448 SUNDRY JOURNEYS AND EXPERIENCES-V 



ing power of literary expression, with a remarkable abil 

 ity in organization, and blessed with good, sound sense. 

 Call him.&quot; They took my advice, called Dr. Jordan, and 

 I found him at the university. My three weeks stay in 

 terested me more and more. Evening after evening I 

 walked through the cloisters of the great quadrangle, ad 

 miring the solidity, beauty, and admirable arrangement 

 of the buildings, and enjoying their lovely surroundings 

 and the whole charm of that California atmosphere. 



The buildings, in simplicity, beauty, and fitness, far 

 surpassed any others which had at that time been erected 

 for university purposes in the United States ; and I feel 

 sure that when the entire plan is carried out, not even 

 Oxford or Cambridge will have anything more beautiful. 

 President Jordan had more than fulfilled my prophecies, 

 and it was an inspiration to see at their daily work the 

 faculty he had called together. The students also greatly 

 interested me. When it was first noised abroad that 

 Senator Stanford was to found a new university in Cali 

 fornia, sundry Eastern men took a sneering tone and 

 said, &quot;What will it find to do? The young men on the 

 Pacific coast who are as yet fit to receive the advan 

 tages of a university are very few; the State Univer 

 sity of California at Berkeley is already languishing for 

 want of students. &quot; The weakness of these views is seen 

 in the fact that, at this hour, each of these universities has 

 nearly three thousand undergraduates. The erection of 

 Stanford has given an impetus to the State University, 

 and both are doing noble work, not only for the Pacific 

 coast, but for the whole country. One of the most note 

 worthy things in the history of American university edu 

 cation thus far is the fact that the university buildings 

 erected by boards of trustees in all parts of the country 

 have, almost without exception, proved to be mere jumbles 

 of mean materials in incongruous styles ; but to this rule 

 there have been, mainly, two noble exceptions : one in the 

 buildings of the University of Virginia, planned and exe 

 cuted under the eye of Thomas Jefferson, and the other 



