Pushing to the Front

uth who has hardly a dollar to his name and who knows tha

o be compelled to pay his own way through school and college by hard work. But history shows us th

re is scarcely one in good health who reads these lines but can be assured that if he will he may. Here, as elsewhere, the will can usually make the way,

upon their own resources. They are not a poverty-stricken lot, however, for half of them make an income above the average allowance of boys in smaller colleges. From $70

llars. As a freshman he had a hard struggle. In his junior year, however, he prospered and in his last ten m

publishing ventures. A few months after graduation h

ctady, and arranged with a professor of Union College to pay for his tuition by working. He rented a small room, which served for study and home, the expense of his bread-and-milk diet never exceeding fifty cents a week. After graduation, he

o his original fund of fifty dollars by taking the freshman essay prize of twenty-five dollars. When summer came, he returned to work in the harvest fields and broke the wheat-cutting records of the coun

s classmates, by the savings of two years' work as a farm laborer, and money earned by tutoring, writing, and copying done after study hours, n

and do their university work in the afternoons and evenings, so as to take their degrees. Scores carry daily papers, by which they earn two and one-half to three and one-half dollars a week; but, as this does not pay expenses, they add other employments. A few find evening work in the city library. Some attend to lawns in summer and furnaces in winter; by having several of each to care for, they earn from fi

of obtaining a college education. It gives a reality and vigor to one's work which is less likely to be obtained by those who are carried through college. I do not regard it, howev

mate who is the son of a millionaire. It is the son and daughter of the farmer, the mechanic and the operative, the great average class of our country, whose funds are small and opportunities few, that the republic will depend on most for good citizenship and brains in the future. The

as a janitor for some time. During his course he taught six terms as principal of a high school, and one year as assistant superintendent in the Essex County Truant School, at Lawrence, Mass., pushed a rolling chair

was no honest work within the limits of his ability that he would not undertake to pay his way. He served summers as waiter in a White Mountain hote

nergy to any work that would bring remuneration." He would do any honest work that would bring cash,-and every cent of this mon

ent years believed-sincerely, doggedly believed-that a college training was something that they must have. The question of whether or not they could afford it d

of somewhat over forty thousand, the average expense per year is three hundred and four dollars; the average maximum expense, five hundred and twenty-nine dollars. In some of the smaller colleges the minimum expense per year is from seventy-

s and universities have a general average expense of two hundred and forty-two dollars per year, while fo

es for self-help, at some of the best know

ts, and standing; has some free rooms; makes loans at low rates; students have chances to earn money at tutoring, table-waiting, shorthand, care o

its or social privileges of recipients;" students getting employment in the library or laboratories can earn abou

rn for services about the college buildings; requires studiousness and economy in the case of assisted s

s, the lowest being three hundred and eighty-seven dollars. A great many stu

holarships (two hundred dollars), for freshmen, won by success in competitive examination. It has also five hundred and twelve state tuition scholarships. Many

inal rent; requirements, economy and total abstinence; work of one sort or another to be had by needy students; a few

to needy and promising under-graduates; freshmen (usually) barred; a faculty employment committee; some students earning money as stenographers, typewriters, reporters, private tutors, clerks, canvassers, and singers; yea

rs in free scholarships and fellowships; no requirements except good standing. No money loaned, no free rooms. Many students support themselv

ies must be frugal in habits, total abstainers, and maintain good standing and conduct." Many students are self-supporting, thir

erm bills, in case of worthy students, regular in attendance and studious; many such stud

at some of the soundest and best know

ighten their expenses by waiting on tables in boarding-houses, thus paying for their board. Others get room and board in the homes of professors by giving, daily, three hours of service about the house. A few take care of children, two or three hours a day, in the families of the faculty. One young woman, who is especially brave and in good earnest, worked as a chambermaid on a

way through college, at least in part, have accomplished it by tutoring, typewriting or stenography. Some of them earn pin-money while in college by tutoring, typewriting, sewing, summer work in libraries and offices, and in various little ways su

household labor, every student reduces her college expenses by a hundred dollars or a hundred and fifty,-was formerly in use at Wellesley; now, how

he country; and in general it is more difficult for a girl to pay any large part of

ull of experienced teachers, who can be engaged by the hour. Typewriting is one of the favorite resources. One student has done particularly well as agent for a firm that makes college caps and gowns. Another girl, a Russ

k their way through?" was as

their expenses by taking charge of the library, and by selling stationery; another, by distributing the mail, and others by 'tutoring'. Those who 'tutor' receive a dollar, a dollar and a half, and sometimes a very good one rec

o a Vassar student broug

l of money, too. Of course, there are many wealthy girls here who are always having something like that done

agents for two of the great man

s, which they sell here, or send to the stores in New York, to be sold. Some of them write for the newspapers and magazines, too, and

ny a girl who wishes to help herself, in nearly every college. Beside these standard employments,

its and swimming suits mean good profits. The reign of the shirt-waist has been a boon to many, for the well-dressed girl was never known to have enough pretty ones, and by a judicious display of att

ls and good grit need despair of getting a college education un

xceed two hundred dollars per annum. In Ohio, the state university has abolished all tuition fees; and most of the denominational colleges demand fees even lower than were customary in New England half a century ago. Partly by reason of the cheapness of a college education in Ohio, that state now sends

the sons of rich men lead in scholarship, and the sons of poor men. Poverty under most of the conditions in which we find it in colleges is a spur. Dartmouth College, I think, furnishes a good example. The greater part of its patronag

Schurman of Cornell says of his early life: "At the age of thirteen I left home. I hadn't de

receive thirty dollars and my board. Think of that, young men of to-day! Thirty dollars a year for working from seven in the morning unt

boyhood I never received a penny that I did not earn myself. At the end of my first year, I went to a larger store in the

the wishes of my employer, because I had made up my mind that I

t be by my own efforts. I had saved about eighty dollars from

it. He pointed out the difficulties in the way of my going to co

ant on Prince Edward Island, and to me, a poor boy who had never possessed such a sum in his life. On the other side was my hope of obtaining an education. I knew that it involved hard work and self-denial, and ther

the same day, and for the next forty weeks I studied harder than I ever had before or have since. At the end of the year I entered the competitive examination for a scholarship in Prince of Wales College, at Charlottetown, on the Isla

ning of it was the greatest success I ever have had. I have had other rewards, which, to most persons, would seem immeasurably greater, but with thi

eeping books for one of the town storekeepers, spending less than one hundred dollars during the entire college year.

versity of London offered for competition by the students of Canadian colleges. The scholarship paid five hundred dollars a year for three years. The young student in Acadia was ambitious to

study under the great leaders of philosophic thought. A way was opened for him, through the offer of the Hibbard Society, in London, of a traveling fellowship with two thousand dollars a year. The honor

Scotia. In 1886, when a chair of philosophy was established at Cornell, President White, who had once met the brilliant young Canadian, called him to that position. Two years later, Dr. Schurman became de

llowing figures, which to the boy who earnestly wants

d an additional gift of $20; borrowed $190. My current expenses during my freshman year were $4.50 per week. Besides this I

etaining my old room at $1 per week. The expenses of the sophomore year were $394.50. I earned during the year, including board, $

arned $37; also earned full board waiting upon table; received $70 for a scholarship; $55 from gifts; borrowed $70, which squared my accounts for

y clerical work, tutoring, etc., $40; borrowed $40; secured a scholarship of $70; took a prize of $25; received a gift of $35. The expenses of the senior year, $496.64 were necessarily heavier than these of pr

about $1,708; of which (counting schol

they left untried no avenue for earning money. Tutoring, copying, newspaper work, and positions as clerks were well-occupied

umber come from the farms of the West. Many of these students are paying for their education by money earned by their own hands. It i

e matter well before concluding that a c

d; if the slave Frederick Douglass, on a plantation where it was almost a crime to teach a slave to read, could manage from scraps of paper, posters on barns, and old almanacs, to learn the alphabet and lift himself to eminence; if the poor

ranklin, "no man can take it away from him. An inv