south is 149 feet without including measurement of the porticoes. The central structure is 48 feet front by 95. feet deep, and each wing is 126 feet long by 93 feet deep. The entire structure is four stories in height; the basement 12 feet high, first floor 16 feet, second 15 and third 14 feet. The basement extends 7 feet above the grade line, with an area all around so as to afford light and ventilation.

The basement is of stone and the superstructure walls are of brick. The exterior walls are hollow, to prevent dampness entering the building, and the entire exterior is faced with pressed brick. The trimmings to all the openings are of cut stone and decorative tiles. White moulded brick are also used for decorations. The cornices are of galvanized iron, and the steep parts of the roof are covered with slate, and the flat decks with tin. The several towers are of different proportions, but all imposing and artistic in design and beautifully ornamented with varicolored slate and wooden moldings. The building when completed will be practically fire proof, by means of double floors, bedded between with mortar and the use of iron lathing for all ceilings. The entrance porticoes are of stone with cast iron railings and supports, and the floors of the halls are laid with encaustic and marble tilings of varied patterns. All the halls and rooms are wainscoted to protect the plastering. Especial care has been taken to perfect the lighting in every department, and to have the light

enter the lecture and recitation rooms over the student's left shoulder as he sits facing the professor, whose platform is slightly elevated against a solid blank wall unbroken by doors or windows.

Double ventilation flues are introduced for counter circulation to keep the air pure and fresh both ways, while a complete system of steam heating supplies ample warmth during the cold season. Provision is made for gas-light or electric lighting of the whole building, which is supplied with ample sewerage and water facilities, and other conveniences. An elevator for access to the higher apartments is provided for, but has not yet been introduced, but should be at once, as a special desideratum for the lady students.

The exterior appearance of the structure is very imposing. The center building is higher than the wings and is topped with a mansard roof, the highest point of which is seventy-six feet from the ground. In the front is the main entrance, portico and porte cochere, through which one enters the chief vestibule in the main tower, which has a total height of 140 feet from the basement. In the top story of this tower will be placed an immense clock faced on four sides, to be run by electricity, and sounding the hours to regulate recitations and other exercises. The wings will be similar in design, each having an entrance portico and a tower, the top of which will be 100 feet higher than the first floor of the building. The effect of the entire building when fully completed will be at once grand, and it will compose a fitting monument to remind coming posterity of the high estimate placed upon education by the founders of our great State.

The interior arrangements are almost perfect, scientifically combining convenience of communication between the different departments with economy of adjustment, and so locating the several classes that kindred branches join each other and are grouped in the different wings. The building is cut through the center from south to north by a corridor sixteen feet wide, which is crossed by another corridor fourteen feet in width, connecting the east and west entrances, thus obtaining four main entrances, while a cross hall separates the north projection from the main building, and provides two more entrances. A dressing room, where young ladies can arrange their toilets and place their cloaks and bonnets, is provided. In the center building are located the meeting room of the Board of Regents and Secretary's office, to which a fire-proof vault is attached; also, the faculty room and chairman's private office and reception parlor. In this building also are a number of professors' studies, cloak rooms, the two grand stairways to the upper floors, and rotunda galleries. The wings are similar in plan, having each an entrance hall, vestibule, cloak rooms, professors' rooms, and five large lecture rooms on each

floor. Ample provision is made for rooms for the law schools, and the chemical, physical, geological and other branches of the academic departments, and for the literary societies of the University.

There are nine lecture rooms and thirty class rooms, besides the chapel and literary society rooms-altogether fifty rooms in the entire building.

INAUGURAL EXERCISES AT AUSTIN.

The acedemic and law departments having been organized under authority of the regents, the University was formally opened in the main University building then still incomplete, in which the public inaugural exercises were held September 15, 1883, in presence of a large and delighted audience of citizens of Austin and other parts of the State. As on the occasion of the laying of the corner stone November 17, 1882, Hon. Ashbel Smith, first president of the regents, was the principal speaker, and was followed in addresses by Dr. Mallet, chairman of the faculty, Governor Ireland and others.

Colonel Smith reviewed the facts in the history of the University, and elaborately pictured the advantages to be derived from the establishment of so important a State institution. Prof. Mallet briefly responded on behalf of himself and associates of the faculty in accepting the duties imposed on them, and in the course of his remarks took occasion to add: "During the fifteen years I was associated with the University of Virginia, one of the oldest of the old States, no brighter minds, nor more upright characters came there than those from the new state of Texas."

Governor Ireland welcomed the faculty to their new duties, alluding to the splendid reputations they bore, and adding: "To you is intrusted the high and sacred duty of moulding the young intellects of the students of the University for the battle of life. A false step, the neglect of some small duty on your part, may prove the ruin of one of these young men or women."

His address concluded as follows: "Ladies and gentlemen, I congratulate you and all the people of the State of Texas on this consummation of the event

looked to by the Congress of the Republic of Texas forty-four years ago, and if those of our descendants who may stand here forty-four years hence, shall feel that we have done as much for them as our fathers did for us, the contemplation of such a future should cause us to rise to the full measure of our manhood in this enterprise. So far as the present executive is concerned, the University shall have his earnest support, and he here now pledges to the faculty and the board of regents and to these young ladies and gentlemen the discharge of every duty that his trust imposes upon him, hoping, at the same time, that the multitude of children in the State to whom we owe an education may have no just grounds for complaint against those who control the destinies of this institution.

A new feature was introduced in the exercises by the presentation of a bust of ex-Governor Roberts, now one of the law professors of the University, which was made and presented by Miss Elizabeth Ney, grand daughter of Marshal Ney, of France. The presentation was made on behalf of Miss Ney by Mr. Dudley G. Wooten, who beautifully alluded to it as "the work of a woman. of genius and a fitting tribute for the University to preserve to perpetuate the memory of one of the greatest patriots and statesmen of Texas." It was accepted in appropriate terms on behalf of the University by Col. Seth Shepherd, one of the University regents. Governor Roberts was called on, and as he rose to respond was enthusiastically greeted. He said he could have wished to have been absent from a scene so personal to himself, but, as had always been his custom, he was at his post of duty. He desired to add that "if he could now, in the evening of his life, do anything to build up this great institution, he will have consummated the highest aspiration of his manhood."

Among those present on the platform or in the audience were Chief Justice Willie, Judges Fulmore, Rector, Walker and White, State Senator Terrell, Speaker Gibson and Representatives Smith and Johnson, Judge Turner, Judge Delaney, Hon. George T. Finlay of Galveston, Judge Glasscock of Georgetown, Drs. Denton, Rainey, Grant and Swearingen, State

Superintendent of Instruction Baker, City School Superintendent Winn, Secretary of State Baines, State Comptroller Swain, Adjutant General King, Attorney General Templeton, Hon. Swante Palm, Swedish Consul, Col. J. A. Morphis, author of History of Texas, Col. J. L. Driskill, Capt. J. Nalle, Capt. T. P. Sneed, Major J. T. Brackenridge, Gen. William Hardeman, Judge A. T. Watts, Gen. A. S. Roberts, Capt. M. D. Mather, Judge Joseph Lee, Capt T. P. Watson, Col. Ira H. Evans, Dr. R. J. Brackenridge, Judge Wm. Bramlette, Capt. H. D. Patrick, Charles S. Morse, Clerk of the Supreme Court, Gen. Adam R. Johnson and Col. F. H. Holloway of Burnet, Capt. R. L. Hood, Judge J. H. Burts, Judge A. M. Jackson, Judge J. D. Sheeks, Dr. J. J. Tobin, Prof. J. Bickler, Capt. A. Faulkner and Judge W. P. Hamblen of Houston, Col. Charles Dillingham of New Orleans, Capt. F. B. Chilton and Col. L. A. Ellis of Richmond, Judge Gustav Cook and E. T. Dumble of Houston, Col. Henry Gillum and Mr. Frank Grice, editor of the San Antonio Express, Col. R. G. Lowe of the Galveston News, Joseph Huey of Corsicana, Col. Abner Taylor of Chicago, Judge Paul Thornton, of Missouri, Col. T. R. Bonner of Tyler, Capt. B. F. Yoakum and Col. John Withers of San Antonio, Paul Furst of Dallas, Dr. W. J. Mathis, Col. C. M. Rogers of Nueces, Capt. J. C. Pray, Major W. M. Walton, Capt. M. H. McLauren, Col. N. L. Norton, Frank Doremus of Galveston, Capt. John O. Johnson, J. H. Warmouth, J. C. Boak, J. H. Robinson, J. M. Boroughs, J. L. Hume, J. M. Day, W. H. Tobin, A. H. Graham, Ike K. Davis, Geo. Warren, R. M. Castleman, J. A. Nagle, J. S. Myrick, J. K. Dunbar, H. Hutchings, H. E. Shelley, B. S. Pillow, W. H. Huddle, C. H Daniel, John K. Donnan, W. S. Carothers, A. F. Robins, Walter Tips, J. B. Lubbock, George L. Robertson, J. E. Wildbahn, E. J. Hamner, W. B. Dunhan, A. N. Leitnaker, J. B. Kirk, P. J. Lawless, Charles A. Newning, B. R. Warner, P. R. De Lashmut, Thomas Helm, C. H. Huppertz, C. H. Silliman, James Ford, R. J. Hill, Ike T. Pryor, F. M. Rundel, E. B. Connell, W. Y. Chinn, Dr. G. N. Beaumont, Capt. W. F. North, Col. E. Saunders, Col. R. Rutherford, Col. J. M. Swisher, Capt. A. E. Habicht, Capt. J. H. Collett, A. Deffenbaugh, Frank