658 MINING ENGINEERING 



body of students tends to emphasize the difference between the 

 students and the miners, and to make each party self-conscious, 

 and, to a certain extent, antagonistic. When many students travel 

 together, they carry with them the college atmosphere, which is 

 the very thing they need most to get away from, in their vacations. 

 It is only when such a body of students is so diluted by dispersal 

 among a large number of mines and miners who are working and 

 not playing at mining, that they can be made to realize that they 

 are not "the whole thing;" then, and then only, are they in a posi- 

 tion to derive any real benefit from their experience. 



These views were gradually forced upon me, as they doubtless 

 have been forced on others, by a study of results. Moreover, as the 

 number of students in the classes increased, I found it more and 

 more difficult to secure accommodations for them in any but a 

 few large mining centres. This greatly limited the practicable scope 

 and variety of the work. 



But the cause that finally decided me to make a change was the 

 lack of means, among some of the best students, to pay the ex- 

 penses of such trips, in addition to those of the college course. Some 

 of these men asked to be permitted to work for wages, instead of 

 attending the summer school. This was done in certain cases; and 

 I found at once such an improvement in the subsequent work of 

 these students that I decided to alter my general plan accordingly. 



The method, as thus far worked out, is to require that each stu- 

 dent shall spend at least a month underground in the study of 

 practical mining. As a matter of fact, most of the students thus 

 spend from six to eight months during their college course, and 

 many of them even more. Each must prepare a well-written account 

 of his experiences, together with an essay, on a subject chosen by 

 himself from among those that interested him most. These papers 

 are read before the whole class and are discussed and criticised by 

 all. Many of them have been extremely interesting and instructive. 



The students are not required to work for wages, and are even 

 discouraged from doing so, unless they are physically mature, and 

 have some familiarity with the work. But all are strongly urged 

 to attempt this before they graduate. Most of them need very 

 little encouragement; in fact, they take to it as naturally as ducks 

 to water. There is a time in the development of a young man when 

 hard work seems to be a physical necessity - - an assertion of his 

 manhood. It has even come to pass among us that the young man 

 who, from physical or other disability, does not do so, loses caste 

 among his fellows. 



There is of course a certain disadvantage in working for wages. 

 A man has to do the same thing over and over again and is usually 

 too tired to think much while doing it. But this objection is easily 



