thousand of the students in Columbia University each year earn either all or part of their expenses. Possibly Columbia has more self-supporting students than any other of the great universities, owing to its location in New York, where there are so many opportunities for employ

ment.

David Starr Jordan, President of Stanford University, paid his way at Cornell University by waiting on table, tutoring, taking care of lawns, and in all sorts of ways. He says a young man is not worth education who cannot work through college that way.

Jacob Gould Schurman, of Cornell, is another college president who worked his way through college.

A great many youths have paid their way through Boston University by doing all sorts of work, such as canvassing, working as brakemen on trains in summer, tutoring, teaching in night schools, working in offices, and by keeping books in the evening for various firms, waiting on table in summer hotels, working on farms, etc. Many girls, also, have worked their way through the various departments with scarcely any assistance. When I was at the university, there was a poor colored boy working his way without assistance through the law school. So poor was he that he

could not afford a room, and he slept on the benches in the law library.

A representative American college president recently said: "I regard it as, on the whole, a distinct advantage that a student should have to pay his way in part as a condition of obtaining a college education. It gives a reality and vigor to one's work which is less likely to be obtained by those who are carried through colleges. I do not regard it, however, as desirable that one should have to work his way entirely, as the tax upon strength and time is likely to be such as to interfere with scholarship and to undermine health."

This last is a very important point, which needs to be emphasized. Health is your biggest asset in life. If you ruin that by skimping on food and necessary rest and recreation, not all the education or all the money in the world can compensate you for your loss. Common sense and ordinary intelligence should save one from any such folly. Health must always come first. Any sort of education worthy of the name means a sound mind in a sound body.

The average boy of to-day who wishes to obtain a liberal education has a better chance by a hundredfold than had Daniel Webster or James A. Garfield. There is scarcely one in good health who reads these lines but can be assured that if he will he may. Here, as elsewhere, the will can usually make the way, and never before were there so

many avenues of resource open to the strong will, the inflexible purpose, as there are to-day,—at this hour and at this moment.

Circumstances have rarely favored great men. A lowly beginning is no bar to a great career. The boy who works his way through college may have in some respects a hard time of it, but he will learn how to work his way in life, and will often take higher rank in school and in after life than his classmate who is the son of a millionaire. It is the son and daughter of the farmer, the mechanic, and the operative, the great average class of our country, whose funds are small and whose opportunities compared with those of the sons and daughters of wealth are few, that the republic will most depend upon in the future for good citizenship and brains.