4 Curtis : Lucien Marcus Underwood 



* 



Another feature of his college life not in accord with present 

 day conditions was the absence of the vacation habit. During one 

 summer he attempted canvassing "with negative results" and 

 during two seasons he worked upon farms in the vicinity of Syra- 

 cuse. In this manner he earned sufficient money in 1876 to 

 enable him to visit New York City and the Centennial Exposition 



h*s 



At 



the time of his graduation in 1877 he had made up his 

 mind to enter the teaching profession, but he became so discour- 

 aged over his failure to secure a position that he seriously medi- 

 tated entering other lines of work. He finally secured the prin- 

 cipalship of the Morrisville Union School at a salary of $700 per 

 year, going on trial at #600 if not satisfactory. It would appear 

 as if his experiences at this school would have forever driven any 

 thoughts of teaching from his mind. The school was ungraded 

 and he was obliged to conduct fourteen classes a day. The situa- 

 tion was complicated during the winter session by the entrance of 

 a number of large country boys whose scholastic aim was, accord- 

 ing to the light of those days, to break up the school. Neverthe- 

 less he succeeded, reduced the course of study to a system, and 

 published the first catalogue and courses of study of the institu- 

 tion. The real nature and strength of the man is well shown at 

 this period. He was evidently undecided and uncertain as to the 

 future, though no records of his views are at hand. But that dif- 

 ferent fields of activity were appealing to him is evinced by the 

 fact that he not only found time to complete the study of Gray's 

 Anatomy, Dalton's Physiology, and a work on chemistry, prac- 

 tically the first year's work at the Syracuse Medical College, but 

 he also completed a year's graduate work, taking the master's 

 degree at Syracuse University in the spring of 1878. It is also 

 noteworthy that he apparently purchased his first work on ferns 

 (Hooker's Synopsis Filicum) at this time and commenced the 

 accumulation of his valuable fern herbarium. 



He was elected teacher of natural science in Cazenovia Semi- 

 nary for the year 1 878-1 879 and in July, 1878, published in 

 Case's Botanical Index his first botanical paper. This was a brief 

 note containing a list of 44 ferns (species and varieties) occurring 

 about Syracuse, N. Y., and all but four having been found by him 







