| Show AIR an d N R K ai n i Z x i si fryy n swift all the young men and I 1 4 y women sta students dents at blackburn K jiffy college work their dent works the same time and pays the same amount they ovy dont pay him lie pays the education the ald to e way college lie he does not work t for lit himself M self but for the college plan tp is proving 10 1 0 success ful 1 g T they hey believe at blackburn that after young men i and young women havi have D spent i 4 BY ROBERT H MOULTON I 1 four years working for tie the 1 4 ia c ollege college they will be better de boy Is certainly malting making good his i fitted for c citizenship than it if grades are up in the nineties he Is an they had spent those years excellent cook a first class laundryman laundry ronn working for themselves and can plow more acres of land in a there Is a lot more to our day than any other boy in college plan said doctor hudson rather a remarkable statement for a college than just helping young prel president dent to make concerning a college student Z people to get through college yet hardly more remarkable than the institution who would not otherwise get which the student Is attending blackburn eol col there on accod account nt of the c expense X asea qs ea at Car carlinville linville ill but they are all side li i blackburn as a matter of fact occupies a position Z issues that la Is ou our r main object unique among institutions of learning I 1 in a tills this we are looking out for country no other college perhaps ts is conducted the young men and the young along exactly the same lines its alin aim Is to train young men to be not only scientific but practical farmers inculcating in them at the same time a love of the soil sell and to make of girls and young women practical housewives who will be able to cook find and sew and to take care of 0 a home also and this Is where the unique feature comes in it Is conducted upon a plan of self help whereby young men and women of the most limited means are afforded an opportunity to avail themselves of a standard college education the plan has been tried only a year but during this period athas it has proved so successful Ute literally rally knocking the high cost of living all to pieces that the great problem next fall all will be what to do with the stude students stu dente nth the charges for the year at blackburn have been placed at and three hours work per day at some sort of manual labor this pays paya tor for a furnished room with steam heat beat and electric light board and tuition the first thing one Is likely to say on hearing this is its too cheap it cant be done that was exactly what the college trustees said when after calling dr william 11 hudson to the presidency listened to his revolutionary scheme for rejuvenating blackburn but doctor hudson had bad some convincing figures agures out oue of his past experience he was optimistic c and persistent so finally the trustees agreed they might as well try it for a year it may blow us up they said but better that than rotting down at any rate an explosion will attract more attention it was nearing the noon hour when I 1 reached the ilia little group of college buildings nestling la in a grove of fine old elm and oak trees on the outskirts of and the president suggested that we would better go down and see the girls getting dinner here was something new in the present age when the average college girl spends a goodly portion of her time in social amenities ties and athletics the idea of students preparing their own meals was decidedly novel yet there they were a dozen of them in school dresses dressea covered with long white aprons busily engaged in preparing a menu which had been written on a blackboard tn in the L kitchen a kitchen by the way as aa immaculate as the most exacting housewife could desire this combination of earning and learning Is one odthe of the unique features of doctor hudsons Hud sons plan the young women gt get the theory of domestic science inthe in the classroom and then put it into anio practice tice in the kitchen theado they do all the cooking with the exception of a certain amount of help from some of the young men students that they also do it scientifically and well was attested by the meat meal that followed a little later this meal con elated elsted of cream of tomato soup roast beef baked potatoes creamed celery bread and butter tapioca find and cake and there was an abundance of each J I 1 made bold to ask it if dinners like that were served every day certainly replied doctor hudson its not a visitors menu by any means we know you were coming and it if we had we would lithe have gone along just the same and the cost I 1 inquired for answer doctor hudson beckoned to iss sparks the capable head of the domestic science department who not only teft teaches ches the subject but plans the various meals and figures down the cost to a quarter of a cent not even omitting such small things as the flour in the gravy and the salt in the potatoes and repeated my query the cost per capita for the ahe materials said miss sparks was a traction fraction under eight cents by way of making the lesson more impressive she added that the only other oilier expense since the students do fill all the cooking and seneng was for the fuel c consumed in the range an amount so small that it t could hardly bo be figured out as so much pr per capita breakfasts and suppers usually cost less than the dinners the average for he three meals per lay day being 21 cents having no help to pay or to feed important items in figuring up the cost of serving food in most colleges has played an important part iti in this economical showing the self help plan not only cuts down expenses but gives the young women such a practical course in domestic science part of the laboratory work Is to prepare each week four new dishes in sufficient quantities to teed feed all the people in the dining liall hall that they will be benefited by it all their lives they not only study domestic science but do all of the work in their own rooms the laundry work etc and at the end of four years they will come out able and it Is expected willing to do anything and solve any problem that Is likely to confront a woman in the home the president led the way to a window from which was visible a fine rolling stretch of farmland part of which was ready for the planter this Is the college farm consisting of 80 60 acres next fall the students will be fed from the product of that farm some of it of course will be fed to the cows but they will produce milk for the college commons some of it will be fed to the pigs but they will be growing into meat rill all the time lime and some of it will go directly to the kitchen in this way the young men supplement upp lement the work of the young women they produce what Is cooked and are learning to be practical as well as theoretical farmers all of the farm buildings are put up by the students under the direction of the farm superintendent they recently completed a poultry house which la is a model of its kind A huge barn and silo are arc soon to be started As doctor hudson remarked those boys are likely to be much better farmers farmer s than their fathers another unique feature at blackburn Is that the students know as little of the cost of high living as they do of the high cost of living the college puts a ban on smoking drinking and the other evils commonly found in the youth world A boy must keep himself clean it if lie he belongs to the blackburn college community two particularly interesting students are foreigners a bright eyed little tap jap and a curly haired persian the japanese student came to america to getan get an education believing that all one needs to doas do is just to come here and after that everything is free but he was disappointed in his dreams ire he had planned to spend three years here and then go home to found a little school on the fundamental da principles of christianity I 1 A friend in japan had sald said that he would furni furnish sh the money ns soon ns as the young man finished his education so he tried a large state university they were yere very sorry but baft they had so many american boys and then ho he knew nothing about our pur language or customs they see how they could do anything for him then ho he went to a large endowed university sity and the story was the same finally he heard hear dof of blackburnn Black bunn and went there the president asked him what lie he could do and lie he said he believed he could cook so he was put in the kitchen and he hb works there ther ethree three hours a day assisting the young women the other boy came bame all the way from persia with the same exalted notion or of opportunity in america he had received a little training in a hospital but he wanted to bea be a real doctor and go homo home to lus his people as a medical missionary ile he spent 14 months looking for a college that he could afford A persian doctor in chicago directed him to blackburn and he went right along and has made a fine record lie he Is the head of the sweeping force the students at blackburn nil all work thred hours a day all pay the same and wark the same it Is a communism they dont baj pay so much per hour as 49 most colleges do but each stu women the other colleges have passed by the great class of young people who are willing enough to work and hungry enough for an education to do almost anything to get it if they only knew how to set about it it Is not our purpose to help tiny any student who ought to help himself but simply to provide the means whereby lie he may secure an education when otherN otherwise fIse it would be impossible we are especially interested in the young women its a stiff proposition for a n young man to go away from home to get his living and his education at the same time but its almost impossible for his sister that Is why we are providing for the girls too while the fixed charge nt at blackburn Is that of course does not provide tor for everything it costs the college a hundred more for each student even after buildings have been provided this Is made up out of the endowment and the help that Is received from time to time from generous friends of the cause |
