Jordan, well-known for his scientific work and his various books. Though
a comparatively young man, being forty years of age, Dr. Jordan had had
wide experience. He was graduated from Cornell University in 1872, and
for two years was professor at institutions in Illinois and Wisconsin.
In 1874 he was lecturer in marine botany at the Anderson School at
Penikese, and the following year at the Harvard Summer School at
Cumberland Gap. During the next four years, while holding the chair of
biology in Butler University, Indianapolis, he was the naturalist of two
geological surveys in Indiana and Ohio. For six years he was professor
of zoölogy in Indiana University, and for the six years following its
president. For fourteen years he had been assistant to the United States
Fish Commission, exploring many of our rivers, and part of that time
agent for the United States Census Bureau in investigating the marine
industries of the Pacific Coast. He had studied also in the large
museums abroad.
Dr. Albert Shaw tells this interesting incident. "President Jordan had
once met the young Stanford boy on the seashore, and won the lad's
gratitude by telling him of shells and submarine life. It was a singular
coincidence that the parents afterwards heard Dr. Jordan make allusions
in a public address which gave them the knowledge that this was the
interesting stranger who had taught their son so much, and had so
enkindled the boy's enthusiasm. His choice as president was an eminently
wise one."
Mr. Stanford wished ten acres to be set aside "as a place of burial and
of last rest on earth for the bodies of the grantors and of their son,
Leland Stanford, Jr., and, as the board may direct, for the bodies of
such other persons who may have been connected with the University."
Mr. Stanford lived to see his University opened and doing successful
work. The plan of its buildings, suggested by the old Spanish Missions
of California, was originally that of Richardson, the noted architect of
Boston; but as he died before it was completed, the work was done by his
successors, Shepley, Rutan, & Coolidge.
The plan contemplates a number of quadrangles in the midst of 8,400
acres. "The central group of buildings will constitute two quadrangles,
one entirely surrounding the other," says the _University Register_ for
1894--1895. "Of these the inner quadrangle, with the exception of the
chapel, is now completed. Its twelve one-story buildings are connected
by a continuous open arcade, facing a paved court 586 feet long by 246
feet wide, or three and a quarter acres. The buildings are of a buff
sandstone, somewhat varied in color. The stone-work is of broken ashlar,
with rough rock face, and the roofs are covered with red tile." Within
the quadrangle are several circular beds of semi-tropical trees and
plants.
Miss Milicent W. Shinn, in the _Overland Monthly_ for October, 1891,
says, "I should think it hard to say too much of the simple dignity, the
calm influence on mind and mood, of the great, bright court, the deep
arcade with its long vista of columns and arches, the heavy walls, the
unchanging stone surfaces. They seemed to me like the rock walls of
nature; they drew me back, and made me homesick for them when I had gone
away."
Behind the central quadrangle are the shops, foundry, and boiler-house.
On the east side is Encina Hall, a dormitory for 315 men, provided with
electric lights, steam heat, and bathrooms on each floor. It is four
stories high, and, like the quadrangle, of buff Almaden sandstone.
On the west side of the quadrangle is Roble Hall, for one hundred young
women, and is built of concrete. There are two gymnasiums, called Encina
and Roble gymnasiums.
Perhaps the most interesting of all the buildings, the especial gift of
Mrs. Stanford, is the Leland Stanford Junior Museum, of concrete, in
Greek style of architecture, 313 by 156 feet, including wings, situated
a quarter of a mile from the quadrangle, and between the University and
the Stanford residence. The collection made by young Leland is placed
here, and his own arrangement reproduced. The collection includes
Egyptian bronzes, Greek and Roman glass and statues. The Cesnola
collection contains five thousand pieces of Greek and Roman pottery and
glass. The Egyptian collection, made by Brugsch Bey, Curator of the
Gizeh Museum, for Mrs. Stanford, comprises casts of statuary, mummies,
scarabees, etc. Mr. Timothy Hopkins of San Francisco, one of the
trustees, has given for the Egyptian collection embroideries dating from
the sixth to the twenty-first dynasty. He has also given a collection of
ancient and modern coins and costumes, household goods, etc., from
Corea. There are stone implements from Copenhagen, Denmark, and relics
from the mounds of America. Mrs. Stanford is making the collection of
fine arts, and a very large number of copies of great paintings is
intended. Much attention will be given to local history, Indian
antiquities, and Spanish settlements of early California.
The library has 23,000 volumes and 6,000 pamphlets. Mr. Hopkins has
given a valuable collection of railway books, unusually rich in the
early history of railways in Europe and America, with generous provision
for its increase. Mr. Hopkins has also founded the Hopkins Seaside
Laboratory at Pacific Grove, two miles west of Monterey, to provide for
investigations in marine biology, as a branch of the biological work of
the University.
Students are not received into the University under sixteen years of
age, and if special students, not under twenty, and must present
certificates of good moral character. If from other colleges they must
bring letters of honorable dismissal. They are offered a choice of
twenty-two subjects for entrance examination, and must pass in twelve
subjects. _Tuition in all departments is free._
"The degree of Bachelor of Arts is granted to students who have
satisfactorily completed the equivalent of four years' work of 15 hours
of lecture or recitation weekly, or a total of 120 hours, and who have
also satisfied the requirements in major and minor subjects."
President Jordan says, in the _Educational Review_ for June, 1892: "In
the arrangement of the courses of study two ideas are prominent: first,
that every student who shall complete a course in the University must be
thoroughly trained in some line of work. His education must have as its
central axis an accurate and full knowledge of something. The second is
that the degree to be received is wholly a subordinate matter, and that
no student should be compelled to turn out of his way in order to secure
it. The elective system is subjected to a single check. In order to
prevent undue scattering, the student is required to select the work in
general of some one professor as major subject or specialty, and to
pursue this subject or line of subjects as far as the professor in
charge may deem it wise or expedient. In order that all courses and all
departments may be placed on exactly the same level, the degree of
Bachelor of Arts is given in all alike for the equivalent of the four
years' course. Should his major subject, for instance, be Greek, then
the title is given that of Bachelor of Arts in Greek; should the major
subject be chemistry, Bachelor of Arts in chemistry, and so on."
In 1895 there were 1,100 students in the University, of whom 728 were
men, and 372 women. Several of the students are from the New England
States.
Mr. Stanford spent over a million dollars in the University buildings,
and gave as an endowment over 89,000 acres of land valued at more than
five million dollars. The Palo Alto estate has 8,400 acres; the Vina
estate, 59,000 acres, with over 4,000 acres planted to grapes which are
made into wine--those of us who are total abstainers regret such use;
and the Gridley estate 22,000 acres, one of California's great wheat
farms. In years to come it is hoped that these properties, which are
never to be sold, will so increase in value that they will be worth
several times five millions.
Mr. and Mrs. Stanford made their wills, giving to the University
"additional property," that the endowment, as Mr. Stanford said, "will
be ample to establish and maintain a university of the highest grade."
It has been stated, frequently, that the "full endowment" in land and
money will be $20,000,000 or more.
Senator Stanford's death came suddenly at the last, at Palo Alto,
Tuesday, June 20-21, 1893. He had not been well for some time; but
Tuesday he had driven about the estate, with his usual interest and good
cheer. He retired to rest about ten o'clock; and at midnight his wife,
who occupied an adjoining apartment, heard a movement as if Mr. Stanford
were making an effort to rise. She spoke to him, but received no answer.
His breathing was unnatural; and in a few minutes he passed away,
apparently without pain.
Mr. Stanford was buried at Palo Alto, Saturday, June 24. The body lay
in the library of his home, in a black cloth-covered casket, with these
words on the silver plate:--
LELAND STANFORD.
BORN TO MORTALITY MARCH 9, 1824.
PASSED TO IMMORTALITY, JUNE 21, 1893.
AGED 69 YRS., 3 MOS., 12 DAYS.
Flowers filled every part of the library. The Union League Club sent a
floral piece representing the Stars and Stripes worked in red and white
in "everlasting," with star lilies on a ground of violets. There was a
triple arch of white and pink flowers representing the central arch of
the main University building. There were wreaths and crosses and a
broken wheel of carnations, hollyhocks, violets, white peas, and ferns.
At half-past one, after all the employees had taken their last look
of the man who had always been their friend,--one, seventy-six
years old, who had worked with Mr. Stanford in the mine, broke down
completely,--the body was borne to the quadrangle of the University by
eight of the oldest engineers in point of service on the Southern
Pacific Railroad. The funeral _cortège_ passed through a double line of
the two hundred or more employees at Palo Alto, several Chinese laborers
being at the end of the line. Senator Stanford was always opposed to any
legislation against the Chinese.
The body was placed on a platform at one end of the quadrangle, the
remaining space being filled with several thousand persons. About
sixteen hundred chairs were provided, but these could accommodate only a
small portion of those present. The platform was decorated with ferns,
smilax, white sweet peas, and thousands of St. Joseph's lilies. The
temporary chancel was flanked by two remarkable flower pieces: on the
left, a _fac-simile_ of the first locomotive ever purchased and operated
on the Central Pacific Railroad, the "Governor Stanford," sent by the
employees of the company. The boiler and smoke-stack were of
mauve-colored sweet peas; the headlight and bell were of yellow pansies;
the cab of white sweet peas bordered by yellow pansies; the tender of
white sweet peas edged by pansies and lined with ivy; on the side of the
cab, in heliotrope, the name Governor Stanford. On the right of the bier
was the gift of the employees of the Palo Alto stock-farm, a
representation in sweet peas of the senator's favorite bay horse.
After the burial service of the Episcopal Church, a solo, "O sweet and
blessed country," and address by Dr. Horatio Stebbins of the First
Unitarian Church of San Francisco, the choir sang "Lead Kindly Light,"
and the body of Senator Stanford was conveyed through the cypress avenue
to the mausoleum in the ten acres adjoining the residence grounds. The
tomb is in the form of a Greek temple lined with white marble, guarded
by a sphinx on either side of the entrance.
Here beside the open doors stood another beautiful floral tribute, a
shield eight feet high, of roses, lilies, and other flowers sent by the
employees of the Sacramento Railroad shops. Worked in violets were the
words "The Laborers' Tribute to the Laborers' Friend." The choir sang,
"Abide with Me," the body was laid in the tomb, and the bronze doors
were closed. A few days later the body of Leland Stanford, Junior, the
boy whose death, as Dr. Stebbins said at the senator's funeral, "drew
the sunbeams out of the day," was laid beside that of his father. Some
time the mother will sleep here with her precious dead.
Mr. Stanford's heart was bound up in his University. He said, after his
son died, "The children of California shall be our children." Mr. Sibley
of Pennsylvania tells how, three years after Leland Junior died, he and
Mr. Stanford "went together to the tomb of the boy, and the father told
amid tears and sobs how, since the death of his son, he had adopted and
taken to his heart and love every friendless boy and girl in all the
land, and that, so far as his means afforded, they should go to make the
path of every such an one smoother and brighter."
Mr. Stanford told Dr. Stebbins, in speaking of the University: "We feel
[he always used the plural, thus including that womanly heart from whose
fountains his life had ever been refreshed] that we have good ground for
hope. We are very happy in our work. We do not feel that we are making
great sacrifices. We feel that we are working with and for the Almighty
Providence."
By the will of Mr. Stanford the University receives two and a half
million dollars, but this bequest is not yet available. He always felt,
and rightly, that his wife owned all their large fortune equally with
himself; therefore he placed no restrictions upon her disposal of it.
Inasmuch as she is a co-founder of the University, she will doubtless
add largely to its endowment. Should she do this, the power of Leland
Stanford Junior University for good will be almost unlimited.
Even granite mausoleums crumble away; but great deeds last forever, and
make their doers immortal.
CAPTAIN THOMAS CORAM
AND HIS FOUNDLING ASYLUM.
One of the best of England's charities is the Foundling Asylum in
London, founded in 1739 by Captain Thomas Coram. He was not a man of
family or means, but he had a warm heart and great perseverance. For
seventeen years he labored against indifference and prejudice, till
finally his home for little waifs and outcasts became a visible fact,
and for more than a century has been doing its noble work.
Captain Coram was born at Lyme Regis, in Dorsetshire, in 1668, a seaport
town which carried on some trade with Newfoundland. It is probable that
his father was a seafaring man, as the lad early followed that
occupation. When he was twenty-six years old we hear of him in the New
World at Taunton, Mass., earning his living as a shipwright.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN THOMAS CORAM]
He did not wait to become rich--as indeed he never was--before he began
to plan good works. He had saved some money by the year 1703, when he
was thirty-five; for we see by the early records that he conveyed to the
governor and other authorities in Taunton, fifty-nine acres to be used
whenever the people so desired, for an Episcopal church or a
schoolhouse. This gift, the deed alleges, was made "in consideration of
the love and respect which the donor had and did bear unto the said
church, as also for divers other good causes and considerations him
especially at that present moving."
Later he gave to Taunton a quite valuable library, a portion of which
remains at present. A Book of Common Prayer is now in the church, on
whose title-page it is stated that it was the gift "by the Right
Honorable Arthur Onslow, Speaker of the Honourable House of Commons of
Great Britain, one of His Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council, and
Treasurer of His Majesty's Navy, etc., to Thomas Coram, of London,
Gentleman, for the use of a church, lately built at Taunton, in New
England."
About this time, 1703, Mr. Coram moved to Boston, and became the master
of a ship. He was deeply interested in the colonies of the mother
country, and though in a comparatively humble station, began to project
plans for their increase in commerce, and growth in wealth. In 1704 he
helped to procure an Act of Parliament for encouraging the making of tar
in the northern colonies of British America by a bounty to be paid on
the importation. Before this all the tar was brought from Sweden. The
colonies were thereby saved five million dollars.
In 1719, when on board the ship Sea Flower for Hamburgh, that he might
obtain supplies of timber and other naval stores for the royal navy,
Captain Coram was stranded off Cuxhaven and his cargo plundered.
Some years later, in 1732, having become much interested in the
settlement of Georgia, Captain Coram was appointed one of the trustees
by a charter from George II.
Three years after this, in 1735, the energetic Captain Coram addressed
a memorial to George II., about the settlement of Nova Scotia, as he had
found there "the best cod-fishing of any in the known parts of the
world, and the land is well adapted for raising hemp and other naval
stores." One hundred laboring men signed this memorial, asking for free
passage thither, and protection after reaching Nova Scotia.
Captain Coram was so interested in the project that he appeared on
several occasions before the Lords Commissioners for Trade and
Plantations, and was, says Horace Walpole, "the most knowing person
about the plantations I ever talked with." For several years nothing was
done about his memorial, but before his death England took action about
her now valuable colony.
About 1720 Captain Coram lived in Rotherhithe, and going often to London
early in the morning and returning late at night, became troubled about
the infants whom he saw exposed or deserted in the public streets,
sometimes dead, or dying, or perhaps murdered to avoid publicity.
Sometimes these foundlings, if not deserted, were placed in poor
families to whom a small sum was paid for their board; and often they
were blinded or maimed as they grew older, and sent on the streets to
beg.
The young mother, usually homeless and friendless, was almost as
helpless as her child if she tried to keep it and earn a living. People
scorned her, or arrested her and threw her into prison: the shipmaster
tried to find a remedy for the evil.
He talked with his friends and acquaintances, but no one seemed to
care. He besought those high in authority, but few seemed to think that
foundlings were worth saving. The poor and the disgraced should bear
their sorrows alone. Some from all ranks thought the charity a noble
one, and wondered that it had been so long neglected; but none gave a
penny, or put forth any effort.
"His arguments," wrote Coram's most intimate friend, Dr. Brocklesby,
"moved some, the natural humanity of their own temper more, his firm but
generous example most of all; and even people of rank began to be
ashamed to see a man's hair become gray in the course of a solicitation
by which he was to get nothing. Those who did not enter far enough into
the case to compassionate the unhappy infants for whom he was a suitor,
could not help pitying him."
Captain Coram finally turned to woman for aid, and obtained the names of
"twenty-one ladies of quality and distinction" who were willing to help
in his project of a foundling asylum. Not all "ladies of quality" were
willing to help, however; for in the Foundling Hospital may be seen this
note, attached to a memorial addressed to "H.R.H., the Princess Amelia."
"On Innocents' Day, the 28th December, 1737, I went to St. James' Palace
to present this petition, having been advised first to address the lady
of the bedchamber in waiting to introduce it. But the Lady Isabella
Finch, who was the lady in waiting, gave me rough words, and bid me gone
with my petition, which I did, without opportunity of presenting it."
Finally Captain Coram's incessant labors bore fruit. On Tuesday, Nov.
20, 1739, at Somerset House, London, a meeting of the nobility and
gentry was held, appointed by his Majesty's royal charter to be
governors and guardians of the hospital. Captain Coram, now seventy-one
years of age, addressed the president, the Duke of Bedford, with great
feeling. "My Lord," he said, "although my declining years will not
permit me to hope seeing the full accomplishment of my wishes, yet I can
now rest satisfied; and it is what I esteem an ample reward of more than
seventeen years' expensive labor and steady application, that I see your
Grace at the head of this charitable trust, assisted by so many noble
and honorable governors."
The house for the foundlings was opened in Hatton Garden in 1741, no
child being received over two months old. No questions as to parentage
were to be asked; and when no more infants could be taken in, the sign,
"The house is full," was hung over the door. Sometimes one hundred women
would be at the door with babies in their arms; and when only twenty
could be received, the poor creatures would fight to be first at the
door, that their child might find a home. Finally the infants were
admitted by ballot, by means of balls drawn by the mothers out of a bag.
If they drew a white ball, the child was received; if a black ball, it
was turned away.
The present Foundling Hospital was begun in 1740, and the western wing
finished and occupied in 1745, on the north side of Guilford Street,
London, the governors having bought the land, fifty-five acres, from the
Earl of Salisbury.
Hogarth, the painter, was deeply interested in Captain Coram's
benevolent object. He painted for the hospital some of his finest
pictures, and influenced his brother artists to do the same. Hogarth's
"March to Finchley" was intended to be dedicated to George II. A proof
print was accordingly presented to the king for his approval. The
picture gives "a view of a military march, and the humors and disorders
consequent thereon."
The king was indignant, and exclaimed, "Does the fellow mean to laugh at
my guards?"
"The picture, please your Majesty," said one of the bystanders, "must be
considered as a burlesque."
"What! a painter burlesque a soldier? He deserves to be picketed for his
insolence," replied the king.
The picture was returned to the mortified artist, who dedicated it to
"the king of Prussia, an encourager of the arts."
So many fine paintings were presented to the hospital,--one of Raphael's
cartoons, a picture by Benjamin West, and others,--and such a crowd of
people came daily to see them in splendid carriages and gilt sedan
chairs, that the institution "became the most fashionable morning lounge
in the reign of George II."
This exhibition of pictures of the united artists was the precursor of
the Royal Academy, founded in 1768. Before this time the artists had
their annual reunion and dinner together at the Foundling Hospital, the
children entertaining them with music.
Hogarth, notwithstanding his busy life, requested that several of the
infants should be sent to Chiswick, where he resided; and he and Mrs.
Hogarth looked carefully after their welfare. It was the custom to send
the babies into the country to be nursed by some mother, as soon as
they were received at the hospital.
Handel, as well as Hogarth, was interested in the foundlings. The chapel
had been erected by subscription in 1847. George II subscribed £2,000
towards its erection, and £1,000 towards supplying a preacher. Handel
offered a performance in vocal and instrumental music to raise money in
building the chapel. The most distinguished persons in the realm came to
hear the music. Over a thousand were present, the tickets being half a
guinea each.
Each year, as long as Handel was able to do so, he superintended the
performance of his great Oratorio of the Messiah in the chapel, which
netted the treasury £7,000. When he died he made the following bequest:
"I give a fair copy of the Score, and all the parts of my Oratorio
called the Messiah, to the Foundling Hospital."
A singular gift to the hospital was from Omychund, a black merchant of
Calcutta, who bequeathed to that and the Magdalen Hospital 37,500
current rupees, to be equally divided between them.
Captain Coram lived ten years after his good work was begun. He loved to
visit the hospital, and looked upon the children as if they were his
own. He rejoiced in every gift, although he had no money of his own to
give. He had buried his wife, Eunice, after whom the first girl at the
hospital was named. The first boy was called Thomas Coram, after the
founder.