Chronicles of Notre Dame du Lac
Edward Sorin, CSC -- Translated by John M. Toohey, CSC, 1895

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1854

pg 208       funds of the community ($100-, besides $250 for board).
                  Moreover prices were extravagantly high, wheat and corn being 
             double the ordinary price.  A financial crisis had visited the 
             commerce of the United States.  Bankruptcies were counted by the 
             dozens; no one knew what notes to accept; the payment of the 
             students' bills was either deferred or no answer returned, and 
             meanwhile creditors were never more in need of their money.
                  Judge what must have been the feelings of the administrators 
             of the Lake in such threatening circumstances.  After so much 
             labor and expenses public opinion, at the rate at which it was 
             going, would in some weeks destroy such a great work as was Notre 
             Dame.  It was unfortunately only too evident that we were 
             hastening to destruction with rapid strides, and that on any day 
             the most insignificant incident might cause alarm in such critical 
             circumstances and create a panic terror amongst creditors, 
             boarders, and novices--and that would be the last of Notre Dame.
                  The only human hope that could have given any encouragement 
             could no longer be hold onto--that of seeing the fall of the mill-
             dam, this being looked upon as the most probable cause of all the