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A few days later he wrote about his experiences in a letter home. Often, Willie missed his family. He decorated his stark room at the boarding house with their pictures. The largest one centred over the mantelpiece was a photograph of his father looking noble in his legal robes. Willie was proud that his father, a former student of the university and now serving on its senate, was highly regarded by young and old alike. In fact, Willie introduced himself to some of his classmates as the son of “Senator Rex” of Berlin. The nickname stuck, and Willie became known as Rex to his closest friends.
Like any eighteen-year-old living in a big city and away from his parents for the first time, Rex had a lot of fun sampling the social aspects of university life. He was always in a laughing group of students, at dances, the theatre, sports matches, and Glee Club events. Willie enjoyed the company of his friends and especially his female acquaintances. In King’s circle it seemed there was always a beautiful young lady whom he admired. For a while, the lovely Mab Moss received his attentions, but he never let himself become distracted for too long.
To enter into his life’s mission King wanted to have his body, mind, and soul at their best. To keep his body in shape he worked out at the gym and continued to play sports such as cricket and football. To strengthen his soul he prayed every day, attended church, and devoted his spare time to good works, such as visiting sick children in the hospital. To sharpen his mind he joined the debating club, spoke at political clubs, and studied, studied, studied.
King had entered a relatively new area of study at the University of Toronto – political science. He worked hard to get good marks – even put notes on his bedpost so he could revise while dressing! In 1893 he was quite pleased when his hard work paid off when he was awarded the Blake Scholarship. He was also proud when he was voted president of his class. His family wrote to congratulate him. Bella teased: “You seem such a young boy to make President but I hope in every way the position you have attained will bring much pleasure to all about you & that you will act in a way becoming the grandson of the late William Lyon Mackenzie. Is not that a speech?”
Being smart and having friends wasn’t enough for King. He was always pushing himself to do more. In 1893 he began to write about his struggle for betterment in his private diary, a journal that he would keep until a few days before he died. In his diary he would chart his dreams, detail his daily activities, bemoan his shortcomings, and crow his victories. On September 6, 1893 he earnestly penned the first entry:
This diary is to contain a very brief sketch of the events, actions, feelings and thoughts of my daily life. It must above all be a true and faithful account. The chief object of my keeping this diary is that I may be ashamed to let even one day have nothing worthy of its showing, and it is hoped that through its pages the reader may be able to trace how the author sought to improve his time.
In his ascension to goodness and greatness, Willie drew inspiration from those around him. He brushed elbows with the noted intellectual Goldwin Smith. When the Kings left Woodside they moved to Toronto, and rented a house from the Smiths. John King, now a lecturer at Osgoode Hall, was a friend of the famous man. Smith’s thoughts on economics and the unfulfilled potential of Canada as an independent nation fuelled many spirited conversations. Now the family was happily gathered together again – in the library of the house on Grange Road – to discuss matters of the changing world.
Willie also talked to his family about the biographies of the famous reformers he had read. He was particularly inspired when he read Arnold Toynbee. Toynbee was a British economist and humanitarian who had worked himself to death in 1883 at age thirty-one from his efforts to help the poor. King read how Toynbee Hall had been opened in an immigrant section of London as a haven for the poor and a centre of education. There the well-off and educated could live and work with their less fortunate brothers and sisters. After reading Toynbee’s essays on the working class in the Industrial Revolution, King “was simply enraptured by his writings…” He confessed to his diary “I have at last found a model for my future work in life.” He also attended talks at a conference on Education and Religion given by another person who had been inspired by Toynbee. The famous American settlement worker, Miss Jane Addams, had been spurred to action by Toynbee’s example. Willie was thinking that social work combined with the ministry might be a fine way to make a difference in the world.
Willie was aware that politicians were also people who had the power to perform good works. He greatly admired the famous Liberal Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, who had just served his fourth term as prime minister of Britain. The young student knew that one of the earliest good works the politician had performed was to rescue girls who had “fallen” into prostitution.
Above all these examples of thinking and acting people was Grandfather. With his eyes opened wide, Willie read a biography of Mackenzie written by Uncle Charles Lindsey. He was especially stirred by Mackenzie’s love of the poor, “the humble and the lowly.” He felt his grandfather’s blood “coursing through my veins,” and his heart beat more quickly with resolve to make his mark by helping others.
Sick Children’s Hospital, Toronto
January 6, 1894
King watched the little girl on the bed struggle with death. Her breathing was so shallow that it could not be heard over the gentle swish, swish of the nurses’ long starched skirts as they came and went.
“Katie,” he said softly. Her eyes fluttered open. “Shall I say a prayer? Shall we pray that your family will draw nearer our Lord as you have?” he asked her. “Then they will have a beautiful home in the hereafter,” he continued, “just like the one that waits for you.”
Katie smiled, but she could no longer speak. King began to pray out loud. In his mind, he also prayed that soon Katie’s earthly suffering would end and her eternal reward begin.
Almost every Sunday since he had arrived in Toronto, King had conducted religious services and read Sunbeam stories to the children at the Sick Children’s Hospital. He loved his time with the eager children and the dear nurses, whom he also sought to guide towards eternal life through letters and talks.
When Katie Cameron’s bright little spark went out, King thought about what she had told him about the terrible life she had lived. She had confidentially confessed some of the things that she and her sister had done to survive. King knew it was time to do more, to take his work beyond the hospital walls. Shortly after the last hymns were sung at little Katie’s funeral, Willie called on her parents. Next he went to see her sister and spoke to her about stopping “her wicked life” and turning to Christ. Nina cried a little and seemed ready to repent. Encouraged, King went back to visit her another time at Mrs. Sherman’s boarding house, but instead learned she was at a different house on King Street. When he arrived he found “a young fellow there, a perfect scoundrel, I believe, who has wished to marry her, but she refused him and decided to come with me to Mrs. Sherman’s.” Once there they had a long, quiet talk, “a little hymn and a little prayer.”
Over the next while King devoted a lot of energy to helping Nina. In his diary, he never really says what she was doing, but despite her good intentions, it seems change wasn’t possible. A few months later Nina was arrested and imprisoned for theft. Shortly after, young King, like his hero Gladstone, tried to help a prostitute, but his efforts weren’t as persistent after he had met failure with Nina.
His time prior to graduation was very busy, filled with social work and political activities. King had become involved with a student strike to protest favouritism in hiring staff and the wrongful dismissal of a professor at the university. Before a large crowd of his classmates, Rex spoke excitedly
