“At the age of forty-five,” he said to me, in his apartments at the Waldorf-Astoria, “I am fortunate enough to be able to retire from business and to devote myself to other pursuits. Except for two small matters, I may be said to be already out of business, and I have no intention of going into anything new. From now on I shall give all my energies to spreading the single-tax theory, either here or in England, where it seems to be making rapid progress. Exactly how this will be done, I don’t know. I have always been a Democrat, and am one still, and I believe in organization; but whether or not I shall work within party lines, I am not yet prepared to say. Still, I have my own ideas, although it is rather my custom to act than to talk in advance.” Those who know Mr. Johnson will agree with him, I think. XXII A Backwoods Boy Works His Way through College and Becomes University President. AT ten years of age he was a country lad on a backwoods farm on Prince Edward’s Island. At thirteen, he had become a clerk in a country store, at a salary of thirty dollars a year. At eighteen, he was a college student, supporting himself by working in the evenings as a bookkeeper. At twenty, he had won a scholarship in the University of London, in competition with all other Canadian students. At twenty-five, he was professor of philosophy, Acadia College, Nova Scotia. At thirty-eight he was appointed President of Cornell University. At forty-four, he was chairman of President McKinley’s special commission to the Philippines. In this summary is epitomized the career of Jacob Gould Schurman. It is a romance of real life such as is not unfamiliar in America. Mr. Schurman’s career differs from that of some other self-made men, however. Instead of heaping up millions upon millions, he has applied his talents to winning the intellectual prizes of life, and has made his way, unaided, to the front rank of the leaders in thought and learning in this country. His career is a source of inspiration to all poor boys who have their own way to make in the world, for he has won his present honors by his own unaided efforts. President Schurman says of his early life:—