In the fall, when the institute opened, one of the tutors in the department of English and ancient languages fell ill, and James Garfield was advanced to his place. Henceforward he taught and studied at the same time, his eye all the while fixed upon the bright beacon of a college education. He began Zenophon's Anabasis among other things. That winter he became a member of President Hayden's household.

The summer vacation of 1853 only brought harder work. In company of eleven students, he formed a class, and hired Professor Dunshee to give them private lessons for one month. During that time he mastered the Pastorals of Virgil, the Georgics and Buccolics entire, and the first six books of Homer's Illiad, accompanied by a thorough drill in the Latin and Greek grammar at each recitation. He was also a member of an active literary society during this month. When the fall term was fairly under way, Garfield went at it again, to hasten his preparation for college. He, with some other students, formed a Translation Society, that met at Miss Booth's rooms two evenings a week, and made a joint translation with her of the Book of Romans. The work done was more

thorough than rapid. An entry in Garfield's diary for December 15th, 1853, reads: "Translation Society sat three hours in Miss Booth's rooms, and agreed upon the translation of nine verses." To this class, Professor Dunshee contributed some

72

essays on the German commentators, De Wette and Tholock. During the winter (1853-54), Garfield read the whole of "Demosthenes on the Crown."

When he went to Hiram he had studied Latin only six weeks, and just begun Greek; and was, therefore, just in a condition to fairly begin the four years' preparatory course, ordinarily taken by students before entering college in the freshman class. Yet, in three years' time, he fitted himself to enter the junior class, two years further along, and, at the same time, earned his own living, thus crowding six years study into three, and teaching for support at the same time. To accomplish it, he shut the whole world out from his mind, save that little portion of it within the range of his studies; knowing nothing of politics or the news of the day, reading no light literature, and engaging in no social recreations that took his time from his books.

The college question was now before him. But where should he go? He had recently read some lectures by President Hopkins, of Williams, that had made him think favorably of that institution. But he had originally intended to enter Bethany College, the institution sustained by the church of which he was a member, and presided over by Alexander Campbell, the man above all others he had been taught to admire and revere. A familiar letter shall tell us how he reasoned and acted:

"There are three reasons why I have decided not to go to Bethany: 1st. The course of study is not so extensive or thorough as in Eastern colleges. 2d. Bethany leans too

heavily toward slavery. 3d. I am the son of Disciple parents, am one myself, and have had but little acquaintance with people of other views, and, having always lived in the West, I think it will make me more liberal, both in my religious and general views and sentiments, to go into a new circle, where I shall be under new influences. These considerations led me to conclude to go to some New England college. I therefore wrote to the presidents of Brown University, Yale and Williams, setting forth the amount of study I had done, and asking how long it would take me to finish their course. "Their answers are now before me. All tell me I can graduate in two years. They are all brief, business notes, but President Hopkins concludes with this sentence: 'If you come here we shall be glad to do what we can for you.' Other things being so nearly equal, this sentence, which seems to be a kind of friendly grasp of the hand, has settled the question for me. I shall start for Williams next week."

Some points in this letter of a young man about to start away from home to college will strike the reader as remarkable. Nothing could show more mature judgment about the matter in hand than the wise anxiety to get out from the Disciples' influence and see something of other men and other opinions. It was notable that one trained to look upon Alexander Campbell as the master intellect of the churches of the day should revolt against studying in his college, because it leaned too strongly to slavery. And in the final turning of the decision upon the little friendly commonplace that closed one of the letters, we catch a glimpse

74

of the warm, sympathetic nature of the man, which much and wide experience of the world in after years has never hardened.

So, in the fall of 1854, the pupil of Geauga Seminary and of the Hiram Institute received admission at the venerable doors of Williams.

CHAPTER VI.

W

GARFIELD AT WILLIAMS,

HEN Garfield reached Williams College, in June, 1854, he had about three hundred dollars, which he had saved while teaching at Hiram; and with this amount he hoped to get through the first year. The college year had not quite closed, a few weeks remained, which he utilized by attending the recitations of the sophomore class, in order to become familiar with the methods of the professors before testing his ability to pass the examinations of the junior year. He had a keen sense of his want of the advantages of society and general culture which the students with whom he came in contact had enjoyed all their lives, but his homely manners and Western garb did not subject him to any slights or mortifications. The spirit of the college was generous and manly. No student was estimated by the clothes he wore; no one was snubbed because he was poor. The intellectual force, originality and immense powers of study possessed by the new-comer from Ohio were soon recognized by his classmates, and he was shown as much respect, cordiality and companionship as if he had been the son of a millionaire.

His old