accepted as a compliment, despite my complete antagonism to every- 

 thing for which Huxley stood. 



Speaking of nicknames, I should perhaps explain that "Wick," by 

 which I have always been known to intimate friends, dates from my 

 nursery days and was conferred upon me by my oldest brother. The 

 name is a far cry from William and I have often been asked to account 

 for it; it has always been dear to me, as having something of the force 

 of the German du. 



Through Senior year I was kept very busy by a multitude of duties 

 and distractions. I had to work hard to keep my place at the head of 

 the class; Whig Hall and the Science Association took a lot of time 

 and also attendance at Dr. McCosh's "Library Meetings" was a not 

 unwelcome demand upon my time. Some time ago. Dean Gauss asked 

 me to write an account of these meetings, of which he had heard, but 

 I could not gather sufficient material for the purpose. The meetings were 

 held in Dr. McCosh's study; a paper on some philosophical subject 

 was read, by some member of the Faculty, or invited guest, and then 

 discussed by the audience, which was made up chiefly of Seniors. The 

 discussion was seldom lively, though sometimes a paper on a highly 

 controversial subject would start a debate that grew warm. Yet these 

 meetings served a very useful purpose and were part of the machinery 

 which Dr. McCosh employed to raise the level of intellectual life at 

 Princeton to a truly university standard. He had to develop his plans 

 slowly and cautiously, always hampered by insufficient funds and by 

 the vigilant opposition of the extreme conservatives among the Faculty 

 and Trustees, whose watchword was: "Change is not reform." 



Early in the fall the new football team was organized, with Andy 

 McCosh as captain and, much to my joy, I was made a member of it. 

 We played a modified form of the Association game, with fifteen play- 

 ers on a side. Our uniform was very ugly, orange jersey and stockings, 

 black breeches and cap. No protective armour was needed, for there was 

 no scrimmage and tackling was not allowed. We had no coach or train- 

 ing table and did very little practising, but I am confident that we got 

 a great deal more fun out of our game than the modern players do 

 from their burdensome and laborious training. We played Columbia 

 at Hoboken and Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, winning both games 

 handily. Then came the revolution, which arose in the following 

 manner. 



We received word from Yale and Harvard that they were aban- 

 doning "soccer" (as it is now called) and that, if we wished to meet 



c 50 ] 



