The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-04-05


in the new world.
Away TO the left, beyond the silver
streak which one could scarce believe to
be a mighty river a mile and half WIDE
tower the Palisades. Away TO the right
beyond a narrower silver streak. which
marks the Harlem's ebb and flow, stretch
the plains OF Westchester county, Long
Island. and Connecticut. In the foreground
rises TO the left the Cathedral of ST. John
the Divine the finest fame in all America
To the right is ST. Luke's hospital, OF
which the pleasing tale is told that 1t was
built for 81, given by a poor woman in
grateful appreciation of the care which
she had received in a city hospital. this
forming the nucleus around which the
thousands Of the rich gathered TO forward
SO excellent a work. In the immediate
1oreground-not so high as the heaven
piercing spires Of the Cathedral yet far
broader than the mighty block of st.
Lukes-there is a grayish white granite
mass of buildings which seem from this
distance almost without break of green
spaces and airy arcades. Just in the middle
of the splendid pile rises from the lofty
white wall a pure round dome. 1t is the
dome of the library of Columbia College,
a building capable of holding 100000 vol
umes, second only to the congressional IL
brary in Washington, and as big as two of
the famed Bodleian at oxford, containing
besides many of the offices of great
modern university, with S5,OOOOOO, $6.OOO,-
900, or 100000 invested in site and build
ings, with $50 10000 or $40, 10000 Of endow-
ments, with faculties and thronging stu
dents of law, medicine, and pedagogy, OF
engineering and applied sciences, OF polit-
zeal sciences, and of the more human"
re nh ataA In a COLLAGE
But we must not anticipate, as they say
in the stories.
This is a pen picture, not Of Columbia
College OF to-day, but OF the Greater Co
lumbia University as 1t will be five years
from now, If the brave and hopeful plans
of it's friends and trustees are carried out.
For the present, the walls of two or three
only Of the buildings are raising, while
the cellars for one or two more are be-
ing dug; but on the second day or next
month the grounds will be solemnly dedi-
Gated to American learning, at the same
time that the corner stones are laid or the
beautiful library which is being built with
President Seth Lows splendid gift of
100000, and of the science building en-
dowed with Frederick Schermerhorn
gift OF $4,000.
The old idea Of university was a care
fully guarded suburb of some tiny town,
within whose grass-grown quadrangles,
walled away from the hurry of the world,
sage theologians paced in their long black
gowns. The modern ideal university is a
many-sided institution planted upon the
edge of some big town, which furnishes
every advantage in the way OF hospitals,
engineering works, railroads, law Offices,
courts, art exhibitions, and other adju-
wants of learning and culture. The day of
say the advocates of the modern-and the
day is coming of the big city university,
In Berlin, London, New York and Chicago.
It is upon this theory that Columbia
College, which five years ago, in spite
of its generous endowments, was one OF
the second-class institutions of learning
in this country, is now to take a secure
place in the first rank under the presi-
dency of Seth Low, who has been twice
mayor of Brooklyn and more than once
mentioned as a candidate for governor
and even for President. In these five
years the endowment of Columbia has
increased more than $500 600. Its in
come from endowments and fees is some-
thing like 100000 year. What the to-
tai amount of its endowment may be IL
IS difficult to tell, as so much of it is in
lands and buildings of varying value:
but the site which will be dedicated next
month and the new buildings which are
planned to rise thereon will cost from
S5,OOoOO0 to 100000 without trenching up
on the endowment in any way. Indeed
the general funds of the college are ex-
pected to double even while the fair walls
OF the new white city of learning on the
brown rock-ribbed hills are rising
President Low has shown how this may
be done, and other wealthy citizens have
taken the hint. Besides the Schermerhorn
Dulldlng already provided for, the closer
association of the medical school of CO.
lumbia, has brought to 1t $500. 600 from the
Nanderbllts and Sloans, and the erection
or the Sloan maternity hospital, which
is practically an appendage Of Columbia
University.
If any wealthy citizen of New York
wishes to build gymnasium or an aca-
demic theater. or a school or a chapel or
a dining hall, or anything of that kind
at a cost Of from 100000 to IS, 100000, he is
funds of the college will be used Strictly
aor It's educational purposes-and in pro-
vlding for instruction Columbia deals with
Instructors with no niggardly hand. Real
1zing the cost of living in a great city and
IN such style as BELTS the man of culture
and refined taste, the salaries of Column
pas professors are perhaps the highest in
the country
Columbia is not worrying at all about
money. but is going straight ahead with
the confidence that now as i'm the past
whatever is needed will be provided
In the development of the Greater Col
umbia,. President Low and the trustees
nrSt obtained the finest site in the CITY
of New York, eighteen undivided acres
high on the rocky Hill ten miles from the
1rade center OF the city. Here a space
twice as big as Madison square has been
bought. Columbia has pull with the leg
1slature, and has secured an act forever
guarding this cite from being cut up by
streets passing through it. The buildings
are to be laid out in formal way befitting
the classic repose of their architecture the
library in the middle with it's white dome
dominating the group. the various schools
and halls arranged about it, the academic
theater in the rear.
About one-half of the site will Ultimately
be covered with buildings, the remainder
left in broad, well shaped spaces between
them. For the present the magnificent
groves of oaks and chestnuts, perhaps the
finest in the city, will be preserved. The
larger buildings except the library. will
generally be built about grassy quadran-
giles as sunny and quiet as those of oxford
Itself
Just across the street north of the col
lege grounds already stands the teachers
college, affiliated with Columbia Univers-
ity; and to the west across the boulevard
will be placed the new building of Bar
nard college for women, named in honor
of the late president of Columbia
AT present nearly half the income of Co
lumbia is obtained from tuition fees. and
from the income of fellowship and schol-
arship funds, which may be ranked in the
same category However, it is the policy
of the governors to reduce the fees so as
TO offer the utmost inducements to schol-
ars of modest means. Further to aid in
this work, endowments for as many schol-
arships and felowships as possible are to
be secured from the alumni, and from
interested citizens who like TO have their
legs pulled for a good cause; and there
are more such citizens than people some
times think.
great ecboot ~ AT ,,,,,e;. - ..,.