Chapter 1

Chapter 1
The Early Years

Open saloons were still in business in Dallas in 1882. Buttermilk had become a very popular drink and was available in the saloons. During the decade from 1880-1890, the population of Dallas had more than doubled and by 1900, Dallas County exceeded any other county in the state in population. In the twenty year period from 1880 to 1900, the city built its first reservoir for fresh water. Communications were improved when the Dallas Telephone Exchange was established in June 1881. It would accommodate 1200 phones and about 260 hand operated phones were immediately put to use. In 1882 the first electric light plant was put into operation. Railroad facilities serving the city were greatly expanded and electric street cars appeared on Dallas streets, although transportation was still horse dominated at that time. The first paving of any Dallas street appeared in 1882 when two main streets, Elm and Main, were paved with bois d'arc blocks. The first traffic arrest was made in early 1886. The charge was driving too fast down Main Street and the fine was $1.00. The prices of goods of that period are suggested by Sanger Brothers offering men's worsted suits for $10.50 each. Whiskey could be purchased for $1.00 per gallon. The year 1882 was unusually dry since only 25,900 bales of cotton were received in Dallas, down from 47,600 of the year before. In 1885 the Dallas Morning News began publication, as did the Herald, the forerunner of the Dallas Daily Times Herald. In 1886 patrons at the Dallas Opera House thrilled to James O'Neill in "The Count of Monte Cristo" and in 1887 paid $15.00 each for seats when Edwin Booth reenacted the role of Hamlet. The Dallas City Hospital was opened and the first public schools were opened to the children of Dallas, though there were many private schools and academies. Such was the setting into which Robert Lee Moore was born. He was the fifth of six children born to Charles J. Moore and Louisa Ann (Moore ) Moore . He was to be raised in a home which honored the Southern attitudes, stressing gentlemanliness, honor, integrity, and independence.

Charles J. Moore was an independent, strong-willed man who had come from New England, near Hartford, Connecticut. He had followed a brother to Kentucky before the beginning of the Civil War, leaving his northern home and two other brothers behind. He was to conceal that birthplace for many years, having totally joined the southern cause. Charles Moore volunteered for service in the armies of the Confederacy, serving in the Orphan Brigade, Company A, Second Kentucky Regiment. The brigade had been organized on October 28, 1861 at Bowling Green, Kentucky and fought as a unit for the first time at Shiloh. During 1862 the brigade found itself in Vicksburg and suffered more from malaria than from the Union fleet which was attacking Vicksburg. After six weeks at Vicksburg the number of men fit for duty in the brigade had dropped from 1822 to 548. ¹

The brigade left Vicksburg only to return in 1863 in an effort to relieve the garrison there which was under siege from the Union army under command of U. S. Grant . Failing in this effort, the brigade was sent to the Army of Tennessee, forming its rear guard as the Army of Tennessee was driven off Missionary Ridge at the Battle of Chattanooga. By May 1864 the brigade found itself still with the Army of Tennessee under command of Johnston , being slowly forced back by Sherman 's army, through Rocky Face Ridge, Resaca, Calhoun , Allatoona, Kennesaw, Pine Mountain, Marietta, until Johnston was replaced by Hood . The series of battles for Atlanta began and, upon the breaking of the Confederate army there, the brigade was mounted as cavalry and remained on the flank of Sherman 's army, doing what damage it could. The Orphan Brigade and the calibre of its men were anything but ordinary, as suggested by the following comments which were included in a book written by a survivor of that brigade:

Nathaniel Southgate Shaler , the noted Harvard geologist and anthropologist, was a native Kentuckian whose sympathies were with the Union during the war. Years later he was making a study which called for the observation of some group of about 5 000 soldiers who were of homogeneous ethnic background and whose ancestors had been for several generations on this continent. After considerable research the only group he could find which met these qualifications was the Kentucky Brigade and he made an intensive study of its history. "From the beginning," he said, "it proved as trustworthy a body of infantry as ever marched or stood in the line of battle. "He pointed out that in the hundred days of the Atlanta campaign it was almost continuously in action or on the march. More than eleven hundred strong at the beginning of that campaign, the Brigade suffered 1,860 fatal or hospital wounds. "At the end of this time there were less than fifty men who had not been wounded during the hundred days. " "A search into the history of warlike exploits," Shaler wrote, "has failed to show me any endurance to the worst trials of war surpassing this . . . The men of this campaign were at each stage of their retreat going further from their firesides. It is easy for men to bear great trials under circumstances of victory. Soldiers of ordinary goodness will stand several defeats; but to endure the despair which such adverse conditions bring for a hundred days demands a moral and physical patience which, so far as I have learned has never been excelled in any other army. "²

After the war Charles J. Moore met and married Louisa Ann Moore and migrated toward the West, finally settling in Dallas, Texas. He operated a hardware store and feed company in a central location in downtown Dallas. It was just off the town square and faced the site of the courthouse. In fact, by 1882, a fourth courthouse was being constructed almost directly across the street from the Moore feed and hard- ware store. (Years later, shots would ring out over the site of the old Moore hardware and feed store as John F. Kennedy , President of the United States, was assassinated on what was, by then, a grassy knoll in front of that same courthouse building. )The courthouse was an imposing structure with its stones topped by a magnificent square tower into which was built a huge clock whose four faces could be seen from every direction.

So it was that Charles J. Moore had forsaken his home, friends, and relatives in the North, made his way south to fight on the side of a losing cause. He felt so strongly about the issues surrounding the war between the states that he looked upon the accident of his birth, having been in the North, as a misfortune he would not expose. Even his children were not informed of his Connecticut birthplace until they were grown and learned of it almost by accident. He was happy to let people assume that he was from Kentucky. As is often the case in times of war, people of native leadership talents or other capabilities have little opportunity to allow those talents to flourish and prosper. It well could be that Charles J. Moore was one of these. In any case, his life in Texas became one of that of a merchant, operating a hardware and feed store.

Schooling in the late 1800's in Dallas, Texas was not well organized. The public system was not effective. As a result, many of the parents, who possessed the capability, would send their children to private schools. Often these would be operated by a person who would be called a headmaster or a principal. Quite often one person, or perhaps, a man and his wife, would teach everything that would be taught in such a school. It was to a man named Waldemar Malcolmson that Robert Lee Moore was sent. Each of his elder brothers and a sister had been sent to a private school and it was to this one that he came. Waldemar Malcolmson was an unusual teacher. One occurrence that is recorded dealt with a parent, Mr. W. H. Flippen , who brought his two sons to be enrolled in Malcolmson 's school. As the parent was about to depart, Malcolmson called after him and said, "Oh, Mr. Flippen , how do you want the earth taught, - flat or round? I can teach it both ways. "³

The choice of Waldemar Malcolmson 's school, for young Robert Lee Moore, seemed to be a natural one. Two older brothers had also attended that school and, finding it satisfactory, his parents chose that he also should study with Malcolmson . He began school when he was eight and studied with Malcolmson until he was barely 15. His studies included such subjects as Spanish and shorthand, as well as other fundamental subjects. After learning shorthand, he habitually wrote notes to him- self in the margins of his books.

There had been established a public school district in Dallas in 1877, but the first school tax was not imposed until 1882. Public schools simply were not developed well enough to serve adequately the people of Dallas. Waldear Malcolmson 's school was only one of several private schools which had been organized to respond to the educational gap caused by the absence of public schools. Malcolmson 's school was known by several names and met, across the years, in at least three locations. Known as Central Academy, its address was Harwood and Live Oak Streets, as Dallas Lyceum its address was on San Jacinto Street, and while called simply Professor Malcolmson 's school, it was located at 540 Pearl Street.

Beginners studied addition, subtraction, reading and writing. Older students studied geography, higher arithmetic, spelling, composition, history, and penmanship. The spelling bee method was apparently used to teach a number of subjects other than spelling, including geography and pronunciation. At times a special instructor taught French classes. Anne Atkins , who attended Malcolmson 's school in the 1880's gives the following description of Malcolmson :

He was a rare type and a real scholar, with an odd approach to many things and unorthodox to a degree. He believed that Bacon wrote Shakespeare and was indifferent as to truths in the world around us. But when it came to mathematics, French or Latin, he ranked with the best and prepared another young playmate so well that he entered the University of Texas with the highest grades and became one of the most distinguished members of the State Bar, reading French and Latin with the greatest ease to the end of his life. The professor had an odd way of impressing facts upon us and one thing I have never forgotten-the names of the presidents of the United States up to Cleveland 's first administration; this was through learning the final initial of each. From the beginning he gave me, I have gone to a wide development of the French language and literature. ⁴

The Thomas collection of the Dallas Historical Society contains a monthly grade report from the Dallas Lyceum, 540 Pearl Street, issued by Professor Malcolmson in 1882. The report includes the following information:

The second session of the institution will commence on the first Monday in September and continue, without intermission, for ten months.

The method of instruction adopted is new, concise and lucid, not burdening the minds of the young scholars with useless matter, but omitting nothing necessary to a thorough, practical course of instruction.

The Lyceum aims to be second to no institution of learning in Dallas; and a student will be able to receive instruction in all the branches taught at schools of the highest grade without leaving the building. Male and female students will sit in separate apartments, meeting only to recite.

Primary department subjects listed included orthography, reading and writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography, and U. S. history. Intermediate students were offered algebra, advanced geometry, geography, modern history, natural philosophy, rhetoric, composition, and Latin.

Courses in the senior department included trigonometry, physiology and hygiene, elementary chemistry and astronomy, ancient history, mental philosophy, and Latin. At extra cost students were offered classes in German, Spanish, French, mathematics, drawing, bookkeeping, and painting.

Malcolmson and his wife may have been a bit ahead of their time in some respects. She had acquired the habit of smoking and came to an unfortunate end by setting her bed on fire. ⁵

Latin was not taught by Malcolmson and neither was calculus, after Robert Lee Moore began his studies with him. Moore needed Latin for entrance into the newly established University of Texas and, since he wished to study mathematics, he borrowed a calculus book from his teacher,⁶ with which to begin his study of calculus. Soon, though, he completely lost patience with its imprecise language and description. So he wrote to the University of Texas requesting a copy of the calculus book used there. He was to recall, in the twilight of his career, the pleasure with which he studied the new book, and then stated that, "I don't think as highly of it now as I did then. "

His method of studying calculus, using the book sent to him, was natural for Robert Lee. He would read a statement of a theorem, but would intentionally cover the portion of the page which gave the proof of the theorem. Thus, he would attack the theorem on his own. If, after what he felt a reasonably long time was spent without success in proving the theorem, then he would uncover the first line of the proof, read that, and then try to prove the theorem without further assistance. If this failed, he would uncover the next line and continue on in that fashion until he had obtained a proof. It wasn't a pleasant experience for him to uncover even a part of the proof and, in those instances that he uncovered much of the proof, he felt as though he had failed. However, he needed to have completed his calculus by September so that he could be received at the University of Texas with an understanding of calculus, so he proceeded through the calculus in that fashion.

This same attitude about reading or learning of the work of other people was held consistently by Robert Lee Moore throughout his life. Sometimes he would attend a mathematics lecture. His custom was to seldom attend such, but in those rare circumstances in which he decided to, he would invariably ignore the speaker and contemplate problems of his own. In one instance, he did notice the theorem the speaker proposed to prove. He found it interesting and began to work it out for himself. At the end of the talk, when the speaker was responding to questions, Moore spoke up, stating that he, too, had a proof of that theorem. Upon going to the board and indicating his proof to the speaker, he learned, only then, that his proof was the same as that just presented by the lecturer.

Another time, after he had received high office in the American Mathematical Society, he wandered into a classroom, while attending a meeting, to find two mathematicians, Lefschetz and Weiner , in deep discussion at the board. Moore said, "What are you doing?" They replied, "Well, it's a mathematics meeting, isn't it? We're discussing mathematics." Moore's response came, "Well, it's a mathematics meeting, but it seems to me that's the last thing you ought to be talking about!" When he related this conversation later to a class of his, he added, "They didn't understand what I meant."

Sometime prior to Robert Lee Moore's fifteenth birthday, he decided to enroll at the University of Texas. It was a result of that decision that he dropped out of Malcolmson 's school, to study independently those subjects which he needed to enter the University of Texas. He enrolled there for the first time a few weeks before his sixteenth birthday, in 1898.

The University of Texas was barely older than Robert Lee Moore. Although it had been authorized many years before, the first meeting of the University Regents was held November 16, 1881, almost exactly one year before Robert Lee Moore's birth. The Regents authorized the organization of the academic and law departments. The university was formally opened with public inaugural exercises on September 15, 1883.

The University of Texas began as a co-educational institution, with the statute under which it was organized stating that, ït shall be open to all persons in the State who may wish to avail themselves of its advantages, and to male and female on equal terms."⁷

The annual attendance of students during the first seven years of the operation of the university is recorded as

On November 17, 1882, again almost on Robert Lee Moore's birthday, the cornerstone of the Main Building was laid. The building was the first on the campus. Only the west wing had been constructed by 1883, when the first students enrolled and by 1889 the grand central section was barely completed. Construction of the east wing was delayed for lack of resources.

With the coming of the fall of 1883 came the opening of the University of Texas. Eight chairs had been filled and those eight men, along with five assistant faculty, were the faculty of the University of Texas in 1883. They were

Professor J. W. Mallet, A.M., M.D., LL.D., Ph.D., School of Chemistry and School of Physics. Professor Mallet was a native of England, but had become a citizen of this country prior to the Civil War. He served in the Confederate army with rank of colonel. Before coming to the University of Texas, he was on the faculties of the universities of State Geological Seminary of Alabama, Alabama,and Virginia.

Professor William LeRoy Broun , A.M., LL.D., School of Mathematics. Professor Broun was a native of Virginia and served in the Confederate Army as a colonel in the ordnance department. He was a member of the faculty of the University of Georgia, President of the State College, a member of the faculty of Vanderbilt, and President of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama before accepting a post at the University of Texas.

Professor Milton W. Humphreys , A.M., LL.D., Ph.D., School of Ancient Languages. Professor Humphrey was born in West Virginia. Before coming to the University of Texas, he was on the faculties of Washington and Lee and Vanderbilt. He served for one year as President of the American Philological Association.

Professor Leslie Waggener , A.M., LL.D., School of English Language, History and Literature. Professor Waggener was a native of Kentucky. He received an undergraduate degree at Harvard and the LL.I). from Georgetown College. He was a member of the faculty of Bethel College, Kentucky and also serve as President of that institution before joining the faculty of the University of Texas.

Professor R. L. Dabney , A.M., D.D., LL.D., School of Mental and Moral Philosophy and Political Science. Professor Dabney was born in Virginia, and served in the Confederate army as General Stonewall Jackson 's chief of staff. He was educated in Virginia and ordained a minister in the Presbyterian church. He was on the faculty of the University of Virginia.

Professor H. Tallichet , B.L.D., School of Modern Languages. Professor Tallichet was born in France and studied in various schools in Europe. He taught in this country in Baltimore, Wilmington, Ashville, Charleston, and the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee.

Professor Oran M. Roberts , A.M., LL.D., and Professor Robert S. Gould , A.M. Both Professor Roberts and Professor Gould received degrees from the University of Alabama and served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas. Professor Roberts also served as Governor of the state of Texas⁸

Until 1897 students could be admitted to the Academic Department of the University of Texas upon passing an examination in English. In 1897, to that requirement were added subjects of history and mathematics. This ended to cause university students to be drawn from the better high schools and academies. The long session was broken into three terms, called respectively Fall, Winter, and Spring Tens. The long session began on the fourth Wednesday in September and closed on the third Wednesday in June. The Fall Term closed just a few days before Christmas. The Winter Term opened shortly after the beginning of the year and ended on the third Saturday in March, with the Spring Term beginning on the first Monday following the third Saturday in March. The catalogue requirements had been strengthened by 1897, prescribing all studies for the freshman year and requiring each of those to be completed before the student could take up other studies. After the freshman year, one course was prescribed in each of the following subjects: Political Science, History, Philosophy, Natural Science, and English and the remainder of the course was entirely elective."⁹

Thoroughness of instruction was of concern in 1897. As an example, the School of Mathematics had established a new instructorship, thus enabling the teaching force of that school to divide the freshman class into six sections instead of two. To those six sections the entire time of the two instructors of mathematics was devoted.

The smaller sections enable the student to get more individual instruction from his professor; his enthusiasm and interest is quickened and aroused, and a desire created to pursue the subject in its higher branches. The percentage of failures has largely decreased."¹⁰

The total enrollment of academic students by 1897 was 408. The library held approximately 2640 volumes and the university authorities claimed earnest desire to reduce to the lowest possible point the expense of education.

The spirit of the institution is favorable in economy in dress and in living. There is no prescribed uniform, nor is there such devotion to fashion among the students as makes it unpleasant for any one to follow the utmost economy during this University life. Some students do their own cooking and house work, and are thus enabled to live at an expense not exceeding $5 a month. They serve as waiters in boarding houses, or do other work in private families, which relieves them of expense of board.

Regular board, with furnished room, can be obtained near the University, at prices varying from $12.50 to $20 a month. A large number of students pay the former price. In University Hall board, furnished room, lights and fuel may be obtained for $15 a month. Two large student clubs have, during the present session, further reduced the price of board and lodging. The Thomas Arnold Club have lived at an average expense of $11.25 monthly for each member.¹¹

Many of the students supported themselves by doing work in private families, milking cows, making fires, cooking, tending the horse; others waited on the tables in boarding houses or attended to the rooms; others taught, acted as clerks, stenographers, typists, accountants, or surveyors. One student, while proceeding with his graduate studies stated:

As the notion that those of limited means are unable to attend the University of Texas is more or less prevalent over the State, I desire to combat the idea, having as my grounds for so doing an experience of five years within her walls.

By assistance of a friend I secured a pleasant home in Austin, where I paid my board by working on the lawn and in the house. I entered the University in February, 1894, and continued to work in a private family for my board until in January, 1898, when I secured a better position in the University. My expenses in the University have been about as follows:

From February 1, 1894 to June 20, 1894		$ 7.85
From September 1894 to June 1895		$70.00
From September 1895 to June 1896		$60.00
From September 1896 to June 1897		$25.00
Total for four years		$227 85

But during the session of 1896-1897 I earned $40 by acting as janitor of the literary societies. Also during the session of 1897-1898 I earned $64 by doing private teaching. Subtracting this $104 from the total amount above given, leaves a total outlay for four years of $123.85.

I need only to add that during the four years in question I never failed to make the studies I undertook, that is, five courses a session.¹²

The academic standards which Robert Lee Moore found confronting him in 1898 are suggested by:

Admission on Examination

Candidates for admission to the B. A. course will stand entrance examinations in English, History, Mathematics, Latin or Greek. Candidates for admission to the B. Lit. course will stand entrance examinations in English, History, Mathematics, and in Latin or Greek. Candidates for admission to the B. A. or the B. Lit. courses who cannot take the entrance examination in Greek, may take Greek A in the University (see School of Greek). Candidates for admission to the B. S. course will stand entrance examinations in English, History, and Mathematics; and, beginning in 1901, also in a natural science or in a modern language. Applicants for admission on examination who do not wish to become candidates for a degree, will stand entrance examinations in English, History, and Mathematics.

1. In English candidates will be examined upon their knowledge of the elements of English Grammar and English Composition, and especially upon their ability to write simple paragraphs of idiomatic English properly spelled and punctuated. The subjects for such paragraphs will be taken from the books named below, whose subject matter the candidates must be familiar with: in 1899, the Sir Roger deCoverly Papers in Addison's The Spectator, Dryden 's Palamon and Arcite, Cooper 's The Last of the Mochicans, Burke 's Speech on Conciliation with America; in 1900, Scott 's Ivanhoe, Tennyson 's The Princess, Macaulay 's Essays on Milton and Addison, Dequincey's Flight of a Tartar Tribe.

   As an important part of his work of preparation the student should be encouraged to read widely in good English literature, and should be given constant practice in writing idiomatic English in connection with his reading.

2. In History the examination will cover the outlines of universal history. The amount of knowledge required to pass in this subject will be indicated by Myer 's Outlines of General History.

3. In Mathematics the examination will embrace arithmetic, including the metric system, algebra through equations of the second degree, and plane geometry.

4. In Latin candidates will be examined in grammar, with special stress upon inflections and the syntax of the simple sentence; the translation of elementary English prose into Latin; in Viri Romae, any books of Caesar , the four lives of Nepos that bear upon Roman history (Hamilcar , Hannibal , Cato , Atticus ), any four orations of Cicero , and the first book of Virgil 's Aeneid with the scansion of the dactylic hexameter.

5. In Greek candidates will be examined in grammar, on inflections and syntax; in any three books of Xenophon 's Anabasis; in the translation of easy Greek at sight; in the translation of elementary English prose into Greek. Knowledge of accent is required.¹³

Courses of Instruction

The courses offered in the Department of Literature, Science, and Arts are either one-third, two-thirds, or full courses, according to the estimated amount of work in each. A full course occupies three hours a week throughout the session; a one-third course one hour a week throughout the session or three hours a week for one term; and a two-thirds course two hours a week throughout the session or three hours a week for two terms. Twenty full courses, or their equivalent, are required for every baccalaureate degree.

Courses are distributed in most branches of study into three groups: those designated for undergraduates; those open to advanced undergraduates and to graduates; and those open to graduates.

Requirements for the Baccalaureate Degrees

To attain any one of the baccalaureate degrees the candidate must satisfactorily complete twenty full courses or their equivalent, and must produce a creditable essay or address at graduation. Some of these courses are prescribed; others are elective.

For Bachelor of Science

Freshman Year

• English 1, 1 course.
• Mathematics 1, 1 1/3 courses.
• A modern language (French, German, or Spanish), 1 1/3 courses, or History, l course.
• A modern language (French, German, or Spanish), 1 l/3 courses, or a science, (Biology, 1 course, or Chemistry, 1 1/3 courses).
• Physiology and Hygiene, l/3 course.
• Physical Culture.

Sophomore Year

• English 2, l course.
• A modern language (Scientific French or Scientific German) l course.
• A science, l course.

Elective Courses

The remainder of the twenty full courses may be selected the candidate, subject to the following conditions:

1. [(a)] Three full courses must be completed in some one subject; for B. S. candidates these courses must be in a natural science.
2. [(b)] None of the courses prescribed above can be taken in the Senior year, excepting Biology and Chemistry.
3. [(c)] Every candidate for a degree is required to take one full course in each of these subjects: Political Science (Elements of Political Economy and Government), History, Philosophy, and Natural Science.
4. [(d)] Students must select their studies in conference with the Advisory Committee of the Faculty; and no student will be al]owed to register for courses of study not approved by this Committee.
5. [(e)] In addition to the completion of twenty full courses every candidate for graduation is required to prepare and hand to the President by April l of the year of his intended graduation a creditable essay or address, whose title must be submitted to the President for approval on or before the first day of December. From the essays or addresses accepted, the Faculty will select one or more for delivery in public on Commencement

Requirements for Master of Science Degree

For the degree of Master of Science the requirements are as follows:

1. A prior degree of Bachelor of Science of the University of Texas, or of another institution; provided, that in the latter case the Faculty must be satisfied that the courses pursued are equivalent to those required by this University.

2. The equivalent of five full courses of graduate instruction satisfactorily completed; three-fifths of the work to be prosecuted in one school, such time as the instructor in charge may approve being devoted to the preparation of a thesis; the remaining two-fifths to be selected outside that school.

3. At least one year of residence at the University; a residence period longer than one year in case outside duties unduly encroach upon the time necessary to the satisfactory completion of the required work.

4. The approval of the course of study by the Advisory Committee-on Graduate Degrees, and the approval of the thesis by the professor in charge of it and by the committee.

Thesis

Every candidate for a master's degree must communicate to the President the title of his proposed thesis on or before the first Monday in March of the year in which he intends to present himself for final examination, and must hand to the President a fair copy of his thesis on or before the first Monday in May. The thesis with a certificate of approval will be deposited in the Library for public inspection.

A successful candidate for a master's degree is allowed to print his thesis as one accepted for the degree, with the signed certificate of approval; and either a printed or written copy of the thesis and the signed certificate must be permanently deposited in the Library and remain open to public inspection. The title of his thesis will be in the Commencement programme and in the next following annual Catalogue.

University Duties

No student will be allowed to register for more than five and one-third courses of study, except on petition approved by the Advisory Committee. A course is three recitations a week throughout the year, and thus the average number of recitations a week for each student is sixteen. A recitation lasts one hour. No student under twenty-one years of age is allowed to take less than four courses, or twelve recitations a week. Special students, being over twenty-one years of age, may do work in only one or two subjects, and may take fewer recitations a week than is permitted a regular student.

Uniform and punctual attendance upon all the exercises of the University is strictly required. Students absent from any exercises of the University at which they are due must present their excuses to the President not later than the day after their return to their classes. A student leaving the city during the session of the University must file an application for a leave of absence, and no student is permitted to withdraw permanently until he has received a certificate of honorable dismissal from the President.

The University of Texas considers its students men and women, and consequently they are under no other restriction than those imposed by good society. The young women have the advantage of the presence of Mrs. Helen M. Kirby , who has been appointed by the Board of Regents Lady Assistant, and an opportunity for daily conference with her. Mrs. Kirby gives her entire time to looking after their health and comfort. A private study room is provided for them. The general Library is open to all students, and here order and quiet are necessarily maintained. The "Honor System" prevails on examinations.

Courses offered in the School of Pure Mathematics included:

1. Spherics, Solid Geometry, Algebra, Plane and Spherical Trigonometry, with Applications to Surveying and Navigation. 2. Conic Sections, Analytical Geometry. 3. Calculus for Physics and Engineering. 4. Differential and Integral Calculus. 5. Integral Calculus, Differential Calculus, and Differential Equations, for Physics, Engineering, and Economics. 6. History of Elementary Mathematics. 7. Advanced Integral Calculus: Definite Integrals, Differential Equations, Functions of a Complex Variable. 8. Modern Geometry, Metric Geometry, Recent Geometry. 9. Geometry of Position. 10. Theory of Equations, Theory of Functions. 11. History of Mathematics. 12. Non-Euclidean Geometry. 13. Hypergeometric Functions. 14. Algebra of Logic.¹⁴

With the opening of the session 1884-1885, one notable change had occurred. Professor William LeRoy Broun no longer held the chair in mathematics. Replacing him on the faculty was George Bruce Halsted Professor of Pure and Applied Mathematics. Halsted had earned his M. A. from Princeton and had received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. It was to Halsted that Moore would come in 1898 and it was about Halsted that Moore would later say, "There is no other person I would have wished to study under; that is, if someone should ask me if I wouldn't rather have studied under Professor X, and they named any other person, then I would say, 'No!' If someone were to ask me if I wouldn't have preferred to begin my university studies under E. H. Moore , I would have said, 'No!' There is no one I would have preferred over Halsted !"¹⁵

One description of Halsted and his teaching of R. L. Moore was given by Burton Jones :

George Bruce Halsted came to the University of Texas as Professor and Head of the Department of Mathematics in 1884. He was a man of character, strong opinions, and he is best remembered for his translation of Poincare's popular essays on Science and Hypothesis. Halsted 's mathematical interests were also broad but mainly centered on geometry. Combining this interest with his interest in teaching he wrote several text books on geometry. One of the most exciting topics of the times was the foundations of geometry. Non-Euclidean geometry had been discovered and Hilber t was formulating his famous axioms. Halsted was abreast of these developments and incorporating them as quickly as possible into his teaching. So it was to this man that Robert Lee Moore came in 1898. Moore was a strong willed, to some extent self educated, young man of almost 16. Quick of mind, already with a driving interest in and dedication to mathematics, he was placed by Halsted in calculus. After a short period of time when it became evident that calculus was not sufficiently challenging, Halsted transferred Moore to his course in projective geometry. Thus in his freshman year he was already in competition with juniors and seniors.¹⁶

Halsted was not a person who many would call a good teacher. His style of teaching was not that to which the typical student had been accustomed. Halsted lectured, or talked, often in class but seldom about mathematics. He would speak of his travels, his experiences, and his attitudes without much apparent reservation. His treatment of mathematics was done by way of calling on students to explain passages in the textbook they were using. It was usual that some assignment had been made in the text at the preceding class and Halsted would commence by asking some person in the class to explain some statement from that section which had been assigned. If, for instance, a phrase had begun in the text with, "It is clear that..." or "It follows from the above that..." or some other statement suggesting that certain details were omitted, Halsted would start by saying, "Mr. BLANK, will you explain to us how that follows?" If no answer were made, Halsted would proceed on o another member of the class, asking, "Mr BLANK will you explain how that follows?" After inquiring of several other 1 students, without result, he would then be likely to say, "All right, Mr. Moore, how does it follow?"¹⁷

However, such a description of Halsted and his classroom manner does not offer the full flavor of the man. Coming to Texas, joining a faculty which contained among its few members a distinguished old soldier, Dabney , who was Stonewall Jackson 's chief of staff during the Civil War, Halsted held his own with all of them in terms of individualism and strength of personality.

T. U. Taylor , a member of the faculty at the University of Texas until 1938, recalled Halsted :

George Bruce Halsted was a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and was an investigator that was ever on the quest. While some have said that he pursued not the standard lines but morphological forms of the subject; still in fairness he must have credit for his great industry and his faculty of inspiring young men to do research in mathematical fields. He was a searcher in many languages, and if he got the scent, he was a regular blood hound on the track of new game. America owes it to George Bruce Halsted for its knowledge of Non-Euclidean Mathematics, and it was he that republished the monographs of Lobachevski and Bolyai .

He was never a detail man for the exactness of a second or fraction thereof but an investigator for those forms of mathematics that the American Mathematicians had neglected or ignored.

His services at the University of Texas were terminated about 1900 or 1901 on account of misunderstandings. He was too free in his criticisms of the University authorities and matters became acute in the month of December one year, and the Board met and severed his connections with the University suddenly.

Dr. Halsted has published many books: Mensuration, Plane and Solid Geometry; Lobachevski , Bolyai and many monographs and articles in magazines. He was a prodigious writer and was a constant attendant at the National meetings of the scientific bodies.¹⁸

One account of Halsted 's attendance at a meeting of the American Mathematical Society was recalled by Professor F. Morley :

The meetings of the Society were friendly, optimistic, and even jovial. The seniors, such as G. W. Hill and H. A. Newton of Yale, were of course dignified; and so were the Harvard men. But it was a new note in scientific meetings to encounter, for instance, G. B. Halsted , who said to me when we met: Come down to Texas, and we will shoot Mexicans.¹⁹

In no sense was George Bruce Halsted subservient to others, who perhaps enjoyed greater mathematical reputation than he. For instance, at the first summer meeting of the American Mathematical Society, Halsted had this to say about E. H. Moore :

The paper by Professor Eliakim H. Moore of the University of Chicago was a piece of padding. Of course in an elementary class on the theory of functions it would be a good exercise to have each of the students write a half dozen such papers, and in a meeting lacking material such padding, like cotton in a tooth, holds the opening until the gold comes. The same remarks are true of the paper read by Professor Moore in Section A of the American Association.²⁰

At the time Halsted made that comment, one of his proteges, Dickson , was just beginning his graduate study at Chicago and R. L. Moore was several years away from going there. In the language of that period, it is clear that Halsted did not "toady" after anyone!

Another description of Halsted suggests the unusual qualities of the man:

Of all the rare and odd professors that have been on the Faculty of the University of Texas, I think George Bruce Halsted will rank number one.

He came to the University in the fall of 1884 during the University's second year and for about sixteen years his sayings and doings in the classroom and in public lectures were the talk of the campus and the town.

In the early days he made a trip to Mexico and he conceived the idea that he had discovered a plant, the juice of which would revive old age and prolong a person's life. He brought some of the plant home, boiled it down to a syrupy mixture, brought a bottle to class and had each student come up and take a dose of the elixir. Even one of the Deans of A. & M. College boasted to his dying day that he had taken a spoon of Halsted 's elixir.

He had written a geometry and had hated the definition of a straight line as given in most books as the shortest distance between two points. He would always tell his class that a dog knows this or a dog knows that. One day he breezed into class and suddenly asked Mr. LacLane, Ry, "What does a dog know?" Mr. LacLane, Ry replied, "A dog knows that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points."

This was contrary to the Doctor's sermon and he immediately proceeded to lecture about the knowledge of a dog and straight lines for an hour.

He was rather caustic and made personal remarks to the students and commented on their replies. Some took offense and one day a personal encounter was prevented by the chairman of the faculty.²¹

Halsted came by his academic individualism honestly. He was a student of J. J. Sylvester , who had come to the United States from Great Britain. During his inaugural address before the Texas Academy of Science on October 12, 1894, Halsted related the following about Sylvester :

... As Sylvester would not sign the thirty-nine articles of the Established Church, he was not allowed to take his degree, nor to stand for a fellowship to which his rank in the tripos entitled him.

Sylvester always felt bitterly this religious disbarment. His denunciation of the narrowness, bigotry, and intense selfishness exhibited in these creed tests was a wonderful piece of oratory in his celebrated address at the Johns Hopkins University. No one who saw will ever forget the emotion and astonishment exhibited by James Russell Lowell while listening to this unexpected climax. Thus barred from Cambridge, he accepted a call to America from the University of Virginia.

The cause of his sudden abandonment of the University of Virginia is often related by the Rev. Dr. R. L. Dabney , as follows: In Sylveser's class were a pair of brothers, stupid and excruciatingly pompous. When Sylvester pointed out one day the blunders made in a recitation by the younger of the pair, this individual felt his honor and family pride aggrieved, and sent word to Professor Sylvester that he must apologize or be chastised.

Sylvester bought a sword-cane, which he was carrying when waylaid by the brothers, the younger armed with a heavy bludgeon.

An intimate friend of Dr. Dabney 's happened to be approaching at the moment of the encounter. The younger brother stepped up in front of Professor Sylvester and demanded an instant and humble apology.

Almost immediately he struck at Sylvester , knocking off his hat, and then delivered with his heavy bludgeon a crushing blow directly upon Sylvester 's bare head.

Sylvester drew his sword-cane and lunged straight at him, striking him just over the heart. With a despairing howl, the student fell back into his brother's arms screaming out, "I am killed! He has killed me!" Sylvester was urged away from the spot by Dr. Dabney 's friend, and without even waiting to collect his books, he left for New York, and took ship back to England.

Meantime a surgeon was summoned to the student, who was lividly pale, bathed in cold sweat, in complete collapse, seemingly dying, whispering his last prayers. The surgeon tore open his vest, cut open his shirt, and at once declared him not in the least injured. The fine point of the sword-cane had struck a rib fair, and caught against it, not penetrating.

When assured that the wound was not much more than a mosquito-bite, the dying man arose, adjusted his shirt, buttoned his vest, and walked off, though still trembling from the nervous shock. Sylvester was made head professor of mathematics of the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, a position which he held until the early period set by the English military laws for conferring the life-pension.

He thus happened to be free to accept a position at the head of mathematics in the Johns Hopkins University at its organization.²²

Taylor elaborated further on Halsted .

He bought some Shetland ponies and drove over town at a rattling pace irrespective of traffic laws or right nd left side of the street. One day in the faculty meeting one of the professors happened to refer to the police court and ended with the remark that he had never before been before the police court. Immediately Dr. Halsted from his seat interjected, "I have the advantage f you. I have been there several times."

When he built his house on the lot where the University Methodist Church now stands, he erected it on brick columns high enough for a man to walk under without bumping his head. The students all said that he did this o the flood would not wash away his house if the Austin am ever broke. I cannot vouch for this statement but it as current and widespread on the campus, and it was typical.

On one occasion he remarked in the faculty that an ordinary thesis ought not take a student over an hour to write.

There is one outstanding thing that must be said to the credit of George Bruce Halsted : He inspired men to study and research and In this respect he made a genuine contribution to American scholarship in mathematics.²³

Halsted and his Shetland ponies must have caused considerable attention in Austin. An ex-student, in giving comments before a gathering of ex-students in Dallas on October 21, 1899 recalled:

... I walked down to Congress Avenue and while walking north, on the side of the Lobby, I saw a man of small stature and with a great stiff moustache that attracted my attention. He was standing astride the gutter through which the water was running, and was bent over picking up rotten apples and cutting the rotten parts from them with his knife. As soon as I could, I asked a man who that fellow was. He said, "I think it is Halsted ." "What," I said, "George Bruce Halsted of the University?" Looking again, he assured me it was. Such was my introduction to one whose books I had often seen and studied and whose name was so familiar to the scientists of every civilized nation. After he had picked up several of the apples, he walked to a Shetland pony hitched nearby, and with a smile lighting up his countenance, fed them to the pony. For a moment my respect for the man was lessened, but the more I thought of it, the more it weighed with me as evidence of his greatness, being that childish simplicity that so often characterized the truly great.²⁴

Halsted had already experienced unusual success with his students before Robert Lee Moore enrolled at the University of Texas. One of Halsted 's first successes came in the form of Milton Brockett Porter . Porter had come from Sherman , Texas, having been born there on November 22, 1869. He attended Austin College in Sherman and then was a student at the University of Texas from 1889-1892. Leaving Texas, Porter received his M. A. from Harvard in 1895 and his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1897. He returned to Texas as Instructor in Pure Mathematics in 1897 and accepted a similar post at Yale in 1898. He was promoted to an Assistant Professorship there before long and held that position until he returned to the University of Texas as Head of the School of Pure Mathematics in 1903. A phrase describing Porter at the time of his return in 1903 was:

Gifted with much mathematical insight, and possessed of a large store of broad and accurate knowledge in many fields, his rare and admirable character and high ideals are sure to play a most important part in the development of the University.²⁵

So at the time Robert Lee Moore entered the University of Texas, Porter had already been away to earn his doctorate, had returned, but would leave Texas for Yale before Moore graduated.

Another student of Halsted 's of near Porter 's age was H. Y. Benedict who returned to Texas in 1899 as Instructor of Pure Mathematics.

Benedict had been born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1869 and came to Young County, Texas when he was eight years of age. Except for scattered schooling, he was prepared for college at home, by his mother. He entered the University of Texas in 1889, graduating at the head of his class of 1892. During 1891-1892 he was a Fellow in Pure Mathematics, and in 1892-1893 a Tutor in Pure and Applied Mathematics at the University. He moved to the University of Virginia and during 1893-1895 he was an assistant in astronomy at the University of Virginia. He resigned that post to study at Harvard, graduating from there with a Ph.D. "in mathematics, especially astronomy," in 1898, having held two scholarships while at Harvard. He spent one year at Vanderbilt University, 1898-1899, having "entire charge of the department of mathematics at that institution."²⁶

Leonard Eugene Dickson was a third student of much success who had experienced early contact with Halsted .

He (Dickson ) was from Cleburne, Texas where his father had been for years a successful merchant, having considerable holdings in real estate. Dickson entered the sixth grade of the Cleburne Public Schools at their opening session in 1883. He continued there five years and then had two years of academy instruction before entering the sophomore class of the University of Texas, where he graduated in 1893 with first honors of his class. During 1892-93, he was an assistant chemist in the geological survey of Texas. During 1893-94, he held the teaching fellowship in pure mathematics in the University of Texas, and completed the course for the degree of Master of Arts. He received, then resigned, an appointment to a Harvard fellowship, choosing instead to accept a senior fellowship in the University of Chicago. He held that post from 1894 to 1896. He gave elementary instruction in the college, graduating in 1896 with the Doctor of Philosophy. He then studied during 1896-97 with Sophus Lie at Leipsig and with Jordan , Appel, Picard , Hermite , and Painleve at Paris. He was an assistant professor of mathematics at the University of California during 1897-1899, resigning that post to return to the University of Texas as an Associate Professor.²⁷

Thus it was that by 1899 the faculty in the School of Mathematics at the University of Texas included: Professor George Bruce Halsted , Associate Professor L. E. Dickson , and Instructors H. Y. Benedict and T. M. Putman Putnam was a promising young mathematician from the University of California who had studied with Dickson there, as well as having spent one summer studying at the University of Chicago. He came with Dickson from California to Texas. Porter had just left to accept a post at Yale. Halsted had gathered about him an able group of promising mathematicians: Porter who had begun work with Halsted as an undergraduate and who made his way to Harvard for his Ph.D.; Benedict who followed almost exactly the same path, earning his degree in mathematical astronomy; and Dickson who began that route, only to be diverted to the newly established University of Chicago, earning his doctorate there before studying with the mathematical leaders of Europe. It was not exactly a sterile, impoverished mathematical community which Robert Lee Moore found himself in at the University of Texas. It was an exciting time of new mathematical discoveries and Moore could look about him and see others who had begun at Texas, gone away to pursue their Ph.D. elsewhere, notably Harvard and Chicago, and had returned with success achieved.

An example of the mathematics offering is given by a description issued in the University Record, Vol. I, No. 4, October 1899, pp. 359-360.

For Undergraduates

1. Spherics: Halsted 's Elementary Synthetic Geometry (third edition); Solid Geometry: Halsted 's Elements of Geometry (sixth edition); Algebra (Fisher & Schwatt ); Plane and Spherical Trigonometry (Phillips & Strong ), with applications to surveying and navigation (one and one-third courses; four hours weekly).

   Section	I	Professor Dickson
   Section	II	Instructor Benedict
   Section	III	Instructor Benedict
   Section	IV	Instructor Putnam
   Section	V	Instructor Putnam
   Section	VI	(For technical students) Professor Dickson

2. Conic Sections; Analytical Geometry - Puckle (full course; three hours weekly) Professor Halsted

3. Differential and Integral Calculus - Byerly (full course; three hours weekly) Professor Halsted

4. Introductory course in Analytic Geometry and Calculus, for technical students 1 full course; three hours weekly) Instructor Putnam

5. History of Elementary Mathematics (two-thirds course; two hours weekly). A History of Elementary Mathematics, with hints on Methods of Teaching, by Florian Cajori . Professor Halsted

6. Advanced Integral Calculus; Differential Equations (full course, three hours weekly) Professor Dickson

7. Modern Geometry; Metric Geometry; Recent Geometry (two-thirds course; two hours weekly) Halsted 's Mensuration (fourth edition); Halsted 's Synthetic Geometry (third edition). Professor Halsted

8. Geometry of Position (full course; three hours weekly). Halsted 's Pure Projective Geometry (second edition). Professor Halsted
   For Graduates
   

9. General Group Theory, Including Lie 's continuous groups with applications (full course; three hours weekly). Professor Dickson

10. Non-Euclidean Geometry (full course; three hours weekly). Halsted '8 Lobachevski (fourth edition); Halsted 's Bolyai (fourth edition). Professor Halsted

11. General Astronomy (full course; three hours weekly). Young 's General Astronomy. Instructor Benedict p

12. Spherical Astronomy and Orbit Theory (full course; three hours weekly). Instructor Benedict

This year has been a bloom period for the School of Mathematics. In addition to the aid rendered by Mr. T. M. Putnam, of California, Professor Halsted ha had the extraordinarily able support of two of his own former students, Dr. Dickson and Dr. Benedict .

For sixteen years, beginning with 1884, Dr. Halsted has given the work of the School a decidedly geometric character, believing that this, in its various ramifications, is the most remunerative as it is the most charming part of all mathematics. But this year, in addition to the courses in Modern Synthetic Geometry, and in Recent Geometry of the Triangle and Circle (the Lemoine-Brocard Geometry), and in Geometry of Position (Projective Geometry), and in Non-Euclidean Geometry, the School has been strengthened and diversified by a course in Group Theory by Dr. Dickson and courses in Mathematical Astronomy by Dr. Benedict .

Dr. Benedict has in preparation a work in Orbit Theory; and Dr. Dickson has become such an authority on Groups, that the University of Chicago has offered him an Assistant Professorship in which his advanced work is to be in that subject. His name already appears in the program of the Department of Mathematics and Astronomy for 1900-01. It is a source of great gratification to his former teacher and subsequent colleague here, that, while the University of Chicago emphasizes by special mention under Modern Mathematics, "synthetic geometry," and under Introduction to the Higher Mathematics, "projective geometry," yet with the advent of Dr. Dickson appears in its program the magic name "non-Euclidean geometrics." Course 50 in "Continuous Groups- Lie 's theory with its applications to geometry, invariant theory, differential equations, systems of complex numbers, and non-Euclidean geometrics."

To this latter application of Lie 's theory Dr. Halsted devoted a considerable part of his "Report on Progress in Non-Euclidean Geometry" to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Some idea of the growing and widespread interest in this modern development of science may be gained from the following extract from a circular written and circulated by Professor Wm. W. Payne , editor of "Popular Astronomy":
"Goodsell Observatory of Carleton College,
"Northfield, Minn.

"The Non-Euclidean Geometry

"To the Teacher of Geometry:

"Teachers of Elementary Geometry everywhere will be interested in the recent studies of the scholars in Pure Mathematics, at home and abroad, who have been investigating the claims of Non-Euclidean Geometry.

"Large attention was given to this topic at the last meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at which Professor George Bruce Halsted , of the University of Texas, made a full report on this important theme.

"Professor Halsted has consented to rewrite that scholarly paper in condensed form and plain language, especially for the benefit of Teachers of Geometry in High School, Academy and College, who want to know the latest views of eminent scholars of Mathematics in regard to the Non-Euclidean Geometry.

"This knowledge will be of help to any one in teaching the elements of Geometry in any school."

Our loss in Dr. Dickson is Chicago's gain. Two young men of the same sort of promise, F. H. Smith and R. L. Moore, are this year showing that the splendid quality of Texas youth is of undiminished vigor, and as the School of Pure Mathematics has supplied the faculty of Yale and Chicago, so may it in the future be ready to give of its young vitality to Harvard and Princeton.²⁸

Halsted 's last statement expresses obvious hope that one or more of is students would return to Halsted 's alma mater, Princeton. The road was opening for students to move from Texas to Chicago. Dickson had followed that path, going from Halsted to success at Chicago and then even greater success followed his graduation from Chicago. By August, 1899, Dickson already had much research in print.

It is certain that Dickson 's move to the University of Chicago was a tremendous loss to the University of Texas, as indicated by the statement entered into the University Record in 1900.

The Faculty suffers the loss of two of its strongest members this year, both of whom voluntarily resign to accept positions offering wider fields of usefulness. Dr. Leonard E. Dickson was graduated from the University of Texas in 1893 with the degree of Bachelor of Science. During the following year he was fellow and graduate student in Mathematics. The thesis he submitted for the Master's degree not only won that degree, but upon it he was awarded both a scholarship in Harvard and a fellowship in the University of Chicago. Going to Chicago, after two years of graduate study he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, magna cum laude. After spending a year in Europe, principally under the tutelage of the great German mathematician Sophus Lie , he was called to the University of California. He taught there for one year, and then accepted a call to serve his alma mater as Associate Professor.

It was hoped that Dr. Dickson would be content to devote his life and talents to the University of Texas, but the opportunities for advancement, the wider field for work in the higher branches of mathematics offered by the University of Chicago, have proved too attractive, and he leaves to become Assistant Professor of Mathematics in that institution. His work in the University of Texas has been highly successful. Chiefly under his direction the bugaboo of freshman mathematics has lost many of its horrors. He also taught a class during the year in the field of his special interest-the Group Theory. With mathematical genius of high order, success is sure to attend him wherever he goes. In his upward progress his friends and associates here will always take an especial pleasure and pride.²⁹

A mathematician, E. H. Moore , had been named Head of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Chicago and was developing a reputation of enticing to his department the most fertile of minds, both on the faculty and the student body. His hiring of Dickson provides such an example. Indeed, E. H. Moore is reported to have said of Dickson that: "Mr. Dickson was the most thoroughly prepared student in pure mathematics who had ever come to me."³⁰ The stage was set for Robert Lee Moore to come to the notice of E. H. Moore .

Developments soon occurred which brought Robert Lee Moore forcefully to the attention of Chicago's E. H. Moore . Even though no doctoral degree had been granted in mathematics at the University of Texas, it was Moore's intention to remain there during the academic year 1902-03. He had just completed a year in which he was a Fellow in Pure Mathematics. He had been recommended for a position the next year as a Tutor in Mathematics. Halsted had recommended him for that position and both Halsted and Moore expected that it would be approved. Instead, the recommended appointment was not approved by the Board of Regents and Miss Mary E. Decherd was appointed to that position.

Robert Lee Moore had much reason to expect approval of Halsted 's recommendation for his appointment as Tutor in Mathematics. By April 1902, Moore had made a substantial contribution as a mathematical researcher. He obtained a mathematical result which was to bring him to the attention of many, but particularly, E. H. Moore . However, he was to have already accepted a teaching post at a high school in Marshall, Texas before his opportunity at Chicago would present itself.

That Robert Lee Moore did not receive a position, as Tutor in Mathematics, seemed to culminate growing discontent between Halsted and officials at the University of Texas. Indeed, the negative response to Halsted 's recommendation concerning Moore may have been directed more toward Halsted than toward Moore. Halsted had been quite an outspoken man at the university, and was a popular speaker. He had traveled much and was often invited to address others to describe his travels. Even within the classroom he often would treat subjects other than mathematics. This dealing with other than mathematical topics sometimes included comments about other faculty members. One such statement, made in class before students, was about a member of the physics department: "He sits rocking on his front porch and thinks that he thinks." Such comments as that surely would eventually make their way across to the subject of the comment and surely would be expected to give rise to acrimonious feeling toward Halsted .

Halsted 's training had been from northern institutions: A. B., Princeton, 1875; A. M., Princeton, 1878; Ph.D., Johns Hopkins, 1879; then, teaching for three years at Princeton before coming to Texas in 1884. His youth surely was influenced by the Civil War and his outspoken manner, both within and without the classroom probably gave rise to some feeling that he was not altogether in sympathy with Southern attitudes or with some people who held to Southern attitudes.

With his propensity to speak out about any topic of interest to him, and with some gift of brilliance, Halsted was the sort of person who would make many statements of a nature to cause feelings against him.* An Austin lawyer, upon being asked why Halsted left Texas, is reported to have said, "Well, Halsted just had more intelligence than the remainder of the faculty, taken together, and they just couldn't stand it!"

Because of a general feeling of discontent toward Halsted , from a variety of sources, by 1901, it perhaps was a means of discouraging his remaining at Texas by rejecting his recommendations. When his nomination of Robert Lee Moore as Mathematics Tutor was rejected in favor of Miss Mary E. Decherd , Halsted was incensed. He saw a gifted student, Moore, being discouraged by that action, so as to employ a woman who had established herself with those in authority, but who had little promise as a mathematician. Halsted , in attempting to have Moore continued at Texas, even raised the money for Moore's salary, some five hundred dollars. The President reacted the proposition. Thus it was, on October 24, 1902, after Miss Decherd had been formally appointed to her position on June 12, 1902, that Halsted had published his unhappiness with that decision. In SCIENCE MAGAZINE, in commenting on the Carnegie Institute, Halsted stated

... And if the keenest, brightest, most gifted of the young people reject the scientific career, then fellowships serve only a dull, stale, tired clique of incompetents.

Even after the possession of the rare and precious gift of scientific genius has been clearly, competitively proven, the possessor may choose what he considers a safer, more paying, more attractive career. I was twice Fellow of the Johns Hopkins University and among my contemporaries, two unsurpassed in gifts for scientific creativity deliberately went over to moneymaking.

And finally among the sifted (sic) few who have the divine gift and the divine appreciation of their gift, the exquisite bud in its tender incipiency may be cruelly frosted.

Of the great Hilber t's "betweenness" assumptions one was this year proved redundant by a young man under twenty working with me here, and by a demonstration so extraordinarily elegant and unexpected that letters from high authorities came congratulating the university on the achievement. Professor E. H. Moore , of the University of Chicago, has published his congratulatory letter spontaneously written (Amer. Math. Monthly, June-July pp . 152, 153).

This young man of marvelous genius, of richest promise, I recommended for continuance in the department he adorned. He was displaced in favor of a local schoolmarm. Then I raised the money necessary to pay him, only five hundred dollars, and offered it to the President here. He would not accept it... The bane of the state university is that its regents are the appointees of a politician.

If he were even limited by the rule that half of them must be academic graduates, there would be some safety against the prostitution of a university, the broadest of human institutions, to politics and sectionalism, the meanest provincialism.³¹

Halsted ended his tenure as Professor of Pure Mathematics on December 10, 1902. On Thursday, December 11, 1902 there appeared in the Austin Daily Statesman the article following.

Dr. George B. Halsted , professor of mathematics at the State University, has severed his connection with that institution. This is not a surprise, in view of the fact that for several years past there have been differences between the professor and the regents and early last spring his withdrawal was forecasted in these columns. The differences arose several years ago by the fact that a general reduction of leading professorship salaries occasioned a reduction in that of Professor Halsted . At that time it was talked that he would resign. Later on another rumor was started that he would sever his connection with the institution, and last spring it became definitely known that a year's notice had been given looking to the severance of relationship between the State University and Professor Halsted . The end has been reached now in the withdrawal of Professor Halsted from the University.

The announcement was made yesterday in a statement given by Regent Lomax to the press, reading as follows:

"It is announced that Dr. George B. Halsted , professor of mathematics in the University of Texas will no longer be connected with that institution. At the recent meeting of the board of regents notice was given to him that his services were no longer required. It is also stated that Dr. Halsted received notice from the regents this past summer that he would be allowed to retain his position to the end of the present session, provided his services were satisfactory. His retirement at this time indicates that the board considered that it was for the best interest of the institution that his connection be severed at once.

"No dissension exists in the present faculty, but on the other hand it is admitted on all sides that the relations between the authorities of the University and it's faculty were never more harmonious"

The mathematical result which had so excited Halsted , and was to bring attention to R. L. Moore, as well as to Halsted , came about as a result of Halsted 's interest in geometry and correspondence he had with the renown German mathematician, Hilber t.

Sometime in the early fall of 1901, Halsted was preparing his "Supplementary Report" to the A. A. A. S., (SCIENCE, No. 8, 1901) in which he treated Hilber t's remarkable set of axioms for geometry.³² One group of assumptions made by Hilber t were called, by him, the "Axioms of Arrangements." Halsted called them the "Betweenness Assumptions." Of these assumptions, the fourth one stated:

Any four points, A, B, C, D, of a straight can always beso arranged that B lies between A and C and also between A and D, and furthermore C lies between A and D and also between B and D.

Halsted , in translating from Hilber t's statements, to arrive at the above, had come to an interpretation of "angeordnet." That interpretation he discussed with R. L. Moore. Endeed, he asked Moore whether that fourth assumption might be demonstrated from the other assumptions. Those other assumptions, as translated by Halsted are:

If A, B, C are points of a straight, and B lies between A and C, then B also lies between C and A.

If A and C are points of a straight, then there is always at least one point B, which lies between A and C, and at least one point, such that C lies between A and D.

Of any three points of a straight there is always one and only one, which lies between the other two.

DEFINITION. The system of two points A and B, which lie upon a straight a, we call a sect, and designate it with AB or BA.

The points between A and B are said to be points of the sect AB or also situated within the sect AB; all remaining points of the straight are said to be situated without the sect AB. The points A,B are called endpoints sect AB.

Let A, B, C be three points not co-straight and a a straight in the plane ABC striking none of the points A, B, C: if then the straight a goes through a point within the sect AB, it must always go either through a point of the sect BC or through a point of the sect AC.

Halsted had written to Hilber t, asking whether Hilber t "recognized any desirability for change."³³ Halsted was preparing to write a geometry text book, using Hilber t's axioms as a basis for it. Hilber t's answer to Halsted was received April 14, 1902 and read, in part, "Instead of II 4 (the fourth assumption), I believe it suffices simply to say: If B lies between A and C and C between A and D, then lies also B between A and D; and then to prove my old II 4 as theorem."³⁴

Halsted read this to Moore and suggested that Moore fill in the proof. Within the space of that single evening, Moore was able to inform Halsted that he had demonstrated Hilber t's new axiom, eliminating II 4 and reducing "The Betweenness Assumptions" from five to four.* *Halsted stated that Moore had come to him early the next morning "with his demonstration to Hilber t's new axiom." Burton Jones wrote (Proceedings of Emory Topology Conference 1970): "When Moore had discovered a redundancy in Hilber t's axioms, and checked it through, it was after supper (and possibly on Saturday). Nevertheless, he had a strong urge to show it to Halsted immediately. Hurrying over to the campus he looked up toward the old main building. Years later, Moore remembered what a good feeling it gave him to see the light shining from Halsted 's window. Halsted was there." Halsted was certain that Moore had no intimation that anyone had ever tried to prove those theorems. Moore started from the fact that some two weeks earlier, Hilber t thought an assumption necessary of which Moore offered the demonstration on the basis of the remaining axioms.

Halsted wrote Moore's oral arguments and submitted them to the Mathematical Monthly for publication. He also wrote E. H. Moore , who was chairman of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Chicago, telling E. H. Moore of R. L. Moore's success reducing Hilber t's axioms. No doubt, this was Halsted 's way of introducing E. H. Moore to another student of much promise. Dickson remained on the faculty at the University of Chicago and it would be difficult for E. H. Moore to overlook the past good experience of accepting a student produced by Halsted . E. H. Moore replied to Halsted :

"I have received from you the April number of THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL MONTHLY, containing the proof by Mr. R. L. Moore of the redundancy of Hilber t's Axiom II 4. The proof is certainly delightfully simple."³⁵

E. H. Moore also wrote to R. L. Moore:

The University of Chicago, May 6, 1902

Mr. R. L. Moore, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas.

MR. DEAR MR. MOORE:ASK I read with much interest, the other day, your proof of the redundancy of Hilber t's axiom II 4, in his system I, II, as exhibited by Professor Halsted in the current number of the AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL MONTHLY. Today I received from Professor Halsted a copy of that number. This is in response to a letter I sent him a week or so ago stating that I should be pleased to receive for publication in the Transactions the delightfully simple proof of the redundancy of which he wrote [had written] to me. I certainly agree with him in this estimate of your proof. Apparently he has not called your attention to the fact that the redundancy was pointed out by me and proved in my paper, which I am sending under separate cover, on the proective³⁶ axioms of geometry, published in the January number of the Transactions. In accordance with correspondence with him, it was in connection with this paper of mine that he wrote to Hilber t and received Hilber t's response which led to your work on the subject. You will see that it was my desire to survey the whole system of proective axioms, and to exhibit a new system, and, in that connection to show that Hilber t's axioms I 4 and II 4 were in his system redundant, and moreover, to furnish a satisfactory account of the roles of the axioms I 3, 4, 5 which had been held by Schur to be redundant. As to the axiom II 4, you will see that, by considerations of the other linear axioms alone, and so in particular without the use of II 5, or of my axiom 4, I prove on page 151 that the axiom II 4 is a result of the statement 2₁ which statement is the statement of your theorem I. Thus to complete the proof of the redundancy of II 4, in Hilber t's system, I should today make use of your proof of theorem I. The proof that I give, in that it involves my triangle transversal axiom 4, is necessarily much longer.

I have supposed that you might be interested in understanding how your paper impresses me, and remain with considerable interest in the progress of your mathematical career,

Yours very truly,
(Signed) E. H. Moore

I suppose that the letter as a whole may be of value and interest to some readers of THE MONTHLY.³⁷

Chicago, June 8, 1902.33

There is little doubt that R. L. Moore's result caught E. H. Moore 's full attention. Only a few months earlier E. H. Moore had published a paper ("On the projective axioms of geometry," Trans. Amer. Math. Soc., January 1902, Vol. III, pp. 142-168, 501) in which he also had established the redundancy of Hilber t's "Axiom II 4." The proof due to R. L. Moore was remarkably straightforward and clear. Hardly any other proof could have gained E. H. Moore 's attention more completely!

Thus it was that the Spring of 1902 came to a close with Robert Lee Moore having accomplished substantial mathematics, enough to excite mathematicians of reputation elsewhere. His hopes of remaining at the University of Texas were dashed when Halsted 's recommendation to employ him as a Tutor were rejected and that position filled by Miss Decherd .* George Michael Decherd , an employee of the State Treasury Office in Austin, and Kate Thompson Decherd were the parents of four children who attended the University of Texas. Mary Elizabeth graduated with a BS in 1892 and began teaching in Austin High School. "During the time she was teaching in the Austin High School, Miss Decherd 's interest in mathematics continued to grow. She kept in close touch with the Department of Mathematics in the University, taking from one to two courses each year. In 1897 she had completed the required amount of graduate work for her Master's degree." (University Record, Vol. IV, No. 4, December 1902, p. 472) She was president of the Ashbel Society in 1892 and Vice President of the Alumni Association in 1900. In the summer of 1901 she did graduate work in the University of Chicago. Henry Benjamin Decherd received a BS from the university in 1896 and an MA in 1897. He received an MD from the Medical School in Galveston in 1900 and was on the faculty there for a number of years before leaving to go to the Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. William Thompson Decherd received a B. Lit. from the University in 1899. In 1898 he received the "T". He was employed as a clerk in the Treasury Department in Austin. George Michael Decherd received the BS in 1901. He was editor of the Athenaeum Magazine in 1898. He received an MD from the Medical School in Galveston and returned to Austin to practice medicine in 1905. This led to Halsted 's raising funds with which to employ Moore. Upon the rejection of that proposal, Halsted angrily denounced the Board of Regents in Science Magazine, thereby leading to further deterioration of relations between Halsted and the Board of regents. Moore sought out a position and accepted one as a high school teacher in Marshall, Texas. E. H. Moore 's response to R. L. Moore's work was heartening and strengthened R. L. Moore's resolve to pursue his studies further in mathematics. However, arrangements which would take him to study at the University of Chicago were not worked out quickly enough for his enrollment there immediately after his departure from the University of Texas. An earlier graduate from Texas, under Halsted , L. E. Dickson , had already gone to the University of Chicago and had so impressed those there, particularly E. H. Moore , that another promising young mathematician, carrying Halsted 's strong recommendation, would be well received at Chicago.

So it was that Robert Lee Moore left the University of Texas, having taught there his last year and as he left to go to Marshall, before continuing in earnest his mathematical career, his mentor Halsted was nearing the end of his tenure at the University of Texas. Moore's success as a mathematician was to quickly flame into brilliance, lighting his path upward as a comet, matched perhaps only by Halsted 's career trailing off into oblivion.