the man’s incompetence.  Details came to his attention from time to time during the autumn which served to strengthen his snap-shot judgment, but he made the mistake, doubtless, of failing to communicate his dissatisfaction to Professor Young, and so giving him an inkling of impending disaster.  West knew of just the man for this position, a brilliant young assistant superintendent of schools in another part of the state, who could be secured for the same salary.  Eager to begin his house-cleaning and mark some definite progress, West hurled his bolt from the blue.  About the middle of December he dispatched a letter to the doomed man notifying him that his services would not be required after the Christmas recess.

Instead of accepting his dismissal in a quiet and gentlemanly way, and making of himself a glad thank-offering on the altar of scholarship, Professor Young had the poor taste to create an uproar.  After satisfying himself in a stirring personal interview that the president’s letter was final, he departed in a fury, and brought suit against the college and Charles Gardiner West personally for his year’s salary.  He insisted that he had been engaged for the full college year.  To the court he represented that he was a married man with six children, and absolutely dependent upon his position for his livelihood.

Professor Young happened to be very unpopular with both his colleagues and the students, and probably all felt that it was a case of good riddance, particularly as West’s new man rode rapidly into general popularity.  These facts hampered the Winterites on the board, but nevertheless they made the most of the incident, affecting to believe that Young had been harshly treated.  The issue, they intimated, was one of the classes against the masses.  The Chronicle, the penny evening paper which found it profitable business to stand for the under-dog and “the masses,” scareheaded a jaundiced account of the affair, built up around an impassioned statement from Professor Young.  The same issue carried an editorial entitled, “The Kid Glove College.”  West laughed at the editorial, but he was a sensitive man to criticism and the sarcastic gibes wounded him.  When the attorneys for the college advised a settlement out of court by paying the obstreperous Young three hundred dollars in cash, James Winter was outspoken in his remarks.  A resolution restraining the president from making any changes in the faculty, without the previous consent and approval of the board, was defeated, after warm discussion, by the margin of seven votes to five.

“By the Lord, gentlemen,” said Mr. Fyne, indignantly, “if you cannot put any confidence in the discretion of your president, you’d better get one whose discretion you can put confidence in.”

“That’s just what I say,” rejoined James E. Winter, with instant significance.

Other changes in his faculty West decided to defer till the beginning of a new year.  All his surplus energy should be concentrated, he decided, on raising an endowment fund which should put the college on a sound financial basis before that time came.  But here again he collided with the thick wall of trustee bigotry.