Carl Brown Riddle

“ And the first asset of a cultured mind and heart is, that the soul shall be sensitive to the finer things in life, shall “see visions and dream dreams” until the soul in its thirst for the great things of earth and heaven shall break beyond the stars and catch a vision of the Soul of all truth. A young man with such a fire burning on the altars of his heart, with the sweet incense of his morning and evening prayers ascending as an expression of the God-ward aspiration of his soul is on the sure road to true culture and a genuine appreciation of life and all its issues. ”

“ It seemed to me that just as a hill was made not merely for climbing, but that the climber should be rewarded for his attempt by the beautiful view of broader countries seen from the summit; even so a college education was designed, not to be a stumbling block to the youth of our country, but rather to serve as a means of intellectual elevation from which should open up visions of greater things in life. ”

“ But, a teacher may ask, why set the university as my goal? “If I have a good position, and have managed by great privation to go through a normal school, am I not entitled to rest a while and let well enough alone?” Let me answer that no university claims to be the final goal. Take your respite, teach with all your might with the best light that you have. But go up for some summer session. You will catch the spirit; you will soon see that you need the university, and if you have in you the right fire, your university needs you. ”

“ Work is an excellent developer of the mind. It winds you in and out through the different roads of humanity and you come to a point of seeing the realness of life. The unreal is left standing as a skeleton, weak and frail. From your position in which you are toiling for an education you cannot fail to choose the reality. It has a determination and all views are in accordance with yours—a persistent effort to succeed.
Shurtleff College, Alton, Ill. ”

“ If the atmosphere of the home is not such as to give it, either he must get it around the altars of the church, or from the personal touch of some friend, or preparatory teacher. So many people live under a low sky, “in the dull stagnation of a soul content” that the contagion is as heavy as the frost of winter upon the young and sensitive spirit. Once a young fellow has caught the vision, once he has heard the higher voices calling him upward, he will follow the beck of the spirit through college halls and on to high endeavor and noble living. ”

“ Our elders tell us that the work of the college serves to broaden our horizon by changing our perspective; but the college, to the man who has never supported himself, will not mean a revelation to the world’s activities in their most true and real form. After graduating from college a man will find that he has awakened in a real world in which men are bearing responsibilities, and will realize that in every phase of life the world is calling for men who have had the most experience, who have received the strength which comes only from carrying a load. ”

“ Because of the fact that the world has an unlimited field for the man with a college education, while the uneducated man is forced to mingle with the mass in the lower walks of life, a college education became my ideal. ”

“ The young men who jump out into the whirl of life’s battles are at a great disadvantage, but the young men who, while in school, have learned how to contend with impending circumstances, will be enabled to cope more successfully with the circumstances which will surely confront them after their school days have ended. I believe that every thinking person will bear me out when I say that the strongest college graduates are those who have known what it was to roll up their sleeves and to help do the ordinary commonplace things. ”

“ There is a greater appreciation for the working college boy to-day than ever before. Even the greater institutions like the University of Chicago, Illinois, and Wisconsin, as well as all the State Universities of the South, have in their enrollments not only boys who are earning their way, but boys who are leading their classes and represent the strongest types of young manhood we know. One almost comes to feel that, though the path is a bit more rugged, self-help develops in the college boy, as in the football player, a keener sense of duty ”

“ Another thing that he gains is a surer appreciation of the value of money. He may never have had 248 to earn much before. But when at college he is thrown on his own resources, when he gets each dollar by hard work, he appreciates its value—and he will be slow to waste it.
Grit, an optimistic outlook, and a quickness to discern or to invent opportunities, then, are the three essentials for the young man ambitious to earn his way through school. And when he has achieved his ambition, when his college days are over, and someone asks him, “Was the experience worth all the hardships it cost you?” ”

“ We have many colleges, but how to obtain a college education is a vital question to many high school graduates and others who have not the money. Here are the colleges and the teachers, but many do not have the funds on which to go. This is the decisive hour, as here it is that one decides to climb the hill or remain at the foot.
My experience in working my way through college is not peculiar, but tallies with the experience of hundreds who have undertaken the same task. If a person is determined to get an education he will succeed, and herein lies the keynote to the problem. ”

“ There are just a few essentials. Let the man who hopes to work his passage in school take with him a worthy aim, a sturdy backbone, strict 272 habits of dependability, a good set of morals, and best of all, a consecrated Christian character, for the confidence which his conduct commands will be his best, and at times his only capital.
I am sure that no one who ever accomplished his own support through college will deny that it was made possible very largely through the interest and kind thoughtfulness of some generous souls who find the worthwhileness of life in helpfulness to others. ”

“ Two of them had supported themselves while at the University by work similar to mine. One of them was janitor of a church and the other had been a waiter at a restaurant. I cannot say that I regard the experience as involving any great hardship. I never felt at any time, while I was at the University, that this employment which was obligatory was of any disadvantage to me, except that it took more time than I wished to devote to work. My experience is that there is more of a democratic spirit in universities and colleges than is found elsewhere in the world. ”

“ It is my deliberate opinion that the poor boy in America has even a better chance for an education than the wealthy boy. This observation grows out of the experience of my student days, and likewise out of my experience as a college president. The poor boy is much more likely to present over the counter those higher purchase-prices than are absolutely necessary in the securing of an education. Given strong purpose and good health, there is no reason why the average American youth should not go through college. ”

“ One thing I learned by being at college without money, and that was that money is not essential to character. Money cannot cover up badness, neither can poverty hide goodness. It is not a matter of how little money you have to get through college, for the money is the smallest part of a college life. The less money the better in some cases. It is not so much money as it is great Faith, and a Determination. ”

“ The summer vacations were all employed in canvassing or collecting, and I became a good enough collector for a publishing house at Nashville to pay me $70.00 a month and expenses. Apart from my strict loyalty to my employer and hard work, I regret this part of my life, for I have seen for a long time that the selling of even Bibles to the poor at high prices on the seductive installment plan, is a form of business that is not righteous enough even to use as a means for getting an education. As the true light breaks upon us, we can do nothing that is not necessary, right and beneficent. ”

“ He realizes that fortune smiles upon those who roll up their sleeves, put their shoulder to the wheel, and have backbone and stamina to fight the battle, and not turn aside for a little dirt or hard physical labor. The student who strikes the word “luck” from his vocabulary waits for no psychological moment, loiters not for a miracle to occur, but rather creates the miracle, makes his own opportunities.
In our college, here in the Middle West, the manner of earning one’s way varies a great deal. We are blessed with a rich country and the greater per cent. of the people are prosperous. ”

“ In the hope that this story may nerve another for the struggle to breast the current which sweeps humanity onward, ’mid hopes and fears, ’mid agonies and tears, to destinies unknown; and with the prayer that the vision of far off success may inspire another to do and dare in the search after Education’s Holy Grail, I send forth this little message to all who belong to the great fraternity of Workers. ”

“ It began with the University of Oxford in England, which has been in existence a decade of centuries. It has spread to many lands, but in all lands it has been about the same to the poor boy. It can be truly said that he has never seen an age or a country or a college where he had an easy time in getting his diploma. It has always been a fearful struggle for him, and it will doubtless continue to be. But it is also true that the brightest pages, the very brightest, in all our long educational history are those that record the triumphs of the poor boy. ”

“ There is nothing seriously wrong with the fellow who accumulates a thousand above expenses during a college course, but if he fails to give a reasonable portion of his energy to the higher purposes of his Alma Mater, the fruit of his work is chaff rather than grain. ”

“ My university training has not prepared me for any get-rich-quick career. Efforts since graduation to push ahead into a newspaper life have added to, rather than taken from, my debt. Nevertheless, I do not regret the plan of action which I followed to get a college education. I cannot estimate in dollars the satisfaction I have in the retrospect. I was not penurious with myself when in school, and so enjoyed life, even though always economical. ”

“ I spend the summer months in the country, generally at farm work. I sold books one summer. Last summer I spent a month and a half at tiling, and find that it pays very well, but the work is rather severe for a student. I am able to save from $90 to $125 during the three summer months. With this much in hand I am able to meet expenses very well.
Working one’s way through college demands economy, hard work, and determination; but the end in view justifies the means. It is a real pleasure for one to feel that he is doing things himself. ”

“ It was my fortune to attend a college situated in a small town, as such locations are always best for the one who has to make his way. Work was easily secured, and as my desire was to get an education by my labor, I seized every opportunity for making a dime. Serving as janitor, making fires in the early morning hours, raking snow and ice from the college walks in the winter, raking leaves on the 48 campus in the fall and spring, serving as clerk on Saturdays and other work of this kind paid my way. ”

“ When every chance seems gone and all the world fighting, you look towards your goal—stop and think—do not rush off into the old road of “I give up.” Life is worth more to you than a complete failure—you can succeed half way and be a howling success. ”

“ During the first three years at Nashville, I received on scholarship, made by summer work and saved enough money to pay back all I had borrowed for the first year and to take one year’s graduate work at Nashville. My expenses had been considerably increased on account of rather poor general health and the loss of time and expense of three spells of sickness while I was canvassing or collecting. Being prominent in college life, and having too much of the pride for the finest and most sensible economy, also caused my expenses to be more than were strictly necessary. ”

“ ONE WHO KNOWS IT CAN BE DONE Perhaps during no other period of civilized history is the excuse for a boy’s not obtaining at least a college education so unfounded and unacceptable, to those of us who have traveled this very same road, as it is to-day. About us everywhere are great schools and institutions of learning with their various departments supported by State and individual endowments, eliminating the once felt great college expense, and placing the best within the reach of us all. ”

“ However, in one month after my downfall I was making my exodus to the Pennsylvania State College. I was without a friend that could give me advice or direct me to means by which a young man might work his way. My $200 was dwindling to a small margin as I got my equipment of books, uniform, instruments, fees, board, room, etc. I soon hailed an opportunity to husk corn on Saturdays.
Time progressed slowly, work became scarce, football enthusiasm rose to a high pitch. Most of the boys were planning a trip to see our team face its foremost rival of the season. ”

“ Without serious neglect to my college work, I had by the end of that school year realized a profit of three hundred dollars above expenses. After another summer I compiled another lecture entitled “Scrap Iron.” My people did not fall over each other to hear my lectures, yet I usually made good and have even filled a number of return dates.
I cannot remember when or how I received the inspiration to attain a college education. I entered with a determination to win; to win not only a degree, but every experience possible. In many ways I have won, but not because of my ability ”

“ He can go broke for three weeks and sell a few books to raise money for a midnight lunch and have more fun out of it than another boy with a barrel of money and a new automobile. All it takes for a boy to go through college without money is nerve to try it, grit to stick to it, and a happy attitude toward life to enjoy it. ”

“ I was told a college man could succeed better than a man without a trained mind. I found the educated men advancing beyond me in position and salary, even though younger, at the office where I worked. I always looked up to college men and women, as to my elders, with a certain respect and admiration for their superiority—derived as I believed from their college course. ”

“ There were conditions of which I may not write that were trying in the extreme—days when I despaired of the future—nights when I very nearly lost hope of ever attaining any degree of the cultural training upon which I had set my heart. It is by no means an easy task to finish a full high school course with credit, even with plenty of time and no serious problems of living to face. ”