Both buildings
were full. This state of affairs lasted during the first year and part
of the second. Disturbances of various kinds were not infrequent; and
although no one of them was very serious, yet in the aggregate they
were a severe tax upon the faculty's time and patience. But before the
end of the second year many of the students discovered that life
in town was more comfortable, and accordingly they gave up their
university rooms. At the opening of the academic year 1870-1871
perhaps three-fourths, certainly two-thirds, were lodged in town. The
change was significant. During the entire year, although individual
students were disciplined for individual offences, the faculty was
not once forced to punish public disorder. This phenomenon will appear
still more remarkable when we consider that meanwhile the so-called
"class-feeling" had sprung up, and that students admitted from other
colleges had endeavored to introduce certain traditional practices.
The year 1870-1871 was perhaps too good to be repeated. The next year
witnessed at least one discouraging exhibition of student-manners, and
since then there have been explosions from time to time. For all that,
the general tone at Cornell is excellent. The transitory disturbances
seem to leave behind them no abiding ill-will, and there is
certainly less friction between faculty and students than at any like
institution. Nowhere in this country is college life more free from
petty annoyance, dislike and mistrust, and hereditary prejudices. It
should be added, that those students who now reside in the university
buildings belong almost exclusively to what is known as the working
corps. They are type-setters in the printing-office, or are engaged
upon the university farm, or in the workshops connected with the
department of the mechanic arts. Their time is too valuable to them to
be wasted. The experience of the Sheffield Scientific School resembles
that of Cornell. In one respect it is even better. This school has
never had a dormitory system. Its managers, imbued thoroughly with the
German and French spirit of study, have resisted successfully from the
outset every inducement to follow the usual college system. Although
growing up in the shadow of one of the oldest colleges in the country,
and exposed to formidable competition, and still more formidable
criticism, the Sheffield Scientific has adhered strictly to its
self-appointed mission. It has regarded instruction in