The Days of a Man ^1875 



Wisconsin I had been assured of an appointment as professor 

 of Zoology in the University of Wisconsin, Augustus 

 L. Smith of Appleton, 'a personal friend, being the 

 president of the board of trustees of the university 

 and possessed of large personal influence. But the 

 governor of the state failed to reappoint him for the 

 coming term. I thus lost my "friend at court," and 

 Dr. Edward A. Birge of Harvard, a man no older 

 than I and admirably fitted for the work, was elected 

 to the coveted place. This was the greatest of my 

 disappointments, for the University of Wisconsin 

 seemed to me the most typical representative of the 

 state university system of the whole country. As I 

 write, Dr. Birge (after forty-five years of devoted 

 service) has become president of the institution, 

 succeeding the gifted geologist, Dr. Charles R. Van 

 Rise, whose sudden death left a great gap in the 

 ranks of educational leaders. 



Princeton Meanwhile another prospect opened, to be suddenly 

 closed for a peculiar reason. From Dr. James 

 McCosh, president of Princeton, I received a letter 

 stating that he had my name under consideration 

 for the professorship of Zoology, and asking for 

 some evidence of fitness besides my youthful booklet 

 on the Vertebrates of the Eastern United States. 

 This request I fulfilled to the best of my ability, and 

 the correspondence proceeded until Dr. McCosh 

 wished me to "unbosom" myself on religious matters. 

 Still under the influence of Agassiz's philosophic 

 views, I made what I regarded as a conservative 

 and reasonable response which I thought would be 

 satisfactory. It proved inadequate, however; at 

 least I did not again hear from McCosh, and a much 

 older man, George Macloskie, unquestionably ortho- 



C 150 D 



