COLLEGE CORRESPONDENCE.
LELAND STANFORD, JR. UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA.
Interest here centers upon the training of the 'varsity football team, for which there are sixty candidates; more than have ever before appeared on the Stanford field. Prospects for a victory in the annual game with the University of California at first appeared dubious, as all of last year's 28-0 team, excepting four, had graduated or enlisted in the Manila regiments. The men who played substitutes last year are now coming forward, and will form the nucleus of a strong team. Captain Fisher has plenty of men for every position excepting the center trio, which he is trying to build up from the heavy men who are volunteering. Every afternoon the candidates for the eleven practice running, tackling, punting and falling on the ball, and then line up for a few minutes' active scrimmage. Harry Cross, of Yale, who built up the 20-0 team two years ago, will again coach, assuming charge October 1. Stanford is fortunate in having on the team this year Murphy, '00, the greatest punter and runner in a scattered field the coast has ever seen, and Captain Fisher, a strong halfback, both in aggressive and defensive work. Prospects for a season of good, clean sport and a spirited intercollegiate game were never better in the history of intercollegiate athletics.
The captains of the baseball and track teams have instituted a system of light fall training for the spring contests.
A centrally located restaurant for the university community, costing $5,000, has been completed, and is now in successful operation.
Work has begun on the Thomas Welton Stanford library building, named after the donor, Senator Stanford's brother, who furnished the $150,000 needed for its construction. The library is two stories high, in the same Moorish architectural plan of the Quadrangle, and constitutes the first building of an outer quadrangle. It is modern in every respect, and will have a capacity for 200,000 volumes. It is built of sandstone, quarried on the
Mrs. Stanford is living quietly in her home on the estate, and can be seen fre- quently directing the improvements which are constantly being made on the cam- pus, and also inspecting the fast-rising buildings. Mrs. Stanford is a large- souled woman of great executive ability,
and she is wholly wrapped up in the university, and is constantly thinking of "my boys and girls," as she calls the stu- dents. In a recent conversation she out- lined her policy as follows: "I have a few hundred thousand dollars more in legacies to pay before the estate will be free from the control of the court. That will not take long. Then I shall devote my energies to completing the museum, the chapel and the chemistry laboratory. After that work is completed and the es- tate is free from incumbrance, I shall be ready to resign my stewardship to the trustees of the university."
Stanford's president has always been recognized as a scientist of the first rank, and his appointment to the Behring sea fur seal commission and the offer of the directorship of the Smithsonian Institu- tion, at Washington, D. C, are only evi- dences of this. Last May his commence- ment address was a departure from the usual order, and considered the national expansion movement and its cost to the United States. This address, "Lest We Forget," has attracted wide notice for the statesmanlike way in which the problems of imperialism are discussed and summed up. Its general trend was in opposition to the movement on the grounds that, "first, dominion is brute force; second, dependent nations are slave nations; third, the making of men is greater than the building of nations."
President Jordan was recently given a tentative offer of the presidency of the University of California, which he refused, stating that he intended to stay at Stan- ford as long as there was something there for him to do.
A new book by Dr. Jordan will soon appear, "Foot-Notes to Evolution," a col- lection of essays on evolutionary subjects. O. C. LEITER.
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, EUGENE, OREGON.
The University of Oregon has sustained a severe loss in the death of Professor Johnson, who had been connected with the institution since its doors were opened, and who was for so many success- ful years its president. To his untiring efforts, and those of his faithful co-work- ers, in the early days of the university, is due the high rank which the school grew to hold in the educational ranks of the North Pacific.
