meets every week and decides upon the
expenditures for the week. Once a month, and sometimes oftener, there
is a general meeting of all the instructors. Aside from these there are
innumerable smaller meetings, such as that of the instructors in
the Phelps Hall Bible Training School, or of the instructors in the
agricultural department.
In order that I may keep in constant touch with the life of the
institution, I have a system of reports so arranged that a record of the
school's work reaches me every day of the year, no matter in what part
of the country I am. I know by these reports even what students are
excused from school, and why they are excused--whether for reasons of
ill health or otherwise. Through the medium of these reports I know each
day what the income of the school in money is; I know how many gallons
of milk and how many pounds of butter come from the dairy; what the bill
of fare for the teachers and students is; whether a certain kind of meat
was boiled or baked, and whether certain vegetables served in the dining
room were bought from a store or procured from our own farm. Human
nature I find to be very much the same the world over, and it is
sometimes not hard to yield to the temptation to go to a barrel of rice
that has come from the store--with the grain all prepared to go in the
pot--rather than to take the time and trouble to go to the field and dig
and wash one's own sweet potatoes, which might be prepared in a manner
to take the place of the rice.
I am often asked how, in the midst of so much work, a large part of
which is for the public, I can find time for any rest or recreation,
and what kind of recreation or sports I am fond of. This is rather
a difficult question to answer. I have a strong feeling that every
individual owes it to himself, and to the cause which he is serving,
to keep a vigorous, healthy body, with the nerves steady and strong,
prepared for great efforts and prepared for disappointments and trying
positions. As far as I can, I make it a rule to plan for each day's
work--not merely to go through with the same routine of daily duties,
but to get rid of the routine work as early in the day as possible, and
then to enter upon some new or advance work. I make it a rule to clear
my desk every day, before leaving my office, of all correspondence and
memoranda, so that on the morrow I can begin a NEW day of work. I make
it a rule never to let my work drive me, but to so master it
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