CHAPTER XXIII.

PUBLIC TRIBUTES.

General Sympathy.-Ithaca "Daily Journal."-Froude's Tribute.-Formal Expressions.-Cornell University.-Cornell Library.-Western Union Telegraph Company.—Village Trustees. Students.—Ithaca Savings Bank.—Board of Education. -Geneva, Ithaca & Athens Railroad.-Agricultural Society. -Presbyterian Church.-Proclamation of Village President.— Founder's Hymn.

CONSTANTLY advancing in their daily progress toward the eternal world, men become accustomed to the occurrence of death, and only the departure of one held in extraordinary public estimation, will cause an entire community to abandon their ordinary avocations, and stand by an open grave. Beyond any precedent in the history of Ithaca, the death of Mr. Cornell aroused a feeling of sympathy, and brought forth an expression of the sense of public loss which had been sustained. To recall, with the full force of contemporaneous observation, the depth of public feeling which was induced by the sad event, the following expressions and reports of formal proceedings taken in honor of his memory, are reproduced from the

columns of the Ithaca Daily Journal, of the sev

eral dates indicated:

DEATH OF EZRA CORNELL.

[From the Ithaca Daily Journal, December 9th.]

Ezra Cornell is gone.

His death occurred at twenty-five minutes past one o'clock this afternoon, after an illness of six months' duration, at the age of sixty-seven years, ten months, and twentycight days.

We can hardly realize the magnitude of the loss, not merely to his family, but to this whole community. No citizen has ever left us whose life was so interwoven with all that has created and assured our prosperity.

A generous, large-hearted man; utterly unselfish in every respect; ready to make almost any sacrifice to attain some great and general good; resolute in what he believed to be right and just; but yielding and sympathetic to every story of misfortune, and to the sufferings and troubles of others; far-seeing and sagacious, but also hopeful and enthusiastic in the pursuit of noble ends; he has left behind him a name worthy to be remembered, and, especially, by the citizens of this village, for whose welfare and prosperity he planned so skilfully and labored with so much unflagging energy.

He has built his own monument upon our hills. The great bell of the University he founded is tolling heavily and solemnly as we write. Every heart in our midst feels the bereavement almost as a personal loss. We can write no more to-day. When the sense of grief and sorrow has lost some of its first severity, we hope to do better justice to the memory of Ezra Cornell.

EZRA CORNELL IS DEAD.

[From the Ithaca Daily Journal, December 10th.]

It is difficult to comprehend the full import of these cruel words. The poignancy of the first grief at a great, an irreparable loss, has something of the numbing effect upon the senses of a violent

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shock to the physical frame. We are at such times stunned and bewildered, and find it almost impossible to realize the fact, much less the extent, of our bereavement. Such is our condition to-day. We know that the emblems of woe on every hand-the tolling bells, the sombre drapings of the whole town, the flags at half mast; and more than all these, the sorrow-stricken countenances and the subdued voices and manners of his neighbors, attest the painful fact. And yet we cannot realize it. We cannot think of Ithaca without Ezra Cornell; cannot conceive how one is to go on without the other. They seemed to be at least as closely connected as a wise and prudent father and his family. We often see cases in domestic life where a noble and sagacious father seems to be in reality the head of the family-the superior member, to whom all the other members look for advice and guidance, upon whom all depend for support. How frequently we say of such a family: I don't know what Mr. Blank's family would do if he were to be taken away." Such were, more nearly than any other simile which occurs to us, the relations of Ezra Cornell to Ithaca. In the very few public or private movements, within the past twentyfive years, for the advancement of our interests as a community— pecuniary, moral, social, or educational-which Mr. Cornell did not originate, the first question asked of the projectors was, Have you seen Ezra Cornell? He will take hold of the work; and if he is for you, no one will be against you, and success is assured, if success be possible." We do not now speak of his greatest workthe founding of the great University which bears his name. For this he is known and will be lamented by all men wherever noble and generous deeds are held in grateful memory. But we mourn, chiefly, Ezra Cornell the MAN. We knew him intimately; and we know that a more lovable character has seldom appeared among men. He was truly one of Nature's noblemen. His benevolence was proverbial, though he judiciously and unostentatiously bestowed; it was peculiarly true of him, if it ever were of any man, that in his good deeds the left hand knew not what the right hand did. His strict probity was another salient point in his character-no man ever held in more utter detestation everything

that was mean or dishonorable. And yet, his large, magnanimous heart had no room for malice. No jealousies or rankling hatreds ever clouded his judgment. The unjust and intemperate criticisms of his public or private acts by ill-informed or envious critics; the malignant misrepresentations and assaults of the enemies of his pet scheme-a University "where any person can find instruction in any study "-must have often tortured this patient, tireless worker; but they never wrung from him a bitter word, nor do we believe they aroused any lasting resentment.

The writer of this recalls an instance which came under his own observation, well illustrating this peculiarly rare and admirable trait of character. It chanced that he was coming from New York City in company with Mr. Cornell on the day on which a violent and venomous speech had been made in the Legislature, in which it was charged, in effect, that Mr. Cornell was a scheming speculator in the guise of a generous benefactor. Neither Mr. Cornell nor the writer had heard of this speech. Arriving at Owego at an early hour the following morning, where both had to remain some time awaiting the train for Ithaca, both repaired to a neighboring hotel to pass the intervening time. Here a copy of the Elmira Advertiser of that morning, containing a telegraphic report of the speech, was handed us. After glancing over the startling headlines, and the points of the bitter attack which followed, we handed the paper to Mr. Cornell, with the remark: "They have been cutting you up badly down at Albany, I see ;" and then curiously watched his countenance while he carefully perused the whole article. No trace of excitement or unwonted emotion was visible there. After its perusal he remained in a reverie for a moment, when he said, quietly: "Well, time, that sets all things right, will demonstrate the falsity of these charges; I can wait." No excitement, not the faintest tinge of resentment in his manner or in the tones of his voice. That was the manner of man he was, in that view of his character. "True and firm" was his motto; and never was armorial legend more fairly won. But he might have added another, his greatest quality, we think-" Patient." We never knew a man so patient as he, never knew one

who had such an unfaltering, invincible faith in the justice of Time. To his eyes Time was truly the "avenger." He was indifferent to the misconstruction and misrepresentations of the present; but if · his faith in the justice of posterity's verdict could have, for a moment, been shaken, that great heart would have burst. We never witnessed so grand a faith in the future-such self-abnegation in the present as this man's hopes, plans, and works evinced.

Of the millions which our departed friend gave to the public, more peculiarly to us—the University, the Library, the railroads —some idea can be gained from public records and from an obituary which appears in another place in this issue of the Journal. But of his frequent, almost continuous benefactions for the relief of private persons, or for the aid of private institutions, little is known or ever will be known to the general public. The quiet, unobtrusive way in which he gave accounts for this. But hundreds of the recipients of his bounty do not forget and never can forget his generosity. One of these met the writer of this this morning, and related, with a voice tremulous with emotion, how he had been employed with his team in the construction of the "Cornell Library" building, one of Mr. Cornell's gifts to Ithaca, and how one of his horses, by striking his ankle against a rock, received a wound from which he bled to death in a short time; and how, while he was mourning his loss, which he could ill afford, Mr. Cornell called upon him and, after inquiring the value of the horse, drew a check for the amount and handed it to him, remarking, with a smile, "I presume I can better than you afford to lose the horse."

But we cannot continue these reminiscences. If we were to merely notice the instances of his noble generosity which come thronging to our memory, we should require a quarto volume, at least.

Mr. Cornell was a man of marked ability, possessing a remarkably strong, vigorous, active mind. Deprived of early advantages of instruction such as the youth of to-day enjoy, his education was deficient. He was not a cultured man. But he was altogether too large a man to affect any accomplishments which he had not, and hence never appeared awkward or seemed to be in a false position