PERSONAL HISTORY 195 



From that time on he enjoyed academic life 

 most intensely. Free-hand drawing was very 

 easy for him, and even after leaving school and 

 while at work in the city of Worcester at wood- 

 working and pattern making, he took lessons in 

 drawing once a week from the well-known artist, 

 Professor George E. Gladwyn, so long con- 

 nected with the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 

 nology, who had a large class in drawing and 

 designing. 



Father, observing that all Luther's leisure 

 moments, before leaving the academy, were em- 

 ployed in building water wheels, steam whistles, 

 steam engines, or something of the sort, con- 

 cluded that he ought to be a mechanic. An 

 uncle, Luther Ross, was superintendent of the 

 woodworking department of the great Ames 

 Manufacturing Company, which had plants at 

 Worcester, Groton, and Chicopee Falls, Massa- 

 chusetts. A place was secured for Luther in the 

 factory at Worcester, where he was at first em- 

 ployed in turning the plowrounds, for which he 

 received the munificent sum of fifty cents a day. 

 Board was also fifty cents per day, and, as Sun- 

 day came once a week, he found himself fifty 

 cents in arrears at the close of each week. 

 Although he enjoyed the work, the compensa- 

 tion was insufficient, so his uncle granted him 



