Some of his friends remember seeing him at this particular labour, and they recall "the weary, tired, though interested face; the patient trying-over and annotating." In addition to his regular duties, he devoted every Sunday morning to receiving students in the more advanced courses who were invited to come to him for help in their composition and piano work.

He was, as his friend Hamlin Garland has said, "temperate in all things but work--in that he was hopelessly prodigal." These facts are worth stating in detail; for it has been said that MacDowell had no drudgery to perform at Columbia; that he had few students, and that the burden of the teaching work was borne by his assistant.

The impression has gone abroad that he had little didactic capacity, that he was disinclined toward and disqualified for methodical work.

It cannot, of course, be said that his inclinations tended irresistibly toward pedagogy, or that he loved routine.

Yet that he had uncommon gifts as a teacher, that he was singularly methodical in his manner of work, are facts that are beyond question.
His students have testified to the strikingly suggestive and illuminating manner in which his instruction was imparted.