Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 27.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

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[301] every-day service of man. All knowledge should be made to serve the ends of humanity—not, indeed, reduced to the standard of utility, but given aspects and bearings and trained directions that should appeal even to those who hold that nothing is desirable unless it be of practical present usefulness.

One of the first forward steps of the new Tulane was the establishment of the manual training school, at first almost entirely an adjunct of the high school department, since abolished. The scope of the manual training school was rapidly extended, and to-day the university confers the degree of bachelor of science upon mechanical and electrical engineers from the college of technology. The literary and classical courses have grown into a splendidly equipped college of arts and sciences, graduating bachelors of art, and in the university, graduates of Newcomb and Tulane study together for the higher degrees of M. A. and Ph. D.

To the outside world there seems to be but little immediate bond between Tulane and Newcomb, but to the man whose memory is honored as president of Tulane University is due in large measure the existence of the H. Sophie Newcomb College for young ladies, one of the colleges in the university. Colonel Johnston never lost an opportunity to urge upon people of wealth identified with New Orleans to give of their means to the cause of education, and it was his influence with Mrs. Newcomb, whom he had known from her infancy, that probably determined her upon a college for young women as the best memorial for her lamented daughter. Colonel Johnston's modesty forbade him to speak of the extent to which the establishment of Newcomb College was due to him, and it was almost a secret until some of Mrs. Newcomb's relatives in Kentucky brought frivolous proceedings against Colonel Johnston for influencing Mrs. Newcomb to divert her wealth into such channels as to deprive them of all prospects of dividing it among them.

Colonel Johnston's idea was to build up a great university, made of many colleges, and to have on every hand preparatory schools feeding the colleges. Fifteen years president of Tulane, he lived to see his plans sufficiently materialized to guarantee the complete ultimate fruition of his hopes, and in the last days of his life he had the joy of knowing that his unselfish efforts for the good of others had been rewarded with ampler and quicker success than it is the lot of most men to enjoy.

In 1884, Tulane was almost an experiment. Between the president and the administrators the completest harmony always existed.