Poor Men at American Universities.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7985, 23 November 1905, Page 2

Poor Men at American Universities.

The Pall Mall Gazette recently contained an article on llie st niggle for education at Atheni an l.'niversities by poor niiji, who could only, afle/ a desperate struggle, succeed in pay. ins. ' lie usual I'ees ami earn sufficient lor a living. The ardour of thest, m.-n is truly- American : and (lie ways aod means of Harvard alone from shovelling coal in furnaces lo si-ng'ing--in church choirs ami writ in-/ lor .newspapers. Jlere is u \ pu'al case A young fellow lelt school £ ,| seventeen. -and I hen spent (wo years as a'clerk in -a.tlraper's shap. lie (hen met a Harvard graduate, who lirnl him wit h I niversiiy ambit ion Forthwith he -began to study in a night school, and saved money for rightei n months, lie He n suceei ded in passing in enough! subjects to enter the ISM,*, class. lim ing his "I'rcs-limnn" ,\enr he had ■xlreine ■dilliciilly in making -both etrds 'ine-1. lie could not obtain -a scholarships, hut tin-ally looked after he heating arrangement of a private -house, and later on became an amateur hook-agent for a Iloston publishing house. Tile poor students of Harvard estimate their lowest rati-of expense for a year at, a'l.'uut I'tK) -dollars, or say, •Clio. At Columbia Ciiivorsßy, in X-ew York city, the energy of poor students is so groat than an, employment! bureau has been started for the express purpose of hml'ing ronvenient temporary employment for "hustling" hut penniless youths. Mr Myers, the secretary of this I>urcau, states that the students are so keen that even -(luring the short, Kaster recess he placed twenty of them as assistants in florists' shops. ■'During sumaner," Mr Myers said,

"hundreds of our fellow's ge to woj'k in real earnest, earning jinoney which will help them through the Viiiversify. This work may vary from tutoring to catering, i have just placed ten men -in hotels as bookkeepers, stewards, and watchmen. During the summer months, also, I placed a -good many as- Iraijk clerks aivd directors of sununer camps for beys.

"Hut our follows arc -by no means particular, and will go from house lo house selling- livings, or as traincar conductors, and own waiters at seaside and mountain resorts. 'Now and then one of our students falls into a "soft thing.' You see, Columbia 'being right in New York city, all among the millionaires, men am\ ladies will often pay our fe!k>wsMive. ten. -an<l fifteen dollars an hour for 'looking al'Lcr children and tutoring on odd -days. 1 know one man who made -dollars -during last college term, working only al odd hours in -the afternoons, and yet keeping up his university study all Mie time. Indeed, there have been many cases of a student' temporarily employe*! in this way getting into the good graces of Some great man, ami being started out on the rapid road to wealth.