Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-03-13

day, in travelling from Nashville to Chattanooga, came upon the crude university huts. The work of putting up the stone buildings had not been started.
 The soldiers saw the marble corner, <. stone and at once became inQuisitive. The stone was blown open with gun. powder, and the papers that Bishop Polk had placed there were abstarct. ed. The wooden huts were set aflre. and. nothing. remained to mark the site of the Sewanee university but ashes.
 During the war Bishop Polk, at tho head of Louisiana regiment, was killed. When the war was over the trustees again took up the work of building the university. They found that the fortunes of those who had promised the $3.00O,0oO of endow.l ments had been dissipated. There were no funds with which to continue the work.
 Discouraged, the trustees concluded to abandon the idea. Under the grant by. which they came into possession .of the forest land, they would lose title if no buildings were put up by the fall of. 1868. Bishop Quintard. whose brothers now own the Quin@ tard iron works, of this city, real- ized that Sewanee was doomed un- less something was hurriedly done. Three days before possession would have passed from the trustees. the bishop and two others went up to the mountain and planted a rustic cross, after the fashion of the war. riors under William the Conqueror. The next day they hastily nailed to- gether two rough huts, and the day after that the University of the South was an established fact. 'a Tho bishop and his two confreres sent for their sons. and for year the boys were the only students of Sc. vance. In the meantime the trustees had got more funds and stone build. ings were beginning to assume shape. Inside of two years there were half dozen fine structures in that wilder ness, with several professors and 50 students.
 Now Sewanee has an average of $50 students every year. Its domain has been beautiful until today the grounds are among the finest to be found In the world. There are magnificent residences for the professors. while many of the friends or alumni of the university have houses on tho grounds and live there the year round. One of the things on which Sewanee brides itself is this. community. The university population. outside of the students, Is over 1000.
 Sewanees professors, unlike those of some universities. are never kept under restraint of speech. Freedom of the chair is one of the things for which the university is famed. An instance of this is furnished in the case of Prof. Trent, now professor of English literature at Columbia uni- versiU. The professor was. until . few years ago, one of the faculty of Sewanee.
 n Although a southerner, Prof. Trent has some views on the war that arc not in accord with those of all other southerners. Some years ago the pro- lessor wrote his impressions in a book which he called Southern Statesmen of the Old Regime"
 The book created a furor in the south. as Prof. Trent had expected. Stanch friends of the university In the south wrote rcorching letters to the trustees. demanding that Prof. Trent be instantly dismissed. They considered his utterance intolerable. The reply of the trustees was sub tantially this:
 We allow free speech at Sewanee. That Is one of the cardinal principles of our institution. Prof. Trent has not violated the university's law: therefore we cannot see any reason why he should be called to account. He will remain with Sewanee as long as he Is true to it's principles"
 Prof Trent remained until he mar. ried and then moved to New York city.