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

---

1854

pg 209       trouble.  The proprietor demanded $9000, of which $3000 were to be 
             paid in cash, and the Institution was too poor to buy the 
             property.  Besides, it had nothing to expect from New Orleans, 
             where it had advanced a good deal both in funds and in its best 
             subjects.  The academies of Bertrand and of Mishawaka had up to 
             this time been of no financial benefit; their constant need of 
             developing, and the difficulty of supporting so many persons at a 
Bertrand an  distance of six miles from the house, must necessarily for some 
expense to   time, not only absorb all profit, but be a drag on the treasury of 
Notre Dame   N.D.
                  Judging according to reason, the establishment of the Lake 
             would soon be spoken of as a ruin--a ruin whose fall would be 
             heard across the mountains and the plains, and would even reach 
             the ears of the Mother House.  All the elements seemed to be 
             combined to make this catastrophe inevitable.  Death had carried 
             away one fifth of the community; sickness paralyzed most of the 
             survivors; men were needed for the works, and they had to be 
             secured at high prices.
                  Ah! when the earth no longer gives any hope, then the 
             Christian heart naturally turns to heaven in search of consolation