316 ALEXANDER JOHNSTON. 



ALEXANDER JOHNSTON* 



The old adage that death loves a shining mark has seldom received 

 a more sorrowful fulfilment than when, on the 20th of last July, 

 Professor Alexander Johnston breathed his last. His death, although 

 foreshadowed by a long period of illness and decline, caused a thrill 

 of profound grief throughout the large circle of his acquaintance. 

 Professor Johnston's connection with this College, although brief, had 

 been sufficiently long to win for him a warm place in many hearts, 

 and it is safe to say that no instructor has ever enjoyed in a larger 

 measure the affection and esteem of his colleagues and pupils. 



The facts of Professor Johnston's life are already well known. 

 Born in Brooklyn in 1849, he spent the first twelve years of his life 

 in that city, removing with his parents to Astoria, L. I., in 1861, 

 where he studied for a short time in a public school, and completed his 

 preparation for college under the tuition of a private tutor, Profes- 

 sor Alanson Palmer, of New York City. His father, who entered the 

 army as a volunteer in 1861, returned in 1863, broken in health, and 

 shortly after moved to Illinois, leaving young Alexander behind with 

 Mr. John McAlan, his maternal uncle, under whose guardianship he 

 completed his education. He entered Rutgers College as a Freshman 

 in 1866, and after a brilliant and popular career, in which he became 

 a recognized leader both in scholarship and athletics, and won several 

 valuable prizes in college competitions, graduated in 1870 as first- 

 honor man and valedictorian of his class. 



Young Johnston, although an assiduous student and an onmivorous 

 reader of books, had little of the bookworm in his composition. He 

 was as fond of play as of work, and entered into the recreations of 

 college life with a zest and energy which was only equalled by his 

 devotion to his studies. It is said that he excelled in all the studies 

 of the curriculum, being especially proficient in the classics, a taste 

 for which he retained to the end of his life. 



He returned to New Brunswick after graduation, and spent some 

 time in post-graduate study and in teaching in the Grammar School ; 

 then entered the office of Ex-Governor Ludlow as a law student, and 

 was admitted to practice at the New Jersey bar in 1876. Shortly 

 after his admission to practice he left New Brunswick and went to 

 Norwalk, Ct., where he married. In 1879, his first book, the " His- 

 tory of American Politics," appeared. In 1880 he started a school, 



* By permission, from the Princeton College Bulletin, November, 1889. 



