FOUR YEARS AT YALE 
 
 BY A GRADUATE OF 69 
 
 NEW HAVEN, CONN. 
 CHARLES C. CHATFIELD & CO. 
 
 1871 
 

 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by 
 
 CHARLES C. CHATFIELD & Co., 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The erroneous and absurd ideas which very many intelligent 
 people, who have not chanced to experience it, entertain upon the 
 subject of college life, have led me to believe that a minute account 
 of affairs as they exist to-day at one of the chief American colleges 
 would not be without value to the general public, nor without 
 interest to the alumni and undergraduates of other colleges as 
 well as of the one described. Hence, though not without some 
 little diffidence, I venture to offer this compilation of facts, which no 
 one has ever yet taken the trouble to group together, with the hope 
 that it may be of service as a corrector of opinion and of interest as 
 an aid to the memory. 
 
 Looking at things from the undergraduate in distinction from the 
 official stand-point, I have given as little attention as possible to 
 those matters which a formal historian would render prominent, 
 and have gone into the smallest details in cases which he would 
 take no notice of. I have accounted no fact too trivial or insignifi 
 cant to be unworthy of record. I have attached no moral to the 
 most important one. I have simply endeavored to place every 
 scrap of evidence fairly before the reader, leaving him to decide for 
 himself how much of it to use in making up his judgment. I have 
 studiously refrained from urging any idea or theory of my own, and 
 have endeavored, in cases where some expression of opinion 
 seemed necessary, to offer simply the prevailing sentiment of 
 college. Yet, that my position may not be misunderstood, I have 
 added a Concluding Chapter, for the expression of my personal 
 beliefs, and I respectfully ask that no one represent anything in the 
 book as an " opinion " of mine until he has read that chapter. Facts 
 are facts, and because I see fit to describe them in cold blood, with 
 out comment of any sort, I do not wish to be quoted either as 
 approving of or as condemning them. 
 
 Some of my statements will doubtless be distasteful to many. 
 Some may be called untrue or unfair. Especially will the facts 
 
 272553 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 offered in regard to the Society System be likely to arouse ill-will. 
 Now, I have never gone out of my way to pry into society secrets ; 
 nor have I attempted any betrayal of them. I have simply repeated 
 the current beliefs and rumors, without pretending to vouch for 
 their correctness. Indeed, as a society man, I know that some of 
 the things reported are not true in fact ; but I have taken an outside 
 view of matters, and reported nothing save what a man learns or at 
 least might easily learn who never enters a society-hall. My narra 
 tions, I think, on the whole, tend to the societies advantage ; and if 
 any fierce partisan blames me for having, in some instances, said 
 too much, let him at least give me the credit for having, in every 
 instance, kept back much which I might have said. As I was left 
 a neutral in senior year, I can hardly be accused of having much 
 prejudice in favor of the senior societies, and, if I have treated them 
 with fairness, the fact may perhaps induce some to believe in my 
 ability to take an impersonal, unprejudiced, outside view of the 
 others which make up the system. 
 
 I am aware that the arrangement of this book is to some extent 
 arbitrary. I accepted it only as a choice of evils. But I hope that 
 the head-lines placed before each Chapter, and the Index at the 
 end, may in great part compensate for this defect. I know, too, 
 that there are in it many repetitions and some seeming contradic 
 tions and inconsistencies. I perceive how easy it will be to mis 
 quote my work, and to use isolated and disconnected portions of it 
 to the detriment of particular interests of the college, or even of the 
 institution itself. I regret the fact most keenly ; yet, after all, such 
 snap-judgments are of less account than deliberate opinions drawn 
 from a full consideration of all the facts, and I firmly believe that 
 anyone who reads this book to the end will have no worse opinion 
 of Yale life from knowing what it really is. If the event proves 
 otherwise, " so much the worse for the facts " ; but these ought 
 none the less to be made known. What I ask is, that they should 
 all be taken into account ; and that hasty conclusions should not 
 be jumped at, from a partial or one-sided glance at the evidence. 
 
 Covering as it does a ground never before touched upon, this 
 book must inevitably contain many errors in its facts and state 
 ments ; for, though I have given the largest attention to detailing 
 things known to my own experience, I have of necessity been 
 obliged to trust to hear-say and tradition for many of my assertions. 
 I shall, therefore, most gladly receive any corrections or additions, 
 which may be offered to my notice, either publicly or privately, by 
 those who are able to make them, in order that, should a second 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 edition be called for, it may be made more perfect than the present 
 one. It is equally inevitable that the book, being the production of 
 a young and unpractised writer, must contain many errors of 
 expression, and special literary defects ; and I ask of the critics 
 who may happen to notice it, that, as a particular favor, they will, 
 if they condemn my literary execution, be good enough to descend 
 into the details of the matter, and not dismiss it with a few general 
 maledictions. The latter would probably do no one any good, but 
 the former might be a real benefit to me, as I make no pretensions 
 to excellence, and am not yet too old to learn. 
 
 One thing more. I have written this book impersonally and 
 published it anonymously. No officer of the college, or member of 
 my class, has had any knowledge of it, or connection with it. Of 
 course every one who knows me will be likely to at once recognize 
 me in these pages, and of course I am perfectly willing thus to be 
 recognized. But one thing I do ask, and that is that those who 
 know me will refrain from dragging my personality before the 
 public. For the one and only thing which it concerns the public 
 to know, in forming its opinion of what I have written, is the thing 
 which I have announced upon the title-page, in saying that I am 
 
 A GRADUATE OF 69. 
 JUNE 17, 1871. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 HISTORICAL A*ND EXPLANATORY, i 
 
 Origin of Yale College Its Early Wanderings The First Col 
 lege Hall Elihu Yale The Rival Commencements of 1718 
 Restoration of Harmony Religious Tests The Nine Presidents 
 Relations between the State and the College Members of the Cor 
 porationProposed Change in the Charter Organization of the 
 Faculty Division of Responsibility Position of the College Yard 
 Construction of the Brick Row: South Middle, 1750; Athe 
 naeum, 1761; South, 1793; North Middle and Lyceum, 1800 ; 
 North, 1821 ; Chapel, 1824; Divinity, 1835 Situation of the Dor 
 mitoriesThe Central Row: Laboratory, 1782; Cabinet, 1819; 
 Treasury, 1832 The High Street Row : Library, 1842 ; Alumni 
 Hall, 1853 ; Ait Building, 1864 Proposed Removal of the College 
 Final Adoption of the Reconstruction Plan The Two New Dor 
 mitories Presidents Houses Gymnasium The Theological 
 School The Law School The Medical School The Sheffield 
 Scientific School College Men and School Men The Patrons of 
 the College Its Financial Condition Vocabulary of College 
 Words List of Publications relating to Yale. 
 
 PART FIRST. 
 
 THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 
 CHAPTER I. FRESHMAN SOCIETIES, .... 51 
 
 Development of the Modern System Kappa6igma Epsilon 
 Delta Kappa Gamma Nu Sigma Delta Election of Active and 
 Honorary Members Catalogues The Outside Chapters and Sta 
 tistics of Membership The Society System in Other Colleges 
 Badge Pins and Mottoes Halls and Mode of Renting Them 
 Electioneering Initiation Suppers Interference of Upper-class 
 Men Farewell Ceremonies of the Sophomores Meetings anp 
 
 I* 
 
Viil CONTENTS. 
 
 Exercises "Peanut Bums "Treatment of Intruders Officers 
 and the Campaign Election Coalitions System of Electioneering 
 Initiation Committees Supper Expenses of Membership 
 Society Zeal and its Gradual Decline Significance of Prize Lists 
 Notable Members Comparison of the Societies Anomalous 
 Position of Gamma Nu Initiation Fables and their Origin 
 Theory of the Supper Business Advice to sub-Freshmen. 
 
 CHAPTER II. SOPHOMORE SOCIETIES, ... 87 
 
 Kappa Sigma Theta Alpha Sigma Phi Phi Theta Psi Delta 
 Beta Xi The Yale "Banger" and "Tomahawk" Chapters 
 Posters and Song Books Electioneering and Pledging Giving 
 out Elections Initiation Ordinary Exercises Singing Class 
 Elections The Sophomore Type. 
 
 CHAPTER III. JUNIOR SOCIETIES, . . . . 106 
 
 Alpha Delta Phi Psi Upsilon Delta Kappa Epsilon Badges, 
 Vignettes and Mottoes Catalogues, Chapters and Membership 
 The Death of Old Chapters and the Origin of New Ones Names 
 of Prominent Members General Conventions Intercourse 
 between the Chapters Giving out Elections Initiation Meetings 
 and Exercises Halls Corporate Titles The Course of Politics 
 in 69 (the Freshman Societies ; the Annual Dinner Committee ; 
 the Gamma-Nu-Delta-Phi Embroglio ; the Cochs and "Lit." 
 Editors) The Effect upon Delta Phi Agreements concerning the 
 Freshmen Real Character of a Coalition The Division of the 
 Spoils The Contested Elections of Members Duration of Society 
 Influences Comparison of the Societies. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. SENIOR SOCIETIES, .... 142 
 
 Peculiarities of these Societies Skull and Bones Its Badge Pin 
 and Numeral Hall and Corporate Title Origin Catalogue 
 Mode of Giving out Elections Initiation Mode of Summoning 
 Members to the Annual Convention Attendance upon the Regular 
 and Special Meetings Peculiar Customs and Traditions Scroll 
 and Key Its Badge Pin and Vignette Hall and Corporate Title 
 Origin and Growth Customs and Traditions Spade and Grave 
 Its Origin, Precarious Existence, Change of Name, and Final 
 Catastrophe The Societies and the Neutrals Bull and Stones 
 The Coffin of 69 The Tea-Kettle of 53 Crown and Scepter 
 Star and Dart Notable Members of the Existing Societies Mode 
 of Packing and Making up a Crowd Comparison of the Societies 
 Their "Policies," Actual and Possible Failure of their Imitators 
 
CONTENTS. ix 
 
 in Other Colleges General Facts about all the Class Societies 
 Comparison of their Importance in Each Year General Result of 
 the System. 
 
 CHAPTER V. SOCIETY INSTITUTIONS, ... 190 
 
 Linonia, and Brothers in Unity Their Origin and Early His 
 tory Rivalry in Gaining Members The Statement of Facts The 
 Campaign, a Dozen Years Ago The Rush Latest Modes of Dis 
 tributing the Freshmen Initiation Meetings and Exercises Exhi 
 bitions Officers, Politics, and the Campaign Election Attendance 
 Management of the Finances The Society Halls Catalogues 
 Libraries Reading Room The College Bookstore The Prize 
 Debates Annual and Centennial Celebrations Analysis of the 
 Society Tax of 1869-70 Calliope and Phoenix Phi Beta Kappa 
 Its Origin and Peculiar Organization Names of the Chapters 
 Meetings and Exercises Orations and Poems Qualifications for 
 Membership An Invasion of Barbarians The Society Badge Key 
 Initiation The Annual Business Meeting Catalogues Signifi 
 cance of the Fraternity Chi Delta Theta Its Literary Character 
 The Present Wearers of its Badge. 
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 THE STUDENT LIFE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. FRESHMAN YEAR, 237 
 
 Board and Lodging Eating Clubs Their Formation and Char 
 acteristics Names, Mottoes and Devices The College Club or 
 Commons The Old Commons Hall System The Old Buttery 
 Smoking Out Stealing Hazing Put Out That Light ! Rushing 
 The Foot-Ball Game The Painting Disgrace Gate Lifting 
 Lamp Smashing Thanksgiving Jubilee As it was Known to 69 
 Its Previous Origin and Growth Interference of the Faculty 
 The Last Jubilee Its Character in the Future Pow- Wow The 
 Annual Dinner, and its Predecessor, the Biennial Jubilee The 
 Freshman Laws of the Last Century The Old Manner of Lec 
 turing. 
 
 CHAPTER II. SOPHOMORE YEAR, .... 287 
 
 Rooming in College Drawing and Choosing the Rooms Trad 
 ing of Choices Rooming Alone Packing an Entry Moving 
 Rent Buying and Selling Furniture Fuel, Water and Light 
 Sweeps, Regular and Private Paraphernalia of a Student s Room 
 Its Self-Invited Visitors Candy Sam, Hannibal, Fine Day, and 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 the Rest The Tricks Sometimes Played upon Them The College 
 Police, and the Extent of their Interference The Charm of Dormi 
 tory Life Sitting on the Fence Unsuccessful Attempt to Break up 
 the Practice Cause of the Failure Out-door Singing Origin of 
 the Practice, and of the Songs Glee Clubs, Cecilia and Beethoven 
 The Latter s Connection with the College Choir R. S. Willis s 
 Account of It And its First Concert Its Recent Character and 
 Membership Concerts and their Profits Sophomoric Abuse of 
 Freshmen Public Sentiment concerning It Areopagus Nu Tau 
 Phi Omega Lambda Chi A Mock Initiation Compromises with 
 the Faculty Burning the Coal Yard Base Ball Yale against 
 Harvard The Record with other College and Professional Clubs 
 Places and Times Devoted to the Sport Entertainment of Vis 
 itors The Burial of Euclid As Described in 1843 Fifteen Years 
 Later Davenport s Lithograph The Last Celebration of the Rite 
 Similar Ceremonies Elsewhere. 
 
 CHAPTER III. JUNIOR YEAR, 327 
 
 Boating- The Decade Ending in 1853 Organization of the Yale 
 Navy Catalogue of Boats-^-Formation of Permanent Boat Clubs 
 in 1860 Their Boats Adoption of the Present System in 1868-70 
 Third List of Boats Riker s and the Boat House of 1859 
 Dedication of the Present Boat House Incorporation of the Navy 
 The Boat House Lease Payment of the Debt by the Commo 
 dore of 70 The Annual Commencement Regattas, 1853-58 The 
 Fall Races, 1859-67 Course of the Champion Flag, 1853-71 The 
 Regattas on Lake Saltonstall The Phelps Barge Races and the 
 Southworth Cup Irregular Regattas, 1856-65 Uniforms and 
 Flags Yale and Harvard The First Period, 1852-60 The Sec 
 ond Period, 1864-70 The Lesser Races of this Period The Seven 
 Great University Races Regatta Day at Worcester Student Row 
 dyism Blue and Red Betting Dress, Training and Trainers- 
 Attempt to Belittle Yale s Triumph in 1865 The Foulings of 1870, 
 and the Resulting Complications Refusal of Harvard to Answer 
 the Challenge for 1871 The Seven University Crews Gymnastics 
 The Practice of Boating Men The Favorite Hour for Exercise 
 The Annual Exhibition The Wooden Spoon Presentation Ori 
 gin of the Idea Mode of Electing the Cochleaureati Political 
 Considerations Initiation, and the Spoon " Insigne Cochleaurca- 
 torum" The Temple Exhibitions Humbugging an Audience 
 Brewster s and Music Halls The Opening Loads Philosophical 
 Orations Changes in the Exhibition Its Increased Cost, and How 
 
CONTENTS. xi 
 
 it was Met Mode of Distributing Tickets and Reserved Seats- 
 Character of the Audience The Promenade Concert Society 
 Statistics Abolition of the Spoon Presentation by 72 Proposed 
 Substitute for the Exhibition and Concert. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. SENIOR YEAR, 424 
 
 Journalism The Yale Literary Magazine Election of Editors 
 Initiation Supper Chi Delta Theta Organization and Manage 
 ment of the Magazine Its Printers and Publishers Mode of So 
 liciting Subscriptions Number of Subscribers Back Numbers 
 and Sets Paying the Printer The Repudiated Debt of 1858 Col 
 lecting Subscriptions Profit and Loss Advertisements The Lit. 
 Prize Medal Class and Society Connections of the Winners 
 Character of the Medal and the Essay Typographical Changes 
 Editorial Independence in 64 Theory of After Elections The 
 Original Literary Ideal Gradual Growth of the Mirror-of-Collegc- 
 Life Theory Contributors The General Index of 1868 Illustra 
 tions and Typography The Position of Editor Notable Gradu 
 ates of the Lit. Office Society Statistics of the Editors Repre 
 sentative Character of the Magazine Its Predecessors : Literary 
 Cabinet, Athenaeum, Crayon, Sitting Room, Student s Companion, 
 Little Gentleman, Gridiron, Medley The Yale Review and Yale 
 Literary Quidnunc The University Quarterly Its Mode of Publi 
 cation Organization of the Quarterly Asssociation Names of the 
 Colleges Composing It The Yale Men and Their Work Editorial 
 Convention Finances and Prizes Credit Due the Publishers 
 The Yale Banner, Pot Pourri, and Other Catalogues Minor Papers 
 and Feuilletons The College Courant Its Humble Origin in 1865 
 Change of Name and Management in 1867 Advertisements 
 The Undergraduate Department Society Connections of the Edi 
 tors The New Yale Courant of the Undergraduates Printers and 
 Typography Recent Make-up of the College Courant Class Pic 
 tures How Procured How Distributed and Exchanged The 
 New Plan Origin of the Custom Varieties of Pictures, 1847-71 
 Class Seals and Mottoes Memorabil and Its Collectors Pres 
 entation Day The Original. Formalities As Celebrated in 1778 
 and Afterwards The Modern Poem and Oration Announcement 
 of Prizes The Faculty s Collation Election of Orator and Poet 
 Course of Senior Politics in 69 Society Statistics General Good 
 Feeling Plagiarism Presentation Afternoon Class Histories 
 and Historians The True Test of College Wit and Humor Class 
 Statistics The Ring and Triangle Under the Elms Singing, an 
 
XI 1 CONTENTS. 
 
 Obsolete Custom Reading the Histories Planting the Ivy 
 Cheering the College Buildings and Professors Saying the Last 
 Farewell History of the Class Ivies Incidents and Accidents of 
 the Day. 
 
 CHAPTER V. TOWN AND GOWN, 500 
 
 Bullyism Capture of the Bully Club Election of Bullies Their 
 Duties and Privileges The Fight of Bully against President Its 
 Culmination in 1840 Abolishment of Bullyism Preservation of 
 the Club Town and Gown- the Firemen s Riot of 1841 The 
 "City Guard 1 and the "Banner" The Riot of 1854 Preliminary 
 Hostilities The Attack Death of the Rioters Ringleader- 
 Frenzy of the Mob South College to be Bombarded The Siege 
 Abandoned Preparations for the Defence Coroner s Investigation 
 The Popular Verdict The High street Fracas of 1858 Who 
 Fired the Fatal Shot ? The Stafford Homicide of 1860 The 
 Stabbing of a College Officer in 1843 The Students and the 
 Peelers Cause of their Enmity The Knock-down of 1870 The 
 City Tradesmen and their College Customers The Old Sumptuary 
 Laws Present Habits in Dress Disregard of Family or Local 
 Pretensions Politics and the Suffrage The Student in Society 
 College Widows Society and the Mission Schools Prayer Meet 
 ings The Missionary and other Religious Societies The Tem 
 perance Society Drinking and Licentiousness Swearing, Smok 
 ing, Chewing, Billiard Playing and Gambling Cards, Chess, and 
 Velocipedes Sailing Excursions Camping Out on the Thimbles 
 Walking, Foot-Racing, Skating and Driving Obituary Customs 
 Post-Graduate Class Meetings The Class Records Exercises of 
 a Class Reunion Origin of the Ciass Cup The First Cup Presen 
 tation of 44 Changes in the Custom Recent Abandonment of 
 the Ceremony, 
 
 PART THIRD. 
 
 THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM, 
 CHAPTER I. STUDIES, 542 
 
 The Entrance Examinations--- White and Blue Papers When to 
 Attend How to be Prepared Quantity and Quality Advanced 
 Students Organization of the Class The Recitation Rooms and 
 Recitations Mode of Instruction Exceptional Pronunciation of 
 Greek Society-Letters-^Optional Work The Term Examinations 
 The Annuals The Studies Pursued by the Class of 69 Fresh- 
 
CONTENTS. xi 11 
 
 man Year Sophomore Year--Junior Year Senior Year Varia- 
 tions and Changes in the Curriculum The Studies of a Century 
 Ago Old Systems of Examination. 
 
 CHAPTER II. MARKS, 569 
 
 Morning Prayers The Ordinary Ceremonies Sunday Services 
 The College Church and its Members Attending City Churches 
 The College Choir and Organ Government by Marks .Schedule 
 of Penalties " The Course of Discipline "Monitors and Their 
 Duties Matriculation Scholarship by Marks. Time and Mode of 
 Giving out Stands Making-up Omitted Lessons Excuses and 
 Church Papers Leaves of Absence Letters Home Official 
 Hieroglyphics Appealing to the Faculty Living Regulations and 
 Dead Laws Origin and Growth of the Code Discipline in the 
 Olden Time Fines, "Degradation," and "Cuffing" The Modern 
 Theory of Discipline The Recent Experiment in Division. 
 
 CHAPTER III. HONORS, 590 
 
 Appointments for Junior Exhibition and Commencement. How 
 they are Determined and Announced The Amount of Exertion 
 which they Call Forth Stand, as Popularly Regarded" Scholars 
 of the House" The Berkeley Scholarship Sheldon Clark, and 
 his Donations The Bristed Scholarship Freshman Scholarships 
 Woolsey, Hurlbut and Runk DeForest Scholarship for Modern 
 Languages Beneficiary Funds The Ilarmer Foundation The 
 DeForest Fund Premiums for Translation and Latin Composition 
 Miscellaneous Clark Awards Prizes in Astronomy and Mathe 
 matics Declamation Prizes : Old and New Modes of Awarding 
 Them Prizes for English Composition Prize Poems New Mode 
 of Awarding the Composition Prizes" Honorary Mentions "for 
 the Seniors The Townsend Premiums, and the DeForest Medal 
 Speaking for the Prize Statistics of the DeForest Men Total 
 Prize and Scholarship Funds of the College General Effects of 
 the Honor System. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. MANNERS, . .... . . ; .. 620 
 
 Skinning Ordinary Methods Blackboard Work Conies and 
 Chemistry in 69 At Term Examination Stealing the Papers 
 Hands and Feet Skinning-Machines Indexing a Subject A 
 Unique Fraud Detected Swapping the Papers The Yale and 
 Williams Chemists of 68 At Annual The Type and Pencil 
 Game Watch-Chrystals and Eye-GlassesPocket Skinning in 67 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 and 55 Calculations for Cramming Robbing the Printers- 
 Attempted Seizure of the Puckle Paper of 69 How a Baffled 
 Thief at last SucceededWorking up a Case Inner and Outer 
 Rings Cheating on Make-ups Accidental Erasures Ponying-*- 
 Composition Frauds How Marks are Got Rid of Precautions 
 and Penalties College Sentiment in Regard to Deceiving the 
 Faculty Behavior in the Recitation Rooms At Lectures In the 
 Chapel How Faculty and Students Address and Refer to Each 
 Other Farewell Cheers for the Instructors Absence of the 
 Rebellious Spirit Insolent Tricks Discountenanced The Faculty 
 Personally Respected. 
 
 CHAPTER V. SHOWS, 659 
 
 Junior Exhibition Time and Place of Holding It Its Recent 
 Transformation Managers and Invitation Notes The Exer 
 cises and their Value The Promenade Concert Commence 
 ment Rules for the Attendance of the Seniors The Procession 
 
 Arrangement of the Audience The Speakers and the Lis 
 tenersConferring the Degrees The Dinner and the Evening 
 
 Recent Changes in the Show Its Celebration in the Olden 
 Time Gunpowder, Rum and Riot The Official Calendar The 
 Society of the Alumni Concio ad Clerum The Obituary Rec 
 ord The General Statement The Annual Catalogue The 
 Triennial Catalogue The Alumni Associations in the Cities. 
 
 CONCLUDING CHAPTER. 
 
 A MATTER OF OPINION, 686 
 
 Caution to the Reader Two Kinds of Preparation for College 
 The Best Fitting-Schools The Society System Its General 
 Fairness A Word for the Reformers The Abuse of Freshmen 
 A Disgraceful Puzzle for Moralists Modern Languages and 
 Optional Studies A "Practical" Argument for Classical Dis 
 cipline The Last American Stronghold of the Humanists 
 Procrusteanism and Common Sense The Claims of the Muscle 
 Men And of the Supporters of all Honorable Customs Who 
 Best Enjoy College Life ? The Real Value of the Training- 
 Pecuniary Needs of the College The Rewards of Doing Much 
 from Little Unselfish Devotion of the College Officers A Cry 
 from Macedonia, 
 
FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 
 
 Origin of Yale College Its Early Wanderings The First College 
 Hall Elihu Yale The Rival Commencements of 1718 Res 
 toration of Harmony Religious Tests The Nine Presidents 
 Relations between the State and the College Members of the 
 Corporation Proposed Change in the Charter Organization 
 of the Faculty Division of Responsibility Position of the 
 College Yard Construction of the Brick Row : South Middle, 
 1750; Athenaeum, 1761; South, 1793; North Middle and Ly 
 ceum, 1800; North, 1821 ; Chapel, 1824; Divinity, 1835 Situ 
 ation of the Dormitories The Central Row : Laboratory, 1782 ; 
 Cabinet, 1819 ; Treasury, 1832 The High Street Row : Li 
 brary, 1842 ; Alumni Hall, 1853 ; Art Building, 1864 Pro 
 posed Removal of the College Final Adoption of the Recon 
 struction Plan The Two New Dormitories Presidents Houses 
 Gymnasium The Theological School The Law School 
 The Medical School The Sheffield Scientific School College 
 Men and School Men The Patrons of the College Its Finan 
 cial Condition Vocabulary of College Words List of Publi 
 cations relating to Yale. 
 
 Yale College is situated in the city of New Haven, in 
 the State of Connecticut. It dates back its origin to the 
 very beginning of the eighteenth century. Fifty years 
 before that, the project of establishing such an insti 
 tution had been discussed, only to be finally pronounced 
 impracticable, both on account of the poorness of the 
 colony, and of the superior claims of Harvard upon 
 
2 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the patronage of all friends of learning throughout New 
 England. But, as the century drew near its end, the old 
 plan was revived and became the great topic of interest 
 among clergy and laity, until, at last, ten of the princi 
 pal ministers of Connecticut, representing as many dif 
 ferent towns, were nominated and appointed by general 
 consent to act as trustees and managers of the embryo 
 college. They first met and formed a society for the 
 prosecution of their project, at New Haven, sometime 
 in the year 1700; and at a subsequent meeting, the 
 same year, at Branford, each of the trustees brought a 
 number of books and presented them to the association, 
 using words to this effect as he laid them on the table : 
 " I give these books for the founding of a college in 
 this colony." This act of depositing the books has ever 
 since been considered the beginning of the college. 
 The entire donation consisted of about forty folio vol 
 umes, valued at thirty pounds sterling.. As doubts were 
 entertained as to whether the trustees could legally hold 
 lands, and the new institution be supported wholly by 
 private contributions, application was made to the Co 
 lonial Assembly, which October 9, 1701 duly ratified 
 a charter which some Boston gentlemen had drawn up 
 at the request of the trustees, and voted an annual al 
 lowance of sixty pounds sterling in support of the " col 
 legiate school." The first meeting under the charter 
 was held at Saybrook, November n, 1701, when the 
 trustees chose one of their own number, Rev. Abraham 
 Pierson of Killingworth, as first rector, and decided 
 that he should open the "school" at Saybrook, if he 
 could be done without too much inconvenience. The 
 first student was Jacob Hemingway afterwards for 
 many years the minister at East Haven who studied 
 alone with the rector from March till September, 1702, 
 at which latter time the number of students was in- 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 3 
 
 creased to eight. One of these, John Hart, who had 
 passed three years at Harvard, graduated alone in 1703, 
 but " the first student" did not graduate until the year 
 following, when his class numbered three in all. The 
 first Commencement was held in September, 1702, at 
 Saybrook, where four young gentlemen who had been 
 graduated at Harvard, and one who had been privately 
 educated, received the degree of Master of Arts, and 
 one (Nathanael Chauncey) received the degree of Bach 
 elor. At this time a tutor was added to the corps of 
 instructors. For five years, or until the death of the 
 rector, March 5, 1707, the students resided with him at 
 Killingworth, while the Commencements were held at 
 Saybrook, privately, at the house of one of the trustees. 
 Then, Rev. Samuel Andrews of Milford was chosen 
 temporary rector, and for about nine years the Seniors 
 resided with him, while the under-classes remained, un 
 der the charge of two tutors, at Saybrook, where the 
 Commencements still continued to be held. Dissatis 
 faction having arisen among them at this state of things, 
 the trustees, at a meeting in April, 1716, voted a leave 
 of absence until the next Commencement, for such as 
 preferred to study elsewhere. A majority of the stu 
 dents accordingly went to Wethersfield, some to Hart 
 ford, some to East Guilford, and a few remained at 
 Saybrook. The senior class still continued to reside 
 with the rector, and so, for the rest of the year, the 
 " collegiate school" was scattered about in half a dozen 
 different towns of the colony. In several of them, 
 meanwhile, subscriptions began to be raised as an in 
 ducement to secure its permanent location. The larg- ( 
 est 700 sterling was made by the citizens of New 
 Haven, and thither at a meeting held there October 
 17, 1716, adjourned from one held at the Saybrook 
 Commencement, a month before, when the matter had 
 
FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 been discussed but not fully decided the trustees voted 
 to remove it. At the same time they appointed a com 
 mittee to attend to the building of a large and commo 
 dious college and a rector s house (there being in the 
 treasury about 1000 sterling, derived from private 
 subscriptions and legislative gifts) ; elected two tutors ; 
 and summoned them, the rector, and the scattered stu 
 dents, to New Haven. Thirteen attended during the 
 year, while fourteen remained at Wethersfield, and four 
 at Saybrook ; the latter, who comprised the entire sen 
 ior class, coming up to New Haven to get their degrees 
 at the Commencement of 1717. 
 
 "The college house was raised Octobers, 1717, and 
 within a year after was so far finished as to be fit for the 
 commodious reception of the students. It was 170 feet 
 long, 22 feet wide, and three stories high ; made a hand 
 some appearance, and contained nearly 50 studies, be 
 sides the hall, library, and kitchen ; and it cost about 
 1000 sterling." It stood near the corner of the pres 
 ent college yard, in front of where the Athenaeum and 
 South College now stand, and was demolished in 1782. 
 The same year in which the " school " was removed to 
 New Haven, it received several valuable donations in 
 books, goods and money, the chief donor being Elihu 
 Yale of London, governor of the East India Company. 
 Accordingly, on the morning of the first public Com 
 mencement, September 10, 1718, the trustees, with 
 requisite formalities, named the new building "Yale 
 College," in honor of the man by whose generosity they 
 had been enabled to complete the edifice. The patron 
 of the institution was born at New Haven, April 5, 
 1648, where his father had come with the earliest set 
 tlers, ten years before, and he died, July 8, 1721. He 
 was buried in the church yard at Wrexham, the capital 
 of Denbighshire, in North Wales, a town which had 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 5 
 
 long been the residence of his ancient and wealthy 
 family. Going to England at the age of ten, he received 
 his education there, and in 1678 went to the East In 
 dies. Here he remained twenty years longer, serving 
 for much of the time as governor of Fort St. George on 
 the coast of Coromandel, accumulating a very large 
 property of his own, and marrying a wealthy lady 
 widow of his predecessor in office by whom he had 
 three daughters. He was elected governor of the 
 East India Company, on his return to London ; and 
 there, hearing that a college had been started in his 
 colonial birth-place which he left half a century before, 
 he made it those valuable presents which first brought 
 it on a respectable foundation. He seems to have been 
 an affable, good humored man, of ready generosity, with 
 no possible thought of the future glory and immortality 
 accruing to his name in consequence of his careless 
 gifts to the little collegiate school in the far-off colony 
 of Connecticut. 
 
 At this first public Commencement, eight men were 
 graduated, and besides their "disputations," in one of 
 the city churches, and other exercises, the governor of 
 the colony " was pleased to grace and crown the whole 
 solemnity with an elegant Latin oration, wherein he 
 congratulated the present happy state of the college in 
 being fixed at New Haven, and enriched by so many 
 noble benefactions ; and particularly celebrated the great 
 generosity of Governor Yale, with much respect and 
 honor." "All which being ended, the gentlemen re 
 turned to the college hall, where they were entertained 
 with a splendid dinner ; and the ladies at the same 
 time were also entertained in the library. After which 
 we sung the first four verses of the sixty-fifth Psalm, 
 and so the day ended. Everything was managed with 
 so much order and splendor, that the fame of it ex- 
 
FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 tremely disheartened the opposers, and made opposition 
 fall before it." That there was opposition is shown by 
 the fact that, on the same day, another Commencement 
 was held at Wethersfield, where five men were gradu 
 ated. These, however, were shortly afterwards presented 
 with regular diplomas by the authorities at New Haven, 
 and were entered in the catalogue with the rest of their 
 class ; and the remaining students at Wethersfield were 
 again ordered to come to the former town. In the fol 
 lowing October, the Colonial Assembly repeated the re 
 quest, as the last of its measures " to quiet the minds 
 of people and introduce a general harmony into public 
 affairs," its other decrees being : " that a State House 
 should be built at Hartford to compensate for the col 
 lege at New Haven ; that 25 sterling should be given 
 to Saybrook for the use of the school, to compensate 
 for the removal of the college ; and that the governor 
 and council should, at the request of the trustees, give 
 such orders as they should think proper for the removal 
 of the library from Saybrook to New Haven." This 
 last was quite a necessary precaution, for in December, 
 1718, when the trustees wished to remove the books, a 
 large crowd of men collected in and about the house 
 where they were stored, bent upon forcible opposition to 
 the plan. No attention being paid to the sheriff s war 
 rant, issued by order of the governor and council, 
 who, with the trustees, were present in person, he was 
 obliged to break open the door and, with his attendants, 
 to wrest the library from the grasp of its guardians. 
 Bridges were torn down and other hindrances made to 
 prevent the return to New Haven, and while on the 
 way the wagons were broken into by night, and to some 
 extent robbed of their contents. In the strife and tu 
 mult, about 1 60 volumes and many valuable papers 
 were lost, but the rest, more than 1000 volumes, 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 7 
 
 after a week s journey, reached New Haven in safety, 
 
 and were stored in the college library. " After this un 
 happy struggle, the spirits of men began by degrees to 
 subside, and a general harmony was gradually intro 
 duced among the trustees and the colony in general." 
 The"" up-river" ministers, who had appealed to the Leg 
 islature to Interfere in their behalf, and had tried in 
 other ways besides those mentioned to prevent the es 
 tablishment of the school at New Haven, now yielded 
 to the inevitable, became reconciled to the action of 
 the majority, and were henceforth firm friends of the 
 college. 
 
 The second rector, Rev. Timothy Cutler, was chosen 
 March 19, 1719, a dozen years after the death of his 
 predecessor, and by vote of the trustees, October 17, 
 1722, was "excused from all further service," on ac 
 count of having " agreed to leave the communion of 
 the Connecticut churches and go over to England for 
 Episcopal ordination." Two other clergymen and one 
 of the college tutors joined with him in this schism, 
 which created the greatest alarm and excitement through 
 out the colony, and led to the establishment of a " relig 
 ious test," all officers of the college being thenceforth 
 obliged to assent to the " Saybrook Platform" of 1708, 
 before entering upon their duties. Other proofs of or 
 thodoxy were afterwards added to this, but in 1823 the 
 whole system of tests was formally abrogated, after hav 
 ing been in effect obsolete for several years. Rector 
 Cutler s dismissal was followed by an interval of four 
 years, in which each of the trustees in turn lived at the 
 college for a month s time and fulfilled the duties of 
 rector, Mr. Andrews, for twelve years temporary rec 
 tor, officiating at all the Commencements, save that of 
 1723, when Mr. Woodbridge, one of the reconciled 
 " up-river" trustees, was allowed to preside. The other, 
 
FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 who had been the head of the opposition school at 
 Wethersfield, Rev. Elisha Williams, was in 1726 in 
 ducted into office as third rector, having been chosen to 
 the post a year before that With his accession, the 
 regular life of the college may be considered to have 
 begun, the confusion and disorder and uncertainty 
 which had characterized its first quarter century s exist 
 ence being then shaken off. On account of ill-health, 
 he resigned his office in 1739, and Rev. Thomas Clap 
 of Windham became his successor, serving for twenty- 
 seven years, or until July, 1766. In the century since 
 then, there have been five presidents : Naphtali Dag- 
 gett of 48, until 1777 ; Ezra Stiles of 46, until 1795 ; 
 Timothy D wight of 69, until 1817 ; Jeremiah Day of 
 95, until 1846 ; and Theodore Dwight Woolsey of 20, 
 until 1871. Their four predecessors were all graduates 
 of Harvard, as were also three tutors and nine of the 
 ten clergymen who founded the "collegiate school" in 
 1700. Eighty years later, when the last Harvard man 
 withdrew from the board of trustees, there had been 
 fifty-six individuals connected with it, of whom one-half 
 were Harvard graduates. 
 
 At the time when the college was founded, there were 
 not above 15,000 inhabitants in the entire colony, and 
 the annuity granted with the original charter was, un 
 der the circumstances, a more liberal gift than the Leg- 
 islatijre has ever since bestowed upon the institution. 
 The charter underwent minor amendments and ampli 
 fications in 1723, but in 1745 a new and more elaborate 
 draft of the document was made, in eleven sections, set 
 ting forth with great exactness the powers and duties of 
 the college officers. The names " rector," and " trus 
 tees," " founders," " undertakers" or " governors," then 
 gave place to the style, "president and fellows of Yale 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 9 
 
 College," which title for the governing body has ever 
 since been retained. The name " Yale College," origi 
 nally applied simply to the college building, was then 
 also first formally bestowed upon the entire institution, 
 which up to that time had been known, officially, only 
 as the " collegiate school." The annual grant was reg 
 ularly paid until 1755, when, on account of high taxa 
 tion, change in the currency, etc., it began to be with 
 held ; and, ten years later, a dispute arising in the 
 Legislature as to whether the college had any claim 
 upon it for the annuity or arrearages on the same, "the 
 president and fellows" settled the controversy by a writ 
 ten abandonment of all such claims. In return for 
 this, the Assembly shortly afterwards voted them 245 
 sterling, towards the building of a chapel. Besides this 
 and the annuity, it had, during the first half of the 
 century, by various grants of land and money, given 
 the college upwards of 2000 sterling. In 1763 cer 
 tain persons presented a memorial to the Assembly, 
 calling upon it to enquire into the affairs of the college, 
 rectify possible abuses, etc., by means of a- " commission 
 of visitation," which it could legally do, under the com 
 mon law, on account of having "founded" the college, 
 by its grants and patronage. But the arguments of 
 President Clap, in behalf of the independence of the 
 college and its chartered rights, proved so conclusively 
 the powerlessness of the Assembly to interfere there 
 with, that the idea of anyone save the ten associated 
 clergymen having "founded "the college was speedily 
 abandoned, and the memorialists were dismissed with 
 out having any action taken concerning their petition. 
 This decision greatly reassured the friends of the col 
 lege ; and the point in dispute has never since been 
 raised. But the college and its president, for this and 
 other reasons, grew excessively unpopular ; the students 
 2* 
 
10 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 were encouraged to resist authority ; and in the summer 
 of 1766, when all show of subordination was at an end, 
 the tutors as well as the president resigned, and the 
 undergraduates dispersed to their homes. 
 
 The feeling that the Assembly ought in some way to 
 share in the management of the college was still cher 
 ished, and all sorts of reports derogatory of the corpo 
 ration its want of progressiveness, its sectarian char 
 acter, the abuses of its government, and so on were 
 freely circulated. At length, in 1778, shortly after the 
 accession of President Stiles, the corporation, which 
 had all along looked with favor upon some official con 
 nection of the State with the college, met a committee 
 from the Assembly to discuss the matter. From the 
 plans proposed then and afterwards nothing resulted, 
 until 1792, when another committee, appointed the year 
 before by the Assembly, made a report on the existing 
 state of the college, and of the special facilities ac 
 corded them for making the most minute and thor 
 ough investigations of its affairs, which greatly pleased 
 that body. Accordingly, the balance of the uncol- 
 lected "war taxes" due the State (its war debt having 
 been assumed by the United States) was appropriated 
 to the support of the college, with certain reservations 
 as to time and mode of payment ; and from this grant 
 upwards of $40,000 was ultimately derived. As a con 
 dition of the gift, the governor, lieutenant-governor, and 
 six senior assistants in the council were to become, by 
 virtue of their offices, " fellows" or members of the cor 
 poration of Yale, with full powers except as to the fill 
 ing up of vacancies in the clerical portion of that body. 
 Jarnes Hillhouse, treasurer of the college, was the per 
 son chiefly instrumental in the passage of this act, whose 
 conditions were readily accepted by the existing corpo 
 ration, and which with the unimportant change of 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. II 
 
 " six senior assistants in the council" to " six senior sen 
 ators," which change was rendered necessary by the 
 new constitution of the State has remained in force 
 until the present time. This reunion originally created 
 a very general satisfaction among all parties, and re 
 moved all feelings of distrust and jealousy from the 
 minds of civilians ; but for a long time past it has had 
 little practical effect upon the management of the insti 
 tution. Except the governor and lieutenant governor, 
 the civilians who, by virtue of being State officers, are 
 "members of the corporation," seldom take any inter 
 est in its affairs or attend its meetings, and the real 
 managers are the eleven other " fellows," the presi 
 dent of the college, who is one by virtue of his office, 
 and the ten Congregational clergymen of Connecti 
 cut, who elect their own successors. These are thirty 
 years old or upwards, and are usually chosen from dif 
 ferent towns of the State, and are for the most part 
 graduates of the college. They are not of necessity 
 Congregational clergymen, nor even residents of Con 
 necticut ; nor yet is there any rule requiring the presi 
 dent of the college to be a clergyman. But since, from 
 the foundation of the institution, all the presidents and 
 trustees have been Congregational clergymen belonging 
 in the State, it is a generally received opinion that they 
 are forced to be such by the organic law. The regular 
 annual meeting of the corporation is held at Commence 
 ment time ; and for the rest of the year, except in cases 
 of special importance, it is supposed to act through its 
 executive committee. 
 
 The question, so much discussed of late, in regard to 
 the alumni having a direct influence in the affairs of the 
 college, originated in the proposition of President 
 Woolsey in the New Englander for October, 1866 
 that the places of the six ex-officio State senators should 
 
12 
 
 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 be filled by as many alumni, chosen by general vote at 
 the annual meeting. At the Commencement meeting 
 of 1869 a committee was appointed to enquire into the 
 feasibility of the plan ; and this committee, a year later, 
 reported that it would be feasible in case the Legisla 
 ture and the corporation should both give consent ; and 
 it recommended the order of making elections, in case 
 the change were adopted. As to whether or not the 
 same should be adopted, it was about equally divided 
 in opinion, and so made no report. The matter was 
 discussed at length, and it was voted not to attempt 
 making the change. Some resolutions which were of 
 fered, looking to the formation of a sort of an Alumni 
 Council, to serve as a medium between the graduates 
 and the corporation, but to be entirely distinct from and 
 independent of the latter, were also voted down. At 
 the Commencement dinner, two or three speakers in 
 behalf of "Young Yale," or the graduates of the past 
 fifteen years denounced this display of old-fogyism ; 
 and ever since then the contest has been going on in 
 the public prints. Some writers insist that the clergy 
 men as well as State senators should resign, and allow 
 the alumni to elect the entire board ; some ask only for 
 the resignation of the senators ; and some favor the 
 idea of an advisory council. But everyone clamors for 
 alumni representation in the management of the col 
 lege, and the institution will be likely to suffer serious 
 injury if in some form or another this representation is 
 not granted. 
 
 The general policy of the college, however, is shaped 
 more by the faculty than by the corporation,-^the latter 
 apparently doing little more than to confirm the recom 
 mendations of the former. The faculty consisted sim 
 ply of the president and two or three tutors, until the 
 year 1755, when the first professorship that of Sacred 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 13 
 
 Theology was founded. The next that of Mathe 
 matics and Natural Philosophy and Astronomy was 
 founded in 1770, and divided in 1836. Then came the 
 professorships of Ecclesiastical History, 1777 ; of Law, 
 1 80 1 ; of Chemistry, Mineralogy and Geology, 1804, aft 
 erwards divided into a half dozen branches ; of Hebrew, 
 Greek and Latin, 1805, divided in 1831; of Rhetoric and 
 English Literature, in 1813 ; of Ethics and Metaphysics, 
 in 1846; of Modern Languages, in 1863 ; and, finally, 
 of History, in 1865. These are exclusive of the twenty 
 or more chairs set up in the various professional 
 schools, since the opening of the century. The list of 
 "faculty and instructors" of the entire university now 
 numbers upwards of sixty names, but the faculty of the 
 college, or academical department, which is the only 
 one here treated of, consists of the president, twelve 
 professors, and half that number of tutors. This body 
 convenes in " faculty meeting," at the room of the pres 
 ident, every Wednesday afternoon, when notes are com 
 pared, the results of the week discussed, penalties in 
 flicted or remitted, and the general interests of the 
 college talked over, as well as these special details of 
 instruction and government. At these " executive ses 
 sions" of the active rulers of college, are originated and 
 perfected most of the measures which ultimately affect 
 its welfare, as "enactments of the corporation." On 
 the grave and reverend shoulders of this latter body, 
 also, is sometimes thrown the odium of hostility to re 
 forms which the faculty are not really in favor of, but 
 which they simply profess their inability to make "with 
 out the consent of the corporation"- a consent they 
 take no pains to secure. For example, when asked to 
 do away with the absurd rule forbidding a student to 
 take his meals at a public house, without pretending to 
 seriously defend the rule, they say that the corporation 
 
1 4 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 alone have power to repeal it. But they do not urge 
 its repeal when that high and mighty body is convened. 
 
 The central portion of the city of New Haven is laid 
 out in the form of an exact half-mile square, bounded 
 by Grove and George streets, running east and west, 
 and State and York streets, running north and south. 
 This central tract is divided by other streets into nine 
 main squares, and all but two of these squares are in 
 turn divided into four smaller ones. The two excep 
 tions are the central square which forms the city green, 
 and is bounded by Elm and Chapel streets, running 
 east and west, and Church and College streets, running 
 north and south and the one to the west of it. The 
 half of the latter forms the college yard, measuring 850 
 feet on College street, which it faces, and on High, par 
 allel to it, and 450 feet on Chapel street and Elm, its 
 parallel. The ground was bought up gradually, and it 
 is not yet twenty-five years since the last of it came into 
 full possession of the college. Some of the land and 
 buildings upon the other half of this square which 
 half is divided into two equal parts by Library street 
 is also owned by the institution, though the Gymnasium 
 is the only college building situated there ; but it is 
 doubtful if the corporation will ever grow rich enough 
 to buy up the whole tract, and so give a little more 
 breathing-room to the college. 
 
 The "brick row" fronting on College street and 
 until recently composed of eight buildings was begun 
 by the erection of South Middle, whose foundation was 
 laid April 17, 1750. Its outside was finished two years 
 later, but the building was not occupied until 1756, and 
 in 1797 a regular fourth story took the place of its 
 French roof. Some 230,000 bricks were used in 
 its construction, and the cost of the outside was 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 15 
 
 1180 sterling. An amount about equal to this 
 gained by the sale of a State " war frigate" and the 
 French ship it had captured was contributed in three 
 separate grants by the General Assembly, which also 
 authorized the holding of a lottery by the college author 
 ities, from which upwards of 400 sterling was derived. 
 In consideration of this liberal support, the building 
 was named " Connecticut Hall," but the title has long 
 been obsolete. " But as it became exceedingly incon 
 venient, with 170 students, to carry on all religious and 
 scholastic exercises in the old College Hall, and to 
 make use of it for a dining room, and as the library was 
 also too small for the books and apparatus, President 
 Clap proposed a scheme to build a new hall or chapel 
 with a library over it, and set forward a subscription for 
 that purpose. The foundation was laid in April, 1761, 
 and the outside was nearly finished that summer. It is 
 50 feet long and 40 feet wide, with a steeple and gal 
 leries, in which are three rostra for orations, disputa 
 tions, etc., and a library over the whole. It is set near 
 the south end of Connecticut Hall, with a view that 
 when another college is built, it will be set near the 
 south side of this chapel. It was opened in June, 1763, 
 with a sermon preached by the professor, in the pres 
 ence of the president and fellows and a large number 
 of other gentlemen." Up to 1765, when the inside was 
 still unfinished, it had cost 700 sterling, one-third of 
 which came from the colony treasury. In 1804, the li 
 brary was removed to the " rhetorical chamber" of the 
 Lyceum, and twenty years later the religious exercises 
 began to be held in the present Chapel. 
 
 Its present name, Athenaeum, was then given to the 
 old building, which was deprived of its bell and steeple 
 and underwent various changes within. Three floors 
 were made of it, the third or upper one of which was 
 
16 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 divided into two recitation, and two college officers , 
 rooms ; the second was divided into two more recita 
 tion rooms (with small chambers connected with them, 
 in which slept the students who used the public rooms 
 as their studies) and two dormitories ; and the first 
 was divided into dormitories only. Most of these were 
 occupied by indigent Freshmen, and the recitation 
 rooms were devoted to the freshman class alone. In 
 the summer of 1870 the inside of the building was 
 again torn out, and. its entire space equally divided into 
 four freshman recitation rooms, two on each floor, six 
 long windows being allotted to each room. The rear en 
 trance, closed in 1824, was reopened, and an unbroken 
 partition was placed between the two rooms entered 
 from that direction and the two entered from the front. 
 In the old times, the society libraries, as well as the 
 philosophical apparatus of the college, were stored in 
 the building, and the tower was largely used as an ob 
 servatory. More recently it had been rather neglected, 
 owing to the better facilities afforded by the revolving 
 tower of iron and the telescope at the Sheffield Hall, 
 and to the fact that the growth "of trees had narrowed 
 the field of view. In November of last year the latter 
 defect was remedied by the erection of a revolving 
 tower of wood, upon the top of the previous tower. 
 From this elevated observatory an extensive view of 
 New Haven can be secured, and the field of view for 
 astronomical work is entirely unobstructed. With all 
 these changes and improvements the Athenaeum natur 
 ally presents the most patched-up and unsightly outward 
 appearance of any building on the college grounds. 
 
 South College was the third one of the row, and its 
 corner stone, laid with appropriate speeches and cere 
 monies, and supposed to rest beneath the north-eastern 
 angle of the building, is said to bear this inscription : 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 17 
 
 " Ezra Stiles, Coll. Yal. Praeses. Primvm Lapidem 
 posvit, Acad. Cond. 93, Apr. 15, 1793." It was com 
 pleted July 17, following, and was named "Union 
 Hall" in commemoration of the union of State and 
 church in the college corporation. Rutherford Trow- 
 bridge was the builder. When the erection of South 
 was commenced, " a close fence of panneled boards, 
 painted red and relieved by cross stripes of white, sur 
 rounded the college yard, which extended no further 
 than to the north end of South Middle. Beyond was a 
 grotesque group, generally of the most undesirable es 
 tablishments, among which were a barn, a barber s 
 shop, several coarse taverns or boarding houses, a poor- 
 house and house of correction, and the public jail with 
 its prison yard ; the jail being used alike for criminals, 
 for maniacs and debtors. Being very near the college, 
 the moans of innocent prisoners, the cries of felons, 
 and the shrill screams and wild laughter of the insane, 
 were sometimes mingled with the sacred songs of praise 
 and with the voice of prayer, rising from the academic 
 edifices." But, in 1800, the corporation had by pur 
 chase secured the removal of many of these objection 
 able neighbors, and so decided upon the erection of two 
 new buildings, both of which were finished in 1803. 
 The first of them, North Middle, was named " Berkeley 
 Hall," in honor of Bishop Berkeley, and the other, " the 
 Connecticut Lyceum," which title, abbreviated to Ly 
 ceum, it still retains. It somewhat resembles the 
 Athenaeum, though built in better proportion, having 
 a front of 46 and a depth of 56 feet, and the gables 
 of its roof being at right angles to each other. It is 
 three stories high, and is supplied with a tower in which 
 are the college bell and clock. The room of the bell 
 ringer, upon the second floor, is the only one used as a 
 dormitory, though upon the third floor are two office 
 
18 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 rooms for the faculty, in connection with the two recita 
 tion rooms into which the long room stretching across 
 the building, and serving first for a library and then for 
 a " rhetorical chamber," was divided in 1851. At that 
 time the whole interior of the building was rearranged, 
 and gas and furnace heat were first introduced into both 
 it and the Chapel. The senior recitation room on the 
 second floor became the sophomore mathematical cham 
 ber, and the two junior rooms on the same floor were 
 enlarged. On the ground floor, the president s lecture 
 room was formed by joining two smaller rooms and 
 shutting up the rear entrance to the building, while the 
 two remaining sophomore rooms were enlarged. North 
 College was finished in the fall of 1821, or within ayear 
 from the time the corporation voted to build it, and was 
 never endowed with any fancy name. A similar length 
 of time was employed in constructing the Chapel, which 
 was dedicated November 17, 1824. It has a front of 
 56 and a depth of 72 feet, and, including the galleries, 
 is three stories in hight, the upper story, above the 
 main audience room, containing a dozen dormitories. 
 Above these is the attic, whither the library was trans 
 ferred from the Lyceum. The steeple of the building 
 is about 120 feet in hight. Divinity College, the last 
 on the row, was built in 1835, and had to be torn down 
 during the summer of 1870, to make way for the new 
 stone dormitory. 
 
 The four dormitory buildings or colleges South, 
 South Middle, North Middle and North are all of the 
 same general appearance and description, as was the 
 fifth Divinity before its demolition. Each is tfbout 
 100 feet long by 40 feet wide> and four stories high. 
 Each has 54 windows and two doors on each side, and 
 eight windows at each end, except South Middle, 
 whose 1 6 "corner rooms" have each one window less 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 19 
 
 than those of the other colleges. Each has two halls 
 or "entries" running through it, and each entry gives 
 access to 16 rooms, four on a floor, there being 32 
 rooms or " chambers" in each college. " A chamber" 
 usually comprises in addition- to the main sitting 
 room, into which the entrance door from the hall di 
 rectly opens two bed rooms, a coal closet, a clothes 
 press or wardrobe, a wash room, etc. ; in all, five or six 
 apartments. The number, size and arrangement of 
 these varies somewhat in the different colleges. Each 
 college is equally divided into " corner" and " middle" 
 rooms, and of course into " front" and " back" rooms, 
 and any particular chamber in a college is indicated by 
 reference to these two facts, in connection with the po 
 sition of the entry, and the number of the floor. A 
 single series of numbers is employed to designate all 
 the college rooms. It extends from south to north, and 
 from the front lower to the back upper room of each 
 entry. There are of course 128 rooms in the four col 
 leges, and these are numbered continuously, without 
 reference to the three intermediate buildings. Hence 
 "No. i" is "South, south entry, first floor, front, corner 
 room ;" while " No. 128" is North, north entry, fourth 
 floor, back, corner room." The rooms corresponding 
 to i S. are 33 S. M., 65 N. M. and 97 N. ; and those to 
 
 128 N. are 96 N. M., 64 S. M., 32 S. ; and so on for the 
 others. The 32 rooms in old Divinity were numbered 
 on continuously to 160 ; the old Athenaeum rooms ex 
 tended from 161 to 173; the Lyceum rooms from 174 
 to 185 ; and the Chapel rooms from 186 to 195 the 
 highest number reached. After the destruction of Di 
 vinity and the erection of the new Farnam College, 
 however, the 49 rooms in the latter were numbered from 
 
 129 to 177 ; the Lyceum rooms from 178 to 185 ; and 
 the Chapel rooms remain as before. The four recitation 
 
FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 rooms in the remodeled Athenaeum are now lettered in 
 stead of numbered. Each of the colleges has an attic and 
 except North a cellar, which are used for purposes 
 of storage. Each entry of the three colleges possessed 
 of cellars is supplied with water closets, which improve 
 ments were added in the fall of 1870. North is the only 
 college having a slate roof, the others being shingled. 
 
 Of the half dozen buildings in the rear of the 
 brick row, the oldest is the Laboratory, built in 1782, 
 for a dining hall and kitchen, and standing behind the 
 Athenaeum. It is of brick, painted yellowish white, one 
 story and a half high, 90 feet long and 30 feet wide, 
 with an irregular addition upon the west side. It orig 
 inally measured 60 by 30 feet, the size of the pres 
 ent lecture room. In this the seats are very close 
 together and rise rapidly, so that a class of a hundred 
 persons can sit in full view of the lecturer. The room 
 is arched, and its greatest elevation is eighteen feet. 
 There are two or three other rooms and offices, and a 
 cellar extends underneath the whole. Since the fall of 
 1870 one of the college janitors, with his family, has oc 
 cupied a portion of the premises. The building has 
 been put to its present use since 1819, when the Cabi 
 net was erected, and the kitchen and dining hall trans 
 ferred thither. This edifice, covered with yellowish 
 stucco, is 86 feet long and 45 feet broad, and stands be 
 hind South Middle and the Lyceum. Besides the base 
 ment, where the cooking was formerly done, and the 
 attic, it comprises two full stories ; the upper one being 
 devoted to the mineralogical calSinet, as at first, and the 
 lower one which served as the dining hall, until the 
 abolition of Commons in 1843 containing two sopho 
 more recitation rooms, and the " philosophical chamber," 
 which is the largest lecture room upon the college 
 grounds. Directly behind the Chapel is another stuc- 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 21 
 
 coed building, bluish brown in color, now called the 
 Treasury, but originally Trumbull Gallery. Its meas 
 urements are 65 by 35 feet, and it is two stories in 
 hight. It was built in 1832, to receive the historical 
 paintings of Colonel Trumbull, which that artist had 
 presented to the college the year before, on the condi 
 tion that the proceeds of their exhibition should go for 
 the benefit of indigent students ; though admission to 
 the gallery was ultimately made free to all. The upper 
 story of the building was divided into two large apart 
 ments, lighted from above, in one of which were the 
 Trumbull paintings, in the other, portraits of various 
 college benefactors, and miscellaneous pictures. Below 
 were offices for the treasurer and steward, a recitation 
 room for the Theologues, etc. The steward s office is 
 now used as a dormitory by an indigent student who 
 has charge of the key-box. In 1868, all the paintings 
 having been removed to the Art Building, the vacated 
 apartments were changed into three offices, for the col 
 lege treasurer, pastor and president, in the latter of 
 which all the faculty meetings are now held. The 
 rooms below are packed with " specimens" which can 
 not be displayed in the over-crowded Cabinet. At the 
 time of the change, windows were let in to the sides of 
 the second story, thereby removing from the building its 
 former tomb-like appearance. Perhaps it was pur 
 posely built to resemble a mausoleum, for, at his own 
 request, the remains of Colonel Trumbull and his wife 
 were buried and now rest beneath it. 
 
 The first one of the college structures making any 
 pretensions to architectural beauty was the Library, be 
 gun in 1842. The absolute necessity of providing some 
 safe place for the books, which, after the transfers al 
 ready noted, were then lying in the attic of the Chapel, 
 as well as for the society libraries in the Athenaeum, in- 
 
22 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 duced a few friends of the college to start a subscrip 
 tion for the erection of a fire-proof building. After 
 $13,000 had been raised, it was thought impolitic to 
 press the subscription further, on account of "hard 
 times" ; but, with the consent of the subscribers, the 
 corporation voted to begin the work at once, upon a lib 
 eral scale, and trust to the future to finish it. Accord 
 ingly they were enabled, within a year s time, by ex 
 pending all their money, to put up the walls and roof, 
 and fit up a single apartment for the temporary recep 
 tion of the books. The inside was finally completed 
 and arranged in 1846-47, but the ornamental turrets 
 without have remained unfinished to the present time. 
 Situated exactly in the center of the High street side of 
 the college yard, " the whole pile extends its front, in 
 cluding the buttresses above the base, 151 feet. The 
 front of the main building, measured in the same way, 
 is 5 1 feet : and its depth from front to rear is 95 feet. 
 The front of each of the extreme wings is 30 feet and the 
 depth 67 feet. The connecting wings are each 26 by 40 
 feet between the walls ; and the extreme hight of the four 
 chief towers is 91 feet. The main building, designed to 
 contain the college library, includes only one room, the 
 interior measurement of which is 41 by 83 feet. It re 
 sembles in form a Gothic chapel, with its nave and aisles ; 
 the hight of the nave is 59 feet, its breadth 17 feet. 
 Between the clustered pillars of the nave are alcoves, 
 fourteen in number, and each ten by twelve feet in ex 
 tent. A gallery extends on all sides of the room and 
 contains the same number of alcoves. The ceiling is 
 finished with groined arches." Each of the extreme 
 wings is a copy of this central room, and is supplied 
 with smaller alcoves and gallery. The northern one is 
 occupied by "Brothers," the southern by "Linonia." 
 The usual entrance to the main building is through the 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 
 
 northern connecting wing, which serves as a librarian s 
 office, and general consulting room. The southern con 
 necting wing was originally occupied by " Calliope," but 
 is now used for the storing of pamphlets, duplicates, 
 and works which are seldom referred to. In 1860, the 
 wings were connected by an inner passage-way, but as 
 the iron doors are always locked, the different apart 
 ments of the building are in effect as isolated as ever. 
 Its walls are of red sandstone, from the quarries at 
 Portland, on the Connecticut ; and its entire cost was 
 about $30,000. Exclusive of the 35,000 books in the so 
 ciety and department libraries, the college now pos 
 sesses about 60,000 volumes and 20,000 pamphlets. 
 Beginning with the 40 folios which founded the college 
 in 1700, the library had increased to 26,000 volumes in 
 1743, when the first catalogue was published, and to 
 12,500, a century later. A good many books were lost, 
 at times when the college was temporarily disbanded, so 
 that by the catalogue of 1791 there were only 2700, al 
 though there had been 4000 in 1766. 
 
 In line with the Library, in the north west angle of 
 the college yard, corner of Elm and High streets, stands 
 Alumni Hall ; like it, built of red sandstone, and, like 
 it and the Treasury, roofed with tin. The need of some 
 larger hall than any then existing, becoming imperative 
 with the introduction of " biennials," President Woolsey 
 drew up a plan of a two-storied building, having a large 
 hall below for general college purposes and two smaller 
 ones above, for the societies of " Linonia" and " Broth 
 ers," which promised to bear a share of the expense. 
 The plan was modified, so as to allow a third upper 
 hall, for "Calliope," and the building was completed 
 in 1853, by which time the third society was dead, 
 and the money it had advanced was refunded to jts ex 
 ecutors. The structure measures 100 by 52 feet, and 
 
2 4 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 two towers, 75 feet high, stand beside its principal 
 entrance. Within these, winding staircases lead to the 
 society halls, which are also accessible in the rear by 
 a third stairway, situated within the central projection, 
 40 feet wide, -which juts out 12 feet on the High street 
 side of the building, and corresponds to the towers on 
 the front side. This projection also gives a place for 
 a small gallery overlooking the main hall. The latter 
 is said to be the largest one in the country, having oc 
 cupied-rooms above unsupported by anything save the 
 outer walls. Perhaps it was well that the experiment 
 was never put to the crucial test by the constant use 
 of the central (Calliope) hall above ; for at the time of 
 holding the " sanitary fair" in February, 1864, when the 
 upper rooms were all crowded, a portion of the floor 
 perceptibly " settled," and care had to be taken to dis 
 tribute the spectators more equally throughout the 
 building. The roof is not visible from below, and the 
 cornices, in the form of battlements, which surround it 
 and the towers, are constructed of wood, instead of 
 stone as was originally planned. In the main hall, 
 where examinations, alumni meetings, etc., are held, are 
 hung the coats-of-arms of all the States, and the por 
 traits of various benefactors, graduates and officers of 
 the college. The cost of the building was a little more 
 than $27,000, of which the college paid $16,000, the 
 Linonia society $5800, and the Brothers $5500. 
 
 Corresponding to this structure, in the south west 
 angle of the yard, corner of Chapel and High streets, 
 stands the Art Building, the handsomest edifice which the 
 college or the city can boast of. Its cornerstone con 
 taining a copper box, wherein were deposited various 
 mementos of the occasion ; coins, medals, pamphlets 
 and newspapers was laid, with due ceremony, Novem 
 ber 1 6, 1864 j the roofs were put on by the close of the 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 25 
 
 following year ; and the entire work was accepted by 
 the corporation as " finished," just before the Com 
 mencement of 1866 ; though it was a year later before 
 the " opening reception" was held and the public ad 
 mitted to the galleries. u The general shape of the 
 building is this : the south wing, fronting on Chapel 
 street, is a building 34 by 80 feet in size, exclusive of 
 projections ; the north wing is a building 36 by 76 feet in 
 size, exclusive of projections, and stands considerably 
 in advance of the other wing on the college grounds. 
 The two are connected by an intermediate building, 44 
 by 80 feet in size. The general form is that of the let 
 ter H, in which the right-hand stroke together with 
 the cross stroke are somewhat dropped. The exte 
 rior is much broken in outline, but is extremely plain in 
 its details. With the exception of the Chapel street 
 entrance, it can scarcely be said to have any ornaments, 
 everything that is seen being for some constructive pur 
 pose. The north wing, however, has an addition in the 
 form of a tower, which forms the entrance from the col 
 lege grounds, and connects with the main hall by a cor 
 ridor covered with a lean-to roof. At the angles of the 
 wings are small turrets, serving as ventilators, which, to 
 gether with the larger tower, are still unfinished. On 
 the Chapel street side is a projection, which forms a 
 porch on the first story, and a small room in the second 
 story, and is terminated with a gable roof. The two 
 wing buildings are covered with hipped roofs, the upper 
 halves of which are of iron and glass. The connecting 
 building is covered with a four-pitched roof. The whole 
 building is very massive, both in its materials and ef 
 fects. The base-course and basement walls under 
 ground are of North Haven stone, the facing of all the 
 exterior walls is of Belleville (N. J.) sandstone, and the 
 water-tables, sills, lintels, labels, etc., are of Connecticut 
 
 3 
 
26 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 river sandstone. The arches are of alternate Belleville 
 and Cleveland stone. The columns of the front porch 
 are of Gloucester (Mass.) granite, and the capitals are 
 carved with original designs after natural foliage, in 
 Cleveland stone. The roof is slated. The timber 
 throughout is of Pennsylvania white pine. The floors 
 are of oak and black walnut, and the inside finish of 
 the halls and stairs is of chestnut. The architecture is 
 in the style advocated by the * rationalistic school, 
 whose aim is to give prominent expression to the con 
 structive features of buildings, and to revive the system 
 of decoration in use in the i3th century." Underneath 
 the whole building is a basement, 12 feet high, divided 
 into lecture rooms, modeling rooms, etc., besides the 
 halls and stairways, and fuel and furnace rooms. Its 
 outer entrance is beside the tower. The first story is 
 1 6 feet high, and is divided into studios, professor s and 
 curator s rooms, and a lecture room 80 feet square, from 
 which, if desired, three studios can be formed by the 
 erection of screens. " The second story hall, reached 
 by a broad stairway, is 14 feet wide, 44 feet long and 15 
 feet high, and from it all the exhibition rooms can be 
 entered. At the end of the hall are the entrances to 
 the two large sky-light galleries, and on the side are 
 two entrances to the long room for engravings and pho 
 tographs. This room is of the same size as the hall, 
 and also connects the two large galleries. The north 
 gallery measures 22 by 72 feet, is 21 feet high to the 
 highest point of the curved ceiling, and 32 feet high to 
 the peak of the skylight. The walls upon which the 
 pictures are hung are 16 feet in hight, three feet of 
 which are occupied by the wainscoting. At one end of 
 this room is an oriel window, projecting beyond the wall 
 of the building, and affording an excellent view of the 
 college grounds. Nearby is a private door, connecting 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 27 
 
 with a small room in the tower, to which access can 
 also be had by means of a corridor under the lean-to 
 roof. The tower affords access to the roof and attic, 
 which latter is a large room, thus far unoccupied. The 
 south gallery measures 30 by 76 feet, and is similar in 
 every way to the other, except that it is 35 feet in 
 hight to the peak of the skylight. Opening out of this 
 gallery, and over the front entrance, is a small room af 
 fording an excellent view of the street. The front win- 
 
 O 
 
 clow of this room goes down to the floor and opens 
 upon a stone balcony." The building has thus far cost 
 about $200,000, or more than twice what was estimated 
 at the outset ; but, fortunately for the college, the donor 
 Augustus R. Street, of the class of 1812 continued 
 to add to his original appropriation of $80,000, as the 
 necessity of the work required, and provided in his will 
 for its ultimate completion. He died June 12, 1866, 
 and his entire gifts to the college amount to upwards 
 of $280,000, by far the largest sum ever received by 
 the institution from any single source. He did not de 
 sire that his chief monument should be called by his 
 name, however, but simply entitled it " Yale School of 
 the Fine Arts," and this name, with the date " A. D. 
 1864," is inscribed upon the large slab at the base of 
 the oriel window. Since his death, a marble tablet in 
 commemoration of his gift, has been let into the wall of 
 the lower hall, near the entrance. The architect of the 
 Art Building was P. B. Wight of New York, and the 
 masons were Perkins & Chatfield, who also did the ma 
 sonry for the Library and Alumni Hall. 
 
 Besides the fourteen buildings already described, the 
 only others within the yard, while 69 was in college, 
 were the two wooden dwelling-houses, situated be 
 tween the Library and Art Building, and facing on High 
 street, one of which is carried on as a boarding house 
 
28 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 under the direction of the college authorities. For a 
 quarter of a century, the need of new dormitory build 
 ings had been recognized and talked about, until in 
 1868 it was decided to begin active measures for the re 
 construction of the college yard, and ground for a new 
 dormitory was staked out, in front of South Middle and 
 the Lyceum. It was to be one link in a chain of build 
 ings which were ultimately to surround the square, and 
 so after the demolition of the eight " factories" and 
 the three inferior structures behind them enclose a 
 large open rectangle within. But the ground had 
 hardly been staked out and the general plan of recon 
 struction made public, when a cry was raised in the 
 newspapers that the beauty of the college green the 
 pride of the city would be ruined thereby ; and the 
 champions of the elms exhorted the authorities to put 
 up their murderous axes and spare those noble trees. 
 The work, begun after twenty years deliberation, was 
 accordingly postponed once more, and an extensive dis 
 cussion was for several months carried on, in regard to 
 the advisability of removing the site of the college to 
 the outskirts of the city. The result of it was, that, 
 after the fullest consideration of all the points involved, 
 it was decided by the authorities that while, on the 
 whole, the removal would be advantageous to the insti 
 tution, the state of its finances rendered any such re 
 moval practically impossible. In accordance with this 
 decision which may be accepted as final the original 
 plan of reconstruction was reverted to, after a year s de 
 lay, and on Monday morning, August 2, 1869, ground 
 was quietly broken for the building which is expected 
 to introduce " a new dormitory system at Yale. Only 
 three elms were cut down to give room for it, and the 
 appearance of the yard, as seen from Chapel street, is 
 net materially altered by its presence. It sets back 20 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 29 
 
 feet from College street, and 100 feet from Elm, thus 
 leaving room for the proposed Memorial Chapel upon 
 the corner, and of course stands in front of North Col 
 lege and the open space between it and Divinity s 
 former site. Exclusive of projections, it measures 174 
 by 37 feet, and is four stories in bight, besides a light 
 basement and Mansard slated roof, which is surmounted 
 by a pair of turrets, also slated. The walls are of 
 brick, laid in cement, and trimmed with dark blue 
 stone from the Hudson river, as well as the common 
 Portland free stone, while the slabs above the entrances 
 are of Westchester (N. Y.) marble, and the pillars which 
 support them are of polished granite. The entrances 
 are approached from the inner side of the college yard 
 and are three in number, corresponding to the number 
 of stairways which are situated in these projections, 
 which are rounded on the College street side and an 
 gular upon the inner front. There are 49 studies or 
 parlors in the building, each measuring 13 by 16 feet, 
 and all but nine of them are supplied with a pair of 
 bedrooms each of which has a window of its own 
 and clothes closets. The nine rooms without these 
 appendages are situated in the stairways, and serve 
 mostly as offices for members of the faculty. In the 
 basement, to which there are two entrances from the 
 street front, the janitor lives with his family. The fur 
 nace and water closets are also situated there. All the 
 rooms are heated by steam and lighted by gas, and are 
 said to be more perfectly ventilated than those of any 
 other building in New Haven. They were first occu 
 pied on the opening of the fall term of 1870. Twelve 
 months later it is hoped that the finishing touches will 
 have been given to the Durfee College, the excavation 
 for which was begun upon the afternoon of the second 
 day of May, 1870. This is the largest structure in the 
 
3 FOUR YEARS AT YAL/-.. 
 
 college yard, extending on Elm street from the site of 
 the east front of Divinity College to the vicinity of 
 Alumni Hall, and setting back about 20 feet from that 
 street. Its length is 181 feet and its breadth 38 feet, 
 except at either end where its breadth is 40 feet, and it 
 is four stories in hight, with lighted basement and 
 common single-pitch roof. Its material is the same 
 New Jersey sandstone of which the Art Building is 
 constructed, while the light yellow stone from Cleve 
 land, and the dark blue from the Hudson river, as well 
 as red Philadelphia bricks, are used for trimmings and 
 decorations. The general effect of the structure, how 
 ever, is plain and massive rather than ornamental. 
 There are 84 parlors or studies, and five entries through 
 which to approach them. Each study is supplied -with 
 a pair of closets and bedrooms, and the latter are a 
 third larger than those in the Farnam College, and all 
 look out upon the north or Elm street side of the build 
 ing. All of the studies, on the other hand, front upon 
 the college yard, and the entrances are all upon that 
 side of the building, as are the five pairs of brick chim 
 neys which project from the roof directly above them. 
 The arrangements in the basement and those for light 
 ing and heating are to be the same as in the other dor 
 mitory, except that flues have been constructed so that 
 stoves can be used in every room, if preferred. The 
 cost of the edifice was about $120,000, or double that 
 of the other one. Russell Sturges is the architect of 
 both the new buildings. The masonry of one or both 
 or them has been done by I. Thompson and Smith *\r 
 Sperry ; and the carpentry by Elihti Larkins. The 
 next building to be erected within the college yard will 
 be the Peabody Museum. It will probably face upon 
 Chapel street, and extend from near the College street 
 corner to the vicinity of the Art Building, though neither 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 31 
 
 the locality upon which to erect nor the time of erect 
 ing have yet been definitely decided. 
 
 At the same time with the raising of the first college 
 hall in 1716, was commenced the erection of a "presi 
 dent s house," which was finished in 1722, and was oc 
 cupied for eighty years, or until 1799, by a half dozen 
 successive presidents. It was situated on College 
 street, near the south \vest corner of Chapel, and was 
 finally demolished in 1834. From the sale of it, and 
 the lands on which it stood, were derived the funds for 
 constructing a new president s house, which was finished 
 in the autumn of 1799. This stood within the college 
 yard, in front of the space between North and Divinity 
 colleges, and was moved away in 1860. Only two pres 
 idents made use of it, for the present incumbent, since 
 his entry into office in 1846, has occupied a house of 
 his own, on Church street. A house for the professor 
 of divinity was begun in June, 1757, and completed 
 within a year, at a cost of about 300 sterling. It was 
 probably not occupied by him later than the year 1794. 
 At present, the only college building outside the yard is 
 the Gymnasium, on Library street, near the corner of 
 High. It is a plain brick structure, measuring 50 by 100 
 feet, and was built in 1859 at a cost of about $11,170. 
 It consists of a basement, for bowling alleys and bath 
 rooms, and a main hall for gymnastic exercises, which 
 measures 35 feet in hight to the peak of the roof. 
 Across the south end of this apartment is stretched a 
 gallery, containing dressing closets and a pair of rooms 
 for the instructor in gymnastics. Opposite the gymna 
 sium is a double dwelling-house, of brick, three stories 
 high, containing about a dozen available rooms, which 
 house is owned and carried on by the college ; and 
 those students (Freshmen) who occupy its rooms are 
 charged rent for the same upon their term bills, like the 
 occupants of the regular college dormitories. 
 
3 3 / 067V YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Connected with the college are four professional 
 "schools" or "departments," of which it naturally hap 
 pens that the oldest is the Theological. The college 
 itself was founded by ministers, for training young men 
 for the ministry ; theology was one of the chief under 
 graduate studies; and the first professorship established 
 was that of Divinity, in 1755. The first three incum 
 bents of the office the third of whom also served at 
 the same time as president of the college were in the 
 habit of " conducting a number of resident graduates 
 through a course of theological studies such as was con 
 sidered in those times a competent preparation for the 
 pastoral office," and when the fourth was installed, in 
 1817, "the instruction of theological students was dis 
 tinctly included among his duties." In 1822, the de 
 partment was formally organized by the corporation, in 
 response to a petition from fifteen would-be Theologues. 
 It now numbers a half-dozen professors and about fifty 
 students, and in all upwards of 800 students have been 
 connected with it. Its annual session of eight months 
 extends from September to May, when a public anni 
 versary is held. The latter feature was introduced in 
 1867, or rather revived then after being omitted for a 
 dozen years or more. Then, too, for the first time the 
 corporation conferred the degree of D.B. (Bachelor of 
 Divinity) upon those who had completed the three 
 years course. Divinity College was erected for the 
 Theologues, in 1835, and no rent was charged those 
 \vho occupied its dormitories. Some of its rooms were 
 put to public service for the holding of lectures and 
 recitations, and these were likewise held in various 
 apartments of the other buildings, at such seasons and 
 hours as found them vacated by their regular occu 
 pants. 
 
 All these drawbacks, however, have recently been 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 33 
 
 put an end to by the completion of a new building, 
 whose corner stone was laid September 22, 1869, 
 ground having been broken, July 13, previous. It 
 stands on the north-west corner of College and Elm 
 streets, measuring 164 feet on the former by 43 feet on 
 the latter, and setting back about a dozen feet from 
 both. The dimensions of its lot which is enclosed by 
 an ornamented iron fence are 195 by no feet, and 
 space is thus afforded for the additions which it is pro 
 posed hereafter to make to the building. Its wings are 
 five stories and 75 feet in hight ; the middle portion 
 has only four stories. It is warmed throughout by 
 steam and lighted by gas, and fire-places are also pro 
 vided in all the rooms. There are about 50 of these dor 
 mitories, besides lecture, reading and library rooms, 
 corridors, janitor s office, bath rooms, water-closets, etc. 
 The walls are of brick, red and black, trimmed with 
 Nova Scotia stone, and the roofs are of slate, sur 
 mounted by an iron railing. The architect was Richard 
 M. Hunt of New York, and the entire cost of the 
 structure was $130,000. The original plan of the 
 building contemplated the erection on Elm street of a 
 small but tasteful chapel, and in February of the pres 
 ent year Francis Marquand of Southport offered to sup 
 ply the necessary funds ($25,000) for its erection. Work 
 was shortly afterwards begun upon it, and it is expected 
 that the building will be ready for use at the opening of 
 the new year in September. By the enterprise of the 
 ladies belonging to some of the city churches, all the 
 dormitories were comfortably and even elegantly fitted 
 up with carpets, bed, bedding, and every necessary ar 
 ticle of furniture. A few of the parlors have two bed 
 rooms attached to them, but in general provision is made 
 for each student to have a parlor and bedroom by himself. 
 
 There is no charge for rent, tuition, or the use of libra- 
 
 * 
 
34 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 ries ; and those who require it receive a dollar a week 
 towards the expense of board, and have their washing 
 done free of charge. They also receive $100 a year 
 from the income of scholarships and other funds, and 
 an additional $100 a year in case they are the benefici 
 aries of the American Educational Society. "In gen 
 eral it may be said, that sufficient aid will be provided 
 for every young man who gives promise of usefulness 
 in the ministry, to enable him, in connection with his 
 owirefiforts, to complete a course -of theological study." 
 The endowed scholarships bear respectively the names 
 of James Hillhouse, William Leffingwell, George E. 
 Dunham, Normand Smith, E. E. Salisbury, Thomas R. 
 Trowbridge, Charles Atwater, Richard Borden, Samuel 
 Holmes, Roland Mather, Noah Porter, John DeForest, 
 J. R. Beadle, and David Root. 
 
 The Law School grew out of the main college in 
 much the same way as the one just described. In 1801 
 a professor of Law was appointed ; not for the purpose 
 of training undergraduates for the bar, but rather of 
 giving lectures to them on the general principles of law 
 and government, a practice which is still kept up. 
 He resigned his office at the expiration of nine years. 
 The next incumbent did not begin his duties until 
 1826, when he opened a private class for law students, 
 which has since been recognized as the beginning of 
 the present school. In all, about 1400 students have 
 been connected with it, of whom 280 have been admit 
 ted to the degree of LL.B. (Bachelor of Laws), which 
 was first conferred in 1848. The regular course occu 
 pies two years, and the year corresponds with that of 
 the college, except that it is divided into two terms in 
 stead of three. Those who before entering the depart 
 ment, have taken the degree of A. B., Ph.B., or B.S., at 
 any college, receive their degree after an attendance of 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 35 
 
 three terms; members of the bar, after an attendance 
 of two terms ; all others, after the full course of four 
 terms. The faculty consists of the president, a pro 
 fessor and three lecturers or instructors. The rooms of 
 the school are in the Leffingwell Building, corner of 
 Church and Court streets. Its special library numbers 
 about 2000 volumes. " At present the department is 
 not only without funds of its own, but is in debt to the 
 general fund of the college." 
 
 The Medical Institution, though third in the order of 
 development, was the first of the professional schools 
 to get into active operation. As early as 1806 the pro 
 priety of establishing a course of lectures for the ben 
 efit of medical students was discussed by the corpo 
 ration, but it was thought best to secure the assistance of 
 the State Medical Society, before taking any action. 
 Accordingly, four years later, that society joined with 
 the corporation in applying for a change of charter, and 
 the present "school" was founded. Its organization 
 was completed in the fall of 1812, and a year later the 
 first course of lectures was delivered. The faculty con 
 sists of the president and eight professors, while a like 
 number of doctors chosen by the State Medical Society 
 of which the president thereof is always one are ad 
 ditional members of the examining board. The degree 
 of M.D. (Doctor of Medicine) has been conferred on 
 800 individuals, about a third of the whole number 
 ever connected with the school. For the past few years 
 it has had about 30 students ; in 1822 it had three times 
 that number. Every candidate for a degree must have 
 studied medicine for two years, or for three years if 
 not a college graduate, and must have attended two 
 full courses of medical lectures, at least one of them at 
 Yale. In 1814 the Legislature appropriated to the 
 school $20,000 of a $50,000 bonus, which the State re- 
 
36 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 ceivecl from the Phoenix bank of Hartford for its char 
 ter. With these and other funds contributed by indi 
 viduals of which the largest single gift was $5000 
 was purchased, of James Hillhouse who built it, the 
 square stone edifice on Grove street, at the foot of Col 
 lege, now occupied by the Scientific School. It was 
 sold to Mr. Sheffield for the latter purpose in 1859, and 
 with the proceeds was erected the present Medical Col 
 lege on York street. This is a stucco building, 53 
 feet square and three stories high, containing a commo 
 dious lecture room, lighted from the top, an extensive 
 anatomical museum, dissecting rooms, offices, etc. 
 The remaining property of the institution, invested 
 principally in bank stocks, yields an income of about 
 Siooo annually, which is inadequate even to its current 
 and necessary miscellaneous expenses." 
 
 Youngest but most important of the departments is 
 that of Philosophy and the Arts, or as it commonly 
 termed, the Sheffield Scientific School. Preparations 
 were made for commencing it in 1846, but the first stu 
 dents were received at the beginning of the following 
 academic year. For a long time before this, Prof. Sil- 
 liman, Sr., had been in the habit of instructing a private 
 class of young men, who desired a more thorough and 
 extended course in natural science than was furnished 
 in the regular curriculum. Such special students were 
 allowed the privilege of the libraries, cabinets, etc., 
 though not officially recognized as members of the in 
 stitution. At the Commencement of 1847, the corpo 
 ration voted to establish a " Department of Philosophy 
 and the Arts," under the direction of two professors, 
 one of whom B. Silliman, Jr. had for five years been 
 privately conducting a special class in chemistry ; and 
 the old president s house, vacated the year before, was 
 fitted up as a laboratory for their use. There were 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 37 
 
 eleven students the first year, six of whom were college 
 graduates. Of the eight who completed the course, six 
 were given the degree of Ph.B. (Bachelor of Philoso 
 phy) in 1852, and count as the earliest graduates of the 
 school, in which three of them are now professors. In 
 1852 a professor of Civil Engineering was appointed, 
 and began his instructions, in the attic of the Chapel, 
 with 26 students. Two years afterwards, his classes 
 were associated with the chemical students under the 
 name of " Yale Scientific School," in which they have 
 since formed a distinct " section." Xhe end of ten 
 years found the new department possessed of a half- 
 dozen professors and instructors, but, as from the very 
 first, almost entirely without endowment. At this crisis, 
 Joseph E. Sheffield, who had been the school s best 
 patron, came forward with an offer to provide a build 
 ing and permanent fund. He accordingly bought the 
 old Medical College, at the head of College street, had 
 it refitted, added two large wings, provided a large 
 amount of apparatus, and gave a fund of $50,000 for 
 the maintenance of three professorships. The building 
 was taken possession of in the summer of 1860. Five 
 years later, it was enlarged by the. addition of a three- 
 story structure to connect the wings, two towers, and 
 other improvements. The front tower is 90 feet high 
 and 1 6 feet square, contains a belfry-clock with four 
 dials, and is surmounted by a revolving turret in which 
 an equatorial telescope is placed. The north-western 
 tower, of the same dimensions and 50 feet high, was 
 built for the reception of a meridian circle. The ex 
 treme length of the edifice, measured from this tower 
 to the east side, is 117 feet, and the extreme depth is 
 112 feet. The original building of stone and the addi 
 tions of brick are alike covered with brownish stucco. 
 In purchasing and refitting this structure and endowing 
 
3 8 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the school to both of which by vote of the corporation 
 m 1860 his name was applied Mr. Sheffield has ex 
 pended upwards of $175,000. His own residence, en 
 tered from Hillhouse avenue, closely adjoins the prem 
 
 ises 
 
 Connecticut s share 180,000 acres of the Con 
 gressional land-grant of 1863 was ultimately transferred 
 to the school, which now enjoys the income of the $135,- 
 ooo derived from the sale of it. In return for this, 
 forty free State-scholarships were established, and the 
 governor, lieutenant-governor, the three senior senators 
 and the secretary of the State board of education, were 
 constituted a " board of visitation" on the part of the 
 State. For their benefit an annual report is prepared 
 and printed, the first one being issued in 1866. The 
 governing board or faculty consists of the president, a 
 dozen professors, and half as many other instructors. 
 For the past few years the number of students has been 
 about 140, and 27 graduated in the class of 69. The 
 regular course, for the degree of Ph.B., is three years 
 in length, the last two years being divided into seven 
 distinct departments or "sections," and each man choos 
 ing for himself which of them he will follow. An ad 
 ditional year in the Engineering Section secures the 
 degree^ of C. E. (Civil Engineer), which was first con 
 ferred in 1867. The anniversary exercises are held in 
 Sheffield Hall, on the Monday before the college Com 
 mencement, though the degrees are not conferred until 
 the latter occasion. Besides the three regular classes 
 of undergraduates, there is a fourth class of "special 
 students, not candidates for a degree," and an advanced 
 class, composed of graduates of the school, the col 
 lege, and other similar institutions. The " second sec 
 tion" of the Department of Philosophy and the Arts 
 m which, if anywhere, lie the germs of a future univer- 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATOJ^. 39 
 
 sity has been rather overshadowed by the rapid growth 
 of the first or Scientific School section. No regular 
 courses of study have as yet been provided for it, but 
 the Bachelor candidates for its degree, Ph.D. (Doctor 
 of Philosophy), must read for two years at New Haven, 
 under the direction of the faculty, and at the end of 
 that time pass a satisfactory examination in at least two 
 distinct branches of learning. During the past ten years, 
 seventeen persons have received this degree, though 
 it was not conferred upon any one in 1864 an d 65. 
 
 Sheffield Hall being entirely taken up with recitation 
 and lecture rooms, laboratories, cabinets, library and 
 reading rooms, professors studies, observatories, corri 
 dors, etc., the students have all been obliged to occupy, 
 rooms out in town, but a large brick block in the vi 
 cinity, which supplies lodging rooms for quite a large 
 number of them, serves as a sort of headquarters and 
 rendezvous, and in some slight way supplies the want 
 of a regular dormitory building. Before the demolish- 
 ment of Divinity College had been decided upon, it was 
 proposed to surrender to them its 32 dormitories, which 
 the Theologues were to have no further use for, after the 
 opening of the new Divinity building ; but had the plan 
 been carried out, it is not likely that their introduction 
 into the college yard would have introduced them to 
 the acquaintance of the regular college students. The 
 latter have thus far been wont, as it were, to look down 
 upon them, as being in a sense their inferiors. Without 
 any open show of hostility, a sort of keep-y our- distance 
 air of the college men towards the students of the 
 school effectively repels the latter. Both frequently 
 meet together at the boat house and gymnasium, and 
 less often in the lecture room, but they do not mingle, 
 and few acquaintanceships are formed. Occasionally 
 it happens that a member of the school " runs with" a 
 
40 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 particular college class, for two or three years, and be 
 comes in a measure identified with it, but the fact only 
 renders it the more evident that there is no general as 
 sociation between the two species of undergraduates. 
 A sentiment analogous to " class feeling" clearly separates 
 them from each other. In the three other departments 
 the students are older than those in college, and the 
 latter naturally have nothing to do with them. The 
 students in Law and Medicine are seldom known or 
 thought of at all, any more than townies ; but the Theo- 
 logues are the traditional objects of a sort of good- 
 natured derision. To speak of them as monsters of 
 vice and iniquity, has been a favorite practice from time 
 immemorial. 
 
 The funds by which the college has been supported 
 have been derived almost exclusively from individuals. 
 The entire gifts of every sort made by the Common 
 wealth of Connecticut in the course of 170 years, have 
 only amounted to $100,000, of which the $20,000 be 
 stowed on the Medical School was expended by State 
 commissioners, and not controlled by the corporation 
 at all. The last gift of $7000, made in 1831 was 
 of money received by the State as a bonus for a bank 
 charter, and almost all the previous donations had been 
 of a similar character, made from unexpended resour 
 ces, and not requiring a special appropriation from the 
 State treasury. Undoubtedly the annuity granted to 
 the institution during its first half century was the most 
 valuable State aid it has ever received. The income of 
 the $135,000 accruing to the Scientific School from the 
 sale of public lands under the Congressional act of 
 1863, completes the sum total of public benefactions 
 conferred upon the institution. Private generosity alone 
 has kept it alive, though the bequest of $10,000 for the 
 library, received in 1834, by the will of Alfred E. Per- 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 4 1 
 
 kins of 30, was by far the largest individual gift re 
 corded, up to that time. Recently there have been 
 many others of equal or larger amounts, of which those 
 of Joseph E. Sheffield ($175,000, for the Scientific 
 School), and Augustus R. Street ($280,000, for the Art 
 School, a professorship of Modern Languages, and a 
 Theological professorship) have been already noted. 
 Next to them in importance is the gift made by George 
 Peabody in 1866, $150,000, for a Museum of Natural 
 History. The conditions of this bequest are that not 
 more than $100,000 shall be expended in the erection 
 of the first section of a fire-proof building ; that $20,- 
 ooo shall be left to accumulate to at least five times that 
 amount, when it shall be expended in completing the 
 building; and that $30,000 shall be permanently in 
 vested for the support of the Museum. A dormitory 
 fund of $100,000 from Bradford M. C. Durfee, a non- 
 graduate of 67 ; a similar fund of $40,000 from Henry 
 Farnam ; a chapel fund of $36,000 from Joseph Battell ; 
 a $30,000 pastor s professorship from Simeon E. Chit- 
 tenden ; a gift of $25,000 to the Theologues from Wil 
 liam A. Buckingham, and fourteen other gifts of not 
 less than $5000 each, comprised the most important 
 additions to the college property in the eight years fol 
 lowing 1860. More recently a fund of $50,000 has 
 been given by William Phelps, the annual income of 
 which is to be spent by the college under the direction 
 of his son, William W. Phelps of 60, during the latter s 
 life time, and is finally to fall wholly into the control of 
 the authorities. For the Scientific School, too, about 
 $125,000 has been raised in sums of varying amounts, 
 and among other things the professorship of Sanscrit 
 has thereby been placed upon the respectable foundation 
 of $50,000. In February of the present year Francis 
 Marquand presented the $25,000 already mentioned for 
 
42 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the construction of a chapel for the Theologues. Every 
 one of these large gifts being for a specific purpose, the 
 availability of the general fund of the college has been 
 diminished rather than increased by their reception. 
 It now amounts to but $300,000 a sum whose income 
 is far too small to meet the every day necessities of the 
 college, the total professorship endowments of which 
 are only $125,000. In 1831, when poverty was bring 
 ing the college to death s door, a desperate attempt to 
 lift it from bankruptcy resulted in the raising of a 
 $100,000 fund, from 600 separate subscribers, in 
 amounts varying from $5000 to $4 each. In 1853, 
 another crisis was averted by the raising of a similar 
 fund of $150,000. And now, for a third time, the ne 
 cessity seems imperative of making a combined effort 
 to increase the general fund. Had this been managed 
 in the past with anything but the shrewdest and closest 
 economy, the college would have been dead and buried, 
 years ago. Perhaps the very fact that it has been made 
 to " go so far" has induced the prevalent belief in its 
 practical inexhaustibleness ; for of all the grand presents 
 lately made to Yale, the largest addition to its general 
 fund, the largest real increase to its available riches, 
 was the $5000 legacy given by the late Chief Justice 
 Thomas S. Williams, of Hartford and the class of 94. 
 
 Though most of the peculiar college words and 
 phrases employed in this book are explained wherever 
 they occur, the following vocabulary may be of interest 
 on its own account and useful for purposes of reference : 
 Alma mater, the college as related to its graduates. 
 Alumnus, a graduate, though the word is more fre 
 quently used in the plural, alumni. Annual, the ex 
 amination held at the close of every year. Appointment, 
 position upon the faculty s honor-roll of scholarship. 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 43 
 
 These appointments are announced at the close of the 
 first junior and last senior terms. Average, the lowest 
 mark ("2") that will "pass" a man in his studies. 
 Banger, a heavy club-cane, mostly carried by Sopho 
 mores. "Banner" the annual society list and college di 
 rectory. Berkeley, the name of a scholarship. Biennial, 
 the examination formerly held at the end of sophomore 
 and senior years. Blind-house, a secret-society hall, so 
 called by the townies only. Blow-out, a supper, spread, 
 convivial entertainment, especially a society celebration. 
 Bones man, a member of the Skull and Bones senior so 
 ciety. Bristed, the name of a scholarship. Bully, good, 
 excellent. Bum, a spree, society supper, or convivial 
 entertainment of any sort, innocent or otherwise. Used 
 also as a verb ; whence is derived bummer, a fast young 
 man, a fellow who bums. Buzz, to interview and "sound 
 a man. Campaign, the annual strife between the fresh 
 man societies for new members. Chapel, religious ser 
 vices which must be attended in that building. Cheek, 
 brazen audacity. Used also as a verb. Chum, a room 
 mate or particular friend. Sometimes called chummy. 
 Chum is used also as a verb. Church paper, an official 
 blank, certifying that the person signing it has attended 
 Sunday service in one of the city churches. Class, a 
 body of students who enter upon their studies the same 
 year, and pursue them together to the end. The first 
 year it is called the freshman, the second year the sop/io- 
 ;//0;r,the third \h& junior, and the fourth the senior class. 
 Upper-class, and under-class are terms of various appli 
 cation, according to the position of the person using 
 them. A Freshman is always an under-class man, and a 
 Senior is always an upper-class man. The Juniors and 
 Sophomores are to the former upper-class men also, but 
 to the latter, they as well as the Fresh are wider-class 
 men. In general, however, by upper-class the two higher 
 
44 FOUR YEARS A 7 YALE. 
 
 classes arc referred to, and by under-class the two lower 
 ones. Class election, an after-choice to a secret society by 
 one s own classmates, who themselves enjoyed the 
 greater honor of being chosen by the class above them. 
 Coalition, a political compact between two or more soci 
 eties for controlling the elective honors of a class. Coal 
 yard, the college privy. So named because the two 
 structures used to be connected. Cock (abbreviated 
 from Cochleaureatus), a member of the committee who 
 awarded the Wooden Spoon. Commons, the college 
 boarding house. Condition, requirement to make up 
 an unsatisfactory examination. Used also as a verb. 
 Cram, to prepare for examination on a subject, rather 
 than to really master it. Crowd, a common synonym 
 for clique, coterie, or set, especially with reference to so 
 ciety connections. Curric (abbreviated from curriculum), 
 the established course of studies. Cut, to absent one s 
 self from a college exercise. Dead, complete, perfect ; 
 as a dead rush, a dead flunk. DeForest, the gold medal 
 of that name. Dig, a close, mechanical student. Used 
 also as a verb. Used also as an abbreviation for 
 dignity. Digger, a member of the Spade and Grave 
 senior society. Dog, style, splurge. To //// on dog, 
 is to make a flashy display, to cut a swell. Drop, to 
 fall into a lower class. Ear, dignity, hauteur, self-impor 
 tance. A man somewhat offended or indignant is said 
 to be on his ear, or eary. Egress, the official name of 
 an exit from a college exercise. Electioneer, to argue 
 the claims of a society, for the purpose of gaining new 
 members. Entry, a hall or stairway in a college dormi 
 tory. Excuse paper, an official blank upon which all 
 excuses for failure at college exercises are required to be 
 written. Faculty, the active college authorities. Fizzle, 
 partial failure on recitation. Flunk, an entire failure. 
 Both these words are also used as verbs. Fraud, a 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 45 
 
 ( 
 
 humbug, an imposition, a sell. Freshman (often ab 
 breviated to Fresh), a collegian in his first year. Gig- 
 lamps and goggles, eye-glasses. Grad, abbreviation for 
 graduate. Not common. Grind, a hard and unpleasant 
 task, an imposition, a swindle. As a verb, to give close 
 application to a study, especially to a distasteful one. 
 Grip, a society s secret mode of clasping hands. Grub, 
 food, meals, board. A very common word, both as 
 noun and verb. Gum game, a trick, a swindle. Gym, 
 abbreviation for gymnasium. Hang out, to occupy a 
 room, to reside. Hash, is sometimes used in a sense 
 similar to grub, though as a noun only. Healthy and 
 heavy, are used as sarcastically complimentary epithets. 
 Hewgag, a what-d ye-call-it, a thingumbob. Honorary 
 member, a person elected to a society after his own class 
 has ceased to control it. All society men, as soon as 
 their class withdraws from the active management of a 
 society, are also termed honorary members of it. Hoop 
 it up, to hurry. Perhaps derived from the driver s ejac 
 ulation, houp la ! Hunky, good, excellent, bully. Joe, 
 the college privy. Junior (sometimes abbreviated to 
 Jun or June by the necessities of verse), a collegian in 
 his third year. Keys man, a member of the Scroll and 
 Key senior society. Lab (abbreviated from laboratory), 
 a word formerly used to indicate a student in chemistry. 
 Lalligag, to fool about, get the better of, " come it over," 
 a man. Lay, a trick of policy, a little game. Light out, 
 to hurry away, make one s self scarce. Lippus, a man 
 of defective vision. " Lit." the " Yale Literary Mag 
 azine" Load, a practical joke, a sell. Lunkhead, a 
 stupid, slow-witted fellow. Make up, to recite an 
 omitted lesson. Medic, a medical student. Rarely 
 used. Memorabil (abbreviated from memorabilia), any 
 keepsake to remind one of college life, especially printed 
 matter of every sort. Muffin, an unskilful player at 
 
46 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 * 
 
 base-ball. Neutral, a person who belongs to no society, 
 especially to no junior society; though the qualifying 
 word to denote in what year he was a neutral is usually 
 prefixed when any year save the present is intended. 
 Nobby, stylish, fashionable, well-dressed. Applied to 
 young men only. Owl, to prolong an evening call until 
 a late hour is to owl the person called upon. Pack, to 
 organize or to Join with " a crowd," with a view of 
 securing some desired honor, especially a senior-so 
 ciety election. 1 he crowd thus made up is itself called 
 a pack. Peeler, a city policeman. Pick-up, a street 
 walker, of the less disreputable sort. Pill, a silly, dis 
 agreeable fellow ; a prig ; a scrub. Recently the word 
 has been used as a verb, in the sense of dress, and to 
 pill up signifies to put on one s good clothes, to fix up, to 
 rig out. Pledge, to bind a man to join a society, and 
 promise him an election to it. Plug, a silk hat, of the 
 stove-pipe or chimney-pot order. Also called beaver, 
 tile and roof. Pony, a translation of a classic text. As 
 a verb, to make use of such translations in reading out a 
 lesson. Poppycock, a silly pretence, foolishness, nonsense. 
 Poster, a representation of a society s emblems, displayed 
 in a room to indicate the connections of its occupant. 
 Also, any sort of printed handbill. "/X J abbreviation 
 of " Pot-Pourri" the annual society catalogue and col 
 lege directory. Prex, the president. Prof, abbreviation 
 for professor. Rag, to overcome and entirely use up an 
 opponent or rival. Reckless, superlatively fine, in the 
 very extreme of fashion. Red hot, excellent, perfect, mag 
 nificent. Sometimes abbreviated to hot, and usually used 
 with some tinge of sarcasm. Roomer, a word used by 
 landladies to designate a lodger or occupant of a room 
 who takes his meals elsewhere. Roots, tricks. Used 
 only in the phrase, to "come the roots over" a person, 
 that is, to get the better of him by some trick or deceit. 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 47 
 
 Rope in, to join one s self to a set or party uninvited, to 
 attach any one to the same unceremoniously or without 
 his consent. Rum, good, excellent, bully. Run, to 
 direct, conduct, manage. Also to chaff, make sport of. 
 Also to stand as a candidate for office. To run with sig 
 nifies to keep the company of, to become identified with. 
 Rush, a perfect recitation. Also a pushing, scrambling 
 street-fight between two classes, or rather a trial of their 
 strength in shoving through and breaking up each 
 other s ranks. Used as a verb, chiefly in the former 
 sense. Russellite, a member of Gen. Russell s military 
 school. Rusticate, to suspend a man from college exer 
 cises ; because during the period of his suspension he 
 is supposed to stay in the country, cramming in private. 
 Scientif, a student in the Scientific School. Scrub, a 
 poorly dressed, badly appearing, socially disagreeable 
 man. Seed, is used with about the same meaning, though 
 more nearly equivalent to pill. Senior (sometimes ab 
 breviated to Sen or Sene by the necessities of verse), a 
 collegian in his fourth year. Shad-eater (or simply 
 sJiad), a member of the State Legislature. Shake up, 
 to make haste. To " shake up a song," or " a tune," is 
 to sing ; and the imperative, shake it up ! signifies, wide 
 awake, there ! bestir yourself! Shebang, rooms, place 
 of abode. Also a theatrical or other entertainment in 
 a public hall. Sheepskin, the college diploma, or A.B. 
 degree. Shekels, money. Shenannigan, chaff, foolery, 
 nonsense; especially when advanced to cover some 
 scheme or little game. Sick, bad, inferior, disgusting, 
 contemptible. Sing, an informal concert, a singing of 
 college songs. Sit on, to silence, thwart, crush, anni 
 hilate. Skin, to use unfair means for gaining knowledge 
 in recitation or examination. Slathers, an abundance, 
 quantities, lots. Sleep over, to arise from bed too late 
 for a college exercise. Sling, to put on, exhibit, display. 
 
48 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Smear, food, hash, grub ; especially a society spread or 
 supper. This word was introduced by 69, and has been 
 very popular in later classes. It is sometimes also 
 used as a verb. Snabby or snab, stylish, tasteful, good 
 looking (applied chiefly to young women, who thence 
 themselves come to be referred to as the snab). Also, 
 good, perfect, excellent. Soft thing, an easy place, a 
 pleasant position, a sure chance. To have a soft thing 
 on, or the dead wood on, any object, is to hold the " in 
 side track," the best opportunity for gaining it. Softy, 
 spooney, and spoops or spoopsey, are all used as synonyms 
 for a silly, insignificant fellow. Sophomore (often abbre 
 viated to Soph), a collegian in his second year. Sour on, 
 to become disgusted with, turn one s back upon, repu 
 diate. Spoon Man, the recipient of the Wooden Spoon. 
 Sport the oak, to keep one s door locked against visitors. 
 An English term of recent introduction. Spread, an 
 informal supper or treat, especially if given to upper- 
 class men. Stand, rank in scholarship. Stick, a loutish 
 fellow, a pill. As a verb, the word signifies to secure 
 the pledge of a man s money or services in support of 
 objects to which he really does not wish to give them. 
 Stones man, a senior-society neutral. Stoughton-bottle, a 
 thick-headed, blundering fellow; a stick ; a pill. Sub, 
 a sub-division at examination time. Sub-Freshman, a 
 prospective collegian during the last year of his prepar 
 atory course. Supe, a toady, a boot-licker. Used also 
 as a verb. Sweep, a servant who takes care of the dor 
 mitories. Swing out, to display any personal adorn 
 ment, especially a society badge, for the first time. The- 
 ologiic, a theological student. Thin, transparent. A 
 sell or joke whose point is suspected or seen in advance 
 is said to be too thin. Townscnd, the name of a high 
 literary prize. Tawny, a resident of the city, especially 
 a young man who might be mistaken for a collegian. 
 
HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY. 49 
 
 Triennial, the triennial catalogue of graduates. Also 
 the triennial class-meeting. Also the triennial class 
 record. Tide, abbreviation for tutor. Not common. 
 University, the picked boat-crew of six who row against 
 Harvard. Also the picked base-ball nine. Wharf rat, 
 a young waterside Arab. Wooden man, an impassive, 
 methodical, cold-blooded fellow ; a stick ; a Stoughton- 
 bottle. Wooden Spoon, the prize conferred at the end 
 of junior year upon " the most popular man in the class." 
 Wood up, to rap with the knuckles, in mock approba 
 tion of a recitation-room joke. Woolsey, the name of 
 the first freshman scholarship. Worst, latest, newest. 
 A general sarcastic superlative, made popular by 71. 
 Anything, from a new hat to a society election or long 
 lesson, is called the worst yet, the very worst, or the 
 worst we ve seen. Yalensian, a Yale man. Used also 
 as an adjective. This word, though much affected by 
 college writers and often seen in print, is never heard of 
 in conversation, and has not been employed in the 
 present work. 
 
 The following publications comprising all the im 
 portant works relating to the subject have been of use 
 in the preparation of this book, and their perusal is 
 recommended to all those who are interested in the his 
 tory and present condition of the college. New Haven 
 is the place of publication, when not otherwise specified. 
 President Clap s "Annals of Yale College"; 161110, 
 pp. 124; printed by Hotchkiss & Mecom, 1766. Bald 
 win s "Annals of Yale College"; Svo, pp. 214; Hez- 
 ekiah Howe, 1831 : second edition, pp. 343 ; B. & W. 
 Noyes, 1838. " Sketches of Yale College," by a mem 
 ber of that institution [E. P. Belden of 44] ; i6mo, pp. 
 192 ; New York: Saxton & Miles, 1843 ; "embellished 
 with more than thirty engravings." " Reminiscences of 
 
 4 
 
5 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Scenes and Characters in College," by a graduate of 
 21 [Rev. John Mitchell]; i2mo, pp. 229; A. H. 
 Maltby, 1847 ; stereotyped by J. H. Benham. Professor 
 Kingsley s " Historical Sketch," 8vo, pp. 48 ; Boston : 
 Perkins, Marvin & Co., 1836 [reprinted from the Amer 
 ican Quarterly Register}. President Woolsey s "Histor 
 ical Discourse"; 8vo, pp. 128; printed by B. L. Ham- 
 len, 1850. B. H. Hall s " College Words and Customs" ; 
 i2mo, pp. 508 ; Cambridge : John Bartlett, 1856. A very 
 Allyn s "Ritual of Freemasonry"; 121110, pp. 302; 
 Boston: John Marsh & Co., 1831. Professor Porter s 
 "American Colleges and the American Public"; i2mo, 
 pp. 285 ; C. C. Chatfield & Co., 1870. Garretson s 
 " Carmina Yalensia" ; 8vo, pp. 88 ; New York : Taintor 
 Bros., 1867. Elliot s " Songs of Yale" ; 12 mo, pp. 126 ; 
 C. C. Chatfield & Co., 1870. Waite s "Carmina Col- 
 legensia"; 8vo, pp. 254; Boston: O. Ditson & Co., 
 1868. "Yale Literary Magazine," monthly, 1836-71. 
 " Yale Banner," annual, 1841-70. " College Courant," 
 weekly, 1865-71. " New Englander," quarterly, 1843- 
 71. "American Journal of Science and Arts," semi 
 annual, quarterly, bi-monthly, monthly, 1818-71. " Uni 
 versity Quarterly," 1860-61. 
 
PART FIRST. 
 THE SOCIETY SYSTEM 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 F R E S II M A X S (.) C 1 K T IKS. 
 
 Development of the Modern System Kappa Sigma Epsilon 
 Delta Kappa Gamma Xu Sigma Delta Election of Active- 
 and Honorary Members Catalogues The Outside Chapters 
 and Statistics of Membership The Society System in Other 
 Colleges Badge Pins and Mottoes Halls and Mode of Renting 
 Them Electioneering Initiation Suppers Interference of- 
 Upper-class MenFarewell Ceremonies of the Sophomores . 
 Meetings and Exercises " Peanut Bums" Treatment of Intru- 
 ders Officers and the Campaign Election Coalitions System . 
 of Electioneering Initiation Committees Supper Expenses of- 
 Membership Society Zeal and its Gradual Decline Signifi 
 cance of Prize Lists Notable Members Comparisons of the 
 Societies Anomalous Position of Gamma Nu Initiation Fa- 
 bles and their Origin Theory of the Supper Business Advice 
 to sub- Freshmen. 
 
 The secret-society system has come to be so impor 
 tant a part of undergraduate life at Yale, that for a just 
 comprehension of the latter, a full understanding of the 
 former is an essential prerequisite. The sub-Freshman 
 is pledged to his society months before he approaches 
 the college walls, and the graduate keeps up his senior- 
 year connections long after he has left those walls be 
 hind him. The present system is a comparatively new 
 
5 2 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 one, dating back its establishment but little more than 
 a generation, yet it is easy to see in it the natural out 
 growth of the scheme which preceded it. This may 
 be said to have originated in 1753, with the establish 
 ment of " Linonia," an open society, shared in by all 
 classes of undergraduates, and at present the oldest 
 institution of the kind existing in this or any other 
 American college. Fifteen years later, a secession from 
 Linonia resulted in the establishment of another similar 
 society called the "Brothers in Unity." In 1780, was 
 founded the Connecticut Alpha of " Phi Beta Kappa," 
 a secret society, confining its membership to the senior 
 class. In 1821, came "Chi Delta Theta," secret, in the 
 senior and junior classes. All of these societies, though 
 greatly changed as to their scope and object, are still 
 extant, and will be described at length hereafter. In 
 their original form they have been gradually superseded 
 by the modern system, which began in 1832 when a 
 strictly senior society called "Skull and Bones" was 
 established. In a few years later there were junior so 
 cieties, then sophomore, and in 1840 a freshman society 
 ventured to appear ; so that at present there are two or 
 more secret societies in each of the four academical 
 classes. The " order of development" being thus traced 
 out, from which it would seem likely that the societies 
 of each lower class were modeled to a certain extent 
 upon those in the class above, the different societies 
 may be described in the order in which the undergrad 
 uate becomes acquainted with them : it being premised 
 that those of the three lower classes resemble Phi Beta 
 Kappa in being " Greek-letter societies," that is, in 
 taking their names from the initial letters of a phrase 
 in Greek, which has been adopted as a secret motto or 
 watchword of the society. This at least is the theory, 
 though in practice it sometimes happens that a harmo- 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. S3 
 
 nious combination of letters is first selected for the 
 name, and the motto afterwards fitted to them. 
 
 " Kappa Sigma Epsilon," the oldest freshman society, 
 was founded in July, 1840, by a dozen members of the 
 class of 44, of whom Senator O. S. Ferry of Connec 
 ticut is perhaps as welt known as any. A like number 
 from the class of 49, among whom was Charles G. 
 Came of the Boston Journal, established " Delta Kappa" 
 in November, 1845 > while "Gamma Nu," a non-secret 
 society, was started about ten years later by nine mem 
 bers of the class of 59, including Prof. A. W. Wright 
 of Williams College and Rev. J. H. Twichell of Hartford. 
 There was also a fourth society, called " Sigma Delta," 
 which died in 1860 at the age of eleven. The first of 
 these is always spoken of as " Sigma Eps" ; the second 
 as "Delta Kap" or less often "D K" ; the third is 
 usually named in full, except when contemptuously re 
 ferred to as " Gammy." At the outset, Sigma Eps, 
 having the field to itself, was a select society, restricting 
 its membership to about twenty, picked during the first 
 term from each successive freshman class. Delta Kap 
 also partly maintained this character for a year or two, 
 but the rivalry between the two societies for the posses 
 sion of the " best men" soon became so great as virtu 
 ally to do away with the plan of individual election, and 
 the practice, now in vogue, was introduced, whereby 
 each society endeavors to gain the largest number of 
 members, irrespective of merit or want of it on their 
 part, and the one which succeeds is said to " win the 
 campaign" of the year. The victory always lies between 
 Sigma Eps and Delta Kap, which in a class, say, of one 
 hundred and fifty Freshmen, usually secure about sixty 
 each, while Gamma Nu has to be content with half that 
 number. Delta Kap has now won five out of six suc 
 cessive campaigns, and its last two victories have been 
 
54 FOUR YEARS AT YALK. 
 
 quite decisive ones. In the elass of 73 Delta Kap had 
 88 members, Sigma Eps 36, and Gamma Nu 30; and 
 in the class of 74 the corresponding figures were 72, 
 49 and 29. Though the form of a unanimous election 
 is gone through with, and a single negative vote is suffi 
 cient to reject, no Freshman ever is rejected by these 
 societies, and ever) - Freshman is expected to join one of 
 them. Thus it happens that a " neutral" or non-society 
 Freshman is of late years very rarely heard of. Men 
 who enter college after freshman year are usually secured 
 as honorary members of these societies, and figure in 
 the catalogues and prize lists the same as regular active 
 members. Occasionally, when such a late-entered upper- 
 class man has distinguished himself in some way, two 
 or more societies make efforts to obtain him ; but as a 
 rule there is little rivalry in this respect. It sometimes 
 happens, on the other hand, though not often, that an 
 upper-class man who attempts to gain admission to 
 these societies is rejected. It has been customary, fur 
 thermore, to elect as honorary members some of those 
 who were freshman neutrals in the early years when 
 the societies were select, and who afterwards in col 
 lege or elsewhere distinguished themselves. Generally, 
 though not always, their consent was obtained before 
 hand, but they were seldom initiated, as are the hon 
 orary members from the upper classes in college. Nev 
 ertheless their names usually appear undistinguished 
 from the others in the catalogues, and it hence becomes 
 difficult to discover therefrom the number of regular 
 active members of these societies in all the earlier 
 classes. A very few honorary members are also elected 
 who are indicated as such in the catalogues, because of 
 their never having been connected either with any class 
 represented in the society, or even with the college itself. 
 Such members are ranked with the class which elected 
 them. 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 55 
 
 These catalogues are published every five or six 
 years ; the last one of Sigma Eps being put forth in 
 the summer of 1865 by the class of 68. This is an 
 octavo pamphlet of sixty-four pages, embellished on the 
 outside with the society emblem, and contains the full 
 names and residences of the members, arranged in 
 classes, with an alphabetical index at the end. A " ref 
 erence table" at the beginning explains the meaning of 
 the Greek-letter symbols attached to many of the names. 
 These signify the various college " prizes," " honors," 
 and "offices," gained by particular members. Sigma 
 Eps at Yale, calling itself the " Kappa" chapter, estab- 
 tablished a branch " Alpha" chapter at Amherst, which 
 ran through the four classes from 53 to 57, and died 
 with a total membership of thirty-two. The " Delta" 
 chapter at the Troy Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 
 was started with a dozen men in 1864, an( i lasted a little 
 more than a year. The " Sigma" chapter, founded at 
 Dartmouth in the class of 57, and numbering in its first 
 ten years some two hundred members, still exists in a 
 flourishing condition. According to the catalogue al 
 luded to, the total membership of the society at Yale in 
 twenty-five classes was ion, and of all the chapters 
 combined at that date, 1260. Delta Kap has had six 
 branches outside of Yale, two of which survive. 
 Calling itself the "Alpha" chapter, it named the others, 
 in the order of their establishment, from the successive 
 letters of the Greek alphabet. According to the last 
 catalogue, published at Yale in 1866 by the class of 
 69, the " Gamma" chapter of Amherst, begun in the 
 class of 52, showed a membership of 403, the "Zeta" 
 chapter of Dartmouth, begun in the class of 64, a mem 
 bership of 151, which with Yale s 997 members in 
 twenty-one classes, gave a total of 1553, or about two 
 hundred more than Sigma Eps at that time,- -allowance 
 
56 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 being made for a hundred increase in the Jailer s figures 
 of the year before. The " Eta* chapter was established 
 at Center College, Danville, Ky., in 1867. The war 
 broke up three southern chapters, and destroyed all 
 record of their membership. These were : the " Beta," 
 started at the North Carolina University, in 1850; 
 the "Delta" at the Virginia University, in 1851; and 
 the " Epsilon" at the Mississippi University, in 1853. 
 The Gamma chapter of Amherst died in the fall of 1870, 
 the faculty forbidding the class of 74 to be initiated. 
 Gamma Nu has never published any catalogue, but 
 from the lists printed in the Yale Banner, its first ten 
 classes appear to number 296 members in all, 40 being 
 the largest number belonging to any single class (that 
 of 63). A society of the same name and character 
 was established at Brown University eight or ten years 
 ago, and in 1864 some attempt was made to bring about 
 a formal connection between the two, but nothing re 
 sulted and the societies are quite independent of each 
 other. In August, 1854, the Sigma Delta men of 57 
 issued a catalogue of their society, comprising twenty- 
 two pages and a steel-plate frontispiece of the society 
 badge, with which was connected the motto, Ingenium 
 laboreperfedum. In college esteem the society occupied 
 a position not unlike that since held by Gamma Nu. 
 After its disruption many of its upper-class members 
 were elected into the other two freshman societies. 
 Sigma Delta had chapters at New York University and 
 Amherst, the latter of which died but two years ago. The 
 very general failure of these branch chapters is chiefly 
 due to the different society systems which prevail at 
 most of the other colleges. There, " the junior socie 
 ties," as Yale men call them, are composed of members 
 of all the four classes, and a man s active connection 
 with his society continues till the day he graduates. 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 57 
 
 Hence, the most .desirable Freshmen being " picked " 
 by " the junior societies" very early in the course, have 
 little to gain in joining a distinctively freshman society 
 also, and, if they do join it, their interest in the more 
 worthy organization naturally tends to the disadvantage 
 of the other. At Dartmouth, however, as " the junior 
 societies" elect no members before sophomore year, 
 Sigma Eps and Delta Kap have the freshman field all 
 to themselves, and are able to maintain a creditable 
 existence. The tie which binds the different chapters 
 together is a very slight one, as the active membership 
 lasts only a year, a year in which individual visits be 
 tween different colleges are least likely to happen, and 
 a man s zeal in the cause is seldom prolonged beyond 
 this. The occasional interchange of compliments by 
 the corresponding secretaries, the transaction of a little 
 common business, the entertainment of a very rare vis 
 itor, these comprise the sum of the relations between 
 the chapters. 
 
 The badge pins worn by all the members constitute 
 one of the most distinctive features of these societies. 
 That of Sigma Eps somewhat resembles a Greek cross, 
 except that there are five bars instead of four, between 
 each of which comes the point of a star, the center con 
 sisting of a shield of black enamel, bearing the letters 
 " K Z E " and " Yale." This last gives place to 
 " Dart " for the Dartmouth chapter, and to correspond 
 ing changes for other colleges. Aside from the black 
 shield, there is no relief to the gold surface of the rest 
 of the pin, which, as to size, is perhaps an inch in diam 
 eter. A fasces, a caduceus, an anchor, a torch, and an 
 olive-branch are the emblems engraved upon the five 
 projecting bars. The original badge of this society, in 
 use for ten years or more, was a golden anchor, twined 
 about by the two serpents and surmounted by the winged 
 4* 
 
5 8 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 hat of Mercury. The motto, Sczpe agenda bene agere discere, 
 is generally found in connection with Sigma Eps cuts 
 and posters. The Delta Kap pin is a crescent, three- 
 quarters of an inch in diameter, of black enamel edged 
 with roughened gold, having in its broadest part a 
 white shield, whereon lie a crossed dagger and key, a 
 star in either horn, and below them the symbols "J" 
 and "A ." This is considered the handsomest badge at 
 Yale. It was formerly of plain gold, with three small 
 crescents engraved upon the shield, in place of the dag 
 ger and key. Semper cresccns, is the open motto of this 
 society. The badge of Gamma Nu, in size a trifle 
 smaller than the above, consists of a five-pointed star 
 bearing the symbols " F A r ," surrounded by a circular 
 band, with a wreath ornament upon the lower part, and 
 " Yale " inscribed upon a scroll above ; the body of the 
 pin being gold, the inscriptions and scroll work of black 
 enamel. Its original badge, in use up to 1862, was in 
 the shape of a book, upon the cover of which figured 
 an open hand, with the letters "T" "A A " at the sides, 
 "J-ijfas" above, and "Yale" below. The motto of the 
 society is Jfiuj y.al udsiffixuf 0/.or/ir, and its name in 
 full is FvuriMinv Now. The last badge of Sigma Delta 
 was diamond shaped, and represented a book labeled 
 " Yale," surmounted by a coronet. An upright oval, 
 wherein a star cast its rays upon an enwreathed " -T J," 
 was the pattern previously employed. These badges 
 are worn constantly, from the time a member is initiated 
 until the society is given over to the succeeding class. 
 The usual position is the left side of the vest, at the 
 collar or near the watch-chain, though the pin is some 
 times attached to the neck-tie or shirt-bosom, and once 
 in a while a Freshman is seen displaying his badge up 
 on the outer collar of his coat, a practice not at all 
 uncommon at other colleges. A small gold letter in- 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM, 59 
 
 dicative of the chapter, "X" for Sigma Eps, "A" for 
 Delta Kap, connected to the main badge by a chain, 
 is often to be noticed upon a Freshman s waistcoat. 
 Their note-paper and envelopes are also embellished 
 with the society insignia, in gold or colors ; and the 
 same in the form of elaborate steel-plate or lithographic 
 " posters," often handsomely framed, are displayed upon 
 the walls of their rooms where they are apt to hang 
 undisturbed until graduation day itself. 
 
 The halls of the lower-class college societies are in 
 the upper stories of buildings in different parts of the 
 town, rented of their owners for the purpose, at an 
 annual cost of from one hundred and fifty to two 
 hundred and fifty dollars. A graduate member or 
 other responsible person is persuaded to take out a 
 two or three years lease of a hall for a society, and so 
 long as he is responsible the society is generally hon 
 orable enough to pay the rents promptly, and give him no 
 trouble in the matter. By the time the lease has expired 
 the society has become pretty well established in its 
 hall, cannot easily be ejected without actual violence, 
 which the owner or agent does not like to evoke, for 
 fear of incurring ill will, and often keeps possession of its 
 hall for many years without lease or written agreement of 
 any kind with its owner. It usually pays its rent with 
 tolerable regularity, and in cases when it does get two 
 or three quarters behind hand, a little judicious threat 
 ening and a few hints at ejectment are apt to bring 
 about an early settlement ; so that real-estate holders 
 seldom lose money in these transactions. Yet it is 
 worthy of notice that " strict business men" thus entrust 
 to irresponsible "societies" endowed with no legal 
 existence as such, composed of careless college boys, 
 who are not individually liable for society debts con 
 siderable sums of money, well knowing that the only 
 
60 FOUR YEARS AT K//.A. 
 
 security for its payment lies in so intangible a thing as 
 traditional society integrity. The three freshman halls 
 are situated on Chapel street, the main thoroughfare of 
 the city ; that of Sigma Eps being in Collins Building, 
 a short distance below State street, and distant half a 
 mile from the colleges ; that of Delta Kap being at No. 
 334, near Church street, half as far away; that of 
 Gamma Nu being in Lyon Building, midway between 
 the other two. Sigma Eps for many years occupied a 
 hall in Brewster Building, southeast corner of State and 
 Chapel streets, and close beside the railway station, and 
 moved into its present abode in the fall of 1870 ; Delta 
 Kap spent eighteen years in Austin Building, opposite 
 its present quarters, which it took possession of in 1864 ; 
 and Gamma Nu, after subsisting in the college recitation 
 rooms and elsewhere, became established where it now 
 is in 1863. Its hall is commodious and well furnished, 
 but, though more attractive than the old hall of Sigma 
 Eps, is inferior in size and elegance to the halls now 
 possessed by the other two societies. Each of these 
 contains a stage for theatrical purposes, though Delta 
 Kap is the only freshman hall whose entrance is guarded 
 with double doors of iron. 
 
 When "the candidate for admission to the freshman 
 class in Yale College " draws near to New Haven, for 
 the purpose of attending the dread entrance examina 
 tion, he is usually accosted with the utmost politeness 
 by a jaunty young gentleman, resplendent with mystic 
 insignia, who, after some introductory commonplaces, 
 " presumes he may be intending to enter Yale ?" " Yes." 
 " Perhaps he has heard of some remarkable societies 
 existing in that neighborhood ?" If he has, and says 
 at once that he s "pledged " to this or that society, our 
 affable friend congratulates him on the wisdom of his 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 6 1 
 
 choice, if it be his society, or quickly turns the subject 
 if it happens to be its opponent, and in either case soon 
 bids him good day. But if he wants information on the 
 subject, the jaunty young gentleman is most happy to 
 supply it. " He chances to have in his pocket a prize 
 list, recently published by the college authorities, which 
 shows exactly how the thing now stands." This list of 
 course places one society far ahead of the rest in the 
 matter of " honors," and other desirable things ; which 
 society our friend at length confesses he had the honor 
 of belonging to last year, and thinks he has still enough 
 influence there to secure the unanimous election of his 
 new acquaintance, if he decides to work for it. " Will 
 he pledge to accept the election, in case he is so lucky 
 as to get it for him ?" Perhaps the sub-Freshman says 
 Yes, forthwith. More likely, he " wants to think about 
 it," and would rather " wait till he gets to the city, and 
 looks around for himself, a little." But no, that would 
 be useless. His time will then be taken up with other 
 things. Besides, this list contains all the facts. Hasn t 
 President Woolsey authorized it? Presume his word 
 isn t doubted ? Oh, dear, no ! Well, the whole ground 
 is gone over, and some sort of a pledge is at last ex 
 acted. " If you won t pledge to Sigma Eps, you ll at 
 least promise not to go to Gamma Nu ?" Yes, sub- 
 Fresh will promise that. " And you won t pledge to 
 Delta Kap till you talk with me again ?" " No." And 
 so they part. This is supposed to happen before the 
 train or boat reaches the station or landing. By that 
 time our Sigma Eps partisan for as such we now rec 
 ognize him is in the midst of his argument with 
 another " candidate." They are just preparing to alight, 
 when other Sigma Eps men surround them. At a sign 
 from the first, one takes his valise, another his umbrella, 
 a third his bundle. "This way if you please, Mr. ." 
 
62 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 And before the sub-Fresh has time to protest, he is roll 
 ing along in a hack, and his new found friends are en 
 quiring the number of his boarding house, or the name 
 of the hotel he wishes to go to ? Very likely they treat 
 him to dinner or supper, but at any rate they are very 
 attentive to his wants and do not leave him until he is 
 " pledged." Sometimes the transfer to the hack is not 
 so easily accomplished, for the runners of another so 
 ciety may scent the prey, rush for it, and bear it off in 
 triumph. There are plenty of representatives from all 
 three societies hanging about the railroad station on 
 the arrival of the important trains, and rarely does a 
 sub-Freshman run the gauntlet of their eyes without de 
 tection. They jump upon the platforms of the moving 
 cars, they fight the brakemen, they incommode the 
 travelers, they defy the policemen, but they will offer 
 the advantages of " the best freshman society" to every 
 individual "candidate." And they do. "Pledged "is 
 the magic word, and the only one, that secures the new 
 comer an immunity from their attentions. Amusing 
 mistakes often happen in these contests. A quiet Sen 
 ior, or resident graduate, mistaken by a society runner 
 for a sub-Freshman, may "play off verdant," allow 
 himself to be electioneered, accept a free ride to the 
 hotel, and possibly a supper, and at last, carelessly dis 
 playing a senior-society pin upon his shirt-front, inform 
 his terror stricken entertainers that he "belonged to 
 Delta Kap about four years ago," and wish them a very 
 good evening. 
 
 Within a week from the commencement of the term, 
 about every Freshman has been pledged, and prepara 
 tions are being made for the " initiation." The term 
 opens on Thursday, and the traditional time of initiation 
 is Friday night of the following week. As the darkness 
 approaches, the discordant blasts of tin horns and the 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 63 
 
 rattle of bangers upon the pavement admonish the 
 expectant Freshmen that the hour of their trial is rapidly 
 drawing near. Each one has received during the day a 
 black-edged envelope, covering a black-edged card or 
 sheet of paper, bearing the society badge and this fear 
 ful summons : " Freshman [or " Mr."] So and So : You 
 will be waited upon at your room this evening, and be 
 presented for initiation into the dark and awful mys 
 teries of the - - fraternity. Per order." The half of 
 a card of fantastic design and peculiarly notched edge 
 is also enclosed, and the Freshman is instructed to sur 
 render himself only to the personage who presents him 
 with the other half of that particular card, which will 
 be identified by the " matching" of the edges, no two 
 cards of the many given out having been notched ex 
 actly alike. Sometime between the hours of seven and 
 ten our Freshman is called for, identifies the card pre 
 sented to him, and gives himself up to his conductor, 
 who may very likely have a companion, wearing a mask, 
 like himself, or otherwise disguised. Perhaps they visit 
 some eating house where the Freshman treats to an 
 oyster supper ; or perhaps he promises to give the 
 supper on the following evening ; or perhaps he doesn t 
 care to treat at all. Possibly he has been blindfolded 
 from the time he left his room, and has had a tin horn 
 blown close to his ear occasionally, on the way, though 
 this is unusual. But at length they draw near some 
 public building, from within which proceed sounds as 
 of pandemonium itself. The Freshman is blindfolded 
 for a minute or two, is shoved forward, hears a door 
 open and close behind him with a bang, and opens his 
 eyes to find himself in pitch darkness. However, he 
 at once perceives that he is not alone, but in the midst 
 of other Freshmen, like him "waiting their turn." The 
 noise meanwhile seems louder and louder, and when an 
 
<H FOUR YEARS AT 
 
 inner door opens and a name is called, it becomes al 
 most deafening. Soon our Fresh is wanted. A red 
 devil in the passage way, assisted by a living skeleton, 
 redolent of phosphorus, quickly blindfolds him, and he 
 is hurried upward. When he has reached an elevation 
 apparently of several hundred feet, a new element in 
 the continual din assures him that he is at last in the 
 inquisitorial hall. But just as he begins a reply to the 
 last nonsensical question put by an attendant fiend, 
 some one jostles against him, and down, down, down 
 he falls until he strikes a blanket, held in readiness 
 for him. Then up he flies into the air again, amid ad 
 miring shrieks of " Go it, Freshie !" " Well done, Sub !" 
 " Shake him up !" until a new candidate demands the 
 attention of the tossers. Then he is officiously told to 
 rest himself in a chair, the seat of which lets him into 
 a pail of water, beneath, though a large sponge probably 
 saves him from an actual wetting ; his head and hands 
 are thrust through a pillory, and he is reviled in that 
 awkward position ; he is rolled in an exaggerated squir 
 rel wheel ; a noose is thrown around his neck, and he 
 is dragged beneath the guillotine, when the bandage is 
 pulled from his eyes, and he glares upon the glittering 
 knife of block-tin, which falls within a foot of his throat, 
 and cannot possibly go further. Being thus executed, 
 he is thrust into a coffin, which is hammered upon witli 
 such energy that he is at length recalled to life, pulled 
 out again, and made to wear his coat with the inside 
 outwards. This is the sign that his initiation is over, 
 and he can now stand by and enjoy the fun. Ranging 
 himself with the turn-coated classmates whom he finds 
 have preceded him, he looks upon a motley throng of 
 struggling Sophomores, arrayed in every variety of hid 
 eous and fantastic disguise, shouting, screaming, horn- 
 blowing, and putting the Freshmen through the various 
 
THE SO CIE TY S J :v TE. If. 6 5 
 
 stages of the ceremony, which in his own case has just 
 been completed, while Juniors and Seniors stand by as 
 passive spectators of the sport. A lithographic sketch 
 by W. H. Davenport, for a time in the class of 60, gives 
 a very correct idea of this grotesque initiation scene. 
 
 Formerly, Sigma Eps and Delta Kap held the initi 
 ation in common, hiring for the purpose a public hall, 
 and admitting to the show a select number of visitors, 
 not connected with the societies or with college. The 
 doors were securely guarded by policemen, and no one 
 without society badge or admission ticket could pass 
 the entrance. These tickets were embellished on the 
 one side with some terrific representation of Freshmen 
 seething in fiend-tended cauldrons, or being rended in 
 pieces by animate skeletons, or undergoing some similar 
 torture ; while the other side bore the badges of the 
 two societies, inter-locked or else connected with the 
 clasped hands, and the names of the sophomore com 
 mittee men. Though no longer of any special utility, 
 these cards are still issued, separately, by the societies, 
 and bear but a single badge and committee, though the 
 same cut is employed by both. This cut afterwards 
 figures in the Pot Pourri, in connection with the names 
 of both committees. At these quasi-public initiations, 
 more elaborate processes could be gone through with 
 than those already described. The Freshmen could 
 be raised to any required hight, in a coffin-shaped box, 
 the bottom of which dropping out would allow him to 
 tumble into the awaiting blanket; or a blank charge 
 from two or three muskets could be fired over his head 
 at the instant when he fell through a trap door into the 
 inevitable blanket prepared below ; or the same trap 
 could .be made to do service as a grave into which his 
 encofTmed form might be lowered ; or he could be given 
 a " cradle ride," in a vehicle, much like a reversed hen- 
 
66 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 coop mounted on wheels, which might be dragged 
 swiftly across the stage over the rough clumps of wood 
 carefully placed in its way: things which have not been 
 possible since 1865, when the college authorities decreed 
 that each society must initiate in its own hall, in the 
 presence of no one but its own members. 
 
 Each Sophomore has a particular Freshman assigned 
 to him for initiation, and usually selects some former 
 friend or acquaintance, or a man whom he himself 
 pledged, or one whom he thinks likely to u treat" liber 
 ally, or in lack of these is content with any Freshman 
 whatever. As the Freshmen usually outnumber the 
 Sophomores, a few of the former are assigned to Juniors, 
 members of last year s initiation committee perhaps, 
 who are very glad to seize the opportunity thus offered 
 for a possible " supper." Bat many of the upper class 
 men for Seniors as well as Juniors engage in the dis 
 graceful business who have no Freshmen assigned to 
 them, seize if they can upon those allotted to others, 
 and get from them a supper. Perhaps two or three 
 Freshmen are brought together in a college room, and 
 put through a mock initiation : made to box or fence 
 with one another, dance blindfolded on a table, sing, 
 answer nonsensical questions, pass a mock examination 
 in their lessons before a pretended professor, and so on \ 
 but the supper is the main thing, after all. There are 
 always many Freshmen absent from the evening recita 
 tion of initiation night most of whom are keeping close 
 to their own rooms by order of their sophomore owners, 
 or are lying secreted in the rooms pf the upper-class 
 men who have " stolen" them, and there is always a 
 scuffle on the dismissal of that recitation, in which some 
 Freshmen are "gobbled up" and spirited away. Late 
 in the evening the upper-class men present themselves 
 at the initiation halls with their charges, and attempt to 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 67 
 
 " get through" the latter with a light initiation or none 
 at all. This attempt the Sophomores resist, and a 
 fierce commotion ensues. The Freshman is dragged 
 about by the contending parties, and perhaps has his 
 clothes torn in the struggle. If the Sophs finally get 
 him, he is put through, the whole extent of the ceremony ; 
 otherwise, his friends get his coat turned, and that is 
 the end of it. It is not always in return for a treat 
 simply that this is done. An upper-class man or even 
 a Sophomore, may have a brother or friend vvhdm he 
 wishes to get through, or the mere excitement of the 
 thing and a pure love of mischief may furnish the only 
 motives for the action. Spite of every precaution 
 against it, it is not very difficult in the confusion and 
 hubbub to slide a Freshman through unnoticed, and it 
 is every year accomplished in many cases. But when 
 " detected in the act," the guardians of the Freshman 
 are usually obliged to surrender him to his "rightful 
 owners." In 1866, on account of a rumor that the fac 
 ulty would attempt to abolish the initiation entirely, 
 Delta Kap had a secret one, the night before the usual 
 time, in which none but the Sophomores participated. 
 Since then both societies, by varying the, nights of the 
 ceremony and conducting it in comparative quiet, have 
 endeavored to keep it from the knowledge of upper-class 
 men and the faculty, but without a very marked success. 
 The institution has plainly seen its best or its worst 
 days, yet will doubtless continue to exist for some time 
 to come ; for such things die hard in college. 
 
 The ceremony concluded, the newly initiated are 
 pledged to observe the secrets of their society, ordered 
 to assemble at the hall early on the following evening, 
 and dismissed, though not until several have been 
 called upon to "make speeches," which are greeted 
 with uproarious mock-applause, and sarcastic cries of 
 
68 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 " Well clone, Freshie !" " Good for you !" and so on. 
 Next day the Freshmen pay their initiation fees, which 
 vary from five dollars to twice that, in different societies 
 and different years ; swing out their badges, most of 
 which are lent them by the Sophomores until their own 
 can be engraved upon the back with their names and 
 that of their class ; and at the appointed hour approach 
 their society hall, which they find entirely transformed 
 in appearance since the previous night. The Sopho 
 mores are now stretched out upon the carpeted floor, in 
 the center of the hall, smoking, laughing, and singing, 
 while the Freshmen occupy the seats about them. The 
 president orders the reading of the constitution, whereto 
 the new members affix their names. A farewell poem 
 and oration are pronounced, or possibly a play is acted. 
 Then a new president is elected by the Freshmen, a few 
 parting words of explanation and advice are offered by 
 the retiring sophomore president, hearty cheers are 
 given for him, for the society, and for the new members 
 (which the latter feebly reciprocate not having yet 
 learned to cheer effectively), and the Sophomores, strik 
 ing up a farewell song, for the last time march forth in 
 a body from the hall. The final chant of Delta Kap 
 consists in ah indefinite repetition of the words : " Oh 
 Delta Kappa Kappa Kap, Oh Delta Kappa.TKappa," 
 to the tune of " Yankee Doodle." Reaching the street 
 in front of their hall, the ex-members combine in giving 
 a tremendous " three-times-three" cheer for their society, 
 and disband forever. Previous to the exercises of the 
 second night, a few who had not answered to their 
 names at the roll-call of the night before are sometimes 
 shaken a little in the blanket, as are also, though"more 
 rarely, the few who join the society after their own class 
 controls it. The initiation of honorary members is 
 only a formal ceremony. In the days of joint-initiation, 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 69 
 
 the members of each society, at its close, marched off 
 with their Freshmen to their respective halls, and there, 
 as now, pledged them to secrecy, and dismissed them 
 until the following night. The ceremony which takes 
 place at Gamma Nu on initiation night corresponds to 
 that of the second night in the other societies, though 
 the members are formally summoned and escorted to 
 the hall by Sophomores. There are no treats or sup 
 pers in connection with this society. 
 
 The Freshmen, left to themselves, elect their remain 
 ing officers, a half dozen or more in number, make 
 arrangements for their next society meeting, and ad 
 journ, having first engaged the janitor, recommended 
 them by their predecessors, who keeps the hall in order, 
 and locks its doors. A duplicate set of keys, however, 
 is kept in possession of the president. The meetings of 
 the societies are held every Saturday evening, opening 
 about eight o clock and lasting two or three hours. 
 The exercises are of a literary character and consist of 
 debates, declamations, and orations, the reading of es 
 says and selected passages and the society " papers," 
 which are made up of miscellaneous writings prepared 
 by regularly elected editors. The paper of Sigma Eps 
 is called the Star, that of Delta Kap the Crescent. A 
 critique upon the proceedings of that or the previous 
 meeting is generally the last thing offered. The ap 
 pointments for the various duties are announced by the 
 president one, two or three weeks in advance, and the 
 order of exercises of the following week is read at the 
 close of each meeting. Full programmes of the exer 
 cises and appointments of each evening, written out by 
 the secretary upon blank forms printed for the purpose, 
 are posted about the halls. Fines are exacted for fail 
 ure to fulfil appointments, or for absence at roll-call, 
 which is made both at the opening and the close of the 
 
7 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 meeting ; and a neglect to pay fines or taxes may de 
 prive a member of the right of suffrage. Once or twice 
 in a year a " prize debate" is instituted, before old soci 
 ety men members of the faculty if possible as judges. 
 Printed programmes are provided, and neither these 
 nor the names of the prize takers are kept secret from 
 the outside world. These semi-public debates were 
 started by the Delta Kap men of 70, though less exten 
 sive prize trials had been known of in previous years 
 in both societies. There is considerable singing of so 
 ciety songs at the meetings, with accompaniment on the 
 piano forte, one of which instruments is owned or 
 rented by every college society, and nearly every class 
 feels bound to add a song or two to the collection, if 
 not to print a new edition of the song book. Delta 
 Kap no longer pretends to keep its song book secret, 
 and with Sigma Eps the concealment is only nominal, 
 but as the Freshmen disband at a comparatively early 
 hour, they rarely sing their songs upon the street. A 
 group of upper-class men may sometimes strike up a 
 freshman-society song, though not usually in the day 
 time. 
 
 For the first few weeks succeeding initiation, a good 
 number of Sophomores drop in at the meetings, "to 
 see how the Freshies are getting along," but after that 
 only a few upper-class men will be found there, except 
 there be some special attraction, as a contested election 
 of officers, or a play, or a "peanut-bum." When the 
 society, in the persons of its active or honorary mem 
 bers, has come off with honors in some college contest 
 (or without them it makes little difference), the event 
 is celebrated in this wise at the next succeeding nuvi- 
 ing : After the close of the literary exercises, a sack 
 containing one or two bushels of peanuts is emptied 
 upon the Moor, and an indiscriminate scramble is made 
 
THE SO CIE-TY S YS TEAL 7 l 
 
 for them by the upper-class guests and their freshman 
 entertainers. Then cigars are distributed, and perhaps 
 in extraordinary cases fruit also, while lemonade may 
 supersede the customary ice water for stronger bever 
 ages are unknown in a freshman society. Smoking is 
 also forbidden during the exercises, and card-playing at 
 any time is a thing unheard of. Gamma Nu holds once 
 a term what is called a "jubilee," on which occasions 
 upper-class men and other honorary members address 
 the society. These and all its literary exercises are 
 open to all in college who choose to attend them, though 
 the business of the. society is transacted in the presence 
 of none but members. In rare cases a Senior or even 
 a Junior will invite to his freshman hall a classmate who 
 belonged to a rival society. This causes much indigna 
 tion among the Freshmen, and when they discover any 
 such visitor, he is apt to be expelled without much cere 
 mony. Even upper-class men regard the practice as 
 rather dishonorable. It happens on initiation nights 
 oftener than at other times, when, on account of the dis 
 guises and the confusion, an interloper is more likely to 
 escape detection ; though if he is detected then, his 
 chances for an easy escape are proportionately lessened. 
 It might be a serious matter for anyone not a college 
 man to be caught trespassing in a freshman-society hall. 
 A few years ago a person, believed to be a reporter for 
 a city paper, was found at the Sigma Eps initiation, and 
 so thoroughly " put through" that he will not be likely 
 to repeat his visit. It is possible that the public is in 
 debted to this gentleman for many of the fabulous ac 
 counts of college doings, which have been so widely 
 circulated by the newspapers. 
 
 The society officers are elected twice a term. The 
 office of president is accounted a high honor, especially 
 that of final or " campaign" president of each class, 
 
72 FOUR YEARS A 7" YALE. 
 
 and party spirit between the supporters of different can 
 didates often runs high. The " parties" are usually 
 managed in the interests of the junior societies, in a 
 way described hereafter, and when nearly equal they 
 stir up considerable excitement. "Fence men" are 
 treated to suppers, promised "class elections" to junior 
 societies by those who are pledged there, and by any 
 and every means pledged to vote with one party or the 
 other, or to absent themselves from the election. In 
 extreme cases, men are spirited away or locked up by 
 partisans of " the other side," until after the election is 
 concluded. In this event the minority attempt to defer 
 the election, and by skilful skirmishing and " time" dis 
 cussions upon parliamentary decisions, may be able to 
 " keep the floor" till midnight when the meeting is ad 
 journed by limitation and so carry their point. At 
 the Sigma Eps campaign election of 1866, the "essay 
 ist" strengthened one of his arguments by a quotation 
 from a congressional speech which what with interrup 
 tions, and discussions of the " points of order" involved, 
 which the chair decided in favor of the essayist was 
 unfinished when the hour of adjournment arrived. The 
 half dozen or more members of the initiation commit 
 tee are also chosen on the night of the campaign elec 
 tion, or appointed by the president then elected, who 
 by virtue of his office is always one of them. Positions 
 on this committee are eagerly sought for, and are gen 
 erally given to "popular" men, rather than to those 
 otherwise distinguished. Its members wear as a badge 
 of office a small gold horn, or pair of horns crossed, 
 next to their society pin. Besides attending to the init 
 iation when it comes, they are supposed to take the 
 lead beforehand in electioneering and pledging sub- 
 Frcshmen to the society. Gamma Nu elects a corres 
 ponding "campaign committee," but as there are no 
 
THE SO CIE TV S YS TEM. 7 3 
 
 badges nor suppers attendant upon the office, positions 
 upon it are not accounted of so much importance. In 
 years when junior politics do not affect the freshman 
 societies,- two of them, usually the secret ones, form a 
 coalition against the third, and exclude the latter from 
 any share in the " Annual Jubilee " committee. For 
 merly, when the two general college societies were more 
 flourishing, the campaign vice-secretaryships of Linonia 
 and Brothers were considered sufficiently desirable 
 offices to be portioned out in advance by means of a 
 coalition ; but at present the membership of the com 
 mittee referred to is the only elective honor of freshman 
 year that is thought worth righting for. Each of the 
 two societies of the coalition therefore nominates half 
 the members of the committee and agrees to support 
 the nominees of the other ; and as both combined form 
 a clear majority of the class, the candidates of a third 
 party or society have very little chance, on the day when 
 " the class" as such elects its committee. 
 
 Hardly are the Freshmen in control of their society, 
 when an. anxiety for their successors prompts them to 
 dispatch messengers to the large fitting-schools at An- 
 dover, Easthampton and elsewhere which they them 
 selves have just quitted, and "pledge" as many sub- 
 Fresh as possible. A school once controlled by a so 
 ciety is apt to remain so, during several successive 
 years ; for self-interest naturally keeps its members to 
 gether and inclines them to follow in the footsteps of 
 predecessors with whom they are acquainted. Thus 
 the Andover men go to Delta Kap almost in a body, 
 and usually control the election of the first president, 
 whom indeed they may have nominated before leaving 
 their academy. But school-day distinctions as a politi 
 cal force seldom outlast the first few months of college 
 life. So carefully is the early canvass conducted, that 
 
 5 
 
74 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the members of all schools of any importance are 
 " pledged " months before they approach New Haven, 
 and it is only the ones fitted under private tutors or in 
 distant parts of the country, who have to be met and 
 argued with in the manner already described, though 
 these doubtless form in the aggregate a majority of the 
 whole number. As the time of the entrance examin 
 ation approaches, not only do the freshman-society run 
 ners infest the trains and the New Haven depot, as 
 already stated, but they are also regularly stationed at 
 important railway centers, as New York, Springfield 
 and New London, and there lie in wait for the un 
 pledged "candidates." The expenses of a campaign 
 conducted in this manner are of course considerable, 
 and are borne for the most part by the society, though 
 not unfrequently the campaign president or even mem 
 bers of the initiation committee individually pay out 
 considerable sums of money for "the cause." Shortly 
 after initiation night, the two committees join in giving 
 an elaborate supper, to which are invited the committees 
 of the year before, and perhaps also those in the senior 
 class what there are left of them. Ornamented bills- 
 of-fare bearing the insignia of the two societies and the 
 names of those partaking of the feast, are sometimes 
 provided. For this supper sometimes the society pays, 
 sometimes the individual committee men ; and some 
 times the latter agree in consideration of the supper to 
 present no bills for electioneering expenses incurred in 
 the society s behalf. There is a dispute as to the the 
 ory of the thing, but in practice it amounts to this, that 
 if any money is left in the treasury after the regular 
 debts of the society have been paid, the committee 
 are pretty certain to have it, for their supper ; otherwise 
 their claim amounts to little. The last supper was 
 given by the committees of 71. Those of 72 set a 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 75 
 
 better precedent, and as those of 73 followed it, per 
 haps the custom will not be again revived. 
 
 Each class gives the society free from debt to its suc 
 cessor, and generally leaves behind some substantial 
 token of remembrance in the form of an improvement 
 to the hall or other addition to the society property. 
 A large amount of money, even, was left in the Delta 
 Kap treasury by the Sophs of 72. Aside from the fines, 
 which avail but little, taxes, to the amount of ten or fif 
 teen dollars in all, are levied upon the members, at 
 various times during the year, to meet the current 
 expenses ; and the initiation fees derived from the suc 
 ceeding class are expended in advance for the same pur 
 pose. Directly and indirectly, a man s freshman society 
 will cost him on the average from thirty-five to forty 
 dollars. In the case of Gamma Nu, where there .are no 
 outside and unnecessary expenses, these figures may be 
 somewhat reduced, but from the fewness of its members 
 the share of each in its regular expenses must be pro 
 portionately greater than in the other societies. When 
 Freshmen find no traces of their initiation fees in the 
 society treasury, they are often a little indignant, imag 
 ine themselves the victims of " another swindle," and 
 put ready confidence in current rumors that all their 
 money is expended upon a supper for the initiation com 
 mittee or for the society in general. As already shown, 
 however, the greater part of the money is invested for 
 the permanent benefit of the society, for which their pre 
 decessors of course claim the credit. 
 
 At first the Freshman cares a good deal for his society. 
 He is punctual at the meetings, fulfills his appointments, 
 pays his fines and taxes promptly, and above all is very 
 zealous about keeping its "secrets." He scorns and 
 detests those upper-class men who talk over his society 
 affairs so freely with outsiders, and vows to himself that 
 
7 6 FOUR \KARS AT YALE. 
 
 he will never be guilty of such baseness in future years. 
 Gradually his interest lessens. He gets a pledge to a 
 junior society or tries to and begins to " wonder how 
 the sophomore-society elections are coming out." He 
 grows inclined to think his taxes oppressive, and to vote 
 that the society expenditures be hereafter met by future 
 initiation fees. If he belongs to a faction far in the 
 minority, perhaps he absents himself from most of the 
 meetings, and gives the majority leave " to run their own 
 society." The third term comes, with its many special 
 excitements, and the regular routine is sadly broken up. 
 Delta Kap for the first time nails clown its foot-lights 
 and brings out a play or two. The campaign elections 
 are decided, and the fight over the unpledged sub-Fresh 
 men begins in earnest. The new year opens, and the 
 Sophomore who has probably experienced a sea change 
 for the worse in his notions of morality initiates his 
 Freshman, and "gets a supper" from him if he can. He 
 still takes a little interest in his old society, but doesn t 
 scruple to relate outside anything notable which he sees 
 occurring there. By the time he becomes a Junior or 
 Senior, he hardly thinks of his society at all, save when 
 he tries to "get a supper" of a Freshman in its name, 
 or is invited to a play or "peanut bum." A dozen years 
 after graduation, he would hesitate before he could tell 
 you the name of it. A graduate rarely enters the society 
 unless specially invited, or sent by the faculty as its rep 
 resentative. It is esteemed dishonorable for an upper- 
 class man to electioneer or pledge for a freshman socictv, 
 and such pledges count for little in the college code. 
 He may say to a friend or relative : " I account my soci 
 ety the best one, and advise you to go there," but noth 
 ing more. So, likewise, public sentiment condemns an 
 upper class man who allows fn-shman sot ii-ty consider 
 ations to effect his clmi.v of candidates for office, or to 
 prejudice in any way his action or opinion. 
 
THE SO CIE TY S YS I EM: 7 7 
 
 The prize lists issued by each society as electioneering 
 arguments do not really conflict with one another, though 
 each makes its own society appear ahead in the matter 
 of honors, and, taken by itself, conclusively proves it to 
 be in those respects "the best." The inference drawn 
 by Freshmen from the apparently contradictory state 
 ments, that all the figures are unreliable, is a mistaken 
 one in fact, though practically about correct, since the 
 figures as arranged are the means of as much deception 
 as if really in themselves untrue. Taking the three 
 lists of 1866, as fairly representing how the "art of put 
 ting things" is usually practised by these societies, we 
 find that Sigma Eps ignores Gamma Nu altogether, and 
 compares itself "with its rival Delta Kap" in respect to 
 those classes of honors which have,, during the last few 
 years, turned the scale in its own favor. Delta Kap, on 
 the other hand, reprints the summaries of the two cata 
 logues, and thus makes out its total membership and 
 number of honors to be ahead of its rival. It shows 
 how that it has had more of the Cochleaureati and the 
 senior-society men of the past few years than all the 
 other societies combined, and has " received eight out of 
 fourteen Wooden Spoons." It also exhibits itself ahead 
 in the matter of " Editors of the Yale Lit." " class 
 orators and poets," " DeForest-medal men" and " Com 
 modores of the Navy," taken for a long series of years. 
 An examination of opposing lists may show that of late 
 years it has been behind in these respects. The Gamma 
 Nu list, calling itself, with a certain amount of truth, 
 " the only complete and authentic record published," 
 does not display its badge, as the other lists do, or other 
 wise indicate its origin. Like Sigma Eps, it confines 
 most of its statistics to the four classes in college, and, 
 unlike it, compares the honors taken by all three socie 
 ties. The result is of course in its own favor. A 
 
78 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 peculiarity of this list is the indication in the "sum 
 mary" of the "cash value" of the honors. As Gamma 
 Nu takes most of the scholarships, which are the only 
 " honors" whose " cash value" is of any consequence, 
 the reason of this is obvious. The highest elective, and 
 all but the highest literary, honors and these are 
 accounted of more importance than any others are 
 thus reduced to nothing in the " summary of cash val 
 ues ;" while a single important scholarship makes a 
 greater display of dollars and cents than could all the 
 other honors of college combined. Another peculiarity 
 of the list is the. publication of " the elective political 
 honors of the past year, that is, the officers of Linonia 
 and Brothers." Formerly, without doubt, these offices 
 might fairly be included among the honors ; but for some 
 years past the " elections" have gone by default, and an 
 " office" in one of these defunct institutions has been 
 quite as commonly considered a disgrace as an honor to 
 the holder. The present list, in its "grand total of the 
 four classes," gives Gamma Nu 109 honors with a cash 
 value of $2400; Sigma Eps 72, valued at $680; and 
 Delta Kap 62, valued at $316. Each society of course 
 possesses " strong points" of its own, and the effective 
 ness of a prize list depends upon the skill with which 
 they are brought into prominence, and made to over 
 shadow its shortcomings in those respects wherein a 
 rival list as evidently has the advantage. Of the verbal 
 arguments employed by the partisans of these societies 
 no description is possible, but nothing more absurd and 
 preposterous than much which is said in favor or against 
 them can well be imagined. Perhaps the claim which 
 excites the most general derision is that soberly advanced 
 by Gamma Nu men, to account for their want of success 
 in securing Freshmen, that " the number of their mem 
 bers is designedly limited." On the whole, the oppos- 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 79 
 
 ing arguments and prize lists may be said to prove 
 almost nothing, and to do little more than confuse 
 the "candidate" who attempts to compare them and 
 make out their significance. 
 
 In the college faculty Sigma Eps and Delta Kap are 
 each represented by a half-dozen professors, and Gamma 
 Nu by two or three tutors. Among other names to be 
 noticed in the Sigma Eps catalogue are those of Henry 
 T. Blake of 48, patron of the Wooden Spoon ; William 
 I). Bishop of 49, founder of a prize debate fund in 
 Linonia ; Champion Bissell and Frederic B. Perkins of 
 50; George W. Smalley of 53, London correspondent 
 of the Tribune ; Sidney E. Morse of 56, publisher of 
 the N. Y. Observer ; and many professors at other col 
 leges, tutors at Yale, lawyers, doctors and clergymen. 
 Among Delta Kap men may be mentioned Charles D. 
 Gardette of 50; Homer B. Sprague, and William M. 
 Stewart, U. S. Senator from Nevada, of 52 ; Andrew D. 
 White, president of Cornell University, Charlton T. 
 Lewis, of the Evening Post, and Edmund C. Stedman, 
 of 53 ; Rev. William H. H. Murray of 62, with the 
 usual proportion of Yale tutors and outside professors, a 
 general or two upon either side during the late war, and 
 others. From the comparatively recent establishment 
 of Gamma Nu, it naturally happens that few well known 
 names can be found upon its lists. 
 
 The attempt to indicate the relative position of these 
 societies is rendered the more difficult by the anomalous 
 character of the youngest one, which calls for an ex 
 tended explanation. Gamma Nu was started as an open 
 society, in direct defiance of the established order of 
 things, and its founders, suffering the fate of all reformers, 
 were despised, derided and abused. Every possible 
 attempt was made to crush the " Gamma Nuisance" and 
 to bring its supporters to naught ; but spite of persecu- 
 
So l- OTR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 tion and obloquy or perhaps because of them the 
 society slowly gained ground, and finally fought its way 
 into recognition as a college institution. Attempts are 
 no longer made to break it up, or to debar its members 
 from the elective honors of the college ; yet a trace of 
 the old prescriptive spirit still manifests itself both in 
 the ill-defined prejudice against " Gamma Nu men" 
 which always prevails among the members of the other- 
 societies, and in the instinctive consciousness on the 
 part of the former that they are "looked down upon" by 
 their rivals. The name is still a sort of reproach, and a 
 general sigh of " Too bad !" goes up when the fact is 
 known that some "good fellow" has "pledged to Gamma 
 Nu." Yet some "good fellows," and some of the very 
 best men, in every class, do go there as also do some 
 of the very poorest. Two quite opposite motives draw 
 members thither : the one, a manly contempt for the 
 silly mummeries and greedy extortions attendant upon 
 the secret societies ; the other, a childish dread of the 
 pictured terrors of initiation. But as time passes on, 
 and the one influenced by the former consideration finds 
 that these evident faults as compared to offsetting advan 
 tages are small, and the one influenced by the latter 
 finds that they are little more than inventions, both 
 are apt to repent of their action. Probably few men 
 ever joined the society who were not afterwards, in their 
 own hearts, a trifle ashamed of it. The natural result 
 is a fierce attempt by zeal in its behalf to cover up the 
 disappointment. Gamma Nu men fulfil their society 
 duties more faithfully than do others, electioneer more 
 persistently, attend to its interests more noticeably when 
 they become upper-class men, and so on. They are, in 
 short, harder workers, and, in proportion to their num 
 bers, they secure a far larger share of the substantial 
 college awards. But by everything they do they show 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 8 1 
 
 the consciousness of the hated social inferiority, against 
 which they so pluckily and hopelessly contend. Among 
 upper-class men, Sigma Eps may deride Delta Kap, and 
 it passes for a joke ; Delta Kap may insinuate that 
 Sigma Eps as a Junior blackballs all but his own men, 
 and nothing but laughter results ; but when the attempt 
 is made thus to jest about Gamma Nu, it falls flat. For 
 there is a sort of sneaking feeling that upper-class 
 Gamma Nu men do work for their freshman society on 
 occasion, and facetious references to the belief may 
 " hit" some one awkwardly. A man may be retailing the 
 most fearful slanders concerning either the secret socie 
 ties without thinking who are his auditors, but the 
 moment he has said anything against Gamma Nu he 
 instinctively glances through them for fear lest some one 
 be " hurt." 
 
 The faculty have sometimes favored this society as 
 against the others, by giving notice that those who join 
 the latter diminish their chances of receiving pecuniary 
 assistance as indigent students. 1 he principle, too, 
 which excites sympathy for " the under dog in the fight" 
 has drawn to the fold many of its best men. A few of 
 the weaklings those who at the first secretly admired 
 the worst features of the other societies, but were afraid 
 to join them often leave Gamma Nu, and sometimes 
 even join one of its rivals, where, like all traitors, they 
 are received joyfully, and despised heartily ; while on 
 the other hand no Sigma Eps or Delta Kap man ever 
 yet deserted his society for a rival one. Yet almost 
 universally the fact is as stated, that the consciousness 
 of being under the ban of college opinion causes the 
 Gamma Nu men to make more of their society than do 
 any of the others. Much of the prejudice against it is 
 undoubtedly due to this, that it cannot lay claim to the 
 respect always given to consistent action. Its members 
 5* 
 
#2 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 are as ready as anyone to join the upper-class secret 
 societies, so that the pretence of their being any " prin 
 ciple" involved in its anti-secret character is of course 
 absurd. Such a society is only possible in freshman 
 year, for no man who understands the drift of things in 
 college could ever be persuaded to join it. In a broadly 
 general way, Gamma Nu may be called the society of 
 hard working scholarship, Sigma Epsof careless literary 
 excellence, and Delta Kap of good fellowship and socia 
 bility ; though the characters here assigned as distinctive 
 of the two last are not so marked, perhaps, as that indi 
 cated for the first, and their social standing in the col 
 lege world is one of absolute equality. Judged by its 
 success, Delta Kap is at present " the best society," and 
 in it an average man is likely to enjoy himself more and 
 improve his opportunities less than in either of the 
 others. The exact reverse in both these respects is 
 true of Gamma Nu ; while Sigma Eps occupies an inter 
 mediate position very much nearer the former than 
 the latter. The scheme of exercises in the three socie 
 ties is, as already stated, essentially identical ; the influ 
 ence which each exerts in inclining a man to make the 
 most of his chances, is the thing in which they differ. 
 As to their "secrecy," it can hardly be said to amount 
 to more than this, that while Gamma Nu transacts only 
 part of its business with closed doors, the other two 
 societies keep theirs shut against outsiders altogether. 
 The transactions themselves, after freshman year at 
 least, are known to all who care to enquire about them. 
 It has been said that " some very poor men go to Gamma 
 Nu," and of course the same hold true of the other 
 societies ; but there is this important difference, that 
 while, from the srnallness of its membership, a man 
 must in the first case be thrown in close contact with 
 those whom he dislikes, and be thought of as their com- 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 83 
 
 panion, it happens in the case of the other societies 
 that their numbers allows the formation of congenial 
 cliques with whom alone a man directly associates or is 
 associated in the popular mind. Thus the names of 
 these two societies become connected almost entirely 
 with their best representatives, and the poorer ones are 
 in some way overlooked ; so that in speaking of an 
 upper-class "pill," the habit is common to say, "Gamma 
 Nu man, I suppose ?" and if the reply is, " No, I believe 
 he belonged to Sigma Eps," or " to Delta Kap," to add, 
 " Well, he should have been one if he was n t." 
 
 The initiation, as it has been described, may perhaps 
 appear somewhat formidable, and it may be well to add 
 a few negative statements concerning it, and also to ex 
 plain away the absurd fictions founded upon it, which 
 are annually current in the newspapers. In the first 
 place, there is nothing dangerous about the ceremony, 
 and no one ever comes to serious bodily harm. In ex 
 ceedingly rare cases, from accident or carelessness, a 
 slight bruise or so may be inflicted, but as for the broken 
 arms and legs which excite so much editorial indigna 
 tion, they are simply the myths of imaginative reporters 
 and nothing more. In 1869 a report, started by an ob 
 scure city paper called the Lever, was copied all over 
 the country, to the effect that " at the Delta Kap initia 
 tion one Freshman had both bones of the forearm 
 broken short off near the elbow, and several others were 
 carried away in carriages in an insensible condition." 
 Of this so plausibly circumstantial a story the sole basis 
 was a carriage or two ; for the carriages were really 
 before the hall, and in them two or three Freshmen were 
 hurried off to the awaiting suppers, their conductors 
 fearing to walk them thither lest they be "gobbled up" 
 on the way. The theory of the initiation is to try the 
 Freshman s nerves in every way, to scare him thoroughly. 
 
S4 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 but not to hurt him. There is nothing specially unpleas 
 ant about being tossed in a blanket, and Freshmen often 
 toss one another for the mere fun of the thing. But a 
 blindfolded man, in a pandemonium of noises, and an 
 atmosphere of tobacco smoke, flying up and down 
 through illimitable space, needs all his wits about him 
 if he would keep cool and reason himself into a feeling 
 of security. No one has any right to enter college until 
 he is old enough to go through these imaginary terrors 
 without any great amount of flinching, but in the rare 
 instances when a very young Freshman shows signs of 
 faintness, at any point in the ceremony, the bandage is 
 at once pulled from his eyes and he is declared initiated : 
 a proceeding which is pretty certain to restore him forth 
 with. Nor is it true that drunken men control the pro 
 ceedings. A Sophomore or two may be present who 
 have plainly imbibed too freely at their suppers, but 
 they are closely watched by their sober companions, and 
 prevented from putting Freshmen through any process 
 outside the regular programme. The stories of Fresh 
 men being forced to lie down with corpses, in the base 
 ment of the State House, or being really buried in 
 grave yards, or in the pit where the subjects from the 
 dissecting room are finally thrown, have no grain of 
 truth in them beyond the fact that the regular initiation 
 has sometimes been held in the State House basement, 
 and sometimes in the hall of the old Medical College. 
 A mask or wax-figure in a coffin may really be mistaken 
 for a corpse by a bewildered Freshman, and the lower 
 ing of his encased form through a trap door may per 
 haps startle him. There the imagined horror ends. 
 The many other fearful rumors, which prevail among 
 the uninitiated and find their way into print, when traced 
 to their source will be found to have no more ground 
 work of reality than the fables whose genesis has just 
 been indicated. 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 85 
 
 On another point there seems to be a great misappre 
 hension in the public prints. According to newspaper 
 authority the suppers are bribes, and the initiation a 
 thing devised solely to punish those who do not "treat." 
 It has been already shown that the one thing does not 
 depend upon the other, that men are " put through" 
 without any regard to their liberality in the way of feast 
 ing their conductors, and that nothing enrages the Soph 
 omores more than to have upper-class men who have 
 been " treated" by Freshmen try to "get them through," 
 solely on that account. Freshmen also, to avoid being 
 " stolen" by the wrong men, often pay their conductors 
 in advance the price of the supper they propose to fur 
 nish, and by some accident or confusion it may in rare 
 cases happen that they do not share in the treat they 
 have paid for. This must be the foundation of the tales 
 of Sophomores extorting money from Freshmen, under 
 penalty of initiating them with severity, and quietly 
 putting it in their own pockets. This supper business, 
 which is really the worst feature of these societies, is 
 evidently bad enough in itself, without these imaginary 
 embellishments. It is, however, patterned after the 
 treats connected with entrance to the upper-class socie 
 ties. But there, entertainers and entertained are fewer, 
 and more select, and to a great extent personally known 
 to each other, and the elected are supposed to show their 
 gratitude for the honor conferred upon them by their 
 superiors : while here, except in a few rare cases, both 
 parties to the supper are unacquainted, and either ene 
 mies to one another or likely to become so ; everything 
 about the affair is constrained and unnatural ; and, with 
 out the pretence of sociability still worse, with the pre 
 tence the enjoyment is simply an animal one. In its 
 essence, the principle which induces a man to give the 
 expected supper in freshman year that is, the active 
 
86 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 desire to appear liberal or the passive one not to appear 
 mean hardly differs from that which influences him on 
 similar occasions for the two years following ; yet the 
 " accidents" (as the logicians say) which surround its 
 display in the former case are much more repulsive and 
 disgraceful than in the latter. 
 
 Undoubtedly the initiation and its attendant customs 
 put an unusual amount of power into the hands of the 
 Sophomores, which those of them who, as compared 
 with the rest, are unscrupulous oftentimes abuse ; yet as 
 Freshmen have hardly acquired any distinct personality 
 or made any individual enemies up to the time they are 
 initiated, the private revenges which particular Sopho 
 mores take this occasion to wreak are not common. On 
 the whole, then, a fair-minded man who fully under 
 stands the thing looks upon the initiation as a ceremony 
 silly, childish and perhaps a trifle disreputable, but cer 
 tainly not cruel, nor malicious, nor barbarous ; while as 
 for the suppers, he either wishes that most of the upper- 
 class men who swallow them might choke in the process, 
 or, if a believer in the decency of human nature, reso 
 lutely refuses to think of them at all. 
 
 To the boy fitting for Yale, this much of advice can 
 fairly be given : Pledge early to one of these three soci 
 eties. Choose the one where your friends will be with 
 you, or the one which your upper-class friends recom 
 mend. If you enter college alone and unacquainted, 
 and have no preference in the matter, either decide up 
 on your society in advance, by the simple expedient of 
 drawing lots or throwing dice, or else pledge to the first 
 society for which you are electioneered. You can gain 
 nothing by delay. You can learn nothing from partisan 
 arguments or prize lists. You can accomplish nothing 
 by personal inspection. Pledge at once, and your 
 troubles will be over. Attempt to find out " the best," 
 and you will be pretty certain to take up with the worst. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 SOP II O M ORE S O C I E T I E S . 
 
 Kappa Sigma Theta. Alpha Sigma Phi Phi Theta Psi Delta 
 Beta Xi The Yale " Banger" and " Tomahawk" Chapters- 
 Posters and Song Books Electioneering and Pledging Giving 
 out Elections Initiation Ordinary Exercises Singing Class 
 Elections The Sophomore Type. 
 
 Tradition has it that in the old days of Bully Clubs 
 and town-and-gown disturbances, there were sophomore 
 societies whose members were distinguished by the 
 peculiar shape of the clubs which they carried as 
 badges. Sometimes the societies grew out of the debat 
 ing associations of freshman year, which each class 
 established for itself. Like them, they seem to have 
 been without name or formal organization. Apparently, 
 the first regular sophomore society originated in the 
 class of 41, and started into being in July, 1838, though 
 a freshman debating club perhaps served as the nucleus 
 which drew its members together. It was called " Kappa 
 Sigma Theta," though, as is the case of Sigma Eps, 
 the "Kappa" was popularly unrecognized, and its 
 badge was a small rectangular gold plate on which, 
 above the society letters, the emvreathed, helmet-crested 
 head of Minerva was engraved. The surface of the pin 
 was glazed over, to prevent the engraving from become- 
 ing rubbed and worn. Besides its secret motto, Koiv^ 
 Jiofjm,,* Ota, it had several open ones: Tu nihil invita 
 dices faciesve Minerva, To rov dt Oownov ptTQOv IGXIV 1} 
 (} ni t t>, and, Coronat scientia cultores suos, of which the 
 first was the commonest. The story goes that, as the 
 
FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 sophomore year of 41 drew to its close, some members 
 of the society proposed that, instead of disbanding the 
 organization, it should be turned over to the incoming 
 Sophs of 42, in consideration of a supper given by 
 them. The respectable portion of the society opposed 
 the plan, and when the others took advantage of their 
 absence and carried it through, they themselves destroyed 
 the society plate and records. Sigma Theta, however, 
 thenceforth existed as a regular sophomore society, and 
 though a rival sprung up a few years later, it continued 
 to flourish until the sophomore year of 57, when ten or 
 a dozen of the ablest men of that class, most or all of 
 whom belonged to Sigma Theta or its rival, formed a 
 sort of select club, which was apparently intended to 
 last through the course and not to conflict with any of 
 the existing societies. Its badge resembled the original 
 one of Sigma Eps, and a room in Townsend s Block, 
 opposite the colleges, served as its place of meeting, but 
 the club never figured in the Banner, and its name, if it 
 had any, has not been preserved. Though no mention 
 was ever made of it in any of the college prints, the 
 existence of the club caused a great uproar throughout 
 college, especially among the Sophomores, and sopho 
 more-society men. Its members were said to be traitors 
 to the regular societies which they belonged to, and ene 
 mies of the whole system, and so were expelled from 
 the former as a punishment for their crime. Few of 
 them ever got into the junior societies except by honor 
 ary elections, and though several of them become sen 
 ior-society men, more doubtless would have been elected 
 except for the unfortunate club. But the expulsion of 
 its best men from Sigma Theta, was that society s death 
 blow, for the internal dissensions which resulted there 
 from were never harmonized, and things went on from 
 bad to worse until in 1858, when no more members could 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 89 
 
 be induced to join it, the society definitely gave up the 
 ghost. 
 
 As already remarked, Sigma Theta was not left many 
 years without a rival, for the same class and some of the 
 same men who founded Delta Kap established in 1846 
 the " Alpha Sigma Phi," whose name in its abbreviated 
 form of Sigma Phi is not to be confounded with a soci 
 ety so designated which exists in other colleges. Its 
 badge in shape was an upright rectangle, almost a 
 square, a trifle less than an inch in diameter ; its device 
 was an open book, in white, displaying several hiero 
 glyphic characters, and crowned by a pen ; below were 
 the letters "A 2 <l> " in gold, the pen and the frame 
 work being of the same material, and the ground a 
 shield of black enamel. The wood-cut vignette of the 
 society was identical with its badge, except that the 
 framework surrounding the shield gave place in the 
 former to a rectangular wreath of oak leaves. Neither 
 badge nor vignette ever underwent the slightest change. 
 Its open motto was, Causa latet, vis est notissima, and its 
 secret one, Anfad a, 2ocfi a, <I>i/.ia. Sigma Phi survived 
 its rival Sigma Theta only a half-dozen years, and in 
 1864 came to a rather inglorious end. The trouble 
 arose in this wise : About half of the Sigma Phi Sopho 
 mores of 66 were pledged to the junior society of Psi 
 I , and half to its rival DKE. Each faction wished that 
 a majority of the elections given to the Freshmen of 
 67 should be received by those who were pledged to its 
 own junior society, and hence a fearful strife arose. 
 The final result of it was that each faction in turn 
 " expelled the other from the society, gave out elections 
 to its own Freshmen, and initiated them without taking 
 them to the hall. This had in the meantime been 
 closed, for the faculty, influenced by the notoriously dis 
 reputable character of the society, took advantage of 
 
90 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the disorganized condition of things to order its sum 
 mary abolishment. The Sophomores were forbidden to 
 give out any elections, and the Freshmen to receive any, 
 or to wear the Sigma Phi badge. Irregular elections 
 were nevertheless given out in the manner stated, and 
 the Freshmen evaded the other prohibition by wearing 
 badges from which the "A 2 </> " had been erased, or 
 displaying the unmutilated badge only in places where it 
 could be done "in safety." This state of things could 
 not long continue. The elections had been given out in 
 the middle of the summer term, and, with the opening 
 of the new college year, the Psi U pledged men of 67, 
 who had received elections to Sigma Phi, set about the 
 establishment of a new sophomore society. The con 
 sent of the faculty was at length obtained on the con 
 ditions that the society should not bear the name, or 
 adopt the badge, or occupy the hall, or in any way be 
 come the successor, of the late Sigma Phi ; that it 
 should give attention to literary exercises, and should 
 elect some member of the faculty an honorary member. 
 In obedience to these conditions was organized, in Octo 
 ber, 1864, " Phi Theta Psi," called, of course, Theta 
 Psi, simply, with a badge shaped like that of Sigma 
 Phi, but having as a device, upon a black enamel ground 
 work, a golden raven perched upon a white closed book, 
 below the letters " tf> W" A month or two after 
 Theta Psi s appearance, under the same conditions, the 
 DKE faction were allowed to establish " Delta Beta 
 Xi," called Beta Xi, or rarely DBX, with a badge 
 and wood-cut vignette identical with those of Sigma Phi, 
 except that the letters "J B " superseded the orig 
 inal "A 2 (/>." Even now, Beta Xi men often wear 
 pins bearing the old letters. Sigma Phi was the only 
 society ever abolished by the faculty, and its two suc 
 cessors are probably the last which they will ever con- 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 91 
 
 sent to have established. Prof. Thacher of 35 was the 
 honorary member chosen by Theta Psi from among 
 the faculty ; Prof. Northrop of 57, the one chosen by 
 Beta Xi. 
 
 A feature of the two earlier sophomore societies, of 
 which no trace remains in those now existing, was the 
 publication of annual " feuilletons," or printed attacks 
 upon one another and the college world in general. 
 Sigma Theta s " paper" was called the Yale Banger, 
 apparently to burlesque the Yale Banner, and displayed 
 a heavy club-cane, or " banger" in its heading, this 
 species of walking stick being esteemed by tradition the 
 Sophomore s peculiar property. At the head of the 
 Banger s first page was displayed the vignette of Sigma 
 Theta, with its list of members ; then followed lists of 
 the other societies, accompanied in each case by bur 
 lesque badges and mottoes, Sigma Phi of course getting 
 its full share of notice. The remaining three pages 
 comprised personal and political gossip, poetry, adver 
 tisements, and notices, of a more or less scurrilous 
 character. The paper was issued in the fall term of the 
 six years 1845-50, and the spring term of 52. Its 
 rival, the Tomahawk of Sigma Phi, followed it by a 
 month or two, but, appearing first in 1847, issued only 
 five numbers in all. This paper displayed but two cuts : 
 the one, at the head of the first page, a distortion of the 
 Sigma Theta badge, accompanied by an abusive article 
 regarding that society ; the other, at the head of the 
 editorial column on the second page, a genuine Sigma 
 Phi badge, accompanied by a list of members. This 
 paper had nothing to say of the upper-class societies, 
 but bestowed its derision solely upon Sigma Theta and 
 its freshman inferiors, and though its general character 
 was not unlike that of the Banger, its tone was yet a 
 trifle more disreputable. So far as appears at this day, 
 
92 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the Banger s ridicule of all the upper-class societies, was 
 impartial and without discrimination, and when it is 
 borne in mind that the Sophomores responsible for it 
 were all desirous of joining these societies in the future, 
 they deserve some credit for their independence, what 
 ever may be thought of their taste. This cannot be said 
 of the Tomahawk, whose conductors never ventured 
 upon dangerous ground. The only other society paper 
 was the Battery, issued by the Delta Kap Freshmen, in 
 February, 1850, which, by the aid of a sanguinary wood 
 cut and hardly less dreadful letterpress, was enabled to 
 " use up" most effectually its rivals and oppressors. 
 
 A society called " Kappa Delta Phi " which was 
 started at the Wesleyan University of Middletown, Conn., 
 at about the same time that Sigma Theta appeared at 
 Yale, and which had also adopted Minerva s head as its 
 badge, was persuaded to change its name and become a 
 chapter of Sigma Theta ; but it shortly afterwards un 
 derwent another change, and became the Xi chapter of 
 Psi U, under which name it exists at the parent day. 
 Another chapter of Sigma Theta was extant at Amherst 
 College in Massachusetts, in 1852, when it issued a sheet 
 called the Amherst Scorpion, which was a worthy coun 
 terpart of the Yale Banger, published by the parent 
 chapter. If any additional chapters ever existed, they 
 long ago died or became absorbed in some stronger fra 
 ternity. Sigma Phi established a chapter called the 
 "Delta "at Marietta College in Ohio, where it still 
 flourishes, though not as a distinctively, sophomore 
 society. It of course has been independent of Yale 
 since the death of the original " Alpha " chapter in 1864. 
 The "Beta" was established at Amherst in 1847, but 
 was abolished by the faculty, after a few months exist 
 ence. The "Gamma " was established at Princeton in 
 1854, and had a somewhat longer life, though the 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 93 
 
 general decree against all such societies finally killed it. 
 Beta Xi calls itself the "Alpha" and Theta Psi the "Phi," 
 but, as neither have yet established any outside branches, 
 these chapter titles have no special significance. The 
 reasons given in the case of the freshman societies 
 show equally well why the chapter system will be apt to 
 fail in sophomore year also. There is, besides, as will 
 be shown hereafter, less to these societies than there is 
 to those of the other years ; they are little more than 
 tenders of the junior organizations ; and the interest in 
 them, considered apart from the junior societies they 
 represent, is very small indeed. No Yale sophomore 
 society has ever yet published a catalogue of its 
 members. 
 
 The steel-plate poster of Theta Psi represents the sun 
 rising over the waves, and supporting the letters 
 " tit ; / y " amid its rays ; above the shield on which this 
 is pictured rests the raven upon his book ; below it is a 
 bull dog s head ; while upon the scroll-work surrounding 
 the design rests a band bearing the motto, Amid, usque 
 ad aras, and the letters, "J. C." The wood-cut vig 
 nettes, of which there have been two or three varieties, 
 are of the same general design. The Beta Xi poster 
 reproduces the design of the pin, and amid the orna 
 mental scroll-work which sets off the central shield are 
 the words, "Alpha," "Yale," the date " 1864," and the 
 letters " C. L. V. E. N.," initials of the old Sigma Phi 
 motto before given, which, through printed in full at the 
 head of the Tomahawk, is not in these days generally 
 known outside the society, except in the version, " Col 
 lege laws violated every night." In smaller characters, 
 the old letters "A 2 <I> " and date " 1846 " are also dis 
 played upon the design. The Beta Xi song book also 
 contains all the old Sigma Phi songs, and the name was 
 apparently chosen so as to be interchangeable with the 
 
94 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 latter. In every way this society makes prominent its 
 parentage and represents itself as the " legitimate suc 
 cessor " of the old one. Theta Psi, on the other hand, 
 though the eldest child, and holding undisputed the 
 proud position of "oldest sophomore society," makes 
 no claim for the succession, but prefers to keep its 
 ultimate ancestry in the background, and in its songs 
 greets without much respect " the bones of the dead, 
 defunct and euchered Sigma Phi." Each society 
 possesses a few Sigma Phi relics, Beta Xi a larger 
 proportion, though what little portable property of any 
 value the old society held at the time of its death was 
 probably seized upon by its indignant creditors. The 
 Theta Psi hall is [was] in the Cutler Building, corner 
 of Chapel and Church streets, a quarter of a mile from 
 the colleges, and a rod or two from the hall of Delta 
 Kap. Beta Xi hall is in Townsend s Block, corner of 
 Chapel and College streets, directly opposite the col 
 lege yard itself. Both halls have been occupied since 
 the societies were established, and are quite elegantly 
 fitted up. That of Beta Xi is considerably the larger, 
 and has the advantage disadvantage, some say in the 
 matter of locality. Each hall is guarded without by a 
 heavy iron door, and supplied with a well-equipped 
 stage within as a sophomore society without theatricals 
 would be an absurdity difficult for a college man to con 
 ceive of soberly. Since the above was written, Theta 
 Psi has deserted Cutler Corner and moved into the old 
 Diggers hall in Lyon Building, which, after refitting at 
 an expense of $1,000, it "opened " with a grand cele 
 bration on February 25, 1870. It now claims to have 
 the most handsomely furnished hall in college. 
 
 When the Freshmen have been in college about a 
 month or two, it begins to be generally known among 
 them that certain of their number are being pledged by 
 
THE SO CIE TY SYS TEM. 9 5 
 
 the upper-class men to join their societies. These 
 chosen ones are soon perceived to be " their most 
 prominent men," and as the line between the pledged 
 and unpledged becomes more sharply drawn, the latter 
 are seized with an irresistible inclination to get their 
 names also enrolled among the elect. Sometimes the 
 sophomore societies act with nominal independence in 
 this matter ; more often in their real characters as ten 
 ders to the organizations of junior year. These latter, 
 by means of committees, make haste to pledge all the 
 Freshmen who at first view are desirable, and each of 
 them having thus formed a nucleus of pledged men as a 
 working force, is content to entrust to them in some 
 measure the making up of " its crowd." Thereafter the 
 upper-class committee and the pledged Freshmen act in 
 concert. If the latter, by secret ballot, unanimously 
 recommend a class-mate, the former will probably pledge 
 him ; or if, on the other hand, they strongly object to a man 
 recommended them by the committee, he will probably 
 not be pledged. The committee or the society which it 
 acts for are of course not bound in either case to do 
 as indicated, but it is not often that they venture to set 
 aside the wishes of the pledged men, either to reject a 
 man recommended by, or to take one unpopular with, 
 the latter. Each man as soon as pledged of course has 
 the right to vote upon all names afterwards recom 
 mended, so that those latest chosen undergo a closer 
 scrutiny as to their qualifications than do the compo 
 nents of the original nucleus. For the first two years 
 after the present sophomore societies were started, 
 neither of them pledged independently. The Freshmen 
 who pledged to DKE were assured of elections to Beta 
 Xi, while those who pledged to Psi U and Delta Phi 
 also, though to a lesser extent implied that their 
 chances for Theta Psi were "good," though they were 
 
96 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 promised nothing. Then followed a year when none of 
 these societies gave pledges ; but since that time the 
 sophomore societies have had regular pledging com 
 mittees, and though most of those pledged to Theta Psi 
 are also pledged to Psi U by the Juniors, and those to 
 Beta Xi to DKE, it happens that in many cases the dis 
 tinction is not observed. A man rarely refuses a pledge 
 to a sophomore society, and the reason for the cases in 
 which it is done is the pecuniary one solely. 
 
 About a month after the third term begins, rumors 
 prevail among the Freshmen that the sophomore elec 
 tions are soon to be given out. Though most of the 
 men are definitely "pledged" in advance, there is 
 always enough uncertainty as to the fact of their actual 
 election to make the best of them feel a trifle anxious, 
 as the time draws nigh for the official announcement of 
 their fate ; while those who are not pledged hope 
 against hope that when the hour actually comes, " some 
 thing will turn up " to place their names among the 
 elect. Both societies generally agree upon the same 
 night, which is usually that of Friday, for the giving out 
 of elections though there is no settled rule about the 
 matter, either way. On the appointed evening, the 
 sophomore, junior and senior members assemble at the 
 society hall, and at a late hour, not much before mid 
 night, sally forth in a body upon their errand, marching 
 by classes in the order named, the president or some 
 other official, distinguished by a dark-lantern, leading 
 the way, upon the " route " marked out in advance. 
 Arriving at the rooms of the nearest Freshman, the 
 procession halts, and sings a society song or two ; then 
 the Sophomore appointed for the purpose goes up to the 
 room and says something to this effect : " Mr. So and So, 
 [ have the honor [or " the pleasure, or simply " I offer " ] 
 of offering you an election to the So and So fraternity. 
 
THE SO CIE TY SYS TEM. 9 7 
 
 Do you accept ? " Of course the Freshman says Yes, 
 upon which the Soph congratulates him, and the whole 
 party file in and do the same, each individual shaking 
 him heartily by the hand. Congratulations over, the 
 society men at once fall to discussing the provided 
 " spread " of fruits, cake, and wine, and having partaken 
 of the entertainment and lit fresh cigars, they assemble 
 outside again, sing another song, and perhaps cheer a 
 little, and proceed on their way to the next stopping 
 place, where the ceremony is again repeated. If, as is 
 usually the case, several pledged Freshmen are as 
 sembled at a single room, instead of one, a correspond 
 ing number of Sophomores go up to give them their elec 
 tions, for each Sophomore has a particular Freshman 
 assigned him to whom he is to offer the honor. 
 
 This theoretical manner of proceeding, however, is 
 not apt to be observed after the first few elections have 
 been given out. It generally happens that before the 
 men deputed for the purpose have had time to offer any 
 formal words, the crowd at their heels fill the room, and 
 attack the eatables, without wasting time in hand-shaking 
 or congratulation. A few are generally found who will 
 secretly lug off a bottle of champagne or handful of 
 cigars for future consumption. The procession grows 
 more and more hilarious, and its songs hoarser and 
 huskier as to utterance, until towards the last it is little 
 better than a disorderly crowd, whose members are apt 
 to laugh when some one smashes a street lamp with a 
 banana, or tosses an orange through on open window ; 
 and when it has given out its final election, it lingers 
 longingly about the concluding " treat," and perhaps is 
 at length obliged to drag away by main force a few of its 
 tipsiest members, who drowsily insist on " making a 
 night of it," then and there. The disorder and rowdyism 
 are due almost exclusively to members of the two upper 
 
 6 
 
98 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 classes ; were the Sophomores left to themselves, disci 
 pline would be maintained. The elected Freshmen of 
 the same or different societies meet together over the 
 remains of their spreads, and "celebrate" their good 
 fortune more or less uproariously, so that it is very near 
 daylight when the last of them are once more quiet in 
 their beds. Sometimes an expectant Fresh hears the 
 society move by his house without stopping, and goes to 
 bed in despair, only to be aroused on its return trip and 
 suddenly made happy by receiving the pledged election. 
 Sometimes an over-confident one prepares a treat for 
 guests who never call. Sometimes an irate landlord, 
 roused from sleep by the tramp of a disorganized host 
 through his dwelling, and lashed into a frenzy by their 
 discordant melodies, ejects from the house the Fresh 
 man lodger upon whom the honor has been bestowed, 
 and writes off to his parents how their son has fallen 
 into evil ways, and become the habitual entertainer of 
 midnight revelers. Generally, however, the boarding 
 house keepers, knowing the character of the thing, and 
 remembering that it comes only one night in a year, 
 recognize it as a necessary evil, and submit to the in 
 fliction with as good grace as may be. 
 
 As the treat, formerly a trifling and impromptu affair, 
 has gradually grown in importance, the custom comes 
 more and more into vogue of offering it in the dining 
 room of a hotel or restaurant, whither the half dozen 
 or so who combine in paying for it go to receive their 
 elections, in place of having them at their rooms. This 
 proceeding of course prevents any unpleasantness with 
 the private landlords. The Freshmen are generally ad 
 vised in an unofficial manner as to the evening when 
 they may expect elections, and in case a pledged man is 
 not to receive an election, he usually receives a hint to 
 that effect beforehand. A card, bearing on one side the 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 99 
 
 society vignette, on the other the names of the men 
 elected, is given to each man, so that after one election 
 has been given out, the whole are in a measure made 
 public, for the receiver of the card may contrive to 
 hurry off and show it to the men named upon it, in 
 advance of the procession which formally presents it to 
 them. The names are usually printed, but in cases 
 where elections were contested until the moment of 
 issuing them, they are written with ink instead. 
 
 An interval of two or three weeks elapses before 
 initiation takes place. Both societies may adopt the 
 same evening, usually that of Friday or Wednesday, 
 though about this there is the same indefiniteness, as 
 about the times of giving out elections. The Freshmen 
 having paid an initiation fee of from fifteen to twenty- 
 five dollars, to one of their own number, appointed 
 collector by the Sophomores, and on account of his 
 trouble excused from paying any fee for himself, are 
 directed, by a printed note addressed to each, to assem 
 ble at some particular room occupied by a Sophomore, 
 at an early hour of the appointed evening. Here they 
 are perhaps supplied with cigars, and left by themselves, 
 to smoke and talk over the prospect before them, until 
 summoned for initiation. They are generally led away 
 alphabetically, from time to time, in parties of a half 
 dozen or so, until in the course of an hour or more all 
 have been put through the ceremony. What this is to 
 consist of greatly exercises the freshman mind, and 
 rumors that it is merely a formal rite are contradicted 
 by other rumors that it is a thing considerably more 
 unpleasant than the freshman initiation itself. The lat 
 ter are the ones most credited by the Freshmen, while 
 college belief in general rather favors the former. This 
 much at least is certain, that the initiation is confined 
 entirely to the society halls, and if some strange noises 
 
loo FOUR, YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 do that night emanate therefrom, the Freshmen come 
 out of the ordeal not perceptibly injured, and the city 
 newspapers print no facts or fancies concerning it. All 
 the upper-class members are present at the initiation, 
 and at the play which follows it, and at the supper which 
 comes after the play. In old times this initiation supper 
 was partaken of in the dining room of some hotel, and 
 the bills of fore were embellished with the society 
 vignette and motto, but the present societies have always 
 held their suppers in or near their halls. It is rarely 
 that any drink stronger than wine is provided at these 
 suppers, though upper-class men may smuggle in a few 
 bottles of more fiery beverage for their own private use, 
 and after the newly initiated members have been dis 
 missed, stay behind and "celebrate" by themselves. 
 Next morning the Freshmen swing out their square pins 
 with great pride, not unmingled with pity, in many cases, 
 for friends who were less fortunate than themselves. 
 The freshman-society pins are still worn, however. In 
 some cases the two are displayed side by side upon the 
 vest, though more often the freshman pin is attached to 
 the vest, and the sophomore badge to the shirt bosom, 
 by the man who sports them both. In sophomore year, 
 when the freshman pin has been discarded, the badge is 
 oftener worn upon the shirt bosom, than in freshman 
 year, and when attached to the vest is usually worn 
 lower clown than in that latter year. 
 
 The meetings of the sophomore societies are held 
 each Saturday evening, from about ten o clock till mid 
 night, or a little past. Theta Psi generally sings as it 
 marches up Chapel street to the colleges, and gives 
 forth an additional song or two from the corner of the 
 college fence before it disbands. Beta Xi also sings its 
 songs upon that corner, at the close of its meetings. It 
 sometimes happens that the two societies, reaching the 
 
THE SOCIE TY S YSTEM. i o I 
 
 fence at about the same time, take up positions at a 
 short distance from one another and " sing, with respon 
 sive strains," each society after offering one of its songs, 
 pausing long enough to let the other sing out one of its 
 own, before proceeding with the next. Perhaps, after 
 having sung themselves out, both societies give cheers 
 for each other, and so disperse. Similarly, when the 
 two processions engaged in giving out elections chance 
 to pass near one another, songs and cheers may be ex 
 changed. On the other hand, less creditably and good 
 naturedly, each society has on some occasions tried by 
 singing to drown the voices of the other. These soci 
 ety songs, without being of a very high order of compo 
 sition, are yet possessed of a sort of jovial melody, well 
 adapted to the capacity of the miscellaneous voices 
 accustomed to render them. In several of the Theta 
 Psi songs, the " caw !" of the raven is introduced with 
 fantastic effect. Though the present tense is retained 
 in this paragraph, the state of things described no 
 longer really exists, since, within a year, all society sing 
 ing has been forbidden by the college authorities ; while 
 of their own accord the Sophomores have substituted 
 Friday night, for the traditional Saturday night, as the 
 time for holding their meetings. For a while, after that 
 singing had been brought under the ban, each society 
 used to march in a body to the college corner, and 
 there shout the names of its three Greek letters, with one 
 sharp and united cry, as a signal for breaking up. But 
 this practice was also forbidden. 
 
 Though the songs were thus publicly sung upon the 
 street, the song books are kept secret with great care, 
 and never shown to outsiders by active members. Nor 
 do these often mention or refer to their societies in pri 
 vate except to other members, and hence outsiders 
 rarely speak to a Sophomore concerning his or a rival 
 
102 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 society. Among upper-class men of course this careful 
 ness does not prevail, but on the whole the sophomore 
 societies are, except those of senior year, more secret 
 than any others, for in the sophomore class little is 
 known of their doings except by their members, while 
 in the junior class the proceedings of the junior societies 
 are generally understood by nearly everyone. Seniors 
 or even Juniors do not hesitate to talk over in public the 
 good points of the last play which they attended at their 
 sophomore society, and the " bum" held in connection 
 with it. The general impression to be gained by an 
 outsider, from their conversation and otherwise, is that 
 the hall of the institution in question is a sort of club 
 room where Sophomores drop in on Friday nights to 
 play cards, smoke clay pipe* and sip ale with one 
 another. The junior class will often be represented 
 there, but never in force except on special occasions, as 
 when there is a play, or a regular supper, or a contested 
 election. At such times Seniors also are wont to 
 appear. A graduate rarely comes to the hall except 
 brought up there by a Senior, or under-class man. Old 
 Sigma Phi men if members of Psi U are admitted to 
 Theta Psi, if members of DKE to Beta Xi, " and no 
 questions asked ;" though most of them in the two or 
 three classes preceding that of 67, which founded the 
 societies, were regularly elected and initiated as honor 
 ary members of one or the other organization, according 
 to the rule indicated. Of course no old graduate ever 
 goes near one of the sophomore halls, unless invited 
 thither by some active or recent member. But a Senior 
 would not hesitate to invite any old graduate to join 
 him in making a call at such a place, without any regard 
 to that old graduate s connection, or want of it, with 
 Sigma Phi, or any other sophomore or junior society. 
 Thirty is the number of elections generally given out 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 103 
 
 by each society, and as both combined make up less 
 than half an average class, of course many desirable men 
 are still left out, whom their luckier classmates wish to 
 have " in " with themselves. They rarely give out any 
 new elections, however, until the new year has opened 
 and they themselves are Sophomores. Then, when they 
 have succeeded in electing a classmate, he is either 
 brought at once to the hall by a messenger and initiated 
 forthwith, or the society upper-class men and all 
 march in procession to his room, singing songs and 
 offering congratulations, after the old manner, and 
 escort him back to the society hall. As a class election 
 usually comes upon a man unexpectedly, a treat is not 
 expected of him, yet if several are elected at once they 
 often combine to give a supper at the hall, shortly after 
 wards ; or a single individual who happens to be free 
 with his money may after his election bear the whole 
 expense of a society "spread." When honorary mem 
 bers are elected from the two upper classes and almost 
 any Junior or Senior is glad to receive an election a 
 single classmate of the chosen one conducts him to the 
 initiation. All names are voted upon separately by 
 secret ballot, and a single negative vote is usually suf 
 ficient to reject a candidate. The ballot box is so 
 arranged that each man can cast his vote without show 
 ing it or even seeing it himself; one compartment con 
 tains a number of white cubes (signifying Yes) and black 
 balls (signifying No), and the voters selecting one of 
 these thrusts it into the other compartment of the box 
 undetected. 
 
 There is always considerably difficulty in reconciling 
 the conflicting choices in the matter of elections. A 
 man whose friend is blackballed, may vow to reject 
 everyone else until his friend has been elected, and so 
 on. An approved device for overcoming many difficul- 
 
104 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 ties is to "pair off" opposing candidates and elect them 
 both on a joint ticket. In the case of class elections 
 there is apt to be more than usual contention, for there 
 is greater personal interest in the men, and the number 
 allowed is much smaller, and the voters are bound by 
 no pledge of any sort to say Yes. Pledged men, to be 
 sure, are sometimes rejected, when formally offered for 
 election ; but it is accounted rather dishonorable for a 
 society to do this in many cases without special reasons, 
 and unless a man s reputation or social standing changes 
 greatly for the worse after he obtains a pledge, he may 
 feel pretty confident of receiving his election also. It 
 is very seldom, too, that a single blackball keeps a man 
 from a society. However stubborn the caster of it may 
 be at first, the "pressure" brought to bear upon him by 
 the whole society arrayed in opposition is so enormous, 
 that he is at length glad to reverse his vote and submit 
 to the will of the majority. As the mortality among 
 sophomore-society men is usually large, the eight or ten 
 class elections given at various times during the year 
 rarely bring the active force above thirty in number. 
 The last Sophomores are taken in just before the pro 
 cession starts forth to give out elections, to the Fresh 
 men, and are not required to pay any initiation fees. 
 The presidency and lesser offices of these societies are 
 not accounted of much importance, and it is very rarely 
 that there is the least excitement in regard to them. 
 Even upper-class men seldom mention their incumbents, 
 though this is probably due more to the absence of any 
 interest concerning them than to any settled objection 
 against the betrayal of " secrets." The annual expenses 
 of membership are perhaps ten or fifteen dollars greater 
 than in the societies of freshman year. 
 
 The sophomore year is a sort of transition period, 
 and the sophomore society fairly enough represents it. 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 105 
 
 Everything is unsettled ; men s positions are every day 
 changing both relatively and absolutely ; and the fast, 
 loud-mouthed element in the community is to all appear 
 ances the ruling one. For the first time the line between 
 "society-men" and "neutrals" is plainly drawn, and 
 the sheep are separated from the goats. There is a 
 keener pleasure in sporting the sophomore badge, a 
 sharper regret at the inability to do so, than is possible 
 in after years. The lucky Soph, turning his back upon 
 the " heavy literary " performances of his freshman year, 
 thinks that the only true enjoyment of a select society 
 must lie in going to the other extreme, and doing nothing 
 whatever that smacks in any way of honest labor or 
 improvement. The quiet, substantial men, who figure 
 prominently afterwards, are in the class and society 
 now, but they keep in the background, and are over 
 shadowed by the light-headed, noisier crew who are 
 suffered to have things all their own way. Next year, 
 may be, the reverse will appear ; for the societies of two 
 different years, composed in succession of essentially the 
 same individuals, may and in fact often do, differ widely 
 in character and purpose. The faults of the sophomore 
 society are usually exaggerated by friends and enemies 
 alike. It does not as a matter of fact encourage drunken 
 ness or immorality, though it may sometimes affect to 
 do so. Perhaps the worst thing that can be fairly charged 
 against it is its frivolous and purposeless character. It 
 inspires a sort of pride in its members, but no affection. 
 They look back upon their connection with it as a joke, 
 and are careless as to its subsequent fate. It would 
 probably be more hopeless to solicit money from them 
 in its behalf than to ask it for their freshman society. 
 Yet, after all, few would willingly part with the host of 
 conflicting memories reflected in the halo of very doubt 
 ful glory which encircles its name. 
 6* 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 JUNIOR SOCIETIES. 
 
 Alpha Delta Phi Psi Upsilon Delta Kappa Epsilon Badges, 
 Vignettes and Mottoes Catalogues, Chapters and Membership 
 The Death of Old Chapters and the Origin of New Ones- 
 Names of Prominent Members General Conventions Inter 
 course between the Chapters Giving out Elections Initiation 
 Meetings and Exercises Halls Corporate Titles The 
 Course of Politics in 69 (the Freshman Societies ; the Annual 
 Jubilee Committee ; the Gamma-Nu-Delta-Phi Embroglio ; the 
 Cochs and " Lit." Editors) The Effect upon Delta Phi Agree 
 ments concerning the Freshmen Real Character of a Coalition 
 The Division of the Spoils The Contested Elections of Mem 
 bers Duration of Society Influences Comparison of the 
 Societies. 
 
 There are three junior societies, and they are the only 
 ones ever established in that class, a fact which no 
 other year can boast of. The Skull and Bones of senior 
 year is the only class society which has the advantage 
 of two of them in point of age. And these two, it may 
 be remarked, are the only Yale societies, aside from Phi 
 Beta Kappa, which originated outside of the college. 
 "Alpha Delta Phi," which was founded at Hamilton 
 College in 1832, established four years later its "Yale" 
 chapter, which was the eighth in order. The abbre 
 viated title of Delta Phi should not be confounded with 
 the society of that name which exists in several colleges. 
 Outside of Yale, Delta Phi is always spoken of as Alpha 
 Delt. " Psi Upsilon," which was founded at Union Col 
 lege in 1833, established its third ("Beta") chapter at 
 Yale in 1838. The name is always shortened to Psi U. 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 107 
 
 " Delta Kappa Epsilon" formerly called Delta Kappa 
 Eps, but now invariably DKE was founded in 1844 
 by the class of 46. 
 
 The badge of Delta Phi is an oblong slab, an inch in 
 length, with rounded corners, displaying on a ground 
 work of black enamel a white crescent surmounted by a 
 green star; below is the date "1832," and upon the 
 crescent the letters "A z/ 0," both in gold. The wear 
 ing of badges of this sort has within the last year been 
 mostly abandoned, in favor of the " skeleton pins," 
 which were formerly worn by none but Seniors and 
 graduates. Of these pins there are many varieties. 
 They are formed of the star and crescent simply, and 
 according to the taste or wealth of the individual are 
 made either of plain gold and enamel, or set off with 
 pearls and precious stones an emerald in the center of 
 the star being perhaps the favorite one, though it some 
 times gives place to a ruby, amethyst, or diamond. 
 Green and white ribbons are sometimes worn in the 
 button hole as society colors. The wood-cut vignette 
 was formerly an enlarged representation of the regular 
 badge pin, and there have been several different pat 
 terns, but the one now commonly employed at Yale dis 
 plays a plain star and crescent upon a dark shield, 
 crossed behind by a sword and spear, supporting below the 
 motto, Matins multcz, cor unum. Above the shield is a 
 ring of stars. The steel-plate poster is the same design 
 more elaborated, with the letters indicated upon the 
 crescent, the date below the shield, the words " Alpha 
 Delta Phi, Fraternity," and the name of the chapter 
 within the circle of stars. The Psi U badge is a simple 
 diamond-shaped pin, a little more than an inch in length, 
 displaying upon a groundwork of black enamel the sin 
 gle emblem of the clasped hands, with "f" above and 
 "T" below. The skeleton pin of this society is a mon- 
 
loS FOUR YEARS AT* YALE. 
 
 ogram made up of the two letters which compose its 
 name, sometimes ornamented with pearls and precious 
 stones, though more commonly plain. A miniature 
 copy of the regular diamond-shaped badge, ornamented 
 with pearls, rubies, etc., is worn by some members of 
 the western chapters, though not authorized by the soci 
 ety. The common vignette is an enlarged copy of the 
 badge, surmounted by a peculiar kind of scroll-work 
 which leave the date " 1833." Another one represents 
 the pin surrounded by the chapter letters, enclosed in 
 a .wreath of oak and olive, with " 1833" in rays above 
 and " Fraternity" upon a scroll below. The seal of the 
 society represents an owl grasping a fasces bound 
 together by the motto, Fit via vi. A/Ofaf udfhfov^ roiV 
 dfofOwovs qpiXotv, was the motto upon the title page of 
 the catalogue of 1864. The DKE pin is of the same 
 size and shape as that of the Psi U. Its device is a 
 white scroll, bearing the letters "J K E" ; below is the 
 name of the college where the chapter is situated ; in 
 each angle is a star ; the groundwork is the usual black 
 enamel. The skeleton badge consists simply of the 
 white scroll and letters, somewhat enlarged. At first, 
 the vignette was simply a copy of the badge, but an 
 entirely independent design was afterwards devised as a 
 coat of arms, and this has since formed the chief part 
 of the vignette : A white (argent) central shield dis 
 playing a rampant lion, a pair of crossed keys and an 
 ear is surmounted by an outer shield, divided by vari 
 ous cross bars and chevrons, with the colors blue (azure), 
 red (gules), and gold (or), indicated in the regular her 
 aldic manner. An open eye looks forth from the upper 
 part of the outer shield, and a pair of hearts, one on 
 each side, are joined by a chain which sustains at the 
 bottom the letter or letters denoting the chapter. In 
 the usual vignette this double shield is surmounted by 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 109 
 
 crossed swords, and a winged globe bearing the letters 
 "J K E " ; while the motto, Krgodtv qil.oi del, figures on 
 a scroll beneath, and rays of light set off the whole de 
 sign. There are several variations from this pattern, but 
 all the vignettes agree in displaying the elaborate 
 double- shield design. This is also the chief device in 
 the steel-plate poster, which resembles a seal or medal 
 being circular in shape and three inches in diameter. 
 The motto just given is expressed upon the upper part 
 of the encircling band, and upon the lower, within a 
 scroll, are the letters "J K E"; while ornamental 
 wreath-work fills the space between the shield and the 
 band. The Delta Phi poster is the only one often seen 
 at Yale, as members of the other two societies prefer 
 to display richly-framed photographic views of their re 
 spective society halls, in place thereof. The regular 
 pins are essentially alike in all the chapters, though 
 different manufacturers may slightly vary in the details 
 of their workmanship. P{ii U s badge is the neatest of 
 the three, and Delta Phi s the ugliest. As for the skel 
 eton pin of the latter, it would hardly be taken for a 
 society badge at all, but rather for a bit of ornamental 
 jewelry. Formerly, when the slab badge only was worn 
 by the active members, Delta Phi men who w r ere senior 
 neutrals very generally wore the skeleton, and a few 
 still keep up the practice. Very rarely, too, a skeleton 
 Psi U badge may be noticed, but that of DKE is never 
 seen at all. Chapter letters of gold, attached to the 
 main badge by a minute chain, in the manner described 
 for the freshman societies, are worn by some of the 
 Psi U and DKE men, at a few of the colleges, though 
 never at Yale. Upon the backs of the regular badges 
 are engraved the .owner s name and class and the 
 peculiar Greek symbols allotted to him, together with 
 the letter of the chapter ; and in the case of Delta Phi 
 
no FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 a crossed sword and spear surmounting a sort of mon 
 ument, are also added. Yale Seniors sometimes wear 
 their junior year badges in such a position upon their 
 vests as to be usually concealed from sight ; the Juniors 
 occasionally wear their sophomore pins in a similar 
 manner. Monograms of the society letters, carved in 
 black walnut or other suitable wood, are sometimes to 
 be seen ; and, aside from what has been mentioned, 
 the number of engraved vignettes, ornaments, mono 
 grams, stamps and seals, in use by the societies, or their 
 separate chapters, is quite large. Yale men, however, 
 seldom display the insignia of their junior societies upon 
 their note paper and envelopes. 
 
 It is through these third-year organizations solely that 
 Yale shares in the general system of secret societies that 
 is in vogue throughout most of the colleges. Though 
 there are other important chaptered fraternities existing 
 in American colleges, the three represented at Yale are 
 undoubtedly the leading and most extensive ones, and a 
 few statistical facts in regard to them may not be with 
 out value. The last catalogue of Delta Phi appeared in 
 June, 1870 ; that of Psi U in December of the same 
 year ; and that of DKE in May of the present year. 
 The arrangement is similar in all of them : the chapters 
 standing in the order of their establishment ; the mem 
 bers alphabetically by classes in the order of their 
 graduation ; a list of chapters preceding, and an alpha 
 betical list of members following, the main body of the 
 catalogue. In this index are given the class and chapter 
 of each man, so that his residence, symbols, and other 
 facts concerning him can at once be found by turning to 
 the main catalogue. The exact signification of these 
 symbols is not generally known among the uninitiated ; 
 yet it can do no harm to remark that, aside from being 
 different in themselves, they are used by each society 
 for an altogether different purpose. 
 
THE SO CIE TY S YS TEM. 1 1 1 
 
 The current catalogue of Delta Phi comprises 287 
 pages, and was printed by Curtiss & Childs of Utica, 
 N. Y. Its title-page is surrounded by an ornamental 
 border of green and red, and is faced by a wood-cut 
 frontispiece representing the society emblems. Upon 
 the outside of its green paper cover is a wood-cut mono 
 gram composed of the initials "A A <l> " and the date 
 " 1832." The last preceding catalogue was printed by 
 J. H. Benham of New Haven, in 1860, and comprised 
 195 pages, of much less creditable typography. This 
 society, unlike others, confers local rather than Greek- 
 letter names upon its chapters. In the following list the 
 name first given is that of the chapter, the date signifies 
 the year or class in which it was founded, and the final 
 numeral the number of its members up to the time in 
 1870 when the catalogue was issued : 
 
 1. Hamilton ; Hamilton College, Clinton, N. Y. ; 1832 ; 287. 
 
 2. Miami ; Miami University, Oxford, O. ; 1834 ; 185. 
 
 3. *Urban; NewYork University, N.Y. City; 1835 (*diedi839); 24. 
 
 4. *Columbia; Columbia College, N.Y. City; 1836 (*died 1840); 32. 
 
 5. Amherst ; Amherst College, Amherst, Mass. ; 1837; 331. 
 
 6. Krunonian ; Brown University, Providence, R. I.; 1837; 156. 
 
 7. *Harvard; Harvard Coll. .Cambridge, Mass.; 1837 (*d. 65); 307. 
 
 8. Yale ; Yale College, Nnv Haven, Conn. ; 1837 ; 740. 
 
 9. Geneva; Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y. ; 1838; 162. 
 
 10. Bowdoin; Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me. ; 1839; 182. 
 
 11. Hudson; Western Reserve College, Hudson, O. ; 1840; 138. 
 
 12. Peninsula ; Michigan University, Ann Arbor, Mich. ; 1845; 193. 
 
 13. Dartmouth ; Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H, ; 1845 ; 273. 
 
 14. Rochester; Rochester University, Rochester, N. Y.; 1851 ; 117. 
 
 15. Alabama; Alabama Univ., Tuscaloosa, Ala. ; 1851 (*d. 59); 51. 
 
 16. Williams; Williams College, Williamstovvn, Mass.; 1851; 132. 
 
 17. Manhattan; New York City-College, N. Y. City; 1854 ; 138. 
 
 18. Middletown ; Wesleyan Univ., Middletown, Conn. ; 1855 ; 152. 
 
 19. Kenyon ; Kenyon College, Gambier, O. ; 1858; 28. 
 
 20. Union ; Union College, Schenectady, N. Y. ; 1858 ; 84. 
 
 21. *Cumberland; Cumberl dUn., Lebanon,Tenn.; i858(d. 6i); 27. 
 
 22. Cornell ; Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. ; 1870 ; 16. 
 
H2 POUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Deducting from the membership as here set forth about 
 25 names for repetitions and 35 for honorary members, 
 and a total of 3650 is exhibited, against a total of 2300 
 shown by the catalogue of 1860. Delta Phi has also 
 four alumni associations, or "graduate chapters": at 
 Cincinnati, established 1846 ; Cleveland, 1866 ; Chicago, 
 1867 ; and New York, 1868. 
 
 The Psi U catalogue was published "under the super 
 vision of the Beta chapter/ and printed by Tuttle, 
 Morehouse & Taylor, and comprises 233 pages. A tint- 
 printed, wood-cut emblematical vignette, hinting at the 
 significance of the chapter letter, serves as a frontispiece 
 to each chapter, while the frontispiece to the main work 
 itself consists of a finely-executed steel-plate engraving, 
 designed by Gavit & Co. of Albany, representing a 
 wall and archway, ornamented with the emblems and 
 insignia of the society, while through the arch is seen 
 the rising sun, lighting up the ocean waves as they dash 
 upon a solitary rock. The work is by far the hand 
 somest one of the sort ever issued by a college society. 
 The last preceding Psi U catalogue was printed in 
 March, 1864, by Baker & Godwin of New York, and 
 comprised 207 pages. The arrangement of the follow 
 ing list of chapters corresponds to that in the case of 
 Delta Phi : 
 
 1. Thcta; Union College, Schenectady, N. Y. ; 1833 ; 2 75- 
 
 2. Delta ; New York University, N. Y. City ; 1836 ; 200. 
 
 3. Beta; Yak College, New liar en, Conn.; 1838; 750. 
 
 4. Sigma; Drown University, Providence, R. I. ; 1840; 180. 
 
 5. Gamma ; Amherst College, Amherst, Mass. ; 1841 ; 360. 
 
 6. Zeta; Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H. ; 1842 ; 340. 
 
 7. Lambda ; Columbia College, N. Y. City; 1842 ; 220. 
 
 8. Kappa ; Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me. ; 1842 ; 270. 
 
 9. Psi; Hamilton College, Clinton: N. Y. ; 1843 ; I S- 
 
 10. Xi; Wesleyah University, Middletown, Conn. ; 1843*; 295. 
 
 11. Alpha; Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass. ; 1850; 105. 
 
THE SOC1E TY SYSTEM. 1 1 3 
 
 12. Upsilon ; Rochester University, Rochester, N. Y. ; 1858 ; 100. 
 
 13. Iota; Kenyon College, Gambier, O. ; 1860; 64. 
 
 14. Phi ; Michigan University, Ann Arbor, Mich.; 1865 ; 75. 
 
 15. Omega; Chicago University, Chicago, 111. ; 1869 ; 16. 
 
 The Theta chapter was suspended for a year or. two 
 preceding 1865, when it was revived, and the Delta 
 chapter has also been once or twice near to death s 
 door, while the Alpha chapter, killed by general edict of 
 the Harvard faculty in 1857, was revived again in the 
 class of 71. Psi U therefore possesses the distinction 
 which neither of its rivals, and probably no other 
 similar extended fraternity whatever, can boast of of 
 being burdened with no dead chapters. Its total mem 
 bership, as detailed above, foots up 3400 names, as 
 against 2750 exhibited in the catalogue of 1864. 
 
 The DKE catalogue, " apud Phi editum, fraternitatis 
 anno XXVIL," was printed by Tuttle, Morehouse & 
 Taylor, and comprises a little less than 300 pages. Its 
 only ornament is the circular, steel-plate poster before 
 described, which serves as a frontispiece. Aside from 
 a rather improved typography, it is the exact counter 
 part of the catalogue of 1867, which was printed by 
 Thomas, Howard & Johnson of Buffalo, N. Y., and 
 comprised 259 pages, except that the latter exhibited 
 the society emblems printed in colors upon the title- 
 page. The last preceding catalogue, printed in 1858, 
 by J. H. Benham, had an "allegorical" steel-engraved 
 frontispiece. The arrangement of the following list of 
 chapters corresponds with that before employed : 
 
 1. Phi ; Yale College, Nnv Haven, Conn, ; 1855 ; 746. 
 
 2. *Zeta; Princeton College, Princeton, N. J.; 1845 (*d. 1857); 69. 
 
 3. Theta; Bowcloin College, Brunswick, Me. ; 1845 ; 260. 
 
 4. Xi; Colby University/Waterville, Me. ; 1845; 218. 
 
 5. Sigma; Amherst College, Amherst, Mass.; 1846; 344. 
 
 6. *Gamma; Nashville Univ., Nashville, Tenn.; 1847 (*d. 61); 66. 
 
 7. *Psi ; Alabama Univ., Tuscaloosa, Ala. ; 1847 (*d. 1857) ; 82. 
 
H4 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 8. Upsilon; Brown University, Providence, R. I.; 1850; 144. 
 
 9. *Beta; Univ. No. Carol a, Chapel Hill, N.C.; 1851 (*d. 62); 120. 
 
 10. Chi; University of Mississippi, Oxford, Miss. ; 1851; 168. 
 
 1 1. *Delta ; Coll. of So. Carolina, Columbia, S. C.; 1852 (*d. 6i);9o. 
 
 12. Kappa ; Miami University, Oxford, O. ; 1852 ; 125. 
 
 13. Eta ; University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va. ; 1852 ; 172. 
 
 14. Alpha ; Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass. ; 1852 ; 66. 
 
 15. *Omega; Oakland College, Oakland, Miss.; 1852 (*d. 1861); 77. 
 
 16. Lambda ; Kenyon College, Gambier, O. ; 1852 ; 135. 
 
 17. Pi ; Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H. ; 1853 ; 247. 
 
 1 8. *Iota ; Kentucky Mil. Inst., Frankfort, Ky.; 1854 (*d. 1860); 35. 
 
 19. Alpha (prime) ; Middlebury Coll., Middlebury,Vt.; 1855 ; 100. 
 
 20. Omicron ; Michigan University, Ann Arbor, Mich. ; 1855 ; 179. 
 
 21. Epsilon ; Williams College, Williamstown, Mass. ; 1855; 102. 
 
 22. Nu; New York City-College, N. Y. City; 1856; 155. 
 
 23. Tau ; Hamilton College, Clinton, N. Y. ; 1856; in. 
 
 24. Mu ; Madison University, Hamilton, N. Y. ; 1856; 133. 
 
 25. Rho ; Lafayette College, Easton, Penn. ; 1856; 100. 
 
 26. Beta-Phi; Rochester University, Rochester, X. Y. ; 1856; 96. 
 
 27. *Theta-Chi ; Union Coll.,Schenectady, N.Y.; 1857 (*d. 69); 100. 
 
 28. Kappa-Psi ; Cumberland Univ., Lebanon, Tenn. ; 1857 ; 92. 
 
 29. *Zeta (prime); Centenary Coll., Jackson, La.; 1857 (*d. 62); 46. 
 
 30. *AlphavDelta; Jefferson Coll., Canonsb g, Pa.; 1858 (*d. 65); 38. 
 
 31. *Tau-Delta; UnionUniv., Murfreesb o,Tenn.; 1860 (*d. 6i); u. 
 
 32. *Kappa-Phi ; TroyUniversity, Troy, N.Y. ; 1861 (*d. 1862) ; 23. 
 
 33. Phi-Chi; Rutgers College, New Brunswick, N. J. ; 1861 ; 57. 
 
 34. Psi-Phi ; Asbury University, Greencastle, Ind. ; 1866; 40. 
 
 35. Gamma-Phi ; Wesleyan Univ., Middletown, Conn. ; 1867 ; 61. 
 
 36. Psi-Omega; Rensselaer Polytech. Inst., Troy, N.Y. ; 1868; 25. 
 
 37. Beta-Chi ; Western Reserve College, Hudson, O. ; 1868; 23. 
 
 38. Eta-Alpha; Washington-Lee Univ., Lexington, Va.; 1868; 55. 
 
 39. Delta-Chi; Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. ; 1869; 16. 
 
 40. Delta (prime); Chicago University, Chicago, 111.; 1870; 23. 
 
 The total membership of DKE thus appears to be 
 about 475: as against 3800 in 1867, and 2000 in 
 1858. At the latter date it possessed 29 chapters, as 
 against its present 40, though it will be noticed that a 
 dozen of these are dead. The war stopped most of the 
 Southern chapters, and interrupted one or two which 
 were revived at its close. The Alpha- Delta chapter had 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 1 15 
 
 its charter withdrawn by order of the fraternity. The 
 Zeta was killed by the general decree of the Princeton 
 faculty in 1857. The same year, the similar decree of 
 the Harvard faculty put the Alpha chapter under the 
 ban, but it has nevertheless continued to exist in secret, 
 as a sophomore club, and its delegates have always been 
 recognized at the annual conventions, though its mem 
 bers do not, while at Cambridge, \vear the society badge, 
 nor have their names printed in the society catalogue. 
 
 Delta Phi also secretly kept up its existence at Har 
 vard until 1865, when the organization now known as 
 the "A. D. Club" to which most of the DKE Soph 
 omore are admitted in junior year was established 
 upon its ruins. Of course these " new Alpha Deltas," 
 as Tom Hughes calls them in his sketch, are not recog 
 nized by the fraternity, and themselves make no pre 
 tence of being connected with it. The names of the 
 Harvard men who belonged to Delta Phi after the sup 
 pression were not inserted in the catalogue of 1860, but 
 appeared in the catalogue of 1870, as their classes had 
 then all safely graduated, the last one, as before re 
 marked, being that of 65. The Psi U catalogue con 
 tains the names of no Harvard men later than the class 
 of 57, because the society then gave up the ghost, in 
 obedience to the faculty s edict, and the class in which 
 it was recently reestablished has not yet graduated. 
 The names of graduated members will appear in future 
 catalogues, however. The DKE catalogue contains the 
 names of no Harvard men belonging to it after the sup 
 pression, because the club became too informal and dis 
 organized to keep any records or lists of its members. 
 Latterly the chapter has approached somewhat to a 
 formal organization, and probably the names of recently 
 graduated members will appear in the next catalogue. 
 Indeed, it is not improbable that in the course of a few 
 
n6 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 years the " Greek letter societies " may be allowed to 
 exist as openly at Harvard as at most other colleges, 
 since, under the more liberal administration recently 
 introduced there, their existence is more than winked at 
 already. 
 
 A comparison of the list shows the three societies 
 existing as rivals in ten colleges outside of Yale, name 
 ly: Amherst, Bowdoin, Brown, Dartmouth, Hamilton, 
 Kenyon, Michigan, Rochester, Union, and Wesleyan- 
 Delta Phi and DKE in addition are rivals at Cornell, 
 Miami, N. Y. City - College, Western Reserve, and 
 Williams ; and were formerly at Alabama and Cumber 
 land ; while Psi U and DKE in addition are rivals at 
 Chicago, Harvard, and N. Y. University. The Yale 
 chapter of each society is its largest, though not, except 
 in the case of DKE, its most important or controlling 
 one. The parent chapter of Psi U is its weakest, and 
 that of Delta Phi is by no means its best, and no one 
 chapter is allowed any preponderance of influence in 
 either fraternity ; but the original DKE is so much 
 superior to any one of its many branches that it still 
 exercises its parental control over them all, and while 
 nominally deferring to their wishes, retains in itself the 
 chief executive power. At Yale the real rivalry for the 
 first place is between this society and Psi U, but at 
 almost all the other colleges where the three exist DKE 
 holds the lowest rank. There are of course many other 
 local and chaptered societies in other colleges which 
 dispute the ground with these three ; and many which 
 once existed have either wholly, or in the case of par 
 ticular chapters, become absorbed in them. Thus, the 
 lota chapter of a western college society called " Beta 
 Theta Pi Swas changed into the Phi of Psi U at Mich 
 igan, and the Beta chapter of the same society at 
 Western Reserve became the Beta-Chi of DKE. Not 
 
THE SO CIE TY SYS TEM. 1 1 7 
 
 unlikely the society may have been the source of some 
 Delta Phi chapter also, and perhaps some of its 
 branches still exist as rivals of the two last mentioned 
 societies. On the other hand, none of the chapters of 
 these three societies have ever deserted from them, or 
 attempted to reorganize under another standard. 
 
 An examination of the three catalogues brings to light 
 a good many more or less notable names. There are 
 college professors and tutors, doctors of divinity and of 
 medicine, judges, lawyers and reverends, generals, con 
 gressmen and honorables, almost without number, who 
 formerly sported the badges of these societies. Among 
 Yale Delta Phi men may be mentioned : Rev. Dr. J. P. 
 Thompson of 38, Prevost C. J. Stille and Prof. J. D. 
 Whitney of 39, D. G. Mitchell and B. G. Northrop of 
 41 [the names of Gen. W. T. S. Barry of Mississippi, 
 Maunsell B. Field of New York, and several others, are 
 included in the Delta Phi list of 41, though they revolted 
 from that society and were among the founders of Psi 
 U], W. L. Kingsley of 43, editor of the New Englander, 
 Gen. Dick Taylor of 45, H. T. Blake of 48, founder of 
 the Wooden Spoon, Prof. D. C. Oilman of 52, G. W. 
 Smalley of 53, G. M. Towle of 6 1, and Others. Alfred 
 B. Street belonged to the Hamilton chapter ; Gov. Den- 
 nison of Ohio and U. S. Senator Pugh to the Miami ; 
 Horace Maynard of Tennessee and Rev. R. S. Storrs, 
 Jr., of Brooklyn to the Amherst ; Senator Jenckes, the 
 advocate of civil service reform, and Rev. Dr. Samson, 
 president,of Columbia College, to the^Brunonian ; James 
 Russell Lowell, Rev. E. E Hale, Rev. O. B. Frothing- 
 ham, and F. B. Sanborn of the Springfield Republican, 
 to the Harvard ; Rev. Dr. Hale, president of Hobart 
 College, to the Geneva ; Gov. Goodwin of New Hamp 
 shire to the Bowdoin ; Manton M. Marble of the N. Y. 
 World to the Rochester ; Prof. A. W. Perry to the \Vil- 
 
u8 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 liams ; Russell Sturgis, Jr., to the Manhattan ; Ngan 
 Yoong Kiung of Shanghai, and Oronhyatehka of Can 
 ada, to the Kenyon. Chief Justice Chase, Rev. Henry 
 Ward Beecher, Rev. Dr. Ray Palmer, Prof. Elias Loomis, 
 and Cassius M. Clay, are among the honorary members 
 of this society. 
 
 Taking up the Psi U catalogue, among the Yale 
 members may be noticed : Rev. H. M. Dexter of 40, 
 editor of the Boston Congregationalist, Henry Stevens of 
 43, F. S, A., Senator O. S. Ferry of 44, Col. E. G. 
 Parker of 47, Dwight Foster of 48, attorney general of 
 Massachusetts, C. G. Came of 49, editor of the Boston 
 Journal, Champion Bissell of 50, publisher of the 
 American (Whig) Review, Andrew D. White of 53, pres 
 ident of Cornell University, Chauncey M. Depew of 56, 
 N. Y. secretary of state, A. Van Name of 58, college 
 librarian, Engene Schuyler of 59, U. S. Consul at 
 Moscow, and Wilbur R. Bacon of 65, Yale s most 
 famous oarsman. At Union, are found Mayor Alexan 
 der A. H. Rice of Boston, Frederick W. Seward, assistant 
 secretary of state, and A. C. Davis, Kansas attorney 
 general ; at N. Y. University, George W. Schuyler, 
 State treasurer, and William Allen Butler ; at Brown, 
 Lieut. Gov. Arnold of Rhode Island ; at Amherst, 
 Galusha A. Grow of Pennsylvania, E. M. Wright, Mass, 
 secretary of state (and, as honorary members, John G. 
 Saxe, E. P. Whipple and Dr. J. G. Holland) ; at Dart 
 mouth, Amos T. Akerman, U. S. attorney general, and 
 W. H. Bartlett, judge of the supreme court of New Hamp 
 shire ; at Hamilton, Gov. J. R. Hawley of Connecticut 
 and C. D. Warner of the Hartford Courani; at Harvard, 
 Profs. Goodwin and Gurney ; and at Kenyon, James 
 Kent Stone, " the youngest college president." 
 
 Among DKE men at Yale may be noticed : Charlton 
 T. Lewis of 53, editor of the N. Y. Evening Posf, Maj. 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 1 19 
 
 Gen. J. W. Swayne of 56, Brig. Gen. J. T. Croxton and 
 Prof. Cyrus Northrop of 57, Dr. D. G. Brinton of 58, 
 Joseph W. Shipley and Edward R. Sill, of 61, and 
 Dorsey Gardner of 64; at Colby University, J. H. 
 Drummond, attorney general of Maine; at Ainherst, 
 Gen. Francis A. Walker, of the statistical and census 
 bureau at Washington ; at Harvard, John Quincy 
 Adams, Jr., Edward S. Rand, Jr., and Howard M. 
 Ticknor. DKE s best-known men Rear Admiral Foote, 
 General Burnside, Vice President Colfax, Bayard Taylor, 
 Nathaniel P. Banks, John R. Thompson are all honor 
 ary members, elected as such on account of their noto 
 riety. Though this society possesses the largest mem 
 bership, the number of names in its catalogue that are 
 even locally well-known is much smaller than is the 
 case either with Delta Phi or Psi U. 
 
 Each society holds every year a general convention of 
 all its chapters, which as a rule are each represented by 
 two or three delegates. The exercises usually consist in 
 the delivery of an oration and poem, by graduate and, 
 if possible, distinguished members of the society, to 
 which the public are admitted ; and the transaction of 
 business by the delegates, in private. The convention 
 lasts for two days and winds up with a supper. It is 
 held with each chapter in succession, except the very 
 distant or the weakest ones. The presiding officer of the 
 DKE convention is always a Yale man ; in the case of 
 the other societies, a member of the chapter with which 
 the convention is held. It has been mentioned in the 
 first chapter that at all other colleges except Dartmouth 
 the societies draw their members from all the four 
 classes. The exception at Harvard has been noticed, 
 and at some of the other colleges also the freshman and 
 sophomore members are not allowed to display their 
 badges, except when absent from the university town, 
 
J20 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 nor to have their names printed with the others in the 
 public lists. When a Freshman or Sophomore, who 
 has become a member of one of the societies at some 
 other college, enters Yale, he does not become an active 
 member of the chapter until the time when the society 
 is given into the hands of his own class. Previous to 
 this his name is not published, in the list of members, 
 neither is he expected to display his badge, nor to attend 
 the society meetings unless specially invited by upper- 
 class men. Most of the other chapters are more secret 
 than those at Yale. At some colleges the songs are 
 never sung outside the hall, neither are the places and 
 times of meeting generally known, nor the societies in 
 any way mentioned to the uninitiated. A fancy which 
 Yale men sometimes have for displaying the splendors 
 of their society halls to their lady friends is peculiarly 
 horrifying to the other chapters. Not that the practice 
 is much in vogue, but the few cases of it which occur 
 are winked at by the societies, on the theory that the 
 dear creatures comprehend too little of the mysteries 
 which they behold to make any damaging revelations, 
 even were they so inclined. Every chapter gladly enter 
 tains the representatives of every other chapter, when 
 ever it chances upon them ; but though Yale members 
 always accord welcome to the others, they are not always 
 anxious to claim it in return, and sometimes when in 
 the neighborhood of other colleges are inclined to fight 
 shy of their brethren there resident. Yale DKE men 
 in many cases do not wear their badges in the vicinity 
 of certain of their chapters, of the extended numbers 
 of which they are heartily ashamed. A report, which 
 was perhaps meant for a joke, used to prevail about col 
 lege to the effect that DKE raised some of the money 
 to pay for its hall by selling charters to all applicants 
 who would give fifty dollars apiece for them. However 
 
7 HE SO CIE TY S YS TEM. 1 2 I 
 
 this may be, it is certain that the great number of its 
 chapters is the chief source of its weakness as a fra 
 ternity. In the case of Psi U, also, were the first two 
 and last two stricken from its list of fifteen chapters, its 
 power and influence would be nearly doubled. A Yale 
 Psi U man likewise, occasionally conceals his badge in 
 localities where the wearing it does not confer much 
 honor, and exposes him to the danger of being 
 " brother-ed" a word which in his view would hardly 
 change in significance by the omission of its second 
 letter. There is very little sentiment wasted upon one 
 another by the Yale members of these societies, yet 
 their friendship is probably not weakened by its omis 
 sion. 
 
 The elections to the junior societies are given out to 
 the Sophomores upon Tuesday evening, and the initia 
 tions are held two weeks and a half later, upon the 
 evening of the Friday which precedes Presentation Day. 
 The sophomore-society initiations always occur before 
 this, usually on the preceding Wednesday or Friday, 
 and in the interval all the Sophomores seem to be 
 neutrals, for all alike are badgeless. The mode of 
 giving out elections is the same as that of the sopho 
 more societies, already described, but as there are only 
 two classes, instead of three, to engage in the work, 
 everything is more orderly and respectable. The elec 
 tions are offered and congratulations exchanged, in a 
 sober and gentlemanly way, before any movement is 
 made toward the eatables. There are rarely any dis 
 plays of greediness or rowdyism. There is less of 
 noise and excessive drinking. But Sophomores are apt 
 to get together after receiving their elections and " cele 
 brate " the event, much after the manner of the year 
 before. Election cards, too, are distributed ; the initia 
 tion fee of fifteen to twenty-five dollars is collected by 
 
122 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 one of their own number ; and the members are in 
 dividually summoned in writing to be present at a 
 particular college room at a certain hour on the evening 
 of initiation ; all after the old custom. This time, 
 however, the members elect are conducted to the hall 
 in a body, and initiated without perceptible uproar. 
 It is generally understood in advance among them that 
 the ceremony is only a formal one, yet most men prob 
 ably feel a trifle nervous about the matter, up to the 
 moment when the mystery is revealed to them. Then 
 come the oration and poem and display of theatricals, 
 and finally the supper. Like the old Sigma Phi initia 
 tion suppers, this used on some former occasions to be 
 served in a hotel dining-room, instead of in the society 
 hall as now. The Psi U initiation exercises generally 
 close the earliest, at about two o clock ; the DKE the 
 latest, at about daybreak. The badges, engraved with 
 the new members names, etc., are provided in advance 
 by the society, the initiation fees covering the cost of 
 them, and are "swung out "next day. The same is 
 true in the sophomore societies. 
 
 The regular meetings are held every Tuesday even 
 ing, beginning at nine or ten and ending at midnight 
 or later. In old times the hour of meeting was publicly 
 announced, by posting upon the trees in the college 
 yard large cards upon which were the society vignette 
 and a printed or written numeral which signified the 
 hour of meeting. This custom was also observed by 
 the sophomore and even the freshman societies. The 
 exercises are of a more varied character than those of 
 the societies of the two preceding years, and comprise 
 features from both of them. There is less formality 
 about the literary part of them than in freshman year, 
 and less prominence to their "social " features than in 
 the sophomore societies. There are music and dancing 
 
THE SO CIE TY S YS TEAL 1 2 3 
 
 as well as singing, and of course smoking, and card 
 playing and occasional suppers. At the close of their 
 meetings, each society marches in a body to the college 
 yard, singing its songs on the way, and after giving 
 forth some additional strains from a particular ren 
 dezvous therein, disbands. Psi U s station is in front of 
 the Lyceum building, where, just before disbanding, it 
 always ends up its final song, to the tune of "In a few 
 days," with the chorus, " Hurrah ! rah ! rah ! rah ! 
 Psi U ! Psi U ! Hurrah ! rah ! rah ! rah ! Psi Up- 
 si/tf///" DKE always marches through Trumbull Gal 
 lery, and the south entry of North College, in front of 
 which, after singing an additional song or two, it dis 
 bands with the cheer : " Hurrah ! rah ! rah ! D ! K ! E !" 
 One of its outdoor choruses to the tune of " All on a 
 summer s clay," very popular in the society during 
 1867-8, was the best marching song known at the time 
 in college. It closed with a " Slap ! bang ! here we are 
 again, in jolly DKE." Delta Phi s most characteristic 
 melody was to the tune of the " Old oaken bucket," 
 but of late years this society has seldom sung any of 
 its songs in public. DKE on its homeward march 
 sometimes finds that the doors of North College have 
 been barred against it by neutrals or under-class men, 
 and is then obliged to pass around instead of through 
 the building before giving its final cheer. The foregoing 
 remarks, like the similar ones concerning the singing of 
 sophomore societies, though expressed in the present, 
 relate to the past, as the societies, obeying the edict of 
 the faculty, sing no more, and disperse without ceremony 
 of any sort. 
 
 The attendance upon the meetings is more regular 
 than in the case of the sophomore societies. Some of 
 the Seniors are almost always present, and on special 
 occasions nearly all of them attend, and perhaps take 
 
124 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 part in the exercises. These occasions, aside from 
 initiation night, are when the representatives of other 
 chapters are present in force, in response to a regular 
 invitation. At such times the society of course tries to 
 appear at its best, and the festivities are often prolonged 
 until nearly daybreak. Perhaps the entire assembly of 
 seventy-five or more, inarch through the streets in pro 
 cession, singing their society songs before the young 
 ladies boarding schools, by way of serenade, or shout 
 ing them forth beneath the college windows. Next 
 morning, too, very likely the guests may be invited to 
 attend chapel prayers, and be seated together in the 
 galleries, where the best looking of them may act as 
 "electioneering arguments" upon the unpledged under 
 class men who gaze up from below. Outside members 
 who chance to visit town without formal invitation arc 
 likewise sure of good treatment at the hands of Yale 
 men. Old graduates come more frequently to the hall 
 than in the case of the under-class societies, though 
 generally only by special invitation of the society or an 
 active member of it. The night before Commencement 
 is the time when many of them meet together there, to 
 talk over the old experiences and perhaps partake of 
 some refreshments provided for the occasion. 
 
 The hall of Delta Phi is in the upper story of the 
 block at the south-west corner of Chapel and State 
 streets, opposite the building wherein the Sigma Kps 
 hall used to be. It was newly fitted up in 1867, and 
 was said at that time to be the finest lodge room 
 possessed by any chapter of the fraternity. As the 
 Williams chapter has since then erected a $10,000 hall 
 of its own, this can be no longer true, though the hall is 
 undoubtedly a good one. It is protected without by a 
 ponderous iron door, and current report adds a billiard 
 table to its other inner attractions. The other two 
 
THE SO CIE TY S YSTEM. 125 
 
 societies possess halls of their own. That of Psi U is 
 on High street, a few steps from the north-west corner 
 of the college yard. It was taken possession of on the 
 first of May, 1870, having been about seven months in 
 process of erection. It has a front of 26 feet, a depth 
 of 66 feet, is about 40 feet high, and stands upon a lot 
 whose dimensions are 40 by 70 feet. The material 
 of the front is red pressed brick, inlaid with ornamental 
 work in black, one pattern running across just above 
 the freestone foundation, another at the top of the 
 entrance way, and a third just below the cornice of the 
 roof. This is a Mansard, slated, and surmounted by an 
 ornamental iron railing, which connects and partly con 
 ceals the two short chimneys which project at its ex 
 tremities. Above the entrance is an arched window, 
 the keystone of which bears the chapter letter, "/?." 
 The entrance and the arch above it make a slight pro 
 jection from the front, and so a gable above the arch 
 breaks the uniformity of the roof. The roof cornices 
 and the massive doorway are of light Nova Scotia stone, 
 and freestone is the material of the half-dozen steps 
 which lead up to it. In relief, upon the inner slab 
 which surmounts the doors, are the letters, " "<K T." 
 The doors themselves are of solid oak, though these will 
 doubtless in time give place to iron ones. On the south 
 side of the building, near its front, is a second arched 
 window, covered like the ornamental one in front with a 
 brown lattice-blind. There are two other square win 
 dows in the rear, protected by close black shutters. 
 There is also a rear entrance to the basement, and two 
 full-length basement windows, as well as half-a-dozen 
 scuttle-windows upon either side, all of which are pro 
 tected by iron bars. The other windows mentioned are 
 all in the second story, and in the roof is a large sky 
 light of thick, ground glass, which looks in upon the main 
 
126 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 theater or exhibition hall. The usual assembly room is 
 on the lower floor, and there are various small apart 
 ments above and below. Ventilation is secured by 
 double walls and other special appliances, and the 
 building is heated by furnace, supplied with water, and 
 lighted by gas. David R. Brown was the architect ; the 
 masonry was superintended by Lyman Treat, and the 
 carpentry by William Judd. The whole property must 
 have cost some $15,000, and is probably not yet more 
 than two-thirds paid for. For a year or more before the 
 work was begun, the society owned the stucco house next 
 beside the Divinity College on College street, and in 
 tended to refit and occupy it for its own uses, but finally 
 decided to build the present hall instead. Previous to 
 this, Psi U had occupied for more than a quarter of a 
 century a hall in Townsend s Block, corner of Chapel 
 and College streets, where, since 1864, the hall of Beta 
 Xi had been, close beside it. This society, since Psi 
 U s departure, has added the vacated hall to its own, 
 and now controls the entire upper floor of the block. 
 Psi U s first lodge room was identical as to locality 
 with the present one of Delta Phi. At Middletown, the 
 society is said to be constructing a $10,000 freestone 
 hall of its own, upon a corner of the college grounds ; 
 and at Amherst it holds a long lease on the two upper 
 stories of the large block containing its hall, and rents 
 the rooms, which surround the hall, only as lodgings for 
 Psi U students. The DKE hall is on York street, near 
 the corner of Elm. It was built in 1861, chiefly through 
 the instrumentality of Henry Holt of 62, who advanced 
 the money for the work. This lot on which the build 
 ing stands perhaps measures 30 by 60 feet, and the 
 hall itself has a front of 24 feet 6 inches, a depth of 
 45 feet, and is perhaps 35 feet in hight. Its material 
 is common brick, and the only ornamental work aside 
 
THE SOCIE TY SYSTEM. 1 2 7 
 
 from the trimmings in front, made of wood in imitation 
 of stone is the slab of brown sandstone above the 
 entrance whereon are carved the letters, " A. K. E." 
 The door at the entrance is of iron, and just above it is 
 the chapter letter, " </>." There are no windows, save 
 the skylights in the flat, tin roof, from the edges of 
 which project several ventilators and short chimneys. 
 Inside, the building is of course divided into two stories 
 and several different apartments. Seen from without, 
 the hall has an attractively mysterious look to an under 
 class man, though its appearance is much inferior to 
 that of the Psi U structure. The present value of the 
 property is probably about $8000, and the payment of 
 $1500, instead of the annual ground rent hitherto 
 claimed by the owner, is all that is now needed to vest 
 the title wholly in the society. 
 
 The holding of real estate by these societies is ren 
 dered possible by the organization of " trust associa 
 tions," composed of resident graduate members, who 
 fulfil the duties of trustees, and receive no compensation 
 for their services. Psi U was incorporated by the Con 
 necticut Legislature, at its May session of 1862, when 
 "James H. Trumbull [of 42, Conn. Sec. of State], 
 Henry E. Pardee [of 56], and Simeon E. Baldwin [of 
 61], with all such other persons as might be from time 
 to time associated with them, together with their suc 
 cessors," were " constituted a body politic and corporate, 
 by the name of the Trumbull Trust Association/ for 
 the sole purpose of the intellectual and moral improve 
 ment and culture of its members ; and by said name" 
 were to " have perpetual succession and be capable in 
 law to purchase, receive, hold and convey real and 
 personal estate" not exceeding a certain amount in 
 value ; " to sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded, 
 defend and be defended," and so forth. The "Win- 
 
128 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 throp Trust Association," incorporated three years later 
 and consisting of Edward I. Sanford of 47, Cyrus 
 Northrop of 57, Robert S. Ives of 64, Daniel C. Chap 
 man and George C. Holt of 66, with their associates, 
 and so on, is the legal style of DKE. It is named in 
 honor of the most famous member of the society, Theo 
 dore Winthrop of 48. It is supposed that Delta Phi 
 is as yet unincorporated. 
 
 Upon the junior societies at Yale, as at present organ 
 ized, hinges the entire system of college politics. The elec 
 tion of the nine " Cochleaureati," or members of the 
 Wooden Spoon Committee, and the five Editors of theYalc 
 Literary Magazine, which election is held during this year* 
 is the great thing about which they center, though they 
 enter into and effect to some extent the previous minor 
 elections. It was formerly the custom for each of the 
 three societies, whose combined membership always 
 formed a clear majority of the junior class, to nominate 
 three of the candidates for the Spoon Committee and agree 
 to support the nominees of the others. Each society 
 thus obtained an equal share of the committee. But, as 
 a majority of the nine choose the Spoon Man, a second 
 coalition between two of the societies against the third 
 was necessary to decide the matter, as well as to share 
 the five editors between them by some regular agree 
 ment. The manner of pledging Freshmen to these soci 
 eties has been already noted in the description of those 
 of sophomore year. When the class of 69 entered col 
 lege, the upper-class politicians had already prepared for 
 them a "coalition," which was to decide their junior year 
 elections. It was between Delta Phi and Psi U, against 
 DKE. Each society was as usual to have three Cochs, 
 but Psi U was to have the Spoon Man and three Editors, 
 while Delta Phi was to have two Editors and the chair- 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 129 
 
 man of the editorial board. As soon as the nucleus of 
 each society s pledged Freshmen was of respectable 
 size, this coalition was ratified, and papers were signed 
 in duplicate whereby each Freshman bound himself to 
 faithfully observe these and other minor specifications, 
 upon the arrival of his junior year. Each party to the 
 coalition preserved one set of the papers, and every 
 Freshman who thereafter pledged to either society was 
 obliged to agree to support the coalition also % As many 
 other Freshmen as possible were also " pledged to the 
 coalition," being induced to take this step in the belief 
 that it would better their chances of a pledge to one or 
 the other of the societies composing it. This was not 
 considered as preventing them from accepting a pledge 
 to DKE if one were offered, but simply as binding them 
 to vote against the DKE candidates until themselves 
 regularly pledged to that society. Before the end of the 
 first term of freshman year the political machine was in 
 working order. The coalition held meetings and nomi 
 nated candidates for the freshman-society offices ; DKE 
 did the same ; and the two opposing factions then fought 
 it out. The neutrals of each society, though outnum 
 bering each of the parties, nominated no third candi 
 date of their own, and made no effective opposition. 
 They were without " leaders," or common interest to 
 bind them together, and of course were unlikely to make 
 an open fight against societies to which they hoped each 
 day to be pledged. Neither did the neutrals know of 
 the formality with which each party nominated its can 
 didates in advance ; they only observed that their presi 
 dents and other high officers were sure to be " pledged 
 men," and the rival candidates the representatives of 
 opposite political factions ; and so they sided with one 
 or the other of them, as caprice or interest dictated. 
 In Delta Kap there was only one party, for after the 
 7* 
 
T 3 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 first the coalition had things all its own way, and DKE 
 gave up the fight. It was, however, allowed one place 
 on the Initiation committee. Sigma Eps was more 
 evenly divided, and each election was closely contested. 
 The fight over the campaign offices was especially fierce, 
 and the expedients then resorted to for effecting the 
 result have been described in the chapter on Freshman 
 Societies. DKE was finally victorious, but in turn gave 
 the coalition one member of the Initiation committee. 
 In Gamma Nu there was but little chance for politics. 
 
 Outside the freshman societies, the first opportunity 
 for displaying their power was afforded by the election 
 of the Annual Jubilee committee. The "ticket" was 
 made up by a Delta Kap politician, who divided it 
 equally between the pledged men of the three junior 
 societies ; but after the election it was found on exami 
 nation to represent the freshman societies in the pro 
 portion of Delta Kap 6, Sigma Eps 3, and Gamma Nu 
 none. The latter society therefore resolved not to par 
 ticipate in the supper, but, one of the committee after 
 wards withdrawing from college, the class elected a 
 Gamma Nu man in place of him, and all ended happily. 
 No men in the class of 69 were pledged to the sopho 
 more society Theta Psi, but its thirty elections in that 
 class were conferred upon the coalition men pledged to 
 Psi U and Delta Phi, in the proportion of two of the 
 former to one of the latter. Among these Delta Phi 
 men was the politician just mentioned, who, as campaign 
 president of Delta Kap, had conceived such a hatred of 
 Gamma Nu, that he vowed to debar its members from 
 the upper-class societies which he himself might belong 
 to. As Delta Phi was accustomed to depend upon 
 Gamma Nu for its best men, it did not approve this 
 decision of its representative, and threatened not to 
 elect him if he persisted in his course. He, however, 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 131 
 
 was obstinate, and Theta Psi was through him prevented 
 from electing any Gamma Nu men in 70. In Delta 
 Phi there was a long contest over the 69 elections, one 
 faction favoring this man and his partisans, the other 
 his opponents. By various compromises, about two 
 thirds of the pledged men were finally elected, but the 
 politician and his chief opponent, were not among them. 
 On the Tuesday evening following the initiation, the 
 meeting was adjourned early, on account of the Wooden 
 Spoon Exhibition, and while their Gamma Nu opponents 
 were absent the partisans of the politician reassembled, 
 elected and initiated him. When the Gamma Nu mem 
 bers learned of the facts, five out of the seven sent in 
 their resignations to the society, and took off their Delta 
 Phi badges. In the course of the next term they be 
 came members of DKE. The originator of the 
 trouble withdrew from college at the close of sophomore 
 year. His chief opponent had in the meantime joined 
 Psi U, and the few pledged men whom Psi U had re 
 jected had been taken into Delta Phi. The opening of 
 junior year found the two societies at swords points. 
 The paper coalition between them was seen to be but a 
 rope of sand, and was soon formally repudiated. As the 
 time of the great election drew near, an arrangement 
 was proposed whereby Psi U and DKE were each to 
 have four Cochs and two Editors, and Delta Phi one of 
 each ; but this being rejected by the latter, similar 
 terms were offered to an association of neutrals, and 
 accepted by them, and the " ticket" as thus made up 
 was finally elected by the class, Psi U according to 
 agreement afterwards taking the Spoon Man and DKE 
 the chairman of the editorial board. The Delta Phi 
 men attended the class meeting, and voted for the three 
 Cochs and two Editors w r hom they had without hope 
 of success nominated in the usual way from among 
 their own number. 
 
*3 2 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 For some years preceding the revolt, Delta Phi had 
 been held in less repute than the other two societies* 
 but had yet been treated by them as a political equal. 
 Since then, it has altogether degenerated having been 
 obliged, in 1869, through fear of dissolution, to give 
 elections to Freshmen as well as Sophomores, and trans 
 form itself into a mixed sophomore-and-junior society 
 and is no longer of any political or social importance. 
 The rumor has been current of late that the fraternity 
 is about to abolish its Yale chapter; and it would act 
 wisely in doing so, for though it has other branches 
 which, absolutely, are no better than this, yet there is 
 probably no other college in which the relative position 
 of Delta Phi is so low as at Yale. On the other hand, 
 some ardent spirits profess to believe that its present 
 decline is only temporary, and that in the future it will 
 be able to regain its former importance in the college. 
 
 Agreements not to pledge or electioneer Freshmen 
 have at times been entered into by these societies. The 
 last was that made in the class of 70, whose members 
 were not to be approached upon the subject of junior 
 societies before a certain hour of the first day of Febru 
 ary, 1868, in the second term of their sophomore year. 
 As a necessary tender to this agreement, the two soph 
 omore societies were neither to pledge nor electioneer nor 
 accost the Freshmen in any way until the evening which 
 both should unite upon for the giving out of elections. 
 At eight o clock of the appointed evening they could 
 address any Freshman in these words : " I offer you a 
 pledge to Theta Psi [or Beta Xi]. Do you accept?" 
 No argument or explanation of any kind was to be 
 allowed. This programme was accordingly carried out, 
 and two or three hours after the men were pledged the 
 societies marched around and gave out elections in the 
 usual way. Spite of the pledge, " the two crowds" were 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 133 
 
 for all practical purposes "packed" in advance. Lack 
 ing but a day or two of the appointed first of February, 
 the junior society agreement was openly broken, DKE 
 and Psi U each charging the other with its violation. 
 Forthwith most of the Theta Psi men were pledged to 
 Psi U, and the members of Beta Xi to DKE, though 
 the reverse was true in some cases, and each society 
 completed its number from among the neutrals. Neither 
 society of course gained anything in the class of 70 by 
 anticipating by a few hours the appointed time of pledg 
 ing them. But the agreements as to the junior and 
 sophomore societies were to be perpetual ; and the 
 object held in view by the society which broke the 
 pledge was to prevent its going into effect in future 
 classes. The 71 Freshmen were forthwith electioneered 
 and pledged, and, spite of one or two attempts to do 
 away with the practice, things have since gone on after 
 the old fashion, though in the case of 74, Psi U and 
 DKE agreed to offer no pledges before the third term ; 
 Delta Phi s consent not being thought worth gaining. 
 It is exceedingly difficult to keep such an agreement. 
 Without any encouragement from upper-class men, 
 cliques will be formed and crowds be packed in the inter 
 est of some particular society. When a society sees 
 "the best men" plainly drifting away from it, it is apt to 
 suspect treachery, raise a cry of foul-play, throw up the 
 pledge, and fall to work to better its fortunes. The 
 agreement, furthermore, does not offer equal advantages ; 
 relatively, the best society gains at the expense of the 
 poorest. When a man has been a year and a 4 half in 
 college he comprehends the drift of things, sees the rel 
 ative positions of the societies, and can make his choice 
 wisely. But, as a Freshman, the chance of joining 
 any upper-class society seems to him so desirable that 
 he often takes up with the first one offered him. Thus, 
 
134 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 in an indiscriminate scramble among the Freshmen, an 
 inferior society is likely to do better, than when a year 
 later it seeks for recruits among the wily Sophomores. 
 The cases are exceptional in which there is much elec 
 tioneering for the upper-class societies. Occasionally a 
 " big man" may hesitate between two societies, and be 
 earnestly argued with by their representatives ; but, as a 
 rule, a man makes up his mind for himself which crowd 
 he will go with if he can, and accepts an offered pledge 
 to it with few words. When any arguments are offered 
 for a society, they are of course similar to those used in 
 behalf of the freshman societies, and relate to the 
 honors, social position, and so on, gained by its mem 
 bers. Prize lists, however, are unknown after freshman 
 year. 
 
 There is more harmoniousness and good feeling in 
 the junior societies than in those of the two preceding 
 years, yet bitter enmities not unfrequently arise within 
 them. The bones of contention are not the society offi 
 ces, for the incumbents of them are chosen without 
 dispute, but, as may be judged by the sketch of junior 
 politics in the class of 69, the positions upon the " ticket" 
 for Cochleaureati and Lit. Editors. These are balloted 
 for one at a time, and the order of nomination is known 
 outside, so that the candidates are spoken of throughout 
 the class as the first, second, or third Cochs or Editors, 
 of this or that society. It is expected that the first 
 Coch of one or the other society will be chosen Spoon 
 Man, and the first Editor, chairman of the editorial 
 board. What is known as a junior-society coalition is 
 not really made between the societies as such, but be 
 tween the individual members of them. The societies 
 form a good medium through which to operate, but the 
 agreement is a purely personal one, after all. For ex 
 ample, certain individuals, who belong to Psi U, and 
 
THE SO CIE TY S YS TEM. 1 3 5 
 
 certain other individuals, who belong to DKE, promise 
 to vote for one another s candidates in a certain class 
 meeting. A formal writing is accordingly prepared in 
 duplicate to which each individual party to the compact 
 puts his signature. A majority, who order that their 
 society accept a coalition, cannot force an opposing 
 minority into it, nor bind their votes in class meeting. 
 The compact " holds" just as many individuals as enter 
 into it, and no more. If the thirtieth man in a society 
 insists on voting in opposition to the twenty and nine 
 who are his comrades, there is no one who can say to 
 him, Nay. Of course, in practice, when a large major 
 ity urge the adoption of a coalition, the minority are 
 prone to fall in with it, even though they may dislike to 
 do so ; but their action is voluntary, and they have no 
 one but themselves to blame if they lack the independ 
 ence to assert their own convictions. Let it be under 
 stood, once for all, that the current talk of a man s soci 
 ety binding his vote or opinion upon outside matters, is 
 nonsense, pure and simple. 
 
 Suppose a junior class of 115. Suppose two junior 
 societies of 30 men each. Suppose these 60 men agree 
 to elect a ticket made up from among their own number. 
 Suppose the separate thirties nominate half of it. Then, 16 
 votes will ensure a man a majority of the 115 cast in class 
 meeting. The disproportion is often greater than this. 
 In the class of 69, with 120 members, a bare half-dozen 
 nominating votes secured a man his election to a coch- 
 ship. Of course a coalition is not arranged and ratified 
 by the necessary number of individuals, without a vast 
 deal of wire-pulling, and log-rolling, and pipe-laying, 
 and the rest of it ; for all the separate and conflicting 
 interests have to be consulted and reconciled, and the 
 likely "men" held in view as well as the "measures." 
 This work takes up the time of the professed politicians. 
 
136 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 But, supposing that all the details have been at length 
 satisfactorily arranged, and that the "nominations are 
 now in order " in the societies, we can see how the strife 
 has been narrowed down to very close quarters, and the 
 fidelity of a man s time-serving "friends" is put to the 
 crucial test. The general result is often to be guessed 
 at in advance with tolerable accuracy, for the contest is 
 not infrequently in regard to the order in which partic 
 ular candidates shall be nominated, rather than to the 
 fact itself of nominating them : though usually there are 
 some unsuccessful candidates close upon the heels of the 
 last ones chosen. In general, there is more uncertainty 
 as to order in nominating the Cochs, more uncertainty 
 as to the men themselves in nominating the Editors. 
 However smoothly the elections may pass off, they 
 usually occasion more or less hard feeling; and the 
 " fence men " are certain to make enemies, whichever 
 way, on the arrival of the decisive moment, they finally 
 jump. Seniors announce the nominations from one 
 society hall to another almost before the nominating 
 meetings are adjourned, and they are discussed next 
 morning at every club breakfast table. The only other 
 elective honor of any account wherewith the society has 
 to do, is the position of delegate to the annual conven 
 tion, for which there may be several aspirants. The 
 society also appoints a Senior as a member of the dele\ 
 gation, and pays his expenses with the others. 
 
 The nomination of the candidates for class honors, 
 however, stirs up less of contention and bitterness than 
 the election of new members to the society. There are 
 fewer class elections given out than in sophomore year, 
 because the interval between the time the members were 
 pledged and the time they were elected was long enough 
 for them to decide upon what other classmates they 
 wished to have elected, and the society is not apt to 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 137 
 
 refuse men thus recommended. In case there is such 
 refusal, a class election probably results, soon after the 
 new members are put in control. Perhaps a few may be 
 given out for the purpose of gaining sufficient men to 
 form an effective coalition. Perhaps a man, proposed 
 before the class nominations are made, is at first 
 rejected by those who fear his vote may work to their 
 disadvantage, but elected when the danger is over. 
 Perhaps a class election may be given a new man who 
 enters college as a Junior. And, on the night of giving 
 out elections to the Sophomores, a few Juniors who have 
 been previously kept out may be allowed to slip in. 
 Similarly, a few such honorary elections may be con 
 ferred on men in the senior class. Psi U, however, 
 makes very few class and honorary elections, and never 
 confers the latter upon members of the Scientific 
 School, as do the other societies. The bad feeling 
 which results from fighting over class elections, though 
 worse in kind, is naturally less in extent than that arising 
 when the new members are chosen from the class below. 
 Among the pledged men who are to be balloted for 
 there are generally factions, more or less clearly de 
 fined, each of which has its friends and enemies among 
 the men who wield the ballot. Each wishes to be the 
 controlling power in the society at the time of the class 
 nominations, and so desires to keep out those likely to 
 injure its chances, or interfere against a projected 
 coalition. Aside from political considerations, too, 
 there are many private and personal reasons which 
 may make certain pledged men obnoxious to the rest, 
 and cause the latter to work against them. When to 
 these causes of confusion the private likes and dislikes 
 of the Juniors are added, enough conflicting interests 
 appear, to make the election meetings anything but har 
 monious ones. The pledged men really have the power 
 
T 3 8 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 in their own hands, and occasionally some are found 
 fearless enough to assert it, by agreeing together not 
 to accept elections to their society, unless some enemy 
 be left out or friend taken in, as the case may be. But 
 as a rule, men feel too doubtful as to their own chance 
 of election to risk it by any such defiance ; and so the 
 societies are usually spared the disgrace of being 
 directly dictated to by under-class men. The strife over 
 elections of course varies in different societies and dif 
 ferent years ; sometimes being very bitter, sometimes 
 hardly displaying itself at all ; but, what with com 
 promises and the gradual wearing away of the weaker 
 party s opposition, the full crowd is at last made-up, of 
 essentially the same men who were pledged, and the 
 society in due time given good naturedly into their 
 hands. 
 
 As a natural result of their political^ affiliations, the 
 active members of these societies mention them to one 
 another with less reserve than is wont to be maintained 
 by sophomore-society men, and do not resent as im 
 pertinent any reasonable questions which may be asked 
 concerning them. They are usually careful to say little 
 about them in the presence of neutrals, however, lest 
 they be thought indirectly to boast of their own implied 
 superiority. DKE men are often called " Deaks " by 
 the others, but as this word is somewhat akin to an 
 epithet it is not employed in their presence, nor do 
 other society men often use it before outsiders, unless 
 intimate with them. Similarly, in sophomore year, Beta 
 Xi men are called " Dead Beats," or simply " Beats," by 
 those of Theta Psi, in the presence of their own num 
 ber ; and neutrals, among themselves, though less com 
 monly, designate them in the same manner. In fresh 
 man year, too, Gamma Nu men may be called Gamma 
 Nu-sters by the others, but the epithet is by no means a 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 139 
 
 common one. " Dickey E " and " Piecey U " are epi 
 thets sometimes applied to the third-year societies by 
 the Seniors who belonged to them. Among Seniors, 
 too, junior society transactions are talked of about as 
 freely as the doings of the sophomore societies. A 
 party of friends who belonged to rival organizations will 
 "chaff" one another about them, and, in private of 
 course, join together in singing their songs. Never 
 theless, these societies are thought much more of than 
 those of the two earlier years, and the affection for 
 them is far more lasting. It induces undergraduates to 
 give liberally of their money and labor for the erection 
 of costly halls, and prompts former members to help 
 them on, with generous subscriptions and friendly ad 
 vice. A man s share in the ordinary expenses of a 
 junior society is no larger than in that of the year 
 before, perhaps not as large ; his share in the extra 
 ordinary expenses is unlimited. Suppose a new hall is 
 to be built: a subscription of $50 is very fair ; of $100, 
 generous ; of $200, munificent ; while $500 makes a man 
 a hero in society tradition ever after. Thus, these 
 society "bonds of affection," et cetera, are shown to 
 have a tangible cash value, and, even at Yale where 
 they are wont to be made light of, are sometimes re 
 deemed if not in gold at least in lawful money. At 
 other colleges, where a man belongs to but one society, 
 and perhaps may be a member of it during his whole 
 academic course, his regard for it is naturally deeper 
 and more enduring than it could be were his allegiance 
 divided as at Yale. The graduates of the other chap 
 ters hence take a livelier interest in their welfare. If a 
 new hall is to be built, or other extraordinary expenses 
 are to be incurred, the brunt of the burden falls upon 
 them. At Yale, it is the undergraduates who take the 
 initiative ; the aid of the old members, generous as it 
 often is, comes in only as a supplement to their work. 
 
MO FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 The relative standing of the three societies has been 
 incidentally alluded to ; a few direct remarks in regard 
 to it may serve to close the chapter. Psi U, starting 
 at Yale when Delta Phi was broken up by internal feuds* 
 seems from the outset to have successfully disputed the 
 ground with it as a recognized equal, despite its in 
 feriority to it in age and reputation. These two were 
 the important rivals until about the year 1862, when 
 DKE, in the eighteenth year of its age, by the erection 
 of a hall of its own, suddenly began to rise in college 
 repute, and claim recognition as a rival of Psi U, 
 Delta Phi having been for some time on the wane, 
 and ever since the class of 69 entered college the real 
 rivalry has been between those two societies. Since the 
 graduation of that class, indeed, Delta Phi has prac 
 tically sunk out of sight in college esteem, and is called 
 a junior society only by courtesy. . The material argu 
 ment has all been on the side of DKE, and in view of 
 this it seems remarkable that Psi U, with little else to 
 back it save its traditional prestige, has maintained its 
 old position so well. If the lift which its hall gave 
 DKE be any index of the future, it seems likely that its 
 rival, at length possessed of a more attractive one, will 
 again take the lead in the race. Comparing the freshman 
 societies with these, it is easy to see a general tendency 
 in Sigma Eps men to choose DKE, Delta Kap men Psi 
 U, and Gamma Nu men Delta Phi ; though since the 
 catastrophe of 1868 the comparison in the latter case 
 no longer holds. Thus, the campaign president of 
 Sigma Eps is almost always a DKE pledged man, and 
 of Delta Kap a candidate for Psi U ; while formerly the 
 Gamma Nu president was quite as certain to be pledged 
 to Delta Phi. Even before the latters foil, it was not 
 infrequently to be observed that a sneer would arise, 
 when a man was mentioned who had "gone to Delta 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 141 
 
 Phi," which was only a little less pronounced than the 
 old freshman derision of " Gamma Nu men." Now-a- 
 days, hardly any one of any ability or social importance 
 can be induced to join Delta Phi, and membership in 
 it is thought to rather lower a man s dignity and self- 
 respect. Indeed, the name " Delta Phi man " is fast 
 becoming a synonym for " scrub," and " pill," and even 
 the neutrals regard its members with a sort of pitying 
 contempt The sentiment concerning it is much like 
 that which used to prevail in regard to Diggers of senior 
 year : the average man " will go to one of the reputable 
 societies or to none at all." But these two societies no 
 one ever pretends to despise, however hostile he may 
 be to them. For the last few years DKE has taken a 
 good many more prizes and honors than its rival, and 
 about all of the prominent boating and base-ball men 
 have been among its members. Its men "work" more 
 for their society than do their rivals, and take greater 
 pains to display it. Psi U used to be called the " shawl 
 society," in the old days when the wearing of that gar 
 ment was deemed to smack somewhat of aristocracy and 
 exclusiveness. Perhaps its place at Yale to-day cannot 
 be better described than by saying that it still attracts 
 most of the "shawl men" from every junior class. In 
 place of twenty, political or pecuniary exigencies now 
 require it to elect about thirty members, long time the 
 established number of the less exacting DKE. As 
 general college fraternities, their rank is : Psi U first, 
 Delta Phi second, and DKE third ; or inversely as their 
 membership and number of chapters. The lowest of 
 them, however, as well as its two superiors, is probably 
 of a good deal more importance than any of the other 
 chaptered college fraternities in America. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 SENIOR SOCIETIES. 
 
 Peculiarities of these Societies Skull and Bones Its Badge Pin 
 and Numeral Hall and Corporate Title Origin Catalogue 
 Mode of Giving out Elections Initiation Mode of Summoning 
 Members to the Annual Convention Attendance upon the Reg 
 ular and Special Meetings Peculiar Customs and Traditions 
 Scroll and Key Its Badge Pin and Vignette Hall and Corpor 
 ate Title Origin and Growth Customs and Traditions Spade 
 and Grave Its Origin, Precarious Existence, Change of Name, 
 and Final Catastrophe The Societies and the Neutrals Bull 
 and Stones The Coffin of 69 The Tea-Kettle of 53 Crown 
 and Scepter Star and Dart Notable Members of the Existing 
 Societies Mode of Packing and Making up a Crowd Compar 
 ison of the Societies Their "Policies," Actual and Possible- 
 Failure of their Imitators in Other Colleges General Facts 
 about all the Class Societies Comparison of their Importance 
 in Each Year General Result of the System. 
 
 The societies of the first three years, though possessed 
 of special characteristics, have yet such a general resem 
 blance to one another and to those of other colleges, 
 that their position in the system can be readily compre 
 hended by any reader of these pages, at least, if he be 
 college-bred. But the senior societies are such pecu 
 liarly Yale institutions, that it will be difficult for an out 
 sider fully to appreciate their significance. Nothing like 
 them exists in other colleges ; and Harvard is the only col 
 lege where, under similar conditions, they possibly could 
 exist. In the first place, they are the only Yale societies 
 whose transactions arc really secret. Their members 
 never even mention their names, nor refer to them in any 
 way, in the presence of anyone not of their own number ; 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 143 
 
 and, as they are all Seniors, there are no " old members 
 in the class above them" to tell tales out of school. 
 There is no electioneering nor pledging for these socie 
 ties, and no Junior is approached upon the subject in 
 any way until an election is actually offered him. The 
 number of elections given out to each class is small and 
 never varies, and no class nor honorary elections are ever 
 allowed. Both societies combined comprise but little 
 more than one fourth the members of an average class, 
 and the part played by them in politics is simply a neg 
 ative one. A man s chances for office are never bet 
 tered because he belongs to a senior society, but are 
 frequently, for that simple reason, injured or destroyed 
 altogether. The societies do not take their names from 
 the initials of a Greek motto, but from the peculiar em 
 blems adopted as a badge. This badge is constantly 
 worn by active members ; by clay upon the shirt bosom 
 or neck-tie, by night upon the night dress. A gymnast 
 or boating man will be sure to have his senior badge 
 attached to what little clothing he may be encumbered 
 with while in practice ; and a swimmer, divested of all 
 garments whatever, will often hold it in his mouth or 
 hand, or attach it to his body in some way, while in the 
 water. Only graduate members wear the badge upon 
 the vest, where for the first few years they display it 
 quite regularly. Old graduates seldom " swing out" ex 
 cept on special occasions, or while visiting New Haven j 
 and members of the faculty, except may be young fresh 
 man tutors, never display a society badge when engaged 
 in their official duties. Members who have ceased to 
 show the badge openly, nevertheless may wear it about 
 them pretty constantly, perhaps by night as well as day, 
 for quite a number of years. The senior societies, in 
 theory, are composed exclusively of " big men" ; of 
 those who, for whatever reason, have become preemi- 
 
144 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 nent above their fellows in college repute. In this they 
 differ from those of the two preceding years, which of 
 necessity are half made up of comparatively second- 
 rate men. There are a certain number say twenty 
 
 in each class, who, at the end of the third year, may be 
 picked out as the confessed superiors of the others in 
 popular esteem. Were it possible to do this a year or 
 more earlier, and were one junior society preeminently 
 " the best," it is doubtful if the twenty could all be per 
 suaded to join it, or the society to elect them all ; for it 
 is plain that their individual political influence would 
 be greater in separate societies, partly made up of less 
 important men. The senior-society type, on the other 
 hand, is an association with no weak members whatever ; 
 and th.e history of the matter shows that unless this 
 ideal is adhered to with reasonable closeness such a soci 
 ety cannot live long at Yale. 
 
 There are two of these societies, but as one takes its 
 tone from the other it may be well to describe them sep 
 arately, and treat first of the oldest and most famous 
 member of the modern system. Its name is "Skull 
 and Bones," formerly printed "Scull and Bone," 
 and its badge, of solid gold, consists of the face of a 
 skull, supported by the crossed thigh bones, with a band, 
 bearing the number "322", in place of the lower jaw. 
 Its original badge was a rectangular gold plate, about 
 the size and shape of the present Beta Xi pin, whereon 
 the skull-and-bones design and the numeral were simply 
 engraved. Its wood-cut vignette merely represents the 
 emblems, and is identical with that employed for general 
 purposes in college papers elsewhere. The number 
 "322" is always printed below it, though the size of the 
 type is not invariable. In the cut formally used, the 
 design was smaller that now than in vogue ; but there 
 never has been added to the simple emblems anything 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 145 
 
 in the way of ornament or embellishment. Popularly 
 the society is known as " Bones," and its members as 
 " Bones men." The pin is sometimes called a " crab" 
 from its supposed resemblance to that animal. The 
 hall, erected in 1856, is situated on High street, near the 
 corner of Chapel, about opposite the Yale Art Building. 
 It is a grim-looking, windowless, tomb-like structure, of 
 brown sandstone, rectangular in shape, showing a front 
 of about 35 and a length of 44 feet, and is, at a guess, 
 35 feet in hight. The entrance in front is guarded by a 
 pair of massive iron doors, a dozen feet high, finished 
 off in panels, and of a dark green color ; while heavy 
 clasps of brass close over the key-holes and are secured 
 by padlocks, beneath one of which the bell-pull is con 
 cealed. Previous to 1864, when these doors were put 
 in position, their places were occupied by commoner 
 ones of iron, upon which the society emblems were 
 displayed. The roof is nearly flat, and is covered 
 with half-inch plates of iron, which in 1867 took the 
 place of the tin before employed. There is a sky 
 light, similarly protected, and the chimneys and ventila 
 tors are ranged along the edges of the roof. Behind, 
 are a pair of small windows barred with iron, and close 
 to the ground are two or three scuttle holes, communi 
 cating with the cellar. The building is rapidly becom 
 ing covered with the " Virginia creeper/ first planted 
 there in 1864, and stands back a rod or more from the 
 street, being separated from it by a post-and-chain fence. 
 The dimensions of the lot upon which it stands are 
 about 40 feet (front) by 70 (deep) ; and the total value 
 of the premises must be upwards of $30,000. Before tak 
 ing possession of its present quarters, the society for many 
 years, perhaps from its original organization, occu 
 pied a low-studded back room in the third story of what 
 is now the Courant building, opposite the college yard. 
 
 8 
 
146 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 At the May, 1856, session of the State Legislature 
 the society was incorporated as the " Russell Trust 
 Association," with the same legal formulas as those 
 quoted in the case of Psi U. The names mentioned in 
 the act were William H. Russell of 33, John S. Beach 
 of 39, Henry B. Harrison of 46, Henry T. Blake of 
 48, Henry D. White of 51, and Daniel C. Oilman of 
 52 j the first of whom has since acted as president, the 
 one next the last as treasurer, of the association. All 
 are residents of New Haven. 
 
 The society was originated in 1832 by fifteen mem 
 bers of the class which graduated the following year. 
 General Russell, the valedictorian of that class, is its 
 reputed founder, and the best known of his associates 
 is Judge Alphonso Taft of Cincinnati. Some injustice 
 in the conferring of Phi Beta Kappa elections seems to 
 have led to its establishment, and apparently it was for 
 some time regarded throughout college as a sort of bur 
 lesque convivial club. It is said that the faculty once 
 broke in upon one of its meetings, and from what they 
 saw determined upon its abolishment, but by the inter 
 cessions and explanations of its founder, then serving as 
 tutor among them, were finally induced to spare it. The 
 popular college tradition, that it was transplanted from 
 a German university, is scouted by old neutral gradu 
 ates as absurd. But, whatever be the facts as to its 
 origin, the mystery now attending its existence is genu 
 ine, and forms the one great enigma which college gos 
 sip never tires of discussing. Its catalogue is a unique 
 affair, having a page six inches by four, printed upon 
 one side only. Each right-hand page contains the 
 members of a year fifteen names indicated in full and 
 alphabetically arranged with the residences, printed in 
 old-English text, and surrounded by a heavy border of 
 black. A title page, bearing the society cut and the 
 
THE SO CIE TY S VS TEM. 1 4 7 
 
 words " Period 2. Decade 3," precedes the list of the 
 founders, and a similar one, " Period 2. Decade 4," 
 stands before the class of 43, and so on for every suc 
 cessive ten years, the " Period" being always " 2," but 
 the " Decade" increasing each time by one. At the top 
 of the first list of names the class of 33 and sepa 
 rated from them by a broad line of black, are the char 
 acters, "P. 231. I). 31.", which regularly increase by 
 one with each succeeding class, and are therefore, for 
 the class of 71, "P. 269. D. 69." The first page of 
 the book displays, in full-faced, old-English capitals, the 
 letters, "Otirunbcditf," arranged in a semi-oval, between 
 two black lines. The catalogue is black-edged, and is 
 bound in black leather, with the owner s name and " D.", 
 stamped in gilt upon the cover, though of late the 
 " D." is less often indicated. It will be observed that 
 the "D." is always two less than the class ; thus, a cat 
 alogue labeled "John Smith, D. 62," would belong to a 
 member of the class of 64, and so on. What these 
 " Periods" and " Decades" and " P. s" and "D.Vmay 
 signify is known only to the initiated ; but, as the cata 
 logue is never shown to outsiders, they were probably 
 not put there for mystification solely. That the found 
 ers are put down as belonging to the " third decade 
 of the second period" may seem to make in favor of the 
 German university theory, in the minds of many ; and 
 the blank space in place of the eleventh man s name in 
 the list of the founders, may perhaps be thought a 
 straw in the same direction. The last edition of the 
 catalogue was prepared in December, 1870, and was as 
 usual sent out in unbound sheets to each surviving mem 
 ber of the society. The total membership of the 39 
 classes represented was of course 585. 
 
 The elections to this society are always given out on 
 the Thursday evening which precedes Presentation 
 
148 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Day. Since no Junior is ever pledged or spoken to in 
 advance, the excitement which prevails among the 
 "likely men " is intense, though suppressed, as the hour 
 of fate draws, nigh. All college, too, is on the alert, to 
 find what the result may be. It is said that formerly 
 the fifteen Bones men, at midnight, silently moved from 
 their hall to the rooms of the chosen ones, when the 
 leader, in each case displaying a human skull and bone, 
 said simply, " Do you accept ? " and, whatever was the 
 reply, the procession as silently departed. As the 
 neutrals got into the way of tagging about, insulting and 
 annoying the society on its march, this plan was aban 
 doned in favor of the less formal one now in vogue. 
 According to this, at an early hour of the appointed 
 evening, a Bones Senior quietly calls at the room of a 
 Junior, and having been assured that " we are alone," 
 says : " I offer you an election to the so-called Skull and 
 Bones. Do you accept ? " If the answer is affirmative 
 the Senior and perhaps the graduate member who 
 sometimes accompanies him shakes hands with the 
 neophyte, and bidding him to keep to his room for the 
 present, hurries back to the hall to report the result. 
 If the election is refused, the result is likewise reported 
 to headquarters, and influential members are sometimes 
 sent back to argue the case ; but, as a rule, the few men 
 who refuse elections are not offered a chance to repent. 
 Bones will not be dictated to, and when a man says, " I 
 accept, in case So-and-So is elected with me," or "in 
 case Such-a-One is kept out," he is never allowed to carry 
 his point ; Yes or No is the only answer recognized. 
 Suppose the elections begin to be given out about seven, 
 in case there are no refusals the whole number will be 
 made up before nine o clock ; if there are refusals it 
 may take an hour longer. In anticipation of this pos 
 sibility, a half-dozen extra men are chosen in Bones, in 
 
THE SOCIE TY S YSTEM. 1 49 
 
 addition to the regular fifteen, and in case any of the 
 latter fail to say Yes, elections are offered to a corre 
 sponding number of these "second choices," in the 
 order in which they were elected. By going quickly and 
 quietly about their business the Bones men manage to 
 elude in great part the attentions of the rabble, which 
 ranges about the college yard on the night in question, 
 barring up the entry doors, raising false alarms, and 
 otherwise disporting itself. The names of the chosen 
 men, however, are known about as quickly as the elec 
 tions are conferred, and many in the crowd make out 
 complete lists of them, for circulation at the breakfast 
 table or in the division-room upon the following morning, 
 when they form the sole topic of discussion throughout 
 the college. Usually, the names are first printed in the 
 Conrant of the Wednesday following ; though for a year 
 or two past some of the city dailies have had the tact to 
 secure them for their next morning s issue. The initia 
 tion begins, after the close of the Wooden Spoon Ex 
 hibition, at midnight of the following Tuesday, and lasts 
 till about daybreak. The candidates for the ceremony 
 are assembled in a room of the college Laboratory, 
 which is guarded by Bones men, and are singly escorted 
 thence, by two of the latter, to the hall. As the grim 
 doors open for each new member, there are sounds as 
 of a fish horn, as of many feet hurrying up an uncar- 
 peted stairway, as of a muffled drum and tolling bell, 
 all mingling in a sort of confused uproar, like that from 
 a freshman initiation a good many miles away. Per 
 haps, while being led to the hall, a candidate may pass 
 between rows of neutral Juniors or other college men, 
 some of whom may " bid him good bye," with expres 
 sions of congratulation and good will, if they think his 
 election deserved, or insult and revile him, if their belief 
 goes in the contrary direction. There is usually some 
 
15 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 one to flash a dark lantern upon each approaching can 
 didate, and, if he makes no other personal comments, 
 to at least shout forth his name, for the edification of 
 the rest. To all this the Bones men of course pay no 
 attention. It perhaps takes an hour or more thus to 
 initiate the fifteen candidates ; and when the self-con 
 stituted leader of the outside hangers on announces 
 that " the last man s in," his followers agree that the 
 fun is over, and sullenly disperse. If they stayed longer 
 perhaps they might hear songs sung to strange old 
 tunes, and the tones of the orator s voice, and the 
 applause which follows it, and the prolonged cheers for 
 "the Skull and the Bones." And of course there is a 
 supper. Every resident graduate attends the initiation, 
 as well as many from New York and elsewhere, some 
 of whom come to town as early as election night ; and 
 the initiation itself, at least the outside part of it, is con 
 ducted by graduates alone. Long ago, it is said, the 
 initiation took place on the evening of Presentation Day. 
 " The annual convention of the Order " is held on the 
 evening of Commencement. Three weeks previous to 
 this, which, of late years, is therefore at the time of the 
 first regular meeting, two nights after initiation, a 
 printed invitation is sent to every living member of" the 
 Club " whose whereabouts are known. This invitation 
 is upon the first page of a sheet of note paper. Below 
 the society cut is the date for example, "Thursday 
 evening, July 22, 1869" of Commencement night; 
 followed by "^f VI. S.B.T. ;" a Latin quotation, play 
 ing upon the word " Bones ; " the signature of the secre 
 tary, and the date. Upon the third page is the list of 
 new members, printed alphabetically in old-English 
 text, and surrounded by the black borders, exactly as in 
 the catalogue, of which it in fact constitutes a new " P." 
 and "D." Each one who receives it, by fitting the new 
 
THE SOC1E TY SYSTEM. 1 5 I 
 
 leaf to his catalogue, thus keeps the same perfect from 
 year to year. These pages are doubtless stereotyped, 
 and preserved by the society, whose entire catalogue is 
 thus always kept in readiness for the printer. With 
 this invitation and catalogue-page, is also sent a printed 
 slip specifying the exercises of Commencement week. 
 A card-size photograph of the new members, grouped 
 in front of an antique clock whose hands point to the 
 hour of eight about a table on which lies a skull, is also 
 sent to graduates, at this time or afterwards. In the 
 picture, the thigh bones are held by certain members, 
 sometimes the table-cloth has the emblems embroidered 
 upon it, and the whole arrangement of the group is 
 apparently significant. Official notes to old members 
 are written upon black bordered paper of the catalogue 
 size, with or without the society cut at. the head, and 
 society communications sent through the mails are often 
 enclosed in black-edged envelopes, bearing at the end 
 a printed request to the postmaster to return them to 
 the society s post-office box if not delivered within 
 a certain time, sealed with a skull and bones and 
 the letters " S.C.B.," impressed upon black wax. 
 Bones men never display in their college rooms any 
 posters or other reminders of their society, though it 
 is rumored that actual skulls were formerly used for this 
 purpose, but graduates often keep on the walls before 
 them a richly-framed photographic group of the class 
 mates who made up their own special " D.," the 
 picture being simply an enlargement of the card photo 
 graph before noted. As specimen jokes from the con 
 vention invitations the following may be quoted : " Nisi 
 in bonis amicitia esse non potest " (Cic. de Am. 5. i.) ; 
 <4 Grandiaque effossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris " (Virg. 
 Georgs. I. 497); "Quid dicam de ossibus ? Nil nisi 
 bonum " ; and, in 1856, at the time of erecting the hall, 
 
I 5 2 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 "Quid clicam cle ossibus ? (Cic. de Nat. Deorum. II. 
 55.) O fortunati, quorum jam moenia surgunt!" (Virg. 
 ^Kn. I. 430,) At the head of the editorial columns of 
 the city dailies, on Commencement morning, was usually 
 displayed the " 322. VI. S.B.T." notice, between paral 
 lel black rules, but for the past few years the practice has 
 been abandoned. Up to about the same time printed 
 announcements of the place and time of the Commence 
 ment meeting, headed by the cut, were posted about 
 college, and upon the notice-boards of the different 
 churches, a few days in advance. Formerly, too, 
 similar warnings were printed, in connection with the 
 society cut, among the advertisements of the city papers. 
 As their hall is called " the Temple " by Bones men, a 
 current guess and a wrong one interprets " S.B.T." 
 as " Skull and Bones Temple." A more likely reading 
 makes "T." stand for "time," and so interprets the 
 notice, "Six minutes before eight," the hour eight 
 being "Bones time." 
 
 The meetings are held on Thursday evening, com 
 mencing exactly at eight o clock, and every acting mem 
 ber is obliged to be in attendance from that time until 
 the adjournment, at two or three in the morning. The 
 society formerly had a way of marching from its hall in 
 dead silence, tramp, tramp, tramp, to the north entry 
 of North College, where it might leave a man or two, 
 and so on, silently, in front of the row, growing smaller 
 as it passed the different buildings, until at the south 
 entry of South the few who were left disbanded. For 
 merly, too, it was customary, before breaking up, to sing 
 a college song whose refrain was, " And I shall be his 
 dad ;" but this practice, for lack of voices perhaps, was 
 abandoned some years ago. A Bones Senior is never 
 seen about New Haven after eight o clock of a Thursday 
 evening. Nothing but actual sickness ever keeps him 
 
THE SO CIE TY SYS TEM. 1 5 3 
 
 from his society, except it be absence from tdWn, and 
 those who have been absent are apt to appear for the 
 first time at Friday morning chapel. A good share of 
 the fresh graduates who are residents, and many of the 
 older ones, are also ordinarily in attendance at the regular 
 weekly meetings. Aside from the annual convention on 
 Commencement night, there are two other " bums" held 
 during the year, one each at about the middle of the 
 first and second terms, which bring many graduates 
 from out of town. These usually reach the city just 
 before the meeting, and leave it on the midnight trains, 
 so that their coming and going is not known to outsiders, 
 except from the hotel registers or a chance contact upon 
 the street. 
 
 Each Bones man has a nick-name by which he is 
 known to his initiated classmates. One or two of these 
 names, probably official titles, are retained from year to 
 year, but most of them change with the classes, and are 
 apparently conferred according to individual peculiarity 
 or caprice. All members of the society are also spoken 
 of among themselves by a certain general title ; another 
 is conferred upon members of the other senior society, 
 and a third is bestowed upon the neutrals. As these 
 titles, especially the latter, might convey a wrong impres 
 sion if generally known, they are not mentioned here. 
 The society itself, among its members, is known as 
 "Eulogia," or the " Eulogian Club." It is believed to 
 have little or no regard to any formal, written constitu 
 tion, but to be governed chiefly by tradition in its cus 
 toms and usages. The hall is reputed to be a sort of 
 repository for old college mementos ; like the u first 
 college bell," the original "bully-club," the constitutions 
 of defunct societies, etc., which are all said to be pre 
 served there ; and when anything of the kind disap 
 pears, this is surmised to be its final destination. Though 
 8* 
 
154 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Thursday night is the regular time of meeting, when 
 attendance is compulsory, the hall is generally frequented 
 on Saturday and other nights also, and is often visited 
 in the day time besides. An old member often goes 
 there as soon as he reaches town, especially, if in quest 
 of information in regard to classmates who were formerly 
 associated there with him. At convention time, the 
 members who cannot in person attend, send to the soci 
 ety such facts as to their whereabouts and occupations 
 for the year, as may interest old classmates and friends ; 
 and their letters are filed away for future reference. 
 Every book or pamphlet written by a member is also 
 preserved in the society archives ; and its collection of 
 printed and manuscript "Yalensia" is said to be very 
 complete. 
 
 To discover the exact meaning of the inevitable num 
 eral "322," has long been a problem for college mathe 
 maticians. According to some, it signifies " 1832," or 
 the year the society was founded ; others make it 
 " 34-2+2" or " 7," which is said to be the number of 
 " founders" in the class of 33, who persuaded the other 
 eight to join them in making up the original fifteen ; 
 still another surmise sets it at " 3X2X2, "or " 12, "which 
 might refer to the midnight hour of breaking up, or 
 something equally mysterious ; while a fourth guess in 
 terprets it to mean " the year 3226. C", and connects 
 k with the names of Alexander or Demosthenes. What 
 these heroes may have in common with the Skull and 
 Bones society, aside from departing this life on or just 
 before the year in question, is not very plain ; but it is 
 pretty well established that Bones "322" refers to that 
 year B. C., whatever may be its additional significance. 
 While the class of 69 were in college the hall, accord 
 ing to report, was twice broken into by neutrals, and 
 strange stories were circulated of the wonderful myste- 
 
THE SOCIE TY S YSTEM. 1 5 5 
 
 ries there discovered by the interlopers. It is probably 
 a fact that these men did really enter the hall, through 
 the skylight in the roof; but there is no reason for trust 
 ing their own account of their exploits any further than 
 this, since, if, as is not unlikely, the arrangement of things 
 inside prevented their making any important discoveries, 
 they would of course invent a sufficient number of sup 
 posititious mysteries, to clear themselves of the re 
 proach of having ventured upon a fool s errand. None 
 of their statements, therefore, have been thought worth 
 repeating here. A surreptitious visit, real or pretended, 
 was hardly necessary as a preliminary to assuring the col 
 lege that " Bones keeps its most valuable documents 
 locked up in an iron safe," since the same fact holds 
 good for every society after sophomore year. 
 
 " Scroll and Key " is the name of the other senior 
 society, which was founded nine years later than its more 
 famous rival, that is to say, in 1841, by a dozen mem 
 bers of the class of 42. Popularly it is known as 
 " Keys," though this abbreviation has only come into 
 general use within the last half-dozen years. Its pin, of 
 plain gold, represents a key lying across a scroll, and 
 its wood-cut simply copies it. The design is such that 
 it is difficult to tell the right side from the wrong, and 
 the cut, when printed bottom upwards, as it often is, 
 is rarely noticed as possessing other than its ordinary 
 look. The original badge was a rectangular gold plate, 
 of the same size and shape as the old Bones pin, 
 whereon were engraved an eagle, poised above, suspend 
 ing a scroll, and a right hand below, grasping a key. 
 This is still worn, by a single member at a time, in 
 place of the usual scroll and key, presumably as a mark 
 of office, like society president or something of the sort. 
 The letters "C.S.P.," "C.C.J.," are always printed with 
 the society cut, the former above, the latter below it, 
 
IS 6 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 and with it usually serve as the only introduction to 
 the lists of members printed in the Banner and else 
 where, though the name " Scroll and Key " is sometimes 
 prefixed. The Bones lists, on the other hand, are 
 ahvays headed with the full name of the society. The 
 posters which, until within a few years, were put up 
 about the college yard and elsewhere at Commencement 
 season, for the benefit of graduates, displayed an eagle 
 poised above the ordinary emblems, with no print in 
 addition to the inevitable letters except the day and 
 hour of the meeting, " 9 p. M.," perhaps, or the nu 
 meral " 142." A small, seal-like wood-cut of the 
 society, displays the clasped hands upon an open scroll, 
 with "Adelphoi" in Greek capitals at the top, " 1852 " 
 below, and at the bottom two hieroglyphic characters, 
 the one like a Gothic "T," the other like an old style 
 Greek "f; " while the only trace of the key is its head, 
 which projects from the top of the scroll. Another, 
 steel-engraved, seal, represents the eagle, looking down 
 from above upon the central scroll and key, upon which 
 the letters are indicated, while an open right hand 
 reaches up from below. The framework of the device is 
 made up of fifteen oblong links, and its shape cannot 
 be better described than by saying that if there were 
 sixteen links it would be an eight-pointed star; as it 
 is, the ten lower links make up five points, but the upper 
 live in place of the six, which would make the remain 
 ing three are simply rounded together. This, too, 
 was the shape of the inner frame-work of the old gold- 
 plate badge. The present pin has been said to be 
 plain, because the eagle and hand, faintly outlined upon 
 it, do not change this general appearance. Neither of 
 the senior badges have their owners names or anything 
 of the sort engraved upon their backs. The invitations to 
 the "Z. S." or "bum" held at the middle of the first 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. i$7 
 
 and second terms are printed within a scroll-like design 
 from which the key is absent ; or else with the ordinary 
 cut at the head of the note. The company of the 
 " brother " is simply requested upon the appointed even 
 ing, and he is directed to answer the secretary, which 
 officer is designated by the letter " G.," and is his "in 
 truth." Aside from these initial letters, there is no 
 mystery about the affair, which is either printed in gilt, 
 or, if in black, has mourning bands about the edges of 
 the page. All society communications are also for 
 warded in black-edged " return " envelopes, as in the 
 case of Bones, sealed in black wax with the society 
 emblems and letters. There have been several editions 
 of the society catalogue ; and it is probable that a 
 printed list of the elections is forwarded each year to 
 every old member, in connection with the invitation to 
 the celebration of Commencement night. A card-size 
 photograph of each new group of fifteen is doubtless 
 similarly distributed, either then or afterwards. In this 
 picture, the central figure holds a large gilt model of 
 the society badge, the six letters being indicated on 
 the scroll, and each of the end men grasps a large key, 
 pointed towards the centre of the group. Eight are 
 seated, including the three mentioned, and the remain 
 der are standing, but the position of each individual is 
 probably not significant. Enlarged photographs of the 
 same sort are handsomely framed and hung in the 
 rooms of graduates. The anniversary of Commence 
 ment night used to be announced among the ordinary 
 advertisements of the city papers, hi connection with 
 the society cut. More recently, at the head of their 
 editorial columns of Commencement morning, " C.S.P. 
 -P.V.S. 9 .P.M. C.CJ.," or something of the sort, ap 
 peared, between double rules of black. But this prac 
 tice has now been abandoned. 
 
158 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 The hall hitherto (since 1847, when the house where 
 it stayed was destroyed by fire) occupied by the society 
 is in the fourth story of the Leffingwell Building, corner 
 of Church and Court streets, across from the Tontine 
 Hotel. The headquarters of the Yale " law depart 
 ment " are upon a lower floor of the same building, and 
 a Masonic lodge-room divides the upper story with 
 Keys. Judged from the outside, this hall must at the 
 most be limited to two not very large rooms, and the 
 Keys men, when assembled in force, be cribbed, 
 cabined and confined together in uncomfortably close 
 proximity. This old order of things, however, has 
 recently come to an end, and Keys is now in possession 
 of a hall, far superior in costliness and architectural 
 beauty, not only to Bones hall, but to any college-society 
 hall in America. It stands on the north-west corner of 
 College and Wall streets, and its erection had been 
 planned and talked about for a dozen years or more. 
 At midnight of Thursday, Nov. 25, 1869, the date 
 of the fall "Z.S.," the society, graduates and all, 
 marched to the vacant lot, round which they formed a 
 ring, while prayer was offered, and a society-song sung, 
 after which, a graduate with a silver spade formally 
 broke ground for the new edifice. Then came the sing 
 ing of the "Troubadour" song, and the procession, 
 dangling its keys, silently moved back to the old quar 
 ters on Church street. Only the foundation of the 
 building was laid before the setting in of winter; but 
 the work was resumed the following May, and rapidly 
 pushed to completion ; and it is presumed that the for 
 mal ceremonies of entering and taking possession will 
 be celebrated at the next Commencement. The structure 
 has a front of 36 feet on College street, with 6 feet of 
 ground each side, and is 55 feet long, with an open 
 space of about 20 feet before and behind, in other words, 
 
THE SO CIE TY S YS TEM. 1 5 9 
 
 it stands in the center of a lot 48 by 92. Its hight is 
 perhaps 35 feet. The light yellow Cleveland stone is 
 the chief material of which it is composed. This is set 
 off by thin layers of dark blue marble, while four pillars 
 of Aberdeen granite, with marble cappings, sustain the 
 three projecting arches in front. Each arch surrounds 
 a narrow opening, provided with three bull s eyes for 
 the admission of air. Below the central arch are a pair 
 of paneled, massive iron doors, to which entrance a flight 
 of half-a-dozen stone steps leads up from either side. 
 Five similar arches, though without projections or sup 
 ports, serve to adorn and ventilate each side, and a cor 
 responding number of closely protected scuttle-windows 
 communicate with the cellar below. Rows of short 
 pillars four at each end, six at each side surround 
 the top, -the central two at the rear end serving to hide 
 the chimneys, and a couple of stars are cut out in the 
 stone between every pair of them. The architect was 
 Richard M. Hunt of New York, and the builders were 
 Perkins : Chatfield of New Haven. The value of the 
 entire property cannot be much less than $50,000, and 
 it is to be presumed that a good share of that amount 
 has already been raised by the society. The " Kingsley 
 Trust Association," which is the legal style thereof, was 
 incorporated at the May, 1860, session of the State 
 Legislature, in the names of John A. Porter of 42, 
 William L. Kingsley of 43, Samuel C. Perkins of 48, 
 Enos N. Taftof 51, Lebeus C. Chapin, George E. 
 Jackson, and Homer B. Sprague of 52, Charlton T. 
 Lewis of 53, Calvin G. Child and Josiah W. Harmar of 
 55, and Edward G. Mason and Mason Young of 60. 
 These comprise its best known names, and were perhaps 
 chosen on that account, since only the president, Mr. 
 Kingsley, is a resident of the city. 
 In the Yale Banger of 1845, published by the Sigma 
 
160 POUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Theta Sophomores, is a burlesque of the Keys cut, rep 
 resenting the Scroll as a " Declaration of Independence 
 from the Scull and Bone," signed by the "great seal," 
 which consists of a view of the historical fox reaching 
 after the equally celebrated sour grapes. This proba 
 bly represents, with substantial accuracy, the motive 
 which originated Keys. Its founders, not being lucky 
 enough to secure elections to Bones, determined to start 
 in business upon their own account, and hence the society. 
 Its ceremonies, customs, hours of meeting, etc., have all 
 been patterned after those of Bones, and the nearer it 
 approaches to its model the more of a success it is 
 judged to be, both by its own members and by the college 
 at large. Its existence for the first dozen years was 
 apparently a precarious one. In only three classes be 
 fore 1852 did it obtain the regular number of members 
 (15), which Bones has never varied in electing, but 
 ranged from nine the lowest, in 5 T to fourteen. Since 
 that time exactly fifteen names for each class have always 
 been printed in its public lists, and since 1860 exactly 
 fifteen men and no more have joined the society from 
 each class. Previous to the latter date, it was a common 
 thing to give out one or two or more class or secret elec 
 tions, so that in some classes there have been seventeen 
 or eighteen members, and almost all the classes which at 
 first fell below ^the regular number, now appear in the 
 catalogue with their full complement of fifteen names 
 apiece. The men who accepted these after-elections to 
 the society usually displayed their badge like the others, 
 though sometimes the fact of their membership was 
 kept a secret and they were not allowed to wear them 
 about the college, nor until after graduation. Hence in 
 every class to the present day there are almost always 
 one or two men, who are believed by many to be " secret 
 members" of Keys, because, being friends of the " crowd/ 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 1 6 1 
 
 they naturally associate with it, as they would were there 
 no such society in existence. It is also rumored, with 
 less probability, that notable men are sometimes chosen 
 as honorary members. George Vanderhoff, the reader, 
 is one of them, according to the authority of the Banger, 
 which, however, may have meant the statement for a 
 joke. Similar rumors are also sometimes started in 
 regard to Bones, but are far less generally credited, and 
 are probably altogether groundless. Certain it is that 
 the fact of there being a secret or honorary member, of 
 there being more or less than fifteen members from each 
 and every class since 1833, has never been in a single 
 case authenticated. Up to as recent a date as 1860, 
 Keys had great difficulty in making up its crowd, rarely 
 being able to secure the full fifteen upon the night of 
 giving- out elections, but, by dint of electioneering and 
 "packing" in the interval between that time and initia 
 tion night, managed after 1851 to swing out the ortho 
 dox number of new badges upon Presentation morning. 
 Probably it would have given pledges in advance, like 
 the lower-class societies, save that in those days any one 
 standing the slightest chance for Bones preferred it to 
 a " sure thing on" the other society. The true Caesar-or- 
 no-one sentiment seems to have had full sway, and the 
 best men of the class who did not secure Bones elec 
 tions apparently preferred to go through senior year as 
 neutrals rather than as members of a confessedly infe 
 rior society. The proportion of " big men" among the 
 neutral Seniors was consequently much greater then than 
 in these latter days. Keys, in fact, up to the time when it 
 attained its twenty-first birthday, occupied a position in 
 college regard very much analagous to that more recently 
 held by the Diggers society, to be described hereafter. 
 It is only within the last lustrum that it has come to be 
 a rival of Bones, and that the half-loaf sentiment has 
 
1 62 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 grown common, which prompts a man when his chances 
 for the latter are spoiled, to "lay" diligently for the 
 former. 
 
 The Keys mode of giving out elections as well as the 
 rest of its customs corresponds as nearly as possible 
 to the practice of Bones. Formerly the fifteen mem 
 bers, each carrying a key some two feet in length, in a 
 body silently marched to the rooms of the men who had 
 been chosen ; and then the leader possibly displaying 
 the large gilt scroll-and-key model before mentioned 
 may have said simply, " Do you accept ?" Of late, how 
 ever, the practice is for two members, one a Senior, the 
 other a graduate, each carrying one of the exagger 
 ated keys, to proceed together to the room of each 
 chosen man. The Senior raps sharply with his key 
 upon the door, and, both stepping in, says, " I offer you 
 an election to the so-called Scroll and Key. Do you 
 accept ?" If the answer is Yes, both Keys men shake 
 the Junior by the hand, and tramp back to their hall, 
 where the result of the first election is received before 
 a party start out to confer the second, and so on for the 
 others. On this account the elections progress much 
 more slowly than in the case of Bones, and more oppor 
 tunities are given to the rabble in the yard to yell 
 " Keys ! Keys ! Keys ! " and surge about the bearers of 
 those implements, whose approach is usually announced, 
 by self-stationed outposts, in the neighborhood of the 
 State House steps. In 1868, all the Bones elections 
 had been given out for more than an hour, and the 
 " packed Keys crowd " of 69 had begun to feel a trifle 
 nervous, when the first key-bearers appeared in the yard. 
 There seems to be no very great significance in the 
 order in which the elections are conferred, except that 
 the one first received is perhaps to be interpreted as 
 especially honorable ; but on the other hand this is 
 
THE SOCIE TY S YSTEM. 1 63 
 
 sometimes offered to a man, who is by no means the 
 society s first choice, in order if possible to anticipate 
 Bones in securing him. 
 
 The initiation takes place at the same time as the 
 other one, and like it lasts till morning. The rendezvous 
 for the candidates is probably some room in the neigh 
 borhood of the hall, at all events is outside the college 
 yard, and as the hall is not so convenient to the colleges 
 as that of Bones the neutrals pay less attention to what 
 takes place there on initiation night. Visitors who may 
 be stopping at the Tontine Hotel on the night of Wooden 
 Spoon, however, seldom sleep very soundly, if their 
 rooms chance to be situated upon the north side of the 
 building. Resident and other graduates attend the 
 initiations, and the regular meetings also, though to a 
 less extent than in Bones, and the rule requiring the 
 presence of active members on Thursday nights from 
 eight o clock till two, is also strictly enforced. An ab 
 sent member of 68, suspected of make-believe sickness, 
 was one time forcibly hurried off to the meeting by two 
 classmates, who rushed up from the hall for that pur 
 pose, with a great display of crossed keys ; and the 
 procedure may be gone through with in other instances 
 which excite less attention than did that, though the 
 cases where it is necessary to enforce discipline are of 
 course uncommon. At the close of its meetings, the 
 society was in the habit of marching up through the 
 green, past the State House, to the college yard, singing 
 on the way, or just before disbanding, the well-known 
 song, " Gaily the Troubadour touched his Guitar." 
 Though this was always finely done, and very acceptable 
 to all who heard it, the faculty induced, it is said, by the 
 discordant howlings of the " Stones men " included 
 Keys in the general edict promulgated last year against 
 society singing, and ordered its discontinuance. The 
 
1 64 FOVK YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 current traditions in regard to Keys are not very 
 numerous, nor is the belief in its mysterious origin 
 wide-spread, as in the case of Bones. Its letters are 
 supposed to signify : " Collegium Sanctum Pontificum ; 
 Collegium Conservat Jupiter Bones having set up 
 Demosthenes as its patron saint, Keys seemed deter 
 mined to "go one better" and claim the recognition of 
 great Zeus himself. " Zenome " is one the society words 
 supposed to possess mysterious significance. According 
 to rumor, a magnificent stuffed eagle forms one of the 
 chief decorations of its hall though as this report 
 originated with a 66 neutral who professed to have 
 ( been there," not much reliance should be placed upon 
 i:. Keys, like Bones, also keeps the photographs of its 
 members, a library, paintings, pictures, obsolete society 
 badges, old college mementos, and general memorabilia. 
 A third senior society also existed during the time 
 that the class of 69 was in college. Its name, taken 
 from its badge, was " Spade and Grave." The spade, 
 partly thrust into the grave, rested upon the footstone of 
 the same, and upon the headstone was represented a 
 crown, gold of course being the material of the entire 
 pin. The grave was perhaps a little more than an inch 
 in length, and the badge had one or two variations in 
 size and shape. The " Bed and Broom," it was at first 
 called by outsiders ; and, by the more respectful ones, 
 the society was known as " Graves," and its members 
 as "Graves men." None of these names were ever 
 popular, however, and " Diggers " soon came to be the 
 only title by which the society or its members were 
 referred to. Bones men, among themselves, also 
 adopted this name for them. " To give community and 
 sweetness to the eating of sour grapes " was, even more 
 notoriously than in the case of the original Keys men, 
 the object for which the Diggers started their society. 
 
THE SOCIE T\: SYSTEM. 1 65 
 
 The immediate cause which banded them together in 
 the scheme was a quarrel in the class of 64. Of the 
 five Yale Lit. editors in that class, three had been 
 chosen to Bones and two were neutrals. One of these 
 two published, as a leading article in the magazine for 
 February of that year, a piece called " Collegial Ingenu 
 ity," reflecting on the mode by which men may worm their 
 way into Bones, and, it was claimed, making personal 
 insinuations against a particular member of that society ; 
 and on this latter ground the Bones editors, who formed 
 a majority of the five, voted to suppress the article, and 
 requested its writer to produce another to take the place 
 of it, themselves meanwhile seizing upon all the 
 printed copies. The neutral editor refused to obey, and 
 called a class meeting which voted to sustain him, and 
 commanded the Bones editors to surrender the maga 
 zines within a certain time, or be expelled from office. 
 As they paid no attention to the order, the class 
 elected three neutrals in their places, and these, 
 with the two original neutral editors, duly brought out 
 a new edition of the February number, " Collegial In 
 genuity " and all, and edited the two following numbers, 
 with the latter of which their term of office expired by 
 limitation. The Bones editors meanwhile issued the 
 February number, with an explanation of their action 
 printed in place of the obnoxious " leader," but other 
 wise unchanged, and duly published the two remaining 
 numbers of their term, still keeping the five original 
 names at the head of the title-page, as if nothing had 
 happened. Thus, for three months, there were two 
 issues of the Z//., each of which claimed to be the 
 " regular " one. The Bones editors were really in the 
 right, as the class had no legal power to interfere in the 
 matter, and the three magazines issued by the other 
 editors have been known as the "second issue." The 
 
1 66 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 five members of that second editorial board of 64 have 
 the credit of founding Diggers , and they with ten other 
 classmates first swung out the Spade and Grave badge 
 at the beginning of the summer term of that year. On 
 the Thursday before Presentation Day, elections were 
 given out to fifteen members of 65, who were the first 
 Diggers to have their names in print (in the Banner of 
 the following autumn). The grave scene in " Hamlet," 
 wherein the digger tosses up the skull and bones with 
 his spade, is said to have suggested the badge as a fit 
 emblem to typify the hostility of the new society to the 
 old one, and its power ultimately to work the overthrow 
 of the haughty Skull and Bones itself. Its hall was 
 in the Lyon Building, on Chapel street, on the same 
 floor with that of Gamma Nu ; was supplied with com 
 mon iron doors without and a billiard table within ; and 
 was reputed to be elegantly furnished, and among other 
 things to have one of its rooms entirely covered with 
 black velvet. In February, 1870, as already stated, its 
 premises were taken possession of and have since been 
 occupied by the sophomore society of Theta Psi. Its 
 wood cut was simply a copy of its badge ; and the same 
 design, enlarged, carved in black-walnut and mounted in 
 a frame of the same wood, was displayed in the rooms of 
 members, as a sort of poster ; though the practice was 
 not much in vogue after the first year or two. 
 
 The society started under a cloud, and never emerged 
 from it, but rather seemed to fall deeper and deeper into 
 its shade the older it grew. It was always despised and 
 looked down upon. Even those who joined it, in many 
 cases cursed and ridiculed it by turns, up to the very 
 moment of accepting their elections. Spite of careful 
 packing and electioneering in advance, it always had 
 difficulty in making up its crowd on the same night with 
 the other societies, and it always had elections refused. 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 167 
 
 No one standing the least chance for Bones or Keys 
 could be got to go to it, and the best of those left out 
 by these societies preferred to remain neutrals altogether. 
 Psi U men used to boast that no member of their soci 
 ety ever became a Digger; and the four classes between 
 the first and last were certainly composed exclusively of 
 Delta Phi and DKE men. There was, however, one 
 member of Psi U among the founders, and four in 69 
 accepted elections, much to the chagrin of their com 
 rades. Everyone sneered at the society, including many 
 of course who would gladly have joined it had they 
 been able ; but the scrubbiest neutral of them all would 
 affect to take offense were such an idea hinted at, and 
 stoutly assert that, " had the Diggers ventured to offer 
 him an election, he would have indignantly hurled back 
 the insult in their faces !" This show of independence 
 after election time is past is quite a common thing ; but 
 the men of 69, even as Juniors, used to shout a sort of 
 chorus, " Todtengraber ist gilt," to the tune of " Trunca- 
 dillo" ; they equipped a burlesque "spade and grave" 
 in the college yard one day ; and in other ways so defied 
 the powers above them that it became a problem 
 whether the Diggers of 68 could secure any successors. 
 There was the usual amount of electioneering and pack 
 ing, but on election night only three men could by the 
 most urgent entreaties be secured, from the indefinite 
 number to whom elections were offered ; so these three 
 were released and no new Digger pins were swung forth 
 upon the morning of Presentation Day. The next pub 
 lic appearance of the society was on the first Friday 
 morning of the following October, when fifteen senioric 
 shirt-bosoms were adorned by as many new badges, the 
 design being a crown from within which projected the 
 ends of a crossed sword and scepter. This was super 
 seded the following term by a larger sized pin of the 
 
1 68 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 eme pattern. By a pretty thorough canvassing of the 
 class, in the three months interval, these new members 
 had been raked together, and induced to " run" the soci 
 ety for a year, in the hope that under a changed name 
 the same old story could not be told concerning them. 
 At least half of them were secretly pledged and initiated 
 before Commencement, and wore the old Grave badge 
 during vacation, in localities where they would be un 
 likely to meet with Yale undergraduates. From the 
 headstone of this old badge, it will be observed, the 
 crown itself was taken. Above the old cut, in the Ban 
 ner, the name " Spade and Grave " was printed in full ; 
 while above the new crown design were simply the let 
 ters, " S. L. M. " ( popularly translated " Slim " or 
 " Slimy"), which had not before been made public, 
 though reckoned among the original mysteries of Dig 
 gers . Freshmen spoke of the society as " Crown and 
 Scepter," or " Sword and Crown," but upper-class men 
 clung relentlessly to the old title, and the doom of Dig 
 gers was sealed. Its usual arts were wasted upon the 
 class of 70 ; not one of them would pledge, either 
 before, on, or after, election night ; and so, after a pre 
 carious existence of five years, it was forced to give up 
 the hopeless fight and the ghost. 
 
 Like Keys , its customs were all modeled as closely 
 as possible after those of Bones, which it was to spade 
 out of existence so quickly. Three men always came 
 up from the hall to give out each election, two of the 
 trio walking abreast in front, and the third following 
 close upon their rear. A dark lantern or a club was 
 often carried by one of them. The yells and outcries 
 with which the rabble greeted the approach of Digger 
 election carriers were far more prolonged and uproarious 
 than in the case of the other societies. The Juniors 
 upon whom they called would be invoked with such cries 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 169 
 
 as : " Kick em out, Jim !" "Oh, Tom ! don t be a Dig* 
 ger !" " Shut your door on em, Jack ! Don t let em fool 
 you !" and so on ; while the Diggers themselves would 
 be treated to all manner of compliments and personal 
 attentions, such as were never bestowed upon the other 
 election carriers. " How can I leave Thee," was the 
 song sometimes sung outside at the close of the meet 
 ings, either while marching, or on arriving at the col 
 lege yard ; otherwise the procession silently tramped up 
 Chapel street to South College, and so on in front ot 
 the row, dropping its men at each entry until none were 
 left. It was believed to have had a good many secret 
 members, even including some from the Scientific 
 School, and several 63 men are known to have be 
 longed to it. After the change of base in 1868, the 
 graduate members ceased to wear the old Grave badge. 
 The society was unincorporated, and had never printed 
 any catalogue. Its letters were supposed to represent 
 the motto, Seep t rum Ligonibus Mors. 
 
 Not only do senior-society men never mention their 
 own society in the presence of others, but they never 
 even refer to the existence of a rival society, and when 
 an outsider mentions this in their presence, even to a 
 third party, they appear to take offense, and perhaps 
 withdraw. So, too, they are offended if a man sings, or 
 even hums the air, of the songs which they sometimes 
 sing in public ; though these are familiar melodies, and 
 have long been procurable in the form of sheet music. 
 This same fact holds true, to a lesser extent, in the case 
 of the junior and sophomore societies. A certain air 
 gets in a measure identified with a particular society 
 song ; and as members of the society never use it 
 except in singing together, they dislike to hear it 
 whistled by an outsider. A Sophomore, for instance, 
 a few years ago, by persistently whistling, " All on a 
 9 
 
17 FOUR YEARS AT YALE, 
 
 summer s day," would probably have injured his chances 
 of a DKE election ; and, in the case of Psi U, perhaps 
 the same would still be true of one who should be con 
 stantly humming, " In a few days." Senior-society men 
 may also refuse to speak when passing in front of their 
 hall, and in some cases to notice a neutral classmate 
 whom they may chance to meet after eight o clock of a 
 Thursday evening. An instance is related in the class 
 of 67 of two Bones men who brought from their meet 
 ing a sick classmate and put him to bed in his room, 
 without paying any attention to his neutral chum who 
 was there present, though he was also a classmate with 
 whom they were on friendly terms. This exaggerated 
 display of secrecy is quite a modern outgrowth, how 
 ever, being altogether unknown to the old members of 
 fifteen or twenty years ago, and it attained its highest 
 pitch in the class just mentioned, since when, senior- 
 society men have conducted themselves much more 
 sensibly. For many evident reasons, the costs of 
 membership in a senior society are much greater 
 than in any other, though most of their money is raised 
 by voluntary contributions, and a man eligible in other 
 respects is not kept out on account of his poverty. On 
 the other hand, a man s wealth of course adds to his 
 chances of election in senior year more than in any 
 other. The annual running expenses of a society, in 
 which graduates take so prominent a part, cannot and 
 ought not to be borne by fifteen men alone, and there 
 are doubtless permanent funds whose income is avail 
 able for such purposes, at least in Bones, whose prop 
 erty is fully paid for. To increase this fund, almost 
 every old member sends in an annual contribution, 
 according to his means, for five or ten years after 
 graduation day. 
 
 It is in senior year alone that the neutrals largely out- 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 171 
 
 number the society men, that they have nothing to 
 hope for in the way of class elections, and that they are 
 not overawed by the presence of upper-class men. 
 These three circumstances combine to foster in some of 
 them a sort of reckless hostility towards these societies, 
 such as is not felt towards those of the earlier years. 
 This displays itself in a variety of ways. The conduct 
 of the neutrals when the senior elections are given out 
 has been already described, and the fact noticed, at 
 least by implication, that they never in the least inter 
 fere with the similar ceremonies of the other societies. 
 Nor yet do they ever attempt to break into the halls of 
 the latter. It was in the class of 66 that this hostility 
 first definitely displayed itself, in the institution of a sort 
 of a mock " society " called " Bowl and Stones," the 
 name being a take-off on that of Bones, arnd the duties 
 of its members being simply to range about the colleges 
 at a late hour on Thursday night, or early on Friday 
 morning when the senior societies disbanded, singing 
 songs in ridicule of the latter, blocking up the entries, 
 and making a general uproar. The refrain of one song, 
 to the tune of " Bonnie Blue Flag," was " Hurrah ! 
 Hurrah ! for jolly Bowl and Stones " ; of another, to the 
 tune of " Babylon," " Haughty Bones is fallen, and we 
 gwine down to occupy the Skull." Another function of 
 the " Stones men " was to offer bogus elections to simple 
 minded classmates, or even to under-class men, whom 
 they were sometimes able to " sell." In the class of 
 67 they were at their worst, and wantonly smashed 
 bottles of ink upon the front of Bones hall, and tore the 
 chains from its fence. On the Thursday morning which 
 preceded the Presentation Day of 1868, the Stones men 
 of that class posted up a comic handbill, purporting to 
 show the "order of exercises" which would be observed 
 by the senior societies in giving out their elections that 
 
172 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 evening. There was some little wit employed in the 
 composition of this notice, and is was the only thing 
 emanating from the "society" that was not at once 
 weak and discreditable. The modified name, " Bull and 
 Stones," then first appeared ; which form has since been 
 retained. Some members of the class of 70 even went 
 so far as to procure a small gilt representation of " a 
 bull" standing upon "stones," which was worn as a 
 burlesque badge pin, even in public, and in some cases 
 quite regularly, during the first term of their senior year. 
 Of course there is nothing to this "society" except what 
 has been told ; its " members " are few or many accord 
 ing to the state of the weather ; and any neutral senior 
 who is ready to join a crowd for making an uproar on 
 Thursday night is, from that fact only, a good and 
 regular " Stones man." Indeed, the name has of late 
 come to be accepted as a synonym for any senior-society 
 neutral whatever; and everyone not elected to either of 
 the two societies is said to "belong to Stones." At the 
 time of the last initiation, the Stones men seized upon 
 and confiscated for their own use the ice-cream and 
 other good things which the confectioner was engaged 
 in taking into Bones hall. Since then, one or two pro 
 jected "raids" of the same sort have been frustrated by 
 the presence of a policeman. Now-a-days, Thursday 
 night is the favorite time for the more depraved Stones 
 men to "go off on a bum" together, and afterwards 
 wake the echoes of the college yard with their discordant 
 howl ings. 
 
 That this "society showed no signs of existence in 
 the class of 69 was perhaps due in great measure to 
 the existence of another more creditable organization, 
 some of whose members would probably, save for it, 
 have been leading " Stones men." On the morning of 
 Presentation Pay, 1868, fourteen men, who had been 
 
THE SO CIE TV S \ r S TEM. 1 7 3 
 
 neutrals since freshman year, were noticed to wear upon 
 their shirt bosoms, gilt coffin lids, about an inch in 
 length. Their names were printed in the annuals of 
 the next term, under the " senior-society " heading, 
 beneath a wood-cut of the badge, above which appeared 
 the letters " E.T.L.," but no name. They were spoken 
 of as " Coffin men," or " ETL s," when mentioned at 
 all ; and, so far as known, met quite regularly on Thurs 
 day nights, perhaps in some room rented for the pur 
 pose. They said nothing in regard to themselves or the 
 regular senior societies, and they attempted to give no 
 elections in the class of 70. The society passed in the 
 class for a joke ; but, for the negative benefit it effected 
 in restraining some who would otherwise have been 
 uproarious, as well as for the positive advantages it 
 may have conferred upon all its members, it deserves to 
 be held in grateful recollection. Perhaps somewhat 
 similar to this was the " Tea-Kettle " society, established 
 in the class of 53, which has left nothing behind it save 
 the announcement of its birth in the Lit. Another 
 short-lived association was the " Sword and Crown " 
 which was existing in 1843 with fifteen members. Its 
 badge was a rectangular gold plate, upon which, within 
 an ornamental border, the appropriate emblems were 
 engraved. These did not much resemble the last badge 
 of the Diggers, as the crown was a much more elaborate 
 and highly ornamented affair, and the sword and scepter 
 were crossed behind rather than within it. An existing 
 poster showing a wood-cut of the simple emblems bears 
 the direction, "^if S.T.G. 8.30 A.M." Another poster, 
 which perhaps had no connection with this or any other 
 society, shows the three letters " lota Kappa Sigma," 
 printed in heavy black type, with "24!)" appended. 
 Still another, represents a naked figure just trundling 
 over a precipice a wheelbarrow in which are loaded a 
 
J 74 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 skull and some bones and a scroll and a key and a star 
 and a dart. The " Star and Dart " society was estab 
 lished in 1843, and apparently occupied a position 
 somewhat analogous to the present one of Bull and 
 Stones, though it really had an organization of some 
 sort. The frame-work of its rectangular gold-plate 
 badge was an exact copy of that of the Bones pin, and 
 the emblems of the two societies now existing formed 
 the chief part of the engraved central design. The 
 eagle of Keys, that is to say, was represented as fiercely 
 picking to pieces the Skull and Bones at its feet, while 
 a Dart, appearing in the right upper corner, was about 
 to destroy the eagle, and a Star in the left upper corner 
 was supposed to denote " the prosperity and final suc 
 cess of the society over its rivals." A wood-cut copy 
 of this design surmounted the following notice printed 
 among the advertisements of a New Haven, newspaper : 
 " Nos in vitafratres sumus. C. 2954 a. F. co dd Z f ~ . 
 There will be a general meeting in New Haven on 
 Thursday evening, Aug. 15, 1844. Yale College, Aug. 
 10." Possibly there were other Commencement times 
 at which a similar notice was printed, and doubtless 
 posters to the same effect used also to be displayed 
 about the college buildings at such seasons. After a 
 period of suspended animation, the society was revived 
 in the class of 49, and the members belonging to it in 
 the classes of 50 and 51 (fifteen in one case, eleven in 
 the other) had their names published in the Banner, in 
 connection with the society cut and the numeral " 2954." 
 From this publicity, as well as the character of many 
 of the members, it is to be inferred that there was 
 really a little something to the society, and that its 
 existence was not altogether contemptible. Whether it 
 had a hall of its own, and regular weekly meetings and 
 exercises ; whether it made any pretensions to equality 
 
THE SO CIE TY S YS TEM. 1 7 5 
 
 with the two reputable societies ; whether it was so 
 hostile to them as its badge would imply ; whether its 
 crowd was made up before, at the same time, or after 
 the other elections were given out ; and whether it died 
 by choice or by necessity, all these things, on the 
 other hand, must remain uncertainties, until some 
 traitorous ex-member thereof shall reveal to an anxiously 
 expectant world the real history and mystery of the late 
 Star and Dart. 
 
 Among the many Bones men worthy of mention are : 
 Henry C. Kingsley of 34, treasurer of the college ; 
 Prof. Thomas A. Thacher of 35 ; Col. Henry C. Dem- 
 ing of 36 ; Attorney General William M. Evarts, Profs. 
 Chester S. Lyman and Benjamin Silliman, of 37 ; Rev. 
 Dr. Joseph P. Thompson of 38 ; Prevost Charles J. 
 Stille of 39 ; Prof. James M. Hoppin of 40 ; Gen. 
 William T. S. Barry and Donald G. Mitchell, of 41 ; 
 Henry Stevens, F. R. S., of 43 ; Senator Orris S. Ferry 
 of 44 ; Gen. Dick Taylor of 45 ; Henry B. Harrison of 
 46 ; Henry T. Blake and Dwight Foster, of 48 ; Charles 
 G. Came, Profs. William B. Clark and Timothy Dwight, 
 of 49 ; President Andrew D. White of 53 ; Dr. John 
 W. Hooker of 54 ; Rev. Elisha Mulford of 55 ; Wil 
 liam H. W. Campbell, editor of the Norwich Bulletin, 
 Chauncey M. Depew, N. Y. secretary of State, and Prof. 
 Lewis R. Packard, of 56 ; Gen. John T. Croxton and 
 Prof. Cyrus Northrop, of 57 ; Addison Van Name of 
 58, librarian of the college ; Eugene Schuyler of 59, U. 
 S. consul at Moscow ; Edward R. Sill of 61 ; and Prof. 
 Edward B. Coe of 62. The most prominent Keys men 
 have already been mentioned in naming its twelve incor- 
 porators, but additional names to be noticed are : Gen. 
 Theodore Runyon of 42 ; Rev. Dr. Gordon Hall of 43 ; 
 Robert P. Farris of 47, editor of the Missouri Republi 
 can ; Rev. John E. Todd of 55, son of Rev. Dr. Todd, 
 
176 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the opponent of college secret societies ; Sidney E: 
 Morse of 56, publisher of the N. Y. Observer ; Gen. 
 John W. Swayne of 56 ; Dr. Daniel G. Brinton of 58 ; 
 Prof. Daniel C. Eaton of 60 ; and Joseph L. Shipley of 
 6 r, editor of the Scranton Republican. Five Keys men 
 and one Digger made up the famous " Wilbur Bacon 
 crew" of 1865. 
 
 Formerly, when Seniors took a more active part than 
 now in the junior societies, men who did not belong to 
 these were often chosen to the senior societies, but of 
 late a membership in the former is a necessary stepping 
 stone for admission to the latter ; not confessedly, of 
 course, but by the rule which is sure to force a junior 
 society into electing every man eligible for election a 
 year later, and to compel every such man to accept such 
 election. It has been noticed of late years that Psi U 
 generally has a majority in Bones, and DKE in Keys, 
 though in 71 Psi U had six men in Bones and nine in 
 Keys, to DKE s nine and six. It should not be inferred 
 from this that senior-society men allow their junior year 
 or earlier society connections to prejudice them in elect 
 ing their successors. They apparently have regard for 
 the interests of their senior society simply, and choose 
 those whom they think will most benefit it, without 
 much regard to outside considerations. Much of the 
 excitement over the election of Cochs and Lit. Editors 
 turns upon the question of senior societies. Each one 
 of these officers is supposed to " stand a chance," and 
 shortly after their election the two "crowds" begin defi 
 nitely to be made up. There are always some "sure 
 men" to form a nucleus, the Spoon Man for instance, 
 is always certain of receiving a Bones election, and 
 about these the "likely" ones who are not quite so 
 " sure" try to "pack" themselves. Thus a "crowd" is 
 made up in the interest of each society. Its members 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 177 
 
 " run" together constantly, call one another by their first 
 names, and make a great display of familiarity, espe 
 cially in the presence of " their" Seniors, as much as 
 to say, "We can t be separated. Take all of us or 
 none." This sort of thing is practised chiefly by pros 
 pective Keys men, who can make up their crowd with a 
 tolerable certainty that their evident wishes will be re 
 spected by the society. It is seldom that Keys ventures 
 to keep out more than a single man from a well defined 
 pack, and substitute one of their own choosing in his 
 place. Such a pack really has the power in its own 
 hands, and should the members of it agree to " stand by- 
 one another" they could of course carry their point ; 
 but the refusal of a. senior-society election, even condi 
 tionally, seems so terrible a thing, that they have rarely 
 the courage to make a direct demand. Keys, however, 
 has in some instances been obliged to submit to such 
 dictation. The society undoubtedly winks at " packing," 
 and indirectly gives it on occasions its official aid, 
 though not as frequently nor as extensively as is some 
 times reported. There are so many conflicting elements 
 in the Bones crowd that it is never organized into a reg 
 ular pack, and there is always more doubt as to the 
 way its elections will turn. The nearest approach to a 
 pack is when two or three " sure men " take it upon 
 themselves to persistently "run" another, and make such 
 a display of their fondness for him as to secure his elec. 
 tion also. However Bones may allow its action to be 
 affected indirectly, it will not be dictated to when once 
 its elections have been made up, and it is useless for a 
 man to attempt to alter the result by conditionally refus 
 ing his election, in favor of or against some particular 
 classmate. Though the Bones crowd may be pretty 
 accurately guessed at for some days before the elections 
 are issued, it is the chances of its individuals which are 
 9* 
 
178 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 estimated, not of the crowd as such, as in the case of 
 Keys. There is no such general collusion of all the 
 members of the Bones crowd ; it is rather made up of 
 separate cliques of twos and threes, and single individ 
 uals, who hope for Bones elections, but have not much 
 else in common. The fact that elections to this latter 
 society have been refused in favor of Keys is hence not 
 very difficult of explanation. A man whose chances 
 for Bones are rather doubtful may be willing to throw 
 them away altogether for the sake of the comparatively 
 " sure thing" which he gains by joining a pack for Keys. 
 So, receiving an election to Bones, he is in honor bound 
 to decline it, and cling to the men with whom he had 
 joined his fortunes. It will be found that all the Bones 
 refusals in 67 and 70, over which so much ado was 
 made, came in every case from men previously packed 
 for Keys. Thus, Bones greater independence and 
 ceremoniousness sometimes work to its own disadvan 
 tage. A man may go to Keys for the sake of taking a 
 friend or two with him whose companionship he could 
 not be sure of were he to become a Bones men ; and in 
 general one has less uncertainty as to whom he will have 
 to fraternize with when he packs for the former society. 
 In a direct comparison of the societies, it is seen that 
 Bones in reputation, influence and prestige is altogether 
 superior to its rival ; and it seems almost as certain that 
 it must always retain this preeminence. It is, in its 
 main features, essentially unique. No other college 
 society can show so large a proportion of distinguished 
 and successful members. It is probably not too much 
 to add that of the Yale graduates of the past genera 
 tion who have attained a fair degree of worldly emin 
 ence, nearly half will be found to have been included 
 within the mystic fifteens of this organization. Its 
 apparent aim is to secure at once the best of the good 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 1 79 
 
 scholars, good literary men, and good fellows ; the 
 former to bring it dignity and " tone," the latter to pre 
 serve its social and convivial character ; and its success 
 in equalizing these three elements one of which is apt 
 to predominate in a society has been remarkable. It 
 develops in its members, too, a genuine pride and af 
 fection, such as they feel in or towards no other society. 
 Men who are careless and frivolous and selfish as to 
 everything else, manifest an earnestness and a generosity 
 where Bones is concerned, that is really surprising. And 
 this, too, in a way not calculated to attract attention, 
 nor suggest an appearance of exaggeration or make- 
 believe. Keys men, on the other hand, are rather given 
 to displaying their society zeal as much as possible. 
 Old members who come from abroad to attend the 
 " bums " are apt to make their presence generally 
 known, and take pains to exhibit the extent of their 
 "interest." Their affection for the society is no doubt 
 genuine enough, but their carefulness in displaying it 
 suggests the idea that its inspiration comes quite as 
 much from an oppressive self-consciousness of the need 
 of "going one better" than Bones, as from the simple 
 force of pleasant associations. Since the time, say 
 about 1860, when Keys came to be recognized as a 
 reputable society, settled upon an invariable membership 
 of fifteen, and ceased to give out any class, secret, or 
 honorary elections, its policy has seemed to be the 
 making prominent of the social element, the choosing 
 of good, jolly fellowsj men of ability if possible, but 
 at all events congenial and in the college sense of the 
 word gentlemanly. Ability in the absolute, that is to 
 say, has been accounted of secondary importance as a 
 qualification for membership. Upon a strict and more 
 rigorous adherence to this policy in the future if it 
 be worth while to express a prevalent college opinion 
 
I So FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the success of the society will in great measure depend. 
 In the latter s own chosen field, it can never hope to 
 seriously rival Bones. To the " solid," thoughtful men 
 of the class the big scholars and writers Bones will 
 always be the more attractive, and if Keys enters into 
 competition for them it will as inevitably have to take 
 up with second-rate representatives of the " heavy/ 
 " respectable " element, at the same time that, by this 
 very action, it renders itself less alluring to the " popu 
 lar men," who are and should be its "best hold." If, 
 on the other hand, it has the tact to depart for once 
 from its Bones model, and set up an independent 
 standard of qualifications of its own, it may in time 
 gain in its own particular field a recognized preeminence. 
 Keys real " mission," as it seems to an outsider, is to 
 draw together a genial, gentlemanly crowd, rather than 
 an " able " one. If a pleasant, agreeable fellow chances 
 to be possessed of something more substantial than 
 popularity, if besides being a gentleman, he be also a 
 scholar, a writer, an energetic worker, he should of 
 course be all the more desirable ; yet the first mentioned, 
 more trivial, qualities should be regarded as the essential 
 ones, after all, which recommend him for election. 
 Ability, real or reputed, should never of itself elect a 
 man to Keys. The prestige the society may gain by 
 taking a man simply for his reputation cannot make up 
 for what it thereby loses in attractiveness for "popular 
 men." Keys great opportunity is, by excluding all 
 others, to make itself the most desirable society for the 
 agreeable, jolly fellows in every senior class. If it 
 resolutely adopts this "lay," it may, with the help of its 
 hall, ere many years, leave Bones in the lurch, so far as 
 "popular "men are concerned ; and, by occupying an 
 independent field, prevent the possibility of direct com 
 parisons which must always be to its own disadvantage. 
 
THE SO CIE TV S YS TEM. 1 8 1 
 
 This seems so manifest that nothing but a foolish over- 
 confidence in its own strength can induce it to engage 
 in a " straight fight " on Bones own chosen field, where, 
 with all the odds against it, it must ever suffer defeat. 
 Bones, on the other hand, would do well to consider 
 whether it will be worth its while much longer to take in 
 men for their popularity and agreeableness simply. It is 
 just here that it has met with its most humiliating rebuffs 
 hitherto, and that it is likely to meet with worse ones 
 hereafter, unless it changes its policy. Four of the 
 five 70 men who rejected Bones in favor of Keys, were 
 simply "good fellows," who would have been somewhat 
 out of their element in the crowd of the former society ; 
 and the case in the class of 67 was very similar. If 
 Bones should insist more strongly than now upon ability 
 as a prime essential in all its members, and upon this 
 basis, modified by a reasonable regard for social qualities 
 and harmoniousness, elect them, it would secure itself 
 almost absolutely from having an election rejected, as 
 well as add to its own lasting reputation, even at the 
 sacrifice of one of its cherished traditions, which it has 
 managed to perpetuate thus far on the whole with a 
 fair share of success. Whether Bones makes this con 
 cession with good grace at the outset, or waits to be 
 forced into it by the success of Keys, when the latter 
 shall turn all its energies upon this one point, remains 
 to be seen. But appearances certainly point to the 
 coming, at no distant day, of what may be termed a 
 senior society millennium, when Bones and Keys shall 
 each occupy an undisputed field of its own, and each be 
 recognized as in its own sphere preeminent ; and when 
 the only question in a man s mind shall be, " In 
 which field, on the whole, is supremacy the more desir 
 able ? " Then shall the Death s head be, even more 
 certainly than now, the badge of intellectual superiority 
 
1 82 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 in college repute, and the unfolded Scroll be, even more 
 invariably, the emblem of gentlemanly good fellowship 
 and social popularity. 
 
 It was remarked at the beginning of the chapter that 
 societies like Bones and Keys would be possible only 
 at one other college than Yale, and that as a matter of 
 fact they are peculiar to the latter institution. They 
 are not, however, without imitators. At Columbia Col 
 lege is an " Axe and Coffin ; at Michigan University an 
 " Owl and Padlock" ; and at Wesleyan University are 
 a " Skull and Serpent" and an " Owl and Wand." None 
 of them are of any importance, and with the possible 
 exception of the second, are in every way inferior to the 
 Greek letter societies connected with their respective 
 institutions. There is no special difficulty in imitating 
 the peculiar names and mummeries of the Yale senior* 
 societies, but the gaining of a similar prestige and influ 
 ence is quite another matter. It is the high character 
 of their members, not their names and forms and cer 
 emonies, which give the Yale societies their fame. Jt 
 was a belief in the power of these latter non-essentials 
 that induced the Diggers to persist so long in a worse 
 than hopeless fight. At Yale, the strictly class societies 
 of the first three years supply the machinery by which 
 every class is carefully sifted and its best men are 
 " brought out" in readiness for the senior societies. Yet 
 even here, with from one hundred to one hundred and 
 twenty men to pick from, and the three years sifting 
 process reduced almost to an exact science, it has been 
 absolutely demonstrated that no more than two societies, 
 of fifteen men each, can exist. Indeed, it was for a 
 long time a problem whether more than one could live, 
 and even now the two, to be at their best, must occupy 
 somewhat different fields. But at other colleges, where 
 no such class system prevails, where the numbers to 
 
TttE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 183 
 
 select from are much smaller, where the competing soci 
 eties are more numerous, the attempt to ape Bones and 
 Keys can succeed in nothing save in making the would- 
 be societies ridiculous. In view of their real worth, peo 
 ple may be willing to overlook the silly practices of the 
 Yale senior societies ; but when mock mystery and 
 cheap ceremonials are the only things which a society has 
 to boast of, it. cannot well help falling into contempt. 
 The statement is therefore again repeated that Bones 
 and Keys are peculiarly Yale institutions, genuine out 
 growths of a system that flourishes nowhere else, the 
 only organizations of the kind existing in the country. 
 
 In concluding this account of the class societies, it 
 may be well to add a few additional facts that are true 
 alike of many or all of them, and to compare directly 
 their general character in the different years. Each 
 society, save Gamma Nu, has a "grip" of its own, but 
 society men, in either of the four years, do not generally 
 employ it in greeting one another. It is not a popular 
 device with them, and comparitively few would be able, 
 a year or two after graduation, to give the four different 
 grips correctly, were they to try. Many of the active 
 members, even, of these societies cannot remember their 
 grips without an effort, and in junior year, when visitors 
 from other chapters are expected, there is need of some 
 preliminary practice before the guests can be welcomed 
 in true mysterious fashion. At other colleges the soci 
 ety grips are constantly made use of, and when a Yale 
 man who has forgotten his grip meets an outside 
 brother he extends his hand with all the fingers sepa 
 rated y and returns the grip that he receives, in full faith 
 that he has given " the right one" and concealed his 
 ignorance. It is easy enough for an outsider to find 
 out from someone or other the reputed grips of the 
 dozen or less societies, and it is more than likely that 
 
1 84 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 these are really the true ones in many cases. Bat the 
 whole matter is made so little of by Yale men that none 
 of these peculiar hand shakings are worth describing. 
 In the published report of a recent DKE convention, 
 that society announced that it had adopted a new grip 
 and motto, presumably on account of the discovery of 
 its old ones, and probably at the instance of the outside 
 chapters. Whether the changes were really made, or 
 the announcement offered simply as a "blind," the 
 result was of course the same. The only two Yale 
 society mottoes that seem to be unknown to outsiders 
 are, oddly enough, those of Delta Kap and Theta Psi. 
 That of the former used to be, /Jecpo*; Knvyiog, and was 
 as well known as Sigma Eps s is at present, but the one 
 which superseded it and is now in vogue has been by 
 some miracle prevented from leaking out. Every junior so 
 ciety man can find out without much difficulty the mottoes 
 and " secrets" of the other societies in his class, but he 
 feels in duty bound not to make public his knowledge, 
 and the neutrals are generally in ignorance of these 
 matters. At Yale, one society never thinks of breaking 
 into the hall of another, and making public all its mys 
 teries, as is the practice at some of the smaller colleges. 
 It is through these that some of the Yale junior-society 
 secrets are divulged. Chapters which think it a fine 
 thing to steal the constitution and documents of as 
 many rival societies as possible, when they chance to 
 gain those of societies which are also rivals at Yale, may 
 forward to their brothers at the latter place their ill-gotten 
 knowledge : knowledge which the latter are usually hon 
 orable enough to keep to themselves. It is only in the 
 songs of the first two years that the societies mention 
 the names of their rivals, to ridicule them, of course, 
 but in a good natured way. A secret ballot, upon each 
 candidate separately, in which a single blackball rejects, 
 
THE SO CIE TY SYS TEAL 1 8 5 
 
 is the mode of election in all these societies. Every 
 society has a janitor whom it allows to wear its badge. 
 While 69 was in college the same individual was at 
 once janitor of Delta Kap, Theta Psi and Psi U, and 
 wore either one of the badges indifferently, though never 
 displaying two at a time. A senior-society janitor is not 
 allowed to serve for under-class organizations. The 
 present Bones janitor is a negro named Robert, who 
 assists the professors in the experiments at the philosoph 
 ical lectures, and is a sort of college supernumerary. 
 His predecessor, also a black man, died in the service, 
 and was followed to his grave by the whole Bones soci 
 ety, resident graduates, solemn professors, and all. The 
 societies of the two upper years have boxes at the post 
 office wherein is placed all mail matter directed either 
 to their popular or official, trust-association, titles. A 
 letter directed to either of the lower-class societies is 
 exposed to view beside the general-delivery window, until 
 discovered and called for by one of the members. Soci 
 ety men as a rule preserve all their badges, sometimes, 
 in senior year, mounting their previously gained insignia 
 in a velvet-lined, ornamental frame or case. Quite a 
 number of freshman pins are disposed of, however, 
 when the time for wearing them is past, and some soph 
 omore and a very few junior badges go the same way, 
 but a senior-society pin is kept by its owner until death 
 doth them part. By other college men their junior-soci 
 ety badge, usually the only one they ever possess, is as 
 a rule always preserved, and is in many cases steadily 
 worn for some years after graduation. Yale men, who 
 were senior neutrals, sometimes display their junior 
 badge, on special occasions, after graduation, but never 
 the pin of a lower society. When a Freshman leaves 
 college he usually takes off his society pin, but a Soph 
 omore, if a society man, is likely to wear his badge for 
 some time after his withdrawal. 
 
1 86 FOUR YEARS AT YALE, 
 
 In taking a general look at the societies of the four 
 years, the first seems a working ground where Fresh 
 men may display their abilities, and induce the Juniors 
 to pledge them ; the second, a place where these pledged 
 men as Sophomores may be kept quiet until they are 
 further inspected, and the poor ones got rid off ; the 
 third, another working ground of narrower limits, 
 where the select Juniors who have passed safely through 
 two sifting processes may, by making the most of their 
 talents before the Seniors, prevail upon the latter to 
 spare them in the last grand turn of the sieve, and elect 
 them into the fourth, beyond which there is nothing 
 higher. It is a fault of the system that each societv save 
 the last is only a stepping stone to the next, and when 
 the last is reached the time left to enjoy it in is short 
 indeed. The size of the classes, and the class feeling 
 thereby engendered, makes any other system impossible, 
 while the system in turn tends to strengthen and perpet 
 rate the class feeling. From his freshman society, a 
 man usually gains considerable solid advantage, and a 
 fair amount of pleasure. The direct benefit of a soph 
 omore-society experience is not very great, and a man 
 loses less by being a neutral this year than any other, 
 sophomore neutrals being often elected to senior soci 
 eties, but still, he does lose something, both in a 
 peculiar sort of " fun," and in general social position. 
 In a third-year society the advantages are many, and 
 are of a general as well as local character. The occa 
 sions thus afforded for members of different colleges to 
 fraternize together, the opportunities given for making 
 pleasant acquaintances at unexpected places, are evi 
 dently of considerable value. A man s interest in his 
 junior society is not as intense or as lasting at Yale as 
 at other colleges, yet it is altogether greater than that 
 which he feels toward anv lower-class societv. One 
 
THE SOCIE TY S YSTEM. 1 8 7 
 
 Yale graduate would not be apt to claim introduction to 
 another on the score of belonging to the same junior 
 society, yet, once acquainted for some other reason, this 
 fact would form a sort of bond between them. The 
 attempt to make an outsider realize the overwhelming 
 fascination, which a senior society exerts upon the mind 
 of the average Yale undergraduate, would probably be 
 useless. An election thereto is valued more highly 
 than any other college prize or honor ; and in fact these 
 honors derive a good part of their attractiveness from 
 their supposed efficacy in helping to procure the coveted 
 election. There is nothing in the wide world that seems 
 to him half so desirable. It is the one thing needful 
 for his perfect happiness. And if he fails in gaining it, 
 the chances are that he becomes a temporary misanthro 
 pist, that is to say, an ardent " Stones man." Though 
 the advantages of membership are no doubt exaggerated 
 in anticipation, the real benefit gained in belonging to a 
 senior society is certainly considerable, far more valua 
 ble, in fact, than that which accrues from membership 
 in any other. Quite aside from the enjoyment of the 
 senior year itself, the facts that in after life a man is 
 thus introduced to the best graduates of the college, 
 wherever he may meet them, and that, whenever he 
 visits New Haven, he is sure of being entertained by 
 the best of the oldest undergraduates, and instructed as 
 to the doings and whereabouts of the best of his for 
 mer classmates, these facts, other things being equal, 
 of themselves make membership in a senior society 
 especially desirable. 
 
 College friendships do not at Yale run very closely 
 in society lines. A pair of friends may DC brought to 
 gether or separated by almost numberless society com 
 binations. They may belong to the same society in 
 each of the four years, or in the first and last, or in the 
 
188 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 second and third, or in none at all, or one may be a so 
 ciety man and another a neutral for all the course, and 
 so on through all the possible permutations. Still, it is 
 pleasant for friends to keep in the same societies, and 
 a general tendency of certain crowds to go together, 
 year after year, has been already remarked upon. No 
 neutral as such is looked down upon or avoided by so 
 ciety men. If the latter usually " run" together, it is 
 because of similar tastes and proclivities, which would 
 induce them to do so, were no societies in existence. 
 In senior year there is hardly a society man without one 
 or two special friends who are neutrals, and with whom 
 he has quite as much to do as with his own regular as 
 sociates. Such pairs oftener chum together than do 
 two from rival societies ; though this sometimes happens, 
 and previous to senior year is not at all uncommon. 
 Aside from a man s real or reputed ability, good nature, 
 and popularity, a thing which often helps to elect him 
 is his relationship to a former or active member of the 
 society. If a father or an uncle or a brother has pre- 
 ceeded him, the fact helps him to follow in their foot 
 steps, especially if they were in any way famous. An 
 older brother in the class above, or even one or two 
 classes removed, is almost certain to secure the election 
 of a younger one, unless the latter is peculiarly unqual 
 ified or obnoxious. This species of favoritism attracts 
 the most attention in the case of the senior societies, 
 into which nearly every year, by his relationship with an 
 older and worthier member, is dragged one man at least 
 who is without other qualifications sufficient to recom 
 mend him. The cases of poor men taken in are, by the 
 bye, a good deal more common and noticeable than 
 those of desirable men left out. Every year almost 
 there is a great show of indignation over the injustice 
 in the senior-society elections which bring several big 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 189 
 
 men to grief, yet it rarely happens that the good policy 
 of the society in leaving them out is not vindicated 
 within a twelve month. When fifteen men are to be 
 shut up together for six successive hours, every week, 
 and be thrown in with each other constantly, it is essen 
 tial that they should be reasonably harmonious if not 
 congenial ; and an organization whose members should 
 be chosen for their reputation and ability simply, could 
 not be in the right sense of the word a society. 
 
 Without now discussing whether college opinion al 
 ways awards men the positions they deserve, it may be 
 said, in conclusion, that the society system, viewed as a 
 means for separating those who, for whatever reason, 
 are high in college esteem, from those who, for what 
 ever reason, are not, must be admitted to be in the main 
 a,fair and successful one. No one can reasonably deny 
 that it has this effect, and that the society men of every 
 year are as a class superior in college repute to the 
 neutrals. It would of course be foolish to judge an in 
 dividual solely by his society connections, but it would 
 be far less foolish than to judge him solely by the num 
 ber of prizes, or scholorships, or honors he could lay 
 claim to, as is not infrequently the practice. To set 
 up any one arbitrary standard whereby to judge charac 
 ter is manifestly unfair, yet, if it is to be done, there is 
 no single test which embraces so many, in making an 
 estimate of a Yale man s importance, as his share in 
 the society system. Blockheads and simpletons cer 
 tainly find their way into the senior societies, yet there 
 are few generalities of the sort deserving of more con 
 fidence than these, that in a Bones man you will find 
 ability and force of character, in a Keys man politeness 
 and geniality, and in both the most favorable samples 
 of the Yule graduate of the period. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 SOCIETY INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 Linonia, and Brothers in Unity Their Origin and Early History 
 Rivalry in Gaining Members The Statement of Facts The 
 Campaign, a Dozen Years Ago The Rush Latest Modes of 
 Distributing the Freshmen Initiation Meetings and Exercises 
 Exhibitions Officers, Politics, and the Campaign Election 
 Attendance Management of the Finances The Society Halls 
 Catalogues Libraries Reading Room The College Book 
 store The Prize Debates Annual and Centennial Celebrations 
 Analysis of the Society Tax Calliope and Phrenix Phi Beta 
 Kappa Its Origin and Peculiar Organization Names of the 
 Chapters Meetings and Exercises Orations and Poems Qual 
 ifications for Membership An Invasion of Barbarians The 
 Society Badge Key Initiation The Annual Business Meeting 
 Catalogues Significance of the Fraternity Chi Delta Theta 
 Its Literary Character The Present Wearers of its Badge. 
 
 Some of the societies which were the precursors of 
 the modern system still have a sort of semi-animate 
 existence in the college, in the form of mere " institu 
 tions," and they, and the customs springing from them, 
 are therefore all described here under that general title. 
 The first, both in age, reputation and importance are 
 the societies of "Linonia" and "Brothers in Unity." 
 Except where great formality is required, the latter title 
 is always abbreviated to " Brothers " ; and each mem 
 ber of the society was called a " Brother." Each mem 
 ber of the " Linonian Society," as the favorite cere 
 monious name for it used to be, was termed a " Lino 
 nian." These titles are rarely used of late, and a man 
 is simply said to " belong to " Linonia or Brothers, as 
 the case may be. Both are spoken of indifferently as 
 
THE SOCIE TY S YSTEM. 1 9 x 
 
 the literary, the large, the open, the general, or the 
 college societies, the comparative frequency of the 
 names perhaps being in the order given. Linonia was 
 founded September 12, 1753. Of the class which grad 
 uated that year, numbering 17 in all, one only belonged 
 to the society. He was the seventeenth on the list the 
 names at that time being arranged .according to the 
 " gentility " of the families they represented, instead of 
 alphabetically and his name was William Wickham. 
 Besides this, little more is known concerning him, save 
 that he afterwards took his Master s degree, lived on 
 Long Island, and died in 1813. According to repute, 
 he was the founder of the society, and its first chan 
 cellor,, that being the name applied to the president up 
 to the year 1789. In the first 15 classes (1753-67), 
 Linonia had 150 of the 400 men who graduated, or 
 an average of 10 to a class, the highest number being 
 16, and the lowest, after the first class, 4. Of the 250 
 not included in its catalogue, it is likely that a large 
 portion were members of " Crotonia," a rival society 
 which had been for some time in existence when 
 Linonia was founded, but which must have died out 
 within 15 years thereafter. 
 
 Brothers was founded in 1768, by 21 individuals in 
 the four classes 68, 69, 70, and 71, seven being 
 upper-class men who seceded from Linonia, and 
 the remaining 14 being Freshmen, who were of course 
 neutrals, as in those clays of servitude no Freshmen 
 were ever admitted to any society whatever. Oliver 
 Stanley of 68, the first president of Brothers, was said 
 by tradition to have been the founder of the society, 
 and was so mentioned in the eulogy pronounced at the 
 time of his death in 1813. But the popular hero of the 
 affair was David Humphreys of 71, "who stood up 
 for the dignity of his class ; and having found two 
 
I9 2 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Seniors, three Juniors and two Sophomores, who were 
 willing that Freshmen might be admitted to a literary 
 society, he, with thirteen of his classmates fought for 
 and established their own respectability." He was 
 afterwards a colonel in the Revolution, served as aid- 
 de-camp and secretary to Washington, fought bravely at 
 Yorktown, presented to Congress the British colors sur 
 rendered by Cornwallis, and was awarded "an elegant 
 sword " by direct vote of that body. He was dubbed 
 LL.D. by both Brown and Dartmouth, was Fellow of 
 the Royal Society, and ambassador to Spain. He died 
 in 1818. Of the 19 who graduated in his class, 15 
 were Brothers and 4 were Linonians. In the class of 
 75 the corresponding figures were 3 and 33. And so 
 it changed about, one society being specially success 
 ful in some years, the other in others ; but the disparity 
 was not usually as great as in the cases indicated, and 
 in most years the classes were about equally divided. 
 Hence, in the 33 classes, 1768 to 1800, Linonia claimed 
 560 and Brothers 569 men, all of whom were said to be 
 graduates; but as only mo men graduated from col 
 lege in the interval, and some few of these in the earlier 
 classes remained neutrals, several of the non-graduates 
 must have remained upon the lists. It may be noted 
 that the class ( 68) which founded Brothers was the first 
 whose names in the college catalogue were arranged 
 alphabetically. 
 
 The exclusion of Freshmen from Linonia seems 
 to have been the only attempt ever made at select- 
 ness in membership, all who applied for admis 
 sion in sophomore year or afterwards having been, 
 apparently, welcomed to the fold. As soon as Brothers 
 had established the precedent, of course Linonia was 
 obliged to elect Freshmen also, and the two societies 
 soon settled down into an annual strife to decide which 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 193 
 
 should gain the largest number of each incoming class. 
 As the average number obtained by each was about 
 equal, in 1801 it was agreed that all new comers should 
 be allotted in alphabetical order to the two societies, 
 the first man on the list going to Linonia, the second 
 to Brothers, the third to Linonia, the fourth to Brothers, 
 and so on to "Z," or the end of the class. It happened 
 that John C. Calhoun of 04 was allotted to Linonia, but 
 refused to join that society, as most of the Southerners 
 went to Brothers ; and hence both societies have claimed 
 him as a member until this day. Doubtless an arrange 
 ment was effected whereby two men allotted to different 
 societies could exchange places, if they cared to, but 
 the system of alphabetical distribution remained in 
 vogue until the year 1830. Then, open war was once 
 more declared, and each society again began to plead 
 its cause before each freshman class. The custom 
 known as " Statement of Facts " was now introduced. 
 In theory, and perhaps originally in reality, the plan 
 was as follows : On the first or second Wednesday of 
 the college year, the entire freshman class was invited 
 to a public hall, and there addressed by the president, 
 senior orator, and junior orator of each society, on the 
 relative merits and advantages of the two organizations ; 
 and at the close of the speeches, each freshman was 
 called upon to indicate the society of his choice. Such 
 was the theory, which, if ever practised in all its sim 
 plicity, was not long in becoming a mere farce, owing 
 to the campaign meetings, and electioneerings, and 
 pledgtngs, which preceded the Statement of Facts. 
 The mode in which the freshman societies now gain 
 their members is the same as that formerly used for 
 recruiting Linonia and Brothers. The lesser campaign 
 has simply superseded the greater, and the description 
 already given of it will in most points apply well enough 
 
 10 
 
194 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 to the latter ; but it may be well to quote from an 
 account written in 1859 of the way in which the large 
 societies were accustomed to manage affairs : 
 
 "The campaign of warfare commences with the fourth 
 week of the summer term, when the campaign presidents 
 are chosen for the new senior class, and the new 
 sophomore class which is to bear the brunt of the 
 battle is marshalled for the fight. The officers, on 
 whom falls the personal responsibility of victory or 
 defeat, remind them, with serious earnestness, of the 
 great responsibility which has fallen on their shoulders ; 
 they tell them that they are carrying into the contest 
 the banner that has long waved in victory over their 
 old fraternity ; that thousands are waiting anxiously to 
 see if its folds, as of yore, are still to wave in honor and 
 glory, or whether they are to droop in ignominy and 
 shame before the foe who have so often cowered before 
 them ! But they by no means trust merely to nicely 
 worded speeches. The class is thoroughly organized 
 for the battle. The labor is divided and sub-divided as 
 far as the interests of the campaign demands. General 
 committees, and special committees of correspondence, 
 are appointed to find out by every means in their 
 power who are coming into the next freshman class and 
 whence. To the larger academies, and usual tributaries 
 of the college, special electioneerers are sent, and skir 
 mishes are fought long before the main battle begins in 
 New Haven. Meantime, the weekly meetings are the 
 occasions of enthusiastic speeches, the subjects of which 
 are the history and glory of one society, and the faults 
 imaginary or real of the other. As the battle thickens, 
 the cohorts increase in activity and enthusiasm. The 
 committees for the Tontine Hotel and the New Haven 
 House scan closely the journal of names, and follow to 
 his room every suspicious-looking youth. The steam- 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 195 
 
 boat committee are on duty at five in the morning and 
 at eight at night. The depot committee grow hardened 
 to their work, lay aside all gentlemanly feeling, and 
 pounce upon the unwary. The railroad committees ride 
 from New Haven to Springfield, to Guilford, to Bridge 
 port, and New York. They endeavor to make them 
 selves agreeable to any fellow travelers, provided they 
 be young, and look haggard, in view of some specter 
 like an approaching examination. The room committee 
 report the items of knowledge that they have culled in 
 a careful survey of every tree and dilapidated building 
 around the college, to headquarters, to be put in imme 
 diate requisition, should any Freshman desire a night s 
 abode. With such an array of preparation on both 
 sides, the harmless Freshman runs a poor chance of 
 escaping the fiery ordeal. Many come pledged to join 
 one or the other society, and over them there is of 
 course no struggle. Others fall into the hands of one 
 party only, and any access to them is denied the other 
 until they shall have decided. But to those whose 
 destiny throws them into a crowd of contending Sopho 
 mores, in the dark and smoky cavern, called the New 
 Haven depot, especially if the least sign of indecision 
 or perplexity is perceptible, there is no longer hope of 
 rest or quiet or comfort ; not even liberty and the pur 
 suit of happiness being allowed them until they decide 
 the momentous question. 
 
 " During the days of examination for admission to 
 college, and a few days previous, the societies put forth 
 their utmost energies, and instead of meetings once a 
 week they are held two and three times a day. For 
 every Freshman that enters the hall, speeches must be 
 made, to recount the incomparable history, the superior 
 prize-lists, the immense advantages of this society over 
 its rival. The work of the officers and of the various 
 
I9 6 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 committees is at this time exceedingly laborious, and 
 would never be undertaken were it not for the personal 
 honor attending it ; and would never be completed were 
 it not for the enthusiasm which the contest always 
 inspires. The enthusiasm is undoubtedly real, and 
 although the fight is renewed from year to year, the 
 same notes rung, the same old story told, from meeting 
 to meeting, there is music in these notes and a strength 
 in that story which, especially to a class for the first 
 time engaging in those scenes, is stirring and effective. 
 The vociferous applause which is given to the speeches, 
 the hearty greeting with which every new-comer is met, 
 shows the presence of unbounded enthusiasm. 
 
 " There are comparatively few who come to college 
 without a knowledge of the system of electioneering. 
 Most are prepared for it. But even then, if they have 
 not decided, they cannot remain free from interruption, 
 unless at all hours they lock their doors and demand 
 freedom. Some, however, arrive at New Haven before 
 they know even of the existence of such societies. 
 Their ignorance affords opportunities for successful mis 
 representations and cunning duplicity, of which many 
 take advantage. The temptation, coming together with 
 the excitement of the campaign is greatly increased. 
 The contest is generally decided before the second week 
 of the fall term. At the close of the first week, when 
 there is scarcely one who has not already joined one or 
 the other society, is repeated the annual farce of what 
 was once a Statement of Facts in behalf of each 
 society, by appointed orators. It is now rather a field 
 for the display of empty eloquence and skill at repartee. 
 Any distortion of facts which seems to confound their 
 opponents, or to turn the laugh upon them is considered 
 as the most acceptable part of the proceeding. The 
 Freshmen, for whose enlightenment the exercises are 
 
THE SOCIE TY S } STEM. 1 9 7 
 
 specially intended, attend in mass. A general struggle 
 with the Sophomores whose duty, now that electioneer 
 ing is no longer necessary, tradition says, is to 
 prevent the Freshmen getting into the hall without first 
 taking off their hats is the first thing on the programme. 
 They then take the seats that are reserved for them, 
 with fragments of their hats in their hands, and of their 
 coats on their backs, amid a yelling, screeching and 
 cheering which is perfectly indescribable. After their 
 indignation against the Sophomores has cooled down, 
 they begin to applaud almost continually their own and 
 hiss the orators of the rival society. At the close of 
 the meeting, the students adjourn to the halls of their 
 respective societies, where the result of the campaign is 
 officially proclaimed. One society celebrates a jubilee : 
 the other waits for a better time coming. " 
 
 Brewster s Hall was the usual place of holding the 
 " Statement," but Union Hall served instead on at least 
 one occasion, and in 1861,, the last time any such meet 
 ing was held, the faculty granted the use of Alumni 
 Hall. The " rush " attendant upon this celebration 
 seems to have been regarded as in some sense a sub 
 stitute for the old Foot-Ball Game, and both seem to 
 have degenerated into the common street rushes of to 
 day. The meeting of j86o was thus described: "It 
 began of course with the usual abominable rush. 
 Defiant Sophomores dared hopeful Freshmen to come 
 on. They did so. They sopped each other in the 
 gutter, crunched each other s toes, and, when they got 
 tired, adjourned up stairs ; the Freshmen to look atten 
 tive and listen to the arguments offered by the societies, 
 the Sophomores to look depraved and throw beans at 
 nearly everybody except the speakers. Seven o clock, 
 post meridian, was the hour for reassembling. The 
 Sophomores looked as wicked as ever, and the Fresh- 
 
I9 8 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 men as hopeful as ever. Again the initiatory plunge, 
 again the wallow in the gutter, again the tugging, strain 
 ing, button-bursting operations, and then they all crowd 
 into seats and listen to the remainder of the story each 
 society is anxious to tell." 
 
 In 1859 an unsuccessful attempt was made to bring 
 both societies to an agreement, whereby all private 
 electioneering should be done away with and no Fresh 
 man should be pledged to either society, until the close 
 of the Statement of Facts, when each should signify 
 the one of his choice. The campaign meetings of each 
 society were to be held on alternate evenings, and the 
 society which had the last meeting, was to give up to 
 the other the first chance for speaking at the Statement. 
 This plan was adopted on the following year, and per 
 haps in 1861 also; but for the next four years there 
 after there was open war again ; and the only thing at 
 all resembling a Statement of Facts, was a gathering in 
 one of the society halls, where the two presidents 
 simply announced the official figures of the campaign, 
 the result being of course received with tremendous 
 cheering and enthusiasm by the partisans of the vic 
 torious society. The Sophs, as of old, waited outside 
 to rush the Fresh who might try to attend ; but the 
 faculty probably interfered with the sport, for when 69 
 which was the last class electioneered entered college 
 in 1865, there was no attempt at a rush, nor was it 
 generally known among the Freshmen when the final 
 results of that last campaign were proclaimed. 
 
 For the next two years, the new-comers were distrib 
 uted alphabetically between the two societies, and 
 allowed to "pair off" in cases when they had any prefer 
 ence. In 1868, this plan was somewhat modified by the 
 introduction of a sort of travesty on the old Statement 
 of Facts. Eight orators, two from each of the two 
 
THE SO C1E TY S YSTEM. 1 9 9 
 
 upper classes in each society, were appointed to make 
 as ludicrous speeches as possible in regard to the " mer 
 its of the societies." In the old times, statements 
 utterly without foundation in fact were common enough, 
 but they were earnestly made, with the intention of mis 
 leading and deceiving the Freshmen, and the speakers 
 did not ridicule their own societies. Now, the speeches 
 all take their point from their simple absurdity, and 
 want of purpose. Everything that is said, whether of 
 praise or censure, is spoken ironically, and accepted as a 
 joke by the upper-class men who know how dead the 
 societies are. The Freshmen also laugh with the rest, 
 without exactly knowing the reason why. At the close 
 of the addresses, they are called upon to join one society 
 or the other, and those who are not present that is, a 
 large majority of the class are distributed alphabeti 
 cally, as before. Though there is no regular u rush," 
 the Sophs annoy the Fresh in coming up the stairway 
 the meeting being held in one of the society halls and 
 interrupt proceedings generally, by snapping beans about 
 the hall, and making other diversions of a similar char 
 acter. The two upper classes, especially the Juniors, 
 respond to the president s calls for " order" by attempt 
 ing to eject from the hall some disorderly Sophomore ; 
 whereupon the classmates of the latter rally to his 
 defence, and a wild tumult ensues, the result of which 
 is that most of the Sophomores are forcibly thrust out 
 and the door locked behind them. In revenge for this 
 indignity, they smash the windows of the hall, and raise 
 discordant outcries, while their comrades who were left 
 inside loudly clamor for their readmittance. At last 
 they are allowed to enter again, and the " exercises" pro 
 ceed as before. 
 
 The form of initiation in vogue when 69 entered col" 
 lege was for each new-comer to assent to the pledge of 
 
200 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 fidelity to the society thereby promising to be " true to 
 its interests and faithful to its secrets" and sign his 
 name in a book supposed to contain its constitution. 
 The pledge was read off by the president, and three 
 cheers were proposed by him or some other member for 
 each one as he signed his name. A good part of each 
 freshman class joined during the progress of the cam 
 paign meetings, and as some of them were unable to 
 pass their entrance examinations, the lists of each soci 
 ety very often contained names of men never actually 
 belonging to the college. The same fact is still true of 
 the freshman societies, one or two men who never 
 u make up their conditions" being initiated into them 
 almost every year. Now-a-days, a large share of college 
 never formally join either Linonia or Brothers, although 
 in the Banner and Pot Pourri the letter "L." or " B." 
 is still prefixed to every name, to indicate membership in 
 one or the other of them. Formerly the Banner gave 
 each society separately, though arranged as now in 
 classes. Nobody now cares which society he is assigned 
 to ; and few, when asked, can readily tell which, without 
 reference to a catalogue. No one ever pretends to re 
 member the open-society connections of any one save 
 himself; and often in the making up of a joint commit 
 tee, a man is appointed to represent one society when 
 he really belongs to another, and perhaps he may even 
 fulfil his duties without discovering the mistake. 
 
 It was perhaps during the first third of the present 
 century that the societies saw their best days. The time 
 when they came together was thought the gala night of 
 all the week, and all classes met then on a footing of 
 perfect equality, though the Seniors naturally took the 
 lead in affairs, and the Freshmen were for the most part 
 interested spectators rather than actors. The liter ary 
 eftbrts of the latter were mostly confined to their own 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 2OI 
 
 class society or debating club, which held fortnightly 
 meetings in one of the recitation rooms, had little organ 
 ization and no name, and was disbanded at the close of 
 the year, the freshman clubs of no two successive 
 classes having any connection with each other. Fifty 
 years ago, when the general societies were absolutely 
 secret, it was thought a great as it was an infrequent 
 triumph for a man to find out the name of the presi 
 dent or other officers in a rival society. About a third 
 of the members regularly attended the meetings ; as 
 many more went to the halls half of the time, and the 
 remainder frequented them only occasionally. Attend 
 ance was not compulsory, except to fulfil appointments, 
 and an " excusing committee" passed judgment on all 
 excuses, at the close of each meeting. They reported 
 to the librarians the names of those who refused to pay 
 their fines, and the librarians in turn forbid such delin 
 quent the privileges of the library until the claims of 
 the society were satisfied. Brothers was nicknamed 
 " the Cider Mill" by the men of Linonia, because it was 
 said to conduct its debates strictly according to the cat 
 alogue, obliging each man to speak in his " turn" as 
 the alphabet had arranged it, and allowing no voluntary 
 efforts outside this regular order. 
 
 Originally the societies were strictly secret, as already 
 stated, and as late as 1840 none but members were ex 
 pected to attend their meetings, save by formal invita 
 tions on special occasions, but for fifteen or twenty years 
 past all college has been at liberty to frequent either 
 hall, as much or as little as has seemed good to it. 
 The ordinary meetings are held every Wednesday even 
 ing of the term, beginning at eight o clock, the hour 
 of assembling being indicated by a ringing of the col 
 lege bell. The chief feature of these exercises is a 
 debate between four appointed disputants, two of them 
 10* 
 
202 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 speaking on each side, on some question chosen by them 
 or the president, three or four weeks previously. This 
 debate is also "sustained" by as many impromptu speak 
 ers as can be induced to volunteer. Besides this, there 
 are occasional essays, orations and poems. On " elec 
 tion nights," when the debate is suspended, an unusually 
 good oration or poem is looked for, and " the other soci 
 ety" is often formally invited to hear it, which invita 
 tion it as ceremoniously accepts or declines. The pres 
 ent tense is here employed, for the sake of convenience, 
 to describe the state of things existing when 69 entered 
 college, and still kept up in theory. As a matter of 
 fact, no such meetings are now held. Sometimes a 
 crowd of a dozen or fifteen chance together in one of 
 the halls of a Wednesday evening, and hold any kind 
 of ex-tempore exercises they may happen to think of. 
 Often no one goes to the halls at all. Even the posters 
 are not often seen now, and are never read or regarded. 
 Formerly, almost every tree in the college yard had its 
 red (Linonia) and blue (Brothers) posters tacked to it each 
 Tuesday morning. On these were indicated the ques 
 tion for debate for the next meeting, with the names of 
 the speakers, the names of the orator, essayist, etc., and 
 the names of those appointed to speak at future meet 
 ings. A special notice of the time and nature of his 
 appointment used also to be sent to each individual. 
 
 A custom which doubtless saw its best days within 
 the fifteen or twenty years following 1825, was the giv 
 ing of occasional "exhibitions," in which each society 
 endeavored to surpass the other. The chief features of 
 each of these "exhibitions" consisted of a dramatic 
 poem, a tragedy, and a comedy, all written for the oc 
 casion by members of the society. These were never 
 printed, but the " fragments of unpublished dramas," 
 occasionallv to be met with in the earlier volumes of the 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 203 
 
 Z//., give some notion of their quality. Except for the 
 smaller type, the programmes resembled ordinary play 
 bills, being printed on one side of narrow strips of 
 paper, sometimes two feet in length. The names of the 
 two " managers" appeared at the foot of them. Some 
 times the true names of the actors were printed, and 
 sometimes their fancy titles only. Each society accu 
 mulated quite a wardrobe of costumes, which it dis 
 played to the Freshmen as an electioneering argument ; 
 though the dresses were really common property, as 
 each borrowed from the other. It is said that the fac 
 ulty finally put an end to these " exhibitions," on the 
 ground of their engrossing too much attention from the 
 students. 
 
 The society offices of president and vice-president 
 in the senior class, secretary in the junior class, and 
 vice-secretary in the sophomore class used to be con 
 sidered high honors, and were sharply contested for. 
 Originally the officers served for a year, afterwards for 
 a term, while for the past thirty years or more they have 
 been chosen five times annually. A wide field was 
 thus spread open for the practise of junior-society poli 
 tics, and the wranglings over the elections were protracted 
 and bitter. The office of campaign president or one 
 first chosen from each senior class the Juniors being 
 recognized as Seniors within the meaning of the regula 
 tion, and the other two classes proportionate advanced, 
 on the evening of the campaign election was the special 
 object of ambition, being considered the highest general 
 elective honor of the college. All of the minor " cam 
 paign offices" were more eagerly sought for than the 
 same positions at subsequent elections. Hence the 
 amount of political intrigue, and wire-pulling, and log 
 rolling, expended in deciding the first election in these 
 two societies was almost fabulous. The three lower 
 
2<H FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 classes were vitally interested in the matter, for each 
 had a share in the spoils, and a vice-secretaryship might 
 be as valuable in taking one man to Sigma Phi as a 
 presidency in taking another man to Bones or Keys. 
 The bargains and coalitions and combinations and 
 cross-combinations made between the six junior and 
 freshman societies were therefore all but innumerable, 
 and far surpassed in intricacy anything now possible, 
 when each class has its own independent politics. The 
 class-society connections of the candidates seem always 
 to have been considered, though it was only for the 
 campaign election that formal coalitions were made. 
 The mode of voting on that occasion was as follows : 
 First, " the Seniors" were called for, and each member 
 of the junior class, as his name was read, in alphabetical 
 order, stepped forward and cast his ballot ; then " the 
 Juniors were called, and the Sophomores voted ; then, 
 instead of calling "the Sophomores," u the Freshmen" 
 were called for. Upon this, the Fresh would shriek, 
 yell and hiss, until the secretary, correcting his " mis 
 take" would address them as " Sophomores," when, 
 with tremendous cheering and enthusiasm, the Fresh 
 men would in turn march to the ballot-box. Should 
 the first Fresh on the list be unaware of the trick, and 
 start forward to vote at the first calling of his name as 
 " a Freshman," he would be dragged back by his more 
 watchful comrades, and the storm of hisses would grow 
 terrific until the coveted name of " Sophomore" was 
 announced. Printed blanks for voting were provided 
 by the society ; but regular ballots, with the names of 
 their candidates indicated in full, were usually supplied 
 by the rival factions. 
 
 The vice-president was expected to sit in a chair at 
 the side of the president, and was usually elected his 
 successor. The secretary seems to have been a sort of 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 205 
 
 ornamental officer, for all his work was performed by 
 the vice-secretary, who sat at a table in front of the 
 president s desk. The " censor" was an officer peculiar 
 to Brothers, and perhaps used to read an occasional 
 critique on the proceedings of the society. From this 
 seems to have originated the comic " censor s report" 
 of the Thanksgiving Jubilee. Now-a-days, the offices 
 are filled by default, and any one who chooses to take a 
 half-dozen friends with him to the hall on election night 
 can have whatever one of them he may want. Who 
 the officers may be, college in general neither knows 
 nor cares ; and they are all regarded with a mild sort 
 of derision in the rare cases when they are thought of 
 at all. Each society, with a nominal membership of 
 250, used to consider an ordinary meeting well attended 
 when a tenth of that number were present. This was 
 in the first of 69*3 four years: in the last, for a twen 
 tieth of the members to frequent the hall was considered 
 extraordinary. The quorum needed to adopt the con 
 stitutional changes establishing a reading-room was only 
 got together after repeated attempts, although the pro 
 ject was favored by every one. No quorum has assem 
 bled since then, and it is hardly probable that another 
 will ever be drawn together. Up to 1860, a treasurer 
 was included among the society officers, and the funds 
 were managed by direct vote of its members. At that 
 time the faculty were induced to have the college treas 
 urer made tax-collector, and since then a society tax of 
 $6 increased in 1867 to $8 a year has been assessed, 
 in three equal instalments, upon the official term-bills. 
 In the old times, about a third of the society dues were 
 never collected, but now no undergraduate can shirk 
 paying his " society tax" without defying " the president 
 and fellows of Yale College," in whose name it is col 
 lected. Save for this arrangement, the societies, even 
 
206 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 as " institutions," would have ceased to exist, by the re 
 fusal of new-comers to join them or pay any money in 
 their behalf. The $400 now annually collected in their 
 names is expended under the direction of the assistant 
 treasurer of the college. 
 
 The two society halls are in the upper story of the 
 Alumni Hall building, and are of exactly the same size 
 and shape, measuring 50 by 25 feet, and 25 feet in 
 hight. Both are handsomely furnished, though per 
 haps that of Brothers presents the most elegant appear 
 ance, the upholstery and hangings being of blue, the 
 society s color. The walls are also frescoed, and a large 
 painting in which Col. Humphreys forms the chief fig 
 ure hangs above the president s desk. In Linonia the 
 seats are arranged in the form of a semi-circle, rising 
 one above the other. Two 1 life-size marble statues 
 the one of Demosthenes, the other of Sophocles stand 
 in the corners. They are copies of the antique, and 
 were executed at Rome in 1858, by E. S. Bartholomew, 
 especially for the society. It has long been a standing 
 joke in college that no one is able to tell " which is 
 which." As a set-off to the statues, Brothers appropri 
 ated a large sum of money in behalf of the " Pilgrims 
 Monument " at Plymouth, and a small bronze copy 
 of the same stands upon its president s desk. Before 
 taking possession of its present quarters in 1852, Lino 
 nia had rented a hall on Chapel street, in the third story 
 of the building opposite the college yard, for nearly 
 fifty years. In this hall, which is now the Courant com 
 posing room, this book was put in type. Brothers hall 
 used to be further down Chapel, in Glebe Building, cor 
 ner of Church street. During the last century, the so 
 cieties had no halls of their own, but met in the various 
 recitation rooms and other general resorts. 
 
 Catalogues of their members w r ere first published in 
 
THE SO CIE TV S YS TEM. 207 
 
 1841. The names were arranged alphabetically by 
 classes, and repeated in an index like that of the college 
 triennial catalogue. Residences and the various honor 
 ary titles and achievements of members were indicated, 
 and the society presidents were also noted. The 
 Brothers catalogue contained in addition a special list of 
 these, in the order of their succession. Each, catalogue 
 made a pamphlet of about ninety pages and was printed 
 by Hitchcock & Stafford. The second one of Brothers 
 (1854) also came from the same press. It contained a 
 steel-engraved view of Alumni Hall, and was bound in 
 a blue paper cover. The second of Linonia was printed 
 by Baker, Godwin & Co. of New York, in 1853, to 
 celebrate its one hundredth anniversary. Each society 
 professed to publish the names of none save its graduate 
 members, and though the rule was somewhat infringed 
 upon its total membership was by this means reduced 
 at least one fourth. Neither were lists printed of the 
 " honorary members," elected from the world at large, 
 and estimated to comprise in each case from five hun 
 dred to a thousand individuals. The necessary errors 
 were many, but besides these each society charged the 
 other with the commission of many intentional ones. 
 The motto of Linonia was, Quiescit in perfecto ; of 
 Brothers, E parvis oriiintur magnet. The former society 
 "once boasted of a watch-key badge, consisting of a thin 
 gold plate, heart shaped, on one side of which was en 
 graved " Linonia, Sept. 12, 1753," and on the other, in 
 five separate designs, a dove, a swan, a dog, a phoenix, 
 and a library of books. This design in connection 
 with the motto, Amiritia, concordia, soli noscimus also 
 formed a part of the illuminated book-label, for many 
 years employed. 
 
 The accumulation of books seems to have been 
 begun at a very early period. In the last catalogue of 
 
208 FOUR YEARS A? YALE. 
 
 the Linonia library printed in 1860 by J. H. Benham, 
 and comprising 300 octavo pages the number of 
 volumes named was 11,300, and subsequent additions 
 make the present number 13,300. " In 1770 there were 
 stated to be nearly 100 volumes; in 1780, 152; in 
 I 79^ 33; in l8oo > 475 ; m l8ll > 7 2 4; in 1822, 1187 ; 
 in 1831,3505; in 1837, 5581; in 1841, 7500; and in 
 1846, 10,103." Brothers last catalogue, of the same 
 size as Linonia s, was printed in July, 1851, by T. J. 
 Stafford, and contained a steel-engraved view of the 
 Library building. It mentioned 11,652 volumes, while 
 its present number is 13,400. "The old catalogues 
 show the number of books at successive periods to have 
 been as follows: in 1781, 163 ; in 1808, 723 ; in 1818, 
 937 ; in 1825, 1730 ; in 1832, 3562 ; in 1835, 4565 ; in 
 1838, 6078 ; and in 1846, 9140." Brothers occupies the 
 north wing of the Library building, and Linonia the 
 south, and originally there were no inner passage ways 
 between the wings and the main building. In 1860, by 
 vote of the societies and consent of the faculty, the 
 partitions were cut through and connecting doors in 
 serted. This seems to have been considered as an 
 essential part of the plan of having the college librarian s 
 assistants act as librarians for the societies, though 
 these inner passage-ways are never made use of now. 
 Up to the time referred to, the librarians had been 
 active members of the societies, and received no return 
 for their services save the " honor," and possibly the 
 fines they were able to collect. Since then, resident 
 graduates, usually Theologues, have been employed on a 
 salary, at first quite small, but now increased to $225 
 per annum. Each of these librarians has two Seniors 
 as assistants, who are also paid $75 a year for their 
 services. The libraries are open for the drawing of 
 books for the half-hour succeeding dinner every after- 
 
THE SOCIE TY S YS TEM. 2 09 
 
 noon, and during this time, according to the old plan, 
 no one save the officers was allowed " behind the rail 
 ing." Each man attached his name to a slip of paper 
 on which he had marked the numbers of the desired 
 books, and these slips were attended to by the assist 
 ants, in the order in which they were handed to the 
 librarian. More recently the plan has been adopted of 
 allowing those who wish to themselves select their 
 books from the shelves. 1 By an arrangement adopted 
 in 1848, every member of either society can draw four 
 volumes at a time from each of the libraries. Resident 
 graduates are allowed the same privileges ; and honorary 
 members can also draw their eight volumes daily, on pay 
 ment of a fee of one dollar a term. For an hour succeeding 
 the time of taking out books and of course, under the 
 recent plan, during that half-hour also the libraries are 
 kept open " for consultation," and the alcoves and inner 
 seats are made accessible to every one. This opportunity 
 for consultation was first given in 1860, and until within 
 a few years the consultation hour was in the forenoon. 
 Before the present edifice was built, the society libraries 
 were stored in the Athenaeum. Formerly, it was cus 
 tomary for every member as he graduated to give at 
 least one book to his society library, as in duty bound, 
 but now the additions are all made by purchase. 
 
 The college reading-room is another thing, carried on 
 by the faculty, in the name of the dead societies. The 
 attempt to organize something of the sort had been 
 often made without result. About the time that 69 en 
 tered college, a joint committee from the two societies 
 reported in favor of combining the two libraries, and 
 using the vacated building as a reading-room, but noth 
 ing was done to carry out the plan. Another proposal 
 was to use the Calliope hall for the purpose ; while 
 newspaper writers called for the surrender of one of the 
 
210 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 vacant rooms in the Art Building. Finally, a petition, 
 calling upon the faculty " to take immediate steps for 
 the establishment of a reading-room," was circulated 
 and very generally signed, which resulted in the arrange 
 ment whereby the faculty promised to provide a reading 
 room, and the societies to supply the money to carry it 
 on. The four middle rooms on the ground floor of 
 South Middle were accordingly made into one by the 
 tearing away of the partitions, and an enclosure for the 
 College Bookstore was built in the middle of it. The 
 doors on the west were fastened but the other two were 
 left open, and with new floor, plaster, paper, and paint, 
 the old quarters were transformed into a very respectable 
 reading-room, which was first opened with the summer 
 term of 1867. Upon a fixed desk or rack, extending 
 about the sides of the room, are kept the files of about 
 25 daily newspapers, and a dozen weekly journals like 
 the Saturday Review and Nation, as well as Punch and 
 the Illustrated News. High stools are provided for 
 those who do not wish to stand while consulting the files. 
 Some 30 reviews and magazines, and as many more 
 religious periodicals, may be obtained on application at 
 what was formerly the Bookstore window, and must be 
 returned there by the applicant before leaving the room. 
 On Sundays, all the newspaper and other "secular" lit 
 erature is locked up, and the " religious" papers and 
 magazines are spread out upon the tables. All in all, 
 there are about 120 different periodicals. The newspa 
 pers are kept on the files for about a week, and are then 
 piled in the Treasurer s office, and are ultimately sold 
 for waste-paper. The magazines and more important 
 periodicals are bound and placed in the society libra 
 ries. These magazines had been taken by the societies 
 before the reading-room was established, but were never 
 accessible to the students except in the form of bound 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 211 
 
 volumes, that is, until they were six months or a year 
 old. An indigent Senior is employed to take charge of 
 the reading-room, open and close it at the specified hours, 
 eight in the morning and ten at night, give out the 
 magazines from the office-window, and attend to the 
 keeping of the files. This work was formerly performed 
 by the proprietor of the College Bookstore, in consider 
 ation of paying no rent. A committee of three from the 
 faculty decide what periodicals to purchase, and have 
 the annual spending of $1000, the " society tax" being, 
 by constitutional amendment, increased from $6 to $8 
 per member on account of the reading-room. It should 
 be remarked that all the " religious" literature is sup 
 plied by the Yale Missionary Society. The reading- 
 room is a very popular resort both for readers and for 
 loungers, and is a much frequented rendezvous during 
 the half-hour preceeding recitation time. The largest 
 crowds of actual readers assemble there immediately 
 after dinner and supper, though there are few hours in 
 the twelve when it is entirely deserted. Few but under 
 graduates make use of it, and those few rarely pay any 
 thing for the privilege, though an admission fee is nom 
 inally required of them. The room is lighted with gas, 
 well heated, supplied with tables, chairs, settees, etc., 
 but has no carpet or other covering upon its floor. Its 
 forerunner was a rack, beside the bowling alleys in the 
 basement of the Gymnasium, upon which were filed a 
 half-dozen daily newspapers, which the faculty paid for. 
 The College Bookstore, though combined with the 
 reading-room, did not spring into existence at the same 
 time with it, but had led an independent life for quite a 
 number of years. Doubtless some of the poorer stu 
 dents had attempted to turn an honest penny by selling 
 text books before that time, but the first mention made 
 of college booksellers was in the fall of 1851, when a 
 
212 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Senior, in North, and a Theologue, in Divinity, opened 
 their rooms to " the trade." On the following summer, 
 the latter sold out to Pliny F. Warner of 55, who seems 
 to have been the real founder of the Bookstore, for 
 though he disposed of its "good will" three or four 
 times in the interval, he was called back to the rescue 
 when- the concern was in trouble, and so may be said to 
 have " run" it for five years, or until 1857, when he fi 
 nally sold out to a Sophomore of 60. The latter 
 remained proprietor until graduation, when a 61 man 
 bought it and held it for two years, after which time all 
 the owners were Theologues until 1868, when it was 
 bought by a 70 man, who, when he graduated, sold out 
 to Charles C. Chatfield & Co., and so put an end to it 
 as a college institution. The " store," migrating first to 
 17 South, and then to 155 Divinity, finally reached 34 
 South Middle in 1861, and remained in that locality 
 after 1867 as the central feature of the reading-room 
 until its final absorption, in the fall of 1870. Various 
 city booksellers had often tried to crush the enterprise, 
 by underselling, and by calling their own establishments 
 " college bookstores," " student s bookstores," " Yale 
 bookstores," and the like, but the students generally 
 looked upon their own institution as a protection against 
 monopolists, and rallied to its support. Previous to 
 1867, the proprietor of the Bookstore performed all the 
 work himself, and kept his shop open only at certain stated 
 intervals each day ; but, after that, a clerk was employed, 
 whose office hours corresponded with those of the read 
 ing-room, and the business of the concern was enlarged 
 so as to include not only the selling of text books and 
 stationery, and the delivery of the college prints and 
 periodicals, but the selling of miscellaneous books and 
 publications, and the delivery of newspapers, photo 
 graphs, etc., of every sort. In short, it had become 
 
THE SO CIE TY S YS TEAL 2 1 3 
 
 transformed into a general bookstore and news agency, 
 and was monopolizing a good share of the reading-room s 
 space, and was making itself a public nuisance, when 
 it was ordered out of the college limits, and passed into 
 the hands of its present proprietors, whose establish 
 ment is on Chapel street, opposite the college yard. It 
 is still advertised as the " College Bookstore." For a 
 year after the establishment of the reading-room, a 
 branch post-office was connected with the Bookstore, 
 the "boxes" whereof were rented for a doHar each, 
 or one half the price of those in the general office. 
 Among other advantages, the branch office was kept 
 open two hours later in the evening than the other ; but 
 all who wished to make use of the branch were obliged 
 to secure boxes, as there was no "general delivery" in 
 connection with it. The office grew in popularity, and 
 at the beginning of the second year the number of boxes 
 was doubled ; but just then word came from the depart 
 ment at Washington that the establishment was con 
 trary to the official regulations, and so it was abandoned 
 forthwith and an after attempt to resuscitate it was in 
 vain. Though New Haven has a "free delivery," the 
 carriers will not deliver letters to the colleges, even 
 when directed to particular rooms, and hence the stu 
 dents who room in college are obliged to rent boxes, as 
 a large portion of them do, or frequent the lobby of 
 the "general delivery." 
 
 The Prize Debates, now held under the auspices of 
 the two societies, are about the only reminders of their 
 former " literary " character. The introduction of these 
 superseded the idea of a " Test Debate," which it had 
 been attempted to establish at about that time, as a 
 means of deciding the question of literary superiority 
 among the rival societies. The present system was 
 inaugurated by William I). Bishop of 49, who, a year 
 
2I 4 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 after graduation, presented Linonia with $1000 in 7 per 
 cent railroad bonds, the interest of which was to be 
 divided into two first prizes of $25, a second prize of 
 $15, and a third prize of $5, for the encouragement of 
 debate in the two lower classes. One of the first prizes 
 was always to be given to a Freshman, and the other 
 three could be competed for by Freshmen and Sopho 
 mores on equal terms. Other regulations in regard to 
 the matter were these : " Five graduates of Linonia shall 
 be chosen by the society by ballot, and their names put 
 by the secretary into a box from which the president 
 shall draw out indiscriminately three who shall con 
 stitute a committee to hear the discussion and award the 
 prizes, their decision being based upon the argument, 
 the style, and the delivery. Each disputant shal l 
 have the privilege of speaking but once and of occupy 
 ing but twenty minutes. Those who are desirous of 
 competing for the prizes shall hand in their names to 
 the president at least one week previous to the discus 
 sion. The chairman of the committee shall call upon 
 the disputants by lot, and each disputant shall imme 
 diately respond to his name or be debarred the privilege 
 of taking part in the debate. The discussion shall 
 take place during the last half of the second term of the 
 college year." Twenty men entered the first debate, 
 March 2, 1851, and with slight changes and modifications 
 the plan mentioned remained in vogue until 1860, when 
 the joint debate was abandoned, and each class has 
 since had an independent trial of its own, for three prizes 
 of $20, $10, and $5. Under the old rule, it rarely 
 happened that the Freshmen were able to win more 
 than the single prize necessarily allotted to them. In 
 1854 there was a senior debate in which one prize was 
 awarded, but it was not until four years afterwards that 
 the regular senior prize debate was instituted by the 
 
THE SOCIE TY SYSTEM. 2 1 5 
 
 society. Two prizes only were awarded during each of 
 the first three years of the senior debate, but since 62 
 three have each year been given. The junior debate 
 was introduced in the class of 65, and with that class, 
 therefore, was perfected the system, since in vogue, of 
 competing in debate, for three prizes, in each one of 
 the four academic years. The value of the prizes in 
 each of the two upper classes is $20, $15, and $10. 
 
 Brothers, meanwhile, had of course felt in duty bound 
 to be equal with its rival in the encouragement of 
 eloquence. So, in 1853, each class had a prize debate, 
 the Sophomores on February 16, the Juniors on 
 February 19, the Freshmen on March 2, and the Seniors 
 on March 9. One prize in each upper class, and three 
 prizes in the freshman class were competed for. Next 
 year, the Juniors competed for one prize, and the Fresh 
 men for three prizes. For the five years following, only 
 the two lower classes debated, the Sophomores for two 
 prizes, the Freshmen for three as before. In the for 
 mer class the number of prizes was first increased to 
 three in the class of 62. In 59 came the first regular 
 senior debate, for two prizes, to which a third was first 
 added in 61. The class of 65 omitted their sophomore 
 debate, and held one, for three prizes, in junior year, 
 instead of it. With 66/ therefore, or a year later than 
 in Linonia, was perfected the present system of four 
 prize debates a year each for three prizes, of $20, $15, 
 and $10. Hence, both societies together now award 
 twenty-four debate prizes a year, amounting in the 
 aggregate to $340 in value, but as a large proportion of 
 them are "split" the number of individuals "honored" 
 in this way is from 30 to 40 annually. Of the prize 
 money all but the $70 (or less, in years when the bonds 
 are depreciated) derived from the Bishop fund, comes 
 from the taxes assessed on the term-bills of the students. 
 
2I 6 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 By order of the faculty the debates must now be held 
 within ten days from the opening of the term. Those 
 of the Seniors and Sophomores introduce the second 
 term ; those of the Juniors and Freshmen, the third ; 
 though the junior debate came at the former time until 
 within a year or two. The question for discussion is 
 chosen a month or two in advance, by those intending 
 to discuss it, and the order in which they are to speak 
 is also determined in advance, by lot. The three persons 
 who act as judges are usually graduates of the college 
 and society, though little attempt is made to adhere to 
 the original rule in regard to this matter, and any gentle 
 man of requisite age and " weight," who can be per 
 suaded to serve, is quickly accepted as judge, without 
 much regard to his college or society antecedents. 
 Members of the faculty are usually the first ones applied 
 to, and some of them serve as judges on nearly every 
 debate. Wednesdays and Saturdays are the times pre 
 ferred, though the other days of the week are selected 
 almost as often, for holding the contests. Frequently, 
 though not always, the debates of the two societies are 
 in progress at the same time. When only eight or nine 
 speakers take part, the debate is finished in a single 
 session, which is held in the evening ; but, with twice 
 that number of disputants, a preliminary afternoon 
 session is required. The freshman and junior debates 
 are generally the most closely contested of any ; for in 
 the one case is offered the first opportunity a man has 
 for displaying his " literary abilities " to the college 
 public ; and in the other the last one for gaining laurels 
 that may take him to a senior society. The junior de 
 bates of the present year, however, attracted barely as 
 many competitors as there were prizes offered, and it 
 was at one time rumored that they would be abandoned 
 for lack of participants. In senior year there is little to 
 
7 HE SOCIE TY S YSTEM. 2 1 7 
 
 fight for save the keeping up of previously made repu 
 tations, unless it be that the chances for class orator- 
 ship are sometimes affected by the result of this last 
 debate. As for the Sophomores, perhaps some of the 
 successful ones of the year before do not care to run the 
 risk of a second trial, and some of the unsuccessful ones 
 are too much discouraged to do so ; for at all events 
 their debate perhaps creates the least excitement of any. 
 But all these prize trials attract great attention, and are. 
 during their progress, the common talk of class and col 
 lege. Large crowds go up to hear the speeches, and 
 though different men " draw " different sized audiences, 
 the attendance upon all is considerable, and it is rarely 
 that the hall is entirely deserted, even for the poorest 
 speaker. Programmes bearing the names of the judges, 
 the question for debate, and the names of the disputants 
 in their order, are freely circulated, and as fifteen minutes 
 are allowed every speaker, it is possible to guess very 
 nearly the time when each one of them will "come on." 
 Between every speech the doors are left open for a 
 minute or two, to allow the entrance and egress of spec 
 tators, but are kept locked in the meanwhile, so that no 
 speaker need be interrupted. The president sits at his 
 desk to announce the speakers, and the judges are 
 ranged below him. At the conclusion of the debate, 
 which often lasts till nearly midnight, they withdraw for 
 a few moments to compare opinions, and then announce 
 their decisions. The result is usually received with loud 
 applause and cheerings, both within and without the 
 hall, the prize takers are congratulated by their friends, 
 and the excitement is ended. Partisans of the different 
 class societies add up the " honors " each one of them 
 has taken in the persons of its past, present, and pros 
 pective members, and discuss the result of their com 
 parisons at the breakfast table next morning. The 
 
 ii 
 
218 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Courant has also sometimes published the society con 
 nections of the prize men, in announcing their names. 
 It should be understood that these prize debates have 
 nothing to do with the ordinary exercises of the society, 
 and the men who participate in them rarely venture at 
 other times within the society halls. 
 
 Annual reunions of their graduates used to be held 
 in the halls on the day before Commencement, when 
 speeches were made, old stories re-told, songs sung, and 
 an enthusiasm for the society re-awakened. These ex 
 ercises were among the most prominent and attractive 
 ones of the week, and were largely attended by the 
 undergraduate members ; but with the decay of the 
 societies they have lessened in interest and for a few- 
 years past have been neglected altogether. The cen- 
 tenial celebration of Linonia in 1853, the day before 
 Commencement, was quite a grand affair. The literary 
 exercises consisted of an oration by William M. Evarts 
 of 37 and a poem by Francis M. Finch of 49, delivered 
 in the North Church, and attended in a body by all the 
 assembled alumni. Afterwards came a banquet in 
 Alumni Hall, then for the first time dedicated. " It had 
 been finely decorated for the occasion by ladies of New 
 Haven. Festoons of pink, blue, and yellow the badges 
 of the societies adorned the walls, with four shields 
 enveloped in green, pink, blue and yellow, as represent 
 ing Yale, Linonia, Brothers and Calliope." Names and 
 portraits of famous ex-members, mottoes and inscrip 
 tions, etc., were also displayed. Daniel Lord of 14 
 acted as president, and other big men helped to make 
 the after-dinner speeches. " Much good feeling and 
 cordiality prevailed, and Brothers and Linonians made 
 common cause in having a good time." A pamphlet 
 containing the oration and poem, and a full account of 
 the proceedings, was afterwards issued, as well as the 
 
THE SO CIE TY S YS TEM. 2 1 9 
 
 centennial catalogue already referred to, in commemora 
 tion of the event. The Brothers centennial was cele 
 brated the day before the Commencement of 1868. A 
 reunion was held at the hall in the forenoon ; in the 
 afternoon at the North Church an oration was delivered 
 by Thomas M. Clark of 3 1 and a poem by Theodore 
 Bacon of 53 ; and in the evening came a " social recep 
 tion" at the Art Building, to which the sisters as well as 
 the Brothers were invited, a "collation" ending up the 
 solemn festivities of the day. The affair xvas in every 
 way inferior to the celebration of Linonia, for the fifteen 
 years whic]i had elapsed since then had been years of 
 decay and dissolution, and the show of enthusiasum in 
 all but the older members was too evidently feigned to 
 be effective. The undergraduates took no interest in 
 the exhibition, and what little trouble a few of them 
 incurred for it was in deference to the faculty s request. 
 
 Various reasons have been offered from time to time 
 to account for the dying out of all regard for these once 
 proud institutions, and as many remedies have been 
 stoutly urged. The commonest cry of the past seems 
 to have been, "The class societies are causing the ruin 
 of the others ; therefore, let the class societies be abol 
 ished." Another and more reasonable theory has called 
 the class societies a consequence rather than a cause of 
 the decay of the general ones. Whatever may be its 
 true explanation, of the fact itself, that the general soci 
 eties are dead past all hope of resurrection, there is no 
 longer any reasonable doubt. The college children of 
 this generation may not be wiser than their predecessors, 
 and their society system may not be a better one ; but 
 their modes of life and their society ideals are not like 
 the old, and nothing can now make them take an inter 
 est in a system which in their view has outlived its use 
 fulness. The fraudulent farce of keeping it up, how- 
 
220 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 ever, is a wastefully expensive one, and appeals are all the 
 while being made to the college authorities to step in 
 and put an end to it. Were they to combine the two 
 society libraries with the general library of the college, 
 and from the lighter literature of the three sections form 
 a special undergraduate department ; turn the society 
 halls into recitation or lecture rooms ; and dispose of 
 the duplicate volumes and other useless society property, 
 they would effect a saving of at least $1500 a year, and 
 could either reduce the "society tax" to $5, or, by keep 
 ing it as at present, could accomplish much more for 
 the undergraduate library and reading-room,-?~the use of 
 which is the only benefit which nine tenths of the stu 
 dents receive from their " societies." As very few under 
 graduates now sign their names to the constitutions of 
 the societies to which they are allotted, the college treas 
 urer would in most cases be unable to enforce payment 
 of the tax, were it refused ; and perhaps a general re 
 fusal to pay this illegal tax will finally be the means of 
 forcing the authorities into assuming direct control of 
 the property which is now so sadly mismanaged. From 
 a recent article in a college paper is extracted the fol 
 lowing summary, which, allowing for few unimportant 
 variations, will fairly enough represent the society ex 
 penses for each and every year : " It appears, from the 
 annual reports of the financial agent of Linonia and 
 Brothers, that for the twelve months ending May 31, 
 1870, the college treasurer collected from the students, 
 under the name of society tax, the sum of $3718.12. 
 As the number of undergraduates during this period 
 averaged more than 500, and as the tax is $8, it would 
 seem that some fifty or more made no payments ; and 
 no doubt these were the same individuals whose entire 
 dues to the college treasurer were by authority remitted. 
 Of this large sum of money, $2061.09 was expended 
 
THE SOCIE TY S YSTEM. 2 2 1 
 
 upon the libraries. The salary of each of the two 
 librarians is $225, and of each of the four assistants 
 $75 ; but a part of the same was still unpaid when the 
 report was made out, so that the salary item amounted 
 to but $735. Of the remaining $1326.09, a great pro 
 portion was undoubtedly spent for books, though exactly 
 how much is not stated. Next in cost to the libraries, 
 was the reading-room, upon which (no items given) 
 $967.80 was expended. Third may be noted the direct 
 expense of running the societies, $680.64 ; which was 
 made up as follows: debate prizes, $284.75; coal, 
 $106.06; janitors salary, $65 ; fire-making and sweep 
 ing, $62.85; repairs, $43. 18 ; gas, $42.56; printing, 
 $41.25 ; incidentals, $28.24 j an d bell-ringing, $4.75. 
 It is possible that the expenses for coal and gas should 
 be charged in part to the libraries and reading-room ; 
 though the report itself encourages no such inference. 
 Fourth and last are the salary of the financial agent, 
 $100 ; the charge of the college treasurer for collecting 
 the tax, $80 ; the interest on the $400 debt of Linonia, 
 $27.50 ; and the insurance of Brothers, $11.25 ; a total 
 of $218.75. In prize money Linonia annually distrib 
 utes $160, and Brothers 180 ; but the total has been put 
 at $284.75, because $55.25 of Linonia s money is 
 derived from the * Bishop fund, and so does not enter 
 into the account. The four divisions of the report as 
 above given foot up a total of $3928.28 ; and the excess 
 of $210.16 over the amount received for taxes, is made 
 up of the $55.20 collected by the librarians for fines, 
 etc., and the $154.96 by which the cash brought over 
 from the old year exceeded the cash carried over for the 
 new one." 
 
 A third society, after the same pattern, which lived 
 out the time allotted to a generation of men, was 
 "Calliope," or "the Calliopean Society" as its members 
 
FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 preferred to call it. On July 8, 1819 because of a 
 political fight which had resulted in the election of a 
 northern man to the presidency of Linonia 32 members 
 of the three lower classes withdrew from Linonia and 
 Brothers, and set up this society of their own, to which 
 they soon attracted 37 others, making Calliope s mem 
 bership in that first year, 69, or larger than at any sub 
 sequent period. All the founders were, with two excep 
 tions, Southerners, and to " the South " the society ever 
 afterwards looked for its chief support. It never elec 
 tioneered the Freshmen, or sought to increase its mem 
 bership by any adventitious aids. All who came from 
 the South went to the society as a matter of course. 
 Some from the Middle and Western States also joined 
 it, but the members from New England hardly averaged 
 one a year. Its hall was in Townsend s Block, on Chapel 
 street, oppose the college yard. When Alumni Hall 
 was built, though the society was evidently moribund, it 
 persisted in having a room made for it in the new build 
 ing, and the apartment now known as Calliope Hall 
 was the result. It lies between the other two society 
 halls, and has seldom been put to any service since the 
 disruption of the society, which happened before the new 
 quarters were taken possession of. The society library, 
 at the start in 1819, numbered about 400 volumes; in 
 1828, 2300; in 1831, 2900; in 1837, 4100; in 1840, 
 5000; and at the end in 1852, about 10,000. The 
 books were kept in the apartment between the Library 
 proper and the south or Linonia wing, and when Calliope 
 was dissolved were given to the college, which by the 
 sale of them to the Bridgeport city library realized $2100, 
 from which fund two of its "general scholarships," 
 yielding $66 a year are supported. Its first and per 
 haps only catalogue of members was an octavo of 32 
 pages, printed in 1839 by B. L. Hamlen. The names 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 223 
 
 were arranged by years rather than by classes, and the 
 States were brought into prominence by being separated 
 from the residences. During its first twenty years the 
 society seems to have had in all about 300 regular mem 
 bers, and half that number of honorary ones. All of 
 the latter were obliged to come at least once to the hall 
 and "pass through the regular form of initiation," a 
 thing not required by the other societies, many of whose 
 " honorary members " never set foot in New Haven, or 
 even in America. The catalogue was embellished with 
 a steel-engraved frontispiece, representing the society s 
 patron goddess " the queen of the sacred nine " in her 
 usual posture, accompanied by another female figure 
 bearing a scroll labeled " Calliope, 1819." Upon the 
 cover was displayed a six-pointed star, with a " C " sup 
 ported within its open hexagon. The letters " (7> E M," 
 initials of the motto, appeared upon the " C," and in the 
 lower angle of the star was the date, "1819." This 
 design was doubtless a copy of the society badge, worn 
 as a pendant to the watch chain. In the Lit. for Feb 
 ruary, 1853, it was announced that the society had been 
 dissolved, and that the committee appointed to pay its 
 debts and wind up its affairs would publish a report of 
 their work in the next number of the magazine, together 
 with a statement of the causes which led to the dissolu 
 tion. But the promised report and explanation were 
 never printed. Still another " literary society " was the 
 "Phoenix," founded in 1806, chiefly by Thomas S. 
 Grimke, who graduated the following year. The society 
 does not seem to have long survived his departure, and 
 its members were quickly absorbed by Linonia and 
 Brothers the name of Grimke himself afterwards ap 
 pearing on the former s catalogue. 
 
 Another sociey institution, almost as aged as Linonia 
 and Brothers but of quite a different character, is the " Phi 
 
224 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Beta Kappa/ According to Allyn s " Ritual of Freema 
 sonry," it " was imported into this country from France, by 
 Thomas Jefferson" ; but its Yale archives state, more mod 
 estly, "that the Alpha of Virginia was established at Wil 
 liam and Mary College, December 6, 1776, by the volunta 
 ry association of a number of the students, who at first 
 had no design of extending the society beyond the 
 limits of the college. After a year or two a plan was 
 concerted to spread it into several inferior branches in 
 the different parts of the state. Still, the members had 
 no idea of communicating it to any other of the United 
 States, until Mr. Elisha Parmele, who had been two 
 years an undergraduate at Yale, but had afterwards re 
 moved to Harvard, and graduated there in 1778, hap 
 pened to be in Virginia in the fall of the following year ; 
 when, on being introduced to him, they determined to 
 establish by his aid two other grand branches or Alphas, 
 at the two New England universities." Accordingly, on 
 his return, he was entrusted with two charters for that 
 purpose, both bearing date of December 4, 1779. In 
 the month of April, following, he initiated four men at 
 Goshen, his native place ; but the society was first regular 
 ly organized as the "Alpha of Connecticut" at New Haven, 
 November 13, 1780, when a dozen graduates and a larger 
 number of Seniors and Juniors were admitted. The 
 Alpha of Massachusetts was established at Harvard 
 September 5, 1781. Each of these "grand branches" 
 was given the sole power of establishing " inferior 
 branches" within its own State, while the original Vir 
 ginia Alpha retained the right of introducing the soci 
 ety into other States. The war, however, soon killed 
 the parent tree ; so in September, 1787, Yale and Har 
 vard joined in establishing the Alpha of New Hamp 
 shire at Dartmouth. The Alphas subsequently intro 
 duced into other States have perhaps sometimes been 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 225 
 
 formed simply on the authority of one or both of these 
 two oldest branches, though in theory all the Alphas 
 are obliged to concur in the establishment of a new 
 one. Once formed, an Alpha can authorize as many 
 additional chapters as it chooses within its own State. 
 The first meeting of the original society was held in the 
 Apollo hall of the old Raleigh tavern of Williamsburg, 
 and the original charter is in the possession of the Vir 
 ginia Historical Society. In 1852, there were ten chap 
 ters in existence, the seven additional ones, in the order 
 of their establishment, being : Alpha of New York, at 
 Union ; Alpha of Maine, at Bowdoin ; Alpha of Rhode 
 Island, at , Brown ; Beta of Connecticut, at Trinity ; 
 Gamma of Connecticut, at Wesleyan ; and Alpha of 
 Alabama, at Tuscaloosa. The chapters extended since 
 then are : Alpha and Beta of Vermont, at Burlington 
 and Middlebury ; Alpha and Beta of Ohio, at Western 
 Reserve and Kenyon ; Beta and Gamma of Massachu 
 setts, at Amherst and Williams ; Beta of New York, at 
 N. Y. University ; and Alpha of New Jersey, at Rutgers. 
 It is possible that other chapters may be in existence, 
 but nothing is known about the matter by the officers 
 of the institution at Yale, and no complete list of the 
 society s branches has recently been published. 
 
 "The original object of the society were the promo 
 tion of literature and friendly intercourse among schol 
 ars ; and its name and motto indicate that philosophy, 
 including therein religion as well as ethics, is worthy of 
 cultivation as the guide of life. " The name is simply 
 the initial letters of this motto, <lH).o(7oyiu, Diov Kvpeovtj- 
 rr^, and used to be commonly abbreviated to " Phi 
 Beta." At Yale the meetings were originally held fort 
 nightly, afterwards monthly. The exercises consisted 
 of an oration and debate, and in winter they commenced 
 at half-past six in the evening. A fine of sixpence was 
 n* 
 
226 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the penalty for tardiness ; of $10, for absence ; of $20, 
 for flunking an appointment. There were never any 
 eatables provided except on the night of December 6, 
 when the society s anniversary was celebrated by a sup 
 per. The oration on that occasion was delivered by a 
 graduate, and the annual officers were chosen. The 
 president was always a graduate, and was often reflected, 
 Prof. Kingsley, for example, holding the office for six 
 successive years. Afterwards, the annual supper was 
 abolished and the only "bum" was that of initiation 
 night, when with singing, and story-telling, and eating 
 and drinking, " a general jollification was kept up till 
 a late hour." The occasion constantly increased in im 
 portance and expense, until in 1835 the initiation sup 
 per cost $150, which was judged to be so utterly extrav 
 agant, that the corporation passed a vote forbidding any 
 future celebration of the sort, as being a waste of money. 
 The day after Commencement, it was customary to hold 
 an " exhibition," when two orations were delivered, by 
 tutors or other graduates, and a debate was engaged in 
 by four undergraduates. As these exhibitions gradually 
 grew in interest and importance, it was decided to make 
 them public, and in September, 1787, the great unin 
 itiated, " assembled in the brick meeting house," were 
 for the first time allowed to listen to one of Phi Beta s 
 representative orators. The next public oration was 
 pronounced five years later, and in the 42 years, 1793- 
 1834, there were only 12 Commencements when the soci 
 ety failed to display itself; while from 1835 onward 
 there has been no break in its annual exhibitions. Be 
 fore that time, there had been but seven poems delivered, 
 of which only one had been printed. Of the orations, 
 ten had been printed. There were but 28 of them, for 
 on two occasions the poet had been the only speaker 
 before the society. Since 1835, the oration has been 
 
THE SO CIE TY S YS TEM. 227 
 
 three times and the poem eight times omitted ; and, of 
 those delivered, two orations and two poems have not 
 been printed. 
 
 At the annual September meeting of 1793, it was 
 voted, that an oration should each year be delivered in 
 public on the day after Commencement ; that on the 
 morning of that day the society assembled at the State 
 House at 8 o clock should always choose two orators, 
 the first to speak upon the following year, and the other 
 to be ready as his substitute ; that the substitute for one 
 year should be in turn chosen the orator for the next ; 
 and that the orator should notify the president, two 
 months before Commencement, of his intention or not 
 to fulfil his appointment These rules are in effect still 
 adhered to, though for many years the society s anniver 
 sary has been the day before instead of the day after 
 Commencement ; the morning business meeting has 
 been held in one of the Lyceum lecture rooms ; and the 
 oration and poem have been delivered in the evening at 
 one of the churches on the green. But the orator and 
 poet and their substitutes are still chosen for one year 
 in advance, and the substitutes are duly promoted to 
 the first places, so that in effect each man appointed has 
 two years to prepare himself. Perhaps three-fourths of 
 the persons selected to speak before the society, have 
 been regular members of it at Yale, the others being 
 regular or honorary members of other branches or hon 
 orary members of the Yale branch. Doolittle s Hall 
 in the old building on College street, near the corner of 
 Elm, which was torn down to give place to the new 
 Divinity College used to be, in the old times, the only 
 public hall which the city possessed, and Phi Beta 
 Kappa, as well as Linonia and Brothers, used to hold 
 its ordinary meetings there. Originally, the hall 
 was said to have belonged to the Freemasons ; and 
 
228 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 of course the different college societies which met 
 there rented it on different evenings. In 1825, or 
 shortly afterwards, a clamor against Masonry and secret 
 societies generally, which swept over the country, seems 
 to have resulted in the removal of its secret character 
 from Phi Beta Kappa, both at Yale and in other col 
 leges. With its mystery departed its activity also ; and 
 for forty years past it has been simply a " society insti 
 tution" possessed of but little more life than it claims 
 to-day, though membership in it was thought an honor 
 worth striving for until quite a recent period. High 
 scholarship was always as now the prime qualification 
 which recommended a man for election, and, also as 
 now, about a third of each senior class were annually 
 elected. The bulk of the elections were given out to 
 the Juniors during the third term, and the regular initia 
 tion was held then, but there seems to have been occa 
 sional class elections subsequently given out in senior 
 year. Personal prejudice sometimes kept a few high- 
 stand men out, and personal favoritism sometimes 
 brought a few low-stand men in, but, in general, scholar 
 ship alone decided the matter, the society confining 
 its elections pretty closely to the list recommended it by 
 the faculty, in response to its own application therefor. 
 Elections were nominally unanimous, but each one who 
 cast a black-ball was obliged to avow the reasons which 
 influenced him in doing so, and the single "No" was 
 always expected to be withdrawn, as a matter of course. 
 For fifty years and more, admission to the society was 
 considered one of the greatest honors of the college, 
 and was the object in view of which the hardest exer 
 tions of the first three years were put forth. Its key, in 
 fact, seems to have been thought about as desirable as 
 a senior-society pin is now-a-days, and to have been as 
 generally recognized in the college world as a badge of 
 exceptional honor and distinction. 
 
THE SO CIE TY S YS TEM. 229 
 
 " This society," say its oldest archives, " continued to 
 increase and become more and more respectable in the 
 view of the students of college. The younger classes 
 were sensibly ambitious of recommending themselves to 
 the society by regular behavior and uncommon exertions 
 of scholarship. At the same time, the candidate in the 
 successive senior classes who finally failed of the honor 
 of an election, were mortified and irritated by disap 
 pointment. Under the united influence of envy, resent 
 ment and curiosity, Hugo Burghardt, Nathan Stiles and 
 Richard McCurdy, three Seniors, combined together, 
 and on the evening of December 19, 1786, broke open 
 the secretary s door, in his absence, entered his study, 
 and feloniously took, stole, and carried away the socie 
 ty s trunk, with all its contents. They, however, by no 
 means satisfied their expectations of learning the mys 
 teries of the society and of the institution, as there was 
 no written explanation of them in the archives ; and 
 fortunately they were detected before they had an oppor 
 tunity of divulging their discovery. Upon their detec 
 tion, they restored the papers as they found them, paid 
 for the damage done the trunk, appeared in the presence 
 of the society assembled in a general meeting, volunta 
 rily made a written confession, which is still lodged in 
 the trunk, and bound themselves by a solemn oath to 
 confine within their own breasts all the knowledge of 
 the secrets of the society which they had so criminally 
 obtained by violating the sacred security of locks and 
 keys. In compassion to them and their friends, the 
 society generously pardoned them and engaged to con 
 ceal their names from the world. An attested copy of 
 their confession and oath was entered on record and also 
 transmitted to Cambridge. Thus tranquillity was re 
 stored, and the affairs of the society proceeded with 
 out interruption until on or about July 20, 1787, when 
 
230 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the trunk was unlocked in a clandestine manner, and 
 the secretary s and register s books were again stolen ; 
 though the latter was soon found. No discovery was 
 made of the perpetrators of this second burglary, nor 
 has there since appeared any publication of the contents 
 of the book of records." 
 
 The badge of the society is a flat rectangular watch- 
 key of gold, across the central portion of which are en 
 graved the letters " </> B K " / and upon the right lower 
 corner, a right hand, with the index finger pointing 
 diagonally across to several stars in the left upper cor 
 ner. The number of these stars seems for some time 
 to have been made to correspond to the whole number 
 of chapters, for there were five of them upon the key of 
 thirty years ago. As the number of chapters became 
 too extensive for representation, only as many stars 
 were expressed as there were chapters in the State ; and 
 hence there are now three of them upon the Yale key. 
 Another explanation is that they are intended to corres 
 pond with the number of Alphas. The flat portion of 
 the key, which is almost a square, measures an inch 
 upon its longest side. In all the colleges the badge has 
 never varied, save in the number of stars, from that in 
 stituted at William and Mary in 1776. According to 
 Allyn s " Ritual," it was " a medal of gold or silver, 
 sometimes worn on the bosom, suspended by blue or 
 pmk ribbon, but more commonly as a watch key. Upon 
 its back was engraved, " S. P. Dec. 6, 1776," the initials 
 signifying, * Societas Philosophic" "The sign is given 
 by placing the two forefingers of the right hand so as to 
 cover the left corner of the mouth ; draw them across 
 the chin." " The grip is like the common shaking of 
 hands, only not interlocking the thumbs, and at the 
 same time gently pressing the wrist." At Yale and 
 other colleges, the lists of members which are occasion- 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 231 
 
 ally published are sometimes headed by a wood-cut seal, 
 an inch and a half in diameter, consisting simply of the 
 name of the chapter " Alpha of Connecticut," for ex 
 ample in a double circle within which appear the 
 emblems of the key. The constitution of the society 
 required every member to wear the badge, but only about 
 a third of them did so, fifty years ago, when their soci 
 ety was a living, wide-awake affair ; and, now, as for a 
 dozen years or more past, the sight of a Phi Beta key 
 would raise a cry of derision. The last Yale Senior 
 who once or twice ventured to expose such a thing to 
 the gaze of the populace belonged to the class of 67. 
 
 This was also the last class for whose initiation a 
 special meeting was held. Since 1850 or before, elec 
 tions to the society have been entirely a matter of form. 
 The faculty s record of scholarship alone decides the 
 matter, and in accordance with this about a third of the 
 junior class, comprising all the appointment-men save 
 the lowest, were each year requested, by printed notice, 
 to present themselves at one of the Lyceum lecture 
 rooms, on the Wednesday evening preceeding Presenta 
 tion Day, for the purpose of being initiated into Phi 
 Beta Kappa. Here they were met by one or more of 
 the graduate officers of the affair, and the significance 
 of the society, and of their election to it, was formally 
 explained to them. While awaiting the arrival of these 
 officers the society was wont to take up a collection and 
 institute an impromptu " peanut bum." The two or 
 three of their number who were entrusted with the 
 money, having purchased a bushel or so of peanuts at 
 the nearest fruit store, would on their return be pur 
 sued by a ravenous crowd of their non-elected class 
 mates, even to the very door of the lecture room, and 
 sometimes be obliged to surrender a part of their booty. 
 After the meeting, with its "bum," was over, the newly 
 
232 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 initiated were very liberal in the distribution of peanuts 
 among the non-elect, or were beset by the latter and 
 compelled by force to disgorge the remnants of their 
 feast. Sometimes, also, the new members marched in 
 procession about the college buildings, having fastened 
 to their watch-chains, as burlesques on the authorized 
 badges, the large pasteboard rectangles used in recita 
 tion for the demonstration of mathematical propositions, 
 shouting " Phi, ai, ai ! Phi Beta Kappa!" which was 
 a sort of cheer or rallying cry in the palmy days of the 
 society. The bell which called their meetings together 
 used also to be rung in a peculiar, jerky fashion, to 
 imitate as nearly as possible this society shout. In the 
 class of 58, for some unknown reason, only three men 
 accepted elections to Phi Beta. 
 
 Besides this meeting, there were the Deccember 
 aniversary for the election of officers, and the meet 
 ing at Commencement time for the choice of orator and 
 poet. The latter is the only one now held. For a dozen 
 years past, the general officers have been chosen at that 
 time, and begining with 68, the " active members have 
 been " elected" then. Printed notifications of the time 
 and place of meeting are posted upon the trees in the 
 college yard. At the appointed hour, a sprinkling of 
 graduates and two or three undergraduates assemble. 
 A president for the next year is chosen in the person of 
 some graduate, usually a non-resident of New Haven, 
 who may or may not be present ; then the vice presi 
 dent (Prof. A. C. Twining of 20) secretary (Prof. D. 
 C. Oilman of 52), and treasurer (Prof. H. A. Newton 
 of 50), are reflected ; and the remaining two officers 
 recording secretary and assistant treasurer are ap 
 pointed from among the " active members." The names 
 of the first 30 or 40 persons upon the faculty s appoint 
 ment list are read off and they are " unanimously elected" 
 
THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. 233 
 
 ed" to the society. They form the " active members" 
 for the following year, without further ceremony, and 
 their most active duty resulting is to laugh when they 
 see their names in the society s printed list. The sub 
 stitute orator and poet having been chosen orator and 
 poet, and new substitutes having been chosen in their 
 places, perhaps a few honorary members are elected. 
 Then the official reports are read and accepted, finan 
 cial and other resolutions are adopted, and the" society" 
 disbands, to be resurrected and go through the same 
 galvanic formalities at the close of another year. In 
 its early days, an initiation fee of $10 was demanded ; 
 but this was abolished long ago, and the society ex 
 penses have to be met by subscription, and most of them 
 doubtless fall upon the college professors who are its offi 
 cers. At all events, it is supposed that they alternate 
 with one another in making up the annual deficit caused 
 by the printing of the oration and poem. At last year s 
 Commencement meeting a committee of five old mem 
 bers was appointed to enquire into the expediency of 
 rejuvenating the society or abandoning it altogether. 
 No substitute orator and poet were elected for the Com 
 mencement of 1872, and it is therefore possible that 
 this year s will be the last appearance of Phi Beta at 
 Yale. 
 
 A sixteen-page catalogue, printed by "Oliver Steele & 
 Co. in April, 1808, was perhaps the first one published. 
 It contained about 400 names, all arranged in one alpha 
 betical list, with their " places of abode," " college titles" 
 [" Senr.," "Junr.," or "A. B."], and "times of admis 
 sion" annexed. The last catalogue of 50 octavo 
 pages, printed by B. L. Hamlen was issued in 1852. 
 In this the names of the members were given by classes, 
 together with both "original and present residences," 
 honorary titles, etc. Special lists of the "honorary 
 
2 34 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 members, not graduates of Yale College," comprising 
 but forty names ; of the presidents ; and of the orators 
 and poets, were also included. An index to the 1700 
 individuals mentioned succeeded the whole. Each sep 
 arate chapter of the fraternity has doubtless published 
 similar lists, but no general catalogue of the members 
 of all the chapters has ever been issued. With each 
 branch showing signs of life but one day out of the 
 three hundred and sixty-five, there can of course be no 
 tangible tie between them, and any general work in the 
 name of the whole fraternity is clearly out of the ques 
 tion. 
 
 The history of the chapters elsewhere has been es 
 sentially the same as at Yale, save that the younger 
 ones have never known any active life, but have been 
 form the outset simply society institutions. Character 
 istics common to all the chapters are : the delivery of 
 an oration and poem in public, at Commencement time, 
 and the holding of a business meeting in private, when 
 the officers and members for the ensuing year are chosen 
 of whom the former are graduates and the latter the 
 best scholars of the incoming senior class. In short, 
 " Phi Beta Kappa" is, always and everywhere, a mere 
 official compliment paid by the faculty to high scholar 
 ship. Its key, or the right to wear it. is simply a medal, 
 or " reward of merit," certifying that the owner ranks 
 with the first third of his class. This fiction, myth, ab 
 straction, pious fraud, or what not ,is naturally the object 
 of much merriment at Yale. References are often made 
 to its profound secrecy, to the wire pulling and election 
 eering resorted to in choosing its officers, to favorite- 
 ism and unworthy personal prejudices shown in con 
 ferring its elections, to the hilarious joviality and boister 
 ous uproar attendant upon its weekly gatherings, to the 
 low and disreputable character of its members, who are 
 
THE SO CIE TV S YS TEM. 235 
 
 u in constant danger of being dropped from the class 
 through excessive attention to their society duties," and 
 so on. Such are the sarcastic and derisive utterances now 
 heard in regard to that venerable fraternity which, almost 
 a century ago, started out upon its mission of inculcating 
 the doctrine that " Philosophy is the guide of life." 
 
 Youngest of the society institutions is " Chi Delta 
 Theta," established in 1821. Prof. James L. Kingsley was 
 its founder and perpetual president. Its object was to 
 compliment and encourage literary as distinguished 
 from scholastic ability. About a fourth of the senior 
 class, including all the " good writers," were annually 
 elected to it, and met fortnightly, in one of the Lyceum 
 lecture rooms, Tuesday evening at eight o clock being 
 the time of assembling. Sometimes the meeting was 
 held at the house of the president. The exercises con 
 sisted of the reading of essays one, two, three or more in 
 number and the subsequent discussion of them. Classi 
 cal literature was at one time especially affected, and a 
 select classical library was formed, which numbered about 
 i oo volumes when the society dissolved and was then 
 given to the college. All the books were from choice 
 or rare editions. In Phi Beta, there were no writ 
 ten essays presented, but all the literary performances 
 were in the form of debates, orations, etc., orally deliv 
 ered ; while in Linonia and Brothers, the two methods 
 characteristic of both the societies were in vogue. Chi 
 Delta and Phi Beta were neither rivals of each other 
 nor of the general societies. Seniors might belong to 
 all three of them, and it was of course thought an es 
 pecial honor to be able to swing both the senior-society 
 badges. At the time of Junior Exhibition, that of Chi 
 Delta was very prominently displayed by .the appoint 
 ment-men who had just gained it, for the elections seem 
 to have been given out at that early period in the year. 
 
2 3 6 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 The badge was in the form of a gold "z/, ? or triangle, 
 with sides an inch in length, upon the lower one of which 
 was engraved " XJ 182 1 ;" and was usually hang as a 
 pendent to the watch chain, though sometimes attached 
 to the vest as a pin. The officers were chosen annually, 
 and the founder of the society was always reflected presi 
 dent. Chi Delta died out in the clan of 43 or 44, having 
 had only a nominal, or honorary existence like that of 
 Phi Beta at the present time in several preceding classes. 
 No catalogue of the members seems ever to have been 
 published. It naturally happened that the editors of 
 the Lit. were always elected to it, and in 1868, at; the 
 suggestion of one of them, it was decided to revive* the 
 old society, by making it an institution connected with 
 the magazine. The 68 editors were accordingly initi 
 ated as members of Chi Delta Theta, and pledged to 
 turn over " the society " to the five elected to succeed 
 them in the management of the Lit. A similar trans 
 fer has been made by subsequent editors, and the society 
 in its present form seems as certain of long life as "the 
 oldest college periodical " itself. Since the editors are 
 supposed to be the " five best literary men" of every 
 senior class, the name and mantle of the old society 
 may be appropriately left in their keeping. The tri 
 angle is now worn, in the place of a watch chain, simply 
 as a badge of the editorial office. Upon the reverse are 
 graved," Yak Lit. 1836," and the name and class of 
 the owner. 
 
PART SECOND. 
 THE STUDENT LIFE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 F R E S H M A N Y E A R . 
 
 Board and Lodging Eating Clubs Their Formation and Charac 
 teristics Names, Mottoes and Devices The College Club or 
 Commons The Old Commons Hall System The Old Buttery 
 Smoking Out Stealing Hazing Put Out That Light! 
 Rushing The Foot-Ball Game The Painting Disgrace Gate 
 Lifting Lamp Smashing Thanksgiving Jubilee As it was 
 Known to 69 Its Previous Origin and Growth Interference of 
 the Faculty The Last Jubilee Its Character in the Future 
 Pow-wow The Annual Dinner, and its Predecessor, the Bien 
 nial Jubilee The Freshman Laws of the Last Century The 
 Old Manner of Lecturing. 
 
 On the same printed form which certifies that the 
 candidate has been " admitted on probation a member 
 of the freshman class" is a notification of the tutor to 
 whom he is to apply if he desires a room in the college 
 buildings. As none but indigent Freshmen ever occupy 
 these rooms, which are poor in quality and few in num 
 ber, the newly-admitted probably leaves this official 
 alone, and starts off in quest of a room in some private 
 house of the city, since college law forbids him either 
 to lodge or board at a public hotel. According to the 
 locality, size, equipment of the room or rooms, and the 
 fact of his occupying it or them alone or with a chum, 
 
23 8 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the Freshman agrees to pay a rent of from $1.50 to $5 
 a week, though the ordinary price of course lies between 
 these two extremes. " Fire" and " light" and " washing" 
 are always "extra," and a stove is never included with 
 the other furniture. Towels, too, the lodger is expected 
 to supply for himself. If a house is supplied with fur 
 nace heat and gas, the " roomer" is charged a dollar for 
 the former and a half dollar for the latter, per week. It 
 will usually cost him about as much if he has a stove of 
 his own, aside from the trouble of attending to it, 
 which he must do himself, but he can furnish his own 
 "light" at half the indicated expense. His "washing" 
 costs from sixty to seventy-five cents per dozen pieces, 
 and is either done at the house, or by private washer 
 women who call for and deliver his clothing, or by the 
 public laundries. If the entrance door of the house 
 where he rooms is usually closed, the lodger is supplied 
 with a latch-key, which will admit him at all times, and 
 he commonly leaves the door of his own room unlocked 
 in his absence ; but if the entrance door is always open, 
 as is apt to be the case in a house where there are many 
 lodgers, he is careful to lock up his own room when he 
 departs therefrom. He does not, save in exceptional 
 cases, " board," that is, take .his meals, in the same 
 house where he "rooms." "Eating clubs," especially 
 in freshman year, are the approved mediums through 
 which he obtains his food. 
 
 A " club" is in theory a cooperative affair, whose 
 members " pay only for what they have," and " have just 
 what they want," and whose steward obeys their orders 
 in supplying the provender, and receives simply his own 
 board in consideration of his trouble. Such a thing 
 may sometime have existed, but for some years past it 
 has been an abstraction merely. The real club is more 
 a thing of this sort : The steward, usually a poor man, 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 239 
 
 engages some woman, accustomed to the business, to 
 supply a dining room, dishes, table furniture and wait 
 ers, and do the cooking for his proposed club. For this, 
 he agrees to pay her a certain piftce per plate, not in 
 cluding his own, which is free, and engages that the 
 club shall be above a certain minimum number as to 
 size. He has probably secured beforehand the requisite 
 number of classmates as members, or, if not, he soon 
 gets them together, and the club is formed. A steward 
 has little difficulty in making up a crowd among Fresh 
 men, who are unacquainted with one another, and so 
 without likes or dislikes. Those who have been 
 acquaintances at a large preparatory school, however, 
 sometimes join together in a club, or form a nucleus for 
 one, when first they come to college. The steward gen 
 erally attracts his men by suggesting a basis of " about" 
 so many dollars per week ; giving them to understand 
 that this may vary according to their orders ; and that 
 his own board is the only compensation which he him 
 self is to receive for his trouble. Meanwhile he agrees, 
 in consideration of a certain percentage paid to himself 
 by the latter, to order from a single market-man every 
 thing which the club requires, and the trader looks to 
 him alone for payment of the supplies which he fur 
 nishes. The steward occupies the " head of the table," 
 does the carving whenever necessary, and gives his 
 orders to the market-man each day for the provisions 
 needed the day following, consulting in doing this the 
 expressed wishes of a majority of the club, and warn 
 ing them when their demands are bringing up the price 
 of board above the estimated amount. At the close of 
 the term he divides the amount of the provision bill by 
 the number of members, and adding to this quotient 
 the sum due from each one for table service and cookery, 
 announces the result as the price of board for the term, 
 
240 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 which price is pretty certain to be in excess of the esti 
 mate on which the club was based. After collecting his 
 board bills and paying his cook and market-man from 
 whom he receives back the percentage agreed upon 
 his work for the term is over. Very likely the club 
 breaks up ; or perhaps it may go on for another term 
 under the same auspices. It will be seen that in this 
 arrangement everything depends upon the integrity and 
 shrewdness of the steward and the woman whom he em 
 ployes. The latter has the chance to appropriate as 
 many *f the club s stores as she may need, either to 
 board her own family or to use for other purposes, and 
 the former can put the figures of the provision bill almost 
 as high as he chooses, without there being in either 
 case any sensible chance of discovery. For these rea 
 sons the plan is not a popular one, after men have found 
 out its defects ; and they are apt to demand that a 
 steward shall leave out the " about" in his proposals, and 
 agree to board them at a certain fixed rate per week. 
 If he does this, the peculations of the cook of course 
 tell against himself simply instead of the club as a 
 whole, and his only way to make himself good is to sup 
 ply cheaper food, which of course raises an outcry from 
 his comrades. Still another way in which a poor man 
 may earn his own support is this : he offers some woman, 
 in want of boarders at a certain price per week, to sup 
 ply enough men for a table, a dozen being commonly 
 the minimum number, to serve at the head of the table 
 as carver, and perhaps to collect the board bills when 
 due, as well as to act as a general go-between, in com 
 municating the wishes of the boarders to their hostess, 
 and the reverse. For these services he receives his 
 own board without payment. In the fourth and last 
 variety of eating club, there is no steward or head-man 
 of any sort. The members of it simply agree to pay a 
 
THE S TUDENT LIFE. 2 4 1 
 
 certain price for board, and are as individuals directly 
 responsible to their hostess. 
 
 The essential thing in a club, which, in all its forms, 
 plainly distinguishes it from a boarding house, is this, 
 that its members " make up their own crowd," and alone 
 decide who shall be admitted to their number. A club 
 once formed, neither the hostess nor the steward can 
 secure the admission of a new member without the con 
 sent of the others. A club, too, adopts its own rules of 
 table etiquette, and pays only such regard to the con 
 ventionalities as seems to it good, no woman or other 
 person of authority ever having a place at its table. 
 Men in clubs, as everywhere else, are certain to be dis 
 satisfied either with the quality of their food or the 
 price at which it is afforded, and changes are continually 
 going on. New clubs are started and old ones reorgan 
 ized at the beginning of each year, and in fact nearly 
 every term. Before the close of freshman year the 
 " popular men" of the class are pretty certain to drift 
 into a club together, which is nearly as certain to go to 
 pieces before the close of the year which follows. In 
 junior year, may be, each society is represented by its 
 eating club, which perhaps had its beginning among its 
 pledged representatives in the year before, when a neu 
 tral Sophomore who could get elected to the Psi U or 
 DKE club would think his chances good for an election 
 to the societies themselves : generally, with reason. 
 Senior-society clubs are not very feasible, since to make 
 up a table would require the presence of about every 
 member, a thing which pecuniary and others differences 
 would render all but impossible. The Coffin society of 
 69, however, took their meals together. Of late years, 
 too, Seniors are getting much into the way of boarding 
 at hotels, in defiance of the absurd rule which forbids 
 any undergraduate so to do. 
 
 12 
 
242 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Some clubs are exceptionally long-lived. The " Pie 
 Club" of 68, for example, which began with the third 
 term of the first year, lasted through the course, and 
 one in the class before it was nearly as aged ; but such 
 instances are not numerous. It was in 1854 that a club 
 the " Hyenas" first set a precedent, by publishing in 
 the Banner a list of its members, beneath a wood-cut 
 device. This practice has greatly varied in popularity. 
 Ten years ago, nearly all the clubs of college engaged 
 in it. Four years ago it seemed likely to be abandoned 
 by all but the Freshmen. More recently, it has regained 
 some recognition among the upper classes, though the 
 Seniors are content simply to print their names, without 
 device of any sort. The freshman clubs are naturally 
 its best supporters, and they apparently labor to confer 
 upon themselves as absurd titles as possible, in which 
 they are more successful than in their attempts at witty 
 mottoes, which are usually far-fetched and silly. Among 
 the earlier clubs which figured in the Banner were the 
 " Vultures," " Tigers," " Harpies," " Ostriches," " Ana 
 condas," and " Crocodiles" ; the steward of the first 
 being called " Oecumenical," of the second, " Tigridum 
 Curator," of the third, " Obsonator Harpyiis," and of the 
 fourth, " Struthamelactor" and " Superintendent of the 
 Des(s)ert." There were the " Dyspeptics," four of whom 
 were represented as dragging some meat from a hungry 
 dog ; the " Skel-e(a)t-ons," who were " Membra" and 
 whose steward was the " Dissector" ; the " Knicker 
 bockers" [both these clubs attained considerable age] ; 
 the " Ruskins" ; the "Gastronomers"; the " Ccena-tors"; 
 the " Frolicksome Oysters " ; the " Beavers " : the 
 " Munch(ch)aw-sens " ; the " FAiphagonians " ; the 
 " Musk-Eaters," whose steward was the " Gallinipper," 
 and whose device represented a dozen musquitoes 
 seated at table. Of course there have been the inevita- 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 243 
 
 ble " Eta Pi" clubs in all their variations ; likewise the 
 " Ace" and the " King" of clubs ; likewise all manner of 
 " Greek" titles, like 01 Bfjy-yteQSt 01 /l$fc@?, 01 2rvcp- 
 dyoi, 01 racznipdnyoi, Ol Ilavzoqayot, 01 OJUyoyqpttyoi, 01 
 
 Jn7tocfd"/oi, Ol Ofiorodn^oi, 01 Oornacfuyoi, and Ol 
 ^rn tfxo/, where a man named Lamb was steward. An 
 other motto of the latter club was "Agno vivimus." 
 The " Pinesthians," the " Epicureans," the " Choke 
 A-e(ters), whose steward was the " Choker," the " Ku- 
 kluxes," the ".Fowl Fiends," the " Gobble-ins," the 
 " Cherubs," the " Merry Eaters/ the " Hard Cases," 
 Case being the steward s name," the " Peacemakers," 
 the " Lickapillies," the " Tasters," les " Miserables," les 
 " Bon Vivants," die " Junggesellen," are among the 
 more recent "eaters." The "Pick Quick," "Sans 
 Souci," " Help (M)eat," " Hung(a)ry," and " Farewell" 
 clubs were also recently existing. Other club names, 
 past or present, are: "The Rect-ory," "Chou Chou," 
 " Merchants Union," " Water Club," " Ours," " House 
 of Lords," as. distinguished from the "Commons" or 
 college club, and " Knights of the Knife and Fork." 
 The " * Cher Club" of 63 was perhaps the most hap 
 pily named of any. 
 
 The college club usually called the " Commons," 
 though it bears no resemblance to the obsolete institu 
 tion of that name was started in the summer term of 
 1866, under the auspices of the college authorities, for 
 the purpose of furnishing a cheap but respectable 
 board at its cost price. The old wooden structure next 
 the Art Building was fitted up for its use, one large din 
 ing room being formed of its upper, another of its lower 
 floor. The Seniors and Sophomores occupy one, the 
 Juniors and Freshmen the other, though the classes are 
 -seated at separate tables. A few members of the pro 
 fessional schools are also admitted when there happens 
 
244 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 to be vacancies. The club is under the management of 
 a steward in the senior class, appointed by the faculty, 
 who receives a certain salary, in addition to his board, 
 in return for his services. Each class or table elects a 
 certain man to act as its spokesman in reporting to the 
 steward complaints and deficiencies. The board bills 
 are payable partly in advance, that is at the middle in 
 stead of the end of each term. In case the steward has 
 trouble in making his collections, he reports the refrac 
 tory cases to a certain member of the faculty, who calls 
 the offenders to account and enforces payment. About 
 125 can be accommodated at the club, and in 69 s time 
 there were usually but few vacancies, and each class was 
 represented about in proportion to its numbers, the 
 Freshmen largely outnumbering the Seniors, and so on. 
 Last fall s published list, however, represented a total 
 attendance of 81, composed of 12 Seniors, 31 Juniors, 
 ii Sophomores, 17 Freshmen, and 10 Theologues and 
 other professional students. The price of board is 
 about $4 a week, and without being good is better than 
 can be obtained elsewhere for the same money. Club 
 board sometimes costs double that, and the usual price 
 per week is $6 or $7. Save in the arrangement by 
 classes, there is of course no discrimination in the 
 make-up of the Commons crowd, and the only induce 
 ment for joining it is the pecuniary one. The house is 
 more convenient to the college than most boardin^ 
 
 " & 
 
 houses, however, and it and its neighbor are the oniv 
 wooden structures now left upon the college square. 
 Pinner is always served atone and supper at six o clock, 
 while the breakfast hour varies with the variation in the 
 time of morning chapel, immediately preceding that 
 exercise on all days but Sunday, when it immediately 
 follows it. The bell always rings for the noon and even- 
 ing meals at the hours indicated, except on Sundav, 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 245 
 
 when each occurs a half-hour earlier. The same meal 
 times are adopted by almost all college clubs, the din 
 ner hour being the only one that is often varied. 
 
 Quite another affair was the old Commons Hall system, 
 which was abandoned nearly thirty years ago. The idea 
 seems to have been brought over from the English uni 
 versities, where it is still cherished and enforced, that 
 the partaking of food in common should form one of the 
 essential points in any scheme of liberal culture at all 
 worthy the name. At first, in the old Connecticut Hall, 
 then, from 1782 to 1819, in what is now the Laboratory, 
 and from that time till the end, in 1843, in the present 
 Cabinet building, all " the students in Yale College" 
 were obliged to take their meals together. Such as 
 desired it, however, were allowed to patronize the " West 
 Hall," where, for the dozen years succeeding 1827, board 
 was furnished at half a dollar a week less than at the 
 regular Commons. To show the kind of rations sup 
 plied, may be quoted a note of the authorities in 1742, 
 which " Ordered, that the steward shall provide the com 
 mons for the scholars as follows viz. for breakfast, one 
 loaf of bread for four, which [the dough] shall weigh 
 one pound. For dinner for four, one loaf of bread as 
 aforesaid, two and a half pounds of beef, veal or mut 
 ton, or one and three quarter pounds salt pork about 
 twice a week in the summer time, one quart of beer, two 
 pennyworth of sauce [vegetables]. For supper for four, 
 two quarts of milk and one loaf of bread when milk can 
 conveniently be had, and when it cannot then apple pie, 
 which shall be made of one and three fourths pounds of 
 dough, one quarter pound hog s fat, two ounces sugar 
 and half a peck apples." "In 1759 we find, from a 
 vote prohibiting the practice, that beer had become 
 one of the articles allowed for the evening meal. Soon 
 after this the evening meal was discontinued, and, as is 
 
246 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 now the case in the English colleges, the students had 
 supper in their own rooms, which led to extravagance 
 and disorder." 
 
 " Cellar room was rented for the storage of their ap 
 ples and other provisions, and this cellerage cost more 
 than the rent of a college room. The waiters at Com 
 mons, about 1 6 in number, were appointed by the faculty 
 from the poorer students of the junior class, and were 
 generally supposed to look out for number one. The 
 beverage for dinner was cider, which was contained in 
 large pewter pitchers at each end of the table. Up to 
 1815, tumblers were an unknown luxury. Each man 
 drank in turn from the pewter, the galvanic effect of 
 which gave a perceptible addition to the flavor of the 
 contents. The breakfasts consisted of an olla podrida, 
 hashed up from the remnants of yesterday s dinner, and 
 fried into a consistency which baffled digestion. This 
 compound was known as slum, and was served both 
 dry and wet. The morning drink was coffee. Any one 
 who could get a doctor s certificate to the blessings of a 
 chronic dyspepsia, or an incipient cholera-morbus, was 
 sent to the Invalids table, where he enjoyed better fare. 
 To these accommodations a Senior or a tutor prefixed 
 and affixed a grace, during the delivery of which two 
 forks were sometimes observed sticking into each potato 
 on the table. The tutors themselves sat at elevated 
 tables, and getting but little chance to eat, from time to 
 time rapped with their knife-handles to call to order 
 some indecorous malcontent who compared the bread 
 to bricks or started up the second perfect indicative of 
 pVarco, to denote a disinclination to ill-cooked lamb. 
 Connected with these times, was the custom of pod 
 ding, as it was called. Whenever peas were to be 
 boiled for dinner, all undergraduates were summoned to 
 assist in shelling them, and if any man was absent, the 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 247 
 
 rest collected the pods and threw them, without cere 
 mony into the delinquent s room. It is related that as 
 many as 600 tumblers and 30 coffee pots were destroyed 
 or carried off in a single term. Just before the old hall 
 was abandoned, in 1819, there was a three days rebel 
 lion of the Freshmen and Sophomores, and nine years 
 later came the great rebellion when about forty stu 
 dents were expelled from the college." " In the Revolu 
 tionary war the steward was quite unable once or twice 
 to provide food for the college, and this led to the dis 
 persion of the students in 1776, and 1777, and once 
 again in 1779 delayed the beginning of the winter term 
 several weeks." In the days when the Cabinet served 
 as the dining hall, the Sophomores entered at the north, 
 the Freshmen at the south, and the Juniors and Seniors 
 at the middle door. The waiters, like the monitors, 
 lost nothing in social standing on account of their po 
 sitions. From this description it is not very difficult to 
 imagine the kind of etiquette and order which prevailed 
 in the old Commons Hall. Under the best conditions 
 students, and other men also, are seldom contented with 
 their food, and when arbitrarily restricted in obtaining 
 it their dissatisfaction must have been extreme. Hence 
 the "bread-and-butter rebellions," the destruction of 
 unpalatable food, the smashing of dishes and furniture, 
 the wastefulness and rioting and uproar \ vague ac 
 counts of which, like traditions of another age, have 
 come down to the present generation of undergraduates. 
 Another old college institution of similar nature, 
 which flourished for a century, but has left no sign be 
 hind, was the Buttery, abolished in 1817. It was kept 
 in South Middle, south entry, lower front corner room 
 (at present No. 33). "The butler was a graduate of re 
 cent standing, and being invested with rather delicate 
 functions was required to be one in whom confidence 
 
2 48 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 might be reposed. His chief prerogative was to have 
 the monopoly of certain eatables, drinkables and other ar 
 ticles desired by students, which went under the general 
 name of sizings. The Latin laws of 1748 give him 
 leave to sell in the Buttery cider, metheglin, strong beer 
 to the amount of not more than 12 barrels annually, 
 which amount as the college grew was increased to 20, 
 together with loaf sugar ( saccharum rigidum ), pipes, 
 tobacco and such necessaries of scholars as were not 
 furnished in the commons hall. Some of these neces 
 saries were books and stationery, but certain fresh fruits 
 also figured largely in the butler s supply. No student 
 might buy cider or beer elsewhere. The butler, too, 
 had the care of the bell, kept the book of fines, distrib 
 uted the bread and beer provided by the steward into 
 equal portions, and had the lost commons, for which 
 privilege he paid a small annual sum. He was bound 
 in consideration of the profits of his monopoly to pro 
 vide candles at college prayers and for a time to pay 
 also 50 s. stg. into the college treasury. The more 
 menial part of these duties he performed by his waiter. 
 The original motives for setting up a buttery in college 
 seem to have been to put the trade in articles which ap 
 pealed to the appetite into safe hands, to ascertain how 
 far students were expensive in their habits, and prevent 
 them from running into debt ; and finally by providing 
 a place where drinkables of not very stimulating qual 
 ities were sold to remove the temptation of going abroad 
 after spirituous liquors. Accordingly laws were passed 
 limiting the sum for which the butler might give credit 
 to a student, authorizing the President to inspect his 
 books, and forbidding him to sell anything except per 
 mitted articles for ready money. But the whole system, 
 as viewed from our position as critics of the past must 
 be pronounced a bad one. It rather tempted the stu- 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 249 
 
 dent to self-indulgence by setting up a place for the sale 
 of things to eat and drink within the college walls, than 
 restrained him by bringing his habits under inspection. 
 There was nothing to prevent his going abroad in quest 
 of stronger drinks than could be bought at the buttery, 
 when once those which were there sold ceased to allay 
 his thirst. And a monopoly, such as the butler enjoyed 
 of certain articles, did not tend to lower their price, nor 
 to remove suspicion that they were sold at a higher rate 
 than free competition would assign to them. 
 
 There are certain lodging houses in the vicinity of 
 the colleges which, being occupied year after year almost 
 exclusively by Freshmen, come to have a reputation as 
 " freshman headquarters." An occupant of one of these, 
 or of any room near the college square, is more likely 
 to be troubled by sophomoric visitations, than one who 
 rooms by himself in some comparatively distant locality. 
 Most of the ill-treatment of Freshmen is inflicted upon 
 them simply as such, not as individuals who are person 
 ally obnoxious ; hence a crowd of Sophomores on the 
 look out for " fun" attempt to get it from the Freshmen 
 who chance to be the most accessible. Perhaps it is 
 eight or nine o clock, of a Freshman s first or second 
 evening at Yale, when he may be studying his next 
 morning s lesson, that a rap comes upon his door, which 
 he may or may not suspect to proceed from Sophomores, 
 and in reply to which he may or may not say, " Come 
 in !" or himself open the \vay. If he does not so do, 
 however, all doubts as to the personality of the knock 
 ers are quickly removed, by cries of " Open that door, 
 Fresh !" " Let us in, Freshie, if you don t want to die !" 
 and similar cheerful imperatives and imprecations. 
 Perhaps the Freshman then opens the door ; perhaps 
 if he doesn t, the Sophs burst it open, lock and all ; 
 perhaps they came in, or attempted to come in, at first 
 
 12* 
 
250 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 without knocking at all ; but the result of any of the 
 numerous possibilities that have been suggested is, that 
 the Freshman, before he has time to think up any ra 
 tional plan of action, finds his room full of swaggering, 
 loud-mouthed Sophomores, and himself at their mercy. 
 Perhaps if he said " Come in !" to the first rap, one of 
 the visitors advances and shakes hands with him with a 
 great show of mock deference, and presents him to the 
 others as a worthy member of the class of such-a-year. 
 They order him to mount the table, and place him there 
 if he does not of his own accord obey, perhaps supplying 
 a chair for him to sit in. After darkening the room some 
 what, they shut down the windows, call for cigars and 
 tobacco, and if the Freshman has none they themselves 
 produce the latter and proceed to load their pipes, and 
 light them, taking pains to puff as much smoke as pos 
 sible in the Freshman s face. Meanwhile he is requested 
 to "scan" that is, recite metrically a proposition in 
 Euclid, or a rule of the Greek grammar, or a passage in 
 any other prose work that may be convenient ; to make a 
 speech ; to sing a song ; to dance ; to recite the alphabet 
 backwards ; to tell his name and age ; to do every un 
 pleasant and absurd thing that the evil ingenuity of a 
 Sophomore can conjure up. Unless he makes some 
 show of obedience to these requests, his visitors " stir 
 him up" with their bangers, or if he is obstinate and re 
 fuses to do anything, or even attempts to defend himself, 
 they cover his head with a blanket and blow tobacco 
 smoke up under it until he is stifled or sick. This is a 
 complete " smoking out," and unless some such plan is 
 resorted to the Freshman, even though not a smoker, 
 can usually endure the process without much more in 
 convenience than his entertainers themselves, and is 
 seldom sickened by it. The Sophomores of course im 
 prove their time in saying would-be smart and witty 
 
THE S TUDENT L IFE. 2 5 1 
 
 things at their victim s expense, a style of wit that is 
 pointless save when indecent or obscene, and on their 
 departure may take with them any little articles of prop 
 erty that fall in their way. 
 
 The regular time for pillaging the Freshmen, however, 
 is when they are absent at recitation, especially on the 
 first and second Saturday noons of the term, when the 
 Sophomores are at leisure. They proceed to the Fresh 
 men s rooms, in parties of three or four, and carry off 
 anything they find there likely to please themselves or, 
 by its loss, to inconvenience the owner. Pipes, tobacco 
 and cigars are the first things confiscated, and are sel 
 dom returned. Combs, hair brushes, shaving brushes, 
 clothes brushes, blacking brushes, looking glasses, pens, 
 ink, and paper, pencils, knives, and paper cutters, collars, 
 shirts, and neck ties, towels, soap, hones, razors, scissors, 
 picture frames and ornaments, text-books and lexicons, 
 anything and everything, all are seized upon. In a 
 week or two, or after a longer interval, the Freshman 
 may have the most valuable of his missing article mys 
 teriously returned to him. Or even within a few days a 
 Sophomore may openly bring them back, and perhaps 
 go so far as to apologize, by saying that he thoughtlessly 
 lugged them off in a drunken frolic. This practice of 
 stealing is apt to surprise and enrage a Freshman more 
 than the " smoking out." The latter he was in a meas 
 ure prepared for by the rumors current in the newspa 
 pers, but of the other " custom" he had probably had 
 no previous intimation. By the time the college cata 
 logues are issued, during the second week of November, 
 he has probably grown wary enough to be more on his 
 guard, though he may not yet have learned that a spe 
 cific aim of the Sophomores is to seize upon these pam 
 phlets, so soon as the Freshmen shall have purchased 
 them. On the day of publication, the catalogues are 
 
252 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 distributed among the latter by their division officers, at 
 the close of the noon recitation, and charged against 
 them on their term-bills, at the rate often cents per 
 copy. They are given to the upper classes in the same 
 way, but the Fresh are of course the chief purchasers, 
 many an individual taking a dozen or more copies. If 
 the Sophs should meet such a one alone upon the street 
 they would not hesitate to wrest his catalogues from 
 him forthwith, but their usual procedure is to visit the 
 Freshmen s rooms while they are at dinner, and then 
 rob them of their pamphlets. A Freshman s tobacco, 
 catalogues, and umbrellas are looked upon as lawful 
 prey by many who scorn the indiscriminate pilfering of 
 his possessions. Cap snatching is also quite a common 
 practice. Though a Soph would not steal a cap from a 
 Freshman s room, he would think it a great exploit to 
 "gobble up" the head coverings of an entire club from 
 the hall or entry of the house where they were taking 
 supper. A solitary Fresh passing near a crowd of 
 Sophs also stands in danger of losing his hat, particu 
 larly if it be evening. To such an extent was this prac 
 tice carried by the Sophs of 71, that the Fresh of 72 
 were for a time in the habit of wearing caps made of 
 paper, when they went upon the street after dark, so that 
 if they chanced to be " scalped " their loss would be 
 trifling. 
 
 It was said that " smoking out " is generally practised 
 upon Freshmen before they become known as individ 
 uals. "Hazing," which according to the dictionary 
 would include this, and all other outrages, annoyances, 
 and impositions to which Freshmen are exposed signi 
 fies among Yale men the punishment of those who have 
 become personally obnoxious to the Sophomores. It 
 is a more deliberate and cold-blooded thing than " smok 
 ing out," in which the participants do not certainly at 
 
THE ^TUDENT LIFE. 253 
 
 the outset entertain any feelings of revenge or malice 
 toward their victim. The one thing naturally leads to 
 the other, however, and a " subject " for " smoking out " 
 who " shows fight," and perhaps gets the better of his 
 entertainers, may be marked for more elaborate and 
 formal attentions. A Fresh who is notably " loud " and 
 defiant in his bearing ; who takes pains to hurl con 
 tempt upon his " natural rulers " ; who returns an " Oh, 
 Soph ! " for every " Oh, Fresh ! " more than all, who tells 
 tales to the faculty, is thought a proper subject for 
 "bringing down." The self-appointed committee who 
 are to carry out this process manage to entrap their 
 man in a close carriage and this, by means of disguises 
 and other deceptions, is not usually a very difficult mat 
 ter where he is gagged, blindfolded, and rendered 
 powerless. They then drive off to the appointed ren 
 dezvous, some desolate locality like East or West Rock, 
 where others are perhaps awaiting them. The indigni 
 ties here inflicted depend upon the ingenuity of the tor 
 turers and the extent of their dislike for the victim. 
 The cutting off of his hair is the commonest device. 
 Perhaps they mark upon his cheek the numeral of his 
 class, employing for the purpose some chemical that will 
 remain for several days indelible, or strip him and 
 smear his naked body with paint ; or pour cold water 
 upon him ; or practice certain things which cannot be 
 named : finally leaving him, half-clothed, with a gag in 
 his mouth perhaps, and his hands bound behind him, to 
 find his way back to the city ; or possibly dropping him, 
 in this plight, within the walls of the cemetery, where 
 he would probably have to stay until the opening of the 
 gates in the morning. This is what "hazing" means 
 at Yale, and it has been thought proper to be thus ex 
 plicit in describing it. It should be understood that 
 while all the things mentioned have, on the authority of 
 
254 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 accredited rumor, really been practised, they have not 
 all, or many of them, been practised at any one time. 
 And it may be further stated that, of late years and 
 probably always, the cases of hazing have averaged 
 less than one for every class. It is a sort of freshman 
 bugbear, whose occasional appearance induces a belief 
 in its continual presence. There can of course be no 
 word of defence said in favor of the barbarity, yet it is 
 nearly as certain that the victims of it always bring it 
 upon themselves. For this reason, however great may 
 be the indignation against the hazers, there is very little 
 sympathy felt for. the hazed, even by his own classmates. 
 The justice of the " taking down " has to be recognized, 
 even though its high-handedness be deprecated. On 
 the other hand, no one is surprised when a hazed 
 Freshman afterwards turns out to be a "big man "in 
 his class, and stands high in college repute. As for 
 one s conduct toward " smokers out," this may be said : 
 once in his room there is no chance for a boy of ordi- 
 nary physique to make an effective defence against them. 
 If he be of the heroic mould, and wishes to " die game," 
 he may be enabled, by singling out an individual inter 
 loper, to "smash" him, with the certainty of being him 
 self " smashed " in return. A more logical proceeding 
 for a boy of self-respect, is to remain passive but obey 
 no orders at any price. Abuse of a lay figure is not 
 exhilarating even for Sophomores. A more natural 
 and alas ! common one is to obey just so far as may 
 seem necessary to escape personal violence. With suf 
 ficient warning on both sides, a pistol-shot through the 
 door is the surest way to scatter a crowd of Sophs 
 pressing against it, and though they vow dire vengeance 
 against him in consequence, a Freshman who thus de 
 fends himself will not be likely afterwards to suffer at 
 their hands, save for some additional reason. The 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 255 
 
 attempt to drive Sophomores out of a room by a threat 
 ening display of a pistol is, on the other hand, sheer folly. 
 Another amusement of this gentry, is, of an evening, 
 when passing a Freshman s room which fronts upon the 
 street, to shout, " Put out that light, Freshie ! " and, if 
 the obedient Freshman douses his glim, to cry, " Light 
 her up again, Fresh ! " and so to keep him at work 
 until the Sophs grow tired of the sport. If he pays no 
 attention to their clamors, or even shouts back a defi 
 ance, they will probably let him alone, though, if the 
 locality be a safe one for the practice, they may hurl a 
 stone through his window in return. " Oh Fresh ! 
 Freshie ! Freshman ! " are the cries which constantly 
 greet him upon the street, especially when he passes 
 near a crowd of Sophs, seated upon the college fence, 
 or hanging about their club headquarters after dinner, 
 in which cases delicate personal compliments are added, 
 as : " What a pretty Freshman ! " " See his new neck 
 tie ! " " How his boots shine ! " " Keep step there, 
 Freshie! Left! right! left! Left! right! left !" And so 
 on. Another diversion for a crowd of scoffing Sopho 
 mores is to attend the gymnasium, and make comments 
 on the Freshmen there performing, thereby of course 
 adding to the latter s self-complacency and ease of mind, 
 or, when tired of this, to assist them in their exer 
 cise ; forcing a Freshman by means of various " encour 
 agements," to dance upon the spring-board, or swing a 
 club, or climb a rope or ladder, and so on. The favorite 
 song of the Sophs is called " Bingo," and winds up 
 with a wild yell of, " B ! I ! N ! G ! O ! My ! POOR ! ! 
 FRESH ! ! ! " These practices which have been men 
 tioned are confined almost exclusively to the first term 
 of the year, and in great part to the first half of that 
 term. 
 
 Within a week from the opening day, notices, devised 
 
2 5 6 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 by "leading men," are circulated through the freshman 
 division rooms, announcing that "there is to be a rush 
 on Library street to-night at seven o clock and every 
 man must be there to defend the honor of the class." 
 Sometimes the Fresh assemble and find no Sophs to 
 meet them, sometimes the reverse is the case ; but sup 
 posing both parties to be in readiness at the appointed 
 time, each forms in solid mass, with its heaviest men in 
 the front rank, and rushes towards its opponent, en 
 deavouring to sweep it from the walk and street, go 
 through it, break it up and disorganize it generally. As 
 a preliminary, there are of course defiant songs, outcries 
 and a general interchange of compliments. But the 
 rush : a seething, struggling mass of men, shoving, 
 crushing, trampling one another, snatching caps and 
 tearing clothes, fighting for dear life to work their way 
 through with some show of unbroken ranks. The force 
 of the first attack having spent itself, the parties draw 
 off and reorganize for another onset, and the process is 
 again -gone through with. The result is apt to be a 
 drawn battle in which each side claims the victory. 
 The Freshmen generally have the advantage in numbers, 
 the Sophomores in experience and discipline ; there are 
 Juniors to marshal the former, and perhaps Seniors 
 may help the latter, though sometimes Juniors and 
 Seniors may both join the Freshmen if they are un 
 equally matched with their opponents. The interference 
 of the college authorities quickly breaks up a Library street 
 rush, and with a few cries of " Faculty ! faculty ! " the 
 combatants scatter before many can be identified, since 
 those who are caught are heavily " marked " or even 
 " suspended." There is in fact so much danger of this, 
 that it is getting common to appoint as a place for the 
 " trial of strength " Hamilton Park, the ball ground out 
 side the city, where, at the close of some match-game of 
 
THE S TUDENT LIFE. 257 
 
 ball, which serves as an excuse for assembling, the par 
 ties can draw up their ranks and " rush " one another 
 without fear of interruption. After one or two " square 
 rushes/ at the Park or elsewhere, every one s " honor " 
 is for the time satisfied, and no more formal trials of the 
 kind are attempted for the term. A party of Sophs, 
 inarching up from a regatta, or from a visit to the post- 
 office, or in any way chancing to be together, will usually 
 make any Freshman they may meet " clear the track," 
 or be brushed off the sidewalk; and if the latter are in 
 sufficient force to resist, there may be some scuffling and 
 confusion. But these ex-tempore rencounters are not 
 called rushes. 
 
 Freshmen are not " allowed" by the Sophomores to 
 carry bangers, nor yet to wear the style of hat variously 
 known as beaver, stove-pipe, and plug, until the last 
 Sunday of the second term. About the middle of that 
 term, however, they open hostilities upon a certain day, 
 usually a Wednesday or Saturday afternoon, by a grand 
 display of bangers ; a large crowd of Fresh marching 
 about the principal streets of the town, ringing these 
 clubs upon the pavement by way of defiance, and per 
 haps displaying a beaver hat or two besides. This chal 
 lenge is accepted by the Sophomores, and in the evening 
 a " banger rush" takes place. Most of the bangers 
 which were swung so valiantly in the afternoon have 
 been laid aside, and only one or two are brought out in 
 the evening by the Freshmen who are to act as cham 
 pions. The others flock about those to form a body 
 guard against the expected attacks of the Sophomores, 
 since the rush is begun by the latter for the purpose of 
 wresting away the bangers and thereby vindicating their 
 authority. Perhaps it takes place at the post-office, di 
 rectly after supper, or on Chapel street, or in some 
 obscure locality, at a later hour of the evening. If on 
 
258 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Saturday night, it happens at a very late hour. The 
 freshman societies, adjourning at about the same time, 
 join one another in front of Delta Kap hall, near the 
 corner of Church street, and march up Chapel in close 
 array, perhaps singing some defiant song. The Soph 
 omores may await them at some crossing and there 
 pounce upon them, or inarch along up Chapel street, on 
 the opposite side of the way. Finally, an onset is made : 
 Freshmen and Sophomores struggle and twist together, 
 roll each other in the mud and slush, lose and regain 
 the all-important banger, and are at last dispersed by 
 the policemen or faculty or both. If an arrest is made, 
 both classes raise the cry of " Yale ! Yale !" and try to 
 rescue the unfortunate from the clutches of the peelers, 
 in which they often succeed. Force failing, they may 
 attempt to bargain for his release by the promise to 
 quietly disperse. There is always money enough in a 
 crowd to " bail out" any who may be arrested, so that a 
 student seldom passes a night in the lock-up, and the 
 subsequent fines do not much trouble him, for if a poor 
 man his comrades make up the amount. The worst 
 feature of his arrest is the bringing his name to the 
 ears of the faculty, whose mandates are more to be 
 dreaded than those of the courts. It is a habit of the 
 New Haven policemen, at the time of a rush, to arrest 
 some upper-class man who may be quietly watching the 
 sport ; this being an easier procedure than the seizure 
 of one of the actual combatants, and serving quite as 
 well, in the eyes of the general public, for a proof of 
 official vigilance. Banger rushes, after the first, are of 
 a rather intermittent character, happening, off and on, 
 for the rest of the term. When a solitary Fresh, care 
 lessly swinging his banger, is pounced upon by several 
 Sophs, and cannot escape by flight, he clings to the 
 sacred cane, and shouts with all his might the numeral 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 259 
 
 of his class. This generally brings both friends and 
 enemies, and he becomes the central figure of a rush, in 
 very short order. " Beaver rushes" are of the same 
 general character, except that the Sophs, even though 
 they fail to get possession of the hat, are quite certain 
 to smash it, which is almost as gratifying. For this rea 
 son the wearing of beavers in advance of the traditional 
 time is too expensive a sport to be indulged in by more 
 than a few individuals. Sometimes a banger or beaver 
 rush takes place on the ice of Lake Saltonstall, four 
 miles from the city, when crowds have assembled there 
 for the nominal purpose of skating. Rushes here, as at 
 Hamilton Park, are free from the reproach of disturbing 
 anyone but the participants ; but for the past two years 
 these banger rushes of the second term have been aban 
 doned altogether. A Freshman never defies a Sopho 
 more on Sunday, by displaying either banger or beaver, 
 nor does the latter make depredations on that day, 
 though at any other time he will confiscate a Freshman s 
 club or hat wherever he finds them. 
 
 The rush seems to be a sort of substitute for the old 
 foot-ball game, abolished by the faculty in 1857, 
 though perhaps it also flourished at the same time with 
 it. About a month after the opening of the term, a 
 notice was posted at the Lyceum door, challenging the 
 Sophomores to meet the Freshmen in the annual game 
 of foot-ball, and signed by three of the latter, in behalf 
 of the entire class. A notice, accepting the challenge, 
 appointing the green as the place, and half-past two of 
 a particular Wednesday or Saturday afternoon as the 
 time for the trial, was in turn nailed up at the Athe 
 naeum door, attested by the signatures of three sophomore 
 committee men, and usually headed by some poetical 
 quotation welcoming the Fresh to destruction. The 
 Freshmen supplied the ball ; umpires were chosen from 
 
2 o 2 ,* OUR YEARS AT 
 
 among graduates or upper-class men ; spectators from 
 the upper classes and the town covered the State House 
 steps and other convenient places for looking on ; and 
 the game began. Better than any possible account from 
 one who has never seen it, is this description of the 
 sport, written, after graduation, by a man who regretted 
 its abolishment, a member of the class of 58, who was 
 killed at the head of his regiment : 
 
 " Off with your coat, man, if you don t want it torn. 
 Don t you hear the < warning ? That is Jones, the best 
 player in the sophomore class. He steps back, runs 
 forward, and up goes the ball, way over the heads of our 
 side. Lucky you were back there by the steps to catch 
 it. Good! well done! Stop! don t kick it; this is 
 Rushing game ; give Brown your hat and let him run 
 one way hiding it in his bosom ; and while he makes 
 that diversion you run the other. Now then ! Run ! 
 Never mind those fellows who run out to head you off \ 
 dodge them if you can, and if you are caught, hang on 
 to the ball like grim death. " /// / Fifty-four! Fifty- 
 five! Stop him! Quick ! this way ! Hold him ! Push! 
 Get the ball!" But you can no longer distinguish sep 
 arate sounds. You are now the center of a dense mass 
 of men, shouting, shoving, dragging, struggling, swaying 
 to and fro toward either side of the field. You know 
 that you have one man by the throat who is trying to 
 seize the ball, and in the exultation of conscious power 
 you don t see that he has you by the hair. There is an 
 unsatisfactory sensation in your legs which you after 
 wards conclude must have been produced by the stamp 
 ing and kicking of a hundred boot-heels ; but you don t 
 mind that, for one of your battered limbs is twined 
 round your adversary s, so that the next move of the 
 crowd must bring him down. Ah ! there it goes, but 
 the sway is in the wrong direction, and brings you down 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 2 6 1 
 
 under him; and what is worse, under that forest of 
 boots ! But the ball ! your sacred trust ! He lets it go 
 we are close to the fence and whistle away it flies just 
 as some big heel comes crushing against your head. . . . 
 
 " Do you feel better now ? 
 
 " Oh yes ! stunned a little, that s all. But the ball, 
 is it over? 
 
 " Over ! 1 should think so. But you must go home 
 now, you are hurt. 
 
 " Hurt ! I am not hurt. I hope you don t think I 
 mind a little blood. Pshaw ! come and join the next 
 game ! " 
 
 The class of 61 was the last to post a challenge. It 
 was accepted by 60, and everything was appointed in 
 due order, when the faculty voted that the game should 
 not take place, and it has never been heard of since. 
 From the fact that it had been dispensed with by some 
 classes before that, the custom seems to have been some 
 what on the wane, or it might not have died so quietly. 
 The Sophomores, being experts, were of course almost 
 inevitably the victors. Sometimes, however, both parties 
 claimed the victory, as in 1853, when a fierce dispute 
 arose between the Fresh of 57 and the Sophs of 56, 
 and a four-page sheet called the Arbiter was issued, " in 
 the interest of impartial justice," to defend the claims of 
 the Freshmen. " Songs of the Ball," too, were every 
 year written, printed, and sung by the victors, and doubt 
 less by the vanquished also ; and the leader of the vic 
 torious class was usually rewarded with a boquet or sim- 
 ilar token of approval, sent by the lady witnesses of the 
 spectacle, the reception whereof he publicly acknowl 
 edged. Foot-ball had been a popular college pastime 
 for full half a century at the time of the abolishment of 
 the trial of strength between the two lower classes 
 which annually happened in its name. Two years later, 
 
262 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 a municipal law forbade the students to use the green as 
 a play ground, and so the sport itself, as well as the 
 annual struggle which was its outgrowth, became obso 
 lete. In the fall of 1870 the custom of kicking ball 
 was revived somewhat, the freedom of the college yard 
 being granted for the purpose, and there were two or 
 three match games played at Hamilton Park between 
 the Juniors and Sophomores. 
 
 A disgraceful practice which originated in the class 
 of 70, and which bids fair to become a settled "cus 
 tom," if indeed it has not become one already is the 
 painting upon the fences and walks in the vicinity of 
 the colleges, and even upon the buildings themselves, 
 the numeral of the freshman class, in gigantic characters, 
 with perhaps an " Oh, Soph ! " added. This unspeak 
 ably childish procedure is presumably intended as a de 
 fiance to the class above. The Freshmen who are thus 
 guilty of sneaking out at midnight with brush and paint- 
 pot to perpetrate this imbecile barbarism are not known 
 to their classmates, who condemn the practice as 
 heartily as do all the rest of college. This is one of the 
 occasions where a few individual fools are able to act in 
 the name of and disgrace an entire class and college. 
 The men in 70 who begun the business are most of all 
 to blame, for the traces of their bad work remained 
 next year, to suggest the idea to their freshman succes 
 sors. The worst of these accordingly felt called upon 
 to mark " 71" in still larger characters, and in still 
 more prominent places, than " 70 " had been marked. 
 The next year Freshmen thought it a brave deed to im 
 prove on their predecessors. And so it has gone on. 
 The worst thing about it being that the deed is done 
 before a freshman class is well enough organized to 
 make its opinion condemning it felt by each individual ; 
 and when done the infamy is practically indelible. A 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 263 
 
 few of the 69 Sophs whose doors and windows were 
 daubed in this way, seized upon the first Freshmen who 
 came to hand, and forced them in broad daylight to 
 scrub off the work of their classmates. The Freshman 
 who climbed up the Lyceum lightning rod and painted 
 " 64 " upon the white face of the college clock, did a 
 thing whose difficulty somewhat atoned for its foolish 
 ness ; but in this cowardly disfigurement of the college 
 buildings there is absolutely no redeeming feature. A 
 somewhat analagous, though far less disreputable, prac 
 tice, occasionally in vogue among the Freshmen, is the 
 issuing of printed handbills in ridicule of their superiors. 
 Though the sarcasm is often weak, there is at least an 
 attempt to say something, and the bills even if pasted 
 up can be torn down again. " Give me that banger, 
 Freshie, or I ll tell the faculty," were the words upon a 
 69 poster, which was issued to acquaint college with the 
 fact that a Sophomore, by the use of this threat, had 
 forced a Fresh to surrender a banger which he had 
 stolen from the former s room. Similarly, " 69 below 
 par ; Sophs selling at a discount at the Hamilton Park 
 stock exchange," was the bill issued by the 70 Fresh 
 men, when no Sophomores went to the Park to rush 
 them at the time expected. To pull off one of the 
 pointers of the clock upon the Lyceum tower is often an 
 object of freshman or even sophomore ambition. The 
 70 Freshmen once, in the night time, placed a white 
 flag bearing the numeral of their class upon the highest 
 pinnacle of the Library. 
 
 Another disreputable practice of the Freshmen, which 
 fortunately was put an end to before the painting 
 nuisance commenced, was known as "gate -lifting." On 
 the night before Thanksgiving day, crowds of Fresh 
 men were wont to range about the city, unshipping the 
 gates of the citizens, carrying them off for some clis- 
 
264 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 tance, or making a pile of them in the college yard. 
 Thither the next morning would assemble the irate 
 owners, in search for their property, at whom the Fresh 
 would shout, " Lift up your gates ! " as they carried them 
 away. It happened that the gate stealing Freshmen of 
 69 came to grief in this wise : A pair of them were 
 arrested by the police, shut up over night with the com 
 mon criminals, heavily fined by the judge next day, and 
 suspended by the faculty for the space of a term. Since 
 then, few traces of the " custom " have been made mani 
 fest. On the night in question, two innocent Freshmen 
 who chanced to be upon the street were seized upon by 
 the peelers and locked up with the others, in spite of 
 their protestations. They of course escaped conviction, 
 though held by the newspapers to be equally guilty with 
 the others, and to owe their release to good luck, in 
 stead of to the real fact, that they had no possible con 
 nection with the matter. 
 
 The street lamps are among the things which suffer 
 at the hands of students. Several 69 Freshmen had a 
 habit of "collecting" from inside the lamps the little 
 strips of glass on which the names of the streets were 
 painted. The " value " of one of these signs was pro 
 portionate to the difficulty of obtaining it, the central 
 streets being of course the most dangerous localities in 
 which to " work," and the signs nearest the police head 
 quarters the ones most eagerly desired. Lamps are 
 oftener smashed by Sophomores or other upper-class 
 men than by Freshmen. Those in the vicinity of the 
 colleges, especially, are apt to be broken pretty con 
 stantly by snow balls in the winter time, and do not fare 
 much better at other seasons. Blowing them to pieces 
 with fire-crackers is a common diversion as Fourth of 
 July approaches. One particular lamp, on High street, 
 back of the Library, is notably unfortunate. The glass 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 265 
 
 is seldom allowed to remain in it whole for twenty-four 
 successive hours. Frequenters of the gymnasium prac 
 tice upon it as a target Not content with smashing the 
 glass, its enemies have at times lugged off the lamp 
 frame bodily, and suspended it in the college yard, at 
 the same time breaking off the burner, and setting fire 
 to the direct stream of gas. Several years ago, the post 
 itself was blown up with gunpowder, and the gas from 
 the main pipe ignited, thereby raising an alarm of fire. 
 It was a year or two before the post was replaced, but 
 as the same old practice3 have been renewed, the 
 powers-that-be would probably consult their own interest 
 if they again discontinued it, and left that unrighteous 
 locality again in the dark. The present plan of having 
 the lamp guarded constantly by a policeman only aggra 
 vates its misfortunes. 
 
 Freshmen, though they do not institute, at least take 
 part in and pay for the " Thanksgiving Jubilee," which 
 celebration may therefore appropriately find a place in 
 this chapter. It is managed by a committee of sixteen, 
 four from each class, half of whom are appointed by 
 Linonia and half by Brothers, and is held first in the 
 hall of one society and then in that of the other in alter 
 nate years. The freshman committee-men solicit sub 
 scriptions a dollar or less being the amount ordinarily 
 expected to defray the expenses of the exhibition, and 
 when these are paid in to the upper-class committee- 
 men the Freshmen receive in return admission tickets 
 to the show. Armed with these they assemble in front 
 of Alumni Hall on the night appointed, some time before 
 half-past seven, when it is announced that the doors 
 will be open, each one eager to have a first chance at 
 the seats. Perhaps while clamoring for admission they 
 notice that no upper-class men are to be seen about the 
 entrance, and wonder that the " managers " within are 
 
 3 
 
266 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 able to produce such an uproar. Half-past seven. The 
 doors fly open ; there are no ticket-takers ; up rush the 
 Freshmen to the hall. Dismay fills them as they enter 
 it, for it is crowded already ! Across one end is 
 stretched a stage, with drop-curtain and footlights. 
 Close to this, on comfortuble settees, are ranged the 
 Seniors with their invited guests from among the recent 
 alumni ; behind them are the Juniors ; then the Sopho 
 mores, upon wooden benches, or standing ; and close 
 to the furthest wall the few empty benches left for the 
 Freshmen ! These are filled in an instant, and still the 
 crowd surges up from below. The rear men, not un 
 derstanding the state of the case, press resistlessly up 
 ward, and the jam becomes terrific. Freshmen cling to 
 the window-sills, hang from the door-casings, stick in 
 some way to every inch of projecting surface that can be 
 made to furnish a foothold, and sway to and fro under 
 the impetus of new arrivals. Nor is the rabble made 
 up altogether [of Freshmen. Sophomores or other 
 upper-class men, ignorant of the approved way of gain 
 ing access to the hall, or coming too late to profit by it, 
 members of the professional schools and other outsiders, 
 struggle and pant with the rest, or desperately attempt 
 to work their way through the solid mass of humanity, 
 and join their friends at the front. A private stair 
 case in the rear of the hall is the portal through which 
 the Seniors, and the initiated generally, are always ad 
 mitted, to the surprise and confusion of the rabble. 
 Awaiting the rise of the curtain, the seated portion of 
 the audience smoke, sing, yell at the Fresh to make less 
 noise, suddenly rise up to see what the matter is in the 
 rear, and sit down without finding out, discuss the pro- 
 gramme, which is distributed by being flung in hand- 
 fuls about the hall, thereby adding to the confusion of 
 the rabble, who fight desperately to secure the copies as 
 they fall, and othenvise divert themselves. 
 
THE S TUDENT LIFE. 267 
 
 At last the rising curtain reveals several Seniors upon 
 the stage, and one of the committee announces that the 
 first thing in order is the election of officers from 
 among the Freshmen, their shortest man to be the 
 president, and their longest the secretary, of the meet 
 ing, and calls upon the audience to present the candi 
 dates. The crowd at once springs to its feet, with a wild 
 shriek of" Pass him up ! " and two or three short Fresh 
 men are rolled over the heads of the audience, on to the 
 stage, where they are stretched out upon their backs, 
 and a gigantic measuring stick, fifteen or twenty feet 
 long, applied to them. "The shortest" is then an 
 nounced by name as president, and his " hight " is men 
 tioned in some absurd way as being so many " barley 
 corns," or " degrees," or cubit inches " ; then the long 
 men are passed up and measured in the same manner, 
 and the one chosen is said to be so many " millimetres " 
 or "square miles" long; after which both "officers" 
 are put off the stage and left to shift for themselves in 
 finding seats or standing places again. As a matter 
 of fact, the shortest Freshman and the longest one, hearing 
 of this practice beforehand, often stay away from the 
 meetings, at least till after the officers are chosen ; so 
 that the men really measured upon the stage are often 
 about of the average size. The main thing, however, is 
 to "keep up the custom," and so long as this is done 
 in theory, the practice makes little difference. The 
 Freshmen who are " passed along " with such an ap 
 pearance of roughness, are not injured in the process, 
 save perhaps as to their wearing apparel, which may 
 thereby become soiled and torn, and accept their fate 
 in its true light, simply as a joke, in which nothing 
 serious or degrading is intended by any one. 
 
 After the " overture by the orchestra," a half dozen 
 professionals hired for the purpose, or an amateur band 
 
268 VQUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 of college musicians, the first thing on the programme 
 is the "opening load," which is often "necessarily 
 omitted" for some assigned reason, such as, " on account 
 of the lateness of the hour the load could not be 
 opened," or "because the faculty ordered it unloaded." 
 Then come two or three plays, between which are sand 
 wiched a comic oration and a comic poem, both relating 
 to college life, and perhaps a display of negro minstrelsy 
 ends up the show. The names of the committee-men 
 . figure upon the first page of the programme, which, for 
 the rest, is expressed in the form of a burlesque, as 
 absurd and ludicrous as the ingenuity and wit of the 
 committee can devise. Thus we have the " sanguino- 
 lently and demoniacally loquacious pantomimic repre 
 sentation" ; " the spamodically pharmaceutical tragedy" ; 
 the "mysterious, Milesian, medieval, moral-play"; the 
 "savory, side-splitting farce" ; and so on. The min 
 strels, likewise, are " tenebriously umbrageous Stygio- 
 Ethiopian," or " dulcifluously incanting ingrescent," 
 ones, or "American citizens of (corked) African 
 descent." The "oration," or "sermon," or "address," 
 is about " the ignitions combustibility of all corroso-in- 
 flammable matter," or "analytical mathematics as a 
 means of religious instruction." The poem is an 
 " epic-ac ode," or a " dorggerel," or a "jocular, jingling 
 jumble, joining jovial jests in juxtaposition with jubilant 
 jokes," or is made up of " classical (l)odes." The 
 music is by the " first nine Yale muses," or the ".Med 
 dlesome society," or the " clulce strainers," or the " Yale 
 tooters." The "finale" is omitted because a certain 
 " old clo " man " has stolen the close of the perform 
 ance," or is " to be had at Moriarty s [a well known ale 
 seller s] after the show is concluded." " Gentlemen are 
 requested to wipe their boots before entering the hall, 
 and are particularly requested not to spit on the backs 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 269 
 
 of those who sit in front of them." " Freshmen accom 
 panied by their mothers or nurses, $i. Theologues, 
 Law students and other children admitted gratis." 
 " Students taking seats are expected to occupy them for 
 the remainder of the year, unless released by the proper 
 authority/ " No two students of different classes can 
 occupy the same seat, unless they take a seat of the 
 lower grade ; but if a student has a brother, the two 
 can sit on the floor together, provided they don t let 
 their legs hang down." " As the faculty request that all 
 the students (Theologues included) shall be present at 
 the exercises, church papers, certifying their presence 
 will be required. The papers may be handed to the col 
 lege carpenter." " Members of the incoming class will 
 find seats as soon as possible." " No one allowed to be 
 high except the secretary." " Photographs of the lead 
 ing artists can be obtained at 303 Chapel street. Price 
 $2.50 per dozen." The "point" of many of these titles 
 and " notices" of course lies in their fatuousness, and 
 utter want of connection with the things to which they 
 are joined. The show takes place the Tuesday before 
 Thanksgiving, and is three hours or more in length. 
 
 Thus, the Jubilee as it existed during 69*3 "four years 
 at Yale." Now, as to its earlier and later history. 
 Originally it was called "Thanksgiving Eve" and 
 always took place upon that Wednesday night. In the 
 old times, when Linonia and Brothers were something 
 more than " institutions," the attendance upon their 
 meetings of that evening was smaller than usual, owing 
 to the absence of those who had gone home to celebrate 
 Thanksgiving. Hence the custom arose of giving a 
 burlesque character to the proceedings. The shortest 
 Freshman was put in the president s chair, and the 
 longest one at the secretary s table, and the meeting pro 
 ceeded under their auspices, instead of those of the reg- 
 
27 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 ular upper-class officials. In place of a formal debate, 
 was held a " raffle" : a number of " questions," mostly 
 of a bombastic or nonsensical character, were thrown 
 together in one hat ; the names of those in attendance 
 in another ; and each man was obliged to speak upon 
 the question drawn out with his name. The speakers 
 were expected to be " funny," and were usually only 
 foolish, each man consenting to make a silly display of 
 himself for the sake of witnessing a similar discom 
 fiture of the others. Of course, once in a while a really 
 good thing would be said or a really ludicrous event take 
 place, but the meetings as a whole, were described as 
 being dreary enough, spite of the cheers and applause 
 of those who had made up their minds to appear amused, 
 under any circumstances. 
 
 It was in 1855 that the attempt was first made to vary 
 this traditional celebration. A committee from that 
 society was appointed to make preparations in Linonia, 
 and Brothers was invited to attend the show. " When 
 the eventful night came, we had Linonia hall filled. Our 
 stage was the vacant space west of the president s desk, 
 our green room was Calliope hall, our wardrobe, some 
 old hats, shawls, and coats gathered in college, and a 
 skirt, cap, veil, etc., from some garret in town. The 
 performance consisted of such personations as Widow 
 Bedott s Kiah, we re all poor creeters. The man with 
 forty ailments, who was pooty well, thank ee, heow 
 deu yeou deu. & The trial of the case Bullum vs. 
 Boatem. The Suppression of the Press. The Yan 
 kee that was courtin Betsy Jane, but was as well as 
 usual. We had, too, the Yankee Orator, one to speak, 
 one to gesture ; and if anyone had a good song or act, 
 was known to have hit off any good point in play or char 
 ade, he was called for with cries of immense encourage 
 ment and prevailing force, after the manner of college 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 2 7 1 
 
 audiences, and then he was applauded, as you would 
 expect by a company bound to make the best and 
 most of everything. The performances had almost en 
 tirely an extemporaneous cast, some parts were entirely 
 off-hand, and for that very reason all charity was ex 
 tended to the actors, and the three hours were closed 
 with the feeling that we had succeeded and redeemed 
 the evening." 
 
 The next year a joint committee was appointed from 
 each society, and the show was held in Brothers hall ; 
 and so it has since gone on, first in one hall, then in the 
 other. A shortest and a longest Freshman from each 
 society were chosen presidents and secretaries and seated 
 in the president s desk. Then there were two presi 
 dents and one secretary. Finally, as now, a single one 
 of each, without distinction of societies, although seats 
 were always provided for them. Negro minstrels ex 
 hibited for the first time at this Eve of 56, and among 
 other things was a " living bass-viol " impersonated by 
 the largest man in the senior class. " Somebody s 
 clothes-line, run three or four times from his neck to his 
 feet, made the strings ; a cigar box made the bridge ; 
 his own ears, the keys. The performer walked in his 
 instrument, tuned it up, and beginning to play, the 
 huge yet flexible voice of the machine produced the 
 sounds which were supposed to be the tones of the viol. 
 This was a success, especially when, in the midst of a 
 brilliant passage, the instrument collapsed and was carried 
 out. Another thing was the Hutchinson family intensi 
 fied. Another was the celebrated lecture on the won 
 derful Gyascutus from the Rocky Mountains, which 
 wound up with a leap which overwhelmed in utter con 
 fusion all the audience nearest the stage." In 57 the 
 stage for the first time reached across the end of the 
 hall. The " scenery " was made of strips of blue cam- 
 
272 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 brie, and the different localities were represented by 
 placards hung upon the same, as " Forest Scene," " In 
 side the Castle," and so on. " One of the most striking 
 performances of the evening was a solo by prima donna 
 * Bob Stiles. His magnificent bust and arms, the pride 
 of the gymnasium, were powdered and cosmeticated, 
 and set off by a low-necked, short-sleeved concert dress. 
 This dress black cambric, shining like satin, over 
 hoops eighteen feet in circumference was engineered 
 through the door, when Bob, the biggest man in the 
 class, was led in by Watkins, the littlest man. His solo 
 began with a delicately-trilled falsetto, set off with the 
 most languishing attitudes, and wound up suddenly 
 with a stentorian double bass, which woke the most en 
 thusiastic responsive cheer. The performance of that 
 night held the audience in well-nigh continuous laughter 
 for four hours." In 1860, mention is first made of a 
 printed programme, of the " opening load," of the " cen 
 sor s report," and of the name Thanksgiving Jubilee, 
 which has since been applied to the show. The "cen 
 sor " was a Senior, appointed by the committee, whose 
 duty it was to get off personal "hits " at the expense of 
 his auditors, somewhat after the manner of the class 
 historians on Presentation Day, and decree the infliction 
 of absurd " fines " for real or pretended offences. He 
 was wont to " touch up " a good many Seniors, quite a 
 number of Juniors, some Sophomores, and the few 
 Freshmen who had chanced in the space of a term to 
 make a college reputation of some sort. His " report " 
 was read from an immense roll, a good many feet in 
 length, " and in time came to be considered Hie feature 
 of the entertainment." 
 
 Thus the silly inanities of " Thanksgiving Eve," in 
 vented for the amusement of the unfortunates who lin 
 gered about the college, grew, in the ten years interval, 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. $1$ 
 
 to be the "Jubilee" known to 69 men, held in season 
 to be enjoyed by those who spent Thanksgiving abroad 
 equally with the ones who stayed behind. Thus, little 
 by little, it lost its impromptu character, and became 
 more formal. The tendency to introduce smut and vul 
 garity also grew apace, until it culminated in 1865 in 
 the production of an indecent farce, the " parts " of 
 which were all sustained by Sophomores, and a cen 
 sor s report that was little better. The faculty, hearing 
 of the matter, suspended the offenders, and next year 
 decreed that no female characters should be represented 
 upon the stage at the Jubilee. They offered the com 
 mittee, under certain restrictions, the use of Alumni 
 Hall, but the offer was not accepted, and for the first 
 time since the custom was inaugurated the Jubilee was 
 abandoned. The money obtained from the Freshmen 
 for defraying the expenses went to pay for a supper for 
 the upper-class committee-men. Next year, the pro 
 hibition of woman s apparel being still insisted on, the 
 " female " characters evaded the rule by the employment 
 of a sort of Turkish costume that served equally well 
 to distinguish them. Since then the restrictions have 
 been disregarded altogether ; but the censor s report 
 has never been revived. 
 
 At the Thanksgiving of 1869 a new policy was 
 adopted in regard to the celebration. An elaborate 
 stage was erected in the south end of Alumni Hall, and 
 fitted up with scenery and " properties " from the city 
 theater. Raised seats and settees were at the opposite 
 end, and the usual benches filled the intermediate 
 space. On these sat the classes in order,, Seniors 
 nearest the stage, Freshmen in the rear, while the re 
 served seats behind were occupied by ladies and their 
 attendants, the admission of the former being the 
 novel feature of the show. A regular admission fee of 
 
 13* 
 
2-74 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 a quarter dollar was charged each person, and double 
 that amount was required for a reserved seat. The 
 specially-engraved tickets bore a representation of a 
 turkey. Formal steel-plate invitations to the entertain 
 ment were also issued. The hall, of more than twice 
 the capacity of the society-halls, was crowded, without 
 being jammed as in days agone, all but the latest 
 comers securing seats of some sort. Save for the 
 absence of tobacco smoke and freshman wranglings, 
 the character of the show was like that of its predeces 
 sors. The opening load, entitled " the perfect stick," 
 represented a gigantic glue bottle. The cost of the en 
 tertainment was $300, and the receipts fell $50 short 
 of that sum. The expenses of any previous Jubilee had 
 never exceeded a third the first named amount. 
 
 Last year the Jubilee was for a second time omitted, 
 the appointed committee being unwilling to engage 
 in the work on the conditions offered by the faculty : 
 that the exhibition should be held in one of the society 
 halls, that there should be no " female" characters in the 
 plays, and that the committee should be held individ 
 ually responsible for any violations of order or decorum. 
 The fate of the institution in the future seems uncer 
 tain, but if revived at all it will probably be in its older 
 rather than latest form ; for, though that experiment 
 was in its way an admitted success, there is a general 
 sentiment against opening the exhibition to outsiders, 
 especially to ladies, as a process tending to make the 
 show more formal and expensive, and to deprive it of 
 its characteristic and peculiar flavor, as a jolly gather 
 ing where the undergraduate sense of fun is allowed 
 free vent, in the presence of those alone who compre 
 hend and appreciate it. If the general public be ad 
 mitted, stiffness and formality will come with them ; 
 their tastes will have to be catered to ; their presence 
 
THE .9 TUDENT LIFE. 275 
 
 will put the college men on their good behavior ; and 
 the old heartiness and abandon, the careless mingling 
 of all the classes in an evening s joviality, which made 
 the Jubilee unique among college celebrations, will soon 
 disappear altogether. So say the opponents of reform, 
 and their case seems a strong one. Alumni Hall may 
 wisely be retained as the place of meeting hereafter, 
 and all undergraduates taxed equally in support of the 
 exhibition. But it is a gratuitous assumption to suppose 
 that the students, left to themselves, will act disgrace 
 fully, or that a repetition of the indecencies of 1865 can 
 only be prevented by the presence of ladies at the 
 Jubilee. 
 
 With Presentation Day the Seniors close their active 
 connection with the college, and at chapel prayers the 
 following morning the Juniors occupy their vacated 
 seats ; the Sophomores take those of the Juniors, and 
 the Freshmen those of the Sophomores, where in old 
 times the latter were wont to leave upright pins, chalk 
 dust, bits of pitch, and things of that sort, for the ben 
 efit and improvement of their successors. About the 
 year 1850, the custom arose among the Freshmen of cel 
 ebrating their accession to sophomoric dignity by a per 
 formance called a " Pow-wow," upon the night of Pres 
 entation Day. It was held upon the State House steps, 
 and consisted of burlesque speeches, songs and poems, 
 in glorification of the performers and ridicule of the 
 class above them, and the unpopular tutors from whose 
 reign they were soon to be set free. The Sophomores 
 attended and endeavored by mock applause, cheers 
 and outcries to drown the voices of the speakers ; and 
 the Freshmen in turn, by a deafening blast of tin horns, 
 would overwhelm these sophomoric interruptions. Be 
 tween the two, little could be heard of the speakers 
 remarks, which, like the printed programmes, were 
 
276 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 intended to be sharp and witty, but were oftener vulgar 
 and indecent. Among the " subjects" and "speakers" 
 at one of the best of the Pow-wows were : " Salute-a-tory, 
 by a Big W(h)ig," " Poem, Pipes, by a Broken Reed, 
 " Stump Speech, by a Wood-be DeForest," and " Expect 
 Oration, by one who chews-es." This description of the 
 Pow-wow in 1857 will apply well enough to them all: 
 " About nine o clock, blasts from sundry tin horns in 
 the freshman quarters reminded the weary and sleeping 
 that Presentation Day wasn t dead yet. As it grew 
 later and darker, Freshmen, covered as to their faces 
 with burnt-cork, Freshmen with striped pants, Freshmen 
 with hooped skirts, Freshmen with hoofs and tails, mild 
 Freshmen with coats turned inside out, fierce Freshmen 
 with big beards and bob-tailed trainer-coats, Freshmen 
 with bears heads, and Freshmen with bare heads in 
 fine, Freshmen with all sorts of conceivable and practi 
 cable disguises, each one armed with a banger as big as 
 he could lift, and a tin horn as big as he could blow, 
 issued from their rooms, and marching sternly across the 
 college-yard, assembled at the State House steps, for 
 the purpose of celebrating their entrance into sopho 
 more year. After orating, in spite of the noisy Sopho 
 mores, who kept up a continual shouting of Hear ! 
 c Hear ! Good ! Time for you, Fresh, to be in bed ! 
 and sundry other equally entertaining and witty remarks, 
 they sang a Greek song that looked quite natural, and 
 then formed the procession. The boarding schools 
 were serenaded as usual, only one, however, acknowledg 
 ing the compliment. At half past two in the morning 
 squads of muddy Freshmen crossed the college-green, 
 and disappeared among the brick buildings, there to 
 dream for an hour or two of hobgoblins, Greek songs, 
 mud-puddles, serenades, fair faces, morning flunk, and 
 dunning Pow-wow committees." 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 277 
 
 Like other things of the sort, the ceremony became 
 year by year more elaborate. A band of music was en 
 gaged, the place of meeting was lit up by blue lights and 
 fireworks, transparencies were carried in the procession, 
 and more grotesque and costly disguises made use of. 
 But the excesses of Pow-wow brought it under the ban 
 of the faculty, and that of the class of 66, the last one 
 ever projected, had to be given up. Next year the 
 threat to expel two thirds of the class prevented even 
 the attempt at its revival, and it has never since been 
 heard of at the college. In 1864, however, the Fresh 
 men " celebrated," at a certain hour of Presentation 
 Day, by " marching up and down Chapel street as a 
 body-guard to Hannibal, the college candy-man, who, 
 attired in a scholar s habit, a huge book under his arm, 
 a pair of eye-glasses over his nose, one of the new red 
 biennial caps of the Sophomores upon his head, and a 
 sporting cane in his hand, was personating the high feel 
 ings of the newly fledged Juniors as well as any negro 
 could." 
 
 As the " Biennial" was superseded by the " Annual" 
 examinations, so the " Biennial caps" gave way to "An 
 nual caps," and the " Biennial Jubilee" found a successor 
 in the " Annual Dinner." On the morning of Presenta 
 tion Day the Freshmen now assume their Annual hats. 
 These are of the well known " Oxford" pattern ahead- 
 piece fitting close to the skull, surmounted by a stiff 
 square, with a tassel depending from the corner on the 
 left side. Each class varies the color. The cap of 69 
 was blue with white tassel, that of 70 was white, that 
 of 68 mouse- color, and the red cap of 66 has been 
 already noted ; before that, a sort of wicker-work had 
 been sometimes employed. The nine committee-men 
 wear hats of velvet with tassels of gilt, and so bargain 
 with the hatter that these cost them nothing, their price 
 
278 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 being made up to him by his charging a higher rate for 
 the common kind sold to the class. The members of 
 the committe also wear, as a badge of office, tiny forks 
 of gold, inscribed " Annual" with the numeral of the 
 class. For these they are themselves supposed to pay. 
 A freshman committee-man of the class of 69 has the 
 credit of making this addition to collegiate insignia. 
 The hats are worn from the time of assuming them 
 until the close of the examinations, especially during 
 the progress of the latter ; though of late the examina 
 tions open within a few days of Presentation, instead of 
 after a three weeks interval, as was the case in the 
 time when " Biennials" and Biennial hats were in vogue. 
 
 The last session of freshman " Annual" closes at noon 
 of the Thursday before Commencement. An hour or 
 two later, the emancipted Fresh assemble in the college 
 yard, and led off by a band of music, after serenading 
 and cheering their division officers, or the most popular 
 ones, file down Chapel street to the railway station or 
 steamboat dock, and there embark on car or boat for 
 some one of the many sea-side resorts like Savin Rock, 
 or Branford Point, or Charles Island which lie about 
 New Haven ; singing on the way the songs of jubilation 
 which have been written and printed for the occasion, or 
 giving forth the old-time melodies with which they are 
 more familiar. Arrived at the appointed locality, while 
 the committee bustle about to see that nothing be lack 
 ing to the " perfect feast" for which they had previously 
 made the arrangements, and the band plays a lively 
 strain, and the denizens of the hotel gaze in wonder at 
 the new comers, one of the chief actors of the day 
 " the historian of the first division" is arranging his 
 manuscripts and clearing his throat, in readiness for the 
 fulfilment of his duty. 
 
 At length a table is set up under the trees, the Fresh- 
 
THE S TUDENT LIFE. 279 
 
 men lie upon the ground in a circle around it, the histo 
 rian doffs his hat and mounts his improvised rostrum, 
 and the reading begins. A " class history" is nothing 
 unless " funny." The committee select from each divis 
 ion the one whom they consider its wittiest man (latterly 
 the division itself elects him), and he compiles a "his 
 tory" of his fellows, wherein he attempts the rather dif 
 ficult task of " touching up" their individual peculiari 
 ties, "in a way to afford amusement to all, and offense 
 to none." Ludicrous blunders in the recitation room, 
 absurd translations from Greek or Latin authors, impos 
 sible demonstrations of Euclid s problems, all the laugh 
 able mishaps of a year of a hundred and fifty Freshmen, 
 are carefully collected by the historians, and "set off" in 
 as "taking" a style as they chance to be masters of. 
 Everything depends upon the manner of telling a comic 
 story, and if the historian is fit for his place, he keeps 
 his auditors in a constant roar of laughter to the very- 
 last word of his narrative. At its close, whether good 
 or bad, " three times three" cheers are given for the his 
 torian, and as many more for the division he represents. 
 The history devotes particular attention to the exploits 
 of those who have been dropped or suspended from the 
 class, and these former members who are present, and 
 there usually are some such are forced, after their "his 
 tories" have been read, to mount the table and " make 
 a speech" in response, which speech is always vocifer 
 ously applauded by the others. The same process is 
 also gone through with in the case of any one in regard 
 to whom anything particularly " good" (which may often 
 mean "bad") happens to be related, or from whom 
 " something funny" is likely to be elicited. 
 
 The reading of one or more histories having been 
 finished, the crowd sit down to the dinner. There are 
 special bills-of-fare ; adorned with the names of the class 
 
280 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 and its committee, and the fare itself is something won 
 derful. Course succeeds course, and is partaken of with 
 a relish and gusto never before experienced. The joy 
 ous feeling of relief from the long-dreaded bugbear of 
 examination gives a zest to the entertainment that noth 
 ing else could afford. All sorts of " sentiments " are 
 offered and accepted with the greatest enthusiasm, and 
 " cheers " are given for every body and every thing that 
 can be imagined. Lemonade, with or without the claret, 
 is the strongest potable usually upon the bill, and those 
 in want of something more ardent order it at their own 
 expense. Quite a number become exhilarated thereby, 
 but only a few, an4 sometimes none, get so much the 
 worse for liquor as to lose their self-command, and re 
 quire the attention of their comrades on the homeward 
 way. During or after the repast the remaining histories 
 are read, and then come singing, and music and danc 
 ing in which last the maidens from the hotel may be 
 induced to take part, or a " stag party " of students 
 alone enter into it. Finally the class ride back to the 
 city on their special train or steamboat, and arriving 
 there at midnight or later, perhaps serenade and cheer 
 their tutors once more, and elicit "speeches" in 
 acknowledgment, or sing a final song or two, and then, 
 dismissing the band, join in one loud cheer for the class 
 and the day,, and retire to rest. So ends the first year 
 of the four. 
 
 The last Biennial Jubilee that of the class of 67 : 
 and the first Annual Dinner that of the class of 68 
 took place upon the same year, 1865, and within a day 
 or two of each other. Except that it was held at the 
 end of sophomore instead of freshmen year, the Jubilee 
 was in all respects like the Dinner that has been 
 described though the reading of class histories was a 
 feature first introduced by the latter. It was said to be 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 281 
 
 a custom to invite to each Jubilee the committee who 
 who had served the class above on a like occasion, but 
 the 69 men distinctly voted that the 68 committee be 
 not invited to their Dinner, and the old practice has not 
 since been revived. As already stated, politics usually 
 interfere in this celebration. Unless all the actual and 
 possible societies have what they consider "their share" 
 of the committee-men and historians, there is hard feel 
 ing, and perhaps a "split" also. In the class of 67 
 the members and adherents of one junior society held 
 the Jubilee in one place, those of the other two in an 
 other. The Freshmen of 70, though having no junior 
 politics, were nevertheless able, by the exclusion of 
 Gamma Nu men from the committee, to arouse ill-will 
 enough to keep all members of that society, and a good 
 many others, from the Dinner. Their successors of 71, 
 over a curious wrangle in which all the societies of the 
 first three years were in some way concerned, divided, 
 like the men of 67, and went half one way and half the 
 other. Each of the two factions also adopted its own 
 style of Annual cap. Before setting out for their differ 
 ent destinations, on the day of the Dinner, they joined 
 together in giving their instructors the customary sere 
 nades and cheers. Next year, the Freshmen gave up 
 the Dinner entirely, and not more than half of them 
 procured Annual hats. Last year, though a committee 
 was appointed, it was decided to indulge in neither hats 
 nor Dinner ; but the present year, the latter institution 
 will be revived in all its glory, by the Fresh of 74. 
 Its .omission by the two preceding classes was due 
 in some measure to the freshman boat races against 
 Harvard in which they engaged, as many thought them 
 selves unable to support the expenses of both enter 
 prises. As Presentation will hereafter come close upon 
 Commencement, and follow rather than precede the An- 
 
282 
 
 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 nual examinations, it is likely that Annual hats will be 
 seen no more. The wearing of them had been growing 
 less and less popular, as Freshmen came to realize bet 
 ter the foolish expensiveness of paying two or three dol 
 lars for what was of practical service for but a single after 
 noon ; and with the sole remaining pretext for the " cus 
 tom " removed, there will probably be no longer even 
 the pretense of observing it. The Dinner itself, how 
 ever, deserves to be perpetuated, for when well man 
 aged it may be made the jolliest celebration of the col 
 lege course. 
 
 It is easy to see, in all the contemptuous and abusive 
 treatment of Freshmen, mentioned in the present chap 
 ter and elsewhere, an illustration of the tenacity with 
 which an old tradition clings to a college, and keeps 
 alive there the relics of a code which has itself long 
 been obsolete and forgotten. The following quotations 
 from the laws which were enforced as early as 1760 show 
 the servitude to which the Freshmen of a century ago 
 were obliged to submit : " It being the duty of the 
 Seniors to teach Freshmen the laws, usages and cus 
 toms of the college, to this end they are empowered to 
 order the whole freshman class, or any particular mem 
 ber of it, to appear, in order to be instructed and 
 reproved, at such time and place as they shall appoint ; 
 when and where every Freshman shall attend, answer 
 all proper questions, and behave decently." "The 
 Freshmen are forbidden to wear their hats in the col 
 lege-yard until May vacation ; nor shall they afterwards 
 wear them in college or chapel. No Freshman shall 
 wear a gown, or walk with a cane, or appear out of his 
 room without being completely dressed, and with his 
 hat j and whenever a Freshmen either speaks to a supe 
 rior or is spoken to by one, he shall keep his hat off un 
 til he is bidden to put it on." " A Freshman shall 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 28 
 
 not play with any members of an upper class, without 
 being asked ; nor is he permitted to use any acts of 
 familiarity with them, even in study time. In case of 
 personal insult a Junior may call up a Freshman and 
 reprehend him. A Sophimore in like case may obtain 
 leave from a Senior, and then he may discipline a Fresh 
 man, not detaining him more than five minutes, after 
 which the Freshman may retire, even without being dis 
 missed, but must retire in a respectful manner." 
 " Freshmen are obliged to perform all reasonable 
 errands for any superior, always returning an account of 
 the same to the persons who send them. When called, 
 they shall attend and give a respectful answer ; and 
 when attending on their superior they are not to depart 
 until regularly dismissed. They are responsible for all 
 damage done to anything put in their hands by way of 
 errand. They are not obliged to go for the undergrad 
 uates in study-time without permission obtained from 
 the authority ; nor are they obliged to go for a graduate 
 out of the yard in study-time. A Senior may take a 
 Freshman from a Sophimore, a Bachelor from a Junior, 
 and a master from a Senior. None may order a Fresh 
 man in one play-time to do an errand in another." 
 " Freshmen shall not run in the college yard, nor up 
 and down stairs, nor call to anyone through a college 
 window," and so on. 
 
 As early as 1775 attempts were made to abolish these 
 regulations, but "in 1800 we still find it laid down as 
 the Senior s duty to inspect the manners and customs of 
 the lower classes and especially of the Freshmen ; and 
 as the duty of the latter to do any proper errand, not 
 only for the authorities of the college, but also, within 
 the limits of one mile, for resident graduates and the two 
 upper classes." It was not until 1804 that the Fresh 
 men were formally exempted from the duty of running 
 
284 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 upon errands. The " lecturing " system was kept up for 
 some years afterwards. Professor Olmsted of the class 
 of 1813, a few years before his death gave this account 
 of his own experience of it : 
 
 " I had scarcely seated myself at my study table, my 
 first evening at college, when a messenger (whom I 
 afterwards recognized as a Sophomore) appeared at my 
 door. Does Olmsted room here ? said he, in a very 
 confident and somewhat contemptuous tone. I an 
 swered in the affirmative. You must go to North Col 
 lege, south entry, third loft, corner room, back side 
 the Seniors want you. Being quite a stranger 
 on the ground, and the message being delivered with 
 an affected volubility, expressly designed to perplex a 
 Freshman, I declared my inability even to find the room. 
 Upon this he repeated the same order faster than before, 
 leading me still deeper in the fog. But it was his un 
 avoidable duty to bring the Fresh, and so after repeated 
 efforts to get it through my skull (upon the thickness of 
 which he took occasion to remark), he said in quite an 
 imperious tone, * Come along, then follow me. He 
 led me through the mazes of several dark college entries, 
 until at length ascending two pairs of stairs, he rapped 
 at the Senior s door, which was immediately opened, and 
 here ended his commission. 
 
 " The room was so full of smoke, that I could but 
 dimly descry the individuals of the company, but plainly 
 saw it was filled. Not being myself a smoker, the air 
 of the room agreed badly with my respiratories, and I 
 began first to cough, and then to sneeze, to the infinite 
 amusement of the Seniors, which the moderator checked, 
 by saying with all gravity, Gentlemen will observe due 
 solemnity on this occasion. At this moment a member 
 of the class thrust his head in at the door, and exclaimd, 
 Gentlemen, Professor Kingsley says you must teach 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 285 
 
 this young gentleman what s what, as he knows nothing 
 of the world. This was the signal for commencing 
 business ; and the chairman remarked, that t he hoped 
 that gentlemen would be faithful to the trust committed 
 to them by the government of the college, and give this 
 young man the advice which he seemed so much to need ! 
 Whereupon the lectures began. 
 
 "The first speaker took up the subject of Tobacco, 
 most earnestly advising me never to form the vile habit 
 of either chewing or smoking a piece of advice more 
 necessary to me, he said, as it manifestly disagreed with 
 my constitution. Probably it was the consciousness of 
 the ridiculous figure I should make if I were to sneeze 
 at this moment, that actually set me agoing again, which 
 furnished a beautiful and practical application of the 
 first lecture. The chairman remarked that the young 
 gentleman would naturally expect from the age and ex 
 perience of men who had climbed the hill before him, 
 some counsel in regard to his studies, and he would call 
 on Mr. X., who, he said, being so great an adept (he 
 was one of the poorest scholars in the class), could and 
 ought to lend a helping hand to youthful aspirants. 
 Mr. X. proceeded at once to descant, in the most 
 pompous style, on the dignity of learning in general, 
 and of the Greek language in particular, for which, he 
 said, he had always himself had a remarkable passion. 
 Soon, he added, I should commence the study of 
 Homer, that noble old bard. He would almost advise 
 me to commit the whole of him to memory, but as my 
 time might not suffice for that, he would indulge 
 the hope that I would at least make one lofty sentiment 
 my own : 
 
 rbv d ftaf*ej^0f4?0 ToofTap, noda? <wxiv _7///./.tv. 
 " The next speaker preferred against me sundry 
 charges, such as breaking windows, and running out of 
 
286 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the Chapel and dining hall before the Seniors ; the dan 
 gerous tendency of which irregularities he set forth, 
 purely, as he said, out of regard for my good. And so 
 it went on, until owing to the taciturnity, which, in ac 
 cordance with the previous direction of a friend, I per 
 sisted in maintaining the sport grew tiresome to the 
 Seniors, and I was dismissed, with a parting admonition 
 to be more careful with my clothing ; as my cap which 
 they had purposely secreted was only brought to light 
 after considerable searching." A man named Kane, in 
 the same class, was also " brought before the Sanhedrim, 
 and solemnly warned not to follow the course of his 
 Old Testament namesake, who was doubtless his an 
 cestor ; " and all the proceedings of the " lectures " 
 bear a strong family resemblance to those of the modern 
 "smokings out," already described, into which they 
 seem to have degenerated. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 SOPHOMORE Y E A R . 
 
 Rooming in College Drawing and Choosing the Rooms Trading 
 of Choices Rooming Alone Packing an Entry Moving 
 Rent Buying and Selling Furniture Fuel, Water and Light 
 Sweeps, Regular and Private Paraphernalia of a Student s 
 Room Its Self-Invited Visitors Candy Sam, Hannibal, Fine 
 Day, and the Rest The Tricks Sometimes Played upon Them 
 The College Police, and the Extent of their Interference The 
 Charm of Dormitory Life Sitting on the Fence Unsuccessful 
 Attempt to Break up the Practice Cause of the Failure Out 
 door Singing Origin of the Practice, and of the Songs Glee 
 Clubs, Cecilia, and Beethoven The Latter s connection with 
 the College Choir R. S. Willis s Account of it And its First 
 Concert Its Recent Character and Membership Concerts and 
 their Profits Sophomoric Abuse of Freshmen Public Senti 
 ment concerning It Areopagus Nu Tau Phi Omega Lambda 
 Chi A Mock Initiation Compromises with the Faculty 
 Burning the Coal Yard Base Ball Yale against Harvard 
 The Record with other College and Professional Clubs Places 
 and Times Devoted to the Sport Entertainment of Visitors 
 The Burial of Euclid As Described in 1843 Fifteen Years 
 Later Davenport s Lithograph The Last Celebration of the 
 Rite Similar Ceremonies Elsewhere. 
 
 It is in sophomore year that the undergraduates in 
 considerable numbers begin to occupy the college dor 
 mitories : the mode of gaining and holding rooms there 
 in may therefore appropriately be described at this place. 
 The case of the class of 69 will probably serve as a fair 
 index of the comparative proportion of each class room 
 ing in college during the four successive years. Of 
 1 60 Freshmen in that class, 17 roomed in college ; of 
 132 Sophomores, 54; of 128 Juniors, 93 ; and of 119 
 
288 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Seniors, 107. The rooms are allotted toward the close 
 of the third term, the " choices " of course being in the 
 order of the classes. Each applicant signs his name to 
 a printed blank, which states that he "on honor" in 
 tends to occupy a college room during the next year, 
 with a particular person whom he names as his chum. 
 These blanks are perhaps distributed, signed, and 
 handed in during a session of the annual examination, 
 and the announcement made by the senior tutor of the 
 hour when he will preside over the drawing, in some 
 designated recitation room. At the time and place ap 
 pointed the interested parties assemble ; the names of 
 each pair of chums are thrown into a hat and well 
 shaken up ; then the first pair drawn have the first 
 choice, the second the next, and so on, until all the 
 names or choices are exhausted. The senior tutor 
 makes out an official list of the drawings, pastes it upon 
 a board, and hands it to the pair at the head of the 
 list. As soon as they have chosen their room they mark 
 its number opposite their names, and hand the list to 
 the ones next in order ; and so it goes on till the last 
 pair have made their selection, and handed the shingle 
 back to the senior tutor. These are all to be Seniors 
 next term, and so have had the pick of all the rooms in 
 college, without limitation. Next, the senior tutor pre 
 sides over a drawing for the prospective Juniors. The 
 number of rooms allowed their class is limited, and so 
 a certain number of unlucky applicants fail to secure 
 any rooms at all. A list of the drawings is again made 
 out, and on it are indicated the rooms already chosen 
 by the Seniors. The Juniors having made their selec 
 tions, the proceedings in the case of the to-be Sopho 
 mores are exactly similar, except that fewer rooms are 
 allotted to their class, and the number of disappointed 
 applicants is therefore greater. 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 289 
 
 There is always more or less " trading of choices " 
 in every class, after the drawing ; usually, of course, 
 before the rooms are actually chosen, though sometimes 
 afterwards. The owners of the first or second choice 
 may receive a bonus of $75 or even $100 by exchang 
 ing it for one of the poorer choices, and proportionate 
 prices are given for exchanges of choices less unequal. 
 Choices, however, cannot be directly bought and sold. 
 A man who has drawn no room at all cannot " buy out" 
 one more fortunate, since the latter has pledged himself 
 in advance to "occupy a college room." Except for 
 this rule, men with no intention of occupying them 
 could draw college rooms, and by their speculations and 
 traffic in the same raise the price of rent. No exchang 
 ing or trading of rooms is allowed between members of 
 different classes. If an upper-class man rooms with a 
 member of a class below him, as a brother, a cousin, 
 or an old acquaintance, he must draw his room with 
 the class to which his chum belongs. After a man has 
 drawn a room, his withdrawal into a lower class does 
 not deprive him of it ; neither, when one of a pair who 
 have drawn a room withdraws from college altogether, 
 is a new chum saddled upon the one who remains. The 
 latter can now have the room to himself, or can even 
 take in a lower-class chum without causing complaint. 
 When 69 was in college, the only other way of holding 
 a college room alone except in special cases was for 
 a man to practise a greater or less amount of deception, 
 in support of the pretense that he had a chum, using 
 for this purpose the name of some accommodating class 
 mate who occupied a room in town. The latter was 
 accredited with a college room, in the official catalogue, 
 and charged with the rent of the same upon his term 
 bill; with the money to pay which rent the real occu 
 pant of course supplied him. The number who en- 
 
FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 gaged in this species of fraud, however, was not large, 
 and those who insisted on rooming alone generally kept 
 clear of the college buildings. Now, however, in the 
 senior class at least, quite a number are allowed to 
 occupy rooms by themselves. 
 
 Of late years South College has been the u first 
 choice " of the Seniors, and its three upper floors are 
 entirely taken up by them, as are also the two upper ones 
 of North, which used to be the favorite. North Middle 
 is the headquarters of the Juniors, and in South Middle 
 may be found representatives of all four classes, the 
 Freshmen upon the ground floor. Sophomores usuallv 
 occupy nearly all the ground floor rooms of the other 
 three colleges mentioned, and some of the rooms on the 
 fourth floors also. A front is commonly preferred to a 
 back, a middle to a corner room ; likewise one on the 
 second story to one on the third, on the third to one 
 on the fourth, on the fourth to one on the first. The 
 proximity of a tutor s or professor s room is only a 
 slight drawback in making a choice. Of course a 
 room s eligibility depends largely on the character of 
 the crowd who are to inhabit a particular entry. In the 
 last two years, especially, the attempt is always made to 
 " pack " an entry, or at least a floor or two of it, with a 
 congenial and harmonious crowd. Hence the large 
 sums often given to effect exchanges of rooms which 
 are in themselves equally desirable. It sometimes hap 
 pens that the owners of a packed entry combine to get 
 rid of the few disagreeable men quartered among them 
 by helping make up the bonus whereby more desirable 
 comrades may be enabled to buy them out. Members 
 of a particular society often agree to keep together in 
 choosing their rooms. In North or South Middle you 
 may perhaps find one or more floors of an entry peo 
 pled entirely with Psi II or with DKK Juniors : and 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 2 9 1 
 
 similarly, in South or North, you may observe a half- 
 dozen or more Bones men or Keys men rooming in 
 close proximity. 
 
 After once occupying a college room a man seldom 
 goes back to the town again ; though a Sophomore, not 
 lucky enough to draw a junior room, is sometimes forced 
 to do it. This is a hardship which should be provided 
 against by a rule allowing such a one to occupy his old 
 room for a second year. It is not often the case that a 
 man holds the same college room for two successive 
 years. He can usually do it if he chooses, provided of 
 course he has a right to any room at all, but the advan 
 tages to be gained by removal more than compensate for 
 the trouble of making the change. After drawing his 
 new room, he has only to sign a blank, ordering the 
 transfer of his furniture and effects from the old room 
 to the new, and hand it in to the proper authority before 
 his departure. The work is done during vacation, un 
 der the direction of the faculty, and the cost of the same 
 charged upon the individual s term-bill. If he chooses, 
 he himself can directly bargain for and superintend the 
 removal, at greater cost of time and money. The an 
 nual rent of a college room varies from $12.50 to $50, 
 according to location, a man who occupies a room 
 alone of course paying double, but as all the furniture 
 and equipment has to be purchased, the actual disparity 
 between its cost and that of a room in town is not so 
 great as appears. Still, everything taken into account, 
 college rooms are, on the average, undoubtedly less 
 expensive than those in town. Each individual consults 
 his own taste and purse in the fitting up of his apart 
 ments, some being very plainly, others luxuriously fur 
 nished. The amount spent by a pair of chums in this 
 way varies from $200 to four or, in rare cases, even rive 
 times that amount. As alreadv remarked, none but 
 
292 I OUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 poor Freshmen room in college, and the Sophomores 
 rarely lay out much upon their college rooms ; so that 
 it is only during the last two years that the rich men 
 much affect the dormitories and exert themselves to 
 make them attractive and comfortable. Much new fur 
 niture is. every year brought into the buildings, but 
 much remains there, year after year. A Senior seldom 
 carries much away with him, on his departure, but sells 
 his goods to under-class men, or his washerwoman and 
 her " friends, " or, as a last resort, to the second-hand 
 dealers. For the latter half of the third term, the trees 
 in the yard are white with notices of furniture sales at 
 this or that Senior s room ; in the manufacture of which 
 notices all the artistic, literary and humorous talent of 
 each individual owner is made use of. Every notice 
 attempts in some way to be better than every other, and 
 the result is sometimes quite amusing. " Furniture for 
 sale," is also the legend displayed from many a Senior s 
 window, and perhaps left dangling there, long after Pre 
 sentation Day, when everything has been " sold " and the 
 owner has disappeared forever. 
 
 As the real expense of the furniture is the difference 
 between the buying and selling price, it may happen that 
 a very well furnished room may in the end cost little 
 more than one fitted up in much inferior style. Chums 
 in college almost always occupy separate beds and bed 
 rooms ; in town, they as invariably sleep together. 
 Each room is heated by a separate stove, and coal is the 
 fuel employed. This is supplied by the college authori 
 ties at cost prices. A student, whether rooming in 
 college or town, orders at the treasurer s office a quarter 
 or half ton or more of coal, paying for it at the time of 
 ordering, and it is shortly afterwards delivered at his 
 room. The price varies somewhat with the number of 
 flights of stairs up which it has to be carried. No coal 
 
/ //A .97? DENT LIFE. 293 
 
 carts, save those belonging to the college, are allowed 
 to enter the college yard ; and fuel purchased of the 
 dealers has to be carried by hand from the nearest gate 
 way. There is usually little reason for witholding pat 
 ronage from the college coal-yard, but when for any 
 cause an inhabitant of college chooses to buy his fuel 
 elsewhere, it seems poor policy to hinder him by any 
 such petty inconvenience. Open grates, though in the 
 minority, are not uncommon ; and large Franklin stoves, 
 with open wood-fires, are sometimes discovered in the 
 rooms of the luxurious. Each man must build his own 
 fires, trim his own lamps, and draw his own water at 
 the college pump, or hydrant, or cistern, or basement 
 sink. A large, jug-like pitcher of stone was long used 
 for the latter purpose, though the ordinary tin water-pail 
 is gradually superseding it. The are no stoves in the. 
 new Farnam College, which is heated by steam, and 
 lighted by gas, and supplied with water sinks and faucets 
 on every floor. 
 
 To each college is allotted a negro " sweep," who 
 must make the beds, sweep the rooms once a week, and 
 keep them in order generally. He of course has a key 
 to every room in the college to which he is assigned. 
 As too much is expected of these sweeps their work is 
 not very thoroughly done, and many are in the habit of 
 presenting them with a quarter or half-dollar a week as 
 a means of securing special attention to themselves. 
 This is of course demoralizing, and leads to the special 
 neglect of those who offer no fees. Another plan is the 
 employment of a "private sweep," that is, a negro who, 
 besides making the beds and doing the ordinary cham 
 ber work, builds the fires, draws the water, blacks boots, 
 buys the oil, fills and trims the lamps, and runs on mis 
 cellaneous errands. For these services he receives a 
 salarv of something like a dollar a week. Lodgers in 
 
2 94 FOUR YXAA S AT YALK. 
 
 town, in rare instances, are also able to boast of employ 
 ing private sweeps. Since 6g s time, the faculty have 
 forbidden the occupants of college rooms either to fee 
 the regular sweeps or to employ private ones, but of 
 course the former prohibition is evaded. 
 
 In a student s room, beside some one of the innumer 
 able varieties of the inevitable, book-case, lounge, table, 
 and easy-chair, will often be found a melodeon or piano 
 forte. The walls are adorned with all kinds of pictures, 
 society posters, and knick knackery of every sort. Hats 
 stolen from Freshmen by Sophomores, or from Sopho 
 mores by Freshmen, in some historic rush ; Annual 
 caps ; bangers and other canes ; oars, swords and box 
 ing gloves ; ball clubs and badges ; flags and streamers ; 
 masks with tin horns, pipes or cigars in their mouths ; 
 policemen s caps and " billies" (rare) ; signs from the 
 street lamps or from traders windows ; gilt eagles, mor 
 tars, watches, and other mercantile symbols ; figures cut 
 from theatrical show-bills ; names of college, class, open 
 societies and boat clubs ; wooden spoons, society mono 
 grams and groups of society pins ; anything and every 
 thing in the way of a memento of past experience, 
 whether gained by gift, purchase or theft ; all are dis 
 played here. Pipes, tobacco and cigars, playing cards, 
 bottles, glasses and decanters, lie in sight amid the 
 books and papers, or readily at hand in drawer or 
 closet. And branded on the inner side of closet doors 
 are the names and initials of former occupants ; or reg 
 ular manuscript lists of them carefully compiled from 
 old catalogues by some antiquarian, and running back 
 for nearly a century. 
 
 Many are the uninvited and usually unwelcome guests 
 who knock at the college doors. First, there is " Candy 
 Sam," the blind negro who for the past dozen -years has 
 " helped hold up the Athenaeum tower," and exhorted 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 295 
 
 the Freshmen to patronize the only legitimate candy 
 seller recognized by the institution. Each clay he finds 
 his way to every college room, with his apples and con 
 fectionery, and soon learns to recognize by their voices, 
 his individual patrons. The Freshmen usually take up 
 a collection for him at Thanksgiving time, and the other 
 classes " remember him before the opening of the long 
 vacation. He gets all his clothes from college men, and 
 is never tired of sounding the praises of the good fel 
 lows in past classes who liberally patronized him. 
 u Sam" is good natured, garrulous, and often amusing. 
 His true name, which he rarely mentions, is Theodore 
 Ferris. Aside from the intermittent " Trade Wind," 
 whose energies are mostly confined to the hawking of 
 " fresh vanilla n lemonice," " Sam" s chief rival is a 
 crafty black man called " Hannibal," whose entrance 
 into the room is always accompanied by some such form 
 ula as, " Not wishing to interrupt the gentlemen in their 
 studies I called to see if either of the gentlemen would 
 like to invest in purchasing from me a package of my 
 nice superior old-fashioned home-made molasses candy." 
 This rigmarole, like all the rest of "Hannibal s" 
 speeches, is delivered with the greatest appearance of 
 gravity, and without pause of any sort save that supplied 
 by the peculiar intonation. Then there is the Jew, 
 ready in all seasons and weathers with his inevitable 
 greeting, " Fine day ! any old clothes for me to-day, my 
 dears?" There is " Old Matches," the tireless. There 
 is " Ajax," and the " Father of Ajax." There is Daniel 
 Pratt, Jr., impecunious but undaunted. There are the 
 street Arabs, ready to "clean a spittoon" or " wash their 
 faces in the mud" for five cents ; the little girls who 
 want a penny wherewith to purchase crackers for a sick 
 mother, or to buy a new dress ; the widow of large fam- 
 Uy whose husband was killed in the war ; the beggars of 
 
YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 all sorts and sizes ; the pedlers of subscription books, of 
 pictures, of patent medicines and patent blacking-boxes 
 and patent lamp-shades ; the owners of every possible 
 device likely to attract a student s money. All these 
 range through the college buildings, without let or hin 
 drance, following one another in endless succession, day 
 after day. 
 
 Of course doors are often locked against them, but 
 this is inconvenient, and likely, besides, to keep out 
 more acceptable visitors. The small fry seldom venture 
 above the first floor of the building, unless specially 
 ordered, having a wholesome fear of the upstair rooms, 
 induced by the tricks often practised upon those of their 
 number who have been caught there. A wandering 
 organ-grinder or harpist is sometimes hired, by the men 
 who are to recite there, to play under the window of a 
 recitation room, thus calling down upon himself the re 
 buke of the tutor, who sternly orders him from the yard. 
 Another trick is for a student to personate a college 
 official, in warning away these and similar stragglers, 
 with many admonitions of mock solemnity. 
 
 Two tutors or professors are allotted to each dor 
 mitory, and occupy separate rooms. These, with a 
 single exception, are all on the second floor front. In 
 South and South Middle they are the two corner rooms ; 
 in North Middle and North the two middle rooms. In 
 the latter college the two corner rooms of the second 
 floor front are also occupied at certain hours of the day 
 by professors who reside in town ; and the third floor 
 front corner room of the south entry of that college is 
 the exception referred to, being occupied by a tutor or 
 professor. These resident officials never act as spies, 
 and seldom interfere in any way with the inhabitants of 
 the entries, with whom, it usually happens, they are not 
 personally acquainted. If an unusual uproar and dis- 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 29? 
 
 turbance, late at night, proceeds from a room in a 
 tutor s vicinity, he calls there and requests that less 
 noise be made ; and if the racket is unabated, perhaps 
 after a second warning, he reports the case at the next 
 meeting of the faculty. So, too, if a party ofcarousers 
 insist upon smashing one another s windows, crockery, 
 and furniture, or rolling dumb-bells and coal-scuttles 
 down the stairs, or firing off cannon-crackers in the 
 entries, the tutor is obliged to take cognizance thereof, 
 and report to his superiors. So long, however, as a man 
 behaves himself with tolerably decency, and doesn t 
 greatly disturb his neighbors, he is free/rom all inter 
 ference, and can do what he likes in his own room. It 
 is this peculiar independence, afforded by no other 
 mode of living, that gives the life in dormitories its 
 greatest charm. A man dwelling there can come and 
 go whenever he will, at any hour of the day or night, 
 and no one need be any the wiser. By himself, or with 
 a jolly company of invited comrades, he can " sport 
 his oak," and while away a pleasant evening, in for- 
 getfulness of the outside world. No irate landlady up 
 braids him for his late hours, or his want of neatness, 
 or his destructive proclivities. He is his own master. 
 His room is his castle. And if he can t " wallop his 
 own nigger," he can at least swear at his private sweep. 
 The man who fails to room for at least a single year in 
 the dormitories, loses one of the most distinctive expe 
 riences of college life. So well is this truth recognized, 
 that, spite of all the inconveniences of the present 
 "shells," "brick barracks," "factories," as, with too 
 good reason,, the old colleges are often called, they 
 are always crowded, and are then unable to accommodate 
 a large portion of the applicants. It is, therefore, likely, 
 that in the good time which all Yale men hope is 
 coming, when the college yard shall be surrounded by 
 
 14* 
 
2 9^ FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 commodious and elegant edifices like the new stone 
 dormitory, that all the undergraduates will be only too 
 happy to improve the opportunity of living together 
 within the walls. Many items in the foregoing descrip 
 tion will of course have no application to the denizens 
 of the new Farnam College, who are obliged to conduct 
 themselves more discreetly, in return for receiving its 
 luxuries, and who are chaffed at as "aristocrats," "na 
 bobs," and so on, by those who prefer to put up with the 
 inconveniences of the old buildings, rather than submit 
 to the prim regulations of the new. 
 
 " Sitting on the fence " is a privilege that no Fresh 
 man may enjoy ; at least until Presentation Day, when 
 by courtesy he becomes a Sophomore. Each of the 
 three upper classes lays claim to a particular portion of 
 the fence as a roosting place. The Seniors affect the 
 neighborhood of the South College gateways, occupying 
 the space between and a length or two each side of the 
 same. The Juniors take up the rest of the Chapel 
 street front, toward the east ; and the Sophomores ex 
 tend on College street, from the corner of Chapel to the 
 Athenaeum gateway. Here, on pleasant days, for an 
 hour or two after dinner and supper, crowds of under 
 graduates perch themselves, and smoke, chat, laugh and 
 sing together. The Sophomores naturally improve the 
 opportunity thus afforded to howl and shriek at the 
 Freshmen who may be obliged to pass near them, 
 under pretext of doing away with this, and silencing 
 the complaints of the townspeople against the blocking 
 up of the sidewalks, the faculty decreed, in the autumn 
 of 66, when the class of 69 were Sophomores, that 
 there should be no more sitting upon the fence, or 
 gathering of groups in its vicinity, under penalty of five 
 marks for each offender. The rule was exceedingly 
 unpopular ; and it could not be enforced. Crowds 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 299 
 
 perched upon the fence as usual, scattered on the ap 
 proach of an official, and then came back to their roost 
 again. The fence was repeatedly torn up, hacked to 
 pieces, and set on fire, and the college carpenter s 
 repairs of the day were destroyed on the approach of 
 night, until watchmen had to be employed to protect 
 the fence from its relentless foes. Next spring, plank 
 benches were set up under the trees, in various parts of 
 the yard, and use was made of them by the students ; 
 but they were no substitute for the fence, which was as 
 attractive as ever, and as ever the most popular ren 
 dezvous. Little by little, the faculty left off marking, 
 and at the end of the year they abandoned definitely the 
 attempt to enforce the obnoxious rule, not however 
 thinking it necessary to make any public announcement 
 of their defeat. The benches were removed, a year and 
 a half after their erection. 
 
 The result of the conflict showed the inability of the 
 faculty to enforce an unfair rule which the common 
 sense of college unanimously condemned. Without 
 question, it is somewhat unpleasant for travelers afoot 
 to run the gauntlet of hundreds of students eyes, and 
 they may at times suffer other annoyance because of the 
 assembled crowd ; but, after all, their inconvenience is 
 but trifling when compared with the solid, substantial 
 comfort which undergraduates take in sitting on the 
 fence. There is nothing wicked or disreputable about 
 the practice, and as it is one of the most cherished re 
 laxations of every college man, its attempted abolish 
 ment was impolitic and foolish. Each victim of the 
 decree felt this prohibition of an innocent amusement 
 to be an unreasonable infringement of his personal 
 liberty, and spite of marks, warnings, and suspensions, 
 all joined in asserting their rights and forcing the faculty 
 from an untenable position. It may be doubted if any 
 
300 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 large number of townspeople seriously object to the 
 practice, for it is not difficult for the timid to walk upon 
 the further side of the street when passing the colleges ; 
 and, for a good natured man, the sight of a fence full 
 of merry faces must be a pleasant one. To sit there of 
 a pleasant afternoon, watching the passing pedestrians ; 
 listening to the tirades of the " great American traveler," 
 or the music of an itinerant harpist, or banjo-player, or 
 organ-grinder ; applauding the songs and stories of 
 " Crazy Charley," or some other strolling vagabond ; 
 pitching pennies into the mud, for the encouragement 
 of impromptu prize-fights among the street ragamuffins ; 
 chaffing with Candy Sam or Hannibal ; " listlessly 
 loafing the hours away ;" seems, to many a one, happi 
 ness supreme. 
 
 Singing, too, is never entered into or enjoyed so 
 heartily as when sitting on the fence ; the subtle fascina 
 tion of that locality seeming to accord well with the 
 spirit of melody. One of the pleasantest recollections 
 of a graduate is the memory of moonlight evenings 
 under the elms, enlivened by the inspiring sounds of 
 grand old college tunes. While " on the fence," each 
 class sings by itself, though two crowds sometimes 
 alternate with each other. The musical talent varies in 
 different classes, but usually the Seniors do the most 
 outdoor singing, the Juniors a little less, and the Soph 
 omores least ; while the Freshmen, having no place on 
 the fence, cannot be said to sing at all. Often a 
 party will sing for an hour or more, changing 
 from grave to gay, from lively to severe while the win 
 dows and balconies of the New Haven Hotel testify 
 their appreciation of the music. The collection of Yale 
 songs published in 1867 numbered about 100, assigned 
 to half that number of distinct airs. Many of them of 
 course are in vogue elsewhere, but a great majority 
 
THE STUDENT L IFE. 3 o I 
 
 undoubtedly originated at the institution or were first 
 adopted by it as distinctively college songs. In the col 
 lection of American college songs, published a year later 
 by a member of Hamilton College, Yale is assigned 38 
 pages out of the 245, or 14 more than Harvard, which 
 has the next largest number, and about four times as 
 many as the average of the 2 1 colleges represented. 
 Certain it is that at no other institution is this sort of 
 music so extensively indulged in. Of late years, with 
 the dying out of certain old customs whose celebration 
 demanded original songs, fewer such melodies have 
 been produced than formerly, yet about every class 
 leaves behind it two or three new ones in possession 
 of a society or the general college public with vitality 
 enough to keep them for a long time afloat. What the 
 popularity of a college song depends upon it would be 
 hard to say. The operatic choruses and the negro 
 minstrels supply many new ones, which are held in high 
 favor for a short time and then for the most part are 
 forgotten. A few, however, manage to outlive the 
 ephemeral popularity of the others, and finally become 
 incorporated with the regular songs of the college. 
 Next to a really meritorious piece, one which is out 
 rageously absurd seems to stand the best chance of 
 adoption ; and it is very desirable, if not indispensable, 
 for a tune that would find favor in college, that it should 
 not be often heard outside it, especially upon the street. 
 Yale men, except professional singers, rarely know more 
 than the first verse or two of any one song, so that, if 
 given to the end, all but the chorus becomes a solo. 
 Usually, instead of this, the tune is changed and a new 
 song started, and so on till the crowd s collection of 
 " first verses " has been exhausted. Even so old a 
 melody as " Lauriger " is seldom rendered entire, and 
 probably not one man in a dozen could give the last 
 verse correctly without previous cramming. 
 
302 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 This custom of singing is a comparatively modern 
 one, and the secret societies have the credit of intro 
 ducing it, several of the college melodies having been 
 originally their own private property. The first collec 
 tion of Yale songs was issued in 1853, N. W. T. Root 
 of 52 and J. K. Lombard of 54 being the editors, 
 and comprised an octavo pamphlet of 56 pages. A sec 
 ond edition, of the same number of pages, was put fortli 
 by the same editors in 1855. Three years later, Edward 
 C. Porter of 58 edited the third edition, enlarged to 72 
 pages, and again in 1860 the fourth, of 88 pages. The 
 first edition was printed by L. M. Guernsey of Spring 
 field, and published by E. Richardson : of the others, 
 J. H. Benham was the printer and T. H. Pease the pub 
 lisher. The next collection of Yale songs was " Car- 
 mina Yalensia," large 8vo, muslin cover, 88 pages, 
 issued in 1867 by Taintor Brothers of New York, F. V. 
 Garretson of 66 being the compiler. The collection 
 now current is "Songs of Yale," i2ino, 126 pages, 
 compiled by C. S. P^lliot of 67, and published by C. C. 
 Chatfield & Co. in 1870. Few of the songs now sung, 
 and few indeed of those in the earliest collection were 
 written much before 1850. " Gaudcamus " and " Inte 
 ger Vitae " were introduced in 1848, by Richard S. Wil 
 lis of 41, who brought them from the German universi 
 ties. " Lauriger " was similarly derived, and more 
 recently "Abschied," "Edite" and "Lathery." "Ben 
 ny Havens " was first brought from West Point by the 
 Cochleaureati of 54. " It s a way we have at Old Yale, 
 Sir," is an original Yale song which has been adapted to 
 almost every college in the country. The air " We 
 won t go home till morning " to which it is sung is an 
 old one, which, like many others once popular with the 
 general public, is now rarely heard outside of college 
 walls. It is a curious fact that manv of those now 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 33 
 
 recognized as distinctively college tunes, were formerly 
 public property, which, after enjoying for a brief season, 
 the outside world abandoned and forgot. 
 
 " Glee clubs " are often organized, sometimes as class, 
 sometimes as college affairs. A club of the latter sort 
 is quite certain to give public exhibitions, " for the en 
 tertainment of the audience and the emolument of the 
 members ; " and a class club may do the same, or it 
 may practise for its own amusement simply. The two 
 may exist at the same time and be in part made up of 
 the same individuals. A class glee-club is never organ 
 ized before sophomore year ; neither is a Freshman, un 
 less a remarkably good singer, admitted to one of the 
 other sort. The most famous of strictly class glee- 
 clubs was that of 63 ; but the present club, which is 
 mostly made up of 71 men, is said to be the best ever 
 organized, has given several very successful concerts, 
 and proposes to devote a month of the next vacation to 
 an extended tour on land aud water, singing in public 
 often enough to pay for the expenses of the trip. Like 
 most clubs of the sort, it comprises about a dozen 
 members. Of more formal character is the aged in 
 stitution known as the "Beethoven Society," which was 
 originated in 1812, by some members of the class which 
 graduated the following year, among whom was Profes 
 sor Olmsted, the second president of the society. It 
 always formed the college choir until 1855, when, on 
 account of some difference with the faculty, it ceased to 
 perform that office, and its place was supplied by a 
 rival organization of still greater antiquity called 
 " Cecilia." At the end of two years this society became 
 absorbed in Beethoven, and the latter again controlled 
 the choir until about 1860, when the present arrange 
 ment, elsewhere described, was effected. It naturally 
 happens, however, that nearly all the members of the 
 
34 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 choir are still claimed by the society. When the name 
 " Beethoven " came to be applied to what was at first 
 known only as " the singing club " is uncertain, but by 
 the time it was 25 years old, its ordinary number of 
 members was about 30, two thirds of whom were sing 
 ers, and the rest composed the " grand orchestra." 
 
 "We had every unique instrument from the piccolo 
 fife to the big drum. Of course our music in its grand 
 ensemble of voices and instruments was often what might 
 be termed rousing: and whenever we put forth our 
 musical energies we kept the attention of our auditors 
 from the beginning to the end. The instrument greatly 
 predominating in our orchestra was the flute. The 
 inevitable flute had, indeed, ever to be repressed and 
 discouraged. Every second fellow who wanted to join 
 the choir played a flute. We grew, indeed, to be relent 
 less on the flute question. Having secured several of 
 the most accomplished upon that pastoral instrument, 
 we turned our backs resolytely upon all other piping 
 shepherds. Strange to say, however, the instrument 
 best played of all was the violin. We actually had 
 violin playing rather than that fiddling naturally (of stu 
 dents) to be expected. We were also supplied with the 
 viola, cello and double-bass, so that the quartette of 
 the strings was complete. Of the brasses we 
 had but a single representative, a big ophicleide. It 
 was our great gun, that ophicleide. We based a good 
 deal of our musical reputation upon the fundamental 
 notes of that deep-mouthed orator. We had now and 
 then a guitar, a triangle, a piccolo flute, etc. Such in 
 struments as were not heard, by reason of the general 
 din like the tinkling guitar were supposed to be 
 heard. They looked pretty when the fellows played 
 them and a great many serenaded misses in town 
 could testify that (when heard at all) they also sounded 
 pretty. 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 35 
 
 " Up to 1841, each graduating class had gone to the 
 no inconsiderable expense of hiring a New York orches 
 tra to play at Center Church during the Commencement 
 exercises, as is still the practice. But that year we de 
 termined to save all expense and do the melodious 
 thing ourselves. Nor this alone. We resolved to at 
 tempt the as yet unheard-of enterprise, and give a con 
 cert on the evening preceding Commencement. It was 
 held in a church on Church street, the pulpit being 
 removed for the occasion and a staging constructed. 
 The number of tickets issued was unlimited, and un 
 fortunately for the accommodations of the church the 
 sale was unlimited : so that when the evening of per 
 formance arrived, one-third of the audience had to listen 
 from the street, we putting up the windows, and the 
 audience complacently submitting to such unprece 
 dented concert-arrangements. Between the parts of the 
 programme an address on Music was delivered by the 
 president [R. S. Willis, whose words are being quoted], 
 he feeling safe from any expressions of disapproval, 
 from the fact that precautions had wisely been taken, 
 early in the evening, to request the audience to refrain 
 from any tokens of satisfaction or dissatisfaction if for 
 no other reason, out of regard for the character of the 
 place." 
 
 Since then, the character of Beethoven has materially 
 changed. The orchestra was long ago abandoned, and 
 the " big ophicleide" and other instruments are things of 
 memory only, though perhaps instrumental clubs like 
 "Tyrolea," and the "Yale String Band/ and "Yale 
 Tooters," in turn inherited them. There was also a 
 " Musical Band organized as early as 1827, which 
 raised money enough to make extensive purchases, but 
 which came to an early end. Its instruments were be 
 queathed to the president of the college, who afterwards 
 
36 FOUR YKAKS AT YALE. 
 
 on special occasions used to loan the band s big bass 
 drum to the students. There are periods of suspended 
 animation in the Beethoven society s existence, followed 
 by vigorous revivals and displays of unwonted vitality. 
 When in good working trim, it aims to give two or three 
 concerts a year in New Haven, and, with the faculty s 
 permission, as many more at such places as New York, 
 Brooklyn, Jersey City, Hartford, Providence, and even 
 Boston. On these occasions the best singers among the 
 late graduates, who are members of the professional 
 schools or otherwise residents, usually lend their assist 
 ance. One of them is sometimes chosen leader of the 
 society, and employed on a salary as a director of the 
 rehearsals. Otherwise, if necessary, a professional is 
 elected to the position. Regular weekly rehearsals are 
 held on Wednesday evenings and are an hour in length ; 
 while in preparation for a concert the practice meetings 
 are of course more frequent and prolonged. Posters on 
 the trees request the attendance of members. Calliope 
 hall is sometimes used as a place of meeting ; or an 
 apartment in town is rented for the purpose. While 69 
 was in college, the membership varied from 40 to 70, 
 50 being the average. The Seniors usually outnumber 
 the others, though the last published list exhibits : Sen 
 iors 20, Juniors 20, Sophomores 9 and Scientifics 8. In 
 the old times, there doubtless was fierce rivalry between 
 Cecilia and Beethoven in electioneering for new mem 
 bers, and " likely" Freshmen were called upon and made 
 to display their vocal abilities, by partisans of the two 
 clubs on the look-out for the best singers among the new 
 comers. Now-a-days, an under-class man is elected on 
 the recommendation of those who know him to be a 
 " good singer," and any Senior, possessed of sufficient 
 musical sense to keep time to an ordinary chorus, finds 
 no difficulty in becoming a " Beethovenite." There is 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 37 
 
 therefore no particular " honor" about an election to, or 
 an " office" in, the society, and consequently there is 
 little wrangling on those points. The " constitution," 
 "archives," and " properties," are not very extensive or 
 valuable. 
 
 Students are dragged to Beethoven rehearsals, as to 
 all others, with great difficulty. Even with a concert in 
 preparation, attendance is by no means general. Only 
 a small portion of the members take the prominent 
 parts in the concerts, the remaining voices being used 
 to help on the choruses, and the complaints of partial 
 ity and injustice, so common among musical people else 
 where, are not always wanting. As every member of a 
 class or college glee club is almost certain to belong to 
 the society also, a "grand concert" is usually advertised 
 in the name of the " Beethoven Society and Yale Glee 
 Club." In such cases " the society" gets the credit for 
 the elaborate, " scientific" pieces, and " the club" for the 
 hearty college songs, which the audience most expect 
 and relish. The profits of the concerts are not usually 
 large, for the cost of transporting so large a company is 
 considerable, and the money made by a successful show 
 may be offset by that lost in an unlucky one. Students 
 are not distinguished as shrewd business managers. 
 Still, enough is usually made to pay the running ex 
 penses of the society without a resort to taxation ; and 
 a respectable surplus is often left to present to the Yale 
 Navy, or some similar needy " institution." 
 
 The number of Sophomores in any class who amuse 
 themselves by abusing the Freshmen, in the ways de 
 scribed in the last chapter, is not very large. A dozen 
 ringleaders, and as many more who occasionally lend 
 their presence to such proceedings would probable in 
 clude them all. The rest of the class, with self-respect 
 enough not to favor such things themselves, are yet indif- 
 
3 8 FOUR . YEARS A T YALE. 
 
 ferent as regards the others, or at best but passively hos 
 tile to them. It is a rare thing for a Sophomore of 
 influence to utter a bold protest against the excesses of 
 his classmates. The common remark that " a few bullies 
 and cowards in every sophomore class are able to dis 
 grace it and the college, in spite of an all but unanimous 
 sentiment again t them," is not true, as a matter of fact. 
 The number of evil doers, as stated at the opening of 
 the paragraph, is certainly few, but there is no strong 
 public sentiment against them. They do not lose their 
 social standing and importance. They are still accounted 
 good fellows. They are chosen to the highest offices 
 and receive elections to the best societies. Class and 
 college look upon their sins as venial ones, and, while 
 disapproving of the same, do not inflict any sort of pun 
 ishment on account thereof. 
 
 In the classes of 66 and 67 the Sophomores who 
 specially engaged in the duty of "disciplining" the 
 Freshmen called themselves the " Court of Areopagus," 
 and published under that title in the Banner the names 
 of two " judices," three " accusatores," four " lictors"and 
 four "carnifices." Each name was formed by an odd- 
 looking combination of letters, like " Nchokotsa," 
 " Mochoasele," " Kantankruss," or " Phreshietaugh," fol 
 lowed by the small Greek letters corresponding to the 
 initials of each man s real name. The whole was printed 
 in heavy black type and surmounted by mourning rules, 
 to make more plausible the included motto, " Nos time- 
 unt Freshmanes." In the " Bingo" song, then as now 
 shouted at the Fresh, " A-re-op-a-gus ! Freshmen stand 
 in fear of us," supplied the place of " Here s to good old 
 Yale, She s so hearty and so hale." The two classes 
 who successively supported the " court" also published 
 " personal" lists in regard to the peculiarities of their 
 own " fellows." The long, short, fat, thin, big, little, 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 39 
 
 hard, soft, odd, good, gay, and strong, " fellows" of the 
 Sophomores, each had their initials indicated by the 
 small Greek letters. This is mentioned because of its 
 exceptional character, for the practice, though common 
 at other colleges, is rarely indulged in at Yale. It 
 should not be inferred that " Areopagus" was peculiar 
 to the classes mentioned. It had existed for ten or a 
 dozen years before their time, as a sort of freshman bug 
 bear, but it had not previously published the fact of its 
 existence so boldly. The Easthampton boys are said to 
 have introduced it. as an institution of similar name 
 and object had long been kept up at their academy. 
 Everything about it was shrouded in mystery, and its 
 very indefmiteness added terror to its name among the 
 Freshmen. When one of them was hazed, " the Areo 
 pagus" was believed to be at the bottom of it, even 
 though the victim was punished without a formal trial 
 and sentence under the peculiar and awe-inspiring forms 
 belonging to that august tribunal. Since its disappear 
 ance from the Banner the name has become obsolete. 
 "Turdetani" was the title of a somewhat similar affair 
 devised by the Sophs of 63. 
 
 Sophomores and also Juniors occasionally form make- 
 believe " societies " among themselves, possessed of 
 certain letters or symbols, whose signification is usually 
 a joke or " sell " of some kind. A thing of the sort in 
 68 became well known on account of the popularity of 
 a jingling chorus, originated by it, which was mostly 
 made up of a repetition of the name, " Nu Tau Phi." 
 When the 68 men came to be Juniors, they thought a 
 transfer of the joke to a half-dozen Sophomores might 
 be productive of cigars and potables, and accordingly 
 announced that those expecting elections to the "society" 
 should be in their rooms on a certain night. At the 
 appointed time, several roguish Sophs thought fit to 
 
3*0 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 impose on their classmates who had made any prepara 
 tions for "election," by pretending to be Juniors, offer 
 ing the elections to "Nu Tau Phi," and helping them 
 selves to their wine and cigars. The fraud was carried 
 out successfully in two or three cases. In others, the 
 chief actors of the joke were discovered in the midst of 
 it. When the real Juniors finally appeared, they brought, 
 as " election cards," large pasteboards on which were 
 scrawled the names of the "elected." That was the 
 end of " Nu Tau Phi," but the success of these spurious 
 elections to this mock "society," suggested to the 
 Sophomores the idea of playing a similar game upon 
 ambitious Freshmen. Accordingly a number of them 
 devised the " Omega Lambda Chi," adapting the latter 
 part of the title to the "nu-tau-phi chorus." On an 
 appointed evening Freshmen were visited by individual 
 Sophomores, pledged to secrecy, and then electioneered 
 for a mysterious society whose name was not divulged. 
 If they consented to join it, they were to be prepared to 
 receive their elections at midnight. As many of these 
 visitors belonged to the regular sophomore societies, 
 which at that time had agreed to give no pledges, the 
 Freshmen connected the offer with a secret attempt to 
 get around this agreement, and readily swallowed the bait. 
 So "Lambda Chi" gave out its elections, and was well 
 " treated " by the humbugged Freshmen who " accepted 
 the honor." They in turn were thus inspired to practice 
 a somewhat similar trick upon one of their own num 
 ber, who, having entered the class late in the year, had 
 by foolish actions rendered himself obnoxious to them. 
 As the time for giving out the regular sophomore society 
 elections approached, he was accordingly waited upon 
 by some Classmates, who played the part of Sophomores, 
 and offered him an election to " Phi Keta Chi," or some 
 similar variation of the real name of a sophomore 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 3 1 1 
 
 society. Accepting this "with pleasure," he was blind 
 folded, taken to a hall in Wwn and tossed in a blanket, 
 make to speak a piece, answer a series of nonsensical 
 questions, and so on, and finally given the "grip" in 
 vented for the occasion, and left standing in the street 
 near his lodging-house, under a pledge not to open his 
 eyes until his attendants had made good their escape. 
 So pleased with his "election" was the victim of this 
 transparent humbug, that he firmly believed in the fraud 
 up to the night when the real elections were actually 
 conferred upon his classmates. The Freshmen, too, 
 kept their secret well, and the trick was known to but 
 few save the participants. Their dupe shortly afterwards 
 bade adieu to the class and college. As for " Lambda 
 Chi," the name at least is still current in college, and 
 perhaps the sell connected with it has become tra 
 ditional. 
 
 The faculty of course attempt to shield the Freshmen 
 from abuse and imposition at the hands of the Sopho 
 mores, but in the nature of things their control over 
 such matters is small. Their most effective means of 
 action is in the nature of a bargain or compromise. 
 Suppose that several Freshmen are caught in a rush 
 and suspended indefinitely, or even dropped from the 
 class altogether. Their classmates sign a petition to the 
 authorities, praying that the verdict be reversed, and 
 promising, if their classmates be restored, to take part 
 in no more rushes, and in sophomore year to refrain 
 from all interference with their inferiors. The Fresh 
 men of 68 took a pledge of this sort, in behalf of some 
 Sophomores who had hazed one of their number, but 
 afterwards broke it; and there are doubtless similar 
 cases of bad faith on record. The Sophomores of 72, 
 however, preserved in all its strictness a pledge of non 
 interference, and scrupulously refrained from the least 
 
3 12 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 abuse of the Freshmen, who, in turn, though bound by 
 no pledge, gave but little trouble to their successors; 
 and perhaps it is possible that a better state of things 
 is henceforth to prevail. It was suggestive to notice, 
 during the period of unexampled harmony between 72 
 and 73, the frequency of the newspaper item, " Hazing 
 has been revived at Yale College." 
 
 The Sophs of 69 have the discredit of introducing the 
 practice of burning the college " coal-yard " ; or at all 
 events the trick, which seems to be almost becoming a 
 " custom," had not been known of for several years 
 before their time, if ever. It was on the night of No 
 vember 13-14, 1866, that the first conflagration 
 happened. At that time, an extraordinary meteoric 
 display was looked for by the scientific men of the. 
 country, and the college professors specially interested 
 in the matter made considerable preparations for taking 
 accurate observations of the expected shower, from the 
 top of the south tower of Alumni Hall. It was arranged 
 to have several relays of Sophomores and Juniors join 
 them there in watching out the night and counting the 
 meteors as they fell. All college was excited upon the 
 subject of the heavenly pyrotechnics, and kept wide 
 awake till midnight, awaiting them: then in disgust 
 went to bed, content to rely upon the fire alarm which 
 was to arouse all the city in case the expected display 
 really appeared. At about two o clock in the morning 
 the alarm did ring, rousing out the citizens to behold 
 not a meteoric shower, but a conflagration in the college 
 yard, whereof the north coal-yard furnished the material, 
 sending forth a sheet of flame which brought into bold 
 relief the figures of the star gazers perched upon the 
 top of the tower. This was a practical joke which, 
 though exasperating to many, yet from the peculiar cir 
 cumstances of the case, had some reason for being ; but 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 3 x 3 
 
 the later attempts of the same sort have been without 
 anything to recommend them. The south yard was 
 made a bonfire of in celebration of Grant s election to 
 the presidency, and was then rebuilt of brick. A year 
 later the north was again fired, and it was burnt for the 
 third time at the opening of the summer term of 1870, 
 on which occasion tutors windows were smashed, the 
 Bible was removed from the chapel, the handle was 
 broken from the college organ, and the chapel cushions 
 of the college officers were thrown into the fire. The 
 outrage thoroughly exasperated all college, and when a 
 few clays later the faculty detected the three drunken 
 Sophomores who were guilty of perpetrating it, and 
 promptly expelled them, every one joined in approving 
 the verdict. The yard was fired for the fourth time, in 
 the midst of a driving rain storm, on the night before last 
 Thanksgiving day, supposably to signify dissatisfaction 
 at the omission of the Jubilee. As the coal-yard proper 
 is quite a large structure, the exertions of the fire de 
 partment have thus far prevented the destruction of 
 more than one side or corner of it, though their engine 
 hose has sometimes been cut and disabled by the incen 
 diaries or their abettors, by whom also the peelers have 
 been yelled at and insulted. The cost of rebuilding is 
 assessed in the shape of " extra damages " upon the 
 students term bills ; and so, in money as well as repu 
 tation, all college suffers from the vandalism of a few 
 cowardly sneaks. 
 
 Though the organization of a base-ball club is one of 
 the first things accomplished by Freshmen, yet it is 
 usually in sophomore year that a class nine attains its 
 greatest efficiency. After that, its best men are drawn 
 into the University club, and though the separate organ 
 ization may be kept up for the first part of junior year, 
 it is almost certain to be abandoned before the fourth 
 
3 J 4 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 year opens. The game first assumed its present impor 
 tance as a leading sport of college at about the time 
 when 69 entered the institution, in the autumn of 1865, 
 though clubs had at times figured in the Banner for 
 a half-dozen years preceding. In the University nine, 
 then for the first time organized, there were three Fresh 
 men. The class club, at the close of freshman year, 
 beat the corresponding club of Harvard, 36 to 33 ; and 
 again, a year later, 23 to 22. It then became absorbed 
 in the University nine, which for the three following 
 years suffered defeat at the hands of Harvard : July 
 25, 1868, 17 to 25 ; July 5, 1869, 24 to 41 ; July 4, 
 1870, 22 to 24. There have been four other matches 
 between as many successive freshman classes in the two 
 colleges: yo s, in 1867, 38 to 18 ; yi s, in 1868, 18 
 to 36; 72 s, in 1869, 28 to 19; and 73*3, in 1870, 
 21 to 1 8. Yale, therefore, has won five out of the six 
 Class matches with Harvard, but has lost all three of the 
 University contests. In 1869, the University match 
 was played at Brooklyn, and the freshman match at 
 Providence ; in 1870, the corresponding localities were 
 New Haven and Springfield all previous games had 
 been played at Worcester during the week of the 
 regatta. 
 
 Up to the exit of 69, which class was represented 
 in every game, the University had played with and 
 defeated the University nines of Wesleyan, Columbia, 
 Princeton, and Williams j and had engaged in 24 games 
 with ii different non-collegiate clubs, in half of which 
 it was victorious, with a total score of 547 to 427. 
 From that time till the close of 1870, it played and was 
 defeated in two college matches, by St. John s, June 
 i, 19 to 13 ; by Princeton, July 6, 26 to 15 ; was 
 victorious in four games played with two amateur clubs 
 of Connecticut, by a score of 136 to 56; and was 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 3 T 5 
 
 defeated in all but one of six games played with five 
 professional clubs, by a score of 63 to 176, the suc 
 cessful game being that with .the Lowells, June 17, 14 
 to 8. The first two trials of 187 1, which are the only 
 ones that can be recorded here, were : with the Mutuals, 
 May 6, 10 to 20; with the Eckfords, May 13, 17 to 
 14. Two previous (1870) games with the former club 
 had resulted : 12 to 49 ; 9 to 31 ; and one (1869) with 
 the latter : 8 to 24. The other professionals included 
 in the previous summary were : the Athletics, 12 to 29, 
 and the White Stockings, 8 to 35. Probably as large a 
 number of matches as those here recorded have been 
 played in the interval by the various class clubs, but the 
 only college contests of the sort, aside from those with 
 Harvard, were the 1867 games of the 69 Sophomores 
 against Princeton: May 4, 52 to 58 ; June 27, 40 to 
 3o(?); and the 1870 game of the 71 Juniors against the 
 University nine of Trinity : June i , 26 to 19. Matches 
 between the different classes, or between Class and Uni 
 versity, have also been quite common. At the opening 
 of the season of 1870 a member of the graduating class 
 offered for competition a champion flag, the first posses 
 sion of which was decided in this wise : the Seniors 
 played with the Sophomores, the Juniors with the Fresh 
 men, and the victors in these two trials Juniors and 
 Sophomores fought for the championship, which was 
 won by the former, but afterwards taken by the latter 
 ( 72), by whom, spite of several contests, it has since 
 been retained. A single game decides the matter, and 
 the holders are constantly open to challenge, and, if 
 Seniors, must, upon graduation, surrender the flag to 
 the incoming senior class. Matches for the champion 
 ship are rather discouraged by the captain of the Uni 
 versity, as tending to impair the efficiency of his nine, 
 by absorbing a half holiday which had better be spent 
 
FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 in a University match of some sort. Excepting the 
 trials with Harvard, the first 69 sophomore match with 
 Princeton, and the 71 junior match against the Univer 
 sity nine of Trinity, all the college games have been 
 played at New Haven, as have also a great majority of 
 the others. It is expected, however, that during the 
 next long vacation the University nine will make 
 arrangements for an extended tour and trial of skill with 
 the best local clubs in various parts of the country. 
 The enthusiasm over base-ball was never as high at 
 Yale as now, and the nine is confessedly superior to 
 any other that has yet represented the college. In the 
 victory of May 17, its members were: four Juniors, 
 three Freshmen, one Senior, and one Sophomore. 
 
 The ball-ground, where all of the matches and most 
 of the practice games are played, is at Hamilton Park, 
 situated about two miles from the colleges, on the line 
 of the horse railway. When the reputation of the con 
 testants will warrant it, an admission fee is charged ; 
 and the receipts obtained in this way are often consid 
 erable, as an important "match game" is quite certain 
 to attract a good many spectators, both from town and 
 college. A professional club stipulates in advance for 
 a certain share of the gate money, as a half, or two 
 thirds ; otherwise it is kept by the Yale men to help 
 pay for the necessary expenses. These are, in one way 
 and another, considerable ; and when a class club is to 
 be fitted out with new uniforms and equipments for a 
 contest with Harvard, or is to entertain guests from 
 another college, it has to ask pecuniary aid from those 
 who are willing to support a class " institution " in which 
 they themselves have no personal interest. So, too, in 
 similar cases, subscription papers for the benefit of the 
 University club are circulated through all the classes, 
 especially in those which have no separate clubs of their 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 3 J 7 
 
 own to demand their assistance. Self-appointed Soph 
 omores of 68 had a trick, early in the year, of collect 
 ing subscriptions for this and other "causes" from ver 
 dant Freshmen, and " going on a bum " with the money 
 thus extorted ; but they are believed to have been with 
 out successors in their rascality. 
 
 Wednesday and Saturday afternoons are the times spe 
 cially set apart for the sport by its votaries, and are the 
 only times when the faculty allow the playing of matches 
 with outside clubs, though class matches are for reason 
 sometimes played upon other days. An open lot within 
 a half mile of college is to some extent made to do duty 
 as a practice ground, though possessed of little save its 
 proximity to recommend it. " Muffins," or clubs which 
 make no pretence to good playing, are its chief patrons. 
 "Pass ball" was considerably practised in the gymnasium 
 yard, and to some extent on the college or city green, 
 where, in these latter cases, players were exposed to fine 
 by the college authorities, or arrest by the city police. 
 But recently, as the faculty have sanctioned the tossing 
 of ball within certain limits of the college yard, the 
 other places are deserted, and the practice in the yard 
 is constant. The faculty consent rather grudgingly to a 
 club s playing outside of New Haven, in term time, and 
 occasionally forbid it altogether, though recently they 
 have adopted the rule of allowing three such games 
 each term. Sometimes when they permit a game, for 
 which the arrangements have been made, they allow no 
 friends and backers to accompany the actual players on 
 the journey ; the time of the game is usually so fixed 
 that the absentees need lose but one or at the most two 
 recitations. But there are always stragglers, and those 
 who return promptly are not apt to " rush," when called 
 up the morning after a ball match. 
 
 The vanquished party in a ball match always yields 
 
3*8 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 up its ball as a token of defeat ; and a Junior of 69, 
 who was an officer of the University ball club, collected 
 these emblems of victory that had been won from out 
 siders by the college clubs, had them gilded and in 
 scribed with the time and place of the match, the names 
 of the contesting clubs, and the score, and placed them in 
 an ornamental case, in which they were displayed for a 
 year or two, in Hoadley s window. But the custom was 
 not kept up, on account of its expensiveness, and the case 
 with its original contents has now been banished to the 
 room of the club president. Relations with an amateur 
 or professional club usually extend no further than the 
 game itself, and the same holds good of the annual con 
 tests with Harvard, which are held on neutral ground 
 (though the University match of 1870 was necessarily 
 played at New Haven). But when another college club 
 is invited to Yale, or a Yale club is invited to another 
 college, for a friendly trial of skill, thjere is usually an 
 expressed or implied understanding that the club shall 
 bring along its friends, and all take part in a general 
 jollification. Thus the Yale club, after beating the 
 Columbia men, treated them to a good supper, which 
 the latter reciprocated by instituting an elaborate ban 
 quet on the occasion of the proposed " return match" 
 which the weather prevented from being played. The 
 69 Sophomores were likewise most hospitably enter 
 tained by the Princeton Sophs who defeated them, and 
 were loud in their promises of a complimentary return. 
 Yet for some unknown reason neither they, nor their 
 University club, when they came to New Haven, were 
 shown any special attention by the Yale men, and they 
 naturally felt aggrieved in consequence. Whatever the 
 cause of this cavalier treatment, it seems to have been 
 inexcusable, and it certainly was regretted. That it was 
 entirely exceptional is perhaps the best that can be said of 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 3 1 9 
 
 the discourtesy. At these inter-collegiate suppers, perhaps 
 there is more wine disposed of than is absolutely neces 
 sary, yet the rule is honest hilarity rather than drunken 
 ness. Such gatherings, next to secret-society conven 
 tions, furnish the chief medium through which under 
 graduates of different colleges can become acquainted, 
 and, if kept free from excesses, are manifestly advanta 
 geous to all concerned in them. 
 
 Nothing has thus far been described in this chapter 
 which could not with almost equal reason be included 
 in those which follow ; yet up to a recent period Sopho 
 more Year was possessed of one distinctive custom, 
 the ceremony known as the " Burial of Euclid." As 
 long. ago as 1843 the custom was said to have been 
 " handed down from time immemorial" ; and with this 
 preface a writer of the period thus goes on to describe 
 it : " This book [Euclid], the terror of the dilatory and 
 unapt, having at length been completely mastered, the 
 class, as their acquaintance with the Greek mathema 
 tician is about to close, assemble [by divisions ?] in their 
 respective places of meeting, and prepare (secretly for 
 fear of the faculty) for the anniversary. The necessary 
 committee having been appointed, and the regular prep 
 arations ordered, a ceremony has sometimes taken place 
 like the following : The huge poker is heated in the old 
 stove and driven through the smoking volume, and the 
 division, marshalled in line, for once at least see 
 through the whole affair. They then understand it, 
 as it is passed above their heads ; and they finally march 
 over it in solemn procession, and are enabled, as they 
 step firmly on its covers, to assert with truth that they 
 have gone over it poor jokes, indeed, but sufficient to 
 afford abundant laughter. And then follow speeches, 
 comical and pathetic, and shouting and merriment. 
 The night assigned having arrived, how carefully they 
 
320 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 assemble, all silent, at the place appointed ! Laid on its 
 bier, covered with sable pall, and borne in solemn state, 
 the corpse (/. e., the book) is carried with slow proces 
 sion, with the moaning music of flutes and fifes, the 
 screaming of fiddles, and thumping and mumbling of a 
 cracked drum, to the opened grave or the funeral pyre. 
 A gleaming line of blazing torches and twinkling lan 
 terns, moves along the quiet streets and through the open 
 fields, and the snow creaks hoarsely under the tread of 
 a hundred men. They reach the scene, and a circle 
 formed around the consecrated spot ; if the ceremony is 
 a burial, the defunct is laid all carefully in his grave, 
 and then his friends celebrate in prose or verse his 
 memory, his virtues, and his untimely end : and three 
 oboli are tossed into his tomb to satisfy the surly boat 
 man of the Styx. Lingeringly is the last look taken of 
 the familiar countenance, as the procession passes slowly 
 around the tomb ; and a moaning is made a sound of 
 groans going up to the seventh heaven and the earth 
 is thrown in, and the headstone with epitaph placed 
 duly to hallow the grave of the dead. Or if, according 
 to the custom of his native land, the pyre, duly pre 
 pared with combustibles, is make the center of the ring; 
 a ponderous jar of turpentine or whisky is the fragrant 
 incense, and as the lighted fire mounts up in the still 
 night, and the alarm sounds dim in the distance, the 
 eulogium is spoken, and the memory of the illustrious 
 dead honored ; the urn receives the sacred ashes, which, 
 borne in solemn procession, are placed on some conspic 
 uous situation, or solemnly deposited in some fitting 
 sarcophagus. So the sport ends ; a song, a loud hurrah, 
 and the last jovial roysterer seek short and profound 
 slumber." 
 
 A member of the class of 38 writes that during his 
 college career the Burial "was talked of as a thing once 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 3 2 * 
 
 practised " ; though it is probable that the ceremonies 
 had been less elaborate than those which were in vogue 
 in 1843. When the study of Euclid was restricted to 
 freshman year, the ceremony was not abandoned, nor 
 the time of holding it changed. The preliminary meet 
 ing in the division rooms, for the purpose of " under 
 standing," "going over" and " seeing through" the book, 
 was naturally given up, but the custom was held on to 
 by the Sophomores, instead of being transferred to the 
 Freshmen and celebrated by them at the actual time of 
 finishing the study. It is possible that the Burial was 
 omitted by some classes, but it seems to have been ob 
 served pretty regularly by most, for the Lit. speaks of it 
 in 1857 as "the annual disgrace," and a year later 
 Davenport s well-known lithographic sketch of the cer 
 emony was published, accompanied by a description, 
 to be quoted from hereafter. The Masonic " Temple," 
 on the corner of Court and Orange streets, was the place 
 where the opening rites used to be held, the crowd 
 marching thither from the rendezvous on the State 
 House steps. The building was also in those days often 
 used by collegians for other celebrations, Freshman 
 Initiation, and the Wooden Spoon Exhibition, at times 
 being held there. The Burial took place about the mid 
 dle of the first term, though the mention of snow in the 
 account already quoted would imply a later date as cus 
 tomary in those earlier years. Many and perhaps all in 
 the two upper classes were made acquainted with the 
 password that would admit them to the exhibition, but 
 the few townsmen who managed to slip in were there by 
 sufferance rather than invitation. The town rabble of 
 course followed the procession from the hall to the fu 
 neral pile, perhaps with a few upper-class men among 
 them, though most of these no doubt kept away from 
 the burning. The printed programmes, and the various 
 
322 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 original songs, poems, orations and speeches, aimed to 
 be witty, but, like those of the freshman Pow-wow, too 
 often succeeded in being simply vulgar and obscene. 
 Indecent jokes at the expense of unpopular tutors 
 and professors, as well as of Euclid himself, were all 
 too common, and these, combined with other excesses, 
 finally brought the custom to its downfall. In one class 
 onl y ( ? 53)> the oration, speeches, songs, and the rest, 
 were all published, in a covered pamphlet, of which 
 fortunately for the credit of all concerned but few 
 copies were printed. The account accompanying the 
 lithograph of 1858, already noted, says : 
 
 "Late on some dark October evening, mysterious 
 forms, under cover of fiendish masks and satanic habili 
 ments, are seen pointing in silence and with solemn 
 tread toward the Temple. Repeating the Homeric 
 password, they file up the winding staircase, guarded by 
 the gleaming swords of the force committee, and enter 
 the hall, already echoing with the shouts and songs of 
 the assembled multitude. On the stage in front lies an 
 effigy ; and the likeness thereof is of an aged man ; and 
 the name thereof is Euclid. Around the effigy are 
 innumerable Sophomores, dancing and singing in solemn 
 measure : 
 
 " In the arms of death old Euclid slccpcth, 
 
 Sleepeth calmly now ; 
 And corruption s ghastly dampness creepeth 
 
 O er his pallid brow. 
 His triangles, which so often floored us, 
 
 Soon shall find their grave ; 
 He ll try rt ;///// with the lines that bored us, 
 
 In the Stygian wave. 
 
 "His accounts all squared, he hath departed 
 
 From his earthly sphere ; 
 On a narrow bier his body \r carted, 
 Not a la(r}ger bier. 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 323 
 
 We ve described the space of his existence, 
 
 In these given lines, 
 And we ll burn old Euclid in the distance, 
 
 Xeath the waving pines. 
 
 " The wild, grotesque hilarity of these midnight songs, 
 "when once experienced, can never be forgotten. Oration, 
 poem, and funeral oration follow, interrupted with songs 
 and music from the band: Old Grimes is dead, 
 Music from the Spheres/ and other choice and solemn 
 masterpieces. Then are torches lighted, and two-by- 
 two the long train of torch bearers defile through the 
 silent midnight streets, to the swell of solemn music, 
 and passing by the dark cemetery of the real dead, bear 
 through Tutor s Lane the wrapt coffin of Father 
 Euclid. They climb the hill, and in the neighboring 
 field commit it to the flames of the funeral pyre, invok 
 ing Pluto in Latin prayers, and chanting a final dirge ; 
 while the flare of torches, the wild grotesqueness of each 
 uncouthly-disguised wight, and the background of cold, 
 starlit sky, and dark encircling forest, makes the wild 
 merriment seem almost solemn." 
 
 In the lithograph, " the scene represented is the cere 
 mony at the funeral pyre, when the flames are already 
 kindled, and the priest is dooming the shade of the 
 departed to the endless pains of the bottomless pit. 
 On the left is seen a band of jolly students Euclid 
 haters mounting the hill of science with the aid of 
 ponies and wings, all in a state of great hilarity, with 
 the exception of one, whose refractory steed gives a 
 downward tendency to his movements. On the right 
 are seen the infernals bearing away the body of Euclid 
 in triumph, and in the foreground a weeping crocodile 
 is represented as shedding significant tears. In the 
 left hand corner, the sad effects of overmuch study are 
 faithfully represented by the wan features and forlorn 
 
3?4 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 appearance of the mathematical dig, and directly above 
 appears a figure expressive of intense hatred for mathe 
 matics. In the other corner a clump of students are 
 * draining the flowing bowl, and reclining above them is 
 the patron goddess of mirth. Over all and above all is 
 seen the Presiding Genius of Mathematics, in despair at 
 the sad fate of the great geometrician. He sits on a 
 throne of hyperbolas and arching parabolas, circum 
 scribed by spherical fiends and segments of oblique- 
 angled devils, while his great right hand is grasping the 
 tangents and cycloidal curves which compose his mathe 
 matical thunderbolts. 
 
 " Farewell, Old Euclid ! Long for thee 
 
 The tear of grief shall flow ; 
 In plahi-iivo. song and 1 e g, 
 
 The world thy fame shall know." 
 
 The last Burial was by the class of 63. Only a 
 minority of the class before them had entered into the 
 celebration; and " on the third of October, 1860, the 
 sophomore class [ 63] indefinitely postponed the Burial 
 of Euclid, by the decisive vote of 53 to 31, which, 
 though not a full vote, we are told fairly represented the 
 class sentiment. All honor, then, say we, to those who 
 have thus tried to root out this miserable fungus, which 
 has been so long vegetating about the college. Though 
 universally recognized as a nuisance by all sensible 
 men, of every class, it has strangely lingered along, a 
 sickly but tenacious existence, backed only by such 
 adjuncts as, anywhere else, would subject their advocate 
 to derision." So said the Lit. for October, which seems 
 to have been a little premature in its rejoicings, for the 
 December number tells another story, thus : " The usual 
 notice of the pass-word, at the usual time, was passed 
 around the various classes in college, and for once was 
 unheralded by the diabolical screechings of tin horns. 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 3 2 5 
 
 If there was one nuisance more than another about 
 college, which used to make our teeth grate and our 
 blood boil, it was the unearthly howlings of sophomoric 
 tin horns. If only a little more digestible, we would 
 like to have seen every one of them rammed down their 
 owners throats. The committee having charge of the 
 present celebration, in requesting everybody to keep 
 their tin horns at home, acted like sensible men. They 
 showed a regard for the feelings of the sick in the city, 
 which was certainly commendable. At ten o clock 
 Friday night, November 16, all who wished to participate 
 in the proceedings assembled on the State House steps ; 
 and, after lighting their torches formed their procession , 
 and headed by the New Haven band marched past the 
 colleges, then down Chapel street to Union Hall, which, 
 in consequence of the refusal of somebody to let them 
 have the Temple, had been secured for the exercises of 
 the evening. We have understood that these were rather 
 tame, but they deserve no little praise for the absence of 
 the usual characteristics of Burial-of-Euclid speeches. 
 Though the programme was not overstocked with wit, 
 the performance was nevertheless, in many respects, an 
 improvement upon those of preceding years. The 
 procession itself was very orderly and, under the circum 
 stances, a very fine one. The fact is, that if it were not 
 for the perfectly outrageous excesses which characterize 
 these exercises, both in the street and in the hall, and 
 which disgust the greater part of college, this procession, 
 with its grotesque and goblin disguises, its torches and 
 brilliant fireworks, and the opportunity it affords for fine 
 masquerade display, would be something in which all 
 college could engage, and thus produce a magnificent 
 procession at night, which would at least suggest some 
 thing like that of the old carnivals at Rome." But the 
 class of 64, without any " voting" upon the matter, next 
 
3 2( 5 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 year allowed the burial time to pass by without demon 
 stration of any sort ; and their successors have followed 
 their example. 
 
 This was perhaps the oldest distinctively student 
 custom known to the institution, and had probably been 
 observed to some extent for ne arly half a century, at 
 the time of its downfall. Flourishing at a period when 
 the average undergraduate was three or four years 
 younger than he now is, it had a zest to him which his 
 older and manlier successor knows nothing of. The 
 latter s advance in age and "civilization" are a sufficient 
 explanation of its abandonment. It seems reasonable 
 to suppose that the numerous " burials " and " burnings" 
 of particular text books, still in vogue at the lesser col 
 leges and academies, are all the children of this vener 
 able parent, now ten years dead. Tradition still keeps 
 the name alive at Yale, yet everything save the name is 
 falling quite out of memory among the present genera 
 tion of undergraduates, few of whom ever think that 
 they are referring to the old " Burial of Euclid " cere 
 mony when they glibly rattle off the song: 
 
 " In soph more year we have our task, 
 
 Fol, de rol, de rol, rol, rol ! 
 Tis best performed by torch and mask, 
 Fol, de rol, de rol, rol, rol ! " 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 JUNIOR YEAR. 
 
 BOATING The Decade Ending in 1853 Organization of the Yale 
 Navy Catalogue of Boats Formation of Permanent Boat 
 Clubs in 1860 Their Boats Adoption of the Present System 
 in 1868-70 Third List of Boats Riker s and the Boat House 
 of 1859 Dedication of the Present Boat House Incorporation 
 of the Navy The Boat House Lease Payment of the Debt by 
 the Commodore of 70 The Annual Commencement Regattas, 
 1853-58 The Fall Races, 1858-67 Course of the Champion 
 Flag, 1853-71 The Regattas on Lake Saltonstall The Phelps 
 Barge Races and the Southworth Cup Irregular Regattas, 
 1856-65 Uniforms and Flags Yale against Harvard The 
 First Period, 1852-60 The Second Period, 1864-70 The Lesser 
 Races of this Period The Seven Great University Races Re 
 gatta Day at Worcester Student Rowdyism Blue and Red 
 Betting Dress, Training and Trainers Attempt to Belittle 
 Yale s Triumph in 1865 Refusal of Harvard to Answer the 
 Challenge of 1871 The Seven University Crews GYMNASTICS 
 The Practise of Boating Men The Favorite Hour for Exer 
 ciseThe Annual Exhibition THE WOODEN SPOON PRES 
 ENTATION Origin of the Idea Mode of Electing the Cochleau- 
 reati Political Considerations Initiation, and the Spoon 
 " Insigne Cochleaureatorum The Temple Exhibitions Hum 
 bugging an Audience Brewster s and Music Halls The Opening 
 Loads Philosophical Orations Changes in the Exhibition 
 Its Increased Cost, and How it was Met Mode of Distributing 
 Tickets and Reserved Seats Character of the Audience The 
 Promenade Concert Abolition of the Spoon by 72 Proposed 
 Substitute for the Exhibition and Concert Society Statistics. 
 
 With the same amount of reason that Base Ball was 
 allotted to the last chapter, Boating may find a place in 
 the present one, for though all classes enter into it, the 
 Juniors are usually its strongest supporters. Eighteen 
 
328 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 years ago the " Yale Navy" was first organized, and 
 boating had been practised by irregular clubs of students 
 for some ten years precedeing. William J. Weeks of 
 44 has the credit of introducing it. Forming a club of 
 a half-dozen other Juniors, who afterwards elected him 
 captain, he purchased a second-hand four-oared White 
 hall boat, 19 feet long and 4 feet beam, built in March, 
 J 837, by De la Montagnie & Son of New York. This 
 boat arrived at New Haven May 24, 1843, was named 
 Pioneer, and on the loth of June hoisted the flag 
 " Pioneer, Yale, No. i." A year later the club rowed 
 it across the Sound, on an excursion to Long Island, and 
 at the time of graduation, sold it to the toll-gate keeper. 
 A month or two after the Pioneer s appearance, two sim 
 ilar boats were purchased of the same makers, by other 
 clubs of Juniors, and finally disposed of in a similar 
 way. One was called the Nautilus, the other the Iris ; 
 and each of the three boats cost the moderate amount 
 of $38.25. On the month of the Pioneer s arrival, 
 came also a large dug-out canoe, built on the Susque- 
 hanna, near Binghamton, two or three years before. This 
 was 42 feet long, 24 inches beam, pulled 8 oars, and 
 cost about $45. It was called the Centipede, owned by 
 a club of 1 6 45 men, and commanded by the Jersey 
 Sophomore who " imported" it. After two years of ser 
 vice it was disposed of, for one ninth its original cost, to 
 an oysterman and is probably in use at the present day. 
 It won the only race which it ever engaged in : its com 
 petitor, the Nautilus, having been secretly handicapped, 
 by a huge rock attached to its keel, before the outset of 
 the race ! 
 
 The first race-boat built for Yale was the Excelsior, 
 launched by Brooks & Thatcher, May 29, 1844, and 
 owned successively by 47, 48, 50, 52 and 53 the 
 latter class holding it from the summer of 1850 until 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 329 
 
 the "last week in April, 1852, when it came to an un 
 timely end by sawing itself in two against the wharf." 
 " It was the class of 47, with the Excelsior, that gave 
 the first impetus to racing and good boat-building at 
 Yale. The crew were mostly strong and good oarsmen, 
 and more than once pulled in a race, steadily, from 
 Sachem s Head to the wharf at New Haven." In 1847, 
 the Shawmut, an 8-oared 3o-foot boat, built near Boston, 
 in 1842, for an infantry company, was* bought by 48, 
 and a year later sold to 51, and again, after three years 
 use, to 53. At the close of the long vacation of 1852, 
 the boat broke loose in a storm, went over to Long 
 Island, was beached by fishermen, and, though by little 
 injured, left there to rot. From the sale of the cushions, 
 oars, etc., enough was afterwards realized to purchase a 
 handsome gold case and pen for the captain, Richard 
 Waite, subsequently the first Commodore of the Navy. 
 " The sides of the boat were canoe-shaped instead of 
 flaring. There were stern sheets for 6 passengers, and 
 the captain s seat, at the extreme stern of the boat, was 
 elevated above the gunnel so that he could look over 
 the heads of his crew." The Osceola, 8 oars, 36 feet, 
 was built in February, 1838, by the De la Montagnies, 
 for a New York club ; sold to 48 and again to 49 ; and 
 finally in 1847 condemned and broken up. The Augusta, 
 8 oars, 38 feet, built by the same makers, about 1840, 
 for New Yorkers, " was clincher- built, of red cedar, with 
 box-wood ribs, copper fastened, and cost when new $300, 
 but was bought, furnished, in 1845, by 49, for $170, and 
 sold to 52 for a supper !" The boat was wrecked, one 
 windy afternoon in 1850, off Cranes s Bar, while being 
 towed with a load of straw toward the vicinity of Fort 
 Hale, where the crew intended to offer it as a burnt 
 sacrifice to Neptune. The Phantom, four and then five 
 oars, 20 feet, built by Brooks & Thatcher in 1846, was 
 
33 FOUR YEARS A T YALE. 
 
 sold in 1851 to 53, and returned to the makers a year 
 later, in part payment for the Undine. It was owned 
 through freshman year by 56, then sold to the makers 
 again, and by them to a vessel, to be used as a 
 quarter-boat. It served as the "gig" upon which the 
 first Commodore s flag was hoisted. In May, 1851, the 
 Atalanta barge, 6 oars, 30 feet, built by Newman of 
 New York, was bought by 52, and owned successively 
 by 55 5 8 an * 61. "Being built expressly for the 
 ladies, its sea-going qualities were unexceptionable." 
 The Halcyon, 8 oars, 39 feet, was bought by 54 in May, 
 1851, of the Harvard 51, for whom it had been built 
 the year before. When the owners graduated they 
 thrust a hook through their boat and set it adrift, but 
 some one beached it on the Fair Haven shore, and after 
 lying there a couple of years, it was taken by the Ata 
 lanta men, on payment of a $10 salvage fee, repaired, and 
 sold to a new club in 58, who called it the Wa-\Va. 
 After a year s use under this name it was wrecked in a 
 storm. The Undine barge, 8 oars, 30 feet, built by 
 Brooks & Thatcher in June, 1852, for 53, was sold by 
 them to 56, a year later, at an advanced price, and again, 
 three years later, to some Yale graduates resident at 
 Hartford. The Ariel, 4 oars, 30 feet, built in 1850, by 
 Darling, for the Castle Garden Club, who called it the 
 Gen. Worth, and won the first prize at the Fair of the 
 American Institute that year, against three competing 
 boats ; and again at Savannah the next year, where they 
 called the boat the Zachary Taylor, was bought in 
 1852 by the Yale Scientifics, then known as " Engin 
 eers." Next year it was sold to 56, then to the Russell- 
 ites, then to 58, and shortly before that class graduated, 
 it became the property of the Grammar School boys? 
 who called it Katoonah, and with it won the sixth prize 
 in the New London Regatta of July 6, 1858. The 
 
y HE S TUDENT LIFE. 3 3 J 
 
 Thulia barge, 6 oars, 30 feet, was built for 54 by James 
 of Brooklyn, in May, 1853, and two months later won 
 the first of the annual races. It afterwards belonged to 
 56 and 59. The Nepenthe, 4 oars, 35 feet, was built 
 for 55 by Newman of New York, in June, 1853, and a 
 year later broke from its moorings, in a storm, and 
 drifted over to Long Island, where, oddly enough, it was 
 beached near the house of one of its crew, and left there. 
 Such were the 15 boats 6 8-oared, 6 4-oared, and 3 
 6-oared possessed by Yale students during the ten 
 years which preceded the adoption of a definite system 
 of boating. 
 
 In June, 1853, the six existing clubs Halcyon and 
 Thulia of 54, Atalanta and Nepenthe of 55, Undine of 
 56, and Ariel of the Scientifics joined together in 
 forming an organization called the Yale Navy, and 
 adopted a constitution for its government. Under this, 
 the general officers were to be : a Commodore from the 
 senior class, a First Fleet Captain from the junior class, 
 a Second Fleet Captain from the scientific department, 
 a Secretary and a Treasurer from the sophomore class. 
 The person chiefly instrumental in establishing this 
 organization was Richard Waite of 53, and, in recogni 
 tion of his services he was elected first Commodore, 
 though graduation time was almost at hand. At the 
 opening of the next term his successor was chosen from 
 54, while the rest of the officers remained unchanged 
 till the end of the year. Then in June, 1854 the 
 second regular election of all the officers was held, and 
 N. W. Bumstead of 55 who, like W. H. L. Barnes of 
 the same class had been one of Waite s chief adjutants 
 in instituting the Navy was elected third Commodore. 
 A year later the third regular election was held, and 
 shortly afterwards a new constitution was adopted and 
 put in print. The original one in fact was non-existent, 
 
33 2 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the iirst rough draft having been lost, and no record of 
 amendments, changes in elections, etc., having been 
 kept by the secretary. Its spirit, however, had been 
 observed, and the constitution of 1855 was little more 
 than an attempt to embody the same in tangible form. 
 Some changes were made, however : the office of secre 
 tary was abolished, the treasurer being instructed to 
 act in his place, and the annual election was ordered 
 to be held on the third Wednesday of the fall term. 
 Other rules were : that any college club, on application 
 to the Commodore, might be admitted by a two-thirds 
 vote of the members present at any Navy meeting, and, 
 for bad conduct, be expelled, by a unanimous vote of 
 the other clubs, after a week s notice ; that a represen 
 tation of two-thirds the clubs should constitute a quo 
 rum, and its captain and two members be sufficient to 
 represent a club ; that any general officer might for bad 
 conduct be impeached, and if unable to defend himself 
 after a week s notice, be removed by a vote of two- 
 thirds the clubs ; that the Commodore should preside 
 over all meetings of the Navy, and be assisted at 
 reviews and drills by the Fleet Captains, and that these 
 should in his absence, in the order of precedence, fulfil 
 his duties ; that all officers should be chosen by ballot, 
 and vacancies be filled by special elections. " The 
 champion flag, Pioneer, Yale, No. I, shall be held only 
 by Yale boatmen, and shall be offered at the Annual 
 Yale Ragatta of this year [1855], and of that of each 
 succeeding year, in connexion with the first prize, as a 
 Champion Flag. The holder of it may be challenged 
 at any time during the boating season, by any other 
 Yale boat, the race ensuing to take place as agreed by 
 the challenging and challenged parties, or, if they can 
 not agree, then at the expiration of four weeks from the 
 receipt of the challenge, if the challenged party refuse 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 333 
 
 to pull as agreed or required, the flag shall be given up 
 to the party challenging. All disputes to be settled by 
 the prudential committee " (consisting of Commodore, 
 First Fleet Captain and treasurer). Such was the sys 
 tem under which the Navy went through its first decade. 
 A year after its organization, 10 boats belonged to it. 
 There were the 6 mentioned at the head of the last par 
 agraphthe Ariel being held by 56 and 4 new ones : 
 the Alida, Rowena, and Nautilus of 57, and the Tran 
 sit of the Scientifics: all of which were buih specially 
 for the crews then holding them, and were save the 
 Rowena, 4 oars 6-oared boats. The Alida, barge, 30 
 feet, built by Ingersoll of New York, was afterwards 
 sold to the Scientifics, and again to 60. The Nautilus, 
 race boat, 40 feet, built by James of Brooklyn , won the 
 regatta of the year, and was sold to 59. The Rowena, 
 race boat, 35 feet, built by Darling of New York, was 
 sold next year to to 58, a year later to the Russellites, 
 and again in r86o to the Glyuna club. The Transit, 40 
 feet, Darling builder, won the regatta of two years later 
 [1856], was sold next spring to 60, and by them in the 
 fall to a Springfield club, by whom it was called the 
 Naiad. During the next year [1855-6], the Ariel and 
 Nepenthe dropped out of the Navy, and one new boat 
 was added to it : the Nereid, 6 oars, 40 feet, built by 
 James of Brooklyn for 58, which after two years ser 
 vice winning the regattas of 1855 and 57 was sold 
 to 6 1. The fourth year [1856-7] found 10 boats in the 
 Navy, 3 of them new ones, of which two were built for 
 the purchasers. The Undine and Rowena had left the 
 Navy, and the old Halcyon reappeared as the Wa-Wa. 
 The Wenona, racer, 41 feet, James builder, and the 
 Varuna, 45 feet, clincher-built, decked with rubber, In 
 gersoll builder, belonged to 60, the latter being the 
 first boat mentioned as rowed without a coxswain, 
 
334 FOUR YEARS A T YALE. 
 
 both carrying 6 oars, while the Olympia, 8 oars, 46 
 feet, was bought in Boston by the Scientifics. Built at 
 St. Johns, N. B., in 1848, by Coyle : Sterling, it was 
 called the Sand Cove, won a race, was sent to Boston 
 in 1853 as the Maid of Erin and defeated, but, as the 
 Olympia, won the first prize at the New London regatta 
 of July 6, 1858. Of the 10 boats held during this 
 fourth year it is to be noticed that 8 were 6-oared and 2 
 8-oared. The spring and summer of the next year, 1858, 
 saw a half-dozen new boats in the Navy s possession 
 all but one of them direct from the builders : A second 
 Varuna (barge), 6 oars, 33 feet, Darling builder, called 
 the "Varuna Prime," from its flag " V" for the club of 
 that name in 60 ; the Cymothoe and the Lorelei, 45 
 feet, 6-oared race boats, built for 61, by James and In- 
 gersoll, respectively ; the clincher-built shell Olympia, 
 4 oars, 38 feet, no coxswain, Christopher Thomas 
 of New York builder, owned by the Scientific club of 
 that name, and winning the second prize at the New 
 London regatta where the 8-oared Olympia won the 
 first; the Volante, smooth-built, 4-oarecl, 30 foot shell, 
 without rudder, built that year by Dalton at St. Johns, 
 N. B., for a Boston club, and bought of them by a few 
 members of 59, to put into the July regattas at Spring 
 field and Hartford ; finally, the clincher-built shell, Yale, 
 6 oars, 45 feet and 7 inches, no coxswain, from the 
 workshop of James of Brooklyn, which was the first 
 race-boat ever purchased for a University Crew at Yale. 
 It was afterwards called the Atalanta. The Naiad of 62 
 and the Eolus of the Law department, were 4-oared 
 boats, which engaged in the regatta of 1859, and were 
 perhaps among the "8 beautiful shells and 3 barges, 
 purchased in the three years, i859-- 6i," when the nam 
 ing of individual boats was rapidly going out of fashion. 
 More probably, they were old boats revamped for the 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 335 
 
 occasion ; though, supposing them not to have been enu 
 merated before, they make the list here given coincide 
 with a statement printed in March, 1862, that up to that 
 time 40 different boats had been owned by the students 
 of Yale. " Of these, 22 are not in the Navy now. 
 The 1 8 which remain are divided into 10 shell boats, 5 
 common race-boats, and 3 barges." The greater part 
 of these 18 undoubtedly carried 6 oars, and were rowed 
 without coxswains ; and such is to be accepted as the 
 character of the boats hereafter mentioned, unless the 
 contrary is specified. 
 
 Meanwhile a change in the system had been ef 
 fected. Acting under the direction of Commodore 
 Page, whose views upon the subject were published 
 in the Lit. of March, 1859, the class clubs adopted 
 the " English university plan," and became absorbed 
 in general college clubs, made up of all the classes. 
 As the change was to be made without break 
 ing up existing clubs, it of course took time to 
 effect it. Early in 1860, three new clubs, "Glyuna," 
 "Varuna" and "Nixie," were organized among the 
 Freshmen ( 63) ; the first on the 25th of January, and 
 the others within the few months following. Next year 
 the boating men of 64 were elected into them ; the 
 year after, those of 65 ; and with the election of the 66 
 Freshmen, in the fall of 1862, each of the three clubs 
 became general college affairs, possessing representatives 
 from every class. Edward F. Blake of 58 drew up the 
 constitution for these " permanent boat clubs," and was 
 one of the most active advocates of the new system. 
 The class-club boats of 60, 61 and 62 were bought up 
 by the new organization as their owners graduated, the 
 Nautilus and Thulia boats of the latter class being of 
 course the last to be absorbed. Henceforth the indi 
 vidual boats were nameless, being spoken of in connec- 
 
336 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 tion with the clubs which owned them ; thus, one would be 
 called the Glyuna gig, another the Varuna shell, a third 
 the Nixie barge, and so on for all the various boats 
 owned by each club. The Nixie died out in the summer 
 of 1864, and thenceforth till the end, four years later, 
 all boating undergraduates were either fierce Glyuna 
 men or resistless partisans of the great Varuna. Mean 
 while, in March, 1862, the Scientifics had established 
 among themselves a corresponding club called the 
 Undine, which still flourishes. Fifteen boats were 
 possessed by the Navy in the fall of 1863, when the new 
 system got first well under weigh, and 330 men nominally 
 belonged to it. Varuna had 153 of them, and these 5 
 boats: (i) Shell, Spanish cedar, 43 feet, built by James 
 McKay of New Yoik in August, 1863 ; ( 2 ) similar shell, 
 40 feet, built by same men in May, 1861 ; (3) shell, 
 lap-streaked, 46 feet, with coxswain, built by James in 
 May, 1858 ; (4) gig, lap-streaked, 45 feet, same maker, 
 same age (the Varuna boat of 60) ; (5) barge, 33 feet, 
 built by Darling, same time as last two. Glyuna, with 
 1 08 members, also had 5 boats : (i) Shell, cedar, smooth, 
 46 feet, built by George W. Shaw of Newburgh in June, 
 1862; (2) shell, cedar, lap-streaked, 45 feet, built by 
 McKay, in May, 1860; (3) gig, lap-streaked, 42 feet, 
 built at St. John s, N. B., at same time as last ; (4) 
 barge, 38 feet, built by Fish of New York, in Mav } 
 1861 ; (5) barge, 35 feet, built by Brooks & Thatcher, 
 in 1858 (the old Neried). Nixie, with 26 men, had 3 
 boats: (i) Shell, Spanish cedar, built by Shaw of New- 
 burgh, May, 1862 ; (2) barge, 38 feet, built by James, 
 1860; (3) gig, lap-streaked, 46 feet, built by Shaw. 
 Undine had 23 men and 2 boats: (i) Shell, Spanish 
 cedar, smooth, 36 feet, weight 120 pounds, built by 
 James in June, 1862 ; (2) barge, lap-streaked, four oars, 
 35 feet, weight 250 pounds, built by James in 1859. 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 337 
 
 As already hinted, the " English- university plan," five 
 years after its inauguration, was finally abandoned, 
 and, in popular phrase, " a return made to the old 
 class system." This is so far from being true, however, 
 that the arrangements for the management of boating 
 affairs which were accepted at the meeting of February 
 8, 1868, and which, with certain modifications, have since 
 been in vogue, resemble the original system hardly more 
 than the " English plan " which they superseded. They 
 form, in truth, a third distinct method. The two super 
 fluous " Fleet Captains " were done away with, and the 
 only general officers were a Commodore and a Purser, 
 both from the senior class, who joined with the captains 
 of the various clubs to form a general prudential com 
 mittee. One club is allowed to each academic class and 
 one to the entire body of Scientifics, making five in all. 
 Each club determines the character of its own organi 
 zation, and of course elects its own officers, which, 
 besides the captain, usually consist of a purser, one, 
 two or three lieutenants, and perhaps an executive com 
 mittee, but the plan which was expected, and which, 
 so far, has been universally adopted, is to consider the 
 entire class as belonging to the club which represents it. 
 The class elects the officers of its club, and these decide 
 upon who shall be allowed to make up the crews. The 
 active boating men of course bear the chief part of the 
 pecuniary burden, but the rest of their classmates per 
 haps subscribe and contribute the more readily for their 
 support, on account of being themselves nominally 
 "members of the class club." Nearly half the men 
 whose names were printed in the list of Glyuna and 
 Varuna never had any real connection with those clubs. 
 The ready money to pay the latter s current expenses 
 was nearly or quite all derived from the $10 initiation fees 
 extracted from as many as possible of the Freshmen 
 
 16 
 
33 8 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 who were persuaded to join them. Under the present 
 system, there are no initiation fees, and each club or 
 class can spend as much or as little as it chooses of 
 its own money, with a surety of receiving what it pays for. 
 In June, 1870, a new constitution was adopted which 
 changed the name "Yale Navy" to "Yale Univer- 
 sityBoat Club," abolished the office of Commodore, 
 and divided its former multifarious duties between 
 two individuals : one, the president of the club, 
 to be chosen by it in June from the new senior class ; 
 the other, the captain of the University crew, to be 
 chosen by the members thereof at the close of the Uni 
 versity race with Harvard. The secretary and treasurer 
 is to be a member of the junior class, and is chosen by 
 the club at the same time as the president. These 
 officials continue in service for a year from the time 
 chosen, except that the new president does not really 
 commence his duties until the opening of the new 
 academic year, the old one continuing in authority 
 until trie-close of the University race. The president is 
 not expected to be a member of the crew, but only to 
 have a good practical knowledge of boating matters, 
 and to be possessed of financial shrewdness and execu 
 tive ability. The captain of the crew is to have sole 
 and supreme power in drilling and managing it, and in 
 selecting the men and deciding their positions in the 
 boat. The president, treasurer, and captain, in connec 
 tion with the captains of the class clubs, also form an 
 executive committee, to whom the club entrust the power 
 of deciding all but the most important questions. At 
 the time the change was made, things had got to such a 
 pass that the Commodore was expected to be the best 
 oarsman in the senior class, and the stroke-oar and 
 manager of the university crew, as well as the presiding 
 officer at all boating meetings, and the financial agent 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 339 
 
 and general executive director of all the Navy s affairs, 
 in short, to do twice as much as any one man could 
 possibly do well. In the old times, too, the Commodore 
 was always a captain of one of the senior boat clubs, 
 and, later, of one of the general clubs, Glyuna or Va- 
 runa. At the beginning of the term after his graduation, 
 he was wont to come to New Haven, preside over the 
 election of his successor, and make a financial report 
 for the year. By the new system this difficulty is avoided, 
 and no hiatus intervenes between the two successive 
 administrations. The present constitution, however, 
 is simply a tradition, attested copies never having been 
 sent in to the Secretary of State, and New Haven town 
 clerk, and the manuscript having been lost shortly after 
 its adoption. As the word " Navy " has continued to be 
 used more frequently than " Boat Club," it may perhaps 
 be returned to again when another draft of the constitu 
 tion is formally adopted. At the time of reorganiza 
 tion in 1868, or, rather, after the senior class had 
 departed, 16 boats were found to be on hand, and 
 they were allotted as follows : 6 to the Navy, 2 to 
 69, 6 to 70, and 2 to the Scientitics. The Navy 
 boats were: (i) Gig, 42 feet long, 26 inches wide, 
 built by McKay, in 1865 ; ( 2 ) shell, Spanish cedar, 50 
 feet, 20 inches, McKay, July, 1865 ; (3) shell, Spanish 
 cedar, 48 feet, 23 inches, Laeton, July, 1867 ; (4) shell,, 
 49 feet, 22 inches, McKay, July, 1867 ; (s) shell, Span 
 ish cedar, 51 feet, 2o> inches, Elliott, June, 1867 ; (6) 
 shell, Spanish cedar, 53 feet, 20)0 inches, Elliott, July, 
 1868. The two 69 boats were : (7) Shell, Spanish cedar, 
 48 feet, 22 inches, McKay, 1865 j W g g> lapstreaked, 
 41 feet, 26 inches, same builder, 1864. The 70 boats: 
 (9) Shell, Spanish cedar, 49 feet, 22 inches, same builder, 
 July, 1867 (in which the freshman race against Har 
 vard was won, July 19, 1867); (10) shell, Spanish 
 
34 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 cedar, 42 feet, 26 inches, same builder, 1864 (in which 
 the sophomore race against Harvard was lost, July 29, 
 1864); (u) shell, Spanish cedar, 40 feet, 30 inches, 
 same builder, May, 1861 ; (12) gig, lap-streaked, 45 
 feet, 30 inches, Darling, May, 1868 ; (13) barge " Lore 
 lei," 45 feet, 44)0 inches ; (14) barge " Avon," 40 feet, 
 43 inches, built at St. John s in 1861. Finally, the two 
 Scientific boats : (15) gig, lap-streaked, carries coxswain, 
 45 feet, 30 inches, Darling, 1868; (16) shell, Spanish 
 cedar, 49 feet, 21 inches, McKay, July, 1866. Of these 
 boats, Nos. 6, 7, 8, 12 and 13 were, a year later, the 
 only ones left in the boat house ; and but two of them 
 remain there now: No. 12, which belongs to 72, and 
 No. 13, which belongs to the Scientifics. No. 6 was 
 sold to the Russellites, No. 7 to a New York club, 
 and No. 8 to Princeton. The other boats now in the 
 Navy are : (i) the 72 shell, 51 ft., 19 in., Elliott, 1869, 
 in which the freshman race against Harvard was lost ; 
 (2) the 73 shell, 51 ft, 19 in., Fearon, 1870, in which 
 the freshman race against Harvard was won ; (3) the 74 
 shell, same dimensions and builder, 1871 ; (4) the Uni 
 versity shell, 48 ft., 22 in., Elliott, 1870, in which the 
 seventh race against Harvard was rowed ; (5) the Scien 
 tific shell, 50 ft, 20 in., Elliott, 1870, in which the 
 Saltonstall victory over Harvard was won ; (6) the 73 
 barge, shell bottom, 45 ft., 30 in., Fearon, 1870,111 which 
 the harbor championship was won ; (7) the 74 barge, 
 similar boat, same maker, later in same year. Besides 
 these, there are four double-scull wherries, and a dozen 
 or more single sculls, owned by private individuals. 
 Among these craft are included one of the pattern known 
 as a "working boat," and also one of the patent paper 
 boats, both of which were first introduced at Vale this 
 present season. In the spring of 1870, three heavy 
 barges (45 ft., 35 in., Darling, 1870) were bought for 
 
THE S TUDENT L IFE. 3 4 r 
 
 the University, 71, and 72, at a cost of $250 each, and 
 sold, at the close of the term for about two-thirds that 
 amount. One of them went to Lafayette College and 
 another to Chattanooga, Tenn. Including University, 
 class, and private boats, it will be seen that the above 
 enumeration vouches for the correctness of the item that 
 within the twelve-month has been copied in about every 
 newspaper in the country: "The Yale Navy has 27 
 boats." It will be observed that no successive Univer 
 sity races are rowed in the same boat, but that a new 
 one is procured every year, and a new one also for every 
 class race against Harvard. As the shells cost some 
 $3oo,they are very rarely purchased except under a special 
 necessity of this sort, but the class clubs buy their boats 
 from the Navy, at second hand and at reduced prices, 
 and when they graduate they either give their boats 
 back to the Navy, or sell them directly to a lower class, 
 or to outside parties, giving to the Navy any surplus 
 funds which may remain after the payment of their club 
 debts from the proceeds of the sale. Though these 
 fragile modern affairs are not so long-lived as their less 
 expensive but bulkier predecessors, they yet do consider 
 able service and change hands several times before 
 being finally abandoned. Their average stay in the 
 boat house is perhaps four or five years, though the 
 barges recently introduced will be likely to last much 
 longer. At the close of the University race 0*1869 one 
 of the defeated oarsmen deliberately thrust his oar 
 through the side of the unfortunate Yale shell, thereby 
 reducing its value from $350 to $50, for which latter 
 amount it was then and there sold. But the Navy never 
 so much as passed a reprimand concerning this costly 
 exhibition of petulance. 
 
 So much for the boats : now, as to the keeping of 
 them. Up to 1859 they had been mostly moored at 
 
34 2 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Kiker s, in the vicinity of the present boat-house, and all 
 the equipments, oars, hooks, cushions, etc., stored indis 
 criminately in one of that gentleman s lofts. The first 
 club which arrived at any given time usually took their 
 pick from the mass, and after being punted out in an 
 oyster boat to where their craft lay, if in the water, or 
 wading out to it, if in the mud, were finally "off." 
 Brooks &: Thatcher s float was in like manner, though 
 to a lesser extent, resorted to, especially in the earliest 
 days of the pastime. So long as the boats were of what 
 would now be called the " tub " order of architecture, 
 made seaworthy enough for all weathers and large 
 enough to carry twice the number of persons expected 
 to row them, this open-air anchorage, though sufficiently 
 annoying, was still endurable : but when, about 1858-9, 
 suggestions of the modern style of shells began to come 
 into vogue, the necessity of shelter for them became 
 absolute, and the long-put-off duty of providing some 
 sort of a boat-house for the Navy, could be shirked no 
 longer. Accordingly, on certain agreed conditions, a 
 man was got to build a house, at the foot of Grand 
 street, "on the head waters of the slimy, sluggish, and 
 sinuous canal we once dignified by the name of riw." 
 and in it the boats were stored in the spring of 1859. 
 Though this house was an improvement on nothing at 
 all, it was exceedingly inconvenient, as may be judged 
 over the following words of rejoicing, uttered as the time 
 of release from it drew nigh: "No more crawling 
 through a hole in the fence when the gate is shut. No 
 more carrying heavy barges about half a mile over the 
 mud, and then finding them sticking into the opposite 
 bank. No more losing of rowlocks, missing of oars, 
 stealing of loose articles, or general displacement of boats 
 by the tide. Yes, there will be no more little boys on 
 the bridge to throw stones and encourage profanity, or 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 343 
 
 oozy cables hanging across the channel just high enough 
 to hit a man in the eye when he turns round. No more 
 scratching gravel on the port side, and trailing on the 
 starboard, in order to pass some miserable Philadelphia 
 schooner loaded with cpal. No more dirt in the boats, 
 or cracking of sinews to shoot the bridge on coming 
 back, or wild oystermen to fasten their sharpies in front 
 of the boat-house, and to expostulate quietly but firmly 
 when said sharpies by accident get cut adrift." 
 
 " For four years and a half we got along, as best we 
 could, with a mere shelter for our boats. Open doors 
 invited thieves to carry off oars, swivels, cushions, every 
 thing ; while the uneven floor scratched and strained the 
 boats themselves. At low tide, we dragged them over 
 gravel-stones and oyster-shells ; at high tide, we waded 
 in the water which nearly floated them in their places. 
 Moreover the rent was enormous. Such a state of 
 things was naturally and considerably murmured at, and 
 in the fall of 1862, initiatiory steps were taken toward a 
 reformation." A committee from the Navy obtained 
 plans and estimates, and scoured the college for the 
 necessary funds. A thousand dollars was subscribed by 
 the undergraduates, and $150 obtained in response to 
 circulars sent the alumni. A subscription was also 
 proposed and attempted among the townspeople, but 
 shortly given up in despair. Only a third enough 
 money had been raised, and unless the needecl amount 
 could be advanced, the enterprise must be abandoned. 
 At this point, it was found that the Townsend City Sav 
 ings Bank would lend the money, if offered three respon 
 sible names as collateral security ; and with short delay 
 Professors Silliman and Oilman and Treasurer Kingsley 
 were induced to take the responsibility. The contract 
 was signed July 15, with William P. Dickerman, who 
 was to supply " a building 90 by 55 feet, with 12 feet be- 
 
344 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 tween the joints, to rest upon piles, driven in the flats, 
 just north of the steamboat storehouse," which place 
 had been secured by a five years lease. The original plans 
 made the building eight feet longer, with four club-rooms, 
 and a large storeroom overhead, ^ut while the committee 
 hesitated about accepting them, the price of lumber had 
 nearly doubled, and they were thus forced to econo 
 mize. 
 
 The entire cost of the boat-house was about $3400, 
 and though not quite finished on the opening of the fall 
 term, "the triumphal ceremonies of entrance came off 
 on Wednesday, September 30, 1863, and were of an 
 appropriate character. The weather was most propitious, 
 and everything seemed to conspire to make it a gala- 
 day in very truth. The aquatic exercises of the celebra 
 tion consisted of a Shell and a Barge race, and a grand 
 parade of the boats of the Navy around the buoy. 
 Every boat belonging to these clubs was on the water, 
 and every one of the crews which manned them appeared 
 to enjoy themselves hugely. The boat-house itself pre 
 sented a lively scene of uproarious jollification. It wit 
 nessed, introspectively, a deal of delightful confusion, 
 and it echoed from rafter to rafter a full orchestra of 
 noise." The internal arrangements were described as 
 " tramways, upon which run trucks, bearing falls for 
 raising and lowering the boats, through the trap doors in 
 the floor. For each shell we have two large iron hooks 
 or cradles, connected by a long timber, in and upon 
 which the boats rests while in the house and while being 
 lowered to and hoisted from the water. The barges are 
 lifted by simple iron cradles which are then removed, 
 and the boats allowed to rest on even keel on the floor." 
 This plan was soon found to be too cumbersome, the 
 water beneath the house being hardly deep enough to 
 float the boats at low tide, and the rigging getting con- 
 
THE S TUDENT LIFE. 345 
 
 stantly out of order, and so the trap doors were fast 
 ened down, and the floating platform, now in use, pro 
 cured. This rises and falls with the tide, and the short 
 gangway leading from it to the boat-house is readily 
 ascended by a crew carrying their boat, even at the 
 lowest tide. All the boats are now launched from this 
 float, and carried by hand to and from the house. The 
 size of the platform is perhaps 20 by 35 feet. Other minor 
 improvements have been from time to time made on the 
 boat-house, though it has never yet been painted. A 
 platform guarded by a railing projects from the east side 
 of it, a flag pole usually destitute of a flag adorns 
 one of its gable ends, new windows and doors have been 
 cut, and within, dressing closets have been constructed, 
 above and below, racks and frames erected, and so on. 
 The ice annually makes bad work with the boat-house, 
 and new piles have to be driven each year, at consider 
 able expense, to prevent the building from being swept 
 away. That there is less thievery now than formerly is 
 probably due quite as much to the fact that depredators 
 find less that is worth stealing, as to the greater security 
 of the house itself. Though the pretence is made of 
 keeping it locked, little difficulty is put in the way of one 
 who would force an entrance : but the oars are chained, 
 and from their peculiar shape, are of little use to a 
 longshore-man ; while the heavy boats, and the hooks 
 and cushions and other toggery, which used to attract 
 his cupidity, are no longer to be found there at all. 
 None but trained oarsmen can manage the modern 
 shells, and though a malicious person might render 
 them useless with incredible ease, so long as good feel 
 ing obtains among the " townies," there is little danger 
 of this happening. Novv-a-days it is the " wharf-rats" 
 who commit most of the malicious mischief about the 
 boat-house, doing things of a kind that are none the 
 
 16* 
 
346 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 less exasperating because comparatively insignificant. 
 In 1864 the horse-cars were first run to within a quarter 
 mile of the place,, and since 1868 they have come close 
 upon it. The boat-house is a mile and a half from the 
 colleges, and fifteen minutes is the least time occupied 
 in making the trip on the cars. 
 
 As soon as the Navy had become possessed of a 
 boat-house, it was evidently necessary that it should ob 
 tain a legal incorporation of some sort, in order that it 
 might have a clear title to its property. Accordingly, 
 at the 1863 session of the Connecticut Legislature, a 
 law was passed (General Statutes, 352,353,354, p. 
 161, ed. 1866), authorizing "any number of persons, 
 members of any collegiate academy, or literary institu- 
 tution, to associate for the purpose of forming boat- 
 clubs, and of becoming proficient in the management of 
 boats in the rivers, harbors and navigable waters of this 
 State ; and being so associated, on compliance with the 
 provisions of this act, to be a body politic and corpo 
 rate, sue and be sued, have a common seal which they 
 may change or alter at pleasure, purchase, hold or con 
 vey real or personal estate of a value not exceeding 
 $10,000, choose such officers and make and adopt such 
 articles and by-laws as they may deem necessary or con 
 venient for conducting and regulating their affairs, and 
 do all acts necessary and proper for accomplishing the 
 objects of said boat club." The conditions were that 
 " before any such association shall be entitled to the 
 specified privileges, it shall lodge with the Secretary of 
 this State, a copy of its articles or by-laws, attested by 
 its commodore, captain or principal officer, and also 
 cause a like copy to be recorded in a book kept for that 
 purpose in the town clerk s office in the town where 
 such association is situated. And all subsequent alter 
 ations or amendments of its articles or by-laws, shall, in 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 347 
 
 like manner, be so attested, and the same shall not take 
 effect until so attested, and left with the secretary, and 
 town clerk, as aforesaid." 
 
 Having become thus incorporated, the Navy pro 
 ceeded to take out a lease for the " land, marsh or mud 
 flats " on which its boat-house was situated. The owner 
 thereof was the " Company for Erecting and Supplying 
 a Toll Bridge from New Haven to East Haven," an 
 organization popularly known as the " Tomlinson Bridge 
 Co.," and practically owned by the Hartford and New 
 Haven Railroad Co., of which corporation the president 
 of the bridge company William P. Burrall of Yale 26 
 is also a prominent officer. The lease was executed 
 Nov. 3, 1863, is recorded in the Town Records, v. 204, 
 p. 96, covers the term of five years, from the ist of 
 July, 1863, and its conditions are as follows: "The said 
 building shall not be permitted to become the resort of 
 noisy, riotous or other improper persons, nor be used for 
 public meetings, nor be assigned or underlet to any 
 other party for any other purposes than those specified, 
 nor be used for any ofher than the proper and legiti 
 mate uses and purposes of an amateur boat club, nor 
 shall spirituous liquors be sold or dispensed there." The 
 rent to be paid at the end of the first year was $25, at 
 the end of the second $30, at the end of the third $35, 
 at the end of the fourth, $40, and at the end of the 
 fifth $45. " And upon failure of said lessee to pay said 
 rent for the space of 30 days after any payment of rent 
 shall become due and payable, or upon violation of any 
 other of the conditions of this lease, after reasonable 
 complaint and notice by the lessor, said lessor may 
 reenter and repossess itself of the premises, and the 
 rent aforesaid shall at all times be a lien upon the build 
 ing until paid. The said company granting the lease 
 doth reserve the right, if it shall be found that the 
 
34 8 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 ground occupied by said building shall at any time dur 
 ing said term be needed for its purposes, or for the use 
 of the H. & N. H. R. R. Co., to terminate this lease 
 upon notice to that effect, six months in advance of the 
 time of such termination, at the end of or during which 
 said period of six months, said lessee may remove said 
 building, and the lessor in such case shall pay the lessee 
 the sum of $500. At the expiration of said term of 
 five years the lessee may remove said buildings, but if 
 said lessee . shall then desire the renewal of said lease 
 for a further term of five years, and said ground is not 
 then needed for other purposes by said bridge company 
 or railroad company, the said lease shall be renewed 
 for a further term, on conditions like the aforesaid, but 
 on payment of such additional rent as shall be deter 
 mined by two disinterested referees, if the parties fail 
 to agree." As a matter of fact, however, no money for 
 rent has ever been really paid or demanded, either 
 under the terms of the lease, or since their expiration, 
 July i, 1868, and it is hoped and expected that none 
 ever will be. It was indeed tacitly understood at the 
 outset that, if the college oarsmen behaved themselves 
 in their quarters, the bridge company would give them 
 no trouble; and as it has never yet had occasion for 
 complaint on the score of drunkenness and disorder, it 
 has as expected been indulgent and exacted no rent 
 from the poverty stricken, college " institution." 
 
 As already stated, the Townsend Savings Bank loaned 
 the Navy the sum of $2000, on the endorsement of 
 Professors Silliman and Gilman and Treasurer Kings- 
 ley, and to them the Navy mortgaged its boat-house, 
 boats, lease, and entire property, as security for the pay 
 ment thereof. The mortgage was executed Nov. 4, 
 1863, and is recorded in the Town Records, v. 204, p. 
 98. On the same dny, William P. Dickerman executed 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 349 
 
 a quit-claim deed to the boat-house property, acknowl 
 edging payment in full for his services as builder, which 
 deed is recorded in v. 203, p. 136. When, however, the 
 bank called for its money, the Navy was unable to pro 
 duce it, and so it was advanced by the endorsers, to 
 whom the Navy has ever since been in debt. The inter 
 est has been paid with tolerable regularity, but it was 
 not until 1866 that -an instalment ($400) of the princi 
 pal was paid, and the second instalment which followed 
 it in 1869 was but $100. In the winter gf 1870, the 
 Commodore of that class, who was the last one ever 
 chosen, started out on a tour among the alumni, with the 
 object of raising $3000, half to liquidate the debt, 
 $500 to repair the boat-house, and $1,000 to pay for 
 current expenses and serve as a nucleus for a permanent 
 fund. He really secured about $2100, about a third of 
 which was expended upon the boat-house, and a third 
 borrowed to defray the expenses of the University race, 
 which third it was intended to replace by the under 
 graduate subscriptions which considerably exceeded 
 that sum. But the treasurer failed to collect the money 
 as agreed upon, and after the race, when all the under 
 graduates had scattered to their homes, the Commo 
 dore, who, under almost desperate discouragements, 
 had at the last moment got a crew together and van 
 quished the Harvards, and who had spent several hun 
 dred dollars from his private pocket, had no other alter 
 native than to return to his home in a distant State, and 
 transfer his unsettled accounts to his successors. By 
 these they were neglected and misunderstood, and un 
 pleasant suspicions began to prevail among the alumni 
 who had contributed their money, but had failed to have 
 it accounted for as agreed upon ; and even in college 
 there were rumors of carelessness or breach of trust of 
 some sort. Learning the state of affairs, in May of the 
 
35 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 present year, the ex-Commodore left his business, 1200 
 miles away, came on to New Haven, collected the un 
 paid undergraduate subscription, cancelled the vener 
 able boat-house debt, thereby of course raising the 
 mortgage before mentioned, presented a report of 
 receipts and expenditures, with vouchers for the same, 
 which report and vouchers were examined and approved 
 by a committee consisting of a professor in the college 
 and the president of the Navy, and having made public 
 this complete vindication of his labors, withdrew, amid 
 the cheers and congratulations of all college, who had 
 appreciated from the outset the extent of his services to 
 the boating interests, and rejoiced to see him set aright 
 before the public, and in the way of receiving the credit 
 fairly due for his energetic exertions. Before the rais 
 ing of this $2000 by the persistent efforts of the 70 
 Commodore, the only pecuniary aid of any account ever 
 contributed by the alumni was the $500 given to the 
 winning University crew of 64, by Thomas Denny, who 
 graduated ten years before that date. Last year, Wil 
 liam Walter Phelps of 60 pledged $1250 in five annual 
 instalments, and George C. S. Southworth of 63 estab 
 lished the annual $300 prize cup. The average run 
 ning expenses of the Navy are from $1800 to $2000 a 
 year, and those of the separate clubs if combined would 
 probably show a total nearly as large. Now that the 
 boat-house debt is paid, it seems as if a permanent fund 
 ought to be established in some way whose income 
 might to a considerable extent lighten the burden of 
 general Navy expenses that now presses so hard on 
 undergraduate shoulders. No treasurer s or secretary s 
 books or archives of any sort are now in the Navy s 
 possession, and if any exist they are probably inside the 
 hall of some senior societv. 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 3 5 1 
 
 " The Annual Commencement; Regatta" in which any 
 boat belonging to the Navy might compete for prizes 
 offered by the senior class, was instituted when the for 
 mer was first organized. The first " general review and 
 drill" having occurred on June 18, 1853, the Saturday 
 of Presentation Week, the first regatta was held on 
 the Tuesday before Commencement, July 26, following. 
 Four of the six boats competed, the distance being 2)2 
 miles. Thulia won the first prize a silver cup and 
 salver, costing $20 in 15 m. 32 s. ; Halcyon, the second 
 a blue and white silk jack and ensign, costing $10 
 in 16 m. ; Ariel came next, in 16 m. 453., and 
 Nepenthe, fourth, in i8m. 15 s. Although the weather 
 was bad, a large company assembled to witness the 
 sport. Next year, four of the ten boats in the Navy 
 engaged in the regatta of July 22, rowing over a 3-mile 
 course. Nautilus, won the black-walnut back-board 
 offered for 40-foot boats, and Atalanta a pair of black- 
 walnut sculls, offered for 30-foot boats, while Transit 
 won a black-walnut boat-hook, as a drill prize ; whence 
 it may be inferred that the "drill and review" was this 
 year and henceforth combined with the " regatta." The 
 fourth boat entered was Rowena. Of the "times" 
 made in this race no correct record has been kept. In 
 1855, New Haven harbor was exchanged for the Con 
 necticut river at Springfield, where, on the 4th of July, 
 the third regatta was held ; five boats entering, for a 
 3-mile race, to row the first half of the distance down 
 the river, and then return. Nereid took the first prize 
 a silver goblet and salver, valued at $50 in 22m. 
 58 s. ; Transit, the second a $25 telescope in 25 m. 
 27 s. ; and Halcyon (called Atalanta), the third a $15 
 set of colors in 26111. 17 s. The two other boats 
 were : Thulia, making 27 m. 2 s., and Rowena, 30 m. 42 s. 
 A violent wind and consequent rough water at the time 
 
3S 2 FOUR YEARS AT YALk. 
 
 of the race explain its slowness. The prizes were all 
 offered by the citizens of Springfield, who invited the 
 clubs there to help celebrate "the Fourth." The Har 
 vard oarsmen were likewise invited, and Yale s disap 
 pointment at not meeting them inspired the sending of 
 the challenge which resulted in a second regatta there, 
 a little more than a fortnight afterwards. Next year the 
 races were delayed until fall, and the fourth regatta took 
 place October 25, four boats pulling over a course of a 
 little less than 3 miles. Transit took the prize a hand 
 somely-mounted boat-lantern in 2im. i2S. ; and the 
 order of the other boats was : Nereid, 22 m. 45 s. ; 
 Nautilus, 22 m. 55 s. ; and Wa-Wa, 26m. 305. In this 
 race there were two fouls and one broken oar ; " the 
 day, however, was fine, and the spectators were numer 
 ous." July 27, 1857, was the day of the fifth regatta. 
 Only three boats entered, yet it was a " neck and neck" 
 race and a very exciting one. Nereid won the prize 
 a pair of silk boat-flags in 22 m. 515.; Olympia came 
 next, in 22 in. 52 s. (reckoned at 23 m. 145., on account 
 of carrying a us. handicap on its two extra oars) ; and 
 Wenona, in 23 m. 16 s. The drill prize a pair of brass 
 mounted boat hooks was awarded to Thulia. " The 
 Nereid and Olympia passed the Commodore s boat 
 amid the cheers of thousands (!) assembled to witness 
 the race." Next year, July 26, Varuna won the cham 
 pion flag, and a set of oars, in 22m. 33 s. ; Nereid, a 
 set of silk colors, in 25m. 26^ s. ; Omicron (a 5-oared, 
 38 foot shell belonging to Olympia) came in in 25 m. 
 36 s., allowance of 20 s. being made for handicap ; and 
 the Olympia came several minutes after and its time was 
 not taken. After the race, Olympia won the drill prize, 
 which was a pair of silver-mounted boat-hooks. 
 
 This seems to have been the last Commencement 
 Regatta, for the next harbor races occurred Oct. 19, 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 353 
 
 1859. The first, between clinker built boats for a prize 
 of $15, was won by Olympia in 22 m., followed by the 
 Cymothoe and Nereid, each in 24 m. 15 s., both of which 
 were ruled out of the race for jockeying. The Atalanta 
 shell, not being allowed to compete for the prize, won 
 the championship simply, in 2 1 m. 45 s. In the second 
 race, between common club-boats, for a prize of ten dol 
 lars, Thulia beat Nautilus, going over the three-mile 
 course in 23 m. 45 s. Next year, Wednesday, October 
 20, in the shell race, though the boats fouled, Thulia 
 won the prize ($15), in 19 m., Atalanta followed in 19 m. 
 37 s., while Glyuna at the time of the accident with 
 drew. In the barge race, Cymothoe won the first prize 
 ($10), in 20 m. 25 s. ; Varuna, the second ($5), in 20 m. 
 58 s. ; Olympia came third, in 21 m. 51 s. ; Nixie broke 
 an oar at the start, and Thulia withdrew, when half way 
 to the buoy. The distance was 2* miles, and the Cym- 
 othoe s the best barge-time ever made in the harbor, 
 though two of its crew had just gone over the same 
 course in the Atalanta shell. Varuna won the drill 
 prize ($5), for which Olympia, Thulia and Nixie also 
 contested. The third year of the fall races (1861), wit 
 nessed what was called at the time " the ninth Annual 
 Regatta." Appointed for Wednesday, October 22, all 
 but the barge race had to be deferred until the Saturday 
 following, on account of rough water. The barges of 
 Glyuna, Varuna (Cymothoe), and Nixie, came in in the 
 order given, but the first two were ruled out on account 
 of fouls, and the prize was awarded the last, although 
 " her time was incredible." In the shell race of Satur 
 day, Nixie also won the prize, in 19 m. 17 s., against the 
 20 m. 25 s. of Glyuna; which club was also worsted in 
 the drill trial with Varuna. The three prizes were $15, 
 $10 and $5, respectively, and the same amounts of 
 money were offered on the year following. The distance 
 
354 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 rowed over was 2^7 miles. Next year, Wednesday, 
 October 29, Varuna beat in the shell race, in 20 m. 25 s. ; 
 Glyuna made 21 m., and Nixie lost an outrigger and 
 withdrew. In the barge race, Glyuna made 23 m. 30 s. 
 to 24 in. 25 s. of the Undine, though a 22 s. handicap 
 was allowed the latter. For the third time, Varuna won 
 the drill prize. October 31, 1863, Glyuna won the shell 
 race in 18 m. 57 s. to Varuna s 19 m. 10 s. In the barge 
 race, Glyuna (Avon) also made 20 m. 47 s. to the 
 22m. 55. of Varuna (Cymothoe), and the 23111. of 
 Undine 30 s. handicap being allowed the latter. The 
 drill prize again fell to Varuna. In 1864, the "twelfth 
 annual regatta," of October 19, dwindled down to a 
 simple shell race for the championship, between Varuna 
 and Glyuna, which the former won, in 20111. 508., while 
 the latter filled with water and sunk. A sail-boat res 
 cued the unlucky crew, but stove in their shell in doing 
 it. In 1865, October u, Varuna beat in both races ; in 
 the shell race making 18 m. 25 s. to Glyuna s 19 m. 30 s., 
 and in the gig race making 19 m. 55 s. to the other s 
 20 m. 43 s. In 1866, nine crews trained for the race, 
 each club entering a shell, gig, and barge, but all did 
 not participate therein. Tuesday, October 16, after sev 
 eral delays, the gig and barge races took place : Varuna 
 winning the one in 19111. 13 s., Undine the other in 21 m. 
 15 s. The shell races came off on the following Satur 
 day, and were the most closely contested on record : 
 Glyuna winning in the unprecedented time of 17 m. 33 s., 
 and Varuna being only two seconds behind. The dis 
 tance was 2/4 miles. In 1867, October 16, occurred the 
 last contest under the old club system : The Glyuna gig 
 beating in 18 m. 155. that of Varuna, whose time 
 was 19 m. 175. The shell race was abandoned, on 
 account of Varuna s shell being in poor condition, so 
 both the champion flags passed to Glyuna. As there 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 355 
 
 were no "fall races" in 1868, this fifteenth, may, for the 
 sake of convenience, be regarded as the last in the 
 series of distinctively annual regattas, instituted, simul 
 taneously with the Navy itself, in 1853. Since the time, 
 ten years later, when " the members of the senior class" 
 ceased to offer prizes, and the " fall races" were for the 
 championship simply, the distinction between them and 
 the similar " spring races" has been only nominal. But 
 the latter, though in theory of equal importance, are not 
 often as largely engaged in nor as closely contested as 
 the former. 
 
 And now to trace the history of the " champion flag," 
 and of the other races which were rowed for it. It was 
 in May, 1858, that the Commodore then serving received 
 from William J. Weeks of 44, captain of the first Yale 
 boat crew, the flag, " Pioneer, Yale, No. i," to be offered 
 as an emblem of championship, according to the rule 
 already quoted, in the Navy constitution of 1855. P re ~ 
 vious to this, the winning boats in the annual regattas, and 
 the times made, had been: 1853, July 26, Thulia 
 (juniors of 54), 15:32 (distance, two and a half miles) ; 
 1854, July 22, Nautilus (Freshmen of 57), time not re 
 corded ; 1855, July 4, Nereid (Freshmen of 58), 22:58 ; 
 1856, October 25, Transit (Scientifics), 21:12; 1857, 
 July 27, Nereid (Juniors of 58), 22:51. The flag was 
 therefore first actually awarded July 26, 1858, to 
 Varuna (Sophomores of 60), for its 22:33. 1 response 
 to a challenge from Olympia (Scientifics), a race came 
 off June 8, 1859, which was won by Varuna, (Juniors 
 of 60), in 22:6, to Olympia s 22:30, without claiming 
 from the latter the 225. handicap allowed by the rules 
 of the Navy. Cymothoe (Sophomores of 61) also en 
 tered this race, and was " in sight " at its close. In a 
 second race, July 5, Varuna retained the flag, making 
 the three miles in 22:26, to Olyrnpia s 23:30. Atalanta 
 
35 6 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 (Sophomores of 61), entered the race, but withdrew with a 
 broken oar. At the regular regatta of 1859, October 19, 
 Atalanta (Juniors of 61), won the flag in 21:45, against 
 Olympia s 22 m., Varuna not entering, because, having 
 held the flag for more than a year and having four of 
 the University crew on its six, it preferred to give the 
 younger crews a chance of the championship. In 
 response to a challenge, Atalanta set May 26, 1860, as 
 the time for a trial. Three other boats entered : Nereid 
 (Juniors of 61), Thulia (Sophomores of 62), and Vo- 
 lante (Scientifics). The second made the 2-j\ 7 miles in 
 20:15, the first in 20:45, an d the third in 22:45. The 
 Atalanta did not start at all, failing to hear the word, 
 and so retained the flag, and appointed the following 
 Wednesday for a new trial. At that time, Volante 
 having withdrawn, the three boats took their positions 
 again, and were started with a pistol shot. Thulia won 
 the flag in 19:15, followed by Nereid, in 19:35, and 
 Atalanta, in 20 m. Next October, Thulia kept the flag 
 away from Atalanta again, the time being 19 m. A 
 year later, Nixie won the flag in 19:17. May 31, 1862, 
 Varuna again gained it, in 20:5 [or, regularly, 21:45], 
 and retained it next October, in 20:25 ; but surrendered 
 it on the 6th of June following to Glyuna, 19:4 and 
 19:55 being the times made by the two boats, Xixie 
 failing to go around the buoy. Next fall, Glyuna re 
 tained the flag, in 18:57. A } ear ^ ater ( J 864), Varuna 
 won it back, in 20:50, and retained it next year (Oct. 
 u), in 18:25. In the race of June 6, 1866, Glyuna re 
 took it, in 18:4, against 18:32. In the gig race of the 
 same date, Undine won, in 19:07, Varuna came next, in 
 19:32, and Glyuna was withdrawn. Next October, 
 Glyuna held on to the flag, in 17:33, but lost it again at 
 the race of May 22, 1867 ; Varuna making 18:07 to 
 (ilyuna s 18:31 and Undine s 18:38. In the gig races of 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 357 
 
 the same day, Glyuna was ruled out, and Varuna beat, 
 in 20:17 to Undine s 20:20. Next October, Glyuna re 
 took the flag, in 18:15. The first race under the new 
 system took place Tuesday, July 30, 1868, the after 
 noon before Presentation Day,- and was won by the 
 Sixty-Nine shell in 18:28, that of Sixty-Eight being 
 swamped by the rough water. In the gig-race, Sixty- 
 Nine also beat, in 17:52; followed by Sixty-Eight in, 
 in 18:40, and by Seventy, in 18:50. A large and enthu 
 siastic number of spectators were in attendance, and 
 prizes of crossed golden oars, to be worn as badges, 
 were awarded the winning crews. As already stated, 
 no attempt was made to institute a race on the following 
 October, and the one projected for the Saturday preced 
 ing the next Presentation Day dwindled away to 
 nothing. 
 
 The second trial under the new system, therefore, 
 came off as late as Wednesday, October 27, 1869. 
 Under the old enumeration, it would be called "the 
 sixteenth annual regatta" of the Navy, and it was 
 probably the most successful one of them all. New 
 Haven harbor was abandoned in favor of Lake Salton- 
 stall, a beautiful sheet of water, four miles from the 
 city, on the line of the railway, and thither an extra 
 train of fourteen heavily loaded cars and innumerable 
 private conveyances carried a larger crowd of spectators 
 than ever went to witness a Yale race before. A brass 
 band was also in attendance to enliven the interludes of 
 waiting. Thirteen boats took part in five different races. 
 In the shell race, the champion flag was won by 
 Seventy, in 22:37 ; Seventy-One following, in 23:3 ; 
 Seventy-Two withdrawing on account of the sickness of 
 one of the crew ; and the Scientifics doing likewise by 
 reason of a broken oar. Each member of the winning 
 crew was awarded a silver goblet. In the gig race, for 
 
35 8 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 six golden oars, between Seventy, Seventy-One, and 
 Seventy-Two, there were several fouls, in consequence 
 of which the Commodore, unable to decide upon whom 
 the blame rested, ordered a new race upon the following 
 day, in which the first won, in 22:2, against the second s 
 22:12 while the third, which at the first trial had come 
 in ahead, in 22:40, refused to row at all. The barge 
 race, for six silver oars, between the Academical Fresh 
 men ( 73), in the boat Tom Paine, and the Scientific 
 Freshmen ( 72), in the boat Undine, was won by the lat 
 ter in 15:16, against the former s 16:7, though the Tom 
 Paine was allowed 305. handicap. The fourth race, for 
 double sculls, was won by the " Betts Brothers," in 
 14:32, against the " Ricardi Brothers," in 14:35. Last, 
 the race for single sculls the prize being a " silver-cup 
 and the championship of the university" was won by 
 J. W. Griswold of the Scientific School, in 16:3 ; fol 
 lowed by R. Terry of 70, in 16:38 ; R. Colgate of S. S., 
 and E. T. Owen of 71, whose times were not recorded. 
 The first two races were for three miles, the next two 
 for two miles, and the last for a mile ; which distances 
 had been accurately laid down beforehand a thing not 
 often accomplished in the harbor. Shortly afterwards 
 the Scientifics gained the champion flag by sending 
 Seventy a challenge which the latter did not accept 
 within the specified four weeks. They proved their 
 right to retain it, however, by coming in first at the Salton- 
 stall race of June 28, 1870, but had it wrested from them 
 by the Sophomores of 73 at the race of Oct. 22. It is 
 not unlikely that uncontestecl transfers of the flag had 
 been made in the past, of which this account has not 
 taken notice, but with this exception the championship 
 has been correctly traced, from the Thulia of 54 to the 
 73 Sophomores of to-day. When the original cham 
 pion flag " Pioneer, Yale, No. i " disappeared, is un- 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 359 
 
 certain. It was never distinctly mentioned after the 
 time of its first award in 1858. Very likely it now lies 
 hidden in some senior-society hall, that of Bones 
 according to report. The flag now in use is of blue 
 silk, almost triangular in shape, having a heavy gilt 
 fringe for a border, and inscribed simply with the word 
 " Champion." It was procured eight or ten years ago. 
 It has not been thought worth while to trace the cham 
 pionship of the second-class boats, at one time barges, 
 then gigs and now barges again, since the order of its 
 succession has not always been very clearly defined. 
 
 Early in 1870, William Walter Phelps of 60, as 
 before noticed, pledged an annual contribution for five 
 years of $250, to be used in the encouragement of boat 
 ing, under the following directions, for which his class 
 mate, Charles H. Owen, of the University crew of 59, 
 is chiefly responsible : There are to be two races during 
 the summer term, one, near its beginning, in the har 
 bor ; the other, near its close, on Lake Saltonstall. In 
 the first the contestants are to row in 6-oared barges, 
 directed by a coxswain ; in the second in 6-oared shells 
 without coxswains ; the University crew must be a par 
 ticipant in both races, and no class crew can compete 
 in the shell race unless it has previously participated in 
 the barge contest. The best crews are to be handi 
 capped in each case to put them as nearly as possible 
 on an equality with the poorest, the barges being hand 
 icapped with weights, the shells with time. The win 
 ning crew in each race has $75 and the flag ; the sec 
 ond best $25, and the remaining portion of the $250 is 
 spent in lesser prizes at the discretion of the president. 
 There were five entries for the initial barge race, which 
 took place on the afternoon of Saturday, June 4, 1870, 
 and the weights of the boats and the times made by the 
 crews were as follows : Seventy-Three, 250, 21:17 ; Uni- 
 
360 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 versity, 360, 21:34; Seventy-Two, 320, 21:43^ ; Scien 
 tifics, 350, 22:18 e Seventy-One, 320, 22:28^2. The 
 University carried a 75lb. handicap, and Seventy-One 
 and Seventy-Three 3olbs. each. A steam tug, carry 
 ing members of the press, invited guests from the faculty 
 and elsewhere, and other favored individuals, followed 
 close upon the boats in this race, after the English 
 fashion. The tug used also to follow out after the Uni 
 versity at its morning practice pulls, and carry their 
 trainer, who would shout forth his directions to them. 
 By the sale of tickets to undergraduates for these morn 
 ing excursions the expense of hiring the tug was greatly 
 reduced. At the Saltonstall shell races of June 22, the 
 actual times made were : Scientifics, 19:36)4 ; Seventy- 
 Three, 20 ; University, 20:14 ; Seventy-Two, 20:19, to 
 which a 155. handicap must be added in the case of the 
 University and Scientifics. At the same time and place 
 the single-scull race for the silver cup (offered by the 
 Southworth brothers of West Springfield, Mass., 
 George C. S. Southworth of 63 and Mace S. South- 
 worth of 68, elaborately ornamented from designs by 
 Hamilton Wallis of 63, and costing about $300) was 
 entered into by five contestants, whose names and times 
 were as follows: E. T. Owen, 14:1 i>; George E. 
 Dodge, 14:35- * J W. H. Lee, 14:57 ; C. W. Gould, 15:3; 
 and T. G. Peck, 15:20, the first and last of them be 
 longing to 71, the others to 70. The fall regatta of 
 1870 was held at the Lake, Oct. 22, and comprised 
 three races : the first for double-scull wherries, the prize 
 being silver goblets. There were three pairs of contest 
 ants announced, all from 71, but one pair withdrew 
 before the race, the other during its progress, and the 
 prizes were won by A. W. Curtis and C. S. Jelley, in 
 16:52. Next was the shell race between Seventy-Three 
 and the Scientifics, won by the former, 22:44 to 23:13 V . 
 
7 HE S TUDENT LIFE. 3 6 1 
 
 In the single-scull race there were two prizes silver 
 cups and four contestants, all from 73 except the first, 
 who was from 72 : W. P. Hall, 17:24^^ ; C. Dewing, 
 18:04; E. R. Troxell, 19:13; S. Merrier, 19:29)0. Last 
 was the large race, for prizes of six miniature golden oars, 
 between Seventy-Three and Seventy-Four, in which the 
 actual times made were 14:34^0 and 14:49)0, but as the 
 Freshmen were allowed a handicap of 203, they won 
 the race by 5 seconds. This, like all the others save the 
 shell, was a 2-mile race, and excited the greatest enthu 
 siasm, crowds of Sophomores and Freshmen rushing 
 along the shores of the lake for a half mile or more, 
 shrieking encouragement each to their own party. 
 Though these later races at the Lake have not attracted 
 so much attention as the initial one, they have all of 
 them been more largely attended and more successful 
 in every way than any of the previous harbor races, 
 heavily-loaded extra trains, and many private convey 
 ances bringing together a very great number of spec 
 tators ; and the wonder is that the spot had not been 
 sooner resorted to. The Navy charters the special 
 train, sells the excursion tickets, supplies the conduct 
 ors, and pockets the profits, if any. The boating men 
 of college are not disposed to look with much favor on 
 the new system introduced last year, and they predict 
 that it will shortly be abandoned, and the barges be 
 exchanged for gigs again. They say that rowing in a 
 barge with a coxswain is demoralizing to those who 
 afterwards row in a shell without one ; and the objec 
 tion seems reasonable. It will be noticed that last year 
 the Scientifics who paid no attention to barge practice, 
 but rowed the race as a matter of form, were victorious 
 in the shell race ; while the University who had worked 
 hard in its barge practice was discomfited in its shell. 
 After the race of June 4, the three heavy barges were 
 
3^2 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 quickly got rid of, as already stated ; and if others are 
 bought hereafter they will doubtless be of the light 
 shell-bottomed variety, by the use of which 73 were 
 victorious in that first trial. It is expected that none 
 but 73 and 74 will enter the barge race of the present 
 summer. Handicapping, too, is a practice which excites 
 a very general disgust. Though the tendency of the 
 Southworth cup is evidently to tempt men who should 
 belong on the University crew, to abandon it in favor of 
 practice with the single-sculls, there are probably enough 
 counteracting influences to prevent this from leading to 
 disastrous results. 
 
 There have been a half-dozen or more irregular re 
 gattas, devised by themselves or outsiders, in which 
 Yale boatmen have taken part. The first was at Hart 
 ford, July 4, 1856, in which the Transit (Scientifics) 
 " was entered in a 3-mile race against the Undine of 
 that city, and the 4-oared shell, Virginia, manned by 
 New York pilots. The Transit led down to the stake- 
 boat, but fouling it in turning, the Virginia reached 
 ahead by a few lengths, and won the first prize, $100. 
 The Transit took the second, a set of colors, and won, 
 besides, no mean reputation for skill as oarsmen." The 
 next was at New London, July 6, 1858, to which boats 
 were invited "from all parts of the world." Nine 
 prizes, amounting in the aggregate to $120, were offered 
 by the citizens, or one for every boat which entered. 
 Wherries, 4-oared, 5-oared, and 8-oared boats were all 
 placed on an equality, and no handicaps allowed. The 
 boats were started separately, at intervals, and rowed 
 over a course of about 4 miles, not measured, around 3 
 stake boats. The only college boats were the two 
 Olympias of the Scientifics, of which the 8-oared club- 
 boat won the first prize ($25) in 32:35, and the 4-oared 
 shell the second ($20), in 35:50, both prizes consisting 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 363 
 
 of silver goblets. " The race must have been replete 
 with interest to those persons who yet cling to the mis 
 taken belief, that whale-boats manned by whalemen, can 
 successfully compete with college-boats owned by stu 
 dents. The Olympia club-boat beat the whale boat 
 entered in this regatta, even allowing handicap, more 
 than 6*2 minutes." A year later, July 4, Yale was 
 beaten at New London : Varuna, in a contest between 
 six-oared boats, coming in the fifth of seven competitors, 
 in 24:27, against 22:28, the best time made ; and, throw 
 ing out two of its oars to engage in a second, 4-oared 
 race, was again beaten by a professional crew. The 
 Yale boats, adapted for New Haven harbor only, were 
 practically disabled by the rough water, which did not 
 injure the whalemen. These winners were urgently in 
 vited to take part in the New Haven race of next day, 
 and offered a chance at the college prizes ; but declined 
 to enter. On that occasion it will be remembered that 
 Varuna beat Olympia 22:26 to 23:37, or 2 s. better than 
 the winning time at New London. The same day, July 
 4, 1859, at Middletown, Yale had better luck, the 
 Atalanta taking the first prize ($60), in 23:10, and the 
 Olympia the second ($30) in 23:30; while the Atalanta 
 of Hartford made 23:40, and the Aliotus, of the same 
 city, being secretly manned by a professional crew, was 
 ruled out for attempted fraud. Still a third race took 
 place on the same day, this time at New Haven, between 
 four of the college boats. The 2.^ mile course was 
 rowed over by Thulia (Freshmen of 62) in 23 m., against 
 23:15 by Eolus (Law students), which was allowed 225. 
 handicap. The prize was a silver goblet. Wenonaand 
 Cymothoe were the other two boats. Next day, July 5, 
 1859, a regatta was held which was " witnessed by nearly 
 1500 people." The race of the three first-class boats 
 for the championship has been already described. In 
 
364 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the second class, 8 boats entered, of which the Wenona 
 (Juniors of 60) took the first prize in 25:30, and the 
 Naiad (with the victorious Thulia crew of the day before) 
 the second, in 26:50. The other boats were : Eolus 
 (Law students), Cymothoe, Lorelei, and Atalanta (Soph 
 omores of 61), and Nautilus and Thulia (Freshmen of 
 62). At Providence, July 4, 1860, Yale won the two 
 prizes ($150 and $90) offered by the citizens, by making 
 " less miserable time than the other boats," which were : 
 Brunonia of Brown University, withdrawn ; Una of 
 Providence, " in sight at the close of the race." and a 
 five-oared boat " not in sight " then. Of the Yale boats, 
 the University shell went over the course in 21:28, and 
 the Thulia (Sophomores of 62), in 22:25. T ms seems 
 to have been the last outside race in which the college 
 took part. Casual mention is made that year of " the 
 Bowdoin regatta " at which one of the members of the 
 University crew was disabled, but nothing more can be 
 learned concerning it. June 23, 1864, there were a 
 couple of impromptu scrub-races, in the first of which 
 the Undine barge won the prize of 30 cents from its 
 competitor the Varuna shell. In the second, the Uni 
 versity, the Sophomores and the Freshmen rowed in the 
 order named. The distance was from the Pavilion to 
 the East Haven shore and return ; and all the boats in 
 the second race suffered from broken wires, unshipped 
 oars, and unnumerable fouls. The last independent 
 harbor -regatta of any importance took place October 
 25, 1865, for the silver cup offered by ex-Commodore 
 Wilbur Bacon. In the shell race, Varuna beat the Uni 
 versity crew of 1866 19:15 to 19:50; in the gig race, 
 Glyuna beat the Undine 19:52 to 20:55 \ anc ^ m tne 
 wherry race, George Adee of 67 beat Frank Brown of 
 66, who had just been pulling bow oar in the University 
 shell. 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 3^5 
 
 In the old days of boating every club had its own 
 distinctive uniform, boat flags, lanterns, etc., and the 
 motley appearance thereby engendered is thus com 
 mented upon by a writer of 1857: "Once or twice a 
 week Chapel street is variegated with men who look as 
 if they had been melted and poured into their tight- 
 fitting white pants. They wear shirts of all the different 
 colors of the rainbow, and carry red and white hand 
 bills on their breasts, informing the curious spectator of 
 the precise spot in the college world from which the 
 bearer hails. In the old times, a modest, dark-blue flannel 
 shirt, with an " A, 54," on the breast, constituted the 
 sole uniform of a boat-club man. A change of our 
 present style of uniforms in this direction, would be ad 
 vantageous." Undoubtedly this matter of uniforms was 
 one of the minor arguments which led to the adoption of 
 the " English-university system " of boating. Under 
 this, the Glyuna "rig" consisted of "dark blue shirt 
 and pants, with red facings, black belt " ; that of Varuna, 
 " blue shirts, trimmed with white, black leather belts 
 with * Varuna and number of class painted in white, 
 blue pants, red caps" ; that of Undine, " blue shirts with 
 stars on collar, white U on the front, with trimmings, 
 blue pants." Each club, besides an American ensign 
 for the stern, and the champion flag or flags it might at 
 times hold, possessed special colors of its own for the 
 bow, thus: (i) "Blue burgee, with Glyuna and fouled 
 anchor, blue burgee with Glyuna alone"; (2) "red 
 jack with Varuna in white " ; (3) " blue jack, with U 
 in German text worked in center." These uniforms 
 were never much worn, however, and while 69 was in 
 college, even before the general clubs were abandoned, 
 had become almost wholly obsolete. The class clubs 
 have not adopted any elaborate rig nor are they likely 
 to. Of late years, the only uniform practically known 
 
FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 to the college, is a rough blue blouse of flannel, worn 
 by the members of a University or Freshman six " in 
 training" for the race against Harvard. Sometimes a 
 peculiar style of hat or trousers is also affected by them. 
 The ordinary rig while racing or practising consists 
 simply of drawers and sleeveless undershirt. Handker 
 chiefs are sometimes worn about the head, and in prac 
 tice trips the shirts are often dispensed with, especially 
 by the University crew. In June, 1853, was procured 
 a blue silk burgee, heavily fringed with white silk, with 
 a white star in the center, surrounded by six smaller 
 ones (probably representing the number of boats then 
 in the Navy)," which has served ever since as a Com 
 modore s flag. 
 
 The history of the aquatic contests between Yale 
 and Harvard may be appropriately divided into two 
 periods : the first embracing the irregular trials of the nine 
 years, iS52- 6o ; the second, the seven regular University 
 races of the successive years, i864-- 7o. James M. 
 Whiton of 53 has the credit of instituting the initial 
 contest, which took place at the town of Center Harbor, 
 on Lake Winnepiseogee, New Hampshire, in August, 
 1852, "as announced in the brilliant red papers, indus 
 triously circulated through all that region." " Harvard 
 was at first 16th to assent to a regatta, and required 
 much persuasion, but finally representatives of Yale 
 and Harvard accepted the invitation of the hotel-keeper 
 at the Lake, who paid all expenses, in view of the crowd 
 of spectators which the race would attract to his house. 
 The Undine, partly manned from the shore on the day 
 of the race, the Halcyon, under the name of Shawmut, 
 and manned by the Shawmut crew of 53, and the Ata- 
 lanta, a four-oared race-boat, hired in New York and 
 named for the occasion, and which was not allowed to 
 compete, were entered by Yale, though Halcyon was 
 
THE S TUDENT LIFE. 
 
 her champion. Harvard entered the Oneida. The 
 first day, the third of August, was clear, a^nd the little 
 town of Center Harbor was fairly crowded with specta 
 tors. A * scrub-race came off in the morning, and a 
 handsome silk flag, obtained by private subscription, 
 was handsomely won by the Oneida. In the afternoon 
 the decisive trial was had, and in a two-mile pull to 
 windward, up to the town from a stake-boat placed down 
 the lake, the Harvard boat beat by two lengths, win 
 ning the first prize, a pair of silver-mounted black-wal 
 nut sculls. On the second day appointed [Thursday, 
 August 5], a violent rain put a damper on the sport, 
 and compelled the valiant marines to roll ten-pins, 
 smoke, drink, and what not. In the afternoon, how 
 ever, by the consent of all, the second prize, a silver- 
 tipped boat-hook, was awarded the Shavvmut (Halcyon), 
 as having been second in Tuesday s race. Eventually 
 the storm lulled, and as a token of respect to the few 
 visitors assembled, the uniforms were brought out, the 
 oars manned, and a sort of dog-trot rowing was exhib 
 ited, and then songs were sung, and cheers were given 
 until our throats were sore, and all said Well done. 
 A pleasant trip to Plymouth terminated the. entertain 
 ment of the week." 
 
 The next regatta took place on the Connecticut river 
 at Springfield, Saturday, July 21, 1855, in response to a 
 challenge from Yale, sent at the time of the Fourth-of- 
 July race, two weeks and a half before, when Har 
 vard failed to put in an appearance. " Crews were 
 picked and favorite boats manned by both colleges, and 
 they arrived in Springfield on Friday, to examine their 
 course and look about a little. Yale entered Nereid 
 and Nautilus. Harvard, Y. Y., four oars, thirty-two 
 feet, no coxswain ; and Iris, eight oars, forty feet, with 
 the same coxswain who steered the Oneida, three years 
 
368 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 before. Undine, four oars, was also present from Har 
 vard, but was not entered. Col. James M. Thompson 
 of Springfield was umpire, and the two Yale judges 
 were George W. Smalley of 53, now London corres 
 pondent of the Tribune, and George W. James of Brook 
 lyn, builder of Yale s favorite boat, Nereid. The prize 
 was a beautiful set of silk boat-flags, pennant, jack and 
 ensign, offered by the citizens of Springfield. A handi 
 cap of ns-per oar was allowed the smaller boats. 
 The course was three miles, half down stream and 
 back, and the actual times made were : Iris, 22111. : 
 Y. Y., 22:47 ; Nereid, 24111. ; and Nautilus 25m. ; which 
 the handicap allowed the last three boats would change 
 to 22:3, 23:38 and 24:38, respectively. Nereid of Yale 
 took the lead at the start and kept it for the first 400 
 yards, but at the stake-boat the Harvard crews were 
 ahead, and so they came in amid the cheers of thou 
 sands of spectators. In the evening, three of the Y. Y. 
 crew, and three of the Union club of Boston, manned 
 the Nereid, working her with the Iris s oars, and went 
 over the course against time. Though unpractised to 
 gether, and with a coxswain who had never been over 
 the course before, they pulled the favorite Yale boat over 
 the three miles in 21:45, or 155. less than the winning 
 eight-oared Iris had made the distance. This fully sub 
 stantiated the Nereid s merits and the superiority of the 
 Boston and Harvard oarsmen. The Harvard men 
 were, it is true, of much more powerful physical devel 
 opment than those of Yale, but they also showed much 
 more skill and coolness in handling their oars. The 
 stroke of the Yale boats was very convulsive and quick 
 and almost impossible to maintain for any distance. 
 Many friends of both colleges were present and the 
 excitement was intense. The news of the result was 
 sent far and wide by telegraph, and of the extra Repub- 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 369 
 
 iy containing an account of the race, more than 2000 
 copies were sold, before the contestants started home 
 wards, the Yale men at 7 o clock, the Harvard clubs, 
 three hours later." 
 
 The Lit. for October following thus mentioned the 
 race: "Just before the close of last summer term a 
 regatta occurred at Springfield, between two Harvard 
 boats and two of our own Navy. The latter were badly 
 beaten, but we dislike to dwell on particulars. We hope 
 our boys will improve their system of rowing, and do 
 better next time." Two years later, a writer in the 
 same magazine makes the sarcastic suggestion, " that if 
 we should ever, in the course of human events, become 
 so rash as to challenge Harvard to another race, the 
 following rules be adopted on that occasion: 
 
 " i. For three weeks previous to the race, the Yale Navy shall 
 resolve itself into a committee of the whole to brag. 
 
 2. No boat shall be allowed to enter from Yale, which will not 
 give bonds to keep in sight of the last boat of the Harvard crews. 
 
 3. No man shall be chosen for the racing crew who does not 
 weigh over two hundred and fifty pounds, and is not able to hold 
 two pounds at arm s length for the space of five seconds. 
 
 4. The crew shall be required to diet themselves on raw beef 
 and oat meal, for six weeks before the race. 
 
 5. The captain of the boat chosen to compete with Harvard, 
 must stand up when the wind is blowing against him ; must steer 
 into the middle of the opposing current, and must run the boat into 
 the stake-boat while attempting to turn around it. 
 
 6. The strokes of the oars must be at the rate of twenty a sec 
 ond, and must take a sweep of six inches. 
 
 4 7. The crew of the Yale boat must be allowed to look at the 
 prize before it is awarded to Harvard. " 
 
 Though the credit of starting the first regatta (1852) 
 belongs to Yale, Harvard claims the honor of originat 
 ing the proposition to institute a " union-college regatta," 
 to occur at stated intervals, either annual or otherwise, 
 and be shared in by as many colleges as possible. In 
 
370 FOUR YEARS *AT YALE. 
 
 support of this plan, a meeting was held at New Haven, 
 May 26, 1858, to which Harvard, Brown, Trinity and 
 Yale each sent a delegate, while representatives of Dart 
 mouth and Columbia were expected but failed to appear. 
 It was there voted : " That the regatta of that year be 
 held on Friday, July 23, and that the place be Springfield 
 provided sufficient pecuniary inducements be offered by 
 the citizens thereof ; that at each regatta the time and 
 place of holding the next one be determined ; that none 
 but academical undergraduates (including the graduat 
 ing class) take part therein that each college enter as 
 many boats as it chose, and row them with or without 
 coxswains ; that the course be three statute miles in 
 length, and that an allowance of 12 s. per oar be given 
 the smaller boats ; that the position of the boats be de 
 termined by lot ; that each college entering appoint an 
 umpire, and the umpires a referee ; and that a set of 
 silk colors with suitable inscriptions be given the win 
 ning boat, the cost of the same not to exceed $25, and 
 to be met by the entrance fees required of the contest 
 ing boats." The secretary was also instructed to invite 
 other colleges to join the association, and take part in 
 the coming and subsequent races. Six days before the 
 time appointed for the race, Saturday night, July 17, 
 1858, while the Yale boat was taking a practice pull on 
 the river at Springfield, a collision with another craft 
 overturned it, and its stroke oarsman, George E. Dun 
 ham of 59, sank to the bottom and was drowned. This 
 melancholy accident of course broke up the race, and 
 the crews from Yale and Harvard those from Brown 
 and Trinity not having arrived separated without mak 
 ing arrangements for any future 1 contest. 
 
 A meeting of delegates from the four colleges was 
 held at Providence, February 23 following, and the 
 arrangements of the year before again adopted. It was 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 37 * 
 
 also voted that the next regatta be held on July 22, fol 
 lowing, either at Springfield or Worcester ; but doubtless 
 the sad recollections of the disaster at the former place 
 induced a change of locality, for Lake Quinsigamond 
 was ultimately selected, and all the University races 
 have since been held there. It lies some two miles from 
 the city of Worcester, and is, in round numbers, 40 
 miles from Cambridge and 120 miles from New Haven. 
 There, on the afternoon of Tuesday, July 26, 1859, was 
 held the first " union-college regatta" ; four boats from 
 three colleges rowing over the three-mile course, half 
 down the lake and return. Harvard won, in 19:18 ; 
 followed by Yale, in 20:18; by Avon of Harvard, in 
 21:13, and finally by Atalanta of Brown University, in 
 24:40. One of the Yale crew, a Lit. editor of 60 writes 
 as follows : " After getting clear of the Avon, which, 
 through accident doubtless, fouled us, we came in about 
 half way between the two Harvard boats, having the 
 double satisfaction of seeing the colors which the Harvard 
 won, and winning for our betting friends the sums which 
 they had staked against the Avon. Meanwhile the Har 
 vard crew assured us that, in spite of our short practice 
 and the fouling, we had come in nearer to them than 
 any other boat ever did. 
 
 " But on Wednesday, July 27, was the final race for 
 prizes offered by the city. Only the Harvard entered 
 against us, and after drawing the inside, we took position 
 at 22 minutes past 2. The Harvard took the lead, but 
 about a mile up we closed with her and passed her, her 
 bow fouling our starboard oars. Getting clear by a pecu 
 liar maneuvre of the coxswain, who, catching the Har 
 vard s bow in his hand, magnanimously refused to strap 
 it to the Yale s stern, we rounded the stake-boat first. 
 The Harvard, . however, turned in splendid style and 
 lapped us before we started on the home stretch. Com- 
 
37 2 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 ing up abreast of us, for more than a mile the race was 
 stern and stern, sometimes one leading a few inches and 
 then the other, while the 10,000 spectators along the 
 shore endeavored to add a degree of intensity to the 
 excitement by cheers and shouts. But to see those red 
 turbans beside us was all we could think of, and men 
 shouted Pull, Yale! * Pull, Harvard! indifferently 
 to us, for we hardly heard it. So down the Lake we 
 came, till, a quarter of a mile from home, Harvard led 
 a clear length, and our stroke which had been, so they 
 tell us, 48 to the minute, began to flag, but as the stroke- 
 oar called to us for a final home spurt we responded 
 (how, we cannot one of us tell), and pulled by Harvard, 
 beating her a length and a half, 19:14 to 19:16, better 
 ing her time of the day before by 4 seconds, and our 
 own by 64 ! 
 
 " To say that we were excited would be ridiculous. 
 To say that we were mad would be to forget that we 
 never pulled a stroke so steady, or so cool and power 
 ful. But after all our reverses, after continual ridicule 
 and derision, both at home and abroad, to find our 
 selves in less than twenty minutes the victors of that 
 world-known Harvard crew, to see the famous red tur 
 bans tossed overboard, and hear the roaring cheers ring 
 up along the whole length of the Lake, was too sudden 
 a change. We cannot deny that while sedate graduates 
 crowded to meet us, and actually walked into the Lake 
 without knowing where they went, and grey-haired Vale 
 boys spoiled their best beavers as they dashed them 
 together, that the crew who were sitting in their frail 
 shell more steadily than ever before, and pulling with an 
 easier swing, were really wilder in their joy than any 
 spectators could be, and felt a keener glow of spirit. 
 And when they crowded up and shook us till they shook 
 out of us what little breath there was left, and almost 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 373 
 
 shook us to pieces, our pride or training even would not 
 have kept our nerves quiet, but that this excitement 
 seemed as nothing compared with that last half mile. 
 
 " But even in success it was impossible not to regret 
 the disappointment of those who had treated us so hand 
 somely, and who took their reverses in so fair and manly 
 a spirit. It was the last time they were to pull together, 
 a crew that had never been beaten, who, with their boat, 
 had for two years held the championship of the Conti 
 nent. The latter part of the evening found most of us in 
 the Union Club Rooms, where everything was provided 
 for our taste, and we showed most satisfactorily that we 
 were no longer * on diet. You know what a noise there 
 was in New Haven; how even the sanctity of the col 
 lege bell was violated, and no one has been expelled for 
 it ; and how the gladdest and wildest were the old patri 
 archs who should have been most dignified." 
 
 The names of the winning crew were : H. L. 
 Johnson ( 60) stroke, C. T. Stanton ( ? 6i), H. W. 
 Camp ( 60), J. H. Twichell ( 59), C. H. Owen ( 60), F. 
 H. Colton ( 61), bow, H. Watkins ( 59), coxswain. Five 
 of them were afterwards commissioned officers in the 
 war. It should be mentioned that the terrific stroke of 
 48 to 60 to the minute, kept up by the Yale crew in this 
 race, was necessitated by the shortness of the oars, 
 which, by a blunder of the builder, were only io)4 feet 
 long. Spite of this drawback, and spite of the foul, the 
 time made (19:14) was the fastest ever made in America 
 to that date, and has never been equaled by a 6-oared 
 American crew, carrying an adult coxswain. The Gersh 
 Banker of the Ward brothers which next year made 
 18:37 was fully equipped, and had a 4o-pound boy for 
 coxswain. Before the second day s race of 59, bets of 
 $100 to $5 were freely offered in favor of Harvard, and 
 a member of the crew relates that the assurance of a 
 
374 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Yale man that he had accepted such a bet " was cher 
 ished as the only word of encouragement we could recol 
 lect for weeks." 
 
 This was Yale s first aquatic triumph, and next year, 
 under its inspiration, each one of the three lower classes 
 challenged the corresponding Harvard class to a trial of 
 oars, at the time of the " union-college regatta," for 
 which, of course, a University crew was also promised. 
 The Harvard Juniors declined, while the two lower 
 classes accepted the challenge. The Lit. for October, 
 1860, says: "For some time back there have been 
 vague rumors floating about college, in regard to an 
 imaginary regatta, said to have come off at Worcester 
 at the end of last term, in which Yale College, from 
 Alpha to Omega, was emphatically wiped out. Were 
 you up to Worcester ? was the pointed, and we might 
 add impertinent question, which was propounded to 
 every new-comer on his arrival here at the beginning of 
 the term. A terrific and crusty No was the invariable 
 reply, until the interested enquirer began to doubt the 
 reality of boat races in general, and of the Worcester 
 races in particular. We have endeavored to unravel the 
 mystery which has seemingly surrounded this affair, and 
 the first fruit of our research is the establishment of the 
 fact that the Worcester races of last July [27 and 28?] 
 were neither imaginary nor mythical, but a historical 
 and painful reality." 
 
 In the freshman race, though the Glyuna of Yale was 
 a much better boat than the Thetis of Harvard, the 
 latter won, in 19:40 to the former s 20:20. In the 
 sophomore race, Harvard (Haidee) again won, in 20:17 ; 
 the Thulia of Yale giving up just after turning the 
 stake-boat on account of the sudden illness of one of its 
 crew. " Next came the race of the day. A rope had 
 been stretched across the foot of the lake, and attached 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 375 
 
 to it, at regular intervals were small blocks of wood, 
 against which the stem of every boat was to be placed 
 before the start was made. The Harvard, the Yale, 
 and the Brown had entered the lists, and at the word 
 Give way ! all got offin fine style. The Harvard with a 
 tremendous leap shot ahead of the other two ; the Yale 
 pressed plose after, while the Brown at once fell behind." 
 These relative positions were kept to the end, the time 
 being 18:53, J 9 : 5> anc ^ 2I:I 5- The Brunonians, with 
 a boat that, though built specially for the occasion, was 
 poor and almost feather weight, " showed their pluck 
 by entering the race, and their judgment by backing the 
 Harvard." The champion colors were presented the 
 winning crew by Charles H. Owen of 60, who took part 
 in the race of the year before, and wrote the account of 
 it that has been quoted. 
 
 In the "citizen s regatta of the following day, Har 
 vard refused to row, one of the crew being, as alleged, 
 unwell. As this made some hard feeling, it was pro 
 posed that four should be picked from each crew to 
 enter the second day s race, but as Harvard had a 
 shorter boat, which could turn the buoy sooner, and was, 
 moreover, not burdened by a coxswain, the unequal 
 offer was at once declined by Yale. A second race 
 was, however, arranged between the Yale sophomore 
 and the Harvard sophomore and freshman boats ; but, 
 just after the start, the first mentioned was badly fouled 
 by the second, and withdrew, leaving the Harvard 
 Freshmen to defeat at their ease their sophomore rivals. 
 Lastly, Yale entered the race against the Gersh Banker, 
 manned by the Ward brothers, the Union, a crack club 
 of Boston, and the Quickstep, a Worcester boat; in 
 .which the Wards won the first prize ($100), in the then 
 unprecedented time of 18:37, the Yale the second ($60), 
 in 19:10, followed by the Union, in 19:41 ; but, as an 
 
37 6 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 extraordinary handicap of 15 s. per oar was allowed this 
 boat, Yale gained the second prize by only a single 
 second. 
 
 This second and last trial of the union-college re 
 gatta system proved conclusively that it was a failure, 
 Brown having twice entered, only to be hopelessly de 
 feated, and Trinity and Columbia having failed to enter 
 at all. Henceforth, confessedly, as always actually, the 
 contest was confined to the two great colleges. Next 
 year, there was no talk of a race, on either side, the Yale 
 corporation, at its meeting of 1860, having forbidden the 
 students to enter any such during term time, and Com 
 mencement at Harvard coming a fortnight earlier than 
 at Yale. And so there was an interval of four years 
 before the " second period " that of annual University 
 races was inaugurated. As a matter of convenience, 
 however, it may be well to record at this time the 
 minor trials that have taken place within this second 
 period, before going on to describe the 7 great Univer 
 sity races, 1864-70. And it would aid to an intelligent 
 understanding of boating matters between Yale and 
 Harvard, on the part of the general public, if the news 
 paper writers, in making their comparisons and deduc 
 tions, would hereafter disregard those irregular and 
 preparatory contests of the 9 years ending with 1860, as 
 well as the minor trials now to be mentioned, and would 
 confine themselves simply to the annual University races 
 from 1864 onward. 
 
 The first great University struggle, of July 29,1864, 
 was preceded by a sophomore ( 66) race in which Har 
 vard won, 20:15 to T 9 : 55 one of the Yale crew giving 
 out at the buoy. Next day the Harvard Sophomores 
 were beaten by a professional crew, in 19:8. A year 
 later, Saturday, July 29, the day after the second great 
 University race, in which Yale had won the flag in the 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 377 
 
 then unprecedented time of 17:42^, the University 
 crew entered the " citizens regatta " and won the first 
 prize ($200), in 19:5 against the 19:20 of the Harvard 
 University crew, its only contestant, whose time the day 
 before had been 18:9. The difference in the " times " of 
 the two days is explained by the change in weather, a 
 breeze, occasionally amounting to a light gale, blowing 
 throughout the second day s race. In 1866, July 27, the 
 Lawrence Scientifics of Harvard beat the Sheffield 
 Scientifics of Yale, 19:38 to 18:54. The Harvard crew 
 in this race were notably larger, older, and in every 
 way better men than those in the Yale boat. The dif 
 ferent characters of the two schools would account for 
 this, the Lawrence being largely made up of academical 
 graduates, while the Sheffield is more on a parallel with 
 the academical department, and, though stronger in 
 point of numbers, is far weaker in the graduate element. 
 In 1867, July 19, the Yale Freshmen ( 70) beat those of 
 Harvard, 19:38 to 20:6. The stake was turned in 23 
 seconds. Harvard claimed a foul on the way out, and 
 Yale a foul at the stake, but both were disregarded by 
 the judges. Six silver goblets, valued at $150, were 
 awarded the winning crew, by the mayor of Worcester, 
 in behalf of the citizens, and William Blaikie of Harvard 
 presented the champion flags. Next year the Yale 
 Sophomores ( 70) refused a challenge from Harvard, as 
 did also the Freshmen ( 71), and so nothing occurred but 
 the regular fifth University race. In 1869, July 23, the 
 Harvard Freshmen ( 72) beat those of Yale, \^\^A to 
 19:30. One of the latter crew had belonged to it but 
 a week, and another was sick when the race was pulled. 
 In 1870, June 22, at Lake Saltonstall, the Yale Scientif 
 ics (two of whose crew had pulled in the race of 1866) 
 beat the Harvard Scientifics, 20:10 to 22:33}^, the 
 latter crew being badly demoralized by hard travel and 
 
37 8 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 want of sleep. July 22, the Yale Freshmen ( 73) beat 
 those of Harvard, 19:45 to 20, though the Freshmen 
 from Brown won the flags, in 19:21. In review of what 
 has been said, it seems that, aside from the seven regu 
 lar University trials, 1864-70, Yale has won but 2 of 5 
 general races with Harvard, and only 3 of 10 special 
 or class races, the first regatta of 1852 being included 
 in this latter category. Of the 5 general races, only 3 
 were for the championship, and these were won by 
 Harvard. 
 
 And now, at last, for the " second period " proper, com 
 prising the seven annual University races. Not being 
 allowed in term-time, they have always been rowed in 
 the month of July, on Friday, the day after the Yale 
 Commencement, which follows that of Harvard by an 
 interval of two or three weeks. The " Seniors " of the 
 Yale crew are therefore in reality " graduates " of 24 
 hours standing, and those of Harvard, of a more appre 
 ciable length of time, but both are still held to be " un 
 dergraduates " within the meaning of the regatta regu 
 lations. The Yale crew go up to the Lake a little less 
 than a week before the race, or as soon as the under 
 class members have completed their examinations : 
 while the Harvards, having finished their college duties 
 earlier, can and usually do take their places there in 
 advance of them. Boat houses are in readiness to 
 receive their frail shells, 6-oared and without cox 
 swains, and quarters at some quiet farm-house, near 
 the water, are secured for the men themselves. Prac 
 tice pulls, under the direction of their trainers, are 
 taken two or three times a day, but no races are entered 
 into save those " against Time " simply. The " champion 
 flags " are made of silk and cost about $60, of which 
 sum each college advances half, though recently the 
 citizens of Worcester have defrayed the expenses of 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 379 
 
 the flags. One is blue, having the gilt inscriptions : 
 " College Regatta, Champion, University, Worcester, 
 July, , 1 8 " ; the other is an American ensign, upon 
 the six white stripes of which the names of the six vic 
 torious oarsmen are afterwards inscribed. The flags 
 won by Yale are preserved in the Art Building, in the 
 little room which opens out of the south gallery and 
 surmounts the chapel-street entrance, though until 
 1870 they were kept in the room of the Commodore. 
 The flags won by Harvard are preserved in an alcove of 
 the Library. A partisan of the vanquished crew pre 
 sents the flags to the victors, but the same colors never 
 do duty twice, as is the case in the Yale Navy races. 
 The course is 3 miles, around a stake-boat, which must 
 be turned to the right, i )4 miles up the Lake, at which 
 point are stationed a boat-load of representatives of 
 both colleges, and of the press, and one judge for each 
 college. The chief judge from each college, together 
 with the referee or umpire, occupy a boat at the start 
 ing point. The judges are graduates of the colleges 
 they represent and are usually members of former Uni 
 versity crews, but the referee is apt to be a professional 
 or amateur oarsman, belonging to neither college. Posi 
 tions of the boats are dravva by lot, and the " go " is 
 usually given by a pistol-shot, after the warning, " Are 
 you ready ? " Another shot is also fired as each boat 
 crosses the line on the return. Perhaps a quarter of a 
 mile from the causeway near which the boats start is 
 " Regatta Point," whereon raised seats are erected, 
 sometimes with a protecting roof of canvas, not unlike, 
 though less elaborate than, the " grand stand " of a 
 racing park. Here also, upon a platform, built out into 
 the water, a brass band discourses music in the inter 
 vals of waiting. For admission to the Point a quarter- 
 dollar fee was formerly required, and for a like addi. 
 
380 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 tional sum a " reserved seat " was also promised. But 
 the promise was never kept, and latterly the single 
 entrance ticket costs a half-dollar, and the buyer thereof 
 runs his own chance of gaining a seat, as in reality he 
 always did. 
 
 Both the shores are lined with spectators, for half the 
 distance to the stake-boat, and the causeway is fairly 
 black with the dense mass of human heads, while a lit 
 tle steamer and innumerable smaller craft of every vari 
 ety ply about the Lake in the times between the races. 
 But " Regatta Point " is the real headquarters. Here 
 are assembled " the wealth and fashion and beauty" of 
 the city. Here are crowded the largest groups of col 
 legians. Here the " start " can be best witnessed. 
 Here the chances of the " home stretch " can be earliest 
 made out. Here arise those deafening yells of " Yale ! 
 Yale!" " Arvad ! Arvad!" " Roh ! roh ! roh ! " 
 " Rah ! rah ! rah ! " as the boats fly past. Here occur 
 those insane hand-shakings, and embracings and fantas 
 tic gyrations of the men whose college has triumphed. 
 And here, after taking their champion colors at the 
 judges stand, the victors row up to receive from the 
 mayor the prizes offered by the citizens, and the plau 
 dits and congratulations of the multitude. The attend 
 ance, according to newspaper accounts, varies from 
 15,000 to 25,000 people, though it is probable that the 
 former number has never been much exceeded. Long, 
 heavily-loaded trains of steam-cars run hourly from the 
 city to the " Lake station," which is, perhaps, something 
 more than half a mile from the Point, and the common 
 highway is taken up with an endless procession of car 
 riages and pedestrians, hastening to the race. Every 
 imaginable vehicle is pressed into the service, and the 
 prices demanded by the honest hackmen are something 
 incredible. In the city, hotels and restaurants are 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 3 s J 
 
 crowded to suffocation, and the misfortunes of those 
 who are excluded from them are only exceeded by the 
 misfortunes of those who gain admission. 
 
 Previous to 1866, as has been intimated, " the races" 
 were extended over two days. First came the regular 
 college regatta, and next day the " citizens regatta" in 
 which the college boats were invited to take part. The 
 night between these two days .was devoted to lawlessness 
 and uproar. Beginning with the year mentioned, all the 
 races were confined to a single day. First come those 
 between citizen or professional oarsmen, then those be 
 tween college classes or departments, and finally the 
 great University race itself. This usually happens about 
 4.30 or 5 o clock, in season to allow a few of the most 
 active to get away on the early evening trains. The 
 great body of the college men, however, leave the city 
 on the night expresses, between 10 and n o clock, 
 though many remain until the following day. The prac 
 tice of staying behind for the avowed purpose of " mak 
 ing a night of it" has gradually become obsolete ; Yale, 
 of late years, having had little cause for rejoicing, and 
 grown too sullenly sorrowful under defeat to seek relief 
 in the flowing bowl. Now-a-days, after the race is over, 
 and the Yale men have obtained a supper of some sort, 
 they moodily hang about the corridors of the Bay State 
 House the only hotel in the city, and a very poor one 
 listening to the exultant chattering of the victors, until 
 the approach of train-time, when, with a gloomy resolve 
 u never to come to another race," they silently steal 
 away. The defeat of five years ago, was met with a far 
 different spirit : " That night the vestibule of the Bay 
 State was even more densely crowded, this time by a 
 weary throng, but disappointment did not keep the Yale 
 men quiet. They hurrahed again and again for our 
 Stroke ! for our Bow ! for our Port Bow ! for our 
 
3^2 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Starboard Waist ! for our Port Waist ! for our Fresh 
 man Class ! and for everything under the sun connected 
 with Yale. In the singing, the glee club, many mem 
 bers of which were present, far surpassed all tuneful 
 attempts of Harvard. The latter called often for the 
 bag pipes, which was given with great spirit. The night 
 trains bore away a large part of the student element, 
 but enough remained to * shake up (as one expressed it) 
 a rousing old drunk. The scene of the festivities was 
 the hotel dining room, where all night long discord 
 reigned supreme, and the rosy was mixed in quantities 
 that would have set jolly Dick Swiveller in ecstacies. 
 Whippers-in were sent out to bring in every man, red 
 and blue ; sentries were placed at the doors and win 
 dows to prevent any from escaping, and then all got 
 comfortably tight and broke the crockery, winding up 
 with a dance on the tables. A few restless spirits 
 amused themselves by going up stairs to throw bottles 
 through the sky-light, or down stairs to sack the wine 
 closets. In the morning the various headaches and 
 sleepless eyes, after paying a bill of $400 for the even 
 ing s sport, dispersed to their several homes." 
 
 Another amusement of the " restless spirits" was the 
 smashing of the furniture and windows of their rooms, 
 by way of indemnification for the miserable accommo 
 dations and exorbitant prices of the hotel. For some 
 years, Worcester, through fear of losing the patronage 
 of the dear students, let the rowdies among them have 
 their own way, but latterly extra police have been im 
 ported from other cities, to supersede the " special 
 ones formerly improvised for the occasion, whose motley, 
 guerrilla-like appearance, and general helplessness, used 
 to excite the derision of all, and these have preserved 
 order on Regatta Day, and night. A few years ago, 
 the agent of the associated press invented and tele- 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 3 8 3 
 
 graphed all over the country the story that a collegian 
 had been arrested and fined in the police court for un 
 shipping a watch-sign in front of a jeweler s window, 
 which story was improved upon by the editors so as to 
 represent the unfortunate youth as " the purloiner of a 
 gold-watch, valued at $150." Every year similar lies 
 and exaggerations appear in the published accounts of 
 the race, and as most of these have to be " written up" 
 beforehand, their blunders and misstatements are often 
 ludicrous in the extreme, to one who is acquainted with 
 the actual facts. From his knowledge of what happened 
 last year, " our special correspondent" makes a shrewd 
 guess of what will be likely to happen this year, and 
 writes out his surmises as something which has actually 
 taken place. Sometimes he guesses right ; oftener he 
 falls into error. 
 
 "Blue" is the color of Yale, "red" that of Harvard, 
 and every human being in Worcester " shows" one of 
 them on Regatta Day, the latter being the predomi 
 nant one among the citizens, though the hackmen, boot 
 blacks, and other public officers announce their impar 
 tiality by affecting both. Strips of ribbon at the button 
 hole, hat-bands, flaunting neck-ties, badges impressed 
 with the college name or monogram in gold or silver, all 
 serve to announce the connections or sympathies of the 
 wearer, blue or red. The ladies, too, in numberless 
 ways, likewise display their colors ; and even the execra 
 bly printed cards, on which are incorrectly indicated 
 the names and statistics of the oarsmen, are stained 
 with the partisan pigments, " And you can take your 
 choice for five cents," shout the hawkers of them. Most 
 of the other ^colleges have patterned after the leading 
 two in adopting distinctive " colors," the " brown" of 
 Brown University being the happiest choice of any, 
 and their representatives often display them at the race, 
 
3 8 4 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 sometimes in connection with the blue or red. The 
 Brunonians usually sympathize with Harvard, the Colum 
 bians with Yale, though neither these nor other outside 
 colleges are largely represented, save in the event of a 
 ball-match in which they have taken part. The mem 
 bers of a victorious ball-club display, in connection with 
 their own, the badges of the college they have van 
 quished. The comparative crowds which Yale and 
 Harvard send up to witness the race vary somewhat in 
 different years, but the latter has usually the largest rep 
 resentation. Time is in favor of Yale though three- 
 fourths the undergraduates finish work a week before 
 the race but locality is in favor of its rival. Lying less 
 than 50 miles from Boston, within a loo-mile radius of 
 which a large part of the Harvard men, graduates and 
 undergraduates, reside, the Lake can be visited by 
 them without any great loss of time. But to the Yale 
 graduate in New York, almost 200 miles away, it means 
 a two days pilgrimage ; and to the undergraduate, a 
 week wasted from vacation, and an unusually tiresome 
 journey to a distant home. The prospect of victory of 
 course largely affects the attendance. Unusually large 
 crowds went up from Yale in 1866, and again in 1869, 
 on both of which occasions, Harvard, expecting to be 
 vanquished, sent few representatives. In 1868, on the 
 other hand, the Yale attendance was very slim indeed, 
 and the Harvard unusually large. But there are always 
 enough at the annual race to make the sight at the Lake 
 an enlivening one, whose counterpart can be found no 
 where else in America. 
 
 On the night preceding the race, there is a " citizens 
 ball " in one of the large public halls of the town, in 
 which the students to some extent take part, though less 
 now than formerly when it was held on the night 
 between the two racing days. The college colors are 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 3 8 5 
 
 liberally and often tastefully displayed in the costumes 
 of the lady dancers. Except in the event of a base-ball 
 trial, which takes place the afternoon before or the 
 morning of the race, Yale men, at least, do not of late 
 usually go to the city until within a few hours of the 
 time when the latter is rowed. The midnight and 
 morning trains after Commencement Day bring to the 
 scene the larger part of those who come directly from 
 New Haven. There is a good deal of betting, both 
 among the collegians, the general spectators, and the 
 professional gamblers, who assemble at the races and 
 ball-matches, a college contest being about the only 
 thing of the sort in whose sincerity the public place 
 confidence, in other words, which they believe cannot 
 be " bought." Here as elsewhere, " pool-selling " is the 
 favorite mode of gambling among the professionals, but 
 students make none but " square bets " with one another, 
 " in support of " their respective colleges. Odds are 
 usually offered one side or the other, and the course of 
 betting is a pretty fair index of public sentiment as 
 regards the chances of the respective crews. Bets as 
 to "time," absolute or comparative, are also sometimes 
 in favor. In 1866, Harvard could not be induced to 
 bet, and the same to some extent was true in 1869, 
 while in the years between, Yale was equally loth to 
 risk anything. It is only when the betting is about 
 even that much money changes hands, at least among 
 the students, and it is rarely that one of them stakes as 
 much as $100. In 1864, however, a confident Yale 
 man, who accepted every bet offered him, is said to have 
 won $5000. 
 
 The dress of each crew at the time of the race con 
 sists of drawers and sleeveless shirt. Red silk hand 
 kerchiefs are worn about the head by the Harvard men, 
 and blue ones sometimes by those of Yale, though they 
 
 18 
 
386 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 oftener go bareheaded. As the former practise with 
 the upper part of the body naked, their finely sun- 
 browned arms give them a hardier appearance than 
 their paler skinned rivals, though the latter are almost 
 always older and heavier men. At Worcester the Cam 
 bridge crew are almost *" always spoken of as "the Har- 
 vards " ; but " the Yales " is a term less often employed 
 to designate their antagonists. From 1867 onwards, 
 handsome gold medals, costing $50 each, have been 
 given to every member of the winning crew, by the citi 
 zens of Worcester. The face of the medal is die cut 
 and represents a race-crew pulling. " Lake Quinsiga- 
 mond, Worcester," is the inscription, to which perhaps 
 the date of the race is afterwards added. The reverse, 
 in relief, displays a crown and laurel wreath, surround 
 ing a space upon which the name of the winner is after 
 wards engraved. Similar medals, struck in silver, were 
 also given to the winning freshman crews of 1869 and 
 1870, and silver goblets had been presented to them in 
 previous years. According to custom, the defeated 
 party of one year may next year challenge the victor, 
 and the latter may then name the locality of the race, 
 which must of course be on neutral waters. Ever since 
 1866 it has been the general belief that Yale would 
 exchange Worcester for Springfield, should it ever win 
 the opportunity to choose. As it is, Harvard has been 
 urged once or twice by its rival to make the change, but 
 has steadily refused to do so. In April, 1870, delegates 
 from the Harvard crew joined with some Yale represent 
 atives, at their urgent request, in inspecting the courses 
 at Providence and New London. The latter locality 
 was specially favored by Yale, on account of its offer 
 ing a chance for a " straight-away " race, without any 
 turning of stake-boats. But Harvard would not con 
 sent to row there. Yale s trainers, or " coaches " as 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 387 
 
 the English call them, have been professional characters 
 from New York City : William Wood, for the four years 
 1864-67; Dennis Leary, who "coached" the winning 
 70 freshman crew, in 1868 ; Joshua Ward, in 1869 ; and 
 Walter Brown, in 1870. In 1867, Wood came to town 
 at a rather late day, took little interest in the crew, and 
 after inducing them to buy a shell of Laeton (who, it 
 was afterwards reported, never made a 6-oared boat 
 before), went back to the city and stayed there. The 
 shell proved to be utterly worthless, and the one built 
 by McKay to take its place was only received a week 
 before the final race. In view of these facts, Wood s 
 habit of advertising himself as " trainer of the winning 
 Yale crews of 1864-65" is very gratifying to the feel 
 ings of Yale men. For the three years 1866-68, a 
 drizzling shower of rain came with or just at the close 
 of the University race ; the weather of the other four 
 years has been pleasant. 
 
 Before giving the exact statistics of the seven races, 
 it is necessary to mention the outrageous and only too 
 successful attempts that have been made to deprive of 
 their fairly-won laurels the Yale crews of 1865 and 1870, 
 and the complications which have resulted from this 
 last exhibition of foul play on the part of Harvard. At 
 the close of the race of 1865, tne umpires announced 
 the figures of their timekeepers to be, 17:42^ for Yale, 
 18:9 for Harvard, and no objection was made by the 
 referee, Joshua Ward. Accordingly, judges, time keepers 
 and reporters separated, and the official announcement 
 was of course accepted by every one. But the associated 
 press despatch, and the Boston papers of the following 
 day, set the time a minute later in each case, 18:42^ 
 for Yale, 19:9 for Harvard, and so much confusion 
 was there in making the change, that while all the papers 
 announced Yale as the victor, some set the figures as 
 
388 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 18:423^ to 18:9, and others as 17:42^ to 19:9! The 
 explanation of the fraud was this : When the excitement 
 of the race was over, and sober second thought had dis 
 closed the fact that the Yale crew had not only beaten 
 by 70 seconds the best time ever made by the " invincible 
 Harvards " (18:53, in 1860) ; but had bettered by almost 
 a minute the " unprecedented " time of the Ward 
 brothers (18:37, in 1860); that it was in short the best 
 6-oared crew ever known of in America or the world ; 
 the cry was raised of " Impossible ! It can t be so ! A 
 mistake somewhere ! " and so on. Next day the referee 
 not caring to have the " Gersh Banker s " " unprece 
 dented " time wiped out of sight by these college boys 
 after " hearing all the arguments " decided that the 
 " true time " of the boats was a minute later than 
 officially announced with his sanction the clay before : 
 this, too, though both the judges clung to their first de 
 cision. With the Harvard men in control of the Boston 
 papers, and the "professionals" in control of the sport 
 ing press, this decision " 18:42)^ to 19:9 " was thrust 
 upon the country ; and so persistently has it since been 
 enforced by Harvard men, in every way, both at 
 home and abroad, that almost every one has come to 
 accept it as a matter of course. Even the generation of 
 Yale undergraduates who have grown up since then, by 
 hearing the true figures spoken of constantly as a 
 " ridiculous pretension," have gradually grown to distrust 
 them, and accept the false ones ; while at Harvard the 
 latter have come to be honestly believed in by everyone. 
 From the first, the fraud has been carried simply by 
 persistent " pressure," for not the slightest real proof 
 has ever been advanced against the validity of the 
 officially-announced figures. The alleged " impossi 
 bility " of the boat making the time was the strongest 
 argument ever offered to controvert the fact that it did 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 3 8 9 
 
 make it. When, however, in 1868, the Harvard crew 
 came within six seconds of doing as well, and the Wards 
 did even better by 2 seconds, this plea lost its plausi 
 bility. Influenced by this, ancf the growing skepticism 
 concerning the matter, Commodore W 7 ilbur Bacon of 
 65 took the trouble to obtain official statements from 
 the referee and sworn affidavits from well-known, reliable 
 witnesses of the race, and publish them in the form of 
 a letter to Wilkes s Spirit of the Times (copied in the 
 College Courant, Dec. 12, 1868, page 348), which letter 
 proves most conclusively, what every fair-minded man 
 at the race knows was true, that the time made by the 
 Yale boat was really 17:42}^ and no more. To this 
 letter, which of course cannot be quoted here, it is hoped 
 that every Yale man at least will refer, if he has any 
 doubts that his college has produced the best 6-oared 
 amateur crew that the country has yet known of, or that 
 Harvard in denying the fact has been guilty of a dis 
 honor that a dozen successive victories cannot atone 
 for. 
 
 In the race of July 22, 1870, Yale came in in i8m. 
 45 s., followed by Harvard in 20 m. 30 s. ; but the referee 
 gave the flags to Harvard on a claim of foul at the 
 stake-boat, after refusing to hear the evidence by which 
 Yale offered to prove a foul against Harvard before 
 the stake-boat was reached. Though Yale believed the 
 decision of the stake-boat foul to be entirely unjust, it 
 took as a technical cause of grievance this refusal of the 
 referee to give it a chance to prove a previous foul 
 against Harvard, which, if proved, would have given 
 it the race, no matter what happened at the stake-boat, 
 and so challenged Harvard for a new trial on the 
 following day, which challenge was refused. The facts 
 of the race, and the theory of Harvard s action therein, 
 are unanimously believed by Yale men to be as follows : 
 
39 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Harvard, having the inside, with its usual opening 
 spurt leaped a little ahead of Yale, but when both boats 
 were about half-way up the Lake, and the gap between 
 them was fast closing, the former steered across the 
 latter s course, when the Yale boat, rather than run 
 down its rival, as it had a perfect right to do, allowed 
 itself to lose time by being driven in towards the shore. 
 Spite of this delay, Harvard reached the stake less than 
 a boat s length ahead, and in veering out to make a 
 long turn and head off Yale, bumped its stern against 
 the stake, with sufficient force to break its wires and un 
 ship its rudder, and almost grazed upon the -Yale bow. 
 Yale at first held back, then started on again to make 
 the turn ; Harvard meanwhile, having half completed 
 the long turn, holding itself for several seconds at right 
 angles to the course up the Lake and directly in the way 
 of Yale, in order to recover from the exhaustion of 
 repeated spurting, and get breath for the home pull. 
 Under such circumstances, had Yale run it down, it is a 
 question whether the foul should not have been ruled 
 justifiable ; but nothing of the sort really happened, for 
 though spite of the asseverations to the contrary of 
 several eye-witnesses Yale s bow did for a moment 
 glide over Harvard s stern, the latter boat was not 
 injured at all by the shock, for in an instant after, it had 
 completed the turn and was shooting off down the lake 
 again, and its captain s cry of " Now we have em, 
 boys !" shows that there was then no idea of fouling, or 
 disablement, or defeat, entertained by the leading crew. 
 But when the Yale men, at last completing their short 
 turn and grazing the stake in doing it, swept past them, 
 and Harvard saw that the game was hopelessly lost, 
 the advice shrieked by their judge at the stake-boat, 
 that they should cease rowing because theV shell had 
 been maliciously fouled and disabled by Yale, seemed 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 39 1 
 
 worth adopting, as an excuse for unexpected disaster ; 
 and so, with a great display of dragging rudder and 
 broken wires, they leisurely pulled after the victors, put 
 in their claim for a foul, and insisted that the flags 
 should be at once awarded them, even before the stake- 
 boat judges had given in their testimony. When this 
 had all been rendered in support of their claim, the 
 Yale judge at the stake being prevented by indisposition 
 from stating his side of the case, the demand was 
 repeated even more fiercely that Harvard should be 
 proclaimed the victor, and nothing but the most earnest 
 protestations on the part of the Yale judge at the start, 
 prevented the referee from complying, without even 
 the form of a hearing for Yale s claim of a prior foul 
 against Harvard. This hearing was at last grudgingly 
 granted, and the Bay State House and 8 o clock were 
 appointed as the place and time for holding it. To 
 appreciate what happened there, it is necessary to com 
 prehend the facts of the freshman race, which preceded 
 the university contest. 
 
 In June, 1870, the Yale freshman boat club ( 73), 
 challenged the corresponding club of Harvard to a 
 6-oared contest for the freshman championship of the 
 two colleges, at the time and place, and under the usual 
 regulations, of the University race ; and the challenge 
 was in due form accepted. No intimations were given 
 that any other crews would be allowed to enter the race, 
 and the challenges of the freshman sixes of Amherst 
 and Brown were rejected by Yale as a matter of course ; 
 but, nevertheless, under the encouragement of Harvard, 
 the two new colleges sent their freshmen boats to Wor 
 cester. Their captains then called upon the Yale cap 
 tain, formally offered their challenges again, and endeav 
 ored to pursuade the Yale crew to reconsider their 
 determination. They even advanced the idea that, as 
 
39 2 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Harvard had won the freshman ( 72) race of the year 
 before, the outside colleges had understood its present 
 representatives ( 73) to have entire charge of the matter, 
 even to allowing them to participate in the race, in spite 
 of Yale s veto ! The Yale Freshmen, on their part, 
 stated that they simply desired to win the championship 
 from Harvard, and that if they succeeded in this, they 
 were willing to row against their rivals from Amherst and 
 Brown, either on Saturday or Monday, and would place 
 the flags and medals for their competition in this subse 
 quent race. But the terms were not accepted (perhaps 
 because the holding of the race on a subsequent day 
 would allow the Yale Freshmen to better their chances 
 by recalling the two members of their crew who, a fort 
 night before, had been taken away from it and placed in 
 the University boat), and when, on the very day before 
 the race, the Yale and Harvard crews met together for 
 perfecting the final arrangements, the latter in direct 
 disregard of its definite acceptance of a definite chal 
 lenge declared, in so many words, that it would not 
 row the race unless the two new colleges were allowed 
 to enter it. " Yale, being thus pressed to the wall, and 
 seeing that its further refusal would at once be used to 
 place it before the public in a false light, as the breaker- 
 up of the race, the despiser of small colleges, and so 
 forth, at last gave its angry consent to the innovation. 
 Then the arrangements were decided upon, and of course 
 in making them Harvard had its own way in everything, 
 since the other two colleges naturally sided with the 
 one which had befriended them ; and so Yale was thence 
 forth at their mercy. It wanted two turning stakes (a 
 thing desirable, even were there only two crews in the 
 contest), but Harvard said, No, the four boats must all 
 turn about a single stake ; and so on for the rest of Yale s 
 suggestions. In this pleasant frame of mind the four 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 393 
 
 crews entered upon the race. The result is well known : 
 Amherst and Brown started up the left side of the lake 
 together, Yale and Harvard the right side; Amherst being 
 nearest the left shore, Harvard nearest the right. At a 
 distance of perhaps half a mile from the start, the Amherst 
 boat veered to the right and was fouled and disabled by 
 the Brown, which proceeded on its way to the stake, just 
 as the Yale was making a long turn around it, with Har 
 vard not far behind. Brown, by making a skilful short 
 turn inside of Yale then got the start, and came in first 
 in 19:21, followed by Yale in 19:45, and by Harvard in 
 20. On reaching the judges boat, Yale at once put in 
 a claim of foul against Harvard, to which Harvard 
 shortly afterwards added the claim of a foul against 
 Yale, which latter claim was disallowed by the judges. 
 Amherst and Brown likewise laid claims of foul against 
 each other, which were ultimately and rightfully decided 
 in favor of the latter, under the rule forbidding one 
 boat to cross the straight course of another. Had the 
 decision been in favor of Amherst, Yale, which came in 
 second, would have received the flag." 
 
 With these facts concerning the freshman race borne 
 in mind, the farcical character of the " hearing" granted 
 to Yale in the matter of the alleged foulings by Har 
 vard, may be appreciated. When this " hearing" com 
 menced, in a room in the Bay State House, the bow-oar 
 of the freshman crew was the only Yale representative 
 present ; and a policeman had to be brushed aside and 
 an entrance actually forced before others could gain ad 
 mission to the room. It was ruled that none but the 
 bow-oars of the two crews should give any testimony, 
 and the " evidence" was elicited by asking the Harvard 
 representative such " leading" questions as, " Did n t the 
 Yale boat run into you ? " etc. As the Yale stake-boat 
 judge had no evidence to offer, the decision of the point 
 
 1 8* 
 
394 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 was of course in favor of Harvard ; but when the Yale 
 crew attempted to prove that before the stake was 
 reached Harvard had run across their bow and driven 
 them from their course (which claim, if established, 
 would have given them the race), the referee, to quote 
 the word of his own published " card," " refused to con 
 sider any evidence on that, because I [he] thought it had 
 nothing to do with the race" ! This, too, in face of the 
 fact that, five minutes before, he had given the freshman 
 race to Brown, oh an exactly parallel claim, and listened 
 to the evidence by which the Harvard Freshmen unsuc 
 cessfully attempted to prove a foul against their Yale 
 antagonists! In other words, to the injury and injustice 
 of refusing to hear the evidence in support of a claim 
 which, however absurd in itself, Yale had at least a right 
 to make and to prove if it could he added the down 
 right insult of contradicting his own previous rulings, 
 which, though just in themselves, had tended to Yale s 
 disadvantage in the freshman race ! Nothing then re 
 mained for Yale but to challenge its rival for a new trial 
 next clay, which challenge was rejected on the pretexts 
 afterwards admitted to be frivolous that the crew 
 had broken training ; that one of them must leave town 
 that night ; and that they did n t want to snub the 
 referee. This referee, it should be remarked, was a 
 young man of Worcester, named Edwin Brown, scarcely 
 out of his teens in the matter of age, who was either 
 utterly ignorant of the first principles of boating, or was 
 else so completely under Harvard influence as to be 
 easily bullied into disregarding them. That he was 
 weak rather than wicked, in making his unaccountable 
 decisions, seems to be the general impression of the 
 Worcester citizens. 
 
 Three months after the race Yale, meanwhile, hav 
 ing for the most part borne its wrongs in quiet, so far as 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 395 
 
 the public prints were concerned the Harvard Advocate, 
 under date of Oct. 14, with a great affectation of injured 
 innocence, published a series of insulting charges 
 against Yale, and of misrepresentations of its share in 
 the races. In reply to this, the College Courant of Oct. 
 29, prepared a 5-column editorial, entitled " Worcester 
 Once More," rehearsing in plain terms all the facts and 
 incidents of the races, and turning against the Harvard 
 crew the very words advanced by the Advocate in their sup 
 port. This account was accepted by Yale men, in college 
 and out, as the only full and fair printed statement of 
 the unfortunate events at Worcester; and has been 
 freely quoted from in making the present record. A 
 " communication " in reply to it appeared in the Advo 
 cate of Nov. n, and was answered by a Courant edito 
 rial, " Addenda et Corrigenda," Nov. 19, which drew 
 out a second " communication," Nov. 25, and a third 
 editorial, " Silence gives Consent," Dec. 3. Editorially, 
 the Advocate never attempted any reply to the damaging 
 charges of the article of Oct. 29, but, aside from these 
 inconsequential letters of its correspondents, confined 
 itself to the throwing out of various disconnected slurs and 
 " little digs " against Yale and Yale institutions ; and 
 though its original utterances of Oct. 14 were confess 
 edly made in reply to the " New York and other pa 
 pers," it excused itself from attempting to answer the 
 reply thereto, on the ground that the paper in which it 
 appeared " did not represent Yale undergraduates," 
 and was not a " recognized Yale organ." So much for 
 this wordy warfare which Harvard invited, and in which 
 it was utterly worsted. But the matter did not end 
 there, for the Harvard Boat Club, Nov. 9, passed a res 
 olution that a written enquiry be made of the Yale 
 Navy as to whether it " authorized or endorsed " the 
 views expressed in the Courant article of Oct. 29. The 
 
396 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Navy, on receiving the letter, voted, Nov. 16, that it was 
 too puerile and impertinent to deserve any reply, and 
 that no attention whatever be paid to it. At the same 
 meeting, the captain of the University crew stated in their 
 behalf that although every one of their number had 
 resolved that they would never row a race at Worcester 
 again, under any circumstances, and though it seemed 
 to be the universal opinion among Yale men and the pub 
 lic generally that no Yale crew with any sense of self-re 
 spect could ever again consent to row there, it nevertheless 
 appeared desirable thus early to have a formal and authori 
 tative statement of this sentiment officially endorsed by 
 the Navy. The decision was accordingly expressed in 
 the form of a resolution " that no Yale crew shall hence 
 forth be allowed to challenge a corresponding crew of Har 
 vard, except for a straight-away race, upon any course in 
 the United States which Harvard may select," which 
 vote was passed unanimously, in a very full meeting. 
 Accordingly, Dec. 10, the University crew sent a formal 
 challenge to Harvard for " a 3-mile, straight-away, race, 
 to be rowed July 14, 1871, on any course which the 
 challenged party may select." A month or two having 
 gone by without bringing a reply to the challenge, it 
 began to be intimated in private that no replv would be 
 given until Yale had made an answer to the resolution 
 of Nov. 9 ; and at last, under date of Feb. 3, a letter 
 was received from the president thereof, stating that he 
 " had been directed by the Harvard Boat Club to call 
 the attention of the Yale Navy to the fact that the H. 
 B. C. had as yet received no reply to its last communi 
 cation," meaning thereby the enquiry of Nov. 9. At 
 a meeting of Feb. 8, therefore, the Navy, rather than 
 abandon the idea of a University race, so far withdrew 
 from its original position as to vote "that a letter be 
 sent to Harvard, stating in effect that the Yale Navy 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 397 
 
 was organized for the purpose of attending to boating 
 matters, and not in order to run the College Courant or 
 any other paper, and that it should continue attending 
 to its own business," which letter was sent Feb. 9. 
 No reply following, the president of the Navy, Feb. 24, 
 mailed a note to Harvard, reminding them that no reply 
 had been received to the last Yale communication, 
 meaning thereby the challenge of Dec. 10, and under 
 date of March 7, the president and secretary of the H. 
 B. C. " notified the Yale Navy that their challenge had 
 been received and would be acted upon in a few weeks." 
 Meanwhile, March 6, the Boston Journal, referring to 
 the reminder of Feb. 24, remarked, as if reflecting the 
 sentiment of the Harvard meeting, that " Yale s demand 
 for an immediate reply to her challenge was unprece 
 dented," which remark was copied in various other 
 newspapers. In the Journal of March 15, the presi 
 dent of the Navy accordingly published a card, drawing 
 the editor s attention to the fact that no demand had 
 been made, and showing what an unfair advantage a 
 challenged party could take by refusing to answer, as in 
 this case, until after a period unprecedentedly long ; 
 especially, as at the present time, when it was extremely 
 uncertain whether there would be any race at all. The 
 next news that came from Cambridge was under date of 
 March 27, and as follows : At a meeting of the execu 
 tive committee of the H. B. C., held to consider the 
 challenge of the Yale Navy, it was decided that the H. 
 B. C. is willing to meet the Yale Navy in any race in 
 which all parties are sure of fair play. In order, there 
 fore, to attain this desirable end, you are requested to send 
 two delegates to a convention to be held at the Massasoit 
 House, Springfield, Mass., Saturday, April 15, 1871, for 
 the purpose of establishing a Union Regatta of Amer 
 ican Colleges. An early notification of your intention of 
 
39 8 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 attending the convention would greatly favor the under 
 signed," president and secretary of the H. B. C. At 
 a Navy meeting, April 3, it was voted to send Harvard 
 a letter, stating the desire on the part of Yale for a defi 
 nite reply to the challenge of Dec. 10, as a preliminary 
 to any action looking toward an inter-collegiate regatta; 
 and a committee was also appointed to represent Yale 
 in the convention, which occurred in term vacation, pro 
 vided Harvard should send a definite refusal to the 
 challenge for a separate race. No reply of any sort 
 being received, Yale did not attend the convention, 
 though the president of the Navy was present, unoffi 
 cially, at the hotel on the day in question, in order to 
 assure the representatives of the smaller colleges that it 
 was out of no hostility to them, or even necessarily to 
 the idea of a general regatta, that Yale had refused to 
 send in delegates. In the convention, three colleges 
 besides Harvard were represented, Amherst, Brown, 
 and Bowdoin, and the constitution then adopted for 
 this " Rowing Association of American Colleges " pro 
 vided that any college boat club might become a mem 
 ber thereof on notifying the secretary not later than the 
 roth of May; and that no club should be allowed after 
 that date to enter for the race of 1871. A committee 
 of the association, after examining the two or three 
 available courses, decided to hold a 3-mile-straight- 
 away race on the Connecticut river, on the course over 
 looked by the " Jngleside " hotel, about half a dozen 
 miles above Springfield, Chicopee below, and Holyoke 
 above, being the nearest railway stations in the vicinity, 
 on the 1 4th of July next. At a meeting of May 8, 
 the Navy voted not to enter the association, and five 
 days later, with a full representation of the college, it 
 responded to a motion for a reconsideration by repeat 
 ing the vote with an increased majority. The University 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 399 
 
 crew accepting the decision as final, then broke training 
 and disbanded for the year. But Harvard, hearing of 
 the matter, and apparently becoming a trifle alarmed at 
 the absolute withdrawal of the only contestant that 
 could give any character to the race, at last, under date 
 of May 18, sent in a letter, professing to show that the 
 general regatta was rightly established by it on account 
 of its holding the championship ; that it was designed 
 as a compromise, to please all parties, and smooth over 
 the ugly recollections of 1870; that it offered the 
 chance for a straight race, which Yale had so long 
 desired, and was to be rowed at a time and place which 
 Yale was believed to favor : but that if Yale neverthe 
 less insisted upon a separate meeting with Harvard for 
 regaining the championship, the latter would insist upon 
 naming the time and place and upon rowing a race sim 
 ilar in its conditions to that in which Yale lost the 
 championship, in other words, at Worcester, around a 
 single stake-boat. This long-put-off and ambiguously 
 worded reply of May 18, 1871, to the plain and definite 
 challenge of Dec. 10, 1870, amounting to a virtual 
 rejection of the latter, was so accepted by the Navy, 
 which, at a meeting of May 24, voted to inform Har 
 vard that its letter had been construed as a non-acccept- 
 ance of the challenge, and also that as the appointed 
 day was now so near at hand, and the Yale crew broken 
 up no future acceptance of it would be recognized. 
 And so the controversy, begun Oct. 14, 1870, by the 
 abuse of the Harvard Advocate, was ended, May 18, 1871, 
 by the letter of the Harvard Boat Club, offering to row 
 over a straight 3-mile course with Yale in a union col 
 lege regatta, but insisting upon a doubled, mile-and-a- 
 half-course, with a turning stake, as a condition of a 
 University race. 
 
 In the following lists, the name with the boat is that 
 
400 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 of its builder ; the numerals with " feet " signify length, 
 with "inches " breadth, and with "pounds," weight ; the 
 names of the crews are arranged according to their 
 positions, from stroke to bow, the numerals signify the 
 year of graduation ; and where no other State is given 
 as a residence of the Harvard men, Massachusetts is to 
 be understood. In the first four races Yale drew the 
 inside, in the last three Harvard had it. Yale has had 
 a different boat in every race, while Harvard has won 
 three successive victories, 1867-69, in the same beat. 
 In last year s race the Yale boat was supplied with 
 patent sliding seats. In the race of 1869 the best one 
 of the Harvard oarsmen not being an undergraduate 
 had no right in the boat, but was allowed to enter it by 
 a special vote of the Yale Navy. He and another of 
 the crew sailed next day for England, and both of them 
 rowed in the International race of August 25. It has 
 since been understood that the oarsman in question had 
 only a nominal connection, with the Law School, and 
 that hence as he was not really a member of any 
 department of the University, his taking part in either 
 race was a proceeding of rather questionable morality. 
 The Harvard statistics, being chiefly derived from the 
 newspapers, may not be altogether accurate. 
 
 FIRST RACE, July 29, 1864. Yale victorious, 19:1 to 19:57. 
 Yale boat, McKay, 49ft. 21 in. ; Harvard boat, Elliott, 40 ft. 22 in. 
 Average weight of Yale men, 156 Ibs. ; of Harvard men, 145 Ibs. 
 W. R. Bacon, 65, New Haven,Ct. Horatio G. Curtis, 65, Boston. 
 M. W.Seymour, 66, Litchfield,Ct. Robert. S. Peabody, 66, Boston. 
 Louis Stoskopf, 65, Freeport, 111. Thomas Nelson, 66, Boston. 
 Edw.B.Bennett, 66, Hamden, Ct. J. Greenough, 65, Jamaica Plains. 
 Edw. Coffin, 66, Irvington, N. Y. E. C. Perkins, 66, Cincinnati, ( ). 
 W.W.Scranton, 65, Scranton.Pa. Edwin Farnham, 66, Beverly, NJ. 
 
 SECOND RACE, July 28, 1865. Yak victorious, 1 7:42)0 to 18:9. 
 Yale boat, McKay, 4S~ 3 ft. 22 in., 1 76 Ibs. Harv d boat, Elliott, 46 ft. 
 25 in., 185 Ibs. Av. wt. of Yale men, 153 Ibs. ; of Hvd. men, 135 Ibs. 
 
STUDENT LIFE. 4i 
 
 W. R. Bacon, 65, New Haven, Ct. F. Crowninshield, 66, Boston. 
 Edvv. B. Bennett, 66,Hamden,Ct. E. T. Wilkinson, 66, Cambridge. 
 Louis Stoskopf, 65, Freeport, 111. William Blaikie, 66, Boston. 
 Isaac Pierson, 66, Hartford, Ct. Edward N. Fenno, 67, Boston. 
 Edw. Coffin, 66, Irvington, N.Y. E. H. Clark, 66, St. Louis, Mo. 
 W.W. Scranton, 65, Scranton, Pa. C. H. McBurney, 66, Roxbury. 
 
 THIRD RACE. July 27, 1866. Yale defeated, 19:10 to 18:43. 
 Yale boat, McKay, 40 ft. 20)^ in., 1 75 Ibs. Hvd. boat, Elliott, 5 1 ft. 
 19 in., 9 in. deep. Av. weight Yale men 153 Ibs. ; Hvd. men, 146 Ibs. 
 Edw. B. Bennett, 66, Hamden, Ct. William Blaikie, 66, Boston. 
 Wm. A. Copp, 69, Grafton, Mass. E. T. Wilkinson, 66, Cambridge. 
 W.E.Wheeler, 66, Portville, N.Y. Edward N. Fenno, 67, Boston. 
 A. D. Bissell, 67, Buffalo, N. Y. Robert S. Peabody, 66, Boston. 
 Edw. Coffin, 66, Irvington, N. Y. Alden P. Loring, 69, Boston. 
 
 F. Brown, 66, Newburgh, N. Y. C. H. McBurney, 66, Roxbury. 
 
 FOURTH RACE, July 19, 1867. Yale defeated, 19:25% to 18:13. 
 Vale boat, McKay, 4911. 22 in. ; Harvard boat, Elliott, 51 ft. 20 in. 
 Average weight of Yale men, 150 Ibs. ; of Harvard men, 155 Ibs. 
 Wm. A. Copp, 69, Grafton, Mass. Alden P. Loring, 69, Boston. 
 Samuel Parry, 68, Clinton, N. J. Wm. H. Simmons, 69, Concord. 
 Jas. Coffin, 68, Irvington, N. Y. Thos. S. Edwards, 67, Newton. 
 Wm. H. Lee, 70, Chicago, 111. Robert C. Watson, 69, Milton. 
 Wm. H. Ferry, 68, Chicago, 111. W. W. Richards, 68, N. Y. City, 
 (r. A. Adee, 67,Westchester, N.Y. G.W.Holdredge, 69, Ivgtn.,N.Y. 
 
 FIFTH RACE, July 24, 1868. Yale defeated, 18:38)^ to 1 7:48^. 
 Yale boat, Elliott, 53 ft. 20 in. ; Harvard boat, Elliott, 51 ft. 20 in. 
 Average weight of Yale men, 158 Ibs. ; of Harvard men, 155 Ibs. 
 Samuel Parry, 68, Clinton, N. J. Alden P. Loring, 69, Boston. 
 Wm. A. Copp, 69, Grafton, Mass. Robert C. Watson, 69, Milton. 
 Wm. H. Lee, 70, Chicago, 111. Wm. H. Simmons, 69, Concord. 
 
 G. W. Drew, 70, Winterport, Me. J. W. McBurney, 69, Roxbury. 
 S. F. Bucklin, 69, Marlboro, Mass. W. W. Richards, 68, N. Y. City. 
 Rod. Terry, 70, Irvington, N.Y. G.W.Holdredge, 69, Ivgtn.,N.Y. 
 
 SIXTH RACE, July 23, 1869. Yale defeated, i8:il to i8:2. 
 Yale boat, Elliott, 53ft. 19 in. ; Harvard boat, Elliott, 51 ft. 20 in. 
 Average weight of Yale men; 161 Ibs. ; of Harvard men, 155 Ibs. 
 G.W. Drew, 70, Winterport., Me. Francis O. Lyman, 71, Boston. 
 
402 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Wm. A. Copp, 69, Grafton, Mass. Theoph. Parsons, 70, Brookline. 
 D. McC. Bone, 70, Petersburg, 111. Jos. S. Fay, Law Dep L, Boston. 
 Wm. H. Lee, 70, Chicago, 111. G. Willis, 70, Cornwall, X. V. 
 K. T).Coonley, 7i,Greenville,N.Y. George I. Jones, 71, Templeton. 
 Rod. Terry, 70, Irvington, N. V. Nath. G. Read, 71, Cambridge. 
 
 SEVENTH RACE, July 22/70. Yale defeated (?), 18:45 to 2 O 3O. 
 Yale boat, Elliott, 48 ft. 22 in. ; Harvard boat, Blaikie, 50 ft. 21 in. 
 Av. wt. of Yale men, 159 Ibs. ; of Harvard men, 153 Ibs. 
 
 D. McC. Bone, 70, Petersbiirg.Ill. Francis O. Lyman, 71, Boston. 
 W. F. McCook, 73, Pittsburg, Pa. George I. Jones, 71, Templeton. 
 
 E. D.Coonley, 7i, Greenville, N.Y. G. Willis, 70, Cornwall, N. Y. 
 William L. Cushing, 72, Bath, Me. J. S. McCobb, 71, Portland, Me. 
 W. W. Flagg, 73, Yonkers, N. Y. Robert S. Russell, 72, Boston. 
 C. Phelps, 70, Colebrook, Ct. Nath. G. Reed, 71, Cambridge. 
 
 Gymnastic exercises are so closely connected with 
 boating that they may be fitly described here, though 
 Freshmen perhaps engage in them more extensively 
 than any other class of undergraduates. Previous to 
 the erection of the Gymnasium in 1859, there were 
 several private affairs of the sort in various parts of the 
 city, which were largely patronized by the students, 
 though the one which stood upon the premises now 
 known as No. 74 High street was the most popular 
 resort. It is said, too, that before that time the northwest 
 corner of the college yard, where Alumni Hall now 
 stands, was adorned with several rude frames and 
 vaulting bars, whereon the students managed to "exer 
 cise." In the present building the main floor is supplied 
 with all the gymnastic paraphernalia that could well be 
 desired, one of the recent additions being the series 
 of "rowing weights," for the special use of boating 
 men. These are so arranged that the " rowers " sit in 
 regular order, behind " the stroke," as if they were really 
 in the boat. The motion is intended to be as nearly as 
 possible like that of pulling an oar, and 600 or 800 
 successive " strokes," at the rate of 36 or 40 to the 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 43 
 
 minute, are accounted a tolerable equivalent for a morn 
 ing s practice pull. Next to this substitute for rowing, 
 the swinging of Indian clubs is the exercise chiefly 
 affected by boating men, during the wintry months and 
 the stormy days when they cannot practise upon the water, 
 though of course the various other modes of gymnastic 
 drill are not altogether neglected. 
 
 In the basement of the Gymnasium are a half-dozen 
 bowling alleys, and twice that number of bathing-rooms. 
 Bath tickets, sold at a nominal price, are required for 
 admission to the latter. Dressing rooms occupy half 
 the gallery stretched across the south end of the main 
 hall of the building, but they are not used very exten 
 sively, as most who exercise dislike the trouble of going 
 up stairs, preferring to "dress" at their rooms, and 
 hang up their outer garments upon the hooks provided 
 in the gymnasium proper. The other half of the gallery 
 is taken up by the apartments of the person employed 
 to give instruction in gymnastics. From prayer-time in 
 the morning until 10 o clock at night the Gymnasium is 
 kept open, and it is not often entirely deserted in that 
 interval, but the hours specially affected are: (i) after 
 morning recitation, say from 9.30 to n; (2) between 
 noon recitation and dinner, from 12.30 till i; (3) just 
 before the evening recitation, at 5 o clock ; and (4) late 
 in the evening. The first and last are generally con 
 sidered the best times for exercise, and are chosen by 
 nearly all who are " in training " ; but the half-hour 
 before dinner is the time when by far the largest crowd 
 may be seen at work in the Gymnasium. Being a novelty 
 to most of the Freshmen, they frequent it in great num 
 bers for the first term or two, especially its bowling 
 alleys, which upper-class men rarely make use of. There 
 are no statistics to show how large a proportion of the 
 different classes or the college in general resort to it, 
 
FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 but it seems probable that the Juniors go there to a 
 greater extent than the Sophomores, that the Seniors 
 frequent it least of all, and that somewhat more than 
 half of all the undergraduates are in the habit of taking 
 exercise there, with more or less regularity. A few of 
 the younger members of the faculty are among its occa 
 sional patrons. 
 
 In 1868 was started the custom of holding two or 
 three public gymnastic exhibitions, within a few days of 
 each other, about the middle of the month of March. 
 The performers on these occasions undergo several 
 weeks of preparatory drill, a " class " being formed, and 
 a " captain " appointed, for each particular kind of 
 exercise, and the Instructor having charge of the whole. 
 At the exhibitions they are rigged in the dress of circus 
 actors, and go through with many feats that would 
 hardly do discredit to professionals themselves. Music 
 and singing serve to fill up the intervals, and the various 
 racks and ladders are alive with the undergraduate spec 
 tators, while the ladies and their attendants occupy the 
 " reserved seats " below. Members of the faculty also 
 attend. The shows have thus far been quite successful, 
 and, though for some reason none was held this year, they 
 bid fair to become a regular institution of the college. 
 The profits made from the admission fees accrue to the 
 Navy, to which it naturally happens that most of the 
 gymnasts belong. There is very little "instruction" 
 given except at the time of training for these exhibitions, 
 chiefly because it is not asked for. Boxing and fencing 
 are the rarest exercises known to the gymnasium, and 
 fencers are obliged to procure their own swords. 
 Presents of books and silverware are given to the most 
 successful gymnasts at these exhibitions. These, after 
 all, are not exactly a novelty, since a show of the sort 
 was once held in Presentation week Tuesday, July 9, 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 405 
 
 1864 and a similar celebration took place when the 
 building was formally opened. 
 
 Without doubt the most unique of the customs recently 
 known to the college was the "Presentation of the 
 Wooden Spoon " by the junior class, which, at the time 
 of its abolishment, had come to be the exhibition of the 
 whole college year. It was originated by Henry T. 
 Blake of 48, as a burlesque on the regular Junior Ex 
 hibition, and was held within a few days of the latter. 
 According to tradition, various presentations had been 
 in vogue at the time of the old Commons Hall, such as : 
 a pair of red-topped boots to the most popular man ; 
 a jack knife to the homeliest, and a leather medal if he 
 refused the knife ; a cane to the handsomest ; and a 
 wooden spoon to the one who ate the most. These 
 recipients were presumably Juniors, while the " mathe 
 matical slate " was handed down, year after year, to the 
 Sophomore who had excelled in Euclid. This and the 
 jack-knife custom were doubtless adopted from Harvard, 
 where both were for a long time observed. But the idea 
 of the Wooden Spoon came less from this old tradition 
 of Commons than from the practise in vogue at the 
 University of Cambridge, England, of nicknaming the 
 Junior Optime, or last man on the honor-list of each 
 year, "the wooden spoon." Near the close of the last 
 century, the Gentleman s Magazine, in mentioning this as 
 an old habit, says : " Notwithstanding his being in fact 
 superior to all-of them, the very lowest of the ot TTO/./.O/ 
 or gregarious undistinguished bachelors, think them 
 selves entitled to shoot the pointless arrows of their 
 clumsy wit against the wooden spoon; and to reiterate 
 the stale and perennial remark, that, * Wranglers are 
 born with gold spoons in their mouths, Senior Optimes 
 with silver, Junior Optimes with wooden, and the oi TTO),- 
 l.ot with leaden ones. " So, at Yale, "third-colloquy 
 
406 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 men," or those lowest on the list of junior appointments, 
 are always subjected to good-natured chaffing and 
 ridicule at the hands of the rabble who gain no appoint 
 ments whatever. And as the last honor-man at Cam 
 bridge was said metaphorically to " take the wooden 
 spoon," so, upon the winner of the lowest colloquy ap 
 pointment at Yale was it determined to confer an actual 
 wooden spoon in token thereof. 
 
 This was the original theory of the custom, but it was 
 never, after the first exhibition, really carried out. Early 
 in the second term, the Editors of the Lit. used to 
 appoint a responsible Junior to call a meeting of his 
 class for the election of a " Spoon Committee" of nine 
 members, three from each division. At the call of this 
 Committee, the " cochleaureati" a name applied at that 
 time to all non-appointment men assembled, and-made 
 choice of the " Spoon Man" from among those having 
 low appointments at Junior Ex, but not necessarily the 
 lowest. Others say that the Spoon was first offered to 
 the lowest appointee, and in case he refused it the collo 
 quy men chose some one else from among their number 
 as the recipient. However this may be, it is certain that 
 all the Spoon Men save the first two, who became such 
 by virtue of their low appointments, have been chosen 
 from the Spoon Committee itself. .This, in 1854, be 
 came the " Society of the Cochleaureati," and for a half 
 dozen years the members of it elected their own succes 
 sors, or rather eight of them, while the eight themselves 
 elected the ninth each year. The eight of 7 6i, however, 
 elected two new men, making ten on the committee. 
 This caused trouble and the Cochs of 60 laid the mat 
 ter before the junior class, who decided that ten should 
 belong to the committee and reflected the same individ 
 uals already chosen. In turn, next year, this society of 
 61, on January 12, to prevent any dissatisfaction, called 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 4 7 
 
 a meeting of the junior class and surrendered to them 
 the election of the Cochs of 62. The usual nine were 
 accordingly chosen, and initiated on the following Fri 
 day evening ; but on May 1 1 the class assembled again 
 and decided to hold no Spoon Exhibition. A large 
 minority, however, who favored the custom, applied to 
 the Cochs of 61 to appoint successors to carry it out in 
 the name of the society as formerly, and a committee of 
 eleven were accordingly chosen by them, seven of the 
 number being of the nine originally elected by the class. 
 Thirteen members of 62 were thus initiated into the 
 Cochleaureati, though of course the programmes only 
 indicated the names of the eleven who actually had 
 charge of the exhibition. Except in these two classes, 
 the number has always been nine, as first established, 
 though the three divisions have not been equally repre 
 sented, unless by accident. In 1862, early in the second 
 term, the junior class ( 63) elected their Cochs at a 
 meeting called and presided over by the Spoon Man of 
 the year before, and this continued to be the practice 
 ever after. From the Latin cochlear^ a spoon, and 
 laitrcatits is derived the name, which is rarely used 
 save in the plural, Cochleaureati. It is almost always 
 wrongly pronounced, as a word of five syllables, and is 
 often incorrectly spelled. The abbreviation, Coch, is 
 the only form of the word used in conversation. 
 
 At first, when all the non-appointment men were 
 called Cochleaureati, the Cochs were expected to be 
 mostly chosen from their number ; then, all but the high- 
 appointment men were rendered eligible for election ; 
 and soon the matter of scholarship, on which the custom 
 started, was lost sight of altogether, and the nine " best 
 fellows" the wittiest, most " popular," genial, and gen 
 tlemanly men of the class were chosen for the office. 
 After the first few years, the Spoon Man was chosen 
 
408 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 from among their own number by the Cochs themselves, 
 as the President and minor officers had been from the 
 outset, and he was not supposed to be known outside 
 the " Society of the Cochleaureati" until the night of 
 the exhibition. Thus the position of Spoon Man grew 
 to be the highest elective honor of college, and that of 
 Coch was but little inferior to it. The election of the 
 nine was the "great thing" upon which college politics 
 centered, and the way the junior societies usually man 
 aged to control the matter has been detailed in the 
 chapter devoted to them. With a coalition definitely 
 arranged, the chief source of discord in a society was 
 the "order" in which "its" Cochs should be nominated. 
 Supposing that by agreement the first Psi U Coch was to 
 have the Spoon, it was usually expected that the first 
 DKE Coch would be President, and the reverse. So, 
 too, the second cochship was thought a higher honor 
 than the third, and the third than the fourth. The Jun 
 iors of 71, who gave the final Spoon Exhibition, not 
 being able to agree upon their nominations in their soci 
 ety halls, held a " coalition meeting," composed of all 
 the class except the Delta Phi men, and by a general 
 vote nominated four Cochs each from Psi U and DKE 
 in regular order, and one fr^m the neutrals this being 
 the scheme of the coalition, but as the arrangement 
 caused much dissatisfaction in the class and college, all 
 the nominations were resigned, the coalition was declared 
 at an end, and when in January the whole class met, at 
 the call of the Spoon Man of 70, to elect their Cochs, 
 it was with the understanding that all votes should be 
 freely cast without regard to previous arrangements of 
 any sort. As a result of this unpledged ballot, seven of 
 the nine originally nominated were elected. It is but 
 fair to say that politics made their worst display in 71, 
 and that their course in 69, even, was a rather unusual 
 one. 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 49 
 
 All this quarreling about the " order" in which a man 
 should be nominated for a class committee arises from 
 its being taken as a guage of his " popularity," and so 
 influencing his chances of an election to a senior society. 
 Of late years, men of reputation as wits, or writers, or 
 scholars were not often chosen on the Spoon Committee, 
 as formerly, even though they were " good fellows" as 
 well. "Office" had come to be looked at as a sort of 
 spoils which should be distributed with some approach 
 of equality, and as these men had sufficient prominence 
 already .to make their chances of society elections 
 "good," the cochships were given to those whose sole 
 " strong point" was their popularity, which was thus 
 brought to the notice of upper-class men in a tangible 
 form. To confer one upon a Lit. editor, or " big prize 
 man," as used to be done not unfrequently, was 
 accounted a sheer waste of political power. Another 
 circumstance that still further restricted the choice of 
 men was this, that as the exhibition with its belongings 
 grew more and more elaborate and expensive, it became 
 more and more desirable that the Cochleaureati should 
 be the possessors of long purses. A poor man, in short, 
 could not afford to accept the office, and therefore, 
 however well liked he might be, he never expected his 
 classmates to confer upon him this costly mark of their 
 esteem. Yet spite of all the political considerations 
 which affected the result, it was as from the first very 
 generally true that the Spoon Man was " the most pop 
 ular one" of the " nine most popular men" in every jun 
 ior class ; that he and they were, so far as outward 
 appearances went, the best representatives of the social, 
 gentlemanly element of college. It should be remem 
 bered, however, that college "popularity" and college 
 friendship are not synonymous terms. 
 
 The " initiation " of the new Cochs took place at the 
 19 
 
410 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 New Haven House on the Friday evening after their 
 election, a grand supper being the chief feature of the 
 ceremony. At its conclusion, the new Cochs make a 
 great uproar about the colleges, dragging their class 
 mates from their beds, driving them about the hall with 
 their spoons, and so on, for which little amusement 
 they are ofttimes heavily marked by the faculty. The 
 bills of fare at the supper bore the names of the 18 par 
 ticipants, printed in ornamental fashion, with spoon 
 embellishments. Next morning the newly initiated 
 swing out their badges, which consisted of miniature 
 gold spoons, perhaps two inches in length. These 
 were constantly worn, usually in connection with the 
 junior-society badge, up to the time of the exhibition : 
 after that they were rarely displayed. In return for the 
 supper, and the spoons, and the society archives and 
 effects, and the good advice given in initiating them, 
 the retiring Cochs required from the new comers an 
 initiation fee of $20 or $25. Thenceforth, on alternate 
 Friday evenings, until the exhibition, each Coch in suc 
 cession gave a "spread " or " wine party", at his room, to 
 the other seventeen members of the society, or as many 
 of them as chose to attend. At these " committee 
 meetings " the plans for the show were decided upon. 
 From the Coch chosen Spoon Man an especially lavish 
 treat was expected. Every Coch save the Spoon Man 
 procured a plain black walnut spoon, some three feet in 
 length, with his name and class cut upon the blade, for 
 use at the exhibition, after which it was hung up in his 
 room as a trophy. In senior year he lent it for a hall 
 decoration to his successors. 27ie Spoon was a much 
 more elaborate and costly affair than the others, being 
 handsomely carved and ornamented, with a silver plate 
 in front on which were engraved the name and class of 
 the recipient, the date of presentation, and so forth, 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 4 1 1 
 
 while on the back was cut the motto, Dum vivimus, viva- 
 mus. A velvet-lined case was provided for it, and its 
 size and material were usually the same as the others, 
 though rosewood has sometimes taken the place of 
 black walnut, and other costly woods have perhaps been 
 employed. The spoon badges were first mentioned in 
 1851, and the plain wooden spoons in 1856, though they 
 were then much smaller than afterwards. The original 
 spoon had a rosewood handle and a clam-shell bowl, 
 and is now supposed to be in Bones hall. 
 
 In 1851 also first appeared upon the programmes 
 the steel-plate " emblem of the Cochs " ( Insigne Coch- 
 Icaureatorum ), which was ever afterwards retained. 
 Henry T. Blake of 48 originated the design, which may 
 be described as follows : Upright oblong garter Honi 
 soil qui mal y pense surrounding a quartered shield, 
 surmounted by a helmet, from the closed visor of which 
 projects a spoon ; crest, a mailed right arm grasping a 
 spoon j branches of laurel each side of the design ; 
 below, In hoc signo vinccs, inscribed on band twined 
 about a spoon : shield, obliquely divided from dexter 
 base to sinister chief by band with the legend, Super 
 sinistram lugemus g^% right upper quarter and left lower 
 quarter red (gules), the one bearing crossed spoons, the 
 other a Phi Beta Kappa badge reversed ; left upper 
 quarter and right lower quarter blue (azure), the one 
 bearing a scales in which a spoon outbalances a figure 
 supposed to represent scholarship, motto, Mene tekel 
 upharsin, the other a horn from the little end of which a 
 similar figure protrudes. Latterly the " azure " gave 
 place to "argent," owing doubtless to the mistake of the 
 engraver, who, in reproducing the plate failed to observe 
 the horizontal lines which had become rather indistinct, 
 and accordingly left the "blue" quarters "white." A 
 large illuminated copy of this " insigne " was displayed 
 
4*2 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 in the hall on the night of the exhibition. It has also 
 been lithographed in colors to serve as a title-page to 
 the " Wooden Spoon Landers " in sheet music. Com 
 mencing with the class of 55, it was customary to issue 
 steel-engraved invitations, requesting, in the names of 
 
 the Cochleaureati, the company of at the Wooden 
 
 Spoon Exhibition on such a night. At the head was a 
 characteristic sketch, in some way introducing the 
 Spoon, and the numeral of the class. An embossed 
 monogram superseded this during the last four years of 
 the show, but for the last three an engraving similar to the 
 old figured upon the admission tickets. From the class 
 of 6 1 onwards, the picture on the invitation did service 
 upon the ticket also ; except that 62, owing to the 
 haste of preparing their exhibition, had no time to 
 procure engraved invitations. A "gentleman s " and a 
 " lady s " ticket were always of different colors, which 
 fact was true at the first public exhibition, when one was 
 blue, the other white, and the large wood-cut of a spoon 
 was the only attempt at ornament. It should be men 
 tioned that the idea of engraved formal invitations was 
 derived from a similar practice once in vogue at the 
 time of Junior Ex. ]n some of these pictures the spoon 
 was represented as a boat, rowed by cherubs with 
 smaller spoons for oars ; in others it was a triumphal 
 chariot, and so on. In 66, whose spoon man was a 
 noted bow-oar, dolphins were depicted bearing him 
 along in a spoon boat, which he steered with a spoon 
 rudder. Views of Yale, and of the Temple of Fame 
 were common in the pictures, amid abundant cherubs, 
 and the cocks vulgarly known as roosters. 
 
 But to the Spoon Presentation itself. It was at first 
 held in the Temple, secretly for fear of the faculty. 
 The word as to time and place was quietly given out at 
 evening chapel, a few hours before the exhibition, and 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 4 r 3 
 
 doorkeepers, disguised as Indians to prevent recognition 
 should any college officer appear in the crowd, closely 
 scrutinized ever applicant for admission, and allowed 
 none to enter the Temple save those who were known. 
 " By the time the hour has arrived, the hall is densely 
 packed with undergraduates and professional students. 
 The President, who is a non-appointment man, and prob 
 ably the poorest scholar in the class, sits on a stage with 
 his associate professors. As the hour strikes, he arises 
 with becoming dignity, and, instead of the usual phrase, 
 "Musicam audeamus," restores order among the audience 
 by " Silentiam audeamus, and then addresses the band, 
 Musica cantetur. " Then, after a " Latin salutatory " 
 and various burlesque orations, dissertations, poems, 
 disputes and colloquies, the presiding officer made the 
 speech of presentation, to which the recipient of the 
 Spoon responded. Everything was intended to be as 
 witty as possible, and personal " hits " at the faculty 
 and the speakers of the Junior Ex were plentiful. 
 High appointment men, not members of the Committee, 
 took part in the exercises ; the college glee club fur 
 nished music ; and several songs written for the occa 
 sion found a place upon the programme, which in 1847 
 was plain, in 1849 was headed with the wood-cut of a 
 spoon. These were the only two years in which ex 
 hibitions were held in the Temple as described, no 
 spoons being presented in 1848 and 1850, and the show 
 of 1851 instituted by the Juniors of 52 being public, 
 like its 19 annual successors. 
 
 The finale of the first programme, April 23, 1847, was 
 a " colloquy " entitled, " Influence of Humbug on Large 
 Assemblies," to which was appended a note stating that 
 the five witty Juniors who were to take part therein, 
 would "commence speaking in the order of their names." 
 In expectation of this rich treat the audience waited and 
 
4^4 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 waited until the idea finally dawned upon them that the 
 "colloquy was simply a practical joke upon themselves. 
 " Sells " and surprises of this sort have been a prominent 
 feature of later exhibitions, though generally of a less 
 serious character than that first one. The exhibition of 
 1851 was introduced with a "March, by the Band," 
 called the " Tibicenes," who, at the word of the presi 
 dent, marched up the aisle, with their instruments slung 
 over their left shoulders, and quietly took their places on 
 the stage. Next year the musicians were called the 
 " Hornicines," and the year after the " Symphoniaci," 
 while in 1849 the music was by the "Jam-mania" 
 society. In 1857, " Music, by Dodsworth s band," was, 
 in a foot note, " excused on account of absence from the 
 city." The real Germania Society, Dodsworth s Band, 
 Thomas s Orchestra, and the rest, were afterwards en 
 gaged, however, and for the past ten years or more the 
 excellent character of the music has been one of the 
 great attractions of the show, as well as the heaviest 
 item in its cost. 
 
 There had been two exhibitions in the Temple, as 
 described, of a somewhat scurrilous and disreputable 
 character, when it was decided to reform the ceremony, 
 place it upon a respectable basis, and admit by special 
 invitation the faculty and the ladies. Brewster s Hall, 
 then new, was chosen, and on Friday evening, May 23, 
 1851, was filled to the utmost by an interested audience, 
 300 of whom were ladies, and the success of the 
 Wooden Spoon, as a reputable college institution, was 
 triumphantly established. It was held in the same place 
 for 10 successive years, or until, in 1861, the new Music 
 Hall superseded Brewster s as a public resort. From 
 1854 to 59, the Monday evening before Presentation 
 Day was the appointed time, but on that year Monday 
 night was for the first time devoted to the Spoon Prom- 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 4 I 5 
 
 enade concert, and the main exhibition deferred till the 
 following evening. This arrangement was retained till 
 the end in 1870. 
 
 In 1851 and the three years following, a "valedictory" 
 ended the performance, though the last thing on the 
 programme was some such title as " Tremendous ap 
 plause by the Audience," " Stampede by the Audi 
 ence," or "The audience retire, headed by the boy 
 nearest the door." In 1855 and the 10 years following, 
 the last thing on the bill was the "Doxology," that is, 
 the song " Gaudeamus," which was rendered as the 
 audience were withdrawing. The first time it was intro 
 duced they were, by a foot note, " invited to join in sing 
 ing" it, which in their haste to depart they probably 
 failed to do. Owing to the confusion caused by many 
 people leaving the hall during the " Spoon addresses," 
 these in 1867 were brought from the last to the first part 
 of the programme, and retained that position ever after. 
 The " opening load" first appeared in 1857, and for five 
 years seems to have signified the means by which the 
 programmes were distributed. Sometimes these were 
 shot out from an immense mock cannon ; sometimes 
 tossed out from a gigantic bowl by means of a spoon ; 
 and so on. It was in 1862 that the " load" first had a 
 special name, and perhaps became, as afterwards, a 
 sort of " sell " by means of which, at the opening of the 
 exhibition, the Spoon Man was first indicated to the audi 
 ence. The curtain rises for the "load" called the 
 " Strawberry," discloses the eight Cochs standing beside 
 an immense sheaf of straw, which two of them open 
 with their spoons, and Berry, the Spoon Man steps forth 
 and bows to the audience, who, as the curtain falls, ex 
 amine their programmes again and again to appreciate 
 the joke. "The Inbred Gentleman" in a similar way 
 comes forth from a huge loaf of bread. " The Innate 
 
41 6 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Gentleman," steps out of a gigantic " 8." E novem 
 unus was the motto appended in this case, Eno being 
 the name of the Spoon Man. "The Peacock," is com 
 posed of an immense pea-pod, from which the Coch is 
 shelled. " The Perfect Brick" stands amid a pile of 
 broken and jagged ones, and encloses the " brick" of his 
 class. Other " loads" have been : the " Bursting Shell," 
 the " Rise in Flour," and the " Bird of Paradise" ; in 
 which latter case, " owing to the difficulty of obtaining 
 these animals the committee decided to leave out the 
 opening load." In this way the word has come to be 
 accepted in college talk as a synonym for " sell" or 
 " practical joke." While presiding over the " load," and 
 during the Spoon addresses, the Cochs were arrayed in 
 black dress-suits, swallow tailed coats, and white neck 
 ties. In this garb, they distributed programmes through 
 out the audience just before the show opened. For 
 merly they acted as ushers also, but that duty was latterly 
 performed by the regular officials connected with the 
 hall. 
 
 Up to 1867 tne original plan was retained of naming 
 the various parts of the programme after the titles of the 
 junior appointments, as oration, high oration, philosoph 
 ical oration, dissertation, dispute, colloquy, and so on, 
 though any one of these might refer to a play, or panto 
 mime, or take-off, or " sell" of some sort. For the three 
 final years, however, the " Latin salutatory" was the 
 only thing left to suggest what was at the outset the 
 fundamental idea of the ceremony, a burlesque of 
 Junior Exhibition. This salutatory was an actual ad 
 dress, whereby words of greeting were offered to the 
 classes, the Cochs, the faculty, and the spectators in 
 general ; in an absurd farrago of " Latin" and English 
 phrases, intended to be as witty as possible. Some of 
 the subjects of past " philosophical orations" have been : 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 4 1 1 
 
 " The indeorepulsiveness of capillaceous substances, if 
 electrolysized by catenarial and grindstonical agencies," 
 " the phosphorescence of putrescent fire, sublimated in 
 the correlation and conservation of invisible luminos 
 ity," " the tesselated peculiarities of sublunary particles," 
 "electrical luminosities the result of barricadation," " the 
 subtaneous concussion of particles calorigenous," 
 " the political influence of peanuts," " the profundity of 
 molecules," " the comet," " the wonders of science," 
 "centrifugal force," " universal gravitation," "move 
 ments," " electricity," " vis viva," and so on. Probably 
 some few of these titles do not represent actual speeches 
 at all, and those which were delivered perhaps had little 
 connection with their nominal subjects, the most relia 
 ble thing about a Wooden Spoon " appointment" being 
 its utter want of reliability. "Greek Ode Al <l l f vy 
 Jtidie^ tv IMS fitaQdiv? 2^oo7s ," which was "excused on 
 account of sickness" ; " Oratio Obliqua, on Young 
 America" ; " Hairangue, on Whiskers," by a man named 
 Beard ; are among the other suggestive titles to be 
 noticed upon former programmes. 
 
 It is easy to observe the constant changes that from 
 first to last kept going on in the character of the exhi 
 bition. Like everything else of the sort, it grew more 
 and more formal. Popularity came to be the sole thing 
 thought of in electing the Cochs, while the former prac 
 tice of giving prominent positions to those outside their 
 number was abandoned altogether. Hence the speeches 
 became reduced to three : the salutatory, intended to be 
 comic, and the address of presentation and reception, 
 intended to be matter-of-fact. Even these, according to 
 common belief, were privately written for the speakers by 
 their wittier friends. But the old-time comic orations 
 and poems and dissertations were no longer possible, 
 since men noted for producing such things were not 
 
 19* 
 
4*8 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 chosen on the Committee. College " plays," "dramas, 
 or " tragedies," representing the different phases of 
 student life, or burlesquing some classic author read by 
 the class, written for the occasion by some Junior not 
 belonging to the Committee, were latterly the chief reli 
 ance. On the old programmes they usually came under 
 the head of " colloquies " or " disputes," and they were 
 always one of the most popular features of the show. 
 The Cochs of 68 first introduced upon the stage the 
 corner sections of the college fence, set-off by a view of 
 the college yard and buildings as a background. A 
 crowd of Juniors stroll in, laughing and chatting, perch 
 themselves on the fence, and sing the various student 
 songs ; smoking in the intervals, and of course keeping 
 their hats on, as if in the open air, upon the real col 
 lege fence. Perhaps a strolling banjo player performs 
 before them, or " Hannibal " tries to sell his caramels, 
 or " Matches " displays himself, or Daniel Pratt, Jr., 
 begins a political speech which a " rush," bearing him 
 behind the scenes, brings to a sudden close. Any one 
 of the many jolly experiences known to sitters on the 
 fence may be here represented for the improvement of 
 the audience, who are generally kept in high good 
 humor by the, to them, novel peculiarities of these vari 
 ous college " institutions." 
 
 Ten years ago the cost of the exhibition was said to 
 be $300, latterly it was more than $1000, half of which 
 amount was perhaps gained by the sale of tickets to the 
 Spoon Promenade. The rest was raised by subscrip 
 tion among the Juniors, in amounts varying from $5 to 
 $25. The members of the coalition which controlled 
 the election were expected to bear most of the burden, 
 though the defeated party, spite of their loud asser 
 tions at election time that they would " have nothing to 
 do with the exhibition," often grow generous as the 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 4 * 9 
 
 time of holding it drew near. Up to 1857, no seats 
 were " reserved " except for the Cochs of the previous 
 year and their friends, and the friends of the acting 
 Committee, meaning by " friends " those outside of 
 college. Tickets were issued to all the undergraduate 
 and professional students, usually without limit as to 
 number, and the consequence was that a large crowd 
 assembled a full hour before the opening of the doors, 
 and when these were opened made a wild rush for the 
 best seats, while those coming last thought themselves 
 lucky if they gained eligible standing places. Latterly, 
 all the seats in the hall, save a few of the poorest in the 
 back gallery, were "reserved for the guests of the 
 class." During the third term the great problem, 
 among the Juniors and others was, How to procure 
 good seats at the Wooden Spoon ? and among the Cochs, 
 How to assign the seats most satisfactorily ? Of course 
 the man who had put his name down for $10 or $20 on 
 the subscription list, and had invited his "cousins or 
 family friends to the show, expected " as good seats as 
 anybody had," and the Cochs needed the constant 
 exercise of all the ingenuity they were possessed of to 
 reconcile the many conflicting interests of the appli 
 cants. Next after the Cochs themselves, and their pre 
 decessors of last year, the Juniors were first attended 
 to, then the Seniors, then the Sophomores and Fresh 
 men and professional students. Simple admission tick 
 ets, a " gentleman s " and a " lady s " were given to 
 each applicant in the two lower classes, and it was not 
 expected that Seniors would ask for reserved seats, un 
 less they had ladies or other outside friends to accom 
 pany them. It was thought rather presumptuous in a 
 Sophomore to ask a Coch for reserved seats for his 
 friends, unless he was well acquainted with him, and a 
 Freshman who should have done so would have been 
 
420 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 summarily snubbed. So impossible was it for the Cochs 
 to satisfy more than a small portion of the applicants, that 
 the proposition was made, within a few years, that the 
 choice of reserved seats be sold to the highest bidder, 
 the Juniors coming first, then the Seniors, and then the 
 rest of the student public being allowed to buy. In 
 this way, it was alleged, a profit might be made on the 
 exhibition, the necessity of subscription papers be done 
 away with, and better satisfaction given to all concerned. 
 But for some reason the plan was never adopted. 
 
 The audience at the Spoon Presentation was the 
 largest and most brilliant one that ever assembled at 
 New Haven. Music Hall, which is said to be capable 
 of holding 2500 or 3000 persons, was crowded, to its 
 utmost limits. The spacious back gallery, and the side 
 aisles above and below, were choked up with a dense 
 mass of humanity, composed of the poor unfortunates 
 whose tickets only gave them leave to stand wherever 
 they could within the hall a thing which many of 
 them used to do for four mortal hours. It of course 
 took college men to fully appreciate the real point of 
 much which was said and done, and enter heartily into 
 its exquisite humor and absurdity ; but while the more 
 subtle shades of significance escaped all but the ini 
 tiated, the general audience comprehended enough of it 
 to know that the genuine student life was there being 
 acted out before them, as never at a set literary exhibi 
 tion directed by the faculty, and, in this view, they 
 enjoyed the display to their utmost. The superior 
 music, the hearty singing of jovial college songs, and 
 the attractive appearance of the gayly-dressed audience 
 itself, were things which all could take delight in. 
 Owing to the shirking of preliminary rehearsals, the 
 show was always too long, rarely closing much before 
 midnight, but the tiresome delays, as inevitable as inex- 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 4 2 J 
 
 cusable, were submitted to with wonderful good nature 
 by the audience. 
 
 As for the Promenade Concert of the night before, of 
 which the nine Cochleaureati were the managers, it far 
 surpassed anything else of the kind ever known of in 
 the city, and, like the Spoon Exhibition itself, seemed 
 each year to attract to itself more and more of beauty 
 and fashion. Unlike this, however, it was advertised 
 about town, and the tickets were sold by the managers, 
 but at a price high enough to ensure a select attend 
 ance, which was naturally for the most part limited to 
 those having a more or less direct interest in the college. 
 The friends of the Cochs and of the junior class, of the 
 De Forest orators and of the senior class, all those from 
 far and near whom the varied attractions of Presenta 
 tion Week had interested in the students, w r ere among 
 the possible patrons of the Spoon Promenade. This 
 was also held at Music Hall, and there were few prettier 
 sights than "the floor" used to present at half-past ten 
 or eleven o clock, when alive with the graceful forms 
 and tasteful costumes of the dancers, tripping about to 
 the time of exquisite music. The galleries of course 
 were radiant with the handsome and well-dressed lookers 
 on ; and the contrast of the whole to the dull every-day 
 scenes of a student s life, in chapel or lecture room, 
 was indeed a refreshing one. The tickets were elab 
 orately engraved with class monograms, spoon orna 
 ments, and the like, and the programmes and engage 
 ment lists of the dancers were similarly adorned, bearing 
 in addition the names of the managers. The pro 
 grammes distributed among the audience, however, were 
 of the plainest possible description. 
 
 At the opening of the fall term of 1870, it was an 
 nounced that the time of holding Presentation Day had 
 been changed from the third Wednesday preceding the 
 
422 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Thursday of Commencement to the Tuesday preceding 
 that Thursday ; and the report in some way got into the 
 newspapers that, in consequence of this change in the 
 college calendar and condensation of the doings of two 
 weeks into one, the faculty had " abolished " the 
 Wooden Spoon Presentation and Promenade. This was 
 so far from being the case that the college authorities 
 had never even so much as recognized the existence of 
 the institution, by passing any vote whatever concerning 
 it. But the change in the calendar, and the discussion 
 brought out by the rumor, and the remembrance of the 
 disgraceful intriguing and bitter enmities which accom 
 panied the election of Cochleaureati by 71, combined 
 to induce the Juniors of 72 to abandon the custom alto 
 gether, which, at a meeting held December 3, when it 
 was announced that DKE had ordered that none of its 
 members should accept cochships, they voted to do, 
 with hardly a dissenting voice. Though the action was 
 a surprise to the college as well as the class, it met with 
 such a general endorsement and approbation as to be 
 accepted as final ; and the Wooden Spoon Presentation, 
 which, a year ago, seemed in the very hight of pros 
 perity and success as an established college institution, 
 seems now as completely dead, buried and forgotten, 
 without hope of resurrection, as the Burial of Euclid 
 itself. In January it was voted that in place of the 
 Spoon Promenade, a Regatta Ball be held on the even 
 ing of Presentation Day, under the management of the 
 president of the Navy and a committee of 10 appointed 
 by him, 2 from each academical class and 2 from the 
 Scientific School ; and a few months later it was decided 
 to institute, as a successor to the Spoon Exhibition 
 proper, under the auspices of the officers of the Navy 
 and University ball club, a public dramatic exhibition, 
 on the evening (Monday) before Presentation. It is 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 423 
 
 expected that under the new management which gives 
 no chance for " politics " both these entertainments 
 will be at least as successful as were those which they 
 supersede, and will also be a source of considerable 
 income for the maintenance of the two chief sporting 
 " interests " of college. 
 
 A few society statistics may serve as a finale to the 
 chapter. Of the 18 Commodores, 1853-70, Keys has had 
 8, Bones 2, Diggers 2, and Neutrals 6 ; Psi U 7, DKE 7, 
 and Delta Phi 4 ; Delta Kap 10, Sigma Eps 6, Gamma 
 Nu i, and Sigma Delta i. In the 22 classes represented 
 between 48 and 71 there have been 205 individuals 
 upon the Spoon Committee, including the first two 
 Spoon Men and the two Cochs of 63 not upon the 
 programme. In senior year, Keys had 74 of these, 
 Bones 64, other societies 12, while 55 were neu 
 trals. In junior year the figures have been, Psi U 74, 
 DKE 72, Delta Phi 45, and neutrals 14 ; and in 
 freshman year, Delta Kap 99, Sigma Eps 66, Gamma 
 Nu 15, and neutrals 25. Of the Spoon Men, 9 belonged 
 to Bones, 6 to Keys, and 7 were senior neutrals ; 10 
 belonged to DKE, 3 to Delta Phi, 7 to Psi U, and 2 
 were junior neutrals ; while in freshman year 12 belonged 
 to Delta Kap, 9 to Sigma Eps and i to Gamma Nu. It 
 should be remembered that this last society originated 
 in the class of 59. The only class in which all the 
 Cochs belonged to societies without break was that of 
 64, when 4 were Bones men and 5 were Keys men ; 
 4 each belonged to Psi U and to DKE, and i to Delta 
 Phi ; 5 belonged to Delta Kap, 3 to Sigma Eps, and i 
 to Gamma Nu ; and all in sophomore year were mem 
 bers of Sigma Phi. It was a sort of proverb with the 
 faculty that each Spoon Exhibition dropped one of the 
 committee from his class j yet of the whole number 
 only a dozen Cochs have failed to graduate, two of 
 whom were Spoon Men. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 SENIOR YEAR. 
 
 JOURNALISM The Yale Literary Magazine Election of Editors- 
 Initiation Supper Chi Delta Theta Organization and Manage 
 ment of the Magazine Its Printers and Publishers Mode of 
 Soliciting Subscriptions Number of Subscribers Back Num 
 bers and Sets Paying the Printer The Repudiated Debt of 
 1858 Collecting Subscriptions Profit and Loss Advertise 
 ments The Lit. Prize Medal Class and Society Connections of 
 the Winners Character of the Medal and the Essays Typo 
 graphical Changes Editorial Independence in 64 Theory of 
 After-Elections The Original Literary Ideal Gradual Growth 
 of the Mirror-of-College-Life Theory Contributors and Contri 
 butions The General Index of 1868 Illustrations and Typog 
 raphy The Position of Editor Notable Graduates of the Lit. 
 Office Society Statistics of the Editors Representative Char 
 acter of the Magazine Its Predecessors : Literary Cabinet 
 Athenaeum, Crayon, Sitting Room, Student s Companion, Little 
 Gentleman, Gridiron, Medley The Yale Review, and Yale Lit 
 erary Quidnunc The UniversityQuarterly Its Mode of Publica 
 tion Organization of the Quarterly Association Names of the 
 Colleges Composing It The Yale Men and Their Work 
 Editorial Convention Finances and Prizes Credit Due the 
 Publishers The Yale Banner, Pot Pourri, and Other Catalogues 
 Minor Papers and Feuilletons The College Courant Its 
 Humble Origin in 1865 Change of Name and Management in 
 1867 Advertisements and Typography The Undergraduate 
 Editors Their Society Connections The Original Field En 
 largedContributors and Readers Non-Representative Char 
 acter of the Paper The new Yale Courant of the Undergrad 
 uates CLASS PICTURES How Procured How Distributed 
 and Exchanged The New Plan Origin of the Custom Vari 
 eties of Pictures, 1841-70 Class Seals and Mottoes Memora- 
 bil and Its Collectors PRESENTATION DAY The Original 
 Formalities As Celebrated in 1778 and Afterwards The 
 Modern Poem and Oration Announcement of Prizes -The 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. . 425 
 
 Faculty s Collation Election of Orator and Poet Course of 
 Senior Politics in 69 Society Statistics General Good Feel 
 ingPlagiarismPresentation Afternoon Class Histories and 
 Historians The True Test of College Wit and Humor Class 
 Statistics The Ring and Triangle, Under the Elms Singing, 
 an Obsolete Custom Reading the Histories Planting the Ivy- 
 Cheering the College Buildings and Professors Saying the Last 
 Farewell History of the Class Ivies Incidents and Accidents 
 of the Day. 
 
 Of the fifty or more periodicals now regularly pub 
 lished by the students of the various colleges, less than 
 half a dozen were in existence when the class of 69 
 began its career. By far the oldest of these was the 
 Yale Literary Magazine^ popularly known as " the Lit." 
 which was then in its 3ist volume. It was established 
 in February, 1836, through the exertions of William T. 
 Bacon of the junior class, afterwards editor of the New 
 Englander, who wrote more and worked harder to make 
 the first volume a success than any other individual. 
 The five original editors, chosen by and from the class 
 of 37, were: Edwin O. Carter, Frederic A. Coe, Wil 
 liam M. Evarts, Chester S. Lyman and William S. 
 Scarborough, all of whom have since won honorable 
 positions in the world. The first volume contained but 
 6 numbers and ended with the summer term ; the second 
 began with the new academic year and comprised 9 
 numbers, 3 being issued each term ; and this mode of 
 publication has ever since been retained. January, 
 August and September are now the months which are 
 passed over, as May, September and October formerly 
 were. The first board of editors conducted the maga 
 zine for a year and a third, or until the 6th number of 
 the 2d volume; the second board ( 38) issued the last 
 3 numbers of the 2d volume and the first 6 of the 3d ; 
 and so it has since been managed, editors " chosen 
 from the senior class," as advertised, publishing it during 
 
426 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the first two terms of the year, and those from the 
 junior class during the last term. Each board of editors 
 elects one of its members chairman, and he on the 
 third Wednesday or Saturday of the second term calls 
 a meeting of the junior class and presides over the 
 election of the five new editors from among their num 
 ber. For the last 8 or 10 years the Cochleaureati were 
 chosen at the same meeting, under the direction of the 
 Wooden Spoon Man. These five editors, toward the 
 close of the term, give a supper to the retiring board, 
 who then instruct them in the traditions of the magazine 
 and surrender its " archives and valuable effects." In 
 1868, the old Chi Delta Theta triangle was revived, and 
 now the new editors are regularly initiated into that 
 " society" and presented with the " delta" badge, which 
 they wear upon their watch chains during the year. On 
 the reverse of the badge is inscribed "Yale Lit. 1836," 
 with the name and class of the owner. The senior edi 
 tors now have charge of the supper, procure the badges, 
 etc., and exact an initiation fee of $20 to cover the 
 expenses of the same. 
 
 Each number of the magazine is in the special charge 
 of a particular editor. The chairman always has the 
 first one of the new volume, which is the fourth issued 
 by each board, and the other four editors draw lots for 
 the remaining eight, usually retaining, in the second 
 time round, the order given by chance in the first time. 
 Thus, the ist and 6th, the 2cl and yth, the 3d and Sth, 
 the 5th and 9th numbers of each board (but not of the 
 volume) generally go together. In the five boards, 68 
 to 72, the treasurer has chanced to draw the two latter 
 numbers. Each editor has the veto power over his own 
 number, and a majority of the board have it over any 
 of the numbers ; that is to say, a majority can suppress 
 an article which a particular editor wishes to publish 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 4 2 7 
 
 in his number, but they cannot publish anything in it 
 which he wishes to suppress. In practice, however, each 
 editor has very nearly absolute control of his number, 
 as his associates rarely trouble themselves about look 
 ing over his proofs and manuscripts in advance of their 
 publication, unless specially requested to do so ; and 
 general meetings of the entire editorial corps are quite 
 uncommon. Those which occur are usually held in the 
 room of the chairman who calls them. They were for 
 merly quite frequent, and by some boards nothing was 
 published which had not been read and approved by 
 each of the five. The leading article, the " Editor s 
 Table," and until within a few years the " Memorabilia" 
 of each number, were supplied by the editor in charge, 
 who signed his initials to the first mentioned. Latterly, 
 the Memorabilia for the entire year has been furnished 
 by a single one of the editors. 
 
 The promised size of the Lit. has always been 40 
 octavo pages, yet the average for each year has oftener 
 exceeded than fallen below that figure, some issues going 
 beyond 60 pages, while a few have fallen to hardly more 
 than half as many. In the old days, when postage 
 depended upon the number of sheets in the magazine, 
 " even forms" were not so rare as now. The cover, 
 with many varying shades in color, has been from the 
 first a sort of brownish red, and a full-length, wood-cut 
 portrait of Governor Yale has always adorned it, in con 
 nection with the complimentary distich : 
 
 " Dum mens grata manet, nomen laudesque YAI.ENSES 
 Cantabunt SOBOLES, unanimique PATRES." 
 
 The first 7 volumes were printed by B. L. Hamlen, the 
 next 15 by T. J. Stafford, and the rest (1858-71) by 
 Tuttle, Morehouse Taylor. The first 5 volumes were 
 published by B. & W. Noyes, and the next 3 " by the 
 editors," who then held an office of their own, on Chapel 
 
4 2 ^ FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 street, opposite the college yard. Then A. H. Maltby 
 acted as publisher for 10 years, except that Vol. xii. 
 was published by Horace Day and T. H. Pease, and 
 part of the following volume by the latter. Vol. xix. 
 was " published by the editors" again. Then for the 
 next 5 years T. H. Pease was a second time the pub 
 lisher, until in June, 1859, he was superseded by the 
 College Bookstore. The old imprint, u Published by the 
 Editors" was restored by 69, and will doubtless be 
 retained hereafter as most truly expressing the facts of 
 the case. The College Bookstore remained the agency 
 through which the magazine was delivered to sub 
 scribers, until the advent of the board of 72, who trans 
 ferred it to Hoadley s, and there are two other news 
 rooms in town where single copies are kept on sale. 
 The various booksellers who formerly acted as " pub 
 lishers" with the possible exception of the first two 
 were really little more than distributing agents ; all the 
 burdensome details of publication falling upon the 
 shoulders of the editors, the same as at present. 
 
 Besides the chairman, whose duty it is to manage the 
 Advertiser, each board elects a treasurer, who specially 
 attends to the collection of the money due on subscrip 
 tions and otherwise. It is intended that the support of 
 every undergraduate shall be individually solicited, and 
 to each editor is assigned the duty of canvassing a fifth 
 part of every class. His own and the two classes below 
 it are electioneered in advance during the summer term, 
 leaving only the Freshmen to be spoken to at the beginning 
 of the year. Until lately, it was customary for the editors 
 to enter the division rooms of the lower classes at the 
 close of the noon recitation, present the claims of the 
 magazine, and obtain subscribers names ; and, in the 
 earlier days of the enterprise, it was the practice to hold 
 an evening meeting in the Chapel, to which the college 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 429 
 
 and especially the Freshmen were invited by printed 
 posters and circulars, for the purpose of "hearing a few 
 words in regard to the college magazine," and listening 
 to elaborate orations from " well known speakers in the 
 senior class." In proportion to its numbers, this latter 
 class furnishes the most subscribers, though that portion 
 of it outside the coalition which elects its editors some 
 times refuses to support the magazine. With a thorough 
 canvass, three fourths of college could be made to sub 
 scribe, but in reality only about 300 do so, and some 
 few of these finally fail to pay. An edition of 500 is 
 always printed, however, and what with exchanges, and 
 free copies sent to the outside friends of the editors, 
 and the sales of single numbers, there are rarely more 
 than a tenth of them left over to store away for the 
 future. The editors are allowed the use of a portion of 
 that division of the Library formerly held by the Calliope 
 society, and thither they transfer the copies not other 
 wise disposed of, and have them duly labeled and 
 arranged upon the shelves. 
 
 The back numbers now held by the editors represent 
 only a little more than half which have been issued, 
 comprising none of the first 9 volumes, and only 9 com 
 plete volumes of the entire 36. Full sets of the Lit. are 
 quite rare, only about a dozen being certainly known 
 to exist. Of these, three or four are possessed by the 
 college libraries, one by each of the senior societies, one 
 by the British Museum, and the remainder by private 
 individuals. Any one of these could hardly be replaced 
 at a less cost than $200. The original price of the 
 magazine was $2 per volume, which is still the charge 
 for back numbers ; at present it is $3 a figure reached 
 by half-dollar approaches, during the last ten years, in 
 which the costs of publication have doubled. The 
 prices of single numbers have been 25 and 35 cents. 
 
43 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Something like $2 per page of letterpress is paid the 
 present printers, with whom each board makes an inde 
 pendent bargain, usually to the effect that the first 
 number shall be paid for before the close of the summer 
 term, the 3 following ones before the issue of the 5th, 
 and each one after that, before the next is issued. At 
 all events each board becomes responsible for the pay 
 ment of the 9 numbers which they issue, and for no 
 others ; and the printers have never been defrauded. 
 When Mr. Stafford was printer, on the other hand, each 
 board inherited the " debt " of its predecessors, which 
 naturally continued to grow each year, until in 1858 it 
 amounted to some $1500, which was then and there 
 repudiated, the 59 editors going to another printing 
 office, and the 58 men of course refusing to settle an 
 obligation which they themselves had never incurred. 
 In the records of some of the triennial meetings mention 
 is made of payment of the class s Lit. debt among the 
 regular items of the tax levy. The loss to the printer 
 was rather nominal than actual, however, as he of course 
 had foreseen what the end of his "debt" must be, and had 
 " made himself good " in anticipation thereof, by charging 
 exorbitant rates for his work. 
 
 Wednesday or Saturday afternoon is the usual time 
 of issuing the magazine, its appearance being announced 
 by printed " tables of contents " posted about the col 
 lege yard and at the various bookstores. The treasurer, 
 or the editor who "gets out" the number, takes his 
 position in the College Bookstore, or, rather, at Hoad- 
 ley s, and as he deals out the Lits. to the applicants 
 who crowd around, he checks off their names on the 
 subscription book, collecting meanwhile as many unpaid 
 subscriptions as possible. These are of course due in 
 advance, and unless collected by the end of the second 
 term, they are mostly give up as hopeless. Each editor 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 43 l 
 
 is expected to do " his fifth " of the work of collection, 
 but the chief part of it naturally falls upon the treas 
 urer, who, every month after the beginning of the volume, 
 regularly " chases up " enough delinquent subscribers to 
 pay the current printer s bill. The only income of a new- 
 board during its first term is from its advertisements 
 and the sale of single copies, as it is bound to supply 
 the last three numbers of the volume to the subscribers 
 who have paid their money to its predecessor. The 
 magazine is sent free to each editor for a year after his 
 graduation, and two copies are likewise given to the Lib; 
 rary. Instead of "exchanging" through the mail, each Lit. 
 editor takes his Courant, and each Courant editor his 
 Lit. Originally, most members of the faculty were 
 either honorary or paying subscribers to the magazine, 
 and it had numerous patrons among the graduates and 
 professional students. Now its sole reliance is upon the 
 undergraduates, its outside supporters not numbering 
 more than a baker s dozen, all told. An editorial board 
 congratulate themselves if at the end of their term they 
 can pay all their bills without being individually $10 or 
 $20 out of pocket. Yet with good management a profit 
 might be made from the publication, as was proved by 
 the experience of the 69 editors, who cleared $160, 
 though they published a third more matter than their 
 immediate predecessors, and incurred an expense 
 ($1260) much greater than that of any previous board. 
 Considerable income is derived from the Advertiser, to 
 which a dozen pages or more are commonly devoted. 
 The price is as low as $5 or $6 a page, and for 
 those who would address simply the " students of Yale 
 college," this is by all odds the cheapest advertising 
 medium open, as there is scarcely a man of them who 
 does not at least " look over " the Yale Lit. 
 
 Quite an item of expense is the very liberal prize 
 
432 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 "a gold medal valued at $25 annually offered by the 
 editors to their undergraduate subscribers, for the best 
 written essay. Manuscripts must be sent in through 
 the post-office^ addressed to the chairman of the board, 
 with the writer s name enclosed in a sealed envelope, 
 before a specified day in the fall term, usually about a 
 month after its commencement. The decision of the 
 judges is announced a few weeks later. There are two 
 graduates commonly members of the faculty chosen 
 by the editors, and the chairman of the board. Though 
 this " medal " is double the value of the highest compo 
 sition prize awarded by the faculty, and is open to every 
 undergraduate, there are seldom more than half a dozen 
 competing manuscripts, and it is believed that there 
 have never been over twice that number. The prize 
 was first offered by the editors of 51, and, as it was 
 "split" in 66, there have been in all 22 awards; of 
 which 10 have fallen to Seniors, 10 to Juniors and 2 to 
 Sophomores. It should be borne in mind that the men 
 who offer the prize are supposed to be the "five best 
 writers " of the Seniors, while the Juniors or Sopho 
 mores who take it increase thereby their chances of 
 being themselves elected to the editorial board of the 
 class. As for societies, Bones has taken 1 1 of the medals, 
 Keys 3, and neutrals 8 ; Delta Phi 3, Psi U n, DKE 
 6 and neutrals 2 ; Sigma Eps 7, Delta Kap 9, and 
 Gamma Nu 6. 
 
 The medal awarded by the editors of 52 was 
 described as being " of circular form, nearly two inches 
 in diameter, with its edges elaborately chased. On the 
 obverse, surrounding a beautiful picture of the college 
 Library are the words : Awarded to Andrew D. White, 
 Merito ac Jure, Yale College, 1851. On the reverse a 
 balance is represented in which the pen weighs down 
 the sword, beneath the cap of Liberty. Around this 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 433 
 
 are the words, Yale Literary Magazine, Meriti Praemi- 
 um. " This is the only actual "medal" of which men 
 tion has ever been made, $25 in money being pre 
 ferred by most and perhaps by all of the other recipi 
 ents. The editors of 67 and 68, and, in fact, a 
 majority of their predecessors, really gave the success 
 ful essayist neither medal nor money ; and in some pre 
 vious years it was spoken of as " customary " for the 
 man who took the prize to spend the most or all of it 
 in giving a " treat " to the editors by whom it was con 
 ferred ; but the editors of 69 and their successors have 
 honestly paid the cash. The essay is usually printed in 
 the first number of the magazine issued after the award, 
 and its subject chosen by the writer is almost always 
 the life or writings of a particular author, "Thoreau," 
 " Hawthorne," " Frederic W. Robertson," " Napoleon s 
 Casar" " Shakespeare s Sir John Fahtaff" being recent 
 examples. Perhaps the very fact that the honor of 
 taking the medal is considered such a high one, explains 
 why there are so few competitors for it ; none but 
 writers of repute thinking they have any chance of suc 
 cess. 
 
 The editors names were first placed at the head of 
 the Lit. in 1852. Before that time they usually appeared 
 but once, when appended to the valedictory address 
 in the 6th number of the volume. In 1869, fac-simile 
 autographs were signed to this " Editors Farewell," and 
 the present year it was dispensed with altogether. 
 Originally the yth number of the volume was introduced 
 by a formal salutatory, " To our Readers," the custom 
 being last observed by 59, but this was usually signed 
 simply " Your Editors," though the names were some 
 times indicated. The prospectus on the last page of 
 the cover varied a little every year up to 1851, but 
 adhered closely to that put forth by the original editors, 
 
 20 
 
434 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 so far as it defined the policy of the magazine. The 
 prospectus adopted by 52 remained essentially un 
 changed for 17 years, and that now published was 
 devised by 69. With the 34th volume was also intro- . 
 duced the plan of indicating the "whole number "of 
 issues, at the top of every left-hand page. Thus, " Vol. 
 xxxvi, No. ix " (July, 1871), is " No. 321 " of the entire 
 series. Tardiness and irregularity in publishing the 
 numbers have been somewhat common, perhaps the 
 worst example being in 1858 when the board of that year 
 did not publish its last (May) number until July, when 
 the 59 editors had already put forth two issues ! This 
 accounts for the repetition in the paging of one or two 
 forms in that volume. It will be remembered that No. 
 6 of Vol. xxiii was the last Lit. printed by Mr. Stafford, 
 and doubtless the repudiation of " that debt " had a 
 close connection with the extraordinary delay. In Vol. 
 xxvii there was no regular " No. 6," the 62 editors 
 printing their farewell in the March number, which was 
 the 8th issued by them and the 5th of the volume, and 
 the board of 63 beginning in June with "No. 7," to 
 which was appended a note to the effect that the March 
 issue was a to be considered a "double number." 
 
 The history of the three "second issues" of 1864 
 has been given in another chapter (p. 165). They are 
 usually bound in at the close of Vol. xxix., as a sort of 
 supplement to the regular work, but the original one of 
 the three varieties of " No. 4 " is never to be met with. 
 The 65 editors invited to the customary supper the five 
 ^nembers of the original board, but the two seceders of 
 of course did not accept "that honor." The new edi 
 tors likewise adapted their paging to that of the regular 
 rather than of the second issue, and of course ignored 
 the latter in their " table of contents " of the volume, 
 published at the end of the year ; whereupon the ex- 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 435 
 
 members of the second board issued another table of 
 contents, in which the titles of the second issues were 
 indicated and those of the corresponding regular ones 
 were omitted. During the quarrel, the Lit. was " entered 
 according to Act of Congress in the district court of 
 Connecticut/ in the names of each of the rival pub 
 lishers, the second board styling themselves, " the 
 agents and trustees of the class of 64." The action of 
 the class in this matter was plainly illegal and unjust. 
 The theory on which the Lit. has always been managed 
 is this : that when a class has once elected its board of 
 editors, at the call of the chairman of the preceding 
 board, it has done its whole duty, and can control the 
 magazine no further. It has no right to expel editors 
 for misdemeanor, or to full up vacancies occasioned by 
 death or resignation, except by request of the rest. 
 Once in office, the editors must settle their quarrels 
 among themselves, and can submit to no outside inter 
 ference. Only three resignations have been followed 
 by special class elections : one each in 41, in 47 and 
 in 58, the second case being to fill the vacancy caused 
 by a man who refused out of society considerations 
 to accept the office at all. The name of the man who, 
 according to the Banner list, was chosen in place of 
 him, was not signed to the editors farewell, however, 
 although he graduated with his class. There has been 
 no case of editorial withdrawal since 62, and the chance 
 is not a common one ; yet when it happens the best 
 and usual course is for the remaining editors to do the 
 additional work themselves, rather than call upon the 
 class to fill the vacancy. Of course the editors them 
 selves have no power to elect an associate, even if they 
 desire to: but the class cannot do it except with their 
 consent. 
 
 In a modest prospectus, the founders of the magazine 
 
436 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 thus defined their position : "To foster a literary spirit 
 and to furnish a medium for its exercise ; to rescue from 
 utter waste the many thoughts and musings of a stu 
 dent s leisure hours ; and to afford some opportunity to 
 train ourselves for the strife and collision of mind which 
 we must expect in after life such and similar motives 
 have urged us to this undertaking." The " Epilegomena" 
 began with the second year and ran through a half- 
 dozen volumes or more ; after the 6th alternating with 
 the " Editor s Table," which finally superseded it alto 
 gether. Both were alike save in name, and formed the 
 only relief to the "heavy literary" portion of the maga 
 zine. They were made up of that sort of "sanctum 
 literature " which flourished in the days of the old 
 Knickerbocker, after which magazine, by the bye, the Lit. 
 seems in great measure to have patterned itself. Aside 
 from the Table, at which the editors under assumed 
 names (" the Corporal," " the Doctor," " Meerschaum," 
 " Mishkan," and " Shanghai " were the ones in vogue 
 for several years) carried on imaginary conversation 
 with each other, which were intended to be very witty 
 and amusing, and perhaps they did entertain their 
 readers, for older heads, it is said, used to take delight 
 in the similar platitudes of the Knickerbocker and its 
 compeers, the Lit. was entirely made up of " essays," 
 "tales," "poems," and " sketches," having no connec 
 tion with college life or customs. The editors of 49 
 were the first who conceived the idea that the true mis 
 sion of the magazine was to serve as " a mirror of college 
 life," and their successors of 52 most heartily endorsed 
 this principle. Prof. D. C. Gilman of this board has 
 the credit of instituting the "Memorabilia Yalensia," 
 though the name was suggested by Prof. Kingsley. 
 Under this head were to be given each month "a record 
 of all the current events of college life, together with 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 437 
 
 occasional historical and statistical papers in regard to 
 the institution." The latter part of the plan has since 
 been abandoned, such papers being now published in 
 the body of the magazine, but the Memorabilia has 
 always been its best read and most valuable department. 
 Since 69 introduced the practice of having a single one 
 of the editors furnish this monthly record during the 
 entire year, it has been better arranged and more fully 
 classified than ever before, and its condensed epitome 
 of events now forms the most complete and connected 
 account of current life at Yale that can be obtained. If 
 graduates could be made to realize the fact, it seems 
 likely that many would become subscribers. 
 
 Since the mirror-of-college-life theory was first 
 broached, every board of editors who have expressed an 
 opinion have spoken in favor of it, save only the men of 
 6 1, who wanted the Lit s articles to be " distinctively 
 literary," and struck from the prospectus the words 
 "local, spirited and humorous," which from 52 onwards 
 had seemed desirable adjectives for student writing to 
 boast of. In spite of this apparent unanimity of edi 
 torial sentiment, however, in favor of the common sense 
 demand that Lit. writers should restrict themselves to 
 the microcosm wherein they and its readers are inter 
 ested, there has been a good deal of rambling off into 
 the "vague illimitable perspective." the abstract realms 
 of "truth, justice and the eternal verities," where prize 
 compositions and disputations love to disport themselves. 
 These compositions, even, have been too often published, 
 in lack of better " copy " ; while the " De Forest ora 
 tion " and one or two of the " Townsend essays " are 
 regularly issued in the last number of the volume. 
 Originally, all five of the latter loaded down the pages 
 of a single Lit. " Conducted by the students of Yale 
 College " is the phrase upon the covers, which has 
 
43 8 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 never once varied since February, 1836. Everything is 
 written by undergraduates, in which respect the maga 
 zine is almost if not quite unique among college 
 periodicals. In the old times, this rule was once in a 
 while infringed upon, though rarely without special in 
 dication of and apology for the fact. " Contributions 
 are solicited through the post office/ yet very few are 
 received in this way ; most of the articles not written 
 by the editors, being furnished by their friends or 
 acquaintances, in response to a personal application for 
 them. Of the 22 contributors to Vol. xxxiv., aside 
 from the 10 editors, 15 were from 69, 5 from 70, and i 
 each from 71 and 72. 
 
 Initials are perhaps generally signed to the articles, 
 though the usage greatly varies, but the pseudonyms and 
 fancy signatures once in vogue are never now used. To 
 a prize essay, the author s name and residence is gener 
 ally prefixed in full. In some years the names of the 
 writers were indicated in the list of articles always 
 printed on the inner cover of each number ; other 
 editors appended them to the titles in the table-of-con- 
 tents for the volume, published at the end of the year. 
 This, with title-page, has always been issued, though 
 usually without much attempt at completeness. The 
 index prepared for Vol. xxxiv., however, extended over 
 8 pages and comprised some 600 references, separate 
 alphabets being given to " prose," " verse," " premium 
 articles," " memorabilia," " minor topics, " " editor s 
 table," " books noticed," and " contributors," and the 
 same plan will doubtless be retained hereafter. It was 
 divised by the same 69 editor who, the year before, com 
 piled " an index to the first 33 volumes, from February, 
 1836 to July, 1868," and issued it on the i5th of the 
 latter month. This was a pamphlet of 36 double- 
 columed pages, comprising 6000 or 7000 references, 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 439 
 
 divided between three principal alphabets, "prose," 
 "verse," and "memorabilia." The edition was 300 
 copies, and the compiler, by disposing of about two 
 thirds of them, at a half-dollar each, to undergraduate 
 subscribers, managed to pay his printer s bill with only 
 a slight loss to himself. This index also contained lists 
 of the editors, "Townsend," "De Forest," and "Lit. 
 Medal " men, and of the " illustrations " which formely 
 figured in the magazine. Between the 4th and i2th 
 volumes there were published steel engraved portraits 
 of the Reverends George Berkeley and David Daggett, 
 Presidents Day and Woolsey, Professors Goodrich, 
 Kingsley, and Olmstead ; and views of the " College in 
 1845 " a d of tne Library, a single board rarely pro 
 curing more than one plate, though some were twice 
 used. The portraits were accompanied by biographical 
 sketches, and the last which appeared, being the only 
 one not already mentioned, was that of N. P. Willis in 
 1858. A fac-simile sketch of the "College in 1786" 
 was twice inserted, and minor woodcuts have in three 
 instances garnished the Editor s Table. The paper and 
 typography have always been good, but are now 
 unusually excellent, the former being of the extra " laid 
 and tinted " quality used in fine book-work, and the 
 latter the " Old Franklin " style now grown so common 
 again. Small pica for the body of the magazine, long 
 primer for the Memorabilia, and brevier for the Editor s 
 Table, are the sizes of type now used. The editors 
 do their own proof-reading, and attend to it more 
 carefully now than formerly, but minor typographi 
 cal errors are still to be noticed. Besides all of 
 the student periodicals, many important journals 
 regularly exchange with the Lit., and publishers often 
 forward books for review. Each editor has charge of 
 everything received, through the post-office or other- 
 
44 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 wise, during the month before his magazine is issued : 
 afterwards he turns over all accumulations to the chair 
 man, who keeps them till the end of the editorial term, 
 when the spoils are divided among the editors. Most 
 of the college journals, however, if preserved at all, are 
 then given to the Library. 
 
 When a class chooses its editors, it usually selects the 
 five whom it considers its " best literary men," assum 
 ing to be such those who have taken the highest com 
 position prizes and have succeeded best in prize debate, 
 without regard to those special editorial and business 
 qualifications no less necessary for the proper publication 
 of a magazine. The editors, on the other hand, are apt 
 to regard the office as a sort of honorary position 
 given them in recognition of their previous triumphs 
 where they may rest upon their laurels. Their reputa 
 tion being already established, they do not exert them 
 selves to better it by working faithfully at their duties. 
 The mere honor attaching to the name of Lit. editor is 
 what attracts them, especially for its helping their 
 chances of a senior-society election, but the idea of 
 making the office honorable by their mode of filling it 
 does not often occur to them. As applied to the pres 
 ent, however, these remarks should be understood as 
 representing hardly more than a tendency, though liter 
 ally true, six years ago. Spite of political wire-pulling 
 and society connections and prospects, which sometimes 
 keep good men out and bring poor ones in, it is very 
 generally true that each class puts its " five best literary 
 men" upon the editorial board, in the same sense that it 
 used to elect its "nine most popular" ones upon the 
 Spoon Committee. It happens, too, that good editors 
 are sometimes numbered among the good writers, and 
 there are several respectable journalists who served their 
 first apprenticeship in the office of " the oldest college 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 44 1 
 
 periodical." Among these may be mentioned, Donald 
 G. Mitchell, 41, late of Hearth and Home, B. Gratz 
 Brown, 47, late of the Missouri Democrat, Charles G. 
 Came, 49, of the Boston Journal, Ellis H. Roberts, 50, 
 of the Utica Heral4, Charlton T. Lewis, 53, of the N. 
 Y. Evening Post, and William H. W. Campbell, 56, of 
 the Norwich Bulletin. A dozen or more younger grad 
 uates of the Lit. have also adopted the profession. 
 Among other notable ex-editors are : Rev. Dr. Joseph P. 
 Thompson of 38, Senator Orris S. Ferry of 44, Judge 
 Francis M. Finch of 49, Prof. Homer B. Sprague of 52, 
 President Andrew D. White of 53, the late Dr. John W. 
 Hooker of 54, Rev. John M. Holmes of 57, Dr. Daniel 
 G. Brinton of 58, and Dr. George M. Beard of 62. 
 
 All but one of the original editors were Bones men 
 that one being the founder of Delta Phi and there 
 were 16 Bones men in the first 5 boards. In the 31 
 classes, 42 to 71, there were, including 2 after-elections 
 and the 3 pseudo editors of 64, 155 editors of the mag 
 azine, of whom 94 belonged to Bones, 17 to Keyes, and 
 the rest were neutrals, save the 5 Diggers in the second 
 board of 64. In the first three classes, there were 7 
 Delta Phi men ; of the 2 1 editors, 46 to 43, 6 were 
 members of Delta Phi, 14 of Psi U, and one was a 
 neutral; while of the 150 editors, 44 to 72, 42 belonged 
 to Delta Phi, 55 to Psi U, 43 to DKE, and 10 were neu 
 trals. For the 5 years previous to 49, Sigma Eps 
 claimed 9 of the 26 editors ; during the next 10 classes 
 Sigma Eps had 18 and Delta Kap 32 ; while of the 73, 
 59 to 72, Sigma Eps had 29, Delta Kap 27, Gamma 
 Nu 1 6. There have been only 3 boards entirely com 
 posed of Bones men, and only 4 others in which there 
 have been no senior neutrals. Bones has been repre 
 sented on every board, and by more than one member 
 save in a single instance, but Keys has had no men on 
 
 20* 
 
442 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 18 out of the 30 boards since 41. Since 44, Delta Phi 
 has been 5 times unrepresented, Psi U 4 times, and 
 DKE 7 times, while the junior neutrals have been unrep 
 resented on all but 7 boards. Since 59, Delta Kapand 
 Gamma Nu have each been twice unrepresented. No 
 one freshman or junior society has ever claimed the 
 whole of a single board. The special statistics of the 
 chairmanship are not given, since the office, though 
 taken cognizance of by the politicians in the making up 
 of a " ticket," and considered an honor to the recipient, 
 is not popularly regarded, not one out of a dozen re 
 membering who " the chairman" is, a month after they 
 have read the notice of his election. 
 
 Notwithstanding the defects of the Lit. and the draw 
 backs against which it has to contend, it may be consid 
 ered a pretty fair exponent of the literary ability of the 
 Yale undergraduates, and is on the whole creditable to 
 the college which it represents. If it is sometimes digni 
 fied almost to dulness, it is never silly or vulgar or abusive, 
 it is rarely conceited or unfair. Nor is it usually dull. 
 Spite of all the tendencies in the other direction, its 
 writers mostly treat of college themes whereof they 
 really know and honestly think. Its articles are most 
 of them of considerable value as furnishing a fair reflex 
 of student thought and feeling. And withal they are of 
 interest to college-bred men, even outside of Yale. The 
 magazine is certainly as much the best as it is the old 
 est of its class, and perhaps it may even be called the 
 best of all the college periodicals. It was never on a 
 sounder basis than at present, and its continuance in the 
 future seems almost as assured as that of the college 
 itself. Were it far less deserving and beneficial than it 
 actually is, however, the mere fact of its having out 
 lived a generation of mortal men and a countless host 
 of college journals, of its being the first college periodi- 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 443 
 
 cal that ever succeeded and one of the very oldest of 
 any kind (save the newspapers) in the whole country, 
 this alone, in a place where tradition is so powerful as 
 at Yale, would certainly secure its perpetuation. 
 
 But the Lit., though the first of its kind to succeed, 
 did not come unheralded. A long line of unfortunate 
 journals had gone before it. The first of these was 
 called the Literary Cabinet, and appeared Nov. 15, 1806. 
 It was an 8-page fortnightly, of the octavo size, "under 
 the direction of editors chosen from the senior class," 
 and was " printed by Oliver Steel & Co. at the Herald 
 office." Its price was $i a year, half in advance, or 
 wholly in advance to out-of-town subscribers, and the 
 publishers made " an unalterable resolve to appropriate 
 the pecuniary profits (!) to the education of poor stu 
 dents in this seminary." They were unable to find any 
 successors, however, and the journal died when they 
 graduated, in October, 1807. Their names were Thomas 
 S. Grimke, Jacob Sutherland, and Leonard E. Wales. 
 -Next came the Athenczum, which lasted from Feb. 12 
 to Aug. 6, 1814, under the direction of 5 editors from 
 that class : William B. Calhoun, Daniel Lord, George E. 
 Spruill, William L. Storrs, and Leonard Withington. 
 It was like its predecessor in size, price, and time of 
 issue, and came from the press of the same printer. In 
 the last number was a notice to subscribers that the 
 journal, doubled in size, would be continued next year, 
 by a committee chosen from the senior class, in case 
 sufficient encouragement .were given. "Sufficient en 
 couragement was not given." A Latin motto the one 
 from Cicero, the other from Pliny stood at the head of 
 each of these papers ; but neither of them printed the 
 names of their editors, except, perhaps, in their final 
 numbers, when a contents-table, and possibly a title- 
 
444 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 page, to the volume was also issued. The Yale Crayon 
 of 1823 was probably a short-lived magazine of the same 
 sort, as a quotation is made from its 22d page, in Hall s 
 " College Words and Customs." The Sitting Room 
 appeared on March 17, 1830, was a small-sized sheet of 
 four pages, and its subscription price was 50 cents a 
 term, or 75 cents from the first number until Commence 
 ment time. Six cents was the price of single copies, 
 and Charles Adams was the printer or publisher, at his 
 office on Chapel street, " No. 4 Central Row." After 
 making 6 weekly issues of its own, it was merged in the 
 Palladium, occupying under its own title the last page of 
 that paper. In this shape it made 8 more appearances, 
 covering the period from May i to July 31, on which 
 fated Saturday the Room was shut up forever. Oliver 
 E. Daggett of 28, then a law student, was the projec 
 tor of the enterprise, and William W. Andrews of 31 
 was the principal contributor, though they kept them 
 selves in the background, under the pen-name of " Wal 
 ter Percy & Co." 
 
 The next year found no less than three college maga 
 zines in the field, all of them edited anonymously. The 
 most respectable one was the Student s Companion, 
 which extended from January to May, and issued 
 between those two dates 4 numbers of 56 octavo pages 
 each. Its cover of brownish yellow was ornamented 
 with a wood-cut of a massive round-table, covered with 
 books and manuscripts. Baldwin & Treadway were the 
 printers and publishers, and A. H. Maltby also received 
 subscriptions, which were " 25 cents per quarter, pay 
 able on the delivery of the first number." The editors 
 (all of whom, it was announced, were members of the 
 college and the chief a member of the senior class) 
 called themselves the " Knights of the Round Table," 
 and were supposed to be 9 in number, corresponding to 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 445 
 
 the departments of Recorder, Narrator, Critic, Philoso 
 pher, Delineator, Novelist, Reflector, Politician and 
 Troubadour, to each of which one of them was assigned, 
 under a fancy name, like Harry Tudor, or Launcelot 
 Grammot. They promised to reveal their identity on 
 the issue of the September number which never ap 
 peared. It afterwards came out that the editors were 
 all impersonated in a single individual, David F. Bacon 
 of 31, who wrote the entire 200 pages of the magazine. 
 The Little. Gentleman was a diminutive i6mo, " published 
 now and then by H. Howe [the printer] and for sale by 
 booksellers generally," having upon its cover of yellow 
 ish brown a quotation in reference to Junius. The first 
 number, of 18 pages, appeared on Saturday, Jan. i, 
 1831, the second, of double the size, on Thursday, Jan. 
 27, and the last (which was perhaps the 5th or 6th of 
 the series) on Friday, April 29. The editor or editors 
 doubtless belonged to the senior class. The Gridiron 
 was a i2mo, whose first number, consisting of 32 pages, 
 was issued in February, 1831. Upon its light red cover 
 was displayed an escutcheon which the editor thus 
 described : " Within a bordure sable, a field, quarterly 
 argent and or, charged with an eye proper ; a sinister 
 hand erased at the wrist proper, holding balances tenny; 
 a bundle of rods vert; a gridiron sable over flames 
 gules producing smoke azure, supporting a man sejant 
 proper, guarded by a cat rampant sanguine ; the whole 
 standing on a scroll bearing the motto, Nocet bonis 
 quisque pepercerit malis. Its editor, then unknown, 
 was John M. Clapp of 31, afterwards proprietor of a 
 Bridgeport paper. No name of printer or publisher 
 was given. Of the four principal articles in the first 
 number (which had only two or three successors), one 
 was devoted to ridiculing the Students Companion, and 
 another to chastising the Little Gentleman. 
 
44^ FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Two years afterwards came the Medley, " a monthly 
 periodical conducted by an association of the students 
 of Yale College," the leading spirit in which association 
 is said to have been Henry W. Ellsworth of 34. 
 Whitmore : Minor were the printers and publishers, 
 and subscriptions were also received at the bookstores 
 of A. H. Maltby and Hezekiah Howe. The price was 
 " 75 cts. per quarter, payable on the delivery of the first 
 number." On the dull green covers was simply printed, 
 "The Medley: Yale College." Three numbers only 
 were issued, each of 56 octavo pages, the dates being, 
 March, April, and June, 1833. "The main object of 
 this periodical was the encouragement of general litera 
 ture," and it was to be made up of " tales, essays, reviews, 
 and other productions of interest and amusement." 
 Pseudonyms were signed to its articles, as to those in 
 all jthe journals mentioned, but the poetry of which 
 there was a large amount was all the" work of a cer 
 tain " * T *." In review of these 7 luckless periodicals 
 which preceded the Lit., it is seen that the Student s 
 Companion and the Medley were the only ones at all 
 resembling it as to size and general design. The Sitting 
 Room was intended quite as much for the town as for 
 the college ; and the same may be said of the Gridiron 
 and Little Gentleman, which were weakly satirical, at 
 tempting to "dispense with lavish hand the cutting jest 
 and the bitter sarcasm " in regard to such persons or 
 things as chanced to be the town talk. The Literary 
 Cabinet, Athcna-nm, and Medley were the only journals 
 which their originators expected would be long lived. 
 Belief in their perpetuity was in each case kept up till 
 the very last. The Medley, especially, in its final num 
 ber, denounced with scorn the idea of its predicted 
 early decease ; but, with the defiant "Never say die ! " 
 yet on its lips, it was cut down as the others had been. 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 447 
 
 The most noticeable characteristic of all these journals 
 was the absence of anything whatever connecting them, 
 even indirectly, with the college. To treat of so vulgar 
 a theme was apparently considered quite beneath their 
 dignity. The only exception to this was the " historical 
 sketch of Yale " in the Student s Companion. 
 
 Early in 1857 a number of Seniors joined together in 
 publishing two numbers of a periodical called the Yale 
 Review, which is said to have been printed at Spring 
 field, Mass. Its anonymous managers were probably 
 neutrals, as their energies were largely devoted to 
 "pitching into" the senior societies and the Lit., and 
 effectually scarifying the men and measures promi 
 nently indentified with those institutions. A year 
 later appeared the third and last number of the 
 Review, whose editors were naturally inferred to be 
 neutral Seniors of 58, though no one in that class could 
 discover their names. This third and last number of 
 the Review was even more bitterly personal and sav 
 agely critical than its two predecessors, and great was 
 the mystery concerning it. It was printed by Tuttle, 
 Morehouse & Taylor, and was of about the same size 
 and typographical appearance as the Lit. Its editors 
 were really Juniors of 59, some of whom were elected 
 to the societies which they ridiculed, and three of whom 
 were chosen to the editorship of the Lit. which they 
 " criticized." The latter doubtless enjoyed hearing 
 themselves roundly abused at the Lit. initiation supper 
 by the 58 editors, who had no suspicions of the true 
 state of affairs. It was through their connection with 
 the Review that the 59 editors formed the acquaintance 
 with the present Lit. printers, which resulted in transfer 
 to them of the work which they have ever since retained. 
 The " spicy " and mysterious character of the Review 
 ensured for it a ready sale among the undergraduates, 
 
44 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 and unlike the earlier prints, before catalogued 
 copies of it are now practically unattainable. A prede 
 cessor of the Review was the Yale Literary Quidnunc, 
 published in April and June, 1838, by "Michael Lucifer 
 & Co.," which gave up most of its pages to personal 
 attacks on the Lit. then in its infancy and copied 
 that magazine in its size and make-up as well as in its title. 
 But the most elaborate enterprize ever undertaken in 
 the way of college journalism was the publication of the 
 University Quarterly. Its object was " to enlist the 
 active talent of young men in American and as far as 
 possible in foreign universities, in the discussion of 
 questions and the communication of intelligence of 
 common interest to students." It was "to be made up 
 of news, local sketches, reformatory thought and liter 
 ary essays, from all the principal seats of classical and 
 professional learning," and thus help " to unite the 
 sympathies of academical, collegiate and professional 
 students throughout the world." Its management was 
 to be vested in the Quarterly Association, which was to 
 consist of boards or correspondents chosen in each 
 institution, in any manner deemed advisable, but to be 
 changed as infrequently as possible and be perpetually 
 renewed by elections from incoming classes. All 
 boards and the members of them were to be on an 
 equal footing. That one at the place of publication 
 were to form a "central board of compilation," but were 
 " to be strictly impartial towards their own institution, 
 and wholly governed by the prospectus and the will of 
 the association." Each board were to be responsible for 
 the sentiments, accuracy, and literary character of their 
 articles, and were to forward none for publication which 
 had not received the approval of a majority of their 
 members. The central board " were to have no power 
 of rejection, but in case a majority of its members ob- 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 449 
 
 jected to an article, it was to be referred back to the 
 board sending it, and if a difference of opinion should 
 still exist, the final decision was to be given by one or more 
 members of their college faculty, chosen by that board." 
 A general secretary was to be employed and salaried, 
 to conduct the correspondence and act as treasurer and 
 agent of the association. Each board were to occupy a 
 number of pages proportionate to the number of under 
 graduates in their institution and the number of institu 
 tions represented in the magazine, and for each page 
 occupied were to furnish one subscriber. 
 
 The first informal prospectus, embracing this general 
 scheme, was sent out from New Haven, October 27, 
 1858, and on the reception of favorable replies from 
 Amherst, Williams and Dartmouth, the plan of manage 
 ment was carefully elaborated, the number of the Yale 
 board increased to two and afterwards to four, and with 
 this temporary organization, a revised circular and 
 prospectus was issued, November 25, and the work of 
 enquiry and discussion commenced. Three things were 
 deemed essential : that the plan should be favored by 
 faculties and alumni ; that all the principal institutions 
 of the country should join the association ; and that 
 correspondents should be secured in the foreign univer 
 sities. The first point being gained, the suggestions 
 offered by prominent educators and journalists were 
 embodied in the revised prospectus and circular issued 
 in May, 1859, and by pushing this among undergraduates, 
 at home and abroad, the second and third con 
 ditions were soon fulfilled, and the publication of the 
 Quarterly was decided upon. The first number bore 
 date of January, 1860, and April, July and October were 
 the other months of issue. The eighth and last number 
 was that of October, 1861. The two years were divided 
 into four volumes, of which the number of pages were 
 
45 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 successively 430, 412, 452, and 324, or somewhat above 
 the promised average of 200 pages per issue. Tuttle, 
 Morehouse &: Taylor were the printers, and Thomas H. 
 Pease was the general agent. The authors names were 
 indicated, with the titles of their articles, on the inner 
 covers of each issue, and in the contents-table accom 
 panying the title page for each volume. The covers 
 were of a brownish green. On the title-page, which was 
 a reprint of the cover, the Quarterly was said to be 
 "conducted by an association of collegiate and pro 
 fessional students in the United States and Europe," 
 and the names of the institutions composing the associa 
 tion were indicated. There were 18 of them when the 
 first number was issued, and 28 when the association 
 was dissolved. The names of these were as follows, 
 5 more which had then withdrawn being indicated in 
 brackets : [Albany Law School], Amherst, Andovcr 
 Theol. Sem., Antioch, Beloit [Berlin], Bowdoin, Brown, 
 Cambridge (Eng.), Columbia, Dartmouth [Halle], 
 Hamilton, Harvard, Heidelberg, Kenyon, Marietta, 
 Michigan, Middlebury, New York, Norwich, Oberlin, 
 Pennsylvania, People s [State and National Law School], 
 Trinity, Troy, Union [Union Theol. Sem.], Vermont, 
 Wesleyan, Williams, Yale. 
 
 The originator cf the enterprise seems to have been 
 Flavius J. Cook of 62. On the 9th November, 1859, 
 when he had interested 27 other Yale men in the work, 
 a provisional organization was made, under whose care 
 the first number was issued. The magazine being thus 
 fairly started, it was thought best to hold a public elec 
 tion of editors. Accordingly, on Wednesday, February 
 22, 1860, all members of the three upper classes were 
 requested to vote for 9 men, 3 from each class, a 
 plurality vote being sufficient to elect. The polls were 
 opened during the day, and a very full ballot cast. Six 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 45 J 
 
 of the 9 then chosen had been members of the pro 
 visional board, which was then discontinued, its duties 
 of course having been accomplished. The next elec 
 tion was held Sept. -22, when 3 new editors were chosen 
 from 63 to replace those graduated in 60, and the 
 boards of 61 and 62 were re-elected. A year later, 
 Sept. 29, 1861, the third and last election was held, 
 three new editors being chosen from 64, and those of 
 62 and 63 being re-elected, except one new man in 
 each class, needed to fill a vacancy. Of the 38 Yale 
 men thus connected with the Quarterly, a half-dozen 
 were then or afterwards editors of the Lit., and there 
 was never any rivalry between the two periodicals. 
 Nearly 500 of the 1600 pages were written by Yale men ; 
 say, about 275 by those representing the institution, 150 
 by those representing other institutions, and 75 by those 
 representing the general association. In other words, 
 almost a third instead of a thirty-third part of the matter 
 was supplied in one way or another by the college. Yet 
 there was never any complaint of unfair treatment of 
 other institutions, and the central board never went 
 beyond the authority given it by the prospectus. It 
 was rarely oppressed .by too much copy, and the last 
 number was reduced in size to 150 pages only be 
 cause the central board had nothing more left to print. 
 Next to Yale, Ambers t apparently gave the Quarterly 
 the best support, Francis A. Walker and William M. 
 Pomeroy, both afterwards connected with the Springfield 
 Republican, doing considerable work for it. Wendell P. 
 Garrison of the Nation was one of the Harvard writers, 
 but this college never took a very hearty interest in the 
 success of the association. 
 
 Each number contained 14 or 15 " essays" generally 
 on some subject connected with student life and a like 
 number of " news articles," giving a record of current 
 
45 2 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 events in the different colleges, perhaps preceded in the 
 first case by a brief historical sketch of the same. 
 These were arranged alphabetically, bringing Yale at 
 the end ; and a Yale essay never introduced a number. 
 Last, came a news article in regard to the Quarterly 
 association, wherein the central board informed the 
 others of the pecuniary progress and prospects of their 
 enterprise and urged them to continue their support. A 
 convention of the editors was held at Worcester at the 
 time of the regatta of 1860, wherein 8 or 10 boards 
 were represented, and the prospects of the Quarterly 
 were talked over. Among other things it was voted that 
 the compensation given for foreign articles be not over 
 75cts. per page. During the first year, $53 was expended 
 in this way, the printer s bill was $1695, an d the entire 
 expenses were $1863. The receipts exceeded this 
 amount by $57 $1720 being derived from subscriptions 
 and $200 from advertisements. But aside from the 
 money actually paid in to the treasurer, about $350 had 
 been collected by or was due to boards which had not 
 reported, so that in its first year the University Quarterly 
 made a profit of about $400. No second financial 
 report was published, but the affairs of the concern 
 were probably closed up without loss to the conductors, 
 though the death seems to have been sudden, the 
 number for October, 1861, evidently having no expecta 
 tions that it would be the last. The subscription price 
 was $2 a year, and $10 a page was charged for adver 
 tisements, which began in the second number. The 
 cost of printing was about $2 a page, the average edi 
 tion being 1400 copies, and the bills therefor were due 
 within 20 days from the time of publication. Free 
 copies were sent to important journals, but no exchanges 
 were made either with college or outside periodicals of 
 any sort. Even the editors were obliged to pay for 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 453 
 
 their own copies. The name University Quarterly was 
 assumed with the second number, the first one having 
 been called the Undergraduate. " A friend of the peri 
 odical," outside of college, offered a prize of $30 for 
 the best essay written by an undergraduate, and another 
 of $20 for the best one written by a professional stu 
 dent, that should be published during the first year of 
 the Quarterly. The one fell to Oliver W. Holmes, Jr., 
 of Harvard, for his article on " Plato," the other to 
 Edward A. Walker of Yale 56, then studying at Heidel 
 berg, for his description of " German Student Life and 
 Travel." The committee of award were ex-President 
 Hitchcock of Amherst, Prof. Ticknor of Harvard, and 
 Hon. George S. Hillard. Next year the association 
 itself offered three prizes of $20 each: one for the best 
 undergraduate essay, one for the best professional essay, 
 and one for the best news article, by whomsoever writ 
 ten, that should be printed during the year. But the 
 Quarterly died before the awards were made. 
 
 Except for the war, it seems likely that the magazine 
 might have been made a permanent success. Once on 
 a paying basis, with sufficient profits to have secured at 
 a high salary a competent executive manager and finan 
 cial agent, its future would have been reasonably certain. 
 Its projectors saw that the whole problem depended on 
 securing such an officer, and they bent all their energies 
 in that direction, but before the thing could be accom 
 plished the war came, and they were forced to surrender 
 to the logic of events. But the energy shown in organ 
 izing such an extensive association, the tact displayed 
 in securing the harmonious working of such clumsy and 
 complicated machinery, the executive force which suc 
 cessfully " put through" all the numberless business 
 details of the plan, were little less than marvelous. How 
 the "central board of compilation," undergraduates as 
 
454 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 they were, ever carried on their shoulders such a crush 
 ing load as the regular publication of a 2oo-page quar 
 terly, seems a mystery. Yet they did it, for two full 
 years, and they deserve high praise therefor. The Uni 
 versity was an interesting and valuable periodical withal, 
 and a credit to all who had a share in it. Had it managed 
 to live until the present time, its would doubtless be 
 sure of perpetuation, but, having died, it will never have 
 a successor, for quarterly reviews of every sort have 
 probably seen their best days, and no one now ventures 
 to project such a journal in any field of literature. 
 Every college, too, has now its own separate " organ," 
 though the "policies" adopted by most of them seem 
 hardly to be shaped from the old Quarterly s motto, 
 
 The fireman s riot of 1841 was followed by the appear 
 ance of the Yale Banner, which put forth four issues, 
 Nov. 5, 12, 26, and Dec. 10 of that year, and aimed to 
 be the mouthpiece of the students, since, as was alleged, 
 none of the city papers dared to print the college, side 
 of the story. The first number was embellished with a 
 wood-cut of a rough-looking character brandishing an 
 immense jaw-bone, the sun rising over the mountains, 
 forming the background. Beneath the design was the 
 request, " [Please exchange]." After that, a small wood 
 cut of the college row, placed at the head of the edito 
 rial page, was the only adornment. With the second 
 issue, it was announced that the paper would be pub 
 lished weekly at $2 a year, 6 cents a single copy. The 
 anonymous editor, who wrote nearly everything in the 
 paper, was William E. Robinson of 42 afterwards 
 " Richelieu" of the Tribune, and member of Congress. 
 Perhaps the suspension of the Banner was due to his 
 own suspension from college, for refusing to inform the 
 faculty in regard to some lawless doings of his class- 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 455 
 
 mates ; but, more likely, with the dying out of the excite 
 ment concerning the riot, it found its occupation gone. 
 "Vol. i, No. 5," price ten cents, appeared Nov. 3, 1842, 
 and contained a catalogue of the college on its last 
 three pages, and of the four secret societies Bones, 
 Delta Phi, Psi U, and Keys, accompanied by their cuts 
 on the first page, together with one or two columns of 
 reading matter and business notices. "Vol. 2, No. i" 
 was issued three years later, and ever since then the 
 Banner has made its annual appearance, shortly after 
 the opening of the fall term "Vol. 26, No. i," bearing 
 date of Oct. 6, 1869 and been simply a catalogue of 
 the college, and the various societies and miscellaneous 
 organizations connected with it. The prizes, honors 
 and scholarships awarded during the year, and other 
 facts of like character, are also published, but of late 
 there has been no editorial matter of any sort. Up to 
 1865 the Banner was always a single 4-page sheet, of 
 various shapes and sizes; and from 1853 until that 
 time a supplement of single leaf, containing the fresh 
 man societies, was put forth about a week after the main 
 sheet. After 1866, both were combined to form a 
 double-sheet of 8 pages, which sold for 15 cents. For 
 the three years preceeding, the price had been 10 cents 
 per copy, and 7 cents for supplements, and, before that, 
 6 and 5 cents respectively. In 1851 there were three 
 editions, and in 1858 there was a second edition in 
 pamphlet form, comprising 5 2 pages, with lemon-colored 
 cover. This was the last year in which there was an 
 extended editorial. The " volume" for 1847, m addition 
 to the usual matter, contained separate cuts of all the 
 college buildings. The ordinary cut of the college yard 
 was introduced into the heading in 1851. Advertise 
 ments were admitted in 1853, jwicl eating clubs with 
 their cuts in 1854. The "good will" of the Banner is 
 
45 6 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the property of the Bones society, which probably got 
 possession of it about the year 1850. A resident Bones 
 man usually a Theologue who has graduated the 
 previous summer, issues the paper each year Formerly 
 when there was no other annual save the official col 
 lege catalogue, and no college periodical but the Lit. 
 it was a source of no little profit to the person who 
 issued it, but with the establishment of a weekly college 
 paper, and a similar annual catologue in pamphlet form, 
 in 1865, i ts prosperity diminished, until it became evident 
 that it must die or be placed upon a new basis. Accord 
 ingly, last year, "Vol. xxvii. No. i," was put forth in the 
 form of a pamphlet of 70 pages, exclusive of 50 pages 
 of advertisements, compiled with unusual care and 
 thoroughness, tastefully printed on an extra quality of 
 tinted paper, and sold for 30 cents a copy or 4 copies 
 for $i. The work was accepted by college as the best 
 catalogue of the sort that had ever appeared, and, spite 
 of the unusual expense attending its publication, was a 
 financial success ; so its perpetuity is probably assured. 
 What is now the firm of Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor 
 have printed the Banner for 18 years ; previous to 1852, 
 J. H. Benham was sometimes and perhaps always the 
 printer. 
 
 The rival annual, whose initial number expressly dis 
 claimed any such character, is the Pot Pourri, whose 
 first number appeared in the fall of 1865. It is pub 
 lished by a Senior who is a Keys man, and who has 
 usually cleared about $100 profit from the sale of it. 
 Coming a month or more after the Banner , the work of 
 compilation has consisted chiefly in correcting and re 
 arranging the facts got together by the editor of the lat 
 ter sheet, and making a few additions to the same ; in 
 other words, the labor has been borne by one, the credit 
 and profit by the other periodical. As this state of 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 457 
 
 affairs was evidently running out the Banner, it last 
 year changed its character, in the manner stated, and 
 stood forth as the professed rival of the other annual, 
 claiming and generally receiving the support of college 
 on the ground of its own greater antiquity, and preoc 
 cupation of the field, as well as its superior merits as a 
 catalogue. A rough carricature, posted about college 
 at the time, representing a pair of pugilists engaging 
 in a fistic encounter, one with a Bones pin standing 
 upon a book labeled Banner, another with a Keys pin 
 standing on a book labeled Pot Pourri, showed that 
 college appreciated the animus of the rivalry. As there 
 is evidently no need for two exactly similar catalogues, 
 the common-sense view of the matter is that the Pot 
 Ponrri ought to decently die out, and put an end to its 
 encroachments on the field pre-empted by the Banner, 30 
 years ago ; but as society " interests " are involved, it is 
 likely that its publication will be persisted in, and that 
 hereafter the two rival annuals will each try to anticipate 
 and outbid the other. Indeed, as a sort of tender to 
 the Pot Pourri, Keys backs up the publication of still 
 another annual, called the Yale Index, first put forth on 
 Presentation Day, June 30, 1869, by a man of 70, just 
 elected to the society. This first issue comprised 28 
 quarto pages of tinted book-paper, enclosed in a blue 
 cover, and was sold for 30 cents or 4 copies for $i. 
 Typographically it was a success, but financially a fail 
 ure, as it contained no advertisements and was not 
 "pushed" or advertised. Last year the same man 
 again issued it, as an ordinary octavo pamphlet of 24 
 pages, whfch sold for 25 cents, and returned a small 
 profit, and it will be at least continued for the present 
 year. Perhaps, if Keys should ultimately decide to 
 combine the Pot Pourri with this third-term catalogue, 
 and leave the Banner alone in the fall, all parties might 
 
 21 
 
45 8 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 be satisfied. As for the 6 issues of the Pot, as under 
 graduates persist in abbreviating the name, and per 
 versely sounding the final letter, an " editorial greet 
 ing " of a dozen or fifteen lines found a place in the 
 first four numbers, and " club table talk," a page for 
 each class, in the first and fourth. The typography was 
 exactly alike in the first four numbers, the covers being 
 of various colored papers, but was varied from in the 
 fifth and again in the sixth, whose title-page was printed 
 in red and black, and whose cover was of a light 
 bluish tinge with ornamental borderings of gilt. The 
 size has varied from 74 to 84 pages, and advertisements 
 have appeared in all the numbers against the first, 
 which fiercely declaimed against their appearance in col 
 lege prints. The price has always been 35 cents,and the 
 printers of it and the Index have been the same as those 
 of the Banner. It may be here remarked, that though 
 the names given in the society lists of these catalogues 
 comprise except in the case of the senior societies, 
 and not excepting them in the Index two classes, only 
 the lower class mentioned in any case are the real act 
 ing members of the society. Thus the Freshmen alone 
 conduct the freshman societies, though the names of the 
 Sophomores belonging to them are given, and so on for 
 the others, one idea in publishing the upper class 
 members being to indicate the names of those taken in 
 by class elections during the year. Formerly the 
 Seniors were active members of the junior societies, 
 and the two classes held separate as well as general 
 meetings. In those days none but the regular acting 
 members were published in the lists of the sophomore 
 and freshman societies. The sophomore societies were 
 the last of all to publish the names of their upper-class 
 members. A Commencement Directory, of 16 octavo 
 pages, was issued in July, 1851, by L. W. Fitch, con- 
 
THE STUDENT L7FE. 459 
 
 taining the cuts and members of the upper-class societies, 
 the names of the graduating class, of the sub-Freshmen 
 who had been admitted, and of the 200 alumni then in 
 town, with their places of abode, together with a few 
 advertisements. The price of the sheet was 6 cents, 
 and though called "Vol. i, No. i," it was without a suc 
 cessor. A Bulletin Catalogue of 32 pages and pink 
 cover, was issued in November, 1863, containing true 
 lists of the officers and students of the college, the 
 members of the various societies, clubs and miscellane 
 ous organizations, prizes taken during the year, etc., but 
 the letterpress, mostly in the form of a " general state 
 ment," was all of a burlesque character, expressed in 
 the style of the official college catalogue. There were 
 no cuts of any sort in the pamphlet, nor was the print 
 er s name expressed. The anonymous editors were 
 probably Seniors. In 1857, appeared a mock " Cata 
 logue of the Officers and Students in Yale College, 
 revised edition, printed by R. H. Sawbones." It was a 
 small affair of 36 pages and yellow cover, giving true 
 lists of the students, and distortions of the college offi 
 cers names and titles, and devoting its dozen pages of 
 letter-press to an absurd burlesque of the statements in 
 the regular catalogue. A similar pamphlet was also put 
 forth in 1852. 
 
 A second paper, called the Collegian, was called into 
 being by the riot of 1841, and was to be published fort 
 nightly for six months at a subscription price of $i, 
 single copies 6 cents. The initials " E. H." were signed 
 to the prospectus and most of the other pieces, but the 
 editors and printers were anonymous. Unlike the 
 Banner, it devoted much of its attention to matters un 
 connected with the riot ; and, unlike it, too, it never 
 put forth a successor to the first number, which bore 
 date of Wednesday, Dec. i. The College Cricket of April, 
 
460 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 1846, and the City of Elms of June 3 following, were 
 respectable literary papers, which never lived to issue 
 "No. 2." The Meerschaum of Jan. 23, 1857, published 
 probably by a Junior, the Excuse Paper of January, 
 1860, edited as it declares " by men from every class in 
 college, and perhaps the N. B., which appeared some 
 what earlier, each consisted of 8 small pages of rather 
 pointless letterpress, and were issued without expectation 
 of appearing a second time. The Gallinipper was a 
 scurrilous print whose 7 issues were dated, February 
 and March, 1846, November, 1848, December, 1849, 
 March, 1853 (?), January, 1856, and February, 1858. 
 Its publishers probably belonged to the two upper 
 classes, though they may have been Sophomores, 
 and of course changed from year to year, the 
 editors of two successive papers probably being quite 
 unknown to each other. As the sheet was devoted to 
 personal abuse of the faculty and individual students, 
 its writers and printers naturally kept themselves in 
 close concealment. Its tone was considerably worse 
 than that of its by-no-means-faultless cotemporaries, the 
 Yale Banger of Sigma Theta, and the Tomahawk of 
 Sigma Phi, which have been mentioned in the chapter 
 on Sophomore Societies. Reference was there made 
 to the Delta Kap Battery st 1850 ; and the Arbiter, con 
 cerning the foot-ball game of 1853, was noticed in its 
 proper place. It only remains to mention the Hornet, 
 of December, 1847, put forth by the Freshmen of 51 
 to sting their sophomore oppressors. With the excep 
 tions noted, all these " feuilletons," as they used to be 
 called, were upon single 4-page sheets, of various shapes 
 and sizes, and were as a rule rather poorly printed. 
 
 As the Yale Lit. was the first successful college maga 
 zine, so the Yale Courant was the first successful college 
 newspaper. It was originated by five members of the 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 46 1 
 
 class of 66, one of whom was its present publisher, and 
 quietly put forth its first issue on Saturday. Nov. 25, 1865. 
 It was a plainly printed, 4-page sheet, 12 by 10 inches in 
 size, and its price was $2 a year or 5 cents a copy. The 
 editors announced their names in the second number, 
 but did not insert them afterwards. They rented an 
 office at the corner of Church and Chapel streets, in the 
 building where their paper was printed, and kept it 
 open for the transaction of business at certain appointed 
 hours of the day, but the College Bookstore was the 
 agency through which papers were distributed to sub 
 scribers, and single copies were also kept on sale there 
 and at two or three other places in town. Thus the 
 Courant appeared on every Saturday morning of term- 
 time until the following June ; when, on Wednesday, the 
 27th of that month, Presentation Day, it put forth its 
 26th issue, with the number of pages doubled, the 
 quality of the paper improved, and the heading and 
 typography changed greatly for the better. Wednesday 
 was thenceforth the publication day, and the volume 
 closed with the term, four weeks later, 30 numbers and 
 140 pages having been printed. The ist number of the 
 2d volume was issued August ist, to give an account 
 of the University race and of Commencement ; the 2d 
 with the opening of the term in September \ and the 
 4oth and last bore date of July 3, 1867. When the size 
 of the paper was doubled, the year before, its price was 
 raised from $2 to $3, and from 50. to IDC. a copy ; and 
 the names of four new editors from 67, chosen by the 
 retiring 66 men, were placed at the head of the edi 
 torial page, together with that of Charles C. Chatfield 
 of 66, "graduate editor and publisher." This relation 
 lasted during the year, but the ownership of the paper 
 being a matter of dispute, and each of the 67 men 
 having the power to forbid the insertion of any article 
 
4^2 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 and so to prevent the issue of the paper itself, the pub 
 lisher, after an attempt rendered in each case unsuc 
 cessful by the objection of a single individual to gain 
 from the boards of 66 and 67 a clear iitle to the chief 
 authority, decided to wind up affairs and begin anew. 
 
 Accordingly, July 10, i_867, appeared the College 
 Courant, Vol. i., No. i, " entered according to act of 
 Congress by Charles C. Chatfield," whose name also 
 appeared as "graduate editor and publisher," in connec 
 tion with the names of three " undergraduate editors 
 from the class of 68," chosen by himself. The price 
 and number of pages remained as before, but the size of 
 the page was enlarged by one third. The motto, Perse- 
 verantia Omnia Vincit^ and the name " Yale " in large 
 type, were introduced in the heading, and remained 
 there till the issue of Dec. 31, 1870. An unsuccessful 
 attempt was also once or twice made to combine a small 
 " The " or " Yale " with the heading. The paper ap 
 peared in term time only, and the volume which for the 
 first 26 numbers was spoken of as "Vol. i.," and after 
 that as " Third Year " closed with the 4oth number, 
 Wednesday, June 24, 1868. The number of pages was 
 then doubled to 16, the subscription price was advanced 
 to $4, though single copies remained at ice. as before, 
 and the plan since adhered to was announced of pub 
 lishing two semi-annual volumes of 25 numbers each, 
 beginning with the first Saturday of July and January. 
 The two weeks thus passed over are in the latter part of 
 August, when no colleges are in session. The first 
 number of this 1 6-page issue bore date of Wednesday, 
 July i, 1868, the second of Saturday, July n, and Satur 
 day has since been the printed date of publication ; 
 though up to May, 1870, the paper appeared on the pre 
 vious Wednesday, for the next four months on Thursday, 
 and since September, 1870, the time of printing it has 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 4^3 
 
 varied from two days before to two days after its date, 
 though it has usually appeared on Saturday. During the 
 last six months of 1868, the volume was spoken of as 
 the " Fourth Year," but its successor was called " Vol. 
 v.," and that enumeration has since been retained. In 
 order to make it consistent, the first volume of 40 num 
 bers and 320 pages (July, 1867 to June, 1868), must be 
 counted as " Vols. I. and II.," and the subsequent 6- 
 months volumes as " one " each. With the opening 
 issue of the present year " Vol. viii., No. i " was 
 introduced the plan of indicating also the " whole num 
 ber," which was then " 236." To arrive at this "whole 
 number," the 70 issues of the original Yale Courant 
 have to be included, though, as just shown, the two 
 volumes which they formed have been disregarded in 
 the present enumeration of volumes. 
 
 Advertisements originally occupied the last one of the 
 Couranfs 4 pages, then the last two of its 8, and since 
 it has been a 1 6-page sheet they have taken up at least 
 the 4 outside pages, which is about the space held at 
 present, and sometimes have absorbed 6 or 7 pages. 
 At the head of the editorial page, which has always 
 been the left-hand one of the inner fold, the name of 
 Charles C. Chatfield, " editor and publisher, " ap 
 peared, from July i, 1868 to Sept. 17, 1870, and from 
 Oct. 23, 1869, the name of Prof. George F. Barker, M.D., 
 "editor of the scientific department," appeared in 
 connection with it. From Sept. 24, 1870, no names 
 have been printed there. The three Seniors employed 
 as editors from the class of 69, at the commencement 
 of their labors, July i, 1868, established a separate 
 " Undergraduate Department," at the head of which 
 alone their names were printed, and for the character of 
 which they alone were to be responsible. The depart 
 ment usually occupied three or four pages in the latter 
 
464 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 part of the paper, and being suspended in vacation 
 time of course made but 40 appearances during the 
 year. It was probably for the purpose of rendering 
 these pages more easily accessible to undergraduate 
 readers that the plan was introduced of so printing the 
 sheet as to bring the folded leaves in its first half rather 
 than in its last half, as is ordinarily the case. 
 
 During the summer term of 1870, beginning with the 
 issue of May 7 (Vol. vi., No. 18), the undergraduate 
 editors persuaded the publishers to print their " depart 
 ment" on a separate sheet, under the name of "the Yale 
 Courant) a supplement to the College Courant" and ten 
 issues of this sort were put forth, ending with the one 
 for July 1 6 (Vol. vii., No. 3). The sheet contained four 
 pages, of the same size as the College Courant, and the 
 pagination was continuous with the latter. Its heading 
 was identical with that of the second volume of the 
 original Yale Courant^ and its last page only was devoted 
 to advertisements. It was supplied gratis to all old 
 subscribers to the College Courant, and was sold for 5 
 cents a copy. Though numbered to correspond with that 
 paper and like it dated on Saturday, it always appeared 
 on the previous Wednesday forenoon. Beginning with 
 the new college year of 1870, the Yale Courant started 
 forth on an entirely independent career, as a paper 
 " published every week during term time" (40 numbers 
 a year), at a subscription price of $2, or 7 cents a copy. 
 It is now an 8-page sheet, the size of the sheet being 
 only a trifle smaller than that of the original Courant of 
 1865, and its last two or three pages are devoted to 
 advertisements. It is printed on tinted paper, of shades 
 varying from lemon to buff, and in its heading 
 acknowledges itself to be " from the press of the Col 
 lege Courant." It is issued each Wednesday noon and 
 dated that day, though numbered partly to correspond 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 4^5 
 
 with the College Courant of the following Saturday ; thus, 
 the issue of Sept. 14, 1870, was styled, "Old Series, 
 Vol. vii., No. 220; New Series, Vol. i., No. i." The 
 names of the three Seniors who are its editors stand at 
 the head of the fourth page, and are the only ones which 
 appear, though Chatfield & Co. still remain the owners 
 of this paper as well as of the other one. The editors 
 pick out from the new senior class the three whom they 
 wish to recommend as their successors, and with these 
 the publishers and proprietors make a bargain for the 
 ensuing year, the terms of which are such as to ensure 
 the editors about $100 each for their services. The 
 three 71 editors, under whom the Yale Courant started 
 as an independent paper, comprised two Bones men and 
 one neutral, and membership in a senior society is not 
 henceforth to debar a man from election to editorship, 
 though it is probable that at least one neutral will always 
 be retained on the board. The originators of the paper 
 in 1865 were all senior neutrals, as were also their suc 
 cessors down to 70, and of these 18 undergraduates 9 
 belonged to Delta Phi, 5 to Psi U and 4 to DKE ; 5 to 
 Sigma Eps, 6 to Delta Kap, and 7 to Gamma Nu. By 
 the editors of 68 and 69 a small gold model of a feather 
 pen was sometimes worn as a badge of office. The 
 editorials, contributions, and important articles of the 
 paper are printed in long-primer, the poetry and minor 
 news-items the latter, under the title of " Yalensicula," 
 introduced by 69 in brevier. A good share of the 
 copy is supplied by the editors, though there are various 
 undergraduate contributors, and a regular reporter for 
 the Scientific School, and occasionally a college officer 
 or gradaate supplies something. There is very little 
 reprinted matter, and very little of any sort that does 
 not in some way relate to "Yale," An edition of 700 
 is printed each week, and almost every undergraduate is 
 
466 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 a subscriber or reader. Subscriptions have never been 
 systematically solicited for either the present or the 
 original Yale Courant or for the College Courant, nor 
 have these papers ever laid claim to support as " college 
 institutions," like the Lit. Undergraduates and others 
 have purchased them simply for the sake of " getting 
 their money s worth ;" but the present Yale Courant is 
 more respected throughout college than was its predeces 
 sor, and the other one is hardly read at all. 
 
 The original office of the Yale Courant, in the Glebe 
 Building, was retained by its successor, the College Cou 
 rant, until May, 1869, when it was removed to No. 297 
 Chapel street, Benham & Son, who had previously 
 been the printers, being then superseded by Hoggson <Sc 
 Robinson, though from 1867 the proprietor had em 
 ployed his own compositors. In August, 1870, he set 
 up a press of his own, in his new quarters on Chapel 
 street, opposite the colleges, and there both papers have 
 since been printed and sold, though Hoadley has con 
 tinued distributing agent for the undergraduate issue. 
 During three days of Commencement week of 1870, a 
 4-page daily edition of the College Courant was issued, 
 and at about the same time lithographic "cartoons" of 
 the two new dormitories were distributed as supplements 
 to the paper. Wood-cuts of new college buildings, at 
 Yale and elsewhere, have appeared in a dozen or more 
 cases, and portraits of college presidents and professors, 
 accompanied by biographical notices, have found a 
 place, perhaps half as many times. With every volume 
 except the first (1865-6), a title-page and index have 
 been supplied, but the latter has been carelessly put 
 together, under a single alphabet, except in the case of 
 the last two volumes (vii.-viii., July, iS69~June, 1870), 
 whose indexes devoted an alphabet to each separate 
 division of the paper, and gave references to every 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 46 7 
 
 " Yale personal " item, and every paper or periodical 
 quoted or referred to. On the title-page the Courant 
 is called " a weekly journal, devoted to college interests, 
 science and literature." At the head of its editorial 
 column, from the first number, July 10, 1867, appeared 
 the phrase, "published weekly at Yale College," also 
 the statement that the American News Co. were the gen 
 eral agents of the paper ; from Sept. 1 1 appeared the 
 "special notice to subscribers"; from March 20, 1869, 
 the " newspaper and periodical decisions " ; from May 
 8, the "notice to advertisers"; and from June 12, the 
 " contents of this number " ; also at the head of its lead 
 ing article, on the third page, appeared from Feb. 20, 
 1869, tne "invitation to contributors," and from Oct. 9, 
 the " partial list of contributors " all of which stereo 
 types were swept away, at the beginning of the present 
 year, and their place supplied by the brief announce 
 ment, connected with the list of contents, on the outside 
 page. This list is reprinted in the Yale Courant of the 
 following week, and often on the last page of the Col 
 lege Courant itself. Beginning with this issue of Jan. 7, 
 1871, the pagination was restricted to the 12 pages of 
 reading matter, leaving the outside advertising sheet of 
 4 pages to be thrown off by the binder, and besides the 
 other changes elsewhere noted a " The " was added to the 
 heading. The make-up of the 25 numbers of the vol 
 ume which began then and ended June 24, was uni 
 formly as follows : An original article, with the writer s 
 name signed at the end, followed by one or two selected . 
 articles, credited to the periodicals from which they were 
 taken and to the authors who wrote them, if their names 
 were known.. Then came about two pages of short 
 pieces with side headings under the general heads of 
 " Statistical," " Current Comment," and " Scientific," 
 which finished up the first five pages of the paper. 
 
468 * FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 The first column of the page which followed, contained 
 two editorial notes (whose titles appeared only in the 
 contents), followed by " the Lounger," about two and a 
 half columns, and enough book-notices, under side 
 headings and the general title, "Literary," to exactly fill 
 out the page, in the right lower corner of which was 
 usually the record of " books received." An exact page 
 was next devoted to " College Record," under appropri 
 ate side headings, and another exact page to " Glean 
 ings," or short items, classified from week to week under 
 different heads, like "personal," " college," "undergrad 
 uate," " law school," etc., though the first almost always 
 appeared. Then came a column or two of " Yale Per 
 sonals," alphabetically arranged, followed occasionally 
 by a " Yale Record " of news not appearing in the un 
 dergraduate paper, and by miscellaneous " Short Selec 
 tions," under side headings, enough to complete the 
 page. Aside from the opening article, the editorial and 
 "literary" matter, nearly everything was quoted,which fact 
 was duly acknowledged by a brevier credit-mark at the 
 end. The last two pages were devoted to " Yale Con 
 rant Extracts," from the paper of the previous Wednes 
 day, with perhaps a column or two of advertisements. 
 Previous to this Vol. viii., the make-up of the paper 
 had been largely fortuitous and changed about from 
 week to week. There was also a much larger amount 
 of original contributed matter, and the work required by 
 the editor in selecting and arranging his reprints was 
 much less. The two Courants, whose combined price is 
 $6, are furnished to the same subscriber for $5 a year. 
 Up to close of 1869, much of the work on the paper was 
 performed by a middle-aged gentleman, who had had 
 experience on some New York journals, and is now a 
 practising lawyer. From February to August, 1870, it 
 was chiefly managed by a graduate of 55, though up to 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 4 6 9 
 
 the latter date the proprietor as from the first occasion 
 ally performed a share of the work. From September, 
 1870, to June, 1871, it was wholly controlled and car 
 ried on by a graduate of 69, except that he had nothing 
 to do with the advertisements, which were controlled by 
 the publisher, and with the literary notices, which from 
 February onwards, were supplied by a graduate of 70. 
 These book notices were collected together, once a 
 month and reprinted, in the form of an 8-page advertis 
 ing sheet, called the Book Worm, which was distributed 
 among the patrons of the College Bookstore, and scat 
 tered about the city. The first number of the Book 
 Worm bore date of March, 1871, and its publication 
 was promised for at least twelve months. Its " subscrip 
 tion price " was nominally $i. "The Lounger," already 
 referred to, appeared in the 35 numbers between Oct. 
 22, 1870, and June 24, 1871. Under this head were 
 printed a scries of lesser editorials, or "minor topics," 
 expressed in the third person, and presenting, in a 
 purely informal way, various reflections, observations 
 and experiences, for the most part concerning college 
 life and customs, of the person who in the first column 
 expressed the " sentiments of the paper " with the edi 
 torial "we." Three or four topics were thus each 
 week treated of ; and a bit of verse, quoted from 
 some out-of-the-way book or periodical, and introduced 
 by "a few remarks," ended up each number of "the 
 Lounger." 
 
 The fact that the end of college life is approaching 
 finds its earliest recognition in the preparations made 
 for the exchange of class pictures. A few weeks after 
 the opening of the fall term, the Seniors, in class meet 
 ing assembled, elect a "picture committee " of four or 
 five members, and decide what artist they will employ 
 
47 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 for the work the claims of the two or three competitors 
 for their favor having been well discussed beforehand. 
 The committee then enter into a regular contract with the 
 chosen 1 photographer, who ratifies his previous promises, 
 verbally made, by signing a written agreement to supply 
 such and such pictures at such and such prices, before 
 a certain date, six or eight months ahead. Among the 
 specifications is a clause allowing the members of the 
 committee to receive their own pictures without charge, 
 in return for their official labors. If, as is usual, the 
 artist is not a resident of the city, he either rents for a 
 time the rooms of one of the local photographers, or 
 constructs a temporary structure of his own upon some 
 open lot in the vicinity of the colleges. The committee 
 then bestir themselves to arrange the times of " sittings " 
 for the different individuals, including the faculty as 
 well as the Seniors, and to see to it that they keep their 
 appointments. Every former member of the class is also 
 called upon to furnish his picture, and if he cannot " sit " 
 for it with the rest in New Haven, he is requested to 
 have his " negative " taken elsewhere, at the expense of 
 the class, and forwarded to their artist s headquarters. 
 The committee also decide upon the various views which 
 shall be taken of the buildings in the college yard and 
 the city, interesting points in and around New Haven, 
 class groups, etc. When all the " proofs " have been 
 accepted and no man need accept his picture until he 
 has had as many " sittings " as he cares for the com 
 mittee issue a printed catalogue of the pictures, com 
 prising lists of the " senior class," " former members," 
 " faculty," and " views." Two other lists of the " Scien 
 tific Seniors " and their " former members " also figure 
 upon the sheet, when, as is usually the case, they em 
 ploy the same artist as the regular Seniors, and act in 
 conjunction with the latter, through a special committee 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 47 * 
 
 of their own. These catalogue sheets, which are at once 
 distributed throughout the class, also contain direc 
 tions in regard to the price of the pictures and blank 
 forms for ordering them. Each Senior orders enough 
 copies of his own picture to exchange with every other 
 classmate, and as many more as he chooses ; also such 
 of the former members, of the faculty, and of the views 
 as he may care to select, if he does not decide to take 
 them all. He then indicates the money value of his 
 order, signs his name thereto, and hands it in to the 
 committee, who forward it to the photographer, it 
 being specified of course that all orders must be sent in 
 before a certain day, to make sure of securing the pic 
 tures at the time promised in the contract. 
 
 Early in the third term comes the report that a box of 
 pictures has arrived, and the Seniors make a wild rush 
 to the room of the chief committee-man, to assure them 
 selves of its truth. The result of each man s order is 
 enclosed in a separate bundle, accompanied by a bill, 
 which must be paid to the committee before the pictures 
 can be removed from the room. Sometimes the orders 
 of the entire class may be filled by the first arrival ; but 
 more commonly the pictures keep coming until close 
 upon Presentation Day itself. The contents of the first 
 box is no sooner distributed, however, than the work of 
 exchanging begins. As soon as a man receives his 
 bundle he withdraws to his room, and affixes his auto 
 graph to his pictures, perhaps laying aside the best of 
 them for his particular friends, and is then ready to 
 receive callers. He has not long to wait for them, for 
 his name was posted upon the door of the committee s 
 room in the list of " picture arrivals " as soon as he 
 withdrew therefrom with his bundle, and the hungry 
 hangers-on at once noised it abroad; so, hour after 
 hour, the " rap, rap, rap ! " is followed by the " Come 
 
47 2 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 in ! " " Hullo ! Pictures come ?" " Yes, help yourself ! " 
 And each visitor paws over the pile upon the table, 
 picks out " the best," and goes on to the next room upon 
 his list. If he chance to occupy a room outside of col 
 lege, he may perhaps bring along a bundle of his own 
 pictures, and distribute them as he calls ; otherwise he 
 usually leaves them in the charge of a friend who rooms 
 in college, and refers all applicants to him. Each man 
 carries with him one of the printed lists, upon which 
 he checks off the names of those to whom he gives or 
 from whom he receives pictures. Many when absent 
 from their rooms leave their doors open, with their pic 
 tures spread upon the table, accompanied by the request, 
 " Help yourselves, and check your names upon this list." 
 But some collectors are not so particular in making their 
 choices as those that have been described, and simply 
 take the first on the pile, or shout from beneath the win 
 dow : "Oh Jim!" "Hullo!" "Sling out your pic 
 ture ! " " Autograph ? " " Yes; no; I don t care ; toss er 
 out ! " And out it comes. 
 
 While this picture traffic is going on, the final exami 
 nations are also in progress, and cramming therefor is 
 sadly interrupted by these frequent visits. So the oak 
 is often sported, and notices of " No pictures here," 
 " Pictures exchanged after the next examination," and 
 so on, become common. In the afternoon succeeding 
 each session of the "Annual," exchanges are especially 
 brisk ; for then many whose bundles have arrived at the 
 committee s room during the few preceding days first 
 take them out, and all enter into "picture hunting" as 
 an agreeable relaxation from the anxieties of examina 
 tion. By Presentation Day the lists are about com 
 pleted, and the pictures are arranged and sent off to the 
 binder. Some place the graduating class in alphabetical 
 order in one book, and devote another to the faculty, 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 473 
 
 former members, and views, but a majority content them 
 selves with a single volume, into which 150 or 200 pic 
 tures are crowded. The pictures are of the "imperial" 
 style, about 12 by 14 inches in size, and cost from 20 to 
 25 cents for portraits, and from 30 to 35 cents for views, 
 the higher prices named being those paid by 69. The 
 cost of binding varies from $10 to $20 ; and if a man is 
 disposed to be luxurious, collects the whole 250 pictures 
 taken by the artist, and binds them handsomely in two 
 volumes, his class albums may cost him upwards of $100, 
 though the average expenditure for the purpose is 
 probably not much more than half that amount. In 
 every class there are two or three who cannot afford to 
 exchange, and their pictures are therefore ordered 
 directly from headquarters, like those of the former 
 members and faculty. The autographs of the latter are 
 also procured by some, though most have the good sense 
 not to impose upon their good nature in this way. 
 Besides the " imperials " for binding, several large views 
 suitable for framing, and costing $i or $2 apiece, are 
 taken of the various college buildings, etc. Many of 
 the small card-size photographs are also taken, though 
 this is not a class matter, and is recognized by the com 
 mittee in their contract only for the accommodation of 
 the individual Seniors who may wish to supply them 
 selves with such pictures at greatly reduced prices ; 
 since, on account of the magnitude of the job, the rates 
 for any kind of work are only about one fourth as large 
 as those charged to individual purchasers of single pic 
 tures. Under the contract with 69, upwards of 30,000 
 photographs were supplied, and it is probable that the 
 lowest number demanded of late years has not fallen 
 more than 5,000 short of that. The class present their 
 pictures (in a costly and often elaborately ornamented 
 binding) to the library, and the senior and junior societies 
 
474 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 also receive the likenesses of their departing members. 
 The custom of the members thereof giving their pictures 
 to the libraries of Linonia and Brothers ended with the 
 class of 59. 
 
 The system of exchanging, just described, was that 
 employed by 69 and several preceding classes ; but the 
 plan adopted since then, differs from it in many essential 
 particulars. Under the old system, the bulk of the work 
 was performed by the chairman of the committee, who 
 received no more for his services than his official com 
 panions, who did little or nothing. Latterly, a single 
 responsible Senior is elected to have charge of the mat 
 ter, and is paid a good salary by the photographer, in 
 return for doing all the intermediate work. Then, too, 
 instead of each man s ordering a large number of his 
 own pictures, and exchanging them personally with 
 every other individual in the class, he orders the pictures 
 of his classmates as he does those of the former mem 
 bers and the faculty directly from the photographer. 
 He thus of course loses the privilege of selecting " the 
 best" from a large pile of pictures, and must, as before, 
 make a special visit to each man whose autograph he 
 desires, though even then the time and trouble required 
 are much lessened. But the great advantage of the 
 plan is that each man can decide for himself how many 
 pictures he will take. Doubtless the majority will as 
 before procure all of their classmates likenesses ; but 
 many who under the old system were forced into buying 
 all, through fear of appearing " mean" if they " refused 
 to exchange," though they cared for only a few of them, 
 are now left free to purchase only such pictures as they 
 really desire to possess. Though the aggregate sales of 
 the photographer may thus be somewhat lessened, 
 the satisfaction of his patrons is quite sure to be 
 increased. 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 475 
 
 The idea of class pictures may perhaps have arisen 
 from the practice in vogue among the senior-society men 
 and other special friends, as the course drew near its 
 end, of exchanging their daguerreotypes, taken singly or 
 in groups, as the case might be. Every Senior, too, 
 used to procure him an " autograph book," and per 
 suade his classmates to append their signatures to some 
 " happy sentiment" in prose or verse written therein by 
 them. It was in 1847 that the exchange of pictures was 
 made a class matter. Daguerreotypes of each other 
 were then procured by a majority of the graduating 
 class ; and their example was followed by the four classes 
 which succeeded them. The set of pictures presented 
 to the college was enclosed in a large mahogany frame, 
 on which the name of the class was gilded. Trumbull 
 Gallery was the original resting place of these collec 
 tions, which now hang in Alumni Hall. At the instance 
 of C. T. Seropyan, one of their number, the class of 52 
 procured lithographic portraits, each stone costing 
 about $12. Their successors of the three following 
 years did likewise, F. Michelin and E. Valois being 
 the chief artists employed. Photographs were intro 
 duced by 56, and steel engravings by 57, though in 
 this year there were a few photographs and lithographs 
 also. A. H. Ritchie of New York executed most of 
 these, at a cost of about $20 a plate. Several portraits 
 of the faculty and views of the colleges used also to be 
 engraved at the expense of the class. In 58 and 59, 
 almost every man bought a steel plate likeness of him 
 self, but the following year only half the class did so, 
 the artist, Sartain of Philadelphia, not giving good sat 
 isfaction, and in 61 some 60 individuals patronized 
 the engraver, and the rest of the class the photographer. 
 Since then, the class pictures have always been photo 
 graphs. In 63, Prescott of Hartford who took the 
 
47 6 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 pictures of 70 and 71 was the artist employed; San- 
 born of Lowell did the work for the three classes end 
 ing with 67 j Warren of Cambridge for 68 ; and 
 Sarony of New York for 69 ; while Moulthrop or some 
 other New Haven photographer had the contract during 
 the other years. The best of the steel-engraved por 
 traits are shown in the book of 59, while that of 69 is 
 equally pre-eminent among the photographic likenesses. 
 Lithographic title-pages of various designs, for the 
 class albums, are issued nearly every year by individual 
 Seniors or city booksellers. One that was put forth by 
 a 69 man was simply an enlarged representation of the 
 " class stamp," and as this was perhaps the best use to 
 which such a stamp was ever put, the subject of class 
 stamps or seals may be appropriately treated of at this 
 point. They originated in the class of 58, having 
 probably been suggested by the official seal of the col 
 lege, as they always bore, in one form or another, the 
 open Hebrew book which is its chief device. They all 
 agreed, furthermore, in indicating the college, the class, 
 and the class motto, but differed in the mode of doing 
 so, and in the various kinds of ornamental work, such 
 as wreaths, chains, stars, rays, flags, shields, etc., which 
 made up the body of the seal. Several were round, 
 some shield-shaped, some in the form of a scroll, the 
 size varying in different years from an inch to an inch 
 and a half in diameter. They were not printed with 
 ink but simply embossed, appearing upon envelopes and 
 note-paper, the title-pages of text books, or anything 
 else of the sort that one chose to offer for the purpose. 
 In 66 a steel-plate was first used an owl being repre 
 sented with a pair of dice, which had fallen with the 
 sixes uppermost. In 67 the committee devised an 
 elaborate design of globe, ink-bottle, books, wreath, 
 pipes, decanter and glass, but if it was engraved no 
 
THE S TUDENT LIFE. 477 
 
 copies were ever known of in the class. The next class 
 made no attempt to procure a seal, but 69, inspired 
 thereto by the hard labor of a single individual, man 
 aged to put one forth toward the close of sophomore 
 year. It was a steel-plate affair, very finely engraved, a 
 little more than an inch across at its broadest part, and 
 cost with the impressions about $30, which amount was 
 raised by a half-dollar tax levied upon all who made use 
 of the stamp. It was printed in any desired color, upon 
 glazed card-board, or upon such paper and envelopes as 
 individuals chose to supply. No subsequent class has 
 taken any action in regard to the matter, and the " cus 
 tom," never popular or endowed with much vitality, will 
 perhaps not again be revived. The seal was about the 
 only thing that kept the class motto in memory, and the 
 motto itself was apparently chosen only for the sake of 
 the seal. These mottoes have been as follows: 58, 
 Fortiter,fideliter, feliciter ; 59, Ov doxeiv, all tivai , 60, 
 Spectemur agendo ; 6i, To).[ia aocp&oOai ; 62, Exdozo) 
 (jvfjpaxot Ttdrr^ ; 63, Odor wnrfiw i] TtoiijGco ; 64, ExaGTtj 
 ?/ vi M] 11$ odo* &Utyr 65, Ov loyoiGi ?.?. ioyotGi ; 66, 
 To xoivbv awdsi; 67, K?JQ tv, (tia odo^ ; 69, Qui nucleum 
 vult, nucem frangat. It seems unlikely that mottoes 
 were very common before 58, but mention is made of 
 48 s " Esse quam vicleri" and perhaps there were 
 others. 
 
 The individuals most gratified by the issue of class 
 stamps are the " memorabil hunters." "Memorabilia" 
 abbreviated to "memorabil " is the name given to 
 every printed thing connected in any way with the col 
 lege, especially to things of a trifling and ephemeral 
 character, like the programmes of the various college 
 exhibitions, admission tickets, election cards, supper 
 bills, etc. ; and the " memorabil hunters " are the per 
 sons who become distinguished for their pertinacity and 
 
47 8 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 success in collecting this "memorabil." Probably the 
 use of the word in the Lit. led to its employment with 
 its present significance. Most collectors devote their 
 chief energies to perfecting a " class memorabil," and 
 some confine their efforts entirely to this one field. 
 Perhaps as many as a third of the class pay some little 
 attention to the subject, laying aside with more or less 
 regularity such programmes and things of the kind as 
 come in their way, but by the time that senior year is 
 reached the regular " hunters " are not often more than 
 half a dozen in number, some who at first aspired to 
 be such, having dropped from the ranks, on finding 
 their own want of the real antiquarian spirit. These 
 few who remain faithful to the end, however, procure 
 large scrap-books, bound, stamped and lettered es 
 pecially for the purpose, and arrange therein their trea 
 sures. Opening a Senior s memorabil book, you will 
 perhaps find the poster of his freshman society serving 
 as a title-page, followed by those of the other two, and 
 their lists of members from his class, both in freshman 
 and sophomore year ; all the newspaper items in regard 
 to the gate stealing or rushes in which his class took 
 part ; a piece of a Sophomore s shirt or hat-band, cap 
 tured in some historic rush ; programmes of the fresh 
 man prize debates; lists of the sophomore elections; a lock 
 of Freshman s hair ; the silk badges of Yale and other 
 colleges, examination papers ; " letters home " ; society 
 song-books, vignettes and monograms ; Lit. posters 
 and subscription receipts ; Navy bulletins ; furniture ad 
 vertisements ; anything and everything capable of being 
 inserted in a scrap-book, that will serve as a remem 
 brance of the life led by his class at Yale. To one who 
 has not considered the matter, the amount of memorabil 
 thus gathered in relation to a single class alone will 
 appear astonishing. The senior societies also make 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 479 
 
 such collections, and the college library preserves copies 
 of the more important prints. Like any antiquarian, the 
 memorabil hunter prizes a thing for its rarity rather 
 than its worth, and the promise of a bill-of-fare of a 
 Coch initiation or Lit. supper, of which no extra copies 
 were printed, will set him wild with delight. The appli 
 cation of the word is extended to almost everything \ 
 a college man who preserves his banger, or Annual hat, 
 or Z//., or Courant, being said to " keep them for 
 memorabil." 
 
 Presentation Day is the Senior s own peculiar festival, 
 whereby he celebrates the definite closing of his active 
 college life. It is the oldest of the student " institu 
 tions," having existed in some form for nearly- a cen 
 tury and a half, and is the only one formally recog 
 nized by the faculty. Indeed, its character seems in the 
 first place to have been almost wholly official, the 
 formal "presentation," which has now been done away 
 with, being considered the chief feature of the occasion, 
 and the literary exercises of the students being regarded 
 as merely incidental to the other. They were often dis 
 pensed with altogether, and, when given, the speakers 
 seem to have been appointed by the president or facul 
 ty instead of elected by their classmates. The ceremony 
 of "presentation," from which the day took its name, 
 was this : The final examination having been completed, 
 the senior tutor, or other deputed officer, in behalf of the 
 examiners, "presented" to the president, as candidates 
 for their bachelor s degrees, the Seniors who had 
 " passed " successfully, the introductory speech being 
 made in Latin, and the president responding in the 
 same language. At the president s order, the tutor 
 sometimes read aloud the names of the candidates thus 
 " presented." All this used to be done with the closest 
 
480 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 adherence to set ceremonial forms, the Commons Hall, 
 library, or lecture room being the place, and the college 
 officers the only witnesses of the proceeding, and the 
 literary exercises, if there were any, taking place at the 
 chapel several hours afterwards. 
 
 At the earlier presentations a huge bowl of punch is 
 said to have been provided, and drank by the officers 
 and students in celebration of the event. Owing to the 
 omission of several Commencements during the Revolu 
 tionary war, the Presentation Day of 1778 was more 
 extensively celebrated than any previous occasion of the 
 kind had been. The formal presentation having been 
 made in the library a couple of hours before, " at half- 
 past three the bell tolled, and the assembly convened in 
 the chapel, ladies and gentlemen. The president intro 
 duced the exercises in a Latin speech," and the names 
 of the Seniors who had been previously presented were 
 read aloud. Then followed two " cliosophic orations " 
 in Latin, a "dialogue," a "disputation" (in each of 
 which three took part), a " poetical composition," and a 
 " valedictory oration " in English. The exercises were 
 two hours in length and concluded with the singing of 
 an anthem. Of those who took part, the orator, Tracy, 
 was afterwards U. S. Senator ; the poet, Barlow, was 
 ambassador to France ; one of the cliosophic orators, 
 Meigs, was professor of mathematics ; the other, Web 
 ster, was the lexicographer ; and of the rest, Walcott 
 was Secretary of the United States Treasury, Miller and 
 Swift were judges of the Connecticut supreme court, and 
 Smith was a judge in Vermont. Mention is made of 
 William S. Johnson as the class orator of 1744, his 
 Latin " cliosophic " oration being apparently the only 
 literary production attendant upon the Presentation of 
 that year. " Sometimes a member of the class exhibited 
 an English oration, which was responded to by some 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 481 
 
 one of the faculty, generally by one who had been the 
 principal instructor of the class presented. A case of 
 this kind occurred in 1776, when Mr. afterwards 
 President Dwight, responded to the class orator in an 
 address, which, being delivered in the same July in 
 which Independence was declared, drew from its 
 patriotic allusions, as well as for other reasons, unusual 
 attention. It was published, a rare thing at that 
 period. Another response was delivered in 1796, by J. 
 Stebbins, tutor, which was likewise published. There 
 has been no exhibition of the kind since." A writer of 
 20 years ago states that it was then customary for the 
 class to be met in the president s lecture room by the 
 chairman of the faculty and the senior tutor, the latter 
 of whom read the names of the Seniors who were 
 "through." They then adjourned to the Chapel, where 
 the names were again read by the tutor, a presentation 
 speech in Latin was made by the professor of that lan 
 guage, and responded to by the president, and the poem 
 and oration were then pronounced. The reading of the 
 names has been dispensed with since 1861 ; the presen 
 tation speech was apparently given up then or shortly 
 afterwards ; and the short Latin address of the presi 
 dent, congratulating the faculty on having transferred 
 another class oipiteri et rudes inculti mtojuvenes eximii, is 
 about the last of these traditional rites of the day now left. 
 The class now assemble at the Lyceum, shortly before 
 the hour, and at half-past ten march into the Chapel and 
 take their usual seats for the last time in the front 
 pews of the central aisle, all former members of the 
 class who may be in attendance going with them. The 
 president alone occupies the pulpit, and the rest of the 
 faculty the front seats of the side aisle at the speaker s 
 right hand. The remainder of the house is packed to 
 its utmost by the " friends of the speakers/ the class 
 
 22 
 
482 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 and the college. Most of the undergraduates who 
 attend occupy seats or " standing-room " in the galleries 
 and perhaps two-thirds of them are there, the Juniors 
 sending the most and the Freshmen the fewest repre 
 sentatives. As soon as the class is seated, the presi 
 dent after making his little speech in Latin, announces 
 their poet, who, ascending the stage, delivers the " class 
 poem," three or four hundred lines in length, generally 
 to a great extent devoted to the old, old story of col 
 lege life and aspirations, and expressed in a variety of 
 meters. Short episodes upon kindred topics are usually 
 introduced, and sometimes the poet takes a set theme 
 and follows it through to the end, perhaps without 
 change of meter, referring to the class, if at all, only 
 in the closing lines. This proceeding is not common, 
 however, and is never popular at least with the stu 
 dent part of the audience. To a "class poem" the 
 ordinary rules of criticism cannot fairly be applied. 
 The one test of its merit is the appreciation of it by the 
 class to whom it is addressed. If they are satisfied 
 with, and approve of, and applaud it, it is a success, 
 even though there be little poetry or rhyme about it, 
 and though to outsiders it lack reason also. The ora 
 tion forthwith follows. It generally treats of some topic 
 fit for the occasion when a hundred young men arc 
 about to start out in life. " Self-made men " were com 
 pared with " school-made men " by the orator of 69, 
 who, in concluding simply addressed a few parting 
 words to the class. Before that, it had been customary, 
 before saying farewell to the class itself, to offer separ 
 ate valedictories to the remaining classes, the faculty 
 and the president, the latter rising by way of recogni 
 tion ; but the precedent thus set was approved by 
 all parties and will doubtless be followed hereafter. At 
 the close of the oration, the president announces the 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 
 
 award of prizes and scholarships for the term ; and then 
 comes the " parting ode," written by one of the class, 
 and printed in full upon the programmes which bear the 
 name of orator and poet. Since 1856 it has always 
 been sung to the tune of " Auld Lang Syne," and the 
 production of it every year probably first suggested to 
 some one that other original songs to other tunes might 
 be written for other occasions. The audience is then 
 dismissed with a benediction, the exercises having 
 been a little more than an hour in length. Programmes 
 were first supplied in 56, though printed copies of the 
 ode were distributed as early as 1830. The air to which 
 to ode was sung was usually changed each year. 
 
 At about half-past one, the faculty, alumni, graduat 
 ing class, and invited guests assemble at Alumni Hall 
 to partake of a collation" provided by the former. 
 The Seniors march up, two by two, to the door of the 
 hall, followed by the others the chief dignitaries being 
 in the extreme rear. Ranks are then opened, and be 
 tween the two rows of uncovered heads " the last come 
 first" to enter the hall, and so the rows keep doubling 
 in upon themselves till at the hall door nothing is left 
 of them. The " collation " though good is a " cold " one 
 and quite informal, the eatables being arranged upon a 
 long table stretched across the west side of the hall 
 behind which are numerous waiters. The graduates 
 seat themselves at the little octagonal examination- 
 tables scattered about the hall, and the Seniors and 
 faculty act as impromptu waiters in supplying their 
 needs, after which they help themselves. All mean 
 while arc chatting with one another, changing their 
 seats and moving about, but there are no set speeches 
 or ceremonials of any sort. In about an hour the "col 
 lation " is finished, and with it, the traditional, semi 
 official part of Presentation Day, for this dinner is also 
 
484 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 a thing of very ancient date, probably running back a 
 good ways into the last century, and perhaps being 
 originally nothing but an " extra spread " prepared by 
 the stewards in Commons Hall. The remaining cere 
 monies of the day are entirely carried out by the stu 
 dents, but before going on to describe them it may be 
 well to offer a few further particulars as to the orator 
 and poet. 
 
 They are elected by the Seniors at a class meeting 
 held on the fourth Saturday of the second term. The 
 position of orator is regarded as the highest office that 
 a class can confer upon one of their number, and that 
 of poet is but little inferior to it. The two are offered 
 to the public as the best representatives of the general 
 talent of the class, as distinguished from scholarship ; 
 and consequently, other things being equal, " low-stand 
 men" are more likely to be chosen than those high on 
 the appointment list of the faculty. This election gives 
 the last chance for the exercise of college politics, and 
 many conflicting interests enter into it. The senior 
 societies almost always contain the men best fitted to 
 represent their class, but the neutrals are this year in 
 the majority, and are often disposed to take advantage 
 of the fact by electing one of their own number to 
 office, considering this as a sort of punishment to the 
 senior societies for not taking him in, and as a sort of 
 reward for him personally which may in part make up 
 for his discomfiture in not being taken in by them. 
 The course of senior politics in 69 may serve as an 
 example, though the circumstances of two successive 
 classes are never apt to be exactly alike. In that class, 
 the best " poet " and " orator " belonged to Bones, but 
 that society knowing that the class would not elect more 
 than one of its representatives, decided to "run "for 
 orator simply and support a certain neutral for poet. 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 45 
 
 Keys on the other hand entered a candidate for poet, 
 and voted for the Diggers candidate for orator, in 
 return for the Diggers votes for its candidate. The 
 majority of the class, being outside of all these arrange 
 ments, were influenced in addition by considerations of 
 the junior-society connections of the different candi 
 dates, their personal popularity and individual fitness 
 for their positions, and voted variously, the result 
 being that the Bones man and the neutral were elected. 
 Had the latter been a society man his name would never 
 have been thought of, not but that his duties were per 
 formed acceptably enough. It should be understood 
 that these senior political arrangements unlike those 
 of junior year and before are entirely informal, there 
 being no set coalitions, agreements or bargains of any 
 sort, or any recognition of societies in the matter. 
 There are simply "understandings " that if certain indi 
 viduals are " run " certain other individuals will vote 
 for them, and the reverse. A man s membership in a 
 senior society diminishes his chances of election to 
 office, so far as it affects them at all, and hence a class 
 bestows a greater mark of its confidence in choosing a 
 society man than in choosing a neutral. 
 
 Occasionally men rise superior to their prejudices and 
 see the folly of injuring themselves for the sake of spit 
 ing a society. A notable example of this was shown in 
 the class of 70, whose orator and poet, oddly enough, 
 were members of the same societies throughout the 
 course : Sigma Eps, Theta Psi, Psi U, Bones. In five 
 other instances 33, 60, 61, 63 and 66 both were 
 Bones men, and in 53 both were members of Keys. 
 In ii classes both were neutrals and in 5, besides the 
 7 mentioned, both were senior-society men ; leaving 15 
 classes in which one was a society man and one a neu 
 tral. Of the 38 orators 33 to 71 15 have belonged 
 
FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 to Bones, 6 to Keys, i to Diggers, and 16 have been 
 neutrals; of the poets, 13 to Bones, 4 to Keys, and 21 
 have been neutrals. Of the junior societies : Delta Phi, 
 in the 3 classes before 40 had 2 orators and one poet. 
 In the next 4 years Psi U had all the poets, and Delta 
 Phi one orator, the remaining three being neutrals. Of 
 the 27 orators, 44 to 71, Delta Phi has had 6, Psi U 
 10, DKE 5 and neutrals 6 ; of the poets, Delta Phi has 
 had 4, Psi U 10, DKE n and neutrals 2. On two 
 occasions Delta Phi had both ; Psi U twice likewise, 
 DKE once, and once both were neutrals. Of the fresh 
 man societies : Sigma Eps previous to 49 had 2 orators. 
 In the 9 classes, 49 to 58, Sigma Eps had one orator 
 and one poet, Delta Kap 6 orators and 7 poets, while 
 two orators and one poet were neutrals. Of the 13 
 orators, 59 to 71, Sigma Eps has had 5, Delta Kap 4 
 and Gamma Nu 4 ; of the poets, Sigma Eps 5, Delta 
 Kap 7 and Gamma Nu i. On five occasions Delta 
 Kap, and once Sigma Eps, has had both poet and orator. 
 Eleven of the poets and 6 of the orators have been Lit. 
 editors, and in three classes 41, 52 and 61 both 
 officers were drawn from their number. The Cochleau- 
 reati has also furnished 7 poets and 4 orators supply 
 ing both to the class of 61. 
 
 The omission in the above calculations is the year 
 1851, when no poem and oration were pronounced, 
 the class, after innumerable ballotings, being unable to 
 elect any candidates to represent them on Presentation 
 Day. There is usually very little strife, however, most 
 of the active electioneering and wire pulling being done 
 within a week or two of the election, and the result, 
 whatever it may be, being accepted with good nature by 
 all. A committee of half a dozen or more, to have 
 charge of the minor arrangements of the parting day, used 
 to be elected or appointed at the same time with the 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 4 8 7 
 
 orator and poet, but now-a-days they are not chosen until 
 a few weeks before the time in question. There is little 
 or no competition for their places, though these are 
 esteemed rather honorable ones, and are filled by men 
 in whom the class have confidence. No complete list 
 has ever been made of the orators and poets previous to 
 1833, though for a dozen years or more they and no 
 others had regularly appeared upon the Presentation 
 Day stage. The class poem of 26 was the first one to 
 be printed ; but since 33 a pamphlet containing poem 
 and oration (and until within two or three years the 
 parting ode also) has regularly been published. It is 
 usually of the octavo form, though the size of the page 
 has varied somewhat in different years. Of late the 
 cover has been of buff paper, like that of the college 
 catalogue, but formerly various shades of red, blue and 
 green were used. " Published by request of the class" 
 used to be the imprint on the title page of the pamphlet. 
 Now, the orater and poet issue it as a matter of course, 
 and it is first placed on sale, at the College Bookstore or 
 elsewhere, just after its contents have been proclaimed 
 in the Chapel. Twenty-five or thirty-five cents is the 
 price at which it sells, and enough copies are usually 
 disposed of to pay the costs of printing ; sometimes to 
 leave a margin for profit, as in 69, when the publishers 
 cleared $35 or $40 from the pamphlet. The edition is 
 300 or 400 copies, all of which are disposed of in a few 
 years, none but the later issues being ncfw obtainable. 
 The story is told of the class orator of 36 Henry C. 
 Deming of Hartford that, happening to enter Chapel 
 on a Presentation Day, a few years ago, he heard the 
 orator of the occasion pronounce as original a large 
 share of the sentiments which he himself had offered in 
 the same place about thirty years before. Col. Deming 
 would whisper to the professor beside him the words 
 
488 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 which " came next" in the original, and, sure enough, in 
 a few minutes the orator, all unconscious of detection, 
 would roll them out again as his own ideas, " now first 
 offered to the public." As the delinquent was a Keys 
 man, it was a favorite saying in Bones that "the class 
 had to come to that society for its oration, after all," 
 the orator of 36 being a member of it. It is said 
 that the same oration was skinned from once before by 
 a class orator, or speaker at Junior Ex, though the fraud 
 was not exposed quite so squarely. It is not often, 
 however, that a class goes so far wrong in its choices as 
 to confer its highest honors upon one who is capable of 
 disgracing it in this way. 
 
 The afternoon ceremonies of Presentation Day are 
 held in the open air. Having finished with the faculty s 
 " collation," the Seniors used to stretch themselves on 
 the grass in front of South Middle, and while away 
 their last afternoon together. In the old times, it was 
 then that the Bully Club was presented. Afterwards it 
 became the custom for the class to bring out the low 
 benches known to Commencement dinners, arrange the 
 same in the form of a ring, at the usual place under the 
 elms, and seating themselves thereon, smoke, every man 
 of them, the pipe of peace, singing meanwhile the songs, 
 written and printed for the occasion, joking, chaffing 
 and disporting themselves as best they might, while the 
 burlesque " band," composed of their own number and 
 comprising every imaginable instrument capable of 
 making a noise, furnished the " music." After planting 
 the Ivy, and marching through and cheering the college 
 buildings, they attended evening chapel, in the charac 
 ter of "visitors," sitting in the gallery and looking down 
 on the Juniors in possession of the seats which they 
 themselves had in the morning occupied for the last 
 time. Perhaps after prayers or it may be before they 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 4 8 9 
 
 formed the ring again and had another smoke, ending 
 up with a rush or stag dance in which all the pipes were 
 trampled upon and broken, as a sign that the pleasures 
 of college life were ended ; and then each took the 
 other by the hand and said Good bye. Some say that 
 the pipes of peace, thus smoked and smashed, were 
 those that had seen service during the college course, 
 but it is more likely that, as now, they were purchased 
 especially for the occasion. Gradually the plan came 
 into vogue of inviting the former members of the class 
 to take part in the rites, and those who did were called 
 upon for speeches giving accounts of their achievements 
 in the outside world. Letters were also read from those 
 who failed to attend in person ; and comic speeches in 
 praise real or ironical of these and other non-gradu 
 ates were delivered, " amid great applause," of course. 
 In this way was suggested the idea of a written " class 
 history," concerning the mishaps and adventures of those 
 who had prematurely graduated, an idea first put in 
 practice by 54, and constantly improved upon by their 
 successors, until now the class histories are the chief 
 feature of the afternoon s exercises, and instead of being 
 confined to an account of the non-graduates, they bring 
 in the name of nearly every man in the class, relating 
 every laughable incident or droll mishap that memory 
 has treasured up concerning him during the four years 
 course. Naturally, the historian s position is a very del 
 icate ^one, and the utmost tact is required to avoid offend 
 ing the individual while making him the subject of gen 
 eral merriment. While a historian s want of this quality 
 sometimes leads him to make unfortunate remarks, it is 
 rarely that on such a day, he is wantonly malicious, 
 though the power possessed by him for paying off 
 grudges and taking revenge is almost unlimited. There 
 is no traditional time for the election of historians, but 
 
49 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 of late they have been chosen during sophomore year, 
 those who successfully filled the office at the time of the 
 Annual Dinner being often re-elected, though each 
 division chooses its own representative. Hence there 
 are either three or four of them according to the size of 
 the class, each of whom " has" the men belonging to 
 his division at the time of his election, without regard 
 to subsequent changes thereof, which may separate him 
 in recitation from many of them. Thenceforth, when 
 ever he hears of an absurd blunder in recitation, a comic 
 accident, " sell," or practical joke, of which one of " his" 
 men is the victim, he takes a note thereof and lays it 
 away for future reference. About a month before Pres 
 entation, the historians send to the address of every 
 former member of the class a printed circular, inviting 
 them in the name of the class to be present at the exer 
 cises, and requesting them in their reply whether of 
 acceptance or declination to write a short account of 
 their doings since leaving college. With his accumu 
 lated " notes" and these letters as materials, the his 
 torian then begins his work, and in his treatment of 
 former members his knowledge as to whether or not 
 they are to be his auditors serves him in good stead. 
 
 There is only one test of a good class history, and 
 that is its capacity for calling out the hearty, good-na 
 tured mirth of the Seniors for whom it is written. If 
 from the beginning of the recital to the end, they are 
 " convulsed with roars of vast and inextinguishable 
 laughter," except in the short intervals necessary for the 
 taking of breath and the shouting of " Rah ! rah ! 
 rah ! " the history is a success. To an outsider the 
 wit may appear pointless, the humor vapid, the brilliancy 
 dull, but they are not so. The finest poem, perfectly 
 recited, seems meaningless jargon to the auditor unac 
 quainted with the language in which it is spoken : and 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 49 * 
 
 until a man has lived for four years inclose relation to a 
 hundred others, so that he knows every one of their 
 little peculiarities and appreciates every trifling out-of- 
 the-way point in their characters, he cannot comprehend 
 the exquisite zest with which each Yale Senior relishes 
 the rollicking record of fun which his historians have 
 prepared for him. Under-class men and graduates can 
 enjoy much that is beyond the reach of others, and 
 some of the jokes are of such broad and general appli 
 cation that all can appreciate them ; but in the nature 
 of things the better part of a class history must escape 
 all but the ctassjbr whom it is specially intended. The 
 historians are supposed to be the best wits, "fellows of 
 infinite jest," " funny men," that the class can produce ; 
 and the most casual outside auditor cannot fail to notice 
 when one of them is proved to be lacking the humorous 
 qualifications which he was expected to display. In his 
 words he may not seem to differ much from the other?, 
 but the look of inexpressible disappointment that steals 
 over the faces of the Seniors, their dismal attempts to laugh 
 and cheer, prove that he has made a dreary failure of 
 his work. Each historian often devotes considerable 
 space in praising his own division and ridiculing the 
 others, and perhaps offers a few general statistics, which 
 contain enough truth to laughably set off the absurdity 
 of their errors. The faculty are also mentioned with 
 great freedom, though never indecently or maliciously, 
 and the personal references to these or other individuals 
 often take their point from their utter impossibility. 
 
 These humorous class histories should not be con 
 founded with the class statistics which it is the custom 
 to publish at about the same time. The practice was 
 introduced by 58, and the statistics of that and every 
 succeeding class except 60, 67 and 70 have been 
 published in the Lit. The Courant has also published 
 
49 2 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the statistics each year, beginning with those of 66, and 
 its report of 69 was the most complete that had ever 
 been prepared. The editors then for the first time 
 issued printed blanks, enquiring of each Senior, his age ? 
 weight ? hight ? proposed profession ? matrimonial pros 
 pects ? habits (of smoking, chewing, billiard-playing, 
 Sunday-school teaching, etc.)? politics? musical abili 
 ties ? and all the other similar questions which had been 
 asked orally, and hence less systematically and com 
 pletely, in previous years. Besides these things, the 
 editors or compilers learn for themselves the facts in 
 regard to the residences, societies, prizes, honors and 
 scholarships, base-ball and boating achievements, nick 
 names, color of hair, and other "capillary statistics," 
 color of eyes, wearers of eye-glasses, number of men 
 arrested by the police or suspended by the faculty, any 
 and every trifling or important circumstance connected 
 with or characteristic of the class. All these materials 
 are then grouped together and " worked up " as attrac 
 tively as possible into an article which is highly prized 
 by the parties concerned, and interesting to all the 
 undergraduates. Some portions, indeed, seem to be 
 relished by the general public, as they are widely quoted 
 in the newspapers. Last year, two of the 70 Coiirant 
 editors published the statistics of their class in a 24- 
 page octavo pamphlet, which had quite an extensive 
 sale throughout college ; but their example is not likely 
 to be followed this year. 
 
 But the afternoon exercises of Presentation Day, 
 though not fully understood, are sufficiently enjoyed by 
 outside spectators to attract very many of them to the 
 scene, and accommodations for their comfort accordingly 
 have to be provided, especially for the ladies. At first, 
 the front windows of South Middle and the Lyceum 
 were ample enough to furnish nearly all of the latter 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 493 
 
 with eligible positions for seeing, if not hearing, " all 
 the fun " ; then chairs, and tables and other improvised 
 seats were arranged for them, under the trees ; but the 
 crowd each year increased, and more and more were 
 obliged to stand " out of all sight and hearing," until 
 1867, when the committee first erected raised seats, like 
 those in a circus, for the benefit of the lady spectators 
 and their attendants. The seats were made for perma 
 nent use, and the lower classes helped pay for them. 
 During the year they are stored away in one of the 
 college cellars. Upon the green they are arranged in 
 the form of a triangle, within which is the ring of benches 
 upon which the Seniors sit, and in the center of the ring 
 is the table upon which the historian stands as he reads 
 his history. The space between the benches and the 
 seats is packed with undergraduates and the general 
 crowd, who are constantly exhorted to " lie down on the 
 grass," and are constantly tending to disobey the order 
 by standing upright, which proceeding obstructs the view 
 of the ladies upon the raised seats, and prevents their 
 hearing to advantage. The problem, How to make the 
 triangle large enough to allow the general crowd seats 
 upon the turf within it, without putting the favored 
 possessors of seats out of the reach of the historian s 
 voice ? has not yet been solved. If the triangle is made 
 small, the undergraduates who are crowded out think 
 themselves ill-used ; if it is made large, the ladies feel 
 aggrieved because from their seats they are unable to 
 catch the words of those delightfully incomprehensible 
 jokes. The college windows overlooking the scene are 
 still held by them as before, and their bright eyes and 
 merry faces, peering out of the grim old barracks, give 
 the latter an unwonted air of liveliness, possessed no 
 other day in all the year. By two o clock the seats 
 begin to fill up, and the class committee who acted as 
 
494 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 ushers at the chapel in the forenoon are on hand to 
 see that the visitors are fairly distributed, and that the 
 best places are secured by " friends of the graduating 
 class." 
 
 It is about half-past two when the music strikes up 
 a regular band from the city having long ago superseded 
 the class musicians and the Seniors take their places 
 in the ring. Long clay pipes, with tobacco to smoke 
 therein, are distributed among them, and a large tub of 
 lemonade, with pitchers and goblets, is placed within 
 the ring, the programmes being meanwhile tossed 
 about. These contain, in addition to the names of the 
 historians and the committee, the songs written or 
 selected for the occasion, and the " Ivy song," which 
 is always original, and is usually prepared by the class 
 poet. These programmes were first supplied in 59, 
 though for the nine preceding years printed sheets of 
 the songs were freely distributed. As the histories 
 have risen in importance the practice of singing has 
 gradually died out. In 69, for the first time, the pro 
 gramme contained none but reprinted songs ; yet during 
 the four years that class was in college there was very 
 little singing on Presentation afternoons, and that little 
 was quite independent of the specially prepared songs. 
 Though there is, to be sure, less time left for the pur 
 pose than formerly, yet it is doubtless the feeling of sad 
 ness, which underlies all the outward jollity of the day, 
 that prevents the Senior from singing, or, when he 
 makes the attempt, from singing with his wonted fervor 
 and heartiness. The smoking, too, is not so general or 
 so continuous as it used to be. Almost every one takes 
 a few whiffs, but very many do no more than that. The 
 pipes are not broken, but are carefully preserved for 
 memorabil. 
 
 The preliminary arrangements being all completed, 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 495 
 
 the din and tumult arising therefrom is hushed, the 
 band cease playing, and in response to loud cries of 
 " History ! history ! " " Shake it up, there ! " " Trot out 
 your jokes, Bill ! " the representative comic man of the 
 first division mounts the table and begins his story. 
 Perhaps he treats first of the missing members, and as 
 he concludes his remarks concerning each one who 
 happens to be present, that man s name is shouted by a 
 hundred voices, until he mounts the table and makes a 
 " speech," which is greeted with " three times three " 
 rousing cheers, and the historian proceeds. After the 
 mention of each absent man s name who was well liked 
 by the class, the speaker "leads off" in three, or three 
 times three, cheers for him, according to his opinion of 
 his popularity, and this is testified to by the greater or 
 less enthusiasm with which the class "respond," all 
 rising to their feet in honor of a specially well-liked 
 man, and cheering less lustily and from their seats for 
 one whom they remember less affectionately. When the 
 historian reaches the Seniors, there present around him, 
 he occasionally calls upon some witty or popular man 
 to answer for himself, and the class second the response 
 by yells of " Speech ! speech ! " until the object of their 
 attention obeys them and says his say from the table, 
 which " say " is always greeted with tumultuous ap 
 plause. Besides this, if the history be a good one, its 
 reading is constantly interrupted by the laughter, shouts 
 of approbation, and impromptu cheers of the auditors, 
 who often " call out " men, independently of those 
 recommended by the reader, and extort speeches of 
 acknowledgment from them. At the close of the first 
 history, the historian and his division are in turn given 
 " three times three," with an enthusiasm dependent upon 
 the acceptableness of his work, and the band plays while 
 the multitude change positions a little. Then, too, the 
 
496 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 songs are sung, if at all. In the same manner, the his 
 tories of the second, third and fourth if there is any 
 fourth divisions are presented save that toward the 
 end, fewer speeches are called for, fewer and fainter 
 cheers are given, and the shouts of laughter are less 
 hearty and prolonged. The place of the last historian 
 is by far the hardest to fill, as his sayings must be 
 doubly attractive if they would be as acceptable as those 
 of the first speaker who addressed the audience while 
 they were fresh and eager for his words. 
 
 The histories over, the class form, two by two, the 
 orator and poet at the head, and the committee acting 
 as marshals, and, preceded by the band, inarch to the 
 selected nook of Library building, where the Ivy is to 
 be planted. The year of the class has here been cut 
 into the stone, a day or two before, and the earth pre 
 pared for the reception of the plant. The poet silently 
 places it in the appointed spot, while the class join in 
 singing the sad Ivy song, a large body of spectators 
 attending, and then the procession, in the same order 
 as before, marches back through the south entry of South 
 College, and forms a semi-circle in front of it. Three 
 times three cheers are here given for each one of the 
 lower classes, which they in turn respond to, either 
 then or shortly afterwards when a crowd can be got 
 together, as the compliment often takes them unawares, 
 and then " Old South College " is also saluted, after 
 which its north entry is marched through, and the line 
 bent in front of the Athenaeum. This is then cheered, 
 and so on for every building in the row, down to North 
 College, both entries of each dormitory being marched 
 through. Divinity College and the other buildings are 
 not saluted, but after cheering adieu to old North, the 
 procession, still preceded by the band, files down Elm 
 street to Church, and halts in front of the house of the 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 497 
 
 president, who is vociferously cheered, as are also the 
 few words of acknowledgment and farewell which he 
 offers in return. Then the march is resumed up to 
 Hillhouse Avenue and elsewhere, where there are more 
 cheers and responses before the professors houses, and 
 so back to the colleges, where the rooms of the younger 
 professors, in the absence of their occupants, are saluted. 
 Then the band is dismissed ; and, in the gathering twi 
 light, in front of or within Alumni Hall, where they met 
 for the most part strangers, four years before, this class 
 of a hundred men sadly form a parting ring, and grasp 
 ing each other by the hand, with choking throat and 
 tearful eye, speak the word, Farewell. It is an affecting 
 occasion, even for the least sympathetic ; and many a 
 manly fellow, who never displayed emotion before, now 
 sobs away his sorrow like a little child. It is the last 
 scene of the active student life, the last time that the class 
 meets with unbroken ranks. Individual classmates 
 may all at various times be met with again, though this 
 happens but rarely, but that intangible thing called " the 
 class " of which each is a part, dies with Presentation 
 Day. 
 
 It was by 52 that the idea of planting the Ivy was 
 first put in practice, but 58 was the first class to have 
 its number cut upon the stone. Its vine was placed at 
 the foot of the left hand turret, beside the main entrance 
 to the Library, and, except that of 59, at the opposite side 
 of the same entrance, all the original eight have long 
 been dead, the rank Virginia creeper flourishing in their 
 places. For the next six years 60 to 65 the Ivies 
 were placed in succession between the buttresses on the 
 north (Brothers) side of the building, and have all, save 
 the last, flourished finely. The Ivy of 66 is at the 
 right hand of the Brothers entrance ; that of 67 is in 
 the north east corner, corresponding to 65 s in the 
 
49 8 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 north west, that of 68 is on the north side of the main 
 Library, at the left hand as one approaches the usual 
 entrance, that of 69 is in an exactly similar position in 
 the rear of the building, that of yo s is at the left hand 
 of the usual side-entrance to the library, and that of 
 71 is on the High street side of Brothers, corresponding 
 to that of 66 on the front side. The place of planting 
 the Ivy is decided upon by the committee, subject to 
 the approval of the college librarian. The northern 
 wall is sought for, since the vine cannot bear the sun in 
 winter time, a fact which the earlier classes did not 
 seem to be aware of or pay regard to ; though perhaps 
 the original plan of setting out the plant in the ordinary 
 soil surrounding the building, and of having each mem 
 ber of the class throw a handful thereof upon its roots, 
 may alone explain the want of longevity in those earlier 
 Ivies. Now-a-days the gardener who prepares the ground 
 in advance, beds down the Ivy after its ceremonious 
 planting, and occasionally cares for it when attention is 
 needed, in after years. Since the custom was begun, 
 the same gardener has always been employed for the 
 work, and also the same stone-cutter for chiseling out the 
 date. Occasionally a historic Ivy, brought by a friend 
 from some old European castle or cathedral or famous 
 spot, has been honored with the duty of immortalizing 
 the class, but usually a common, low-born vine, supplied 
 by the gardener, has been thought sufficient to " keep 
 its memory green." 
 
 Formerly, immediately after planting the Ivy, the 
 ceremony of bidding one another farewell was gone 
 through with, in front of South College, in the presence 
 of an unsympathetic crowd of spectators the female 
 portion of which rather enjoyed the spectacle of seeing 
 the young men cry, and thought it rather "funny " than 
 otherwise. In 68, the leave-taking was held more pri- 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 499 
 
 vately, in front of Alumni Hall ; in 69, after the attempt 
 had been made to dispense with the ceremony altogether, 
 it was agreed by way of compromise that it should take 
 place with entire privacy inside the hall itself; and in 
 70, though the class voted otherwise, it was omitted 
 entirely. As has been already implied, the former 
 members of the class whether belonging to lower 
 classes in the college, or coming from abroad especially 
 for the occasion share equally in all the doings of the 
 day, from first to last, with those who graduate. Some 
 times the band which supplied the music for the Wooden 
 Spoon Exhibition the night before has been employed 
 for the day, though a less expensive one from the city is 
 usually secured. The entire costs of the arrangements 
 are between $300 and $400, and this amount is raised 
 by an equal tax previously levied upon the class. It is 
 noticeable that the class poet is often one of the histo 
 rians also. This was true in 63, 65, 68, 69 and 70,. 
 and in several preceding instances ; while in 68 both 
 the orator and poet of the morning were the representa 
 tive " funny men " of the afternoon. In the rare cases 
 where the weather has made it impossible to hold the 
 afternoon exercises in the open air, Alumni Hall has 
 been resorted to ; but 69, whose ceremonies were inter 
 rupted by the rain, were by special indulgence of the 
 faculty, allowed the freedom of the Chapel, wherein to 
 finish them. The historian s table was placed in the 
 center of the middle aisle, and the class occupied their 
 usual seats around it, while the rest of the building 
 galleries, professors pews and pulpits was crowded to 
 its utmost by the interested spectators; Exactly such 
 a crowd, and such an exhibition, and such shouts and 
 cheers and laughter, within the walls of that grave and 
 reverend edifice were probably never known of before 
 in all the days of its history. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 TOWN AND GOWN. 
 
 BULLYI.SM Capture of the Bully Club Election of Bullies 
 Their Duties and Privileges The Fight of Bully against Presi 
 dentIts Culmination in 1840 Abolishment of Bullyism 
 Preservation of the Club TOWN AND GOWN The Fireman s 
 Riot of 1841 The " City Guard" and the " Banner" The Riot 
 of 1854 Preliminary Hostilities The Attack Death of the 
 Rioter s Ringleader Frenzy of the Mob South College to 
 be Bombarded The Seige Abandoned Preparations for De 
 fenceCoroner s Investigation The Popular Verdict The 
 High Street Fracas of 1858 Who Fired the Fatal Shot ? 
 The Stafford Homicide of 1860 The Stabbing of a College 
 Officer in 1843 The Students and the Peelers Causes of their 
 Enmity The Knock-down of 1870 The City Tradesmen and 
 their College Customers The Old Sumptuary Laws Present 
 Habits in Dress Disregard of Family or Local Pretentions 
 Politics and the Suffrage The Student in Society College 
 Widows Society and the Mission Schools Prayer Meetings 
 The Missionary and other Religious Societies The Temper 
 ance Society Drinking and Licentiousness Swearing, Smok 
 ing, Chewing, Billiard Playing and Gambling Cards, Chess, 
 and Velocipedes Sailing Excursions Camping out on the 
 Thimbles Walking, Foot-Racing, Skating and Driving 
 Obituary Customs Post-Graduate Class Meetings The Class 
 Records Exercises of a Class Reunion Origin of the Class 
 Cup The First Cup Presentation of 44 Changes in the Cus 
 tom Recent Abandonment of the Ceremony. 
 
 Several minor matters, of a very general nature, in 
 regard to student life, which could not well be brought 
 in elsewhere, will be treated of in the present chapter, 
 in addition to its special subject, the relations between 
 the townspeople and the students. These were less 
 harmonious than at present in the old times, when ill- 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 5 o I 
 
 feeling between college men and the lower orders of 
 " townies " seems to have been traditional. It was 
 from this feud that the custom of " Bullyism " arose. 
 Tradition has it that sometime in the last century, the 
 earlier the better, a party of students went to an inn at 
 Fair Haven a locality then known as " Dragon " to 
 regale themselves with an oyster supper, or something 
 of the sort, " and there fell into an affray with the young 
 men of the place, a hardy if not a hard set, who regarded 
 their presence in their own favorite resort as an intru 
 sion," and made out to expel them therefrom. Next 
 night the college men came back to the house with 
 large re-enforcements, and engaged in a pitched battle 
 with the oystermen and sailors assembled to meet them. 
 In the struggle, " a great bully of a fellow, who appeared 
 to be the leader of the Dragoners, wielded a huge club, 
 formed from an oak limb, with a gnarled excresence on 
 the end ; " which club the college men managed to wrest 
 from his grasp, and bear off as a trophy, to be called 
 the " Bully Club " for ever after. 
 
 To protect themselves against the drunken rowdies 
 who were wont to insult and attack them, each class 
 organized a sort of " defence committee," and chose as 
 leader their largest and most muscular man, to whom 
 they gave the name of "Bully." The Bully was not 
 only the "champion fighter " of the class, but also pre 
 sided over all class meetings of every sort, and fulfilled 
 all the duties of chairman or president. Afterwards, 
 the practice arose of electing the smallest man of the 
 class to the office of " Minor Bully," whose duty it was 
 to serve like a vice president in the " Major Bully s " 
 absence. But as the collisions with the townies grew 
 less frequent, the original qualifications for Bully were 
 less closely regarded, and the bullyships came to be 
 looked upon in the light of honors, belonging by right 
 
5 02 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 to the " most popular men" of the class, much as the 
 cochships were afterwards regarded. It seems proba 
 ble, however, that, other things being equal, a large- 
 sized man and a little one were always preferred for the 
 two offices. To each of their Bullies the class gave a 
 gold-headed, highly-ornamented cane or banger, and the 
 ceremonies attendant upon the reception of the same 
 occurred upon the afternoon of Presentation Day. The 
 Major Bully of the Seniors was the College Bully, and 
 had in keeping the Bully Club, besides the class banger 
 which he took away with him when he graduated. He 
 was looked upon as the college leader in all encounters 
 with the townies, called and presided over all the gen 
 eral meetings of the students, acted as chief marshal 
 in their processions, and so on. Upon the afternoon of 
 Presentation Day he transferred the College Bully Club 
 to his successor, the Bully of the junior class, with cer 
 tain traditional formalities, including speeches of pre 
 sentation and acceptance, which were expected to be as 
 humorous as possible, a long procession, and other ob 
 servances. The presentation of the class clubs to the 
 freshman Bullies, who would that night for the first time 
 occupy the sophomore scats in chapel, was naturally 
 combined with the more important ceremony. Appar 
 ently no second elections were held ; so that the Major 
 Bully, chosen at the end of freshman year, seems un 
 less he resigned or left college to have been the head 
 man of his class for the rest of his course, and the head 
 man of all college during his senior year, when the 
 original Bully Club was placed in his charge, as an em 
 blem of his high position. Some accounts would imply 
 that the freshman bullyships were filled at an earlier 
 date than Presentation Day. 
 
 But in process of time, when the original duties of 
 Bully had long been forgotten, there arose a sentiment 
 
THE S TUDENT L IFE. 503 
 
 of hostility to the name, as having a barbarous sound 
 offensive to ears polite, and as the Bully was simply the 
 class president, it was insisted that he should be called 
 by that or some similar title, like moderator, marshal or 
 leader. Beginning with 38, a terrible war arose in 
 regard to the matter, the "reform party" of each class 
 electing a "president" by a slight majority, while the 
 minority chose a Bully as before, and presented him 
 with the usual club. Each officer professed to be the 
 only true leader of the class, and many were the con 
 flicts of authority which arose between these two Rich- 
 monds in the field and their fierce partisans. Things 
 grew worse and worse until they came to a crisis on the 
 Commencement morning of 1840, when the adherents 
 of the Bully and the " moderator" finished their wrangle 
 as to which should act as marshal of the procession, by 
 engaging in a free fight upon " the merits of the ques 
 tion." The usual procession was broken up, the parti 
 sans in their hot fray heeding not the orders of the 
 faculty, the threats of the constables, or even the rebuke 
 of the Chief Magistrate of the State. The alumni 
 were left to find their seats in church as they best could, 
 the aged and beloved president following in sorrow, 
 unescorted, to perform the duties of the day." Shortly 
 afterwards the faculty passed a decree that there should 
 be no class officers or organization of any name. 
 Accordingly Bullyism died out, and to this day each 
 class meeting is called " by general consent" alone, and 
 presided over by a chairman chosen for that one occa 
 sion only. There has been no list kept of the College 
 Bullies but the last of them was Hezekiah Sturges of 
 41, who, being a Bones man, left the Bully Club in the 
 hall of that society, where it is treasured as a most 
 interesting relic. 
 
 At about the same time with the abolition of Bullyism 
 
504 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the first fireman s riot took place. On Saturday, Octo 
 ber 30, 1841, was held the annual parade of the city 
 fire-department, the various engine companies, in uni 
 form, finally assembling upon the green to try their skill 
 in throwing water upon the spire of Center Church, and 
 a large crowd of spectators being in attendance. The 
 engine hose lay across the usual play-ground of the 
 students, and as they were engaged at foot-ball it was 
 occasionally trodden upon by them, whereupon they 
 were somewhat peremptorily, and as they thought 
 insolently, ordered to desist, and, as they were rather 
 slow about obeying, the ball was seized by the firemen. 
 A rush being made to regain it, three students were 
 arrested for a breach of the peace, and haled before a 
 justice in the lower part of the town, where bail was 
 given, and the trial adjourned, the whole body of fire 
 men, 500 or more, acting as self-constituted constables 
 to escort the three students before the justice, and 
 bandying complimentary epithets with the crowds of 
 college men who followed along beside them. Later in 
 the day, when the firemen had assembled in their sup 
 per-hall, stones were hurled against the door of the 
 same, either by students or, more likely, by town boys 
 who wished to encourage hostilities, and squads of 
 firemen sallying forth vented their rage upon the few 
 solitary collegians whom they chanced upon. The out 
 rage being reported to headquarters, the excitement 
 flamed up to fever heat, and at midnight a large crowd 
 of students assembled, stormed the nearest engine house 
 and drove off the watchmen with a shower of brickbats, 
 then overturned and smashed the engine, cut up the 
 hose, and scattered the fragments in the college yard. 
 Meanwhile the watchmen had raised the alarm of fire, 
 bringing an immense throng of excited and hostile men 
 upon the spot ; but, by the exertions of the city author- 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 505 
 
 ities on the one side and the faculty on the other, what 
 threatened to be a serious riot was averted, and by day 
 light of Sunday morning the crowds were made to dis 
 perse. 
 
 A fruitless investigation before a grand jury was 
 thrown up unfinished at the end of nine clays, but the 
 excitement over the matter lasted much longer than that, 
 and " the riot" was the all-absorbing topic of town talk 
 for a month or more. In opposition to the Yale Banner, 
 which served as the student s mouth-piece, the firemen 
 or their friends put forth a diminutive 4-page sheet called 
 the City Guard and Moral Scavenger, which made three 
 appearances, Nov. 13, 20, and Dec. 3. The heading 
 bore a representation of the <f blind goddess," with the 
 motto, " Justice to all " ; and the price was four cents 
 per copy. While the Banner devoted itself chiefly to 
 censuring the unfairness, illegality and needless brutality 
 shown in making the original arrests, the Guard paid 
 special attention to the assault on the engine house ; 
 though both devoted much space to the interchange of 
 personal compliments, and the calling of names, one 
 being termed " the city blackguard and immoral scaven 
 ger" and the other " the banny." The three students 
 who were arrested, after having their trial postponed 
 two or three times seemingly that the engine investi 
 gation might prejudice their cases were made to pay 
 fines and costs, though apparently they should have 
 been paid damages, instead, for the assaults committed 
 upon them by the firemen. 
 
 It was a dozen years later that the next town-and- 
 gown outbreak happened, on the night of Friday, 
 March 17, 1854. The evening previous, a half dozen 
 students had attended a theatrical performance at 
 Roman s Athenaeum, in Exchange Building, corner of 
 Church and Chapel streets, and one or two of them, on 
 
 23 
 
56 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 rising to adjust their shawls, had been greeted with cries 
 of "Down in front!" from the "gods in the gallery." 
 To this some such response as " When we get ready ! " 
 was made, and replied to by growls of " Hustle out the 
 monkeys ! " groans, and so on. At the close of the 
 performance, the students, on reaching the street, were 
 pitched upon by a large crowd of townies, and knocked 
 down, though not until they had made a good resistance 
 and drawn friends to their rescue by their yells of 
 " Yale ! " " Yale ! " The police soon restored order, by 
 the arrest of the rabble s ring-leader and one or two 
 students, all of whom were discharged, an hour or two 
 afterwards, on their promise to keep the peace. 
 
 On Friday night 40 or 50 students attended the 
 theater, and sat together in a body, while ten times 
 that number of townies gathered outside the building, 
 and by raising an alarm of fire just as the performance 
 was about to close, increased their number to 1200 or 
 1500. Meantime, with shrieks, yells and outcries they 
 dared the students to come out. A paper was passed 
 around among the latter, requesting them to remain 
 after the close of the show until the rest of the audience 
 had withdrawn. Then, at the direction of the captain 
 of police, they formed, two by two, and silently marched 
 out and crossed to the sidewalk on the south side of 
 Chapel street, the rabble following close upon them with 
 shrieks, hootings, and imprecations. The students kept 
 on their march toward the colleges, until opposite 
 Trinity Church, when, upon their beginning to sing 
 "Gaudeamus," the mob which filled up the street 
 brought them to a halt with a shower of stones, clubs 
 and brickbats, by which several of their number were 
 knocked down and badly injured. Picking up the 
 wounded they again moved on, only to be stopped by a 
 second volley, by which several more were disabled. 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 507 
 
 The ranks were then closed up, and the march once 
 more began. Just then the leaders of the rabble, who 
 had all along kept in the street, made a rush for the 
 sidewalk, when four or five pistols were fired by the 
 students, some at their assailants and some into the 
 air simply. In a minute or two the cry went up that a 
 man had been shot, and one of the rioters was seen to 
 fall upon his face in the middle of the street. He died 
 in a few minutes, having been stabbed to the heart by 
 a large dirk-knife, but no pistol wound was found upon 
 him. It was afterwards discovered that the pistol shots 
 had slightly injured two or three other persons in the 
 crowd. 
 
 It was in front of Fitch s bookstore that the man was 
 killed, and the students who from the first had kept to 
 the sidewalk soon after reached the college yard, and 
 with three times three cheers for Yale, disbanded and 
 retired to their rooms. When the mob who followed 
 closely at their heels learned that one of their number 
 had been killed, they became wild with rage, swore they 
 would tear down the colleges and have blood for blood ; 
 and while some broke into the churches and rang an 
 alarm of fire, others seized upon the two guns of the 
 artillery company, which were stored in a barn, loaded 
 them to the muzzle with powder, chains, broken stones 
 and brickbats, and dragged them up to the college yard. 
 Both were aimed at South College, one from Chapel 
 street on the south, the other from College street on the 
 east. The mob with the cannons had been met at the 
 Church street corner by the police captain and justice of 
 the peace, who, mounting upon the pieces, had in vain 
 warned them to desist. On the way up, however, un 
 known to the rioters, the police managed to spike the 
 guns, and at about the same time the ringing of the bells 
 was stopped. It was half-past one in the morning when 
 
58 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the entire crowd had assembled, unlimbered the can 
 nons and leveled them at South College. On discover 
 ing that the guns were spiked, they were partly deserted, 
 and the doors and windows of South were smashed in 
 with stones and bricks, amid yells of " Bring out the 
 murderer !" and so on. At this juncture arrived the 
 mayor, who, mounting one of the guns, made procla 
 mation to the rioters, warning them to desist, and 
 promising that the offenders should be brought to jus 
 tice. By half-past two the crowd had mostly dispersed, 
 though some even then were trying to draw the spikes 
 from the cannons, and were hooting and swearing 
 about the building: and by three the police were able 
 to take possession of the guns and drag them off to the 
 jail yard, though cursed and stoned by the rioters while 
 doing it. It was about four o clock in the morning 
 when quiet was again restored. 
 
 Inside of South, all this time, dead silence had 
 reigned and no lights had been visible. The denizens 
 of the building, after barricading the doors with flag 
 stones torn from the college walks, had collected therein 
 all the weapons and missiles known to college, and 
 retired to the upper stories to await results, deter 
 mined, as from the first, to shed no blood save in self- 
 defence, but if once attacked to fight it out till the last. 
 For several nights after that, they "slept on their arms," 
 and there was a general apprehension throughout the 
 city that the attack might be renewed. The mayor 
 called upon the firemen to assemble at their engine 
 houses on Saturday night and hold themselves in readi 
 ness to put down any uprising ; and this gave rise to 
 the report that the real object of the action was, by thus 
 keeping them shut up, to prevent the firemen themselves 
 from fomenting another disturbance ; which report was 
 so generally circulated as to call forth an official contra 
 diction. 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 59 
 
 The coroner s investigation brought forth nothing to 
 implicate anyone as the slayer of the fallen man, and, 
 though he was of course believed to be a student, all 
 the evidence went to show that the college men never 
 once left the sidewalk, and that the rioter, when he fell, 
 was in the middle of the street and surrounded by his 
 friends. It was notable also that none of the watch 
 men or other citizens who were witnesses could " re 
 member " the names of any persons whom they saw- 
 engaged in the riot, and hence no townies were tried or 
 arrested for their share in the disturbance. The man 
 who was killed was the ringleader of the rioters, both 
 on the night of his death and the night before, when he 
 was released from arrest on promising to keep the 
 peace. His name was Patrick O Neil, his occupation 
 that of bar-keeper, his age about twenty-three, and he 
 was unmarried. It was said that neither he nor many 
 in the mob were Irishmen, though the riot happened 
 upon the night of St. Patrick s Day. Of course the 
 affair created great excitement, and a pamphlet of 48 
 pages was issued concerning it, containing the testimony 
 before the jury, the newspaper accounts and comments, 
 etc. The general opinion seemed to be that the stu 
 dents were entirely in the right, that the dead man 
 deserved his fate, and that had his slayer (who, according 
 to college tradition, was a non-graduate Senior from 
 Mississippi) been discovered, he would have been freely 
 acquitted. For some time both before and after the 
 outbreak no student could walk the streets, even in the 
 clay time, without being wantonly insulted and abused 
 by the townies. 
 
 Four years later came the third and last collision 
 between town and gown. On the evening of Tuesday, 
 February 9, 1858, as about twenty Juniors, belonging to 
 the " Crocodile Club," corner of Elm and High streets, 
 
5 10 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 were returning from supper, and passing the house of 
 " Engine No. 2," on High street, in the rear of Alumni 
 Hall, they got into an altercation with three or four 
 firemen assembled therein. The firemen on this as on 
 previous occasions seemed to take offense at the singing 
 
 & o 
 
 of college songs, and, on the night before, water had 
 been thrown on the singers, accidentally as was claimed 
 by the firemen. Several of the latter had on the pre 
 vious Saturday strolled about the college yard and 
 buildings in an insolent way, and been free in their 
 threats and imprecations. On the other hand, it was 
 said that the students swore at and insulted the firemen, 
 threw stones against the door of the engine-house and 
 smashed the windows. The crowd had passed by the 
 engine-house on the evening in question, after the inter 
 change of a few defiances, when it was decided to go 
 back and see about the matter. Quite an excited dis 
 cussion arose about the "rights" of the two parties, the 
 students being now on the side of the street opposite 
 the engine-house, but the firemen finally admitted 
 that the students had a right to sing their songs, and 
 the threatened fight seemed to be smoothed over, when 
 a half-dozen firemen, who had been sent for as a re- 
 enforcement at the first hint of hostilities, came rushing 
 across from York street, and with a shout of " Now we 
 have them, boys ! " the leader of the firemen struck with 
 a speaking trumpet the person with whom he was con 
 versing and all went towards the students, who were 
 just about withdrawing, thinking the difficulty at an end. 
 Most of the collegians carried canes or bangers, several 
 of the firemen had hose-wrenches in their hands, and 
 a tin trumpet was also picked up, after the affray was 
 over. Bricks were also thrown, and by these missiles 
 or blows from the wrenches, one or two students were 
 knocked down and badly hurt. As the last onset was 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 5 1 1 
 
 made, there was a cry of " Shoot ! shoot ! " and two or 
 three shots followed in quick succession from the direc 
 tion of the students, who then withdrew to the colleges. 
 The firemen then discovered that one of their number, 
 who had been the leader in the fray, and had been 
 noticed a moment before aiming a blow with a wrench 
 or trumpet at a prostrate student, was wounded, and 
 bore him to the engine-house. He was found to be shot 
 through the body, and died the following afternoon, 
 leaving a wife and one or two children, for whom a 
 purse of $500 was afterwards made up. His name was 
 William Miles, and he was about twenty-five years of age. 
 The coroner s jury incriminated no one, but in their 
 verdict they censured the members of the " Crocodile 
 Club" for refusing to give testimony-. Each one of these 
 refused to say anything that "might subject himself to a 
 criminal prosecution," and a test case being made, one 
 of them was arrested for contempt, brought before a 
 judge by a writ of habeas corpus, and his right to make 
 such refusal was sustained. It was generally believed, 
 in college and outside it, that a member of that club 
 committed the deed, though rumor, even, was unable to 
 fix upon any one individual. It has since been under 
 stood that the firer of the fatal shot was a 59 man, who 
 was himself killed in one of the closing battles of the 
 war, March 6, 1865. The testimony of the firemen and 
 the students was contradictory, one party claiming that 
 the wrenches were used before the shots were fired, the 
 other afterwards, and each declaring the other to be the 
 aggressors. The general college sentiment rather depre 
 cated the shooting as needless and unjustifiable, and 
 favored the side of the firemen until the latter some 
 months afterwards published a series of scurrilous " res 
 olutions" in regard to the matter, which again turned 
 the current against them. The fight gave occasion for 
 
512 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the issue of the last Gallinipper that ever appeared. 
 The " Crocodiles " were disbanded. And the engine 
 house was shortly afterwards bought by the faculty, and 
 has since served as a store-house for the college carpen 
 ter. Rumor has it that the knife and pistol which did 
 the bloody work in 54 and 58 are preserved in Keys 
 hall as relics ; though another story tells how the knife 
 after being buried under the college flag-stones was dug 
 up, its handle burnt to dryest dust, and the blade thrown 
 into the college well. At the time of the New York 
 draft riots of 1863, a similar rising was feared in New 
 Haven, and for several nights the colleges were barri 
 caded in preparation for an attack ; but the old feeling 
 of enmity has long since disappeared, with the disap 
 pearance of the fire companies whose existence fostered 
 it, and whatever hatred now exists between townies and 
 students exists between individuals simply. A college 
 man as such is never subjected to insult or indignity. 
 Perhaps if he visits the voting places of the Fifth Ward 
 on election day, he may be growled at a little by the 
 grown-up roughs, and hooted at and stoned by the 
 smaller ones, but the same thing would happen to any 
 well-dressed gentleman venturing in the vicinity. 
 
 There have been at least two other homicides, how 
 ever, in which the college has been implicated, and these 
 may appropriately be described at this place. The 
 latest was in 1860, on the morning of Saturday, Nov. 3, 
 at about half-past 2 o clock, when George S. Stafford, a 
 young man about twenty-one years of age, son of the 
 printer, and of general good character, becoming en 
 gaged in a drunken quarrel on Court street, was fatally 
 stabbed in the abdomen, and died at 7 o clock on Sun 
 day, lie was one of a party of half a dozen townies 
 who had been drinking with one another, and with a 
 party of three professional-school students, at a saloon 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 5 J 3 
 
 under the Temple, from midnight or before until after 
 two in the morning. The two parties, besides exchang 
 ing drinks, had engaged in scuffling, knocking off hats, 
 etc., pleasantly enough, until, when the students turned 
 to leave, one of them said something which, whether so 
 intended or not, was construed as an insult by Stafford, 
 who with another towny followed them out and de 
 manded an explanation or " satisfaction." In the course 
 of the quarrel, he severely punished a law student 
 named McCulloch, and in return was struck on the head 
 by a slung-shot, afterwards picked up and proved to 
 belong to the latter. Rendered temporarily crazy by 
 the effects of the blow, or the liquor, or the excitement, 
 he broke away from his comrades who had dragged him 
 off, and again rushed for the students. McCulloch call 
 ing for help, it is supposed that a medical student 
 named Belden then used the knife, with the result stated, 
 at all events, the bloody weapon picked up near by, by 
 the police, was afterwards identified as belonging to him. 
 The three students were arrested and locked up, and 
 at the conclusion of the examination before the magis 
 trate, Nov. 10, were held for trial before the superior 
 court, on the third Tuesday in December, William H. 
 McCulloch being released on $3000 bail, Neilson A. 
 Baldwin on $2000 bail, and R. K. Belden being 
 remanded to jail without bail. At the time appointed 
 they were brought before the court, and no charges 
 being found against the first two, they were discharged, 
 while the third was released on $2500 bail, which 
 amount he forfeited, by failing to appear when called for. 
 His name was never printed in the college catalogue, 
 and Baldwin, who took his M. D. degree in 61, was the 
 only one of the three who graduated. He had previ 
 ously taken his A. B. degree at Lafayette College, and 
 on the night of the affray he helped attend to the injuries 
 of the wounded man. 
 
 23 * 
 
5 T 4 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 The other affair, which resulted in the death of a col 
 lege officer, preceded this by some seventeen years. 
 Just after the opening of the fall term of 1843, on tne 
 evening of Saturday, Sept. 30, at about half-past 9 
 o clock, two of the college tutors one of whom was 
 John B. Dwight of 40 came down from the room of 
 one of them, in North Middle, north entry, second 
 floor, front, to prevent disturbances between Sopho 
 mores and Freshmen. As they went out the rear door 
 of the north entry, they observed a crowd of a dozen or 
 fifteen Sophomores ( 46) coming from the direction of the 
 Library toward Trumbull Gallery (the present Treasury), 
 and after pausing a moment they heard the crashing of 
 broken glass in the lower windows of North Middle, 
 and at once gave chase after the supposed smashers. 
 Just back of the open space between North Middle and 
 the Lyceum, Tutor Dwight caught sight of a Soph named 
 Robert Fassitt, and according to the latter s story sprang 
 upon him and fell with him to the ground. Fassitt, after 
 warning the tutor off, drew a dirk knife and struck out 
 above him, inflicting three stabs, the worst of which was 
 in the thigh ; but although the wounds bled profusely 
 they were not considered dangerous, and the injured 
 tutor was getting along very well until he was seized 
 with a fever in the middle of the following week. Oct. 
 20, three weeks from the night of the assault, he died. 
 Up to that time the matter had been kept secret, so that 
 Fassitt might not take alarm, though he had meantime 
 been expelled and had left town. He was arrested at 
 his home in Philadelphia, Oct. 21, and put under bonds 
 to await the requisition of the governor of Connecticut, 
 but instead of waiting therefor, he came at once to New 
 Haven, and surrendered himself to the authorities, Oct. 
 23. At his preliminary examination, the foregoing facts 
 were elicited, and he was bound over, under $5000 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 5 * 5 
 
 bonds, to the January, 1844, term of the superior court, 
 to answer to the charge of assault with intent to kill. 
 At the meeting of the court, his case was postponed for 
 a year, by request of his counsel, and again to the Octo 
 ber, 1845, session, at which time his bonds were called 
 for and forfeited. Had he stood for trial, it is doubtful 
 if he could have been convicted of the charge made 
 against him ; as it would have been an open question 
 whether the fever of which his victim finally died, was 
 a necessary result of the stabs inflicted by himself. On 
 the other hand, Fassitt asserted that he drew his knife 
 merely by way of threat, and that it was in consequence 
 of his falling upon it, and not of thrusts made by him 
 self, that the tutor was injured. College tradition also 
 has it that Tutor E. W. Gilman of 43, was once severely 
 injured in attempting to interfere with some Juniors, 
 who were ringing the college bell, from a station outside 
 the college yard ; also that another tutor was knocked 
 senseless with an iron-bar, while attempting to interfere 
 with a freshman Pow-wow, on the State House steps ; 
 also that another tutor was killed at a Burial of Euclid 
 celebration on Prospect street, and that the name 
 Tutor s Lane was derived from the circumstance : but 
 all these stories are to a great extent mythical, and the 
 four authenticated cases of homicide must be allowed 
 for the present to stand by themselves as forming com 
 plete criminal record of the college. 
 
 There is a sort of traditional hostility between the 
 students and the " peelers" as the city police are 
 always called. Many of the latter, in making arrests, 
 act with needless insolence and brutality, often at the 
 time of a rush seizing upon innocent by-standers with 
 out attempting to take the chief participants in the dis 
 turbance. Then, too, arrests are often made from mere 
 caprice, as it seems, some old municipal regulation 
 
5*6 POUR YEARS AT YAL. 
 
 i 
 
 which had long been a dead letter, and of which a col 
 lege generation has grown up in ignorance, being sud 
 denly enforced to its fullest extent. Thus, ball may be 
 tossed on the city green for months together, without 
 any interruption, when suddenly a party of players are 
 pounced upon by the peelers, and heavily fined for their 
 crime, in the police court. And it often happens that 
 the quietest, most law-abiding members of the college 
 community are the ones dragged before that august tri 
 bunal. On the other hand, many of the students make 
 it a point to wantonly insult and exasperate the peelers 
 on every occasion when it can be done with safety. 
 The college yard is their castle, for no peeler can law 
 fully enter therein. Hence it is a favorite device, from 
 within this stronghold, to throw snow-balls at the guar 
 dians of the public welfare who may be passing in the 
 street ; to exhort them to improve their marching drill 
 by cries of " Left ! left ! Left ! right ! left ! " to compli 
 ment their personal appearance, criticize the different 
 points of their ".make-up," and so on. A peeler who 
 is individually unpopular, for prominence in making an 
 unfair arrest or otherwise, naturally comes in for special 
 attentions while in the vicinity of the colleges. Of 
 course many of the peelers are " good fellows," and 
 friendly to the students, and the majority of the latter 
 never unfairly revenge themselves even upon the most 
 insolent members of the force ; yet, as in all such cases, 
 the evil-doers on both sides are the ones who come into 
 prominence, and are taken as the real representative 
 men. The peelers are hardly more popular with the 
 lownies than with the collegians, however, and their 
 common enmity might perhaps form a bond of union 
 between these once hostile parties, should any great con 
 flict of authority ever arise. An example of this ten 
 dency was given at the time of a rush which the 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 5 1 7 
 
 peelers were trying to break up, by an unknown towny s 
 putting into the hand of a 69 man a long sheath-knife, 
 worth $4 or $5, with the request that he use it against 
 the peelers. The towny at once disappeared, and 
 never afterwards attempted to regain his dagger. 
 
 On the last day of October, 1870, as a dozen or 
 twenty Sophomores were playing foot-ball on the west 
 side of the city green, a peeler in uniform, who advanced 
 directly from the station, and two in citizens clothes, 
 who came up on the College-street side, attempted to 
 arrest them, but the players detected the trick in time 
 to withdraw in safety to the college yard. One of their 
 coats, however, which was left upon the fence, was 
 seized upon by a peeler, and when the crowd yelled, 
 hooted, and blew their horns at him, in consequence, he 
 so far forgot himself as to chase them into the college 
 yard a region always before held sacred against a peel 
 er s approach and actually to throw his club at a stu 
 dent, who unfortunately neglected to pick it up as a 
 trophy. When the peeler withdrew, taking the coat 
 which he had no possible right to, the crowd, which had 
 swelled to 100 or more, followed, demanding it back ; 
 and on the way to the station house, more peelers hav 
 ing come to the rescue of the coat-stealer, one or two 
 arrests were made. While the crowd were standing in 
 front of the station-house door, talking about raising 
 bail for those who had been taken inside, a number of 
 peelers appeared and ordered them to disperse ; and as 
 those in the front rank were giving way, slowly of course, 
 because of pressure in the rear, Policeman No. 14, 
 Kelly by name, who had previously earned a bad noto 
 riety about the college and city for his reckless brutality 
 in making arrests, and so on, wantonly knocked down 
 with his club a peacefully-disposed Sophomore, whose 
 head was turned away from him and who was endeavor- 
 
518 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 ing to withdraw, cutting a gash in and nearly fracturing 
 his skull. It was at first thought that the victim was 
 permanently injured, but, after a term s absence, he 
 finally recovered and returned to his college duties. 
 The five who were arrested were fined $12.50 each, 
 though there was no evidence to identify them as the 
 original ball-players, and the fine was paid by the four 
 who were Sophomores, while the fifth, a Senior, who 
 refused to submit to the extortion, was released without 
 payment. Next day, Nov. i, the college held a grand 
 indignation meeting, and appointed a committee of one 
 from each class to collect money and secure good legal 
 talent and prosecute "No. 14" for his evil deeds. On 
 the same evening a complaint was handed in against 
 him, and he was tried before the board of police com 
 missioners, consisting of four members besides the 
 mayor. Though the evidence, including that of three 
 citizens and one of the peelers, was overwhelmingly 
 against Kelly, two of the commissioners voted for his 
 acquittal and two for his conviction, and as the mayor 
 out of political considerations refused to vote at all, the 
 complaint fell through. Kelly, however, was shortly 
 afterwards removed from the force, which he had clone 
 so much to render unpopular among the college men, 
 and active legal proceedings for damages were com 
 menced against him by the college committee. The 
 proceedings were delayed, however, for various reasons, 
 from one court term to another, until, in May, 1871, 
 Kelly compromised matters by voluntarily sending in 
 $50 to his victim, accompanied by a very humble apology 
 for his brutality. And so the matter ended. As first 
 represented in the public prints, this unprovoked and 
 unjustifiable knock-down, was nothing else than a " riot 
 of Yale students against the city police." 
 
 The amount of money which the students spend in 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 5 1 9 
 
 the city is of course quite large, though it cannot be 
 estimated with any degree of exactness. That the 
 college, with all its connections, brings to New Haven 
 at least a half-million dollars a year, is, however, a gen 
 eralization which few would care to dispute ; and " the 
 college trade " is therefore a thing which few city shop 
 keepers can afford to despise. Most of them are ready 
 to give several months credit to the students, many of 
 whom are in a state of chronic indebtedness, although 
 by a special law all persons are forbidden to trust a 
 minor connected with college, except at their own risk, 
 no bills against collegians who are under age being 
 collectable through the courts. This rule is rarely or 
 never taken advantage of, however, and it is quite excep 
 tional for a student in any other way to shirk paying 
 his debts. A great many of them leave unpaid bills 
 behind them when they graduate, yet most of these are 
 ultimately liquidated, so that, spite of the occasional 
 scamps and sharpers which infest the college community 
 as they do every other, most New Haven tradesmen 
 will admit that in the long run they find their student 
 patrons quite up to the average of honor and morality 
 in financial matters which they expect of their ordinary 
 customers, and that their " bad debts " against them are 
 few. Some reported cases of student dishonesty have 
 of course abundant foundation in fact, but others, when 
 sifted to the bottom, will be found to be little more cen 
 surable than was the " repudiation " of the old Lit. 
 "debt." 
 
 In November, 1824, the faculty decreed as follows in 
 regard to uniform dress among the students : " The 
 coat to be a plain frock-coat, with a standing cape. 
 The classes to be distinguished by marks of braid on 
 the cape of the coat ; the Freshmen wearing one, the 
 Sophomores two, Juniors three, and Seniors four. The 
 
520 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 color of the broadcloth or cassimere coat and pantaloons 
 to be blue ; the vest either black or blue. The thin 
 coat for summer to be a black frock-coat ; the vest and 
 pantaloons either black or white. The cravats to be 
 black or white. New garments made after the present 
 date to conform to the above description. The penalty 
 for appearing in a different dress in New Haven, a fine 
 of fifty cents for each offense, admonition or suspen 
 sion." Within half a dozen years thereafter, however, 
 these rules were all done away with as impracticable, 
 and since then no laws of the sort have ever been in 
 vogue. There is very great freedom in the matter of 
 dress, and no one is looked down upon on account of 
 being poorly clothed. The same individual may be met 
 upon the street in different parts of the day completely 
 transformed in garb, at one time rigged out in the 
 most fashionable habiliments, and at another as when 
 on his way to and from a rowing, sailing, or walking 
 excursion in the roughest possible garments. Members 
 of the University crew wear their blue blouses almost 
 everywhere during the summer months, and in 69 it 
 was thought to be a great invasion of personal liberty 
 when the wearing of the uniform was forbidden in 
 chapel or recitation. At all the public exhibitions of 
 college the speakers, performers- and actors invariably 
 wear dress-suits of black, and at Commencement the 
 president assumes a flowing robe of black silk and vel 
 vet. Unless to these the freshman Annual hats be 
 added, there is nothing else established by custom 
 which at all suggests a peculiar academic garb. It may 
 be remarked that many of the swallow-tailed coats 
 used at college exhibitions are borrowed from class 
 mates or hired of costumers. At the sophomore decla 
 mation, and at the freshman and sophomore prize de 
 bates, the speakers wear their ordinary dress. 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 5 2 l 
 
 Prejudices as to birth, or State, or politics, are quite 
 unknown to the college. It is a useless recommendation 
 to say of a man that he comes of a good family, or 
 belongs to a particular city or State : he will be judged 
 by himself alone. If the verdict be against him, the 
 most famous of family connections cannot reverse it ; if 
 it be in his favor, the most humble and obscure extrac 
 tion cannot affect it in the least. These, in fact, are 
 matters concerning which no one ever thinks or en 
 quires, or cares to know. The same is true as regards 
 the matter of locality. In the old times, the Southern 
 students formed a sort of class by themselves, but in 
 these days there are no traces left of any such clannish 
 spirit, and there is no particular State or city which is 
 looked upon as a more honorable or distinguished resi 
 dence than any other State or city. As to politics, the 
 majority of the students are inclined to favor the 
 Republican party, and once during each of the last two 
 Presidential campaigns a good share of them joined to 
 swell the size of its procession. For the two campaigns 
 preceding the last, Republican and Democratic clubs 
 were organized and held regular meetings, and fulfilled 
 the usual duties of such clubs. Now-a-days, there is 
 very little excitement over political matters, and they 
 seldom form a topic of conversation. When talked 
 about at all it is usually in a bantering way, half in joke 
 and half in earnest. There is hardly more interest in a 
 man s politics than in his family or his residence, and 
 like them, they never affect his social position in any 
 way. A loud-mouthed defender of this or that political 
 party, or of any kind of " ism " is looked upon by the 
 rest as a sort of curiosity whom it is " good fun to 
 draw out " by the utterance of sentiments directly op 
 posed to his own. The number of political partisans is 
 perhaps smaller than the number of those who refuse to 
 
522 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 admit even a general allegiance to either party. As the 
 Connecticut State elections are usually very closely 
 contested, the question of allowing the students the right 
 of suffrage has been thought quite an important one, 
 and has been variously decided by the authorities. 
 Sometimes students have been allowed to vote under the 
 same conditions as everyone else ; sometimes they have 
 been arbitrarily forbidden to. Seemingly, the " select 
 men " or registration officers have absolute control of 
 the matter, and are accountable to nothing but public 
 sentiment in making their decisions. In 69 a test case 
 was carried into the courts by a Sophomore who claimed 
 the right of voting. The merits of the question itself 
 were not touched upon, but the case was overwhelmed 
 in a mass of legal technicalities, and the student failed 
 to get his name upon the voting list. At the State elec 
 tion of 1870, however, some 40 votes were cast by 
 students. 
 
 In New Haven s " best society " the students form a 
 quite important factor. Indeed, it could hardly, in its 
 present form, exist without them, as very few other young 
 men take any part in it. Its character varies greatly in 
 different years and classes. For example, there was but 
 little interest taken in society by 69 men, while the part 
 played therein by 70 was an unusually important one. 
 The young ladies in society, too, are constantly changing, 
 and hardly outlast a college generation, so that their 
 numbers and attractiveness likewise largely tend to 
 make one " season " a greater success than another. 
 The " best society " here is probably equal to the 
 "best" in any other American city, and the readiness 
 with which college men of the right stamp can find 
 access to it is thought, by those who believe in society 
 influence as a means of general culture, to be not the 
 least of the minor advantages of life at Yale. In 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 5 2 3 
 
 another sphere of city society which college men 
 generally look upon as an inferior sphere where the 
 young men of the town take the lead, a few students also 
 take part, but they are those who have little position 
 among their fellows, and are not regarded as " society 
 men " by anyone save themselves. Probably less than 
 half of the men who graduate ever make any acquaint 
 ances whatever in the city, and less than half of that 
 number become "society men" at all. Society is not 
 usually entered much before junior year, but the 
 acquaintanceships there formed often last long after 
 graduation, and an " ex-society man " is always sure of 
 a warm welcome whenever he comes up to the city. At 
 a guess, a half-dozen or more in every class ultimately 
 marry New Haven girls, or girls to whom New Haven 
 society first introduced them, and the number of " col 
 lege widows " is not by any means so large as is some 
 times represented. A " college widow " is the unfor 
 tunate young woman, who, having been the pet of several 
 college generations without making a single permanent 
 capture, at last finds herself deserted of admirers, and 
 with faded charms falls out of sight and memory. Some 
 such there doubtless are, yet of the maiden ladies of un 
 certain age residing in the city, it has yet to be shown 
 that any disproportionate number belonged to that 
 sphere of society in which alone the students figure as 
 the chief and only eligible "society men." 
 
 One of the most approved entrances to city " society" 
 lies, oddly enough, through the doors of the " mission 
 schools." There are several of these in town, under 
 the direction of the churches, the " Bethany " and 
 " Davenport " missions being the ones which attract to 
 their standards the largest number of collegians. On 
 Sunday afternoons, at the mission houses, are assembled 
 the children of poor people who do not attend the 
 
524 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 churches, and there the good young gentlemen of the 
 college and the good young ladies of the city meet to 
 instruct them in religion and morality, or, in other 
 words, to act as teachers in carrying on a Sunday school. 
 Of course the college teachers are not so rude as to 
 allow their gentler assistants to walk home unattended, 
 and so they come to attend them on less solemn occa 
 sions, and so " society " is fairly entered at last. Hence 
 "the missions" draw into their service a good many 
 men who are not specially noted for religious enthusiasm 
 while among their fellows, though perhaps their lack 
 of it on " week days " is made up by extra displays of 
 zeal while on active duty. Most of them doubtless 
 deserve considerable credit for their work, but there 
 would probably be heavy desertions from their ranks, 
 should the pretty girls who now " assist " them be sud 
 denly withdrawn from the service. 
 
 As for voluntary religious observances among the 
 students themselves, each class generally holds a prayer 
 meeting twice every week, at the close of the Sunday 
 morning service, and on Tuesday evening, the exercises 
 lasting about half an hour. A college prayer meeting, 
 in the president s lecture room, is also held for an hour 
 every Friday evening, at which the college pastor pre 
 sides, and the professors sometimes take part. As a 
 rule, the services are rather thinly attended ; though in 
 times of a "revival" large crowds are often present, and 
 the meetings are held more frequently. There is also a 
 " Missionary Society," which holds a meeting on the 
 first Sunday evening of each month, when addresses are 
 often made by distinguished men from abroad. For 
 some time previous to 1862 the monthly meeting came 
 on the first Tuesday evening. The society was founded 
 in 1817, and has quite a large nominal membership, 
 comprising a good part of the steady men of all the 
 
THE S TUDENT LIFE. 5 2 5 
 
 classes. A trifling initiation fee is usually exacted "for 
 the good of the cause." The officers are elected about 
 the middle of the summer term and serve for a year. 
 Formerly the society held No. 49 South Middle as a 
 reading-room, where all the religious newspapers, maga 
 zines and periodicals of every sort, and of every denom 
 ination, were accessible throughout the week. Since 
 the establishment of the college reading-room, this 
 literature is spread upon the tables thereof every Satur 
 day evening, and removed on Monday morning, and in 
 the interval is the only literary pabulum supplied to the 
 college public. During the week, of course, it can be 
 procured whenever called for. A published list of six 
 men chosen June 4, 1861, as officers of the "Society of 
 Inquiry " is the only trace left of the Yale chapter of 
 that wide-spread organization. A " Moral Society," of 
 about the same purposeless character, once existed also ; 
 and there was a " Benevolent Society " which dissolved 
 in 1824, giving to the college its library and $5000 in 
 cash. This gift resulted in the establishment of the 
 Benevolent Library, from which, to the present day, all the 
 poorer students draw their college text-books. Since 
 the graduation of 69 there has also been established a 
 " Berkeley Association," of Episcopal students, which at 
 present comprises 30 members, holds weekly religious 
 meetings, and carries on an Episcopal mission school. 
 
 Of course Yale has a " Temperance Society " also, 
 which like its counterparts elsewhere, sustains a rather 
 fitful and erratic existence. In the Lit. for March, 1852, 
 it is spoken of as having been established for some time, 
 and this account is given of its organization : " It is 
 customary for the friends of temperance in each class 
 as it enters college to form for themselves an independ 
 ent society, having a constitution and officers of its own. 
 The four class societies thus formed constitute the col- 
 
526 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 lege society proper, which has another but not dissimi 
 lar constitution, and whose five offices of president, 
 vice president, corresponding secretary, recording sec 
 retary, and treasurer are rilled respectively by the pres 
 ident of the college and of each class society in its 
 order. This body holds one meeting a year, at some 
 convenient time during the second term, when a lecturer 
 is procured from abroad." Eight years later, a college 
 writer bases a few general remarks on " the recent 
 establishment of a temperance society among us," as if 
 the existence of the said society vvas quite a new thing 
 under the sun. In 1863, tne society was again revived 
 among the Freshmen of 67, about half of whom 
 pledged themselves to use no intoxicating drinks dur 
 ing their college course, in witness whereof their names 
 were printed in the Banner. Two years later, when 69 
 entered college, " the cause " was again forced upon the 
 attention of undergraduates, by inviting them all to a 
 meeting in one of the society halls, where addresses 
 were made by members of the faculty, and representa 
 tives of the several classes, and a pledge, similar to that 
 of 67, save that its conditions lasted but a single year, 
 was offered for the signatures of all. Four officers were 
 chosen, one from each class, but the freshman office 
 was afterwards abolished. The other three officials 
 have since been elected, during each summer term, and 
 their names have duly figured in the college prints, but 
 the remaining members of the society if there are any 
 are unknown. About once in twelve months a tem 
 perance reformer delivers an address to the students, 
 " under the auspices of the society," and doubtless a 
 few Freshmen are quietly " pledged " each year. Com 
 paratively few of the moderate men ever take the 
 pledge, and the recruits gained by the society in its 
 periods of spasmodic activity are derived chiefly from 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 5 2 7 
 
 two classes : the " moral men," who would never drink 
 in any case, but who sign their names for the sake of 
 " influence " and " example " ; and the " bummers " 
 who, under that influence and example, take the pledge 
 and break it. 
 
 Public sentiment in college inclines favorably towards 
 moderate drinking, and does not disapprove of otie s 
 " getting comfortably tight," occasionally. To chaff a 
 man for participating in some well-known drinking bout 
 is accounted rather complimentary than otherwise, and 
 the laughable antics of one who was then over excited 
 by liquor are often related in his presence, and accepted 
 in the light of a joke. Drunkenness, however, is 
 frowned down upon, and cases of it are not common. 
 It is seldom that a Yale man, while "on a bum," so far 
 loses his wits as to be unable to reach his room unas 
 sisted j and instances of arrest by the police of drunken 
 students are almost unheard of. A hard drinker or 
 habitual drunkard would not be tolerated by his class 
 mates, even were it possible to keep his habits from the 
 notice of the faculty. Quite a large portion of college 
 are total abstinence men, a very great majority never 
 drink to excess, and the number even of moderate 
 " bummers " who perhaps " get tight " once or twice a 
 year, at the time of a society supper or some special 
 celebration is comparatively small. It should be said 
 that the drinking exploits in New Haven of visitors 
 from outside colleges, where the standard of morality is 
 supposed to be higher than at Yale, often exceed any 
 thing which the hardiest Yale " bummer " is accus 
 tomed to. 
 
 Licentiousness must of course prevail to some extent 
 among so large a body of men yet it is not regarded 
 as leniently as over indulgence in drink is by them. A 
 man s doings in this direction are not, in his presence, 
 
528 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 talked about as a pleasant jest, even by his friends. 
 Faults of the kind are of course forgiven and overlooked 
 often enough, but they are always regarded as faults 
 and as disreputable ones, and, when known, they rather 
 tend to lower the subject of them in popular esteem. 
 Once in a while a man perhaps, on an average, one 
 man in a class is said to keep a mistress of his own ; 
 and once in a while perhaps a little less often a man s 
 hurried withdrawal from college gives notice of an un 
 fortunate intrigue with some damsel of the city; but 
 were cases of the sort, among the same class of men, 
 no more common elsewhere, the world might be purer 
 than it now is. Swearing is to a certain extent a very 
 prevalent habit ; but other forms of vulgarity and foul 
 ness in speech are less approved of, though gatherings 
 where "Venus rules o er all that s said," as well as 
 "Bacchus o er all that s done," are not altogether un 
 known. It is the Freshmen who go to the greatest 
 excess in all sorts of indulgences ; and the representa 
 tives of college to be found at the concert rooms and 
 dance halls are almost wholly drawn from among their 
 number. 
 
 Smoking is of course very common, two thirds of 
 the 69 graduates being smokers, and the proportion 
 probably being very nearly an average one. On the 
 same basis, one-third of the smokers also chew tobacco, 
 and one-half of all college play billiards. " Eli s," close 
 beside the post-office, has long been the favorite billiard 
 room, and "Rood s," on Union street, is equally popu 
 lar as a drinking resort for the more fiery beverages, 
 while " Trager s " and " Moricirty s " are the chief head 
 quarters of undergraduate beer-guzzlers. Card playing 
 is almost universal, whist and euchre being the games 
 chiefly affected. In 69, out of 117 men only a baker s 
 dozen refused to be classed as card-players. The gam- 
 
THE S TUDENT LIFE. 529 
 
 bling dens of the city are not often visited except in 
 curiosity, and " the tiger is fought " for very small stakes, 
 if at all. A member of 70, however, " ran a faro bank," 
 in a modest way, in his college room, for a while. The 
 game of chess usually has quite a number of votaries, 
 and class or college chess-clubs have occasionally fig 
 ured in the Banner for fifteen years or more. In 1861 
 it was spoken of as customary for the college club to 
 hold an annual "chess tournament," wherein the "cham 
 pionship " was decided as follows : The Seniors played 
 against the Juniors and the Sophomores against the 
 Freshmen, and the winners of these preliminary games 
 then engaged in the third and decisive trial. The class 
 of 6 1 were the champions for three successive years. 
 Three matches have been played against Harvard, 
 at the time of the regattas of 59, 60 and 66, and 
 the two latter were won by Yale, though in each case 
 the game was unfinished. Harvard also won a billiard 
 match in 1859 ; and endeavored without avail at that 
 time to extemporize with Yale a champion trial in the 
 manly game of " checkers " ! A year later, the Yale 
 Freshmen accepted a challenge for a billiard match 
 from those of Harvard, but if the game was ever played 
 it was doubtless a victory for the latter, as no account 
 of it has been preserved. During the earlier months 
 of 1869, college, like the rest of the country, went wild 
 on the subjects of velocipedes, and student riders of 
 the bicycle were constantly rolling along the sidewalks 
 in every part of the city. The "rage " was nearly over 
 when a municipal ordinance banished the machines 
 from the streets, but for some time thereafter the college 
 yard supplied a course upon which many dauntless 
 velocipedists could disport themselves. It was notable 
 that at one of the rinks in the city was exhibited an old 
 bicycle upon which a Yale man used to roll about town, 
 
 24 
 
53 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 half a century before. Another ancient college curios 
 ity, whose history is unknown, was brought to light in 
 1860. This was nothing less than a bottle, full of cider, 
 with "Yale Class of 1802 " blown into the glass, which 
 was dug up from the ruins of an old house demolished 
 at that time. The special significance of this " class 
 bottle " can only be guessed at. 
 
 "Yachting" would perhaps be too pretentious a term 
 to apply, to the common sailing experiences of the stu 
 dents, though once in a while a college man owns a 
 yacht of his own, worth from $500 to $800, and becomes 
 quite an expert sailor. Sometimes a club, of a dozen 
 or less, purchase a yacht ; though more often a similar 
 crowd hire a boat for the season, paying a certain 
 price for the privilege of having a certain craft at their 
 disposal every Wednesday and Saturday afternoon dur 
 ing the summer term. A skipper who agrees to be 
 always in readiness to sail the boat, and a purser who 
 collects and pays out the money, are the only officers 
 chosen. " Down to the Light and back" is the favorite 
 trip of an afternoon. If supper is indulged in there, 
 perhaps the return is made in the evening s moonlight. 
 On special occasions, longer excursions are sometimes 
 made, as to Double Beach, Branford Point, or Thimble 
 Islands, at which times provisions and extra clothing 
 are carried along, and the night is spent either on ship 
 board or at the neighboring hotels. To run entirely 
 across the Sound and make Long Island proper, is an 
 exploit that is not often ventured upon. It is quite a 
 common thing for a party to get " caught out," either by 
 a calm or a storm, and be obliged to stay upon the water 
 much longer than they intended. Many a Saturday 
 night is spent in this way, and often do the tired mari 
 ners " make up" next day in chapel the sleep thus 
 denied them. Frequently the greater part of a crew, 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 5 3 1 
 
 who are delayed by stress of weather, will walk in from 
 the Light, or take the cars from Branford or Stony 
 Creek, and leave the skipper, with a trusty lieutenant or 
 two, to sail their craft up to the city, next day. 
 
 Seniors, in the interval between Presentation and 
 Commencement, often "camp out" for a week or two 
 upon one of the Thimble Islands ; taking along a suffi 
 ciency of eatables and drinkables and a cook to attend 
 to their wants j hiring the necessary furniture and uten 
 sils from some farmer or hotel on the mainland ; and 
 sleeping in tents or rough cabins rented for the purpose. 
 The day is passed in sailing, fishing, swimming, basking 
 on the rocks, smoking, sleeping, eating and drinking ; in 
 living after the manner of the primitive savage, the 
 independent barbarian, with no human being to molest 
 the idler or make him afraid. Once in a while, a flying 
 trip is made to the city, and almost every day fresh 
 newspapers and periodicals are brought off from the 
 mainland, and these with a few stray books not much 
 read are all-sufficient reminders of the great world 
 outside. Such a life of simple laziness is far from being 
 as monotonous as it appears on paper. For those who 
 enjoy it, it furnishes a happy ending off of college days, 
 and is sure to be over all too soon. Instead of " camp 
 ing out," a party of Seniors in the interval before Com 
 mencement may charter a large, sea-going yacht, with an 
 experienced skipper or two to manage it, and sail along 
 the coast up to New London, or Providence, or even 
 Boston, visiting all the notable places on the way. 
 Under-class men less often do the same thing ; and, as 
 already noted, the Glee Club propose this summer to go 
 on an excursion of the sort, giving vocal concerts at the 
 places where they may stop. Most of the college sail 
 ors belong to no club, but make a separate bargain for 
 a boat every time they use one ; and on a pleasant 
 
53 2 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Wednesday or Saturday afternoon in summer a late 
 comer at " the float" stands a small chance of finding a 
 craft unengaged. With so many unskilful hands guid 
 ing their tillers, the boats are of course liable to acci 
 dent ; but there were no cases of drowning while 69 was 
 in college, though there were one or two narrow escapes 
 from it. Row-boats are hired to a considerable extent, 
 and rowing and sailing parties usually take " a swim" 
 before returning to the city, since there is no good bath 
 ing shore within easy walking distance of the colleges. 
 
 Walking is an exercise practised to a considerable 
 extent. East and West Rocks, the Judges Cave, Winter- 
 green Falls, Edgewood, Maltby Park, the Old Fort, Savin 
 Rock, the Light House, Lake SaltonstaH, and even 
 Mount Carmel, ten miles away, attract to themselves a 
 goodly number of pedestrians. Besides these famous 
 places, the long, shaded streets, quiet suburbs, and 
 pleasant walks in and about the city, should not be for 
 gotten, though they cannot each be mentioned here. 
 Walking parties of two, or three, or four, rarely of half 
 a dozen, are to be met with in all directions on pleasant 
 half-holidays. On Sunday afternoon, too, many go out 
 to air themselves, but as a rule they do not venture far 
 beyond the city pavements. The post office is always 
 the objective point for a short walk, and three times 
 a clay after morning recitation, just before dinner, and 
 just after supper crowds of collegians are to be seen 
 sauntering towards or returning from that rendezvous. 
 Foot-racing on the course at Hamilton Park, for a pur^e 
 and the championship, is counted among the recent 
 customs, though perhaps it is only an old one revived. 
 In the latter part of January, 1869, a 4-mile race was 
 run by a Junior and Sophomore, and won by the former 
 in 37111. 545., the ground being icy, and frequent 
 slip-ups of the runners adding to the enjoyment of the 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 533 
 
 numerous spectators. May 25, 1870, a more important 
 race was held, under the auspices of the Navy, for prizes 
 of $15, $10 and $5, an admission fee of 15 cents being 
 charged the large crowd of spectators who attended 
 from city and college. Seven contestants entered 2 
 Seniors, i Junior, 3 Sophomores and i Freshman 
 though only three completed the entire three miles, and 
 these three were members of the University crew. The 
 race was won by a Sophomore in 18:52 ; followed by a 
 Junior in 19:12, and a Freshman in 20:30. Of the other 
 contestants two withdrew at the end of the first mile, 
 and two at the end of 2} 3 and 2 l i miles. 
 
 Skating, at the Park or at Lake Saltonstall, is an 
 amusement taken part in by many, at times when the 
 weather permits. The Park is flooded artificially, and 
 an entrance fee is of course charged thereto. A large 
 red ball, swung out at the junction of the horse rail 
 roads, corner of State and Chapel streets, gives notice 
 when the ponds are in readiness. In skating times the 
 Lake is rendered accessible by special trains, which are 
 run thither on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, and 
 evenings also when it is moonlight. Both skating resorts 
 are of course frequented by the townspeople also, 
 including many ladies, escorted by students or others, 
 but of late years the popularity of this pastime seems to 
 be on the decline. Few college men are wealthy enough 
 to keep horses of their own, and they indulge in very lit 
 tle of what may be called pleasure driving. When they 
 " hire a team," it is usually to show up the city to friends 
 who may be visiting them, or to make a display at a 
 base-ball match, or regatta, or skating carnival, or pub 
 lic celebration of some sort. Even then, they are com 
 monly accompanied by ladies ; so that the sight of a 
 party of collegians driving about town by themselves 
 " just for the fun of it" may on any occasion be called an 
 
534 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 unusual one. Horse-back riding is naturally still rarer 
 than pleasure driving, though there are some good riders 
 in almost every class. During the fall term of 1870, the 
 English game of "hare and hounds" was several times 
 indulged in by the Juniors, and quoit pitching by the 
 Seniors was largely engaged in. Perhaps to the list of 
 student amusements should be added the games of top- 
 spinning, leap-frog, hop-scotch, penny-pitching, and others 
 of the sort, the more childish the better, which the Sen 
 iors for the mere absurdity of the thing have a way 
 of affecting, for a week or so at a time, during the term 
 or two which precedes their graduation. 
 
 As a rule, each class loses by death an average of one 
 man for each year of its course. When a college man 
 whose home is elsewhere dies in New Haven, funeral 
 services are held in the Chapel, and his body is escorted 
 to its last resting place by a committee of the class or 
 society to which he belonged, the entire class following 
 it in procession as far as the railway station. The 
 majority of them also attend the funeral itself, when it 
 takes place at a point not too distant from the city. A 
 badge of mourning is worn for a period of thirty clays, 
 and a series of " resolutions," testifying to the good 
 qualities of the deceased, are uniformly adopted and 
 published. If a junior society loses a member, it adopts 
 a special set of " resolutions" which are forwarded to all 
 the other chapters of the fraternity, but are not usually 
 made public outside it. In the old times, instead of the 
 " resolutions," a number of "lines" used to be printed 
 in the Lit. or elsewhere, by way of obituary. Then, 
 also, before the clays of railroads, the bodies of those 
 belonging far away had to be buried in the New Haven 
 cemetery. The " college lot" is quite near the entrance 
 of the same, and many tutors as well as undergaduates 
 of all classes have been laid there side by side. Their 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 535 
 
 grave stones and monuments were usually erected at 
 the expense of the college or the class. 
 
 What may be called the post-graduate life of a class 
 was a thing unknown until within the last half century. 
 Informal reunions of such classmates as happened to 
 meet in town on Commencement days were doubtless 
 as old as the college itself, but the class of 21 
 was probably the first to hold a regular class meeting, 
 on which the attendance of every classmate was sought 
 or compelled by organized effort. It took place in 1824, 
 and it is probable that every class since that first one 
 has held a triennial meeting, though eleven classes 
 between 2 1 and 40 have left no record to show that 
 such was the case. Since 40, every class is known to 
 have held a triennial save 58, whose first meeting was, 
 on account of the war, postponed until 1865. The sec 
 ond regular meeting of the class is usually held 6 years 
 after graduation ; the third, in 10 years ; the fourth in 
 15 years; and so on for every 5 years thereafter, until 
 none of the class are left to meet. The quarter-century 
 gathering is usually made more of than any other reun 
 ion after decennial, which comes next in importance to 
 the first triennial, though perhaps as a rule the even- 
 year are more fully attended than the odd-year anniver 
 saries. The conferring of the second degree (A.M.) in 
 course, three years from graduation day, probable sug 
 gested the idea of holding the first reunion at that time. 
 After the custom was once inaugurated by 21, some of 
 the older classes began to make an organized effort to 
 re-assemble their members. The class of 14 first met 
 in 1839 ; of 10, in 1840 ; of 17, in 1842 ; of 13, in 
 1843 ; of 97, in 1847; of 16, in 1850; and of /9, in 
 1859. Several of these classes have held subsequent 
 meetings, and perhaps other predecessors of 21 should 
 be added to the list, but the data for certifying facts of 
 this sort are obtained with difficulty. 
 
536 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 One of the last acts of a class, before Presentation 
 Day breaks it up, is the election of a committee to have 
 charge of the first reunion. One of these is chosen 
 "class secretary," and on him the greater part of the 
 burden falls. His duty is to issue a circular, inviting to 
 the triennial meeting all who were ever connected with 
 the class, and to so " keep track " of every man of them 
 as to be able to compile a complete history of all their 
 three years doings, and present it in the form of a 
 "class record." " What is a class record ? Those of 
 the classes of 58 and 62 which are the most complete 
 of any yet [1866] published, contain an account of the 
 triennial meeting, giving the names of those present, 
 and the songs and speeches, followed by a biographical 
 record of the graduate and then of the non-graduate 
 members, and finally several pages of statistics of 
 graduates and non-graduates respectively, showing 
 when and where they were born, when they entered 
 and left the class, their professions and occupations, 
 what degrees they have received, when, where and to 
 whom they were married, the names and birthdays of 
 children, the deaths of classmates, of their wives 
 and children, and, lastly, the present address of each 
 class member. This makes a pamphlet of from 70 to 
 125 pages, is paid for by a tax on the class, and is sent 
 to every one ever connected with it. Classes formerly 
 tried to confine their record and interest to their 
 graduates simply, but it was found difficult, unpleasant 
 and altogether inexpedient, and classes have come 
 gradually to welcome all to their meeting and supper 
 and record. 
 
 " in 1839, the class of 36 at their annual meeting 
 inaugurated the happy custom of publishing a triennial 
 class record, containing an account of the meeting, 
 together with a brief biographical sketch of the life of 
 
TtiE STUDENT LlfrE. 537 
 
 each member of the class after graduation. Their 
 example was not followed, except by 37 and 44, until 
 47 met in 1850, since which time no class has failed to 
 publish a triennial record except 58, which published 
 its first one in 1865. After the publication of the first 
 class record, by 36, in 1839, older classes hastened to 
 follow their example, and we find records of the class of 
 97, published in 1848 ; of 02, in 1863 ; of 10, in 1840 ; 
 of 13, in 1843; of 14, in 1839 and 1854, both in cir 
 cular form, containing little more than addresses ; of 
 16, in 1850 and 1867; of 17, in 1842, 1853 and 1858; 
 of 19, in 1861 ; of 21, in 1831 and 1836, in circular 
 form, and in 1841 and 1846, in book form; of 22, in 
 1840, in circular form, and in 1845, 1855, 1860 and 
 1869, in book form ; of 24, in 1844, 1855 and 1864 ; of 
 25, in 1864 and 1865, in circular form ; of 26, in 1866; 
 of 28, circular, in 1868; and of 33, in 1843 and 1854." 
 The classes after 36, have also published records as 
 follows : 37, in 1840, 1847, 1850, 1858 and 1868; 39, 
 in 1865 ; 40, in 1850 and 1860; 41, in 1851, 1862 and 
 1867; 42, in 1857; 43, in 1859; 44, in 1847, 1854 
 and 1864 ; 45, in 1851 and 1866 ; 47, in 1850 ; 48, in 
 1852 and 1869 ; 49, in 1852, 1859 and 1865 ; 50, in 
 1853, 1861 and 1865 ; 51, in 1854; 52, in 1855, ^62 
 and 1868; 53, in 1857, 1860 and 1864; 54, in 1858; 
 55, in 1859 and 1866; 56, in 1859 and 1867; 57, 
 in 1861, 1863 and 1870 ; 58, in 1865 and 1869 ; 59, in 
 1863 and 1870; 60, in 1863 and 1870; 61, in 1864 
 and 1867 ; 62, in 1865 ; 63, in 1869 ; 64, in 1868 ; 65, 
 in 1870; 66, in 1869; and 67, in 1870. The third 
 record of 33, which appeared in 1870, comprised 144 
 pages, and about a dozen steel-plate portraits and en 
 gravings, and was perhaps the most elaborate affair of 
 the sort issued to date. Many of the recent records are 
 bound in flexible cloth covers, instead of paper, as for- 
 
 24* 
 
53 8 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 merly. There are probably some errors and omissions 
 in the above lists, though it is believed that they are in 
 the main correct and complete. 
 
 The night before Commencement is the time when 
 nearly all the class meetings are held. Sometime 
 during the day a business meeting is called, in one of 
 the recitation or lecture rooms, when the class committee 
 report the arrangements which have been made by them, 
 and a tax is levied to pay for the supper, cup, record, 
 and other expenses of the class. Legs are crossed 
 under the supper table in some hotel dining-room at 
 about nine in the evening, and the scene of festivities is 
 not abandoned until daybreak, when the class march, 
 two by two, to the Library building, and assemble around 
 their Ivy, to which they bade adieu three, six, ten, fif 
 teen years before. Here a song is sung, a leaf or two 
 picked from the sacred vine by each one as a memento, 
 and after a hearty cheer for the dear old class and col 
 lege, a ring is formed, hands are shaken all round, and 
 the gathering disbands. But how has the night been 
 passed ? With song, and speech and loud hurrah, the 
 old life s been lived o er again. " About fourteen regu 
 lar toasts to Alma Mater, the Class, the Deceased 
 Members, the Absent, the Wives, the Children, the 
 Bachelors, the Clergy, the Lawyers, the Physicians, the 
 Teachers, the Business Men, the Press, and the Non- 
 Graduates give those who can t keep still a chance to 
 instruct or amuse the class, while the cracking of nuts 
 and jokes, the popping of corks, the blowing of clouds, 
 and the going over of old times, consume the hours so 
 rapidly that it is never a question of what to do, but of 
 finding time to finish before sunrise." Two or three 
 classes are oftentimes holding their reunions simulta 
 neously in different rooms of a single hotel. The older 
 ones, who are celebrating their twenty-fifth or thirtieth 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 539 
 
 anniversary, are of course not so uproarious in their 
 hilarity as the " three-years men," who are next day to 
 become " Masters of Arts," but mirth and conviviality 
 and good fellowship prevail even among the oldest and 
 most dignified, and sleep cannot well be courted in very 
 close proximity to their banquet hall. Occasionally an 
 old graduate belonging in the city entertains his class 
 at his own residence, when the year of meeting comes 
 round, and the wives and children of the class are also 
 invited to the festivities. 
 
 But of course the first or triennial meeting is the most 
 largely and enthusiastically attended of any, and it has 
 hitherto had one peculiar feature of its own, the 
 presentation of the Class Cup. The custom originated, 
 apparently as a sort of impromptu joke, in the class of 
 44: "At our subsequent informal meeting of 1846, the 
 circumstance of a child being born to us so soon after 
 graduation rather touched our. mirthfulness, and it was 
 to give vent to our spirit of fun, as much as for any 
 other reason, that the presentation project was conceived. 
 Probably the fact that the child was about weaning age, 
 suggested the Cup as a proper gift. Accordingly an 
 elegant silver goblet was procured, whereon was en 
 graved a long dedicatory inscription in Latin, and on 
 the forenoon of Commencement Day the class marched 
 to the residence of the boy s father, and their spokesman 
 presented the cup in these words : Fili Amantissime : 
 Pro classe, hoc scyphum tibi dono, ut primogeniture 
 premium. Accipe ! Vive et vale ! bonus sis vir ! 
 patrise ornamentum mundi benefactor ! After the 
 health, happiness, long life and prosperity of the boy 
 had been drank by the company, they bade him farewell 
 with many hearty expressions of interest in his welfare." 
 
 " The class of 49 inaugurated the plan of giving the 
 Cup to the first male child, the custom as first established 
 
540 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 having resulted in the class of 48 in the reception of the 
 cup by a girl, who chanced to be the first child, and who 
 now thus enjoys the distinction of being the only female 
 cup-bearer. The class of 50 went a step further, and 
 required the boy to be present and to receive the cup in 
 person and not by the proxy of his father. The custom 
 thus amended by 49 and 50 was continued to the end, 
 and from 44 to 67 there were only two instances in 
 which the t Cup was not presented at the close of the 
 third year after graduation. All the children of 56 when 
 that class met at triennial were girls, and the class had 
 resolved to present the cup to the oldest girl, but as she 
 was absent, they decided to wait until their decennial 
 meeting, and then present the cup to the oldest boy born 
 to any classmate who should have married since the 
 triennial. No cup was presented at the meeting of 
 1866, however, although up to that time the class had 
 had 43 children to select from. The next exception 
 was in 58, whose triennial meeting was postponed until 
 1865, when the eldest boy, and the second in age, not 
 being present, the cup was presented to the third boy 
 in age, who was present." Hall s "College Words and 
 Customs" (1856), oddly enough, mentions the ceremony 
 as a myth, and says : " It is to be regretted that a cus 
 tom so agreeable in theory could not be reduced to 
 practice ! " It may be remarked that none of the " Class 
 Cup Boys " have as yet graduated from the college. 
 
 Latterly, the Cup presentation was made at the supper 
 table, after the substantiate had been disposed of, and 
 just befo/e the dessert was announced, say, at about 
 10 o clock. At that time "the friends of the class"" 
 both ladies and gentlemen were admitted by ticket to 
 the banquet hall, together with the Cup Boy and his 
 mama. As witty a man as possible was selected to make 
 the presentation speech, and if the humorous allusions 
 
THE STUDENT LIFE. 5 4 1 
 
 were sometimes of a rather questionable delicacy, it 
 should be remembered that women are not always on 
 the watch for double meanings, and that to the pure all 
 things are pure. The " happy father " of course made 
 the response, and after the singing of the Cup Song, 
 written like several others especially for the occasion, 
 the boy withdrew with his costly prize, and the guests 
 soon followed him. Then the class discussed the dessert 
 by themselves and had things their own way until the 
 corning of the morning light. The mother of the Cup 
 Boy, being one of the central figures of the presentation 
 show, had to undergo a rather trying ordeal for a young 
 wife, exposed as she was to the critical gaze of 100 or 
 more men and a larger number of women, but she 
 generally sustained her share of it bravely enough, with 
 out much evidence of embarrassment. The presenta 
 tion of 67, last year, was confessedly about the most 
 successful one ever held ; but it will probably never 
 have a successor, as the father of the first boy of 68 
 has refused to receive any Cup, in the child s behalf, and 
 the example will be followed by 69 ; and with a two 
 years precedent thus established it is safe to predict 
 that the custom will never again be revived. Though 
 it had some pleasant features, and was regarded by New 
 Haven ladies as the most lf interesting " of college 
 exhibitions, it was no great honor to the good taste of 
 the collegians, and few will regret its final disappearance. 
 
PART THIRD. 
 THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 STUDIES. 
 
 The Entrance Examinations White and Blue Papers When to 
 Attend How to be Prepared Quantity and Quality Advanced 
 Students Organization of the Class The Recitation Rooms 
 and Recitations Mode of Instruction Exceptional Pronuncia 
 tion of Greek Society-LettersOptional Work The Term 
 Examinations The Annuals The Studies Pursued by the 
 Class of 69 Freshman Year Sophomore Year Junior Year 
 Senior Year Variations and Changes in the Curriculum 
 The Studies of a Century Ago Old Systems of Examination. 
 
 At nine o clock of a summer s morning, the "candi 
 date for admission to Yale College " presents himself, 
 with fear and trembling, at the door of Alumni Hall. 
 Just within the entrance, he finds a long table behind 
 which two or three officials are seated, and here he 
 hands in his name and " character." The envelope con 
 taining the latter which is simply a recommendation of 
 his general morality, signed by the principal of his pre 
 paratory school, a clergyman, or other responsible per 
 son is laid aside for future examination, and the can 
 didate is forthwith escorted to his seat. This is at a 
 small octagonal table, the counterparts of which, to the 
 number of a hundred or more, are grouped, in rows of 
 four, at convenient intervals throughout the hall. On 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 543 
 
 his table he finds a blank form, which he is requested to 
 at once fill out in pencil, thereby indicating the date of 
 the examination, his own full name and residence, the 
 date and place of his birth, the full name and address 
 of his father or guardian, the place of his preparatory 
 study and the name of his chief instructor there, the 
 class which he proposes to enter, and, if he comes from 
 another college, the name of the class and college left. 
 Having finished with the blank, he gazes at the portraits 
 on the wall, and the strange faces all around him ; thinks 
 what a green-looking set his future classmates appear 
 to be ; wonders " how they are getting along," as the 
 examiners move among them, and when his own turn 
 will come. At length, when he has about made up his 
 mind that he has been overlooked altogether, an 
 examiner approaches, copies his name from the blank 
 into a curious little pocket-book, hands him a text-book, 
 and points to a marked passage within it, or leaves him 
 a mathematical paper ; then departs. In five or ten 
 minutes the time occupied in examining another candi 
 date the examiner returns, and if our friend signifies 
 his readiness he recites, in a low tone of voice, still 
 sitting at his table. A few hieroglyphics are marked in 
 the score-book, and he is again left alone, to reflect that 
 for good or ill at least one step has been taken. After 
 waiting ten minutes or an hour, another examiner ap 
 proaches him, and the same process is gone through 
 with. At one o clock an hour s intermission is an 
 nounced, and the stroke of two finds all the sub-Fresh 
 men at their tables again. So the hours drag along until 
 about five, when the few who have finished their work 
 lean back in their chairs, nervously awaiting the result. 
 Unmoved by the feverish glances leveled at him from 
 many pairs of expectant eyes, the grim chief of the 
 examiners picks up from his table several sheets of cer- 
 
544 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 tificates some white, others blue which he has just 
 filled out, and starts on a tour of the hall. Perhaps he 
 comes to the row of tables before one of which sits 
 our imaginary friend. He glances at his name and 
 compares it with the certificates in his own hand. He 
 looks sharply at the blue papers : thereby causing a 
 shudder to sieze upon our friend, who shuts his eyes in 
 despair. But no ; the grim agent of fate has gone, 
 leaving behind upon the table a white paper, which 
 " may certify that Our Friend has been admitted on 
 probation a member of the freshman class." If the sub- 
 Fresh doesn t turn a somersault and fling his cap to the 
 ceiling with a yell of delight ; if, instead of this, he 
 simply picks up his precious certificate and quietly 
 withdraws from the inquisitorial hall, followed by the 
 longing glances of the poor wretches who are still at 
 work ; if he makes no outward demonstrations of his joy ; 
 it is not because he does not esteem that moment the 
 happiest moment of his life. But the blue paper ? This 
 certifies that a candidate has "passed" on certain 
 branches, and will be admitted on condition of satisfactory 
 " making up " the others at a subsequent examination. 
 Men who receive the blue paper are therefore said to be 
 "conditioned." Those who fall below average on too 
 many studies are rejected altogether. 
 
 For two hours after the earliest certificates are given 
 out, men are all the time finishing their work, receiving 
 their papers and leaving the hall, yet the number of 
 these who get through on the first day is quite small. 
 The great majority are dismissed at half-past six or 
 seven, and requested to re-assemble at eight on the 
 following morning, when most of them complete their 
 work. Some, however, are detained in the hall for the 
 greater part of two entire days. The description just 
 given applies to the examination begun on the Monday 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 545 
 
 morning preceding Commencement and continuing 
 through that and the following day, and also to that 
 held on the Tuesday and Wednesday immediately pre 
 ceding the opening of the year in September. From 
 1868 onwards the July examination has begun on Satur 
 day, on which day few attend save the Grammar School 
 boys and others belonging in the city and all of them 
 therefore have time to finish their work then. At the 
 sessions of Monday and Tuesday, on account of their 
 absence, matters are now doubtless conducted more ex- 
 peditiously than before. From the present year onwards, 
 the three days of examination are to begin with the 
 Saturday after instead of the Saturday before Com 
 mencement. Candidates who delay entering until the 
 last day of either the July or the September examina 
 tions a very small number are " put through" in 
 that one day. The examination itself does not take up 
 more than one third or one fourth the time that the can 
 didate is detained in the hall, and the most tedious part 
 of the ordeal for him is the listlessly sitting still during 
 the uncertain intervals of waiting. This result seems 
 to be unavoidable, however, since, in addition to the 
 faculty, as large a force of examiners as can work to 
 advantage are detailed for the business from other quar 
 ters. Special private examinations in vacation can only 
 be secured after considerable trouble and the payment 
 of a $10 fee to the treasurer. It is good policy for a 
 boy to apply at the first or July examination, since he 
 is then fresh from the preparatory school. If admitted, 
 he can enjoy his whole vacation to the utmost ; if con 
 ditioned, he can set aside a definite part of it in which 
 to do the necessary cramming, and make up his con 
 ditions at the September examination in time to enter 
 the class with the rest. But if he waits until that second 
 examination before trying to enter at all, and is then 
 
546 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 conditioned, he cannot join his class until two or three 
 weeks after the term has begun. In such a case he 
 generally employs a private tutor to direct him in 
 "studying up." About ten per cent, of those who apply 
 for admission are rejected, and more than half of those 
 who are finally admitted are conditioned at the first 
 trial. Most of the conditioned men ultimately make up, 
 though many are conditioned twice and even three times 
 before winning their white papers. Last year the ex 
 periment was tried of allowing the conditioned men to 
 recite with the class in those branches in which they 
 had passed, and to make up their conditions together 
 under the direction of special instructors, employed for 
 the purpose by the faculty. Whenever an instructor 
 thought a man had improved enough to deserve promo 
 tion to the class, he was promoted ; and at the end of 
 six weeks those not thus recommended were dropped 
 altogether. 
 
 Applicants for admission to the freshman class are 
 expected to stand an examination on the following books 
 and subjects: (i) Jugurthine War of Sallust, or four 
 book of Ccesar ; seven orations of Cicero ; Bucolics, 
 Georgics, and first six books of the /Eneid of Virgil ; 
 and the first twelve chapters (to the Passive Voice) of 
 Arnold s Latin Prose Composition. (2) The first three 
 books of Xenophon s Anabasis ; and Jacobs s, Colton s 
 or Felton s Reader. As a substitute for the latter, the last 
 four books of the Anabasis, or four books of Homer s 
 Iliad, may be offered. When 69 entered college, 
 only two books of the latter were required. (3) Higher 
 arithmetic, including the metric system of weights and 
 measures, the latter, a qualification not exacted of 69 ; 
 Loomis s Algebra, to quadratic equations ; and the first 
 two books of Playfair s Euclid. Wnen 69 entered, no 
 substitute would be taken for the latter, but all who had 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 547 
 
 studied other text-books, no matter how good their 
 knowledge of geometry, were conditioned on Euclid. 
 Now, however, the first, third, and fourth books of 
 Davies s Legendre s Elements, or of Loomis s Elements, 
 are accepted as an equivalent for the first two of Play- 
 fair. (4) English Grammar and Geography ; " a 
 thorough knowledge of which will be required." As a 
 matter of fact, under this fourth division, sometimes a 
 few and sometimes no questions at all are asked. Suf 
 ficient knowledge of the English is of course indirectly 
 shown in passing muster on the Latin and Greek gram 
 mars. Proof of acquaintance with the latter, or the 
 want of it, is drawn out by questions connected with the 
 construction of the text which one has translated, not 
 by formal examinations on the grammars themselves, 
 considered as distinct works. Ability to scan Latin and 
 Greek hexameters, and to explain their metrical con 
 struction, is about all that is demanded in the way of 
 "prosody." A candidate is sometimes conditioned on 
 the grammar, or a particular part of it, like the one just 
 referred to, however, and conditions on arithmetic, and 
 even on geography, are not by any means unknown. 
 Quantity as well as quality is considered by the 
 examiner. The one who has charge of a particular 
 author usually questions the candidate as to the extent 
 of his preparation. If he has read more than is required, 
 the fact counts in his favor, and may help to pass him, 
 even though his actual recitation be hardly up to aver 
 age. On the other hand, a candidate who has read less 
 than the required quantity may be able to make up for 
 it by the superior quality of his recitation. If the 
 examiner asks no questions, and no confessions are 
 made in advance, it is of course understood that the 
 candidate is ready to stand the full examination, and 
 inability to do it on actual trial is not excused or atoned 
 
548 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 for by special excellence in a particular part of the work. 
 The candidate is called upon for only a few lines from 
 an author, but upon his knowledge of the few lines the 
 examiner bases his verdict of his knowledge of the 
 entire author ; and as the passages are selected at hap 
 hazard, the many hundred lines must be prepared as 
 carefully as if they were all to be recited, instead of a 
 very small representative number of them. A boy 
 acquainted with only one of Cicero s orations might suc 
 cessfully pass examination on seven of them, but, under 
 the law of chances, he would not be likely to. Connected 
 with the certificate of admission is the blank form of a 
 bond for $200, in which sum the parent or guardian of 
 the youth is to be " held and firmly bound to the presi 
 dent and fellows," as a security for the payment of all 
 their just charges against him. This bond, properly 
 signed and stamped, is handed in to the treasurer at the 
 beginning of the first freshman term, and surrendered 
 by him when he receipts the last term bill of senior 
 year. A century ago, it was simply required of appli 
 cants for admission " that they be able well to construe 
 and parse Tully s orations, Virgil, and the Greek Testa 
 ment ; and understand the rules of common Arithmetic." 
 It has been implied that very few enter college after 
 the commencement of the course, yet there are a few 
 "candidates for advanced standing," and these are 
 obliged to pass both the regular freshman entrance ex 
 amination, and an examination on all the studies pursued 
 up to that time by the class they propose to join. Let 
 ters of recommendation from, and certificates of scholar 
 ship at, another college, have no effect in varying or 
 lessening these examinations. They are held either in 
 connection with the regular ones, or at any time during 
 the course, but no one can be admitted to a class after 
 the first term of senior year. An advanced student, not 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 549 
 
 coming from another college, pays a fee of $5 for every 
 term passed over by the class before he joins it. A few, 
 perhaps half a dozen, enter at the beginning of sopho 
 more year ; fewer yet at the beginning of junior year ; 
 and a new Senior is a rare as well as awkward bird 
 indeed. A late-entered student is always at a disad 
 vantage, rarely gains much position in college, and never 
 gets into the full sympathy of his classmates who have 
 been together from the first. Of 117 graduates of 69, 
 less than a dozen entered after the first term of fresh 
 man year ; though one, who never made a recitation 
 with the class, came up to New Haven at the close of 
 senior year, passed the term and annual examinations of 
 the four years course, and so secured his A.B. degree. 
 
 On the Thursday morning near the middle of Sep 
 tember which opens the academic year, the Freshmen, 
 in response to the ringing of the prayer-bell, assemble 
 at the Chapel, with the other classes, and occupy such 
 seats, in the rear of the house and in the galleries, as 
 seem to have no regular owners. At the close of the 
 exercises, before the assembly is dismissed, each class is 
 ordered to meet at a particular time and place, to be 
 informed about its term s work by the proper officer, 
 the Freshman being requested to reassemble at the 
 Chapel at half-past eleven o clock. They are then met 
 by two or three of the faculty, who read off an alpha 
 betical list of all who have been admitted to the class, 
 and arrange upon the seats in the same order those who 
 answer to the call. The few who fail to respond per 
 haps intended to enter college with the next class, but 
 passed their examinations with this one, on account of 
 having just finished their preparatory course ; or per 
 haps an afterthought has attracted them to other col 
 leges ; or perhaps changed circumstances have induced 
 them to give up altogether their proposed college life, 
 
550 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 But the officers in charge having assured themselves 
 that the names on the roll are represented by Freshman 
 in the flesh before them, proceed to form the class into 
 divisions. The first alphabetical quarter is the first 
 division, ending with a particular name, and so on for 
 the second, third and fourth. In drawing the lines, 
 regard is doubtless paid to the names of those "out on 
 condition" who will in a few days become members of 
 the class. The lessons are then allotted, to the first 
 division, Homer s Odyssey ; to the second, Livy ; to the 
 third, Euclid ; to the fourth, Algebra, and the divisions 
 are instructed to report themselves, at their several reci 
 tation rooms in the Athenaeum, in readiness to recite 
 them, at 5 o clock. Arrived there, the Freshmen are 
 seated alphabetically upon the three rows of rising 
 benches, beginning with the back corner, and are 
 requested to retain the same relative positions in future 
 recitations, both in that and other recitation rooms. 
 The back bench and the end seats of all the benches 
 are deemed specially eligible. The division officer sits 
 behind a sort of raised box or pulpit, overlooking the 
 whole. Blackboards and maps line the walls, which are 
 whitewashed, and rows of hat hooks also extend around 
 them. In winter the rooms are lighted by gas and sup 
 plied with furnace heat. The same general description 
 applies to all the recitation rooms of college, though 
 those devoted to the upper classes, except in the fact 
 of having the floor covered with hemp matting, are not 
 as good as those held by the Freshmen since the re 
 modeling of the Athenaeum in 1870. In 69 s time the 
 freshman rooms were the poorest of all, being badly 
 ventilated and heated with cylinder coal-stoves. Then, 
 too, the arm-rests or writing-boards, attached to the 
 benches for the benefit of each sitter, were quite 
 a novelty, though now supplied to almost all the 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 55 r 
 
 recitation rooms of college. In the upper classes, 
 where the officer is familiar with the names and 
 faces of the men, the alphabetical arrangement is 
 not so closely insisted upon, and the "corner seats" 
 of the benches are taken by the first who arrived. 
 Once in a while, when by this means a division has 
 become very much disarranged, the regular order of 
 sittings is enforced again, to be followed in due season 
 by another relapse. All this depends much upon the 
 temper of the officer in charge. Some insist upon a 
 uniform order of sittings to the very last. But in gen 
 eral, though the rule is always theoretically regarded, it 
 is enforced less and less rigidly as the course advances. 
 The recitations are held daily the first immediately 
 after prayers in the morning, the second at half-past 
 eleven, and the third at 5 in the afternoon except on 
 Wednesday and Saturday, when the latter is omitted. 
 Each is an hour in length, and as there are 35 or 40 in 
 a division (in senior year, when the four divisions be 
 come two, there are 50 or more in each), of course less 
 than half can be individually called upon, each time. 
 In all the classes, therefore, most of the officers call up 
 their men, by lot, drawing their names, hap-hazard, 
 from a box which contains them, and so making each 
 individual liable to be examined on every day s lesson. 
 For the early part of the first freshman term, however, 
 the officers usually call upon the names in their order 
 that they may the sooner become acquainted with the 
 abilities as well as faces of the different members of the 
 class. For the latter purpose, also, the roll is called at 
 the beginning or end of the recitation. This likewise 
 happens in after years whenever new officers take charge 
 of the class. As soon, however, as the faces are con 
 nected with the names by an officer, he notes the 
 absences by glancing about the room at the close of the 
 
55 2 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 recitation or before, and marks them in his book. It is 
 chiefly to expediate this process that the alphabetical or 
 some other settled order of sittings is required. In 
 senior year, as the divisions are very large, the roll call 
 is oftener resorted to than the marking at sight. The 
 names of those who have not recited are the only ones 
 called. Each recitation save the morning one is an 
 nounced by the ringing of the bell, which continues two 
 or three minutes, at the end of which time every one is 
 expected to be in his seat. The officers unlock the 
 rooms and take their places in them a few minutes 
 beforehand, but no students enter until the ringing 
 begins, though crowds of them may have assembled 
 about the entrance of the building. The latter practice 
 is most noticeable in the Freshmen, who gather about 
 the Athenaeum steps five or ten minutes in advance of 
 time. It is less common among the Sophomores, still 
 less among the Juniors, and a Senior rarely leaves his 
 room for recitation until urged by the sound of the bell. 
 In a Latin or Greek recitation one may be asked to 
 read or scan a short passage, another to translate it, a 
 third to answer questions as to its construction, and so 
 on ; or all this and more may be required of the same 
 individual. The reciter is expected simply to answer 
 the questions which are put to him, but not to ask any 
 of his instructor, or dispute his assertions. If he has 
 any enquiries to make, or controversy to carry on, it 
 must be done informally, after the division has been dis 
 missed. Sometimes, when a wrong translation is made 
 or a wrong answer given, the instructor corrects it forth 
 with, but more frequently he makes no sign, though if 
 the failure be almost complete he may call upon another 
 to go over the ground again. Perhaps after the lesson 
 has been recited the instructor may translate it, com 
 ment upon it, point out the mistakes which have been 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 553 
 
 made, and so on. The " advance " of one day is always 
 the " review " of the next, and a more perfect recitation 
 is always expected on the second occasion ; a remark 
 which is not confined to the languages but applies 
 equally well to all the studies of the course. In 69*5 
 time, many or most used to interline their text books 
 with notes, hints and translations, brought out by the 
 advance lesson, and put them to good service in the 
 daily and term reviews ; and text books, specially inter 
 leaved with blank pages for taking notes, were quite 
 common, but latterly these practices have been put an 
 end to. In construing a sentence, one is only required 
 to refer to general grammatical principles, and is not 
 obliged to repeat the rules at length. Distinct grammar 
 lessons especially in Greek have to be given out 
 through a large part of freshman year, and sometimes 
 even later. These are generally recited at the begin 
 ning of the recitation. Andrews & Stoddard in Latin, 
 and Hadley in Greek, are the recognized grammatical 
 authorities, though at the entrance examination no ques 
 tion is raised as to the grammars previously employed, 
 and none are named in the official catalogue. In read 
 ing Greek, too, students accustomed to the " English " 
 method of pronunciation are not obliged to adopt the 
 " Continental," which is the mode employed by all the 
 instructors, and most of their pupils. It may be here 
 noted that the " English " pronunciation formerly in 
 vogue is still retained by every one in the case of the 
 society names. Thus, phi, psi, xi, in such instances, are- 
 pronounced fi, si, zi, and not fee, see, zee, as in other 
 situations. In the pronunciation of the sophomore- 
 society names, the two systems are curiously mixed. 
 Thus " Delta Beta Xi," which should be called either 
 bayter zee or beeter zi, is called bayter zi ; and " Phi 
 Theta Psi, instead of being/?* thayter see or fi thceter si, 
 
 25 
 
554 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 is pronounced fi thayter si. In reciting geometry, one 
 may be called on to give the caption of a particular 
 proposition, another to draw the figure, a third to prove 
 it, and a fourth to explain the corollaries ; or the whole 
 may be allotted to one only. The captions are recited 
 again and again by various members of the division, to 
 take up the time needed by others in drawing the figures. 
 As soon as a figure is completed, the one who drew it 
 retires to his seat, and he or another is shortly after 
 wards called upon for the demonstration, at the outset 
 of which the caption is again repeated. At a particular 
 point, the one reciting may be relieved from duty, and 
 another be requested to continue the demonstration to 
 the end. Every " reference," on which a step in the 
 process depends, is expected to be recited by number, 
 and if not given will be called for by the instructor at 
 the close of the demonstration. In 69*3 time all books 
 brought into the room had to be placed on the officer s 
 table, before the recitation commenced, but now they 
 must be left outside the room altogether. " Optional 
 work," for which " extra credit " is allowed, is the prep 
 aration of " original demonstrations," written copies of 
 which are handed in to the instructor, who inspects them 
 at his leisure. Many algebraic problems are also given 
 out as " optionals " by the instructor in that science. 
 " Blackboard work " is naturally the most prominent 
 feature of his recitations. 
 
 After "advancing" for about three-fourths of the 
 term, the "review" is begun in all the studies, in prep 
 aration for the term examinations. This does not always 
 cover the whole ground of the "advance," but as the 
 examination is held upon all, cramming is usually re 
 sorted to, to make up the deficiency. About a week s 
 interval elapses between the last recitation and the last 
 examination, with which the term comes to an end. For 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 555 
 
 purposes of examination each division is cut into sub 
 divisions of a dozen individuals, and each instructor 
 attends to three or four " subs " daily, but matters are 
 so arranged that each "sub" has an interval of about 
 two days between each of its examinations, and that the 
 last of them is held before its own division-master. In 
 the first term, the first " subs " of all the divisions are 
 released soonest ; in the second term the second, and 
 the first subs the latest ; in the third term, there are no 
 term examinations. The last examinations are held on 
 Tuesday morning, with which day the term officially 
 closes ; but two subs of each division finish their last 
 examinations at two different hours the day before, and 
 forthwith disperse to their homes. The examinations are 
 held in the usual recitation rooms, and at the appointed 
 hour the sub-division enter and take seats upon the rear 
 bench. Each one is twice called upon, and the same 
 order is usually observed on the second round as on the 
 first, whether this be decided by the alphabet or arbi 
 trarily. The questions are written upon slips of paper, 
 no two of which are alike, and are distributed by the 
 officer, or drawn hap-hazard from his hands. The first 
 one who takes a paper is allowed a reasonable time, say 
 five or ten minutes, to " think up " on it before reciting. 
 Meanwhile a second has drawn a paper, and as the first 
 signifies his readiness to recite, a third paper is given 
 out. Thenceforth as each finishes with his paper, an 
 other person draws one, and so each is allowed to cram 
 during the time occupied by two others in reciting. In 
 the interval between drawing the paper and reciting it 
 each person sits upon the front bench, out of the reach 
 of anyone else. Sometimes, all the members of a sub 
 division are seated at a] distance from each other and 
 supplied with papers at the outset. As soon as one is 
 ready to recite, he hands in his paper, and the recita- 
 
S5 6 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 tions are heard in the order in which the papers are 
 handed in. The second paper is given to each one as 
 he finishes with his first, but it cannot be attended to 
 until every one else s first paper has been recited, no 
 matter how soon it be handed in. Each one s examin 
 ation concludes with the recitation of his second paper. 
 Thus the first man is usually released in about an hour s 
 time, and others keep following him at short intervals 
 until the close of the second hour, when the last finishes 
 his work. If a paper is flunked, a second or even third 
 may be drawn, but a recitation on these substitute 
 papers counts for much less than if made on the original 
 ones. No books of any sort can be brought into the 
 room. Where any are required, as in translating the 
 languages, the instructor supplies them. With the pa 
 per on which is indicated the passage to be translated, 
 grammatical questions, etc. he hands a text-book, the 
 printed " notes " of which have been sealed up, and the 
 penciled additions, if any, erased. In the examination 
 in geometry, the paper contains simply the number of 
 the proposition to be proved. The one who is exam 
 ined must draw the figure and give the caption, unas 
 sisted. In all departments, the examiner consults his 
 own judgment in the asking of general questions, not 
 indicated upon the paper. Those who fail upon exami 
 nation are conditioned, unless their " term-stand " in 
 the study is high enough to counterbalance the low 
 examination mark. Conditions have to be made up at 
 the opening of the following term. 
 
 At the close of the third term, is held the "Annual " 
 examination, on all the studies of the year. This gen 
 erally comprises four sessions, covering a period of about 
 ten days, and ending on the Thursday or Friday before 
 Commencement. The senior Annual, which has hith 
 erto ended on the Friday before Presentation, will 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 557 
 
 henceforth be no exception to this rule. The last session 
 of every Annual is a forenoon one, ending at twelve 
 o clock. Nine in the morning and three in the after 
 noon are the hours of assembling at Alumni Hall, where 
 all the Annuals are held. An entire class go in together, 
 and are seated alphabetically at the little octagonal 
 tables, no two of which are placed within eight feet of 
 each other. An ink-bottle, fixed in a square standard 
 of cork, a blotter, and a dozen or twenty half-sheets of 
 quarto post, lie upon every table. Pen and penholder 
 each man brings for himself. The students being seated, 
 the entrance door is closed, and the officers begin to 
 distribute the printed papers, which are all alike, and 
 often come damp from the press. Having completed 
 the distribution, they take their seats on small raised 
 platforms, situated close beside the walls on opposite 
 sides of the apartment. There are four of these watch- 
 ing-places for overlooking the hall, and if more than 
 that number of the faculty be present, which is not 
 often, they spend the time in passing about from one to 
 the other of them. The students meantime have care 
 fully read through the paper, and begun to write out 
 the answers to it, using only one side of the sheets, num 
 bering them in order, and putting their names at the 
 head of each one. Upon a mathematical paper, the 
 figure, as well as the caption or statement of the thing 
 to be proved, is always supplied ; and upon a paper in 
 the languages, all the passages from the text which are 
 to be translated are printed in full, so that no text-books 
 are required. Occasionally, a perplexed student walks 
 up to an officer, to enquire if there is not a misprint or 
 ambiguity in the paper, in hopes of gaining a few " use 
 ful hints " ; or an industrious one asks for more paper ; 
 or a thirsty one goes up to the water jug for a drink ; 
 but except this the monotonous scratching of pens is 
 
55 8 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the only sound heard for the space of two hours. At 
 the end of that time the senior officer rises to announce 
 that " in fifteen minutes more, papers may be handed 
 in, and in an hour more, papers must be handed in." 
 In fifteen minutes, after telling the time of the next 
 examination and making any other general announce 
 ments, he gives notice that "papers may now be handed 
 in." Forthwith a few who have floored their papers, 
 or been floored by them hand in their work to the 
 proper officer, and hasten from the hall, and their ex 
 ample is continuously followed by stragglers to the very 
 end of the session. Five minutes before its close, notice 
 is given that all writing must cease at the stroke of the 
 clock. Even then, after three hours writing, many com 
 plain of want of time, but all hand in their work, and 
 rush forth to compare notes with others as to what they 
 have accomplished. tf How d ye get through ?" is the 
 ordinary salutation for the next half-day ; and then the 
 past examination becomes an old story, and cramming 
 is begun for the next one. The result of a man s failure 
 on "Annual," unless his "general stand" makes up for 
 it, is that he is conditioned on one or more of the third 
 term s studies ; or suspended for a term and obliged to 
 pass a new examination on all the studies of the year ; 
 or dropped altogether. A condition on Annual must 
 be made up at the first trial, if at all. 
 
 The class of 69, during all the first term of freshman 
 year, pursued the study of the four works of which men 
 tion was made in an earlier part of the chapter. In the 
 Odyssey, beginning at the seventh book, 850 lines were 
 read, about 20 lines being the ordinary lesson. 
 Owen s was the authorized edition, though the student, 
 in this as in every similar case, could use any other text 
 he might prefer. In Livy (Lincoln s) parts of the first 
 two books, 32 pages, were read, the ordinary lesson 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 559 
 
 being from a half page to a page in length. In Euclid 
 (Playfair s), the first five books, with a very few omis 
 sions, were recited, in lessons of two pages each, after 
 the first two books, with which the student was supposed 
 to be familiar when he entered, has been more rapidly 
 gone over. In Algebra (Day s), eight sections were 
 recited, beginning on page 107 with "simple equations 
 containing two or more unknown quantities," and ending 
 on page 289 with the " involution of binomials." The 
 second term, 575 lines more of the Odyssey were read, 
 extending nearly to the end of the ninth book, and in 
 Herodotus (Teubner s), about 25 sections, beginning 
 with the tenth of the third book, and reading a page at a 
 time. In Latin was read the tenth book of Quintilian s 
 Institutions (Frieze s), 45 pages in all, a page and a half 
 or two pages at a time. Euclid was completed by read 
 ing the sixth book and the three supplements, 116 
 pages in all. In place of Algebra, was recited Arnold s 
 Latin Prose Composition (Spencer s), as far as "Com 
 parison," comprising the first 18 chapters and 140 
 pages. The third term, Herodotus was continued 
 through 1 8 sections (n pages), and the Panegyricus of 
 Isocrates was read to the extent of 18 pages. In Latin, 
 the greater part of the odes and eposes of Horace (Lin 
 coln s) was read. Euclid was superseded by Spherics 
 (Stanley s), with its 40 propositions, and Algebra was 
 again taken up and completed (5 sections, 100 pages). 
 Instead of the Latin, Arnold s Greek Prose Composition 
 (Spencer s) was recited as far as " Comparison" (28 sec 
 tions, 60 pages). On the Saturday noons of this term, 
 in place of the regular recitations, the class attended 
 one or two lectures delivered in Alumni Hall by the 
 professor of Rhetoric, and also wrote ex-tempore com 
 positions there at his direction ; but afterwards the com 
 positions, on subjects previously announced, were read 
 
So FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 in the division rooms. About a third of each division 
 were required to write each week, and those who were 
 not called upon to read their productions were expected 
 to hand them in to the officer at the close of the session. 
 Choice could be made from several subjects, which Were 
 of various kinds historical, political, literary, social 
 and were supposed to be devised by the professor of 
 Rhetoric. On a particular topic a descriptive piece was 
 required to be written ; on another, an argumentative ; 
 and so on. Subjects connected with college life were 
 rarely offered. On the Wednesday noons of the term, 
 an exercise in ex-tempore Latin composition was con 
 ducted in Alumni Hall, under the charge of the profes 
 sor of Latin. It resembled an examination, and under 
 certain conditions a person could leave the hall as soon 
 as he had written out his papers. During the first year, 
 all the studies were recited to tutors, except that for 
 the first term a professor had charge of the Greek. 
 
 Sophomore year, the first term, Isocrates was contin 
 ued through 22 pages, and the first two Olynthiacs of 
 Demosthenes (Champlin s) were read, 20 pages more. 
 In Latin, Horace was completed, by the reading of most 
 of his satires and letters, at the rate of 50 lines a day. 
 In mathematics, after a review of the latter part of 
 Algebra, of which the Annual had shown the class to 
 know nothing, and the study of an 8-page pamphlet on 
 the Metric System, the first three books, 80 pages, of 
 Trigonometry (Loomis s) were recited. In Greek trag 
 edy, the CEdipus Tyrannus of Sophocles (Crosby s) was 
 read, with a single omission of 100 lines. The second 
 term, came the third Olynthiac and first Philippic of 
 Demosthenes, 28 pages, followed by Conic Sections 
 (Loomis s), 46 pages ; in Latin, Old Age and minor let 
 ters of Cicero (Harper s), 40 pages ; in mathematics, 
 Algebraic Geometry (Puckle s), 150 pages ; and in Greek 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 561 
 
 tragedy, the Agamemnon of yEschylus (Felton s), with 
 omissions amounting to 200 lines. The third term, the 
 only Greek were the idyls of Theocritus (Teubner s) ; 
 and the only Latin the satires of Juvenal (Teubner s), 
 from which selections were read at the rate of 30 or 40 
 lines a day. The last three books of Trigonometry, 
 including those on Surveying and Navigation were 
 recited ; and the first three of Rhetoric (Whately s), 240 
 pages. A professor conducted the latter recitation, and 
 another one the mathematical recitations of the first 
 two terms. The other instructors of the year were 
 tutors, of whom only one was connected with the instruc 
 tion of the class the year before. He was the tutor 
 in Latin, and master of the second division, for the 
 whole of freshman and sophomore years, an unusually 
 long time for a college officer to be connected with a 
 single class. During all the year, the reading of com 
 positions in the various division rooms took the place 
 of the noon recitation on Saturday, each person fur 
 nishing four compositions a term. During all the year 
 also, the same recitation on Wednesday was but a half 
 hour in length, and from twelve to one o clock the 
 entire class attended declamations in the Chapel, each 
 person " speaking" twice a term. The pieces had to be 
 rehearsed in private before the instructor in Elocution, 
 who also delivered a series of lectures, in place of the 
 Monday morning recitations of the first term, and held 
 a series of division-room drills or speaking exercises, in 
 place of the mathematical recitations which were sus 
 pended in the second term, for a week or two. 
 
 Junior year, the first term, Plato s Apology and Crito 
 (Tyler s), 56 pages, and 10 pages of his Gorgias (Teub 
 ner s), were read. In Natural Philosophy (Snell sOlm- 
 sted s), the first three parts, 240 pages, were recited. 
 The third study was English Literature and Language 
 
 25* 
 
$62 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 (Craik s), a book of 550 pages. The second term, the 
 Germania and Agricola of Tacitus (Tyler s), was read, 
 56 pages; Natural Philosophy was completed, 210 
 pages; and the German Grammar (Otto s) was recited, 
 250 pages, besides reading-lessons in the Lebensbilder. 
 The third term, was read the last Greek of the course, 
 Demosthenes s Oration on the Crown (Champlin s), 100 
 pages, at the rate of two or three a day. Astronomy 
 (Loomis s) was recited to the extent of n chapters, 170 
 pages. The third recitation was Logic (Atwater s), 220 
 pages ; and, afterwards, Chemical Philosophy (Cooke s), 
 10 chapters, 70 pages. Instead of the Greek and Latin 
 of the first two terms, sixteen or twenty took the option 
 of studying Calculus (Church s). All the recitations 
 save Natural Philosophy, Logic and the first term s 
 Greek were conducted by professors. Exercises in 
 turning English into Latin prose were connected with 
 the recitations in the latter language, according to the 
 same system employed at Alumni Hall, the third term 
 of freshman year. Ex-tempore speeches were some 
 times called for by the professor of Rhetoric at the reci 
 tations in English Literature. He also delivered a short 
 course of lectures. During the second term, two lec 
 tures a week were delivered on Natural Philosophy ; and 
 during the third term, 16 lectures on Greek History. 
 A few informal lectures on Optics were also delivered 
 then, the attendance being voluntary. On Wednesday 
 and Saturday noons of the first two terms, " forensic 
 disputations" were read. These differed from the " com 
 positions" of the year before chiefly in this, that the 
 writers were allowed to choose their own subject, though 
 it had to be approved by the division officers, before it 
 could be discussed. The disputations of any one sub 
 division were hence all in regard to a single topic, and 
 at the close of the reading the officer usually discussed 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 563 
 
 and criticized the arguments that had been presented, 
 and offered his own ideas upon the question. Similar 
 remarks were sometimes made at the reading of sopho 
 more compositions, the usage greatly varying with 
 individual instructors. As a rule, each division read its 
 compositions and disputes before its own division- 
 master. 
 
 Senior year, the studies were, in the first term : (i) 
 Political Economy (Perry s), and the beginning of Civil 
 Liberty (Lieber s), with four lectures a week on the Law 
 of Right. (2) Chemical Philosophy (Cooke s) reviewed, 
 and Chemistry (Roscoe s) with four lectures a week ; 
 followed by the Human Intellect or Psychology (Por 
 ter s). (3) Astronomy, completed. (4) Cicero s Oration 
 for Cluentius (Stickney s) 107 pages. In place of either 
 one of the two latter branches, those who chose about 
 half the class continued the study of German, reading 
 80 pages of Goethe. In the Latin and German of this 
 term, the professors read out and explained the lessons, 
 from day to day, and once in two or three weeks held 
 examinations on what had been gone over. The term 
 examinations in the two languages were like the Annual, 
 conducted entirely in writing, from a single printed 
 paper. In the second term, the studies were : (i) Civil 
 Liberty completed and International Law (Woolsey s) 
 begun. (2) Human Intellect, Stewart s Active and 
 Moral Powers (Walker s), and Law of Love (Hopkins s), 
 with two lectures a week on Moral Philosophy. (3) 
 European History (Weber s), 1517 to 1717, and Euro 
 pean Civilization (Guizot s), first nine chapters, with 
 three or four lectures a week. (4) Geology (Dana s), 
 for the last third of the term. A course of twenty lec 
 tures on Anatomy and Physiology was also delivered at 
 the Medical College, and a series on Botany begun. 
 Including the two which the class was advised, though 
 
564 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 not required, to read in connection with these lectures, 
 ten different text-books were in use this term. In the 
 third and last term the studies were : (i) International 
 Law, with 14 lectures on the Constitution of the United 
 States. (2) Natural Theology (Chadbourne s), with 12 
 lectures on the Evidences of Christianity. (3) Euro 
 pean Civilization, completed. (4) Geology, completed 
 to the end of Part III., with occasional lectures. A 
 course of 10 lectures on Roman law was also delivered, 
 and the series on Botany concluded. In all, a dozen 
 different professors had to do with the class during the 
 year, including the president, whose work is in each 
 case mentioned first. Four only of the twelve had pre 
 viously in junior year given instruction to the class. 
 Each person had to " write " twice during each of the 
 first two terms : once on a question chosen from a list 
 offered by the instructor, when his production was 
 termed a " composition " ; and once on a question agreed 
 upon in connection with the rest of his sub-division, 
 when his production was called a " dispute." None but 
 the members of a single "sub " were required to attend 
 the reading, and each person was allowed to withdraw 
 therefrom as soon as his own production had been 
 recited. The lectures were usually delivered at the 
 regular recitation hours of the college after prayers 
 and at half-past eleven in the morning, and at five 
 o clock in the afternoon, and w : ere an hour in length, 
 like the recitations which they superseded. The medical 
 lectures, however, were delivered from three till four in 
 the afternoon, and were an addition to the three regular 
 recitations or lectures of the day. No examinations 
 were held upon them, nor upon the examinations in 
 Botany and Roman Law. Upon the others, questions 
 were asked at the recitations following, as well as at 
 the term and Annual examinations. The second recita- 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 5 6 5 
 
 tion or lecture of the day often began at noon instead 
 of at half-past eleven. The German recitation was 
 always held in the forenoon, beginning at half-past ten 
 o clock, and the same fact held good in regard to the 
 Calculus recitation in junior year. Both, being "op 
 tional studies," required separate hours of their own to 
 prevent interference with the regular recitations. 
 
 This sketch of the ground gone over by the class of 69 
 of course represents with essential correctness the or 
 dinary scheme of study marked out for every other class. 
 But no two successive classes ever use exactly the same 
 text-books throughout the course, and so it may be well 
 to notice some of the ordinary variations from, as well 
 as recent changes in, the programme that has been pre 
 sented. Livy was the Latin author usually read in the 
 second term freshman, in place of Quintilian which from 
 69 onwards has superseded it. Liddell s History of 
 Rome is also sometimes studied during that year. In 
 the third term of 68, Lucian was read instead of 
 Isocrates. Now, in place of it, French Inflection is 
 begun, and an amount of text corresponding to one 
 book of Fenelon s Telemaque is read. Loomis s Conic 
 Sections are studied then, instead of in second term 
 sophomore, and his Algebra takes the place of Day s. 
 Chauvenet s Geometry also partly supersedes Euclid, and 
 Stanley s Spherics are transferred to first term sopho 
 more. In this later term, in place of Greek tragedy, the 
 study of French is continued. The Electra of Sophocles 
 or the Alcestis of Euripides were the Greek texts read 
 by some previous classes. In the second term s Greek, 
 the Prometheus of ^Eschylus is oftener read than his 
 Agamemnon, and Xenophon s Memorabilia or Isocratcs s 
 Panegyricus sometimes supersedes Demosthenes s ora 
 tions. Davies s Analytical Geometry is the mathemati 
 cal text-book of this term, as Loomis s was formerly. 
 
566 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 No class save 69 was ever drilled in " Puckle." For 
 Latin, Cicero s de Officiis sometimes takes the place of 
 Senectute. In the third term, the Antigone of Sophocles 
 is oftener read than Theocritus. The Greek of the first 
 term junior may be Plato s Gorgias or Arrain s Anabasis ; 
 and of the third term, Thucydides instead of Demos 
 thenes. Cicero s Tusculan Disputations, de Oratore, 
 de Natura Deorum, pro Cluentio, Seneca s Medea, or 
 Plautus s Captives were formerly read in Junior year, 
 when no Latin was required in the year following. 
 Similar changes, temporary or permanent, are all the 
 while being made, yet the substance of the curriculum 
 remains about the same, in spite of the alterations in 
 form. The most radical innovation that has been noted 
 is the substitution of two terms of French for a like 
 quantity of Greek and Latin ; and in addition to the 
 one. term of German required, two terms may be chosen 
 in place of Greek or Latin. An additional fee is re 
 quired of those choosing the modern languages, though 
 instruction in Hebrew is given without extra charge. 
 As for the constant variations in the classics, one object 
 of making them seems to be to prevent successive 
 generations of students from taking advantage of the 
 notes and interlineations of their predecessors ; another 
 object evidently is to keep up the interest of the instruc 
 tor in his work, by allowing him a certain freedom in 
 the selection of authors and passages which have to him 
 a special attraction. It should have been said that the 
 "figures" required to illustrate Natural Philosophy and 
 Astronomy, are drawn off upon large pasteboard squares, 
 which are kept ready in the recitation rooms. The 
 figures are numbered and lettered as in the book, and 
 the man who is called on for a demonstration, instead of 
 drawing the figure himself at once selects and hangs up 
 the card containing it, and recites it therefrom. The 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 5 6 7 
 
 " course of instruction " marked out in the official cata 
 logue is intended chiefly as a general guide to applicants 
 for advanced standing, and not as an exact list of the 
 special text books employed. Indeed, several of those 
 mentioned there are never really used at all in college. 
 The scheme of study a century ago was thus described 
 by President Clap : " In the first year they learn He 
 brew, and principally pursue the study of the languages, 
 and make a beginning in Logic, and some parts of the 
 mathematics. In the second year, they study the lan 
 guages, but principally recite Logic, Rhetoric, Oratory, 
 Geography and Natural Philosophy ; and some of them 
 make good proficiency in Trigonometry and Algebra. 
 In the third year, they still pursue the study of Natural 
 Philosophy, and most branches of the mathematics. 
 Many of them well understand Surveying, Navigation 
 and the calculation of the eclipses ; and some of them 
 are considerable proficients in Conic Sections and 
 Fluxions. In the fourth year, they principally study and 
 recite Metaphysics, Ethics and Divinity. In reciting 
 any book the tutor asks them questions upon all the 
 principal points and propositions in it ; and they give 
 such answers as show whether they understand it ; and 
 the tutor explains it, as far as there is occasion. In all 
 delineations and calculations, a select number, with 
 proper instruments in their hands, are instructed at a 
 table. The two upper classes exercise their powers in 
 disputing every Monday in the syllogistic form, and 
 every Tuesday in the forensic. When they have alter 
 nately gone through all their arguments, the moderator 
 recapitulates those which seem to be the most plausible 
 on each side, shows their real force or weakness and 
 gives his opinion upon the whole. Twice a week, five 
 or six deliver a declamation memoriter from the orator 
 ical rostrum. The president makes some observations 
 
5 68 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 upon the manner of delivery and sometimes upon the 
 subject, and sometimes gives some small laurel to him 
 who best acts the part of an orator. These declama 
 tions are supervised beforehand by the tutor, who cor 
 rects their orthography and punctuation. There are 
 also two orations made every Quarter-Day, upon exam 
 inations, and frequently on special occasions." 
 
 For the twenty-five years ending with 1850, and per 
 haps for a much longer period, the three lower classes 
 were examined twice a year, once in May, at the middle 
 of the second term, and once in September, just before 
 Commencement, each examination lasting from four 
 to six days, and being confined to the wbrk of a term 
 and a half. The second examination of junior year, 
 however, embraced all the studies of the first three 
 years, and those who passed it and were admitted to the 
 senior class felt assured of their ability to graduate : for 
 the only examination of the last year was held, two 
 months before Commencement, on the studies of that 
 year only. In 1850 was introduced the plan of holding 
 two "Biennial " examinations, at the close of sophomore 
 and senior years, in each case on the studies of the two 
 years preceding. Special examinations on the studies 
 of the term were also held at the close of every term 
 save the last one of sophomore and senior years. The 
 last " Biennial " was that of 67, at the close of its soph 
 omore year, in July, 1865. The same month, 68 had 
 its first Annual ; and this system of examinations 
 having worked well since then, bids fair to be retained 
 for an indefinite period in the future. For the first year 
 or two after its introduction, Biennial was held in the 
 attic of the Chapel. But the new Alumni Hall was soon 
 forthcoming. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 MARKS. 
 
 Morning Prayers The Ordinary Ceremonies Sunday Services 
 The College Church and Its Members Attending City Churches 
 The College Choir and Organ Government by Marks Sched 
 ule of Penalties " The Course of Discipline" Monitors and 
 their Duties Matriculation Scholarship by Marks Time and 
 Mode of Giving out Stands Making-up Omitted Lessons- 
 Excuses and Church Papers Leaves of Absence Letters 
 Home Official Hieroglyphics Appealing to the Faculty Liv 
 ing Regulations and Dead Laws Origin and Growth of the 
 Code Discipline in the Olden Time Fines, "Degradation," 
 and " Cuffing" The Modern Theory of Discipline The Recent 
 Experiment in Division. 
 
 Prayers are held every morning in the Chapel. The 
 bell rings for five minutes, and, after an interval of 
 three minutes, tolls for two minutes more, at the end of 
 which time every man is expected to be in his assigned 
 seat. There are three variations in the time of ringing 
 the bell : in the longest days of the year it begins at 
 half-past seven ; as they grow shorter, it begins fifteen 
 minutes later ; and in the shortest days of winter it 
 begins as late as eight o clock. An hour before the bell 
 begins to call to prayers, it is always rung for the space 
 of five minutes, thus serving as an eye-opener and 
 admonisher that breakfast is ready. This meal must be 
 partaken of before going to chapel, since immediately 
 thereafter every class is obliged to attend a recitation or 
 lecture of an hour s duration, and hence it is usually 
 bolted in very short order. Experience soon teaches 
 the minimum amount of time in which one may dress, 
 
57 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 run to his boarding-house, swallow a few morsels of 
 breakfast, and rush to his seat in chapel in season for 
 the last stroke of the bell ; and many habitually keep to 
 their beds till the very last moment consistent with car 
 rying through this process. As the bell utters its final 
 notes of warning, crowds come hurrying from all direc 
 tions, faster and faster, rushing and jostling each other 
 about the entrance doors ; but the moment it becomes 
 silent, every man of them has disappeared, and the yard 
 is as quiet and deserted as in the midst of the long 
 vacation. No one is ever late at morning chapel, for 
 the penalty for tardiness is the same as that for absence, 
 and the man who cannot promptly get to his seat cuts 
 the exercise altogether. On Sundays, breakfast is not 
 served until after prayers, and it is a common thing for 
 a man to rush to chapel, unwashed, uncombed and half- 
 dressed. Afterwards he completes his toilet, and break 
 fasts at his leisure. On Sunday mornings, too, there is 
 an unusual amount of " sleeping over," breakfast being 
 often cut as well as chapel by the votaries of Morpheus. 
 Chapel prayers occupy about fifteen minutes, and are 
 usuually conducted by the president, who reads a pas 
 sage from the Bible, gives out a hymn to the choir, and 
 in conclusion offers a short prayer. During this latter 
 part of the service the college officers who are present 
 stand up in their pews, and the greater part of the stu 
 dents bow their heads upon the seats in front of them. 
 The Seniors occupy the front pews of the central aisle ; 
 the Sophomores the corresponding ones of the right-hand 
 or north aisle ; the Juniors the corresponding ones of 
 the left-hand or south aisle ; and the Freshmen all the 
 back pews of the three aisles, in the rear of the three 
 upper classes. The college officers sit in raised pews or 
 boxes, placed close beside the wall. There are in all 
 eight of these boxes : two at the rear end of the chapel, 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. S7 1 
 
 one on each side of it, and four at its front end, two of 
 the latter being on each side of the pulpit, placed one 
 above the other, and the upper one being made accessi 
 ble by the pulpit stairs. Two college officers are allotted 
 to each box ; four students to each pew. The boxes are 
 cushioned ; thepews are not. At the conclusion of the 
 prayer except in the rare instances where the audience 
 has been previously requested to remain, to listen to 
 some announcement from the president the Freshmen 
 hasten out of the front doors, followed by their instruct 
 ors. The remaining members of the faculty, except the 
 president and two senior professors, then pass out 
 those in the side boxes, through the front doors, those 
 in the pulpit boxes, through the rear doors and are 
 followed by the Juniors and Sophomores, through which 
 ever door may be most convenient. The president and 
 two senior professors then go down the central aisle and 
 out of the front entrance, and the Seniors, after bowing 
 to them as they pass by, follow after at their leisure. 
 
 On Sundays, two additional services are held, each an 
 hour or more in length, when the college pastor since 
 his resignation, the president, or one of the professors, 
 or some other minister officiates and preaches a for 
 mal sermon. The times of assembling are the same as 
 those of the city churches, half-past ten in the morning, 
 and half-past two or three in the afternoon. The presi 
 dent always sits in the pulpit, and the Seniors bow to 
 him as usual as he goes down the aisle. He goes un 
 attended, however, for the pulpit boxes are deserted, 
 and the professors who usually occupy them sit in the 
 galleries with their families. The pastor, who usually 
 sat in the pulpit at morning prayers also, always passed 
 out at one of the doors in the rear. The order ob 
 served by the three lower classes in withdrawing is the 
 same as usual, but there is not the usual promptness in 
 
57 2 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 assembling. A few come early, to make sure of the 
 " corner seats," but some straggle in long after the com 
 mencement of the service, and very many are a few 
 minutes late. Those who enter during the progress of 
 an opening " voluntary " are not marked tardy ; since, 
 by regulation, no chapel service " commences " until the 
 moment when the president or minister rises in the 
 pulpit to speak. On the first Sunday in each month, 
 the communion service is held, at the close of the regu 
 lar forenoon s exercises, when all save the church mem 
 bers have withdrawn. The ceremony of admitting new 
 members to the church, however, is performed in the 
 presence of the whole body of undergraduates. 
 
 The college church was organized by the corporation 
 in June, 1757, in answer to the petition of a dozen indi 
 viduals undergraduates and tutors who were already 
 members of various churches. For only four years 
 previous to that had there been separate preaching to 
 the students on Sunday, in the college chapel, the 
 whole college having attended the Sunday services of 
 one of the city churches, up to the year 1753, and the 
 change was not effected, nor the college church estab 
 lished, without bitter opposition from many. At present 
 the church is composed of the president and most of the 
 professors and their families, most of the tutors, a few 
 from the professional schools, and perhaps a sixth part 
 of the undergraduates. The church members in each 
 class of the latter, shortly after entering college, organize 
 by the choice of three deacons, who serve during the 
 remainder of the course. Some who have previously 
 been church members keep the fact to themselves, and 
 do not attend the communion of the college church or 
 any other, while at New Haven. In the case of 69, 
 exactly half of the men who graduated had been pro 
 fessed church members, but not over half of these made 
 any public acknowledgment of it while in college. 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 573 
 
 Instead of going to the chapel, students are allowed 
 to attend the services of other denominations to which 
 they or their parents belong, but they must always select 
 one particular church. If they be Episcopalians, they 
 must always go to Trinity, and there occupy the par 
 ticular seats assigned them by the faculty; for in that 
 church the college always rents several pews, and 
 charges the cost of the same upon the term-bills of the 
 occupants. Two half-days in a term, a person may be 
 excused to attend any church he chooses instead of the 
 chapel ; but with this exception no one is [was] allowed 
 to go to a Congregational church, not even if he and 
 his parents be members of it, and have attended its 
 services all their life-times. Since the exit of 69, how 
 ever, this last restriction has been removed. Visitors to 
 the chapel, either at morning prayers or Sunday service, 
 always occupy the galleries, as the entire lower floor of 
 the house is taken up by the collegians. There are 
 quite a good many of these visitors on Sunday, most of 
 whom are the friends and relatives of particular stu 
 dents, though some others are doubtless attracted by 
 the novel sight of a large congregation composed en 
 tirely of young men. On the other hand, at exhibitions 
 held in the chapel, the body of the house is reserved for 
 visitors, and the students who attend occupy the 
 galleries. 
 
 The college choir is made up from all the classes, and 
 is under the direction of the* instructor in Music, who 
 also plays the organ. This instrument was procured 
 in the summer of 1851, chiefly through the exertions of 
 the president of the Beethoven society. It was built by 
 the Hooks, of Boston, and its cost was $1600. Pre 
 viously, the miscellaneous orchestra of the society had 
 supplied the music for the chapel services. In fact, the 
 society from its organization in 1812 up to about 1862 
 
574 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 itself formed the choir, with the exception of the two 
 years 1855-57. Since 1862 the choir has been an inde 
 pendent institution, though most or all who belong to it 
 are members of the society also. Admissions to the 
 choir are now granted by the faculty, on recommen 
 dation of the instructor in Music ; and it is sometimes 
 remarked that a man s moral or religious character 
 seems to have more influence in getting him a position 
 than his abilities as a singer. At all events, some of the 
 best singers in college are not in the choir, and some of 
 the poorest are ; but as a rule its music is acceptable 
 enough, and its "Christmas Anthem," sung at morning 
 prayers of the Sunday before Christmas, always attracts 
 a large number of visitors, spite of the early hour, as 
 well as an unusually full attendance of undergraduates. 
 In the old times, prayers were held twice a day : at five 
 or six in the morning and at half-past four in the after 
 noon. Morning prayers and the recitations following 
 were thus in the winter held by candlelight, and break 
 fast succeeded them. The singing was confined to 
 evening prayers. It was not till the opening of the 
 academic year in September, 1859, that evening prayers 
 were abolished, and the present system introduced of 
 having simply morning prayers, and those at a reason 
 able hour. 
 
 Every freshman class is divided alphabetically into 
 four divisions. In junior, sometimes in sophomore, year 
 the number is reduced to three, and in senior year there 
 are only two divisions. One of the instructors, to whom 
 the entire class recite, is assigned to each division, as its 
 own particular " officer," and to him every member of 
 that division hands in his excuses and applies for in 
 formation as to his own position in the eyes of the 
 faculty. The penalty for absence from recitation, lecture 
 or prayers, is two marks. Two marks are also charged 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 575 
 
 for tardiness at the latter, or at the Sunday services, for 
 absence from which eight marks are charged. Eight 
 marks are also charged for absence from examination ; 
 and for tardiness at any college exercise, except those 
 otherwise specified, a single mark is inflicted. Egress 
 from any exercise counts the same as absence. " One, 
 two, or three marks will also be given for various impro 
 prieties of conduct : thus for loud noise or other disor 
 der, especially at night ; for being connected with a 
 noisy or disorderly gathering ; and for whispering, read 
 ing and other improprieties of attitude or action at the 
 religious and literary exercises of the college." "When 
 the marks of any student shall amount to 16, he shall 
 be reported to the faculty and placed upon the course 
 of discipline, and a written notice of the fact be given 
 to his parent or guardian. When they rise to 32, he 
 shall be placed on the second stage of the same course, 
 and a second notice shall be given. When they rise to 
 48 he shall be removed from the college." Such is the 
 rule, but the division officer after freshman year, at 
 least seldom notifies anyone but the individual con 
 cerned as to the state of his marks, so long as they are 
 kept below the limit of 48. " Removal from college " 
 generally means suspension, for six weeks or a term, at 
 the end of which time the student re-enters the class 
 with a clean score. Twelve marks are erased at the 
 end of each of the first two terms, and thirty-two at the 
 end of the year or third term, by standing regulation ; so 
 that every individual may incur 56 marks in the course 
 of the year, without subjecting himself to " discipline " 
 of any sort. It is expected that he will incur that num 
 ber, as a matter of course ; and the person who goes 
 through college with an entirely clean score if such a 
 rare bird is ever known of is thought no more of by 
 the faculty than the one who indulges in his full allow- 
 
57 6 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 ance of 224 marks. As 32 marks are canceled at the 
 end of the third term, it would seem to be foolish for 
 the division officer to give notice when half that number 
 has been incurred, as by the regulation he is required 
 to do. 
 
 In an ordinary recitation, the presiding officer himself 
 marks the absent or tardy ones, but in the chapel, or at 
 lecture, or anything of the sort, where a whole class is 
 assembled, that duty is performed by "monitors." 
 There are three of these in each class, indigent stu 
 dents of good character, who receive a small stipend for 
 their trouble. There is no implied degradation of any 
 sort attached to the office, and a monitor is never looked 
 upon by the students in the light of a spy or informer 
 for the faculty. Each monitor is supplied with a book 
 in which are printed the names and seats of those for 
 whom he is to give account. In the space following 
 each name he marks a perpendicular line, if the man be 
 present, a horizontal one if he be tardy, and in case of 
 absence he simply leaves a blank. He then dates the 
 report, tears from the book the page or pages contain 
 ing it, and at the close of the exercise hands it in to the 
 proper officer. Inside the front cover of the book are 
 printed the rules which the monitor pledges himself to 
 obey. A special monitor does duty in the choir, and all 
 who belong to that organization are allowed a minimum 
 of 32 and a maximum of 74 marks, in place of the 16 
 and 48 which limit the boundaries of the " course of 
 discipline " in the case of the others. Thirty years ago, 
 all the monitors were chosen from the senior class, and 
 the office was conferred as a sort of reward for high 
 scholarship. 
 
 " No students are considered regular members of col 
 lege, till, after a residence of at least six months, they 
 have been admitted to matriculation on satisfactory evi- 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 577 
 
 clence of good moral character." So says the formula. 
 The satisfactory evidence consists in a man s staying at 
 the college for six successive months without having six 
 teen marks charged against him at any one time. Sup 
 pose at the end of the first term freshman he has fifteen, 
 he begins the second term with three, and quickly mak 
 ing up the canceled dozen, he has incurred twenty-seven 
 marks in all, but as only fifteen stand against him at the 
 end of six months, his character is considered satisfac 
 torily moral, and he is matriculated. Suppose another 
 one, who went with a clean score through the first term, 
 incurs just sixteen marks during the second, or eleven 
 less than our moral friend, he cannot be matriculated. 
 Toward the close of the second term freshman, then, or 
 at the beginning of the third, all those who have not 
 received over fifteen marks are summoned, in squads of a 
 dozen, to appear before the senior tutor, who reads from 
 his book the following oath : " I promise, on condition 
 of being admitted as a member of Yale College, on my 
 faith and honor, to obey all the laws and regulations of 
 this college ; particularly that I will faithfully avoid in 
 temperance, profanity, gaming, and all indecent, disor 
 derly behavior, and disrespectful conduct to the faculty, 
 and all combinations to resist their authority ; as wit 
 ness my hand." Each "candidate" then signs his name 
 in the book, and the farce is at an end. Perhaps two- 
 thirds of the class are wise enough to keep down their 
 marks during the early months of their course, and so 
 get matriculated at this first opportunity. Other names 
 straggle into the book at various times for the next 
 three years, and the last few of each class are generally 
 thought moral enough to sign, after their long probation, 
 in spite of being on a very " advanced stage of disci 
 pline" in the matter of marks. It is always good policy 
 for a Freshman so to conduct himself as to get matricu- 
 
 26 
 
57 8 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 lated with the first, for the difficulty of keeping off from 
 the " course of dscipline" for six successive months con 
 stantly increases as the terms go by ; and as the thing 
 must be done sometime before graduation, it is well to 
 have it ofT one s mind as early as possible. The only 
 difference in the treatment of a " matriculated" and a 
 " probationary" student seems to be that in a " tight 
 place" the former has a slight advantage and is apt to be 
 treated a little more leniently. 
 
 Scholarship is marked upon a scale of 4, which repre 
 sents "perfection." The "average" mark is 2, which 
 represents the lowest stand on which a man can keep in 
 the class and graduate, " stand" being the ordinary 
 term for rank, or scholarship, as marked on the books of 
 the faculty. The gradations from o up to 4 are by hun- 
 dredths, and a man is said to have a stand*of 2.85, 3.20 
 and so on, as the case may be. Occasionally the divis 
 ion-master copies off from the books of his associates, 
 the stands of his division in the other departments, and 
 if he finds any of his men below average in any branch 
 he warns them to improve at once in it. If a man gets 
 very low in one or more studies he may be suspended, 
 and advised to cram up under a private tutor. As 
 already stated, if the mark of the term examination 
 combined with that of the term brings one s stand in 
 any study below average, he is conditioned on that study. 
 If he passes his conditions satisfactorily, well and good ; 
 but his stand in the study remains unchanged. A con 
 dition is always in the nature of a penalty; and hence 
 if a man make up at 3.25 a condition on an examina 
 tion of which he had failed at i.^o, the lower mark 
 would alone be regarded in deciding his stand for the 
 term. The work of a term examination counts as one- 
 fifth, one-sixth, one-seventh, or some other proportion 
 that the individual examiner may think good, of the sum 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 579 
 
 of the marks of the term recitations ; and when the 
 recitation marks and examination marks of all the 
 studies of a term are combined together, the resulting 
 average indicates a man s general stand for that term. 
 The stand is placed on permanent record, as also the 
 stand gained by averaging all the marks < a single 
 Annual. By combining the three term stands with the 
 Animal stand the latter counting as about one-fourth of 
 the sum of the three former the general stand for the year 
 is derived ; except that in senior year the stand of the 
 last term is joined with that of the Annual ; and by a 
 final combination of the four year-stands the general 
 stand for the entire course is at last made out. 
 
 The highest stands ever gained were in 63, when the 
 valedictorian had 3.71 and the salutatorian 3.67. The 
 valedictorian of the year before had 3.62; of 6 1, 3. 58; 
 f 57> 3-57 \ which were in each case the highest stands 
 ever gained. The inference that the standard of schol 
 arship is increasing may or may not be true ; but when 
 the four years observations and decisions of many differ 
 ent instructors are figured down to such a very fine 
 point that they may be expressed by a single numeral, 
 it is well enough not to put too implicit a confidence in 
 the absolute significance of the same, or of the varia 
 tion of a few hundredths in stands accredited to differ 
 ent classes. On the day after Presentation, on applica 
 tion at the treasurer s office, each member of the 
 graduating class receives a paper on which is indicated 
 his stand for the course, and for every year and term of 
 it, made out according to the system just described. 
 Up to that time he is kept in ignorance of the exact 
 figures standing opposite his name in the books of the 
 faculty. If he apply to his division-officer for enlighten 
 ment, he is given some such general information as that 
 he is doing well, or very well, or improving, or falling off 
 
5 So FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 a little, or doing poorly ; unless he happens to be very 
 low, when he is told the exact number of hundredths he 
 has, above or below average. At the close of the first 
 term junior, the appointments for Junior Exhibition are 
 given out, and those who receive them about half the 
 class thus learn their relative though not their absolute 
 rank. A somewhat similar procedure is gone through 
 with at the close of the first sophomore term, when 
 their relative stands, up to that time are privately told 
 those who apply for them. 
 
 Absence from recitation is marked as a failure, unless 
 it be excused and the omitted lessons be subsequently 
 made up. Each instructor appoints certain times in the 
 week for the making up of omitted recitations in his 
 department, and calls up those who attend in the order in 
 which they hand in their papers. On the paper the 
 student marks the beginning and end of each lesson he 
 wishes to make up, and the date of its omission ; but if 
 he is to make up the work of a whole week or more he 
 merely states the dates of the first and last omitted 
 exercise, and the extent of ground gone over from the 
 beginning of the first to the end of the last one. The 
 time appointed for the hearing of the back lessons is 
 usually just at the close of the morning or noon recita 
 tion ; and as soon as the latter is dismissed those who 
 have work to do rush to the desk, with the papers which 
 they have previously made ready, in order to secure 
 early notice, and be delayed as little as possible. All 
 lessons must be made up within two weeks from the 
 day they were omitted, though the time may be extended 
 by excuses until two weeks from the beginning of the 
 following term, and, in practice, as much later as the 
 good nature of the division-master will allow. When a 
 man is absent for a term, in addition to the usual term- 
 examination of the class, he is required to pass a special 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 581 
 
 private examination before each instructor, and the mark 
 which he then receives counts as an equivalent for the 
 sum of all the marks he would have received at the 
 recitations of the term. 
 
 Excuses for absence or failure have to be given in 
 writing, with the name of the applicant subscribed, and 
 to be handed in before the Tuesday night next following 
 his return to his duties, or the commission of his 
 offense. Later excuses may be granted, but one mark 
 a day may be charged for tardiness in handing them in. 
 A similar penalty may be inflicted in the case of church- 
 papers delayed beyond Tuesday night. A church-paper 
 is a certificate that a man, who has been excused from 
 the chapel, has attended services in a particular church 
 elsewhere during the forenoon and afternoon of Sun 
 day, and has remained there in each case from the 
 opening to the close of the exercises. Blanks worded 
 to this effect with the additional clause in the case of 
 Trinity church that the subscriber " occupied the seat 
 assigned him by the faculty " always lie upon each 
 instructor s desk, and can be signed and dated with but 
 little trouble. Regular chapel-goers who attend church 
 elsewhere on the two half-Sundays allowed them each 
 term, draw their church papers from the tutor who has 
 charge of the matter for all college. During the half- 
 hour preceding each service, he is obliged to stay at his 
 room and sign blank permits for those who apply for 
 them, giving leave to such a person, of such a class, to 
 be absent from the chapel, on that particular forenoon 
 or afternoon, for the purpose of attending service else 
 where. Connected with the permit is another blank 
 which the recipient fills out and signs, to certify the fact 
 that on that particular occasion he did attend the ser 
 vices at a particular church, from the opening to the end 
 of the same. 
 
582 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 On the officers desks are also kept a quantity of 
 " excuse papers," or blank sheets for the writing of 
 excuses, at the head of which sheets are printed certain 
 precautionary directions as to the manner in which ex 
 cuses must be worded. The regulations as they appear 
 in the book of college laws are as follows: "Excuses 
 shall not be granted on the following grounds : not 
 hearing the bell ; being out late on the preceding even 
 ing; being overtaken with sleep after studying the 
 lesson ; difficulty of the exercise and reluctance to attend 
 and fail ; writing letters or preparing college or society 
 exercises ; walking or riding abroad and being unable 
 to return in time ; arranging room at the commencement 
 of the term ; mislaying books or articles of apparel ; 
 interruption by students or persons from abroad ; indis 
 position, when the student is not prevented by illness 
 from walking abroad. If these excuses are ever ad 
 mitted, it must be from some peculiarity in the circum 
 stances of the case ; and if the excuse of * indisposition 
 shall be frequently given, such cases shall be reported 
 to the faculty." These prohibitions apply to excuses 
 offered " after the fact," since, for some of the reasons 
 given, leave of absence is freely granted, if asked for 
 in advance. " For absence or failure, when the neces 
 sity can be foreseen, permission must be sought before 
 hand from the division officer, or in his absence from 
 some other instructor of the class, or in their absence 
 from some other officer of the college : otherwise the 
 excuse can rarely be accepted." The reason for reject- 
 in": a "sick excuse " from a man who was not confined 
 
 o 
 
 to his room is, of course, that, since he was able to 
 walk abroad, he could have visited the proper officer 
 and gained his excuse in advance. 
 
 Leave of absence from town for a week or less may 
 be granted by the division-officer ; for more than a 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 5 8 3 
 
 week by the president, at the written request of that 
 officer, with whom the applicant must afterwards lodge 
 the written permit granted him by the president. If a 
 man takes out a leave for a longer time than a week, 
 notice of the fact, and of the reason for it, is sent to 
 his parent or guardian. No leave of absence is granted 
 for a longer period than four months, except for ill- 
 health, or to join a lower class. A man is sometimes 
 suspended for a whole year, however, on account of 
 misconduct, and ultimately received back into his class, 
 but such cases are uncommon. No person who is sus 
 pended, or given a leave of absence, is allowed to remain 
 in New Haven while the college is in session, and if a 
 person who is excused to go away for two or three days 
 returns before his leave has expired, he must at once 
 begin attendance upon the college exercises. If he stays 
 beyond the time allowed him, or is not present at the 
 opening of the term, unless he can bring some accept 
 able written excuse, signed by his parent or other 
 accredited person, " he may be punished by a fine not 
 exceeding fifty cents a day, or by censure, or by deduc 
 tion from the standing, at the discretion of the faculty." 
 " Permission to be absent from the college exercises for 
 the purpose of attending friends, shall be given only 
 when they are from abroad and are to leave town so 
 speedily as to make such attendance indispensable." 
 In addition to the eight marks inflicted for cutting Sun 
 day service, a " warning " is also given, accompanied 
 by a "letter home." Warnings are also inflicted for 
 other serious misdemeanors, such as skinning at 
 examination, and three of them in succession result in 
 removal from college. Letters home are also sent on 
 other occasions than those mentioned ; as when a man 
 is getting low in his studies, or is suspended, or con 
 ditioned, or dropped. 
 
584 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 The score-book in which each instructor enters the 
 merit-mark of every recitation which he hears, and also 
 copies the stands of his division in other departments, 
 and keeps account of the number of marks by which 
 they are progressing on " the course of discipline " is 
 a curious little affair, made specially for the purpose, of 
 stiff white paper, ruled in black into minute squares. 
 On each of these squares a merit-mark is indicated by 
 a peculiar system of notation, known only to the officer, 
 so that if by chance a student should get hold of the 
 score-book of his division he would not be able to make 
 out very closely the significance of the hieroglyphics 
 contained therein. These are mostly straight lines, 
 drawn at various angles from the various sides of the 
 square, and made to signify, according to their position, 
 " 2.25," "3.50," or any other gradation from o up to 4, 
 in steps of twenty-five hundredths. The scheme is no 
 ticeable as furnishing another illustration of the mystery 
 which constantly surrounds a man s stand to the very 
 end of the course. 
 
 It is seen, from what has been said, that the- enforce 
 ment of order and discipline is left in the hands of the 
 division officers, and nine out of ten of the students ac 
 cept their rulings as final, and never have anything to 
 say regarding the subject either with the president or 
 other members of the faculty. When a man thinks him 
 self aggrieved, however, he can appeal from his division 
 master to the other instructors of his class, or call upon 
 some higher professor, or even the president, to intercede 
 in his behalf before the general faculty. When a par 
 ticular misdemeanor has been expressly taken cognizance 
 of by the faculty, an individual may be summoned before 
 them at their weekly assembly to give an account of 
 himself; or ; when a penalty has been decreed or is 
 impending, he may be granted permission to attend 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 5^5 
 
 their meeting and plead his case in person. Sometimes 
 a plea of this sort is made by letter, addressed to the 
 faculty, and read by the petitioner s division-master. In 
 cases where character has anything to do with mitigating 
 an offense, or lightening the sentence of an offender, 
 discussed in faculty meeting, the opinions of the class 
 instructors, who alone have personal acquaintance with 
 the rrfan, generally decide the matter, as the rest of the 
 faculty naturally vote according to their advice. 
 
 A few days after the Freshmen begin their duties, 
 there is distributed among them a printed sheet of the 
 "regulations," in regard to excuses, church going, marks, 
 discipline, making-up, etc., such as have been mentioned 
 and quoted from in this chapter. These rules are really 
 significant, and the enforcement of them is insisted upon. 
 But, before the close of the term, there is also given out 
 a more comprehensive collection, in the shape of a 
 pamphlet entitled "The Laws of Yale College," to a 
 large share of which laws obedience, or even the show 
 of it, is no longer exacted. When it is remembered 
 that every matriculated student promises "on his faith 
 and honor " to obey rt//the laws of the college, the con 
 scientious care with which he keeps his matriculation 
 oath may be imagined. 
 
 What the government and discipline were in the old 
 times, the earlier editions of the laws help to indicate. 
 When the college was first established, the trustees 
 instructed the rector to govern it according to the laws 
 in use at Harvard, and those of Oxford and Cam 
 bridge from which they were in part copied, so far as 
 no other provision had been made. " The earliest known 
 laws of the college belong to the years 1720 and 1726, 
 and are in manuscript ; which is explained by the cus 
 tom that every Freshman, on his admission, was required 
 to write off a copy of them for himself, to which the 
 
 26* 
 
5^6 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 admittatur of the officers was subscribed. In the 
 year 1745, President Clap completed a new revision of 
 the laws, which exists in manuscript ; but the first 
 printed code was in Latin, and was issued from the press 
 of T. Green at New London in 1748. Various editions 
 with sundry changes in them appeared between that 
 time and 1774, when the first edition in English saw 
 the light. This is said to have been printed fo r the 
 benefit of the Legislature, who wished to examine the 
 laws of the college before complying with its request for 
 more money, and did not care to pursue their investiga 
 tions through the medium of a dead language. From 
 that time, the numberless editions of the laws have all 
 been in the English tongue." So long as they were 
 printed in Latin, a copy was given to each Freshman as 
 soon as he had completed his entrance examination, and 
 to this copy were attached two blanks, the first of which 
 was filled out on application to the steward, who certi 
 fied that " the bond required by these laws" had been 
 given to him by such a candidate for admission ; which 
 candidate then applied to the president and tutors, who 
 filled out the second form, to certify that he was admitted 
 to the college. 
 
 " The old system of discipline may be described in 
 general as consisting of a series of minor punishments 
 for various petty offenses, while the more extreme 
 measure of separating a student from college seems not 
 to have been usually adopted until long forbearance had 
 been found fruitless, even in cases which would now be 
 visited in all American colleges with speedy dismission. 
 The chief of these punishments named in the laws are 
 imposition of school exercises ; deprivation of the priv 
 ilege of sending Freshmen upon errands, or extension 
 of the period during which this servitude should be 
 required beyond the end of freshman year ; fines, either 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 587 
 
 specified, of which there are a very great number in the 
 earlier laws, or arbitrarily imposed by the officers ; admo 
 nition and degradation. For the common offense of 
 mischievously ringing the bell, students were sometimes 
 required to act as the butler s waiters in ringing the 
 bell for a certain time. In 1748, there were fines of a 
 penny for absence and a half-penny for tardiness at 
 prayers ; of fourpence for absence from public worship ; 
 of from two to sixpence for absence from one s chamber 
 during the time of study ; of one shilling for picking 
 open a lock the first time and two shillings for the sec 
 ond ; of two shillings and sixpence for playing at cards 
 or dice or bringing strong liquor into college ; of one 
 shilling for doing damage to the college, or jumping out 
 of the windows ; and so on in many other cases. An 
 outcry was made, a dozen years later, against the injus 
 tice and ill effects of this plan, and the general infliction 
 of money penalties gradually became obsolete. 
 
 " The punishment of degradation, laid aside not very 
 long before the beginning of the Revolutionary war, was 
 still more characteristic of the times. It \vas a method 
 of acting upon the aristocratic feelings of family ; and 
 we at this day can hardly conceive to what extent the 
 social distinctions were then acknowledged and cher 
 ished. In the manuscript laws of the infant college is 
 the following regulation, borrowed from an early ordi 
 nance of Harvard : * Every student shall be called by 
 his sir name, except he be the son of a nobleman, or a 
 knight s eldest son. I know not whether such a one 
 ever received the honors of the college, but a kind of 
 colonial untitled aristocracy grew up, composed of the 
 families of chief magistrates, and of other civilians and 
 ministers. In the second year of college life, precedency 
 according to the aristocratic scale was determined, and 
 the arrangement of the names on the class roll was in 
 
588 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 accordance. This being the principle of rank, degrada 
 tion consisted in placing a student on the list, in conse 
 quence of some offense, below the level to which his 
 father s condition would assign him, thus declaring 
 that he had disgraced his family. This seems to have 
 been a somewhat severe punishment, and one not often 
 inflicted." Still another punishment, known to the first 
 fifty years of the college, was the i( good old-fashioned" 
 one of personal chastisement. The culprit was sum 
 moned before the president, and boxed on the ears by 
 him, in the presence of all college. This boxing or 
 cuffing seems not to have been inflicted later than the 
 first part of sophomore year. Public admonitions, con 
 fessions, and apologies were also very common in those 
 days. 
 
 The idea at the bottom of the present marking system 
 is this, that if students regularly attend the appointed 
 exercises of the college, and fulfil their duties well 
 enough to keep above a certain average in their studies, 
 they supply a satisfactory presumption of good behavior 
 in private, and may be safely left to their own devices. 
 Where a man is, or what he is doing, outside the hours 
 when his presence is required at recitation, lecture, or 
 chapel, the faculty make no effort to enquire. The 
 " paternal" theory of government is not much insisted 
 on by them. Of course, if grave breaches of morality, 
 or violations of the civil law come to their notice, they 
 have to inflict a penalty therefor ; but they are not on 
 the watch for such cases, there is no spy system con 
 nected with the college. Unless evidence is offered to 
 the contrary, the good behavior of the students is taken 
 for granted, and they are let alone. " Keep your stand 
 above two, and- your marks below forty-eight," say the 
 authorities, in effect, "and we will insist upon nothing 
 more." 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 5 8 9 
 
 Before closing the chapter, mention should be made 
 of a recent change in the mode of dividing the classes, 
 which, though thus far an avowed experiment, may not 
 unlikely be permanently retained. It consists in form 
 ing the divisions according to scholarship, instead of 
 alphabetically ; bringing the best scholars of the class 
 into the first division, the next best into the second, and 
 so on for the others. Occasionally, say once a term, 
 the stands are overhauled, and those who have improved 
 sufficiently are advanced to a higher division, and those 
 who have fallen off are put back into a lower one. In 
 this way it is expected that a constant incentive to effort 
 will be supplied, and that the poor scholars will be pre 
 vented from impeding the good ones, as under the old 
 system they were to some extent apt to do. The first 
 division, of best scholars, are now left free to go over 
 more ground than is required of the third or fourth 
 division, of poorest scholars, upon a given subject; and 
 every division can receive the kind of instruction best 
 adapted to its capacities. Sixty-nine was the last class 
 which went through the course on the old democratic 
 basis of the alphabet. Each of the two succeeding 
 classes were experimented upon under the new plan, 
 but 72 was the first class to which it was applied sys 
 tematically from the outset. That is to say, at the 
 beginning of the second freshman term, the class, pre 
 viously arranged alphabetically, was divided according 
 to rank, and a new allotment made at the close of each 
 subsequent term till the close of junior year. In senior 
 year the class is divided in two alphabetical divisions, 
 the same as under the old system. There seems to be 
 little doubt that the results of the new arrangement upon 
 the members of the first divisions are beneficial, but its 
 ultimate effect*upon the poorer scholars, and upon class 
 unity and patriotism in general, may perhaps not be so 
 favorable. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 II O N O R S . 
 
 Appointments for Junior Exhibition and Commencement How 
 they are Determined and Announced The Amount of Exertion 
 which they Call Forth Stand, as Popularly Regarded 
 " Scholars of the House "The Berkeley Scholarship Sheldon 
 Clark, and his Donations The Bristed Scholarship Fresh 
 man Scholarships: Woolsey, Hurlbut, and Runk DeForest 
 Scholarship, for Modern Languages Beneficiary Funds The 
 Harmer Foundation The DeForest Fund Premiums for 
 Translation and Latin Composition Miscellaneous Clark 
 Awards Prizes in Astronomy and Mathematics Declamation 
 Prizes : Old and New Modes of Awarding Them Prizes for 
 English Composition Prize Poems New Mode of Awarding 
 the Composition Prizes" Honorary Mentions " for the Seniors 
 The Townscnd Premiums, and the DeForest Medal Speak 
 ing for the Prize Statistics of the DeForest Men Total 
 Prize and Scholarship Funds of the College General Effects of 
 the Honor System. 
 
 The "honors" which are held out as an inducement 
 for scholastic effort are chiefly in the form of " appoint 
 ments " for the two public occasions, Junior Exhibition 
 and Commencement. In the old times, all who received 
 appointments were expected to take part in these exhi 
 bitions, but now only a small portion of them do so. 
 Except in a few cases, the names of the appointments 
 are simply significant of rank, and not, as formerly, 
 indicative of the different kinds of speeches delivered 
 by their recipients. The appointments fall under four 
 general titles : " orations," " dissertations," " disputes," 
 and "colloquies." The first of these are divided into 
 common, " high," and "philosophical" orations. The 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 59 * 
 
 highest of the latter, and the highest appointment given, 
 is the "Valedictory" oration of Commencement, and 
 the next highest is the " Salutatory " oration of this same 
 occasion. These titles are significant of the character 
 of the speeches which they represent. The number of 
 " philosophical, " in addition to the two which are 
 specially named, is rarely three, usually two, and some 
 times only one. There is only one sort of " disserta 
 tion," but the " disputes " and . " colloquies " are each 
 divided into " first " and " second," and formerly even 
 into " third " also. Junior Exhibition is held on the 
 last Wednesday of the second term, and the appoint 
 ments are given out at the close of the term before, 
 being based on the scholarship of the first seven terms 
 of the course. The last of the term examinations are 
 held on Tuesday morning, and at the faculty meeting of 
 the afternoon, the marks are all averaged and the 
 appointments finally decided upon. Formerly it was 
 customary to give the list, late in the evening, to the 
 senior tutor, with instructions to make .its contents 
 public, on the following morning, to all who might 
 enquire concerning it. At a very early hour some Junior 
 would call on the tutor, and obtain the list, and read it 
 aloud from the chapel steps to his assembled class- 
 mates ; and perhaps afterwards nail it up on the Lyceum 
 door. It is about ten years, however, since this practice 
 was abandoned, and now-a-days the Juniors usually get 
 their first knowledge of the appointments from the city 
 newspapers. There are eight divisions in the list, under 
 each of which the names are arranged alphabetically, 
 and not according to stand : philosophical orations, high 
 orations, orations, dissertations, first disputes, second 
 disputes, first colloquies, and second colloquies. The 
 Commencement appointments have been hitherto an 
 nounced on the morning following Presentation Day, 
 
592 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 when the stands of the entire class are also given out, in 
 the manner already stated. Formerly, when the list 
 was nailed on the Lyceum door, a crowd used to 
 assemble to discuss it, but now there is comparatively 
 little interest in the final summing up, and most are 
 content to get their first knowledge of it from the lists 
 printed in the papers. The names are arranged from 
 first to last according to stand, and not alphabetically 
 under the different grades, as in junior year. If two or 
 more have exactly the same mark they are bracketed 
 together. The valedictory, salutatory, and philosophical 
 orations are separately noted, and the colloquies are 
 not divided into " first " and " second " like the disputes. 
 The stand indicated by a particular appointment is a 
 comparative rather than an absolute one. For instance, 
 the same mark that in one class gives a man a " disser 
 tation " might give him an oration in another ; the 
 highest of the non-appointment men in one class might 
 be given colloquies in another ; and the reverse. The 
 "Valedictorian" is simply the "best scholar in his 
 class," whatever be his stand, and the "Salutatorian " 
 is in like manner the " second best." No one ever 
 speaks of valedictorian or salutatorian stands. The 
 highest stand known is that of "philosophical," and 
 those who possess it are all supposed to have a chance 
 of obtaining the two highest honors, though the par 
 ticular individuals who have the best chance of obtain 
 ing them can generally be guessed at pretty accurately. 
 It is a common thing to hear a person say that in a 
 particular study he "has a colloquy stand," that in a 
 certain examination he " passed at an oration stand," 
 and so on ; since the instructors will usually tell an 
 applicant the general title of the stand with which he is 
 accredited, though not the exact numeral which repre 
 sents it. This general stand can usually be determined 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 593 
 
 accurately enough by the instructor, though when the 
 appointments are actually made out, the exact place of 
 drawing the line between two particular grades is not 
 decided by an invariable rule. It is always intended to 
 make the division between two individuals whose stands 
 differ widely, not between two who are almost equal in 
 rank ; and thus, as before observed, the same mark in 
 different classes might bring its possessors under dif 
 ferent grades on the honor list. Nevertheless the 
 appointment lists and their various divisions may be made 
 to serve fairly enough in comparing successive classes. 
 About half of a class generally receive appointments, 
 and the number of them slightly increases from Junior 
 Ex to Commencement, though the class itself decreases. 
 For the most part, the same individuals figure on both 
 lists, though their relative positions are somewhat 
 changed, especially those of the low-appointment men. 
 The lowest stand that will ensure a man a "colloquy" 
 is about 2.55 and between this point and 2 remain about 
 half the class, nearly all of whom have no higher ambi 
 tion than simply to keep up to the latter figure, that is 
 to say, " above average." Among the very highest of 
 the appointment men, there is often considerable 
 rivalry, two or three aspirants for the first place some 
 times pressing one another quite closely for many suc 
 cessive terms, and holders of " high " orations \vorking 
 ambitiously for u philosophical ", but the rest of them, 
 after getting a certain appointment which they have 
 aimed for, are usually content simply to "keep up their 
 stands." It may be an "oration," or a "dispute," or 
 only a " colloquy " which they have decided to strive 
 for, but when the desired stand has been secured they 
 seldom have any higher ambition. On the other hand, 
 there are a few, even among the lowest, who are always 
 " cramming for a higher stand." 
 
594 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 This matter of rank in scholarship, however, is not 
 one which excites any vital interest in college. Stand, 
 in the abstract, is a thing which is laughed at by the 
 great body of the students, including the good scholars 
 as well as the poor ones. Most who receive appoint 
 ments profess to make light of them, and the colloquy 
 men in particular are the objects of much good-natured 
 ridicule at the hands of their friends. Every one is in 
 terested in having every one else keep " above average," 
 also in guessing who the Valedictorian will be, and per 
 haps in remembering the names of a few others who 
 stand near the head of the class ; but beyond this he 
 cares little or nothing about the matter of rank, except 
 as it concerns himself. The junior appointments are 
 talked over for a day or two after their announcement, 
 and are then forgotten by all but the parties interested. 
 Ask a man as to the stand of any classmate, and he will 
 probably be able to tell you whether he belongs to the 
 upper (appointment) or lower (non-appointment) half of 
 the class, and even to make further vague approxima 
 tions to his rank ; but the particular name which it goes 
 by he will not be likely to know. To " talk stand " 
 that is, to make the rank and recitation-marks of various 
 men a topic for extended conversation, to seriously com 
 pare their "chances," and so on is, in college estima 
 tion, to show signs of a weak and disordered intellect. 
 It is making much of trifles ; it is taking a joke in 
 earnest ; and the number of those who habitually indulge 
 in the practice is very small indeed. The feeling of 
 contempt for such persons, arises from a general disbe 
 lief in stand as an absolute criterion of merit. The 
 larger part of the college community judge of ability in 
 other ways. One who is in their judgment a "good 
 man," they think the more highly of for being a good 
 scholar and high-stand man also ; but they will not 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 595 
 
 accept stand alone either as proof of real scholarship, 
 or as a substitute for ability in other directions. To be 
 distinctively a " high-stand man," one must have an 
 "oration" of some sort ; as all the inferior grades are 
 commonly spoken of as "the low appointments." In 
 four recent classes, the appointments given out at Junior 
 Exhibition and Commencement numbered, respectively, 
 in 66, 49 and 45 ; in 67, 59 and 63 ; in 68, 74 and 75; 
 and in 69, 57 and 60. The latter class graduated 117, 
 or about a dozen more than the average of the others. 
 In 69, the three additional Commencement appoint 
 ments were given to men who entered the class with 
 junior year, and who, on account of short connection 
 with the college, were allowed no junior appointments, 
 although their stands for the term s work were high 
 enough to deserve them. When a man drops into a 
 lower class, he is allowed either to begin with a clean 
 score, or to be credited with the stand won in the class 
 with which he was first connected. 
 
 Of more substantial value than the places on the 
 appointment list are the positions of " Scholars of the 
 House," as the holders of the various scholarships are 
 termed, though the name is strictly applicable only to 
 those who are on the oldest " foundation." This is the 
 scholarship founded in 1733 by Rev. George Berkeley, 
 D.D., dean of Derry and bishop of Cloyne, in Ireland, 
 who was in other ways one of the chief earlier patrons 
 of the college. Eight years before the date mentioned, 
 he conceived a project for the establishment of a college 
 at Bermuda and issued a pamphlet in explanation of the 
 matter, in which pamphlet, it may be remarked, were 
 included the well-known verses, " Westward the Star of 
 Empire takes its way," etc. He then came to America 
 with a view of putting his plans into execution, but after 
 a residence of several years at Newport he became con- 
 
59 6 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 vincecl of their impracticability, and so, as a substitute 
 for his original scheme, decided to give to Yale a deed 
 of his farm at Newport, " to be held for the encourage 
 ment of classical literature." By the conditions of the 
 bequest, the rents accruing from the farm are to be ap 
 propriated to the maintainance of three students, who 
 shall be called " Scholars of the House," during the 
 three years between their first and second degrees, dur 
 ing three-fourths of each of which years they are to 
 reside in New Haven. The examination is held on 
 the 6th of May, or if that be Sunday on the yth, and 
 comprises two hours of the forenoon, devoted to the 
 Greek Testament, Homer s Iliad, and Xenophon s Cyro- 
 psedia, or the first book of Thucydides ; and two hours 
 of the afternoon, devoted to Cicero s Tusculan Questions, 
 Tacitus (except the Annals) and Horace. In the year 
 1769, the farm was leased for a term of 999 years, at an 
 annual rent of 100 oz. of silver for the first 20 years, of 
 126 oz. for the 30 years following, and thence to the 
 end of the term of 240 bushels of wheat. This has since 
 been changed to $140, which is the full amount paid to 
 each Berkeleian scholar, at the rate of about $46 a year. 
 Of course there could be but one scholar from each 
 class, upon this foundation, did each comply with the 
 condition of residence for the full term, but as there are 
 frequent failures in this respect, in many classes there 
 have been two or three or even four " Berkeleians." In 
 all there have been 240 such scholars, or an average of 
 about two to a class, since in twenty classes no scholar 
 ships were taken. The funds accruing from such 
 vacancies, or from forfeiture by non-residence, have been 
 partly expended, as stated, in the support of additional 
 scholars, and partly in conferring premiums for Latin 
 composition. In the old times, the scholarship was 
 called " the dean s bounty/ and the incumbent of it 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 597 
 
 " the dean s scholar " ; and an old manuscript volume 
 is in possession of the college in which are inscribed the 
 autographs of all the scholars, and recipients of the lesser 
 premiums, up to the close of the last century. Formerly 
 there were many contestants for this " bounty," but in 
 these days the competition is very slight, and a Theo- 
 logue usually carries off the prize. In the published 
 lists of " Berkeleians," no indication is made of the 
 ones who earned the full amount of the " bounty " by a 
 three years residence ; but they probably do not com 
 prise more than a fourth of the entire number. Berkeley, 
 to whom his friend Pope ascribed " every virtue under 
 heaven," was born in Kilkenny in 1684 and died at 
 Oxford in 1753. The collection of 1000 books which 
 he gave the college, when he abandoned his Bermuda 
 project, in 1733, was said to be the finest which, up to 
 that period, had been brought to America at any one 
 time, and was valued at nearly 500 sterling. 
 
 The next scholarship in the college was founded 
 nearly a century after the learned bishop s donation, and 
 by a very different sort of a person Sheldon Clark, a 
 farmer, who was born at Oxford, a small town in the 
 vicinity of New Haven, January 31, 1785, and died 
 there April 10, 1840. At the age of 26 by the death 
 of his grandfather, on whom he had been dependent, 
 and by whose penuriousness he had been prevented 
 from getting a liberal education he was left heir to a 
 moderate estate, and came up to New Haven to gain 
 what advantage he might from intercourse with the col 
 lege professors and attendance upon their lectures. 
 After holding this half-way connection with the college 
 for a short time, he went back to his farm, and ever 
 after lived very economically, for the express purpose of 
 laying up money that should cause his name to be re 
 membered as a promoter of learning. " He read and 
 
59 8 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 thought constantly, and wrote much, especially on moral 
 questions, and was excessively fond of argumentation. 
 Some of his productions were printed. He was widely 
 respected, and was several times elected to the State 
 Legislature." In 1823, June 10, after a year spent in 
 arranging details, he gave to the college $5000, to be 
 placed at compound interest for 24 years, for the estab 
 lishment of a professorship. This he afterwards decided 
 should be that of Moral Philosophy and Metaphysics ; 
 and accordingly, in 1846, when the endowment was com 
 pleted, the present incumbent was elected to enter upon 
 the duties of that chair. But it \vas in September, 1824, 
 that the " Clark scholarships" were commenced, by the 
 gift of $1000, to be placed at compound interest for 24 
 years, dating from June 10, of that year. In 1848, 
 $4000 of the sum resulting was to be set apart for the 
 support of two equal scholarships. " The best scholar 
 in the senior class was to be chosen by a special exami 
 nation, cases of equal merit being determined by lot, 
 and was to enjoy the interest of $2000 for two years, 
 upon condition of pursuing a course of study (not pro 
 fessional), under the direction of the faculty, and of 
 residing in New Haven nine months each year. If no 
 scholarship was conferred, the income was to be appro 
 priated for premiums for the encouragement of English 
 Composition, or other branches of learning among the 
 undergraduates" ; the corporation, however, were to be 
 allowed to exercise their own discretion in making 
 changes in all these regulations ; but thus far the direc 
 tions of the donor, as just indicated, have been strictly 
 followed. Every class, from 48 to 71, has had its 
 " Clark scholar," though in many, perhaps half, of these 
 cases he has not resided in New Haven and been " on 
 the foundation" for more than a single year, and hence 
 a large surplus has been derived from the fund for dis- 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 599 
 
 tribution in the shape of minor premiums for various 
 things. By his will, this patron of the college also gave 
 it the bulk of his property, consisting of $7000 in money, 
 and 400 acres of land, valued at as much more. This, 
 however, cannot be sold, and brings an annual rent of 
 $500. To his other gifts should be added that of a tel 
 escope, worth $1200, to replace the one lost in 1822 by 
 the shipwreck of the "Albion." Of the 22 who have 
 enjoyed the Clark scholarship, in the classes 48 to 69 
 (excluding the first or honorary winner of it in the class 
 of 60), the society connections were, in freshman year, 
 13 with Delta Kap, 7 with Sigma Eps, and 2 with 
 Gamma Nu ; in junior year, 6 with Delta Phi, 5 with 
 Psi U, and 4 with DKE ; while 7 were neutrals. In 
 senior year, n of them were neutrals, 10 were Bones 
 men, and one was a Digger. 
 
 Third upon the list is the "Bristed scholarship," which 
 was founded in 1848 by Charles Astor Bristed of 39, 
 and which yields an annual income of about $100. The 
 examination, which must begin within three weeks after 
 the opening of the third term, and must be open to any 
 member of the junior or sophomore class, extends 
 through a period of three days, embracing six sessions 
 of three hours each. It " shall consist chiefly of printed 
 papers to be answered in writing the viva voce part 
 shall not be more than one eighth, and the classical 
 papers shall count twice as much as the mathematical. 
 The former shall include extracts from Homer, Cicero, 
 Virgil, Horace, Catullus, and Lucretius, with critical 
 questions on the passages set, and translation from 
 English prose into Latin prose ; and may include ex 
 tracts from other classical authors, questions in Ancient 
 History, and translation from English prose into Greek 
 prose, at the option of the examiners, but no original 
 composition in Latin or Greek. The mathematical 
 
6oo FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 papers shall always include three propositions in Euclid, 
 taken from the first four books and the sixth book. 
 The scholarship shall be tenable till the regular time of 
 taking the degree of M.A., one third of the annual pay 
 ment to be forfeited by non residence in New Haven. 
 The scholar shall not be deprived of his scholarship for 
 any offense short of one involving expulsion, but if rus 
 ticated or suspended shall forfeit the proceeds during 
 the time of his rustication or suspension ; and all forfeits 
 shall be added to the principal sum. In case of equal 
 ity, the examiners may divide the scholarship, or hold a 
 new examination between the equal candidates. The 
 examiners shall be the president, the professor of Greek, 
 Latin or Mathematics, and one M.A. of Yale or Colum 
 bia, to be appointed by the founder during his lifetime, 
 and after his death by the faculty." In the six examina 
 tions thus far held, the "M.A. appointed by the founder" 
 has always been himself; and it is said that he some 
 times, at the conclusion of the examination, if pleased 
 with the efforts of the contestants, invites them all to 
 dine with him at the hotel. At the last examination, 
 which occurred in May, 1869, tne prize was won by a 
 Sophomore of 71, over the four Juniors who were his 
 competitors. The six other winners of the scholarship 
 (there were two of them given in the first class) belonged 
 to the classes of 50, 54, 58, 63 and 66, and those in 
 the last two classes at least were also Sophomores. 
 The average time of holding the scholarship has been 
 four years for each individual. The society statistics of 
 the 7 Bristed men are : Delta Kap 5 and Gamma Nu 2, 
 Delta Phi 3 and DKE 2, Bones 4 and Keys i. 
 
 The " freshman scholarships," however, are the ones 
 which excite by fur the keenest competition. From 20 
 to 25 contestants enter the examinations, while for the 
 other scholarships there are seldom more than a half 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 601 
 
 dozen competitors. The " first freshman scholarship," 
 as it is called in the catalogue, is popularly known as 
 " the Woolsey," having been founded by President 
 Woolsey on his accession to the office in 1846. He 
 then gave $1000, and repeated the gift in each of the 
 three following years, making four separate scholarships, 
 which, in the official list of awards, are simply men 
 tioned as the " scholarship of 1846," or 47, or 48, or 
 49, as the case may be. As each scholarship is held 
 for four years, of course one is awarded to every fresh- 
 man class, and this is called the " first freshman scholar 
 ship by the faculty, and " the Woolsey " by the students, 
 without any regard to the year of its foundation. " Its 
 income, $60 a year, is awarded to the student in each 
 freshman class who passes the best examination in 
 Latin composition (excellence in which is essential to 
 success), in the Greek of the year, and in the solution of 
 algebraic problems. The successful candidate receives 
 the annuity, under certain conditions [of studying the 
 Calculus in Junior year, maintaining a good character, 
 and a high stand in all his studies], during the four 
 years of his college course. The student who stands 
 second at this examination receives for one year the 
 income of the Hurlbut Scholarship, and the student 
 who stands third, the income for one year of the ( third 
 freshman scholarship, the amount being $60 in each 
 case." The " Hurlbut scholarship " was established by 
 a New York merchant of that name, and was first 
 awarded in the class of 63, though in the seven prece 
 ding classes the Freshman second in rank at the 
 Woolsey examination had been allowed a premium of 
 $25 or $30 from the Clark fund. The " third fresh 
 man scholarship " was established by Charles M. Runk 
 of 45, and was first awarded in the class of 68. There 
 were two Woolsey men in 64, and (excluding the second 
 
 27 
 
602 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 incumbent of the scholarship in 59) there have there 
 fore been 25 of these scholars in the classes 50 to 73. 
 Of this number, Sigma Eps had 9, Delta Kap 8, and 
 Gamma Nu 8 ; Delta Phi 7, Psi U 7, DKE 5, and 6 
 were junior neutrals ; Bones 14, and Keys and Diggers 
 one each. Of the 20 " Hurlbut men," 56 to 73, Sigma 
 Eps had 4, Delta Kap 6, and Gamma Nu 10 ; Delta Phi 
 9, Psi U 5, DKE 2, and 4 were junior neutrals ; Bones 
 6 and Keys 3. Besides the three scholarships which are 
 open to the Freshmen each year, " Berkeley premiums " 
 for excellence in Latin composition, and " Clark pre 
 miums " for excellence in mathematics, are commonly 
 awarded to a few deserving ones who fail to obtain the 
 more important honors. Prizes are also often given to 
 those who stand second in rank at the Berkeley, Clark 
 and Bristed examinations. The "modern languages 
 scholarship," as it is called in the catalogue, " was 
 founded by the late William W. DeForest, of New 
 York City. Its income, $120 a year, is awarded 
 annually to such scholar, graduate or undergraduate, as 
 the faculty may elect, giving the preference to one who 
 shall pursue the study of the modern languages." The 
 first award was made on Presentation Day of 69, and 
 the recipients thus far have been undergraduates just 
 completing their sophomore year. The faculty have 
 authority, with the concurrence of the president, to use 
 the income of this fund to increase the salary of. the 
 professor of modern languages. 
 
 This completes the list of the "Scholars of the 
 House " but in addition to the honored occupants of 
 that metaphorical edifice, there are several other less 
 famous "scholars" who gain support from certain 
 " beneficiary funds." The chief of these is called the 
 " Harmer Foundation of Scholarships," which was 
 established in 1858 by Thomas Harmer Johns of 18, 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 603 
 
 and now amounts to $10,825. It comprises six scholar 
 ships, yielding each $100 a year, to be given to deserving 
 students of small means." "There are also twelve 
 other scholarships, most of them yielding $60 a year, 
 which may be given to such students as shall be selected 
 by the founders or by the faculty." Furthermore, " a sum 
 somewhat exceeding $5000, derived partly from perma 
 nent charitable funds, is annually applied by the cor 
 poration for the relief of students who need pecuniary 
 aid, especially of those preparing for the ministry. 
 About seventy thus have their tuition ($90) either 
 wholly or in part remitted." In this sum is included 
 the income of the " DeForest fund," which was com 
 menced in 1823. On September 12 of that year, David 
 C. DeForest, of New Haven, gave to the college $5000, 
 which was to be allowed to accumulate until January i, 
 1852, when it would amount to about $26,000 ; and 
 from that time forth $1000, or about two-thirds of the 
 annual income, was to be each year expended " in the 
 education and support at Yale College, or the university 
 that may grow out of it," first, of the descendants of 
 the donor and his brothers ; or secondly, in default of 
 them, " of others of the name of DeForest, giving 
 preference to the next of kin of the donor ; " or, lastly, 
 in default of them, "of young men in indigent circum 
 stances, and of good talents, who are willing to assume 
 the name of DeForest." It is the latter class who 
 have chiefly taken advantage of the fund. Though the 
 donor "calculated that his provision of $1000 would 
 support and educate four scholars in each year," there 
 has usually been no more than a single person sustained 
 by the fund at any one time. But, as the absurd con 
 dition requiring the change of name, which naturally 
 repelled very many, has recently been removed, by 
 securing the consent of all the heirs at law of the donor, 
 
604 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 it is likely that a larger number of " scholars " will take 
 advantage of it hereafter. 
 
 Premiums, for the best Translations from Latin into 
 English, were given out at the close of the first and sec 
 ond freshman terms for ten years or more, ending with 
 the class of 55, and had been known of as early as 30. 
 The system was somewhat similar to that employed in 
 distributing the English Composition premiums, shortly 
 to be described; that is to say, a first, second and third 
 prize was given to each of the three divisions, every 
 man was obliged to write, and the prices were very fre 
 quently split. " According to the conditions of Bishop 
 Berkeley s will," says a writer of thirty years ago, "prizes 
 are adjudged to those who excel in Latin Composition. 
 Each class has an opportunity of contending twice for 
 this prize, at the close of both the second freshman 
 and sophomore terms. The merit of the pieces decides 
 the number of those who receive it, and the amount of 
 money conferred upon each individual depends upon 
 this number, a fixed sum being divided among all the 
 successful candidates. Usually from eight to twelve 
 receive this prize, and the amount of money conferred 
 upon each varies from five to ten dollars." In 54 and 
 the two classes following, a third trial was given, at the 
 close of the second junior term. The last of this unin 
 terrupted series of prizes were conferred in the summer 
 of 1855, to the Juniors of 56, the Sophomores of 57, 
 and the Freshmen of 58. Two years later, "Berke- 
 leians" were again awarded to 57, 58 and 59, and once 
 more, in 1859, to the four classes, 59, 60, 61 and 62. 
 In some instances, the recipients of this premium were 
 divided into two sections, though usually they were 
 ranked equally together. 
 
 Various miscellaneous awards are made from time to 
 time from the unappropriated income of the " Clark 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 605 
 
 scholarship" fund, as for excellence, which just falls 
 short of success, at a scholarship examination ; for 
 special improvement in, and acquaintance with, a par 
 ticular study ; for an elaborate classical essay (as in 67 
 and 69), and so on. To the Juniors of 53, were given 
 six prizes, a first and second in each division, for 
 English Disputations ; and to each of the next three 
 classes, a first and second prize for the best examination 
 on the Latin of the second term junior: three similar 
 prizes were also awarded to 58. But the regular " Clark 
 premiums" are " for the solution of problems in Practi 
 cal Astronomy, and have been offered to the Seniors 
 of every class from 53 to 71 ; though in the six classes 
 ending with 65 there were no competitors for them, 
 at least no successful ones. The amount of about $30 
 is offered, and is sometimes (as in 68) taken by a single 
 individual ; more commonly is divided between two, and 
 sometimes between three, in which latter case the 
 usual proportion is $12, $10 and $8, but almost every 
 contestant who does reasonably well is certain of receiv 
 ing something, as the number of his rivals is naturally 
 quite small. "The senior mathematical prizes (the 
 first consisting of a gold medal of the value of $10 and 
 a like amount of money, the second of $10 in money 
 alone) are offered to the Seniors for the best solutions of 
 problems in both abstract and concrete mathematics." 
 They were first awarded in 56. The second prize has 
 in one case been divided, in one case awarded to the 
 winner of the first prize, and in three cases has not 
 been awarded at all. For thirty years and more, " prizes 
 for the solution of mathematical problems have been 
 given out during the third term to both the freshman 
 and sophomore classes. These problems are prepared 
 by the professor of mathematics, and are frequently of 
 so difficult a nature that few in the class can solve them- 
 
606 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Those who solve all the problems are very sure of receiv 
 ing a prize, and .when the number of these is small those 
 who have not solved quite all of them not unfrequently 
 receive prizes." In the old times, three prizes were 
 always given, and as many as six or ten persons shared 
 them ; now, as a rule, two only are offered, neither of 
 which are commonly divided. The usual value of the 
 prizes is $5, $4 and $3. 
 
 The Sophomore Prize Declamations were introduced 
 with the class of 55. The old mode of deciding the 
 awards, which 69 was the last class to be acquainted 
 with, was as follows: Each man declaimed twice in the 
 Chapel once in the second term and once in the third 
 before the instructor of Elocution and the professor 
 of Rhetoric, who together decided upon the merit of 
 his exhibition in each case, and by joining the two marks 
 decided whether or not he deserved a prize. It will be 
 remembered that the whole class were obliged to attend 
 these declamation exercises, which were held on Wednes 
 day noons, and a few upper-class men also in rare cases 
 sauntered in to the show. To each division, a first, 
 second, and third prize was awarded, and as there were 
 always three or, as in 69, four divisions, and as the 
 prizes were very often split, the number of persons 
 receiving honors varied from nine to sixteen or more. 
 In 63 no declamations of the sort were held. In 70 
 was introduced the new arrangement whereby, in place 
 of giving prizes to the divisions, the two conductors of 
 the chapel declamations decide from hearing the two 
 pieces of each man upon a dozen individuals as the 
 " best speakers of the class." On the Tuesday evening 
 before Commencement, the chosen twelve engage in a 
 public declamation in the Chapel, for three prizes, the 
 awards being made by a committee chosen from the 
 audience, who have thus far split each prize in two. 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 607 
 
 Printed programmes, containing the names of speakers 
 and speeches, are supplied, and everything else is done 
 to make the exhibition an attractive feature of Com 
 mencement week. The attempt to arouse much enthusi 
 asm or interest in the affair has not yet been very suc 
 cessful, however ; the attendance both from town and 
 college has been quite small ; and it seems not unlikely 
 that before long a return will have to be made to the 
 old plan, or some new scheme resorted to, for the allot 
 ment of these prizes. The speakers at the exhibitions, 
 like those at the ordinary chapel declamations, are 
 allowed to select their own pieces, subject to the approval 
 of the instructor to whom they rehearse, but the selections 
 must always be in prose, unless for exceptional reasons 
 special permission is given for a metrical declamation. 
 The professor of Rhetoric presides at the exhibition, and 
 calls off the names of the speakers, whose places upon 
 the programmes are, as usual, decided by lot in advance. 
 But the prizes which excite the most general compe 
 tition are those offered the Sophomores for English 
 Composition. These have been awarded for more than 
 thirty years, and are generally given in the name of the 
 college, though the money has often been derived in 
 part or wholly from the Clark fund, and they are in some 
 cases offered as the " Clark prizes." About a month 
 before the end of the first and second terms, the " sub 
 jects for prize compositions " are given out to the class, 
 by the professor of Rhetoric, who in the first instance 
 makes a short address in regard to the sort of writing 
 which he wishes to encourage. The subjects are five or 
 six in number, and are in some instances all chosen by 
 himself; in other instances each instructor of the class, 
 of whom he is not one, suggests one of them. Those 
 offered to 69, in the first term, were: " Wolf s Recita 
 tion of Gray s Elegy, " "the Council of Fallen Spirits 
 
608 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 in Paradise Lost, " "the Benefits of Traveling," "the 
 Law of Decay in Nations," " Our Duty as Neighbors to 
 Mexico ;" and in the second term : " Robinson Crusoe," 
 " Daniel Webster/ " Attainments by Indirection/ " the 
 Impeachment of Warren Hastings," "the Superiority 
 of British over American Novelists." These titles of 
 course serve as fair examples of those offered to other 
 classes. 
 
 About a month is given in which to write, and on or 
 before the last day of the term every man in the class 
 must hand in to his division-master a composition 
 devoted to one or another of the assigned subjects. The 
 division-master, after reading these, selects a half dozen, 
 more or less, which seem to be the most meritorious, 
 and hands them over for the perusal of the professor of 
 Rhetoric, with whom rests the final award of the prizes, 
 though he may consult with the class officers in making 
 up his decision. A first, second, and third prize is 
 given to each division, making nine or twelve prizes in 
 all, according to the size of the class ; but, as many of 
 the awards are split in two, the number who receive 
 honors of tin s sort is ofttimes considerably increased. 
 Every man, it is seen, is obliged to hand in a composi 
 tion of some sort, but it is probable that as many as 
 two-thirds, or even more, of the class really "do their 
 best," that is, write with a hope of getting a prize there 
 by, at least on the first occasion. In the second term, 
 when the "good writers" get to be generally known, 
 the unsuccessful ones compete with them less generally 
 and less courageously ; and the sharpest rivalry is be 
 tween the " good writers " themselves, who strive to 
 keep good or to better their previously won reputations. 
 To win a Composition prize, even a low one, is accounted 
 quite an honor; while the "first-prize men" become 
 famous through all college, and enjoy a celebrity far 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 609 
 
 more general and lasting than that accorded to the 
 "scholars" and "high-stand men" who are not also 
 " writers." 
 
 The awards for the first term s compositions are not 
 announced until about a month before the close of the 
 second term, or at about the time when the new subjects 
 are given out ; and the prizes for compositions upon 
 these latter are not announced until Presentation Day. 
 A prize of $5 for the best English Poem upon an as 
 signed subject, was also awarded in nine of the thirteen 
 classes, 57 to 69. It has not been offered since then, 
 and perhaps the idea of thus encouraging the Muses has 
 been permanently abandoned. In two instances the 
 prize was divided ; but only three of the eleven who 
 received it ultimately became the poets of their classes. 
 The prize was open to the competition of the entire 
 class, without regard to divisions, and the subject was 
 announced with the other ones of the second term. The 
 successful poem was almost always published in the 
 ///., as were also a large share of the first-prize compo 
 sitions. Latterly the latter practice has been mostly 
 abandoned, owing to the outcries made against it by 
 the readers of that magazine. 
 
 The system of awarding prizes, though described in 
 the present tense, was last applied to the class of 70, 
 after having been in vogue from time immemorial. The 
 plan now employed, which has been generally accepted 
 as a great improvement upon the old one, and which 
 bids fair to be permanently retained, was first tried in 
 71, and is as follows : First, second, and third prizes 
 either three of each or four of each are offered to the 
 entire class, without regard to divisions, and hence there 
 is no necessity or excuse for splitting any of the awards. 
 The advantages of bringing each man in competition 
 with the whole of his class, instead of his own division 
 
 27* 
 
6lQ FOUR Y&ARS AT 
 
 simply, are obvious, and the change from the old system 
 was made a necessity by the change in the old alpha 
 betical arrangement of the divisions, since it would 
 hardly be fair to offer the poor scholars of the lower 
 divisions the same amount of prize money given the 
 good scholars of the higher ones, as presumably a larger 
 share of the " good writers " in the class would be found 
 among the latter. Experience has proved the presump 
 tion to be a correct one, as a very large proportion of 
 the prizes thus far awarded have fallen to members of 
 the first division. Under the old arrangement, the 
 money value of the premiums for Composition and 
 Declamation was about $4 for first, $3 for second and 
 $2 for third prizes ; but as the number of awards has 
 diminished it is probable that their value has propor 
 tionately increased. 
 
 With the class of 68 was introduced the practice of 
 giving to the Seniors, "for excellence in the compo 
 sitions of the year," a dozen or fourteen prizes, divided 
 equally into first and second. The names are announced 
 in the order of merit, but in the official lists arc published 
 alphabetically, all members who come under the same 
 general rank being considered equal. It will be re 
 membered that each Senior writes two compositions in 
 each of the first two terms, and upon the average merit 
 of these four productions the awards are determined. 
 These have thus far been simply " honorary mentions," 
 no real prize money having been paid \ and on this 
 account, as well as because a Senior has already " made 
 his reputation " and does not care to strive for any 
 commonplace honor, little or no exertion is called out 
 by these " prizes." Whatever little interest is centered 
 upon the award depends upon its being held as in some 
 way an indicator of the " chances " of various men for 
 receiving the highest literary honors of college, the 
 Townsend Premiums. 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 611 
 
 These were established by Isaac H. Townsend of 22, 
 who died in 1847, after having served for a year as pro 
 fessor in the Law School, in which he allowed a flourish 
 ing private law school of his own to become absorbed, 
 by the gift of $1000, made to the college August 10, 
 1843. The annual income of this amount was to be 
 paid out in five premiums of $12 each, "to the authors 
 in the senior class of the best original compositions in 
 the English language." The subjects were to be chosen 
 and the awards made by the faculty or by a committee 
 appointed by them, though they might, at their discre 
 tion, allow a writer to choose his own subject. " All 
 compositions receiving premiums shall be read in public, 
 at a meeting of the members of the college, and, as far 
 as practicable, by their respective authors, and shall 
 then be preserved among the papers of the college." 
 The first "reading" was held in the chapel, Wednesday, 
 June 5, 1844, and regularly at a corresponding period 
 thereafter until 1852, when it was superseded by the 
 " DeForest speaking," in the manner soon to be de 
 scribed. The donor advised that the subjects be an 
 nounced " near the beginning of each academic year," 
 but the practice has gradually changed, so that at 
 present it is customary to delay giving them out until 
 the day when the Seniors hand in their Commencement 
 pieces, which is the last Tuesday of the second term, 
 the day before Junior Exhibition. At the season re 
 ferred to, the professor of Rhetoric hands to all appli 
 cants a printed sheet containing the subjects four or 
 five in number and directions as to the time and 
 manner of handing in the compositions written there 
 upon. The time allowed for preparation is about seven 
 weeks, and the rule for handing them in is that they 
 shall be presented by some one other than the writer, 
 and shall be signed simply with a pseudonym or motto. 
 
612 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 As a matter of fact, however, the professor often recog 
 nizes the authorship of the various productions, from 
 his previous knowledge of the handwriting and l style " 
 of their owners, though sometimes the chirography is that 
 of a copyist and not of the author. The award is quietly 
 announced about a week after the pieces are handed in. 
 In the case of 69, the subjects were announced April 6, 
 the pieces were handed in May 26, the result was 
 announced June 3, and the "speaking" was held June 
 28. There were 17 competitors, and of the 6 successful 
 ones, 3 including the " DeForest Man " wrote upon 
 " Milton, Jeremy Taylor and Locke, as Advocates of 
 Liberty " ; 2 upon " The Law of Benevolence and the 
 Law of Trade Coincident" ; and i upon "Wentworth, 
 Earl of Stafford." " The Mission of Poetry," and " the 
 Growth of the Austrian House of Hapsburg," were the 
 two other subjects from which choice could have been 
 made. The award of 6 instead of 5 prizes is explained 
 in this wise : 
 
 In the bequest of David C. DeForest, which was 
 made in 1823, as already explained, was this second 
 condition, that on and after the year 1852, "a gold 
 medal, of the value of $100, to be denominated the 
 DeForest Prize, with such inscription thereon as the 
 president may direct, shall be given to that scholar of 
 the senior class who shall write and pronounce an English 
 oration in the best manner, on some day either in the 
 months of May or June, in each year ; the president 
 and professors being judges and every member of the 
 senior class a candidate for the prize." Accordingly, in 
 1852, the faculty allowed every Senior to write an 
 "oration" on any subject he might select, and hand it 
 in for their approval. Of the productions so handed 
 in, several of the best were selected, and their writers 
 then declaimed them publicly, in the Chapel, in compe- 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 613 
 
 tition for the prize. The Townsend compositions were 
 also read in public that year, as usual ; but as all of 
 the readers and most of the compositions were identical 
 with the DeForest orators and orations, it was decided 
 on the following year to combine the two awards, agree 
 able to the plan that has ever since been in vogue. On 
 the principle that a person capable of producing " the 
 best oration " would also be capable of producing one 
 of the "five best compositions," it was decreed that 
 none but winners of " Townsends " could compete for 
 "the DeForest." Accordingly, in the manner stated, 
 six so-called "Townsends " are awarded, instead of five, 
 and the six winners of them then deliver their pieces in 
 the chapel, in competition for "the DeForest" itself. 
 The one who wins it, thereby gives up his claim to a 
 " Townsend premium," and the $60 is divided equally 
 among the remaining "five best writers," after the old 
 fashion. The latter are therefore the only real " Towns- 
 end men," but the distinction between them and the 
 winner of the De Forest is not popularly regarded. In 
 1852, a "Clark prize "of $15 was given for the second 
 best oration. In that class, and in 54 also, the DeForest 
 man really received one of the five Townsends. 
 
 The afternoon of the Friday succeeding Presentation 
 was, up to 1865, the time for holding the oratorical 
 trial, though it sometimes took place on Thursday or 
 Saturday ; from 1866 to 1870, the afternoon of the Mon 
 day before Presentation was the established date ; but 
 as that day is hereafter appointed for July, another 
 change will be necessary. Hitherto, as the opening 
 exercise of the gala week of the year, "the DeForest 
 Speaking," has always attracted a very large audience ; 
 larger perhaps than it will be likely to attract hereafter 
 when standing alone by itself, though while the under 
 graduates take their present interest in the exhibition, 
 
6 14 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 it will be certain of securing for itself a good attend 
 ance. The half-dozen orators of the occasion are each 
 allowed but fifteen minutes in which to speak, and hence 
 the successful Townsend compositions, which are not 
 limited as to length, usually have to be " cut down " 
 considerably before being publicly delivered. This pro 
 cess of pruning, memorizing and rehearsing, naturally 
 leaves little leisure for these aspiring orators during the 
 three weeks before the trial, a period in which the 
 final Annual ("the examination for degrees") takes 
 place, and many other matters have to be attended to. 
 The " speaking " commences at half-past two, and of 
 course closes at four, the president from the pulpit 
 simply announcing the names of the speakers in the order 
 in which chance has placed them upon the printed list ; 
 copies of which, bearing also the titles of the speeches, 
 are distributed among the audience by the ushers. At 
 the close of the last oration, the faculty retire to the 
 president s room, to compare opinions and decide the 
 award, while the audience at least the college part of 
 it "hang about" the front of the Chapel, waiting for 
 the verdict. It comes, perhaps in a few minutes, per 
 haps in half an hour, the spokesman of the faculty 
 announcing it from the Chapel steps. Then the crowd 
 cheer, congratulate the DeForest Man, settle up their 
 bets, and disperse in knots of two, three, or a half-dozen, 
 talking over the great result. 
 
 There is no other college award over which there is 
 such a general excitement. The position of DeForest 
 Man corresponds in literary rank to that of Valedicto 
 rian in scholarship, of Wooden-Spoon Man in popularity, 
 of Navy Commodore in boating matters ; it is the very 
 highest of the literary honors, and, as these are thought 
 more of than any others, it may be called the highest 
 honor of the whole college course. It is for this reason 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 615 
 
 that the interest in the Townsend awards is so keen 
 and they are no sooner announced than speculation at 
 once becomes rampant among the Seniors as to which 
 one of the six is to be the great man of their class. 
 "Chances" are constantly talked over, bets made on 
 particular men, and odds freely offered on a favorite 
 candidate as against " the field," and the reverse, for 
 there are generally one or two between whom the prize 
 is expected to fall. Some of the contestants themselves 
 have little or no expectation of winning it, and speak 
 merely for the sake of speaking, and in one or two cases 
 a poem has been delivered in nominal competition. 
 Prophets are not always correct, however, and once in 
 a while a man of no special reputation as a writer sud 
 denly jumps into the first place. < 
 
 It should be remembered that each class aims to 
 elect its " best literary man " as the orator to represent 
 it upon Presentation Day, and it has for some time been 
 customary to order, either by express vote or by impli 
 cation, that neither the orator nor poet of the class shall 
 compete for the Townsends and DeForest, lest in at 
 tempting too much they fail to do their best by the class 
 which elects them. Perhaps another reason for the rule 
 is the natural hostility of a class to having a few of its 
 members monopolize all of the highest honors. The 
 orator of 62 was the fourth and last to take a DeForest, 
 and the poet of 64 the last one to take a Townsend. 
 Between 52 and the times in question, six of the class 
 orators and five of the poets had taken Townsends (in 
 cluding in this term the four DeForests), and in two 
 classes, 52 and 57, both orator and poet contended for 
 the prize, the orator in each case getting it. In con 
 tradiction of the foregoing, it should be said that the 
 class of 70, by special vote, allowed their orator and 
 poet to compete for the Townsends, which both did, sue- 
 
6 : 6 FOUR YEARS A T YALE. 
 
 cessfully. In ? 68 and in 69, as doubtless in other 
 classes also, it was generally conceded that the class- 
 orator could have had the DeForest, had he chosen to 
 take it instead of his own most honorable office. But 
 the DeForest Speaking, spite of this exception, may 
 fairly enough be called a representative exhibition of 
 the best literary talent of the college ; and, whether it 
 be good or bad, the faculty can point to nothing else 
 which so well or so creditably illustrates the results of 
 their rhetorical teachings. 
 
 o 
 
 The medal, "of the value of $100, inscribed as the 
 president shall direct," is simply a lump of gold worth 
 that amount, upon which are roughly scratched the words 
 " DeForest Prize " and the date. With the exception 
 of the 1 70 orator, the only person who has actually 
 accepted and preserved this "medal" is Andrew D. 
 White of 53, president of Cornell University, all other 
 DeForest Men having preferred to turn the medal into 
 available cash at once. All the orations, save those of 
 54 and 55i Iiave been published in the Lit., which also 
 printed all five of the Townsends for several years after 
 the first establishment of the premiums, and then 
 gradually lessened the number, until now it publishes 
 only one of them, and many subscribers grudge even 
 the space devoted to that one. The Courant, too, has 
 sometimes printed a Townsend. In some cases the 
 oration is published as originally written,without the omis 
 sions necessitated by the fifteen-minute rule of delivery. 
 Of the 19 DeForest Men, 52 to 70, 9 belonged to 
 Delta Kap, 6 to Sigma Eps, and 4 to Gamma Nu ; 3 to 
 Delta Phi, 10 to Psi U, 4 to DKE, and 2 were junior 
 neutrals ; 10 to Bones, 4 to Keys, and 5 were senior 
 neutrals. As already stated, four of them were class 
 orators, four were Lit. editors, 2 were Cochs, and one of 
 these two was a Valedictorian. The latter unique com- 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 617 
 
 bination of college honors happened in the class of 63, 
 and is all the more remarkable on account of that class 
 being the largest but one which was ever known at Yale. 
 It graduated 122 men. 
 
 Last year s official statement of the "funds, the income 
 of which is payable to students as prizes or scholarships," 
 exhibited a total of $95,932.44, divided as follows: 
 " Family scholarship funds, income payable to members 
 of certain families, $24,167.51 ; beneficiary funds, for 
 aid of deserving students of small means, $51,508.33 ; 
 undergraduate prize and scholarship funds, income 
 given in reward of excellence, $13,456.60 ; graduate 
 scholarship funds, income given in reward of excellence, 
 but payable after graduation, $6,800." The average 
 amount annually paid to the resident graduate "scholars" 
 is about $450, and to the undergraduate scholars and 
 prize-takers of every sort, about $650, while the bene 
 ficiary awards, as already stated, amount annually to 
 upwards of $6000. Of the undergraduate prize-money, 
 the largest share faljs to the Seniors, the Freshmen come 
 second, and the Sophomores third, while the Juniors 
 except very rarely a Bristed receive nothing at all. 
 There is no restriction as to the number of prizes a man 
 may take, except his own ability to win them, and it 
 therefore frequently happens that the same individual 
 holds two scholarships at once, as, for example, the 
 Woolsey and the Bristed, the Bristed and the Clarke or 
 Berkeley, the Clarke and Berkeley, and so on. With 
 the few exceptions indicated, all awards are announced 
 by the president from the chapel pulpit, and all those 
 of the third term, which comprise a majority of the 
 whole number, at the close of the forenoon exercises of 
 Presentation Day. The rest are given out at the close 
 of the usual exercises of morning prayers. Sometimes 
 a professor throws out in advance a few private hints 
 
618 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 as to the result of a prize trial, but as a rule the great 
 body of the class get their first information from the 
 official announcement. 
 
 To sum up what has been said in regard to the effects 
 of the "honor system," it appears that there is little 
 rivalry for rank on the appointment list, except for the 
 highest places, and that most men who " study for a 
 stand " at all, aim at an absolute one, without much 
 regard as to who may rank above or below them. A 
 stand lower than that of " oration," secures a man no 
 social consideration whatever among his fellows. It is 
 never taken into account at all, any more than is the 
 low rank of those who just keep above average, for to 
 be ranked as the poorest scholar in the class ensures no 
 social degradation. If such a one be dull and stupid, 
 in recitation or out of it. he may be ostracized on that 
 account simply, not because of his low stand ; but if he 
 be one who evidently "could take a stand were he a 
 mind to "and there are many such in college he may 
 be generally liked and respected. In other words, col 
 lege judges a man s ability and character by a standard 
 of its own, with but little regard to official " marks " of 
 any sort. It sets up the standard as a sort of protest 
 against the idea that any " marking system " can be made 
 an absolute and infallible test of intellect and culture, 
 however well it may do for purposes of general com 
 parison. It is ever ready to deride a high-stand man 
 whose knowledge of his studies extends no further than 
 a factitious knack of answering the questions which are 
 put concerning them, and is equally prompt in exalting 
 to the utmost a low-stand man for his achievements in 
 other directions. Literary talent that is, ability to 
 write acceptably it values highly, and it accepts the 
 composition prizes as of much greater worth than simple 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 619 
 
 stand as real indications of merit Hence the compe 
 tition for these and other literary honors is the sharpest 
 known to the college. " The gift of gab " is thought 
 less of than formerly ; so that a declamation prize 
 counts for but little ; and even a successful speaker in 
 prize debate cannot be sure of his reputation as a 
 "literary man," until he has strengthened it by winning 
 a prize composition. But while college will readily 
 allow that all of the shrewd " low scholars " could be 
 come good ones if they chose ; it will not take the same 
 Cor granted as to their literary possibilities, nor allow 
 that a man can write until he really has written some 
 thing as evidence thereof. On the other hand, many 
 prize-takers never get to be recognized as " literary 
 men," but are looked upon only as successful cheats, or 
 as having greatness thrust upon them by accident. A 
 low-stand man who is a "good writer" is a favorite 
 character in college, for his occasional appearance helps 
 to confirm a vague theory fondly clung to in spite of 
 all the facts being against it that the two characters 
 consistently go together. For the reasons stated, there 
 are few contestants for the mathematical prizes, and the 
 winners of them are apt to be the objects of more or 
 less good-natured chaff and banter on account of their 
 "honors." As the post-graduate scholarships are not 
 important enough of themselves to induce a man to 
 reside in New Haven, none but those intending to 
 remain think of competing for them, and the winners 
 are not usually the best scholars of their class. The 
 freshman scholarship examinations are the only ones 
 which excite much interest in college, and " the Woolsey 
 men " are best known of the " scholars " belonging to 
 the mythical House which Berkeley built. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MANNERS. 
 
 Skinning Ordinary Methods Blackboard Work Conies and 
 Chemistry in 69 At Term Examination Stealing the Papers 
 Hands and Feet Skinning-Machines Indexing a Subject A 
 Unique Fraud Detected Swapping the Papers The Yale and 
 Williams Chemists of 68 At Annual The Type and Pencil 
 Game Watch-Chrystals and Eye-Glasses Pocket Skinning in 
 67 and 55 Calculations for Cramming Robbing the Printers 
 Attempted Seizure of the Pucklc Paper of 69 How a Baffled 
 Thief at last Succeeded Working up a Case Inner and Outer 
 Rings Cheating on Make Ups Accidental Erasures Ponying 
 Composition Frauds How Marks are Got Rid of Precau 
 tions and Penalties College Sentiment in regard to Deceiving 
 the Faculty Behavior in the Recitation Rooms At Lectures 
 In the Chapel How Faculty and Students Address and Refer 
 to Each Other Farewell Cheers for the Instructors Absence 
 of the Rebellious Spirit Insolent Tricks Discountenanced The 
 Faculty Personally Respected. 
 
 The verb " to skin" is one which is conjugated by the 
 students in all its modes and tenses, and is perhaps the 
 commonest word in the Yale dialect, though it does not 
 seem to be in use at other colleges. It is very compre 
 hensive in its meaning, and is used in a variety of ways, 
 and with a great number of different applications, though 
 the idea of deceiving and cheating the faculty is in some 
 shape connected with them all. The most common and 
 primitive mode of skinning is to make unfair use of a 
 text-book in the recitation room. At the beginning of 
 the academic year of 1870, the edict went forth that no 
 text-books save those demanded by the nature of the 
 exercise, should be brought into any recitation room of 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 621 
 
 college, and though the rule is doubtles to some extent 
 evaded, the amount of skinning is much less now than 
 in 6g s time, and many of the following tricks of that 
 period, though described in the present tense, have 
 under the new arrangement become obsolete. In a few 
 studies of freshman year, where the books are not re 
 quired for recitation, they are either not allowed to be 
 brought into the room, or if brought must at once be 
 laid upon the tutor s desk and left there till the close of 
 the exercise. In the upper classes, it is impracticable 
 to enforce any such rule, and so the instructor has to 
 content himself by keeping a sharp lookout for all at 
 tempts at fraud. The ostensible reason for bringing to 
 recitation the books not really needed there though 
 there are not many of this sort is the proper marking 
 therein the assigned lessons, as well as the desire to 
 improve every moment of the time, on the way to the 
 division room and within it, until the recitation really 
 opens. Of the 500 students who stream out of the 
 chapel every week-day morning, for instance, the large 
 majority of them are seen to be desperately cramming 
 at their books as they wend their ways towards their 
 respective places of reciting. 
 
 With the calling up of the first men to recite, the 
 opened books are shut together with a virtuous bang, 
 many of them to be slyly reopened as the recitation 
 advances. A common practice is to put the book upon 
 the floor, open it at the right place by means of the feet, 
 and in the same way turn the leaves as ofien as necessary. 
 Of course those sitting upon the front bench cannot 
 do this, as there is nothing to " cover" them ; hence 
 they resort to the plan of putting their books on the 
 floor behind, and depend upon some friendly foot to 
 keep them open. On the other hand, they may open 
 and turn the leaves of a book for a rear-bench man, who 
 
622 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 finds difficulty in managing affairs with his feet. Other 
 modes of achieving the same result are, to hold the 
 book between the knees ; or behind the back of another 
 (of a front-seat man, when the instructor squarely faces 
 the benches, of one on the same seat, who turns him 
 self for the purpose, when the instructor s desk is 
 oblique or at right-angles to them) ; or where it will be 
 " covered" by the man who is reciting. If the latter is 
 within range of the one who wishes to be benefited, he 
 is admonished in various ways to "get into position," 
 and when there to keep it, by remaining perfectly immov 
 able until ordered to his seat. The object of these 
 modes of skinning, is to cram up the lesson, bit by bit, 
 keeping just ahead of the part which is being recited, in 
 expectation of being one s self called up. Hence, a man 
 may skin out a whole recitation without getting any ad 
 vantage from it, or sometimes may make a dead flunk 
 instead of a rush, by reason of the instructor s "skip 
 ping" a little, and calling him up in advance of the place 
 to which he had skinned. 
 
 In some cases men actually recite from their books, 
 which are held open (by themselves or another) behind 
 another man s back, or in the rear of a bench, or even 
 upon the floor, the leaves of course being torn out and 
 used separately if the case requires it. To " skin a man 
 through" though the word is not so common in this 
 sense as in others is to help him recite. This is done 
 by whispers, or signs, or nudges in different parts of the 
 body. Mathematical " lines" and " figures" are some 
 times indicated by pressing a finger or pencil upon a 
 man s back, as he stands up to recite, so that he may 
 glibly rattle off a correct description, though really know 
 ing nothing about them. Blackboard work, from its 
 peculiar nature and difficulty, offers special inducements 
 for skinning. As the conductor is at the same time con- 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 623 
 
 ducting the recitation and watching the rest of the class, 
 he cannot very closely overlook those working at prob 
 lems, who being usually near to one another, and con 
 stantly moving about, for " more chalk" or " the eraser," 
 writing and rubbing out figures, etc. manage often to 
 inspect the different works and help each other in afflic 
 tion. Suppose a good and a poor scholar who are friends 
 are sent to the board at the same time with similar 
 problems. If they are able to get adjoining spaces 
 thereat, the former in the midst of his own work does 
 out that of the latter, step by step, as he has opportu 
 nity, and rubs out each process as soon as the latter has 
 copied it. He then recites his own problem, and his 
 ignorant friend, by dint of paying good attention thereto, 
 and having the correct demonstration chalked out 
 before him, is able to give a full "explanation" of pro 
 cesses of which he has no comprehension. But if the 
 two are sent to different boards, or otherwise separated, 
 the good scholar hurries through with his work, while 
 the other writes out a full statement of his problem in 
 letters large enough to be easily read from the benches, 
 As soon as the good scholar can get to his seat, he 
 copies this off. and fully explains it upon paper ; which 
 paper he rolls up into a small wad and, watching his 
 opportunity, tosses to his friend, or in some way places 
 it in his hand. The friend meanwhile has been writing 
 out a large amount of meaningless figures and symbols, 
 to pass away the time and keep up appearances, but he 
 now gradually erases them and substitutes in their places 
 the correct ones, as indicated on the paper. Having 
 thus " solved" his problem, he " explains" it, and goes 
 to his seat as before. These are extreme cases, for 
 often a poor scholar only requires assistance in a small 
 part of his work ; or perhaps when he has finished it he 
 simply telegraphs to those on the seats to tell him, by 
 
62 4 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 reference to their books or otherwise, whether his answer 
 is the correct one. Possibly he himself has his book, 
 or particular leaves of it, under his coat or in his pock 
 ets, and he may take out the same, and cram up a little 
 on the rules which govern the solution of his problem, 
 before he ventures to explain it. In this paragraph, 
 reference has been chiefly made to the performances of 
 the Sophomores, as the Freshmen do not venture much 
 upon this " scientific skinning." Their Euclid book is 
 too large to tuck under the vest, or manipulate readily, 
 and they have conscientious scruples against cutting out 
 the leaves. They are, in fact, reasonably honest, and, 
 aside from the primitive mode of skinning, seldom do 
 any finer work than to draw the Euclid "figures" on 
 their finger nails, or to copy them off, with the demon 
 strations, upon microscopic skinning-papers. 
 
 A trick played in the Conies recitation of 69 $ second 
 sophomore term, which recitation was held in the lower 
 south-east corner room of the Lyceum, was this : One 
 of the sanded panes of glass had been broken out of a 
 window perhaps by design, though more likely by acci 
 dent close beside the black-board, and a clear pane 
 had been put in its place. Now, when a man at that 
 particular black-board was " stuck," some sympathizing 
 friend would take an egress from recitation, rush round 
 to the window and hold up to the pane the book, opened 
 at the right place. The one inside would thereupon 
 copy the "figure" and "proportions" of the demon 
 stration, and make a dead rush in short order. A 
 similar game was played at the examinations, except in 
 this case the outside confederate belonged to another 
 " sub," and had harder work to discover the right propo 
 sition demanded by the necessities of his friend within. 
 It is in senior year that the practice of skinning is most 
 general and persistent, for the recitations then consist 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 62$ 
 
 almost exclusively of book-work, which must be memor 
 ized if not skinned, the divisions are larger, and the 
 chances of detection are very much lessened. Chem 
 istry, in particular, is a subject which may be said to be 
 skinned entire, that is to say, hardly a smattering of 
 the science is really learned by anyone. The recitations 
 consist largely of black-board work, or the solution of 
 chemical problems in notation and transformation, which 
 problems are written out upon cards and distributed to 
 as many as the black-boards will accommodate. As the 
 text-books in Chemistry are of small size, they can be 
 easily carried in the breast pocket, without attracting 
 attention. The one who has drawn a card, therefore, 
 as soon as he has stated its contents upon the board, 
 pulls out his book and searches therein for the same or 
 a similar problem, wherefrom he copies out the process 
 and solution. He then crams up enough of the letter 
 press to enable him to " explain " his work, hands in his 
 card to the professor, and rushes in fine style. 
 
 But of course the highest achievements in the art of 
 skinning are called out by the examinations, when, as 
 the stake to be played for is greater, and the difficulties 
 of the game are increased, increased ingenuity and 
 shrewdness are necessary to ensure success. At a term 
 examination, it is always an object of ambition to "steal 
 a paper," that is, to secretly bring out from the room 
 one of the papers on which questions for examination 
 are written. This paper is given to a member of the 
 next c< sub " which is to be examined, who crams it be 
 fore going in, and, by substituting it for the one which 
 he really draws from the instructor, of course makes a 
 rush. His own paper he gives to a man in the next 
 " sub," and so the game once started goes through the 
 entire class. Sometimes, however, it is blocked by the 
 instructor s taking down the numbers and readingJAUe 
 
 28 
 
626 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 contents of the papers he assigns to each individual, 
 though, even then, "cheek" on a skinner s part will 
 accomplish almost anything. This, it need hardly be 
 observed, is a very important factor in all species of 
 successful skinning. Except by means of these fraudu 
 lent papers, the languages are rarely skinned on exami 
 nation ; save, in a few desperate cases, when pony 
 leaves, duly arranged and indexed, are brought in, in 
 the pockets. It is the examinations in mathematics 
 which call out the craftiest devices. Shirt-cuffs the 
 traditional medium through which to obtain useful in 
 formation, in the way of formulae, etc., marked thereon 
 in advance as aids to skinning, are now usually aban 
 doned, as being too clumsy and easy of detection. In 
 stead of them, the hands and feet are made to do good 
 service : for though the total superficies of the ten 
 finger-nails cannot be called large, yet the amount of 
 significant signs which can be condensed upon it is really 
 wonderful ; it is perhaps nearly equal to that other 
 amount, which can be placed, by means of a blunt lead- 
 pencil, upon the uppers of a well-polished pair of boots. 
 The ease of reading from the hand which holds the 
 paper, or from the foot, carelessly thrown across the 
 knee, upon which it may be allowed to rest ; and the 
 ease with which the signs and wonders on hands and 
 feet may be erased when they have fulfilled their pur 
 pose ; cause the present student to wonder how his pre 
 decessor ever put up with so stupid a device as that of 
 the shirt-cuffs, upon which the evidence of his guilt 
 would remain indelible. Boot and pencil also furnish an 
 approved medium of communication in examinations 
 where a good scholar is seated near enough to a poor 
 one to be able to help him. In ordinary recitations, 
 00, conversation is carried on and assistance given 
 between the different benches, or between the benches 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 627 
 
 and the black-boards, by means of large characters 
 chalked upon boot soles or book covers, those at the 
 board of course making known their wants by its assist 
 ance. 
 
 Sometimes the essential contents of an entire mathe 
 matical text-book like Euclid, Spherics, Conies, or 
 Analytics are copied off upon a single skinning-paper. 
 This may be done " all at once," for use at a term ex 
 amination or an Annual, or little by little, for use at the 
 daily recitations which precede them. An elaborate 
 skinning-machine of this sort is made of thin but stout 
 paper, about two inches in width and of indefinite 
 length, which is mounted upon two rollers, like an 
 ancient scroll, being wound up on one of them as fast 
 as it is unrolled from the other, and so exposing but a 
 very small surface at a time. The skinner, holding the 
 machine between the fingers of the left hand, quietly 
 manipulates the rolls with his thumb until the desired 
 information is brought to light, when he crams it, or 
 copies it on the board, as the case may be, and his work 
 is at an end. Then he probably lends his paper to the 
 next man ; for a machine of this sort the making of 
 which, perhaps, requires nearly or quite as much time 
 as an honest mastery of the work which it covers usu 
 ally goes through a good many hands, being employed 
 at the recitations of every division, and the examinations 
 of every " sub", and several different persons may have 
 a share in its manufacture and ownership. It is finally 
 given away to some under-class man, provided a 
 changed text-book has not rendered it valueless as a 
 gift. Sometimes, before going into an examination, an 
 elastic cord is placed inside the shirt-sleeve and fastened 
 to the cuff with a hook. To this hook, a skinning paper, 
 or anything of the sort, which it may be desirable to get 
 rid of after it has served its purpose, is attached, and 
 
628 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 the contraction of the cord draws it into a place of 
 safety. 
 
 When the separate leaves of a book are carried bodily 
 into an examination, they have to be previously arranged 
 and indexed with great care, in order to be rendered in 
 any way "available." Their margins are pared clown 
 as closely as possible, and they are then arranged into 
 subjects and numbered in regular order. For instance, 
 in Conies, "the parabola" (that is, the leaves containing 
 the propositions relating to that subject) may be placed 
 in one pocket, "the hyperbola" in another, and "the 
 ellipse " in a third. A skinning-index is then prepared, 
 by writing off, on paper, boots, or fingers, the exact 
 contents of each leaf stored in the pockets. Having 
 drawn his examination papers, the skinner refers to his 
 index to assure himself as to where he must search for 
 the leaf containing the work which he is to recite. This 
 done, he inserts his hand in the pocket indicated, and 
 counts with his fingers until he reaches the leaf which 
 he wants, and which he proceeds to pull out and cram 
 from. At length, having safely disposed of it again, 
 "the game is made." 
 
 At 69 s " Puckle" examination, one of the sufferers, 
 in addition to being thus fully equipped, gratuitously 
 attempted, out of pure love of deception, to carry out a 
 still more daring fraud : He was the last man of his 
 "sub," and the last one to enter the mathematical room, 
 for examination, and by agreement with the rest he 
 occupied his usual seat, on the bench nearest the 
 entrance door, say, at about ten or a dozen feet from 
 it. On coming in, he passed a pair of threads under 
 the door, before closing it, and brushed them carelessly 
 along the floor to his own seat. The space where they 
 lay was directly in front of the presiding officer, but on 
 account of their small ness and distance from his desk, 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 629 
 
 he did not notice them. The skinner, having drawn 
 his papers, hastily copied off their contents, added to 
 the copy a few words, more forcible than elegant, to im 
 press upon his confederate outside the necessity of the 
 greatest haste ; hitched the copied paper to the thread, 
 and then when the professor was " covered " by a man 
 who was reciting standing directly in front of him, as had 
 been previously arranged began working the threads, 
 to draw the paper towards the door. The distance was 
 about half accomplished when the thread was caught 
 under a sliver projecting from the floor, and the fated 
 paper was whisked off and left all friendless and alone. 
 There was then no help for it but to draw in the threads, 
 and await results. As soon as the " covering " man 
 had finished reciting, the professor of course saw the 
 paper and evinced by a peculiar smile that he suspected 
 an attempted fraud. Marking his man for a vitiated 
 examination, he paid little further attention to him, now 
 that he supposed his game was hopelessly blocked, but 
 went on hearing the others. Our friend being thus 
 placed above suspicion, could the more readily make 
 use of the second string to his bow, a string not liable 
 to catch in the floor, and he proceeded to do it by 
 referring to his index, pulling from his pocket the 
 indicated leaves of " Puckle," and cramming them at 
 his leisure. At length, when ready to recite, as he went 
 to the desk to hand in his papers, he stepped boldly to 
 the middle of the floor, picked up his unfortunate mes 
 sage, glanced at its contents, and tore it to fragments. 
 The professor of course asked him what it might be, 
 and he replied that it was a skinning paper, which had 
 been blown under the door by some unknown person 
 from without, directed to a man upon the back seat ; 
 that he did not wish this man s examination vitiated, 
 since he had made no use of the paper, and perhaps had 
 
630 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 no previous knowledge of it ; and that therefore he had 
 torn the paper up, to prevent the professor and the 
 faculty from discovering the man s name. If this were 
 a misdemeanor, he was willing to take the penalty for 
 it, but meantime he would like to proceed with his own 
 examination. On this he of course made a rush, and 
 probably no further result would have followed his 
 name s being reported to the faculty than the infliction 
 of several marks, or perhaps a warning, had not the pro 
 fessor afterwards picked up and joined together the 
 fragments of the note, and in this way found out its real 
 character. On the three counts, then, (i) of attempting 
 to skin at examination, (2) of lying to the faculty, and 
 (3) of using profane language in his note, our crafty 
 friend s high-stand examination was vitiated, and he 
 himself was rusticated for the rest of the year : though, 
 as need hardly be stated of one so audacious, he ulti 
 mately graduated with his class. 
 
 Communication with friends outside has sometimes 
 been kept up by those who happen to be placed near a 
 window, in an examination, signs and words, written 
 or even uttered, being the mediums employed. Little 
 of this is done, however, since very few of the recitation 
 rooms are on the ground floor, and the " available " 
 windows in these are not many. In the senior year 
 examinations, it is a not uncommon practice to " swap" 
 papers, a thing which can be done more easily than in 
 other years, owing to the larger size of the " subs," and 
 the practice of giving out all the papers at once and 
 allowing their holders to sit close beside each other, as 
 in an ordinary recitation. Sometimes, however, the old 
 rule of sitting widely apart, is insisted upon. In 
 " swapping," each man gets the benefit of two chances, 
 instead of one, of drawing something with which he is 
 acquainted ; and it may sometimes happen that two 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 631 
 
 men who would each flunk the papers they originally 
 drew, by making an even " swap " are each able to rush 
 the other s papers. So, too, a good scholar may help 
 a poor one, just hanging on the verge of the class and 
 liable to drop at any time for the want of a few hun- 
 dreths of stand, by swapping papers with him, though 
 by doing it he ensures for himself a fizzle instead of a 
 rush. 
 
 In the chemistry examinations of 68, the papers 
 were swapped in accordance with a regular system, 
 previously planned : It was found, after the first " sub" 
 had been examined, that the ground was covered by 
 just twelve questions, a number which corresponded to 
 the number belonging to each "sub." In each "sub" 
 after the first, therefore, the work was portioned out in 
 advance among the different members, each one of 
 whom crammed that one of the twelve questions which 
 was assigned him. Then, in examination, when the 
 papers were given out, they would be quietly circulated 
 until each man got hold of the one which he had 
 crammed ; and the rush which he made therefrom 
 would be rewarded by a high mark, corresponding to 
 those given during the term for equally honest rushes- 
 made by skinning. The professor who gave instruction 
 to this class, on the following term performed a similar 
 office for the Seniors of Williams College, using the 
 same text-book and treating them in exactly the same 
 manner. Strange to say, the Williams men failed to 
 recite well, frightful fizzles only alternating with down 
 right flunks, day after clay, and week after week. But 
 the climax was reached at examination time, for then 
 the terror-stricken chemists had to throw up the game in 
 despair, and to admit that they knew nothing of the 
 subject. The professor s equanimity had been sorely 
 tried before, but this last straw upset it altogether: 
 
632 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 "Gentlemen !" said he, " I m disgusted with such stu 
 pidity ! Last term, at Yale College, I taught this same 
 study, with this same text book, to a class of young men 
 of the same age as yourselves, who not only recited 
 exceedingly well in term-time, but passed their examina 
 tions with especial honor ! I am therefore firmly con 
 vinced that you have shamefully slighted this study, 
 and done justice neither to yourselves nor your college ! " 
 So goes the story at Yale, and, if not strictly true, it is 
 so essentially plausible as to serve all the purpose of an 
 illustration. Whether the Williams men were too hon 
 est, or too stupid, or too closely watched, to skin succes- 
 fully, does not appear ; but the professor s words must 
 have inspired them with an increased awe and venera 
 tion for the name of Yale, and have caused them to 
 wonder if the New Haven students, whom they had 
 previously looked upon as their equals, were not, after 
 all, members of a higher order of creation, endowed 
 with intellects far superior to those of common mortals, 
 to whom any chemical notation more elaborate than 
 H 2 O is likely to be a delusion and a snare. In 69, the 
 examinations in Chemistry were simplified by being 
 skinned directly from the book, like the ordinary recita 
 tions. At the other senior examinations especially in 
 the department of Moral Science entire text-books are 
 often secretly brought in under the vest or in the over 
 coat pockets and skinned from. Cases have even 
 been known where a desperate skinner, going up to 
 recite an examination paper of which he knew nothing, 
 has laid upon a lower edge of his instructor s desk a 
 page or more of mathematical formulas, and while the 
 professor looked at the figure in his own book or upon 
 the board, has actually read off the proof, and escaped 
 detection. 
 
 The stricter the examinations the shrewder must be 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 63 3 
 
 the devices employed to circumvent them, and hence it 
 takes an Annual to bring out the full perfection of skin 
 ning. The peculiar nature of this examination makes 
 some of the old tricks impossible, some of them more 
 difficult, some of them easier, and allows of some alto 
 gether new ones. A man finds it much more hazardous 
 to attempt any communication with his neighbor, but at 
 the same time much easier to consult his own boots or 
 finger-nails. Though the clock in the hall hangs in 
 sight of most, it is a very common thing for a man to 
 lay his watch beside his inkstand before he begins to 
 work ; and if the dial of that watch be covered with 
 microscopic dates and formulae, there is little danger of 
 anyone save himself taking notice thereof. A more 
 elaborate trick which a 69 man has the credit of in 
 venting, but which it is possible that few in that class 
 ever heard of before was this : A small font of extra- 
 hand and sharply-cut brevier type was procured, and 
 also a quantity of ordinary octagonal lead-pencils. By 
 impressing the proper letters of the former upon each 
 side of one of the latter, eight lines each one ten inches 
 long, say of information, likely to be " interesting" at 
 examination time, could be transferred to every pencil. 
 One or two pencils of this kind were prepared for each 
 examination, and there being no rule against the bring 
 ing of lead pencils into the hall, they could be taken 
 out and consulted without attracting notice ; though, if 
 still greater security were required, by fastening common 
 clasps to their ends they could be transformed into ordi 
 nary looking penholders, and employed as such while 
 their secret information was being memorized or written 
 down. This fraud is perhaps a too laborious one to be 
 much resorted to, except in desperate cases, but the 
 almost absolute impossibility of its being detected, 
 specially recommends it to the attention of the timid. 
 
 28* 
 
634 POUR Y&ARS At YALE. 
 
 Another trick is to write upon a watch-chrystal, by 
 means of a diamond or sharp bit of quartz. Eye glasses 
 are also put to a similar use by .those in the habit of 
 wearing them ; one or two pairs of mock glasses closely 
 covered with writing, being carried in, and shifted about 
 from the pocket to the eyes and from the eyes to the 
 table, in which latter position the information engraved 
 upon them can be made use of. If it be desired to skin 
 more extensively, blank sheets, of the peculiar kind of 
 paper with which the tables are supplied, must be smug 
 gled out of the hall at the close of one examination and 
 smuggled into it at the beginning of the next, after having 
 been covered on one side with useful facts and statistics, 
 expressed in the ordinary handwriting of the skinner. 
 The fraudulent sheets, after having been once safely 
 spread upon one s table, may be allowed to rest there 
 with perfect security, or may be taken up in the hand 
 and crammed from openly, since there is nothing to dis 
 tinguish them from the honestly-written sheets which 
 lie upon every man s table. The third and last step of 
 the process is to smuggle them out of the hall again, 
 after they have served their purpose. An entire book 
 is never brought in to Annual, and none but the most 
 brazen of skinners ever venture to experiment then with 
 a skinning-index and the separate printed leaves. 
 
 Minute skinning-papers, and the elaborate double- 
 scroll machine already described, are to some extent 
 made use of. At the sophomore Biennial of 67 the 
 last one ever held one of the sufferers was possessed 
 of a " double-roller," upon which was copied the essen 
 tial part of all the Analytics recited by the class. Before 
 entering the examination hall, the man in question cut 
 a hole, large enough to admit the passage of his hand, 
 through the pocket and inner side of his left trousers 
 leg ; and when seated at his table, though his left hand 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 635 
 
 was to all appearances innocently resting in the depths 
 of his pocket, it was really holding before his eyes a 
 condensed treatise on Analytical Geometry. If a profes 
 sor had any suspicions aroused by the fixedness of the 
 skinner s gaze, and approached him to investigate, he 
 would be reassured by finding nothing attracting it save 
 the wood-work of the floor ; for without any peceptible 
 motion the hand could be clasped within the pocket ; 
 while, if worst came to worst, and the skinner was 
 ordered to " show his hand," he could instantly do it 
 with the greatest possible display of injured innocence, 
 and still be able, by aid of his " little joker," to win the 
 game in the end. Another sort of " pocket skinning" 
 was that said to have been practised at the senior Bien 
 nial of 55 : The skinner bored a half-inch auger-hole 
 in the floor, in such proximity to the legs of his table 
 that his own left foot would naturally cover the orifice. 
 The boring he accomplished after the first examination, 
 either by pacing carefully the distance of his table from 
 the door, as he withdrew, and then calculating a similar 
 distance in the cellar below, and working upwards with 
 his auger through the flooring of the indicated spot ; or 
 by breaking into the hall by night and boring from 
 above. Access to the cellar was made by one of the 
 rear windows, which, if not open, could of course be 
 smashed. Through this window, at the commencement 
 of an examination, was sent an under-class friend of the 
 skinner, bearing all the text books which were that 
 clay to passed upon, with orders to station himself 
 directly beneath the hole. He was of course supplied 
 with pencil and paper, the latter perhaps being the offi 
 cial sort, previously smuggled from the hall. The prep 
 arations on the skinner s part consisted of a stout black 
 cord fastened to the left trowsers pocket, and extending, 
 through a rent in the same, down the left trowsers leg, 
 
636 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 at the bottom of which, with a loaded darning-needle, 
 and several coils of " slack" attached, it was lightly 
 tacked on. Once seated at his table, it was an easy 
 matter for the man while stooping to pick up his pen 
 holder, " accidentally" dropped between his feet to un 
 loose the coils of cord and let the loaded needle drag it 
 down through the hole below. Communication being 
 thus opened with his confederate in the cellar, it was 
 only necessary to copy off the " hard questions" from 
 the examination paper, attach them to the cord in his 
 pocket, and gently work them through his trowsers leg, 
 and the hole in the floor, to the partner of his fraud who 
 awaited them. The latter, by reference to his text books 
 and ponies, copied off correct answers as quickly as 
 possible, and, wrapping the improvised skinning-paper 
 around the cord, signaled that his work was accom 
 plished : whereupon the skinner drew up the precious 
 document, and transferred its available contents to the 
 blank sheets upon his table. The table leg could be 
 made to cover the augur hole when the latter was not 
 needed ; and the one who thus passed his examinations 
 was doubtless able ever after to see a new meaning in 
 the old war song, " Biennials are a Bore." 
 
 But the attempts at deception are not confined simply 
 to skinning. Since the Annual papers can contain but 
 a very small fraction of the year s work, an enormous 
 premium is offered for finding out in advance what ques 
 tions those papers arc to contain. Within certain limits, 
 probabilities can be calculated by a careful comparison 
 of the former Annual and Biennial papers, which are 
 kept for reference in the library. A sort of correspond 
 ence between the work and questions given in different 
 years may be easily made out, and a plan of cramming 
 decided upon with reference to it some parts of a sub 
 ject being set aside as "not worth looking at," some as 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 637 
 
 u worth glancing over," some as " worth a thorough 
 cramming." At 69 s freshman Annual, in cramming 
 up for the Euclid examination, many paid attention only 
 to those propositions numbering less than 50 in all 
 which had been given out at previous Annuals or Bien 
 nials ; for it was noticed that for several years preced 
 ing, two out of three propositions on a paper had been 
 given before ; that is, that the faculty had ordered one 
 new wood-cut " figure " made each year, and had selected 
 the other two "figures" from among the blocks previ 
 ously manufactured. And it may here be remarked that 
 all the " figures " supplied at Annual save those in 
 Astronomy are always white lines on black, instead of 
 black lines on white as in the book. Now, by making 
 sure of rushing two propositions, one might safely run 
 his chance on the third, and even flunk it, without falling 
 below average. The attempt was always made, more 
 over, to get wind of the third or new proposition, while 
 the engraver was preparing the figure. In 70 it was 
 successfully done by bribing an office boy, who secretly 
 managed to get a look at the figure while the instructor 
 was showing it to his master, and was hence able to 
 recognize and point it out when all the figures of Euclid 
 were displayed before him by the students who set him 
 on the watch. Latterly the practice of cramming on the 
 " old propositions " of Euclid has been abandoned, both 
 because their number has considerably increased, and 
 because the belief has gained ground that, after all, the 
 theory is wrong, and that there is no certainty of two of 
 the three figures selected being those of "old propo 
 sitions." 
 
 Desperate attempts are likewise made to get posses 
 sion of the entire contents of the paper, while it is in the 
 printer s hands, or afterwards. The papers are usually 
 damp from the press when distributed in the examina- 
 
638 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 tion halt, and are always printed on the same day when 
 used. Of course the forenoon papers are put in type 
 the night before, and various schemes are resorted to 
 to get hold of the " form " at that time, and learn the 
 contents thereof ; while, on the other hand, every effort 
 is made by those in authority to prevent such schemes 
 from succeeding. The story is told that on one occa 
 sion, as the " form " of a paper for an afternoon exami 
 nation was about being made ready for the press 
 (Hayes s printing office being the locality, and the mid 
 dle of the forenoon, the time), a fire was suddenly 
 kindled in the entry, which at once sent a dense smoke 
 throughout the building, and in the confusion and alarm, 
 one of the many students who "rushed to the rescue" 
 (one who had been informed by a spy as to the exact 
 position of the press and its accessories, and had pre 
 pared himself for the work), managed to " take an im 
 pression " upon his shirt sleeve and escape undetected. 
 At the sophomore Annual of 69, a persistent effort 
 was made to get hold of the mathematical paper, since 
 upon the " Puckle " portion of it most of the class were 
 almost certain to flunk. A pair of professional house 
 breakers were imported from New York to " work up 
 the case," and were to receive $200 in the event of suc 
 cess, but nothing in case of failure. The examination 
 was to be held at 9 o clock on Friday morning, and, 
 from day-break of Thursday, until he finally withdrew 
 to his house for the night, the professor of Mathematics 
 was dogged about by one or the other of these spies, 
 and never allowed out of their sight for more than a few 
 minutes at a time. He was tracked from his house to 
 the Library, to the printing office, to the post office, 
 every where ; and the time spent in each place, and his 
 mode of employing it, was, as far as possible, carefully 
 noted. At the printing-office, the burglar, to account 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 639 
 
 for his visits there, ordered some handbills of an im 
 aginary steamboat excursion to be struck off, which 
 handbills were to be called for " early next morning," 
 and "must be printed there, because" though the col 
 lege printers did little miscellaneous work of that sort 
 "all the other offices were too busy to take the job." 
 In the course of his visits, the burglar was able to deter 
 mine pretty accurately the state of things in the office ; 
 and he also managed to get a glimpse at the " copy," in 
 the hands of the professor, but, not being possessed of 
 a liberal education, he was unable to bring to headquar 
 ters any more definite report of what he saw than to 
 liken the "figure" which met his gaze to the general 
 appearance of " a curb-bit " ; nor could he, owing to the 
 same lamentable defect in his early culture, distinguish 
 this particular "curb-bit" from its numerous comrades, 
 when the " Puckle " book was opened before him. 
 Nothing remained, therefore, but to carry out the origi 
 nal plan, and get hold of the paper by force. Accord 
 ingly, at a little past midnight, the head burglar and 
 two of his sophomore employers mounted the roof of 
 the printing-office, by means of a skylight leading from 
 the room of a Soph living at the other end of the block, 
 and letting themselves down through another skylight or 
 a window in the rear, were quickly among the types and 
 presses. But here a new difficulty beset them, for their 
 dark-lantern, after being lighted, proved true to its name, 
 flickered a minute, and then went out. There was no 
 help for it then save to boost a Soph up on the roof 
 again, and send him off for another bull s-eye. He, 
 knowing of but one which could safely be sought at that 
 hour, hastened to the house of his society janitor, and 
 being unable to arouse him, climbed into the window, 
 wandered through the rooms of sleeping Freshmen, 
 finally discovered the lantern, and returned with it to 
 
640 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 his partners in crime. The " pal " of the chief burglar 
 had all this time been left outside, to give the alarm in 
 case of discovery, and draw off upon himself any " move 
 ment " which might be made ; and he either lay hidden 
 in the grass of the green, or carelessly strolled up and 
 down the street, as circumstances seemed to advise. 
 Inside the office, after the arrival of the messenger of 
 light, everything was thoroughly ransacked, and not a 
 single imposing-stone was left unturned, in the desperate 
 search for the much desired " form." But it was all in 
 vain: not a stick-full of type, nor a shred of "proof," 
 nor a line of "copy," relating to sophomore mathematics, 
 could be raked up ; and, as the signs of day began to 
 appear in the east, even "Honest John," the house 
 breaker, had to admit that the game was lost, and that 
 it was useless to stay longer in the office. But, as he 
 reluctantly withdrew and saw the hoped-for $200 van 
 ishing in the dim twilight of the early morning, he 
 " damned his eyes " because he had not begun opera 
 tions earlier by " sweetening up the office boy," and still 
 offered to earn the money by breaking into the private 
 residences of the printer and professor, in search for 
 the secreted "form," or by abducting " that little make- 
 matic man " and holding him in durance vile until the 
 examinations were over. But these desperate schemes 
 were rejected as soon as proposed, and with a bonus of 
 $10 for their night s work "John " and his "pal " were 
 sorrowfully dismissed, and the baffled Sophomores turned 
 in for a few hours sleep to prepare them for the rapidly 
 approaching torture. 
 
 One of them the thief of the lantern still managed, 
 however, to pass unscathed the inquisition referred to, 
 without in reality paying the slightest attention to its 
 questions : Next beside him, in class and examination, 
 sat a high-stand man who was well up on mathematics, 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 641 
 
 and who, in consideration of $10, was to attempt to 
 "skin him through" his "Puckle" Annual. With this 
 object in view, he practised in advance at forging the 
 lantern thief s signature, and imitating his ordinary 
 writing, until he could do both with reasonable accuracy. 
 Arrived in the examination hall, he wrote, say, half a 
 dozen sheets, with his own name at the top ; enough at 
 all events to " keep up his stand," whatever it was ; and 
 then, devoting his attention to the man who had em 
 ployed him, with his name at the top and in his imitated 
 handwriting, proceeded to cover several sheets with the 
 same work. Of course the second series of papers 
 were much less perfect than the first, and were intended 
 to contain no more work than would be sufficient to pass 
 a man a trifle above average, as a rush on a mathemati 
 cal examination from one just hanging on the verge of 
 the class would excite too much suspicion. Meanwhile, 
 the one distinguished as the lantern thief sat at his 
 table, with pen, ink, and paper, industriously doing 
 nothing. Finally, when the weary two hours and a 
 half were over, and men were hastening from the hall, 
 he walked up to the professor of Mathematics, to whom 
 others were handing in their work, and having asked 
 him some improvised question in regard to the paper, 
 returned no more to his seat, but went out with the 
 others from the hall. His confederate soon after 
 handed in both series of papers at the desk, and like 
 wise withdrew. For a fortnight afterwards, the lantern 
 thief hung about his local post-office, expecting to inter 
 cept a " letter home," informing his parents that their son s 
 career at Yale had ended ; but the letter never came, the 
 fraud was never discovered, and the skinner in clue 
 time received his sheepskin with the others. It was a 
 perilous game to play, but the man was desperate, and 
 believing that his own stay in college depended upon 
 
6 42 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 passing that examination, he boldly threw down his 
 last card and won. Apparently it would have dimin 
 ished the chances of detection, if both the lantern-thief 
 and his assistant had stepped up to the desk together, 
 at the same time when many others were handing in 
 their papers, and in the confusion had made a transfer, 
 and afterwards handed in their papers separately. The 
 former, for the sake of appearances, might have taken 
 one or two blank sheets in his hand as he started from 
 his table. Both series of papers being handed in 
 together, the resemblance between the handwritings, 
 etc., would be more easily detected, especially as 
 attention would be called to it by the fact of the two 
 successive sets of papers " lying the same way," instead 
 of "crosswise," as all papers are arranged when handed 
 in to the examining officer. But, as nothing succeeds 
 like success, perhaps the plan tried was, after all, the 
 wisest one. 
 
 At the junior Annual of 69, the paper on Natural 
 Philosophy was got hold of, a few hours in advance, and 
 crammed on by perhaps half the class ; but as the 
 faculty detected the cheat, by the rushes of the poor 
 scholars and the fizzles and flunks of the good ones, 
 they forced the entire class to pass a new examination 
 upon the subject. At the same time, some of the Sophs 
 of 70 learned the contents of their French paper ; and 
 a dozen of the poor scholars who rushed the examina 
 tion were arbitrarily picked out as being the probably 
 guilty parties, and made to go through the mill again. 
 As a matter of fact, but three of the dozen, thus made 
 to do penance for the guilty, really had any knowledge 
 of the fraud. It should be understood that it is chiefly 
 for the benefit of low-stand men, " good fellows " who 
 are in danger of being dropped from the class, that 
 examination papers are sought after, and the other 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 643 
 
 modes of deception resorted to. . The greatest obstacle 
 in " working up a case " is the difficulty of keeping the 
 matter secret from the body of the class. In the first 
 place, a " ring " must be formed, say of half a dozen 
 men, who are to have absolute control of the scheme. 
 It is then decided what other poor scholars shall be 
 allowed to share in its benefits, each member of " the 
 ring " perhaps being permitted to name two or three. 
 The members of the " outer ring " being decided upon, 
 they are cautiously approached upon the subject, and, 
 after being pledged to secrecy, are told in general 
 terms that a plan is on foot to get such and such a 
 paper, and asked if they will contribute their share of 
 money, say $5 or so, in its support. If they agree to it, 
 they are pledged to let no classmate know of the plan, 
 or gain benefit from it if successful. They are not 
 given any knowledge as to the scheme of operation, or 
 the composition of the inner and outer " rings." The 
 half-dozen members of the working force are generally 
 able to raise enough money for their purposes, and to 
 bear the loss of it if they fail ; and they also pledge 
 one another to impart the secret to no one save the indi 
 viduals lawfully chosen upon the " outer ring." The 
 latter are not notified at all of the scheme until a few 
 days, perhaps a few hours, before the results of it are 
 expected, and up to this point all goes well. But sup 
 pose the priceless paper is got hold of, and its invalu 
 able contents are made known to the, say, eighteen 
 members of " the ring," it is now that the real difficulty 
 of keeping the secret begins ; for each one of those 
 eighteen is quite sure to have some particular friend, 
 wildly cramming at his books, whom a trifling hint 
 would be such a help to, that, spite of oaths and pledges, 
 the temptation to tell him is all but irresistible. The 
 temptation yielded to, in a few cases, and the informa- 
 
644 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 tion becomes the common property of the majority of 
 the class, including some high-stand men ; the others 
 hear of. it, and think themselves badly used ; the 
 managers can no longer maintain discipline and enforce 
 on all the necessity of doing only moderately well 
 instead of rushing ; the faculty discover the cheat ; and 
 every one is brought to grief. No class can make sure 
 of having more than a dozen or at most fifteen poor 
 scholars who are capable of refusing help to a comrade 
 in distress, even when they defeat their own object in 
 giving it ; and no ring can be successful unless entirely 
 made up of exactly such hardened monsters of self- 
 control. Reports are always current at examination time 
 that some particular "crowd" has got hold of a paper, 
 and enquiries are industriously made as to the probable 
 membership of the " ring," with a view of working into 
 the good graces of the same. Undoubtedly there are 
 some successful "rings " whereof neither the uninitiated 
 portion of the class nor the faculty ever have the least 
 suspicion ; but their number cannot be large, since after 
 the danger is over the temptation to boast of a famous 
 exploit is usually too great for a student to resist. Tra 
 dition tells that the questions of a Biennial paper were 
 once discovered by some Seniors, who occupied a room 
 immediately above the room of a professor, and by 
 means of powerful lenses fitted to the hole bored by 
 them in the ceiling, were able to decipher the manuscript 
 or print of the examination paper, as it lay upon the 
 professor s desk or table. It is also related that when 
 the safe in the treasurer s office was more easily ap 
 proached than now, a professional burglar was brought 
 on the ground, in readiness to " crack " it, in case the 
 examination papers were stored therein, as they were not. 
 The system of making up omitted recitations gives 
 opportunity for the exercise of one or two frauds not 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 645 
 
 properly comprehended under the general term of skin 
 ning. The essential object of most of them is, in mak 
 ing up, to substitute a different lesson in place of the 
 one really omitted. There is not much, difficulty in doing 
 this, for when a man hands in his paper, giving the 
 date and limits of his omitted lesson, the instructor, 
 finding by reference to his score book that the date is 
 correct, generally takes it for granted that the lesson 
 offered corresponds to it. Now, if in place of the real 
 lesson the one just before or just after it be substituted, 
 the chances are that the change will not be noticed, 
 an interval of ten days or a fortnight being supposed to 
 elapse between the times of omission and making up. 
 If by any possibility, the discrepancy is detected, there 
 is no necessary implication of attempted fraud, for the 
 thing might happen by accident ; so regrets are simply 
 offered for the "mistake," and the real omission is made 
 up at a subsequent trial. By this process of substitution 
 an easy lesson may be recited in place of a hard one, 
 and the trouble of really making good an omission be 
 done away with. In 69, a man made up two successive 
 Astronomy lessons, by passing examination at different 
 times on a third lesson, which he had also rushed orig 
 inally at an ordinary recitation. Stand may be fac 
 titiously raised by frequent make-ups, even supposing 
 them to be honest ones ; for while, on the one hand, a 
 man is not called up in the ordinary course of recitation 
 oftener, on an average, than once in two or three lessons, 
 and must be constantly prepared on the review as well 
 as the advance lesson, on the other hand, by getting 
 leave to omit and then make up occasional recitations, 
 he is certain to be examined on every one of them and 
 credited with a rush if he make it, and the review les 
 son is never required of him. A trick sometimes played 
 in recitation, to save from a flunk a man whom it is im- 
 
646 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 possible to help otherwise, is this : Suppose him to have 
 been given a problem at the board, and to have written 
 down a good many proportions and formulas, all of which, 
 or at least the results derived from them, he knows to 
 be incorrect. As the time for closing the recitation 
 approaches, he manages to communicate his wish to 
 some friend at work near by, which friend, being " in 
 want of more room," suddenly erases a good share of 
 the other s work, " before he can have a chance to pre 
 vent him." Apologies to the professor follow: "I 
 thought, sir, that those figures had been explained." 
 " Well, well, be more careful next time, and explain your 
 own work, now, as far as you ve got." The other is 
 allowed to take his seat, as there is no time remaining 
 in which to rewrite his work ; and so, with every appear 
 ance of regret for having lost a rush, he withdraws to 
 his bench to chuckle in secret over his escape from a 
 flunk. Sometimes, of course, honest blackboard-work, 
 waiting to be explained, is accidentally erased by an 
 over-careless mathematician. 
 
 In the languages, as has been implied, skinning is 
 mostly confined to notes and memoranda, written in 
 recitation time upon the margins and between the lines 
 of the text books. Ponying, however, is almost univer 
 sal, a good majority of the class habitually using a 
 pony in getting out their translations, and all but a few 
 of the others, say ten or a dozen, resorting to the same 
 aid when hard pressed for time or perplexed by a diffi 
 cult passage. Compositions are skinned bodily and 
 persistently, the same manuscript being read or handed 
 in three or four different times, by as many different 
 men, to as many different division masters. After thus 
 doing good service in sophomore year, when they must 
 be written upon stated objects, they are again brought to 
 light in junior year, and used as " forensic disputations," 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 647 
 
 the subjects of which the students themselves select ; 
 and after going the rounds under this name, some of 
 them are dragged up and made to do duty even in sen 
 ior year. There are very few " writers" who will not 
 readily lend their old compositions to their lazier friends 
 to read or copy, and some even consent to write off special 
 pieces for the benefit of the latter. In every class there 
 are one or two, who, in the slang of the outer world, 
 would be called " literary hacks 5 ; persons, that is, who 
 make a business of supplying their classmates with the 
 lesser literary wares at prices varying from fifty cents to 
 five dollars a piece. The " retired literary gentlemen, 
 living at Troy," or elsewhere, who periodically flood 
 the colleges of the country with their circulars, must reap 
 but a very small harvest from Yale, therefore, since the 
 shiftless and ignoble skinners there residing prefer to 
 patronize home institutions, especially since by so doing 
 they can secure better work for less money. It is prob 
 ably safe to say that of all the compositions read or 
 handed in, less than half are what they purport to be ; 
 that is, written for the occasions on which they are 
 offered, and by the individuals who offer them. 
 
 At the roll call of a large division in senior year, an 
 absent man is sometimes answered for by one who is 
 present, though never except by the former s request ; 
 since two might answer at a time and thus lead to detec 
 tion, or the man may have been excused in advance, or 
 may for some reason wish to be marked absent. At 
 some of the senior year lectures, too, men stand just 
 inside the door, while the bell is ringing, stay there until 
 the monitor has marked them " present," and withdraw 
 before the lecture begins, the presiding officer, mean 
 while, having, from the position of his seat, no chance to 
 see them at all. Cheating by placing false marks in the 
 monitor s book is not very common, as the book is gen- 
 
648 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 erally pretty closely guarded. The record of the choir s 
 monitor has the repute of being oftener tampered with 
 than the others. Making out false church papers is a 
 very common practice, some who are supposed to 
 attend service at Trinity or elsewhere rarely going to 
 church at all. To many of the regular frequenters of 
 the chapel, who are allowed two half-Sundays a term in 
 which to attend church service in town, the phrase " to 
 take out a church paper," is about synonymous with the 
 phrase " to take out a leave to cut ;" for they always im 
 prove the two half Sundays by taking a stroll out of 
 town, or staying at their rooms, there to sleep, smoke, 
 read, write, or cram,. as the case may be. It is noticea 
 ble that on the last Sundays of the term, which are the 
 ones preceding the examinations, the attendance at 
 chapel is unusually slim, and its full allowance of church 
 papers sixteen each is quite certain of being called for 
 by every class. 
 
 In the rendering of other sorts of excuses, too, there 
 is a great deal of downright lying. When a man s marks 
 get close in the neighborhood of 48, there is nothing 
 which he will not resort to in order to get enough of 
 them knocked off to allow him a reasonable margin for 
 accidents. The ingenuity of college is put to the 
 severest strain in inventing new and plausible excuses, 
 and the number of minor diseases which "disable a man 
 from walking abroad " is really surprising. The memory 
 of the grim humorist who wrote upon his excuse paper, 
 " Sick, according to the above directions," is tenderly 
 cherished at college ; but there is probably no day in all 
 the college year in which excuse papers, which, if rightly 
 understood, are no less comical, are not handed in. 
 "Letters home 1 that is, official notifications sent to 
 one s parents or guardian, in regard to his marks, or 
 "position on the course of discipline," his stand, or 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 649 
 
 " position on the course of literature," his " leaves of 
 absence," "conditions," "suspensions," etc. are a great 
 bugbear to most students, and hence pains are taken to 
 prevent them from reaching their destinations. By the 
 aid of a postmaster, or a brother, sister, or friend at 
 home, they are intercepted without much difficulty, as 
 they are usually enclosed in government stamped en 
 velopes, bearing the imprint, " Return to Yale College, 
 if not delivered within ten days." In cases where the 
 recipient of a letter home is requested to acknowledge 
 the receipt of it, the signature of parent or guardian, not 
 being known to the college authorities, can be easily 
 forged. 
 
 Though skinning and kindred deceptions have thus 
 been described at length, it should be carefully borne in 
 mind that they are exceptional manifestations, and that 
 honest work is generally the rule. When an instructor 
 detects a man skinning in recitation, he marks him a 
 flunk without calling him up to recite, and perhaps with 
 out letting him know that he was discovered. He may 
 also give him several marks for " discipline." A skin 
 ner detected at term examination, is conditioned, marked 
 heavily, warned, and perhaps suspended. Still heavier 
 penalties follow evil doing at Annual, while a man 
 known to have a share in stealing an Annual paper 
 would be summarily expelled. To help or " skin 
 through" another, is officially looked upon as little 
 better than skinning for one s self and draws down the 
 same punishment. So numerous are the precautions, 
 and so severe are the penalties against skinning, that 
 the number of habitual practisers of the art is compara 
 tively small. It is one thing to secretly read from a 
 book in a crowded recitation room, but quite another 
 thing to successfully carry out some of the elaborate 
 schemes which have been described, in a large examina- 
 
 29 
 
650 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 tion hall. None but the cheekiest and most self-assured 
 men in the class are equal to these latter exploits, and 
 the very boldness and audacity of some of the tricks 
 narrated is good proof of their exceptional character. 
 
 The general college sentiment in regard to all such 
 matters is one of approval for all means calculated to 
 circumvent and deceive those in authority, provided 
 that these means are employed for the benefit of those 
 who make no pretensions as scholars^ For a high- 
 stand man to skin, or for anyone to skin for a stand 
 simply, is looked upon as mean and contemptible. A 
 high-oration man, for instance, who should get and keep 
 his place by skinning, would be despised and con 
 demned by the general sentiment of the class. There 
 always exists among the students a sort of undefined 
 belief that, in the irrepressible, conflict between them 
 selves and the faculty, the latter are aiming to bring the 
 poor scholars "below average " and so get rid of them ; 
 and that it is their own duty, in opposing this scheme, 
 to make use of any aid which circumstances may afford 
 them. Hence, very many good scholars, who never skin 
 on their own account, are persistent in their attempts to 
 cheat for the benefit of others ; and even take counsel 
 together how a particular low-stand friend of theirs may 
 be saved from impending destruction. A poor scholar 
 who is too conscientious to skin is respected for his 
 scruples ; but a man who is too conscientious to help 
 another skin at least passively, as by helping along to 
 its destination a skinning paper, prepared by some one 
 else is thought little better than a monomaniac on thai 
 subject of honor, a being too immaculate to breathe with 
 common men. As for "swearing off marks" and "Iji 
 ing out of excuses," public sentiment winks at the prac-j 
 tice, good humoredly, though perhaps not quite as 
 approvingly as at skinning. Without pretending to 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 651 
 
 defend its morality, it is accepted as a sort of necessity 
 of the situation. Some men who stick at no other sort 
 of fraud, however, will never approve of making out 
 false church papers. 
 
 The behavior of the students at the various college 
 exercises is generally quiet and orderly, and it grows 
 better as a class advances on its way, except perhaps 
 that the upper classes get to their scats a little less 
 promptly than the lower ones. The individual instruct 
 ors appear to decide whether they will allow any " ap 
 plause " in their own rooms; and the practice is generally 
 discouraged on the ground of its disturbing the other 
 recitations. Stiil, there is considerable of it, in the 
 lower-class recitations ; and when the occasion really 
 deserves it, it is seldom that the presiding officer 
 attempts to break it up. Perhaps it is a joke 6*f his own, 
 or an absurd translation, or a comic accident of some 
 sort, which excites the merriment of a division ; but 
 whatever it is, the instructor takes it good naturedly, 
 and marks are never inflicted in bringing such an out 
 burst to a close. Sometimes, at a preconcerted signal, 
 as the last stroke of twelve, the entire division will 
 cough, or cross their legs, or pull out their handker 
 chiefs, or turn their heads to the right or left, with very 
 odd effect. The wisest way and the usual one for the 
 instructor to act in such cases is to pay no attention to 
 the Fritter. To display any symptoms of anger at such 
 trifles is only to court their repetition in the future. A 
 nervous Theologue, who is sometimes temporarily sub 
 stituted for a sick or absent tutor, may be worried half 
 t > Ueath by his freshman pupils, especially if he attempts 
 any severe measures. Beans and paper wads will be 
 hurled at him, and in every way he will be insulted and 
 despitefully used. Freshmen, even in the presence of a 
 well-liked tutor, will sometimes throw r paper wads, and 
 
6$ 2 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 light matches, and build small bonfires behind the 
 benches, and pass a man s hat or his boot or the stove- 
 poker to the end of the room furthest from where it 
 belongs, and draw chalk sketches upon the floor and 
 upon each other s backs, and cut their names or class 
 numeral or society letters upon the benches, and use 
 their lead pencils to mark upon the luxuriously white 
 washed walls. For these latter offences, which were 
 formerly known as " damnifying the college buildings," 
 fines may be inflicted, and marks may be given for any 
 Of the things named, but as a rule it is thought best to 
 take no notice of them. 
 
 Freshman applause is loud and uproarious, made by 
 stamping the feet with full force upon the floor, and is 
 aroused by the merest trifle. In -sophomore year it is 
 still common, but less noisy and move discriminating, 
 and made to some extent by snapping the fingers. In 
 the last two years it is extremely rare, and the slightest 
 word from the presiding professor is sufficient to check 
 it. No objection is usually made to snapping the fingers 
 in encouragement of the sophomore compositions ami 
 declamations, though the applause thus bestowed is not 
 very discriminating. Most applause given to the re 
 marks of a professor in recitation or lecture comes from 
 a few, and is intended ironically, and though the object 
 of it accepts it in good part, the bulk of the students 
 discountenance it and the applaud ers, and merit on it 
 among themselves as "too bad," or "a regular disgrace 
 to the class," that a few men should show disrespect to 
 Old So and So. On the other hand, it is accour,: 
 great breach of decorum for a college officer to reprove 
 a person by name in the presence of his class or divis 
 ion, and one in the habit of doing it would soon dr 
 down upon himself the hatred and contempt of all col 
 lege. 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 653 
 
 At lectures, only a small share of the class regularly 
 take notes, the majority, after making one or two at 
 tempts at it, leaving their note-books behind as useless 
 encumbrances. When examination time comes, if they 
 think it necessary to cram, they can borrow some stand- 
 man s note book. Meanwhile some of them cut, and 
 of those who attend, some sleep, some read novels, some 
 write notes to one another, and some cram at their next 
 day s lesson. In the junior year lectures on Natural 
 Philosophy, when the room has to be darkened for some 
 of the experiments, men change their places from one 
 part of the room to another, and hats, note-books and 
 paper wads fly merrily about. It was then, too, in for 
 mer years, when young ladies attended the show, that 
 sounds as of tremendous kissings were heard, and 
 greeted with warm applause. From the Botany lectures 
 it is sometimes thought worth while to make an egress 
 by jumping from the windo^ though there is too much 
 interest taken in them to make the habit anything but a 
 rare one. The lectures on Anatomy are the only ones 
 where the students enter the room in advance of the 
 professor, and retire after him. The seats therein are 
 arranged in the form of an amphitheater and rise sharply 
 above one another. The Seniors taking their places 
 upon these, laugh, joke and sing their songs, until a bell 
 warns them of the professor s approach ; and as he steps 
 through a side door to his table, and bows to them, they 
 acknowledge his salute by rising for a moment in their 
 seats. These lectures are perhaps the most attentively 
 listened to of any that are delivered. 
 
 At morning prayers, as said before, there is absolutely 
 no tardiness, every man who enters the chapel at all 
 being in his seat at the last stroke of the bell. There 
 is a good deal of cramming during the service, and a 
 large share of the heads which are bowed during the 
 
654 POUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 utterance of the prayer are possessed of eyes which are 
 eagerly scanning the pages of an opened text-book. 
 During Sunday service there is some reading, though 
 this cannot be called a common practice. There is, 
 however, a great deal of sleeping and dozing ; and as it 
 is against the rule to bow the head upon the seat in 
 front, except in prayer time, men learn to sleep while 
 sitting bolt upright, and in every other imaginable pos 
 ture which will not expose them to detection. "Corner 
 scats " are therefore on Sunday more popular than ever. 
 A trick seldom played by anyone save Seniors, is for a 
 man, after being marked "present" by the monitor, to 
 withdraw during the long prayer. With the exceptions 
 noted, the decorum which reigns in chapel is very 
 strict, applause, rushing, loud talking, or confusion of 
 any sort being altogether unknown. Sometimes, when 
 a very tedious preacher has reached his "sixthly" or 
 "seventhly," and shows noigns of stopping, a general 
 movement of uneasiness goes over the house as a gentle 
 hint that the audience are tired of hearing him. This 
 never happens without great provocation, however, and 
 the noise made is not loud, the share contributed by 
 each individual being so small as to be imperceptible. 
 One time, a 69 Freshman who "helped on the cause," 
 by sliding himself the whole length of his pew, was sus 
 pended for a term in consequence. Once, too, when 
 the president announced in chapel a change of fifteen 
 minutes in the time of ringing the prayer bell, a faint 
 moving of feet, by way of applause, was detected to 
 come from the seats of the Fresh of 69, and the class 
 was laughed. at for a week by all college, on account of 
 its foolish temerity. Slight as it was, it was the only 
 manifestation of the sort known to a chapel service dur 
 ing the whole four years of 69, and probably for a much 
 longer period. 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 655 
 
 Most instructors, in calling a man up in recitation, 
 simply address him by his surname, though a few have 
 a habit of, prefixing the "Mr." Initials are used to dis 
 tinguish men having the same surname, but the latter is 
 the only one ever uttered in full. The faculty speak to 
 and of one another as " Mr." never as " Prof." So 
 and So, and the highest officer of the college is not 
 called by his name at all, but is addressed and spoken 
 of as "the president." The students, too, among them 
 selves, rarely mention his name unless preceded with 
 the title " Prex," which is oftener used alone to designate 
 him. Among the Seniors, the modified form of " Prexy" 
 is somewhat in vogue, in familiar talk. All other college 
 officers are spoken of simply by their surnames, without 
 official prefix of any sort; except of course in interviews 
 with members of the faculty, or in formal conversation 
 of any sort, when they are referred to as "Prof." or 
 Tutor So and So. Four only of the professors have 
 nicknames of any sort : Loomis, Hadley, and Newton, 
 who are known as " Loom," " Had," and " Newt," gen 
 erally with the prefix " Old " ; and Thacher, who is 
 called, from his first name, "Tommy." The names are 
 applied good-naturedly enough, without any special im 
 plication of hostility, and are used only by those who 
 have had to do with their owners. No college officer, 
 in fact, is often thought of or mentioned at all except 
 by those who have recited to him. " Old," as a chance 
 epithet of little significance, is applied at odd times to 
 almost every one ; but the rule holds good that, in com 
 mon talk, the simple surname of a college officer is the 
 one by which he is referred to. A student usually 
 touches his hat when he meets upon the street an in 
 structor with whom he is acquainted ; sometimes he does 
 the same to the older officials whom he will come to 
 know in process of time ; and a similar salute is in all 
 
656 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 cases returned. An upper-class man, however, never 
 "recognizes" the lower-class tutors with whom he is 
 unacquainted. A student meeting an acquaintance of 
 his own or another class, simply nods in recognition, 
 but never lifts his hat ; unless, of course, he or his friend 
 be accompanied by a lady. 
 
 During the first two years, and to some extent in the 
 third, whenever an instructor closes his connection with 
 a class, he is "cheered" in this way : Each division, at 
 the close of its last recitation to him, forms in a body out 
 side, and "lead off" by its loudest-voiced man, who 
 perhaps puts in a complimentary word or two, in his pro 
 posal gives " three time three" or, oftener, " three times 
 nine" cheers for this or that tutor or professor. As the 
 four freshman instructors generally leave the class at 
 the close of that year, there are sixteen farewell "cheer- 
 ings" from that class alone, included in the space of two 
 days or less ; while nearly as many more from the Soph 
 omores and a few, perhaps, from the Juniors are given 
 forth at about the same time. Even the least popular 
 instructors get their full share of cheers, though perhaps 
 in these cases they may not be rendered with their wonted 
 heartiness ; while each division generally shouts more 
 energetically for its own division-master, than for the 
 other instructors whom it cheers. Members of the fac 
 ulty make no sign in recognition of the compliment 
 thus paid them, but they accept the custom good na- 
 turedly, and spite of its interrupting some of the recita 
 tions, they each year allow it to be celebrated. The 
 Seniors offer cheers in front of the Medical College, at 
 the close of the last lecture, and in the same way speak 
 their adieus to the college and its highest officials, at the 
 close of Presentation Day. 
 
 Perhaps the fate of the forty Sophs of 32 one third 
 the class who were expelled for attempting to " remon- 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 6^7 
 
 strate," or " dictate," in regard to the mode of studying 
 Conic Sections ; or the issue of the Commons Rebellion 
 of 1828, which was entered into, and backed out of, by 
 a good share of all college ; may account for the senti 
 ment, but at all events the sentiment exists, that a fight 
 against the faculty would be a hopeless one. Their 
 power is felt to be absolute, and is the last thing in the 
 world which the student ever thinks of disputing ; but 
 as it is often exercised in what the student considers 
 an arbitrary and unreasonable manner, he "defends 
 himself" by resorting to sharp practice and every mode 
 of deception which his wits can conjure up. It is a 
 common thing to speak and think half in joke and half 
 in earnest of the faculty, in the abstract, as a body 
 prone to act arbitrarily in all things, intolerant of all 
 opposition or remonstrance, however mildly presented, 
 and stubbornly bent on enforcing all its decrees, no mat- 
 tcr how manifestly absurd. "If you want to argue 
 effectively," says one, "go out and talk to that elm tree, 
 but do n t waste your breath on the faculty." " That s 
 so," says another ; " reserve your common sense for 
 those who can appreciate it. When you ve made the 
 sun rise in the west, it may be worth while to attempt 
 other miracles." 
 
 Personally, however, the members of the faculty are 
 looked at in a very different light. With scarcely an 
 exception, they are thoroughly respected by the students, 
 and deliberate insults and embarrassments are never 
 placed upon them. Tricks which prevail at other col 
 leges, such as locking an instructor in his recitation 
 room or dormitory, throwing water upon him, stealing 
 his clothes or other property, upsetting his chair in reci 
 tation or tripping him up outside, writing or printing 
 derisive or scurrilous remarks in regard to him, and so 
 on to the end of the list, are all obsolete at Yale : not 
 
 29* 
 
658 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 because they could not be played with perfect impunity, 
 but because the general college sentiment condemns 
 them as unmanly and indecent. The same sentiment 
 says there is nothing humorous in tampering with the 
 college bell, and so it is let severely alone. Once, while 
 69 was in college, some sneak entered the chapel and 
 lugged off the Bible from the pulpit ; but no one 
 laughed at or approved of the deed, and had its perpe 
 trator been known he would have been ostracized by 
 all the decent men of his class. The same would be 
 true of any practisers of the tricks which have been 
 referred to ; for it is not a popular thing to insult or show 
 disrespect for the faculty. A man may cheat his in 
 structor in recitation, lie to him concerning marks, curse 
 him in private for his "ugliness," and his comrades 
 look on unmoved, if not approving ; but the moment he 
 offers him the least disrespect and insult, he finds every 
 man s hand turned against himself. For the undergrad 
 uates spite of the "meanness," and "tyranny," and 
 " oppression" of those in authority really have an odd 
 feeling akin to admiration for their instructors, and they 
 will not see them abused or ill-treated by anyone. They 
 rather enjoy having them " stand upon their dignity," 
 and are apt to resent the idea that there should be any 
 familiarity between the two " hostile elements," either in 
 the recitation room or outside it, beyond what is required 
 by the official regulations. This feeling reaches its 
 climax in the case of the president, whom the under 
 graduates, spite of their familiar talk about him in pri 
 vate, really look up to with a respect and veneration so 
 deep as to be almost akin to a superstitious awe ; and 
 whom they would no more think of showing the least 
 disrespect to than a pious Mussulman would think of 
 desecrating the Holy Stone at Mecca. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 snows. 
 
 Junior Exhibition Time and Place of Holding It Its Recent 
 Transformation Managers and Invitation Notes The Exer 
 cises and their Value The Promenade Concert Commence 
 ment Rules for the Attendance of the Seniors The Procession 
 Arrangement of the Audience The Speakers and the Lis 
 teners Conferring the Degrees The Dinner and the Evening 
 Recent Changes in the Show Its Celebration in the Olden 
 Time Gunpowder, Rum and Riot The Official Calendar The 
 Society of the Alumni Concio ad Clerum The Obituary Rec 
 ord The General Statement The Annual Catalogue The 
 Triennial Catalogue The Alumni Associations in the Cities. 
 
 Junior Exhibition apparently originated at about the 
 beginning of the present century, and a Sophomore 
 Exhibition, of the same general character, is said for a 
 time to have preceded or been co existent with it. It is 
 held at the close of the second term of junior year, 
 sometimes on Monday or Wednesday, but almost always 
 on Tuesday, of the last or next to the last week of that 
 term, the chapel being the traditional place for holding 
 it, though by most of the classes between 55 and 70 
 the College Street Church was employed instead. In 
 the old times, all holders of " orations," " dissertations," 
 and " disputes," and perhaps even lower appointments, 
 used to be allowed to speak, but more recently the num 
 ber of speakers was only about half as great, and places 
 upon the programme were decided by the merit of the 
 pieces handed in, holders of the two upper grades of 
 appointments being obliged, and none others being 
 allowed, to write in competition therefor. This plan was 
 
660 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 applied to the three classes, 69 to 71, in connection 
 with the practice of limiting the exhibition to one ses 
 sion, held between the hours of two and six in the after 
 noon. In the thirteen classes, 56 to 68, it had been 
 customary to hold a second session, commencing at 
 about seven in the evening ; and for at least thirty years 
 preceding, there had been a forenoon and afternoon ses 
 sion of the show, the former beginning at eight, half 
 past eight, or nine o clock, as the. case might be, and the 
 latter opening at about two. To judge from an invita 
 tion-bill, the exhibition of 22 consisted of a single ses 
 sion, for it opened at one o clock in the afternoon ; and 
 perhaps its predecessors resembled it in this respect. 
 The second session of a divided show usually attracted 
 the larger audience. At the opening of the academic 
 year of 1870-71, the question of the abolition of the 
 exhibition came up for discussion before the faculty, but 
 they finally decided to transform it into a " prize speak 
 ing" ; and under the name of Junior Prize Exhibition, 
 the " ten best speakers" among the appointment men of 
 72, were this year made to exhibit themselves, at the 
 usual time and place. The choice was made in this 
 wise : all members of the class having an appointment 
 higher than second dispute were obliged to write an 
 essay on one of seven assigned subjects, which essay 
 had to be of such length that its delivery in public would 
 not require more than twelve minutes of time. From 
 these forty or more competing essays, the ten best were 
 selected, and their writers each rewarded with a $10 
 prize. The ten prize men then declaimed their orations 
 in the chapel, as aforesaid, and the faculty decreed an 
 extra prize of $50 to the one whom they judged the 
 best speaker. The only music was an opening voluntary 
 on the organ, and the singing of the college glee-club. 
 There were but three ushers, who were appointed from 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 66 1 
 
 the class by the faculty, and who, like the speakers, 
 were arrayed in the regulation dress-suit of black, 
 though it was specially announced that this custom of the 
 old Junior Ex would not be required in the new. The 
 programmes were plainly printed and bore simply the 
 names of the orators and their orations. All expenses 
 attending the exhibition were borne by the college 
 authorities. The attendance was good, and the show 
 was voted by all a great improvement on its predeces 
 sors, which had for some years been a sort of college 
 laughing stock. 
 
 The details of the old-fashioned Junior Ex now 
 happily obsolete used to be arranged by a committee, 
 chosen by the junior class, at the time of electing its 
 Cochs and Lit. editors, or at a later meeting called for 
 that special purpose. They served as ushers at the 
 exhibition, secured the music, attended to the prome 
 nade, etc. Traditionally, there were nine members of 
 this committee, and they were known as " managers " ; 
 but the number sometimes varied, and the title, toward 
 the close, had become obsolete, except upon the printed 
 programmes. Low-stand men, or at all events those 
 who had no chance of speaking at the exhibition, were 
 latterly generally chosen on the committee ; and, though 
 election to the same was still thought to be something of 
 an honor, there was not the least electioneering or 
 excitement over the matter, as in the old days when to 
 become one of the "managers" was a most worthy 
 object of junior ambition. The printed programmes of 
 the show indicating the names and residences, themes 
 and rank, of those who spoke, but not the names of the 
 other appointment-men were furnished by the faculty, 
 but the other expenses of the exhibition rested with the 
 class. The heaviest item in these was the cost of the 
 music, and it was chiefly to help pay for this that the 
 
652 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Promenade Concert was instituted. The committee 
 palmed off as many tickets as possible upon their own 
 and the lower classes, and to meet the deficit a tax 
 usually had to be levied. For a quarter of a century or 
 more, ending about the year 1845, it had been cus 
 tomary to issue steel-engraved invitation-notes ; by which, 
 over the names of the " managers," " the company of 
 
 was requested," at such and such time and place, 
 
 to attend the exercises of Junior Exhibition. - These 
 invitations were generally embellished with some elab 
 orate classical or mythological design, accompanied by 
 an appropriate motto, and were printed upon gilt-edged 
 note-paper, of various tints, as was the fashion of those 
 days. At the time referred to, the corporation, thinking 
 the custom extravagant and unnecessary, passed a 
 special law forbidding it ; and for a dozen years or so, 
 ending perhaps with 58, common type printed invita 
 tions were sent out. These, in addition, bore upon the 
 inner page a list of the speakers, and a notice as to the 
 music and the times of commencing the exercises. In 
 55 an invitation note of this sort, but steel-engraved 
 like the old ones, was issued ; and the steel-engraved 
 Spoon-invitations of that class greatly resembled it. 
 The idea of these pictured steel-plate Spoon-invitations, 
 which were last issued by 67, was, as stated in another 
 chapter, borrowed from the obsolete custom of Junior Ex. 
 In turn, the more recent style of Spoon-invitations, intro 
 duced by 68, was adopted by 70 for its Junior Ex, no 
 invitation of any sort having been sent out in the latter s 
 behalf for a dozen years preceding, and the committee 
 of 72 also issued similar elaborately designed invitations 
 to their Junior Promenade. The college law against 
 the issue of engraved invitations or tickets, though it 
 still stands on the statute-book, has long been practically 
 obsolete, and will probably never be revived again, 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 663 
 
 though the growing tendency in college to substitute 
 costly steel-engraving on every little occasion, where 
 ordinary letter-press printing would answer as well, is 
 already beginning to be cried out against by some, as 
 resulting in a needless waste of money. 
 
 At the exhibition, the president presided, and in a set 
 Latin formula called off the names of the speakers, who 
 as they mounted the stage, first bowed to him, and then 
 saluted the audience. He also made a prayer at the 
 opening of the exercises. Most of the faculty sat in 
 the front pews, and some of the trustees made it a point 
 to be present also. The " Latin oration " was always 
 the first speech delivered, and the " Greek oration " 
 always introduced the second session of the exhibition, 
 if there were two sessions. Another "philosophical 
 oration " in English, was always the last speech delivered. 
 The other speeches were distributed between these in 
 such a way as to secure as much variety as possible in 
 the exhibition. Each speaker chose his own theme, 
 subject to the approval of the professor in Rhetoric, and 
 was allowed eight minutes in which to discourse there 
 upon. Between every two or three of the speeches there 
 was " music by the band," which music was the most 
 attractive feature of the show, and, in fact, the only 
 thing connected with it in which the undergraduates 
 took any great interest. Many of them used to go in, 
 between whiles, to listen to the playing, and withdraw as 
 soon as the speaking recommenced. A particularly 
 good or a particularly bad speaker, however, would be 
 apt to attract in quite a number of his classmates with 
 the avowed purpose of hearing him. Nevertheless, 
 there was always a good attendance at the show ; for 
 the fathers and mothers and family connections of the 
 speakers, and the young lady friends of the class and 
 the college, and the townspeople generally, who still 
 
664 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 clung to the superstition that this was one of the great 
 representative displays of student culture and ability, 
 all these were there, listening to the music, admiring the 
 eloquence, and giving to each one who recited his lesson 
 his even modicum of applause. 
 
 The Junior Promenade Concert is not a very ancient 
 affair, its predecessor, the Junior Ball, of thirty years 
 ago, being held at the close of the year in August, and 
 having no connection with the exhibition proper. The 
 musical part of the latter entertainment used to be fur 
 nished by the same Beethoven orchestra which performed 
 at evening chapel ; and even after the organ was pro 
 cured it was thought a sufficient attraction if some 
 locally-famous player was secured to perform thereon at 
 the season in question. But when it became a custom 
 to import Dodswortlvs and other famous bands from 
 New York, it was thought best to combine pleasure with 
 economy and institute a Junior Promenade. The first 
 class to do this was 51, and from 63 to 72 there has 
 been no break in the celebration. Ending with 68, the 
 promenade used to be held the evening before the 
 exhibition ; for the next three classes it happened on 
 that evening itself; but the present year the Juniors of 
 72 set February 15 as the night, in order to anticipate 
 the lenten season, and secure a larger attendance. This 
 last promenade was of course under the charge of a 
 committee elected specially to attend to it, as no 
 " managers " were required for the exhibition itself. 
 The earlier promenades used also to be under an inde 
 pendent direction, and to have only a remote connection 
 with Junior Ex. The dancing, nominally beginning at 
 eight, usually continues until two or three in the morn 
 ing, though the attendance is fullest between the hours 
 of ten and eleven. This attendance is very select, 
 though whether because the promenade often occurs 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 665 
 
 in -Lent, or is unattended by other attractive college 
 exhibitions it comprises but few from outside the city, 
 and is much less brilliant than at the Spoon Promenade 
 of a few months later, by which it has hitherto been 
 somewhat overshadowed, the superior and constantly 
 increasing attractions of the latter celebration having 
 rather deadened the interest in the former, in much the 
 same way as the Spoon Presentation itself had taken 
 away all glory from Junior Ex. It may be worth remark 
 ing that upon the old invitations to exhibition and to 
 ball, the college was spoken of as " Yale University," 
 a title which is never affected now-a days among the 
 students. 
 
 " Commencement " is the oldest anniversary connected 
 with the college, the name having been applied to the 
 closing exercises of the academic year from the very 
 foundation of the institution, and hence it is still looked 
 upon by the public at large as the most important one. 
 As a matter of fact, however, its glories have mostly 
 departed (" before the progress of civilization," as the 
 students say), and among the undergraduates it is now 
 only thought of as being " the day before the University 
 race." In 69*3 time it occurred on that Thursday of 
 July which lacked a day of being four weeks from the 
 time (Friday) when the Seniors finished their last An 
 nual, and was one day more than three weeks after 
 Presentation, which always occurred on Wednesday. 
 From time immemorial, Presentation came six weeks 
 before Commencement, until 1866, when the interval 
 was diminished to four weeks ; the next year it suffered 
 a still further reduction to three weeks, one-half the 
 original period ; and, at last, the present year, the three 
 weeks were contracted into two days, and Presentation 
 appointed for the Tuesday before Commencement, which 
 was set at the second Thursday of July. Under the old ar- 
 
66 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 rangement, on the Saturday before Presentation, that is, 
 the day after the Seniors had finished their Annual, 
 the president announced to them the official regulations 
 in regard to their conduct in the future. These were, 
 that, after attending prayers on the morning of Present 
 ation Day, all who had no special work assigned them 
 such as the making up of conditions, or the correction 
 of Commencement pieces would be excused from all 
 further attendance upon college exercises and residence 
 in New Haven, until the Saturday*before Commence 
 ment, when they would be expected to return, in order 
 to present themselves at the chapel on Sunday afternoon 
 and listen to the " baccalaureate sermon," delivered for 
 their benefit, and on Thursday to join in the Commence 
 ment procession and attend the literary exercises ; that 
 all charges due the treasurer would have to be paid 
 him by the last Monday of the term ; that those remain 
 ing in their usual college rooms would still be under 
 college control and must so behave themselves as not 
 to interrupt the under-class men in their studies ; and 
 that excuses to be absent from Commencement alto 
 gether could only be granted for special cause. As a 
 matter of fact, however, no marks were given or attempts 
 made to trace a man s whereabouts later than Present 
 ation morning, and if he left town then and never 
 returned to it, the faculty never knew the difference. A 
 third or more of every class were always absent from 
 the baccalaureate discourse" and graduation exercises, 
 to which their presence was supposed to be an aid, and 
 only a small portion of these absent ones ever took the 
 trouble to ask a formal excuse in advance. As for the 
 three lower classes, all their Annuals were finished on 
 the Friday before, on which morning chapel prayers 
 were held for the last time, so that most of them had 
 gone home, and the few who remained were only awaiting 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 667 
 
 the approach of the University race, endeavoring thus 
 to make their stay in Worcester as short as possible. 
 Under the new arrangement, it is possible that chapel 
 prayers may be persisted in till Commencement morn 
 ing, and the presence of all the undergraduates required 
 till then. 
 
 At about half-past eight o clock of Commencement 
 morning, attracted by the ringing of the bell and the 
 playing of a band of music, the Seniors, alumni, and 
 faculty assemble in front of the Lyceum, and form in 
 procession. Theoretically the lower classes are still 
 supposed to take part in the same, as they did actually 
 in the olden times, and the senior tutor in forming the 
 procession, still calls upon " the Freshmen ! the Soph 
 omores ! the Juniors !" to take their places in the 
 ranks, without eliciting any further response than a few 
 derisive grins from the scattered representatives of those 
 classes who may be hanging about in his vicinity. The 
 Scientifics ! are then called for, then the Seniors, then 
 the alumni, youngest first, and lastly the trustees, faculty 
 and president. In this order, the procession, preceded 
 by the band, marches in double file to the Center 
 Church, at the door of which the ranks are opened, 
 heads are uncovered, and the dignitaries in the rear 
 pass between the rows and go first through the entrance, 
 followed by the rest of the procession in the reverse 
 order of marching. The president sits within the pulpit, 
 and the faculty, trustees and other important personages 
 take positions on the stage beside him, while the body 
 of the alumni occupy the central pews, and the graduat 
 ing class those upon the right side of the south aisle. 
 The galleries and certain pews on either side the stage 
 are reserved exclusively for ladies, and the remaining 
 seats of the house are open to the general public. 
 Benches and settees are placed along the aisles, and 
 
668 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 these, as well as all available standing places about the 
 doors, are always crowded with spectators. The regular 
 church ushers act as tip-staves in assigning seats and 
 preserving order, and one or two policemen are usually 
 in readiness outside to suppress any disturbance. For 
 merly, when Commencement was observed as a sort of 
 general holiday throughout the city and State, the honest 
 country folk for miles around used to flock in to the 
 celebration, coming on foot or horseback or in every 
 imaginable kind of vehicle, and swarming about the 
 church steps for hours before the time of opening the 
 doors. When at last an entrance could be made, there 
 was a rush, a crush, and a jam, until every available 
 inch of space had been taken up. Many thought them 
 selves lucky if they could secure eligible standing places, 
 and more had to be content with such fragments of 
 student eloquence as could be caught by standing guard 
 outside the doors and windows. The issue of checks 
 for reserved seats to the " friends of the class," who did 
 not join in the procession, sometimes made the conten 
 tion the sharper for the sittings which were not reserved. 
 Even now, quite a crowd assembles in advance of the 
 opening of the doors, and all the allowed space is well 
 filled before the arrival of the procession. 
 
 The exercises are opened and closed with a prayer 
 from the president or some one of the trustees, and 
 music is occasionally sandwiched in between the 
 speeches. The first one of these is the "salutatory," in 
 Latin ; all the others, ending up with the " valedictory," 
 are in English. The opening and closing speakers 
 make separate addresses to the president and faculty, 
 the class and the audience ; and the class rise in their 
 seats when the valedictory is being delivered to them. 
 The other speakers simply bow to the president as they 
 mount the stage, and then address themselves to the 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 669 
 
 audience. Their subjects are chosen by themselves, as 
 at Junior Exhibition, and their places upon the pro 
 gramme are decided, as then, with a view of contrasting 
 different sorts of productions, and causing the better 
 and poorer speakers to alternate with each other. All 
 in the class who have a stand higher than that of " col 
 loquy " are obliged to hand in a Commencement piece 
 at the close of the second term, and from these a dozen 
 of the best are selected for delivery on the day in ques 
 tion, though all the holders of " philosophical " are 
 expected to speak, as a matter of course, and most of 
 the rest who are chosen are " oration-men " of some 
 sort. Almost all of the Seniors who are in town on 
 Commencement Day make it a point to be present 
 during the delivery of the salutatory and valedictory 
 orations, but the other pieces are listened to by few or 
 by many of the class, as it may happen. At the close 
 of every speech, and especially during the interludes of 
 music, some of the class, and some also of the general 
 audience, go out, and others come in, and the number 
 of Seniors who sit through the whole performance is 
 very small, many of them in fact going in only at the 
 opening and close of the exercises. On the last page 
 of the printed programme which exhibits the themes, 
 names, and residences of the speakers, is given a list of 
 the "honors," that is the names of all appointment- 
 men, together with their residences. The names are 
 not displayed alphabetically under each grade, but ac 
 cording to individual rank, and two or more persons 
 having the same rank are bracketed together. Every 
 speaker is of course applauded, and bouquets are some 
 times thrown them by their lady friends, though the latter 
 practice is now getting to be rare at all college exhibi 
 tions, and compliments of the sort are apt to expose 
 their recipients to considerable chaffing from their com 
 rades. 
 
670 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 The titles of the performances at the Commencement 
 of 69 were : " Robert Burns," " German Liberty," " Olden 
 Barneveldt," " Dr. Arnold of Rugby," " The Failure of 
 Protestantism," "The Eastern Question," " Ochloch- 
 racy," " Free Trade," " A Plea for Shylocks," " Railroads 
 and the Government," " The Fictions of History," 
 " Macchiavelli s Art of War," " The Heresy of Specula 
 tion," and " College Friendships " with the valedictory 
 addresses. At the Junior Exhibition of the same class 
 the titles were : " De satirarum scriptoribus Romanis," 
 "William H. Seward," "Thackeray," "The Poetry of 
 Keats," " The Battle of Tours," "The Armada," "An 
 tagonism Essential to Success," "The Mudsills of 
 Society," "Daniel Webster," "The Statesmanship of 
 Revolutions," "Richelieu," "The Defeat at Kolin," 
 " The Arabic Learning in Spain," and " Milton s" Free 
 Commonwealth." Five of the Junior Ex speakers did 
 not exhibit at Commencement, and a like number of 
 speakers on the latter occasion had nothing to say at 
 Junior Ex: nine of the fourteen, that is to say, appeared 
 on both occasions. What some of the titles were when 
 full thirty speeches were allowed may from these 
 examples be imagined. 
 
 The conferring of degrees immediately succeeds the 
 delivery of the valedictory. The Seniors being mar 
 shalled alphabetically in front of the church, file in, in 
 squads of a dozen, through the center aisle, and stand 
 in a semi-circle about the president s desk, while he 
 from his scat addresses them about as follows: "Pro 
 auctoritate mihi commissa, admitto vos ad primum 
 gradum in artibus ; pro more hujusce academics. Vo- 
 bisque, una cum his instruments, concede omnia jura 
 et privilegia qua; ad hunc gradum evectis consedi 
 soleant." At the word " instrumcntis," the president 
 hands to the nearest man a roll of diplomas, and at the 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 671 
 
 conclusion of his address the dozen bow to him and 
 retire through the south aisle, pouncing upon the 
 bearer of the precious sheepskins as soon as the outer 
 door has been passed, and eagerly -seizing each man his 
 own from the roll. The diploma is printed from a 
 steel-plate, upon a skin measuring about 20 by 14 
 inches, and bears the following words: "Prases et 
 Socii Collegii Yalensis, in Novo Portu, Connecticuten- 
 sium, Omnibus has litteras perlecturis, S. P. D. Vobis 
 illud notum sit [Name, Latinized if possible, in accusa 
 tive case], qui candidates ad Primum honoris academici 
 Gradum pervenire cuperet, a nobis titulo graduque 
 Artium Liberalium Baccalaurei adornatum esse atque 
 condecoratum, eique fruenda omnia data esse jura, 
 honores, insignia, qure apud nos ad Gradum Bacca- 
 laurealem evcctis concedi soleant. In cujus rei testi- 
 monium et Prasidis et Scriboe Academici manum et 
 Collegii signum his litteris apponenda curavimus hoc 
 die [vicesimo secundo] Julii Anno Domini [MDCCC- 
 LXIX]." The signatures of president and secretary 
 are Latinized, as far as possible, and the seal is engraved 
 as a part of the plate. The opening words ending with 
 " S.P.D.," are expressed in large ornamental letters, the 
 remainder in common script. Cylindrical cases of tin 
 are generally procured by those who wish to preserve 
 their sheepskins. The form of words used by the 
 president in presenting the degrees may vary a little 
 from year to year, though it is practically about the same 
 as that employed on such occasions almost from the 
 foundation of the college. Formerly, however, u pro 
 more academiarum in Anglia " used to be spoken 
 instead of "pro more hujusce academics," and "Vobis- 
 que trado hunc librum, una cum potestate publice 
 prselegendi, quotiescumque ad isthoc munus evocati 
 fueritis ; cujus, hxc instrumenta, mcmbrana scripta, 
 
672 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 testimonio sint," was the wording of the second clause. 
 " Primum gradum," too, sometimes gives place to 
 " gradum baccalaurealem." The form used in conferring 
 the master s degree was the same as the other, except 
 that "secundum gradum" or "gradum magistralem " 
 took the place of " primum," and " profitendi " of 
 "praelegendi." 
 
 After the last degree has been conferred and the 
 assembly dismissed, the company of college officers, 
 graduates and invited guests (including in the latter term 
 all college-bred men who may choose to attend), gradu 
 ally wend their way, separately or in groups, to the 
 vicinity of Alumni Hall. Here a large tent is pitched, 
 as a protection against sun and rain ; and after chatting 
 for a while beneath it the multitude is summoned to din 
 ner within the hall. First go the college and other dig 
 nitaries, to take their places at the elevated " table of 
 honor" ; then follow the alumni, class by class, in the 
 order of graduation, ending with the late Seniors and 
 Scientifics who have just received their sheepskins, and 
 the generally-invited graduates of other colleges. When 
 at last the whole five hundred or more are seated in 
 order around the festive board, grace is said, and the 
 practice with knife and fork at once begins, presenting 
 a scene the like of which is seldom beheld now-a-days 
 outside the university dining halls of England. Hav 
 ing appeased the cravings of appetite, the company join 
 in a song or two from the printed sheets freely distrib 
 uted among them, and the " symposiarch," or person 
 chosen the day before to act as president of the alumni, 
 after making a congratulatory speech of introduction, 
 proposes a set of toasts, and calls upon various individ 
 uals for responses. The good speeches are loudly ap 
 plauded, and cheers for various " sentiments" are pro 
 posed by the younger alumni, and given with a will. 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 673 
 
 No potables are supplied save water, lemonade, and 
 coffee ; but in 1869 an innovation was made by the 
 smoking of cigars during the after-dinner speeches, a 
 procedure which drew out several letters of complaint 
 in the newspapers. At about six o clock, a parting song 
 is sung, and with a benediction the gathering is dis 
 missed. In the evening, the president holds a sort of 
 informal " levee " or " reception " at his residence, to 
 which all are invited, but the Seniors do not largely 
 attend it, for a good share of them, as well as many of 
 the alumni, are engaged in the senior-society anniversary 
 meetings, and others are busy " packing up" for depart 
 ure, or holding farewell celebrations in private. On 
 Commencement night the college yard seems desolate 
 and forlorn : its quiet appears all the lonelier from the 
 bustle and commotion of the day, and the few flickering 
 lights seen in the college windows, and the solitary foot 
 steps heard through the darkness, wandering listlessly 
 about, or hurrying off to catch the boat or the midnight 
 trains, only add to the general gloom. Early the next 
 morning many start for the University race at Worces 
 ter, others in the course of the day drift off homeward 
 on the various trains. There is no general leave-taking 
 at Commencement time, for the class said their formal 
 adieu to one another, and to college life, on Presenta 
 tion Day, and they do not repeat the ceremony. 
 
 The sort of Commencement here described was intro 
 duced in 1868. Up to that time there had been two 
 sessions in the church, and the dinner came between 
 them. The procession of the morning was repeated at 
 the beginning of the afternoon s exercises, and the 
 degrees were conferred at the close of the same. The 
 number of speakers was about twice as great as now. 
 Thirty years ago, it was a common thing for colloquy-men 
 to write dialogues or plays, and act them out on the 
 
 3 
 
674 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 stage at Commencement or Junior Ex. Poems were 
 also quite frequent, and might be given by any speaker 
 except the holders of the two highest places, a rule 
 which is still in vogue, and which was taken advantage 
 of as late as the Junior Exhibition of 68. Fifty years 
 ago, moreover, the Seniors were wont to hold a "Com 
 mencement Ball," on the night before they graduated, 
 and to send out steel-engraved, gilt-edged invitation 
 notes to that magnificent entertainment. They used to 
 pay, likewise, for the Commencement music, and the 
 president used to be allowed as a sort of perquisite a 
 fee of $5 or thereabouts for every sheepskin signed by 
 him. Now, an extra charge of $12 for " graduating ex 
 penses," is placed upon the last term-bill of every Sen 
 ior, the payment of which is the only part taken by 
 him in the management of the show. The payment of 
 $5 for every graduate of three years or longer standing, 
 secures for him the second degree of Master of Arts. 
 
 " Although a very early act of the original trustees 
 contemplates granting a diploma of Bachelor after three 
 years residence to students of distinguished industry 
 and ability, and of Master after two years more upon 
 the same terms, the plan does not seem to have ever 
 been carried into effect. Commencements were not to 
 be public, according to the wishes of the first trustees, 
 through fear of the attendant expense ; but another 
 practice soon prevailed and continued with few excep 
 tions until the breaking out of the war in 1775. They 
 were then private for five years on account of the times. 
 The early exercises of the candidates for the first degree 
 were a saluting oration in Latin, succeeded by syllo 
 gistic disputations in the same language ; and the day 
 was closed by the masters exercises, disputations and 
 a valedictory. According to an ancient academical 
 practice, theses were printed and distributed upon this 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 675 
 
 occasion, indicating what the candidates for a degree had 
 studied and were prepared to defend ; yet, contrary to 
 the usage still prevailing at universities which have 
 adhered to the old method of testing proficiency, it does 
 not appear that these theses were ever defended in pub 
 lic. They related to a variety of subjects in Technol 
 ogy, Logic, Grammar, Rhetoric, Mathematics, Physics, 
 Metaphysics, Ethics, and afterwards Theology. The 
 candidates for a master s degree also published theses 
 at this time which were called questiones magistrales. 
 The syllogistic disputes were held between an affirmant 
 and a respondent, who stood in the side galleries of the 
 church o pposite to one another, and shot the weapons 
 of their logic over the heads of the audience. The 
 saluting bachelor and the master who delivered the val 
 edictory stood in the front gallery, and the audience hud 
 dled around below them to catch their Latin eloquence 
 as it fell. It seems also to have been usual for the pres 
 ident to pronounce an oration in some foreign tongue 
 upon the same occasion. The earliest theses extant 
 belong to 17 14, and the last were printed in 1797. From 
 1787 onwards there were no masters valedictories, nor 
 syllogistic disputes in Latin, and from 1793 there were 
 no masters exercises at all. The present bachelor s 
 valedictory in English was introduced in 1798, the 
 idea of it having been derived from the farewell oration 
 of Presentation Day. A stage for the speakers was first 
 erected about the year 1770. 
 
 "At the first public Commencement under President 
 Stiles, in 1781, we find from a particular description 
 which has been handed down, that the original plan, as 
 just described, was subjected for the time to consider 
 able modifications : The salutatory oration was delivered 
 by a member of the graduating class, and was succeeded 
 by the syllogistic disputations, and these by a Greek 
 
676 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 oration, next to which came an English colloquy. Then 
 followed a forensic disputation in which James Kent was 
 one of the speakers. Then the president delivered an 
 oration in Hebrew, Chaldaic and Arabic, it being an 
 extraordinary occasion, after which the morning was 
 closed with an English oration by one of the graduating 
 class. In the afternoon the candidates for the second 
 degree had the time, as usual, to themselves, after a 
 Latin discourse had been offered by the president. The 
 exhibitors appeared in syllogistic disputes, a disserta 
 tion, a poem, and an English oration. Among these 
 performers we find the names of Joel Barlow, Noah 
 Webster and Oliver Wolcott. 
 
 " Commencements were for a long time occasions of 
 noisy mirth and even of riot. The older records are 
 full of attempts, on the part of the corporation, to put a 
 stop to disorder and extravagance at this anniversary. 
 From a document of 1731 it appears that cannons had 
 been fired in honor of the day, and students were now 
 forbidden to have a share in this on pain of degradation. 
 The same prohibition was found necessary again in 
 1755, at which time the practice had grown up of illu 
 minating the college buildings on Commencement eve. 
 But the habit of drinking spirituous liquors and of fur 
 nishing it to friends on this occasion grew up into more 
 serious evils. In the year 1737, having found that there 
 was a great expense in spirituous liquors upon Com 
 mencement occasions, the trustees ordered that for the 
 future no candidate for a degree or other student should 
 provide or allow any such liquors to be drunk in his 
 chambers during Commencement week. And again it 
 was ordered in 1746, with the view of preventing several 
 extravagant and expensive customs, that there should be 
 no kind of public treat but on Commencement, Quar- 
 terdays, and the day [Presentation] on which the vale- 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 677 
 
 dictory oration is pronounced ; and on those days the 
 Seniors may provide and give away a barrel of metheglin 
 and nothing more. But the evil continued a longtime. 
 In 1760 it appears that it was usual for the graduating 
 class to provide a pipe of wine, in the payment of which 
 each one was forced to join. The corporation now at 
 tempted by a very stringent law to break up this prac 
 tice ; but the senior class having united in bringing large 
 quantities of rum into college, the Commencement exer 
 cises were suspended, and degrees were withheld until 
 after a public confession of the class. In the next two 
 years degrees were given at the July examination with a 
 view to prevent such disorders, and no public Com 
 mencement was celebrated. Similar scenes are not 
 known to have occurred afterwards, although for a long 
 time that anniversary wore as much the aspect of a 
 training day, as of a literary festival." 
 
 According to an arrangement adopted the present 
 year, Commencement occurs on the last Thursday but 
 two in July. It used to occur, from 1867 onwards, on 
 the last Thursday but one; from 1851 onwards, on the 
 last Thursday; from 1840 onwards, on the last Thursday 
 but two in August ; from 1830 onwards, on the last 
 Thursday but one in that month ; and previous to 1830, 
 from the very foundation of the college, at about the 
 middle of September. " The first term begins nine weeks 
 from the day before Commencement, and continues four 
 teen weeks; the second begins on the first Wednesday 
 in January, and continues fourteen weeks ; the third, 
 of eleven weeks, begins on the last Wednesday in April 
 and continues till Commencement. The intervening 
 periods of nine, two, and two (or, as the case may be, 
 three) weeks, are assigned for vacations." So says the 
 catalogue, though in reality the terms all begin on Thurs 
 day, and the long vacation begins at the close of the 
 
678 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 Annuals, a week before Commencement. Up to 1859 
 the terms did begin on Wednesday, that is, chapel 
 prayers were commenced that evening, but since the 
 abolition of evening chapel, the prayer bell of Thursday 
 morning has been the first summons to a term s duty. 
 The only persons deceived by the theoretical " opening " 
 of Wednesday night are the Freshmen, many of whom, 
 for the first term or two, come to town some twenty-four 
 hours earlier than there is any necessity for. During 
 the last century almost every one took his second or 
 master s degree, and many spent the interval in New 
 Haven, pursuing some study usually Theology in 
 private, under the direction of the professors. Young 
 graduates had the title of " Sir " prefixed to their names 
 upon the printed programmes, and were called junior, 
 middle, and senior bachelors, respectively, during the 
 first, second, and third years after taking their first de 
 grees. Fifty years ago, the number of those who became 
 " masters " was reduced to about half the class, and of 
 late years only about a third or a fourth of those who 
 graduate ever take the trouble to obtain a second sheep 
 skin. 
 
 The gradual withdrawal of the " masters" from the 
 Commencement stage of Thursday, was perhaps partly 
 a cause and partly a consequence of the establishment 
 of Wednesday as a special anniversary season for the 
 alumni. At first, the public exercises of Phi Beta Kappa 
 formed the chief part of the celebration, but after a 
 while the graduates, without regard to their connection 
 with that society, got into a habit of assembling to talk 
 over old times and discuss the affairs of the college, and 
 in 1827 the "Society of the Alumni" was formed, with 
 the avowed object of u sustaining and advancing the 
 interests of the college." Every alumnus who paid $2 
 a year could belong to it, and for $15 he could belong 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 679 
 
 to it for ten years, or for $25 he could belong to it for 
 life ; and any person, whether an alumnus or not, by the 
 payment of $50 could be a " director" for life, and by 
 the payment of $250 could be an "honorary vice-presi 
 dent" for life. The funds collected in this way from 
 fees and contributions amounted, in the course of ten 
 or a dozen years, to nearly $5000, and the greater part 
 of this sum was set aside to accumulate until it became 
 large enough to support a " Professorship of the Alumni"; 
 but as no such professorship exists the money was prob 
 ably given to the college in some other form. The ad 
 mission fees and other restrictions were after a while 
 abolished, and the " society" is now simply " an informal 
 union of those who have been connected with the vari 
 ous departments of the college, as students, officers and 
 benefactors. The association meets on the day before 
 Commencement, when two or three hours are spent in 
 listening to off-hand addresses, the obituary record is 
 presented, and usually an oration is delivered by one of 
 the graduates appointed to that service. The presiding 
 officer, the honorary secretary, and the executive com 
 mittee are chosen annually at this meeting. There is 
 also a permanent secretary who holds his office from 
 year to year. The orator is selected by the executive 
 committee." Alumni Hall is of course the place of 
 meeting, though before that was built the Chapel did 
 duty instead, and the Commencement processions were 
 also formed in front of it. In those days, too, the Com 
 mencement dinners had to be eaten beneath a canopy of 
 tent cloth. The assembly comes together about half- 
 past nine in the morning, or after the Phi Beta Kappa 
 men have finished with their annual business meeting, 
 and at a little before noon marches in procession to one 
 of the churches to listen to the address of its chosen 
 orator. The oration generally treats of some subject 
 
680 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 connected more or less directly with the college and its 
 alumni, and is very often issued in pamphlet form. The 
 orators as well as presidents are selected from among 
 the most eminent graduates who are available, and either 
 position is thought a very honorable one. The execu 
 tive committee is made up of a dozen or fifteen gradu 
 ates who reside in New Haven, and a majority of whom 
 are members of the different faculties of the institution. 
 On Wednesday night, it will be remembered, the Phi 
 Beta Kappa oration and poem are delivered. On Tues 
 day evening, the " Concio ad Clerum" is given, consist 
 ing of a doctrinal sermon in othodox theology, delivered 
 in one of the churches by a Congregational clergyman 
 to a very slim audience, mostly made up of his fellow 
 laborers. This was formerly quite an important feature 
 of the week, in the days when the college was looked 
 upon chiefly as a training place for ministers \ but the 
 constantly declining interest in it seems to indicate its 
 early abandonment. 
 
 At the alumni meeting, the various publications of the 
 college are distributed among the graduates. The 
 annual Obituary Record was first printed in 1860, the 
 record of that year being the iQth of the series, which 
 was commenced by Prof. Kingsley, who presented the 
 first number thereof at the alumni meeting of 1842. Of the 
 eleven printed numbers, the first comprised 16 and the 
 last 34 pages, and all combined for the pagination re 
 mained unbroken from the outset 368 pages. A sup 
 plementary record, " of graduates deceased since July, 
 1859, but hitherto unnoticed," together with a title-page 
 and index to all the names mentioned in the eleven reg 
 ular numbers of the Record, was issued, last summer, 
 in connection with No. u, and a complete volume of 
 392 pages was thus made of the " Yale Obituary 
 Record from 1859 to 1870." "The average age at 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 1 
 
 death of the 711 academical graduates recorded in the 
 volume is 56)2 years, and leaving out the 75 who died 
 in the war, at an average age of 31/4 years, the average 
 age at death of the remaining 636 has been 59^ years." 
 The Record for 1871 No. 12 of the printed series 
 will form the first part of the new, second volume, which 
 will probably be completed in a less number of years 
 than was devoted to the first. Short sketches of the 
 deceased of each year giving the time and place of 
 their birth and death ; the date of their marriage, and 
 the names of their wives, if married ; the prominent 
 events of their lives, and so on take up the body of 
 the record. The names of the regular college graduates 
 come first, in the order of their classes, alphabetically 
 under each class ; followed by those of each professional 
 school, arranged in the same way. Then there are vari 
 ous summaries of facts and statistics, and finally an 
 alphabetical index of all the names. The librarian of 
 the college has the preparation of the record, and any 
 thing intended for it should be forwarded to him. An 
 other pamphlet, issued for the benefit of the graduates, 
 and favorably received by them, is the " General State 
 ment respecting the late progress and present condition 
 of the various departments of the university." This is 
 prepared by the executive committee of the Society of 
 the Alumni, and details with great exactness the situa 
 tion and prospects of the institution as a whole and of 
 all its separate parts. It was first issued in 1868, and 
 its general acceptance probably ensures its continuance 
 hereafter. The first number contained 40, the second 
 28, and the third 30 pages. Like the Obituary Record, 
 the Statement is a plainly printed octavo pamphlet, 
 stitched and cut, but not supplied with covers. The 
 pagination, however, is not continuous. The annual 
 Scientific School Reports, which began in 1866, have 
 
 30* 
 
682 FOUR V&ARS AT YALE. 
 
 already been noted, and it only remains to describe the 
 official catalogues of the college, annual and triennial. 
 The former is issued the second week in November, 
 or about two months after the opening of the year. It 
 comprises about seventy-five octavo pages, and has a 
 light yellowish or buff colored cover. It contains lists 
 of the " corporation" (in which the order is : president, 
 governor and lieutenant governor of the State, " ten 
 Congregational clergymen," and " six senior State sen 
 ators," the two latter classes in the order of their sen 
 iority as members of the board) ; " of the faculty and 
 instructors" (arranged in the order of graduation, with 
 their rank and duties indicated) ; and of the "students," 
 in Theology, in Law, in Medicine, in Philosophy and the 
 Arts, and finally in the main college itself (arranged in 
 each case alphabetically by classes, with the names of 
 its own particular faculty placed at the head of each 
 department). In the " general statement" which follows, 
 in regard to the terms of admission, courses of study, 
 etc., the college, or " academical department," is first 
 treated of, and the others follow it in the same order as 
 before. A space of about thirty-two pages is required 
 both for the lists of names and for the general state 
 ment, and the rest of the book is taken up with lists of 
 "honors" ("appointments for Commencement and Jun 
 ior Ex," " Scholars of the House," and " miscellaneous 
 premiums of the year"), the calendar for the year, a table 
 of abbreviations, and an index. The issue for 1869-70 
 had no title page, and the one for 1870-71 threw off the 
 double-rule border which had been in use for thirty 
 years or more. The catalogue was first issued in pam 
 phlet form as late as 1813, and even three years later than 
 that it appeared upon a single sheet, as all 13 $ prede 
 cessors had done, beginning with 1796, when the first 
 annual catalogue was put forth. For many years before 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 683 
 
 the last mentioned date, the list of each class had been 
 annually printed upon a separate sheet, the names, 
 residences, and headings being usually Latinized to as 
 great an extent as the circumstances allowed. The 
 earliest catalogue, however, was the Triennial list of 
 graduates, which has been phrased in Latin even unto 
 the present day. It was first issued in 1724, at least, 
 that is the date of the earliest printed copy now extant, 
 and has regularly appeared every third year since 
 then, the latest 49th issue being consequently that of 
 1871. This is an octavo of about 200 pages, with 
 double-rule borders, and paper covers of brownish 
 green or tea color. First after the title page comes the 
 " Senatus Academicus," comprising lists of the presides, 
 socii, professores, tutores, bibliothecarii, thesaurarii, 
 secretarii, and clispensatores, given in each case in the 
 order of their accession to office, the year of which, as 
 well as the year of exit therefrom, is indicated. The 
 names of the State officials who are members of the 
 college corporation only by virtue of their offices, were 
 last included among the other " socii" or fellows in the 
 Triennial of 1847. The second division of the book, 
 which forms the largest and most important part of it is 
 a catalogue of academical graduates, or " baccalaurei in 
 artibus," in the order of their classes from 1702 to 1871, 
 there being one name in the former class and some 
 thing over one hundred names in the latter. Up to 
 1767, the names of each class stand in the order of 
 their family " gentility" ; from 68 onward they are 
 alphabetically arranged. A numeral at the foot of each 
 class indicates the number belonging to it. Next fol 
 low similar lists of the graduates of the Scientific School 
 ("philosophise baccalaurei"), 1852-71, and ("philosophise 
 doctores") 1861-71 of the Medical School (medicinae 
 doctores), 1814-71; of the Law School (legum baccalaurei), 
 
684 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 1843-71; of the Theological School (sacrac theologioe 
 baccalaurei), 1867-71 ; and finally of the "honorarii, et 
 ii qui qualemcunque gradum, alii in aliis collegiis, 
 assecuti, apud nos ad eundem admissi sunt." Every 
 name in the book is spelled in full, is Latinized as far as 
 possible, and is accompanied by all the honorary degrees 
 and titles belonging to it. Names of academical gradu 
 ates who hold other Yale degrees are not repeated in 
 the special lists of possessors of the latter, except in 
 the cases of Doctors of Philosophy and Bachelors of 
 Divinity, the numbers of which exclusive of Yale men 
 are as yet so small as to present an insignificant appear 
 ance if printed by themselves. In all the lists, the 
 names of "evangelical clergymen" there are 2004 of 
 these out of 8105 academical graduates are printed in 
 italics, and death is indicated by a star, accompanied by 
 the year of decease when known. At the end of the 
 book comes an alphabetical index of all the names con 
 tained in it, the surname being printed in large type, and 
 the given name or names of the one or more individuals 
 which it belongs to being printed in smaller type beneath. 
 The reference with each name is to the year of receiving 
 the degree, not to the page in the book; and the letters 
 m t /, /, /, and //, are used to indicate respectively gradu 
 ates in medicine, law, philosophy, and theology, and 
 holders of honorary degrees, who are not also academ 
 ical graduates. In the index, also, the names of clergy 
 men are given in italics. The summary of this year s 
 catalogue, whose appearance this bock anticipates by 
 about a month, will not vary much from the following 
 estimate : Whole number of persons upon whom Yale 
 has conferred degrees (1700 to 1871), 1040 ; made up of 
 8105 bachelors of arts, 717 doctors of medicine, 157 
 bachelors of law, 221 bachelors of philosophy, 5 doctors 
 of philosophy, 5 bachelors of theology, and 830 honor- 
 
THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM. 685 
 
 ary doctors and bachelors of various sorts. Of the 
 academical graduates, 3765 are still living, and 4340 are 
 dead. 
 
 Within a few years past a new sort of alumni associa 
 tion has been developed by the formation of local Yale 
 Clubs among the graduates residing in the neighbor 
 hood of some of the larger cities. The first was organ 
 ized at Cincinnati in November, 1864, and its live prin 
 cipal successors in their order are the clubs of Boston, 
 Chicago, St. Louis, Philadelphia and New York, the 
 latter, though formed nearly two years after the one first 
 mentioned, being naturally the largest of them all. 
 Once every winter each club institutes a "banquet," in 
 which all its own members, members of the faculty and 
 other dignitaries specially invited, and as many other 
 Yale men as can be drawn together from far and near, 
 take part. In the after dinner speeches, the policy of 
 the college is informally discussed by the older heads ; 
 old jokes and comic reminiscences are tossed about by 
 the younger ones ; and of course there is an abundance 
 of singing, and cheering, and enthusiasm. The celebra 
 tion stands half-way between the Commencement dinner 
 and the class reunion, not being quite as formal as the 
 one, nor as uproarious as the other. It serves both to 
 introduce to each other many graduates who would 
 otherwise remain strangers, though dwelling in close 
 proximity, and also as a medium through which recom 
 mendations may be made to and sentiments exchanged 
 with the college authorities. Besides the annual ban 
 quets, several business and social meetings are held 
 during the year. The officers are elected annually. 
 
CONCLUDING CHAPTER. 
 
 A MATTER OF OPINION. 
 
 Cautiou to the Reader Two Kinds of Preparation for College 
 The Best Fitting-Schools The Society System Its General 
 Fairness A Word for the Reformers The Abuse of Freshmen 
 A Disgraceful Puzzle for Moralists Modern Languages and 
 Optional Studies A " Practical " Argument for Classical Dis 
 cipline The Last American Stronghold of the Humanists 
 Procrusteanism and Common Sense The Claims of the Muscle 
 Men And of the Supporters of all Honorable Customs Who 
 Best Enjoy College Life ? -The Real Value of the Training- 
 Pecuniary Needs of the College The Rewards of Doing Much 
 from Little Unselfish Devotion of the College Officers A Cry 
 from Macedonia. 
 
 As I have kept my personality out of sight in the 
 sixteen preceding chapters, and have devoted those 
 chapters almost exclusively to a narration of facts, per 
 haps I may be pardoned if I now,;in closing the book, 
 present a few ideas of my own, by way of comment and 
 " improvement" on what has gone before, that is, on the 
 subject of college life at Yale. I am well aware that the 
 opinions of so young a man, on some of the topics 
 which I touch upon, are of very little absolute value ; a 
 dozen years hence I myself may laugh at them ; but, no 
 matter how unwise they may be, as an illustration of the 
 habits of thought of an average undergraduate they can 
 hardly be altogether uninstructive or uninteresting. To 
 be sure, I claim now to represent no one but myself, yet 
 it is not improbable that some others, who have gone 
 through the mill with me, entertain a good many of the 
 same ideas which I here venture to express. Having 
 
A MATTER OF OPINION. 687 
 
 thus warned the courteous reader to be on his guard, I 
 hope, should he detect any heresies in my discourse, 
 that he will not accuse me of attempting to lead him 
 astray. 
 
 In the first place, the "young gentlemen intending 
 to enter college," as well as their doting parents, may 
 thank me for a few words of advice. To such I would 
 say : No boy should enter Yale until he is eighteen years 
 old, and -if he be nineteen or twenty his college life will 
 doubtless be all the better for it. He should get his 
 " fit," too, at one of the large preparatory schools ; not 
 at some obscure little academy, or, worst of all, at the 
 hands of a private tutor. When a boy who has been 
 thus instructed in private, who has never moved outside 
 the confines of his native village unless carefully 
 watched and guarded, who has been petted and coddled 
 by admiring friends into the belief that he is a superior 
 scholar and a rising genius everyway, when such a one, 
 especially if he be only fifteen or sixteen years old, 
 comes up to Yale as a Freshman, his condition is truly 
 deplorable. He is without friends, or self-reliance, or 
 character, to back him up. He knows nothing of the 
 world, and has never tested himself by its pitiless 
 standard. In his studies, he finds a competition which 
 he had never dreamed of before, and the disappointment 
 of having to work hard to keep up to average, instead of 
 standing leisurely at the head, discourages him. Then, 
 too, his more experienced classmates look down on him 
 with a sort of contemptuous pity, saying by their ac 
 tions, " He s a mere baby, you know too young to 
 come to college " ; and so he enters upon a course of 
 "bumming," as a sort of proof of his worldly wisdom 
 and hardihood ; but his attempts at being " fast " are 
 so forced and unnatural as to make his "greenness" 
 more noticeable than ever, and to more than ever sub- 
 
688 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 ject him to derision, even from those who encourage 
 him in his evil ways. It is rarely that such persons ever 
 take much position in the class, and oftentimes they go 
 to the bad and leave college before the course is half 
 completed. 
 
 On the other hand, the boys who have graduated at 
 the great preparatory schools, have been knocked about 
 enough, and had enough of rivalry and competition, to 
 give them a reasonably correct idea of their own powers 
 and capacities. They understand tolerably well the 
 kind of life which college has in store for them, and 
 have gained enough independence and self-assurance to 
 be able to take it philosophically when it comes. The 
 "schools" are, in fact, of a rather higher grade than 
 many of the Western "colleges," and the sub-Freshmen 
 who leave them are in experience and attainments fully 
 the equals of the graduates of the latter. Of course 
 some go to the bad while at the preparatory schools, but 
 such would be even more certain to do the same if sent 
 to college directly from home ; and, admitting that the 
 evil course must be run, it seems to me that it is better 
 for all parties that school rather than college should be 
 the scene of the disgrace. In short, since at college a 
 boy must be his own master, I think he is more likely 
 to behave like a man if his independence has been 
 gained by gradual approaches, than if it has been sud 
 denly thrust upon him in place of the strictest parental 
 control. 
 
 The three chief preparatory schools of the country, as 
 I take it, are those at Exeter in New Hampshire, and 
 Andover and Easthampton in Massachusetts, ranking in 
 the order named. Exeter, I suppose, gives a more 
 comprehensive and thorough drill than either of the 
 other places, but, practically, it fits only for Harvard, 
 since a boy known to be preparing for Yale or any 
 
A MATTER OF OPINION. 689 
 
 other college is subject to many disadvantages, and is 
 socially regarded as little better than an outcast. So 
 for as studies are concerned, " the best fit " for Yale 
 is undoubtedly to be obtained at the Hopkins Grammar 
 School of New Haven, since it is practically a sort of 
 preparatory department of the college ; but, except he 
 be one who looks upon " stand " as the only thing worth 
 going to college for, it is not a school which I should 
 advise a prospective Yale man to attend. Previous 
 residence in New Haven exerts a sort of demoralizing 
 tendency on those proposing to enter college there ; 
 for a certain familiarity with the manners and customs 
 of the institution takes away from the novelty and 
 attractiveness of actual experience, and college life when 
 it comes is never entered into so heartily or enjoyed 
 with so keen a zest. Other things being equal, then, 
 the boy who passes the last two or three years of his 
 preparatory course at Andover or Easthampton, will, in 
 my opinion, stand the best chance of having a success 
 ful career at Yale. No mistake can be worse than that 
 of entering a class "with advanced standing," that is, 
 joining it after the first freshman term. Whether an 
 " advanced student" comes from a private tutor, or from 
 another college, or drops from a higher class at Yale, 
 makes tittle difference ; he never gets fully in the sym 
 pathy of the new class which he joins. Unless a man 
 spends the whole four years in connection with a single 
 class, it seems to me that he can never really experience 
 the full glory of student life at Yale. 
 
 As for the society system, I think it, on the whole, a 
 good one. Its disadvantages are mostly those which 
 are incidental to any mode of conferring honors ; and 
 that the award of prizes of any sort must always be 
 attended with a certain amount of injustice and ill- 
 feeling, the most enthusiastic defender of prize-giving 
 
690 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 will hardly venture to deny. Unless, however, the 
 whole idea of encouraging rivalry and competition, by 
 the holding out of honors as a reward for excellence, be 
 wrong, the society system cannot be condemned, for it 
 offers higher inducements and leads to a keener strife 
 for success than all the other prizes and honors of col 
 lege combined. Indeed, without it, these honors and 
 prizes would lose a good share of their value, since their 
 chief attractiveness consists in their supposed efficacy 
 in securing society elections for their winners. I do 
 not believe in judging men by arbitrary standards of any 
 sort, for I know that in every station in life fools maybe 
 honored while wise men are left unnoticed, but as such 
 judgments must often be made, I would accept a college 
 man s society record as a better indication of his char 
 acter than any other single test, save personal acquaint 
 ance itself. In other words, I believe that the students 
 are better judges of the abilities and deserts of one 
 another than the faculty are, and I place greater con 
 fidence in their opinion. Of course, societies often do 
 injustice, both by taking in quite a number of worthless 
 men and leaving out some worthy ones, yet the esteem 
 in which their decisions are held affords pretty conclu 
 sive proof as to their general fairness. A sensible man 
 will regard the winning of a society election, as* of any 
 other honor, simply as a pleasant incident of college 
 life, not as the one thing worth living for ; and if he 
 fails of gaining admittance to the society of his choice, 
 he will accept his fate philosophically, not thinking any 
 worse of himself for the mischance, nor feeling jealous 
 of his more fortunate friends. Neutrals sometimes 
 profess to believe that, because they are such, they are 
 " looked down upon " by the society men, but in nine 
 out of ten such cases it would probably be found, were 
 the truth known, that they are looked down upon not 
 
A MATTER OF OPINION. 691 
 
 because they are neutrals but because they are them 
 selves. Personal character is, after all, the thing by 
 which a man stands or falls in college ; and, though the 
 verdict which a society passes upon his case is accounted 
 of more importance than any of the faculty s, it, like 
 every other arbitrary judgment, is never regarded as 
 final. 
 
 As for the hidden^ immoralities and enormities, which 
 the " reformers " take pleasure in believing to be the only 
 explanation of secrecy and mysticism, the unreformed part 
 of the world are callous enough to judge that men of 
 correct and blameless lives on all other occasions do 
 not change into monsters of vice and iniquity when they 
 enter a secret society hall. Quite aside from this con 
 sideration, however, the secrecy and mysticism of the 
 Yale societies are too nominal and transparent to offer 
 many chances for deception. Neither do these societies 
 foster a regard for their counterparts in the outer world : 
 on the other hand, they have exactly the reverse effect. 
 There are of course no accessible statistics upon this 
 point, but I venture to assert that the number of Yale 
 society-men who ever have to do with Masonry or other 
 similar organizations of the outer world is surprisingly 
 small. The general undergraduate idea seems to be 
 that while such societies and many other exceptional 
 things are right enough for a college, they should be 
 thrown off when a man gives up play and enters upon 
 the active business of life. I myself am no special 
 admirer of the Yale society system, and I do not pretend 
 to be its champion. I call it a good one because I think 
 its advantages outweigh its defects, and I do not believe 
 a better is at present attainable. It is certainly not 
 attainable by force, and, if it ever comes at all, it must, 
 like the present one, be allowed to grow in its own way, 
 at its own time and season. This idea is of course, not 
 
f 6r,2 poUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 a very palatable one to that large body of "reformers" 
 who believe that a legislative enactment can make men 
 moral, and that a fiat of the faculty has equally mirac 
 ulous powers. They would "abolish" the present 
 deeply-rooted system, without even pretending to offer 
 anything else in the place of it. The faculty, however, 
 are wiser ; and knowing that any interference of theirs 
 could only aggravate whatever of bad there is in the 
 present system, they adopt the one sane course left for 
 them, and leave well-enough alone. 
 
 Another thing for which there is a good deal of sense 
 less fault-finding against the faculty, is their inefficiency 
 in preventing the abuse of Freshmen. They do what 
 they can, but from the nature of the case they are to a 
 large extent powerless, since a Freshman will report his 
 wrongs neither to them nor to the civil authorities. An 
 honorable college sentiment is the only thing which can 
 prevent such practices, and this, alas ! though evidently 
 growing from year to year, is still to be effectively 
 developed. Not that college approves of gross bodily 
 outrage or injury, or that such cases are common, or 
 that those are not in a minority who ever trouble the 
 Freshmen in any way ; but that in this minority are 
 "prominent men" and "good fellows" whose perform 
 ances never subject them to any social penalty, and that 
 all the lesser impositions practised on the new-comers 
 are spoken of half-approvingly or slightingly, or with 
 the mildest possible deprecation, even by those who 
 themselves would never engage in them. It is a curious 
 though not over-pleasant thing to observe the graduaj 
 change in a Freshman s ideas as to the morality of cer 
 tain " college customs." At the end of his first term he 
 vows that, come what will, Jus class can never be quite 
 so mean as its predecessor has shown itself to be ; but 
 when the year has rolled around once more, it finds that 
 
A MATTER OF OPINION. 693^ 
 
 the same old story has been again acted out. To a 
 right-minded man, I do not know of any experience that 
 can be more disheartening than that of his first sopho 
 more term ; for he then finds the ones in whom he had 
 learned to put confidence, as the possessors of gentle 
 manly instincts, wildly throwing away every considera 
 tion of decency, and applauding or engaging in such 
 accursedly mean displays of greediness and brutality, as 
 almost to destroy his faith in human nature, and disgust 
 him with life itself. There is something so revolting in 
 this idea of molesting the weak and inoffensive, who 
 have committed no crime save that of minding their 
 own business, that for my own part I should rejoice to 
 see some of these sophomore barbarians shot down dead 
 in their tracks by the Freshmen whose rooms they had 
 invaded, and I believe the lesson would be a salutary 
 one. The real outrage lies in the unwarrantable assump 
 tion of arbitrary power, not in the particular way of 
 exercising it ; and the insult is just the same whether 
 a Freshman s entire body be severely dealt with, or a 
 few harmless whiffs of tobacco smoke be blown up his 
 nose. After all that has been said, however, the admis 
 sion must be made that those who ill-treat the Freshmen 
 cannot be regarded as ordinary bullies, thieves and plun 
 derers, for they are not such. They are, under ordinary 
 circumstances, decent, honorable, gentlemanly ; thought 
 ful of others, respectful of themselves ; persons whom 
 their average classmates cannot regard as criminals, nor 
 hate if they would. I confess my own inability to explain 
 this contradiction, but after the somewhat blood-thirsty 
 wish already expressed, I can hardly be accused of par 
 tiality towards the objects of it, in stating the facts as 
 they are. Perhaps the best explanation lies in consider 
 ing it an example of the tremendous power of college 
 " custom " in inducing a temporary insanity which makes 
 
6 94 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 weak men wicked and good-natured ones pitiless. This 
 is at all events the most charitable as well as plausible 
 view of the strange and disgraceful anomaly. I am not 
 so Utopian in my views as to think the time will soon 
 come when the Freshmen of an American college will 
 be treated courteously and kindly by upper-class men, 
 as new-comers are now treated at the English univer 
 sities ; but I do hope that before many years the Sopho 
 mores may increase enough in age and independence to 
 be able to let the Freshmen severely alone, and to form 
 a habit of considering any interference with them as a 
 thing beneath their own dignity and self-respect. Thus 
 only can be removed a practice which is the chief 
 reproach of student life both at this and most other 
 colleges. 
 
 In regard to the curriculum, my ideas are rather old- 
 fashioned ones, for I do not look with much favor upon 
 the recent changes. The arrangement of divisions 
 according to scholarship, instead of according to the 
 alphabet, which experience seems to prove advantageous 
 to the poor scholars as well as the good ones, I am will 
 ing, on that supposition, to accept as an improvement, 
 spite of its evident tendency to lessen the unity and 
 public spirit of the class ; but the introduction of a few 
 terms study of the Modern Languages, in place of the 
 same amount of work in the Classics, I regard as an 
 advance backward. If a man wishes to learn French 
 or German, there are far more advantageous ways of 
 doing it ; for the knowledge which his college course is 
 likely to give him of those languages is simply a smat 
 tering of the very worst sort. What possible benefit 
 there is to be gained by a wild rush of six weeks through 
 all the mazes of a difficult French or German grammar, 
 that can compensate for the bewilderment, disgust, and 
 demoralization in which the average student finds, him- 
 
A /MATTER OF OPINION. 695 
 
 self when he is supposed thus to have " mastered " it, 
 I myself am too far behind " the spirit of the age" even 
 to imagine. The best that could be hoped from a lim 
 ited study of these subjects was that the student would 
 be well enough grounded in them to desire of his own 
 accord to increase his knowledge ; but its practical 
 effect, to judge from what I observed of it in my own 
 class, is oftener to leave him aground, hopelessly em 
 bedded for all future time, in a more than English preju 
 dice against all " foreign" tongues and dialects. 
 
 "Optional" or "elective" studies, too, do not always 
 realize the expectations of their advocates, for the aver 
 age student in making his choice is apt to select that 
 study which he thinks can be "got through with the 
 easiest," rather than the one for which he has the great 
 est personal liking. Ease and inclination often coin 
 cide, to be sure, but not always. Sometimes a man 
 who is an indifferent classical scholar, but who knows 
 absolutely nothing about mathematics, may take the 
 Calculus for his optional, because in it he can skin out 
 his daily work, and flunk his examinations without 
 conditions. So, too, between Astronomy and Latin : 
 one may choose the former because he can skin it, 
 another the latter because hi can pony it, though the 
 tastes of each would lead them to prefer the other sub 
 ject. The worst effect of optional studies, however, is 
 their tendency to destroy class unity, a tendency which 
 the new system of arranging the divisions, as just re 
 marked, to a lesser extent, possesses, and as class 
 feeling and unity is the most characteristic feature of 
 American college life, and manifests itself nowhere 
 more strongly than at Yale, I should look upon its 
 weakening or breaking up as little better than disastrous. 
 
 Though too much work is crowded into senior year, 
 I am willing to let the programme stand as it is, for I 
 
69 6 FOUJl YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 suppose it is well that young men professing to be edu 
 cated should be obliged to acquire at least a few general 
 ideas regarding the natural sciences, and metaphysics, 
 and history, and politics, and law, even though these 
 few general ideas be the product of persistent skinning; 
 but in the first three years I would have no studies save 
 the classics and mathematics (including in the latter 
 term Natural Philosophy and Astronomy). Instead of 
 lessening the amount of classic texts to be read, I would 
 have it so increased, that the students would be obliged 
 in mere self-defence to give up ponying in favor of what 
 would then be the easier practice of learning their les 
 sons honestly ; and this, I think, would be generally ac 
 cepted as a " reform" quite as " practical " at least as 
 any which has lately been put forward in the other di 
 rection. Admitting that the " discipline" gained by two 
 parallel courses of study to be equally valuable (and 
 " discipline" is always the chief thing, for certainly the 
 absolute knowledge which is gained on any subject, no 
 matter how " practical," is too small to be taken into 
 account), there is this to be said in favor of a classical 
 course, that it can, better than any other, be choked 
 down a man s throat, whether he wishes to receive it or 
 not. Spite of all his exertions to the contrary, spite of 
 all his ponyings and cheatings of every sort, he must in 
 time, by dint of reciting and hearing others recite, get a 
 good share of classic lore forced into him, and receive 
 the benefits of mental discipline. On the other hand, 
 mathematics and other exact sciences allied thereto, 
 can not be pounded into a man s head by any number 
 of repetitions. He may study and recite and listen to 
 demonstrations and explanations for a life time without 
 forming the least idea as to " what it all means," or be 
 ing awakened to the slightest interest in the work before 
 him. 
 
A MATTER OF OPINION. 697 
 
 These considerations, to be sure, can have little weight 
 with those persons who persist in regarding the average 
 American collegian as a being who is endowed with 
 something more than mortal prudence, and who " hun 
 gers and thirsts after knowledge to satisfy the cravings of 
 his immortal soul" ; but to those who, like myself, re 
 gard him as a careless boy-man, who is chiefly anxious 
 to " have a good time," and who shirks his work and 
 deceives his instructors in every possible way, to those 
 who take this realistic view of him, the somewhat unpo 
 etical argument advanced in favor of dosing him with 
 the classics may not seem altogether contemptible. But 
 quite aside from such " practical" considerations, I urge 
 that the classics for their own sakes should form the 
 chief feature in any scheme of general culture ; and I 
 do not admit that the discipline derived from any paral 
 lel course can be equally valuable. If to the opinion of 
 a cultivated classical scholar like Charles Astor Bristed 
 any additional weight could be given by the agreement 
 with it of the opinion of one who is very far from being 
 a scholar of any sort, I might say that, of all countries 
 in the wide world, America is the last one which can 
 afford to throw the classic learning overboard, and accept 
 any makeshift in place of it. Yale now seems to be the 
 only important institution in the country which the 
 "reformers" have not gained possession of. For one, I 
 sincerely hope that this proud distinction will long be 
 retained ; and as the Scientific School has been thrown 
 as a sop to u the New Education," I trust the partisans 
 thereof will have the good manners to abandon for the 
 present any idea they may have had of attacking the 
 main citadel. 
 
 But while I agree with the most conservative member 
 of the faculty in thinking it folly to treat college boys as 
 if they were mature men, in believing that a marking 
 
698 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 system of some sort is a necessity, and in considering 
 the present curriculum deprived of its " progressive " 
 features as good as any arbitrary scheme of the sort is 
 ever likely to be, I must protest against their putting 
 too implicit a confidence in the virtues of any Procrustean 
 standard. Not exactly that I am " in favor of the rules 
 but against the enforcement of them," but rather that I 
 should like to see the faculty oftener exercise their own 
 discretion in the decision of individual cases. Being 
 human, they of course do it now to a certain extent, but 
 the usage might be made more general with good results 
 to all concerned. I mean, that is, that they should oftener 
 use their common sense as well as their score-books in 
 deciding upon a man s abilities and his right to remain 
 in his class, and should more frequently bear in mind that 
 their scheme of marks, while good and necessary enough 
 for purposes of comparison, has little absolute signifi 
 cance. A man whose scholastic attainments are all of 
 the poll-parrot order ; who has the knack of glibly rat 
 tling off his lessons while understanding nothing about 
 them ; and whose daily walk and conversation show him 
 to be utterly insignificant in point of character or real 
 attainments of any sort, so that in after life the fact of 
 his being a graduate of it will tend to bring discredit 
 upon the college ; such a one I would have subjected to 
 more than the ordinary tests before allowing a sheepskin 
 to be awarded him. On the other hand, a man pos 
 sessed of a good share of brains ; who is, after his own 
 fashion, a hard and successful worker in certain branches 
 of knowledge, included in or outside the curriculum ; 
 who is honored and respected by his classmates, and 
 looked up to as one of their recognized leaders ; and 
 who is evidently bound to make his mark in after life 
 and bring credit on any college which can claim him as 
 its son j such a one, I say, should be allowed to stay in 
 
A MA TTER OF OPINION. 699 
 
 his class and graduate, even though he falls below aver 
 age on the official score-books. Especially should this 
 be the case if his low stand be caused by failure on one 
 particular branch of knowledge, while in other depart 
 ments he does fairly or even well. I believe, then, in 
 the general principle of putting all through the same 
 mill, irrespective of individual tastes and differences 
 (for, aside from what I account the more serious disad 
 vantages of optional courses, I do not think that the 
 average undergraduate understands his own mind well 
 enough to choose what is best for it) ; but I also believe 
 that those in charge of the system should oftener exer 
 cise their own good sense in giving exceptional cases an 
 exceptional treatment. I say " oftener," for there is 
 nothing new or revolutionary in the plan which I advo 
 cate, and, however contrary to theory, it is really prac 
 tized at the college every day. Until members of the 
 faculty are able to throw off everything human and turn 
 themselves into mere machines, they can never apply 
 their rules with strict impartiality to the empty-headed 
 parrots who have risen to outrageously high stands, and 
 the men of intellect and ability who have fallen to 
 scandalously low ones ; for they must always favor the 
 latter ones at the expense of the former. All I ask is, 
 that the practice be extended, that "the system" be 
 enforced in a more human and less mechanical manner. 
 Boating and base-ball may not be the most important 
 things in the college course, and it even seems not un 
 likely that their chief votaries sometimes engage in 
 them to their own bodily as well as mental disadvantage. 
 But, on the other hand, the stimulus which they impart 
 to the moderate men of college in favor of reasonable 
 athletic exercise and physical culture, more than atones 
 for anything that can be urged against prize regattas and 
 champion ball-matches. For this reason, among others, 
 
7 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 I think that the rather illiberal policy of the faculty in 
 regard to such things is hardly to be commended. Sup- 
 posing that the occurrence of a University race in term- 
 time would break up the established routine for a day or 
 two, what then ? there are some two hundred and eighty 
 days in the college year. Supposing that an out-of-town 
 ball-match or concert does require the absence of quite a 
 nuriiber of men from two or three recitations, what of it, 
 again? the omitted lessons can be all made up. Not 
 that interruptions and absences are anything but evils 
 which should be avoided whenever possible, but that the 
 gain to be derived from them is likely to more than 
 make up for the loss. Mind rather than muscle is of 
 course the object of a college training; but is it not a 
 fact that the " two best boating colleges of the country" 
 are the " two best" in most other respects ? and that the 
 one most successful with the oars is the one most widely 
 known, both at home and abroad ? Is not the same 
 thing true of the English universities ? And did not the 
 late International race give Harvard a wider fame than 
 could have been gained in any other way ? The result 
 of the annual University race, indeed, probably decides 
 the minds of a dozen or more hesitating sub-Freshmen 
 as to which college they will go to, and several succes 
 sive victories of course have a still more marked effect 
 in favor of the successful college. Nor are prospective 
 boating men the only ones thus influenced, but good 
 scholars, who never expect to handle an oar, share in 
 the human desire to attach themselves to the winning 
 side. It is foolish to say, as some do, that the best 
 oarsmen and best ball players are likely to be good 
 scholars also, for though they sometimes are such, and 
 though the two characters are not necessarily inconsist 
 ent, the tendency is plainly in the other direction. But 
 it is not therefore safe to conclude that such persons 
 
A MATTER OF OPINION. 701 
 
 would stand any higher in their studies if they never 
 laid hands on oar or bat; for the chances are that the 
 time thus saved would be wasted in less creditable ways, 
 and not given to books at all. 
 
 For the good which their example does in keeping 
 alive in college a habit of attention to physical exercise, 
 for the reputation which their exploits bring to all con 
 nected with the institution, and in recognition of the 
 principle that honest work of any sort is worthier than 
 listless inactivity, I would have the faculty treat the 
 boating and ball men with a little more leniency and 
 indulgence. Another consideration which should induce 
 them to do this, and to mildly encourage all rational 
 student customs is, that whatever makes college life 
 pleasant and attractive deserves, in so far lorth, to be 
 considered an advantage to it. Save for the numberless 
 little attractions which the students themselves have 
 introduced, college would be a dreary place indeed ; 
 and it is these unique and delightful customs, not the 
 toil and drudgery of study, which make the graduate 
 look back longingly upon college life as "the happiest 
 period of existence." The sentiment of the unknown 
 genius, who thought " Yale College would be a very 
 pleasant place, if its religious and literary exercises 
 could be abolished," represents well enough a not un 
 common feeling reduced to absurdity. Of course there 
 can be no play without work, and the claims of the 
 curriculum are the chief ones to be considered. But it 
 seems to me that the faculty are inclined to underrate 
 the importance of other things, whose bearings upon 
 the college course are really worthy of their attention ; 
 and to insist that under no possible circumstances can 
 the established routine be varied from to accommodate 
 even the most pressing necessity of any plan which 
 conflicts with it. Practices not obnoxious to morals or 
 
702 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 discipline, which make the student happier and more 
 contented in college, and more regardful of its memory 
 after he has left it, tend, I think, to make him better 
 and manlier, also ; and surely ought not to be dis 
 couraged by the hostility or indifference of those in 
 authority. 
 
 If, as I imagine, the chief value of a college course 
 lies not in the scholarship or absolute knowledge with 
 which it supplies a man, but rather in that intangible 
 thing called culture, or discipline, or mental balance, 
 which only its possessor can appreciate, and which he 
 cannot describe, certainly no one can say that the 
 peculiar life and customs which the students themselves 
 adopt form an unimportant, even though it be an un 
 recognized, part of that course. Exactly how important 
 this part is I will not attempt to determine, but this I 
 will say, that were it possible for it to be removed, I 
 think the value of the curriculum would thereby be 
 diminished by at least one half. The boy who comes to 
 college with the deliberate intention of shirking every 
 possible study is hardly to be considered a very ad 
 mirable character, but I think he is less to be pitied 
 than the one who goes through the four years, digging 
 and grinding for a stand, existing all unconscious of the 
 peculiar and delightful life about him, and graduating in 
 as utter ignorance of its philosophy as if he had never 
 left his paternal roof-tree. The persons best fitted to 
 thoroughly enjoy college life, and therefore the persons 
 whom that life most benefits, are the ones with sense 
 enough to look on study as the most important thing, 
 without considering it the only one worth attending to ; 
 with ability and previous drill enough to give them a fair 
 start, and banish the danger of falling below average ; 
 with age and discretion enough to retain their indi 
 viduality and self-control ; and with youth and humor 
 
A MATTER OF OPINION. 73 
 
 enough to enter heartily into the spirit of things and 
 appreciate the comic side of the little world in which 
 they dwell. But it is almost useless to mention these 
 qualifications for enjoying college life, for nearly every 
 one enjoys it. There is a sort of subtle influence about 
 the thing which is all but irresistible, and which opens 
 the hearts of the most imperturbable and unpoetic of 
 men, so that, at least when they leave it, few can help 
 calling it a pleasant one. Extremes meet on Presenta 
 tion Day, for then it is that the most reckless "bummer," 
 who has persistently cursed the faculty and " the sys 
 tem," and thought himself the most ill-used of mortals, 
 amid his regrets for wasted opportunities, suddenly 
 realizes that he s " had a good time, after all " ; and, as 
 he sees this good time forever slipping from his grasp, 
 he joins with the high-stand man equally regretful, 
 perhaps, over his wasted opportunities for forming 
 friendships in swearing that "There s no place like 
 Yale ! " This sentiment I myself endorse. Other insti 
 tutions may, perhaps, impart a better education, a larger 
 amount of knowledge to their pupils ; but none other, I 
 think, inspires in them all quite so warm and genuine 
 an affection for itself as does Yale ; none other offers 
 such a varied and peculiar experience in life and man 
 ners. To those possessed of sufficient literary taste to 
 appreciate it, and sufficient money to afford it, I recom 
 mend this experience as a thing never to be regretted ; 
 as a thing which, in the simple enjoyment of it, most 
 amply " pays." But the object of any scheme of educa 
 tion worthy of the name is not the making of good 
 scholars, or good lawyers, or good doctors, or good 
 specialists of any sort; it is rather the making of good 
 men. There is much in the state of things about the 
 college to alarm a theorist, and to pain almost anyone ; 
 thereare evil influences and immoral tendencies ; there 
 
704 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 are faults, shortcomings and imperfections in long array ; 
 but, spite of them all, the good largely preponderates, 
 and it is because the lesson of the past as well as my 
 own observation has taught me, that the Yale training 
 tends to make better men of those to whom it is applied, 
 that I call that training in the best sense a successful 
 and a practical one. 
 
 I should feel conscience stricken if I closed this book 
 without referring to that vital need of the college, 
 more money. In common with all Yale men I had a 
 general idea that the institution was poorly off in avail 
 able funds, but until I engaged in my present work I 
 never fully realized its utter and disheartening want of 
 them. The history of the college, in fact, is simply the 
 history of one long and desperate fight against poverty 
 and annihilation. How, upon such a meager pecuniary 
 basis, it has ever managed to attain its present celebrity 
 and influence seems altogether past comprehension ; 
 and if man s achievements are to be judged according 
 to the means placed at his disposal, the past managers 
 of the college must be looked upon as prodigies of 
 worldly wisdom and executive ability, for their doings 
 were really little less than marvelous. If finances were 
 ever managed with greater economy, or moneys ever 
 spent to greater advantage for the end in view, than 
 those of Yale College, the instance should be published 
 to the world. In the whole history of the institution 
 there seems never to have been a penny lost, never an 
 expense incurred which was not absolutely necessary 
 and which did not produce the expected return. The 
 fact is simply wonderful ; and when it is remembered 
 that the managers were " ten Congregational clergymen 
 from Connecticut," who are not popularly looked upon as 
 practical men-of- affairs, it may even be called miraculous. 
 Ambition is not the only thing which overreaches itself, 
 
A MATTER OF OPINION. 75 
 
 however, and the remarkable things which were accom 
 plished by small means induced the disastrous belief 
 that the college had control of large ones, and needed 
 nothing more, a belief which has unfortunately pre 
 vailed to this very day. 
 
 But success was due quite as much to the personal 
 sacrifices and self-denial of the college officers as to 
 their skilful expenditure of the paltry funds at their dis 
 posal. In its officers the institution has been singularly 
 fortunate, its presidents especially having been with 
 hardly an exception men of executive tact and energy 
 as well as liberal culture, and there have been few or 
 none of those jealousies and heartburnings among the 
 faculty, which have so often impaired the efficiency of 
 other college governments. The work of instruction 
 has been for the most part a labor of love, for the 
 salaries paid to the president and older professors have 
 usually been less than their ordinary living expenses, 
 and far less than they could earn at almost any other 
 profession in life. Nothing but a high and patriotic 
 sense of duty, and an entire disregard for their own 
 selfish interests, could keep such a band of men to 
 gether ; but the public which believes the college is rich 
 because it is well managed, judges also that its officers 
 are well paid because they ought to be. " Starvation 
 wages " in every department is not the worst of Yale s 
 troubles, though it is a desperate one. Money is wanted 
 for everything : for additional instructors, for books, for 
 buildings, for apparatus, for scholarships, for needed 
 improvements of every sort : and unless it is obtained 
 the college must expect to decline in influence and use 
 fulness. Many as have been its crises in the past, it 
 does not seem as if Yale ever stood in sorer need of 
 pecuniary help than now. Assisted thus as it should 
 be, it could take tremendous strides ahead, for the pos- 
 
7 FOUR YEARS AT YALE. 
 
 sibilities now before it are truly magnificent. Left alone 
 to starve, it can hardly help falling irretrievably behind. 
 To a man knowing the real necessities of this, and all 
 the other old and respectable colleges, if there be any 
 thing more exasperating than the thought that they are 
 popularly considered "rich," it is that other thought of 
 the hundreds of thousands of dollars annually wasted, 
 or worse than wasted, in the "founding" of new "col 
 leges " and " universities," to keep alive the name of 
 some Jones or Tompkins, and bring into contempt the 
 cause of liberal culture. The blessing to the country of 
 having all such money sunk in the sea, could be only 
 equaled by that other blessing of having all but a half 
 dozen of all the American "colleges" founded in the 
 present century, blotted from existence, or turned into 
 preparatory schools for the other ones. It seems to be 
 almost a fixed law of the universe that the ability to 
 amass wealth is seldom joined with the ability to expend 
 it wisely, and that well-meaning people who give large 
 sums with the hope of becoming remembered as bene 
 factors of their race, become remembered only to be 
 cursed for their folly by the deluded victims of their 
 munificence. Can the fact never be realized that a col 
 lege is as much a growth as a tree, and can no more 
 than it be brought into the world full-grown, even by 
 the expenditure of millions ? Can the benevolent classes 
 never learn the policy of giving their money to the older 
 colleges, where every penny of it " tells " at once ? And, 
 oh, ye men who have the dollars ! when you at last de 
 cide to give to Yale the millions that she deserves, do 
 not, I beg of you, forget her marvelous ability in using 
 money wisely in the past; and do not as you value 
 your own reputations, do not attach conditions to your 
 bequests. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Abandonment of Cup Presentation, 540 
 Spoon Exhibition, 422 
 Absence, Leave of, . . . 582 
 Academical and Profess l Students, 39 
 Advanced Standing, . . . 548 
 Adornments of a College Room, 294 
 Advertisements in Lit., . .431 
 
 Advice to sub-Freshmen, . 86, 687 
 Advocate and Courant, . . 395 
 
 Afternoon of Presentation, . 488, 492 
 Age of Deceased Grad s, Average, 68 1 
 Agreements not to Pledge, . . 132 
 
 Alpha Delta Phi 106 
 
 Sigma Phi, ... 89 
 
 Alumni Associations in the Cities, 685 
 
 Hall, Erection of, . . 23 
 
 Meetings at Commencement, 53^ 
 
 Rcpresent n in the Corpo n, 12 
 
 Society of the, . . . 678 
 
 Andover Academy, . . . 688 
 
 Annual Catalogue, . . . 682 
 
 Dinner of the Freshmen, . 277 
 
 Examination, . . . 556 
 
 Cheating at, 633 
 
 Anomalous Position of Gamma Nu, 79 
 Appealing to the Faculty, . . 584 
 Applause in Recitation, . .651 
 Appointments for Jun. Exhibition, 590 
 Areopagus, The Court of, . . 308 
 Arrangement of Recitation Rooms, 550 
 Art Building, Erection of the . 24 
 Astronomical Prizes, . . . 605 
 Athenaeum, Erection of the, . . 15 
 Newspaper, The, . 443 
 Attractive, Making College Life, . 701 
 
 Badges of the Societies : 
 
 Freshman, .... 57 
 Sophomore, . . .88, 89, 90 
 
 Junior 107 
 
 Senior, .... 144, 155 
 Miscellaneous, . 207, 230, 236 
 Banger of Sigma Theta, The 91, 460 
 Banger Rushes, .... 257 
 Banner, The Yale .... 454 
 Banquets of the Alumni Clubs, . 685 
 
 Baseball, 313 
 
 Beethoven Society, The . . 303 
 Behavior in Recitation, . .651 
 
 Benevolent Society, The . . 525 
 Berkeley Association, The . . 525 
 Hall, .... 14 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Berkeley Scholarship, . . -595 
 Best Days of Linonia and Brothers, 200 
 Betting at the University Race, . 385 
 Beta Xi, Delta, . . .90 
 
 Biennial Examination, . . . 568 
 Jubilee, .... 280 
 Blackballing, . . . .103 
 
 Blue and Red, .... 383 
 Board and Lodging, . . . 237 
 Boat Houses, . . . 342, 343 
 Boating, .... 327-402 
 Boats, Lists of, 328, 333, 336, 339 
 
 Bond required by the College, . 548 
 Bones Society, The Skull and, . 144 
 Bookstore, The College, . .211 
 Bookworm of the Courant, The . 469 
 Bread and Butter Rebellions, . 247 
 Brick Colleges, The Row of, . 14 
 Bristed Scholarship, The . . 599 
 Brothers and Linonia, . . 190-221 
 Brown University Orsmen, . 364-398 
 Bull and Stones Society, The . 171 
 Bulletin Catalogue of 1863, . . 459 
 Bullyism and Bully Clubs, . . 502 
 Burial of Euclid, The, . . . 319 
 Burning the Coal Yard, . . 312 
 Buttery, The Old, . . . 247 
 
 Cabinet Building, The ... 20 
 Calendar, Arrangement of the . 677 
 Calliope Society, The . . 23, 221 
 Campaign of Linonia and Brothers, 194 
 the Fresh. Societies, 73 
 Camping-out on the Thimbles, . 531 
 
 Candy Sam 294 
 
 Cap Snatching, .... 252 
 
 Card Playing, .... 518 
 
 Catalogues of College, . . . 682 
 
 Freshman Societies, 55 
 
 Junior Societies, . 116 
 
 Linonia and Brothers, 207 
 
 Phi Beta Kappa, . 253 
 
 Senior Societies, 146, 157 
 
 Caution to the Reader, . . 686 
 
 Cecilia Society, The . . . 303 
 
 Centennials of Linonia and Brothers, 218 
 
 Champion Flag, Course of the, . 355 
 
 Chapel, Erection of the, . . 18 
 
 Behavior in, . . . 654 
 
 Prayers in, . . . 569 
 
 Sunday in, . . .571 
 
 Character of the Lit., . . . 442 
 
7o8 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 2, 8, 10 
 624, 645 
 
 496 
 
 656 
 
 529 
 
 2 3S 
 
 573 
 . 288 
 
 572 
 
 581 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 Charter of the College, . 
 Cheating in Recitation, 
 Cheering the Buildings, 
 Faculty, . 
 Chess Tournament, 
 Chi Delta Theta, 
 Choir, The College, 
 Choosing Rooms in College, 
 Church, The College, . 
 Church Papers, 
 Clark Scholarship, The 
 
 Class Cup, 
 
 Elections, .... 
 Histories, . . . 279 
 Ivy, 
 
 Mottoes and Seals, . . 47 
 Orators and Poets, . . 4 s 
 Pictures, . , . . 46 
 Races with Harvard, , -37 
 
 Records, . . . " J. 
 Reunions, . . . .53 
 
 Statistics 4 c 
 
 Classics, A Pract l Argument for tlie 69 
 Coalitions, .... , 34| 40 
 Cochleaureati, . . 128,134,40 
 Coffin Society of 69, The . . i 7 
 Collation of Presentation Day, The 48 
 Colors of the College, 
 Commencement, . 
 
 The First, 
 
 Ball, .... 6 7 
 
 Regattas, 1853-58, . 35 
 
 Commodore, Duties of, . 331, 33 
 
 Commons, The Old, . . . 24 
 
 Comparison of the SociQtie 
 
 Freshman, 
 
 Sophomore, .... 105 
 
 Junior .140 
 
 Senior I7 $ 
 
 Different year, . . . iS6 
 
 Composition Prizes, . . . 607 
 
 Skinning, . . . 6 4 r 
 
 Concerts of Beethoven Society 
 
 Glee Club, . . 303 
 Concio ad Clerum, . . . 68c 
 Conditions, . . . . .54- 
 Connecticut Hall, Erection of, i^ 
 Constitutions of the Navy, . 331-33^ 
 Contesting Elections, . 
 Conventions of Junior Societies, . 119 
 Corporation of the College, . . XI 
 Cost of College Rooms, . .291 
 Spoon Exhibition, . .418 
 Courants, The Yale and College, 460 
 Course of Discipline, . . . ^75 
 Cramming for Annual, . . . 636 
 Crew of 59, The University, . 373 
 Crews of 64- 7 i, The University, 400 
 
 6 4 - 7 i, 
 
 Davenport s Lithographs, . 65, 324 
 
 Debates, The Prize, . . 70, 213 
 
 Debt of Boat House, . . . 3 4 ,j 
 
 Declamations, Soph Prize, . 606 
 
 Decline of Society Zeal, . 76 
 Dedication of the Boat House, 
 
 DeForest Fund, ... 603 
 
 PAGE 
 
 . 616 
 . 602 
 . 612 
 
 587 
 670 
 90 
 
 53 
 107 
 106 
 42 
 164 
 672 
 671 
 586 
 574 
 387 
 8, 33 
 58<J 
 107 
 520 
 527 
 
 DeForest Prize Medal, 
 
 Scholarship, 
 
 Speaking, 
 
 Degradation, The Penalty of 
 Degrees, Conferring of . " 
 Delta Beta Xi, 
 Kappa, 
 
 Epsilon, . 
 Phi, Alpha . 
 Dialect, The College . 
 Diggers Society, The . 
 Dinner at Commencement, The 
 Diploma, The College . 
 Discipline in the Olden Time, 
 Discipline, The Course of . 
 Disputed Time of 1865, The 
 Divinity College, Old and New, 
 Division of Classes by Rank, 
 DKE Society, The 
 Dress, Habits in, . 
 Drinking, Habits of, . , 
 Durfee College, Erection of 
 
 Easthampton Academy, . . 688 
 Eating Clubs, . 2 ,g 
 
 Editors of Lit., ... . 440 
 Effect of the Honor System, * . 618 
 Society System, 189, 690 
 . Optional Studies, . 695 
 
 Electioneering for Societies, 60, 73, 194 
 Elections to Societies, giving out, 96, 
 
 121, 147, Ib2 
 
 to Phi Beta Kappa, . 228 
 entering New Haven Society, C27 
 
 Entertainment of Base Ball Clubs 318 
 ve of Thanksgiving, The . . 269 
 Examinations, Annual . . . 55 6 
 Biennial . . 568 
 
 by Proxy . .641 
 Cheating at . . 625 
 Entrance . . 523 
 Term . . cc-> 
 
 exchanging Class Pictures, . . 474 
 Excuses and Excuse Papers, . 581 
 Executive Committee ot the Alumni, 680 
 Exercises of the Societies, 69, 102, 124 
 Jceler Academy, .... 688 
 Exhibition of Gymnastics, . . .404 
 of Linonia and Brothers 202 
 Junior . . . 659 . 
 
 ics of Societies, . 75.139,170 
 
 ables about Freshman Initiation, 83 
 acuity and Freshmen, . . 311, 692 
 
 Meetings of, . . . 13 
 Respect for, . . .658 
 all Races, 1859-67, ?<;, 
 
 alse Election, A, . . . 3" 
 
 family and Local Pretensions, . 521 
 arewell Cheers to Faculty, . . 656 
 of Presentation Day, . 498 
 of Sophs to Fresh. Soda s, 68 
 ivnam College, Erection of . ->n 
 ence, On the . . . 298,308 
 
 euilletons g jf 4 6o 
 
 nancial Wants of the College, . 704 
 
INDILX. 
 
 79 
 
 PAGE 
 
 TAGE 
 
 Fireman s Riot of 1841, 54 
 
 Firemen in iS 5 8, Fight with the, . sog 
 Fitting for College, . . .687 
 Flag oi Base Ball Championship, 3rs 
 Boating Championship, . 355 
 Foot Ball Game, The . . 259 
 
 litiation, Senior . . i49> J ^3 
 Linonia and Brothers 199 
 Phi Beta Kappa . .231 
 Cochleaureati . . 409 
 Inquiry, The Society of, . . 525 
 Insigne Cochleaureatorum, . . 411 
 
 Foot Racing, . . . S"? 2 
 
 Instrumental Clubs and Music, . 305 
 
 Foul Play at Race of 1870, . . 389 
 Founding of the College, . . 2 
 
 Freshman Customs, . . 237-286 
 
 Intercepting Letters Home, . 648 
 Invitations to Junior Exhibition, 662 
 Sen. Society Con., 152, 157 
 
 Scholarships, . . 600 
 
 vy, Planting the Class . . 497 
 
 Societies, . . 51-86 
 
 
 Studies, . . .559 
 
 anitors of the Societies, . . 185 
 
 Funds of the Institution, General 4 
 
 ournalism, . 424 
 
 Scholarship 617 
 
 ubilee Jokes, . 268 
 
 Furnishing a College Room, . 292 
 
 unior Appointments, . . . 59 
 
 
 Exhibition, . . .659 
 
 Gallinipper, The .... 4 6 
 
 Life and Customs, . 327-423 
 
 Gamma-Nu- Delta-Phi Embroglio 
 
 Politics in 69, . . .128 
 Promenade, . . 6 4 
 
 of 69, The, 130 
 
 Societies, . . . 106-141 
 
 Gambling, Habits of, . . . 5 2 9 
 
 Studies, . . . .561 
 
 Gate Stealing 253 
 
 
 General Statement, The Annual . 681 
 
 Cappa Sigma Epsilon, . . 53 
 
 Geometrv, Recitations in, . 554, 624 
 
 Theta, ... 87 
 
 Gifts to t he College, Recent, . 40 
 
 Keys Society, The Scroll and, . 155 
 
 Glee Clubs, . . . . -303 
 Glyunaand Vartina, Organization of, 335 
 
 Chigsley Trust Association, . . 59 
 knockdown of 1870, The, . 5 7 
 
 Government in the Olden Time, . 585 
 
 
 Gridiron, The .... 445 
 Grips, Society 183 
 Graduates, Summary of, . . 683 
 Gymnasium, Erection of, . . 131 
 Gymnastic Practice and Exhibitions, 402 
 
 Laboratory, Erection of the, . 20 
 Lamp Smashing, .... 264 
 Latin Composition Prizes, . . 604 
 Law School, The, . . .34 
 Laws and Regulations, . . 5^5 
 
 Halls of the Societies, 59, 94, 124, 145 
 i5S, 166, 206, 227 
 
 Lease of Boat House, . . . 347 
 Lectures of Sophs to Freshmen, - 2X4 
 
 Hannibal, 295 
 Harvard, Ball Matches with, . 314 
 
 Behavior at, . . .685 
 Legislative Grants to the College, 9, 10 
 
 Boat Races with, . 366-402 
 Chess Trials with, . . 529 
 
 Controversy of 1870, . 395 
 Junior Societies at, . 115 
 Time of 1865, . . 387 
 University Crews, . 400 
 H.its of the Freshmen, Annual 277, 281 
 1 la/1 :g ot Freshmen, The . 253, 692 
 Hi.^h Street Fracas of 1858, The . 59 
 Histories, Class, . . . 279, 48.; 
 Honors, .... 590-619 
 Hopkins Grammar School, . 689 
 How Faculty and Students Address 
 One Another, 65-, 
 Humanists, Last Stronghold of the 698 
 
 38, 40 
 Library, Erection of the, . . 21 
 Volumes in the, . 23, 208 
 Licentiousness, Extent of, . 5-7 
 Linonia and Brothers, . 190-221 
 Literary Cabinet, The . 443 
 Literary Magazine, The Vale, . 4 2 5 
 Editors of the, 128, 131, 134 
 Quarrel in 64, . .165 
 Literary Quidnunc, The Yale, . 448 
 Little Gentleman, The, . . 444 
 Local Clubs of Alumni, . . 685 
 Lounger of the Courant, The . 469 
 Lyceum, Erection of the, . . >7 
 Lying about Marks, . . . 648 
 
 Hurlbut Scholarship, The . . 60 
 
 
 
 Macedonia, A Cry from . . 706 
 
 Imitation Senior Societies in Other 
 
 Machines for Skinning, . .6:7 
 
 Colleges, 18 
 
 Making up Omitted Lessons, s^ o, 645 
 
 Incorporation of the College, . i 
 
 Manners 620-658 
 
 Navy, . 34 1 
 
 Marks, .... 5 r <r5 s v 
 
 Index, A Skinning, . . . 62^ 
 
 Mathematical Prizes, . . 605 
 
 to Lit., . . . -43 
 
 Matriculation, . . . . 57 6 
 
 The Yale, ... 45 
 
 Matter of Opinion, A, . 6^6-706 
 
 Initiation, Freshman . . >- , X 
 
 Medals for University Crews, . 386 
 
 Sophomore . . 9 
 
 Medical School, The, . . . 35 
 
 Junior . . .12 
 
 Medley, The, . . . -44^ 
 
 32 
 
yio 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Meetings of the Societies: 
 Freshman, 
 
 Sophomore, . . . 100 
 
 Junior, .... 122 
 
 Senior, .... 152 
 
 Linonia nncl Brothers, . 20 
 
 Phi Beta Kappn, . . 232 
 
 Memorabilia, .... 477 
 
 Meteoric Shower of 1866, . . 312 
 
 Missionary Society, The, . . 525 
 
 Mission Schools, The Sunday, . 52" 
 
 Mock Catalogue of 1857, The, . 459 
 
 Rules for Boat Races, . 369 
 
 Societies, .... 309 
 
 Modern Languages Scholarship, . 602 
 
 Money Spent in N. Haven, Ain t of, 519 
 
 Monitors, 576 
 
 Moral Society, The . . . 525 
 Mottoes and Seals, Class, . . 47 
 Eating Club, . . .242 
 Societies, 57, 88, 89, 90, 107, 15 
 164, 169, 184, 207, 225, 230, 235 
 Muscle Men, The Claims of the, 699 
 
 New London, Races at, . . 361 
 Navy, Organization of the, . . 331 
 Needs of the College, . . . 704 
 New Haven Society, . . . 522 
 Nicknames of College Officers, . 655 
 Nominations for Class Officers, . 135 
 North College, Erection of, . 18 
 
 Middle College, Erection of, 17 
 Notable Society Men, 53, 79, 117, 146 
 175, 441 
 
 Numbering of the College Rooms, 19 
 Nu Tau Phi, . . . .309 
 
 Obituary Customs, . . . 534 
 Record, The Annual, . 680 
 Omega Lambda Chi, . . .310 
 Opening Loads, .... 415 
 Opinions of the Writer, . 686-710 
 Orations and Poems of PBK, . 226 
 Orator and Poet, Election of, . 484 
 Organization of a Freshman Class, 549 
 Origin of the College, . . . i 
 
 Packing a College Entry, . . 290 
 Senior Society Crowd, 176 
 Painting Disgrace, The, . . 262 
 Patrons of the College, Recent, . 42 
 Payment of the Boat-Housc Debt, 349 
 Peabody Museum, The . 30, 41 
 Peanut Bums, ... 70, 231 
 Peculiarities of the Senior Societies, 142 
 Peelers, Hostility towards the, . 515 
 Penalties for Skinning, . . 649 
 Pencil Skinning, .... 633 
 Permanent Boat Club?, . . 335 
 Phelps Barge Races, The . . 359 
 Phi Beta Kappa, .... 224 
 Philosophy of the Society System, 690 
 I hiThetaPsi, . . . .90 
 Phu nix Society, The, . . 223 
 Pioneer Boat at Yale, The, . 32* 
 Plagiarism, 4 S 7 
 
 Pledging Sub-Freshmen, . 73, 194 
 
 Freshmen, . . 95, 132 
 
 Pocket Skinning, .... 634 
 
 Poems, Prize, .... 609 
 
 Police ofthe College Buildings, . 296 
 
 Policies of the Senior Societies, . iSo 
 
 Politics and the Freshman Dinner, 281 
 
 in Linonia and Brothers, 203 
 
 . in 69, . . .128, 485 
 
 Portraits in the Lit., . . . 439 
 
 Posters ofthe Sophomore Societies, 95 
 
 Pot Pourri, The Yale, . . 456 
 
 Prayers at Chapel, . . . 569 
 
 Preparatory Schools, The Drill at, 6SS 
 
 Presentation Day, . . . 479 
 
 of the Silver Cup, . 539 
 
 Wooden Spoon, 405 
 
 Presidents, The Nine, . . 8 
 
 Houses of the, . . 31 
 Princeton, Ball Games with, . 314 
 
 Printers of the Lit., . . . 427 
 Prize Compositions, . . . 670 
 Debates, . . . 70, 213 
 Declamations, . . . 6^6 
 Lists of Freshman Societies, 77 
 Medal of Lit, . . . 432 
 Procession at Commencement, . 667 
 Procrusteanism and Common Sense, 699 
 Professorships, Organization of, . 13 
 Promenade Concerts, . . 421, 664 
 Pronunciation of Greek So. Letters, 553 
 Protection of Fresh, by Faculty, 311, 692 
 Psi Upsilon, .... 106 
 
 Puckle Papers, Attempt. Seizure of, 641 
 Skinning, . . 628 
 
 Quarrel of Lit. Editors in 64, 165, 434 
 Quinsigimond, Regattas at, . 370 
 
 Rank, Marks for . . . . 578 
 Reading of Class Histories, 279, 495 
 
 Room, The College . 209 
 Recitation, Behavior in . .651 
 
 Management of . .551 
 Reconstruction ofthe College Yard, 2.S 
 Records, List of Class, . . 536 
 
 Reformers, A Word to the, . 691 
 
 Refusal of Harvard to Row in 1871, 399 
 Senior Society Elections, 178 
 Regard for Scholarship, . . 594 
 Societies, . 76, 105, 139 
 Regatta Day at Worcester, . . 377 
 Relations of Junior Societies to Out 
 side Chapters, 120 
 Religkus Observances, Voluntary, 524 
 
 Troubles, ... 7 
 Removal from Saybrook, . . 6 
 Requirements for Admission, . 546 
 Respect for the Faculty, . . 657 
 Review, The Yale, . . . 447 
 Reunions, Post Graduate, . . 535 
 Riding and Driving, . . . 533 
 Riker s and the Boat House of 59, 342 
 Riots with Firemen, . . . 505 
 Rivalry of Societies, . . 53,193 
 Robbing the Printers, . . 673 
 
INDEX. 
 
 711 
 
 Rooming in College, . . 287 
 Rowing Associa n of" Am. Colleges, 398 
 Rum and Riot at Old Commence 
 ments, 676 
 
 Rank Scholarship, The, . . 604 
 Rushes between Sophs and Fresh., 256 
 Russell Trust Association, . .146 
 
 Sailing Excursions, . . . 53 
 
 Saltonstall Regattas, The;, . . 357 
 
 Scholarship Funds, . . .617 
 
 Marks, . . . 57 
 
 Scholars of the House, . . 595 
 
 Scientific Races with Harvard, . 377 
 
 Score Docks of the Faculty, . 5^4 
 
 Scroll and Key Society, The, . 155 
 
 Seals and Mottoes, Class, . . 477 
 
 Second Issues of the Lit , . 164. 434 
 
 Secret Members of Senior Societies, 160 
 
 Self-denial of College Officers, , 705 
 
 Senior Customs, . . . 424-499 
 
 Politics in 69, . . . 484 
 
 Societies, . . . 142-189 
 
 Studies, .... 563 
 
 Sentiment towards the Faculty, . 658 
 
 Servitude of Freshmen, Former, 282 
 
 Sheffield Scientific School, . . 36 
 
 Shows, 659-685 
 
 Siege of South College, . . 57 
 
 Sigma Delta, .... 53 
 
 Epsilon, Kappa, . . 53 
 
 Phi, Alpha, . . .89 
 
 Theta, Kappa, ... 87 
 
 Significance of Phi Beta Kappa, 234 
 
 Singing, Society, . 70, 101, 123, 163 
 
 on the Fence, . . . 308 
 
 Sitting Room, The, . . . 444 
 
 on the Fence, . . . 298 
 
 Situation of the College Square, . 14 
 
 Skating, 533 
 
 Skull and Bones Society, The, 
 
 Slang Terms, List of, . . . 4 2 
 
 Smoking, Habits of, ... 528 
 
 the Freshmen, . . 249 
 
 Society, New Haven s Best, . 522 
 
 Institutions, The, . 190-236 
 
 Tax, Analysis of the, . 220 
 
 Songs, Collections of the College, 300 
 
 Sophomore Club of 57, . . 8 
 
 Customs, . . 287-32C 
 
 Declamations, . . 6o( 
 
 Howlings at Fresh., 255 
 
 Sentiment Concerning 
 
 Freshmen, 30 
 
 Societies, . . 87-105 
 
 Studies, . . . 56 
 
 Type, The, . . 10 
 
 South Middle College, Erection of, 14 
 
 College, Erection of, . 
 Southvvorth Cup Races, . . 360 
 Spade and Grave Society, The, . 16 
 Spoon Exhibition, The Wooden, 40 
 Springfield, Boat Race at, . . 36 
 Stabbin; a Tutor in 1843, . . 51 
 Stafford Homicide of 1860, The, 51 
 Stand, Announcement of, . . 57 
 
 land, Comparative Nature of, 
 tar and Dart Society, The, 
 tatement of Facts, . 1-93, 197, 
 tatistical Comparison of the Socie 
 ties, 176, 408, 423, 432, 
 465, 485. 599- 600, 602, 
 tatistics, Class, .... 
 
 of University Races, 
 tealing an Examination Paper, 625, 
 Student s Companion, The, 
 Studies, .... 45 2 
 
 tones Society, The Bull and, 
 Subjects for Commence t Speeches, 
 uftrage, Rights of, ... 
 umptuary Laws of 1821, The, 
 
 59 2 
 174 
 199 
 
 .66, 85, 74 
 
 unday Services, . 
 ippers, . . 
 
 wearing, Habits of, 
 sweeps," The College, . . 
 word and Crown Society, The, 
 
 616 
 491 
 400 
 673 
 444 
 
 171 
 
 670 
 5 ?2 
 519 
 57i 
 410 
 
 293 
 173 
 
 Table Manners in the Olden Time, 246 
 Tea Kettle Society, The, . . 173 
 Temperance Society, The, . . 525 
 Term Examinations, . . . 5=5 
 Text Books, Changes in, . ^ 565 
 Thanksgiving Jubilee, . . . 265 
 Theory of the Marking System, . 588 
 Theological School, The, . . 32 
 Theta Psi, Phi, .... 90 
 Time of the 1865 University Race, 387 
 to Enter College, The, . 687 
 Titles of Commencement Speeches, 670 
 Tomahawk of Sigma Phi, The, 91, 460 
 Town and Gown, . . . 500-541 
 Townsend Premiums, The, . .611 
 Traditions of Sen. Soc s, 153, 164. 168 
 Trainers of University Crews, . 387 
 Transformation of Junior Ex, . 660 
 Treasury Building, The, . . 21 
 Treats and Spreads for Elec. Givers, 98 
 Tricks of Skinning, . . . 624 
 Triennial Catalogue, The, . . 683 
 Reunions, The, . . 539 
 Trumbull Gallery, . . .21 
 
 Trust Association, . 127 
 
 Undergraduate Quarterly, The, . 448 
 
 Uniforms of Boating Men, . . 3^5 
 
 Uninvited Guests at College, . 295 
 
 Union College Regatta, The First, 369 
 
 Hall, Erection of, . . 17 
 
 University Quarterly, The, . . 448 
 
 Races, The Seven, 378, 397 
 
 Velocipedes, .... 529 
 
 Verb, to Skin, The, . . .620 
 Vicarious Examination, A, . . 641 
 Victory of 59, The First Aquatic, 371 
 Vocabulary of College Words, . 42 
 Voting at State Elections, . . 522 
 
 Walking, Habits of, . . . 532 
 Wanderings of the Infant College, 3 
 Warnings, Course of Discipline, . 582 
 Wherry Races, . . 358, 360, 364 
 
712 
 
 ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA. 
 
 Widows, College, 
 Williams College Chemists, . 
 Winthrop Trust Association, 
 Worcester Regattas, 
 Wooden Spoon Presentation. 
 
 523 
 
 Wool?ey Scholarship, The, 
 
 Working up a Case, 
 
 Works relating to the College, 
 
 Yale, Elihu, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 . 601 
 
 ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA. 
 
 Page 12, line 7 from bottom. In June of the present year, the Legislature 
 adopted a bill, providing that at the Commencement of 1872, the alumni shall elect 
 six representatives to take the plice of the six ex-officio State senators in the col 
 lege corporation. The six shall decide by lot as to the individuals whose terms of 
 service shall be one, two, three, four, five or six years ; and at each subsequent 
 Commencement the alumni shall elect one representative for the full term of six 
 years. Re elections are allowable, and all Bachelors of five years standing, and 
 all holders of any higher degree, are to be allowed to vote, under such regulations 
 as the corporation may deem proper. The proposition to reconsider the bill, for 
 the purpose of amending some of the details, is before the Legislature, as this book 
 goes to press (June 17). 
 
 P. 41,1. 18. The original Farnam gift was $30,000, and a like amount was after 
 wards added to it, so that, with accumulations of interest, it paid for something 
 more than two thirds the cost of Farnam College, which was $100,000, instead of 
 about $ 10,000, as stated on p. 30, 1. 9 from bottom. 
 
 P. 41, 1. 10 from bot., for William, rend John J. On the same page mention 
 should have been made of the gift of #10,000, from Henry W. Sage of Brooklyn, to 
 found the " Beecher lectureship" in the Theological School ; of the will of Philip 
 Marrett of New Haven, leaving to the college one fifth of his estate, wherefrom it 
 is expected that after the termination of certain life interests, about $120,000 will 
 be derived ; and of the project of O. F. Winchester of New Haven to expend 
 about $100,000 in the establishment of an observatory. 
 
 Pp. 96, 121. This year the sophomore and junior societies gave out their (.lec 
 tions between 9 and n o clock in the evening. the faculty not allowing them to 
 sing their songs upon the street later than the latter hour. Their respective initia 
 tions were held June 9 and 16. P. 150, 1. 19. The Bones elections were given out 
 June 8, five weeks before Commencement, and the initiations were held the 
 following Tuesday evening. The engine house behind Alumni Hall served as a 
 rendezvous for the neophytes on initiation night. The Keys elections and initia 
 tions occurred two weeks Liter than those of Bones. 
 
ADDENDA E T CORRIGENDA. 7 T 3 
 
 P. 315, 1. 7- Additions to the ball record of 1871 are as follows, the Yale score 
 being first noted : May 20, Mutua s, 3 to 28 ; June 7, Athletics of Brooklyn, 12 to 
 8 ; June 10, Atlantics, 12 to 3 ; June 14, Haymakers, 8 to 34- The latter club 
 was defeated by the Harvard nine, May 17, 15 to 8. The fourth University match 
 between Yale and Harvard is to be played at New Haven, the first week in July ; 
 and the freshman ( 74) match at Springfield, June 24. 
 
 P. 360, 1. 4. The second barge race for the Phelps flag took place June 7, 1871, 
 and was won by Seventy-Four, in 22:03; followed by the Scientifics, in 22:58, 
 and Seventy-Three, in 2^:13}^. The latter boat carried 35 Ibs. handicap, aiu; 
 shipped considerable water, as the waves were rough, and it drew the outside course. 
 
 P. 399, 1. i from bottom. Under date of May 28, Harvard reconsidered its for 
 mer action, and offered to row a separate, straight race with Yale : but Yale, at a 
 meeting of May 31, voted to stand by its final action of the week before, and 
 inform Harvard that its repentance came too late for recognition this year. 
 
 P. 92, 1. 16 from bot., for parent, read present. P. 113, 1. 7 from bot., for 1855, 
 read 1844. P. 144, 1. i from bot., for that now than, razrfthan that now. P. 203, 
 1. 9 from bot , for proportionate, rend proportionately. P. 206, 1. 3, for #400, rend 
 $4000. P. 236, 1. i from bot., for graved, rend engraved. P. 398, 1. 5 from bot., 
 for July 14, rend July 21. 
 
 Minor Errata. 
 
 Page 51, line 12 from bottom, comparisons for comparison; p. 58, 1. 13 from 
 bot., Noou for Noou ; p. 109, 1. 17 from bot., Phi U for Psi U ; p. 189, 1. 13 from 
 bot., scholorship for scholarship ; p. 223, 1. i from bot., sociey for society ; p. 268, 
 1. 19, nigrescent for nigrescent ; p. 327, 1. 10, 1858 for 1859 ; p 332, 1. 8 from bot., 
 ragatta for regatta ; p. 439, 1. 3, Olmstead for Olmsted ; p. 441, 1. 18, 71 for 71 ; 
 1. 20, Keyes for Keys ; p. 451, 1. 5 from bot., 41 for 42 ; p. 465, 1. 4 from bot., 
 gradaate for graduate ; p. 473, last line, socities for societies ; p. 578, 1. 2, dscipline 
 for discipline ; p. 621, 1. i, doublles for doubtless. 
 

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