|
Contents
Alabama
Florida
Georgia
Indiana
Louisiana
Missouri
South Carolina
Utah
Washington
Check for
local history books about your town
or search Amazon.com
from here
|
The More Modest Among Us
(Georgia)
"My grandfather came from England about
a hundred and twenty-five years ago. He stopped in Jamaica for some time
on his way to the United States, and there he met my grandmother. She was
of Spanish and French descent. They made their home in New Orleans, where
my grandfather bought and sold cotton.
"My father was born and educated in New Orleans. I have a baptismal
certificate showing that he was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church, so
I guess my grandmother must have been a member, as my grandfather was a
Free Mason and could have scarcely belonged to that denomination. My
father received degrees as an M. D. and also a D. D. He was ordained as an
Episcopal minister and served as rector of various Episcopal churches for
about fifteen years. He finally gave up the ministry and gave his entire
attention to practicing medicine in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. He also
did a good deal of surgical work. He had a lot of surgical experience in
Jackson's army.
"My mother was born in Michigan and was of German and English descent. She
came to Prairie du Chien when she was a small girl and married there in
1880.
"I was born at Prairie du Chien or, in English, Dog Prarie, in 1884. It is
one of the oldest towns in Wisconsin and the site of a fort which was
built during the Indian wars.
"I had one sister, no brothers. My sister and my father died with
diphtheria when I was about a year and a half old. Diphtheria killed them
quickly in those days. The first thing I can remember was having my throat
swabbed with a carbolic solution. The memory was clear enough to cause me
to recognize the smell and taste years afterwards. Diphtheria, when it
took a virulent form, was a much more dangerous disease then than it is
now. It was not uncommon for the mortality to go as high as fifty percent
or more. During such epidemics no public funerals were held for those who
died of the disease. People were afraid of contracting the disease
themselves.
"My father left my mother and me a home and about five thousand dollars in
cash, also a library of over two thousand volumes.
"I was almost eight years old when I started to school. The diphtheria had
injured me somewhat, and a case of measles when I was seven kept me from
starting earlier. My mother married again soon after I began school and we
moved to the country. We had a two-room school and two overworked teachers
where I went in the country, but I doubt that the opportunity to learn was
much poorer than it is in an up-to-date school. The discipline was, of
course, terrible but, aside from that, I have yet to see any educational
system in which the student does not have to learn for himself anything
that will prove of value to him. I was fond of reading and probably spent
as such time reading in my library at home as I did on my school work. At
any rate, I found that I had already read most of the books which were
used in the high school English courses, as well as a great number that
are never heard of in the high schools.
"My stepfather and I got along very well, though he thought I was too much
of a runt to ever make a farmer. However, he used to allow me about half
an acre of very fertile ground on which I was supposed to make my spending
money. Once I raised about four hundred bushels of onions on the ground. I
shipped my crop to Chicago and they netted a little over ten cents a
bushel, though they were quoted as selling at a dollar a bushel. After
that I did my selling around home. The commission man probably made fifty
cents a bushel for himself on that little onion deal, and I have never
felt that it was a fair division.
"My step-father sold his farm and retired about 1900. We moved to West
Salem, a small town near La Crosse. I went to the high school at West
Salem and, as usual, I spent more time on my own out-of-school reading
than I did on my school work. During these years I read practically all
the standard English literature from Spencer's 'Faerie Queen' to Mark
Twain and Kipling, as well as most of the European philosophers. I was
thoroughly stopped by Hegel. It was many years later that I discovered
that Hegel probably did not understand himself any too well, as the remark
he is said to have made might lead one to think, 'I never found but one
man who understood all I have written and I am not altogether sure that he
understands it.'
"Probably of more value than the library was Bernarr MacFadden's magazine
Physical Culture. I bought the second issue at a newsstand and for many
years did not miss a copy. MacFadden never received the credit he deserved
for his work. A good many cranks used to contribute, but there was much
sound information in his magazine. He began the fight on patent medicine
frauds years before Collier's, which is usually given the credit. He also
wrote a good deal on the value of sunshine and certain vitamin-containing
foods. Of course, neither he nor any one else knew at that time why such
things were of special value, but he seemed to have an instinct which led
him to correct conclusions.
"In 1905 I went to the University of Wisconsin. I majored in mathematics
for my first degree, but the truth of the matter is that I was not very
much of a mathematician, though I did later teach a few courses in
elementary college mathematics. I later received a degree in physics which
suited me better.
"My first paying job after getting my bachelor's degree was that of
assistant instructor in the physics department of the Louisiana State
University, at Baton Rouge. My salary was eight hundred per year.
Ordinarily an assistant is supposed to have from twelve to sixteen
teaching hours per week. However, there were only two of us in the
department and the head was more interested in growing sugar cane on a
large plantation he owned than he was in teaching. As a result, I found
that I was getting about thirty hours of teaching and part of it in
classes which my chief took credit for conducting. Teaching was not at all
pleasant that year for, in addition to the rather heavy schedule, I gave
failing grades to quite a number of men on the athletic teams. They
believed they should pass because of athletics and I was innocent enough
to think that grades were given to every one for their knowledge of
physics. A great relief was felt by all when I left at the end of the year
to take a research assistantship at the University of Illinois. My old
chief in Louisiana became president of the university a few years later
and served in that position until his death not long ago. He used to be
rather fond of the quotation from Tennyson: 'Knowledge comes but Wisdom
lingers.' Even though he was not very fond of work. I believe he made an
excellent president and justified his favorite quotation. He knew how to
direct the work of others.
"My work in Illinois was called research in astronomy, but it consisted
principally in making photo-electric cells and in trying to improve the
sensitiveness of such cells so that they would be were useful in measuring
the light from variable stars. Some of the first cells that were made in
the United States were made in Illinois just before I came. The astronomer
used them in estimating the masses of some double stars as well as other
measurements of interest in astronomy.
"While I was there, I took two civil service examinations, one for the
Coast and Geodetic Survey and one for the Philippine service. In the first
I made the second highest mark and in the second I was pretty well down
the list. I received an offer of $1,200 a year from the Philippine
Service, and in 1914 I left for the islands with forty-eight other men who
were newly appointed. Some of the men said there were more than a thousand
on the eligible list, so the more modest among us wondered who was nodding
when the list was made for appointments. It took twenty-eight days to
reach the islands and most of us probably gained a better appreciation of
the size of the Pacific Ocean.
"My appointment called for high school teaching, and I was sent to the
northern part of Luzon and made my first acquaintance with the Filipino.
Some of the teachers had trouble and seemed to think them hard to
discipline, but I am sure it must have been their own fault. Although I
never considered myself a very skilled hand at managing people, I had only
three cases that called for my action during the entire six years I served
on the islands. The teaching was, of course, in English and the native
will compare well in school ability with American high school and college
students. The Filipinos are generally a very considerate and good mannered
people and sensitive to discourteous treatment. One of the most indignant
boys that I remember to have dealt with had been sworn at by an American
teacher. It took a great deal of explanation to make him understand that
the teacher had been saying, 'Please do your garden work a little faster',
in customary American slang.
"My contract called for two years of high school teaching. At the end of
the first year I was made principal and given a two-hundred-dollar raise.
At the conclusion of my two-year contract I decided that I had better
return to the states, so I resigned and went to Manila to make the trip
home. It is not good to 'miss too many boats', as they say of Americans
who have gone seedy from staying too long.
"However, I was offered an appointment as assistant professor in physics
at the university at Manila, and stayed four years longer at a salary of
$2,200 a year.
"During my six years I made trips to Japan and China as well as a trip of
a couple of hundred miles on foot through the mountains in central Luzon.
It is generally called the wild people's country. The wild people are
believed to have inhabited the islands before the coming of the Filipinos
and to have been driven into the mountains by them. Very few of them speak
either English or Spanish, so I was unable to talk to those I saw.
"Their villages are always built away
from the narrow trails which lead through the mountains so that one could
easily pass by without seeing any sign of them except for the cultivated
terraces. These terraces are the most extensive mountain terraces in the
world. Sometimes the entire side of a mountain is built up into rice
patches if there is a supply of water which can be led from one patch to
another. The terracing is done with wooden tools, as the people do not
work iron, though they sometimes beat gold nuggets into rings and other
ornaments.
"Their fondness for dog feast seems to be the best known of their habits.
They have the regular dog markets where the dogs are brought for sale, and
one will frequently meet a party with a dozen or more dogs. The dogs seem
to know that there is trouble ahead and are tied with short thongs to
wooden lead sticks to prevent them from gnawing the leashes and escaping.
They starve the dogs for a few days, then they give them their fill of
rice and sweet potatoes. They are then killed and roasted whole, barbecue
style. The sausage is already stuffed.
"These Iggorotes are a small race, probably averaging about five feet in
height, but they are nevertheless sturdy. One of them carried a trunk for
me on a thirty-five mile mountain trip. I made the trip in a day and was
very glad indeed to have two days' rest at a constabulary station. The
little man came in the next morning with the trunk which weighed about
fifty pounds he was not nearly as tired as I was, though I had carried
only a few pounds in a blanket roll.
"While going through the mountains I met a couple of missionaries who were
also seeing the sights but I suspect, from the way I have heard others of
their kind talk, that they later told the home missionary societies about
the terrible hardships they endured. As a matter of fact, the average
missionary fares better than the civil service employe, but the latter do
not feel that they are martyrs and are in fact glad to get the jobs and a
chance to travel a little. I know quite a number of mission people who
served in the Philippines, China, and Korea. They are likeable people, but
I doubt that many of them could have fared as well in any other line.
Those in China seemed to have the softest snaps. Nearly all of them are
engaged in school work. One fellow used to say he wanted two more babies
because of the extra allowance which was made for those having larger
families. I don't think he has ever quite forgiven me for asking him if he
didn't think there might be more profit in raising pedigreed puppies.
"I did not get to see much of the Moros, the Mohammedans who occupy some
of the southern islands. Like Kipling's 'Fuzzy Wuzzy', the Moro is 'A
first class fighting man.' They gave the American soldiers a very
respectable fight before they were subdued, even though they were poorly
equipped. The Spaniards and the Filipinos have never been able to meet
them on equal terms. Possibly, the quality of the Moro soldiers was due to
their belief that the surest road to a ringside seat in heaven was to die
while killing unbelievers. I saw half dozen Moros walking down a Manila
business street, and it was very evident that some of the Filipinos they
passed were badly frightened. They probably thought that the Moros might
suddenly decide to run amuck.
"The Filipinos apparently do not take their religion as seriously as do
the Mohammedans. The Roman Church was a great political power before the
coming of the Americans, but did not prevent the natives from telling
numberless tales in which the priests were the heroes. It is impossible,
that the 'Good Fathers' should have been in as many ribald adventures or
should have been responsible for the number of children assigned to them
by their amused parishioners. One tale which produced great amusement was
of a Spanish employee of a large tobacco company, who wrapped a monkey
carefully and carried it to the priest for baptism. The 'infant' was
supposed to be in a dying condition so the rites were quickly performed on
the veiled monkey. At the close of the ceremony the girl who was carrying
the 'baby' tossed it to the chandelier and it quickly climbed to the
ceiling to the amazement of the priest. As it happened, the priest made a
trip to Manila a few weeks later and secured some stationery from the
offices of the tobacco company. The gentleman who was responsible for the
monkey's baptism received a letter on the company's paper soon afterwards.
In the letter was an account of some of his financial irregularities and
the information that he was without a job and a long way from home. The
gentleman immediately went to Manila, thinking he was fired, and tried to
beg off. Such a tale would not be relished in Moro Land and it would
probably be a very brave or very forgetful man who would tell it a second
time. The Filipino has a well developed sense of humor and is greatly
amused by the peculiarities of others. However, it is unusual to find a
Filipino boy who is self conscious or who appears to have any idea that he
could ever do anything ridiculous himself.
"One amusing custom of the church consisted of throwing the bones of those
whose relatives failed to pay cemetery rent over the walls. There were
large mounds of them for a long time after the coming of the Americans.
"Most of the poorer natives had common law marriages, as the church fees
were more than they could afford to pay and civil weddings were not
recognized.
"The church had attempted to suppress Free Masonry on the grounds that its
members were attempting to liberalize the government. A number of native
patriots were executed. Amongst them was Jose Rizal. Rizal was a graduate
of several European Universities and an able author. One of his novels,
'Nola Me Tangere', was offensive to the government and be was obliged to
leave the islands. He had the misfortune to be in the islands at the
outbreak of the insurrection against Spain and was executed on charges of
having encouraged the insurrection and being a Mason.
"I made several trips to Japan, and I saw a little of India and China. I
had read Arnold's 'Light of Asia' and some of Muller's translations many
years before and had always felt that there was something which Arnold had
failed to bring out in his presentation of Buddhism. I was fortunate in
making the acquaintance of a few Japanese who were well informed not only
in oriental philosophy but also better informed on western thought than I
was.
"I do not believe that Christianity has any chance of making much headway
amongst the educated classes in Buddhist countries. All the moral
teachings of Christianity, in some cases almost the same words as the
sayings of Jesus, are found in the sayings of Gautama. Even some of the
parables were told by him five hundred years before the founding of
Christianity. However, the most serious hindrance to the spread of
Christianity in such countries is probably the record of the Christian
Church as compared to the Buddhist. The Christian Church has pretty
consistently opposed new knowledge, whereas the Buddhist teachings make
ignorance the original sin. It could under no condition have opposed the
development of astronomy or the theory of evolution. In a history of two
thousand and five hundred years it has no record of religious
persecutions, a thing which even modern Christianity cannot claim and
Christendom has no parallel to the history of Asoka's reign. Amongst the
more degenerated sects of the Buddhist belief in miracles is not uncommon.
Apparently such belief was discouraged by the founder, who dismissed one
of his monks for claiming to have performed a miracle and made a law for
his priesthood that none should ever claim any supernatural powers or
inspirations not open to others. The first Catholic missionaries to Asia
were astonished to find many of the forms of their own church practiced in
Buddhist temples but, instead of taking the rational view that the early
Christians had probably borrowed those forms from the earlier
organization, they concluded that Satan was imitating the church. I could
tell you not a few but scores of striking similarities between
Christianity and Buddhism. In some cases the early Buddhist viewpoint and
the sayings attributed to Jesus are so entirely the same that it seems
very possible that His inspiration may have come from the older teachings.
A large part of the European philosophy was foreshadowed in the teachings
of Gautama. The indebtedness of such men as Schopenhauer, Spinoza, and
Emerson is generally recognized. How much more of western thought was
implied in Asiatic philosophy is not recognized by most of us because of
the nonsense which is mixed with it and also because of the different
method of expression.
"The greater tolerance of the Buddhist is shown in his attitude towards
other religions, especially Christianity. Instead of consigning them to
various degrees of high temperature in the hereafter he regards
Christianity as having 'great merit' and teaches that the Christians are
following a good path which will eventually lead to enlightenment.
Considering these things, I do not see how Christianity can hope to make
any striking progress amongst the intelligent classes who are born in
Buddhist countries.
"It cost very little to make a trip to Japan, as I couldn't see the need
of taking first-class passage; and, since I lived with an English-speaking
Japanese student, the living expenses were no more those in Manila for the
two of us. He was an active boy and we must have covered fifteen miles of
walking on a good many days. I still think I would like to spend several
years living in various parts of Asia.
"I met my first wife in the Philippines. She was employed as a supervisor
of the Manila high schools. Very few men were available for the Philippine
service after the United States entered the war, and the women who were
brought over developed a bad habit of marrying before their contracts
expired. We were married after returning to the states, however. The
better class of native girls consider it rather improper to be seen with
an American.
"I tried to get in the army shortly after we entered the war, but the army
decided there was no need for my services. 'Underweight', they said. There
was no draft in the islands, but most of the young men applied and quite a
few received commissions. The standard explanation of those who did not
enlist was, 'What good would one private be amongst all those second
lieutenants.'
"In 1920 I returned to the United States and got a position at Georgia
Tech at a salary of $2,750 a year. I taught eight years there. At the end
of the first year I bought a home in Decatur. That was in 1920 and houses
were at their highest price then. The place cost about $8,500 counting the
improvements I put in. My wife was rather anxious to own a place.
Personally, I never could see that it was cheaper to buy than to rent.
When I finally wound up the thing, it was very evident that I could have
paid double rent and still have been much better off. I also bought a
five-acre lot, a little on the edge of town, expecting to sell the house
as soon as possible and build there. I have always enjoyed having animals
around and my wife was very fond of gardening, especially of flowers. I
rather think she must have studied the habits and cultivation of about
every flowering plant that was grown around Atlanta.
"The teaching at Georgia Tech was of a very routine character without much
chance of more advanced work. It is an engineering school and does
remarkably good work in training engineers, but did not pretend to be much
in the line of research or graduate specialties.
"My wife died in December 1925, and two years later in 1928 I left Tech to
go to Cornell for graduate work in physics. Toward the close of the first
semester they offered me part-time work in teaching. The teaching work was
light, calling for three classes a week and so left an abundance of time
for study. Cornell probably allows its students more freedom of choice
than any other of the great universities, though they have to hold their
undergraduates to a more systematic course than their graduate students. I
believe it is an excellent system, as every one is working at something in
which he has a real interest instead of grinding out credits.
"I returned to Atlanta in 1931 to try to sell my house. I had already sold
the lot, though I was obliged to sell what cost $2,500 for $500. No one
was greatly interested in building even in 1928. In 1931 it was
practically impossible to sell houses for money, or it least that was my
experience. I finally traded it for an abandoned farm. I had a $6,000
equity in the place but should have been glad to have sold it for $1,000.
"I moved to the farm with my collie dog in the fall of 1931. There are few
better companions than a wise collie. We disagreed about only one thing. I
was in the habit of killing any rat I could manage to catch. This dog held
the belief that nothing should ever be killed and would plainly give me to
understand that it wasn't fair, in his opinion, to hurt those poor rats.
"In 1932 I re-married and started raising a few beans and farming some of
the fertile patches that had withstood a generation of cotton cropping. I
had over four hundred hens part of the time but that many hens can easily
eat fifty or sixty dollars' worth of feed in a month, and frequently make
a return of fifteen or twenty dollars worth of eggs. At any rate I found
there was no money to be made on a worn-out farm, but kept on always in
hopes of finding a buyer at some price in the next few months. The farm
was profitable only in one respect - it was a pleasant place to live. I
sold it in 1937 and netted $500 on it. I may say that I received $500 on
my house which had cost at least $6,000 above rent. I believe it is
generally cheaper to rent than to buy.
"I built a trailer to live in and came back to Atlanta to try for a job,
but didn't have the luck of finding one. In fact, if it had not been for a
little trading which I did in stocks I would have been out of cash long
before I sold the farm. Stocks have a great advantage over most other
forms of property in that they can be sold at some price. Trading stocks
is not a job that is suitable to many. It requires very careful study. A
person attempting to trade on a little newspaper opinion and so-called
expert advice is almost certain to have serious losses. The reason is not
hard to see. When prices are at the bottom they are there because it is
almost the unanimous opinion that things are bad and getting worse, and
when they are at the top it is because every one expects even better
things. The only people I have ever known who made money consistently were
those who formed their own opinions and made a business of their trading.
A great many people who would not think of playing against professionals
for money in a card game will attempt to speculate. They are playing a far
more complicated game in competition with very shrewd opponents. No, I do
not regard speculation as gambling unless you are willing to define all
buying and selling in hopes of a profit as gambling, and I think any one
would be justified in buying an equity if he had good reason to think it
would soon be worth more in selling if he thought it likely to decline.
However, I am sure that if any one thinks it a way to make easy money he
has not realized the requirements of successful trading. I never had so
much as a thousand dollars in the market and of course frequently found I
was mistaken, or right too soon, but during the seven years I made
something every year but one. That year I lost about $200. During my best
year I made about $800.
"The recent reforms in the market were badly needed but scarcely go far
enough to be called a thorough job. I think the only serious mistake was
made in making the margin requirements too high. That probably caused the
1937 panic to be more severe than it would have been otherwise. This
requirement has reduced later.
"Living in a trailer is very much like living in an efficiency apartment.
Trailers are very comfortable both in warm and cold weather and, after one
has learned to have 'a place for everything and everything in its place',
the trailer is more convenient than most houses. However, I am working on
some plans for a small portable house which can be carried on a trailer
frame and can be erected or reloaded on its carrier in a few hours. I want
to have the plans ready to use in case I get a sale for the trailer which
I am now using. Such a house can be made at a cost of from $200 to $400
for materials and is far more convenient than the average house.
"The average American of low income certainly does not select his food so
has to get the maximum value for the amount he spends. It seems to me that
it would be well worth while if more instruction were given to such
matters. Of course, any one can find all kinds of articles telling about
calories, proteins, minerals, vitamins, and so on, but the trouble with
that is that even the few who read and understand such articles do not
apply them. What we need is some very low-priced diets which are
sufficient to maintain good health and as persistent a hammering on the
subject as there is, for instance, on the merits of advertised foods or
the great curative powers of patent medicines. Some of my neighbors in the
country were evidently suffering from malnutrition though they spent more
for groceries than I did. Their houses and surroundings were very
unsanitary. It costs no more to have clean surroundings and a
well-balanced diet than to live on hog and hominy in a house which any
up-to-date farmer would consider unfit for cattle.
"I don't believe that any one thoroughly understands all of the causes of
depressions; at least it is a subject on which the 'doctors' are about
unanimous in their disagreement. Certainly Presidents Coolidge and Hoover
did not understand the subject, or they would scarcely allowed our present
situation to develop while they smilingly assured the American people that
all was well with the world and the best of our coming prosperity was just
around the corner. I do believe I can claim to have been more foresighted
than that, for I sold the small amount of stock which I owned jointly with
my mother before the 1929 break and, as before stated, would have been
very glad to sell all the other property I owned.
"The depression was very possibly made during the years 1918 to 1927 when
most of us were spending more than we had really made. The sum of debts,
if the estimates are at all correct, represented much too large a
proportion of our total wealth, and they could only be carried by a
continual advance in values. The world depression stopped that. Then the
forced economy and the shrinking of values began and the depression fed on
its own growth. Hoover, due to the political situation, was practically
powerless. I doubt that, with the emergency powers later given to
Roosevelt, he would have taken sufficiently drastic action, as he took too
much of a banker's view of the situation. The United States were simply
due to follow the rest of the world in revaluing money and reorganizing
industry.
"Any inspection of employment and production figures plainly shows that
there was a considerable increase in the hourly production, especially
during the last fifteen years. Our distribution of income must be adjusted
to the increase in labor efficiency if that increased production is to be
used. A concentration of wealth in the hands of a small proportion of our
citizens cannot possibly be made consistent with general prosperity.
Regardless of whether one believes that enormous fortunes are acquired by
moral individuals or not, the general good requires that they should not
exist and certainly that these should not endure in the hands of a
hereditary class. We have an excellent illustration of the effect of
concentration of power and wealth in the thousand year's depression which
Asia has suffered. The poverty of Asia is not produced by the inferiority
of its people but by the lack of good governments and political freedom.
In the United States I believe that our past prosperity has been due to
our more fair distribution of wealth among those who produced it rather
than to the efforts of a few who have managed to control large
enterprises.
"The New Deal policies seem to me to be generally correct, and the
American people appear to have some understanding of what is happening.
They are not likely to hand the full control back to our former masters.
However, I do not think we are going to see the 1929 levels reached
rapidly. Too many people are now accustomed to live on a lower consuming
level than they did in the 1920's. Very few of these I know who were
earning well during that period are now spending as freely as they did
then. To reach that glorious but rather silly level of spending, we must
probably wait until a new generation of spenders, arrives.
"I have been working on the W. P. A. for about three months. The W. P. A.
or some such arrangement is almost a necessity as long as our industrial
organizations unable to properly employ people who are able to work. I
believe that in time we will again adjust things, however, so that it will
not be necessary. It scarcely would be beneficial to business employment
or production to have the millions now depending on W. P. A. unable to buy
at all.
"I am not a member of any church, though if I were to choose one the
Unitarian would probably suit me fairly well. It seems to me that the
Christian Churches generally are making an attempt to worship both God and
Mammon, a thing which their founder warned them could not be done.
"The prospects of getting employment do not seem especially good, but
there should be a pretty fair chance of starting a small business. I knew
a well-to-do Chinaman in Manila who began business with about $25, but of
course he was only a 'Heathen Chinese'."
Alex Samuels
908 Edgewood Ave., N. E.
Atlanta, Georgia.
By - William Jenkins
December 15, 1939.
Text from: Library of
Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection
|