Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/232

 202 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO credentials said he was. As soon as a head professor was secured he became at once an invaluable assistant in completing the faculty. He knew the men he wanted in his own department and was able to give useful suggestions about departments for which heads had not been found. When President Harper decided that he wanted a man he was extraordinarily persistent in his efforts to secure him. He seemed incapable of taking No! for an answer. It took half a dozen refusals, each more emphatic than the preceding one, fully to con- vince him that the case was hopeless. And he might not even then give up his purpose. In clinging to a policy once determined on he was one of the most persistent of men. He was also a born diplomat and would continue a negotiation long after a less pur- poseful man would have abandoned it, and would, oftener than not, continue it to a successful termination. An eminent English scholar replied to a proposition that he then had six other offers before him and added, "there was only one of these that was financially less attractive than your own." Yet President Harper secured him or the summer course for which he wanted him. He had long been negotiating with Professor Burton of Newton Theological Institution for the chair of New Testament Greek without encouragement, but with unwearied persistence. On March 5, 1892, he wrote to the Secretary, Burton has declined. He has just telegraphed me that he cannot free himself from the obligations that seem to bind him there. What we shall do now is a mystery I can think of absolutely no one to put in this chair. But he was not long at a loss. The negotiation was renewed, and in the end Professor Burton came to Chicago. Of course President Harper sometimes failed to get men he wanted. He sought earnestly the best gifts in American, English, and German universities. An eminent English professor declined the headship of a department on the ground that he would not be able to endure "the intense cold of a Chicago winter," and not even President Harper's arguments and persistency could remove this conviction. Of another man he was most anxious