West decided to move in both
directions.
There was one man on the staff that West objected to from the first
faculty meeting. This was a man named Harkly Young, a youngish,
tobacco-chewing fellow of lowly origin and unlessoned manners, who was
"assistant professor" of mathematics at a salary of one thousand dollars
a year. Professor Young's bearing and address did anything but meet the
president's idea of scholarliness; and West had no difficulty in
convincing himself of 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.
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