General Armstrong was anxious to try the experiment systematically on a large scale.

He secured from the reservations in the Western states over one hundred wild and for the most part perfectly ignorant Indians, the greater proportion of whom were young men.

The special work which the General desired me to do was to be a sort of "house father" to the Indian young men--that is, I was to live in the building with them and have the charge of their discipline, clothing, rooms, and so on.

This was a very tempting offer, but I had become so much absorbed in my work in West Virginia that I dreaded to give it up.

However, I tore myself away from it.