No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 267 



fright. She came Ihere. Ilei- stature was somewhat larger tlian 

 that of the previous girl and she noticed that the girls talked dif- 

 ferently from what she did and she began to eliminate from her 

 vocabulary the things they didn't use. She soon suri)rised the girls 

 by talking so well, after she had saved up enough money she went 

 to the two sisters one day and asked if she could not go to the 

 same dressmaker and milliner they did. They said "yes," so she 

 went down and got a new tailor-made dress and the girls didn't know 

 her at all. She looked so much better than they did that they were 

 ashamed to walk with her on the street, and as Billy Sunday 

 would say, as far as looks were concerned, "She had them trimmed 

 to a frazzle." One da}'- a real estate agent came out and >Mary 

 asked the girls if she couldn't go along. They said, "Yes," and she 

 dressed up and got into the front seat, didn't make any bones of 

 it at all, went out to the station where they were to look over the 

 property and Mary became very much infatuated with it when she 

 found it could be bought on the instalment plan and bought some 

 of the real estate. To keep up with the hired girl, the sisters had 

 to buy some, and next day the real estate agent came along and 

 gave Mary a commission for what they had bought. Next day she 

 started out and told them the possibilities there were in buying 

 jeal estate on the instalment plan and it was not long before she 

 told the girls she couldn't work for them but half a day, she had 

 so much other work in selling real estate. ' About a month later 

 she came around and told the girls that she couldn't work for 

 them any longer because she had bought an auto, rented an office, 

 and was a real estate agent. In three years Joseph was looking 

 for a job. In three years Mary was a successful real estate agent. 

 I have a purpose in mind in telling you that story. The high 

 school, or public school, if it is going to educate 90% of the people, 

 or if it is going to give 90% of the people all of the education they 

 will ever get, has some responsibility on its hands. You people are 

 from all parts of Pennsylvania and are a very good representation 

 from the State. No doubt, you are very influential in the places 

 from which you come. Now are you going to be like Mary or are 

 3'ou going to be like Joseph in promoting this new idea, or promoting 

 a school system which, if the boy cannot go to college when he 

 gets through he will have something practical in life to work with? 

 I will leave that for your own judgment. Mr. Dennis has shown 

 you a number of slides. Some of the slides I expected to show you 

 did not arrive so I only have a very few and it won't take me but 

 an instant to show you these. This is a picture of the agricultural 

 class of the Mansfield-Uichmond High School. You notice there we 

 have a very good representation. I will tell you how I managed to 

 get such a large class the first year. When I went home from State 

 College last Easter vacation, T went to the high school and gave 

 them a talk on the benefits of a practical education. Dui-ing the 

 summer-time. I hired an automobile: T visited the whole territory 

 in Richmond /ind Mansfield borough for students to take up agricul- 

 tural work and T saw a numl)or of students and talked the proposi- 

 tion over with them, esiieciallv the boys who T thought, would not 

 be able to go on to college. The first day of school when the pro- 

 fessor called for students Avho would like to take up the agricultural 

 work, over half the boys in the school stood u]) and the professor 

 was so surprised, that I could see he did not like it very well. 



