Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/128

 ioo A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO residence, and during this month the work of the institution was almost entirely turned over to him. The following statement relating to his activities at Morgan Park from the pen of his fellow-professor, Dr. E. B. Hulbert, later dean of the Divinity School, appeared in the March, 1906, number of the Biblical World. If we were seeking a phrase which would fitly describe him in his Morgan Park career we should call him a young, enthusiastic Hebraist At the beginning his enthusiasm spent itself in his regular Seminary class work. He was in charge of a department and he magnified his office At the end of two years Dr. Harper found that his super-abounding zeal could not work itself off in regular classes in term time. The impulse seized him to utilize the vacation periods. In 1881, in the Seminary lecture rooms, he opened the first of his famous summer schools. One summer a second school was conducted at Worcester, Massachusetts, to meet New England needs, and the following summer a second school at New Haven, and yet a third in Philadelphia appealed to a still wider constituency He saw somewhere a notice to the effect that some rabbi proposed to teach Hebrew by correspondence. Forthwith, with the electric pen he drew up a series of lessons and importuned the ministers whom he knew to begin or review their Hebrew. The next year the lesson slips were printed .... and alluring circulars were sent broadcast over the land inviting to the study or restudy of the language of the Old Testament. The renaissance had come indeed, and its inspiring genius, unable to handle it singly, called to his aid his more capable students and other helpers. The expanding work crowded him out of his private library into larger quarters and thence into a vacant store There fonts of Hebrew type and out- fits for compositors, bookkeepers, and proofreaders, lesson correctors and business exploiters, were installed The awakened interest creating the demand for better study helps, the Elements of Hebrew appeared in 1881; Hebrew Vocabularies in 1882; A Hebrew Manual and Lessons of the Elementary Course in 1883; Lessons of the Intermediate Course and Lessons of the Pro- gressive Course in 1884; Introductory Hebrew Method and Manual in 1885. The business of promoting Hebrew, so auspiciously begun and so rapidly extending, could not get on without an organ. The new journal was christened The Hebrew Student The Hebrew Student was popular in character; to meet the more technical linguistic needs, Hebraica was launched. .... To round out the great endeavor and make it in every way complete one thing more was needed. With the machinery for making trained Hebraists running smoothly and successfully, its originator plainly foresaw that a market for the finished product must be created. He therefore evolved the idea of establishing Hebrew and Bible chairs in all the colleges of the land It must not be inferred that Dr. Harper, during his residence in Morgan Park,