" COEDUCATION "-1871-1904 399 



Sage, who sat next me during the exercises this morning, 

 turned to me during your allusion to Mr. Cornell with 

 tears in his eyes, and said: 'John, we are scoundrels to 

 stand doing nothing while those men are killing themselves 

 to establish this university. ' In the afternoon Mr. Sage 

 himself came to me and said : ' ' I believe you are right in 

 regard to admitting women, but you are evidently carry- 

 ing as many innovations just now as public opinion will 

 bear; when you are ready to move in the matter, let me 

 know. ' ' 



The following year came the first application of a young 

 woman for admission. Her case was strong, for she pre- 

 sented a certificate showing that she had passed the best 

 examination for the State scholarship in Cortland County - r 

 and on this I admitted her. Under the scholarship clause 

 in the charter I could not do otherwise. On reporting 

 the case to the trustees, they supported me unanimously, 

 though some of them reluctantly. The lady student 

 proved excellent from every point of view, and her ad- 

 mission made a mere temporary ripple on the surface 

 of our affairs; but soon came a peculiar difficulty. The 

 only rooms for students in those days on the University 

 Hill were in the barracks filled with young men ; and there- 

 fore the young woman took rooms in town, coming up to 

 lectures two or three times a day. It was a hard struggle ; 

 for the paths and roads leading to the university grounds, 

 four hundred feet above the valley, were not as in these 

 days, and the electric trolley had not been invented. She 

 bore the fatigue patiently until winter set in; then she 

 came to me, expressing regret at her inability to toil up the 

 icy steep, and left us. On my reporting this to the trustees, 

 Mr. Sage made his proposal. I had expected from him 

 a professorship or a fellowship; but to my amazement 

 he offered to erect and endow a separate college for young 

 women in the university, and for this purpose to give us 

 two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. A committee 

 of trustees having been appointed to examine and re- 

 port upon this proposal, I was made its chairman; and,. 



