1906] Touches of Humor 



graduate work and the bachelor's degree. Its range 

 now (1920) extends vastly farther, but the private 

 institution must always lead in the advancement of 

 human knowledge if it is to hold its place in the van 

 of higher education. 



There was little enough to amuse on the day of the 

 earthquake, but a Roble joke soon went the rounds. 

 The Chinese cook having been warned by somebody 

 that I had said to look out for a second shake "at 

 eleven o'clock/' inquired in disgust: "Why the devil, 

 then, didn't he tell about the first one?" As a matter 

 of fact, Branner had stated that as big earthquakes 

 were often followed by subsequent shocks, it would 

 be wise for everybody to stay out of doors until the 

 danger seemed over, and I had merely passed the 

 word along. 



About the quadrangle the only touch of humor was 

 furnished by the large marble statue of Agassiz, which 

 had plunged from its place head-first and waist-deep 

 into the concrete pavement. The effect was most 

 incongruous. Somebody Dr. Angell, perhaps 

 remarked that "Agassiz was great in the abstract 

 but not in the concrete." Fortunately when dug out " intkf 

 he had suffered little beyond a broken nose, easily 

 repaired; and strong iron braces now bind both him 

 and Humboldt, his mate, to the stonework behind. 



William James, who was at Stanford that semester 

 as acting professor of Philosophy, found the earth- 

 quake tremendously interesting; such a jolt of the 

 solid globe he would not have willingly missed. So 

 when the frame house in which he and Mrs. James pkUosopk 

 had rooms was shaken with great violence, he called ic intei " 

 on the elements to "go it" with all their might. If 

 the universe could stand it, the Jameses could! 



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