AMPLE FACILITIES.

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from principal stations on the great through lines of travel, probably no town in the State now enjoys better facilities for travel and transportation than Ithaca. Direct lines of railway communica tion connect that village with Elmira, Waverly, Owego, and Binghamton, on the Erie road, and with Geneva, Cayuga, Auburn, Lyons, Syracuse, and Canastota, on the Central, as well as with the main lines of the Lehigh Valley, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, and the New York, West Shore & Buffalo railways.

Viewed from the present standpoint, the action of Mr. Cornell, in taking upon himself the burden of completing these roads, can only be regarded as a hazardous and unwarrantable undertaking. There are, however, many mitigating circumstances to be considered before passing censure upon him as a man lacking prudent judgment. In the first place, the investment by the town and village of Ithaca amounting to $600,000, and of individuals, his friends and neighbors, to a considerable amount in addition, had already been made. These interests were imperilled by the inability to complete the roads, and the threatened suspension of efforts in that direction would apparently leave the locality more destitute than ever of the hoped-for facilities. It was the fond expectation of Mr. Cornell that he might avert

these unwelcome results, and his efforts were enlisted purely from motives of public spirit and loyalty to local interests. Governed by these motives, he was more likely to overlook the merits of the venture as an investment of his own means, than he would have been under other circumstances.

The special causes of the disastrous consequences which ensued, were of a character not to be apparent when Mr. Cornell enlisted in the undertakings. These were the unprecedented financial revulsion, and the loss of his own health. Although it was true that railway securities had, for the time being, ceased to be considered desirable investments, there was no reason visible at that period to anticipate the utter collapse which so suddenly burst upon the country. That occurrence was in important respects aggravated by numerous collateral circumstances which were wholly invisible and could not have been estimated in advance. It was like the explosion of an extraordinary electric storm from an apparently clear atmosphere, which carried ruin and devastation in its track. So, too, in reference to the prostrating illness which came upon him without warning. Though advanced in years, the firmness of his general health, and the long life of his father, gave promise of many years of activity and usefulness.

CHAPTER XIX.

PUBLIC ENTERPRISE.--LOCAL IMPROVEMENTS.

Local Interests.-Loyal Citizenship.-Public Enterprise.-Manufacturing Interests.-Ontario Ship Canal.-Telegraph Connections.--Glass Works.--Proposed Iron Works.-Ithaca Savings Bank.--First National Bank.-Local Prosperity.-Increased Population.-Extent of University Patronage.-Romantic Scenery.-Other Enterprises.

COMMENDABLE as is the disposition to foster and promote public improvements, most men, as a general rule, are too much absorbed in devotion to individual interests to think of, or care much for, the common welfare; and it seldom happens that those who are endowed with public spirit are at the same time possessed of the requisite means to gratify their patriotic impulses. The combination of these important conditions for public advancement in the same person is a fortunate contingency for any community. More especially was it fortunate for Ithaca that circumstances favored her with a citizen both able and willing to render the necessary service to overcome the barriers which checked her progress. Her peculiar

topographical situation and the results which attended the development of the great railway lines. of the State, had combined to narrow the field. of her former patronage and arrest her material growth. Only the interposition of powerful and energetic influences could have rescued her from the insignificant position to which adverse fate had consigned her.

Whatever may have been the considerations which first attracted Mr. Cornell's attention to Ithaca, and induced him to choose it as the location of his home, it was certainly an incident of the utmost importance to its subsequent development. He had but just attained his majority when it became the home of his adoption, and through the remainder of his life his loyalty to the welfare of the town was continually manifested by efforts to promote its material prosperity. During all the years of his engrossing engagement in the telegraph enterprise, he continued the residence of his family at Ithaca at great personal inconvenience, owing to its inaccessible location and the difficulty of getting to and from his business. That he did not determine to change the residence of his family to a more convenient point was another fortunate circumstance for Ithaca, as it would probably have resulted in his permanent

location elsewhere.

LOYAL CITIZEN.

241

Throughout his entire career Mr. Cornell evinced an especial interest in the promotion of all such public enterprises as promised advantageous results for Ithaca. The successive steps taken by him for the erection of the Cornell Library and the establishment of the Cornell University, and finally for the completion of the railways to connect Ithaca with the outer world, were evidences of the highest ambition to serve the public weal. The extent of his contributions for the public benefit, supplemented by so much laborious personal effort to insure the most useful results, exhibited a patriotic devotion which can probably be found in no other instance. Not only was the great bulk of his fortune-considerably more than three-fourths of it--given in furtherance of these objects; his very life was probably not a little shortened in consequence of his efforts to advance these interests so vital to the locality. No man ever died more clearly a martyr to the cause of his devotion, than did Ezra Cornell as the result of his efforts to develop the interests which were so essential to insure the continued prosperity of Ithaca.

Long before he had acquired a competence, when he was a simple mechanic, employed in the service of Colonel Beebe at Fall Creek, Mr. Cornell was an early and persistent advocate of