The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-21


 erspoon. Washington and Madison. Not
 only was the building actually under fire in the battle, but It was the meet. ing place of the Revolutionary Legis. lature. and in the south wing. now tho council chamber, the Continental Con. | Gress held it's sessions from June 2t to November {, lT83 Here Congress decreed a statue to Washington. whicf l was to be mounted on a pedestal which
 shonld bear in bas-relief representa. tions of the evacuation of Washington
 and the actions of Trenton. Princeton
 ard Monmouth. IL is notable that three
 of the four events thus to be com. ! memorated occurred on New Jersey soil
 At the Princeton commencement in i7s3, Washington and the Congress were present. Washington donated fifty suineas to the trustees. which
 they expended for portrait of him by
 Peale. of Philadelphia. This was placed in the frame which had formerly con tained the portrait of King George. From the hall. on the 18th of October, l7s3. Congress issued the proclamation. in which, after thanking the army in
 the country's name for its heroic achievements. the soldiers were dis
 charged from further service. after November 3.
 Here. too, Washington summoned from the army at Newburg, received
 the thanks of Congress, and after re-
 plying thereto, retired to the house at
 Rocky Hill. which is now known as
 Washington headquarters; and from thence. on November of the same year, he issued his fareweiI address to his troops. This house is now the property of the Washington Headquar- aF The southeast room, on the second story, is pointed out as the room where these orders were written.
 The Princeton Atmosphere.
 It must appear from this brief emu meration of incidents and places, that Princeton Is singularly rich in historic associations. Space will not per init further detail, but the list might be much extended. How far these places and memories have impressed -the life and sentiment of Princeton, ,t is hard to say; that they have had a profound influence in creating what the alumni love to call the Princeton at mosphere is undoubted. That atmos- phere, so subtle in charm, so enduring in effects, defies analysis. A professor. not long since. said, to a class mate, You feel it and I feel It. and every student feels 1t; but not one of us will ever describe it. Still, one of it's chief conditions is obviously that the local associations and influences, historic, academic and religious, are undiluted by the discordant struggle of com merce, or the social distractions and temptations of large town.
 Here the academic circle Is dominant, college associations paramount, and the patriotic memories of the locality, beginning with Nassau Hall and the Old Cannon, subtly influence the spirit of the place; it's isolation, the unde- filed beauty of the location. and the quiet. methodical routine of teaching and learning, join to create that in- deflnable charm which makes a life long impress on the consciousness of the students. If you ask for the secret of that strong Princeton sentiment which her alumni are carrying all over the land. 1t Is herein the dormitories, through the long winter evenings. where lifelong friendships are formed: under the stately elns. when in the long spring twilight the little groups cement those friendships amid chatter and song, or perhaps look seriously forward to the final parting in June. Those who have but seen Princeton in her holiday garb have little Idea Of the calm of the university life.
 In twenty years the campus has changed much: numbers are greater buildings are larger and more beauti- full But with all this, in some re- spects, Princeton has not changed. The standards of the place are religious. moral and intellectual, and the cheap estimate of man according to his money does not obtain here. either with undergraduates or with their academic superiors. The Presbyterian Seminary at Princeton has no more organic connection with the University than with Oxford. But the University, while never an ecclesi-1 astical or sectarian institution, stands as firmly pro-christian as ever. This generation will not see her pluming herself on the abolition of public wor- ship; nor at chapel service, displaeing hymns with college songs" In heTsl teaching the religious element is not | aggressive. but it is pervasive: and it | IS probably only a minority of the stu | 1ents who are not interested in vol | Intary religious activities. The Uni- 1ersity compels no man against his | conscience and recognizes his right to believe what he may. But the modern | theories that it matters not what you | believe so long as you believe it, nor l what you learn as long as you learn l [, she denies as decisively as she de- lies their natural corollary-that 1t. makes no d1nerence what you do so l ong as you do 1t.
 These are some of the thoughts that must come to the old Princetonian as | le strolls amid the familiar buildings , inder the shadows of the old elms Ter standards were never sounder, her | deals never higher and her progress s today geater than eyer before un- Ter the guidance of her own sons Nassau in Newark (N. JD Evening | News.