ted men
in America to my mind are the graduates of West Point and Annapolis, the
military and naval academies. These two institutions are extremely
rigorous, and are open to the most humble citizens. They so transform
men in four years that people would hardly recognize them. The result is
a highly educated, refined, cultivated, practical man, with a high sense
of honor and patriotism. If America would have a school of this kind in
every State there would be no limit to her power in two decades.

Despite education, the great mass of the people are superficial; they
have a smattering of this and that. An employer of several thousand men
told the Superintendent of Education of the District of Columbia that he
had selected the brightest boy graduate of a high school for a position
which required only a knowledge of simple arithmetic. The graduate
proved to be totally unfit for the position and was discharged. Later he
became the driver of a team of horses. America abounds in thousands of
educational institutions, yet there is not one so well endowed that it
can say to the world we wish no more money. It is singular that some
multi-millionaire does not grasp this opportunity to donate one hundred
millions to a great national school or university, to be placed at
Washington, where the buildings would all be lessons in architecture of
marble after the plans of a world's fair. Instead they leave a few
thousands here and a few there. Carnegie, the leading millionaire, gives
libraries to cities all over the States, each of which bears the name of
the giver. The object is too obvious, and is cheap in conception. In San
Francisco some years ago a citizen tried the same experiment. He
proposed to give the city a large number of fountains. When they were
finished _each_ one was seen to be surmounted by his own statue. A few
were put up, how many I do not recall, but one night some citizens
waited on a statue, fastened a rope to its neck, and hauled it down. So
peculiar are the Americans that I believe if Mr. Carnegie should place
his name on ten thousand libraries, with the object of attaining undying
fame, the people, by a concerted effort, would forget all about him in a
few decades. Such an attempt does not appeal to any side of the American
character. I have known the best Americans, but Mr. Carnegie has not
known the best of his own countrymen or he would not attempt to
perpetuate his memory in this way.

CHAPTER XIII