ly DUG ATI ON A.;S I F^ASS OjM,, ' /yfvvi \ /»y* LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 0D017SD1S37 • "n^ft^iMa^"^-^"^^ '"^^ - " ^.. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. %-(^ Slielf..S.^.-._ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. />^' V I' n y How I Got My Education. WITH A FEW REMARKS ON I'M SLIGHTLY IN LOVE AS I PASS ON, By "The Special Agent." i^r^im'^ w \ Jas. p. Harbison & Co., Printers, Atlanta, Ga. ®/ \\'=^^. v^ \1 3 TO THE STUDENTS OF EMORY COLLEGE THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. Contents. Page. CHAPTER I. My Desire for an Education, Confronted witli Much Opposition X7 CHAPTER n. My First Big Trip From Home 31 CHAPTER III. Student, Teacher, Farmer and Agent 4(> CHAPTER IV. At College and On the Road 61 CHAPTER V. My Trip to Virginia 75 CHAPTER VI. On the Road 90 CHAPTER VII. Lights and Shadows, or Contrasted Pictures ]08 CHAPTER VITI. Finale 127 Preface. At the request of many who have taken much in- terest in his education, strewing his otherwise thorny pathway with flowers, and not as a specimen of litera- ture, does the author send forth this little volume, hopins^ that by the suggestions contained therein, some struggling youth may find words of encourage- ment as he endeavors to honestly work his .way through college and secure, by his own efforts, an edu- cation. If it contains much that would seem ridiculous in the eyes of the refined, literary world, please remem ber that it is not a treatise on Morals, Science or Phi- losophy ; nor is it a specimen of the author's true character ; but merely a few pages from the book of Human Nature, as he picked them up by the wayside while pressing his journey along the busy thorough- fare of this bustling, battling world. The author has tried to give, as nearly as possible, viii Preface. the incidents as tliey occurred in his experience as an a^ent ; this hcini^ th(i means whicli lie employed to attain liis education. How few know the resources which lie within their reach, and still fewer are they who have the courage to utilize those they do discover ; and it is with a view of encouragement, and not to seem literary, that he liumbly sends this otherwise useless little volume on its mission of love. May it find its way into the hands of those only, who are in sympathy with the young men who, op- pressed with poverty, wish to make true men of them- selvee, and have first to acquire the wherewithal to se- cure sufficient mental training to insure success. Then you will be kind in judgment and charitable in criticism. Most truly yours, "Thk SrEciAi. Agent." Emory (Jollege, Oxford, Ga. CHAPTER I. MY DIOSJI'JO FOI{ AN KDHOATION (X)NFRONTED WITH MUCH ori'UBlTlON. " Well, Pauline, this is the last note 1 shall ever curry for Clareiico ; I have map^nificd his virtues, ex- onerated him from his accused errors, loved him for his couraf>;e, and especially for your sake; I have plead his cause before you with an honest heart ; but to-day T no longer carry a stick to break my own head. Hereafter the United States mail will bring his notes to you or they will lie unread. After this, the sweet- toned words from my lips will not be messages from him, but the |)lea(ling5 of my own cause, from a heart too full for utterance now, too deep to bo fathomed at a single glance." The youth set his bucket of water down under the June apple tree, gazed silently for a moment upon the unsyiripatlu^tic ground, and then dared to glance up into the sweetest face that he had ever beheld. Instead of receivirjg a rebuke in the shape of a frown, the maiden, with flushed cheek and sjjarkling eye, broke the silence with words soft and encourag- ing. i8 How I Got My Education. ^' Jack, you need not carry another note for Clar- ence ; I have read all from him that I care to read ; henceforth he and I are merely friends. I thank you for all you have done for me in his behalf." " Then, Pauline, live or die, sink or swim, survive or perish, I shall be hopeful that success is mine." The " brown-eyed maiden " smiled an answer of love upon the courageous knight that would beggar words for description. The two turned and walked together up the green sward from the spring toward the old mansion, he to his work behind the counter in the basement, she up-stairs to busy herself in the domestic affairs of her happy home ; he to dream of early becoming the partner and son-in-law of his employer ; she to muse on Clarence's surprise and her own delight at being the queen of her father's senior clerk. To fully appreciate the little thread of love which will run through these pages, showing the fatal rock upon which many a youth has wrecked his little harque^ let us go back a few pages in the history of the hero of this story. In that great valley of Virginia known as the Shenandoah — close by the foot of a spur of the "Blue Ridge" called the Massanutten Mountain — stands a small but attractive country cottage. In front of tiie house runs a bright, sparkling mountain branch, wind- How I Got My Education, ig ing through cedars, witchhazels and willows, watering the green meadow which stretches to tt e north of the cottage. Just behind this humble but Christian abode the mountain slope begins its ascent, rising for more than a mile and looking over the beautiful valley which sleeps so peacefully between these mountain ranges, after the din and bustle of four years' strife has been hushed to silence. The war is over ; the smoke of battle has now de- parted ; the bugle no longer calls father to meet the foe who have so often laid waste their beloved and happy home. But is the father rich? Can he now retire and rest from his labors, educate his children and en- joy the comforts of an easy and quiet life ? JNo, no ! Would it had been so ! With two mules and a horse brought out of the late conflict, a large family depend- ing upon his efl'orts, on a small farm, some parts of which were very rocky, there was required the earn- est attention of father and older boys, leaving but little time for thought and literary enjoyment. Day after day and month after month did the youth of that humble home plow and sow, reap and mow, in those hot June-bug days ; and haul wood and shovel snow in those long, cold Yirginian winters. There is much in a good, earnest desire. But de- sire, backed by an honest intention, together with a true conviction of right, becomes at once a power 20 How I Got My Education. which must evidently create action — and action is all that is worth anything in this world. A man's desire may be wholesome, his purposes good, his convictions strong, but without action all falls hopelessly to the ground. The eldest of the four boys had a desire to flee from the rocks and roots and harvest fields, and wood- hauling in snow storms, and seek a place more conge- nial with his mental and physical make-up. This youth had the honest conviction that he was never in- tended for a farmer; he might have been cut out for one, but was mightily spoiled in the making. He wanted to be a clerk. This anxious desire to mix and mingle with prints and lawns, bleached cotton and dress goods, hose and slippers, ruffles and bustles, hooks and eyes, hair pins and braids, starch and lace collars, twenty-button kids and corsets, led this youth, with father's permission, from the farm to the store. A grand departure, this ! I remember leaving one cold December evening, behind another boy, on horse- back, with my clothes tied up in an old-fashioned oil-cloth bag, and arriving at the residence of my em- ployer after a ride of about fifteen miles, at nine o'clock that cold winter December evening. Old Squire Prestine was the gentleman who had ofliered me the position as clerk in one of his dry goods How I Got My Education. 21 stores ; and it was his daughter, Pauline Prestine, that proved to be the heroine in the little story about to be recited. She was no heroine to me at that time. My goddess was the mercantile business, and I bowed in humble reverence to every proposition made me by my new employer, I^ext morning, the bargain being made, and quite a meagre salary agreed upon, I *was informed by the old Squire that my services were needed at one of his ])raiich stores about twenty miles distant; but that the horses were busy, and my only chance to get there would be to walk. "Walk twenty miles T "Yes, sir !" "With these heavy brogan boots on, filled with Hun- garian tacks to keep them from wearing out ? Walk twenty miles over this hard, frozen ground without any dinner V "That's the programme," said the Squire ; and I saw in his countenance a kind of a "you-can-do-that-or-go- back-home" expression. Then I thought, "There's no royal road to learning" the mercantile business. But thank kind fortune, 1 had the grit to try it. Leaving the little village of L , just as the sun rose from behind the snow-capped mountain peaks — painting the white frost into a thousand sparkling gems, and the sharp mountain air making red the nose 22 How I Got My Education. and ears of the out-door boy, the new clerk was seen moving off in the direction of his new home. After a two hours' walk, coming suddenly upon an eminence in the road, the steeple of the old town clock, the glittering spires of the churches, and the blue smoke curling and intermingling with the tall houses and tree tops, revealed to the ravished eyes of the country boy the beautiful town of H , sit- uated in the very heart of the Shenandoah Yalley. To a youth unaccustomed to the fascinating ways of the world, this was a grand treat ! " I'll take in the town," said I. "I've started out to make money and see the world, and I'll soon have plenty of filthy lucre. So I'll just call in at one of these stores and pick me out a nice hat, send in for it soon, and throw this old slouched hat away ; clerks don't wear such hats as this anyway." So on my arrival at Main street, I stepped into one of the large dry goods stores, and a clerk approached me and said : " Yell, vot ish it ?" " I wish to look at a fashionable hat, if you please." "Yell, you kin schist look ad him. Dot ish ein goot hoot, dot ish ein besser hoot, und dot ish ein bestes hoot." " What do you ask for the price of this hat ?" " Ein doller und zeventy-five zents, und ids sheat ad haf de moneys." How I Got My Education. 2j '' All right, sir ; I'll take this one if you will lay it away until I come to town again." Eef you paj^s me ver id, I lays 'Im avay." " But, sir, I haven't the change now." ** Yell, den you pays me dwenty vive zents ver my droubles. Eef you dond, I calls in der bolice und has you bud in der schail." Then I thought, " You vas von vool mit vooten head," and 1 walked out mighty quick, and struck up the road for my new home, where they had no ^' vool" Jews to bother me with '^ dot kind of beeshniss." About three o'clock that afternoon I arrived at my destination with the skin all rubbed off my heels, awfully hungry and tired, but anxious to enter upon the duties of the high position to which I had been called. Next morning I was initiated into the busi- ness of country clerk. Well, perhaps some young fellows don't know what the character of a new country clerk's duties is. Well, for three months I fed chickens and turkeys, ducks and geese, pigs and calves, packed rags and feathers, eggs and wool, dried fruits and pole-cat skins, swept out the store and carried water, cut wood and made fires ! A grand and elevated calling this ! " Who would be a farmer when such a distinguished business as this could be had ? Not this chicken," thought I. 24- How I Got My Education. But the stone which the builders rejected soon be- came the head of the corner. It was but a short time until the boss sent for me to come back to this town of L , his place of residence, where I became the senior clerk, the corresponding secretary, the chief-cook-and-bottle-washer, and above all, oh ! must I say it, I blush to murmur the rest, the — the man — the m-a-n who — who w-a-s in love with — with his em- ployer's daughter ! Yes, it was in the little town of L , that Clar- ence Morton, Pauline Prestine and myself, played a little game that mighty nearly bursted up my hopes for an education. Three years of my life at L glided by as qui- etly as the running of Magara Falls — for you know that true love runs as smoothly as Niagara and as mu- sically as a dozen tom cats on a house-top in a mid- winter night. Those were days of knightly glory ! Pauline and I met in the parlor by the soft light of the burning taper; on the front piazza, in the softer and dimmer glow of the evening starlight, and by the spring, under the June-apple tree, as the day died away into dreamy twilight. We found it convenient to attend church together ; to go to camp-meetings, picnics and parties — often through deep snow — when the music of the sleigh-bells chimed in so musically with the song our happy hearts were singing. Hozv I Got My Education. 25 Thus summer and winter, autumn and spring, were all one season to us. Soon we should be married and I should be one of the firm — happy socially, happy as a business man — happy alway ! Clarence Morton had been Pauline's first sweet- heart, and attractive and graceful as he was. the new clerk was too much for him. Clarence stuck out his shingle as a lawyer and point- ed to his profession as his mistress. He had retired from the fight, leaving me the successful knight with Pauline. I stood cock of the walk. Clarence drank — that's what ruined him with the old folks and with Pauline too. I had the advantage of him there — I did not drink. Boys, never drink ! But in the midst of all this feast of joy and ex- pected perfection of bliss, a "sudden change came over the spirit of my dreams"; I had been raised by loving. Christian parents, who, if they could not give me an education, had tried to impress early piety upon my young heart, and suddenly I felt that the world was offering me too much ; that I was in danger of cheating myself out of my soul — in a word, I felt called upon to spend my time and talents in the min- istry. What ! Must I sacrifice my business relations with the old Squire, and be a poor man the rest of my days with the words of the poet ringing in my ears ever and anon — 26 How I Got My Education. '* No foot of land do I possess, No cottage in this wilderness?" Above all, must I sacrifice the only woman in the world who loves me, and sever these sweet ties which bind us into such a bundle of concentrated bliss ? " Aye, there's the rub — it doth make cowards of us all." I knew that to preach would require a lon^ and tedious course in college, besides the time it would take to get ready financially for prosecuting my studies. Moreover, to leave Pauline was to lose her ; for she had not promised to wait five or six years for me, and then be a preacher's wife. I knew if she did promise she would not wait. But these were my hon- est convictions, worked out by many an hour of anx- ious thought, and thank goodness for a spirit that prompts a man to do what he believes to be his duty, even in the face of all opposition, and at the sacrifice of the dearest and sweetest idol of his brightest fan- cies. Finally, I summoned up courage enough to break the secret to Pauline. It was a sad time indeed ; but not so sad as I had expected. I had thought to see her turn coldly and indifferently away from me and leave me to weep alone. But when I said : " Pauline, my convictions, from a moral standpoint, require that our marriage be postponed for at least ^\Q years, and that these pleasant associations be fre- How I Got My Education. 2^1 quentlj broken into by intervals of long absence ; that ray life be spent in the ministry, which will re- quire much time and preparation for such a life- work !" When I revealed to her these, my recent convic- tions, why, like ail other good little women, she was true as steel, for the moment. " Pauline, to leave you is to lose you, I know — I know it is ! You will not wait ; and how can I lose you, the hope of all my future happiness?" I turned to leave the room with an over-burdened heart, but, laying her hand on my shoulder, she said r " Jack, I will wait for you, and when you return, an educated man, I will, if possible, be prouder of you than now.'' " How kind and true you are ; I know you will wait !" (Yes ; they all wait — but it is till some other fellow comes along) and I said to myself as I left the room : " What will Clarence be doing in all my absence ?" The cold chills ran down my spinal column till I could have spit out ice-cream just by drinking sweet milk. Next morning when the old Squire came in the store, I said : " Squire, I'm very sorry, but I am going to leave in a few days — hope you will not be inconvenienced in finding some one to fill my place.'' 28 How I Got My Education. " Where are you going ?" inquired the Squire, with some surprise upon his countenance. "Going to educate myself, and spend my life in another vocation." '^ Oh, nonsense ! You have education enough. I was just thinking of turning over the new store, up on the river, and giving you half the profits." " That's a fine ojffer, Squire ; but my convictions lead me into another channel of life and activity." '' What is your programme for the future," inquired the Squire. " My life will be spent in the ministry, sir." " Oh, if that's it, your conscience will soon be at ease ; it's a mere momentary conviction, which will blow over in a little while." "I guess not, Squire ; I've fought it too long and too hard already to be deceived. My purposes are fixed. I leave next Tuesday." " 1 am sorry, very sorry, my boy, but I haven't any- thing more to say." When the next Tuesday evening's sun sank to rest behind the blue hills in the far west, I sat under the weeping willow at my mountain home with book in hand, studying a lesson to recite to my sister the next day. For the next few months I was under the pleasant tutoring of my sweet sister, whose early ad- vantages had been better in literary culture, and who Hozv I Got My Education. 2^ had acquired some proficiency as an educator in our immediate ricigliborhood. But many were the times I stole off to the little village of L on a Satur- day evening to see Pauline, and talk over our future prospects, when I should become an educated man, and fill my mission in life as an itinerant Methodist preacher. How hard were the pages of rhetoric and the problems of mathematics to a mind whose early train- ing had been thus neglected ! TIow frequent were the wishes to be back at the village of L , or a partner in the new store on the river, instead of trying to get an education without money or other necessary advan- tages. But in the face of all opposition I said, "I will," and things wilted. But to accomplish my purposes, what more must be sacrificed? I cannot board at home and attend col- lege, or even a good hi^^h school. I must go to some place where I can work for a while, and attend college for a while, and thus work my way over" the seeming impassable barriers which loomed up in ray pathway from ignorance to a moderate degree of mental at- tainment. Virginia is a grand old State ; her colleges are good, her climate conducive to culture, but to the poor boy there are other places where success is more certain, and certainly more rapid ; and, thank goodness, Geor- JO How I Got My Education. gia is such a place. While her sons were left poor from the ravages of the war, there is no place in the Southern States where there are finer facilities for young men to utilize in attaining education. Her winters are mild, giving more time in which to work ; the people are kind and generous, often lending a helping hand to the toiling youth, as he seeks employ- ment. Teachers and canvassers, especially those who go out in the summer vacations from colleges, meet the approval of all true Georgians. It was to this field I was luckily directed, and will ever thank kind Provi- dence for allowing my lines to fall in such pleasant places. Of course to do this I must make one more final and exceedingly sad sacrifice — I must leave home ! Write that sentence, will you, young man, and put it into ac- tion, and you will make the sacrifice that tells for good or for evil on the life of the youth, for time and for eternity. The holy influences of praying parents, the sweet association of loving sisters, and the heavenly benediction that hangs like an oracle about the paren- tal roof, when once sacrificed, leaves an aching void that strangers' parents and other boys' sisters can never (fully) fill. The Paulines and the Susies, the Marys and the Janes may be found anywhere at any time, "the woods is full uv 'em," but mothers and fathers, sisters How I Got My Education. ji and brothers will be found nowhere in this broad world but a,t '"'Home /'' But where they are, and there only, is home — whether in the fertile valley of the Shen- andoah, or in the arid desert, or among the rocky cliffs of the Sierra Nevadas. For Heaven's sake, don't de- preciate home. You may discount sweethearts fifty cents on the dollar, and then call it a good trade, but let home go for its par value, for "home is home, be it ever so homely." CHAPTER II. MY FIRST BIG TRIP FROM HOME. In the days of '76, when every railroad station was lined with the flaming advertisement, "Go West, Young Man, Go West !" and many of the noblest sons of the "Mother State" were taking up their march with the motley crowd, in their eager press across the Mississippi, some, perhaps, to fill the high calling of a "cow-boy," others to stump the State of Texas for the cause of temperance, with a bottle of wliisky in each pocket, and others, doubtless, to be elected chief marshal at the lynching of some one of their own party, I heard a gentle voice, low, but sweet, saying, "Come to the 'land of the Sunny South,' a land whose 02 How I Got My Education. genial sun, balmy air, fertile soil and generous people offer a rich harvest to those who ''fear not to tread where duty leads.' " This was a year for leaving home. Englishmen and Frenchmen left home that year, Germans and Scotch- men, Irishmen and Spaniard^, Esquimaux and Lap- landers, Icelanders and Portuguese, our Brother in Black, our Sister in Ked, our Cousin John in Yellow, and our Uncle-connecting-link, the Baboon — all had left home that year and had congregated in Philadel- phia at our ''grand, gloomy and peculiar" Centennial. It was indeed a time for leaving. New departures were taking place every day. So I began to pack. First of all I must get rid of those things which I will not need when I get to Georgia, for Georgia, from a Yirginia standpoint, has the finest climate in the -^orld — a perfect fairy land — no rain except when and where it is absolutely needed, no mud, except at the brickyards, no snow nor ice nor cold weather, nor rocks, nor briars, nor thorns, nor thistles, nor snakes, nor mosquitoes, nor sandflies, nor "chiggers." Ko ! nothing but flowers and fruits and cotton and negroes! and — other good things. So I had a private sale at home, and sold my um- brella and overshoes, my overcoat and buckskin gloves, buffalo robe and fur cap, fur gauntlets and woolen undershirts, high top boots and heavy socks. Hoiv I Got My Education, jj In short, I just dressed up in what I called a regular *' Down South suit," low quarter shoes, thin, white socks, loose turn down collar and white cravat, a light straw hat, well perforated, and all things else to suit. Well, I must go by the Centennial. I've started out to educate myself, and an education would be in- complete without taking in at least one Centennial, and as I might not get to the next one I must go now or never. Besides, I wanted to see my kinfolks. Some of them had been living over there about the Garden of Eden ever since our Father Adam first went to housekeeping. Now, as they had come so far, it would be discourteous not to meet them in the " City of Brotherly Love." Don't you forget it, it suited very well for me to leave home on Sunday evening, and go by the little village of L , that an early start might be made from that station next morning. Now of course i^auline would not have gone any- where without her father's permission ; but it was rumored that he had a notion to send her off that evening, for fear she might want to go along to the Centennial. It is Sunday afternoon. The sun hangs low in the west. The willow branches sway to and fro in the zephyrs that steal down from the densely shaded gor- ges where the crystal spray and foam dashes from J^ How I Got My Education. cliff to cliff, forming a thousand rainbows from the Bunlight that filters through the thick green foliage of forest oaks. The small spring wagon stands at the stile with driver, trunk and valise aboard. Father and mother, sisters and brothers, stand around to give the last shake of the hand and imprint the final kiss upon the cheek of hirn whose moustache will be too much in the way for that when he returns. The old dog gets up from his shady place and looks on with a sad countenance. The calf in the yard ceases to chew its cud, as much as to say : " I'm about to lose a mate.'' The ducks made out of the branch, and quack^ quah, their final farewell. In fact every- thing movable and immovable seemed to sa well, Brudder Jonee*." The hills and dales, orchards and vineyards, soon shut from view the sweet home, with its hallowed influences which clustered so thickly about the old cottage. He is gone ! Yes, gone to look no more upon these sacred scenes in five long years. Oh ! how sad are these partings. But perhaps you would ask what that had to do with my education. "Well, it had a great deal to do with it. It's what Dr. Haygood calls '' cutting loose from your mother's apron string." 1 have seen some young fellows in college who had not fully done that, and they made fools of themselves. How I Got My Education, j^ But when once awaj, I left off grieving and tried to make every sweet girl my sister, and every good woman my mother (in law) and thus learned to love the home of my adoption. The shadows are lengthening, the village of L rises to view, the lights are beginning to glow as twi- light sinks into darkness. Two young hearts meet on the piazza in the pale starlight once more to say farewell. Now, just along here, many a fellow has given up the best purposes of his life and yielded to the senti- mentality which evidently exists iu great abundance on such occasions as these. Kot so in this case. " I leave you to-morrow morning, Pauline, on the early train, and it may be years before we meet again. The toil and anxiety which await me already burden my heart when I think upon what lies before me. But duty — that's the biggest word to me, now, in the English language — and duty says I must leave you. The injunction is, ' Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you' " — (such as wife and children, moth- er-in-law and old maid sisters, doctors' bills, shoe- makers' bills, mercliants* bills, leaky houses, lands, smoky stovepipes, sleepless nights when the baby has the thrush, or is teething, all this, with tribulation — when I revolved all this in my mind I felt " kinder" J 6 How I Got My Education. glad that these things were postponed rather indefi- nitely.) " But, Jack, I'll be true, and the days and years will soon glide by, and you will be back again, never to be separated from me as long as life shall last.'' There stood " two souls with but a single thought, two hearts that beat as one." The day dawns, the train rolls into the little station, the whistle blows, the bell rings, and in an hour I am thirty miles nearer Philadelphia than ever before. Once upon the road, I throw myself back into the seat with a kind of an air of '' I'm traveling." Education consists, you know, of varied informa- tion^ and to take a trip once in a while is a good thing. But this was my first trip. Presently a young fellow spied me and he said to himself, " that's my chance." Picking up a basket he struck for me. Well, that basket ! I had never seen the like before, and when he had got through with me I had bought a vegetable ivory needle case, a plush pincushion, a whistle, a tin horn, a rattle, a prize package of paper, a prize package of candy, a little gum thing you put over the mouth of a bottle filled with milk, a pocket saw-mill, a cross-eyed darning needle and a left-handed gimlet ! Yes, sir, I did ! Of course you say, " What made you do it?" Yes, I say " What made me do it, too ?" I was getting my edu- How I Got My Education. 57 cation. I don't do that way now. What made you do that way the first time you went from home ? You did not know any better. That's the kind of a man I was. But let me tell you ; I traded those things off. " What for ?" For a monkey. " What did you do with the monkey ?" Ah ! thereby hangs a (monkey's) tale. Late in the afternoon, about 4 o'clock, we rolled into the prettiest city I had ever seen ; when the engine settled down in Camden street station, I stepped out upon the beautiful streets of Baltimore. As so many people have been to Baltimore and know so much more about the place than I do, I for- bear describing the place. It is, indeed, a model city, and the little while I was there was a treat. Next morning I started for Philadelphia. Leaving the city we soon came to the bridge that spans the beautiful Susquehanna. Ah! that grand old river, as it flows so gently, with scarcely a ripple, into the Chesapeake Bay, its banks lined with habitations, form a scene which inspires the youth with grand and ele- vated thoughts. A few short hours' ride through elegant farms, dot- ted here and there with neat dwellings, large and well filled barns, beautiful plank fences all whitewashed, J 8 How I Got My Education. and clover stacks literally checking the green mead- ows, with cattle, sheep and horses grazing leisurely in clover knee high, and we were soon in sight of the citv of William Penn. I put up at the "Atlas Hotel," kept on the European plan — that is, you call for what you want and pay for what you don't get. I did not want much of anything except a bed, and I didn't get much of that — just three slats and two sheets. My good mother had filled one side of my valise with chicken and ham, pickles and cake, jelly and dried beef, hard-boiled eggs and apple pie, butter, bis- cuits, etc. So, I did not want anything I saw at the Centennial (for I had plenty of toys) except one thing, a pretty little piano — I wanted it bad, I wanted it — to stop that awful bellowing and squealing. This must have been the piano that Rubinstein played when the old countryman went to the city for the first time. 1 know it was the one they played the first time I went. I did not exactly see the " stream of silver running over pebbles of gold, and the little white- winged angel leading the music away off down through the meadow, out of hearing, while the leaves of the bushes danced and bowed as it passed away," but I tell you what I How I Got My Education. jp did see — I saw two or three men and women holding the keys trying to lock the thing up and shut its mouth, and they could not do it. It just bellowed on. It was one of those grand, old steam " planners" of the six driver-wheel kind, and it just moved right along, never stopping at any small stations for wood, water, coal, mail, or female. It was a tlivoiigh fast mail. Well, I saw everything at the Centennial, the ''world in a cocoanut shell." I have not seen but one thing since that I didn't see at the Centennial. That was my twenty-fifth birth-day — they didn't have that there. It was strange to me that one could become so lone- some in so vast a crowd as that. But, among all the motley crowd of presidents, governors, statesmen, colonels, generals, 'squires, magistrates, kings and queens, earls and princesses, cardinals and archbish- ops, the ''wise men of the east," the rich men of the west, the fool from all quarters of the globe, and Tom Walker, with not one man, woman, child, monkey or baboon into whose face I had the pleasure of looking, did I have the slightest acquaintanceship. I was reminded of the beautiful words of Byron in Childe Harold, when he said : "To sit on rocks, to muse o'ec flood and fell, To slowly trace the forest's shady scene, Where things that own not man's dominion dwell, And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been ; ^o How I Got My Education, To climb the trackless mountain all unseen With the wild flock that never needs a fold ; Along o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean ; This is not solitude, 'tis but to hold Converse with nature's charms and view her stores unroll' d." "But 'midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men, To hear, to see, to feel and to possess, And roam along, the world's tired denizen. With none who bless us, none whom we can bless. Minions of splendor shrinking from distress ! None that with kindred consciousness endued. If we were not, would seem to smile the less. Of all that flatter' d, follow' d, sought or sued, This is to be alone ; this, this is solitude !" I would not have been half so lonely with Pauline, under the June apple tree, as I was there in that park, among all those people and big houses. I learned another thing at the Centennial, and that was that a '^ Guide Book'' to an affair like that was just about as useful to a visitor as a foreign guide who speaks but one language would be to an Ameri can tourist in Europe. Of course, I wanted to see everything and know where it came from — the author, the inventor, the designer and translator, who captured it, and how it was tamed, who wore it, and how long it was worn without washing, its .size, weight, age, and capacity, cost of its importation and price of its history. So I bought a Guide Book (yes, a guide book) to the Art Gallery, Machinery Hall, the Main Building, How I Got My Education. at the U. S. Building, Horticultural Hall, the Glass Works, the Woman's Pavilion, the Men's '' Distil^ lion," the Turkish Bath House ; one to the Cafe Maz- erin, the Cafe Halle des Femmes, the Bonnee foi, the Rue Yivienne, the Cafe de Eat Mort (the cafe of the dead rat). I bought one to the Bois de Boulogne, another to Yaudeville, the Gjmnas, the Palais Royal, the Ambigue, etc., and, finally, one to know how to get away from these places ; and more finally, one to know how to get out of the grounds. '" Every road leads to Rome," but the trouble was to find one that led from Rome. Well, I just roamed about. But that wasn't all. I had to hire a guide to teach me how to use this library. I wanted an index to the indices. Moreover, while some invalids had to hire a three-wheeled chair to convey them from one place to another, it was more necessary that I should hire some one to carry my guide books. Thank goodness, one may live and learn ; and by the time I was ready to go to the Yorktown Centen- nial, five years later, I had learned not to buy guide books. 1 was guided then by the dust ! I knew that where there was so much dust there must be some- thing going on, so I followed the dust. Don't forget that, and never buy a guide-book if it's dusty. Something else struck my fancy there, though, and I invested my spare change this time in Yorktown- ^ How I Got My Education, Oentennial-Medals. Thej had 'em from ten cents up. Leaving the Philadelphia Centennial, I found my- self back in the city of Baltimore preparatory to start- ing for my new home in the South. I had written to the general ticket agent of that city for prices of different routes, and had been informed by his excellency that the cheapest and best route was from Baltimore via Hichmond, to Atlanta, Ga. Stepping into the ticket office I called for one first- class ticket via Richmond to Atlanta. " The recent rains, sir, have so demolished the route that a passage that way would be impracticable," said one of the sub-agents. "Well, sir," said I, "you have written me that this was the route for me, and have specified the price, and I have governed myself accordingly ; it would be im- possible for me to retrace my steps via Staunton, Lynchburg and Dalton with the change I now carry in my vest pocket !" "I guess you are mistaken, sir, about the informa- tion we gave you." "I suppose not, sir ; you had better look up your files and copied letters." I just stood there, like Joe Brown's son, and as- serted my rights with confidence. They began to in- vestigate. The general agent came in, and the senior clerk, and after a while they rendered the verdict of — ''You're correct, sir." How I Got My Education. ^j "Yes, sir, thank yon. What are you going to do about it ?" and I stood right there. "W-e-1-1," said the general agent, "I guess I — I'll have to fix you up a ticket ;" and what do you think ! That man fixed me up a coupon ticket that sent me eight hundred miles West, six hundred miles South, and two hundred miles East ! all for less than twenty dollars. I was really glad it had rained so hard down about Eichmond, so I could take a long route, all for the same money. They called it an " emigrant ticket.'' I called it a kind of half -fare-free-ride-ticket. I hardly knew which way I was going ; felt very much like asking them to tag me like a bag of wool, so if I got lost I could be returned to them, that they might start me out again. That night about ten o'clock the emigrant took his seat, and all night long the old train rolled and rattled over hill and dale, spanning gorges and rivers, running under cliffs and through mountains, until daylight found us away out in the mountains of West Vir- ginia. 1 was really going West when I meant to go South. It was a wonder to me to see the coal and iron re- gions. The hills were dug and tunneled ; the valleys were trestled and filled in ; the houses were black, the trees were black, and the smoke and fog that hung like a curtain of night over these cities were almost impenetrable. /f.^ How I Got My Education. For miles and miles the railroad ran up and down the mountain, at times away up among the rocks and cliffs, with the Cheat Kiver a mile below; then it would dart down and skim along the water's edge, giving one continual panoramic view of picturesque mountain scenes, filling the soul with music and poetry, which can only give expression in great sighs of ''It's grand ! Oh, it's wonderful !" That's all you can do. But after awhile the green meadows, golden grain- fields, with bonnie lasses driving the reapers ; fine orchards, rich, dark green cornfields, cosey country farm houses, and large white barns peculiar to the State of Ohio, literally crowded upon the view. A short stop for dinner at Chillicothe, and West- ward we rolled. Late in the afternoon, just about sunset, the noise of factories, foundries, steam mills, the roll and rattle of carriages, omnibuses and drays, the smoke and steam from a thousand manufactories, the towering- steeples and granite walls of elegant buildings — all told of our arrival in the ''boss city of the West," Cincinnati. Thirty minutes for supper and I knew nothing of the busy West. I lay down to sleep in Cincinnati and took breakfast in Nashville ! I was emigrating rapidly. Hozv I Got My Education. a^ It was not long after leaving Nashville till I knew I was getting down in the land of the "Sunny South." The winding cotton rows, sweet potato ridges, pea- nuts and negroes, together with the absence of hay- stacks, meadows, spring houses, large barns, fat cattle and apple orchards, showed that I had changed base. This is no hase contrast which I have drawn between the two sections, either. Indeed, that day's ride was one of weariness to me. That part of the country from Kashville to Chatta- nooga, with the rain pouring down in torrents, till the cotton and sweet potatoes stood six inches in water, and the emigrants' car leaking, soiling his down South suit, presented a scene not much adapted to the feel- ings of a young tourist. I sighed for my native "Blue Ridge Home" and the little town of L — . But after awhile the sun broke forth, the mocking bird sang sweetly in the crab-apple tree, the zephyrs from the Gulf cleared the mist and fog from the sweet-winding Tennessee, which lay like a silver gir- dle around the base of Lookout Mountain and the city of Chattanooga. I was really fascinated with the contrast, and when we struck the old State road with its solid bal- last and steel rails, we shot like a swift-winged bird down past Dalton, Ringgold, Kingston (that's one /}.6 How I Got My Education. time I did not stay long at Kingston), and when the whistle rang and the bell hlowed^ I stepped off the train in the little city of Carters ville, on Georgia soil for my first time. Next day, when I sat down to sum up what 1 had learned on my first big trip, I found I had more ex- perience than money. CHAPTER III. STUDENT, TEACHER, FARMER, AND AGENT. I SHALL never forget the warm reception I received from my half-sister and brother-in-law, who had pre- ceded me to Georgia three years. The door of their humble home was ever open to me, and it was through their instrumentality that I came to Georgia to work my way through college. Their house was my home for the next ten months. Education being my purpose, I lost no time in mak- ing the necessary arrangements for entering school. I agreed to work night, morning and Saturdays in the garden and photograph gallery for my board. I called on the Professor and asked him to credit me for my tuition, which he kindly agreed to do, and thank kind Providence for the many other kind- How I Got My Education. ^7 nesses I received at the hands of this true Christian gentleman. I had six dollars in money. That being spent for books, T entered school with the determination to suc- ceed. Longfellow says, *'A boy's will is the wind's will," but with a strong tide of poverty beating against my every effort, together with a dull percep- tion, growing out of the lack of early training, I bat- tled and struggled until it was at last apparent that I had made some little progress in the road to learning. Slow and hard of necessity, though, is the march from chaos and darkness to order and light. Many were the weary hours I spent over the simplest lessons, while to others, with early advantages, they would have been quite easy. But I labored under another great disadvantage — this was in a social relation. In Yirginia, if a man is a gentleman, no matter what his calling, he is as much respected without title, as with title. The farmer, the blacksmith, the wheelwright, the miller, are all as highly respected as the lawyer, doctor, or merchant. Not so in Cartersville. Unless you are the son of a doctor, colonel, judge, lieutenant, major, 'squire, or something like that, or have some money, you had better emigrate " f udder." So it seemed more congenial for me to associate mostly with my books, the result of which rendered /J.8 How I Got My Education. me able, at the end of ten months, to find a place in the public schools as teacher. I thanked God and look courage. Summer and autumn glided by without anything very unusual taking place, except the hat which I thought so perfect for the climate of Georgia proved a failure. The holes let the mosquitoes through, and 1 had to stuff cotton in the crevices to keep them out. But, alas ! winter came — a Georgia winter ! it may be a little late, and just give you a small shower every few hours for about two months in the early part of that season ; but do not be deceived — mud and rain are not all you will have. No, sir. The first winter I spent in Georgia the snow was six inches deep. It don't matter if the roses do bloom till De- cember, you had better do like I did — get an over- coat, a pair of over-shoes, two umbrellas, (four to loan out — you will need yours all the time,) thick woolen clothes, woolen socks, highcop boots for snow and mud, a fur cap with ear flaps to it, and all such things as I sold in Virginia when I started to Georgia. It has actually been so cold on the coast of Georgia and Florida, that the fish have frozen to death and floated to the shore. But I never wrote anything like that to Yirginia, I knew they would not believe it. But they know it is true in Georgia, but they don't like to acknowledge it. They are afraid it will injure the country. How I Got My Education. ^g But you say what has all this to do with how I got my education ? Why, a great deal. 1 was studying geography — climate ! There is more geography in a Georgia winter as regards weather^ than in all the text books I ever saw. I actually wore my heavy clothes nearly out, pulling them off and putting them on, the changes were so frequent. It's just a moral necessity to know geography (as to climate) in Georgia. One day the flowers will peep out, and the next day all is hushed and stilled into si- lence in the embrace of ice, snow and sleet. Nearly a year had passed, vacation had come, and I must make some money to pay my debts. But alas ! my clothes were threadbare, my hat seedy, my shoes worn, no credit established, no money in bank, no friends to assist, and to go out among strangers at- tempting to make up a school in that kind of an out- fit, would have been to have failed and be classed as a tramp. Wear good clothes (not as a fop) — they are the best investment a young man can make, especially if he is among strangers. Dress neatly, hold a high head and go forward. It is better to borrow enough to buy a good suit of clothes and make the money afterwards, than to at- tempt, half-dressed, to earn the money first. ** With all thy getting" get good clothes. So a dear, old brother (God bless him,) opened his kind heart 50 How I Got My Education. and loaned me twenty-iive dollars with which I dressed myself in a new suit from head to foot. So off to the country I started to try my powers in teaching the young idea how to shoot. I walked most of the way and rode the other, till I found myself at last fifteen miles in the country. It was one of those beautiful Georgia August days — not even a fly was stirring, it was so hot. Ah, me ! these are the times that try boys' grit ! Many of them give it up right along here ! But two days' hard riding, and walking together, over hills and rocks, through persimmon bushes and black-jacks, and I had a school of thirty-five or forty pupils. One man subscribed five — and never sent them a day. He did it to encourage me in the outset. I thank him for it to this day. Three months of hard work in the school-room, and I rode into town as independent as a section-master on a hand-car. I called round and paid the professor my tuition ; called and paid the old brother the twenty-five dollars borrowed ; gave my sister twenty- five dollars for good pay, and, in fact, I had a few dimes left in my pocket besides. I went to school about five weeks, and vacation was over. My school opened again, and on I taught, and went to school alternately, until three sessions had passed. How I Got My Education, 57 It is one thing to teach and quite another to collect. You can collect children much easier than jou can money. I recollect all I got from one man was an old musket and a ^' jailer dorg.'' I shot the dog and gave the gun away. Two years had gone glimmering since I left the little village of L . Not a line had I received from Pauline. We had promised not to write to each other — love, you know, dies out quicker if you don't write — and we were true to our promise. But one October evening, as 1 strolled home from the school-house, tired and worn out from the labors of the day, faint of heart and weary of life (for my confinement as student and teacher had reduced me to a mere skeleton), I was handed a letter, light of weight but heavy in meaning, for on it I plainly read the post-mark of the little town of L . I glanced at the address, and with trembling hands and heaving breast, I recognized the handwriting of Pauline ! The Chaldean king could not have been more puzzled to know the meaning of the strange writing on the wall than I was to know the purport of this little note. " What could it mean ? Is she tired of waiting and is writing for my return % They do get tired. Is it an invitation to her and Clarence's wedding ? Oh ! if that were so, let my epitaph be ^2 How I Got My Education. " My love was false but I was firm From my very day of birth ; Upon my body lie Lightly, gentle earth." " Was her father dead, and did they want me to return to take charge of the business for them ? If that be true, I may go, though I may be required to walk. " Must I tear it open and devour its contents, like gome nervous woman ? or shall 1 wait till after tea, and steal off in the twilight among the bushes, where nothing but the toad and katydid can see and be seen V and I placed it in my side pocket and walked three times around the big chestnut tree which stood in the yard, and said, "Twice one is two (when you are single) ; twice one is one (when you are married)." Then I stopped, took the thing out of my pocket, and was just about to tear it half in two, when the supper bell rang ; and of course I put it back in my pocket, and walked in to supper, just like any other sensible man would do. By the time 1 had eaten my supper I had forgotten I had the thing^ and, lighting a choice cigar, I took a stroll with the young folks to get chinquepins. About nine o'clock I happened to think of the strange visitor, and going to my room I shut the door and locked it, pulled down the blinds, took off ray coat, rolled up my sleeves, i-oached back my hair, How I Got My Education. ^j brushed the perspiration from mj brows, and — sat down. There wasn't much in it — a very small affair — but it counted : "Hoping it may not cause you a moment's real sor- row, I feel it my duty to inform you that the prom- ises I made you September the 12th, 18Y5, can never be fulfilled. AVith many wishes for your future and eternal welfare, I remain, Your true friend, Pauline Prestine." It was only two sentences, but of course that ended it. Tlis would have been a fine time to have said, "Education aint much account, anyway; Pll quit." Many a boy has gotten off at this station and taken to the woods. I said, "Pm sick anyway, and this stroke will end my existence. The green grass will soon grow over my grave, and my purposes and hopes will all have ended ere the white snows of another Georgia winter cover the roses. I had it bad, don't you forget it. But — There's never a day so sunny But a little cloud appears ; There's never a life so happy But it has its time of tears ; Yet the sun shines out the brighter When the stormy tempest clears. 5^ How I Got My Education, There's never a dream that's happy But the waking makes us sad ; There's never a dream of sorrow But the waking makes us glad ; We shall look some day with wonder At the troubles we have had. Bj morning I felt that I wo aid rather live than die. So I got a bottle of Simmon's Liver Regulator, two bottles of Cod Liver Oil, one pint of Honej Nec- tar, three bottles of Dr. Jayne's Ague Mixture, two ounces of Olive Tar, a little of Green's August Flower, one bottle of Bluets October Blossom and about a dozen spring chickens. Then I began to dose myself a little. But all to no purpose. I grew thinner every day. I spent all the spare change I had on doctors' bills and patent medicines, and by the time school closed I had nothing in this world left me but a skeleton. Then I thought of my father's house, of the many plows and harrows, hoes and rakes, mauls and wedges, cradles and scythes, which had given me such a good appetite, and so many pleasant nights of refreshing sleep, and I said, "I will cease feeding these little lambs on the dry husks of my dull brain, and will arise and go to the farm and say, "I am not worthy to be called a farmer, but just make me a digger of bri- ars and a piler of stones, and patent medicines and doctors' bills will no longer drag me to poverty and ruin." How I Got My Education, 55 ''Wiiere there's a will there's a way," and if a boy is not too proud there are always avenues opening where he may enter and succeed. It takes good grit, though, I can tell you. 1 shall never forget my old friend Union and the six months I kept "Bachelor's Hall," and worked on his farm. Those were days of a peculiar kind of education ; an education that may be needed in the future, when my "Pauline" — no ! my "Susie'' — no ! my "Callie" — No ! Well, when my — m-y wife is sick and the cook's away. (I was about to give myself away, then.) Three months later and I was a picture of almost perfect health. I had helped pick a crop of cotton, sowed a crop of wheat, hauled rails, made fences, fed the gin, fired the engine, milked the cow and cooked our "grub." Yes, sir, I could fry corn bread and bake ham, skin a chicken and stew eggs, poach coffee and toast biscuit, burn my fingers and scald my foot, just as good as any other little woman. I used to get dinner on Sunday, then dress up in my long-tailed coat, walk leisurely across the fields, trimming the dough from under my finger nails, walk in on the piazza and take a seat by a white dress, and look just as innocent as though I did not know how she burnt her finger, scalded her foot and fell out of the kitchen door against the slop-tub, and let ^6 How I Got My Education. the beans boil dry, and the cat get her head in the cream pitcher, and the dog in the cupboard ; but I knew all the time, I'd been there. Education, you see, in the culinary department. Well, I received only fifty cents a day in money, but five hundred dollars per month in health and ex- perience. But when I had enough health and expe- rience, I wanted more money. Farming is good, teaching is better, but canvassing beats them all for making money and getting varied information. It isn't everyone, though, that can stand the first six months of a canvasser's or drum- mer's life. The experience is too varied. But if they can stand it that long, there is some chance for them to succeed. Many a youth has wanted an education as badly as I did, but rather than undergo the trials and persecu- tions of such a life they retired in disgust and got married. (Then they got canvassed and curtain lec- tured, too.) Success is not so much to the swift as to those who stick at the thing under persecution. The thing is to go in bravely — and stay there. So — Never let your chances, Like the sunbeams, pass you by ; For you'll never miss the water Till the spring runs dry. How I Got My Education. ^f A ]^ew York man got hold of me, and like most Northern men, he knew his business, and was deter^ mined 1 should know it, too. Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well, and to thoroughly know what you propose to do is more than half the battle. So 1 spent two months over a descriptive sheet, telling me how to show a book, and when that man was through with me I was really ready for business. But I had to sacrifice a little false pride, right along here. Some of the dead-heads about the town said: "Ah ! You're going to be a book agent, are you I You'll be classed with the tramps.'' Then my time to speak came, and I said, " Yes, you're a tramp now ; you tranip from your father's house down town, tramp back at noon ; tramp to the river and fish all day, and never bring back a minnow, tramp home and eat like a tramp ; don't earn a dollar in twelve months, and yet Solomon, in all his glory, didn't know as much as you do — in your own opinion. I'd rather be a successful tramp, and make something out of it, than be a failure at that. If I'm to be a tramp I'll be a first-class one and make a success of it." That's what I said. (They didn't put up the next speaker.) I thought I saw, in the business just about to be entered, greener fields and richer pastures than I had ^8 How I Got My Education. been accustomed to graze in. So I waived prejudice, false pride, thoughts of failure, and all that, until there was nothing left me but success. The dream of the little village of L troubled me no longer. When once Pauline had turned the current of her love into another channel, of course I ceased to grieve about spilt milk and sour grapes. The gods had smiled on me again. Another fair maiden, a sweet-spirited, blue-eyed Georgian, Rosa Hawthorne, had promised to wait till I finished mj college course. Such a lovely creation had never crossed my path before. It seemed, indeed, strange that I should so unex- pectedly meet this pure, unsophisticated country wo- man. It was just inside or outside of North Georgia at a camp-meeting, or some other meeting, that I met this fair damsel, I remember trying to tell her how she impressed me, and she was so still you could have heard a gum- drop. " Miss Rosa, you are the cosiest little woman I ever saw." " Mr. S , I hardly understand the expression *cosey,' I wonder if it's a compliment?'' " I am sure. Miss Rosa, you would think it compli- mentary could you see the meaning with which I Hoiv I Got My Education. ^n «ndow the word. Ima^^ine a beautiful little frescoed room with Brussels carpet, lace curtains, red shades ; hangiug pictures covering the walls ; flowers Woom- ing inside the window ; a canary bird in a yellow cage hanging in the corner singing its sweet song ; a centre table filled with periodicals and niagazines ; a large arm-chair softly cushioned ; the glowing coals in the grate, ('Does this grate upon your ear? Ko, go on !') warming the room, while without the dark, blue clouds of a cold winter day hurl and dash the snow-flakes over the hard, frozen ground. Yiew the little room in contrast with the dreariness of the outside world, and you have the definition of the little word cosey?^ She caught on to that, and it wasn't long before I was living on hope again. A good promise is a great thing. You don't know whether it will be kept or not ; but you can live in hope. I had lived on just such a one several years before, and I could have that mirage to lead me on, if it never were overtaken. The gate of active business life swung wide and in- vited me in. I entered. The fields were white unto the harvest to every one who would thrust in his sickle. Thank God for the generous spirit of the Southern business man who stoops down to help a poor, struggling youth in his endeavors for mental attainment. A thousand different avenues opened 6o How I Got My Education. where one might enter and reap a rich harvest if he feared not the golden rays of the glorious sun. I have traversed Georgia from mountain to sea coast, and in every valley and on every hill-top the wealth of a nation sleeps, waiting to be roused and put into action. Along her streams and in her val- leys are seen the broad acres of productive soil, and is heard the music of a thousand factories. Why should the young man not succeed? Why should he grow up in ignorance if he want an educa- tion, though he be poor?. True, some men will try to frown you down and ridicule your early efforts to- succeed. What if they do ? None but the truly suc- cessful in any profession escape such rebuffs ; then make yourself one of the successful and escape that which is unappreciated in your business. I have stood on the banks of the Chattahoochee at Columbus, as it fairly dances to the music of the " Eagle and Phenix" mills, and there amid fierce com- petition, my efforts were crowned with success. I pressed my way through the busy streets of the "Gate City" with an eye blind to fashion and ear deaf to ridicule, my motto labor ovinia vincit, and there hon- est toil reaped her reward. Twelve months with its variegated experience as a book agent had passed ; October had ushered in the beautiful fall, physical labor had said, " it is enough How I Got My Education, 6i for the present, corae up higher.'' Three thousand dollars worth of books having been talked into the people, 1 called my labors a success. Then Emory College, God bless the old institution, opened wide her benign arms and welcomed her adopted son to her generous bosom. For the first time in my life I was what I had so often longed to be — a college student. While a college course will not make a smart man out of a fool, it is not all a mirage. The fountains and lakes, green oases and limpid streams which appeared in the distance to entice and lead on, were not all illusions. Much was real and all was valuable. CHAPTELi lY. AT COLLEGE AND ON THE ROAD. It is Wednesday morning, 10 a. m. October 5th, 18 — . The whistle blows for Covington, the bell rings and a dozen students get oS at the depot, and all pile in our hack for the little village of Oxford. Each student has a dozen questions to ask the good natured hackman. But he has been asked the same questions a thousand times, and knows the answer without having to think a moment. ^' Mr. H , how far is it to Oxford ?" 62 How I Got My Education. " Just a mile, sir," is the kind reply. " Who keeps the hotel V " They have no hotel, but every house in town is a boarding-house." " Is Emory College right in town ?" " Well, just as much in town as the town is in Em- ory College ; it's all hid over yonder in the thick foli- age together." The questions multiply and diversify. " Where will I find the President ?" " Who examines a student in Greek ?" ^' Who in Latin ?" " Who has the prettiest daughter in town V " When does college open ?" And a thousand ^ther just as important questions, and all answered with equal politeness. On rolls the well-filled hack over the beautiful road — at this season of the year — and presently we halt in front of the little dove-colored post-ofiice. Who has ever visited Oxford and not gone away with the kindest and most tender recollections of the delightful little village ? The beautiful clay road that passes through the main portion of the little town, and on by the ceme- tery, is lost from view a mile in the distance, among the dense shadows of the forest that lies northward of the outskirts of the town. How I Got My Education. 6j Southward, the gently undulating landscape, grad- ually drooping for a half mile, and then rising and falling into hill and dale, and broad meadows, is lost beyond the limits of the city of Covington, in the blue rim that skirts the horizon. The sun rises from be- hind a ridge of thick pine forest, and hangs for a mo- ment over the sparkling brook that plays its sweet, murmuring song in the meadows below. Westward, the sun hides iteelf behind the tall for- est oaks that encircle the beautiful grain fields and orchards of one of the village farms. On main street stand several little stores, with here and there the res- idence of one of the professors. Back a little, on other streets, are seen the lovely cottages of these happy, courteous, Christian people. The green sward, carpeting the whole plateau with its downy softness ; the tall oaks, locusts, cedars, with here and there a magnolia filtering the golden sun- light through their delicate green foliage, darkening, softening and blending the lights and shadows into a " fairy land ;" the white, brown and dove-colored and pea-green cottages standing here and there, laughing with joy and gladness as they peep out upon the smiling day, and above, over all, the blue sky and the gentle, sweet-scented breeze, stealing like a dream into this Eden, fills the soul with a joy that is akin to angels' happiness ! 6^ How I Got My Education, Just a little to one side, in the denser oak grove, are lifted the heads of the college buildings. Gravel walks lead to every part of the campus, and a plain shaft, with an iron railing, rises in honor of the first President of the college, Ignatius A. Few. A dozen columns would be inadequate to tell of the advantages of Emory College as an institution of learning. With its magnanimous president, its corps of efiicient professors, its splendid buildings, and the religious influence permeating every department, it is to the young man seeking knowledge what a cool, bubbling spring is to a weary traveler in a barren desert. When I arrived in Oxford one of the very youthful boys asked how many sons 1 had brought to college ? I looked a little ancient among some of the small fry. I took up my abode at one of the mess halls, in fact the only one in existence at that time ; not kept in such elegant style as now, but better than the one near ^'Lion's Den," in the days of Dumas. Two of us roomed together, did our own sweeping and making up of beds — a kind of bachelor's hall af- fair. Of course 1 felt perfectly at home. I had grad- uated in that department on the farm. A bell rings. It is the hour for supper. Twenty boys gather around a long but bare-looking table. A black-eyed, black-moustached, sharp-featured little :fellow sits at the head of the table. How I Got My Education. 6^ " Well, Mr. S ," said this wit, "this is your first trip to Oxford ?" " Yes, sir,'' sipping ray coffee with a pewter spoon. " First time you ever boarded at a hall ?" " Well, not exactly." "Now, Mr. S , just make yourself at home. Help yourself to what you see and call for what you don't see, but call loud, for it's in Atlanta.'' We had ham and grits for supper, and grits and ham for breakfast. It continued that way until I wished I had been born a Jew, that I might not be allowed to eat ham at all. Then the diet changed. We got fish. And we had fish until I almost decided I was a whale living on smaller fishes. The change was too seldom, that was the trouble. One of our boys — the poet — had eaten so many grits that his poetical dreams were on that subject. Sitting on the steps of the piazza, one lovely evening, his soul all inflated with the pure and beautiful, he solilo- quized thus : " O thou beautiful, silvery, pale-faced moon, you look like — like — a — a plate of grits ! ! ! " I entered the Freshman and sub-Freshman classes. I was behind in Greek and Latin. There was one thing I avoided, throughout my whole college course, like a child would fire ; I had learned that in my ten (5(5 How I Got My Education. months' course in Cartersville — not to study too hard. They never had to tell me one time, " Hold up, boy, you're ruining your eyes ; you'll injure your con- stitution." There are many pleasant occasions in a college course of a social and religious character that break the dull monotony of the class-room. Prayer meet- ings, experience meetings, Sunday-school teachers' meetings, public debates, private debates, evening strolls with or without company, base ball, marbles and leap-frog. College life, indeed, began very pleas> antly for me. Along toward the close of Freshman year we struck the brush and thicket of Geometry, many ^things in connection with which I never understood. For instance, the worthy professor in that depart- ment asked us many questions on the subject of an- gles. " Mr. A., what kind of an angle is that L ?'' " A right angle, sir." " You are correct." " Mr. B., what kind of an angle is that ?" "An acute angle, sir." *^Mr. S., what kind of angle is that ?" "A left angle, sir." Everything just roared. 1 never did know why they laughed so. How I Got My Education. 6y Another thing which the professor said was always a mystery to me, knowing the nature of students as well as he did. "Young gentlemen, you must get around these theorems.'' I took him, at hie word. I went round all I could. Well, we had gone on our journey for some time, climbing perpendicular heights, through horizontal plains, making many right, left, acute and obtuse an- gles, until we had gotten round a great many theo- rems. Finally we all came up to the theorem known to college students as the "Pons Asinorum" or Bridge of Asses. Many had gone that way before. It was necessary to cross that bridge in order to reach the plains of Trigonometry, the broad fertile fields of Analytical Geometry, the mountain slopes of Calculus, and finally in Astronomy to swing off into space among the stars. But I had borne well in mind the injunction of our worthy professor, and had got- ten round many difiiculties, both seen and unseen, and now I must be true to the injunction. The long-eared fellows marched right up to the bridge, and while they were attempting to cross, I switched off down the river, and many miles below 1 found a pony, which I mounted — it had been ridden before and was gentle — and rode leisurely down be- 68 How I Got My Education, side the murmuring stream to where it was fordable, aud in I plunged and reached the further shore in safety. But alas, alas ! I had lost my direction, and not having a compass to direct my feet toward the plain road where the rest of the flock were, I camped for many days and nights, all alone in that dark wil- derness, without the slightest hope of ever seeing day- light again. But finally I decided that to remain was to die, and to go forward was but to perish, so mounting the lit- tle pony, 1 started. Every once in a while, on some eminence in my route, I would call out for my crowd, and away to the right I would get a faint answer, but too indistinct to determine its meaning or learn my proper direction. The thickets and hedges barred and impeded my progress, but on and on I wandered ! Leaving the beautiful and undulating plains of Trigonometry far to the right, catching only at times a faint glimpse of the green sward and square plateaus in front of the elegant octagonal-shaped dwellings, my little narrow, hemmed up path becoming less and less passable at every turn. On I pressed, calling out occasionally from some high place on my route as the waving grain fields of Analytical Geometry lay far to the right. But, like Moses, I could only see them. I could not get there I How I Got My Education. 6g A faint voice could occasionally be heard to 8ay: *'Come this way; it's beautiful here in these rich fields." Then, perhaps, a fainter voice would say, " stay where you are, there's nothing good here." But "on, Stanley, on." I could see the mountain slope of Calculus loom up before me in the distance, with its waving branches and its crystal fountains sending out their silvery mist and spray over the fer- tile plains below. Finally, after days and weeks of wandering in the maze and wilderness, 1 came out into the plain road, where the boys had camped awhile at the foot of the mountain of Calculus. I never rode a pony again. I sat down and listened to the stories of the boys — of where they had been and what they had seen, and how sumptuously they had fared, until I almost wished I had crossed the bridge with the rest of the troop. On up the mountain we climbed and finally scaled the top, and inflating a baDoon with astronomical gas, soared off among the stars. We never could have gotten back but the balloon bursted, and each man having sufficient gas of his own manufactured to inflate his empty head, every- one let themselves down gently to earth. Commencement approached ; a few days intervening yo How I Got My Education, before the regular exercises began, and not wishing to lose any time, I took a small volume, known as " Our Brother in Black," and went down to Madison to see what I could do in introducing him down there, but I returned next day with most of the colored breth- ren with me on the seat. When commencement was over and vacation had separated the students into a thousand different fields, and had given them as many different vocations, I took up my abode in the beautiful city of Augusta. Had I been going somewhere for pleasure, I should have sought a cooler place, but strictly business was my motto. While men sat in the shade with two palm- leaf fans in hand, drinking iced-lemonade, soda water, and a little rye mixed in, trying to keep cool ; and the women up-stairs with their m6>?5A«/'-Ai^5Z>(X7'i what the world is made. But if a man wants to know what he wished he haii not known, let him wade out into the current of life, into the busy thoroughfare of men and things, and turn his face toward the source of the stream, and, in this condition of human events, meet men with small satchels and magazines, newspapers and chromos, and insurance policies and lightning rods, and analyses and patent churns, and patent bustles and patent corn medicine, and patent bustles and patent eye-wash, and men with big trunks and men with little trunks, and "Mark Twain on the Mississippi," and the Life of John Brown, and the New Eevision, and then — if he don't smell sulphur about his garments, he is grit. Filling a position on the road is an important call- ing, if it be but to sell a book. Most any one-horse clerk can stand behind the counter and measure off calicoes and weigh out hog and hominy to parties who want such things ; but to sell a man, and especially a ^6 How I Got My Education. woman, a thing which they at first declare they do not want, is that part of business which discloses the secret of success. In the first place they must go where business calls — through heat and cold, through sunshine and show- er, sick or well, in the face of opposition and fierce competition. The motto to be written over the door of the man who goes on the road, and which greets his eye every morning is, " go ! go ! g-o-o-o ! ! !" One poor fellow who started out with a line of sam- ples, found that every place he went some one else had just been there with the. same line of goods. He wrote to his house that if some one was not just ahead of him selling the same kind of goods, he could do well. The house wrote him to pull on, as there were eight thou- sand just behind him. I have actually made twenty dollars some rainy day while others were smoking ci- gars and waiting for the *' clouds to roll by." Go ! go ! go ! is the secret of success to the agent or trav- eling man. The next best thing is to " possess thy soul in pa- tience." There are many things going to and fro, up and down in the world, and if you are not a Job, you will lose your track. One often becomes worried, fatigued and tired of his way, sits down by the way- side to rest and wishes he had never entered the field. Some fool stands by the lists as the successful knight Hoiv I Got My Education. pjr passes, and cries " hold ! there are no laurels for you ; there is nothing worth your efforts,'' when in real- ity he knows nothing about it, he has never been in the arena himself, has never made an effort worthy of success. But you will meet with this class all along your route. Then comes your pleasant acquaintance with the railroad and Uvery stables. Railroads are good things. They do much for us in the way of quick passage and fast freight. But it re- ally seems that sometimes the railroad forgets that we are as much benefit to them as they are to us. Keally, we could live without railroads, but they could not live without us. They seem to forget ttiat when they are dealing with a traveling man. Now, anybody is allowed one hundred and fifty pounds of baggage, whether he be a traveling man, tourist, or free negro. But men who transact busi- ness for railroads are scrupulously conscientious about baggage if it looks like it belongs to a traveling man. If he thinks it weighs one hundred and fifty-one pounds, he has it weighed and charges double first- class rates on that one pound, and asks the traveling man to help weigh it. They check your baggage to a certain place, carry it on, keep it a week, then " cuss" you for not having fol- lowed it up. They carry your goods on to another q8 How I Got My Education. town because your name looks like some other man's, and when you make them bring it back they get mad because your name was not something else. They forget that traveling men buy their tickets at the office and pay for them as others do, and pay for excess of baggage as other people do. But they say, "Oh! he's a drummer, and hasn't time to argue with us; we will treat him as we please. He's a nui- sance, anyway." They forget that the traveling man does more for the railroads than any other class of people who travel. Thousands, yea, millions of tons of freight are going to and fro over these roads which have been sold by the drummer. They get the benefit of his labors and then "cuss" him for the little hand valise that fUs by him on the seat. Showmen come through the country, charter their cars, get reduced rates, pass through once, and drain the country from mountain to sea coast, yet the rail- road authorities can't see the difference between the two classes. Then you've got to walk the chalk, I tell you. If you ask any of them a question he will snap your head off. Then, again, if a man gets too hot, which he often does in the summer time in a close car, and pulls his coat, shoes and socks, and washes his feet and hangs How I Got My Education. pp his socks up to dry on the seat in front by the side of a bride and groom, why they get hopping mad, pull the rope, ring the bell, blow the whistle, and actually jput Jiiin right out ! in a swamp, too, among the frogs, sandflies and mosquitoes, leaving him to find his way to the next station as best he can. • When a poor tramp, tired and weary, wants to steal a little ride in an old guano car, they run off the track and scare him nearly to death. If he gets on the truck under a car, in order to ride to the next sta- tion, they pull him out because he "might fall and stain the track with blood." If a man is tired and sleepy, and lies down on the seat and puts his muddy feet up on the nice cushions, the conductor comes along and wakes him up, right in the midst of his most pleasant dreams. Oh! what cruel men ! ! ! Then they won't let a nice old lady smoke her sweet scented pipe (that hasn't been burnt out for three years) unless she goes into the smoking car, and she's too timid for that, and so the "poor old critter" has to go all day long without a smoke. Ah me ! there's a judgment day coming for all such — old women. Then come hotels, boarding houses and restaurants. It sometimes seems that people think that anything, at any time and any place, is good enough for a "drum- mer" and too good for a hook agent. 100 How I Got My Education, I am often reminded of Sut Lovingood's first ser- mon, when he said, "Stop not whar thar am a sign, but gird up your coat tail and marvel f udder, lest you lose your soul a cussin and have your paunch eat into a thousand pieces.'' They light you to bed with a small piece of tallow candle, and wait till you retire to get the stump to make gravy for breakfast ; and put bugs in the bed that you may rise early so they can have the sheet for a table-cloth. As to prices, some of them haven't any — they just find out how much you have and take the whole pile. A gentleman sat by me some time ago at a hotel table and fixing his eye on a plate in the center of the table, he said, " Come here, come here !'' *' What are you calling ?" said I. ** That dish of butter ; it's strong enough to walk and soft enough to run." He was a daisy — so was the butter. A dish of chicken passed around the table and when it got to a drummer he said, " Did you have much trouble holding that dish ?" "No,*' said his friend, " why do you ask that ?" " Well, I see that it is all wing, and I thought likely it tried to fly away." Many times when you inquire of a waiter when things look scarce, if he has any eggs, he will say, Hozv I Got My Education. loi " Ko, boss — jess out." " Have you any syrup ?" " No, sail — jess out.'' " Have you any milk ?" " No^ sah — have some to-morrow." " Have you any salt and pepper V " No, sah — dat's out too. Oh, yes sah ; yes, sah, we has dat. Yes, sah — uh, ye^J, sah." They just have their mouth lixed for "No sah, jess out," and that's all they know. But there are many exceptions to this kind of treat- ment, which I would not pass unnoticed ; many reasons why these things mentioned sometimes occur. Markets are often inaccessible, vegetables scarce and high, good cooks hard to procure, which spoil the best intentions of the most honest landlord. Then there are a class of men who would grumble at the best dish that could possibly be served. They grumble when the coffee is hot, and when it is cold, drink six glasses of iced tea and complain when told it is out. They eat ham and eggs, beef-steak and grits, mutton chops and cold cabbage, light rolls and bis- cuits, batter-cakes and syrup — all for supper, get the colic in the night and then " cuss" the hotel man for had fare. That's hardly /a^V. I tell you, if hotel men get to heaven — and I hope they may — it will be through great trials and power- 102 How I Got My Education. ful tribulations. For they have been blessed out enough for tough beef, strong butter, blue-john milk, defunct ham, tainted mutton, short rations, that won- derful mystery — hash, " the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,'' and high prices, till they can almost smell brimstone in their fly-specked dining-rooms. The best thing a traveling man can do, is to be pa- tient and kind in disposition, remembering that he did not have every thing he wanted while at home, and if he did, his home was not infested mth the class of people hotel-men are constantly troubled with. Speak kindly to every body — white and black, red and yellow, male and female, and Methodist preachers. You don't know when you will Imve need of one of them. The blackest negro boy that walks the streets may be the one who is to bring your water, black your boots, and serve your hash at meals at your hotel. It always pays to introduce yourself plainly and af- fably, to the man with whom you expect to transact business. Always shake hands, that is, if he will allow you, for I remember to have introduced myself to a maifh in the beautiful city of Savannah, and ex- tended my hand to get up a current of social inter- course. He recoiled from me like a humming-bird from a tom-cat. I recoiled too, and never sought his acquaintance further. Jle wasn't the man I was look- ing for. How I Got My Education. loj A good, hearty shaking of the hand, though it be with an entire stranger, is a wonderful familiarizing medium. It brings the positive and negative togeth- er, and starts a current. " Give me the hand that is kind, warm and ready, Give me the clasp that is calm, true and steady; Give me the hand that will never deceive me, Give me its grasp, that I aye may believe thee. Soft is the palm of the delicate woman ; Hard is the hand of the rough, sturdy yeoman ; Soft palm or hard hand, it matters not — never ! Give me the grasp that is friendlj'- forever. * ' Give me the hand that is true as a brother ; Give me the hand that has harmed not another ; Give me the hand that has never forsworn it ; Give me the grasp that I now may adorn it. Lovely the palm of the fair blue-veined maiden ; Horn}'- the hand of the workman o'erladen ; Lovely or ugly, it matters not — never ! Give me the grasp that is friendly forever." Good clothes, pleasant manners, kind words and a bright, smiling face are worth more to a man who ex- pects to spend his time on the road than titles or riches or an illusti ious paternal ancestry. These won't do you much good when you wisii to get the most out of human nature. On the road ! The very mention of it brings up in the memory many amusing incidents. 1 was a general agent for Hitchcock's Analysis, 104- How I Got My Education. special agent for the Emory Mirror, most especial agent for the " Men and Women's Matrimonial Aid Association," and delegate to the State Sunday-school Convention, till you couldn't rest. What a hobby I had on the Emory Mirror. When- ever 1 started out to get subscribers, what a time I had! One bright spring evening, when the air was redo- lent with the perfume of peach blossoms, daisies and blue violets, and the birds and bees were kicking up generally about the beautiful weather that had so suddenly come, I started for Columbus to get subsori- hers for the Mirror {?) The clouds had all departed, the mist and fog which had been hanging like a pall for so many long, weary days about the horizon had all departed. I took the train at four o'clock and by nightfall was in the Gate City. Atlanta is a good place to pass through, no matter where you are bound. Always go through there if you want to have a good time on your trip. If you start out for a good time, perhaps you may not go any further. One man is always as good as another, and some- times better, in Atlanta, especially if he has money. Moreover, you will always pass for that you are worth there, if you aint worth much. How I Got My Education. lo^ Well, I stood under the car shed that evening with about my usual degree of self-conceit, thinking per- haps Hooked a little better than usual with my beaver^ kid gloves and tin-handled cane on. Presently a very handsome gentleman, fully as good looking as myself stepped up to me and said, " How do you do, Doctor ?" I bowed, extended my hand, and said, *^ Are you not mistaken V '* No, I guess not ; aint this Doctor Westmoreland?' Well, now, wasn't that a fix ? 1 hated to deny the charge, yet was afraid to own it for fear the doctor would find it out, and then what \ "No, sir, S— from Emory College'' — the next big- gest thing I could acknowledge. "Oh, a professor, I presume ?" Then the devil tempted me, for I was getting down to the bottom of things. I began to wish I had on an old slouch hat and a basket on my arm. I would have recognized the latter charge, but most of the professors were married and 1 feared their wives. Then 1 commenced interrogating my new friend* I always talk to people who talk to me, and sometimes to those who don't seem inclined to talk. "You're a member of the Atlanta bar ?" said I. "No," he replied, "I've just graduated at Med- ical College, north.'* io6 How I Got My Education, Ah ! Jesso 1 He thought all men were doctors be- cause he was one. Then I concluded to act doctor and called around to see a young lady friend whom 1 hadn't seen in twelve months, to inquire after her health. She came in the parlor looking as young and pretty as ever. I smiled and spoke poetically of the long days that had flown s'nce we had last met — of sweet- hearts and flirtations — and I thought by her pleasant smiles that I was pleasing her wonderfully, when a gentleman passed the parlor door and I asked the young lady who that was. "My husband — I've been married ten mouths." "Ah hah ! hem ! Well — y-e-s ! I-I believe I-hung my hat on the — the rack in the hall" (?) I racked away, and the next subject I was studying was astronomy, as I turned the corner of the City Hall Park, all alone. I went back to the car shed, took the Columbus- bound train, and lay down to dream of "It might have been" — but for another fellow. When I arrived in Columbus a man stepped up to me and asked what it would cost him for whatever I might be representing. I told him fifty oents. He said "put me down for one," and asked in a kind of timid, modest way what it was. I told him the "Em- ory Mirror." He didn't open his mouth further. I had been there before. How I Got My Education. loy When I returned to Oxford the editorial staff ficored down about forty new subscribers, but I never told how much fun I had on that trip, which had been given me for the benefit of the paper. During my college course the agency for the Emory Mirror afforded me more than a thousand miles ride, and much more experience as an agent, and lots of en- joyment. I went to Augusta, Savannah, Columbus, LaGrange, Cartersville and Atlanta, and received more than two hundred subscribers and one hundred dol- lars' worth of advertisements for the little college ''Mirror.'* Things moved on nicely in Virginia. Pauline's letters were all that anyone could wish. It was more of real business this time than a mere sickly sentimen- tality. So many letters had been written in which the vows of love and the promises to be faithful had been re- peated, that it seemed like a mockery to still dwell on them. It was more of the "when ?" and "how V and "where ?" "Where shall we live and wherewithal shall we be clothed ?'' It takes a philosopher to an- swer these questions properly and satisfactorily. It remains to see whether I answered them satisfactorily to Pauline. jo8 How I Got My Education. CHAPTER YIl. LIGHTS AND SHADOWS, OR, CONTRASTED PICTURES. "As varied as the tinseling of a summer cloud ; as variegated as the leaves of an autumnal forest, are the hues of human impulses and human feelings." The sun rises in all its loveliness, adorns the world with garments of sparkling gold ; paints each leaf a different dress ; transforms every streamlet into a golden sash with which to wrap the world in beauty ; crystalizes every dewdrop into a thousand sparkling gems, and sends joy and gladness singing their happy song of love around the world. But ere it sinks to rest behind the western hills all is wrapped in thick clouds and dark shadows. The lightning flashes, the thunder roars, the howling storm plays its sad song among the trees, and nature drapes herself in mourning. Thus it is with human hearts and human feelings. They present one continual panoramic view of joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, lights and shadows. We reach forth and pluck the brightest rose that blooms beside our pathway and feel with it its hidden thorns. We enjoy the rif-hest fruits earth can yield and in them find the seeds that make a bitter taste. How I Got My Education. log We quaff the coolest draughts that sparkling founts distil and find in them a rude and unexpected chill. The scene of human events is ever changing, leav- ing the mind to wonder what will next transpire. I stood and gazed upon a beautiful human flower that played beside my pathway. I passed along and bowed to taste its sweet fragrance and view its beauty. I passed again, and lo ! it was gone. Its stem was leafless, its roots were withered, and the enclosure which surrounded it was broken down ! I said, " Frail is our joys as is yon opening flower That spreads its fragrant blossom to the skies ; Plucked by an intruder's hand, in one short hour Its bloom is withered and its fragrance dies." How varied are the pictures of human nature which unfold themselves and show their beauty or their re- pugnance to hiai who would work his weary way through a college course by selling a book ! The world often looks down upon such a character with cold indifference, void of charity or sympathy. But everything has its advantages as well as its disad- vantages, and there are some things to be learned some profit to be derived, some pleasures to be en- joyed, some beautiful flowers to be culled, that could scarcely be attained in any other vocation in life. For instance, had I never sold a book I might have lived and died without knowing hat a woman can sometimes really be at home when she is away. no How I Got My Education. ** Missus tole me to tell ye she isn't at home." I might never have known that many people do not buy books to read but only for the pictures, or because some one else has bought. " Has your book any pictures in it ?" "No, madam." *' Well, then, I don't care for it." "Did Col. Brown get one of your books, Mr. Spe- cial Agent ?" "' No, sir." " Well, I'll not take one to-day ; I'll see you some other time." (After he sees Col. Brown.) 1 might never have known that men sometimes tell the truth, and that women always do — sometimes, too. I mio-ht never have observed how much sjood it does to tell a woman her baby is pretty. "Oh, your child is so sweet, Mrs. Blizzard, it has such beautiful eyes. How sweet its disposition — re- ally, it's the very image of its motler." " Mr. S , what did you say was the price of your book?" "Ten dollars, madam." '' Well, I — I believe I'll take one. She will be large enough to read it after awhile. Oh, she's so sweet — te-tete-te !'' And I have reallv made so much of babies that I How I Got My Education, iii have learned to love the little things, if thej haint got sour milk on 'em. Had I kept the even tenor of my way in the humbler walks of life, free from the jars and hustles that agitate the world, I might never have been ushered into elegant parlors draped with tapestry, " Where the floor with tassels of fir is besprent Filling the room with their fragrant scent," ornamented with mirrors and oriental paintings, to find that the inmates were not able to buy a book. I might never have discovered that very rich peo- ple never read ; very poor people can't read, and that people in moderate circumstances always read and pay the preacher. How different are individaals with whom we are daily coming in contact — each character presents a different shade in the portrait of human nature. You have often seen a stereoscopic view of some principal street in a large city, taken instantaneously, what a picture it presents ! Carriage?, wagons, drays, buggies, 'busses, big wagons, little wagons, and dump- ing carts, bicycles, tricycles, and wheel-barrows, horses and mules, dogs and goats, men, women and children — black, white and yellow ; sleek beavered fellows and poor, ragged beggars ; cross-eyed, red-nosed men, freckle-faced, red-haired women ; bright, glowing countenances, sad and despairing faces ; the child of J 12 How I Got My Education. fashion in its elegant dress, and the " great unwashed" in its garments of dirt — some moving rapidly, others at a snail's gait ; some going east, some going west, some north, some south — all toward the grave ! What a motley scene such a picture presents. I have often thought, in looking upon such a scene, what a picture a photographed conversation would be to the mind's eye. To say the least of it, it would afford much material for thought. Pass swiftly down the street, if you will, and catch, the different conversations and intonations as they fall from the lips of the busy world, and remember the different dispositions with which you daily come in contact and you can but say, " Many men of many minds," many women of many fashions, many people of many passions, many drunkards of many drinks, many liars of many lies, many swearers of many swears. One man says, " I wish it wasn't so hot." Another says, " I'm glad it's no hotter." One says, " I wish I had something better to eat." Another, " I'm glad I can get what I have." "The rain will make mud," says one. Says an- other, "It will lay the dust." One sighs "I wish I was dead." The other, "I am glad I am alive." Everybody sees things from a different standpoint. How I Got My Education, iij If you had heard a conversation which took place some time ago in one of our Southern cities, it would have run somewhat in this way : "I'm a detective.'' ^'Wellj suppose you are." "Aint you selling a book ?" "Yes, sir, you'd think so." "Have you a license V "I have not ; I don't use those things in this civil- ized country." "Well, I guess you had better go with me and see about the matter. "Well, my friend, you lay yourself liable to a fine of one hundred dollars or imprisonment.'' I just walked down to the mayor's ofiice and paid my twenty-five dollars without a word. I tell you it costs something to talk with everybody you meet — especially a detective. But then it pays too ; business is business. I just went around and took in the mayor and aldermen — that's business. "Mr., don't you want a hack ?" "No,'' said I, "I'm hacked now. Just paid twenty- five dollars for the privilege of talking. I'll hack somebody now." "Mr., don't ye want me to cah'y yo valece down fur ye?" "Down where ?" 8 ii/j. How I Got My Education. "Whah yere ^wine." *' Whah am I gwine f " "Dunnoj sah !" "Well, I'm going to talk a man to death ; the fun- eral won't take place till to-morrow." The scene is ever changing. In the same city the electric lights had created quite a sensation. They were beautiful things. You could see them just as plain, if you were close enough and the moon shone bright — the glass globes, you know. Passing up Bull street one evening, just as I ap- proached one of the towers, I saw a colored man standing on the sidewalk with hands up and eyes big as saucers. 1 said. "Uncle, how about it ?" "Boss, I'ze shame to own it, sah, but clar fo' God, I'ze bin livin' heah fifteen years, an' I'se jist bin outen de city fo' a fu daiz and when I kempt inter town dis eben it wah fifteen minits fo' I node whah I is. Daze liten up dem upper rejuns — an' I'ze gwine dat way, sho'. Yes, sah, I is." I rang the silver door-bell of a brown stone front not long since, and a servant came to the door ; I handed her my card and asked if I could see Mrs. Bonton. The servant went back, and through the long hall I could hear the conversation : " Gemmen to de do'." How I Got My Education. ii^ ^' How's he dressed V " Yery well, mum.'' " What's he got ?" ** A police, mum." "Guess he's a tinker. Tell him I don't want any- thing mended to-day. Can't see him to-day nor to- morrow either." I received the intelligence and passed down town thinking, "There's never a cup so pleasant But has bitter with the sweet ; There's never a path so rugged That bears not the print of feet ; And we have a helper promised For the trials we may meet. " There's never a garden growing With roses in every plot ; There's never a heart so hardened But has its tender spot ; We have only to prune the border To find the touch-me-not." Passing further down the street, I pulled the string to another bell. The servant came to the door, I handed her my card, and through the hall the sound came, ** Mr. S , from Emory College. Ask him in the parlor and give him a fan ; bring in some fresh water and tell him I'll be there in a few minutes." "Howdy do, Mr. S ; you're a student at Emory ?" Ii6 How I Got My Education. " Yes, madam, and canvassing, during my vacation to get ready, financially, to go back to college. I'll show you my work." " Certainly, sir ; I'll look at it with pleasure. My husband and two brothers graduated there, and I am interested in all her interests." I showed it to her in first-class style, and she said, " I'll take it. Come to see me, Mr. S , while you're in the city." " Thank you, madam." And 1 went off singing, " There's never a way so narrow But the entrance is made straight ; There's always a guide to point us To the little wicket gate ; And the angels will be nearer To a soul that is desolate." While in Macon, I sat one evening in an office talk- ing to a young man, well educated, of handsome physique, attractive manners, and attractive withal. He was waiting for the wheel of fortune to turn round and reveal some streak of luck, I waiting for the clouds to pass off that 1 might make a streak. We talked of the past, with its disappointments of love as well as in fortune ; of the girls we had courted, tried to flirt with and got " kicked ;" of the future, with its hopes and prospects of success. Presently the clouds parted, the sun broke forth in How I Got My Education, IIJ its accustomed beauty, and the delightful evening addressed itself to the active mind of the business man. I said, " Good-bye, Frank, there are forts in this town that have not been stormed, as yet, and success is only to the persevering." "Stay longer," cried Frank ; ''the day is far spent and you can do but little between this and night." But I turned away from Frank and said to myself, as I picked up my valise, "Where thou goest, there will I not go, and where thou diest, there will I not be buried." As I passed down Poplar street I cast my eyes up at the old city clock that stands there day after day, making fun of idlers, and saw that the hand pointed to four o'clock. But that evening at twilight when I counted up my profits I found I had made fifteen dol- lars and nobody hurt — I was glad I was not hurt. Many young men forego the privilege of doing something for fear they will fail. The best thing a Chinaman ever said was that "our greatest glory was not so much in not failing^ but in knowing how to rise out of a failure." There are so many lights and shadows which make up the portrait of human nature, that one dodging in and out at intervals, and seeing nothing but the heavier dark lines, concludes that really it is an unsightly Ii8 How I Got My Education. scene ; and indeed you often have some grounds for thinking so. One is often discouraged in fighting the battle of life because he meets so much opposition. Some people are so crabbed, so uncouth, that really we sometimes wish that we had never entered the race and assumed the responsibilities that come in the business transactions of — well, say a special agent.'* For example, I stepped up on the portico of an ele- gant mansion in one of our Southern cities some time ago, rang the bell, sent my card in, and was presently ushered into a handsome parlor. The lady of the house entered in a few moments, elegantly dressed, wearing the smile of a saint, and addressed me in tones soft and musical. I rose, bowed and said, "This is Mrs. Wealthy, I presume." "Yes, sir ; keep your seat.'' "I am a student at Emory College, and during my vacation am representing a very fine work, which I shall take great pleasure in showing you." "Certainly, sir, I shall look at your work with de- light." In the most fascinating style I showed the work, revealing beauty after beauty, until the good lady was entirely enraptured with the work. She took her own lily-white hand and wrote her name in my order book — her own sweet little name. I bowed, and tell- How I Got My Education. no ing her 1 would be on hand about the twenty-fifth of the month, I departed. As I went off down town I thought of what an angel I had met. I ordered the book, paying for it, the freight, box- ing and carting, and drayage, and on the day the or- der was due I tripped lightly up the steps, rang the bell, and announced my arrival with the book. "I believe I don't want the book; I've changed my mind." "But, madam, I've ordered the book, and shall ex- pect you to take it, according to contract." " Yes ; but I didn't say I would take it." "I beg your pardon, madam, but I have your name in your own handwriting." That good (?) woman turned around, and, calling her husband (a man with whom I was not acquainted, and one whose looks were not such as to prepossess one in his favor) said, " This man has disputed my word !" (My own, sweet little word.) Then that man ! why he swelled up like a toad and looked as red as a turkey gobbler's snout, and doubled up his fists and looked at me — well, I hardly know how he did look, for I didn't stay long enough to see how he appeared. He said, "I'll shake your head off your shoulders if you dis- pute my wife's word !" 120 How I Got My Education. And that sweet-spirited angel stood there and said, " Sic him, Tige !" Then I said, " My dear sir, if you do not want this beautiful book I will take it down the street to a man who wants it worse than you do — and I won't be long about it." " 1 don't care where you take it just so you don't dispute my wife's word !" Well, I skipped on the theory that " if 'twere well done when 'tis done, then 'twere well 'twere done quickly." As I passed down the street I said to myself, ''More folks have angels besides God." That's about as dark shading as the artist generally puts into a picture unless he were painting a regular " hog-killing" time. But there is many a beautiful, green oasis in the desert of a hooh agenfs life. For example, in the suburbs of our own Southern cities, near the crumbling ruins of an old college, stands a faded dwelling. The magnolias, cape jas- mines and cedar trees that stand in the yard, the half- dilapidated lattice fence encircling the foregrounds, the curved walk that leads up to the house, all tell of a once beautiful home. I stopped my buggy, and tying the horse, I entered the half-open gate swung back on its rusty hinges, and started up the walk. Not a footprint could be seen How I Got My Education. 121 on the white sand that lay in the path. The autumn leaves lay crisp and colored with many a hue in the mellow light of the fall day. The undisturbed spider had woven his silken web from one column to the other with many an inter- lacing thread. As I walked up on the porch a hollow €cho greeted my ears as though the feet that trod these planks made never a sound. As I touched the knob of the door-bell it almost fieemed as though I had hold of the bell that would wake the spirits from their sleeping place ! As I turned the handle it screamed and grated in its rusty socket, and the dull, heavy twang that rang out re- bounded against the bare walls within. This was all 1 could hear, and 1 turned to walk away, saying lightly to myself, " surely no one has been here in months." But I chanced to mention to a passer-by that the lady was not at home up in the grove. " Oh yes," said he, " you don't know how to enter. "Go back, and when you pass through the gate turn to the left and follow tiie path that leads round to the rear of the house ; there you will find a bell tied with a chain, ring that and go back to the front door." I did so, and the servant met me and conducted me into the sitting-room. There was an air of departed spirits and former glory, that marked every thing upon which I looked. 122 How I Got My Education. I felt a strange sensation, such as one would expect to feel on entering the abode of a hermit. A door opened and in walked a rather tall female form, of delicate, but very graceful proportions. The dark brown, glossy hair already intermingled with threads of gray ; the heavy eye-brows and long, dark lashes ; the round, hazel eye, beginning to sink with age, and the symmetrical features of a calm, but thoughtful face, already plowed in furrows of sorrow and care, marked the -physique of a once beautiful woman. I felt that I stood in the presence of one of God's- chosen saints. I introduced myself and business, and told her the purpose for which I was thus laboring. She en- couraged me by taking my work and giving many words of cheer. Her life of sorrow had made her sa sympathetic. I said to myself as I went away, *' Yes, your life of sorrow has * worked out for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,' and you are the sweetest Christian spirit I ever saw !" I went away from that house a better and a happier boy, thinking how little of fashion and show it took to make the purest, happiest Christian the world ever knew! When 1 came around later in the season to deliver How I Got My Education, I2j her the work, she paid me for it and made me accept a note besides in token of her appreciation of mj un- dertaking. Thus it was by being richer, wiser, and better, I thanked God and took courage. It is in the beautiful month of October, the heated vacation with its arduous labors is over, eighteen hun- dred dollars worth of books have been sold and de- livered, within the short space of ninety days. Au- tumn has already thrown its enchanting witchery over the scene. The sylvan village of Oxford is all astir with the arrival of old and new students coming in for the opening of the fall term. Old friends, class-mates, room-mates and new faces, all meet in the classic grove under the shadows of the broad-spreading oaks, and of Seney Hall, which has grown to completion during the absence of the students. The senior class meet for their last autumnal term. They will never again come together under these shady oaks in this capacity, and doubtless, if ever, in any other — some will be missing. It is a joyous time to many happy hearts. To some, the scenes that surround them, and the bright smiles and joyous laughter are all new and novel — to others, it is merely a repetition of the delights of a college life. As the western sun gilds the fields and campus I2/I. How I Got My Education. oaks, and robes thein in garments of a myriad tints, a dozen groups of students can be seen standing here and there in the shadows that are fast lengthening, some busily engaged in the business of secret society matters, others discussing the pleasures of the past and prospects for the future. The mosquito plays around the end of one's nose as though he wished to be happy, too, and form some kind of secret society alliance with the brotherhood of man. The mocking bird is trilling its last sweet notes as the bright day dies away into soft fairy-like twilight. The lamp lights are beginning to glow from the kitchen and dining-room windows of the boarding houses. The soft zephyrs steal gently up from the ocean through the dark screen foliage and mingle with the happy laughter of the dispersing groups. A few linger on the steps of Seney Hall, just under the old clock that peals forth its sonorous music every thirty minutes. These are friends, members of a mystical brother- hood, bound together by ties of love and affection. Each is inquiring after the happiness and prosperity of the others. G. — " Well, S , what has been your success financially this vacation ?" S. — " The best I ever had, thank vou." How I Got My Education. I2§ H. — " S , how much did you really make V S. — "I don't know exactly — I know I did well and had a good time besides." T. — " Say, old fellow, how about your White Oak Camp-meeting sweetheart ?" S.— "Oh, she busted me." H. — "How about your Atlanta girl ?" S. — "She played the wild with me, too." All.— "Ha! ha! ha!" C. — "What of your Milledgeville girl ?" S.— "She busted me too." "Well, say, S.," said G. — who seemed to have the inside track on matters — "how about your Virginia sweet-heart? How has that turned out? Miss Paul- ine, you know?" S. — "Well, boys, I'll tell you what it is, as it's all in the family and will not go any further, the way things stand now I'm busted all round. I received a letter from Pauline the other day which ruins my hopes with her." H. — "What's the matter there now, S. ?" S. — "Why, boys, you see Pauline is a proud, high- minded woman, raised in luxury, has had all that heart could wish, and however much she cares for me she don't like my prospects for the future. "You see the ministry, so far as this world's goods go, is not an easy life, and this is the rock which has scattered my hopes with Pauline. 126 How I Got My Education. "I wouldn't give up my purposes and honest con- victions of right for the best woman in the world. She tells me," concluded S., "that 'she had hoped I would at least make mj home in Virginia, and have a nice little home near her parents.' But that if I ^expected to remain in Georgia, and drag her around from pillar to post, that the matter is ended.' ''I guess it is all up, for I expect to remain right here and fight it out on the line of duty. It will be all the better for me, though, as I will have nothing to bother me during this, my last year in college, and I can make good use of my time. I shall swing out -as free from the infl.uence of woman as a balloon a mile high in the etherial regions." As these club-mates strolled down through the cam- pus toward Marvin Hall, they sang — Roll on, calm and peaceful night, Complete thy round of star-lit splendor ; Burst the golden gates with light, Let richer, broader glory tend her. And as thy soft and piellow light Will not think to wane nor vanish, But rise to bright effulgence height. And never with the evening tarnish, So may our brightest cherished dreams Bud forth and bloom and blossom. Till each his laden vineyard gleams And feasts on richest fruit — Opossum ! How I Got My Education. 727 CHAPTER YIII. FINALE. The snow is falling rapidly. The cold December winds are hurling and dashing the white flakes through the leafless trees of the campus oaks at whistling speed. The clouds are dark and lowering. The soft white fleece that covers the ground cracks and pops under the feet of the college student as he plods his way from his warm room to answer the ring of the two o'clock bell Friday evening. It is on the eve of Christmas. Some of the stu- dents have been from home longer since the opening of fall term than ever before. Three short months seem to them an age, while others have not darkened the door of the parental roof in four long years. Snowballs fly promiscuously, one occasionally graz- ing the head of a professor as he hurries toward his recitation-room. The merry laugh of the student rings out on the campus in all directions. A spirit of joyous, innocent rebellion pervades every heart. "We must have an extra holiday or we'll all run off," was the cry from fifty noisy voices. Two dozen students enter the president's office requesting per- 128 How I Got My Education. mission to leave on the four o'clock train for Atlanta and home. The kind heart of the president is touched, and when the train rolls into the little station at Midway, twenty boys board the train for the ^''Gate Cityr It is a jolly crowd, and while it is not a boisterous, drinking party (for they were gentlemen) still there is much hilarity, mingled with wit and humor, that would make a passenger occasionally smile despite his intentions to be dignified. Dyspepsia and saturninity " hide out" when a score of college boys get together on a railroad train. Approaching one of the stations on the road the wit said : " We are approaching that|station whose character- istic productions are those caciferous and ovicular receptacles of gallinaceous vitality which, after pass- ing through a certain form of culinary art are known as '^hiled eggs^ Then, pulling out a handful of cigars, he soliloquized on this wise : " We will now regale ourselves with a few of the monocotyledonous, endogenous phenogams known under the technical name of nicotina tohaccum. The highest form resulting from the evolution of this plant is somewhat cylindrical m shape, slender in form, slightly convex at one extremity, and is recog- nized by its generally carrying some dude around who swings to one end of it." How 1 Got My Education, 72p Thus they remarked the whole way, keeping the car in a roar of laughter throughout the journey. Some of the students concluded to remain over during the night and take in the beautiful mud that had congregated itself en masse throughout the city. The mud was really a sight to see. Why, it was three miles wide, and extended from Ponce de Leon clear to West End, and from the cemetery to the Roll- ing Mills. The " beautiful snow" had filled the ground below, and had been ground and mixed by the wheels of buggies, wagons, drays, dumping carts, bicycles, tricycles, wheelbarrows, and by the feet of men, wo- men and children, horses and mules and dogs, until it had lost its virgin whiteness and poetic beauty. But mud did not keep the people from going in Atlanta. IN^o, everybody goes, men, women, boys, girls, preachers, sisters of charity, brothers of charity, newsboys, bootblacks, white boys, black boys, and — mud. Yes, they all go. Young ladies just tuck up their dresses, and pull their veils over their faces, so they can't see, and just go ! go ! go ! The people here are like Longfellow's Mad River, for , '* They go on forever !" There is a great deal to see in Atlanta about Christ- mas times. For instance, there is the tin horn, and the red wagon, and the — the mud ! and there is the ijo How I Got My Education, well-dressed man, and the man with the red nose and the muddy coat. Then, above all, and beneath all, and over all is the — mud ! Well, some of the boys concluded they could not take in everything in one short evening, so they would remain over night. ** Where would be a good place to stay ?" asked several boys, including the wit and the parson. *' At 61 Marietta street," was the reply. " Yery good," said the parson ; " I may not get in until late, as I expect to call on a lady friend of mine, but 1 guess there'll be no trouble in finding the room where the students are stored away." So about.ten o'clock p. m. the wit found he had seen enough of the town, and coming up to the gate that led into a little yard in front of 61, he found it fas- tened. *' What shall I do ?" soliloquized the wit. "I can jump the fence, but I'm afraid of dogs." So he took his beaver off and laid it down care- fully and jumped the palings to see if the coast was clear. Finding everything all right and "quiet along the Potomac," he jumped back for his hat. He placed the beaver upon his head and with his supple limbs he lit over again with all ease ; but the beaver didn't follow. It lit on the same side as that from How I Got My Education, ijr which it started. Then he jumped back again, and placing it more tightly on his cranium, made his final leap and reached his room in safety. He had gradu- ated in gymnastics or he never would have gotten in at No. 61. But ah ! the parson — his time came next. He had gone a dozen blocks out Whitehall street to see his lady friend, and her company was so delightful that the hour of twelve had arrived before he thought of leaving. But bidding his lady-love good-hye^ and wishing her a "Happy New Year" a dozen times, he started for 61 Marietta. But alas ! alas ! not so easily found. He went to the first corner and turned to the right, to the next corner and turned to the left, to the third corner and turned to the right, and thus he wandered from one square to another, until the lights in the dwell- ings began to grow scarce, but no nearer his goal than when he had first left his lady love's residence. Kound and round he went, and finally coming to a residence where a light glowed from the window, faint and weary with his unsuccessful wanderings, he stepped up on the portico and rang the bell. Several little children ran to the door and the par- son said — "Children, who lives here V Then the children laughed right out in his face. 1^2 How I Got My Education. "Children, can you tell me the way to the Kimball House ?" Then the children laughed louder and ran back into the room. "What can this mean?" muttered the parson. Then a young lady came to the door and said, " W-e-1-1, Mr. L , where have you been ?" And the parson said, "W-e-1-1, Miss Fannie, is this your house?" The poor fellow had walked two miles right round his sweetheart's home and had called an hour later to know his way to the Kimball House. She gladly directed him to the proper street that would lead him down town. The parson reached the boarding-house safely, tripped lightly up stairs and en- tered a room to the right. An alto voice said, *' Who's that?" "It's one of the students. I wish to retire." "Well, TQtire out of here as quickly as you can — oh, me ! my ! oh !" Then turning to the left he entered another room, and the bass voice of some clerk said, " Who's that ?" " It's me. I'm hunting the students." " Well, the students are down stairs." Then the parson went down stairs and turned to the left, and a sweet little soprano voice said : How I Got My Education. ijj " Who's that ?— O !" " It's me. I'm hunting the students." " Well, they are on the other side of the hall.'' Then the parson turned to the right, half scared to death, and one of the boys says he was as white as a sheet, when he found the right room. The parson has been west since that time, but has never been necessitated to have his girl show him the way home, nor jump the fence to get in the yard, nor wake up all the sweet little angels at his boarding- house hunting the students, since that eventful night in the Gate City. Christmas day had arrived. Three o'clock Mon- day evening the State Road train pulled from under the car-shed northward. A few short stops along the line to allow passengers to get on and off, and I ar- rived at the station nearest the residence of Rosa Haw- thorne. Rosa and I had met in Atlanta during the fall and had made up again. I had been invited to spend Christmas at her home, some miles out from the Gate City. Procuring a horse and buggy at the little village where I left the railroad, I proceeded in the direction of Rosa's country home. It was a damp, muddy, drizzly evening. The horse dashed and splashed along over the red clay hills, ij^ How I Got My Education, while phantoms and visions and air-castles appeared and disappeared in quick succession in my busy brain. The evening is waning, the clouds are dark and heavy, the mist and fog gather close in front of the steaming steed. It is a time for reflection, the sun has hid himself behind a heavy vail of December clouds and mist. The flowers that would on some spring evening call forth delightful thoughts, are hid beneath the mud and snow of a dark winter day ; the birds that would sing a sweet song to the rolling wheels of a vehicle over a smooth road in summer, have flown to a more genial clime ; the mind is neces- sarily shut up to itself, memories of the past intrude themselves upon us, our thoughts go back over the past, the scenes of other days rise to the retrospective gaze, the sweetest and saddest memories of life steal in upon us, the days of our youth, the friends we have loved and lost, the hopes we have cherished — all are reviewed with the freshness of yesterday. It is not alone with the past that thought is engaged in such an hour ; it projects itself into the future, searching amid the years that are to come for what of joy or sorrow they have in store for us. "Alas ! we have here no abiding home, the sands beneath our feet are constantly washed by the inflowing tide of ceaseless years ; soon, and inevitably the objects of our affections shall be taken from us, or we be taken How I Got My Education. ij^ from them." How shall we successfully meet the re- sponsibilities that await us ? What steps are neces- sary to carry forward the schemes which minister