18913 Down to Zermatt 



be piled high above the tops of windows and doors; 

 and the ladies were borne to breakfast through a 

 white tunnel, on the backs of our stalwart men. 

 The long days we passed in the crowded dining 

 room, a single pack of cards doing gallant duty. 



On the third morning the clouds broke, letting a 

 in the sun and revealing a world of dazzling brilliancy, ^^^^i/i^g 

 For those who know how great mountains look 

 under similar circumstances, no description is needed 

 — for others no words of mine would be adequate. 

 But we dared not linger; besides, the food had given 

 out at breakfast. So we started in soft snow, knee 

 deep, to make our way laboriously down toward 

 Zermatt, hidden, or so it seemed, not far below the 

 fog which held us still denizens of the empyrean. 

 But suddenly the white floor split, disclosing a fear- An 

 some rift, half a mile deep, green and dark, while at ^"'^^mg 

 the bottom, far, far below, we saw Zermatt, hotels 

 and houses looking like tiny gray dots on a vivid 

 map. The effect was that of the sudden yawning 

 of a gigantic chasm in what had before appeared 

 only low-lying fog over solid ground. 



In the spring of 1891 I was suddenly called upon 

 to make a momentous decision, profoundly affecting 

 the remainder of my life. Early in March, in con- 

 nection with the dedication of a new science building, 

 I had gone to the University of Illinois at Urbana 

 to give an address on the function of the State Uni- 

 versity. In my discourse I maintained that the Function 

 normal development of the university system in ^^j'^' 

 America is democratic; further, that democracy has University 



I 353 3 



