The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957 Page: 218

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

ership. He had gained practice in forming and expressing his
opinions. He had met some kindred spirits and made a few warm
friends among them. The University had really done a great deal
for him.
As students and faculty departed the campus, Winston sud-
denly discovered that he needed a registrar, and economically he
decided to combine that job with the one of private secretary to
himself. He had to have a man who would be loyal to him. So he
chose John, and the young man was overjoyed. He could start
work on an M.A.; he could now serve both University and Pres-
ident by interpreting each to the other; but, most important, he
could let the people of Texas know what the University could do
for them. He had already encouraged many of his old friends-
like Charles Potts, later dean of the Southern Methodist Univer-
sity law school-to come on to Austin; he would do this on a much
larger scale. The hundreds of students he subsequently inspired
and assisted in their careers at the University will testify that he
did just that.
From this job as registrar and secretary to the President, he
went on to that of instructor in English at the Agricultural and
Mechanical College of Texas. He received his M.A. from the
University of Texas in 1go6. The following year he spent at Har-
vard University, where, working under Professor George Lyman
Kittredge, he obtained a second M.A. in 1907; the North may
therefore claim some credit for his subsequent success. Later
positions he held were those of secretary to the University of
Texas Ex-Students' Association; bond salesman for Lee Higginson
and Company; vice-president of the Republic National Bank of
Dallas; and, as he is most remembered, collector of the American
folk ballads which have earned for him a permanent place in
American literary history. Such attainments surely indicate the
worth of his early Texas schooling and of the handicapped but
earnest teachers who guided him in it.

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