The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1891-08-18
THE HALF MILLION
Endowment Fund Recently Donated
to Trinity College
By Col. W. Duke of This City. Accord
ing to Some Newspapers,
INCLUDING THE RICHMOND DISPATCH
Has Not Been Announced, Says MIR. x. i
Lyon, Who Was Interviewed
by The Globe.

few things are happening and columns
of type have to be set up regardless of
time or temperature, Trinity college con-
tinues to be a fruitful theme for comment
and speculation.
In the Concord Standard the following
item appeared few days ago, and has
gone the rounds Of the press, ending up
this morning in the State Chronicle:
ut is now being whispered around
that Trinity college is soon to be made
the recipient of a splendid endowment
amounting to half million dollars.
"No one has it straight but it is talked
secretly in circles that can be nothing
else but reliable. Some have it that north
ern men will make the donation, but 9th
ers, who are more probably correct, have
it that Col. Washington Duke, Durham's
millionaire, who has done so much for
Trinity, will be the principal leader in
this generous giving. If the report
proves true, and we hope it will, it will
put Trinity on an equal basis with the
best institutions Of the country, and we
shall expect to see her flourish as no
other southern college has flOurished."
And this has been constantly repeated
confined to the state, but Virginia papers
have taken it up and running it for all it
was worth.
In Saturdays issue the Richmond Dis
to Io of
poraries. announced as a fact that Mr..
W. Duke, Of this city, had donated to
Trinity as an endowment fund half
million dollars and that the college was
thereby put beyond the need of further
donations.
On the strength of this statement and
in the absence of Mr.. Duke from the city,
THE GLOBE interviewed Mr.. r. f. Lyon,
of his affairs, and learned from him that
no such donation had been made and
that nothing had ever been said by any
of the Duke family to warrant such an
assertion
Mr.. Lyon stated that while Mr.. Duke
had never declared his future intentions
toward the college, he felt safe in saying
that it was neither his purpose nor de-
sire to shoulder the institution singly
and alone, as he would he doing by such
an endowment; he considered that he
had already done his share and he thought
it was time for the rest of the Methodists,
who profess to have the interest Of the
college so much at heart, to do something.
And so it is Because a man has
money and gives it, a great deal Of it, to
public institutions, the dear public which
expects to enjoy the benefits sits back in
its easy chair and vaguely and lazily and
confidently wonders if he will not, if he
cannot be induced and if he really does
not intend to give more.
If man gives away a fourth of his
fortune they expect him to give it all
and if he gives away half, they expect
him to give all of his own and paIt of
several of his neighbors.
Whether Mr. Washington Duke does
or does not intend at some future time to
contribute to the endowment Of Trinity,
The GLOBE is not informed nor is it any
of it's business at the present time. We
are authorized to state, however, that no
such promise or expectation has been
held out and that the report was started
by some enterprising individual who
knew nothing whatever of the matter.
To the committee on endowment and
to the Methodists Of the state generally
THE GLOBE would suggest that thou
sand small props are stronger when it
comes to supporting a great structure
than one large one, and that the more
shoulders upon which the responsibility
Of The conduct and maintenance of this
institution rests, the better for the insti
tuition.
We would also remind them that the
main building, which is a gift from Mr.
Duke and originally estimated at So, 600,
will, by the falling of the tower, cost
him much more.
People who sit down and occupy them
selves by wondering how much more he
proposes to shovel out, could, in the
opinion of this great moral and religious
sheet, put in their time better by doing
something themselves.
Rates to the Eiremen's Tournament.
For the above occasion the Richmond
and Danyille railroad will sell tickets to
Durham and return at the f flowing rates
from points named, tickets on sale Au-
gust "a, % and 26, limited returning Au
gust 90: Charlotte, $40; Greensboro,
$2.10; Winston Salem, $50; Henderson,
$3.50; Raleigh, $40; Selma, $2.10;