Union in Manhattan

One night last week the square, bare, whitewashed auditorium in the basement of a dingy old brownstone building on Manhattan's Astor Place was jampacked with friends, families and seniors of Cooper Union. Watching them from the old-fashioned wooden platform sat the school dignitaries. Abraham Lincoln had stood on that platform to deliver his famed campaign speech in 1860. Now another tall, bearded man, Robert Fulton Cutting, 82, potent industrialist and president of Cooper Union's Board of Trustees, uprose to warn the seniors to work hard and be modest. Then he started to hand out diplomas. Sixteen diplomas & handshakes were enough for Octogenarian Cutting. Another trustee, portly, erect, broad-mustached and 16 years his junior, stepped forward to take his place. The line of graduates surged up, rippled across the stage. The portly trustee pumped each well-scrubbed right hand, thrust a diploma into the left, grinned, murmured "Congratulations." Each presentation took four seconds. On & on they came -- bakers from Brooklyn, mechanics from Manhattan, soda-jerkers from The Bronx, clerks from Jersey. Cooper Union is free and many students have fulltime jobs outside. Fifteen minutes passed and the Free Hand Drawing classes appeared. The portly trustee was now trying to keep his right hand behind his back. It was no use. He grew confused, began mixing certificates. One flipped to the floor, started to roll away. School officials bumped their heads in the scramble to retrieve it. The waiting line bunched, surged. The portly trustee apologized to the diploma's recipient. "Congratulations," said he hoarsely for the 343rd time. He pulled a white handkerchief from his pocket, wiped his brow, turned to the diploma hander. "Nearly finished?" he whispered. "Almost," whispered the diploma hander. Finally the 386th & last student bobbed up, got his handshake, his grin, his congratulation, his diploma. Sighing relief, Trustee J. Pierpont Morgan sat down.

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