Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/304

 266 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO the Press, made arrangements with outside parties to set it in motion, later taking it over and conducting it as a regular part of its work. As a part of it the bookstore was started in obb Hall, and though there were complaints of high prices in its early history, it became a more and more important part of the Uni- versity life. Under authorization of the Trustees the Press began during the first year the publication of several journals. The departments, was from the beginning greatly desired and strongly urged by President Harper. The Trustees, in the then state of the finances, were reluctant and hard to convince. Under the President's urgency, however, they did consent to the policy, and the publication of journals was begun in less than three months after the University opened. The system of University Houses was devised and adopted the first year, a House being a group of members of the University entitled to continuous residence in a particular hall. Each House was to have a Head appointed by the President, a Counselor chosen from the faculty by the House, a House committee, and a Secretary and Treasurer. The first House organized was " Grad- uate," occupying the first dormitory south of Cobb, and composed of graduate students and young instructors. Dean Small became the first Head and, to signify his appreciation of the dignity, pre- sented the House with a tea-set. Delightful tea-drinkings followed. It was a time of tradition making, and Mr. Scares relates that at one of these meetings "the suggestion was made that any person desiring to establish a tradition should present the same in writing, and, after lying on the table for two weeks, it could be established by a two thirds vote so hungry were we for traditions in those days." But traditions, in the University as elsewhere, were of slow growth. Such were some of the educational, athletic, social, religious, and literary aspects and incidents of the first year of the Uni- versity's life. The year, indeed, was so full, so replete with inci- dents, so crowded with new things, that slight justice can be done to it within the limits of a single chapter. Nothing has yet been said of the financial history of the year. That too was full of incident, and its importance demands narra-
 * issuing of departmental journals edited and conducted by the