Part 16 (2/2)
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 where he 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 p.r.o.nounced was his success as professor in his beloved university that in 1902 he was made President of Princeton. So able was his leaders.h.i.+p 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.
The last three years of his service as President found him dealing with problems of the Great World War, and at its conclusion he was one of the leading figures in the making of the final treaty of peace between the warring nations.
To take part in the treaty-making, Mr. Wilson twice went to Paris. It was the first time a president of the United States had ever traveled beyond the borders of our own country.
At the expiration of his term of office, Mr. Wilson took up the practice of law, at Was.h.i.+ngton.
”_To such a task we dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. G.o.d helping her, she can do no other._”
--PRESIDENT WILSON'S WAR MESSAGE.
[Ill.u.s.tration: MARK TWAIN (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)]
MARK TWAIN
”Talk about trying to cure warts with s.p.u.n.k-water. You got to go all by yourself, to the middle of the woods, where you know there's a s.p.u.n.k-water stump, and just as it's midnight you back up against the stump and jam your hand in it and say:
”Barley-corn, Barley-corn, Injun meal shorts, ”s.p.u.n.k-water, s.p.u.n.k-water, swaller these warts,”
and then walk away quick eleven steps, with your eyes shut and then turn round three times and walk home without speaking to anybody.
Because if you do speak, the charm's busted.
”I've took off thousands of warts that way, Huck. I play with frogs so much that I've always got considerable warts. Sometimes I take 'em off with a bean.”
”Yes, a bean's good. I've done that.”
”But say, Huck, how do you cure 'em with dead cats?”
By this time, doubtless you are saying, ”Oh, I know from what book you are quoting. I have Tom Sawyer at home and Huckleberry Finn, too. I read them over and over.”
But would you not like to know something about the man, who could write so understandingly of boys? Suppose we read the story of his life and see if we can decide what gave him his wide knowledge of games and adventures, of boyish larks and youthful troubles.
We must go for his earliest experiences to a town on the Mississippi, one hundred miles from St. Louis. In the year 1839, the Clemens family moved to Hannibal from a still smaller town in Missouri, named Florida. The youngest child in the Clemens family was four years old.
He was named Samuel Langhorne Clemens. For eight years this boy roved over the hills and through the woods with his playmates. There was a cave near Hannibal. Many strange creatures were said to hide in its depths. Also, there was Bear Creek where the boys went swimming. Young Sam tried hard to learn to swim. Several times he was dragged ash.o.r.e just in time to save his life, but at last he learned to swim better than any of his friends.
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