an unprecedented public relations campaign to promote higher education, a sumptuous turkey dinner, a near-fatal bout of appendicitis, and a legislative debate over merging Texas A&M with the University in Austin.
“His speech from the beginning to the close was a grand and masterly one,” reported the Austin Statesman,“eschewing from his discourse the tinseled vaporings which generally characterize commencement efforts.” When the auditorium in the old Main Building was completed in 1890, commencement ...