in Kentland; his mother was a homemaker. George enjoyed reading from an early age, but he disliked manual labor and was not interested in becoming a farmer. Although he graduated from Kentland High School in 1881, his mother did not think he was ready for college. As a result, Ade remained in high school for another year before enrolling at Purdue University in 1883 on scholarship. Ade studied science at Purdue, but his grades began to falter after his first year when he became more active in the college's social life. Ade also developed an interest in the theater and became a regular at the Grand Opera House in Lafayette, Indiana. In addition, he joined the Sigma Chi fraternity. Ade also met and began a lifelong friendship with cartoonist and Sigma Chi fraternity brother John T. McCutcheon. Ade graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue in 1887. He briefly thought about becoming a lawyer, but abandoned the idea to pursue a career in journalism. Career Newspaper reporter Ade did not begin his writing career in college. In 1887, after graduating from Purdue University, he worked in Lafayette, Indiana, as a reporter and telegraph editor for the Lafayette Morning News and then the Lafayette Call. After the newspaper discontinued publication, Ade earned a meager paycheck writing testimonials for a patent-medicine company. By 1890 he had moved to Chicago, Illinois, and resumed his career as a newspaper reporter, joining John T. McCutcheon, his college friend and Sigma Chi fraternity brother, at the Chicago Daily News (which later became the Chicago Morning News and the Chicago Record), where McCutcheon worked as an illustrator. Ade's first assignment was writing a daily weather story for the Morning News. He also covered some major news events, including the explosion of the steamer Tioga on the Chicago River; the heavyweight championship boxing match between John L. Sullivan and James J. Corbett in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1892; and the World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago World's Fair) in 1893. Syndicated columnist While working for the Chicago Record, Ade developed his talent for turning local human-interest stories into humorous satire, which became his trademark. Beginning in 1893, Ade was put in charge of the daily column, "Stories of the Streets and of the Town," which frequently included McCutcheon's illustrations. Through Ade's use of street language and slang, the column described daily life in Chicago and introduced some of