the governors’ letters were sold to the highest bidders.  Everybody who worked, everybody who traded with the penny, did something, and every penny was blessed, so lovingly and so zealously was the trading done.  It was the Master’s talent which they were working with.  All the little things that went into the treasury; lead pencils, tacks, $3.00 in one case and $5.00 in another; ’beefs liver, $14.00’—­think of that!  How tired the boarders must have grown of liver away out on Broad Street—­stick pins, hairpins, and the common kind that you bend and lose; candy, pretzels, and cookies; ‘old tin cans,’ wooden spoons, pies; one man sent $50.00 as a gift because he said ’his penny had brought him luck’; another found 16 pennies, which good fortune he ascribed to the penny in his pocket.

“So in October the workers who had received their pennies in April came together to show what they had done.  Four thousand pennies had been given out; $6,000 came directly from the returns, and indirectly about $8,000 more.

“The ‘Feast of Tithes,’ held in December of the same year, was a great fair, extending through seven week days.  The displays of goods and the refreshment booths were in the Lower Temple, while fine concerts and other entertainments were given in the auditorium.  The Feast of Tithes netted $5,500 for the College fund.”

Thus the work progressed.  No one could give large amounts, but many gave a little, and stone by stone the building grew.  In August, 1893, the corner stone of the College building was laid.  Taking up the silver trowel which had been used in laying the corner stone of The Temple, in 1889, Dr. Conwell said: 

“Friends, to-day we do something more than simply lay the corner stone of a college building.  We do an act here very simply that shows to the world, and will go on testifying after we have gone to our long rest, that the church of Jesus Christ is not only an institution of theory, but an institution of practice.  It will stand here upon this great and broad street and say through the coming years to all passersby, ’Christianity means something for the good of humanity; Christianity means not only a belief in things that are good and pure and righteous, but it also means an activity that shall bless those who need the assistance of others.’  It shall say to the rich man, ’Give thou of thy surplus to those who have not.’  It shall say to the poor man, ’Make thou the most of thy opportunities and thou shalt be the equal of the rich.’

“Now, in the name of the people who have given for this enterprise, in the name of the many Christians who have prayed, and who are now sending up their prayers to heaven, I lay this corner stone.”