Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/228

 198 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO timely specialties. Most of them simply want a position; almost anything will satisfy them in most cases. In my own case it is my clearly expressed desire to help forward the most promising specialty of the. Receiving no encouragement, this gentleman, who lived at a considerable distance from Chicago, wrote again and again, the substance of his letters being requests for permission to call on the President: With all irrepressible earnestness consistent with gentlemanly courtesy I would urge you to allow me soon a personal interview. In this case, however, the President was adamant, as he could be where the situation demanded. The following application had the distinction of being the only one of its kind: I have friends who will gladly ask John D. Rockefeller to give me his recommendation. The writer no doubt spoke the truth. What he did not know was that Mr. Rockefeller, never, under any circumstances, could be induced to recommend the employment or dismissal of a member of the faculty or give any advice whatever regarding the teaching force. The following must have presented a temptation to a President who felt that he needed and must have at least thirty-five more instructors than he had funds to remunerate : I desire to state that salary is absolutely no object, as I have interests the returns from which are ample for my needs. Whether President Harper was tempted by this generous offer or not is not known. If he was, the Scripture was fulfilled, and he was not tempted above what he was able to bear. But how could he decline an opportunity to secure such a man as the following? I am essentially a born teacher, one possessing such a power of imparting knowledge as is seldom met with. This man was evidently in a class with Captain Cuttle's watch, "excelled by few and equalled by none." Yet the President failed