Evening star., 1939-05-14
BY Thomas X. Henry.

contained all tndt renamed OF lne llttle
lives of the men and women he had
known.
Perhaps 1t was this very disinterest
that made him successful. In a long
life he made million dollars. To the
bachelor -recluse, ex-Pvt Mcdonald. it
was less than the simmer of starlight
on a gravestone-less than the song of a
lark on a spring morning or the face of
new blown violet. The only time he
ventured in print-his only education
had been at college" conducted by a
public spirited Methodist minister-was
with an essay on Texas flowers.
Talks of the Stars.
He died at ripe old age. Wherever
he went, even in the Paris, Tex. barber
shop where an old colored barber-a
Methodist minister on the side-shaved
him, he talked of the stars and the Won
ders of big telescopes.
And what good are these telescopes,
Mr. McDonald?" asked the practical
minded colored minister. looking ahead
to fish fries and scent cigars in the
Some day" said the town banker
sadly, I'VE may build one big enough
that we can look through it and see the
golden streets of your New Jerusalem" :"
1t was rash statement. When ex-Pvt.
Mcdonald died, bequeathing million
dollars to the University of Texas for the
establishment of an astronomical OBJ
servatory, efforts were made to break
the will, on the grounds that he was
crazy.
The minister testified to this strange
conversation. In the end the university
got only 100000 out of the Mcdonald
Will-too little to accomplish the dream
of the man who had walked guard under
the stars in 1868, while his comrades
lay around their smoking campfires
There was only 100000 left-and it was
bound by curious restriction for ira
ditional 18th century banker. The mil
licnaire required of the university that
1t use the utmost leniency in collecting
ANYTHING due his estate. For to ex-Pvt
Mcdonald there was one thing as infinite
as the Milky Way that spanned the CEN
ter of the heavens-the tears of widow
and orphan and the eternal Illustration
of the life of man.
There were a few years of pettifogging,
earthly legal controversy. Out of his
grave, ex-Pvt. Mcdonald emerged the
victor. The University of Texas had
enough money to build, equip and staff
a relatively small observatory. There
we're scores of such in the world. 1t was
not what Mcdonald had wanted.
Arranged in Phone Talk.
Fortunately there were two men in the
world with ideas not far apart from
those of the banker himself. One was
the president of the University of Texas
the late DR.. H. Y. Benedict. He himself
was an astronomer whom fate had forced
from the contemplation of the heavens
to the humdrum job of soliciting appro-
priations from a State Legislature and
disciplining co-eds for petting on the
campus. Dr. Benedict's heart was far
away-with the 100, 900 100000 star spiral
nebulae which f1oated millions Of light
wears away in space. The other was q
young man, radical in the philosophy
of education-President Hutchins of the
University of Chicago.
It was all arranged in telephone con-
versation The University of Texas would
use Banker McDonalds money to build
the observatory. The University of Chi
cago would supply and pay the brains"
to run it. This point perhaps, cannot be
too much stressed-it is such a radical
departure from the folk pattern Of the
Day, 30 much in keeping with the basic