In 1871, the Trustees suggested that I spend the summer in Constantinople and consult President Hamlin of Robert College and Dr. Isaac Bliss of the Bible House about building. I obtained some valuable information about how to build and how not to build. There was another object in my visit to the Capital, and that was to endeavour to induce the Ottoman Government to authorize our College to give diplomas to our medical students on completion of their course. The effort proved a failure. Saleh Pasha, the President of the Ottoman School o Medicine said he would favour us in every way possible but that "the law of the Empire is such that there can be but one Medical Faculty empowered to give diplomas." 'We failed in our efforts because the Imperial Ottoman Government was in the right and we in the wrong. Years afterwards, Dr. Post obtained the consent of the Porte to send a commission to examine our students in Beirut, and commissioners have been sent ever since to our great satisfaction.⁽¹⁾

The corner-stone of the Main Building (College Hall) was laid by the Honourable William Earl Dodge, Senior, on December 7, 1871. In introducing the speaker I said: "This College is for all conditions and classes of men without regard to colour, nationality, race or religion. A man white, black or yellow; Christian, Jew, Mohammedan or heathen, may enter and enjoy all the advantages of this institution for three, four or eight years; and go out believing in one God, in many Gods, or in no God. But," I added, "it will be impossible for any one to continue with us long without knowing what we believe to be the truth and our reasons for that belief."

The buildings were erected of the best kind of sand-stone. The quarry from which the stone came is now exhausted. It was almost two years before the three buildings were finished: the Main Building, the Medical Hall and Ada Dodge Memorial (greatly enlarged since). Labour was cheap at that time compared with the present: to our headmason we paid eighty cents a day; less skillful masons, seventy cents; stone cutters, from fourty to fifty cents; unskilled labour, from fifteen to twenty five cents. At one time we had over two hundred at work. The buildings were well constructed and now after almost forty years (1912) are in perfect repair. The plans, made in New York, were complete in details, so that we, though unacquainted with building, were able to follow them. Commencing with the simple ground-plan we learned to work out the more intricate parts. Years after, an English architect, on seeing the structures, asked the name of the architect. I mentioned the name of the one who drew the plans. "But," he said, "who worked out the plans?" On my telling him that we did, and that we had made many mistakes but had managed to cover them up, he replied: "That is perfection in art."

At last we had become a real College community with a home of our own. ⁽²⁾The students felt the change. No one appeared to wish to go down town or anywhere else. One night in December, when the full moon was shining on the glassy sea below us, they had a high time on the broad level road between the College and the Medical Building. Their shouts sounded out as merrily as the shouts in Amherst in my days. Tutor Ibrahim shouldered the shovel and the hoe and led off forty or fifty fellows after supper to dig holes for planting trees. 0n March 13, 1874, we accomplished the risky task of hoisting the bell to the College tower. The students pulled well at the rope and the Faculty were summoned to join them to hear the bell rung for the first time at five p.m.