The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-04-14
ILLS NEW YORK LETTER.
Educational and Ecclesiastical Events
of the Week in the Metropolis.
Ministers and Bunco-Steerers-TheR Ring Try
ing to Make More Doodle Out of the
Bridge-Theatrical Topics.



New York, April 12-Columbia College
has made an appeal, officially for an addi-
tional endowment of 81, 100000 to enable it
to expand itself into great university. AS
yet not a man has come forward with a
single dollar for the purpose, The appeal
was made at an unfortunate time. Public
feeling has really turned very strongly
against the institution since It's trustees so
summarily refused to admit young women
to its classes. Whatever may be the right or
the wrong of the coeducation question, it is
indisputable that the petitioners for the adj
mission of women represented the best por-
tions of the city in all professions. Men of
eminence in law, politics, business, the min
istry, educational institutions, philanthropy,
all signed the petition, and they very gener-
ally expected that their request would be
favorably considered. Their disappoint-
ment may be imagined when the trus-
tees, under the leadership of the Rev.
DR.. Dix, said bluntly that women should
never be admitted Their disappointment
deepened into disgust when DIR. Dix in his
Lenten lectures went on to say that he
deemed women unworthy of higher educa-
ton, and that he considered the desire to &C
quire knowledge the source of all woman's
ills and of the sins of society And the last
straw fell upon the cancels back when he
declared that educated women were almost
inevitably unchaste, and that ''if Athena
were admitted to Columbia, aphrodite would
quickly follow" This was not unnaturally
recorded as coarse insult to the women of
New York, and only DIR. Dix's cloth saved
him from some sharp retorts.
Right upon the heels of this, Dr. Dix and
his comrades ask New Workers to give them
100000 Now, the men who are in the
habit of giving money for such purposes
were the signers of the petition that had been
SO summarily rejected. One can hardly sup
pose them to feel like answering the call fa-
vorable. CYRUS W. Field was one of the pc
titioners. Talking yesterday with a member
OF his family, asked if Mr.. Field thought of
aiding the endowment
mot bit. He won't give a cent now nor
wouldn't if it was to save the college from
ruin"
Because the petition was-?"
"Yes! Why do you know that if that Pc
tition had been treated respectfully, Mr..
Field and others of the petitioners stood ready
to endow the college to any amount the ad-
mission of women rendered desirable The
signers of that petition represented more than
$500,000,000. Had the trustees consented to
admit women, they would have given an en-
dowment of S., 0OOO0O or of $4,000, OOo if it
had been asked for. But now thew won't
give cent.
FELIX ADLER.
An interesting event of the week was the
dedication of the new building on West
Fifty-fourth street, which is to be occupied
and ethical school. The most significant fea-
ture of the occasion was the presence of sew
eral of the mos prominent Unitarian and
Universalist ministers of this CITY and Brook
Ign, and their Endorsement of Professor Ad-
lers work.
Felix Adler, it will be remembered, is a
Jew by descent. He used to be professor
at Cornell University and it was said that he
advised the students who pulled in the COL
lege crew to spend their Sundays practicing
for the intercollegiate regattas. His teach
ings, too. were extremely i-Christian, and
gave great offense to the patrons of the col
lege. So he left there and came to New York,
and founded a society for ethical culture.
The organization is a distnctively infidel
one. Its creed is that there is no God no
future life; that the Bible is fraud and that
most of the evils of the world are the fruits
of the Christian religion. Its object is to
promote morality independent of and. in
To- c.. -.
They meet every Sunday morning in Chick
ering Hall, and listen to a lecture from
Adler. | heard him once. He is a medium
sized, slender, STOPPING man, with decided
ly German-Jewish cast of features and of
voice. He speaks fuently, though monoto-
nously and without gesture. Usually his
addresses are on ethical or educational
topics, but he never neglects to bring in an
attack upon Christianity. He did when 1
heard him, his subject being industrial
Education" His particular mode of attack
upon Christianity is sneerng. He does not
argue against it, like John Fiske. He does
not crack jokes upon it, nor declaim extrava-
gantly against it, like Insersoll. He simply
sneers at it. Fiske, l should say, attacks
religion for the seke of advancing
his own scientific theories Ingersoli
does so to create a sensation, give
himself notoriety and make money. Adler
appears to do it because his liver is torpid
his bile out of order, and his eyes peering
through spectacles Of mingled yellow and
green glass. Still, Mr.. Adler is doing some
good in his efforts to establish schools for in
dustrial instruction, and he has thus enlisted
the sympathy and active aid of many who
otherwise have nothing in common with him.
1t was thus, l fancy, that some of the minis
tiers referred to attended his school-open-
ing and uttered words of sympathy with the
cause.
MINISTER'S MEETINGS.
These two cities are now fairly teeming
with ecclesiastical gatherings. The Method
lists have been holding a couple of confer
ences, the Brooklyn Presbytery its spring
session, and the New York and Brooklyn
Congregational Association an adjourned
meeting The Preshvterian hrathran moi