Princeton—college—professors wear boots!—students famous for their love
of a jest—set the college on fire, and burned out the professors; an
excellent joke, but not worth repeating—mem. American students very much
addicted to burning down colleges—reminds me of a good story, nothing at
all to the purpose—two societies in the college—good notion—encourages
emulation, and makes little boys fight;—students famous for their eating
and erudition—saw two at the tavern, who had just got their allowance of
spending money—laid it all out in a supper, got fuddled, and d—d the
professors for nincoms. N. B. Southern gentlemen—churchyard—apostrophe
to grim death—saw a cow feeding on a grave—metempsychosis—who knows but
the cow may have been eating up the soul of one of my ancestors—made me
melancholy and pensive for fifteen minutes;—man planting
cabbages[25]—wondered how he could plant them so straight—method of
mole-catching—and all that—quere, whether it would not be a good notion
to ring their noses as we do pigs’—mem. to propose it to the American
Agricultural Society—get a premium, perhaps—commencement—students give a
ball and supper—company from New York, Philadelphia, and Albany—great
contest which spoke the best English—Albanians vociferous in their
demand for sturgeon—Philadelphians gave the preference to raccoon[26]
and splacnuncs[27]—gave them a long dissertation on the phlegmatic
nature of a goose’s gizzard—students can’t dance—always set off with the
wrong foot foremost—Duport’s opinion on that subject—Sir
Christopher Hatton the first man who ever turned out his toes in
dancing—favorite with Queen Bess on that account—Sir Walter
Raleigh—good story about his smoking—his descent into New Spain—El
Dorado—Candide—Dr. Pangloss—Miss Cunegunde—earthquake at Lisbon—Baron of
Thundertentronck[28]—Jesuits—Monks—Cardinal Woolsey—Pope Joan—Tom
Jefferson—Tom Paine, and Tom the ——- whew! N. B. Students got drunk as
usual.