Temple University School of Law - Restatement Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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with the request for a course and the course was not being given elsewhere in the city he was told to find others who needed the same thing and if ten were found the course would be started. In this way the Evening Law School was founded, and the first courses in Home Economics. The city Normal School was only training elementary teachers; soon the public schools needed kindergarteners, and teachers of physical training. Temple College organized classes to prepare these teachers. Then the men in the school system felt they must have their college degrees and that they must get them outside of school hours;-they appealed to Temple University when they had been refused elsewhere. Dr. Conwell retained his personal interest in every appeal that came; he met these men and the first class for teachers working for a degree was formed. Three hundred of these teachers have earned their degrees in this way. So department bv department the college grew, its work became more highly organized and its name was changed to Temple University, a university that began with seven students and one class, but which numbers today 10,000 students, and all the departments of a great university. All through the strenuous years with all these enterprises in hand the necessity continued for Dr. Conwell to go up and down the length and breadth of our land lecturing to audiences great and small, traveling night and day that money might be forthcoming when needed to keep things going. Because of his own earlv struggles he was perhaps peculiarly interested in young men who wanted to make good; he helped these young men not only in Philadelphia, but all over the country. But apart from the service the money earned rendered, the lecture itself, be it “Lessons of Travel,” “Daniel Manin,” “Garibaldi,” “The Silver Crown,” “The Angel’s Lily,” or “Acres of Diamonds,” had the fundamental theme ever the same if a man will make the most of himself, will give his best service to others, he will serve God best and be happiest himself. One of his lectures closes with this quotation: He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.” As a lecturer he taught more people the great fundamental truths of life than any other man of his century. He wrote many books on many subjects. But the supreme achievement was the founding and development of Temple University. His last message to Temple University was asking assurance that his great program for it should be carried out. On December (i. 1925 his body was taken from us, but his spirit still leads us and his beloved university will go on as a living memorial to him. 17

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On Sundays lu preached in old historic Lexington in a little wooden church. Hut the church grew so fast under his preaching that the little church was pulled down and a larger and finer one built. By this time his fame as a preacher was spreading and a man down in Philadelphia heard of him. He asked him to preach a trial sermon in his church which needed a preacher, and on Thanksgiving Day, 1882. he began his work in Philadelphia. He started almost immediately a Young Men’s Congress modeled on our National Congress. Whenever in the city he presided at its meetings. Here hundreds of young men in the city received training in public speech and parliamentary procedure. Some members of this Congress today hold positions of national importance. But in that church there were some young people who soon realized that they could not achieve the possibilities of the vision held out to them unless they had more education; they appealed to Dr. Conwell; in response he formed a class in 1X81 to help a group of young men get ready for college. He taught the class himself. Very soon others had to he called in to help him. By 1888 he realized that the need was so great in Philadelphia and the classes he had started had already become so numerous it was wise to obtain a charter that these students might have official recognition for the work they were doing. Young people of all denominations had applied for admission to the classes that had been formed, and Doctor Conwell wisely decided that this new college must be entirely non-sectarian, open to all the people of the city who needed it regardless of sex, race or religion. Its charter read “primarily for working men.” When the old church was sold. Temple College, as it then was, went into a couple of rented houses. It was an independent institution but still had to turn to Dr. Conwell and the friends he could rally round him for its support. It opened a day department to give stability to its night work. The two houses were crowded day and night. These houses were inadequate to hold ail those who came for help. There was a lot just south of the large new Temple which he was building, for sale. Even Dr. Conwell hesitated to ask his people to subscribe any money for so seemingly wild a project; so he quietly bought the land himself on mortgage and held it until the trustees of the young college could raise funds to pay him. But they raised the money and three years after the opening of the Temple went into a building of their own. There were several gifts of one thousand dollars each from the moneyed men of that day, one for five thousand, the rest being small in amounts. With the opening of the new building the educational needs of the city became more and more apparent. When a young person came

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Ulma iflater Dear Temple mine. Your sons benign To praise if our honored name: They e’er mill striae To keep alive Your glory and your fame. Your faculty. The majesty Of learned books reveal; They do not lire I's to inspire With thoughts of the ideal. Your sacred halls, Your hallowed walls. Upon our hearts impressed: U shall retain Till we attain Our everlasting rest. Our hearts rejoice, Loud rings our voice, Its echoes reach the sky; We. steep our souls In song that rolls To praise you, Temple, high. Leon H. Rose. • ong of tfjc Stream (). drooping traveler, rest ye there. On yonder hank repose. Forget your worry and your care. Your countless pangs and woes. First let me cool vour burning face And sate your slaked throat. Then make yon moss your resting place And watch your dream boats float. Inhale the coolness as you drowse And close those weary eyes; Let songsters ’mongst the rustling houghs Chirp on and rhapsodize. While I with babbling song will woo Some sunbeams here to play. To pierce the gloom surrounding you And lift the shadows gray. 18 Allen S. Dolgin.