03 SCHOOLDAYS

Chapter 3

SCHOOLDAYS

" JULY 19th. — I am now all safe and sound in Whitestown. We arrived at New York at about eight o’clock on Saturday morning on the 10th July. The captain sent one of the sailors to get the letters that had been waiting there for the people on board, and he came back with a whole bundle, and one was marked ’Phillips.’ It was from Mr. John Chancey, inviting us to go over to his house. We were very glad to receive it, and showed it to Dr. Bacheler. He got a carriage to take us all there. We set out Monday night. That night we took a hearty supper, and went with Mr. Chancey to the boat station, where we got our tickets and labels, and went on board the steamboat Sir Isaac Newton, which was to leave at 6.50 pm. for Albany, We stayed up that night till about ten o’clock; and as we could see the shore all the time, and it looked so beautiful, we had a very pleasant evening, and were — where ? Nowhere, but on the old North Hudson river, which I had heard so much about at home. A very kind man obtained berths for us, so that we went to bed that night, and did not wake up till about 5.30 in the morning, when a negro called us and said ’ Albany.’ So we jumped up and were dressed in a few minutes, then we gave up our tickets and left the boat. We saw a cart which was going to the depot, so we picked up our bundles and followed it. Our chests were labelled through to Utica, so we had nothing to do with them till we got there. We waited at the depot for the 6.30 train, then jumped on to one of the cars and arrived at Utica at about eight o’clock on Tuesday morning. At the depot we had to look up our boxes and things.

" We inquired of a man how we could go to Whitestown, where we were to be put to school with our uncle. He told us that an omnibus left for Whitestown at 11 am., and he took our boxes to the omnibus station. We took the ’bus and arrived at Whitestown at 11 o’clock in the evening on Tuesday, July 13th, 1852." So ends the interesting little diary and their first long journey.

Whitestown was truly a new world to the two little Indian boys, whose early surroundings had been quite different. Indeed it would not be too much to say that they hardly spoke the language of America, and that all their ideas were entirely foreign to those of the people with whom the rest of their boyhood was to be passed. They had even to ask the names of many things which they saw. The very furniture of the house was a study to them. They peered cautiously into the presses and cupboards, remembering the weird stories they had learned from the native women of India, and half wondering what uncanny creatures might suddenly spring out of those dark and hidden recesses. The American stove with its iron doors they actually thought was a prison in which to shut up bad boys. In the distance they watched their new school-fellows playing games hitherto unheard of, and it was with a sort of sinking of their young hearts that they longed for the dear old games they had left behind at Jellasore. Everybody stared at them and exchanged significant glances which the poor boys understood only too well. A single glance around had revealed to them the fact that their garments, though very neatly made, were by no means in the latest American fashion. Uncle John’s description of what he called " the hang of their trousers " was no doubt amusing enough, but it was a very serious affair for the owners of those garments, and many tears were shed in quiet corners. The little strangers formed but an unfavorable impression of their comrades as they contrasted their somewhat pointed witticisms with the simple native courtesy of the dark-skinned people in Orissa. With the opening of the term they went to school and began work in earnest. But the bills increased, and their little purses were empty. Where was the money to come from? Piles of uncut wood near the seminary answered the question. On cold mornings, when the mercury in the thermometer sank eight or nine degrees below zero, they had to bound out of their beds and set the chips flying and the saw buzzing.

Dr. Phillips said in after years: " One of the gifts I can feel to-day was a pair of fine warm mittens that a dear aunt gave me. These kept my hands from freezing, and when my feet were beginning to grow numb from cold, I dropped the axe and jumped and beat my hands vigorously till the warm blood found its way to the tips of toes and fingers, and then went on again with the chopping till the breakfast bell rang. Our brains were tingling with pure fresh oxygen, and study found us ready with Latin and Greek roots and unknown quantities. I got to like mathematics, and was soon promoted in that course. Languages, too, came easy to me; indeed they were a kind of pastime." But there was one thing which James Phillips afterwards confessed that he neglected at this time, and his father, without knowing it, made reference to the matter in one of his letters, and asked him if he read his Bible regularly. He replied that he felt " as downright ashamed and wicked a boy as ever lived on earth." Although he had been accustomed from very early years to read his Bible daily, the habit had become weakened since landing in the New World ; but now he wrote a pledge and entered it in his Journal in the following terms : —

" I hereby pledge myself that I will read daily the Old Testament once a year, and the New twice, according to the Biblical calendar. It is my earnest design to remain true to my pledge unless prevented by ill-health or similar circumstance.

(Signed) James Phillips.

Whitestown, Oneipa County, N.Y., Sunday, Jan. 2, 1853."

Well did the future missionary keep his pledge! He read the entire Bible through forty times, and during the last thirty years of his life he read the New Testament in Greek every year. To this practice he undoubtedly owed not only the robustness of his private religious life, but also the freshness and force which characterized his sermons and addresses. The Word of God was to him a perennial fountain at which he daily quenched the thirst of his soul, and in his turn was a minister of life and refreshment to others.

After this time the two brothers John and James regularly read their Bibles together and said their prayers with carefulness, though apart from this they seemed to have thought comparatively little about God and the great hereafter.

Soon after this a series of revival meetings was held. James attended them night after night; and as others were deciding to serve the Master, he longed to do so as well, but was held back by an inward conviction that if he became a decided Christian he would ultimately feel bound to go back to India as a missionary. While his heart continually longed for home, curiously enough he strongly rebelled against the idea of becoming a missionary. This was the more strange seeing that the life of an Indian missionary, so far as the boys had seen it exemplified in their father, would appear to have been not altogether unattractive. Still other ambitions and objects in life seemed at this time to have presented themselves forcibly to the young boy’s mind. But a great spiritual crisis was at hand in the life of James Phillips. We give his own description : —

" God was no doubt to answer dear Mother’s prayers. One Sunday evening John was greatly affected at the meeting, while I was quite unmoved. At the close of the service one of the students prayed with him. I had already gone home, and to bed. A little later when he returned he burst into tears and told Uncle and Aunt that he was a great sinner. I was then called, and while dressing trembled like a leaf. John said to me, ’ James, I have resolved to be a Christian ; won’t you come with me ? ’ I was touched then, and burst into tears. Uncle prayed with us, after which we went to bed, but not to sleep. We got up and prayed until five in the morning. I told the Lord I would go anywhere and do anything if He would save me. Oh, how happy I felt then ! I found that it made me happy and cheerful to have Christ’s love in my heart. It did not matter that the boys scoffed at me, and called me ’ the missionary.’ I paid little attention to them now, for, from the night of conversion, I began to think about India’s needs and children, and gave myself up to India’s God and to them. It has been ’ dear India ’ ever since then."

There can be little doubt that this youthful experience marked an epoch in the religious life of James Phillips. Although certain notes in his diary might suggest that an element of perhaps not entirely healthy emotion had been introduced by attendance at revival meetings of the type not uncommon in those days in the United States, it must be frankly admitted that from this time a new impulse and motive had entered into the boy’s life. The desire to ultimately consecrate himself to the higher and more immediate service of God as a foreign missionary was from this time never altogether absent from him. While the experiences and influences of the years which lay before him were needed to mould and form an even and robust religious character, still it seems incontestable that the beginning of the good work must be identified in point of time with the revival meetings at Whitestown, and more especially with the early decision of his brother John. But now the hardships at which we have already hinted increased. It is difficult to realise at what cost of physical endurance and suffering these two boys secured for themselves the advantages of education. At this distance of time it is perhaps unnecessary to discuss the causes of this. We content ourselves with simply recording facts. When the two boys rose higher in the school their book-bills grew so large that they decided to economize by boarding themselves. They lived with a frugality truly Spartan. Their food consisted mainly of cornmeal puddings, which they ate with milk three times a day. Now and then they indulged in a few biscuits and a little cheese, and sometimes a motherly hand slipped a pie or cake into their little cupboard, but usually its shelves were sadly bare. They economized in other ways too. With the arrival of the warm spring the ice melted, and they did their washing in the pond. In the second winter of their stay at Whitestown they engaged to saw fourteen cords of wood during the three weeks’ vacation. It was all done by the last Saturday, but they were not to be paid until the following week. They were desperately in need of some new clothes for Sunday, so they went to the tradesman in Utica with whom their uncle dealt, and told him how they were situated, asking him to give them credit ; but he absolutely refused.

It was a great disappointment, but they made the best of it, and mended up their old clothes for one more Sunday’s wear. Sometimes they tried to do a little trade on their own account, having brought from India some Tussore silk and arrowroot. The silk they managed to sell, but the grocers declared that the West Indian arrowroot was better than theirs, and refused to buy it. But it would be a mistake to suppose that James Phillips was always a sober-sided boy, learning his lessons, chopping wood, and hawking Indian wares. Once his Uncle Gardner, who kept the boarding-hall, asked him to help at the dinner table while he was away for a few days. The first morning, after all the boys were seated for breakfast, James slipped off into his uncle’s room, and arrayed himself in his relative’s dressing-gown. His uncle was a large man, but the boy filled up the great spaces between the gown and himself with feather pillows, and then, imitating his uncle’s gait, he limped into the dining-hall, taking the seat at the head of the table with all the dignity he could muster, while teachers and boys alike were convulsed with laughter.

" My declamation," he writes, " was never very good. We were required to learn by heart and deliver orations, recite poems, and so forth. My memory was not a good one, and I knew that I was not exactly like the American boys. Had I then known how graceful Indian children really are, I should have stepped proudly enough on to the platform. As it was, my heart sank within me, and I felt as though I were mounting a scaffold in the prison court, and doubted whether I could say a single word. But God was good, and helped me to remember my oration. The bright new faces helped as well, and I was enabled to put my whole soul into the words I was repeating. I forgot myself, my clothes, my audience, everything, except the thoughts of the author. I left the platform amid the resounding cheers of my classmates, whose ridicule I had been praying for grace to bear."

James and John being now recognized as professing Christians, were baptized on Sunday, May 27th, 1853, in a little stream by Professor Fullonton, a man of singularly gentle and gracious spirit. The boys sought as opportunity offered to engage in Christian work, and to lead their schoolfellows heavenward. At the same time the straitness of their resources imposed upon them the double task of doing their schoolwork and earning their daily bread. They rang bells, lighted fires, swept the halls, and during one vacation papered seventy rooms in the seminary, in order to finish the year without debt.

Now came the delightful news that Mrs. Phillips and her eight children were coming to America, though the exigencies of the mission were such as to detain her husband still in the field. She settled in New Hampton, in order to secure the privileges of its excellent school, in the summer of 1854, When James heard that she had arrived, a great struggle took possession of him. Should he drop his work and rush to her as his heart prompted ? or should he stay and finish the course, and thus equip himself for the future ? But however much he may have wished to hasten to his mother’s side, one insurmountable obstacle stood in the way, and that was the total lack of funds. Ultimately it was arranged that John should go to help her in her numerous cares, while James continued his work at Whitestown College. The end of the term arrived, and all the students were talking of going home ; but for the missionary’s son there was no such joy. He had to spend the long vacation working on a farm. He stood the work far better than he expected, and soon became sufficiently expert in mowing to keep up with the hired hands. He worked regularly from sunrise to sunset, and sometimes later. He was footsore at first, and described himself as being " tanned like shoe leather." His hands were blistered, and he suffered considerably, but the outdoor life did much to restore his health. His brave endurance of harassing hardships appears in a letter to his mother in answer to an inquiry on her part to know how he was getting along pecuniarily. He said, among other details, that he washed his own socks and handkerchiefs, and worked for the woman who did the rest of his washing and cooked his food. His clothes had become so worn and shabby that they were unfit to wear to church ; but he had an opportunity to teach a school, by which means he hoped to supply his necessities. It must be remembered that at this time he still lacked two months of being fifteen years old. The letter fortunately fell into the hands of a family who were deeply interested in the Indian mission, and they promptly sent a large box of clothes and other necessaries to the struggling schoolboy. By this means he was enabled to continue his studies. He now decided to fit himself for the sophomore class at Bowdoin College, and by teaching a few terms, to try and earn more than had hitherto been possible. Thus, when only fifteen years old, he taught his first school. During the same year he preached his first sermon from the text, " Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." At the close of the term the great desire of his heart was realized. He had denied himself the ordinary comforts of life in order to remain at school and qualify himself for college, and now he was richly rewarded by being able to write home : " I am at the head of everybody in languages."

Having been accustomed to speak two Indian languages, and also a smattering of other dialects, he found it a comparatively easy task to master the classical tongues. It was in 1857 that he was admitted as a student at Bowdoin College.