The Optimist (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 82, No. 43, Ed. 1, Sunday, February 20, 1994 Page: 8 of 15

                                
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Original
unist
By Kathryn S. Williaraa
Student Reporter
A recent discovery of pic-
tures of past students and
faculty dated from 1909
tind an English composi-
tion paper were uncovered and
currently is featured in the WACU
Museum.
Vcrda Ponder daughter of for-
mer student Arthur Slater recently
discovered pictures of her father
and mother as students along with
othcrgroups of students.
Ponder found the pictures when
she was sifting through her sister's
previous belongings.
"I was very excited to find the
pictures" she said.
She said she wanted .to share the
new discovery with others who
might enjoy them so she gave the
pictures to a friend and co-worker
Robert Hall.
Hall who will honored as the
Alumnus of the Year Monday was
on the presidential board of direc-
tors at the Jasper Memorial Hospi-
tal where Ponder worked.
Hall now retired said he was
shocked when Ponder gave him
the pictures.
"1 was literally dumfounded by
the pictures she gave me" Hall
said. "It was great though to know
those pictures still existed and that
I could do something to share the
display with others."
Hall took the pictures to a local
photography studio and had them
copied. He also had negatives
made. Bcwforc Hall presented the
pictures to President Roycc
Money he tried to identify the
people in the photographs.
"The pictures were in good
shape and made nice copies" Hall
said. "Some of the people I was
able to identify as Pondcr's par-
ents but there were some I could
not place at all." He identified a
couple of pictures which featured
past president of ACU Jesse
Scwcll and assistant professor of
science and mathematics William
Sikes.
Ponder said she was glad to
share the pictures. "These pictures
arc so important and I wanted to
be able to share the joy of seeing
the students how they were several
years ago." v
Most pictures were of Pondcr's
father Arthur Slater and her
mother Alma Key Slater. Some
group photographs of the debating uriivcrsity.
club and oratory club were includ-' Ponder said Slater admired ACU
cd as well. 'id counted every moment as an
Ponder also found an English? pportbnity for learning; Slater
composition paper written by jier mildcrcd education a treasure
father describing how he first "My father loved ACU and
came to ACU. jillbodgh he was not able to gradu-
oiy lamer iovcq wonting on me winerc it was his lifelong dream.
Arthur Slater's Autobiography
By Jamas Arthur Slater My childhood was spent on the prince could be. of Grant. I have not heard from him Abilene and start a school paper."
September 19H farm until I was about nine years I do not remember the first school in manv vears. But those hapov I went. I became the founder c
printing press she said. That is
how he actually paid for a-.
semester at ACU. Mr. Scwcll.
asked my father to come to ACU
to start a newspaper and bring hii
(mining press unu ins wiui is
exactly what he did."
S. 
later founded the OptinUst
and was the editor from
1911-1912. His compost
tion describes how he-
first came to ACU and the way he
paid for a semester of education at
Je would have wanted the pictures
go to the university.
Leslie Currcy curator at the
uselirri said the pictures arc on
iptaV and encourages visitors to
tily subjects in the photos.
i am hoping that when people
me Into the museum they will
and recognize more of the nco-
in Ihe pictures" Currcy said.
e museum is located on Cam-
s Court across from Scwcll The-
arid is open Thursdays from
m-6 p.m.
I
was bom near Canton Van
Zandt County Texas. Save
for a few cases of malarial
fever 1 have had a pretty
good health ever since. My parents
both of whom arc still living arc of
Southern stock my grandfather
having died in the Civil War. They
arc typical Souther rural and parents
of whom a boy should be proud for
they have raised a good-sized fami-
ly and have done as well for their
children as they could do. They are
just good average parents and I an
average son.
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A group of mostly unidentified "advanced students" taken in 19 12 or 19 13. Arthur Slater is 'Jl W HHHIIB. H r.
k sitting far left on the front row.' Vincent Sikes brother of former professor William Sikcs fl H HBSIU.l . 1
1 sits second from right on the front. J H BHHHi Jtimm J
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farm until I was about nine years
old. I can remember only a few of
the incidents that took place on the
farm and have a rather dim concep-
tion of the daily life I led there. But
a few incidents stand out very clear-
ly in my memory. I was as a rule a
very good-natured boy and while
mischievous and fun-loving was
usually obedient to my parents. But
I had contracted a habit of walking
fences that was hard to get rid of.
Most of our fences were of the old
zig-zag rail variety and one of
these enclosed a part of our orchard
in which a very vicious sow was
quartered. Calling up for a confer-
ence my brother two years older
than I and myjclf my father
said:
"Boys I don't want cither of you
to walk on that fence; it is danger-
ous." "Well sir" we said.
Curiously enough we' could not
have a moment's peace until we had
tried to walk that fence. Soon wc
were trying it. Brother and I got on
the same rail at once and that rail
gently rolled off the fence. I rolled
off just ahead of it. It fell on mc and
held mc fast. My brother ran in
fright to the back of the field and I
soon brought the family with my
yells. I got n whipping for my dis-
obedience and have had little incli-
nation to walk fences since.
I remember also that I always had
one or more sore toes usually on
one foot and if any toe on the
whole foot was to be stumped the
sore one put itself forward for the
operation. Boys my size would
gather from the country on Sundays
and wc wpuld have a game of wolf.
One or two were wolves and the
rest of us were dogs. The wolves
were given about a quarter of a mile
the start of us and then sometimes
for half a day the woods resounded
with the bark of the "dogs" as they
tried to get the wolves at bay. 1 have
run miles at a stretch and come up
at the last with nearly every toe on
my feet bleeding with briar scratch-
es on my face and arms and my
clothing torn but happy as any
I ever attended. I do not remember
having ever studied anything in the
first second or third grades. My
parents assure me that I went to
school at old Mt. Pisgah but I can-
not recall it. I only remember that
several years later I was studying
the fourth reader and grammar and
arithmetic in the public school at
Alba in Wood county. On the farm
I just remember playing working
some in the field fishing occasion-
ally in Mill Creek sleeping and eat-
ing and wearing a sad conglomera-
tion of freckles on my face and sore
toes on my feet.
When I was about nine years old
my father bought a local newspaper
in the little town of Myrtle Springs;
so we sold the farm and moved to
town. The print shop was my school
room for several years. I learned
how to do everything in the shop
except to set ads and jobs and the
only reason that I did not learn that
is because there was nothing to do
in that line. My father was a Pop-
ulist and we published the Populist
Herald. Wc lived or rather starved
on the few subscriptions that wc
could get until economic determin-
ism determined that wcshould
move. 1SI
Wc moved. Wc started the
AllxtNcws a non-partisan
local newspaper in the
little town of Alba. All thr.
mechanical work on the paper was
done by my brother and me. Father
did Ihe writing. I attended school a
little while but there was so much
work for us boys at the shop that I
did not go long. It was a
monotonous life for us; just one
long round of setting type printing
and mailing papers and distributing
the type. On those rare occasions
when there was a lull in the cease-
less routine of shop work I was off
to tramp in the country. It was the
delight of my life then to get half a
holiday on Saturday and visit that
friend whom I shall ever remember
Grant Sherwood.
I do not know what has become
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in many years. But those happy
times wc spent together planning
what we verily thought to be the
greatest sleight-of-hand show the
world ever saw; the dancing skele-
ton the disappearing coins the talk-
ing dolls and all the rest how
shall I ever forget them? I can see
them all now and feel some of the
thrill we felt as wc lay awake far
into the night and talked of wonder-
ful things wc should accomplish
with that show; how wc should
amaze our audiences with our won-
derful skills and dexterity; how wc
should be as famous as Barnum;
and most important of all how wc
should gather in dimes and quarters
(the admission was to be 25 e for
grown-ups and 10(4 for children
under 10) until our purses bulged
and wc should cat candy and chew
wax perpetually.
We never made any money out of
the newspaper business. After we
had lived on meat and bread and
cussings from our subscribers until
wc were almost distracted wc man-
aged to dispose of the printing out-
fit and went back to the farm. My
knowledge of printing has served
me in good stead many times since
we went out of the newspaper busi-
ness. In times of stress I have
helped the out in the family income
by doing some printing work and
paid my way through school one
year in the same trade. Sickness and
crop failures were our portion when
wc went back to the farm; so we
resolved to go out "West." We
landed in Clyde Callahan County
Texas in the fall of 1905.
When we had been at Clyde for a
year or tow I had the opportunity to
work my way through school. I had
always been eager to attend school;
so I grasped the opportunity and
entered Abilene Christian College.
That was the most profitable year I
have ever spent in school. I had
spent during my life a total of some
12 months in the public school; thus
I was far behind in most of my
studies. But I had acquired the habit
of reading and by reason of my
printing experience was a good
speller. I carried nine studies that
year besides the literary and debat-
ing work and during the entire ses-
sion I swept the schoolhouse con-
sisting of eight rooms daily made
fires in them every morning when it
was cold weather and milked a cow
most of the time for the president of
the school But I thought it a great
privilege to be allowed to do all this
work for the priceless value I was
getting in return and I still think so.
I made good grades in all my stud-
ies and felt very good indeed when
the dean of the school read off my
name at the close of the session as
having made the best general aver-
age of all the students in the school.
In order to help relieve my father
financially I took a Civil Service
membership examination and
secured a rural route out of Clyde. I
worked at this more than two years;
then I went to Dallas to work as a
substitute city carrier. I stayed only
a week. I came back to Clyde to
take charge of the local paper which
my father had established and for
about a year I was both editor and
mechanic doing all the work
myself from type-setting to mailing
of the papers.
While I was engaged on my little
paper Jesse P. Scwall President of
Abilene Christian College ap-
proached me on the subject of
attending school again.
"I haven't sufficient funds to pay
my expenses in school" I told him.
"You don't need any money" he
said. "Bring your printing outfit to
I went. I became the founder of
the Optimist It was an eight-page
paper devoted to the interests of
Abilene Christian College and to
Christian education in general. I
was not nominally the editor of this
journal but when I failed to get the
proper editors to fill their allotted
space it was my task to fill it for
them. I had all the business details
to attend to and a large share of the
mechanical work to look after. In
addition to this work I frequently
visited congregations at neighbor-
ing school houses and churches and
talked for them and devoted a great
deal of time to literary society and
debating work. It was easy there-
fore to see why I failed to do what
one should do as a student. I carried
only three classes; namely English
Economics and Bible. I have never
liked mathematics and because it
was hard for me to do all my work
and carry a full course I neglected
mathematics. My mind however
needs the discipline that mathemat-
ics alone can give and it is now my
intention to devote most of my time
to that branch until I have mastered
it.
I took first honors that year in
oratory. I was given a place on the
first debating team took the oratory
prize defeated Daniel Baker Col-
lege in on oratory contest and rep-
resented our district at the Universi-
ty of Texas in the Hogg contest.
There however I failed miserably.
My written oration was commend-
ed but my delivery was as sorry as
it well could be. I suppose I was
just plain scared; anyway I
couldn't talk. I had studiecLDr.
Shurtcr in my public speaking
work and Dr. Shurtcr himself was
listening to met It was enough to
scare me I suppose. I came back
home with excuses about a bad
cold etc.
Here in school I met the girl who
was to become my wife. But I had
made up my mind to catch up in
mathematics and enter the Universi-
ty of Texas; so we planned to marry
as soon as I had secured my degree!
Such plans! It was as impossible for
us to stay apart as it is for my
English teacher to overlook a mis-
take in punctuation.
I again entered the Civil Service
and wc were married. I have never
regretted it. Our plans for an educa-
tion have been delayed that is
all. We are now ready to carry them
out.
I have quit the Civil Service
for good. I will teach
school this winter. It is my
plan to teach and take cor-
respondence work each winteMmd
to attend school each summer until
that coveted degree is mine. It may
seem just a little late in life to set
out on such a mission but I know is
is not too late. Our old friend
poverty will doubtless worry us a
little but we can overcome him.
I now have a wife and two fine
little girls to lend inspiration in my
work. As I write this they are all
asleep. Little Eloise just one month
old is lying sprawled out on her
bed her tiny breast rising and
falling with every breath a per-
fect picture of innocence and beau-
ty. Little Helen is sleeping near her
buoyant high-spirited jolly
happy Helen. And between them
and just as beautiful to me as either
of the babies lies my wife. They
arc my all. With their help I may
some day hold in my hand a degree
from the University of Texas
may even wear off my timidity until
I con make a speech in the presence
of Dr. Shutter.
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