THE ABBOTTS OF McGILL

Abstract

The stories of three members of the Abbott family that follow are as various in their manner of surprise as they are in their matter. We learn salutory things about the precarious and comic-opera way in which things are apt to be managed in the early stages of what later may become a mighty and admired institùtion. There is the story of a man beginning with qualifications that would fail to get him tenure today, and emerging in turn as Dean of Law, Mayor of Montreal, and Prime Minister of Canada. We hear with astonishment of certain luridly melodramatic events that determined the upbringing of one of the notable personalities of the golden age of McGill, a woman remembered with affection by many. Each story throws light in its novel way both on McGill and on the enterprise of education.