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While Mr. Carnegie may be justly criticized for some of the methods he adopted in getting his money, few can criticize the beautiful spirit that he has shown in giving it away. So liberal has he been that in a single year he gave away one hundred and twelve million dollars. Some of his more notable gifts are $22,000,000 for the Carnegie Institution in Washington, $24,000,000 for the Carnegie Institution in Pittsburg, $15,000,000 for Teachers’ Pensions, $10,000,000 for Scotch Universities, and $70,000,000 for libraries.
In the northern part of Scotland is a large and beautiful mansion known as Skibo Castle. This was Mr. Carnegie’s country estate, and here he and his wife and daughter lived in comparative quiet. In his late years, as in boyhood days, he loved to tread on the free heather of his beloved country. As the years multiplied, his sympathies gradually enlarged and his vision broadened. Though some, as they grow old, become sour and crabbed, Mr. Carnegie became increasingly optimistic and youthful in spirit, until death claimed him.
“He is never alone that hath a good book.”
176Photograph from Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.DR. ANNA SHAWHonorary President, Woman’s National Suffrage Association
Photograph from Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.DR. ANNA SHAWHonorary President, Woman’s National Suffrage Association
177ANNA SHAW
When Anna Shaw was four years old, her mother left Scotland with her family of small children and started for America to join her husband. After a few days’ sail, a fearful storm arose and the ship returned with great difficulty to Queenstown. This was the first impressive experience of Anna’s life, and she was destined to live through many exciting ones. Finally, another ship started on the long voyage across the Atlantic and this time the family reached the shores of our country and met the husband and father. Anna remembers his joy over their reunion.
But the next event that stands out clearly in her mind occurred after they had lived in the United States for a year or more. Her parents did not believe in slavery, and were anxious to help runaway slaves gain a place of safety and freedom. They had read Uncle Tom’s Cabin aloud to their children, so Anna was not surprised when one day she went into the cellar on an errand and found a negro woman hiding there. The little girl was greatly excited and anxious to know just how the woman came there and where she was going. But when she told her parents of her discovery they became alarmed lest she might, through her interest, say things before strangers that would disclose their secret. Therefore they kept her away from the cellar on one excuse or another, and although Anna was sure her home sheltered many slaves178on their journey to a free land, she never again saw one or knew anything about the system that helped these suffering persons.
The Shaw home was in a small Massachusetts town, and there was much happening to engage the attention of the children. Anna recalls the first money she ever earned. The amount was twenty-five cents, and she was paid that for riding in a Fourth of July celebration. After this seemingly great sum of money was hers, she and a small sister decided to spend some of it. They bought a banana, which was to them a strange and wonderful fruit, but they did not like it because they did not know how to eat it. They gave it away to a boy who quickly removed the peel and enjoyed eating the fruit. They were amazed, for they had tried to eat it just as they bought it from the dealer. When Anna saw their gift eaten so rapidly she was astonished and disappointed.
This incident was to be one of the last memories of her New England home, for the family moved to Northern Michigan and became pioneers. For toys she received at Christmas a small saw and an axe. These were typical of the life she was to lead for a number of years. Unlike many girls of her age, she had no time to play with dolls or sew; she was forced to do a man’s work in helping with the new home.
Her father was a kind, gentle man, but very much of a dreamer. He did not realize that things must be done179promptly if a family is to have food and shelter. Once he spent weeks reading and planning what kinds of grains would be best to sow, but long before he had decided, the planting season was over, the young crops were up, and the Shaws had none. The mother was not strong, yet she did an immense amount of work. As she had been highly trained in sewing, she made the clothing for the entire family. The two older girls, Eleanor and Mary, did the housework and this left Anna and her brother to do the rough outdoor work. Together they accomplished this and many other tasks. They even made a set of furniture for their simple cabin home.
Indians were all about through the woods, and once while out playing Anna saw a band of them going towards her home. She hurried back to see her mother giving them food. This they took with no thanks and departed. But later in the year they returned and brought Mrs. Shaw a large supply of venison to show her they appreciated her kindness.
Another time a number of Indians stopped at the Shaw cabin, and they had been drinking whiskey. They demanded food, and it was prepared for them. Meanwhile Anna and her brother, fearful lest the liquor might excite their guests, managed to go to the attic and let down a rope from the gable window. With it they drew up all their firearms, one by one. Then at long intervals, members of the family would slip away and hide180upstairs where they knew they would be safe unless the Indians set fire to the house.
The hungry guests ate up everything, then stretched themselves out and fell into a drunken sleep. The Shaw children watched them all night through cracks in the attic floor, and when morning came were glad to see the Indians sneak away as if they were ashamed.
Many hardships came to the little family. Their cow died, and for an entire winter they had no milk. They had no coffee either, but made something they called coffee out of dried peas and burned rye. Anna was always cold; she cannot remember that the house was ever warm enough to be comfortable; still she enjoyed life and made up her mind to go to college, to be a preacher, and to be worth one hundred thousand dollars. She named this amount because it seemed so unlikely she would ever have any money. Often she would steal away and preach in the woods to an imaginary audience.
When she was fifteen years of age she began to teach school. She had but fourteen pupils, and they learned to read from whatever books they could find. The result was that their text books were almanacs and hymn books. For teaching she was paid two dollars a week and board. This latter did not amount to much, as often all she had for her luncheon was a piece of raw salt pork. Her salary was not paid promptly either, as the school authorities had to wait until the dog tax was181collected because it was from this fund that the teacher’s salary was drawn.
The largest salary Anna Shaw ever received for teaching was one hundred and fifty-six dollars a year, so at last she stopped and started to learn the trade of sewing. This was very distasteful to her, and she determined she would not earn her living with the needle. What she wanted to do was to preach. Finally she had a chance to give her first sermon, and her brother-in-law, who owned the county newspaper, printed this notice:
“A young girl named Anna Shaw preached at Ashton yesterday. Her real friends deprecate the course she is pursuing.”
This did not discourage Anna Shaw, for she kept on working and in 1873 managed to enter Albion College in Albion, Michigan. She had earned a little money to pay her way, and she intended to get the rest by preaching. Her family disapproved so strongly of this step that they had nothing to do with her, and it was some years before they became reconciled and good feeling was once more established between them and the bright young woman.
Anna was twenty-five when she entered college, and she had had so much experience in her pioneer home she seemed much older. Every Sunday she preached in mission churches to congregations composed chiefly of182Indians who sat listening solemnly, while their papooses were hung along the walls in their queer little Indian cradles.
From Albion College, Anna Shaw went to Boston Theological School, and after a hard struggle with poverty, was graduated from this institution as a minister. She had given to her for her field of labor a little church on Cape Cod, that part of Massachusetts that seems to stretch forth to meet the sea. Here she was the minister for seven years. The members of her church liked her, and she was always busy helping them in every way, from preaching funeral sermons and performing marriage ceremonies to helping settle neighborhood quarrels.
There were many amusing episodes in her life. One over which she has laughed many times was her purchase of a horse. She wanted a horse gentle and safe for a woman, so when she went to look at one that had been offered her the only question she asked was, “Is she safe for a woman?” The family who owned her said she was, so Miss Shaw bought her. When the errand boy at the Shaw residence went out to the barn to hitch up the new horse, the creature kicked so that the boy ran from the building thoroughly frightened. However, Miss Shaw went into the stall and harnessed the horse easily. Soon she discovered the truth; the horse was safe for women, she liked them, but she would not let a man or boy come near her. The only way she could be outwitted was183when the errand boy put on a sunbonnet and long circular cloak of Miss Shaw’s. Even then the horse would eye him suspiciously, but did not kick. Miss Shaw thought she had made a most peculiar purchase, but she became fond of Daisy, as the horse was called, just as she did of every person and thing in her parish.
At last, feeling the need of more training, in order to do good in the world, she went to a medical school, and after serious study became Dr. Anna Shaw. While there she became interested in the cause of Woman’s Suffrage. At that time only a few persons believed that women, as well as men, should have the right to vote, and anyone saying they should was criticized severely.
Dr. Shaw went to work for this cause with great energy and steadfastness of purpose. From 1888 to 1906 she was closely associated with Miss Susan B. Anthony who was then the head of the suffrage movement. When Miss Anthony passed away, Dr. Shaw became one of the great leaders. In 1906 only four states had granted suffrage to women,
Wyoming in 1869,Colorado in 1893,Idaho in 1896,Utah in 1896.
Suddenly all over the United States women became interested in this cause to which a few devoted women had already given years of their lives, and in 1910 Washington184was added to the small list of states where women had equal political rights with men. Then in quick succession came
California in 1911,Arizona in 1912,Kansas in 1912,Oregon in 1912,Alaska in 1913,Nevada in 1914,Montana in 1914,New York in 1917.
By 1917 women also had the right to vote for president and all offices except the judiciary, in Illinois, North Dakota, Nebraska, and Michigan. At that time there was partial suffrage for women in Arkansas, New Mexico, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Florida and Ohio. In some of these states just mentioned, women voted for very few offices, but still they had a slight voice in the affairs of their state, and a large number of states refused women all voting rights. They were Texas, Missouri, Alabama, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Maine, Indiana, Delaware and Virginia.
Dr. Shaw’s life dream was realized when woman was given the right to vote on all questions in every state in185the union by an amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
Dr. Shaw died in the service of her country at Washington, in 1918.
Like so many of America’s noble men and women, the secret of Anna Shaw’s life has been service to others,––doing good to her fellowmen and working always for human justice.
AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL
“O Beautiful for spacious skies,For amber waves of grain,For purple mountain majestiesAbove the fruited plain!America! America!God shed his grace on theeAnd crown thy good with brotherhoodFrom sea to shining sea.”
––Katharine Lee Bates.
186Photograph from Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.ERNEST THOMPSON SETON and WIFEFounder of the Boy Scout Movement
Photograph from Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.ERNEST THOMPSON SETON and WIFEFounder of the Boy Scout Movement
187ERNEST THOMPSON SETON
How many boys of ten years of age know what they want to do when they are grown? Surely there are some boys of that age who have planned their future work or at least have dreamed about it. But how many ever do in later life just what they had thought of doing when in the fourth grade of the public school? Not many, you may be sure. However, some years ago there was a boy living in England who had decided on his life work by the time his tenth birthday passed. What is more, he carried out his plans with great success. Today you may read many of his books and look at interesting pictures he has drawn of wild animals that are as familiar to him as are the pets most boys and girls have in their homes. More than this, if a boy belongs to the Boy Scouts, he is a member of an organization that this man helped to found in the United States.
Ernest Thompson Seton was born in the northern part of England. His family moved to Canada, but he attended school in England and did not stay in America for any length of time until his schooling was completed. His name was originally Ernest E. Thompson Seton, but some years ago he changed it by turning the last two names around and putting a hyphen between them. As he has written under both names, persons sometimes wonder if there are two men who love the out of doors and write with pleasure of their open air experiences.
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Mr. Thompson Seton’s wish was to spend a large part of his life tramping over the country studying animals and learning woodcraft. The rest of the time he would write and make pictures of what he had seen. He felt he could stay within doors only part of each year. So as soon as he finished school and returned to the province of Manitoba he went to work in the fields. It did not take him long to earn enough money to live on during the winter, as his wants were few; then he set out to tramp all over the province. He watched the birds; he learned the ways of all the animals and could tell wonderful stories of their instinct and cunning. When he did live under a roof for a few weeks, he was always busy drawing pictures of his friends in the open or writing down accounts of their lives. One of his best known books was published in 1898 and was called, “Wild Animals I Have Known.” This brought him to the attention of many readers; but he had been helping make books long before this one, for when the Century Dictionary was published he drew for it more than a thousand pictures of the animals that he had watched and studied.
In the course of his life he has been a hunter, a day laborer, a scientist, a naturalist, and an artist. At the same time he has been able to carry out his plan of spending the greater part of each year out of doors. Loving a free active life from his earliest boyhood, it is not strange that Ernest Thompson Seton was the first man to organize the Boy Scouts in America. In the Outlook189for July 23, 1910, he tells the story in a most interesting manner. He says:
“My friend John Moale, a rich man, had bought several thousand acres of abandoned farm lands near Boston in the year 1900. This he made into a beautiful park, all for his own enjoyment. Around this park he built a strong fence twelve feet high so that no one could get into the park. His prospects of peace and happiness were excellent. But the neighbors resented his coming. He had fenced in a lot of open ground that had been the common cow-pasture of the adjoining village. He had taken from the boys their nutting-ground, and forbidden the usual summer picnics. He was an outsider, a rich man despoiling the very poor, and they set about making it unpleasant for him.
“They destroyed his fences, they stoned his notice-boards until they fell, and they painted shocking pictures on his gates. Mr. Moale, a peace-loving man, rebuilt the fences and restored the notice-boards only to have them torn down again and again.
“All summer this had been going on, so I learned on visiting Mr. Moale in September. Finally I said to him: ‘Let me try my hand on these boys.’ He was ready for anything, and gave me a free hand. I bought two tents, three old Indian teepees, and two canoes. I got some bows and arrows and a target.
“Then I got a gang of men to make a campground by the lake on my friend’s grounds. On this190I set up the tents and teepees in the form of an Indian village.
“Now I went to the local school house and got permission to talk to the boys for five minutes. ‘Now boys,’ I said, ‘Mr. Moale invites you all to come to the Indian village on his land next Friday, after school, to camp with him there until Monday morning. We will have all the grub you can eat, all the canoes necessary, and everything to have a jolly time in camp.’
“At first the boys were bashful and suspicious, but finally they accepted the invitation, and at 4:30 forty-two boys arrived in high glee.
“‘Say, Mister, kin we holler?’
“‘Yes, all you want to.’
“‘Kin we take our clothes off?’
“As the weather was warm I said, ‘Yes, every stitch, if you like.’ And soon they were a mob of naked, howling savages, tearing through the woods, jumping into the lake, or pelting each other with mud.”
After supper, Mr. Thompson Seton tells us, the boys gathered around the camp fire while he told them one Indian story after another. For two days the boys ate, swam, canoed, and, what was most important of all, they became acquainted with the two men. There was no harm done the boats, teepees, or outfit other than fair wear and tear during that camping, and before it was over Mr. Moale, instead of having a gang of bandits to combat the year round, had now a guard of staunch191friends, ready to fight his battles and look out for his interests when he was away.
That was the beginning of it. Every boy in the village is now a member of the tribe, and three other bands have been formed in the neighborhood. All this was in 1900. Since then thousands of workers have become interested and the work has spread, until today the Boy Scouts of America is one of the best known organizations of the country.
One reason for the growth of the Boy Scout movement is the fact that scouting usually makes boys cleaner and more manly than they were before. Should you like to know the Scout Laws that they learn and practice? The first law is this: “A scout is trustworthy.” This means a scout’s honor is to be trusted. Boy Scouts everywhere make a great deal of the wordhonor. The following story shows the scout’s idea of honor: “A little newsboy boarded a crowded car the other night with a very large bundle of papers, and the conductor, with coarse good-nature, tried to favor him by not taking his fare, although of course he could not do this without cheating the railway. The boy looked at him with indignation, and could not believe that he was the conductor. He went all through the car hunting for the real conductor to whom he might pay his fare.”
“A scout is loyal,” is the second law.Loyaltyis another word that is dear to the scout. Have you ever heard a scout say bad things about his scout master or about his192fellow scouts behind their backs? Not very often, I am sure. If a scout has anything to say against any one, he goes directly to him and talks it over. The Scout Law explains loyalty saying: “He is loyal to all to whom loyalty is due, his scout leader, his home and parents and country.” He must stick to them through thick and thin against any one who is their enemy, or whoever talks badly of them.
Have you ever seen the scouts salute the flag? The smiling faces and beaming eyes show that they love the flag dearly. Few can sing better than the scouts, for they mean every word they sing.
The instant our nation entered the great world war the Boy Scouts offered themselves to their country to do whatever the president asked. Since most of them were too young to enlist, it was at first thought that they could not do much. As the months passed, however, the boys have found one task after another, until now they are so busy that they put to shame many older people.
Then, too, the Boy Scouts have worked so silently, without making a fuss about what they were doing. In many of our large cities they have planted “war gardens” on every vacant lot they could get. In most cases all they raised in these gardens was given to the Red Cross. Furthermore, they have been the best friends the farmers have had. These scouts in large numbers have left their comfortable city homes to work on farms. They have193not asked for the easy, pleasant jobs, but have been willing to do the thing that needed to be done most whether it was pleasant or not. Have you ever wondered who put up the thousands of posters asking the people to save food and buy bonds? In many cases this work has been done by the scouts.
The Boy Scout has been able to do so much because he is taught to be brave. The coward has no place among the scouts. The lad who is not willing to rough it soon drops out. Long hikes, coarse food, and hard work try thestuffthat’s in a boy. If he can stand up to all these he is sure to develop the endurance that makes him brave.
As soon as the war began, the educated young men of our country went to the officers’ training camps to learn to become officers. After thousands of these young men who had tried to become officers had failed, the people began to wonder what the trouble was. Finally they asked the great army officers who had examined them, and received this answer: “Your young men are slouchy; slouchy in the way they hold their shoulders, slouchy in the way they walk, slouchy in their use of the English language, slouchy in the way they think.” Should you like to know how the young men who had once been scouts fared? Almost without exception they passed, for the training they had received as scouts had cured them of much of their slouchiness.
A scout is not only brave but he is also courteous and helpful to others. Nothing delights a scout more than194to be able to help a child or an old man or woman across a busy street. For these little services he must not receive tips. Major Powell, the great English Scout organizer, tells of a little fellow who came to his house on an errand. When offered a tip the lad put up his hand to the salute and said, “No, thank you, sir, I am a Boy Scout.”
About the hardest thing a scout is expected to do is to smile and whistle under all circumstances. “The punishment for swearing or using bad language is, for each offense, a mug of cold cold water poured down the offender’s sleeves by the other scouts.”
Much more could be written in favor of the Boy Scouts. They are a body of boys of whom we are proud. And we shall ever be grateful to Ernest Thompson Seton for his noble work in organizing the Boy Scouts in America.
“Be Prepared”
195JOHN WANAMAKER
It was a stormy, rainy day in New York City. We wanted to visit some of the great stores and shops, but were afraid of the bad weather.
Our friends who lived in the city laughed at us. They said: “This is just the kind of a day to go to Wanamakers. We will take the subway to the basement door and never be in the wet at all.”
So we hurried to the underground railroad that runs beneath the busy streets, and were soon riding away in a fast express train. On we went in the darkness, through winding tunnels to the other end of the city. At last we stopped at a brilliantly lighted platform and were told that this was our destination. Leaving the train we did not ascend to the street, but went through great doors into a large room that was as light as day. Elevators took us up, up, from floor to floor. And what did we see, I hear you ask. We saw everything one could wish to buy. We saw everything we had ever dreamed of purchasing. We saw many beautiful things of which we had never heard, and we felt as if we were visiting a magic palace.
At noon we ate our lunch in a pleasant restaurant up at the very top of the enormous building. It was quiet and peaceful, and we were glad to rest. When we were through, we found an attractive little concert hall where many persons were listening to a deep-toned organ.
196Photograph from Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.JOHN WANAMAKER (On left)Great Merchant and Philanthropist
Photograph from Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.JOHN WANAMAKER (On left)Great Merchant and Philanthropist
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We were told we were welcome to sit down and hear the sweet music. An hour passed before we were ready to leave. Then we continued our sightseeing, and it was late in the afternoon before we were ready to go home. We returned the same way we had come and when we were once more far up town in our own familiar street the rain had just stopped. Then we realized we had been in doors all day long and known nothing of the storm. It had indeed been just the kind of a day to go to Wanamakers.
And what is Wanamakers? It is the name of two great stores, one in New York City and the other in Philadelphia. The owner, John Wanamaker, is the man who first thought of selling all manner of articles in one store, and so built what we call today a department store.
No one who knew John Wanamaker when he was a boy thought he had any better chances than any other boy among his playmates, and no one foretold that he would become a great merchant.
A plain two story house in Philadelphia was his early home. There he lived with his father and mother. His father was a brick maker, and while John was very small he would help his father by turning the bricks over so they would dry evenly. His father died in 1852. John was just fourteen, and he went to work in a book store. His wages were $1.50 a week, but he managed to save a little. His mother encouraged him and he says of her, “Her smile was a bit of heaven and it never faded out of her face till her dying day.”
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Although at first the boy earned but little to help this good mother, he soon was able to care for her in a way beyond his highest hopes.
What caused him to succeed? His capital! “But,” you say, “he had no money; he was poor.” True, his capital was not money. Let us see what it was. A few words will tell us. He had good health, good habits, a clean mind, thriftiness, and a tireless devotion to whatever he thought to be his duty.
He worked hard outside of business hours, improving himself for any opportunity that might come. And one came when he was twenty-one years of age.
The directors of the Philadelphia Y. M. C. A. were looking for a young man to become Secretary of the Association. They were anxious to secure an earnest energetic person who would make a great success, for it was the first time that such a position as Y. M. C. A. secretary had been established. They selected John Wanamaker and paid him $1,000 a year.
He went to work with a will, and everyone felt that he more than earned his salary. All the time he was saving, just as he had been doing when he worked in the book store. He had great hopes and plans. When he had saved $2000 he and a friend of his own age started a business of their own. Their store was named Oak Hall and they sold men’s clothing. At that time business houses did not advertise in the newspapers as they do today. Neither were signboards used. Just imagine199how puzzled the good folk of Philadelphia were when, one morning, they saw great billboards all over their peaceful city. On these were two letters, W. & B. No one knew what these letters meant. Everyone was guessing, and it was not until Oak Hall was opened that the public learned that W. & B. stood for Wanamaker & Brown, the name of the new firm.
Their first day’s business brought in thirty-eight dollars. John Wanamaker himself delivered the goods in a wheel barrow. Then he hurried to a newspaper office and spent the entire thirty-eight dollars for advertising. After reading of the wonderful goods on sale there, customers poured into Oak Hall. They bought, too, for again John Wanamaker had spent his money wisely. He had hired the highest paid clerk in Philadelphia to manage the sales room, which meant that each customer was waited upon well and went away pleased, ready to tell his friends about the new store.
What do you suppose was told the oftenest? Probably you would not guess, because today all business houses have followed the plan that was used first in Oak Hall.
You will be surprised when you hear that it was the custom of having one price for a garment and sticking to it that caused the most talk. This price was marked plainly on a tag attached to the article to be sold, and any one could see it. Before this, clothing merchants had not marked their goods, but tried to get as much as200possible from a customer. Often one suit of clothes had a dozen prices on the same day. So you can see what a change the energetic young man made. He did more than this. Because he wanted to please the public, he said if any customer was not satisfied he could return his purchase and receive his money back. This was a startling idea, but it worked, and made many friends for the young firm.
Their store waked up Philadelphia. Every week some new advertising appeared. Once great balloons were sent up from the roof. Stamped on each one was the statement that any one who found the balloon and returned it to Oak Hall would receive a suit of clothes. You can imagine how the people hunted for those balloons. One was found five months afterward in a cranberry swamp. The frightened farmer who saw it swaying to and fro thought at first that some strange animal was hiding there. You may be sure he was glad to hurry to Oak Hall with his prize and get the promised suit of clothes.
John Wanamaker kept on economizing and saving, for he wanted a bigger business. Then the idea came to him of selling many kinds of goods under one roof, and the modern department store was born. The store, though small at first, gradually grew until it finally became the largest in Philadelphia. Then it was that he decided to build an even larger one in New York City.
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Today there are department stores throughout our country in every city and town. We like them and take them as a matter of course. But let us remember they had their beginning in the idea of this boy from Philadelphia.
His success looks very great to us, but it was built up step by step. He says it is due “to thinking, toiling, and trusting in God.” This seems to sum up his life. Besides business, his interest in religious affairs has always been great. He has given of his wealth to many noble charities and helpful organizations. In Philadelphia he built a great building for a Sunday School alone. Thousands of persons attend this school each Sunday and there are classes there during the week for those who have had to leave school at an early age. He has remembered the Y. M. C. A. and, perhaps because of his early work with it, has been unusually generous in giving buildings to struggling associations. He even built one in the far away city of Madras, India, thus stretching out his influence for good nearly around the world.
But while he has had thought for those far away, he has also cared for the people who work for him. His stores were the first to have an entire holiday on Saturday during the hot days of summer. This was done so the men and women could leave the crowded city, if they wished, on Friday evening, and have a vacation of two full days in the country or at the seashore.
Then, too, he has encouraged the various departments of the stores to form clubs and musical societies. At202times there have been two bands in the New York store, one composed of men and the other of women. They have rooms and hours in which to practice.
Besides playing and singing, some of the clubs study English, foreign languages, and many other subjects. It is possible for every person employed in one of the Wanamaker stores to add to his stock of knowledge through this club life.
Some years ago John Wanamaker began giving a pension to those who had served him for a certain length of time. This plan has since been followed by other firms because it promotes faithfulness and interest in the business.
This interest makes each one connected with the store realize he is a part of it. Perhaps this is shown best by the way pensioned men and women responded to Mr. Wanamaker’s call in 1917, after so many men had left to join the army and navy. They went back to take the places of those who had gone, feeling that in so doing they were serving their country.
There was one fine old Scotchman past eighty years of age living in New York who had been forty-four years in the employ of Wanamaker. He had been on the pension roll for some time and was enjoying old age quietly. When he heard the call from his former employer, he went down to work as eagerly as a boy, glad he was strong and sturdy enough to do his part in keeping the great store open to serve the public.
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Is it not a fine thing to be able to develop such spirit and energy among thousands of persons? Surely the mother of the boy who turned bricks for his father would rejoice if she could read her son’s record. He has become one of the greatest business men of his day; he served our country well as Postmaster General but most of all he has given each year more and more time and money to help make the world better.
Can we not say of him that, while he has always recognized that the object of business is to make money in an honorable way, he has tried to remember that the object of life is to do good?
“And the star-spangled bannerIn triumph shall waveO’er the land of the freeAnd the home of the brave.”
––Francis Scott Key.
204Photograph from Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.EX-PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON
Photograph from Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.EX-PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON
205WOODROW WILSON
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born at Staunton, Virginia, December 28, 1856. At that time Staunton was a town of five thousand inhabitants, situated in the beautiful and famous Valley of Virginia. Woodrow’s father, a thoroughly trained and able preacher, was pastor of the Southern Presbyterian Church of the city.
When Woodrow was two years of age the family moved to Augusta, Georgia. In those days Augusta, a city of fifteen thousand people, was one of the leading manufacturing cities of the South. With its great railroad shops, furnaces, rolling mills, and cotton mills, it was indeed a hive of industry.
As a boy Woodrow was called “Tommy” by his playmates; but as he grew into manhood he dropped his given name and signed himself––Woodrow Wilson. His mother was a Woodrow, and by signing his name Woodrow Wilson he hoped to do equal honor to each parent.
During Woodrow’s boyhood days, the Civil War storm-cloud was gathering; and when he was five years of age it broke in all its fury. Fortunately for him, Augusta was far removed from the scenes of conflict. Never can he remember having seen troops of southern soldiers marching through the streets of the city. Only once was he thoroughly frightened. When General Sherman was on his famous march to the sea, word came that he was about to capture Augusta. Immediately the206few men who were left in the city, for most of them had gone to war, gathered all sorts of fire arms and marched forth to meet the enemy. All night they lay on their arms, but greatly to their relief the foe never came.
Naturally enough the most vivid memories young Woodrow had of the war were those in connection with the scarcity of food. Before the war the people of the South had never thought of eating cow peas, as they were thought to be fit only for cattle; but so scarce did food become that Woodrow had to eat so much cow pea soup that even yet, whenever he thinks of it, he feels the old time disgust.
Two things that happened immediately at the close of the war made a deep impression upon the lad who was then nine years of age. All through the war the president of the Southern Confederacy was, as you know, Jefferson Davis. Imagine young Woodrow’s surprise when he saw the former president marched through the streets of Augusta, a prisoner of war, guarded by Federal soldiers. They were on their way to Fortress Monroe. During the war Woodrow, as we have already said, saw very little of the Confederate soldiers; but as soon as peace was declared, the Union soldiers took possession of the city, even occupying his father’s church as a temporary barracks. The hardships suffered during the few years immediately at the close of the war were even greater than those during the war itself.
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A thrilling event in the life of the lad was the day when Augusta had its first street cars. The bob-tail cars, with their red, purple, and green lights, and drawn by mules, afforded all sorts of fun for the boys. To make scissors by laying two pins crosswise on the rail for the cars to pass over was one of their most pleasant pastimes.
In those days there were no free public schools with their beautiful buildings for Woodrow to attend, so he was sent to a private school that was held in rooms over the post office. With Professor Derry, who was in charge of the school, spanking was the favorite form of punishment. While Woodrow and his chums differed very decidedly with the Professor’s views regarding spanking, the boys were never able to convince him that their views were right. Finally, the lads discovered that pads made from the cotton that grew in the fields on every side of the city served them well whenever the evil day of punishment arrived. After they had made this discovery they were more reconciled to the Professor’s views.
The best chum Woodrow had was his father. Busy as he was with the cares of his large church, he never was so occupied that he could not find time to chum with his boy. For hours at a time he would read to his son the worth-while things that Woodrow enjoyed hearing. Then, too, the busy pastor was in the habit of taking a day off each week to stroll with Woodrow in field, factory, or wood as the case might be. On these long strolls the father and son talked over many of the problems that208were of interest to the lad. Little wonder, then, with such comradeship, that Woodrow rapidly developed along right lines.
Like all boys, he was fond of building air castles. Dwelling much in the realm of fancy, he imagined that he occupied all sorts of positions and did remarkable things.
Mr. William Hale in his excellent story of the life of Wilson describes one of these flights of the imagination as follows: “Thus for months he was an Admiral of the Navy, and in that character wrote out daily reports to the Navy Department.
“His main achievement in this capacity was the discovery and destruction of a nest of pirates in the Southern Pacific Ocean. It appears that the government, along with all the people of the country, had been terrified by the mysterious disappearance of ships setting sail from or expected at our western ports. Vessels would set out with their precious freight never to be heard from again, swallowed up in the bosom of an ocean on which no known war raged, no known storm swept.
“Admiral Wilson was ordered to investigate with his fleet; after an eventful cruise they overtook, one night, a piratical looking craft with black hull and rakish rig. Again and again the chase eluded the Admiral. Finally, the pursuit led the fleet to the neighborhood of an island uncharted and hitherto unknown. Circumnavigation seemed to prove it bare and uninhabited, with no visible209harbor. There was, however, a narrow inlet that seemed to end at an abrupt wall of rock a few fathoms inland. Something, however, finally led the Admiral to send a boat into this inlet––and it was discovered that it was the cunningly contrived entrance to a spacious bay; the island really being a sort of atoll. Here lay the ships of the outlawed enemy and the dismantled hulls of many of the ships they had captured. And it may be believed that the brave American tars, under the leadership of the courageous Admiral, played a truly heroic part in the destruction of the pirates and the succor of such of their victims as survived.”
Thus he dreamed dreams, studied, and chummed with his father until the eventful day arrived when he must go away to college. But where should he go? What college should he attend? A small Presbyterian college in the South was chosen. Before the end of the first year he was taken sick and had to leave college. Then it was that he decided to go to Princeton University, a decision that had much to do with his future career. Life in Princeton proved to be just the stimulus that he needed. Here, surrounded by the keenest, most alert young men of the country, he developed rapidly. Interested in every school activity, from baseball to debating, he won for himself a prominent place in the student body. So great was his thirst for knowledge, however, that his graduation from Princeton did not satisfy him. Accordingly, he next went to the University of Virginia where210he was graduated from the law school in 1881. But even this did not satisfy, so he spent two years in Johns Hopkins University, receiving in 1885 the degree of Ph.D., the highest degree that any university can give.
Thus equipped, he became a professor first in Bryn Mawr College, then in Wesleyan University, and finally in Princeton. So pronounced was his success as professor in his beloved university that in 1902 he was made President of Princeton. So able was his leadership in Princeton that the state of New Jersey called him to be its governor. Could a University President make a good governor? The politicians were very much in doubt. It is needless to say that all watched him with deepest concern. Soon, however, it became apparent even to the most skeptical that he was destined to be New Jersey’s ablest governor. Gradually, because of his strength, his popularity grew until the eyes of all the nation were fastened upon him. From the governor’s chair he rose to the highest honor the Nation could bestow, he was elected to the Presidency of the United States.
Little did he realize when he accepted this honor that with it would come the heaviest burdens that any president save Abraham Lincoln had been called upon to bear. For eight long years he patiently bore those burdens and heroically faced every responsibility. Great as were the demands made upon him, he always proved himself equal to the emergency.