Horace Howard Furness

“ A choicer spirit has seldom visited this earth. To a keen intellect were united clearness of exposition and a retentive memory. Warm and loyal in his friendship, he never cherished an ill-feeling,—for no one ever did him an unkindness. On many an institution in his native city an ineffaceable impression has been left of his judicious devotion ”

“ The care and responsibility of so many interests where others were involved could not fail, as the years ran on, to make themselves felt to one as conscientious in the performance of every duty as was Professor Rogers. ”

“ The realisation of such an ideal Professor Rogers, in the maturity of his powers, now resolved to attempt. The result was, in 1899, given to the public in A Manual of Coaching, a work which it would be difficult to praise too highly. By maintaining no standard lower than perfection in the humblest details of coach, of harness, of driving, it elevates what is perhaps supposed to be merely the pastime of luxurious ease into the dignity of an art worthy of respect. A terret or a splinter-bar may be an insignificant thing, but perfection is not ”

“ Thus it was that this many-sided man touched life at such diverse points, and his solid worth dignified them all. The hand that could delicately adjust the compass on an iron ship lost none of our respect when it deftly caught a whip-lash in a double thong. ”

“ In its internal design and arrangement much that is admirable and best is owing to his careful and earnest thought.
'Upon completion of the work in 1876,—the year of the Nation's Centennial Anniversary,—he became Chairman of the Committee on Instruction. The period was an important era in Art Education in the United States. Under Mr. Rogers the school system of the Academy was wholly reorganized upon a basis so thorough that the schools rose to the highest point reached in this country, and for the first time women were admitted to them upon the same conditions as men. ”

“ After the return from his wedding tour in Europe he was busily occupied, until the breaking out of the Rebellion in 1861, in giving series after series of Lectures on Physics and its branches at The Franklin Institute and on Civil Engineering at The University of Pennsylvania, where he had been installed in the chair of that department. Later, in 1861, he delivered a lecture on 'Roads' before The Smithsonian Institution in Washington ”