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Full text of "Reminiscences of Princeton College, 1845-1848"

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REMINISCENCES OF 
PRINCETON COLLEGE 

By EDWARD WALL Class of 1848 



REMINISCENCES 

OF 

PRINCETON COLLEGE 

18451848 



BY 

EDWARD WALL 
i% 

CLASS OF 1848 
Emeritus Professor, Stevens Institute of Technology 



PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS 

PRINCETON 

1914 



PREFATORY NOTE 

These Reminiscences are due to a suggestion of the Editor of the 
General Catalogue. Professor Collins requested me, as one of 
the older alumni, to send him my recollections of Princeton 
while I was a student. When they were written, some of my friends 
were sufficiently interested to want copies; and the opinion was 
expressed by one, whose knowledge and experience give weight to 
his opinions, that some, of the alumni might be interested in these 
memorials of Princeton in the late forties, in "these old forgotten 
things, and battles long ago". 

When my brother and myself were admitted to the Sophomore 
Class of Princeton in 1845, tne College Year commenced in mid- 
summer. The first term began in the second week of August. There 
were two vacations in the College Year, with six weeks vacation in 
summer and six in winter. It was said, that this division of the year 
was made to accommodate the Southern students, who then num- 
bered about one-third of the whole number of students. It enabled 
the students from the South to visit their homes in the cooler season, 
and then spend mid-summer in the more bracing air of the north. 
I never experienced any inconvenience from studying in August. 
The thick stone walls of the college buildings kept the air of the 
rooms free from sultriness and sleep at night was refreshing. 

The examination for admission to the College was held in the 
President's study, a room in the house which is now the Dean's 
where the weekly meetings also of the Faculty were held. It was 
oral, and was on the Latin, Greek and Algebra studied in the Fresh- 
man year. 

The recitation rooms of the Freshman and Sophomore classes 
were in the basement of a stone building that stood directly in the 
rear of the President's house, facing the front campus. The base- 
ment was only two or three feet below the surface of the ground, and 
well lighted and ventilated. The first story, which was reached by a 

3 



397655 



4 REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 

high flight of stone steps, was used by the Junior class, and the 
second story was the College Library. In the basement of a similar 
building, across the front campus, was the Refectory. And the first 
story was the Lecture Room of the Senior class for Physics 
Chemistry. 



THE PROFESSORS 

ALBERT B. DOD 

The chief event in the first term was the death of Professor 
Albert B. Dod. His character and popularity among the students, 
as well as the antecedent circumstances of his death made this event 
unusually impressive. Professor Dod was of middle height, well 
formed, with an intellectual face, the most striking feature of which 
was his eyes. These were large and dark with plenty of dormant fire. 
Indeed, while greatly admired, respect was mingled with fear, fear 
of his sarcasm, which came down on the offender like a lash. He 
always wore a frock coat buttoned, which gave a slightly military 
air to his bearing. The slight stoop of his head suggested the habitual 
student. He was all that and had been from boyhood. 

He was the best preacher in the Faculty. This was the opinion of 
Dr. James W. Alexander, who before he went to New York, while 
a Professor in the college, was his only rival. He was as a preacher 
direct, practical and incisive. He made a greater use of irony than 
most preachers do. His delivery was quiet, and even the finest 
passages were spoken with calmness, but with evidences of reserved 
power. 

He only preached once in the College Chapel during the fall 
before he died. His text was "Rejoice, O Young Man, in Thy 
Youth, &c." He described in the sermon young men drinking. At 
length, one of them sinks down insensible, overcome with liquor, and 
his companions carry him home on a shutter. As he reached this 
point, he remarked, making a slight pause, and with a tone and 
manner which expressed many blended feelings. "He is happy 
now." 

Professor Dod was also an eloquent talker, was at home in a wide 
range of subjects besides Mathematics, of which he was Professor. 
He had from boyhood neglected exercise, and in the fall of '45 he 
began to try to repair the error. , Just then an event happened, which 
contributed to sap his strength. 

5 



6 REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 

A student named Boudinot, a relative of Mrs. Dod, went out 
shooting with a companion, and accidentally shot himself. The 
wound was in his head, and ultimately proved fatal. He was taken 
to Professor Dod's house, and Professor Dod become his most 
constant attendant, watching assiduously by his bedside, and remov- 
ing the portions of brain that oozed out from the fractured skull. 
Each day he wrote a long and graphic account of the condition of 
the patient to a lady, a relative of the dying boy. After his death, 
he himself was taken sick. 

When this occurred, the interest of Faculty and students and 
townspeople was so great that daily bulletins of his condition were 
issued. In this way it may be said that both town and college 
watched by his bedside. There were touching interviews between 
him and Dr. Charles Hodge, a lifelong friend. In some of these 
interviews, Professor Dod lamented that the study of the books 
of certain thinkers had cost him the loss of half his life. Dr. Hodge 
at the funeral of Professor Dod repeated this statement, and 
summed up the general character of these writers under the designa- 
tion "New Schoolism". It was an unfortunate phrase. The Presby- 
terian Church was at that time divided into New and Old School, 
and some ministers of the New School thought the reference was 
to them, and found fault with Dr. Hodge for introducing contro- 
versial matters in a funeral sermon. But Dr. Hodge denied having 
any reference to the New School. He probably referred to the 
German successors of Kant, the great German metaphysician, who 
as his followers say woke Europe from her dogmatic slumbers. 

Dr. MacLean, the Vice-President, and Professor Dod had not 
always agreed in the faculty meetings. Dr. MacLean hated innova- 
tions, and Professor Dod was not averse to them. At the Profes- 
sor's death, there was an interchange of assurances of mutual esteem 
and affection notwithstanding their occasional disagreements. Ten- 
der messages were sent to his aged mother, who was living in New 
Brunswick, and to his sisters. 

His medical treatment was what was then customary in Princeton, 
and included profuse bleeding. He died in middle life, leaving a 
widow and a family of seven children without means. A feeling of 
personal loss was quite general. It was felt that not only his family 



REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 7 

and the college had met with a loss, but even the whole community 
and country. His friends and admirers were found all over the 
union, and were not confined to his own church. It was felt that 
he was fitted to produce works of permanent value to the church and 
society. A few reviews, which attracted much attention at the time, 
were all the contributions he made to literature during his life. 

E. M. TOPPING 

In Greek we were taught, during the Sophomore year by Adjunct 
Professor Topping, who was a close friend of Professor Dod. He 
was a very exact and thorough instructor. He would strive in trans- 
lating a passage, for instance in the Iliad, to find terms, which would 
not only give a meaning, but which would give also the mood of the 
speaker. He would sometimes pause long on a passage, reproducing 
the situation, and suggesting one synonym after another to express 
the precise shade of meaning. To some it was interesting, and of 
permanent value, but not to all the students. I think that Professor 
Topping was not altogether a man after Dr. MacLean's heart. The 
Doctor once remarked in my presence that Professor Topping 
was doing work that belonged to him. This implied that Professor 
Topping was not doing his own work. At any rate, Professor 
Topping left college at the close of the year, and took charge of a 
classical school in Baltimore, where his passion for accuracy, and a 
slight nervous irritability interfered with his financial success. 

JOHN MACLEAN, VICE-PRESIDENT 

The member of the faculty that was most popular among the 
students, was, by all odds, Dr. MacLean. The reason of this was 
because he was a magnanimous warm hearted man, the friend of 
every one that was in trouble, even if the trouble was a crop of 
wild oats. 

His character was so well known and he was so popular in the 
South, that it was said of him during the Civil War, that he could 
have gone any where in the Confederacy unchallenged. 

It was said that he was born in North College, where his father 
a noted Scotch scientist had apartments. It was believed by the 
students that he never took off his clothes during term time. He 



8 REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 

wore during cool weather a loose fur lined overcoat, which it was 
said had been brought from Russia by his uncle, Commodore Bain- 
bridge, and presented to him. Another tradition was that when the 
outer cloth of the coat was worn out, it would be renewed, and when 
the fur was the worse for wear, it would be renewed. And that 
these alternate renewals had taken place several times, promising an 
immortality to the coat, similar to that of the deacon's one horse 
shay. 

He' was, although well on in years, the most active member of the 
faculty in detecting disorder. He would prowl around on dark 
nights, lurking behind trees, or around the corners of buildings, and 
suddenly flash the light of the dark lantern he carried on the faces 
f the roysterers, everyone of whom he knew. He said that, when 
he was a young man, he could give a student quite a number of 
yards start, between North College and the street, and yet catch 
him before he reached the fence of the front campus. 

He liked his detective work. This was the declaration to me 
of Professor Hope. And he added that Dr. MacLean said he did 
not, but he did. He triumphed in matching his ingenuity in detecting 
against the ingenuity of the students in concealing lawless pranks. 
But when guilt was brought home to the evil doers, and the crimin- 
als were brought up for sentence, he would intercede for them, so 
that they might escape with a reprimand, or rustication for a week 
at a neighboring farm house. Even when the culprits endeavored 
to cover their tracks by lying, he still made excuses for them. He 
went to Old Testament history to find extenuations. He said, 
"Abraham lied, and Isaac lied, and Jacob lied, and David lied, and 
what can you expect from boys whose principles are not yet fixed, 
when they find themselves in a tight place". 

But he did not devote all his days and nights to detective work. 
He was a good scholar, and had contributed learned articles to 
reviews. And Dr. McCosh, in his Inaugural, when he succeeded 
Dr. MacLean in the Presidency of the College, said that* there was 
not a department of the college, which Dr. MacLean could not fill 
with credit. 

The following incidents are here not out of place. On the night 
of the Senior ball of the Class '47, about 12 o'clock, my brother and 



REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 9 

I were sitting in our room on the ground floor of W. C, when 
we heard a dull sound like a thud at the hall door. We hurried out, 
and found a young man lying on the flat stone before the door, 
evidently in great distress. He had fallen out of the window at the 
end of the second story hall. He had come from the ball, he was 
in evening dress, and had gone to his room for some purpose, and 
on coming down stairs thought he had reached the front door, when 
he had reached the front window of the second story. He fell 
through the opening, the window having been taken out. His leg was 
broken. I hurried over to Dr. MacLean's, found him in his study, and 
related what had happened. He told me to bring the young man to 
his house. I ran back, and my brother, taking the sufferer in his 
arms and adjusting the broken leg as well as possible to avoid pain, 
carried him over to Dr. MacLean's study and laid him on a lounge. 
A doctor was sent for immediately. The leg was set, but it was six 
weeks before it could be used, during which time the patient was 
tenderly cared for by Dr. MacLean's maiden sister, Miss Mary, who 
presided over his household. 

During the Sesqui-Centennial exercises, on the afternoon of 
President Cleveland's reception at Prospect, I went to the cemetery. 
I strolled among the tombs, reading the names of men and women, 
whom I had known fifty years before in Princeton. And on not one 
of the tombs did I find any flowers, except on Dr. MacLean's. On 
the old bachelor's tomb, to whom Princeton College was wife and 
child, some one to whom his memory was dear, had placed flowers, 
a memorial of love. 

JOSEPH HENRY 

As the death of Professor Dod, in my first year in college inflicted 
a loss on the college, which could not be repaired, so during my 
last year, the college met with a similar loss in the resignation by 
Professor Henry of his Professorship. He had been appointed 
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute. Professor Henry did not 
remove immediately to Washington on his election. Our class there- 
fore had his lectures on Physics. 

In connection with the Smithsonian Institute, which he planned 
and afterwards organized, the following incident is not without in- 



io REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 

terest to me. One morning, immediately after the study hour had 
begun, an attendant of the college came to my room and said Pro- 
fessor Henry wished to see me. I found him in his study. He said 
he wished me to write, while he dictated. I sat down and wrote the 
whole day, with the exception of a few minutes for lunch. And 
when I had finished, the sheets contained the plan of the Smithson- 
ian Institute. I went to my room in the twilight a tired young man, 
but with several dollars in my pocket, which were not there in the 
morning. 

Professor Henry was a large man, standing very erect, to which a 
slight tendency to corpulency inclined him all the more. In ordinary 
intercourse, his bearing was marked by affability and dignity, with 
a slight stateliness in his manner, which was accentuated by his size. 
It was said of him by Judge Field, that when any one was jocose 
when he was present, his laughter began after the others present, as 
he had stopped to analyze the jest. The salaries of the Professors at 
that time were so low, that it was said Mrs. Henry made his suits. 

In the lecture room, there was much in his bearing that showed 
that he was a man of power. In speaking there was often an impli- 
cation of self restraint, that he was holding himself in, that he was 
using the curb. There was a nervous tension, which showed itself 
in his quick glances, and in the tones of his voice, although these 
were always conversational. And when the attention of any student 
flagged, he brought down the rattan cane that he used in the lecture 
room with an impatient whack on the high table before him, and 
with a vigor that showed that there was plenty more nervous energy 
behind the arm that wielded the cane. If the whack came, when 
the nerves were tense while writing, it was like an electric shock. 

His mode of lecturing was different in some respects from other 
lecturers on scientific subjects. Before he took up his special subject, 
he gave the class a lecture on Inductive Reasoning. He defined and 
explained the meaning of the terms, fact, observation, experi- 
ment, hypothesis, inductive inference, verification, theory and law. 
When he took up any department of Physics, a full syllabus of the 
lecture having been put on the black board by one of the class, 
he reproduced the first steps in the history of the science, and 
connected each step in the progress of its discovery with the logical 



REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 11 

act which led to it. So that each lecture illustrated an act of reason- 
ing as well as gave instruction in Physics. 

He would, in the beginning, group together the facts, which the 
Physicist was considering, often reproducing them, and then give 
the hypothesis, which they suggested to the mind of the investigator 
as the probable explanation of them. Then he would proceed to 
test this hypothesis by experiments, which he would give, varying the 
conditions while still retaining the invariable antecedent. And in 
like manner he would illustrate the other logical operations until the 
law was reached, and the investigator was enabled by the possession 
of the law to predict phenomena. And this he did with each branch 
of Physics as he traced its history. He required the students to take 
notes on his lectures, to write them up fully in blank books, and 
submit them to him to be graded. No textbook was used. 

It was to me a most instructive and mind-quickening method. It 
gave not merely a congeries of physical facts, but truths as connected 
with the inductive process to which their discovery was due. And 
the method was capable of application to many of the circumstances 
of practical life. 

As I thought of this, I regretted that this instruction was not 
given to the class earlier in the course, and the studies, which re- 
quired purely abstract thought, like mental Philosophy and Ethics, 
unaided by diagrams or experiments, given later in the College 
Curriculum. I understood at the time that Professor Henry thought 
that Physics should be given in the Senior year; and that students 
should come to the study with minds somewhat trained. The more 
the training, of course, the better for the student. But in this 
opinion, I believe Professor Henry, great a man as he was, was 
mistaken. Most educators now think so. Princeton now requires a 
part of the knowledge, which Professor Henry gave us for ad- 
mission and continues the study of Physics in the Freshman class. 
Even the elementary conceptions of Inductive Logic, which he gave 
us in beginning his lectures, are now given to the Freshman class of 
Princeton University, with ample illustrations and exercises, thus 
placing the reason at the outset of the course of study in a proper 
attitude to all subsequent subjects in which the reason is exercised, 
and making all such subjects more fruitful as mental disciplines. 



12 REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 

Whoever suggested that such a book should be placed in the hands 
of Freshmen was an enlightened educator. 

All of the professors were characterized by what has always been 
a quality of Princeton, unpretending thoroughness. They differed, 
of course, in their aptness to teach, in the power of lucid exposition, 
in the ability to place themselves in imagination in the position of 
the learner. Occasionally one or more of them forgot that children 
in knowledge can only take one step at a time, and that a short one. 

All of the professors or almost all were specialists in their depart- 
ments, and their hearts were in their work. They were just and 
impartial in their intercourse with the students, and tolerant of the 
freakishness and waywardness of youth. 

Yet, for all that, the spirit of the college looked backward, not 
forward. Its critics said that it was timid and an opportunist. 
There was that much truth in the criticism, that Princeton left the 
task of making experiments in education to other colleges. This 
was its position when I was a student. But when progress became 
inevitable and Princeton moved, her friends say that she put herself 
at the head of the progressive movement in education in this coun- 
try. And her critics are either silent or converted into friends. 



THE CURRICULUM 

Princeton College, in the late forties, was as it had always been a 
great school of Christian learning, where the minds of successive 
generations of youth had been trained, and their characters formed. 
Its graduates were to be found in all walks of honorable life at 
home and some of them abroad. Its curriculum possessed the great 
essential studies of a sound education, languages, mathematics and 
philosophy. If there were gaps in its curriculum, according to pres- 
ent-day standards, they were not peculiar to Princeton. They were 
to be found in the courses of study in other colleges ; they were due 
to the state of education at that time in the country. 

It was natural in colleges founded by clergymen, who belonged 
to conservative churches, that Trustees and Faculties should chal- 
lenge the modern sciences, and ask their advocates to show cause 
why they should be allowed a place in the circle of the long estab- 
lished sciences, and kinship with them. Some of these sciences had 
been used as a means of assailing what was then understood to be 
the chronology of the Bible; and others seemed but little fitted, in 
the eyes of these grave men, to be used in education. 

As one places the catalogues of '48 and of 1912 side by side, there 
are two reflections that will be suggested. One is, how greatly the 
course of study has been secularized. The old college of fifty years 
ago, which still bore traces of its church origin, and was a fortress of 
conservatism, has new tenants. The unworldliness of the old college 
has not been effaced, but relatively it is not so much in evidence. 
The old curriculum is included in the new, but the ampler develop- 
ment of modern society has caused the introduction of many new 
subjects, some of which like Art and Politics would have been 
thought unsuitable by the men of the old regime. It is now a definite 
purpose that the sons of Princeton should not only be strong, but 
accomplished. Whatever has permanent interest to mankind has 
now interest to Princeton. This is shown also in Princeton's dis- 
tribution of honorary degrees. What is said of wisdom in Proverbs 

13 



14 REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 

viii. 3 ist, that her delight is with the sons of men, may now be 
said of Princeton ; her delight is with the sons of men. 

Another reflection, which is suggested by a comparison of the 
catalogues of '48 and 1912, is that many of the studies of '48 are 
now among the subjects required for admission to the University in 
1912. Thus room has been made for the advanced study of these 
subjects, and for many important subjects such as, English Liter- 
ature, Civics, Anthropology, Botany, Geology, and Political Econ- 
omy, which either had no place in the old curriculum, or were 
dismissed in two or three lectures. 

Of course, the problem of the relation of college studies to the 
studies of Professional Schools is by no means solved. The large 
number of students, that enter the Scientific Departments of Univer- 
sities and Technical Schools, shows that many parents are unwilling 
that their sons should begin their life work as late as their twenty- 
sixth or seventh, or eighth year, when that work is itself a Post 
Graduate Course requiring from two to five years to master. 



CLASSMATES 

CASPER WISTAR HODGE 

The two youngest members of the class of '48 were C. W. Hodge 
and Alfred Young. Both had entered college, when they were about 
fourteen years of age, the latter before he was fourteen. Yet 
Hodge was Latin Salutatorian, and his average grade for the whole 
course was 99. He was modest but not diffident ; sedate in manner, 
sparing of speech and occupied apparently altogether with his 
studies. He had no associates in the class. This was possibly due 
in part to the fact that he lived in town, and at some little distance 
from the college. 

He was mature above his years; and indeed, how could he help 
but be, having Dr. Charles Hodge for his father, and Dr. Addison 
Alexander for his tutor. His nature resembled a deep and quiet 
stream. Young as he was, he had learned the secret of success, 
concentration. He afterwards became a distinguished Professor 
in Princeton Theological Seminary. Possibly his concentration on a 
few subjects narrowed his views, and limited his sympathies. In his 
mature life he was more conservative than his father. He found 
much in the tendencies of modern life to condemn. The success, 
which he achieved as a student and as a Professor, followed him in 
his business ventures, to which he probably gave but little attention. 
When he died he left his family a competence. 

JOHN EDWARDS 

John Edwards was the English Salutatorian with an average grade 
of 98.8, only two tenths below Hodge's. Edwards was a large young 
man, with a vigorous mind, and an energetic manner. He was a 
man of few words, which were always to the point, and sometimes 
brusque. His bearing and manners betokened a strong nature, but 
regardless of the little conventions of life. He labored as a mis- 
sionary among the Western Indians. 

15 



16 REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 

WILLIAM C. CATTELL 

W. C. Cattell was somewhat below the middle height, and stoutly 
built. His manners were popular and his bearing free and easy. 
His ready laugh and word made him acceptable to any group of stu- 
dents he joined. Judging by his demeanor, one would say that he 
loved laughter better than study; he was apparently so free from 
preoccupation. But those, who thought that his nature was of a gay 
and festive order, did not look beneath the surface. He was in 
reality a close and an ambitious student, and attained a high grade 
in the class. He cultivated the acquaintance of students like Cam- 
eron of '47 and Emerson of '49, men that he could use. Then he 
put them forward, where they would meet opposition, the conse- 
quences of which they inherited, but which he escaped. Cameron 
after a while woke up to a knowledge of the use that had been 
made of him and resented it. 

Thus early Cattell began to practice that most useful gift, the art 
of managing men, and he kept in the practice during his life. He 
measured men by their success in managing men. To ascribe this 
power to a man was in his judgment a eulogy, while the want of this 
power crippled a man in the race of life. 

A large part of his active life was spent in offices, to the adminis- 
trative duties of which his nature took kindly. 

HENRY COOPER PITNEY 

H. C. Pitney joined the class of '48 at the beginning of the Junior 
year. He was a large young man, and one of the strongest in every 
respect in the class. His distinguishing characteristics as a student 
were force, independence and loyalty to friends, and these qualities 
were shown on every suitable occasion in after life. 

His independence and loyalty to his friends placed him in a false 
position on one occasion. The circumstances were these: At the 
final examination in Mathematics in the Junior year, someone had 
obtained a copy of the questions. A group of students went in to 
the examination with the problems worked out. The cheat was 
detected by the examiner, Professor Stephen Alexander, and another 
examination was ordered. Some rebelled against the order. They 
said that the class had taken the regular examination, and it was 



REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 17 

unjust to exact another. Permission to hold a meeting of the class 
was obtained. Most of the leaders of the class that spoke, held 
that the Faculty was perfectly within their rights, and said that they 
would attend the additional examination. As Edwards put it, the 
Faculty had a right to order as many examinations as they pleased. 
Pitney from a feeling of comradeship, and some others did not attend 
the second examination. Many years afterwards, he told me that 
that escapade lowered his grade ten units. Yet notwithstanding this 
mishap, his average grade for the whole course was 92.3. He was 
an excellent student, and one of the Commencement speakers. At 
the 5oth anniversary of the graduation of the Class, he was selected 
to represent the Class. And Mr. Joline of New York, who was 
Toastmaster, in introducing him spoke of him as a great authority 
in Equity Law. He was for many years one of the Vice-Chancellors 
of the State. 

JAMES McMuLLiN CROWELL 

An interest attaches itself to the name of James Crowell, because 
he is an example and an encouragement to every young man, who 
shows no special aptitudes. He showed no gifts above mediocrity, 
except fluency, and possibly industry, and yet his life was one of 
marked success and usefulness. It was the harmonious union of his 
gifts, the strength which each imparted to the other gifts that were 
associated with it, that was the secret of his success. As in the fable 
of the rods, each rod was weak, and could be easily broken, but when 
laid side by side with others, and tightly bound together, the bundle 
was strong, and could not be broken. In Crowell's case the bond 
that bound his powers together was industry. 

Crowell was a patient and an industrious student, impartially 
giving the alloted time to each subject of study, unseduced by the 
charms of good fellowship or literature. His final average was 
consequently high. He entered the ministry, and after a few years 
in a rural parish, he was called to be pastor of one of the principal 
churches in Philadelphia. Here he remained many years, and had a 
successful pastorate. 

He was a serious and an attractive speaker. His flow of language 
was easy and abundant. His voice was pleasant to listen to, and 
sympathetic. A little after he became pastor of this church, he was 



i8 REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 

elected a Trustee of Princeton College, the only member of the 
class that attained that honor. When he resigned the pastorate of 
his church, he also resigned as Trustee in Princeton. During his 
latter years he was Secretary of the American Sunday School Union. 
His was a useful and an honored life. His years were given to 
commending the truths of religion to the hearts and minds of 
thousands, and in carrying its consolations to the distressed in mind 
and body. 

ISAAC CHAUNCEY WYMAN 

The only member of the Class of '48 that will be mentioned a few 
years hence, and that on account of his connection with the Graduate 
School, is Wyman. He was, when a student, a tall and slender young 
man, very shy, shrinking from acquaintanceship rather than seeking 
it. He, therefore, had hardly any friends. The only one that made 
any progress with him was Pitney. He was a fair student. I can 
scarcely be said to have known him. He was a Clio, and a difference 
of halls, was in our day an inseparable barrier to any more intimate 
relation than a speaking acquaintance. On the subject of Wyman's 
peculiarities there is in Judge Pitney's letter to me, which is in the 
possession of the Editor of the General Catalogue, information at 
first hand, which may be of interest. 

The following facts, which were given to me by an intelligent 
resident of Salem, who often saw Wyman, and was also ac- 
quainted with his public reputation, may in this connection be worth 
preserving. 

The family of Wyman, both on his father's and mother's side 
were extensive landholders in the region between Salem and Marble- 
head, and he inherited real estate. He lived in a two-story frame 
house a little out of Salem, on the road to Marblehead. His house- 
hold consisted of himself and housekeeper, an elderly and quite 
plain woman, who milked the cow, and attended to all chores outside 
the house as well as everything within. He was very neat in his 
dress, very polite, never went into society, or visited any one, or 
received visitors at his house. There were a few business men in 
Salem with whom he was intimate. He was away from home a 
good deal looking after his real estate. He was never known to 
give a dollar to anyone or object of any kind. 



REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 19 

Did he like Johns Hopkins make a virtue of penuriousness, because 
he purposed to consecrate his accumulations to some such object as 
the Graduate School ? 

In thinking of the Class of '48 and of my classmates, I am 
impressed with the greater tolerance of the Faculty at that time with 
delinquent students. I cannot recall the name of a single student, 
who if his conduct was correct, and if he attended regularly the reci- 
tations and lectures, was dropped from the class. I do not say that 
none was dropped for deficient scholarship, but that I never heard 
of such an instance. 

In the final circular, which contains the names of all members 
of the class, who have grades above 70, only fifty of such names 
are given. Seventy-five students were graduated. So that there 
were twenty-five whose grades were below 70, or who might be 
otherwise designated. 

I thought at the time that there were evidences of a different 
view on the subject of such students, from that which is now taken 
by the Faculties of all our Colleges and Universities. Whether the 
following considerations had any weight with the Faculty of Prince- 
ton, I do not know, but they may have for they are obvious. The 
low-grade students, who were retained in their classes, were in an 
intellectual atmosphere, and imbibed a certain amount of knowledge 
and culture by a kind of intellectual absorption. They were, also, 
while they remained in college, members of a community, where the 
social distinctions of the world, such as wealth, honorable descent, 
and social position had a diminished influence ; but where intellect 
and character were fully recognized. They were accustomed, too, to 
see in their professors, whom they respected, religion and learning 
associated, and they became accustomed to think that they should 
always be, that knowledge should always be joined to religion and 
religion to knowledge. 

If the delinquent students were readers, if the lure that drew them 
away from their textbooks was literature, if they had fallen under 
the dominion of the great masters of thought and style of English 
Literature, "those dead but sceptered sovereigns, whose spirits still 
rule us from their urns", then some of them maintained, heretics 
as they were, that their gain was greater than their loss, that for 



20 REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 

their work in life, if lawyers, or ministers, or men of leisure, that 
they carried away in their knowledge of literature more than they 
left behind. They carried home with them, also, as their more 
studious classmates the memory of college friendships, and cherished 
associations, which made Princeton in Lowell's phrase, one of the 
"Meccas of the mind"; and the love and reverence they felt for 
Princeton was transmitted to those who came after them. 

The Civil War made havoc of the Class of '48. It began a little 
less than thirteen years after the class had left college. Those of its 
members, who entered the professions, had taken their degrees, 
and established themselves in their professions. All of the members 
of the Class of '48 as young men shared more or less the new 
thought of their localities. They had acquired a local prominence, 
so that when the war came, they could not escape leadership, if they 
would. Many of them entered the opposing armies, and a number 
lost their lives by wounds or sickness. The one who attained the 
highest rank in the army was Wm. Worth Belknap. He became a 
Major-General, and after the war was Secretary of War from 
1869 to 1876. 



COLLEGE LIFE 

The day began at 6.30 with the clamorous ringing of the "rouser" 
as the College bell was called. Woe to the students who turned over 
in their beds for another sleep. The next morning they probably 
heard no bell and visions of an interview with the Faculty loomed 
before their eyes, which straightway became a reality. But most 
of the students tumbled out of bed, and some of them, so anxious 
were they not to miss the morning prayers went half dressed. They 
put on their trousers and shoes, and throwing a dressing gown 
around their shoulders, hastened to the chapel. 

After prayers the members of the two lower classes attended a 
7 o'clock recitation. The Juniors and Seniors might go to bed again, 
which some of them did. The other recitation hours were 1 1 and 4, 
at each of which the bell rang. After the last recitation, there was 
chapel again at 5. After chapel most of the students spent the inter- 
vening time to supper in the open air, usually in walking. 

The roll of the college was called twice every day, once at each 
chapel service. Three times every day your room was visited by a 
Tutor or Adjunct Professor. At 9, 2 and 8 P.M., the beginning of 
each study hour, the door of your room was opened by him without 
knocking, to see if you were in your rooms. To be out on the 
campus or in the street after 9 P.M. without a good reason was 
disorderly. On Sunday, worship in the chapel at n o'clock was 
attended by all the students. The Professors, who were clergymen, 
preached in turn. Bible class was in the afternoon. Speeches 
were delivered in the chapel by the Seniors to which the public was 
admitted. The bright dresses of the ladies made a contrast with 
the sober garments of the Professors and students. The new 
chapel, the predecessor of Marquand, was then not finished. 

There was at that time a serious attempt made to supervise the 
daily life of the student. Each student was individualized and the 
oversight in some degree adjusted to the known character of the 
student. Dr. MacLean in '82, when I talked with him, lamented the 



21 



22 REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 

growth of the college since Dr. McCosh had come, because this 
supervision was no longer possible. 

During Commencement week, the President gave a reception to 
the Senior Class, and their friends, and to the Faculty, the only 
social function of the college year. On the afternoon of the day 
before Commencement, an Alumnus, chosen alternately by each Hall, 
delivered an oration. In the evening the eight Junior orators, four 
from each Hall, spoke. During the week the Senior ball was given. 
Commencement Day was a local holiday, with the usual accompani- 
ments of a holiday. 

No distinctive dress or cap was used by the students. A negligee 
dress while on the campus, or around the college buildings, was 
the vogue. Almost any article of dress, however well worn, could 
be used. When they went into town, or for their evening walk, 
they spruced up a little. This was true of the many. We always 
had some precisians in dress. On Sunday, neatness was the order 
of the day with all. 

Life in college was democratic, real and manly, dashed occasion- 
ally with a thrill of sentiment. These years were to many among 
the happiest years of their lives. To some the development of their 
intellectual powers, the increase of knowledge, and the birth of new 
feelings, brought a better knowledge of themselves, and a new view of 
life. They then seemed for the first to become acquainted with 
themselves, and they began to listen to the voices which were calling 
to them from the future. 

REFECTORIES 

There were two refectories, or a refectory and a poor house, as 
the cheaper one was called. The poor house was a long narrow 
frame building, that stood on the Southeast corner of what was then 
William Street and the Prospect driveway. A vestibule opened into 
a long dining room, with windows on each side, and a passage way 
leading from end to end. On each side of this the tables were ar- 
ranged. The food was plain but abundant. The service and table 
furniture were also plain. The students were always orderly at 
meals. The only accompaniment of the business of the hour, was 
friendly and quiet chat. The price of board was $2.25 a week. 



REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 23 

The other dining hall was in the basement of the building east of 
North College, the first story of which was used for the Senior 
lectures. It was called The Refectory. Here the board was thought 
to be better. It was frequented by the richer students. Here there 
was an occasional ripple of disorder, plates with their contents were 
sometimes turned up side down, and sometimes broken as a gentle 
criticism by the students of their fare. The board was $3.25 
or $3.50 per week. Both of these rfectories were conducted by 
the college with the design of keeping down the price of board in 
town. 

Quite a number of students boarded in town. And a still larger 
number boarded in clubs. These were informal associations of stu- 
dents, numbering about twelve, who provided their own provisions, 
and each paid the housekeeper, who cooked the food, twenty-five 
cents a week. A purveyor, who took charge of the business of the 
club, received his board free. In this way the cost of board could be 
regulated as the members of the club wished, or their means made 
necessary. 

SPORTS 

There were no organized athletics in Princeton, while I was there. 
Occasionally there would be a game of shinny in the rear campus, 
and still more seldom a game of baseball. Walking between evening 
chapel and supper was the favorite exercise. And while a few 
students might be found, who set their faces in different directions, 
the favorite walk was to Jugtown. And by an odd coincidence, some 
of the young ladies of the town occasionally chose that hour and 
place for their evening stroll. On Saturday afternoons, when the 
students had more time, longer tramps were essayed. 

My brother and myself had resources in the way of exercise, which 
the other students did not possess. He had taken lessons in boxing 
and fencing, and I had profited somewhat by his skill. So that 
whenever we had leisure, or the day was stormy, we would have a 
bout with either gloves or the foils, and sometimes there would be a 
spectator or two. 

One day during our Junior year a fencing master, a German, 
came to Princeton. He was sent to our room. The fencing lessons 
were resumed, pupils obtained for the teacher, and exhibitions were 



24 REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 

given. But fencing never became popular, and the interest after a 
while died out. 



HAZING AND OTHER IRREGULARITIES 

There was no organized hazing of the Freshman class by the 
Sophomores while I was in Princeton. The number at that time 
in the Freshman class was insignificant. When I entered college it 
amounted to about a baker's dozen. When I graduated the number 
had crept up to twenty. The Sophomore class treated the Freshman 
class as they did the other classes. There was no compelling the 
class to wear a distinctive article of dress, no imposition on them of 
humiliating stunts, or compelling them to step off the side walk 
into the street, when they met higher classmen. If anything, there 
was a slight disposition to move such rude courtesies a peg higher, 
and for the Juniors to play the petty tyrants with the Sophomores. 
But the latter were numerous enough and strong enough to take 
care of themselves. 

But although there was no class persecution, there was hazing of 
individuals, but the victims were not confined to the Freshman class, 
nor was the hazing done by Sophomores. Such cases when they 
occurred were punished, if the perpetrators were detected, as other 
acts of disorder. These were such as injuries to the property of 
the college or townspeople. For instance : Professor Hope, who 
was then living in the house west of North College, woke up one 
morning and found that his cow had been painted during the night, 
and the words "mixed metaphor", he was Professor of Rhetoric, 
had been chalked in many places on his house and fences. 

There was a fire, too, while I was a student, and students were 
the incendiaries. Some out buildings, which had become offensive 
to them, were set on fire and consumed. 

An ungracious act, altogether too common, was for the students 
when any sightseers, who had anything of a rustic, or otherwise 
noticeable appearance, strayed into the rear campus, to throw up 
their windows, and begin to chaff them. The visitors would stop, 
look around them, and from college building to college building in 
their bewilderment, then turn and leave hastily, as though detected 



REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 25 

in trespassing. I never saw any, who had sufficient self-possession 
and independence to continue their walk. 

A favorite mode of relieving nervous tension, after the afternoon 
recitation, was the shuffling of feet and stamping at afternoon 
chapel, when the roll was called. The form of the chapel lent itself 
readily to such an abuse. It was the room in North College directly 
opposite the main entrance. Right over the entrance was a gallery, 
and opposite was a high platform, on which was the pulpit, with 
large windows on each side. On this high platform stood the tutor 
or adjunct professor, who called the roll. He was so high up, that 
he could not see beneath the gallery. The roll call was therefore 
accompanied by a continual chorus of stamping to prevent the 
answers of the students, when their names were called, from being 
heard. Especially was this instrumental accompaniment loud from 
the Juniors, when the roll of the Sophomores was called. 

But the Saturnalia of riotous disorder was called a barring out. 
This was an event, which had to be carefully planned beforehand, 
and tactfully executed. Stout boards or small sticks of cord wood 
were accumulated in the rooms of North College and secreted. Then 
some evening, just before the tutors and adjunct professors had re- 
turned to their rooms, the doors of North College would be slammed 
to and braced, the bell would be set ringing as though it was rung by 
a tipsy bellman, and shouts would be raised by the students within, 
who were in the plot. 

Almost immediately, as if by magic, the building would be sur- 
rounded by students drawn by curosity to see the fun. Dr. MacLean 
and the Adjunct Professors and Tutors would appear, and the assault 
of the beleaguered fortress would begin. It was in caricature Locks- 
ley and the Black Knight assaulting Front de Boeuf's castle. And 
as in that case, the assailants would finally prevail. They would 
select some door, and bend all their energies to bursting it open, 
while the rioters within would strive to strengthen their defences. 

During the first and only barring out that I witnessed, my brother 
and myself were sitting quietly in our room, which was then in North 
College, when a classmate came to the room and asked us to come to 
his room, which was next the door assailed, and see the fun. We 
went to his room, where quite a crowd was assembled. We had not 



26 REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 

been there long and had just got a glimpse of the situation around 
the college door, when it gave way and Professor Giger appeared 
at the door of the room we were in, his clothes whitened either with 
flour or lime, and soiled as though he had been rolled on the ground, 
his face flushed, and named in succession the names of the students 
in the room, our names among the number. 

After all had quieted down, we went over to Professor Henry's 
study, and told him how we came to be in the room in which Giger 
found us ; and that was the last we heard of the matter. But it was 
not so with all. Major Lee as he was called, on account of his mili- 
tary bearing, a classmate, who roomed next to us, was caught in a 
compromising position, and knew that he would be suspended. 
When we went to his room to sympathize with him, we found him 
reading the Prayer Book. After he left college, we heard that he 
was shot in a street fight in the South. That reckless and generous 
nature was soon at rest. 

A SOPHOMORE COMMENCEMENT 

Towards the end of the Sophomore year, our class resolved to 
have a Sophomore Commencement. All the class were in favor of 
it. Hodge was excused because he lived in town, and Cattell because 
his brother Thomas was an Adjunct Professor in the college. Dr. 
MacLean soon got wind of it, and one day came into the class room 
and forbade it. But while walking out of the room he added, "some 
of the last Sophomore class after their Commencement got drunk 
and were disorderly. And the Faculty are resolved that there shall 
not be a repetition." These words furnished us with our cue. We, 
too, resolved that there should not be a repetition. Some of the 
prospective speakers prepared a paper in which the members of the 
class pledged themselves to abstain from all intoxicating liquors dur- 
ing the day and evening of the Commencement. And made their 
taking part in the affair depend on all signing it. All signed it. 

The Commencement took place in the Academy, a frame building 
on Washington Road. The room was lit with tallow candles, so in 
more senses than one, it was not a very brilliant affair. The Seniors 
had circulated a satirical program the day before. Dr. MacLean 
came after we were under way and obtained a copy of ours. The 



REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 27 

audience of students was orderly, and there was occasionally faint 
applause, with now and then the word "louder". 

After the exercises were over, a line was formed, and we marched 
to the hotel, where we took our places in a row around the long 
dining room, and ate sandwiches and replied briefly to sentiments 
that were offered. We then separated, and went to our rooms. All 
the members of the class kept their pledge. After I gained my room, 
and the excitement was all over, I felt like a man that had fallen 
down stairs. 

Nothing was done about it by the Faculty, during the few re- 
maining days of the college year. But when the college reopened, 
the speakers were summoned before the Faculty. When questioned 
in regard to the Commencement, we all had the same defense. We 
said that we agreed perfectly with Dr. MacLean and the Faculty, 
that we like them had resolved that there should not be another 
disorderly Sophomore Commencement, but a sober orderly exem- 
plary one, and such a commencement we had given them. Dr. 
MacLean tried to point out the difference between the Faculty's idea 
and ours, but we could not see it. We only said that we thought, if 
we gave them such a commencement as we did, they would not find 
fault. Nothing was done with us. That was the last Sophomore 
Commencement that I ever heard of, or at least that was held in 
Princeton. 

WHIG AND CLIO HALLS 

The two Halls did yeoman service in the cause of education in my 
time, and supplemented the curriculum of the College. I think the 
Faculty leaned on them in some things. 

Their founders had admirably enlisted a principle, which has 
contributed greatly to the prosperity and growth of Anglo-Saxon 
commonwealths, a principle which has made English colonies a 
success, while the colonies of other countries, subjected to govern- 
ment control have been failures. It is the principle of individual 
liberty and self-government. The possession and exercise of this 
liberty in the Halls, to which secrecy lent a zest, made work agree- 
able because it was self-imposed, and the work of the Halls made 
them no insignificant vestibules of the great world, which their 



28 REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 

members were so soon to enter. But these advantages were chiefly 
possessed by those who made use of their opportunities. All of the 
College students were then members of either one or the other Hall. 
There was a serious quarrel between the two Halls during my 
Junior Year. It arose in this way. A member of Whig Hall was 
observed near Clio Hall, while its members were in session, and 
Clio charged him with eavesdropping. After a few notes were inter- 
changed, Clio refused an answer to Whig Hall's communications. 
Whig Hall then retaliated by posting Clio in language borrowed from 
the duelling code. Clio retaliated by refusing to speak to Whigs. 
Things looked squally for a time. The Faculty took it up. A 
committee was appointed consisting of one graduate, a member of 
the Faculty, and a member of Whig Hall. Whig Hall finally with- 
drew the offensive paper, and amity was restored. 



W. W. LORD 

There was one man, who was much in evidence in Princeton dur- 
ing the six years of my student life, and who also, at one time, was 
connected with the College. It was W. W. Lord. He belonged to a 
prominent Presbyterian family, being a younger brother of Dr. 
Lord, of Buffalo, N. Y. He had published a small volume of poems, 
which were regarded by good judges as giving evidences of poetic 
power. Dr. James W. Alexander once said to me, that there were 
lines in Lord's poems, that reminded him of Milton. Professor 
Dod was one of his admirers, and an intimate friend, and by his 
influence Lord was appointed a Fellow of the College. 

To one who met and talked with Lord for the first time, he 
seemed altogether an extraordinary man. He had an oracular way 
of speaking, often putting his ideas in a figurative form. For in- 
stance, he once said, after he entered the Episcopal Church, when I 
was present, "They say that the Church of the Middle Ages was 
dead. If she was dead, she grew in her grave." And on another 
occasion, he called pride, lust and hate the sucking devils of the 
breast. 

I sometimes met him at the houses of the Princeton residents, and 
occasionally walked with him. He was about five years my senior, 
and better read, and could reproduce the scenes and characters of his 
favorite authors with vividness. But after a while the glamour 
sensibly waned. I began to discover that he was opinionated, and 
masterful, and that his general statements were sometimes inaccu- 
rate. Once at Dr. Hodge's house, he made some sweeping statement 
about the Reformation. Dr. Hodge contradicted him, and in a grave 
tone added, "It is a solemn thing to falsify history". 

If Lord was seriously opposed, or offended and he was easily 
offended he kept no terms with the person he was talking to. One 
of his favorite weapons was ridicule. He did not restrain himself 
even before ladies, whose presence acted as a restraint on his oppon- 
ents. His encounter with Dr. Torrey, a Professor in the College, and 

29 



30 REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 

a much older man, at an evening entertainment, furnished matter 
for gossip in Princeton for some time. 

Candor compels me to say that a number of the Princeton Pro- 
fessors regarded him as superficial and pretentious. Dr. MacLean 
was neither in sympathy with his spirit or his opinions. Professor 
Hope told me that, when Lord went to Amherst College, as Assist- 
ant Professor of Mental Philosophy, he made a failure of it. 

And yet Dr. Hodge, true to his friendship for Professor Dod 
Lord's friend appeared with him before the Diocesan Committee of 
New Jersey, when Lord made application for admission to orders in 
the Episcopal Church, to certify to his character. Mrs. Patterson, 
the wife of the Episcopal Minister in Princeton, was pleased with 
this, and when she met Dr. Hodge, she said, "Dr. Hodge, you should 
be made a Bishop". "Madam," Dr. Hodge answered, "I am one." 

Lord went South after he was ordained, but he never rose to 
any high position in the Episcopal Church, which is what might have 
been expected. A man so tactless and passionate, in the office of a 
bishop, would have been the bull in the china shop. He was in 
Vicksburg during the siege of that city by Grant, and daily 
harangued the people. When Vicksburg surrendered, Grant offered 
to send him to his brother, Judge Lord of St. Louis, whom Grant 
knew. Lord declined the offer and preferred to remain within the 
Confederacy. When, Sherman was on his march north from Savan- 
nah, he passed through the village in which Lord had found refuge. 

After the war, he came North, and was rector of the Episcopal 
Church in Cooperstown, N. Y. If he published anything after his 
book of poetry, I am ignorant of it. Towards the close of his life, 
he tried to persuade Mrs. Edwin A. Stevens of Hoboken, the 
Miss Martha B. Dod of some 60 years before, of whom in the old 
days he had been a suitor, to become responsible for the cost of pub- 
lishing a book he had written. But the proposition was declined. 
Lord died at a hotel in New York City in 1907, aged 88. 



THE STUDENTS AND THE TOWNSPEOPLE 

There were in Princeton in my day three distinct social sets, be- 
tween which there was but little intercourse. There was, first, a 
group of wealthy families made up of Commodore Stockton's family, 
and the family of his son John Stockton, the three Potter families, 
the family of ex-Governor Thomson, whose widow was afterwards 
a benefactress of the Graduate School and a few others. Most of 
these families had intermarried at some time in their history. They 
were all Episcopalians. They lived in spacious houses, sometimes 
with extensive grounds attached, of which Prospect and Morven 
are, or rather were, examples. 

This class, which may be called the leisure class or the aristocrats, 
differed from the next class, the professors, in wealth, in style of liv- 
ing, in their standards, and aims. Sometimes a man belonging to 
this class would marry the daughter of a Professor, accepting the 
dower of beauty in place of any other. And sometimes the daughter 
of an aristocrat would look with favorable eyes on a young Profes- 
sor, or promising graduate. Her parents, in their remonstrance with 
her, might say "we don't know where this young man has come 
from". But the daughter was sure she knew where the young man 
was going, and wanted to go with him ;* and so there would some- 
times be a wedding. 

Among the second class, the Professors, there was but little socia- 
bility. The families of course exchanged visits. But the preoccupa- 
tion of the professors in their work, and their scanty incomes pre- 
cluded an interchange of entertainments. In this class, while good 
family was valued, yet personal ability and good character were 
valued more. 

There is one exception to be made to the statement as to the 
lack of sociability among the Professors. It was the family of Dr. 
Torrey. Mrs. Torrey, who had three attractive daughters, gave 
entertainments occasionally. At one of them Dr. Samuel Miller of 

* Said of Philip Henry the father of Matthew 'Henry. 



32 REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 

the Theological Seminary was present. Charades were given. Dr. 
Miller was shocked. He felt that he had been invited to a play, and 
left the house without ceremony. The conflict between a sense of 
duty and politeness was brief. Conscience had its way. 

Dr. Miller's manners had been formed in the school of Chester- 
field. He was called the Chesterfield of the American clergy. His 
courtesy was elaborate but genuine. It was a glimpse of old world 
manners to see him bow to ladies on the street. However cold and 
windy the day, his hat was raised exposing his bald head to the 
wind, and his bow was deliberate and profound. But his goodness 
was as manifest as his courtesy, and impressed and attracted even 
worldlings. 

But there were a number of intelligent families in Princeton, who 
were reckoned socially with the Professors, who had occasional 
entertainments, musical or social. They were those who had 
been attracted to Princeton as a desirable place of residence, or 
families who had sons in college. In these families there were ladies 
interested in literature and music, and more than one highly educated. 
They, together with the Professors and professional people in 
town, Doctors, Lawyers and Ministers made up the second class. 

The third class was made up of the storekeepers and master 
mechanics. The last two classes met in church work, and had 
more or less to do with one another in business, and the local politics 
of the town. But they did not interchange visits, and very rarely 
intermarried. 

The feeling between the students and shopkeepers was cordial. 
The door knobs which were wrenched off, or signs displaced, while 
I was a student were a negligible quantity. The students as a whole 
found their college life with its lessons, and Halls and comradeship 
sufficient, and did not go into society in town. A few students 
brought letters of introduction to town families, the presentation of 
which was followed by invitations to dinner. And some students 
introduced in other ways, became visitors in the town. Acquain- 
tanceship in some cases led to more serious feelings, and some of 
the college graduates returned, and took Princeton girls home as 
wives. But it passed into a proverb, what effect crossing Stony 
Brook had on the memories and affections of some men, even when 



REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 33 

there had been mutual attraction between them, and the companions 
of their idle hours. 

My brother and myself taught during our Senior year, each an 
hour a day, in a young ladies' school in town. And this led to an 
acquaintance with the parents of the young ladies. During the three 
years of our seminary life, we also gave lessons in families in town, 
and we became visitors in some of their homes. And we were as 
well acquainted with the people of Princeton at that time, as almost 
any students, whose families were not residents. 



CONCLUSION 

Princeton has so greatly changed that if a graduate of fifty or 
sixty years standing, who had not visited Princeton in the interval, 
should be set down on the campus, in the midst of the new Halls, he 
would not know where he was. The changes are so great that the 
surroundings would be unrecognizable. Only three of the old 
College buildings are left, relics of an earlier generation. But these 
relics, in their simple outlines, are in keeping with the singleness of 
aim, and strength of purpose of the characters of their founders, 
and of the great church with which they were in sympathy, and with 
the characters of the Faculty and Trustees to which the fortunes of 
the College were entrusted. As that church has always looked out 
for the things that are most worth while, so did the Faculty and 
Trustees of Princeton in the late forties. Beauty or majesty of 
proportions were then not considered prime assets. 

As one wanders amid the new Halls, which possess both beauty 
and majesty, he realizes that the men, whose hands are now on the 
helm of affairs also look out for the things that are most worth 
while, that while of old the fortunes of its friends were numbered 
by tens of thousands, the fortunes of its friends now are numbered 
by millions. And all feelings of regret for the Princeton of past 
times, pictures of which live in the memories of a few, are excluded 
by exultation in the evidences of life and growth, which are seen 
on every hand. The changes, which he sees, are the changes which 
appear when a higher form of free progressive and exulting life 
manifests itself. 

And all the growth of Princeton and a still more varied develop- 
ment will be needed, if Princeton is to hold her place as a national 
university, if her graduates are to be fitted for leadership in develop- 
ing the manifold interests of modern society, and if Princeton shall 
continue in the future as she has in the past, to send out men with 
intellects and characters fitted to safeguard and adapt the institutions 
of religion and the state to the growing needs of the country. For 

34 



REMINISCENCES OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 35 

seldom in the history of mankind have the forces of the enemies 
of religion and our political institutions, and of our business pros- 
perity been more numerous, or better organized or more active. 
They are found in every community, and therefore their battle line 
may be said to extend from ocean to ocean, with fortresses at each 
wing, and not a few scattered along the line. In the conflicts, which 
are inevitable, the graduates of Princeton must acquit themselves 
like men. 



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'" 


REC'D LD 


JflN16'64-4P!H 













































^e YD 00964 



297655 






UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY