Ohio College of Dental Surgery - Alethian Yearbook (Cincinnati, OH)

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ocfroiasn 6TH, 3 o'cLoc1: A. M. Breakfast being served unusually early in the Steele home in order to help Tom catch the early morning train from the village. Tom is full of determination, while Mr. Steele remains irm, in that he will not assist him in a financial way. Toni has a little money which he has saved from his small earnings, and Mrs. Steele, bathed in tears, slips a well-iilled purse in his hand as he leaves the house. it if fff if The train for Cincinnati is about to depart. Mr. Steele takes his son by the hand and with a lump in his throat asks him if he will not reconsider and return home with him, but Tom sturdily refuses. He boards the train, the conductor is heard to call all aboard, the bell is rung, the steam hisses, the lever is applied and Tom Steele is on his way to a new world, as it were. He sinks down in the soft cushions. His oppor- tunities to ride on the cars have been very few, and the sensation is rather a pleasing one. As the great train rolls along its course his thoughts revert to home and mother, and he awakes with a start. '4What have I done? Am I doing right to leave the folks all alone? ' His musings are suddenly brought to a close by a stop at a thriving little city, where several students board the train. Tom overhears one of them mention the Ohio Dental College and makes brave to ask the young gentle- man if he is studying dentistry. Why, yes, replied the jovial and 'friendly looking fellow. 4' I am a senior this year. A mighty hne school it is, too. Do you know some one who attends there ? IOI No, said Tom, I am thinking of going there my- self. U Oh, indeed, are you ? responded the happy student as he unconsciously viewed his new friend's awkward ap pearance in a new hand-me-down several sizes his junior It is a great study. I hope you will like it. With this Tom resumed his seat. A well-'nlled lunch basket helped to while away the long, journey, and, to- gether with watching the passengers as they got on and off the train and speculating as to how many were going to Cincinnati to study dentistry, he at last reached the Grand Central Station in the Queen City. Tom dismounted, tired and dazed by such a display of electricity and deafened by the thunder of the inrushing trains. He knew not whither to turn. He remembered Dr. Wilcox had told him the 'first thing to do was to repair to the Dean's otiice and matriculate, but what that was he knew not Once more the worthy senior was approached and asked if he would be kind enough to direct the way to the Dean's. Why, sure, take this car to Fountain Square, then get a transfer to Vine Street and get off at Garfield Place. Never having experienced a ride on an electric car be- fore and very uneasy for fear he would be carried past the desired destination, Tom at each stop would inquire of the conductor if this was Fountain Square? After many inquiries, the conductor, in stentorian tones, called out, Fountain Square. ' Tom was Hrst to alight, a huge telescope in one hand and still clinging to the lunch basket with the other. If I

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I will do it. Farmer Steele looked up with a surprised air, thinking probably Tom had read his inmost thoughts and would accept his proposition as overseer of the numerous' acres. U You will do what ? asked the old man. I will study dentistry, said his son, almost panting as he spoke. Study dentistry, why, who ever put such a foolish idea in your head? Dr. Wilcox, I suppose. Well, you can chase these notions from your young cranium just as fast as possible, for I have decided to turn over the farm to you. No, father, I am going out into the world and make a name for myself, and have chosen dentistry as my profes- sion. Tut ! tut ! child, you could never pull a tooth. Well, I am going to make a trial. I will be twenty- one next week, and then I can use my own pleasure. Dr. Wilcox has told me of a hue college in Cincinnati which opens on the seventh of October, and I am going to enter then. Boy, I can not spare you from the farm. These vast acres will be yours some day, and then you will not need to labor so hard. Another thing, mother will be so lone- some without you. At this a shade came over the boy's face, but he soon regained his determined air and said no more. That evening as the two sat at their frugal meal, Mrs. Steele said 1 Tom, what causes you to be so quiet? You do not seein to be in your usual happy spirits to-night. H Mother, exclaimed Mr. Steele, Tom has a very foolish notion in his head. He wishes to go down to that big city of Cincinnati and study tooth pul1en'. It is absurd. He would get lost the first day. Why, I stopped there for two days when I came back from the war, and I came near losing myself then, and Cincinnati is a whole lot bigger now. Do you know, John, replied his wife, I believe we are making a mistake in keeping Tom from making some- thing of himself. You know my father was a physician, and I always wanted Tom to be a professional man. Tom looked up with a ray of hope in his face, but his father said : No, Tom, you will go without my consent if you go. I am getting old and some one must stay and farm this landf 4' You can sell the farm, replied Tom, demurely. You have plenty to live on and send me to school alsog but if you will not do this much for me after I have strug- gled for you in the hot sun and the deep snow, then I will put myself through. Nothing more was said until that night, when old Mr. and Mrs. Steele retired to their room, then the good mother took her helpmate by the arm and said: John, I wish you would permit Tom to go to school. He has been a good boy 5 he has toiled early and late, he has been a dutiful son. You know you always regretted not having had an opportunity to procure a better education. 4' Have I not hundreds of acres about me and a good fat bank account? If that is not good enough for him he must help himself. I will never give him one cent? aie sie ' J IOO

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the noise and bustle of the Grand Central were mind losing, what must have been his sensation when he alighted at the corner of Fifth and Walnut? Cars coming from all directions, on one side the great Post Oliice, looming up dark and gloomy 5 just across the street a structure in pro- gress of building, which, the young man thought to him- self, must surely reach the skyg and, to the left, a great tall lady, with water flowing from her hands. ' Is she preparing for a bath, mused Tom, and from whence does she procure that -muddy water? She certainly would not bathe in that dirty stuff. But when he beheld several gentlemen step up and ask the tall lady for a drink, she continued to throw that dirty liquid at them, and they actually imbibed of it. Together with great strings of cars, the imagined he could hear the tinkling of the bells in the wind- ing lanes, which led down to the woods, past his childhood hoine. He pictured the lowing herds as they slowly wended their way up from the green pasture. The fowls were perch- ing themselves on the picket fence for the night, the horses quenched their parched throats at the fountain. The wicket gate opened, and a sad, but sweet-faced woman, carrying a shining milk pail, crossed the stable yard, and close behind her, followed a man, his whitened locks peer- ing out from a huge straw hat. His face wore a shade of sorrow- Get out of the road or you will be run over, shouted an angry policeman, as he grabbed Tom by the shoulder. What are you standing here for ? Move on, I say ? Oh! I thought I was out in the pasture noise, the continuous stream of people, 5 ' i if 5 9 -3 sign' lot, groaned the young man, as he shook Tom gazed about in a sort of dream. He B Q f himself and realized that he was standing finally pulled himself together and asked an v 'F ish l:jL2.i.p, before a spanking team of bays, which splendidly groomed gentleman standing 1, vj , ' ' . . ' came near crushing him to the ground. neap, whose funeral procession was pass- 2 h Say, mister, can you tell me where in . I ' :YQ ffk, ' t e Dean lives ? gThe man addressed nudged his compan- A Dean of what ?i' querried the great ion and with a signihcent wink, pointed . man with the brass buttons. with his forefinger to his brain, as much if? I don't know what he .is dean of, but as to say, The wheels are a little loose, I ai' L 'l ,- ,gig 7 ,,.- i I want to find a place to matriculatef, 5511955-H , 7 To what school do ou wish to o, By this time the aspiring young dental- i I young man ? y g student had forgotten which car he was I xg ' Why, to the Ohio College of Dental next to take, for he had expected to End in Q 3 ' Surgery. only one car awaiting his arrival. 4 ' I' Well, here, get on this Vine Street The sun was beginning to wane, and Tom 'L When he aliglxted :md W alnut. at the comer of Fifth Car and get off at Garfield Place. lim-