T H E C H E M A W A A M E R IC A N
PAGE 4
W H Y NOT “STICK”
(C o n tin u ed from pag e 1)
Its eq u ip m en t was w retched. I t w as losing great
sum s of m oney rapidly. M any railro ad s had gone to
th e w all. G reat financial syn d icates had attem pted
to rem edy the situ atio n . Even the C ongress of th e U n it
ed S tates had failed to rem edy the m atter. T h en H a rri
m an stepped in to th e breach. All th is tim e his p en e
tra tin g m ind had been stu d y in g the in tricate problem ,
and all at once, w hen the outlook was most d isco u rag
ing, an asto u n d in g proposition reached the g o v ern
m e n t— an offer to pay fifty-eight m illion dollars in
cash for th e w retched road, and an additional tw enty-
seven m illions to th e holders of the first m ortgage
bonds. T h is was in F eb ru ary , 1 8 9 8 , and the man
who m ade the au th o rities of the U nited States w onder,
and th e g reat financial syndicates of N ew Y ork open
their eyes, sw ung into the w o rld ’s vision as a com ing
railroad g ian t. T he resu lt was th a t w ithin th ree or
four years from the en d in g of the G overnm ent receiver
ship , th e once despised “ streak of r u s t” reach in g from
O m aha to O gden was paying good dividends.
P u re g rit is the m aster key w hich unlocks all diffi
cu lties. W h at has it not accom plished?
T h e g reat life questions are: “ Do you keep at it?’
“ Can you stick by yo u r proposition?” “ Can you
persevere after failure?” “ H ave you g rit enough to
hold on, stick and h an g , in spite of th e m ost d isco u rag
in g obstacles?”
W e have all observed In d ian boys and girls who
have tu rn e d away from co n tin u in g th eir school—s tu
d en ts who had pluck enough to begin th in g s with e n
thusiasm , b u t did not have g rit enough to carry them
to a finish.
T h e point at w hich you are tem pted to q u it, the
point w here yo u r g rit leaves you, will m easure your
achieving power.
M any of th e g ran d est men and women in th e w orld
today started as poor boys and g irls, w ith not one-
half th e o p p o rtu n ities of Chem aw a stu d e n ts— no cap i
tal but p u re g rit and invincible purpose.
ACADEMIC NOTES
O ne of th e classroom teachers said th a t read in g the
p u p ils’ essays on H om e B uilding m ade her long to
visit each hom e described. All teachers agree th a t
th e stu d e n ts have derived m uch benefit from w ritin g
th e essays. H ow ever, th e m ost im p o rtan t p art of th is
w ork is y et to be accom plished; the w orking o u t of
th e pro ject th is sum m er and th e re p o rt to be m ade
th is fall, are th e aim s for w hich the w ork was u n d er
ta k en .
M rs. B rickell read an excellent p aper on H om e
E conom ics at the teach ers’ m eeting last W ednesday
m orning. T h is ch ap ter, as presented in Classroom
M ethod and M anagem ent, was adequately handled and
we were in stru cted and pleased w ith M rs. B rick ell’s
discussion. M r. D. S. T u rn e r gave us a helpful d is
cussion of th e chapter on ag ricu ltu re. T h ese d iscu s
sions from the in d u strial teachers have indicated
m eans by w hich academ ic and industrial teachers m ay
cooperate m ore successfully. Miss Davis and Miss
G u n n will lead the discussion at th e n ex t m eeting.
Miss Davis and M rs. John so n , both of C alifornia,
visited several classroom s and some of th e industrial
dep artm ents at Chem aw a recently. M iss Davis is county
su p erin ten d en t w ith h ead q u arters at S an ta C ruz. She
is especially interested in the course of stu d y in use in
In d ian schools in w hich in d u strial in stru c tio n is co r
related w ith academ ic w ith such splendid resu lts. I n
d u strial in stru ctio n is sadly neglected in the public
schools. E d u cato rs are try in g to solve the problem
of successfully in co rp o ratin g it in the school c u rric u
lum . C hem aw a contrib u ted to this purpose by p re
sen tin g Miss D avis a copy of o u r course of stu d y ,
w hich she u rg e n tly requested.
T he follow ing excerpts were taken from the essays
on H om e B uilding:
“ I will m ake some dresses for m y m o th er to show
h er w h at I learned out here in th e sew in g ro o m .”
“ W hen I go hom e I am g oing to teach m y sisters
som e good m an n ers I ’ve learned here. I ’m going to
teach them to be polite. I am going to teach m y
brothers and m y sisters lots of th in g s I have learned
h e re .”
“ W hen I go hom e this sum m er I am going to try to
do all the cooking to show w hat I have learned a t
C hem aw a.”
“ I d o n ’t w an t a fence around m y house. I t is
nicer to have grass w ithout a fence th e w ay it is at
C h em aw a.” In th e essay from w hich th is quotation
is tak en , the youth fu l w riter adds a touch of hum or in
these words: “ I w ant a chicken yard w ith a w ire
fence around it. I w ant lots of roosters and old hens. ’ ’
A girl who will some day re tu rn to her hom e in
A laska w rites: “ I will try to keep o u r garbage can
scrubbed every m orning. I will feed th e foxes and
chickens and keep the fox corral c le a n .”
A nother fo u rth grade pupil will w ork on th is p ro
ject: “ I am going to patch the screens on th e doors
and the w indow s so the flies and m osquitoes and other
insects c a n ’t com e in. A fter I patch th e screens I am
going to kill all the flies in the house. I ’ll get some
sw atters so I can kill th e flies easier, or I can get my
father to m ake them for me, because he know s how
to m ake th e m .”
An eig h th grade girl and a ten th grade boy w orked
out plans by m eans of w hich they hope to im prove th e ir
houses in the far n o rth w here th e silent cold creeps
th ro u g h protecting w alls, and fuel is scarce and e x
pensive.
In reading these essays one is im pressed w ith the
fact th a t each child so vividly pictured his hom e s u r
ro undings th a t, in fancy, he was at hom e, and co n
centrated on rem oving undesirable conditions th a t
m ake his hom e less attractiv e or less h ealth fu l. E ach
pupil m et his ow n peculiar problem an d stru g g led
w ith its solution.