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where he attended to the heaters during the winter at one dollar each week.

"I wish that I had a job like yours," I said.

"Well," he replied, "there were two places offered to me a couple of days ago which I had to turn down. Meet me at the engine house in an hour and I'll go with you and vouch for you." I got these jobs. By the end of the week, with his help, I had nine places. The work took about four hours per day.

Having now an assured income for the winter, I gave up luggage carrying and shoe polishing. On the advice of the barber I went to a workingmen's boarding house, where I got a small room to myself with board and washing at four dollars and a half a week. My new employment gave me several hours a day for study, and on the advice of my night-school teacher I began to learn stenography. I took six lessons, and then I saw that I did not need him any more; all I needed was practice. In a year I had no trouble in taking down ordinary conversation, and at the end of the second year I could rapidly and correctly report lectures and political speeches.

The night schools closed at the end of March, but I kept up my studies under the guidance of my teacher, who kindly allowed me to come to her twice a week to recite. Here was another instance of kindness which I was later able to repay. Many years afterward, when, on account of advanced age and ill health, she could no longer teach, I was able to give her an annuity without which she would have been dependent on relatives who were ill able to care for her.

I was born with a mathematical turn of mind. Arithmetic was my favorite study, and I soon outstripped the rest of the My teacher advised me to take up algebra. This opened

class.

a new world for me

one that I fear I pursued at times to the

neglect of my other studies.

By the end of April the weather had become so mild that heaters were no longer necessary, and I again took up my work at the station, and polishing shoes. By this time I had become known to many people who used the railroad frequently, and they always gave me their luggage to carry.

When night schools opened again, I was placed in a class under a man teacher. When the term was about half over he advised me to take up the study of geometry, and I learned quickly under his guidance. A few days after the schools had closed he sent for me. "How old are you?" he asked.

I said that I thought I must be about seventeen years old. "I have heard you say several times," he went on, "that you want a college education. There is a small college in a town. about one hundred and fifty miles from here. The president is an old friend of mine. The requirements for entrance are not severe, and your acquaintance with mathematics and history exceed the requirements in those branches. You will have six months in which to get ready for your examination in two or three other requirements. And I will help you. How much money have you?”

66

'About $100 in the savings bank," I replied.

"That is more than enough for your first year," he said.

I broke in to tell him I did not intend to touch a dollar of it except for actual necessities. "I have more than earned my way here for the past two years," I explained, “and I shall be much mistaken if I can't find something to do in college at least partly to pay my way."

The college was then in session and would remain so until the

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middle of June, and I concluded that I had better not wait until the fall term opened before looking over the ground. I was most kindly received by the president, who advised me about my preparations for entrance. I stayed in the town a week and got acquainted with most of the professors and many of the students. Some two hundred of them boarded in common, paying a flat rate per week to a man who was under contract. He told me that when the fall term opened if I would help wait on the table he would give me my board. I jumped at the offer.

About a week before the fall term opened I left for the college. The day after my arrival the president sent for me and told me that if I would sweep out the halls once a day, the chapel and classrooms, and attend to the fires in the classrooms during the winter, it would be considered full payment for my tuition. This meant that my college expenses would be very little.

I passed my entrance examination with a percentage of 92; there were only two other students who exceeded this mark.

Up to this time I had never decided what I would like to be after I was graduated. One day I read in a magazine an article on great civil engineering feats and the men who had accomplished them. That article decided me to become a civil engineer, and I told the president of my determination. He approved of it heartily and gave me two or three elementary books on engineering. These I studied at leisure moments.

Shortly before the summer vacation I learned of a survey that was being made for a new railroad about seventy miles away. I wrote to the engineer in charge, and the president enclosed a letter of recommendation. An answer came in a few days to report at the close of the term. This I did, and my first job was that of chain bearer.

Two weeks later, in the course of a conversation, the engineer learned something of my mathematical attainments; whereupon he took me into his offices as an assistant to figure up results of surveys. Once in his office he gave me many opportunities to learn surveying and a great deal of valuable information on different phases of the business. By the time the fall term opened I had acquired much useful knowledge.

Before the close of my second year in college I had made up my mind that I had received all the help it had to give me, and at the end of the college year I went back to the engineer for whom I had worked the summer before. I stayed with him until late in the fall, when the snow in the mountains forced us to lie off until the following spring. My employer took me into his office during the winter and gave me great help in mastering many of the details of his profession.

In the spring operations were resumed on the road, which we completed by fall. Before this, however, he had advised me to take a three-year course in a celebrated school of technology. I applied for admission, and after an examination was enrolled. It was now that my skill in stenography gave me the way of almost entirely paying my way. With a letter of introduction. from the engineer to the editor of a large daily newspaper, I was, after he had tested my proficiency, promised assignments when extra help was needed to report lectures, sermons, and political speeches. The work that I turned in for my first assignment was so satisfactory that I was employed at least four evenings a week and sometimes every evening.

My three summer vacations were spent in the employ of my friend the engineer, who during this time was engaged on a harbor improvement. Shortly after my graduation he sent for

me and told me he was about to make the survey for a railroad in Chile. He offered to take me along, and I accepted at once.

While at the school I had become chummy with a young Spanish student, and at the end of my three years' course I could speak Spanish almost as well as English. This facility helped me in Chile. We remained there three years, and then went to Brazil, where we stayed two years more.

It has been my good fortune to be concerned in a directive capacity with many big engineering jobs at home and abroad. Among other contracts, my engineer friend and I spent two years in Russia in the employ of that government. I have always been interested in politics, and although I have never run for office I have held several positions by appointment. Among them are president of a city board of education, commissioner of charities and corrections, commissioner of water and gas, private secretary to a governor, and my present position of supervising engineering of municipal improvements.

I mention these things, not in a spirit of boasting but merely to show once more that a lowly beginning need not prove a handicap, that hardships may be made the bond-servant of determination. I have been assured that my simple story may I hope so. That is give new hope to many discouraged ones. why I have written it.

READING FOR PROFIT

It is not necessary for me to dwell upon any of the great commonplaces which the follower of knowledge does well to keep always before his eyes, and which represent the wisdom