Illinois State Normal University - Index Yearbook (Normal, IL)

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The Index truth of her suggestion was acknowledged. Well, she added. have we not been good for three days? This was also very heartily conceded. Well, said she, I wish to sav that I am tired of being good. XVe had a little additional conversation, and she returned to her seat and continued her commendable good behavior. Since leaving the school she has per- formed very creditable work as a teacher in important positions. It is pleasant to think that the Normal University has now passed out of its season of trial. For some time before the close of my own connection with the school, I felt strength- ened bythe conviction that the public sentiment of the state had undergone a radical change in respect to us. The attendance of students had increased from 232 in all departments to TWP. Our annual appropriations had gone up from 512,500 a year to about S3o,HtlU. The people of the state were showing in many ways that they had come to be believers in the necessity of normal schools. and in the duty ol' the state to give them an adequate support. llic. IQICIIXRIJ I'llJW.-XRIUS. SCENE:WAsse1nbly room. Mchlackin standing at the dictionary table looking up a word: no member of the faculty in the foolll. Frank Searles going out to reading table meets a greenhorn just in to enter school, who inquires, Say, mister, where can l tind the president? I want to come to school. Searles directs him to that man standing by the table. point- ing to MclXIackin. Ile walks through the room and approaches Mc. with, Say: er you the president? Mc. tvery coolly andcoinplacentlyj, Yes, sir: what can I do for you? I want to come to school. Mc. looks at him a moment in a dignitied manner. Uh eaheayesi well, Inever attend to matters of those kind mysellg you'll have to see my private secretary. flinter Dr. Edwardsj There he comes now: that bald headed man. You just step to his desk: he will tell you what to do. ISTM- IHUU, Having been asked to write lor rllllli INDEX some reminiscences of the Normal l'niver- sity. I take it that something respecting the days of long ago maybe most acceptable.

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DR. RICHARD EDWARDS

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The Index I came from Massachusetts to join the teaching force in October, 1858, and I remained in the faculty until June, 1890. VVhen I came, Bloomington contained about 7,000 people, it had not a foot of pavement, and but very few sidewalks. The fall and early winter of that year were very rainy, so that I had an impressive introduction to Illinois mud. Of course, it was tracked into the school room, where it dried and was set alioat by the sweepers' broom, to settle on books and furniture. One of the students of those days, describing the building nearly twenty-live years afterward, uses this language, to whose truth I can testify from personal knowledge: The walls of the old house were rickety: and iron girders, with huge S's at the ends, held in place the brick masonry. Our assembly room was in the third story. In the second story, were recitation rooms, rather dark, and ill-adapted to our needs. Grocery and hardware stores occupied the flrst floor. The building was heated by a coal stove in each room, and, as Illinois coal is gaseous and explosive, the stove doors were frequently blown open, with loud sounds and clouds of yellow smoke. Notwithstanding these unfavorable conditions, I found here a noble band of about eighty students, many of whom have since made a good record in this and in other states. Some of them are still occupying prominent places in the educational world, some have gone into other occupations, and some have fallen asleep. Mr. Henry B, Norton, one of those students and one of the brightest persons ever grad- uated from the Normal, in writing for the quarter-centennial celebration in 1882. uses the following language, in describing the school and the students in those days: We were shabbily dressed in those days. I think my pantaloons were generally too short, and my coats seemed to have been made for some other person. We were very poor, but very plucky. 'We boarded ourselves, mainly on corn mush, washed the floors and built the tires at Normal Hall, worked hard, lived hard. and were poorly provided with all things. Our parents were sad-faced, struggling pioneers of the prairies. But we were cheery, resolute and happy in our life and in our work. To the toiling youth of frontier homes, thirsting for knowledge,