NOTES ON TRAVEL 283 



had always hoped to see. After Colorado Springs came 

 the long and varied journey through Texas, beginning 

 with the ranche country among the foothills and passing 

 through wheat, cotton and sugar districts, till late in 

 the evening of the 9th October they reached Houston, 

 a large, flourishing industrial town, and the end of that 

 stage of their journey. Though letters from Houston 

 had not reached Ramsay, his communications had been 

 delivered, and at the station they were met by the 

 President, who drove with them to the house where they 

 were to stay, and introduced them to their graceful and 

 gracious hostess, the wife of Mr. James A. Baker, 

 Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the new Institute. 

 They were received in a large oak-panelled hall, hung 

 with family portraits and a few good pictures, so that 

 all idea of a shot-spotted mirror stage of civilisation 

 went into oblivion at once. 



Their fellow-guest was Dr. Henry Van Dyke, " that 

 faithful, firm yet fervent minister and minstrel," l as he 

 has been lately described. The first day in Houston 

 was occupied with lectures, open to all, a Mayor's ban- 

 quet, a garden party in the " Campus," the grounds of 

 the college, and an evening reception of about fifteen 

 hundred guests at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Baker. 

 All the Trustees, all the Lecturers, and all the Delegates 

 were supposed to stand in a line with the host and hostess 

 and shake hands with the arriving guests. This is 

 usual in America on occasions of the kind, and seems 



1 By the President of Magdalen, Oxford, in an address given in London 

 January 1918. 



