FRED I. PATRICK

When a boy at the age of sixteen, I lived with my father on a very poor, rocky, stumpy farm near Joplin, Mo. My education and financial condition were very limited. I attended the country graded school until graduation. One day as I was toiling among the stumps on our little farm, it came into my mind, “What good am I doing here, and what good might I do had I the opportunity?” It was only a few weeks before I received a circular letter from the Joplin Business College, offering me the opportunity of attending this school and of making my expenses while there. I had only $25 and to me the task seemed hard and the burden heavy; but within there was a burning desire for something better, something more elevating than the companions with whom I had associated.

On the 19th day of November, 1909, I entered the Joplin Business College. I enrolled and graduated in the bookkeeping, stenographic, and penmanship departments within a period of two years. I was compelled to earn entirely my board, room, and clothing while I was attending school; and, in order to do this, I waited on tables in restaurants, mowed 250 lawns on Saturdays during the summer, did janitor’s work at the business college, was janitor at the Presbyterian church, read gas meters for the Joplin Gas Company, and worked in a shoe store on Saturday nights.

After graduating, September 1, 1911, I was chosen as assista............