In the evening of 31st Dec, Rabindranath left Urbana and reached Chicago. Dr. Seymour , in an interview with Daily Illini, on 4th Jan, 1917, wrote ;" Mr. Tagore's generosity was typical of his life. Where he gave himself entirely to his friends, talking with them at almost all times of the day, and speaking every evening with the exception of two. He remained there longer than in any other city in the country, and while here spoke more frequently thanhe had anywhere else."
He had come to Urbana to take rest but he kept himself so busy that Mrs. Seymour had finely explained this as his way of taking rest and gave a fine simily;
" his rest should be conquered to the response of a wheel which is so rapid in its motion that it seems to stand still." Rabindranath too remembered the incidence by writing a letter[ 15 Jan,1917] to Mrs. Seymour;
" Travelling day and night through the desert land of hotels I had reached a little oasis in Urbana where I slacked my thirst and had my rest whose memory I carry in my heart across the sea."
An arrangement was made that Rabindranath would stay in America for delivering lecture upto April,1917, but physical ground he had to go back to India earlier than the scheduled duration.
On 8th Jan, he went to Lincoln city of Netraska State.
