albert eldon sellars
when i first conceived the idea of going to college i thought such an undertaking was entirely out of the question, for i was a boy without means. but i had a good supply of enthusiasm and so determined to try it. i decided that i would have a better chance at a small college, so i chose hanover. upon my arrival there in the fall of 1910, i began a series of very interesting, often embarrassing, but always amusing experiences. i had just enough money to pay my board for one week, but i used my brains more that week than i ever had before in my life. i soon found a grocer who needed help on saturdays and he said he would give me a position that would pay $1.25 per week.
the first night i was in town i noticed that the evening mail arrived at 9 p. m. and that only a few people were at the postoffice, so the next day i called on about a dozen families and agreed to bring their mail to them each evening for ten cents a week. this turned out to be a gold mine, for after about a week i had fifteen families on my list. these things, with a few hours of rug-beating and window-washing occasionally held me up during my first year at college. 262
when i went back the second fall i started a shoe-shining parlor, and soon worked up such a trade that i had to get an assistant, and finally as my work in the grocery took more and more of my time, i turned the shoe-shining business over to him and spent all of my spare time in the store.
i have many times lain awake at night and thought out schemes to make self-help money for myself and others. last year we organized a club, calling it “the help yourself club,” of about twenty or more boys. i was “chief of the employment department,” and when we became known we had all the work we wanted to do. anyone wanting any kind of work done from shorthand dictation to cistern cleaning, called or telephoned to me and i sent a man to do it and saw that it was done. our plan proved even more successful than i had thought it would, and the club is to be a permanent one.
this year we are planning to go into business on a large scale. one of our members is to start a lunch counter. the shoe-shining and repairing shop is to be resumed, and i am thinking of setting up a penny picture studio.
in closing this, let me say, “rah! rah! rah!” for the boy who has worked his own way through college. he learns to depend upon himself and that is the greatest lesson one may learn at college or elsewhere.
new castle, ind.
