TRIBUTES
"In correspondence of the Chicago Tribune, July 8, 1856, in a description of South Bend and Lowell, now the east side of South Bend, a mile beyond nestling in a grove of almost Arcadian beauty, is situated that famous institution of learning 'Notre Dame du Lac', under the able presidency of Reverend Edward Sorin."
-- St. Joseph Valley Register, July 24, 1856.
"Not many years ago the smoke of the Pottawatomies' wigwam ascended from the spot where now stands an establishment that bids fair to equal some of the oldest universities of Europe. Chartered in 1844, it has in the historian's measurement sprung up to its present gigantic dimension like the Orient palace of an Aladdin . . . over 250 boarders are entered the present scholastic year. One third of the number are non- Catholic."
-- Chicago correspondent, June 13, 1860.
"The small band of missionaries working with a religious zeal and human energy that overcome all obstacles are today enjoying the rewards of full success. They have converted by hard labor, unflagging devotion, and the talents of the members of the Community that wilderness into an earthly paradise.
"Nothing is wanting to place the University of Notre Dame in the first rank of the Catholic Colleges in this country."
-- Catholic Telegraph, Editorial, Vol. 39, 1870.
"Milton complains that Cambridge has no pleasant walks or soft shades, suited for the haunts of the muses; but the future poet who calls Notre Dame his Alma Mater will have no such complaint to make." Anon.
(See Scholastic, 9:26, p. 401) 1876.
"A college of Arts and Sciences in a wilderness, still uninhabited except by Indians and some few scattered whites! Not a town of any importance within reach; few if any roads, what could be called roads, around it! To erect in that wilderness a temple, a college for the education of youth, to erect a college to teach the arts and sciences! Was it not a dream? Yes, it was one of the dreams of the saints."
-- Archbishop Elders sermon at the funeral of Sorin, 1893.
Am told that the Founder must have possessed the marvelous lamp of Aladdin."
-- Cardinal Gibbons.
"The beauty spot of America."
-- Msgr. R. H. Benson.
"Suddenly in the midst of fertile fields, loomed up a city in miniature. Towers, spires, a dome, woods, lakes, and an immense campus announced we were at the University of Notre Dame. It numbers nearly 3,000 students. What a joyous uproar must not fill this rural solitude!"
-- Alumnus , Bishop Grente of Le Mans, 6:163.