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Hill Country Living
By Coulter Fussell
It’s a Wagner Week! I spent way too long trying to find y’all answers to the unsolved mysteries in this letter. Our own Eugene Wagner is off at Princeton in New Jersey and writing to his brother, George, who is off at Cornell in New York. The first mystery is the identities of the two workmen Eugene saw killed during the construction of the Princeton gym.
The famed stone gym would become the largest collegiate gym in the country at the time, yet I found no mention of the men’s deaths. I’ve been doing historical research long enough to not be surprised by that, but it’s a shame nonetheless. Interestingly, it’s not the only construction deaths at Princeton. Apparently, two workers died during the installation of an Alexander Calder statue in 1970. If you’re into weird art deaths, then look it up.
The second mystery: Eugene’s roommate, Floyd Seely. I searched the Princeton yearbooks to see if I could find a picture of him on the basketball team. Instead, I found an “In Memorium” page with his name on it! Six months after this letter was written, Floyd Seely died! I found no record as to why.
Lastly, there’s a reference to the 1903 Typhoid Fever outbreak in Ithaca. It killed 29 students that year! Can you imagine that happening at Ole Miss now? It’s hard to comprehend.
Princeton, Feb. 11, 1903
Dear George,
I have gotten through with my exams and passed everything all OK. Made a first group in Required Psychology — that is the only work that I have had so far.
Yes, Jesse is a queen bee at putting up a box I sent her some pictures in return for mine. I’m going to send to Dudley and Mabry some comic Valentines which they will like.
We have not had any skating in a long while. Our hockey team does not get much practice except when they have to go out to New Jersey. However, they defeated Yale not long ago.
I saw a Negro killed and an Italian almost killed while working on the new Gymnasium here not long ago. They had loaded a platform too heavily with stones up about as high as a third floor, and the scaffolding gave way, and down they came with the stones on top of them. The Negro was immediately killed but the Italian was only hurt pretty badly and I hear he’s getting well. It was a ghastly sight and almost made me “out my lunch.”
Dave has gone down to Philadelphia to see Mansfield in Julius Caesar. I’m going up to New York Saturday and taking Corinne to see Blanche Bates in The Darling of the Gods at the Belasco Theatre. There I will spend Sunday in Plainfield and come back home in time for work Monday a.m.
The basketball team will go up to play Cornell soon, and you must hunt up Floyd Seely, my roommate, and show him a good time while the men are in Ithaca. You know I’ve visited him for a few days last Christmas, he has a brother who will probably enter Cornell next fall. Floyd has been playing a star game here lately and is now on the regular team.
Well, I must close for this time.
Lovingly, your brother, D.E. Wagner
PS. What about the typhoid or scarlet fever in Ithaca?
