Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1913-01-23
ChAPIER w
a Student at Princeton.

cUmers. he found himself in charm
ing old town Of naples, elms and catal-
pas, AMONG which stood the college
buildings. dating, one of them, back to
1856
The place. full of traditions of the
Revolutionary war. had been favor
lite resort Of southern students up to
1861. The first war had battered the
front of Old Nassau hall, and the sec
/ ond had done more substantial if less
picturesque damage in withGra wing
from the institution a large part of its
southern patronage The south could
i'll afford to send its young men far
away to college now. This year. in.
deed. there came twenty men from the
southern states. 1t is remembered that
some of these youths needed recon
struction.
/ Wilson is remembered in no such
way. He was known as Democrat
Of stout opinions from the day he first
opened his mouth on the campus, but
no recollection remains of his having
displayed any sectional passion. \
classmate remembers, however, that
on one occasion when a group of fell
lows were talking of the miSfortunes
that follow in the wake of war Wilson.
who was in the group. cried out, "You
know nothing whatever about it, aud
with face as white as IL sheet of paper
abruptly left the company.
All testimony goes to Indicate that
Tom Wilson Immediately took his
place as a leader in the class. He ap-
peared as a young fellow Of great ma
turity Of character. blended with I'M
usual freshness of interest in all things
pertaining to college life He had the
manners of young ariStocrat His
speech was cultured He soon won the
! reputation Of already wide reading and
sound Judgment. There is abundant
evidence that he was from the start a
marked figure among the men who
! now constitute the famous class of
| 10" There have been more famous
| Princeton graduates than these, but
there has never been n class of so high
an average Of ability. Robert Bridges.
one of the editors of Scribner's Maya
zine; the Rev. Or. A. s. Ualsey, secre-
tary of the Presbyterian board Of for
eign missions; Charles A. Talcott. NJ.
c.: MahIon Pitney, justice of the su-
preme court of the United States;
Robert III. McCarter eX-attOrney gen
eral of New Jersey: Edward w. Shell
don, president of the United States
Trust company; Colonel Edwin A.
Stevens of New Jersey and Judge Rob
ert r. Henderson of Maryland are only
typical members of a class of unusual
mental capacity Among such men
Wilson from the start ranked high.
Not as a student perhaps. He was
never bright particular star in ex-
aminations. Princeton graduated as
"hopor men" such students as had
maintained throughout their four
years course an average of 80 per
cent. Not less than forty-two out of
the 122 graduates of 70 We're "honor
men," Wilson barely got in among
them. He ranked forty-first.
The fact is that this son of clergy
men and editors hadn't come to school
to pass through a standardized cur
ricuum and fill his head with the
knowledge prescribed in college cata
lOgue He had come to prepare him
self for particular career, and before
he had been at Princeton three months
he had finally determined on what that
career should be-
The class historian. Harold Pete)
Goodwin. celebrating the advent in
Princeton of the members of the class
that graduated in 70. declares that on
arrival Tommy Wilson rushed to the
library and took out Rants 'Critique
of Pure Reason"
To the library Tommy Wilson I'M
questionably did rush. but not to read
of pure reason. If ever there was
student who demanded facts, concrete
subjects, applied reason, it was this
same Wilson, even in his college days
The truth is that, prowling in the al
coves of the Chancellor Green library
new then, one day early in the term
the boy stopped ut the head Of the
south stairs, where the bound maya
zines were kept, and his hand fell
upon n file Of the Gentleman'S Maga-
zine. that ancient and respectable re-
postory of English literature which
DR.. Samuel Johnson had helped to
start away back in the middle of the
eighteenth century. With his reports of
parliamentary debates. When Johnson
lay on his deathbed he declared that
his only compunction was those parIia.
mentary reports, for. of course. they
were fakes"
Now. 1t happened that in the seventies
the editor of the day, feeling round for
an attractive feature, hit upon the idea
of resumiug the parliamentary reports
Accordingly there began in the num-.
Der for January, 1874. series of ar
ticles entitled MEN and Manner ID
Parliament" by The Member For the
Chiltern Hundreds"
Thomas Woodrow Wilson happened
to pick up this volume of the Gentle