Show aab briw 0 cayey Cuy ey Y CROY C BB r r U c v SE service y y THE STORY THUS FAR amos croy settled on a far arm i in missouri where he married and a son homer was born sunday meant church company for dinner and steer weight guessing dehorn deborn ing 1129 of the calves curing of hams weaning of calves and sausage making were all part of his work the cloys attended the omaha exposition where homer saw his first horseless carriage hula dancers and the first motion picture renzo the hired hand whom everyone liked but the girls would not keep company with finally left ile he returned years later and bought a farm and was thereby accepted being a member of landed gentry a real class distinction his hl wife became a leader in the community CHAPTER XV tata and I 1 walked out across the farm he told me with a sort of rushing eagerness the things that had happened the stock well had had a cave in and hed had to take off the platform lower a scaffold into the well and brick up the wall hed got a new zinc float for the horse tank know how work when the tank froze he asked with the same rushing eagerness my judgment on things my judgment which was so feeble in comparison to his did I 1 think we ought to turn the steers or feed them out I 1 told him as best I 1 could but there was that pull to do the things I 1 had my heart set on yet the croy farm did look lovely that evening I 1 heard pa coming to the house for the ahe milk buckets and I 1 got up and went out homer you help tonight he said and marched off with the buckets at night pa usually read our farm papers but tonight we visited ma asked again about the food and about the bed had I 1 gone to church she was silent when I 1 explained I 1 had had to work on sunday and I 1 wished heartily I 1 had managed to get in some church attendance what did I 1 do on my day off when I 1 told her that I 1 went to lake contrary and roller skated she wanted to know what kind of people eo went there I 1 told about my trip to the south st joseph stockyards stock yards pa could hardly get enough of that you did ta 8 fee ee any of the clay robin coif bl in did you clay robinson w as s e name of the firm we shipped to but of course I 1 seen him nor any of his buyers pa was always the first to get sleepy and so it was tonight he went out to the iron pump and pumped himself up a drink then came in and took off his workshops work shoes and set them carefully by the side ot of his chair partly under the reading table so no one would stumble over them and went off to bed without a good night ma and I 1 were alone and a fine personal understanding floated over us and folded us into its warmth our voices grew lower and lower and we became more conscious of bah other and closer and closer in understanding then she began to C 1 a fold of her dress ss with heiob her aze tb and forefinger as she so otten often sid when she was thinking but not knowing quite what to say then she said it in a choked whisper homer you have anything to do with bad girls did you no mother I 1 said firmly she released the told fold and settled back in her chair the boys and girls in our section went to drake university grinnell college william jewell college park college or to the university of missouri now and then one strayed off to the university of kansas or to the university of iowa only one boy in our our county went to harvard but his father was rich and could afford the things the rest of us when he came back instead of having his neck shaved straight across he had what he called a feather edge neck haircut it opened our eyes to the possibilities ties of an eastern education I 1 wanted to go to the university of missouri but there was the matter of money and I 1 had the same feeling of inadequacy I 1 had when I 1 had thought of going to high school could I 1 make a success among all those smart girls and boys but I 1 did want to go university 1 even the name had bad a thrilling sound when I 1 proposed it to pa he thought of the cost but he was pleased his boy goin off to school there would be the matter of work but he could manage it some way or other his boy must get him an education uca tion pa who had hardly any I 1 found he was thinking in the terms of farming when I 1 told him I 1 did not want to study agriculture at all he was hurt well I 1 must work out such things for myself he be supposed the decision meant expenditure we bought a valise so I 1 would not have to take the old telescope with the mouse hole and a tin camel backed trunk with a special hat arrangement ran gement like renzo davis pa and ma took me to the depot wabash this time and I 1 got on the train and once more my little world slid away from me other boys and ana girls were on the train but I 1 was too shy to get acquainted quain ted however my lesson on starting to high school had given me some self confidence so with my almost overwhelming wh elming interest in people I 1 began shyly to get acquainted some were seniors gaily calling each other by their first names and talking about profs pros in spite of myself I 1 felt awed would I 1 ever get to be a senior I 1 had the name of a rooming house and lugging my precious valise started out looking for the address there through the trees I 1 caught a glimpse of the university As I 1 saw the five ancient ivy cov ered columns and the great buildings lining the campus and the boys and girls walking briskly and confidently up and down again I 1 was afraid I 1 would go back home and try to get a permanent job on a newspaper all my life I 1 have been like that tearful fearful when I 1 have entered a new situation gaining confidence little by little as I 1 accomplish some small bit some people are supplied with great self conal dence and seem never to have any doubts but not I 1 I 1 dont think in all my life I 1 have undertaken anything that at first I 1 afraid I 1 would tail fail how simple we were how green it if I 1 had never been away from home but twice I 1 am sure many others either I 1 am sure that more than half were from farms the others from small towns the ones I 1 had once thought of as city people but I 1 was soon to meet real city people at my table at the boarding club was a boy from brooklyn I 1 could hardly get over staring at the strange creature in order to check myself up on the simplicity of the boys of my class I 1 wrote to one who entered the same time as I 1 did he is easy anderson as we called him really harvey W anderson he was for years secretary of the I 1 twenty third street YMCA new york but later became affiliated with the russian war relief this is what he says when I 1 left goodwater missouri to go to the university I 1 had with me a side of bacon a sack of beans a jug of sorghum and 70 sewed in my vest actually sewed in when I 1 needed money which seemed often I 1 would rip a few stitches take out the money I 1 needed then sew up my bank this is the way my fathers letters would read how are things going son I 1 sold a shoat last week so here is five dollars use it any way you see see fit there was the problem of earning money but it worked out better than I 1 had hoped for I 1 got a job corresponding for the kansas city star and my st joseph paper then to my delight I 1 began to sell small fry to the eastern magazines such as the critic the circle the gray goose four tra track ck news the bohemian the quill and to the bellman which was published in min I 1 zi 0 I 1 was in my sock feet neapolis none of them survived my efforts but this work any hardship tor for I 1 suppose one fourth of the boys had to earn extra money the ways mostly used were getting a laundry route driving a bread wagon or opening up a trou brou ser pressing establishment in the back part ot of ones room or tak taking ang pictures ot of football games and selling them to the students while victory was still sweet and always there was work on the state farm which was run by the schools agricultural department seventeen cents an hour was paid for digging postholes pest post holes I 1 thanked god I 1 could run a typewriter the pay was about the same it was not long before I 1 was working on the school weekly and after a time I 1 had a department and when I 1 was a junior I 1 became editor of the annual the and I 1 started a humor magazine magadi in e which is still going I 1 wish I 1 co could uld capture some of those thrills today I 1 wanted to be considered sophisticated but I 1 realize what a firm grip the farm had on me I 1 could not buy the suits that the st louis and kansas city boys wore but I 1 tried to look jaunty and a man ot of the campus but the farm had bad its hand twisted in my collar one night one of the boys brought a very sophisticated man to my room and introduced him as nelson C field without explaining anything about him I 1 was in my sock feet which was the way I 1 had rested on the farm and was pecking away on my barlock it was a shock later when I 1 found he was the national organizer tor for delta tau delta fraternity and had turned me down because I 1 was too rural later however when the chapter was going I 1 was asked if I 1 would join at the end of the first year pa came to the depot to meet me and I 1 was back on the farm again my mother was not so well as when I 1 had seen her last a thin hollow eyed look had laid hold of her which touched me to the heart but she was glad to see her son who had been to the university she listened eagerly as I 1 told of school doings doing what kind of boys do you associate with homer with good boys I 1 told her did you get to see much of the agricultural department pa asked and I 1 knew what was in his min mind d maybe I 1 would enter up in farming I 1 worked all summer and every spare moment pecked away on my barlock when fall came I 1 went back to the university very sure of myself now and smiling at the bewildered wil dered freshmen big events are hard to see and often we dont see them until long afterward and so it was now the university was expanding and taking on new ideas some of them seemed wildly extravagant to the legislators who had to appropriate the states money but little by little new departments were added new equipment was put in one of these new ideas came from the editor of the paper in the town where the university was located walter williams he talked it over with the president of the university but the idea was so new so utterly unheard of they realized they would never get it past the farmers for the most part legislators unless they proceeded with great circumspection the two of them took the idea to george S johns editor of the st louis post dispatch who not only had a son orrick johns in school but was also a far farseeing seeing man but I 1 knew nothing of all this machinery of preparation this fathering of a new idea until one day I 1 saw an announcement on the bulletin board that set my heart jumping it asked all those who were interested in newspaper work to leave their names with the secretary to the president interested in newspaper work why that was what I 1 lived for I 1 tore in as fast as I 1 could A week or so later I 1 g got ot a letter from the secretary asking me to come to his office on a certain evening at a certain time I 1 shook a little boys being boys then I 1 connected it with the mysterious notice on the bulletin board nine of us filed in when the time arrived much mystified in a few moments walter williams walked in how plainly I 1 can see him that great midwestern journalist a small man with a thin quavering voice a homely face and a down hanging the upshot of it was that the st louis post dispatch had made an off offer er to take us to st louis and keep us with all expenses paid and let us get out one number of that paper st louis all ali expenses paid were we interested if so please sign I 1 could hardly whip out roy my fountain pen fast enough when it was all over I 1 was elected head of the group and thus became although I 1 know it at the time the first student in the first school of journalism in the world I 1 dont remember how many of the boys had been in st louis but I 1 and I 1 think I 1 was a cross sample we got off at union station bewildered in spite of ourselves at its hustle and bustle but this lasted only a few moments tor for carlos hurd representing the paper swooped down on us a very urbane man of the world it long before I 1 found myself in the biggest and most fashionable hotel I 1 had ever seen in my life the planters immediately I 1 had a return of inferiority and felt ill at ease and out of place and the other boys were looking to me for leadership 1 he took us to a magnificent so it seemed dining room and colored waiters wearing what I 1 thought of as evening clothes put bills of fare into our hands I 1 know how to order and I 1 dont believe the others did either I 1 find myself embarrassed as I 1 set this down and I 1 only set it down in order to give as clear a picture as I 1 can of what the young man in the midwest in I 1 n my day was like how small his world was how simple and naive he was in comparison to the dashing college lad of today my eyes fastened on something I 1 could understand and I 1 half whispered to my waiter that I 1 wanted jerked beef and ice cream carlos hurd saw the embarrassment we were laboring under and put in an order for us all the same thing we breathed with relief and sat stiff and upright a contrast to the laughing joking confident group we had been on the train after dinner we felt a trifle more at ease but it was still a bewildering world the next morning someone told us to lock our rooms I 1 locked mine and started to put the key in my pocket but I 1 ran into an unexpected problem attached to my key was a strap of iron about the size of a six inch ruler I 1 put it in my pocket but it was most uncomfortable as I 1 went down the elevator I 1 was not going to let that defeat me so I 1 promptly went upstairs to my room and managed to pry the strap of iron off I 1 left it there and put the key in my pocket where it would be sate safe that evening when I 1 came in and saw people having their keys handed to them from a set of boxes I 1 hurried upstairs and pried the strap of iron on again I 1 did not mention it to anyone let alone carlos hurd who I 1 knew was having his bis own private thoughts the big day arrived the st louis post dispatch junior came out I 1 was disappointed when I 1 saw it was this all there was to show for so much hard work but there was my name as editor in chief I 1 proudly sent a copy home A few days later I 1 got a letter from pa it said 1 I am glad you got a trip to st louis TO BE CONTINUED p |