The University RecordVolume VI JANUARY I92O Number 1THE PRESIDENT'S CHARGE TOGRADUATES1You have been given parchments reciting the action of the University of Chicago in bestowing on you the respective degreed to which youare entitled. In the Latin formulas you will find that you are grantedall the rights and privileges of those academic degrees. I now call yourattention to the converse of those rights and privileges — the obligationswhich you now incur. We hear much of rights but too little of the correlative obligations. Remember that every right, whether in accordancewith the law of the land or of those still more fundamental moral lawswhich are vital to all political and social structure, carries with it a dutywhich the individual owes society, quite as much as society owes respectof individual rights. With each new right and privilege, therefore, youat once come under the obligation of a new duty.By virtue of your degrees you are admitted to the great body of ourcitizens who have enjoyed the benefit of college life or of professionaltraining. In a certain sense, therefore, you belong to a body selectedfrom their fellows by special opportunities. Accordingly, while yourest under all the common obligations of citizenship, you also are underspecial obligations incumbent on all who have had such opportunities.I charge you always to remember what you owe to Alma Mater.This obligation is not discharged by cheers in a crowd of one's fellows,still less in later life by contributions from one's abundance. Loyaltyto Alma Mater implies obedience to its best teaching, devotion to truth,using one's powers always and everywhere so as to keep the name ofthe University stainless in the lives of its sons and of its daughters.1 First used at the One Hundred and Fourteenth Convocation in Leon MandelAssembly Hall, December 23, 1919.12 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDI charge you to remember that the safety of our free Republic dependsabove all on the sacredness of the home, and that every graduate ofour higher institutions of learning should jealously guard his own lifeso as to cherish this essence of our civilization especially against the loosethinking of idle .visionaries.I charge you to remember that as educated men and women youowe an especial duty to our country, not only if need be to give yourlives to it in time of battle, but to guard its fabric from destructionat the hands of those whose ignorance or fanaticism makes them enemieswithin the gates. The Constitution of our land must be defended fromall hostile action. Its changes should be permitted only under theorderly forms of law. Obedience to law is the first duty of a citizen ofa free state, and our alumni should always be an embattled host inallegiance to this duty.These three loyalties, loyalty to Alma Mater, loyalty to home, loyaltyto country, I charge you to heed as among those which you above allothers owe without stint.I ask no pledges save such as you give spontaneously in your ownhearts and consciences.Only, speaking for the University, I charge you as its sons anddaughters to be faithful always in the great loyalties of life.THE PRESIDENT'S CONVOCATIONSTATEMENT1i. ATTENDANCE .The attendance of students during the quarter just closing is thelargest in the history of the University. The largest heretofore wasthat of the Autumn Quarter of^ 19 16 just preceding the entry of theUnited States into the Great War. In that quarter there were 3,768 inthe quadrangles and 1,169 in the University College, being a total of4,937. The registration for the current Autumn Quarter shows a totalof 4,463 in the quadrangles and 1,219 in the University College, a totalof 5,682, being a gain of 745 as compared with 1916.This considerable increase in attendance the University shares withother institutions throughout the country; and of course it is to beexpected as resulting from the close of the war and the release of youngmen, especially from military duties* It has not been easy to provideadequate housing or adequate instruction, but at the same time thesesomewhat serious problems have been solved.2. NEW GIFTSThere have been several interesting gifts during the current quarter.Mr. Theodore W. Robinson, of Chicago, gives $500 for the use of theOriental Institute of the University, to be used in purchasing museummaterial.A rare collection of portraits of contemporary authors, artists, andscientists lithographed by William Rothenstein, of London, has beengiven to the University. It is important not only as a record of personalities but also as an exhibition of the art of lithography.From Dr. Frank Gunsaulus the .University Library received a veryrare book which in turn the University gave to Cardinal Mercier for thelibrary of the University of Louvain on the occasion of the Cardinal'svisit to the University, October 22, 1919. The University preferredto give to Louvain the most valuable of its rare books rather than tosend material which it did not need.*Read at the One Hundred and Fourteenth Convocation in Leon MandelAssembly Hall, December 23, 1919.34 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDMrs. Gustavus F. Swift, of Chicago, adds $8,000 to the previousendowment of the Gustavus F. Swift Fellowship, making the incomefrom that fellowship amount to $925. This fellowship is awardedfor the encouragement of research, and is given only to a student whohas already proved his capacity for investigation.Mr. Charles R. Crane renews his gift of $13,000 for instruction andlibrary materials in Russian language and institutions.A donor whose name is withheld gives $25,000 for the purchase ofmuseum material for the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.This will be used by Professor James H. Breasted, who is now in Egypton his way to Mesopotamia in prosecution of the work of the Institute.3. PENDING DEVELOPMENTS AND IMMEDIATE NEEQSOF THE UNIVERSITYThis subject is treated at length in the autumn number of theUniversity Record, which has just appeared from the press. Particularattention is invited to the topics discussed, as they bear on the immediateand pressing needs of the University. They will not be discussed furtherat this time.THE BOARD OF TRUSTEESBy J. SPENCER DICKERSON, SecretaryAPPOINTMENTSIn addition to reappointments the following appointments havebeen made by the Board of Trustees:Mfflif] ^hnn^"hijiW^tirttin1,,T]rr,nrfh Fellow in the Department ofJr-limSrh^ttj PfniffiirA f gg^™f^ in the Department of Chemistry.CMAui'tf'^'WtftM^, Instructor in the Department of Anatomy.JiiiiiiiMM KulTJFiUii,""lM0't»B!at^ in the Department of Physiology.Bernard Raymund, Associate in the Department of Physiology.MifflTjyr "Grim Ilttmiltuii, 'Teacher in the Department of English ofthe University High School.^^prtJ^vid'm in the Department of English of theUniversity High School. ¦..Ruth Turnbull, Associate in the Department of Physical Culture. 6~Mai'gdi'^t feiifrta, instructor in the Department of Physical Culture.Catherine Campbell, Associate in the Department of PhysicalCulture.H. M. Weeter, Associate in the Department of Hygiene and Bacteriology.YflTil iii^rlni'bnirrnr T nhrj Tnrhrr in Physics in the UniversityHigh School.Jfoi'iy Dr'VetH Dygfi1, Associate in the Department of Pharmacologyand Physiology. '&k^,$^nrmy^ntmftffft\nJ*» T ' frhilini 1LEAVES OF ABSENCELeaves of absence have been granted to:Professor James H. Breasted, Director of Haskell Oriental Museum,for one year from October i, 1919.Assistant Professor Daniel David Luckenbill, of the Department ofOriental Languages and Literatures, for the Winter, Spring, and SummerQuarters, 1920.56 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDPROMOTIONSThe following members of the faculties have received, by action ofthe Board of Trustees, a promotion in rank:Assistant Professor Fred Conrad Koch to an associate professorshipin the Department of Physiological Chemistry.Charles 0. Hardy, Lecturer in the School of Commerce and Administration, to an assistant professorship in the same school.Instructor James 0. McKinsey to an assistant professorship in theSchool of Commerce and Administration.Instructor Leverett S. Lyon to an assistant professorship in theSchool of Commerce and Administration.RESIGNATIONSThe Board of Trustees has accepted the resignations of the followingmembers of the faculties:A. E. Hennings, Teacher of Physics in the University High School.Harold O. Rugg, Associate Professor in the Department of Education.C. S. Duncan, Assistant Professor in the School of Commerce andAdministration.Frank H. Knight, Instructor in the Department of PoliticalEconomy.T. T. Crooks, Associate in the Department of Hygiene and Bacteriology.Emma A. Kohman, Instructor in the Department of Physiology.Kenneth B. Hunter, Teacher in the Department of English of theUniversity High School.FELLOWSHIPSMrs. G. F. Swift has contributed $8,ooo in bonds as additionalendowment of the Gustavus F. Swift Fellowship Fund in Chemistry.The fund now amounts to approximately $18,000. This fellowship,endowed by one of the most generous of the University's friends, "isfor the encouragement of research; and the qualifications of the gift are:(a) that the candidate must have proved his capacity for research;(b) that the appointee is to be freed from the requirement of Universityservice."The Fleischmann Company, of Peekskill, New York, has renewedits fellowship in the Department of Physiological Chemistry for twoyears from July i, 1919, under the same conditions as during the previoustwo years. The company provides $750 each year.THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 7The Gypsum Industries Association has provided two industrialfellowships in the Department of Botany with a stipend of $750 each,besides an appropriation for purchase of special material and apparatus.The fellowships are offered for the academic year, 1919-20. Thefellows are to investigate the value of gypsum and other sulphur compounds as fertilizers for various crops on various soils in the UnitedStates. This work will involve both plot cultures and pot cultures inthe greenhouse. It will also involve the analyses of many soils for manycrops.In the acceptance of these and similar industrial fellowships theunderstanding is that the University shall appoint the fellows and thatthe results of their investigations shall be made public.GIFTSMr. Roy D. Keehn, of Chicago, has given $200 for the support of agraduate fellowship in the Law School during the current academicyear.The Board of Trustees accepted, at its meeting held October 14,19x9, some 130 pieces of property — rugs, furniture, paintings, pottery,books, bric-a-brac, etc.- — bequeathed to the University under the will ofLa Verne Noyes for use in Ida Noyes Hall. There were also presentedby the executors of the will a portrait of Mr. Noyes by Louis Betts, andtwo bronzes. The portrait now hangs in Hutchinson Hall.The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company has placed at the disposal of Professor E. O. Jordan, Chairman of the Department of Hygieneand Bacteriology, the sum of $3,200 to be expended in study ofinfluenza and its complications. The Board of Trustees has added$2,000 to this amount to be used for a similar purpose in co-operationwith investigations being conducted in Boston, New York, andWashington.The University has received a pledge of $25,000 from a donor whosename is not announced, the fund to be used in purchasing materialsfor Haskell Oriental Museum. The University also has provided $5,000from its funds, and there are other resources amounting to $5,600,including a recent gift of $500 from Mr. T. W. Robinson, of Chicago.Professor J. H. Breasted, Director of the Museum, is in Egypt engagedin examination and study of the exceptionally large amount of suitableobjects which the war has permitted to accumulate. Already he hasmade a selection in Paris and in Cairo, some of which material hasbeen received in Chicago.8 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDALUMNI WAR MEMORIALThe committee to confer with a committee of the alumni on thequestion of a suitable memorial to be placed within the quadranglesof the University for alumni who gave their lives in the war with Germany and Austria-Hungary consists of Mr. Charles L. Hutchinson,President Judson, and Mr. Harold H. Swift. The alumni committee iscomposed of Messrs. Frank McNair, Leo Wormser, and Emery B.Jackson.NEW HALLS FOR WOMENThe Committee on Buildings and Grounds, under instruction fromthe Board of Trustees, has authorized Mr. C. A. Coolidge, architect ofIda Noyes Hall, Harper Library, and other University buildings, to prepare sketches for a group of women's halls eventually to be erected on thenorth portion of the block on which Ida Noyes Hall stands. Fundshave not yet been provided for these much-needed buildings.THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESSBy action of the Board of Trustees a plan for reorganization of thePress has been adopted. The operations of the Press are now conductedupon the following scheme of organization:The functions of the Press consists of:The publication and manufacture of books and journals, the printing of officialdocuments and other matter for the University, and of the retail sale of books andsupplies for the benefit of the University community.The general administration of the Press is in the hands of a committee of theBoard of Trustees known as the Committee on Press and Extension.The administration of the Press so far as details are concerned is in the handsof an Administrative Committee consisting of the President of the University, theBusiness Manager of the University, the Secretary of the Board of Trustees, theAuditor, the manager of each of the three departments of the Press, the GeneralEditor, the Chairman of the Committee on Press and Extension, and the Chairmanof the Subcommittee on the Bookstore.The Administrative Committee has a subcommittee on publications and printingconsisting of the Managers of the Publishing and Manufacturing Departments andthe General Editor.The Faculty Board heretofore known as the Board of the University Press willbe known hereafter as the Board of University Publications. This Board is authorized to recommend the publication of books and journals, and to make suggestionsas to typographical style and usage.THE LATE LA VERNE NOYESThe Board of Trustees at the meeting held October 14, 1919, adoptedthe following resolutions as an expression of appreciation of the notableTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 9gifts to the University made by Mr. La Verne Noyes, who died duringthe previous summer:Resolved, That on occasion of the death of La Verne Noyes, of this city, the Boardof Trustees of the University of Chicago desires to record its deep sense of the loss to theUniversity of so wise and generous a friend, and to the state of so good a citizen. Hislarge gifts to the University were planned by him with great care, with a clear visionof results to be expected, and with profound patriotic feeling. Mr. Noyes was thearchitect of his own fortunes and had in consequence a vivid sympathy with theambitions and efforts of young men and women. His loyalty to his country and hisconviction of the righteousness of its cause in the Great War made him eager to do somelasting thing for the perpetuation of national gratitude to those who ventured thesupreme sacrifice of life at the call of the Republic. The beautiful and effective structure for our women students, Ida Noyes Hall, is at the same time a memorial to thecherished companion of Mr. Noyes for many years, and an incomparable element ofhelp to the life of our young women for generations to come. The liberal provisionfor scholarships in the La Verne Noyes Foundation to be enjoyed by those who servedin the American Army or Navy in the late war, or their descendants, is a lasting expression of the devotion to his country of a good citizen. The name of La Verne Noyeswill be kept in memory in the University of Chicago.Resolved, That the foregoing expression of the sentiment of the Board of Trusteesbe inscribed in the minutes of its > proceedings.FORMS FOR GIFTS TO THE UNIVERSITYFollowing are the approved forms for use in bequests made to theUniversity:a) I give, devise, and bequeath to the University of Chicago. . . . ..........b) I give, devise, and bequeath to the University of Chicago, .Dollars,as an endowment fund, the" income only to be used for ;said endowment fund to be known as the \ c) I give, devise, and bequeath to the University of Chicago the sum of FourThousand Dollars for the establishment of a scholarship at the University of Chicagoto be known as the Scholarship.CHARLES HITCHCOCKBy THOMAS W. GOODSPEEDThe study of American genealogies is a fascinating pursuit. Thestudent is constantly discovering interesting and surprising things. Inthe University Record of October, 19 14, a sketch of Sidney A. Kentrelated how his ancestors settled about 1670 the wilderness of Sufiield,Connecticut. Charles Hitchcock was a prominent lawyer, as Mr.Kent was a prominent business man of Chicago. While Mr. Kent'sforefathers were subduing the Sufiield wilderness, the ancestors of Mr.Hitchcock were hewing out homes for themselves in the same wildernessnot more than five miles to the north, in the town of Springfield, Massachusetts, being allotted lands on the border of Sufiield. The tract,indeed, was so near being a part of Sufiield that it was expressly stipulated that care must be taken not to encroach on that town's domain.The ancestors were neighbors and no doubt acquaintances. Twohundred years later the two men descended from them were neighborsand acquaintances in a great city nearly a thousand miles away.The writer can recall the names of only a dozen men of his nativevillage on the Hudson River. One of these men was Dwight Hitchcock,a direct descendant of the Hitchcocks of Springfield, who in 1853 soldto my father the steam foundry of the village. He had wandered onlya little more than a hundred miles from the home of his fathers.The earliest ancestor of Charles Hitchcock in America was Luke,who became temporarily a citizen of New Haven about 1644, six yearsafter what was then the colony of New Haven was founded. Afterthe lapse of a hundred and fifty years, a descendant put on record thefollowing account of Luke Hitchcock:He had received a large tract of land lying in the eastern part of New England andcame out with a view of taking possession of the same. When he arrived he foundit inhabited by numerous hordes of natives determined to resist all encroachments ofthe English. In this situation he determined to abandon the enterprise, and settledin Wethersfield (Connecticut). He was peculiarly fortunate in cultivating the friendship of the Indians, who, in testimony of their attachment, gave him a deed to thetown of Farmington. This deed was a clear and valid title to the land, but was so littlethought of that it was destroyed by his wife, who used it to cover a pie in the oven.It is quite consistent with this account that when Luke Hitchcockfirst appeared in New England he seems to have been uncertain where10MRS. CHARLES HITCHCOCKCHARLES HITCHCOCK IIhe should settle. Matthias Hitchcock, who was probably his brother,was one of the founders of New Haven in 1638. When Luke followedhim five or six years later, he took the freeman's oath; but after a fewmonths' stay in New Haven departed for Wethersfield, thirty milesto the north. There he married into a leading family and made thetown his home. When he died in 1659 his estate was valued at $2,260,which shows him to have been a forehanded man. A year or two after hisdeath his widow migrated thirty miles farther north to Springfield, Massachusetts, twenty-five years after the Pynchons founded that settlement.The widow Hitchcock brought with her two sons, John and Luke.The Hitchcock family, therefore, though not numbered among thefounders, were very early settlers of Springfield. The boys growing tomanhood rose to prominence and may be justly regarded as amongthe fathers of the town. Both the Hitchcocks were among the mostsubstantial citizens, as were their sons after them.We are concerned with Luke, the younger of the two brothers.Taught the shoemaker's trade, a fundamental and profitable industryof that day, he later became the proprietor of the village hotel, no doubtknown in the speech of the time as Hitchcock's Tavern. He was acaptain in the militia and sheriff of the county which then included whatare now the counties of Hampshire, Hampden, Franklin, and Berkshire, about one-third of the area of the state. He was seven timesselectman of Springfield and nine times representative in the GeneralCourt of Massachusetts.His wife's family, counting from her grandfather, Henry Burt,one of the most prominent of the first settlers, numbers among itsdescendants the late ex-President Grover Cleveland, Silas Wright, oneof the governors of New York, Ethan Allen, of revolutionary fame,Ezra Stiles, former president of Yale College, and Oliver WendellHolmes, author of the Autocrat at the Breakfast Table.Among the sons of this second Luke was Ebenezer, born in 1694,who married Mary Sheldon, granddaughter of Colonel John Pynchoh,the great man of early Springfield, and a direct descendant of GilbertSheldon, archbishop of Canterbury. Their son, Gad Hitchcock, wasborn in Springfield, February 22, 1719, and was graduated from HarvardCollege in 1743. Oi/his mother's side Gad was descended from ColonelPynchon and George Willis, governor of Connecticut. He was one ofthe most picturesque and distinguished clergymen of the Massachusettsof the eighteenth century. He was ordained as pastor over the Congregational church in Hanson, Plymouth County, in 1748. The church12 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDinvited him to become its pastor at a salary of $500. He replied thathe would be glad to settle in Hanson, but would need a stipend of $2,000.His terms were immediately accepted and he continued as pastor of thechurch till 1803, a period of fifty-five years. He was an able and popular preacher, being often called upon to preach on important occasions.In 1774 he preached the annual election sermon in Boston. Anardent patriot, he spoke on the text, "When the righteous are inauthority the people rejoice; but when the wicked bear rule the peoplemourn." General Gage, the royal governor, was present, but thecourageous preacher did not hesitate to enter a strong protest againsttyranny and to make an earnest plea for liberty. Later in the sameyear Plymouth invited him to preach the anniversary sermon on Forefathers' Day. It is stated as an established fact that "the first newspaper printed in the Old Colony was at Plymouth in 1786." Dr.Hitchcock V sermon was preached twelve years before that date. Butseven days later, on December 29, 1774, Plymouth appointed a committee "to wait on the Revd. Gad Hitchcock with the thanks of thistown for his ingenious & Learned discourse delivered on 22nd Instant,being the Anniversary of the landing of our Fathers in this Place, andrequest a Copy for the Press." For what press, if not for that of Plymouth, and was there a newspaper printed in Plymouth as early as 1774 ?The Reverend Gad Hitchcock served as an occasional chaplain inthe patriot army and in 1780 was chosen a member of the conventionwhich framed the first constitution of Massachusetts, doing for thatstate the same honorable service which his great-grandson did forIllinois ninety years later.The only son of Dr. Gad Hitchcock, born in 1749 and graduatedfrom Harvard in 1768, bore his name, Gad, and was the Hanson physi-*cian for more years than the father was the Hanson pastor, living to hiseighty-seventh year, 1835. He was the father of twelve children. Oneof these was Charles, born September 4, 1794, who became a farmer inhis native town. He married Abigail L. Hall, a daughter of one of thefirst families of the adjacent town of Pembroke, on the border of whichthe farm was located.Their son, Charles Hitchcock, with whom this sketch is concerned,was born on his father's farm April 4, 1827. The town of Hanson is apart of Plymouth County and hardly more than ten miles northwest ofPlymouth Rock. It is a town of farms, Hanson and North and SouthHanson being insignificant hamlets with an aggregate population ofonly a few hundreds. It is a pleasant countryside of small grovesCHARGES HITCHCOCK 13and small farms, watercourses and lakelets, the soil fairly fertile, thesurface undulating, a quietly picturesque district. The Atlantic iseight or ten miles distant and Boston only twenty miles away. Itwas a pleasant region in which to be born and spend one's boyhood,almost within sight of the ocean, in the environs of a famous city, andsurrounded by points of great historic interest.The boy Charles bore a name highly honored in the communityand the family was in fairly comfortable circumstances. There werethree sons and two daughters, Charles being, the oldest of the five. He was,therefore, his father's principal assistant on the farm as he grew towardthe stature of a man. But he also availed himself of every advantagewhich the schools of Hanson and Pembroke could give him. So rapidwas his improvement in school and such was his reputation for scholarship that, while he was still a boy, he began to be in demand as a schoolteacher. The way to the academy and college was open before him.The demands of the farm on his time and the inadequacy of the neighboring schools had delayed his preparation, indeed, but only delayed it. Hehad reached the age of seventeen and was pushing forward his studiesas best he could when that great tragedy of a boy's life occurred— thedeath of his father. When he died in 1844, the father was only fiftyyears old. He left a family of young children, and Charles, the boy ofseventeen, became the mother's chief dependence and was recognizedas the head of the household. Fortunately he was thoughtful, maturefor his years^ self-reliant, a)nd resourceful. A very tender relation ofmutual responsibility and affection grew up between the mother andher oldest son. She began to live for him and he to live for her in theircommon responsibility for the family.The natural and easy way for the boy was to step into his father'splace in the management of the farm and thus provide for the commonsupport until the younger boys and girls should reach maturity. Butthere had been born in young Hitchcock an ambition for learning, thatextraordinary human development which the ordinary man cannotunderstand. This boy believed he could do more for his mother, forhis brothers and sisters, and for himself if he disciplined his mind intoan instrument of power than he could possibly do by working with hishands in the cultivation of a small farm. He was by nature a student.Already, as opportunity offered, he was teaching school, and he nowredoubled his efforts on the farm and in teaching. In the schools ofHanson and Pembroke and in private study he sought to hasten hispreparation for college. This^was, of course, necessarily delayed by the14 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDburdens resting on his young shoulders, but by dint of determinationand perseverance he succeeded in entering Phillipps-Andover Academyin the spring of 1846, when about nineteen years old. "One of his classmates has said of this period of his life: "He had at that time greatvigor of body and mind. In the academy he applied himself to allthe studies preparatory for college with indomitable industry, and itsoon became manifest to the teachers and to his fellow-students that hehad no superior there in ability to make solid acquisitions in learning.In something less than half the time prescribed by the academy forthe preparatory course of study, he became admirably fitted for college."His vacations were spent in teaching school or doing what was essential on the farm and arranging for the final disposition of that property.In 1847 he entered Dartmouth College. His grandfather, thephysician, and his great-grandfather, the Hanson pastor for so manyyears, were both graduates of Harvard. Why did he pass by thatfamous institution to take his college course in the wilds of New Hampshire and in the little village of Hanover, which in 1847, outside thefaculty and students, could not have had five hundred inhabitants?Was it because he lived almost in sight of Marshfield, the home ofDaniel Webster, who was the most distinguished graduate of Dartmouth, and whose fame, during the youth of Charles Hitchcock, filledthe land ? Marshfield was hardly five miles from Hanson. No doubtthe boy often saw the great man and knew him, as Webster was himself a farmer and cultivated exceedingly cordial terms of friendshipwith the farmers of that whole region. He was unaffectedly attachedto them and they were devoted to him. In his Life George TicknorCurtis says: "It was a common remark that, when Mr. Webster wasat home, a stranger might discover it anywhere within ten miles ofhis house in the looks of the inhabitants." It is natural to supposethat Webster, knowing that here was a promising candidate for college,encouraged young Hitchcock and commended Dartmouth to him.However this may be, the autumn of 1847 found him in that institution.The buildings of the college were then few in number. Many studentsfound it necessary to find rooms and board in the village. The boyand his mother had disposed of the farm, moved to Hanover, andopened a student boarding-house. It was really a large family. Themother made a home for boys who, for the time being, needed a mother'sthought and care. Daniel L. Shorey, young Hitchcock's roommateat Andover, became a member of the family and again shared his roomthroughout their college course.CHARLES HITCHCOCK 15It was the day of small colleges. Harvard had only 300 undergraduates, and there were 200 at Dartmouth. The village of Hanoveris about fifty miles north of the Massachusetts line and on the extremewestern border of New Hampshire. It stands on a plain west of theConnecticut, one hundred and eighty feet above that river. Thesurrounding country is diversified with hills and valleys, with mountainslooming above the nearer hills. In commending it as a location fora college, one writer says: "The uniform temperature of the climate,the pleasantness of the village, the healthfulness of the situation, thebeautiful and romantic scenery .... the many pleasant resorts, allcontribute to render it, in every essential, a seat of literature andscience The gradually rising Green Hills of Vermont, seen inthe distance, furnish a picture not soon forgotten." At the time whenCharles Hitchcock was a student the village was very small, and,practically, the college — with its faculty, students, employees, andthose who served them in one way or another — the college was thevillage. It was a college community in a sense true, probably, of noother community in our country. The life of the college was the lifeof the community. This still remains true. In The Story of Dartmouth College, published in 1914, Wilder D. Quint says: "Today thereis not a man, woman, or child in the village but is dependent in some wayupon the college for a livelihood. She is the summum bonum of Hanoverand without her the place would revert to nature. "-At Dartmouth young Hitchcock spent the four years from 1847to 1 85 1, from his twentieth to his twenty-fourth year. His class numbered forty-six. Among them, as has been said, was Daniel L. Shorey,who was Hitchcock's roommate and remained his close, lifelong friend.Mr. Shorey was himself no mean scholar, yet he says: "For seven oreight years following our meeting in Andover in the spring of 1846, wewere companions in study, being in the same classes in the academy,at college, and at the law school In college he immediatelytook and held the highest rank. He was the unquestioned leader ofhis class from the beginning. Nor did he devote himself to the requiredstudies of the college only. His reading and study covered a widefield beyond — in political economy, philosophy, history, and throughoutthe whole range of the English classics." The life of the students of thatday, before the era of athletics and other college activities of our time,centered, outside the classroom, very largely about the fraternity chapters.The two chums were Alpha Delts and both achieved membership forhigh scholarship in Phi Beta Kappa. But with his mother's largei6 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDfamily to care for the son must have had duties, outside his collegework, that kept him very busily employed.Before his graduation, probably before entering college, Mr. Hitchcock had chosen the law as his profession. Hanover being his homeat the time of his graduation in 185.1, he entered the law office of DanielBlaisdell, who was treasurer of Dartmouth College, where he spent ayear in preliminary law studies. At the end of that time an opportunity came to him to go to Washingtbn as a teacher of Greek andLatin in an academy. It was so good a chance to become acquaintedwith life in the national capital, and at the same time earn funds neededfor further study, that he accepted the proffer made to him and with hisfriend Shorey, who seems to have received a similar invitation, spentthe year 1852-53 in teaching in that city. He seems also to have donesome lecturing on scientific topics and gained some reputation as ateacher and scholar. Meantime he continued his law studies underthe guidance of the Honorable Joseph Bradley. Declining temptinginvitations to continue teaching, he entered the law school of Harvardin 1853. Having been pursuing the study of law for two years or moreunder the guidance of very competent lawyers, and being twenty-sixyears old, he found no difficulty in entering the Senior class and graduating at the end of one year, in 1854. He had kept up his law-officework at the same time, having a desk during the year with HarveyJewell, of Boston.Charles Hitchcock was now twenty-seven years of age. He hadfinished the preparatory work and was ready to enter on his career.He had come face to face with that question which many young menfind so difficult to answer, Where shall I do the work of my life ? Strangelyenough, he lost no time in coming to a decision. Doubtless he haddecided the question long before. During his youth the miracle ofChicago had happened. When he was a boy of seven the hamlet ofChicago had a population of about five hundred. Twenty years later,in 1854, it was a city of 66,000 people, in its extraordinary growththe wonder city of America. It was evident, moreover, that it hadonly just begun to grow. Ambitious young men of every state feltits attractive power. None felt it more strongly than Charles Hitchcock. He hardly waited for the ink to dry on his diploma before hewas on his way to Chicago. To get his bearings and become acquaintedwith the courts and laws of Illinois and with the city in which he wasto practice, he entered the law office of Williams and Woodbridge andwas admitted to the bar of the state on October 10, 1854, only a fewCHARLES HITCHCOCK 17weeks after leaving the Harvard Law School. Erastus L. Williamsbecame later "long and favorably known" as judge of the CircuitCourt of Cook County. John Woodbridge had a long and successfulcareer at the Chicago bar. Both became lasting friends and warmadmirers of Mr. Hitchcock. He was not a mere clerk in their office, buta lawyer who began at once, with the advantage of connection with asuccessful firm, to feel his way into practice. He remained with thisfirm two years, with much profit to himself in preparing him to enterwith good hope of success into practice on his own account.In 1856 Mr. Hitchcock had become acquainted with the life andpeople, the methods of business and of law practice in Chicago, anddeciding that the time had come to have an office of his own, he founda partner and established the firm of Hitchcock and Goodwin. Forsome reason unknown to the writer the partnership continued for oneyear only. Mr. Hitchcock then became the partner of the well-knownand successful Benjamin E. Gallup, the firm name being Gallup andHitchcock. Mr. Gallup was interested in real estate and real-estatelaw, and cases having to do with commercial law fell naturally andmore and more completely to Mr. Hitchcock. He ordinarily representedthe firm in court. The connection with Mr. Gallup continued withsuccess for nine years, till 1866. It was then dissolved. MeantimeMr. Hitchcock had formed an intimate friendship with Charles A.Dupee. The latter had been in 1856-58 principal of Chicago's firsthigh school, which had then been opened in the new high-school building on West Madison, east of Desplaines Street. He had later enteredon the practice of law. Both men were of unusual scholarly tastesand attainments. Both were able lawyers. The close friendshipthey had formed, which was an enduring one, naturally resulted in apartnership which continued to the end of Mr. Hitchcock's life. Thefirm was known as Hitchcock and Dupee, and was established in 1866.A young man named Evarts, who had been with Gallup and Hitchcock,came into the new office and in 1869 became a member of the firm,which then took the name of Hitchcock, Dupee, and Evarts. Mr.Evarts was interested in patent law and, being encouraged by Mr. Hitchcock to develop his talent for that line of practice, did this with sucha growing clientele that he soon found it was likely to become a successful business by itself. With the approval and encouragement of theolder partners, therefore, in 1872 or 1873 he withdrew from the firmand established a patent-law business which he followed for the rest ofhis life, more than forty years. Meantime another young man, Noblei8 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDB. Judah, came into the office and developed qualities which in 1875made him a member of the firm, which then became Hitchcock, Dupee,and Judah, and so continued to the end of Mr. Hitchcock's life.As Mr. Hitchcock was twenty-nine years old when he began hisindependent practice, he was more mature than most young lawyersjust starting in business for themselves. He had profited by his experience in four good offices, and had been studying law in offices and lawschool for five or six years. He had innate gifts for success at the bar.His rise, therefore, was unusually rapid and his success great. In thethird quarter of the last century Chicago had a very able bar. Manymembers of it were men of brilliant attainments and wide reputation.But not many years passed after Mr. Hitchcock entered their ranksbefore he reached a very high place among them. Judge Williams, inwhose office he spent his first two years in Chicago, said of him twenty-six years later: "For this more than a quarter of a century it can besaid .... Charles Hitchcock had no superior at the bar or upon thebench of this city." John M. Palmer, general, governer, senator, saidof him in the Bench and Bar of Illinois: "Mr. Hitchcock was, in somerespects, one of the ablest lawyers who ever practiced at our bar."Mr. Hitchcock had hardly begun to practice when he won the mostimportant suit of his career — the suit for the heart and hand of AnnieMcClure, who became Mrs. Hitchcock in i860. She was only twenty-one years old, but, though so young, was one of the "old settlers" ofChicago. The father of Mrs. Hitchcock, James McClure, was a nativeof the north of Ireland, of Scotch-Irish Presbyterian stock. He hadcome to this country to join an older brother, a Philadelphia architect,and, studying that profession, had assisted in building the Philadelphiacustomhouse. His health showing signs of failure, he was led byglowing accounts of the invigorating climate of northern Illinois to jointhe western stream of migration which was already flowing strong in 1837.Brothers had preceded him to Illinois and they chose for him a farm inLake County, forty miles north of Chicago and six miles west of whereWaukegan now stands, and plowed round it a deep furrow to markits boundaries. With his wife and three children Mr. McClure proceeded by boat to Albany, thence by the Erie Canal to Buffalo, andreached Chicago by way of the Great Lakes, fifteen years before thefirst railroad from the East had laid its tracks to that city. Hadthe young architect remained in Chicago he would not only have escapedthe toils, privations, and sufferings of Illinois pioneer life of that day,but would certainly have prospered in a profession in which the youngCHARLES HITCHCOCK 19city offered every opportunity for success. But the farm had beenbought and awaited him and he had learned farming in his youth, andhe went forth to a harder struggle with pioneer conditions than hadfaced the forefathers of Mr. Hitchcock two hundred years before inthe New England wilderness. Mrs. Hitchcock has written interestingreminiscences of that struggle. She tells how the effort to subdue andtame and make productive a wild Illinois prairie farm eighty years ago wasa battle where high spirit unsupported by vital strength contended with the rudeforces of nature on every hand. They could not get help in any task whatever..... There was the ploughing and sowing of the fields, the building of fences, thecutting and hauling of firewood, the care of cattle, and the long journeys to Chicagofor every pound of flour, or sugar, or other necessary of life, for the father, while themother not only made the bread but the yeast that raised it, not only made the soap butleached the ashes necessary for its successful manufacture. She made candles, curedhams, braided rugs, wove rag carpets, made and mended the clothing of her five children,knit their stockings, even made their little shoes out of the tops of their father's boots.. . . . There was the fickle climate, its fierce heats, its piercing winds, the deepsnows, often over the fence tops, the mud embargoes of the spring, the long journeys,over forty miles, for every comfort, from a paper of pins to a barrel of flour. Andthe loneliness of that mother on the hilltop when the father was away, the nightcoming on, the wolves howling on the edge of the wood, and often the Indians claiming the right to sleep by the kitchen fire as they journeyed home from their sales offurs in Chicago. It was on that lonely hilltop, one night late in April when a snowstorm had been howling for three days, that I first saw the light The demandson bodily endurance were too great for my father. His malady overcame him andafter months of illness he died at the end of six years of pioneer life. Not once hadhe reaped a good harvest for what he had sown.Mr. McClure was a rare man, high minded, capable, who wouldhave prospered in the growing young city. He was a student and hadbrought a select library into the settlement which became the circulating library of the scattered community of farmers. He was alsoa devout man and brought the first home missionary to Lake County,and when the meetinghouse was built on a corner of his farm, hisskilled hands made the pulpit. The missionary and his wife becameinmates of his family and so remained after his death.After two years Mrs. McClure sold the farm and moved with herchildren, now five in number, to Chicago. On the corner of Jacksonand Sherman streets she built two cottages, renting one and occupyingthe other. Here she remained from 1844 till the arrival of the Michigan Southern Railroad in 1852. Mrs. Hitchcock says: "From othersthey secured the right of way up to our homestead and there was noresisting them when, in seeking a site for their depot, they decided uponthe very spot where my mother had made a home for her little family20 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDon the corner of Jackson and Sherman streets." It would appear fromthis statement that the first Michigan Southern station was one blocknorth of its present location and that the early home of Mrs. Hitchcockwas on the site where the Board of Trade Building now stands."So," continue these reminiscences of early Chicago, "once morewe were pilgrims and moved, first onto La Salle Street north of Washington, where we lived a few years in a rented house, then buying on theWest Side, on the corner of Monroe and Des Plaines streets, wherewe were one block away from the first high school that came to Chicago."This was the attractive stone structure, where Mr. Dupee was principal,of which Chicago was very proud.The very first schoolhouse owned by the city was built in 1837 fortwo hundred dollars on the present site of the Tribune Building andcontinued in use till 1845, when, Dearborn School No. 1. having beenbuilt across Madison Street, it was sold for forty dollars, and, accordingto the school inspectors, "the purchaser had no occasion to congratulatehimself on account of his bargain." This was District School No. 1,and in these humble quarters Mrs. Hitchcock began her education, but,with the erection a year or so later of the seventy-five-hundred-dollarDearborn School just across the street, continued her studies in thatfine building. It was so large that many thought there would neverbe enough children in Chicago to fill it. But at the end of the first yearthe pupils numbered 543, and after two years it was overcrowded withan attendance approaching 900.To reach the school the children walked across the open prairie insight of their mother for most of the half-mile. They were eager intheir studies and in their play, as well as in work to help their motherin her difficult struggle. An older sister was soon teaching and the boyswere busy out of school hours in a printing office or selling papers.After the removal to the West Side, Annie was prepared to enter the newhigh school.It was just at this time, when he had been two years in Chicago,that Charles Hitchcock was opening his law office in the partnership ofHitchcock and Goodwin. By i860 he was one of the rising younglawyers of the city and married Miss Annie McClure, now grown towomanhood, though younger than Mr. Hitchcock by twelve years.They were married July 10, i860, by the well-known Dr= R. W. Patterson, pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, of which the bride wasa member. Mr. Hitchcock's family were Unitarian-Congregationalistsof the New England type. His wife's religious home, however, becameCHARLES HITCHCOCK 21his also. Their pastor said of him: "Throughout his married life heread the Scriptures and united his heart in prayer with the heart of hiswife." The marriage was an exceptionally happy one. The man whoknew him best, perhaps, Mr. Dupee, said: "Mr Hitchcock's homelife was a most happy one His wife, to whom he was most tenderly attached, shared in his' intellectual and social tastes."He seems to have made it his first concern, after his marriage, toprovide for himself and his wife a permanent home. He accordinglybought a large lot, nearly or quite a quarter of a block, on the corner ofGreenwood Avenue and Forty-eighth Street. Here in the early sixtieshe built a commodious and comfortable house, and in this pleasant homeMrs. Hitchcock still resides after more than fifty-five years. Not longafter the removal to the new house an incident occurred which reflectsgreat honor on Dr. Patterson. Though far removed from hischurch, Mr. and Mrs. Hitchcock continued to make it their religioushome. The pastor and his family paid them occasional visits, theample grounds furnishing the pastor's children opportunities for play.On one of these visits Dr. Patterson, after assuring Mrs. Hitchcock thathe valued most highly their constancy to the old church, said to herthat they had come to a new community to which they owed duties andthat perhaps she ought to transfer her membership and support to thestruggling church in her neighborhood. Thus encouraged by her pastorshe became a member of the Hyde Park Presbyterian Church morethan fifty years ago. Her husband became an attendant, a liberalsupporter, and a useful trustee. After his death his fellow-trusteestestified to "his wise counsel in all which concerned the welfare of ourchurch and his generous assistance in its periods of embarrassment anddepression," and added, "It is a grateful and pleasant remembrancethat one of Ms last acts was his liberal gift to relieve this society of itsburden of debt."The main work of Mr. Hitchcock's life was that of a lawyer. Hehad few ambitions beyond his profession. But there was one periodof his life when his law practice was interrupted. The state of Illinoisprevious to 1870 had had two constitutions. The first was the oneenacted in August, 1818, under which the state was admitted into theUnion. Thirty years later the population had increased from less than50,000 to about 800,000, and, all the conditions of life having changed,a new, more elaborate, and much improved constitution, framed by theconvention of 1847, was adopted by the people by a vote of nearlyfour to one.22 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDBut the development of the state during the twenty-one yearsfollowing 1848 was even greater than it had been in the thirty precedingyears. The population had increased to 2,500,000. The state hadbecome a great manufacturing community, having risen between 1850and 1870 from the sixteenth to the sixth place in the value of manufactured products. But these years had been pre-eminently the railroad era. In 1848 no railroad had entered the state from the east andthere was hardly a mile of road in actual operation except the few milesof the Galena and Chicago Union running west from Chicago. But soastonishing was the change that had taken place before 1870 thatIllinois had come to have a greater railroad mileage than any otherstate in the Union. The whole fabric of business was new. Thisextraordinary development in population and in economic conditionsmade the constitution of 1848 an antiquated document in 1869, and anew convention was called to frame a revised constitution.In the important work of this convention Mr. Hitchcock recognizedan opportunity to do an exceptional service to the state, and, acceptinga nomination, was elected a member of the convention. The sessions,beginning in December, 1869, continued through five months, thustaking the members from their business for nearly half a year. Mrs.Hitchcock accompanied her husband to Springfield, and they madetheir home in that city till the convention adjourned in May, 1870.The sessions were held in the old state capitol. The early meetingswere most unpromising. Two rival factions not only nominated butelected temporary chairmen, a proceeding worthy of ten-year-old boys.The only thing that saved the situation was the good sense and goodnature of the rival chairmen, who agreed to preside alternately, whichthey did during the first day. Then three days were spent in anabsurd debate as to whether the members should take the oath of officein the form prescribed by the legislative act which provided for theholding of the convention, requiring them to support the constitution ofthe state. In the end the majority decided to t«ake the oath in a modifiedform, while the minority took it in the form prescribed by the legislature. The astonishing position taken by the majority was this, thatthey could not swear to support the constitution of the state withoutsome qualification, since they were to form a new constitution to takeits place.When on the fourth day the convention got down to business, therewere two candidates for president — Joseph Medill, editor of the Chicago Tribune, and Charles Hitchcock. The choice of the delegatesCHARLES HITCHCOCK 23fell on Mr. Hitchcock, who was elected by a vote of 45 to 40 for Mr.Medill. Years afterward Mr. Medill wrote: "I do not believe thatany state constitutional convention was ever more fortunate in thechoice of a presiding officer. He seemed to know intuitively where toplace any member that he might do the most good. His fine judicialtemperament enabled him to keep constant control of the body andmake everything move smoothly and successfully. The great successachieved by the convention is due to his skill and abilities as the presiding officer."There were many able men among the delegates and, under the capable presidency of Mr. Hitchcock, they Worked with fidelity, efficiency,and wisdom. The product of their protracted labors was widely acknowledged to be the best state constitution that had, up to that time, beendevised in the United States. When submitted to the people a fewweeks after its formation, it had a happier fate than that prepared bythe Constitutional Convention of 1862, which had been rejected by alarge majority. The new constitution of 1870 was adopted in July ofthat year by popular vote and went into effect in August. If the presenteffort to form a new constitution is successful, the old one will haveserved the state for half a century.The constitution revolutionized the policy of the state in regard tocorporations, with its sweeping provisions against special laws, bringing these things under the general laws of the state. Bills could nolonger be passed over the governor's veto by a majority vote, but onlyby a two-thirds vote of all the members in both houses of the legislature. Counties, cities, and other local governments were limited inthe amount of taxes they could levy and money they could borrow.The judicial system was reorganized. For the first time the right tovote and the duty of militia service were recognized as the same forwhite and colored men; and for the first time also it was made the dutyof the state to provide "a system of free schools whereby all the childrenof the state may receive a good common-school education."Mr. Hitchcock had been influential in working out the new judicial system providing for additional courts and judges. The electionof the new judges took place on the same day on which the constitutionitself was voted on and adopted. Mr. Hitchcock was nominated as oneof the new judges of the Supreme Court. It was, however, fatal tohis chances of election that Judge McAllister, well known for his goodrecord as judge of the Recorder's Court, ran against him. One of thenewspapers said: "Owing to the fact that the election was held in the24 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDsummer; that a light vote was cast; and that he himself was not aswidely known throughout the district as his competitor, the HonorableW. R. McAllister, he was defeated."It was universally recognized by the bar that Mr. Hitchcock waseminently qualified for a. seat in the Supreme Court. He had in a veryunusual degree the judicial temperament. He was by nature a judge.A great judge declared that he had "a judicial mind, that is, a mindcapable of an impartial survey of both sides of the question in contention and of arriving at a just conclusion." He was a great lawyer, buthe would have been a greater judge. His wide legal knowledge, hispenetrative intellect, his analytical mental processes, his sense of justice,his practical wisdom, all fitted him for distinction on the bench. Itwas a much greater misfortune for the state than for him that he didnot attain judicial honors. He had a large, increasing, and lucrativepractice which brought him a competency he would have sacrificed bygiving up the bar for the bench. Had his years been prolonged, it is quitecertain, however, that the bench would ultimately have claimed him.The great Chicago fire of 1871 again for a brief period brought Mr.Hitchcock into public life. It was felt that under the distressing circumstances of the times the wisest and most trustworthy citizens mustbe called on for service. Mr. Medill was made mayor on what wasknown as the "fireproof ticket." Mr. Hitchcock was elected to theCounty Board provided for by the' new constitution. He drew theshort term, one year, but was a most valuable and efficient member,"his great legal experience and practical wisdom coming into admirableservice at that time, when, owing to the fire and to the reorganizationof the county government, everything was chaos and confusion."It is said that after the fire the governor called him into consultation as to the best way of granting state aid to the afflicted city andacted on his advice with large advantage to Chicago. Some threemillion dollars (including interest) which Chicago had advanced fordeepening the channel of the Illinois and Michigan Canal was at thistime repaid to the city for rebuilding its burned bridges. William B.Ogden and others aided in bringing this about. A sketch of Mr. Hitchcock's life, referring to this period, makes the following extraordinarystatement: "His remarkably retentive memory enabled him to furnishinformation that was regarded as so reliable and authentic that it wasaccepted in lieu of many deeds destroyed and thus established titles."I have seen|this|statement made of only one or two other men of thattime.CHARLES HITCHCOCK 25Mr. Hitchcock was a busy lawyer, but his activities were not confined to these political services nor to his office. He was one of theincorporators of the Merchants Loan and Trust Company in 1857. Hewas a member of the first board of managers of the Chicago Law Institute, and three times in later years served on the board of the Institute.He was one of the founders in 1873-74 of the Chicago Bar Association,which was organized " to maintain the honor and dignity of the professionof law." Mr. Hitchcock was one of the forty-two lawyers who unitedin calling the meeting at which the Association was formed, and laterwas one of the six distinguished men who signed the articles of incorporation. The other five were Charles M. Sturges, James P. Root,C. B. Lawrence, Ira O. Wilkinson, and Robert T. Lincoln. He wasa prominent member of the Chicago Historical Society, as well as ofthe Chicago Library Association, an institution which flourished beforethe great fire. His literary tastes led him into active participation inthe Chicago Literary Club, and his social and business connections intomembership in the Chicago Club.Mr. Hitchcock was not a criminal lawyer. He confined his practiceto civil cases, and more and more to corporation and commercial law,in which, it was believed, he had no superiors in Chicago. It was saidthat "the practice which his firm had gained was an enormous one,probably the largest in Chicago" during the seventies of the last century.Among the clients of the firm were banks, insurance companies, greatmercantile houses, the Chicago City Railway Company, and the SouthPark Board. They conducted some of the most important suits following the creation of the park boards. Mr. Hitchcock was instrumentalin securing the legislation by which Michigan Avenue was made "aboulevard and drew up the act under which that improvement wasmade."It was inevitable that he should be called upon frequently to representclients in the Supreme Court of the state. He was once brought intoan embarrassing situation before that court. He had won a verdict ina lower court which was in plain contradiction to decisions of the highercourt in similar cases. The defeated parties naturally took ail appeal tothe Supreme Court and Mr. Hitchcock found himself compelled totry to persuade that august tribunal to reverse itself. It is hardlynecessary to say that he did not succeed.He had many important cases. I make room for a few only. Withina year after the adoption of the new constitution he carried throughthe courts a case which established the rule that a city tax collector26 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDcould not sell real estate for the non-payment of taxes, the constitution providing that the official authorized to do this must be"some general officer of the county having authority to receive stateand county taxes."In 1874 the Circuit Court of Cook County rendered a decisionagainst the Chicago City Railway Company forfeiting its right to runcars on Indiana Avenue — a judgment of "ouster." The case wascarried to the Supreme Court of the state, and Mr. Hitchcock, appearing for the railway company, succeeded in having the decision reversed,and the cars still run on Indiana Avenue.A little later he won another suit in the same court which securedthe construction of the street-car line on Clark Street, south fromRandolph, a most important part of the street-car system.Perhaps the greatest of his cases before the state Supreme Court wasthe following: The legislature had passed an act "to regulate publicwarehouses and the warehousing and inspection of grain." This wasa law, as the Supreme Court phrased it, "to protect producers andshippers of grain against frauds in warehouses." The owners of anelevator had brought suit in a lower court to have the law declaredunconstitutional and had won the case. It was taken to the stateSupreme Court and after a full presentation the judges, being unableto decide, ordered that it should be reargued. Mr. Hitchcock wasbrought in to assist the counsel for the people, and in 1873 the judgmentof the lower court was reversed, the law declared constitutional, and thefarmers and shippers of grain were permanently protected by an adequate inspection law. There can be no doubt that the inspection lawshave been as valuable to Chicago as to the farmers in making that citythe great grain-distributing center of the world.It was high praise that Judge Lawrence of the Supreme Court gaveto Mr. Hitchcock when he said: "I have known no member of ourprofession who has seemed to me more careful to conform his practiceto a high standard of professional ethics. .... He never sought tolead the court astray in a matter of fact or law. He would not endeavorto withhold frorn it a knowledge of any fact appearing in the record.He would not, as an advocate, express his personal belief in a legal proposition unless he could do so with entire conscientiousness. He wouldnot cite as an authority an overruled case without stating the fact thatit had been overruled His ambition in life was purely professional, and was formed upon the highest conception of what a greatlawyer ought to be. His ambition he achieved. He won the goal."CHARLES HITCHCOCK 27Chief Justice Craig said: "His briefs were models of perfection. Henever loaded down a case with lengthy printed arguments, but heselected a few strong points and in a clear, convincing manner broughtall of his authorities to bear upon them."Although Mr. Hitchcock was an unusually busy lawyer, he foundtime for much reading and even study outside the law. It was a closefriend who had known him ever since they entered college together whosaid of him: "Mr. Hitchcock possessed and constantly cultivated anardent love of literature and the languages Not infrequentlyhave I found, upon entering his office, .... that he was employedand deeply interested in the study of some language, like Latin orFrench, or work of literature which he enjoyed with the keenest relish,and he has told me more than once that whenever his accumulations.... had reached such a point as to yield him a satisfactory income,his design was to leave the practice of the law and devote himself ....to the study and pursuit of literature and the languages." He wasessentially a student. He loved scholarly pursuits. A lover of books,he accumulated a very valuable library of several thousand volumes.His real life was in his home, where he found his wife and his books.It must not be supposed, however, that he neglected his businessfor his books. Indeed, his love of literature found inexhaustible materialin his legal studies. There is a world of interest to be found in thestudy of legal cases. Mr. Hitchcock was a lawyer and a student,and much more. It was Judge Williams, whose office he first enteredin Chicago, who more than twenty-five years later said that he "wascapable of succeeding in almost any field of intellectual labor. Instatesmanship or in literature he could have attained like eminence."His practice grew as his years increased. The firm of Hitchcockand Dupee, later Hitchcock, Dupee, and Judah, prospered. In 1877a young man, Monroe L. Willard, came into the office and in 1882 or1883 became a member of the firm, which, after the death of the manwho had so long been its head, became Dupee, Judah, and Willard.Mr. Hitchcock was still a young man with an enlarging business,a growing reputation, increasing legal abilities, with all that thesethings promised of success and honor, when a latent difficulty with theheart which had long threatened him began to give him serious trouble.He labored on, however, with heroic courage as long as his physicianswould permit. It was said of him when approaching fifty years of age:"Personally he is tall, with a large portly figure, and is, altogether, a fine-looking, imposing gentleman. " His disease soon began to increase his28 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDweight and he became corpulent, and this became a cause of furtherphysical disability. In 1880 he went abroad with Mrs. Hitchcockin the hope of finding relief. This hope, however, proved vain,and he returned home and died May 7, 1881. In speaking at his funeralhis former pastor, Dr. D. S. Johnson, made the following impressivestatement: "I have been told there was an incentive for his strugglefor life; and what was it ? It was the cord of life that ran from his heartto the heart of his aged mother— that mother for whom even as a boyhe seemed to feel that he must care; that mother for whom through allthese years he had had the very tenderest affection. For her sake,lest it should break her heart if he should die, he resisted death — hestill determined to keep his place and do his work. But only a weekago this very day, the news came to him by telegram that the dear,devoted mother had passed away."Very unusual honors for a man in private life were paid to Mr.Hitchcock after his death. In addition to action taken by the BarAssociation, the Historical Society, and other organizations, his deathwas announced in highly appreciative addresses to the Supreme Courtof the state and five lower courts in Chicago. Out of respect for hismemory the Supreme Court adjourned. The general assembly of thestate paid him the same unusual honor. Perhaps the most touchingand illuminating tribute was the unconscious one of a little boy of theneighborhood. His mother found the child lying on his bed "weepingbitterly, and when she asked the cause of his grief, he said, T shallnever see Mr. Hitchcock again.' "Thus honored by the strong men of the city and the state andlamented by the children of his neighborhood, Charles Hitchcockpassed away at the age of fifty-four, at the meridian of his life and ofhis powers. His independent professional activity had been restrictedto twenty-five years. He might, not unreasonably, have looked forwardto another twenty-five years. Had this additional time been given,he would have accomplished more during the second quarter-centurythan he had during the first. His faculties would have developedgreater power. His fame would have increased. His professionaltriumphs would have multiplied. He would have gone far.Some months after his death Mrs. Hitchcock issued a memorialvolume which contained a brief sketch of her husband's life and variousappreciations of him in the addresses before the Bar Association andthe courts of Chicago and the state. These appreciations were utteredby men who had been familiar with him since his boyhood or throughoutCHARLES HITCHCOCK r. 2Qhis life in Chicago. They reveal the extraordinary confidence, esteem,and admiration he commanded. This is the more remarkable becausehe was not one of the "hail fellow, well met" sort of men. Chief JusticeJohn Marshall had a rollicking, good-humored camaraderie whichgave him instant entrance to the hearts of men. Mr. Hitchcockhad nothing of this about him on first acquaintance. He was quietand perhaps seemed to hold himself aloof. At his funeral Dr. Johnsonsaid: "Very many thought him reserved. It was not reserve, butrather a natural timidity .... which caused so many to mistake himfor a man of cold demeanor. Not so. We who knew him here (in hishome) knew there was nothing of coldness about him by nature. Herehe seemed to give himself just as he was to his friends."Indeed, he had a rare capacity for friendship. His partner, Mr.Dupee, said: "He greatly enjoyed the society of his circle of intimatefriends and was especially delighted to meet them around his own fireside. His wife, to whom he was most tenderly attached, shared in hisintellectual and social tastes. His hospitality at his own home wasopen handed and, to me, seemed something princely. He had a wayof presenting to his guests his house and everything it contained, andthis was done in so simple, unaffected, and unostentatious a manner asto charm everyone who came under his roof."It was said of him: "He had not those qualities which give to mena wide social popularity, but he retained entire to the hour of his deathall the friendships he had ever made." D. L. Shorey, who had beenhis close friend for nearly forty years, said: "I have had many enduringfriendships, but I have had no friend truer, nobler, more worthy ofremembrance."Mr. Hitchcock was a man of extraordinary self-command. Inscenes of excitement and turmoil he was undisturbed, imperturbable.This was one of the qualities that enabled him to preside so successfully-over the sessions of the Constitutional Convention. His friends spokeof his "great equanimity of temper, which enabled him to pass throughthe most heated trials of difficult cases with a calm and unruffled surface."This was one of the elements of his power.I cannot forbear quoting the following illuminating testimony, of hispartner, Mr. Dupee, to his character:Mr. Hitchcock was a most benevolent man. There was hardly a day in whichcalls upon his purse and sympathy were not made, and no worthy man or worthycause ever went away from him neglected. Hundreds of men in this city could pointto him as their benefactor and he gave a regular support to most of our public philanthropic institutions. His private life was pure and clean. No taint of dishonor or3° THE UNIVERSITY RECORDdishonesty ever touched him. His word was better than his bond Envy,uncharitableness, and such qualities were wholly foreign to his nature. ... I neverknew him to do a little act, or an unkind one.He was a large-minded, large-hearted, upright man.This sketch has indicated something of Mr. Hitchcock's ability asa lawyer. He had not, perhaps, the oratorical gifts of some of his contemporaries. He was not pre-eminent as a jury lawyer. It was saidof him in a sketch written before his death: "He has a clear voice, agraceful style, and an imposing presence, but he does not deal in emotionsat all He is logical, clear, and forceable, and will generally winthe juror who happens to be of an eminently logical temperament. Heargues supremely: but most jurors have feelings as well as reason thatmust be touched and these he never touches." One other qualificationof the highest praise must be made, and it is perhaps a commendation,rather. It was made by Mr. Dupee: "Mr. Hitchcock was not successful in the management of weak cases. He had little facility in makingthe worse appear the better reason. In order to labor successfully itwas necessary for him to thoroughly believe in his case, and then noman worked harder for his client." This, of course, means that he wasabove the use of base cunning, trickery, or any unworthy expedients tohelp him to win a weak or bad case. Every man, whether his case isgood or bad, has the right and ought to have the right to be representedby counsel. Mr. Hitchcock had cases that could not be successfullydefended by fair means, and he did the best he could for his clients. Butbad causes did not naturally seek him, as they do some lawyers, as theiradvocate.Among the members of the bench and bar he had a most enviablereputation. Judge Williams, before whom he conducted many casesin the Circuit Court, said of him: " Primus inter pares is no mean praiseat a bar, many of whose members have attained an enviable nationalreputation, but it was the position universally accorded" to Mr. Hitchcock.Melville W. Fuller, later chief justice of the Supreme Court of theUnited States, said: "Charles Hitchcock possessed a mind of singularprecision and power. It was in a marked degree a judicial mind, capableof an impartial view of both sides of a question and of arriving at a justconclusion. In his practice he was absolutely fair, never indulged inartifice or concealment, never dealt in indirect methods, but won hisvictories, which were many, and suffered his defeats, which were few, inthe open field face to face with his foe. "CHARLES HITCHCOCK 31It was high praise that was given him by a lawyer who had knownhim intimately since they entered college together: "He had the facultyof grasping the pivotal points of legal questions presented to him almostintuitively and thereafter brushing aside all those surrounding questionswhich cluster about a complicated case; and, therefore, perhaps noman at the bar was in the habit of devoting so little attention to accessorypoints arising on the trial of a cause and confining himself so closely tothe main issues at stake." In this respect he resembled Chief JusticeMarshall, of whom his biographer, A. J. Beveridge, says: "Marshall'sability to extract from the confusion of the most involved question itsvital elements and to state those elements in simple terms was helpful to the court and frankly appreciated by the judges."John Woodbridge, in whose office Mr. Hitchcock began his careerin Chicago, said of him: "He was a lawyer, a man of letters, a man ofaffairs. .... Men paid him an involuntary homage, such as is everyielded to dignity of character and grandeur of mind. His career at thebar was an uninterrupted success. He came here a stranger, but headvanced rapidly to fame and fortune. .... He had a numerous andwealthy clientage and was always concerned with great causes."That he was a man of affairs was shown in the business instinctwhich led him to make such an investment as the purchase of the northwest corner of Madison and La Salle streets, part of the ground on whichthe Hotel La Salle stands, as a permanent holding. He had the business instinct to foresee its certain and progressive increase in value.One of Mr. Hitchcock's outstanding characteristics was the deepinterest he took in young men, particularly in young lawyers. Therewere many testimonies to this effect by those whom he had advised,encouraged, and helped. This was recalled by one of his partners:"Especially did he find time to aid young men — young lawyers whocame to him for advice and assistance, as they very frequently did.He always aided them generously and freely, and they found in him areal friend. His thoughtful consideration for others was shown in histreatment of the young men in the office, the clerks, and the students.He suggested their courses of reading, both legal and miscellaneous.He was solicitous for their health, for their advancement, and thattheir labors should be of service to themselves as well as to him."Speaking before the Bar Association for "the younger members of ourprofession," F. O. Lyman told of his first meeting with Mr. Hitchcockwhen he arrived in Chicago, a stranger: "He asked me what qualifications I had, what studies I had pursued, what preparation I had made32 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDfor my life-work He earnestly impressed on me not to growdiscouraged with the days and years of waiting, drudgery, and toilwhich must be endured .... and to ever keep in mind the ideallawyer every student pictures to himself while reading Blackstone,Kent, and the lives of the great lawyers."The writer has been impressed by the estimate of him expressedby John H. Thompson at the Bar Association meeting: "As I recollecthim when he came here, he presented very manifestly the same strikingfeatures of character which he always afterward displayed— a mind ofremarkable clearness and quickness, and a mature, vigorous and soundjudgment He had an eminently judicial mind, and he wouldhave adorned any bench upon which he might have been placed. Butthe glory of the bench was not needed for him. His glory was ratherneeded for the bench."Judge Blodgett happily summed up his characteristics: "As alawyer he responded to the highest ideals of our noble profession. Asa citizen he was ever patriotic, public spirited, and wise. As a friendhe was true to the noblest impulses of our nature."Since the death of her husband Mrs. Hitchcock has continued tolive in the home to which they went soon after their marriage in i860.It is therefore one of the old homesteads of the city. It satisfies one'sidea of a homestead. It is not part of a brick block, nor is it closelyshut in by other houses. It is a pleasant and commodious frame house,standing far back from the street in the midst of grounds two hundredand fifty feet in length. When it was built it was in the suburb ofKenwood, far south of the city limits. Now the city limits are manymiles south of the Hitchcock homestead, so far south, indeed, as toleave it almost in the center of the town, measuring from north to south.It is one of the pleasantest parts of Chicago.With many gifts of mind and heart, Mrs. Hitchcock has alwaysbeen equally at home and equally welcome in the humblest and thehighest circles. She was one of the organizers of the Fortnightly Club,which has numbered among its members many of the f oremost womenof Chicago. She has long been a member of the Kenwood Club, andhas engaged in the multiplied activities of the Chicago Women's Club.She has taken a warm interest in Berea College, Kentucky.The establishment of the University of Chicago in 1889-92 earlyattracted her attention and awakened her interest. Mrs. Hitchcockhad all her husband's interest in the welfare of young men seeking apreparation for the work of life. Having no family of her own, sheCHARLES HITCHCOCK 33determined to satisfy this interest in fulfilling a purpose which hadgrown up in her mind to build a memorial of her husband which shouldembody his devotion to young men just entering into life. The newUniversity offered itself to her as a place where her purpose could bebest carried out.On December 12, 1899, President Harper informed the Trusteesthat Mrs. Hitchcock desired to build a memorial to her husband andwas prepared to give the University a considerable sum for this purpose.On the first of January, 1900, she proffered the University for thepurposes she had in mind $200,000. These purposes finally took thefollowing form: The sum of $25,000 is set aside for the endowment ofa traveling fellowship in Greek to be known as the Daniel L. ShoreyFellowship, in commemoration of the long friendship between herhusband and Mr. Shorey. The sum of $150,499 was used in the construction of a dormitory for young men students of the University, tobe known as the Charles Hitchcock Hall, and $25,000 was designatedas a sustentation fund, the income to be used for maintaining thememorial hall "in first-class condition and repair."The plans for the Charles Hitchcock Hall were prepared by Mr.Dwight H. Perkins, architect, after he had studied student dormitorybuildings in this and other countries. The corner stone was laid byMrs. Hitchcock herself on June 15, 1901, Professor Paul Shorey, headof the Department of Greek in the University, making the address. TheJune, 1 901, Convocation was a great celebration, marking the tenthanniversary of the founding of the University. The exercises continuedthrough five days. During this time the corner stones of six buildingswere laid; on June 15 those of the Press Building and the CharlesHitchcock Hall, and on June 18 those of Hutchinson Commons, theMitchell Tower, the Reynolds Clubhouse and Mandel Assembly Hall.The founder of the University, Mr. Rockefeller, was present, an interested participant in all these exercises.The Charles Hitchcock Hall was completed in September, 1902,and was occupied by students at the opening of the Autumn Quarter,October 1. It is the largest of the residence halls thus far provided,having not only rooms for ninety-three students, but, in addition, a club-room, infirmary, breakfast-room, and a large and beautiful library. It alsoprovides a room for the clergymen who preach every Sunday morningin Mandel Hall, this room being known as "the preachers' room." Ithas been furnished by Mrs. Hitchcock, some of the furniture havingbeen brought by her parents when they migrated to Illinois in 1847.34 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDAmong the attractive features of the building is the cloister runningalong the south front and uniting the five divisions of the hall.One of the most interesting things connected with the buildingand subsequent history of the hall is the deep and increasing interestmanifested in it by Mrs. Hitchcock. She gave much attention to themaking of the plans. The library was equipped by her with a large andvaluable collection of books and its walls were adorned by her withportraits and other works of art. Over the fireplace hangs the portraitof Mr. Hitchcock. Much of the furniture of this room, as well as thatof the University "preachers' room," was contributed by her. Aseries of architectural photographs adorn the walls of the cloister,an added illustration of Mrs. Hitchcock's interest, taste, and munificence. She takes a great interest in the students who occupy andalways fill the hall, and frequently meets them at afternoon teas inthe library. The thought, time, attention, and gifts she has lavishedon the hall and its students during the past seventeen years are evidenceof the large place it has had in her life and illustrate the overflowinggood will and bounty of her nature. She has made the memorial ofher husband not an erection of dead stone but a living monumenteloquent of human feeling and affection.In presenting the resolutions of the Chicago Bar Association on thedeath of Mr. Hitchcock before the Appellate Court, William C. Grantsaid: "It has been said that the life of a lawyer who devotes himselfstrictly to his profession and its practice leads to fewer permanentresults which the world retains after his death than almost any otherlearned profession." It is not so in the case of Charles Hitchcock.When Mrs. Hitchcock put the accumulations of his quarter of a centuryof business activity into Hitchcock Hall and the Greek Fellowship, shetransformed them into great intellectual and spiritual influences whichwill bless succeeding generations of young men, and through themthe world itself, as long as our civilization endures.¦frf*m \Mf ^^B-*^SILAS B. COBBSILAS BOWMAN COBBBy THOMAS W. GOODSPEEDSilas B. Cobb was one of the picturesque figures of Chicago fornearly seventy years. He arrived in what was so insignificant a hamletas to be hardly worthy to be called a settlement, among the earliestcomers and lived to see it grow into the inland metropolis of the nation,with a population of nearly two millions. He came without educationin either books or business, without a penny in his pocket, and withoutany apparent prospects, and within a few years became a leadingcapitalist and, ultimately, one of the wealthiest men in the city. Evendown to old age he was noticeable for the briskness of his walk, and itwas a point with him, well understood among his acquaintances, toallow no one to pass him on the street.Mr. Cobb was born in Montpelier, the capital of Vermont, January23, 1812, when that now thriving little city was a small village of littlemore than a thousand people. It was a wonderful boy's country, andno doubt this alert, vigorous, enterprising boy got his share of youthfulenjoyment out of it; but it must have been done by main strength, forhis was not a pampered youth. The father, Silas Cobb, was apparentlya not altogether unprosperous business man. In the records of Montpelier it is said that in 1806, six years before the birth of Silas B., thefather established "an extensive tannery." About 1820 Goss andCobb built a paper-mill which they "carried on a long time." It wasburned in 1828 with a loss of $4,000, but was rebuilt by the two partnersand later sold. These activities would seem to place the elder Cobbamong the leading business men of the village, but they did not resultin privileges for his children. There was a large family of these, andSilas B. was the youngest. The family was augmented still furtherwhen the father married a second wife with children of her own. Itmay well be that all these children kept the family poor. What iscertain is that young Silas had next to no educational advantages andearly in life was bound out as an apprentice to a shoemaker. Heseems to have wished to learn a trade, but not that of making bootsand shoes. He was of too active a temperament to sit on a shoemaker's bench all day, and soon found a way to break away from this3536 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDsedentary occupation and returned home. He was not welcomed thereand his father again apprenticed him, against his will, to a mason. Heprobably concluded that there was slight prospect of success for a masonin the Vermont of that day and, in some way, released himself from hisapprenticeship and again returned home. It is to be inferred that hisfather now washed his hands of his youngest son and gave him to understand that he was at liberty to carve out his fortunes in his own way.Thus encouraged to choose for himself, he apprenticed himself to aharness-maker and entered with interest on the learning of that trade.He was now seventeen years old and worked faithfully and with dailyincreasing facility in an employment which he liked. At the end of ayear, however, his master sold out his business, and with it the servicesof his apprentice. The purchaser claimed the apprentice as a part ofthe transaction. It was then that young Cobb showed the independenceand acumen that go far to explain his later success. He was a mereboy, but he said at once to the new owner: "In this case the niggerdon't go with the plantation," and insisted that if he continued withhim it must be for the payment of satisfactory wages. ' It is evidentthat he had so far mastered the trade that his services were valuable,for he carried his point and continued in the same shop as a paid apprentice. Filling out the period of his apprenticeship and becoming masterof his trade and of himself, he continued to work as a journeymanharness-maker in Montpelier, South Hardwick, and other places.Wages must have been very small. Mr. Cobb was not a money spender,yet when he reached the age of twenty-one his accumulations reachedthe sum of only sixty dollars.His father and Oliver Goss had sold their paper-mill and Mr. Gosshad been west and invested in lands, and, returning to Montpelier, hadawakened such an interest in that new world just opening to settlementthat a company of adventurers was preparing to accompany him in amigration to the prairies of Illinois. It was, perhaps, in this very year,1833, that the movement from the middle and eastern states to thenew west began to assume real magnitude. What caused this movement is an interesting question. Perhaps the greatest cause of all wasthe powerful appeal of the boundless, fertile fields of a new world tothe imagination of the adventurous. It was their country, unoccupied,inviting settlement, and with unknown possibilities of material success.Indiana and Illinois had recently been admitted to the Union. Thenorthern sections were without white inhabitants and invited pioneersettlers. The Black Hawk War had, in 1832, opened the northern halfSILAS BOWMAN COBB 37of Illinois to safe and unrestricted settlement. Vague rumors about ahamlet called Chicago, which had a promise of possible future development, appealed with increasing power to adventurous young men.When, therefore, his father's old partner returned from his exploringexpedition in Illinois with glowing accounts of the country and of thenew settlement near the foot of Lake Michigan and began to gather acompany to make their homes on the lands he had selected forty milessouthwest of Chicago, young Cobb caught fire and determined to makehis way to this new world. But it was not the fertile prairies thatattracted him. He was not a farmer, but a harness-maker, and hiseye was fixed on the village by the lake, where he believed there mightbe a promising opening for a man of his calling. He learned that Chicagowas on the main line of travel by which immigrants entered the newstate, that it was the place where they refitted for their farther progress,and was already a center of trade for the surrounding country. Itought to be a good place for a man who was master of an industry soessential to such a town and country as harness-making. To Chicago,therefore, he determined to go. His father strongly opposed his purpose;but he was now of age, his own master, making his own way, and hewould not be dissuaded from carrying out his new plan. His fatherrefused to assist him, and sixty dollars was the total amount of hissavings. There was no time to earn more, as Mr. Goss and his companywere ready to start. With the recklessness of youth he decided toenter on this "hazard of new fortunes" and undertake to make his waythrough the thousand miles of travel and all the difficulties of startinglife in a strange place with this pitifully inadequate capital.The company must have started early in April. They made theirway first to Albany. Apparently they were traveling by wagon, beingfarmers who would need horses and wagons in their new home. AtAlbany young Cobb left them and went by boat on the Erie Canal toBuffalo. On the way some thief stole part of his money, and when heapplied for passage to Chicago on a lake boat he had only seven dollarsin his pocket. He made known his circumstances to the captain ofthe schooner "Atlanta," who finally agreed to take him to Chicago as adeck passenger if he would board himself and, after purchasing necessaryfood, turn over for his passage all the money he had left. Thereuponhe bought a small ham, six loaves of bread, and secured a bedtickwhich he filled with shavings and, thus provided for the voyage, turnedover every penny he had left, being four dollars, to the captain. It isprobable that he also engaged to make himself useful about the ship3* THE UNIVERSITY RECORDwhen the captain needed such help as he could give. The voyageought to have taken about three weeks; but stormy weather came onand the ship was delayed. The voyage was prolonged to five weeks.How young Cobb survived the cold and storms in his bed on deckduring the last week in April and the whole of May, it is hard to understand. He could hardly have been rigidly restricted to the open upperdeck. It is quite impossible to understand how one small ham andsix loaves of bread, intended to last three weeks, could have kept ayoung fellow of twenty-one, with a healthy appetite, alive for thirty-five days. Perhaps the explanation may be found in the fact that theship encountered such a succession of storms that the Green Mountainlandsman did not crave food. Or, there may have been more than one— we know there was one — good Samaritan on the "Atlanta."The ship reached Chicago on the twenty-ninth of May. There was noharbor, and a sand bar across its mouth prevented ships from enteringthe Chicago River. The "Atlanta" therefore came to anchor, perhapshalf a mile offshore, and the passengers and their baggage were takenashore in canoes and lighters. One can imagine the dismay of youngCobb when told by the captain that he would not be allowed to landtill he had paid three dollars more for his passage. He had alreadygiven the captain his last cent, and one cannot help but wonder whyhe was detained. He probably could have reached shore at night byswimming. But he had in his baggage a valuable kit of tools whichnow formed his entire capital, the only means by which he could makehis way in this wilderness country. This precious possession he couldnot leave. He had doubtless told the captain that he had the toolsof his trade with him. They could readily be exchanged for money.Perhaps the captain coveted them and offered to set the boy ashore ifhe would leave his tools. But this he could not do. He was held aprisoner for three days, with the promised land in sight and no way toreach it in possession of his few but invaluable goods.As he looked toward the shore during those long days, what did hesee ? Just two years later the Gale family, from their ship anchoredin about the same place, saw this: "Within sight of those on the vesselwere countless numbers of Indian wigwams and their dusky occupants,while dark-skinned braves were paddling in the lake. Along the shorewas to be seen a succession of low sand hills, partly covered with ascrubby growth of cedars, junipers, and pines About oppositewhere the brig lay, not far from the north bank of the river," was the oldKinzie house, a small one-story building. "Near the south bank ofSILAS BOWMAN COBB 39the river, but a few hundred feet from the lake, stood Fort Dearborn,consisting of some half-dozen barracks, officers' quarters, and otherbuildings, with a blockhouse in the southwest angle, all constructed ofwood and surrounded by high, pointed pickets placed closely together,which, with the buildings, were well whitewashed. Adjoining the fort,near its northwest corner, was a small, circular, stone lighthouse. Aroundthese clustered a few cabins." Such was the far from inviting or promising view of Chicago which the prisoner saw from the deck of his prisonship. On the third day his good Samaritan appeared. A fellow-passenger seems to have revisited the ship for some purpose, and, seeing him still on board and finding out what the trouble was, loaned thenecessary three dollars and saw him and his baggage safely ashore.The bed of shavings was taken along. Nothing could more convincinglyprove the poverty of the owner, his economy, his habit of saving, andhis purpose to get on, than the fact that this continued to be his bed,with occasional replenishings, no doubt, for the next two years.Mr. Cobb landed in Chicago on the first day of June, 1833. JudgeJohn Dean Caton, who was of the same age as Mr. Cobb and whoarrived in Chicago only a few weeks later, about the end of June, thetown having, however, grown considerably meantime, says of thevillage when he first saw it: "There were then not two hundred peoplehere. I was an old resident of six weeks' standing before two hundredand fifty inhabitants could be counted to authorize a village incorporation under the general laws of the state. ... . Chicago had no streetsexcept on paper; the wild grass grew and the wild flowers bloomedwhere the courthouse square was located; the pine woods borderedthe lake north of the river, and the east sides of both branches of theriver were clothed with dense shrubbery forests to within a few hundredfeet of their junction. Then the wolves stole from these covers bynight and prowled through the hamlet, hunting for garbage aroundthe back doors of our cabins."A few weeks after Mr. Cobb's arrival in Chicago a Mr. J. P. Hathe-way made a survey and took a census of the hamlet, and reported thatthere were 43 houses and less than 100 men, women, and children inthem. John S. Wright also took a census in 1833 and his statementagrees with that of Mr. Hatheway. During the months of June, July,and August, 1833, there was an unprecedented increase in the numberof buildings and of inhabitants in anticipation of the great treaty councilwith the Indians arranged for September of that year. It is estimatedthat, at the date of young Cobb's arrival off the bar, June 29, there40 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDwere not 50 permanent white inhabitants in the place. There were afew soldiers, a very few, in Fort Dearborn, and many Indians and half-breeds living in their temporary camps. Charles Fenno Hoffman wasin the village during the early autumn, and he wrote to his paper, theNew York American, "Four-fifths of the population of this place havecome in since last spring: the erection of new buildings during thesummer has been in the same proportion"; so that the coming ofMr. Cobb marked the beginning of the evolution from a mere frontiersettlement into a growing town. He found a few log houses, three or fourof which were used as stores, and in two or three of which travelers couldfind entertainment. There were no sidewalks. On the north side ofthe river was the log house of the Kinzies, the pioneer settlers, with thehuts of two half-breeds and others near by. On the west side, at theforks of the river, where some insisted the town ought to be built,were a few log structures. East of State Street was the governmentreservation, at the north end of which, near the river, stood FortDearborn. The few stores were on or near South Water Street.Madison Street was out on the prairie, and no one then lived so farfrom the town, which, what there was of it, clung to the river. Therewas not a frame building in the place, though some of the log houseshad been covered with split clapboards.The first frame house built in Chicago seems to have been the GreenTree Tavern, and James Kinzie was just starting it when young Cobb,without a cent in his pocket, landed in the village. This was also thefirst hotel originally intended and planned for a hotel, and, strange tosay, it was built on Lake Street a block west of the south branch of theriver. It presented an opportunity for immediate employment, andthe impecunious stranger, crossing Mark Beaubien's floating bridge atLake Street, applied for work. He was hired to boss the job" and inthis way began at once to earn enough to discharge his small debt tothe good Samaritan who released him from imprisonment on the ship,to pay his board, and to accumulate a small fund for the next step inhis career. So many myths have grown up around this first job of Mr.Cobb's that it is now quite impossible to tell the story as it occurred.All accounts agree that he knew nothing of carpentering, but in hisdire need of a job said nothing of this to Mr. Kinzie. All agree thatMr. Kinzie made no complaint when he paid him off. But whether heearned $1.75 a day or $2.75 and board, and whether Mr. Kinzie paidhim $40 or $60, whether the building was finished under his superintendence or whether a real carpenter came along and superseded himSILAS BOWMAN COBB 41by convincing the owner that Cobb was no carpenter and offering totake his place for fifty cents a day less, these things are uncertain.I have a suspicion that, like every other Vermont boy, part of whoselife had been spent on a farm, he was able to wield a hammer, saw, andplane with some skill, though he was not a carpenter; and all his subsequent life proved that he knew how to "boss" a job. But his firstventure proved his resourcefulness, temporarily set him on his feet,and gave him a little time to study his surroundings.His second venture illustrated his unusual talent in discoveringchances for profitable business and his courage in improving them.It must be remembered that he was a boy, just turned twenty-one, thathis early advantages had been few, and that he was a working man whohad never been in business for himself. He had no means for settingup a harness-shop, but was intent on finding ways and means to beginthat business which he saw would be profitable. Immigrants were nowbeginning to pass through Chicago in increasing numbers. Mr. Cobbfound that they came stocked up with articles they had been assuredthey could sell to the Indians at a large profit. By the time theyreached Chicago, however, they needed money, were anxious to disposeof these stores, but could not afford the time to go out and look forIndian customers. This was one fact in the situation. The other factwas that a great council with the Indians had been arranged for September of that year, 1833, at which the government proposed to purchase their lands and arrange for their transfer beyond the Missouri.A large gathering of Indians was in prospect. In these two facts theyoung man saw his opportunity.As the wagons of the immigrants came in, he met them and, offeringcash they greatly needed for what he had learned Indians would buy,found willing sellers. The Indians were already present in considerablenumbers, and others came in a rapidly increasing multitude. Theygathered from every point of the compass— Chippewas, Ottaways, andPottawatamies — till thousands were assembled in and about the hamlet.Some estimated their numbers as high as seven or eight thousand. Andthey had money from the annual government payments. They werefurther enriched by a generous distribution of the new annuities arrangedin the treaty. Young Cobb, with the remarkable versatility he possessed, turned auctioneer, and, instead of peddling his stores about,auctioned them off to eager crowds of natives and half-breeds. TheIndians remained for a month or six weeks, and the young traderreaped a golden harvest. This successful venture illustrates the genius42 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDfor business with which nature endowed him. What his profits were isnot known, but they were such that he decided to build his own shopand begin business as a harness-maker. Seeing that the day of logstores was over in the now growing town (there were 153 frame buildings erected in 1833), he would have a frame store of his own.Meantime important changes had taken place in the little settlement.In August, 1833, the citizens decided by a vote of eleven to one toincorporate the "village" of Chicago. On August 15 an election forofficers of the new village was held and twenty-eight votes were cast.It was in this election that the twenty-one-year-old young man, if Mr.Gale is right, cast his first vote. Thirteen of the twenty-eight voterswere candidates for office.The nearest sawmill was at Plainfield, about forty miles southwestof Chicago, and there Mr. Cobb went and bought the lumber for hisstore. This was in the autumn of 1833. He hired a wagon and threeyoke of oxen in Plainfield and, driving himself, started with his lumberfor Chicago. When night came on, he slept in the wagon under a shelterof boards. Before morning heavy rain began to pour down. It continued after he started on his way. The road became deep with mud.He threw off part of his load and went on. The rain continued. Hethrew off more lumber and struggled on. The rain settled down intoa three days' storm. The prairie became a morass. When on thefourth day he reached the Des Plaines, it was an impassable torrent.Here, twelve miles from Chicago, he threw off the rest of his load,turned the oxen toward home, and left them to find their way back —which they did. Later he recovered his scattered lumber and built atwo-story house and store on West Lake Street, opposite the GreenTree Tavern, where he had learned enough carpentering to enable himnow to oversee his own construction work, if not to do most of it himself. Renting the upper floor, he prepared to open his harness-shop.To begin in a small way did not require much capital, but his building had cost so much that he did not have the little that was required.He had made a rule, to which he adhered through life, not to borrowmoney nor go in debt. It is believed that he broke this rule only twoor three times in the course of his long life. Its observance helped tomake him the rich man he came to be, but it was sometimes inconvenient and costly. It was costly at this juncture. At Plainfield hehad again met Oliver Goss, his father's old partner, the man with whosecompany he started west. The two now formed a partnership underthe firm name of Goss and Cobb. Reports differ as to the amount ofSILAS BOWMAN COBB 43money Mr. Goss invested. One story fixes it at thirty dollars. Thehighest sum named is sixty-five dollars. This will indicate the veryhumble beginning in business Mr. Cobb made. The business was reallyhis. Mr. Goss, though mentioned first in the firm name, was really asilent partner, living forty miles away, near Plainfield, probably anxious about his investment. He need not have been. The stream ofsettlers increased in volume. The harness-maker prospered exceedingly and at the end of a year dissolved the partnership, returning toMr. Goss the full sum of his original investment and two hundred andfifty dollars' profit, "the best streak of luck he [Mr. Goss] ever had."I think it may be considered a part of the story of Mr. Cobb's lifeif I try to tell here what the year 1833, the vear °f ms arrival, meant toChicago. In the first place, it was the year of its incorporation as avillage and the appointment of village officers who began to lay outstreets and plan for the improvements of civilized life. Next, thegreat council with the Indians provided for their removal and theimmediate opening to settlement of 20,000,000 acres of the richestland in the world, in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, assuringa future for the new village, the greatness of which no man then dreamed.In this year also the general government began the improvement ofthe harbor, cutting through the sand bar at the mouth of the river,this work being so furthered by a great flood in the spring followingthat for the first time lake commerce found entrance to the ChicagoRiver. In 1833 the first newspaper, the Chicago Democrat, was established. The year was, therefore, a year of unusual importance as wellas interest in the history of Chicago.Very few men who became prominent in the future of the newcommunity were residents of the town when Mr. Cobb arrived. Amongthem were Gurdon S. Hubbard, George W. Dole, P. F. W. Peck, andPhilo Carpenter. Eli B. Williams preceded him by a few weeks, andJohn D. Caton, afterward Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court,came a few weeks after Mr. Cobb. During that busy summer camealso Jabez K. Botsford, Charles Cleaver, Edward H. Haddock, WalterKimball, and a dozen other men who rose to prominence. They foundthemselves in very crowded quarters. In the first old settlers' receptiongiven by the Calumet Club in 1879, Judge Caton said: "I think I cancount twenty, at least [present] who were here forty-six years ago, atthat memorable birth There were seven beds in the attic inwhich fourteen of us slept that summer Edward H. Haddockknows who slept with me in that attic."44 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDMr. Cobb had not been a year in business before it became apparentto him that the center of trade in the new town would be on the southside; and not long after the dissolution of his first partnership, heprepared to move east across the river. But before he did so, an interesting incident occurred which he has himself related:I arrived at Chicago in the spring of 1833. In October of the same year I wasoccupying my new shop opposite the hotel, in the building of which my first dollarwas earned in Chicago. Standing at my shop one afternoon talking with a neighbor,our attention was attracted by the arrival at the hotel of a settler's wagon from theeast. With my apron on and my sleeves rolled up, I went with my neighbor to greetthe weary travelers and to welcome them to the hospitality of Fort Dearborn, inaccordance with the free and easy customs of "high society" in those days. Welearned that the travelers were the Warren family, from Westfield, NewJVork, boundfor the settlement of Warrenville, Illinois, where a relative had preceded them aboutsix months previously. There were several young women in the party, two of themtwin sisters whom I thought particularly attractive, so much so that I remarked tomy friend, after they had departed, that when I was prosperous enough so that mypantaloons and brogans could be made to meet I was going to look up those twinsisters and marry one of them or die in trying.The sequel of this story is told by E. O. Gale in his reminiscencesand may as well come in here as later.As soon as he was able to support a wife he married one of the twin daughters ofColonel Daniel Warren Jerome Beecher married the other sister. Cobbthought that he married Maria and Beecher always believed that he himself marriedMary, but they only knew what the girls told them, for the sisters so closely resembledeach other and dressed so exactly alike that it required intimate acquaintance todistinguish them. They purchased their millinery of (my) mother, and she nevercould tell whether she was waiting on Mrs. Cobb or Mrs. Beecher.For the latter, Beecher Hall at the University is named.It was perhaps in 1835 that Mr. Cobb transferred his growingbusiness to more commodious quarters at 171 Lake Street, which wasnear the business center on the South Side. He remained in the newlocation for many years, devoting himself to his business with a diligence and skill that not only attracted wide attention but commandedgrowing success. He was interested in the life of the new communityand entered into every phase of it with all the earnestness of his alertand energetic nature. On October 7, 1835, S. B. Cobb, P. F. W. Peck,J. K. Botsford, and four others signed their names as the first membersof the Pioneer Hook and Ladder Company, and Mr. Cobb was alwaysone of the first at every fire. In the first Chicago directory, issued in1839, his name appears as saddle, bridle, harness, and trunk maker,171 "lake st." He made about everything the town and countrySILAS BOWMAN COBB 45needed that could be made of leather, except boots and shoes. Amongother things he made the fire buckets which every householder wasrequired to keep in the front hall of his dwelling. There were to betwo, at least, in every building. They were to be present also at everyfire. They were all made by Mr. Cobb. Sometime after 1879 Mr.Gale's father took one of the two he had left from those ancient daysto one of the old settlers' receptions at the Calumet Club. "Alightingfrom the carriage with it, Mr. Cobb, who was one of the receptioncommittee, rushed to father and took it from him with the remark,'I made that, Gale, and I am glad to see it.' CI am happy to present itto you, Mr. Cobb,' said father Cobb took as much pride andsatisfaction in displaying his handiwork to his friends, and the guestsas a young lady would in showing a pretty pattern of embroidery."The sign above his shop read:SADDLE AND HARNESS MANUFACTORYCash Paid for HidesS. B. COBB"In front, on a post, was a white horse in a full canter, headed for theprairie." The proprietor was so full of activity and energy that youngGale "named our hustling harness-maker ' Steamboat Cobb.' "Chicago celebrated the Fourth of July, 1836, by officially " breakingground" for the digging of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. A partywent down to Bridgeport on a small steamboat, Mr. Cobb being one ofthe passengers. On the return trip a crowd of hoodlums, disgruntledat being refused passage on the crowded boat, attacked the excursionistswith a shower of stones, breaking cabin windows and injuring some ofthe passengers. The captain drew as near to the shore as possible anda number of citizens, some of whom later became prominent men,landed, attacked their assailants, arrested some, and dispersed the rest.Among the foremost in the counter attack were Ashbel Steele, latermade sheriff, S. B. Cobb, Gurdon S. Hubbard, S. F. Gale, MarkBeaubien, and John H. Kinzie.When there was anything doing, Mr. Cobb was usually on hand.A few years later the Chicago Cavalry was organizing and he wasmade third lieutenant. He was indefatigable in his business, but hissuperabundant vitality led him to throw himself ardently into thelarger life of the town. Long John Wentworth, in one of his diverting46 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDaddresses on early Chicago, gave the following illuminating characterization of Mr. Cobb. Answering the question whether Chicago had nosociety men in the early days, he said:Our early settlers were generally society men, but they never let society interferewith their business I notice a gentleman here who was a model of a societyman. He was at his place of business promptly every day and at parties everynight. After sunset he would go farther to attend a party, dance longer, and be backat his place of business earlier the next morning than any man in the city. He haslived in pleasure and to profit. He brought nothing here; his notes never went toprotest; and now he has nearly means enough to pay the debts of almost all ourmodern society men. If the society men of these days would but follow his example,work as well as play, save as well as earn, to use a granger phrase, they would find agreat deal more corn on their Cobb.But Long John in another address gave quite another side of Mr.Cobb's life and activities, saying:Not feeling able to sustain the expense of a whole pew, I engaged one in partnership with an unpretending saddle- and harness-maker, S. B. Cobb, who, by a life ofindustry, economy, and morality, has accumulated one of the largest fortunes inour city, and §till walks our streets with as little pretense as when he mended theharness of the farmers who brought the grain to this market from our prairies. Thechurch building in those days was considered a first-class one and we had a first-classpew therein, and the annual expense of my half of the pew was only $12.50 morethan it would have been in our Saviour's time.Mr. Wentworth evidently believed in a free gospel. The addresses fromwhich I have quoted leave it uncertain just where he and Mr. Cobbattended church together. The connection points plainly to the FirstBaptist Church, which Mr. Wentworth often attended and of thepastor of which, Rev. M. G. Hinton, he speaks highly. This is renderedstill more probable by the fact that Mr. Cobb married the daughter ofa Baptist family. He found means- to cultivate the acquaintance ofthe fair Warren sisters and in 1840 married Maria, and, probably,became with her an attendant at the Baptist Church. He was, however, later an adherent of the Second Presbyterian Church and, for atime, one of its trustees.The hamlet which in 1833 presented "a most woebegone appearance,even as a frontier town of the lowest class," and which became an incorporated village toward the end of that year, grew so amazingly thatfour years later, in 1837, it was reorganized as a city. Speculation inreal estate became rampant. Booms grew and flourished and burst.Good times, making speculators rich, were succeeded by panics whichreduced most of them to poverty. Few men were able to escape thespeculative craze of that first quarter of a century; but Mr. Cobb wasSILAS BOWMAN COBB 47one of that fortunate number. His rule not to borrow money and notto go in debt stood him in good stead. He had, by nature apparently,a keen business mind. The untrained harness-maker was being trainedvery rapidly by what he saw about him in the meteoric rise and thesudden and usually irretrievable fall of the hordes of speculators whocrowded the city. He continued to attend with growing business skillto his expanding trade; but the amazing growth of the city made aprofound impression on his mind. He believed in the future of Chicago,and as often as a boom burst and prices fell to the vanishing point, heinvested the growing profits of his business in what he believed to bechoice pieces of property. He bought what he had the money to payfor, so that panics had no terrors for him. He did not buy real estateto sell. He came to believe in a great future value for Chicago property.He made his purchases, therefore, when the speculators were compelledto sell their holdings, and he made them as permanent investments tobe improved, as he was able, with substantial blocks of buildings.The original school lands of Chicago, beginning at State and Madisonstreets, ran west twelve blocks to Halsted Street, and south twelveblocks, comprising one hundred and forty-four blocks. They are worthtoday more than $100,000,000, but were practically given away in 1833,when one hundred and forty blocks out of the hundred and forty-fourwere sold for almost nothing, the amount realized from the sale being$38,865. In 1835 the immensely valuable wharfing privileges were also"sold for a song," the leases extending till the year 2834, nine hundredand ninety-nine years. These operations, which made many investorsrich, took place while Mr. Cobb was still in poverty and was taking thefirst steps to establish himself in business. One of his earliest opportunities for profitable real-estate investment came in 1839. In that yearthe general government subdivided the Fort Dearborn Reservation intolots, the greater part of which were immediately sold for what theywould bring. Chicago had hardly begun to recover from the disastrouspanic of 1837, and real-estate values were greatly depressed. Buyerswere few; but there were men who had confidence in the future ofChicago, and among them was Mr. Cobb. He was beginning to geton his feet, and, having some money in the bank, bought two of theselots on the southwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Lake Street for$516. On these lots he built his first residence, and the directory of1843 records him as living at 75 Michigan Avenue. A few years laterthis corner was no longer residence property and he removed a blockor two farther south.48 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDThough devoted to his business, Mr. Cobb was not unmindful ofhis political duties. He was an enthusiastic Whig in politics and in1840 took an active interest in the election of General Harrison to thepresidency. He was appointed a delegate to the great Whig convention of that year at the state capital. A delegation of about seventymade the journey from Chicago to Springfield. In telling the storyCharles Cleaver, who came to Chicago the same year with Mr. Cobb(1833), says:Great preparations were made. We secured fourteen of the best teams in town,got new canvas covers made for the wagons, and bought four tents. We also borrowed the government yawl — the largest in the city— had it rigged up as a two:masted ship, set it on the strongest wagon we could find, and had it drawn by sixsplendid gray horses. Thus equipped, with four sailors on board and a six-poundcannon to fire occasional salutes, making quite an addition to our cavalcade offourteen wagons, we went off with flying colors Major General, thenCaptain, Hunter, was our marshal, and the whole delegation was chosen from ourbest class of citizens.Political excitement ran very high, and it was known that theprogress of the delegation might be resisted by force. But this prospectdid not make the project any less attractive to men like Gurdon S.Hubbard, Mr. Cleaver, Mr. Cobb, and Captain Hunter. At the crossing of the river south of Joliet the expected trouble came. They werearmed, and the future major general directed every shotgun and pistolto be loaded, but also ordered that no one should fire a shot till he gavethe word of command. Mr. Cleaver continues:When we reached the ford we found a party of two hundred or three hundredmen and boys assembled to dispute our passage. However, we continued our course,surrounded by a howling mob, and part of the time amid showers of stones thrownfrom the adjoining bluff, until we came to a spot where two stores were built — oneon either side of the street — and then we came to a halt, as they had tied a ropefrom one building to the other Seeing us brought to a stand, the mob redoubledtheir shouts and noise from their tin horns, kettles, etc. General Hunter, riding tothe front, took in the situation at a glance. It was either forward or fight. Hechose the former, and gave the word of command, knowing it would be at the loss ofour masts in the vessel. And sure enough, down came the fore-and-aft topmastwith a crash, inciting the crowd to increased violence, noise, and tumult. One ofthe party got so excited that he snatched a tin horn from a boy and struck the marshal'shorse. When he reached for his pistols the fellow made a hasty retreat into his store.After proceeding a short distance, we came to the open prairie, and a halt was orderedfor repairs. It took less than half an hour for our sailors to go aloft, splice the masts,and make all taut again. Then it became our turn to hurrah, which we did with awill, and were molested no further This was democracy in '40 — we wereWhigs.SILAS BOWMAN COBB 49However, Mr. Cleaver acknowledges that, "with the exception abovementioned, we met with nothing but kindness the whole of our trip."But on the return journey they went by another route.In 1847 Mr. Cobb was still a young man. But at that time almostall the business men of Chicago were young. Perhaps thirty-five,which was Mr. Cobb's age, would be a fair average for the whole body.These young men, bent on the improvement of the shipping facilities ofthe city, interested themselves in arranging for the holding of the greatRiver and Harbor Convention of 1847. It was held under a greattent in the courthouse square of Chicago. Mr. Cobb was a member ofthe Committee of Arrangements. The work of the committee wasextraordinarily successful. Though the city's population did not reach17,000, it was estimated that 20,000 strangers gathered to attend theconvention. The number of delegates alone is variously reported atfrom 3,000 to 10,000, and among them were many who then or laterwere the leading men of the nation. It was declared to be the largestdeliberative body ever assembled. Its object was the improvement ofthe rivers of the new west and the harbors of the Great Lakes. It wasa movement of the highest importance to a vast region and, indeed, tothe whole country.In 1848 Mr. Cobb had been fifteen years in business as a harness-maker. He had prospered. Whether he continued to work in his shopwith his own hands during this entire period does not appear. It isprobable that as his business increased he found himself more and moreoccupied with the management and accounting. He liked to keep hisbusiness in his own hands and to keep his own books. At the end offifteen years, seeing an opening for bettering his fortunes, he disposedof his old business and formed a partnership with William Osbourne ina boot and shoe and hide and leather house. The only thing nowknown about this venture is that at the end of four years, when he wasonly forty years of age, he had been so successful that he retired finallyfrom manufacturing and merchandising with a competency. Beginning with nothing in 1833 in a miserable little frontier hamlet an inexperienced boy, nineteen years of hard work, devotion to business,avoidance of debt, strict integrity, refusal to enter into any of theorgies of speculation that repeatedly prevailed in the Chicago of theseyears, but as rapidly as his increasing profits permitted investing hissurplus in central real estate and promising public utilities — nineteenyears had made him in 1852 one of the leading capitalists of the prosperous young city of 20,000 people. This does not mean that he wasSo THE UNIVERSITY RECORDin 1852 a very rich man. But it does mean that at forty years of agehe had laid a solid foundation on which to build the superstructure ofhis fortune. He had not yet lived out half his days. He looked backon forty years; but had he been a seer, he would have looked forwardto forty-eight which he had yet to live.But this date marked an entire change in his business activities.The reason for so radical a change does not appear. A merchant isthe slave of his business. He is chained to his oar. He must keeppulling ceaselessly or his boat will begin to go downstream or run ashore.Mr. Cobb had worked very hard for nineteen years and had achievedsuch success that he was able to break his bonds. He seems to havebecome enamored of liberty and decided to be a free man for the restof his life.He did not, indeed, intend to spend his time in idleness. He purposed to continue as active a life as ever. His enterprising temperament would not permit him to be idle; but he was free and couldemploy his time as he liked. One of the first things he did was to discharge an obligation of friendship. He accepted an appointment asexecutor of the estate of Joseph Matteson, the original proprietor ofthe Matteson House, and as guardian of his five children. Mr. Cobbcontinued in the duties of these positions for fourteen years, dischargingthem with his customary fidelity and success.He interested himself with other leading capitalists in the first ofChicago's railroads, the Galena and Chicago Union, which, launchedand got under way with extraordinary difficulty, was in the end a mostsuccessful enterprise. William B. Ogden, J. Y. Scammon, John B.Turner, Benjamin W. Raymond, and men of like character and standingwere leaders in the undertaking. Mr. Cobb was one of the directorsof the new road and also of the Beloit and Madison. These roadswere later merged in the Chicago and Northwestern system. It is acurious reflection on the foresight of ordinary business men that themerchants of Chicago, for the most part, opposed the building of railroads out of that city on the ground that it would interfere with theirtrade by diverting it to the country stores to which the roads wouldcarry merchandise. It was fortunate for the early rapid developmentof the city that there were, among its own citizens, men of vision whorealized that the one great need of Chicago was railroads, railroadsrunning east, west, north, and south, and to every other point of thecompass, men who were ready to back their views with their fortunes.These were the men who made Chicago. They built the railroads, andSILAS BOWMAN COBB 5*the railroads built the city. These men did not profess that in providingChicago with railroads they were moved entirely by altruism. Theywere farsighted men of business, but in making what they believedwere good investments for themselves, they promoted at the same timethe public welfare. Mr. Cobb was one of these men, promoting his owninterests while conferring unspeakable benefits on the public. It wasthis same farsighted business policy that led him to take a substantialinterest in the Chicago Gas Light and Coke Company and the street-railway companies, which made ample returns to him, but which were,at the same time, indispensable public utilities and a boon to everycitizen. Of the Gas Company he became a director in 1855 and later amember of the board of managers, continuing in this position till 1887,when the merger took place with the Peoples Gas Light and CokeCompany. When various street railways were consolidated into theChicago City Railway Company, he was one of the principal capitalistsamong its managers.He was long a director in the West Side Street Railway Companyand president of the Chicago City Railway Company during the seventies when the underground cable system superseded the use of horses.He was a director of the National Bank of Illinois and of one of the principal insurance companies of Chicago. A propos of his connection with thestreet railways he made it a point to see that passengers were treatedcourteously, particularly women. One who frequently saw him ridingon the cars relates that he would never permit a woman to stand. Ifthe seats were full, he would invariably rise when a woman enteredand insist on her taking his seat.When Fort Sumter was fired on in April, 1861, the patriotic citizensof Chicago assembled in great mass meetings in Bryan and Metropolitanhalls, and, in the presence of the total lack of arms and equipment inthe state arsenals, determined that they would themselves arm andequip the Chicago volunteers who were already besieging the recruitingoffices. Mr. Cobb was one of the citizens who immediately raised afund of $40,000 for this purpose and sent a force of nearly a thousandmen to seize and hold for the Union the one strategic point in Illinois — ¦the city of Cairo. He became a member of the first company of theChicago Home Guard and was secretary of its executive committee.Among the other activities of Mr. Cobb, after retiring in 1852 frommanufacturing and mercantile pursuits, was the improvement of hisvaluable business properties. On the site of his old home at the southwest corner of Lake Street and Michigan Avenue he built Cobb Block.52 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDIn 1865 he erected another building on Washington Street betweenDearborn and Clark streets. Just around the corner from this he putup a third block called the Cobb Building. This was 120-28 DearbornStreet, and in this building he had his private office for many years,perhaps to the end of his life.I am indebted to William Bross, one of the proprietors of the ChicagoTribune, lieutenant governor of Illinois, but popularly known in Chicagoas Deacon Bross, for a picture which vividly presents the striking contrast between the boy of 1833, just landed in the miserable hamletwithout a friend in the place or a cent in his pocket, and the prosperouscitizen of the great city of 1870. In a lecture, "What I Remember ofEarly Chicago," delivered in 1876, Deacon Bross said:Standing in the parlor of the Merchants' Savings, Loan, and Trust Company,five or six years ago, talking with the president, Sol. A. Smith, E. H. Haddock, Dr.Foster [whose widow later built Foster Hall at the University of Chicago], and perhaps two or three others, in came Mr. Cobb, smiling and rubbing his hands in thegreatest glee. "Well, what makes you so happy?" said one. "Oh," said Cobb," this is the first day of June, the anniversary of my arrival in Chicago in 1833 ." " Yes,"said Haddock, "the first time I saw you, Cobb, you were bossing a lot of Hoosiersweatherboarding a shanty-tavern for Jim Kinzie." "Well," Cobb retorted, in thebest of humor, "you needn't put on any airs for the first time I saw you, you wereshingling an outhouse 1"Mr. Bross then went on to tell something of the arrival in Chicago ofMr. Cobb, whom he referred to as "our solid president of the SouthSide Horse Railway," and continued:Mr. Haddock also came to Chicago, I think, as a small grocer; and now thesegentlemen are numbered among our millionaires. Young men, the means by whichthey have achieved success are exceedingly simple. They have sternly avoided allmere speculation; they have attended closely to legitimate business and investedany accumulating surplus in real estate. Go ye and do likewise, and your successwill be equally sure.In choosing a place in which to make his home Mr. Cobb retreatedsouthward slowly, apparently with reluctance, before the onflowing tideof business. Perhaps the overflow of Michigan Avenue by businesshouses may be historically traced by his successive removals. We haveseen how he first made a home on the corner of Lake Street and MichiganAvenue in 1843. Thirteen years later, in 1856, he was residing at 135Michigan Avenue perhaps a little north of Monroe Street. In 1859,after only three years, he retreated to No. 148, just south of Monroe.Ten years later he had been driven to No. 241, just south of CongressStreet. Happily for him and his family, he then abandoned the struggleSILAS BOWMAN COBB 53to retain a home on Michigan Avenue and found refuge at 979 PrairieAvenue. I say "happily" for he thus escaped the destruction of hishome by the great fire of 187 1.Mr. Cobb's theory of business was subjected to two supreme tests.The basis of that theory was the avoidance of debt, the making ofinvestments, whether in stocks, lands, or buildings, only as he was ableto pay for them. His investments in great public utilities were largeand varied, but he was no speculator. They were made only after themost careful consideration and were solidly based on the growth ofChicago, of which he, who had been a part of its development from thebeginning, was absolutely assured.The first test came in the panic of 1857, which was one of the mostsevere and disastrous in the history of the country. Great numbers ofmen in Chicago were irretrievably ruined. Even the failure ofWilliam B. Ogden, Chicago's ablest financier, seemed inevitable andhe escaped only by the considerateness of his creditors. Mr. Cobbpassed through the storm unshaken. He had no creditors, and hisfinancial position was strengthened rather than weakened by that greatcatastrophe.The second test came in the fire of 1871, which destroyed entirelythe business district of Chicago, as well as the whole of the north sideof the city. The total losses were estimated at nearly or quite $300,-000,000. Mr. Cobb's losses were very great. All his buildings in thebusiness district were totally destroyed. Hundreds, perhaps thousands,of men were ruined; but again he was unshaken. He had no creditors.A year and a half after the fire he was again in his office in the newlyconstructed Cobb Building at 120-28 Dearborn Street, and his otherbusiness blocks were quickly rebuilt and as quickly rented.At the time of the Great Fire Mr. Cobb was president of the ChicagoCity Railway Company and continued in that position several years.In 1877 the sons of Vermont formed an organization, and in 1883 madeMr. Cobb vice-president. He was socially inclined and was for yearschairman of the reception committee of the gatherings of the old settlersconducted by the Calumet Club.I am indebted to a Chicago banker for the following personal glimpseof him when he was approaching eighty years of age. The banker wasthen a young man earning fifty dollars a month and took his dailynoon lunch in a restaurant where you sat at a long counter on a highstool. His regular lunch cost him fifteen cents. Next to him ordinarilysat an old man, rather plainly dressed, who, as his neighbor noticed54 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDwith some regret, seemed able to afford only a ten-cent lunch of doughnuts and a cup of tea. Meeting almost daily, they fell into a speakingacquaintance. The young man finally got a raise in salary to seventy-five dollars a month, and said to the old man: "I am afraid we shallnot continue to lunch together. I have received a raise in pay and Iam thinking of going to a restaurant where I can sit in a chair at a tablewith a table cover on it." "Let me advise you," said the older man,"not to do it. Continue to economize; save your increased pay; livesimply, and when you become an old man you may be a rich one."When the young man paid his bill he asked the cashier who his agedadviser was, and was surprised to hear, "Why, that's Silas B. Cobb."The men who knew him will recognize the verisimilitude of this story.He was very frugal in all his personal expenditures; but with his familyhe was most liberal. He did not require from them the economies hepracticed in his own person.Mr. and Mrs. Cobb almost reached their golden anniversary together. They were married in 1840 and Mrs. Cobb lived till 1888.There were six children, five girls and one boy. Three of the daughterslived to be married and two of them survived their father. At the timeof Mrs. Cobb's death the family home was at 3334 Michigan Avenue.With her sister, Mrs. Jerome Beecher, Mrs. Cobb had been muchinterested in the Chicago Orphan Asylum and other charities. Afterher death her husband made his home with his daughter, Mrs. WilliamB. Walker, at 2027 Prairie Avenue.He was now 76 years old, but was still vigorous and maintained thespringy step and rapid pace of his earlier days. He still kept his officein the Cobb Building on Dearborn Street, and there continued tomanage his multiplied business interests. It was in this office that Ifirst saw Mr. Cobb, in 1892. I well recall the time and the circumstances. The new University of Chicago, which had not yet openedits doors to students, was engaged in what seemed the impossible taskof raising in Chicago a million dollars in ninety days. Such a thinghad never before been done or attempted in that city. It had not thenmore than one- third its present population or one-tenth its presentwealth. Sixty of the ninety days given us had passed. We had littlemore than half the amount subscribed and seemed to be at the end ofour resources. We were at a loss to whom to appeal. We knew thatthe family of Mr. Cobb wanted him to help us; but he had the reputation of liking to be self-moved in his giving, of disliking to be solicited.SILAS BOWMAN COBB 55We were assured that if we went to him and made a direct appeal hewould resent it and we should defeat ourselves. We were repeatedlywarned against making a direct appeal to him. His family finally toldDr. Harper, president of the University, that they feared the decisionmust go over to the autumn. This was in the first week in June andseemed a deathblow to all hope of success in securing the million dollars,the time for doing which would expire in thirty days.I then said to Dr. Harper that we must take the matter into ourown hands, adding that we were not in the habit of giving offense tothose to whom we made our appeals. He reminded me of the warningswe had received, but said we would go if I would assume the responsibility of our probable failure. I told him that since we should loseour million dollars if Mr. Cobb did not help us, I would take theresponsibility. Thereupon we went and called upon him in his unpretentious office.He received us cordially, heard us with evident sympathy, givingus the impression that if we had not called on him he would have feltthat we had overlooked him. He evidently regarded it as quiteappropriate that, for so great an object and in so extreme an exigency,the matter should be brought to a man so well able to help. We hada long interview, going over the whole case very fully. We explained,in answer to his questions, a number of things he had not understood.We told him we needed $150,000 from him, and that we believed thiscontribution from him would assure our complete success. He seemedentirely ready to give us this great sum, and said he had thought hewould write us a letter voluntarily proffering the subscription. Knowing his decided preference for making his gifts in this way, we stronglyencouraged him in this purpose. We left him with the assurance thatwe had succeeded in our mission. Two days later Dr. Harper methim on the street and told him we had not received his letter. Hesaid he hadn't yet found time to write it, and, in fact, didn't know justhow to go at it; and intimated that he would be glad to put the matterin the way we thought would be most helpful to us in our campaign.The president came to the office and asked me to prepare such a letteras we would like to have Mr. Cobb sign, which I lost no time in doing,trying to express also what I knew were his views. This was at oncesent to his office and two days later he walked into my office and returnedthe letter to me with his signature appended. He had not cared toalter it and it was as follows:56 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDChicago, June 9, 1892To the Board of Trustees of the University of ChicagoGentlemen: I have watched with growing interest the progress ofthe institution, the care of which has been intrusted to you. As myyears increase, the desire grows upon me to do something for the citywhich has been my home for nearly sixty years. I am persuaded thatthere is no more important public enterprise than the University ofChicago. It seems to me to deserve the most liberal support of ourcitizens, and especially does it seem important that the Universityshould, just at this juncture, be enabled to secure the million dollars itis seeking for its buildings and equipment. I therefore hereby subscribe$150,000 on the conditions of the million-dollar subscription, and putmy proposed gift in this form that the securing of the full million dollarsmay be more certainly assured. The particular designation of this giftI will make later.Yours sincerely,S. B. CobbThe University was at that time building its first recitation building.For this building Mr. Cobb immediately, that same day, in fact, designated his contribution, later adding to his original donation $15,000,making a total of $165,000. His subscription proved the turning-point,perhaps it may be said, in the drive for the million-dollar building andequipment fund. Cobb Lecture Hall was so nearly finished that withinits walls|the work of the new University was formally opened on October1, 1892. It has proved to be a most important building, for morethan a quarter of a century the center of University life. It is eightyfeet wide, one hundred and sixty feet long, and four stories in height.It contains over sixty rooms. As originally constructed it provided achapel or assembly room for temporary use, taking for this purpose thenorth third of the first floor, a general lecture-room that would accommodate nearly two hundred, and offices for the president, deans, andother officials. With the multiplication of buildings, great changeshave taken place in the arrangement of the first floor and the generaluse of the building. Other changes will be made as later buildingsstill further relieve the congestion, and the time will come when itsuse will be more largely restricted to the work of instruction. It hasa record of general utility which no other University building can everhave. In the hall of the first floor may be seen a white marble bust ofMr. Cobb.SILAS BOWMAN COBB 57Probably no act of Mr. Cobb's life, except his marriage, gave himmore unalloyed happiness than the great contribution he made for theerection of Cobb Lecture Hall. He took no pains to conceal the satisfaction he felt in it. He was evidently happy in having made a contribution to the city which had done so much for him. He had prospered inChicago and he had been able to recognize his obligation to the city.He occasionally called at my office and once brought and left with me aphotograph about 12X14 inches in size, appropriately framed, representing him sitting in the open air at his summer home at Pride's Crossingin New England, with his feet on a bowlder and a cigar in his mouth.The cigar was characteristic. He usually had one in his mouth, butdid not smoke it. Underneath the picture was a brief statement,signed by him, to the effect, as nearly as I can recall, that he came toChicago in 1833 and built the first frame house erected in the town,and that every brick building in the city had been constructed since hiscoming.Mr. Cobb lived in good health almost to the last, tenderly caredfor by his daughter, Mrs. William B. Walker, until he reached the ageof eighty-eight years. He died April 6, 1900. The funeral service wasconducted by President Harper. The honorary pallbearers, with theexception of the writer of these pages, were old business friends ofwealth and prominence— S. M. Allerton, Albert Keep, E. T. Watkins,J. A. Tyrrell, and Dr. D. K. Pearsons.The estate amounted to about $6,000,000. Bequests were made totwenty-eight nephews and nieces, amounting to $35,500; to the Homefor the Friendless, $50,000; to the Chicago Orphan Asylum, $25,000;to the Old People's Home, $5,000; to the Young Men's Christian Association, $5,000; and to the American Sunday School Union, $2,500.To William B. Walker, Mr. Cobb's son-in-law, who had been veryhelpful to him in the care of his large interests, a bequest of $25,000was made. The rest of the estate was left in trust to William B. Walkerand Clarence Buckingham to be equally divided eventually between thetwo living daughters, Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Walter Denegre, and thechildren of a deceased daughter, Mrs. General G. Coleman.A considerable number of the early settlers of Chicago who achievedlarge material success have built for themselves enduring memorials ininstitutions of charity and education. These benefactions for thepublic welfare are the things for which they will be remembered. Theywere not unmindful of their obligations to the city which they hadhelped to build and which had rewarded them with prosperity. Their58 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDbeneficence has given them an immortality of remembrance, as well asof helpful influence. Their names are and will continue to be householdwords on the lips of thousands every day. As the students of theUniversity of Chicago come from every quarter of the globe and laterfind their spheres of activity in every land, one name will be knownfamiliarly far beyond the limits of Chicago — the name of Silas BowmanCobb.EVENTS: PAST AND FUTURETHE ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEENTH CONVOCATIONThe One Hundred and FourteenthConvocation was held in Leon MandelAssembly Hall, Tuesday, December 23,at 4:00 p.m. The Convocation Statementwas made by President Harry PrattJudson.The award of honors was announced.The election of the following students asassociate members to Sigma Xi was announced: Lyman Chalkley, Jr., HenryLeon Cox, Marie Farnsworth, Anne BraidHepburn, Samuel Jacob Jacobsohn, Robert Stern Landauer, Clarence John Monroe, Elsie Marie Plapp, Emil DurbinRies, Herman Bernhard Siems, StewartDuffield Swan, Margaret Fitch Willcox.The election of the following students asmembers of Sigma Xi was announced:Theodore Hieronymus Bast, Hugo Lean-der Blomquist, William John Crozier,Harold Clifford Gold thorpe, Aubrey Chester Grubb, William F. E. Gurley, EvelynGertrude Halliday, Samuel ChesterHenn, Isadore Meyer Jacobsohn, HilaryStanislaus Jurica, John Wayne Lasley,Louis Leiter, Mayme Irwin Logdson,Frank Paden McWhorter, ElizabethWilhelmina Miller, James J. Moorehead,Adolf Carl Noe, Walter Lincoln Palmer,Lydia Jane Roberts, George Ross Robertson, Frank V. Sander, Max Sasuly, William Frederic Schroeder, Paul JosephSedgwick, William Allen Smiley, JamesHollingsworth Smith, Warren BramanSmith, Mable Stockholm, Helen MabelStrong, Frederick Karl Swoboda, GeorgeAddison Talbert, Harriet Williams VanNostrand, Arthur Herman Weiland, Der-went Stainthorpe Whittlesey, ElizabethPauline Wolf, Sybil Woodruff. Theelection of the following students to theBeta of Illinois Chapter of Phi BetaKappa, was announced: Arthur Cohen,Ben Herzberg, Carl Gilbert Johnson,Leah Pearl Libman, Cyril Vincent Lund-vick, Esther Sable, George Dumas Stout.Honorable mention for excellence in thework of the Junior Colleges : George Harold Caldwell, Harry Wesley Cartwright, James Carlin Crandall, Albert Clinton DeWitt, Frank Lowell Dunn, Edna HelenEisendrath, Lucile Gillespie, KennethHancock Goode, Dorothea MargueriteHarjes, Elizabeth Katherine Lindquist,Ruth Lovett, Marion Catherine Lydon,Abe Matheson, Hazel Matilda Mattick,Earl Altimont Miller, J. Shelton Raban,Minnie Reiss, Flora May Sanders, LutherMartin Sandwick, Josephine MargueriteStroud, Robert Joseph West. Honorablemention for excellence in the work leadingto the certificate of the College of Education: Cherrie Phillips. The Bachelor'sdegree was conferred with honors on thefollowing students: William Robert Baker, Grace Tinker Davis, Benjamin Goldberg, Eva Louise Hyde, Agnes Jacques,Richard Anderson Jones, Leah PearlLibman, Cyril Vincent Lundvick, LauraWaples McMullen, Harold William Norman, Helen Mary Northrop, FrederickNymeyer,^ Arthur Waterman Rogers,Charles William Schwede, Clara VictoriaSeverin, Edward Theodore Soukup, LewisHanford Tiffany. Honors for excellencein particular departments of the SeniorColleges were awarded to the followingstudents: Harriet Frances Glendon,Home Economics; Benjamin Goldberg,Botany; Earl Henry Hall, Botany;Mabelle Alice Hay, Botany; AgnesJacques, French; Leah Pearl Libman,Mathematics; Cyril Vincent Lundvick,Chemistry; Cyril Vincent Lundvick,Anatomy; Laura Waples McMullen,Philosophy and Psychology; Laura Waples McMullen, General Literature; Harold William Norman, Law; Helen MaryNorthrop, German; Charles WilliamSchwede, Chemistry; Edward TheodoreSoukup, Political Economy; Lewis Hanford Tiffany, Botany; Mabel Toles,Spanish.Degrees and titles were conferred asfollows: The Colleges: the certificate ofthe College of Education, 8; the degreeof Bachelor of Arts, 3; the degree ofBachelor of Philosophy, 43; the degreeof Bachelor of Science, 29; the degree ofBachelor of Philosophy in Education, 10;the degree of Bachelor of Science in596o THE UNIVERSITY RECORDEducation, i; the degree of Bachelorof Philosophy in Commerce and Administration, 3; The Divinity School: thedegree of Master of Arts, 2; thedegree of Doctor of Philosophy, 1;The Law School: the degree of Bachelorof Laws, 2; the degree of Doctor of Law,7; The Graduate Schools of Arts, Literature, and Science: the degree of Master ofArts, 9; the degree of Master of Science,6; the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 6.The total number of degrees conferredwas 129.The Convocation Prayer Service washeld at 10 : 30 a.m., Sunday, December 21,in the Reynolds Club. At 1 1 : 00 a.m., inLeon Mandel Assembly Hall, the Convocation Religious Service was held. Thepreacher was the Reverend TheodoreGerald Soares, Ph.D., D.D., Professor ofHomiletics and Religious Education andHead of the Department of PracticalTheology, University of Chicago.Mr. Trevor Arnett, Auditor of theUniversity of Chicago, has been appointed an additional secretary of theGeneral Education Board, to which anew gift of $50,000,000 has just beenmade by Mr. John D. Rockefeller.Early in January Mr. Arnett will accompany other officers of the Board on a tripto educational institutions in the South.For the present Mr. Arnett will dividehis time between the University ofChicago and the General EducationBoard.At the thirty-second meeting of theAmerican Economic Association held inChicago from December 29 to 31 Associate Professor Harold G. Moulton, ofthe Department of Political Economy,presented a paper on "The Price Questionand Banking Policy " ; Professor Harry A.Millis, of the same department, discussed"Immigration and Immigration Problems"; and Dean Leon C. Marshall, ofthe School of Commerce and Administration, took part in a discussion of "TheTeaching of Economics." Dean Marshall was chairman of the committee onlocal arrangements.Professor Julius Stieglitz, Chairmanof the Department of Chemistry, recentlyappeared before a subcommittee of theUnited States Senate to give evidence onthe importance of establishing Americanindependence in the manufacture of finer chemicals, especially the finer organicchemicals, which in the past have beenalmost monopolized by Germany. Assistant Professor Gerald L. Wendt, alsoof the Chemistry Department, recentlyaddressed the Western Roentgen Societyon "The Physical Factors Underlying theUse of Radium and Radium Emanation."The University of Chicago Post of theAmerican Legion, recently organized atthe University with some three hundredmembers, has as commander NormanHart, vice-commander Royal Munger,and secretary-treasurer G. K. Bowden.Dean James Parker Hall, of the LawSchool, presided at the meeting of organization in Kent Theater, when a formalapplication was made for affiliation withthe national organization. AssistantProfessor Rudolph Altrocchi, of the Department of Romance Languages andLiteratures, who was in war service inItaly and France, is chairman of themembership committee.A new University of Chicago alumniclub was recently organized at Peoria,Illinois, by fifty-four graduates andformer students, after an address on thegrowth of the University by DeanNathaniel Butler, of University College.Harry Dale Morgan, A.B., '06, waselected president; Dr. Sidney H. Easton,S.B., '10, vice-president; and AnnaJewett Le Fevre, secretary-treasurer.The University Preachers for theWinter Quarter, 1920, are as follows:January 4, Rev. Charles LeRoy Good-ell,. St. Paul's M.E. Church, New YorkCity; January n, Dr. Goodell; January 18, Rev. John MacNeill, WalmerRoad Baptist Church, Toronto; January 25, Rev. John Timothy Stone,Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago;February 1, President J. Ross Stevenson,Princeton Theological Seminary; February 8, Rev. Elijah Andrews Hanley,First Baptist Church, Rochester, NewYork; February 15, Professor AlbertParker Fitch, Amherst College, Amherst,Massachusetts; February 22, ProfessorFitch; February 29, Dean Lee SullivanMcCollester, Tufts College, Massachusetts; March 7, Dean McCollester.The University of Chicago Pressannounces for immediate publication anew number in the Publications of theEVENTS: PAST AND FUTURE 61Geographic Society of Chicago under thetitle of The Geography of the Ozark Highland of Missouri. The author, Dr. Carl0. Sauer, of the University of Michigan,received his Doctor's degree from theUniversity of Chicago in 191 5.New impressions of successful booksannounced for January publication bythe University of Chicago Press includedthe following: A Short History of Belgium, by Professor Leon Van der Essen,of the University of Louvain, to whichthe author has added a new after-the-war chapter; A Short History of Japan,by Ernest W. Clement; A Manual forWriters, by John M. Manly and John A.Powell; Literature in the ElementarySchool, by Porter Lander MacClintock;The Psychology of Religion, by George A.Coe; and The University of Chicago: AnOfficial Guide, by David A. Robertson.An important new volume in the "University of Chicago Nature-Study Series"was also announced for the same month —A Field and Laboratory Guide in PhysicalNature-Study, by Elliot R. Downing.Two volumes in this highly successfulseries have already appeared — A Fieldand Laboratory Guide in BiologicalNature-Study and A Source Booh ofBiological Nature-Study.Four hundred and twenty men whowere in service in the recent war, eitherin the army or navy, have been givenscholarships or partial scholarships onthe La Verne Noyes Foundation for theWinter Quarter at the University ofChicago. The scholarships are distributed among men from thirty-ninestates, the largest number of assignmentsbeing to men from Illinois. Other statesrepresented by considerable numbers areIowa, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Most of thepresent holders of the scholarships werein service fourteen months or more, andthe majority of them saw service inFrance.The chief considerations on which theawards have been made are length andcharacter of service, need of the man, andscholarship. The number of applicantswas at least twice the number of assignments.Director James Henry Breasted, of theOriental Institute of the University ofChicago, is now in Egypt, where themembers of the Institute's expedition are being assembled at Cairo. The heartiestco-operation on the part of both theBritish and the French authorities^ hasnot only made possible but is materiallyfacilitating the undertaking of explorations. The party will leave for theTigro-Euphrates Valley about February10. After reaching the port of Bosra,the sites of ancient Babylonian andAssyrian civilization will be visited. Theroute will then be westward throughAleppo and southward to Beirut on theSyrian coast. Other districts will bestudied if time permits. The membersof the expedition are to be back inChicago by October first.For the large registration in the newInstitute for Church Workers at theUniversity of Chicago, practical coursesin Bible-study, religious education,churchorganization, and recreational activitiesare being given in Emmons Blaine Hallevery Monday evening during thepresent quarter.Dean Shailer Mathews, of the DivinitySchool, Dr. J. M. P. Smith, and Dr.Shirley J. Case are conducting the coursesin Bible-study; Professor Theodore G.Soares, Head of the Department ofPractical Theology, and Dean Frank G.Ward, of the Chicago TheologicalSeminary, have charge of the courses inSunday-school methods; Dean Mathews,President Ozora S. Davis, of the ChicagoTheological Seminary, and others discussthe relation of the church and thecommunity; and Associate ProfessorJoseph M. Artman, Director of Vocational Training, discusses the religiousdevelopment of the child.One of the important features of theInstitute is the practical attention givento non-equipment games and recreationalprograms under the direction of thePhysical Culture Department of theUniversity."The Art and Architecture of Rou-mania" was the subject of an illustratedlecture at the University of Chicago onJanuary 30 by Professor Charles UpsonClark, formerly director of the AmericanSchool of Classical Studies in Rome.The lecture was given under the auspicesof the Chicago Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, of whichsociety Professor Gordon J. Laing, ofthe Department of Latin at the University of Chicago, is secretary.62 THE UNIVERSITY RECORDProfessor Paul Shorey, Head of theDepartment of the Greek Language andLiterature at the University of Chicago,is giving two courses of lectures at JohnsHopkins University, one a seminar inPlato and the other a course on the history of Greek philosophy. In 191 2 Dr.Shorey was Turnbull lecturer in poetryat Johns Hopkins.Professor Charles H. Haskins, dean ofthe Graduate School of Arts and Sciencesat Harvard University, who was attachedto the American Commission to NegotiatePeace, gave a largely attended publiclecture on "The Peace Conference atParis" at the University of Chicago onJanuary 28. Dean Haskins, who formerly was professor of European historyin the University of Wisconsin, wasAmerican member of the ConferenceCommission on Belgian and DutchAffairs and a member of the specialcommittee on Alsace-Lorraine and theSaar Valley.The members of the RenaissanceSociety of the University of Chicagowere the guests of Mr. and Mrs. MartinA. Ryerson to view their art collectionat their home, 4851 Drexel Boulevard,Chicago, on January 25. The collection,which is of remarkable range and interestin the history of art, was explained byWalter Sargent, Professor of Art Education at the University, and Dr. RichardOffner, of the Department of the Historyof Art.The Renaissance Society, which isespecially active this year, has just givenan exhibition of the sculpture of AlfeoFaggi for ten days in the Classics Building, and under its auspices Dr. Frank J.Mather, Jr., professor of art in PrincetonUniversity, lectured in January on"Masaccio and*»Realism." The presidentof the society is Professor Gordon J.Laing, of the Department of Latin, andthe secretary is Mrs. Henry Gordon Gale.The remarkable interest in the rebuilding and new equipment of the Universityof Louvain in Belgium made especiallytimely the appearance of ProfessorMaurice de Wulf, of the faculty of thatinstitution, as a lecturer at the University of Chicago. Professor de Wulf lectured in the Classics Building, February5, on "The Social Philosophy of theThirteenth Century: The Individual andthe Collective Group." Official announcement is just madeof the total registration at the Universityof Chicago for the Winter Quarter, 1920.In the Graduate Schools of Arts,Literature, and Science there are 451 menand 251 women, a total of 702. In theSenior Colleges there are 512 men and419 women, a total of 931; in the JuniorColleges, 819 men and 535 women, atotal of 1,354; and Unclassified students,120, a total for the Colleges of 2,405.In the Professional Schools there are163 Divinity students, 212 Medical students, 304 Law students, 216 in Education, and 545 in Commerce and Administration, a total for the ProfessionalSchools of 1,440. The registration forUniversity College is 1,203.The total registration for the University, excluding duplications, is 3,006men and 2,466 women, a grand total of5,472.One of the pleasant incidents connected with the visit of M. MauriceMaeterlinck to the University of Chicagoon February 13 was the presentation tohim by President Harry Pratt Judsonof A Short History of Belgium written byProfessor Leon Van der Essen, of theUniversity of Louvain, and publishedby the University of Chicago Press. Thebook has a chapter on Belgium's heroicpart in the war.The same volume is to be presentedin a special binding to King Albert, ofBelgium, to whom the book is dedicatedby the author. The binding is in fullblack morocco with back stamped in redand gold, representing the Belgian colors,and with the coat-of-arms of the University of Chicago stamped on the side.In the making of the book it is interesting to know that the little volume wassewed by an Englishman, bound by aBelgian, and finished by a Czecho-Slovak.Associate Professor David D. Lucken-bill, of the Department of Oriental Languages and Literatures at the University ofChicago, who is expected to join the expedition of the Oriental Institute of the University now being conducted by DirectorJames Henry Breasted, was delayed inParis by the strikes in Italy but left forTrieste on January 26, whence he sailedfor Alexandria. The date set for^ theparty to leave Egypt for the Tigro-Euphrates Valley was February 10.Dr. Luckenbill, who received hisDoctor's degree from the University ofEVENTS: PAST AND FUTURE 63Chicago in 1907, has been connectedsince that time with the work in Semitics.A graduate of the University of Chicago, Dr. Burton E. Livingston, whoreceived his Doctor's degree from thatinstitution in 1901, has been elected permanent secretary of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.Dr. Livingston will retain his professorship of plant physiology at Johns HopkinsUniversity, his office as secretary of theAssociation being at the SmithsonianInstitution, Washington, D.C.Professor Livingston has been a soilexpert in the United States Bureau ofSoils and a member of the departmentof botanical research in the CarnegieInstitution, and is the inventor of scientific instruments for measuring evaporation and for automatic control of soilmoisture.A William Vaughn Moody lecture on11 Japanese Poetry" was given in theWilliam Rainey Harper Memorial Libraryat the University of Chicago on February 16. The lecturer was Mr. YoneNoguchi, a Japanese poet who is professorof English literature in Keio University,Japan.At the meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Scienceheld in St. Louis during the holiday week,the following University of Chicago doctors were among the officers of the varioussections or of affiliated scientific societies:Section A (Mathematics and Astronomy),George D. Birkhoff, '07, Harvard, retiring vice-president, F. R. Moulton andG. A. Bliss, University of Chicago, secretaries for one and four years respectively;Section B (Physics), Gordon F. Hull, '97,retiring vice-president; Section C (Chemistry), R. F. Bacon, '04, director of MellonInstitute, member of general executivecommittee; Section E (Geology andGeography), Rollin T. Chamberlin, '07,Chicago secretary for one year, and W.W. Atwood, '03, Harvard, for five years;Section F (Zoology), V. E. Shelford, '07,secretary for four years; Section G(Botany), William Crocker, '06, Chicago,member of the general committee;American Mathematical Society, Gilbert A. Bliss, '00, retiring chairman of theChicago section; Mathematical Association of America, H. E. Slaught, '98,retiring president; American Society ofZoologists, C. M; Child, Univeristy ofChicago, president, W. C. Allee, '12,Lake Forest College, secretary; Entomological Society of America, Charles A.Shull, '15, chairman of the Physiologicalsection.Also papers were read at the meetingsby Chicago doctors as follows: G. D.Birkhoff, '07, retiring vice-presidentialaddress of Section A; G. A. Bliss, '00,retiring chairman address; H. E. Slaught,'98, address of meeting of the Missourisection of the Mathematical Associationof America; Louis Ingold, '07, on a" Treatment of Fourier's Series " ; GordonF. Hull, '97, retiring vice-presidential address of Section B; Irwin Roman, A.M.,'16, on "Defects in Centered QuodricLenses"; A. C. Lunn, '04, on "Influenceof Blowing Pressure on Pitch of PipeOrgan"; T. E. Doubt, '04, on "CharcoalAbsorptions and Cyclic Change"; C. H.Gordon, '95, "Geology of the Cave Areasof East Tennessee"; S. S. Visher, '14,"Geology of the Sullivan County (Indiana) Oil Field"; Stuart Weller, Chicago, "The Chester Series in Illinois";R. T. Chamberlin, '07, "Some GlacierStudies in Alaska"; Reinhardt Thiessen,'07, " Correlation of Coal Fields by Meansof Their Spore-Exines"; W. W. Atwood,'03, "Educational Advantages of theRegional Treatment of Geography";V. E. Shelford, '07, "Illinois Natural History Survey"; Charles Zeleny, '04, "TheMutational Series in Dropsiphila " ; W. C.Allee, '12, "Animal Aggregations"; C. J.Chamberlain, '97, "The Living Cycadsand the Phylogeny of Seed Plants"; W.J. G. Land, '04, "A Suspensor in An-giopteris"; C. A. Shull, '15, "Absorptions of Moisture by Gelatin in a Saturated Atmosphere"; "Changes in Vegetations of Western Kentucky"; "TheFormation of a New Island in theMississippi River"; Helen T. Wooley,'00, "Organization of Course of Study inthe Elementary School"; Clara Schmitt,'14, "Reasons for Retardations in Arithmetic"; J. E. Hosic, Ph.M., '02, "SomeResults of an Empirical Study of SchoolReading Books."ATTENDANCE IN AUTUMN QUARTER, 1919Men Women TotalIQIQ Total1 91 6 Gain LossI. The Departments op Arts,Literature, and Science:i. The Graduate Schools —Arts and Literature 208232 16887 376319 366322 10Science. 3Total 44046692273 25539561570 695861i,537143 6887251,246112 713.6291312. The Colleges —Senior Junior Unclassified Total 1,4611,9019318 1,080i,335929(5 dup.) 2,5413,23610527(3 dup.) 2,0832,77115125 458465Total Arts, Literature, andScience II. The Professional Schools:i. Divinity School —Graduate. Unclassified English Theological Chicago Theological 23 2 25 3^Total 1346793104 231813 15785106104 2149111685 57*2. The Courses in Medicine —Graduate Senior Junior Unclassified Total 17415458881 3264 20616058921 220142692 143. The Law School —Graduate ^Senior Candidates for LL.B Unclassified Total 30122446 10220137 3H242583 278371207 333764. The College of Education 5. The College of Commerce andAdministration 129Total Professional ........Total University 1,0772,978237 422i,75735 1,4994,735272 I,2904,06l293 309674*Deduct for Duplications Net Totals in QuadranglesUniversity College 2,741258 1,722961 4,4631,219 3,768I,l69 6955oTotal in University 2,999 2,683 5,682 4,937 74564%FJOHN CRERAR