Essays and Reviews on Subjects, Consequential and Insignificant

Essays And Reviews On Subjects, Consequential And Insignificant by D.Appleton is a multi-voiced, satirical chronicle of Princeton College life in the late 19th century. Through portraits, mock-epics, verse, letters, and editorials, it anatomizes student life across classes and lampoons campus pretensions, mischief, and reform. The excerpt centers on the Class of 1871 alongside contemporaries, faculty, and administrators such as McCosH, Aiken, Packard, Morrat, Cameron, and Durfee. It traces inaugurations, class-day rituals, grand campus openings (Dickinson Hall, the gym), and a gamut of pranks, hazing episodes, athletic contests, and debates. Memory, loyalty, and loss color the narrative as deaths, memorials, and alumni ties are memorialized within a tone that blends nostalgia with candid humor. Key themes include modernization and the friction between tradition and reform, religious and secular life, and the role of memory in shaping a college’s identity. The piece reads as a vivid collage of moments that illustrate a turning point in campus culture.