39 



from what I learned incidentally and at different times, 

 thousands of dollars in order, to quote his favorite ex- 

 pression, "to make things go." And things did go! 

 When he came a carpetbag would have held all our 

 collections. Long before his death they had so expanded 

 as to make yonder geological hall, with its spacious and 

 noble museum a necessity; and it rose in response to his 

 earnest wishes. 



After it was finished he needed some two thousand 

 dollars for cases. His hope ran into faith. "I'll venture," 

 he said, "upon a new method. I'll have the cases built 

 and filled with such attractive exhibitions as to tempt the 

 pride and loyalty of the alumni to pay for them." It was- 

 done. His fertility of resource came out on another 

 occasion when the college wanted more apparatus. He 

 devised a course of lectures to be given by Doctors Van 

 Dyck and Rockwood, and then persuaded the managers of 

 our factories here to bear the expense in order to afford 

 free instruction to the masses. The plan was as success- 

 ful as ingenious, and with the net proceeds, some seven, 

 hundred dollars, the apparatus was secured. 



If we wanted the State college to become united with 

 Rutgers, or an agricultural bill passed at Washington, or 

 an appropriation from our State for the construction of 

 New Jersey Hall, with its well-equipped laboratories, we 

 turned instinctively to Doctor Cook ; for he knew the 

 leaders of the national administration, the Senators and 

 Congressmen, the Governor and Assemblymen — in short, 

 every prominent man concerned, and could harmonize 

 them all, if such a thing were possible, in favor of the 

 desired object. It was he who by his lectures, delivered 

 from town to town, popularized science and made it 

 profitable for the farmers. It was he who reminded the 

 county schools and their superintendents of the free 

 tuition at Rutgers for the brightest and best boys in those 



