Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/88

 62 A HISTORY OF TH! RSITY OF CHICAGO consideration. (>n April 12 an all-day meeting was held in New York. A letter from Dr. Harper speaks of it as follows: I HAVEN April 13, 1889 MY DEAR Fan The Commit! i 1 promt except Mr. Colby. We worked from 10 o'clock in the morning until 6 o'clock in the evening, with an hour's inter- mission, and we worked even through this. The members of the committee wt-re very unanimous on almost every point and you would be surprised to see how closely they followed your paper. There are some minor variations, but in substance the matter went through exactly as you wanted it. Gales will send you a copy of the report which he and I prepared last night in New York. [The two cre evidently appointed by the committee to formulate the report. 1 Surely we have things in satisfactory shape. I am glad that the work is over; it has been a great strain upon me. If anything can be accomplished. 1 shall be happy. I remain Yours truly. W. R. HARPER our paper" in this letter means a paper prepared by the author in answer to the questions put before the Committee of Nine and signed by twenty-three Chicago men. Three days later he wrote again very briefly: Telegrams received yesterday from Gates make the Chicago matter quite hopeful. It .seems he had a very pleasant interview with Mr. R. The < import of it I have not yet learned. Mr. R. agreed to see him again just before the May meetings. Let us hope and pray. The May meetings referred to were the "Anniversaries" of all the denominational M>cictie>. In Connection with them the annual meeting of the Education Society was to be held. These meetings were more than a month away, and to one of Dr. Harper's tempera- ment this was a long time to wait. He hail time indeed to get a little discouraged. The matter now rested with Mr. Rockefeller. and he was silent. He continued to hold his option. On April :?; Dr. Harper wrote: 1 think the education question now is somewhat mixed. Everything turns on Mr. R.: whether he will take hold or not will be determined within the next three weeks. If he does not everything will be in vain 1 can only feel that 1 have done all that is possible for me to do. I have given dfljl tad eeks u f time this year to the question. 1 feel that 1 have neglected