Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-10-03


President Patton expressed it in his ad-
dress to the students on Thursday after
noon, Our minds are completely occupied;
1 might better cay preoccupied. with the
sesqui-centennial celebration" Everybody
has an eye on October %. The faculty
| committee is busy with the arrangements
Of what promises to be the grandest col
lege celebration ever held in this coun-
try, the student looks forward to grand
occasion with the town full Of "old grads"
and the townspeople are all anticipating
the big day"
In his opening address President Patton
even went further, and said: 81 have so
much to say on this subject the sesqui-
center niaD. that l see nothing to do but
| make it my text" In his talk he sndeav-
ored to impress upon the student body a
full realization of the Importance of the
| coming occasion. and what 1t signifed in
the aErals of Princeton, and in the educa-
tioEal history of the country.
A visitor to Princeton does not have to
be an alumnus Of the college to realize
| the meaning of $50 completed years of the
life of the college, with all the CHI anges. ad-
dltlCnS and Improvements that have taken
| place in that period From the granting
of Princetons first charter by Gov. Ham
ilton of New Jersey in 1146. which gave
the right to President Jonathan Dickinson
ard a half dozen students to gather at
Elizabeth and he called the College of New
Jersey, down to the present, which finds
| that college among the leaders Of the coun-
try and the world-the successful COM
pletion of such interval Is certainly a
| hitting occasion for celebration.
Glance Mt Early Days.
glance at the college of 1850 shows this:
| 1t was then located at New Ark" as 1t
was then written, having been moved from
| Elizabeth at the time Of the election to
| the presidency of Aaron Burr, father of
| the third Vice President Of the United
| States. This removal and the ease with
| which 1t was accomplished, show the
primitive character of the college of New
| jersey at that time. Nowadays when
| man is elected president of an institution
OF learning convenience and custom die
tate that he should go 10 the college. Not
so with Princeton's second president, how
ever. The college was promptly moved
| from Elizabeth to Newark. But when we
| take into consideration the facts that the
presidents house was the principal college
| bulidiI 6, that the college enrolment was
! not over twenty, it appears that the col
lege and president could both move with
| almost equal facility.
| Not until the removal to Princeton In 1874
| did the college have building. Nassau
| Hall was built at that time and vas for
! many years the largest and one of the most
famous buildings in the country. This lat
| ter distinction still clings to i. Used 2 S a
| quarters by Washington's army in 1777
nearly demolished by the fighting around
! Princeton in those days, and later used as
house of historical association, greater tia n
any other university building in The world.
The funds for its construction We're pa tial-
! ly raised by means which today would he
regarded as novel, If nothing more. ippii-
cation was made to the New Jersey colonial
government for permission to iriw Il lot
terry in the interest Of the college. Being
refused in New Jersey, the trustees with
fertility of resource worthy of the modern
| puglist, applied in Pennsylvania. There
the necessary sanction was obtained, and a
lottery drawn in Philadelphia realized about
| $500 for the infant college. Lotteries we're
subsequently drawn in Connecticut and
| New Jersey for the benefit of the college.
The Standard of Admission.
| No college graduate of the last twenty
five years need regret that he couldn't at
tend Princeton during President Burr's ad
mnistration. In those days the elective
system had not been thought of, and there
is no record of anything like the modern
special student. who can attend a one-houl
lecture every other Thursday and yet claim
knowledge of the classics was the frs
requisite for admission, as the following
| will show: None may be admitted to the
college but such as being examined by the
| president and tutors shall be found able t
render Virgil and Tully's orations in Eng
, lish; and to turn English into true ant
grammatical Latin. and to be SO well &C
| ouainted with the Greek as to render any
, part of the four Evangelists in that Ian
guage into Latin or English This list O
requirements takes up less space than thu
: similar list in a modern college catalogue
with its six books of this, and three book
of that, and ten of so-and-so's orations
but ito render any part Of the four Evan
gelists into Latin or English is require
ment that would cause appalling de
crease in the size Of the classes now enter
ing colleges. Requirements in mathematic
seem to have been based on much lowe
: standard. 1t was not until 176O that ''vulga
l1Sb do fnr on
trance, and the Rev. Jonathan Edwards
1 third president of the college, in replying t
the letter informing him of his election t
that office, refers to his deficiency in SOM
| parts of learning, particularly in algebr;
), and the higher parts of mathematics.
L A letter Of freshman of 1850 shows tina
I he had recitation in AenophoE at am.
A followed by one in Watts Ontology. Thu
{ rest of the morning he studied Cicero de-
Oratore'' and Hebrew grammar, and re
e cited in these subjects to the college tutor
: The afternoon was spent in the study o
Xenoplon ard anthology, to recite to TIN
president the following morning. Beside
these studies there was desultory in
struction in geography and debates wer
p attention was paid to rhetoric. ontolog
d and mathematics, and during the latter tw
, years of the course the natural science
:. and moral and mental philosophy wer
IL taken up.
College Expenses Were Light.
l. In these days when the average coheS
II student whose parents are in moderat
y circumstances spends between $1,000 an
5000 en- a college education, 1t seem
u strange to read that the expenses Of a
- entire collegiate year at Princeton, abou
q 17GO, amounted to an equivalent of 81
made up If $40 for tuition, $45 for board
), 81 for washing, IS for light and fuel, an
:. s. for room rent. But everything fnancia
&c in the college was on the same diminutiv
80 scal9 and gift of fifty guineas from Ger
# eral George Washington caused more CON
motion than $4,000 endowment woul
~ today President Burr received a salar
-. of about $3.50 year, and each Of the tw
tutors, who were has only assistants. Ia
bored for f40 proclamation money, or abor
$10O q year
The commencement exercises then WEI
much the same formal and uninterestin
function that they are today. The Penn
sylvan.a Gazette of October o. 1760, pull
lished an account of the commencement
" that year, which consisted mostly of ore
p lions in Latin, ard syllogistc dispute
forensic disputes and disputes in IL
"So cratick Way" all in Latin, but asiG
re from the formal exercises the commence
ment season was a gay one, for in plat