A Poor Young Man at Harvard
President Eliot, of Harvard, recently gave an instance of what a firm will and mother-wit can do in enabling a poor young man to surmount the difficulties in the way of his getting a thorough education. Two years and a half ago there appeared in Cambridge, just before the examination for admission, a young man of rough exterior who came from a small village in New York, where his father earned a scanty living as a stone-mason. He came to see me before the examination, and stated, among other things, that he never had any teacher in Greek, Latin, or German; that he had begun to learn these three languages only sixteen months before; that out of these sixteen months he had worked ten at his trade as a stone-mason, and that his entire quick capital was $10. To my astonishment he passed an excellent examination, succeeding in every subject except Greek composition, which he had never tried to learn. He was taken care of at Cambridge, as many another has been, and in his first year won a scholarship.