Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/284

 246 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO chapel exercises were held. There sat upon the platform with myself Drs. Hulbert and Anderson, Mrs. Palmer and Professor Judson All pro- nounced the service a very impressive one. The hall was more than crowded. The professors sat in a portion of the room set apart for them and made a mag- nificent showing. A large number of the Board of Trustees were present. At the close of the exercises the Board of Trustees lunched in the University Commons, and held a Board meeting in the afternoon of two hours. At 4:30 the first meeting of the University Faculty was held Today [Sunday] the first public lecture was given in the University chapel by myself on the Book of Job, and tonight we have opened the University Extension Work by beginning a course on the literary study of the Bible, by Moulton. The number of matriculants at 5:00 o'clock yesterday was five hundred and forty. Of this number about one hundred and thirty-eight were graduate students. This certainly is as satisfactory as anything which could be wished. The number of men admitted to the undergraduate department is at present over two hundred and fifty. Everybody seems in good spirits The regular grind begins tomorrow. The days of dreaming are passed and now real action begins. The letter of Mr. Goodspeed was written on the same day, October 2 : The above date calls up many memories. Yesterday, when the first chapel service began, the three years and four months of preliminary work, with its struggles, hopes, and fears came before me so vividly that I could not restrain tears of joy and gratitude. No one but Dr. Harper could have felt the full significance of the hour as I did The long period of waiting, the preliminary work, these were ended. They were behind us. Our dreams had materialized. Our hopes were realized. It was a great moment in my life Dr. Harper, has, of course, been overwhelmed. Judson and Abbott have been nearly worked to death. Mrs. Palmer looked yesterday as though she hadn't slept for a week. In this state of affairs the reporters have found it well-nigh impossible to find anyone who could talk with them. My son Charles has been their mainstay. It has been a pure delight to him to fill them full of all the knowledge he has on the University You ought to have been here to witness the scenes on the campus and in the build- ings. What with workmen, professors, students, and visitors, there have been a thousand people there every day. It looked like chaos come again, pandemonium broken loose. Yet every man knew just what he had to do and was doing it as though he were the only man on the ground. And so, slowly but surely, order was evolved and everything was at last ready for the opening day. There are yet a few finishing touches to be put on the build- ings, but the University work will go right on. The buildings we have rented for the scientific departments will not be fully ready for two weeks, and so