President Foster's suggestion referred to is as follows:

The present method of securing the means necessary to the maintenance of the college, to say nothing of betterments, is unsatisfactory, alike to the board of directors and the legislature. It is distasteful to the members of the faculty and board of directors to be compelled to appear before the legislature and beg for an appropriation with which to maintain the college, and about which there should not be a doubt. It is also distasteful to the legislature to have them there. The solution of the problem lies in levying a tax for the support of the college and eliminating it as a legislative issue for all time to come.

STUDENT LABOR FUND.

President Foster makes this reference to the matter of appropriations for the student labor fund:

The student labor fund, when judiciously used, is not only helpful in individual cases, when work is necessary to supplement the means of the student to enable him to remain in the college, but dignifies labor in the estimation of the student body, on account of the readiness with which students of all classes and conditions take advantage of it and endeavor to earn a part of the money expended by them in college. It acts as a stimulus to work, and breaks down the line of demarkation usually visible in colleges between students who are compelled to partly work their way through and those of ample means. These results, in my judgment, more than offset any objection, from an economic standpoint, to the employment of student labor, and fully justify a continuation of this appropriation.

PRESENT ADMINISTRATION.

L. L. Foster, president; R. H. Whitlock, M. E., professor of mechanical engineering; H. H. Harrington, M. S., professor of chemistry and mineralogy (chemist to experiment station); Charles Puryear, M. A., C. E., professor of mathematics; Mark Francis, D. V. M., professor of veterinary science (veterinarian to experiment station); F. E. Giesecke, M. E., professor of drawing; J. C. Nagle, M. A., C. E., M. C. E., professor of civil engineering and physics; R. H. Price, B. S., professor of horticulture, botany, and entomology (horticulturist to experiment station); T. C. Bittle, A. M., Ph. D., professor of languages; J. H. Connell, M. Sc., professor of agriculture (director of experiment station); C. W. Hutson, professor of English and history; First Lieut. George T. Bartlett, Third Artillery, U. S. Army, professor of military science and commandant of cadets (ordered to join his regiment April 9, 1898; C. C. Todd appointed to fill out unexpired term); Robert F. Smith, associate professor of mathematics; W. B. Philpott, M. S., associate professor of English and history; P. S. Tilson, M. S., associate professor of chemistry (associate chemist to station); A. L. Banks, A. B., M. S., adjunct professor of mathematics; H. Ness, B. S., assistant professor of horticulture and botany; D. W. Spence, B. Sc., C. E., assistant professor of civil engineering and physics and drawing; A. M. Soule, B. S. A., assistant professor of agriculture; H. W. South, assistant professor of English and his

tory, and languages; C. E. Burgoon, B. M. E., assistant professor of mechanical engineering; E. W. Kerr, B. S., assistant professor of mechanical engineering; J. A. Baker, assistant professor of commercial arts; Professor Puryear, secretary of the faculty, and librarian; Professor Bittle, chaplain; A. C. Gillespie, M. D., surgeon; J. A. Baker, secretary; J. G. Harrison, A. B., bookkeeper; B. Sbisa, steward; C. A. Lewis, foreman of the carpenter shop; H. C. Kyle, B. S., foreman of the farm; G. Eberspacher, florist.

COLORED BRANCH SCHOOL.

The constitution of 1876 authorized and directed the legislature to establish an agricultural and mechanical college for the benefit of colored people, and the fifteenth legislature passed an act to establish the college.

The management of this institution was placed in the hands of the board of directors of the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Bryan. In pursuance of this provision the board of directors met at Austin, November 17, 1877, and after full discussion with commissioners, consisting of J. H. Raymond, Ashbel Smith, and J. D. Giddings, passed the following:

Resolved, That this board at its next regular meeting in January elect a president of said agricultural and mechanical college, and that the college be organized and put in operation at the earliest practicable moment thereafter.

At Austin, June, 1878, the commissioners to locate the college made final report, and the board of directors was authorized to prescribe the course of study, etc., and the president of the college at Bryan was also made president of this branch. Capt. T. M. Scott organized the industrial department at this school. After one year's trial as an agricultural college, it was not considered a success, and the normal feature was engrafted. Rules and regulations governing Sam Houston Normal Institute were adopted for the school. L. W. Minor was elected principal, and an assistant and a matron were provided.

The institution is located on a large tract of well-improved land, and is fairly well equipped. The original purchase was for $20,000, for the property known as the "Alta Vista," and about 7 miles from Hempstead. The school is well patronized, and has done much to elevate the educational standard among the colored race in Texas.

a Discontinued.

Chapter XI.

NECROLOGY.

DEATH OF HON. ASHBEL SMITH.

At the first meeting after the appointment of the board of regents of the university, which was held at Austin, November 14, 1881, Dr. Ashbel Smith was unanimously elected president of the board, and continued to serve in that responsible capacity till the day of his death, January 21, 1886, which occurred at his home near the city of Houston. Under the action of the regents and the State authorities, his remains were brought to Austin and interred the next day with high civic and military honors in the State cemetery, the funeral procession being one of the largest and most imposing ever witnessed at the State capital. The following references to his death and services are taken from the regents' report:

The university in a large measure owes its present degree of prosperity to Dr. Smith's unwearied exertions and never flagging interest, and to his enthusiasm for classical learning and his abiding faith in liberal education. In recognition of his eminent services the board of regents unanimously adopted the following resolutions:

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, January 29, 1886.

Whereas in the fullness of his years and in the ripeness of his wisdom and experience our beloved and venerable president, Hon. Ashbel Smith, has been called to his eternal rest and reward; and

Whereas in his death we recognize that not only our university, but our State, has sustained a great if not irreparable loss; thereupon

Resolved, 1. It is impossible within the scope of these resolutions to do justice to the faithful and distinguished services of Ashbel Smith rendered to Texas since the foundation of her government, as soldier in the war for independence, as her minister to foreign countries, as legislator, and as citizen; their record will be found upon the illustrious pages of her history.

2. He was one of those who incorporated the university, and the energies and wisdom of his last years were devoted almost exclusively to the organization and successful inauguration of our university, in the welfare of which we can truly say he took a deeper pride and interest than any other citizen of Texas, and the present prosperity and success of the institution is largely due to his disinterested and noble efforts. Indeed, it may well be said of him that he was, so far as the practical inauguration of the institution is concerned, the "father of the University of Texas."

3. He was permitted and blessed with life to see for three years the fruition of his patriotic ambition in looking forward to a Texas university of the first class, and far better and more enduring than marble or brazen shaft this university will always stand as a monument to the high and noble aims of Ashbel Smith.

313

The faculty of the university on the 22d of January, 1886, met in their room and took the following action:

JANUARY 22, 1886.

Pursuant to adjournment the faculty assembled at 4 o'clock p. m. Present, Dr. Waggener, chairman of the faculty, and Professors Everhart, Macfarlane, Tallichet, Humphreys, Gould, Roberts, Dabney, Halsted, and Lane, and Instructors Garrison and Gompertz; also, Regent T. D. Wooten, A. P. Wooldridge, secretary of the board of regents, Gen. H. P. Bee, General Roberts, representing Adjutant-General King for the State, and, as a committee to represent the students, Messrs. A. A. Little, J. L. Storey, P. B. Bailey, H. K. White, and W. H. Younger.

The following report of the committee on resolutions (Professors Roberts, Dabney, and Waggener) was unanimously adopted:

"Whereas the members of the faculty have been informed of the death of Col. Ashbel Smith, president of the board of regents of the University of Texas from its organization to the date of his death, on the 21st of January, 1886, which is to them the cause of serious regret and sorrow.

"Whereas Colonel Smith, had been for nearly half a century a distinguished citizen of Texas, ever ready to promote her best interests with signal ability and disinterested patriotism in the many responsible positions which he has occupied, as a learned physician, as minister to the courts of England and France from the Republic of Texas in a most important period of its history, as a legislator in the councils of his State, as a soldier in the service of his country, as an erudite scholar and promoter of education, as a man of high sense of honor and exalted principles in thought and action, ever philanthropic in his efforts to elevate the society in which his destiny was cast, setting the rare example of a lifetime of work for the public good, without seeking its merited return in high offices of honor or profit.

"Whereas his diversified learning, his devotion to the higher education, and his extensive information in regard to the colleges and universities of Europe and America preeminently fitted him for the presidency of the board of regents of the university of this State, to which position he has given his almost constant attention, welldirected efforts, and great influence, which by the cooperation of his associates in the regency, have placed the university from its origin upon a high standard, and made it practicable for this institution to become what the State in its constitution has ordained it shall be-'a university of the first class;' therefore, be it

"Resolved, That in the death of Col. Ashbel Smith the State has lost one of its most distinguished citizens; education one of its most intelligent votaries; society one of its most urbane and high-toned Christian gentlemen; science one of its earnest workers; humanity a good man and true among his fellows, and the University of Texas one of its earliest, most ardent, and devoted benefactors, whose useful labors for its benefit and whose thoughtful and courteous demeanor toward the members of the faculty will ever be held in most grateful remembrance by them."

Dr. Smith was born in Hartford, Conn., August 13, 1806, and was graduated from Yale College in the academic department in 1824. He subsequently practiced law in Salisbury, N. C., but returned to Yale and graduated in the medical department. He extended his studies in surgery in France, and practiced medicine several years in Salisbury. He never married.

In June, 1837, he arrived in Texas, and was soon after appointed surgeon-general in the Texan army. In December, 1838, he resumed the practice of medicine in Galveston. In February, 1842, President Houston appointed him minister to Great Britain, and later to France.

In 1845 he was appointed secretary of state by President Jones. He served in the army of General Taylor in Mexico, and was colonel of a regiment in the Confederate war. He was in 1882 president of the State Medical Association, and had served several sessions as a member of the State legislature prior to his appointment as a member of the board of university regents.

The crowning aim of Ashbel Smith was to promote the success of the University of Texas.

In the course of an address, which was a splendid tribute to the deceased, Dr. A. G. Clopton, of Jefferson, said:

Over two years ago we met upon the train between Fort Worth and Austin, and in the course of our varied conversation the State University was discussed. His face and language expressed the deep interest he felt in the future of the institution. He then thought the destiny of the university hung in the balance. A bill was before the legislature, drafted and introduced by a professed friend of the university," which, if passed, he thought would seal its doom. Though declared for the promotion of higher university education, within its provisions was hidden the fatal emblem of its purpose. Its effect, as he conceived, would be to turn over the institution to the direction of political demagogues, a class the most unfitted of all men for so high a responsibility. How well I remember the emphasis with which he declared that he feared the ill-advised interference of the friends of the university more than the machinations of its enemies. The bill failed and the university came out of the contest stronger than before. It was in the discussion of this bill that he opened to me a full realization, such as I had not thought of before, of the importance of the university as an agency in the great work of State progress. With the vision of a seer he unfolded to me the future possibilities of our State and the important work which the university would perform in realizing these great possibilities, until my imagination shrank before the magnitude of his rational deductions. Texas was destined to become the greatest State in the Union in population, material prosperity, and political influence. This high position among the union of States required the highest order of education among the people to achieve and maintain. A virtuous and enlightened population was positively necessary to the fulfillment of its destiny, and he depended upon our public schools and the highest standard of university education to prepare the rank and file and leaders for the work. The resources of the State, its climate, its fertile soil, the mineral wealth embedded beneath its surface, its broad area, and various undeveloped industries he dwelt upon, and declared it was the especial duty of the present to prepare and discipline the succeeding generation for this work. He impressed upon my mind an idea of which I had not before thought-that the university, if it reached the high standard it ought to, would be the strongest link in the chain to hold the State intact and undivided. I asked him what he thought of the provision in the organic law providing for the coeducation of the sexes. It was a subject about which I had thought and was interested. I knew that the female schools of the State in their curriculum and requirements fell far below what would be necessary to enter a university. The female seminaries even were not high enough for such preparation, and I was uncertain as to the result, whether the university standard would be lowered to suit the schools or the preparation of the schools raised to answer the demands of a university. The earnestness of his response gave evidence that the interest was mutual. "Why, sir," he replied, “our fathers in providing for the coeducation of the sexes were

a Senator Pfeuffer.