when james garfield presented himself at hiram, an awkward, overgrown boy of nineteen, in his rustic garb, and humbly asked for the position of janitor and bell-ringer, suppose the trustees had been told, "in seven years your institute will have developed into a college, and that boy will be the president," we can imagine their amazement.
yet it had all come true. nowhere, perhaps, but in america could such a thing have happened, and even here it seldom happens that such an upward stride is made in so short a time.
after all, however, the important question to consider is, "what sort of a college president did this humble canal-boy, who counted it promotion when he was elected a janitor and bell-ringer, become?"
for information upon this point, we go to one of his pupils, rev. i.l. darsie, of danbury, conn., who writes as follows:
"i attended the western reserve institute when garfield was principal, and i recall vividly his method of teaching. he took very kindly to me, and assisted me in various ways, because i was poor, and was janitor of the buildings, and swept them out in the morning and built the fires, as he had done only six years before, when he was a pupil in the same college. he was full of animal spirits, and used to run out on the green every day and play cricket with his scholars. he was a tall, strong man, but dreadfully awkward. every now and then he would get a hit, and he muffed his ball and lost his hat as a regular thing.1 he was left-handed, too, and that made him seem all the clumsier. but he was most powerful and very quick, and it was easy for us to understand how it was that he had acquired the reputation of whipping all the other mule-drivers on the canal, and of making himself the hero of that thoroughfare, when he followed its tow-path, only ten years earlier.
"no matter how old the pupils were, garfield always called us by our first names, and kept himself on the most intimate terms with all. he played with us freely, and we treated him out of the class-room just about as we did one another. yet he was a most strict disciplinarian, and enforced the rules like a martinet. he combined an affectionate and confiding manner with respect for order in a most successful manner. if he wanted to speak to a pupil, either for reproof or approbation, he would generally manage to get one arm around him, and draw him close up to him. he had a peculiar way of shaking hands, too, giving a twist to your arm, and drawing you right up to him. this sympathetic manner has helped him to advancement. when i was janitor, he used sometimes to stop me, and ask my opinion about this and that, as if seriously advising with me. i can see now that my opinion could not have been of any value, and that he probably asked me partly to increase my self-respect and partly to show that he felt an interest in me. i certainly was his friend all the firmer for it.
"i remember once asking him what was the best way to pursue a certain study.
"'use several text-books,' he answered. 'get the views of different authors as you advance. in that way you can plow a deeper furrow. i always study in that way.'
"he tried hard to teach us to observe carefully and accurately. he broke out one day in the midst of a lesson with, 'henry, how many posts are there under the building down-stairs?' henry expressed his opinion, and the question went around the class, hardly any one getting it right. then it was, 'how many boot-scrapers are there at the door?' 'how many windows in the building?' 'how many trees in the field?' he was the keenest observer i ever saw. i think he noticed and numbered every button on our coats. a friend of mine was walking with him through cleveland one day, when garfield stopped and darted down a cellar-way, asking his companion to follow, and briefly pausing to explain himself. the sign, 'saws and files,' was over the door, and in the depths was heard a regular clicking sound. 'i think this fellow is cutting files,' said he, 'and i have never seen a file cut.
"down they went, and, sure enough, there was a man recutting an old file; and they stayed ten minutes, and found out all about the process. garfield would never go by anything without understanding it.
"mr. garfield was very fond of lecturing in the school. he spoke two or three times a week, on all manner of topics, generally scientific, though sometimes literary or historical. he spoke with great freedom, never writing out what he had to say, and i now think that his lectures were a rapid compilation of his current reading, and that he threw it into this form partly for the purpose of impressing it upon his own mind.
"his facility of speech was learned when he was a pupil at hiram. the societies had a rule that every student should take his stand on the platform and speak for five minutes on any topic suggested at the moment by the audience. it was a very trying ordeal. garfield broke down badly the first two times he tried to speak, but persisted, and was at last, when he went to williams, one of the best of the five-minute speakers. when he returned as principal, his readiness was striking and remarkable."
henry james says: "garfield taught me more than any other man, living or dead, and, proud as i am of his record as a soldier and a statesman, i can hardly forgive him for abandoning the academy and the forum."
so president hinsdale, one of garfield's pupils, and his successor as president, testifies: "my real acquaintance with garfield did not begin till the fall of 1856, when he returned from williams college. he then found me out, drew near to me, and entered into all my troubles and difficulties pertaining to questions of the future. in a greater or less degree this was true of his relations to his pupils generally. there are hundreds of these men and women scattered over the world to-day, who can not find language strong enough to express their feeling in contemplating garfield as their old instructor, adviser, and friend.
"since 1856 my relations with him have been as close and confidential as they could be with any man, and much closer and more confidential than they have been with any other man. i do not say that it would be possible for me to know anybody better than i know him, and i know that he possesses all the great elements of character in an extraordinary degree. his interest in humanity has always been as broad as humanity itself, while his lively interest in young men and women, especially if they were struggling in narrow circumstances to obtain an education, is a characteristic known as widely over the world as the footsteps of hiram boys and girls have wandered.
"the help that he furnished hundreds in the way of suggestions, teaching, encouragement, inspiration, and stimulus was most valuable. his power over students was not so much that of a drill-master, or disciplinarian, as that of one who was able to inspire and energize young people by his own intellectual and moral force."
an illustration of the interest he felt in his pupils may be given.
a student came to the president's study at the close of a college term to bid him good-bye. after the good-bye was said, he lingered, and garfield said: "i suppose you will be back again in the fall, henry?"
"no," he stammered, "i am not coming back to hiram any more. father says i have got education enough, and that he needs me to work on the farm; that education doesn't help a farmer along any."
he was a bright boy—not a prodigy, by any means, but one of those strong, awkward, large-headed fellows, such as james garfield had himself been.
"is your father here?" asked the young president, affected by the boy's evident sorrow.
"yes, father is here, and is taking my things home for good."
"well, don't feel badly. please tell him mr. garfield would like to see him at his study before he leaves the college."
"yes, sir, i will."
in half an hour the father, a sturdy farmer, entered the study and awkwardly sat down.
"so you have come to take henry home, have you?" asked the president.
"yes," answered the farmer.
"i sent for you because i wanted to have a little talk with you about henry's future. he is coming back again in the fall, i hope?"
"wal, i think not. i don't reckon i can afford to send him any more. he's got eddication enough for a farmer already, and i notice that when they git too much, they sorter git lazy. yer eddicated farmers are humbugs. henry's got so far 'long now that he'd rather have his head in a book than be workin'. he don't take no interest in the stock, nor in the farm improvements. everybody else is dependent in this world on the farmer, and i think that we've got too many eddicated fellows settin' 'round now for the farmers to support."
to this garfield answered that he was sorry for the father's decision, since his son, if permitted to come the next term, would be far enough advanced to teach school, and so begin to help himself along. teaching would pay better than working on the farm in the winter.
"do you really think henry can teach next winter?" asked the father, to whom the idea was a new one.
"i should think so, certainly," answered garfield. "but if he can not do so then, he can in a short time."
"wal, i will think on it. he wants to come back bad enough, and i guess i'll have to let him. i never thought of it that way afore."
the victory was won. henry came back the next term, and after finishing at hiram, graduated at an eastern college.
