The Days of a Man X.'^'^i^ 



the fashion of the rural South, aiming to spend 

 Saturday afternoon at the county seat. Thus in 

 summer the entire space about the courthouse fence 

 would be bordered with rinds of the watermelon, a 

 luscious fruit much enjoyed by the whites and still 

 more by the colored population. 



Athwart the main street runs a brook now en- 

 tirely covered, but spanned in very early days by 

 a single log necessarily crossed by every one bound 

 Only for the college. That primitive bridge was ac- 

 °^^ cordingly once the scene of an incident long re- 

 time membered in local history, harking back to very 

 early days. President Wylie, it seems, was much 

 disliked by his faculty of two, Baynard R. Hall of 

 the chair of Classics, and Harney, professor of 

 Mathematics; for a while, at least, the president 

 and Harney were not on speaking terms. One 

 Sunday morning the two met on the log. According 

 to local etiquette Harney had the right of way, but 

 Wylie elbowed him into the stream. 



A racy account of this occurrence may be found in 

 a book by Hall, who after about seven years of 

 service returned to the East and there published 

 (1843) a volume entitled "Life in the New Purchase" 

 — New Purchase being the name by which Monroe 

 County, then lately bought from the Indians, was 

 An un- commonly known. In it the author gives a vivid 

 Totf""^ account of his Bloomington experiences, not on 

 the whole thought flattering by the townspeople, 

 for they destroyed every copy in the university 

 library and everywhere else within reach. Yet the 

 writer speaks appreciatively of the energy and in- 

 dependence of certain individuals, particularly of 

 one most honest and capable **Dr. Sylvan," a mem- 



c 196 : 



