By April C. Armstrong *14
In this week’s installment of our recurring series, student grammar provokes censure, history enthusiasts walk to campus from Rhode Island, and more.
October 6, 1883—A writer in the Trenton Times complains about the grammar of some Princeton students overheard at dinner.
Before the performance I dropped into a favorite up-town restaurant at lunch. At the next table to mine sat two finely-dressed young gentlemen who, I afterwards learned, were Princeton students. They talked so loudly that I could not avoid hearing the awful grammatical blunders which they were constantly perpetuating. “Between you and I,” was a favorite expression. It set me thinking how unmercifully the Queen’s English is violated, not only on the street, but even in the conversation and writing of presumably educated men. There is no other word which will betray the shallowness of one’s learning so readily as the personal pronoun of the first person.
October 9, 1957—After a spate of theft of forks, knives, cups, and plates from University dining facilities, Dean of Students William Lippincott ’41 announces that students rooms might be searched to locate the missing items.
October 10, 1977—The Rochambeau’s Army, a group of history enthusiasts retracing the steps of General Jean Baptiste Rochambeau during the American Revolution in period costumes, stops at Nassau Hall on its journey from Rhode Island to Virginia. They also go to Firestone Library to view the original maps of Rochambeau trail. The entire trip has taken place on foot.
October 12, 1927—A study has revealed that, despite its status as the fourth oldest college in the United States, Princeton ranks a distant 54th in number of total alumni (including non-graduates, both living and deceased), with 14,177 former students.
Did you read the previous installment in this series?
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