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Rob Wick · 03-16-2023, 06:22 PM

No Googling, please.

Where in May of 1899 was Sandburg offered a position at?

Best
Rob

RJNorton · 03-17-2023, 03:47 AM

A newspaper in Illinois?

Rob Wick · 03-17-2023, 06:03 AM

Sorry Roger, but that isn't it. This is a specific place.

Best
Rob

Rob Wick · 03-18-2023, 06:22 AM

Clue #1.

It only took two weeks for him to be asked to leave.

Best
Rob

Gene C · 03-18-2023, 07:37 AM

I've listened to a youtube video of him singing, so I'll guess a singing engagement.

RJNorton · 03-18-2023, 07:39 AM

McCormick Harvesting Machine Company?

Rob Wick · 03-18-2023, 09:23 AM

Sorry gentleman, but neither answer is correct.

I'll provide a bonus clue. Between nine and 11 percent of people are not able to get in.

Best
Rob

Gene C · 03-18-2023, 11:20 AM

I'll guess an institution of higher learning

Steve · 03-18-2023, 12:38 PM

I'll second Gene's guess.

Rob Wick · 03-18-2023, 04:47 PM

But which institution?

Best
Rob

RJNorton · 03-19-2023, 03:48 AM

Knox College?

Rob Wick · 03-19-2023, 08:27 AM

Sorry Roger, but that isn't it.

Next clue. This place is located on a river in the east and getting in requires knowing some pretty important people.

Best
Rob

RJNorton · 03-19-2023, 08:29 AM

Must be West Point!

Rob Wick · 03-19-2023, 09:59 AM

You nailed it Roger! It is West Point. I came across this in an article in the September 1, 1970 edition of the Frederick News in Frederick, Md. The story was actually about when Sandburg met Edgar Lee Masters. According to the article,

In May, 1899, Congressman George Washington Prince notified
the captain of Company C of the Sixth Illinois Infantry, which had
been mustered out, that he could appoint one of the members of the
company to the United States Military Academy. The officers
offered the appointment to Carl Sandburg, and on the 12th of May he
got a letter from tne War Department notifying him that he had been
appointed "conditionally."
Sandburg went up to West Point in June and took the entrance
examination there. If he had passed the examination, he would have
been in the same class with Douglas MacArthur, who had taken the
entrance examination in the City Hall in Milwaukee, and enrolled at
WestPoint "unconditionally" on June 13,1899.
But Sandburg flunked arithmetic and grammar and so remained
at West Point only two weeks.

This is the first I've heard of this, although it has been a few years since I read Penelope Nivens' biography.

Roger, as a special Sandburg Stumper prize, you are hereby awarded an opportunity to take the entrance exam to get into the Cubs' organization. Good luck!

Best
Rob

RJNorton · 03-19-2023, 11:02 AM

(03-19-2023 09:59 AM)Rob Wick Wrote: Roger, as a special Sandburg Stumper prize, you are hereby awarded an opportunity to take the entrance exam to get into the Cubs' organization. Good luck!

My lifelong dream come true! (if I pass of course)