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Caption: Book - History of the University (Powell)
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816 History University of Illinois vanity: all is vanity ) and 'Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not charity ' "But closer and dearer were the ties of class room and lecture hour. I remember with especial pleasure a course of lectures, in the early days, on French history, a subject on which Dr. Gregory was unusually informed. Each character was portrayed with masterly strokes. One saw Louis XI as on the stage. Richelieu's triangular face lived again before us. 'Le Eoi SoleiF shone resplendent for a glittering, gorgeous moment—and was gone ." The every day life of the student during these first years is described by F. Adelia (Potter) Reynolds of the class of 1874, and, it may be mentioned parenthetically, the first woman graduate to be married. Mrs. Reynolds' father and mother conducted the boarding-hall in the old university building on the request of Dr. Gregory, who explained that there were no adequate means for providing rooms and board for students near the university, and he had a great desire that the boys just coming from home for the first time might find a sort of home at reasonable rates. "We arrived," writes Mrs. Reynolds, "about midnight at our destination and the next morning took up our quarters in the university building. You notice I say the building, for there was but one, A large, plain, red brick five story building set down flat, in the black Illinois mud, with not a tree nor a shrub, a spear of grass nor a fence. It was as desolate a place as possible to imagine, and to us, just from a pretty little village home, (in Wisconsin) surrounded by trees and flowers, it was enough to make us homesick. "But we were speedily too busy to be homesick. We had for our private use, a sitting-room, a sewing-room and three bedrooms on the second floor. Separated from them by a little hall wias the large dining room for the students. This afterwards became the library, and our rooms were thrown together and became the art museum. In the basement was the long kitchen, and a large dumb waiter carried the food to the dining room. "My mother made every effort to carry out Dr. Gregory's wishes with regard to having a home-like table for a reasonable
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