Grinnell College - Cyclone Yearbook (Grinnell, IA)

Page 14 text:

IO The students came to the college through the attractions of study more than from parental impulse. They were neither brought nor sent: they came. It is remembered that one young man Walked three' days to reach here, and swam three streams in coming. His pastor gave him a letter for a friend some twenty miles on his way, and strangely enough that friend invited him to dinner, and gave him a new letter for another gentleman farther on, who took him in for the night and gave him a third letter. That round of letter, en- tertainment and letter, continued until he reached Grinnell. Young ladies, too, exhibited similar push and purpose. Two, on their way home at the end of the term, reached Des Moines a little too late for the stage to Polk City. They had money enough left to pay stage fare, but not enough more for a day's entertainment in Des Moines. With characteristic resolution they walked to Polk City Qfording a streaml on that day. One was obliged to replenish an empty purse by teaching at Malcom during term time. VVhile there she continued one or more of her studies and came to Grinnell weekly to obtain suggestions and to pass examinations in the work done. ' Students then wrought their t'mark into gardens, roads, rising houses and all forms of domestic labor. Both sexes enjoyed a phase of social life while planting trees on the campus among whose branches birds sing to-day, and in whose shade we all love to linger. s Those who are informed that tuition was from four to seven dollars a term, and that board and books were similarly inexpensive, will not, at first, think it strange that many students paid their way. They will not wonder that during the entire earlier period the following sentence appeared in the annual catalogue, viz.: . By strict economy and vigorous effort students who enjoy good health can go through college without assistance and Without incurring debt. ' Special emphasis on can, in that historic sentence, will indicate the fact at that time, for it was no easy- matter. That achievement of self-support cost an economy that was very strict, an effort too vigorous, and a deficiency in the highest possibilities of technical scholarship. Expenses were low indeed, but students' wages were

Page 16 text:

II correspondingly small. Nevertheless, in that period aid was received in some cases, from Dea. J. P. Williston, of Mass., from the Ladies' Education Society, from the American Education Society, or from interested friends. Debts were also incurred, and wisely, too, while dollars gained with such difficulty were spent only at the imperative of necessity. Self-boarding was common, rooms were small and mea- gerly furnished, and there was no such luxury as -furnace heat or electric lights. Tallow candles and oil lamps shed artificial light on Plato and on Porter, wood that was even green made hot stoves then, as was evident when the first college building went down into dust and ashes. The first six years of the college in Grinnell furnished the environ- ment of Bleeding Kansas, fugitive slaves and the Civil Warp the last five were those of political re-adjustments, of national recon- struction. During both these periods governmental issues were of transcendent importance' The war convulsed the college, emptied the recitation seats, and furnished a perpetual theme for individual reliection and daily con- sultation. Fathers and brothers were at the front. Daily reports were of hair-breadth escapes and impending battles, of Shilohs and of Monitors. There was .no time for the surface amenities of social life. Picking lint for wounds of those best loved was often sadly social in Grinnell, interesting indeed, but far from entertaining. A minor tone was prevalent in homes, in class rooms, lectures and ser- mons, while all were waiting to hear whether the news of a battle signified hope, Andersonville, or the burial trench for those absent. College students had ample occasion for seriousness. At one com- mencement every male student, except two, was in the army, and they were too young to be admitted. But even that occasion brought a quiet smile, for the annual oration was an address on the value of a college education to young mm. Notwithstanding all this necessary toil and this personal and gen- eral anxiety, there was occasion and opportunity for social intercourse. The entire town found it helpful to have a sociable occasionally in