314 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO This second period of building had covered something more than three and one-half years. It added to the University's material equipment seven buildings. With their furniture, and fully equipped for use, they represented an expenditure of about nine hundred thousand dollars. They were given to the University by its Chicago friends. The money for them had been secured almost without effort. Much of it had been proffered without solicitation, and the rest had been given quite as freely. When this second era of building ended, less than eight years had passed since the breaking of ground for Cobb Hall in November, 1891. The twenty buildings erected during these seven years had cost, with their equipment, more than two million, two hundred thousand dollars, all except one hundred thousand contributed by the friends of the University in Chicago. These seven years included both the first and second building eras of the University. They wit- nessed an astonishing outpouring of money for the cause of edu- cation. They showed in an extraordinary manner the appeal the new University had made to the imagination, the idealism, and the spirit of altruism of Chicago. During these years the benevo- lence of its people was awakened and developed as never before, every institution of religion, education, and charity profited by that awakening, and all subsequently found a response to their appeals before unknown. The University helped Chicago to find itself as a city of idealism and benevolence, fired it with the enthu- siasm of giving, and opened wider the fountain of wealth flowing in increasing volume to bless the city and the world.
