c. m. walters, a.b., ph.b., m.a., m.d.
after attending the burlington high school one year and spending all the money i had except one dollar, i decided to take a business course in elon college. i arranged with dr. j. u. newman, dean of the faculty, to get my tuition, room rent, fuel, and light for ringing the college bell. i also collected and distributed laundry to help pay my expenses. with the money collected in this way and from doing other small jobs about the college, i succeeded in paying all my expenses for the first five months except $65. i secured my diploma in the business course in june, 1900.
realizing that my preparation in english was not sufficient for me to command the best positions in the business world, i decided to take the regular college course. so in september, 1900, my brother and i organized the first boarding club at elon college. i was elected manager to collect for board, buy all provisions, hire a cook, and have general oversight of the club, all for the small salary of one dollar a week. i still held my job as laundry agent, but i gave up my position as bell boy for the college. by sweeping, dusting, lighting, and building fires in the 168 psiphelian society hall i made twenty-five cents a week. i was also janitor for the philologian society part of the time at the same salary, and two years later when the acetylene gas lights took the place of the old oil lamps in the society halls, i had charge of the gas generator, which paid one dollar a month. i also made stretchers for the art room and did other small jobs of carpenter work, cut wood, and did most any little job i could get to do to make money. of course i didn’t have any time for play, but i worked enough to get plenty of exercise and graduated in four years with high honor. i gave notes for my tuition except for the last year. i was laboratory director during my senior year, which paid my tuition.
from the time i was a small boy in the public school, too young to study physiology, when the class recited i would stop studying and listen to them and long for the time to come when i could study medicine. this dream was realized in the fall of 1904 when i entered the university of north carolina, and began the four years of hard work which was required to get my m.d. it was during the christmas examinations of this year that my eyes failed, due partly to using a microscope too much, besides the hard strain of late study hours. i could not see how to read, but i managed to get some one to read for me and i passed my examinations. during my second year at chapel hill, i secured boarders, collected for board, and kept books for a regular boarding 169 house to help pay my board. i also acted as laundry agent, managed a pressing club, and taught english and latin to medical students who did not have sufficient preparation in these branches to study medicine.
my last years in the medical course were spent at the university of maryland. the first year i distributed tickets and posters for the city y. m. c. a. meetings during my spare hours, for which work i received $2.50 a week. there was so much walking in this i would be so tired at night that i could not study, so i soon gave it up and devoted all my time to my books. i secured an appointment as medical assistant in the hospital (which was awarded to the best students in the class), for my senior year. owing to the difficulty we had in securing good board near the hospital my class mates persuaded me to organize another boarding club, which i managed for a few months; but because my hospital work required so much time, i had to turn it over to someone else. i graduated with the class of 1908 from the university of maryland and passed the state board examination in june of the same year, and located at union ridge, n. c., where i have enjoyed a very lucrative practice. i have been asked to write this for the benefit of other young men who are working their way through school. while it has been a hard struggle, and i have seen a few dark days when it seemed that i would have to give up for want of means to go forward; still 170 when the time came that i had to have money, i always found some way to make it or some friend kind enough to lend it to me. so my college career has been a very pleasant one.
union ridge, n. c.
