et organizations were evidently
largely concerned in the business. To these noises and sounds
corresponded an equally ingenious series of sights, so arranged as to
leave no doubt whatever, but that the impressions of my sense of hearing
were no delusion, and that there was no mistake about the authors. My
spirits and health were completely shattered by the close of winter, and
I crawled out a miserable existence, being confined to my bed most of
the time, unable to do anything but to read an hour or two a day. The
summer season emptied the University and the city, and I was relieved
from the pressure. The repose was like a gift from heaven. A stout
resolution soon consigned the terrors of the past to a _provisional_
oblivion. I collected myself, recovered my usual composure and bodily
strength, made arrangements for two additional text-books to my series,
at which after the 1st of July I began to work steadily, in the hope of
getting out of my pecuniary difficulty which the recent events of my
life had entailed. One of these is now ready for publication and will
appear in a short time. After I had fairly recovered the proper balance
of mind, I wrote to the Mayor of the city, and to Dr. Ferris, the
Chancellor of our University. To the former I complained of persecution
_ab extra_, which might be stopped by police intervention, of the latter
I demanded explanations for personal vexations and insults. Besides
having connived at, nay participated in the disorders of the
Institution, and besides having employed the menials of the
establishment to enforce a ridiculous submission to an unconstitutional
authority, the Dr. had in the presence of the Alumni of the Institution,
convened at a banquet in the Astor House, openly insulted me by saying;
"_Shall I have to become the step-father to that man?_" and again:
"_Next year I shall see another man in that man's place!_" Both these
expressions were used by the Dr. as he stood before the assembled
guests, while making a short speech. In uttering them, he looked at me
with a supercilious grin, and the question was addressed to the opposite
side of the house, between which and the speaker there was a manifest
collusion. My letter consisted of a protestation against the scandalous
disorders of the Institution in general, and a request that the Dr.
would retract the obnoxious offer of an unacceptable paternity as
publicly as it was made, to include also a recantation of the words:
"_De