Page:A General Biography of Bengal Celebrities Vol 1.djvu/132

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HIS PUBLIC CAREER AS A SCHOOL-MASTER. 123 1876, tho Venerable veteran educationist who is always ready to lend his helping hand to struggling merit, offered him an appointment as a Professor in the new- ly affiliated college classes attached to the Metropolitan Institution on a salary of Rs. 200 a month. The ap- pointment in question was bestowed on him by the lear- ned Pundit partly from the consideration of friendship which existed between him and Babu Surendra Nath's father, and partly from a desire to help a young man, so hopelessly ruined. Babu Surendra Nath had am- ple leisure while thus engaged, so that when the City School was established he joined that Institution with the full concurrence of Punoit Vidyasagar^ In 1881 he left the Metropolitan Institution and joined the Free Church College. In this way he worked on still retain- ing however his appointment in the City College, to the great satisfaction of the boys and his employers till the year 1882 when he thought of establishing a school of his own. And the time proved most opportune to him. .The entire school-going population was so much ena- moured by his eloquence as an orator, by his sympathy with them and above all by his marvellous success as a teacher in the several Colleges of Calcutta that they be- gan to worship him as a demi-god, and felt an unbound- ed admiration for him. Previous to his time, no other Native teacher exhibited such marvellous qualities of sustained effort, great energy, fluency in writing and speaking as he did, and his popularity increased among the boys and their guardains, day by day, as he appeared in all his strength and power before the public both on the public platform and the professorial chair. Taking advantage of this golden opportunity, Babu Surendra Nath took charge of an insignificant school in Bow Bazar, from January 1882 with little more than 100 boys on its roll • , By dint of perseverance, ne^er-faifmg assiduity, great power of organization and by ^e, utmost exercise of economy and care, the little Infitifutrotiof Bow Bazar *