and United States Senator. William B. Woods, Judge of the United States Supreme Court, graduated in 1845, and Governor Henry B. Harrison, of Connecticut, a year later, a classmate of Rensselaer R. Nelson, Judge of the United States District Court for Minnesota. COLLEGE LIFE-THE BULLY CLUB. During the early part of President Day's régime, New Haven was a town of some 9,000 inhabitants. West of the college there were only two streets, and then pastures, where those practicing for debates in Linonia or Brothers rehearsed. Down by the bay, where Sargent's manufactory now is, was the pavilion, a great student resort. The town had a "homogeneous population and charming society, being better fitted in some respects for a college town than now." Already, through the efforts of Hillhouse, it was the City of Elms, the spreading arches of which trees, uniting across the streets, form one of the greatest beauties of New Haven to-day. Till 1827 there was no anthracite coal, the students buying wood at the woodyard near South College, and having it cut for use, not sawed. Willis said of the city:1 If you were to set a poet to make a town, with carte blanche as to trees, gardens, and green blinds, he would probably turn out very much such a place as New Haven. The first thought of the inventor of New Haven was to lay out the streets in squares; the second was to plant them, from suburb to water side, with the magnificent elms of the country. The result is that, at the end of fifty years, the town is buried in trees. The scenery around New Haven is uncommonly fine and varied, "tempting one constantly to holiday walks and sails, and lending a romantie charm to the memories of undergraduate life." The college year began then in October, and through the whole course student life was much simpler then than now. It is true that a member of "21 says that "once expensive dress having become prevalent, the faculty tried to curb it, and a Lycurgan Society was formed which proposed a dress somewhat like that of the Quakers, but failed to have it adopted." But extravagance could not have gone very far, since we find that when Wikoff, then a Freshman, introduced the unwonted luxuries of a carpet and paper hangings into his College room, the rumor of the enormity came to the ears of Prof. Silliman. He inspected the room and said, "All this love of externals, young man, argues indif ference to the more necessary furniture of your brain, which is your spiritual business here." Probably few American writers have been more influenced by college life than the poet Willis. In the words of his biographer, "It furnished him with a fund of literary material. It brought him into the sunshine and changed the homely school-boy 'Life of N. P. Willis, 37 (H. A. Beers). Scribner's, x1, 761. 3" Scenes and Characters in College, "quoted in "College Words and Customs." Niles Register, 18, 42. *Life of N. P. Willis, chapter 11. 1 chrysalis into a butterfly of uncommon splendor and spread of wing." It was a rather rough life then; all ate in commons till 1842, when the custom was given up, though an unsuccessful attempt to revive it was made in 1866,2 When they had cider for dinner, each drank in turn from the pitcher till 1815; poor students waited on the table; and in a single term we hear of 600 tumblers and 30 coffee pots being carried off. The quality of the food, though generally good, was not uniformly so, and hence in 1819 there was a three days' rebellion of Freshmen and Sophomores.3 From the same cause sprang the "Bread and Butter Rebellion," of the summer of 1828. The food was poor, and as it was not improved upon complaint, the students held meetings to confer with the Faculty and then refused to go to commons till the fare was better. President Day refused to treat with them in a state of rebellion and four of the students were summoned and, upon their refusing to come, were expelled. This created much excitement; an open-air meeting of the students was held in Hillhouse avenue and they pledged themselves to stand by each other. Then they went home, cooled off, and wished to come back. The Faculty offered to take back, on confession and apology all but the four who had been expelled. Most men accepted the terms and returned. In 1830 came another stubborn conflict of students with the Faculty, called the "Conic Sections Rebellion," because of the refusal to recite in that study according to the desires of the Faculty. In July the students petitioned to be allowed to explain Conic Sections from the book and not to have to demonstrate them from the figures. This was refused, and a portion of the class agreed to refuse to recite, and carried their resolution into effect. About 40 signed a paper indorsing those who refused to recite and praying that punishment, if any, should come on them all alike. A few days later, 42 signed a similar paper. The Faculty took them at their word and 44 were expelled. Other Colleges refused to receive them, and this drastic policy had such an effect that, from that time, there has been no organized resistance to the College authorities. Pranks of various sorts were popular, such as painting the President's house red, white, and blue, or putting a cow on the top floor of a dormitory. In 1823, Willis wrote to his father, just after Christmas: The Southern students seem restless under the restriction of a lesson on playday. There were many of them drunk last evening and still more to-day. Christmas has always been, ever since the establishment of the College, emphatically a day of tricks, windows broken, bell rope cut, freshmen squirted, and every imaginable scene of dissipation acted out in full. Last night they barred the entry doors of South 1Life of N. P. Willis, Chap. II. *It has been revived successfully, for those who desire to pay a moderate amount for board. The old gymnasium was remodeled for this purpose, and in the fall of 1892 the college began to furnish meals for 400 men there. 3 Four Years at Yale, 238-247. • College Book, 86. Yale Book, 1, 137. College to exclude the government and then illuminated the building. This morning the recitation-room doors were locked and the key stolen and we were obliged to knock down the doors to get in, and then we were not much better off, for the lamps were full of water and the wicks gone. There were also Town and Gown Conflicts, in which a chosen commander, the "Major Bully," led on the students. In 1803, a student was rescued from jail; in 1806, there was a battle with the "townies;" in 1811, during a riot with sailors, the campus was attacked by them; in 1815, a party of students, going to the Dragon Inn in Fair Haven, had a fight with the sailors there; in 1819, there was a battle between students and sailors at Long Wharf, and, in 1820, the Bully and his followers had hard work dispersing a mob which threatened to tear down the Medical School on account of the disinterring a woman's body. The Bully Club, of famous memory, now presumed to be deposited in the hall of one of the Senior societies, was a huge knotty club, said to have been wrested from one of a band of townsmen in some riot. It was yearly bestowed, with set form of speech, on the strongest man in the Senior Class, who, thenceforth, acted as Class President. He led the College in all riots and conflicts. In addition to the "Major Bully," a "Minor Bully" was chosen, usually a small man, who acted as Vice-President of the class. Finally a faction in the class, thinking the name Bully not elegant enough, chose a Marshal; this produced ill feeling, which ended in a fight between the two parties on Commencement Day, 1810, breaking up the procession to church. Upon this, the Faculty passed a law, "prohibiting all class organization of any name whatever," and this vote is in force to day. In 1841, there was a firemen's riot with the students, and in 1843 a tutor was killed. About this time, or earlier, arose the custom of Freshmen leaving chapel first after morning prayers, a custom established, it is said, to prevent fights at the door with the Seniors.5 BEGINNING OF ATHLETICS AND JOURNALISM. In September, 1826, $300 were appropriated by the Corporation for "cleaning and preparing of the grounds for a gymnasium and the erection of apparatus for gymnastic exercises, with a view to the promotion of the health of the students." This gymnasium was not under cover, but lasted through the period of President Day. 6 In 1842, W. J. Weeks (43), then a Junior, bought a boat, from which time dates the beginning of the Yale Navy. The first boat of the Navy was a seven-oared one, called the Pioneer. In a few weeks two 'Life of N. P. Willis, Chap. II 2 Yale Book II, 460 (L. H. Bagg). Four Years at Yale," 500-518. and Customs," 38. 4 Four Years at Yale, 500. 5 Yale Book 1, 279. 6 Yale Book, II, 274. "Sketches of Yale College" in "College Words more were procured, the Nautilus and the Iris, the latter manned by Freshmen. The Sophomores had a canoe with eight short oars, called the Centipede. The interest in boating once started has never waned.1 Apparently, the first project to start a college periodical is found in a letter from the Harvard Chapter of BK to the Yale Chapter, before 1800, suggesting that the fraternity issue such a paper. The plan came to naught, and Yale's first periodical was the "Literary Cabinet," which appeared November 15, 1806. It was edited by T. S. Grimké, L. E. Wales, and J. Sutherland, and announced its "unalterable resolve to appropriate the pecuniary profits to the education of poor students in this seminary;" but apparently did not have much to give them, for it suspended publication after the first volume. It was followed by many equally short-lived undergraduate papers: "The Athenæum,” 1814; "Yale Crayon," 1823; "Sitting Room," 1830; "Student's Companion," 1831; "Little Gentleman," 1831; "Medley,"1833; "Literary Quidnunc," 1838; "Collegian," 1841; "College Cricket," 1846; and "City of Elms," 1846.2 In 1836, however, was founded a monthly which still lives, the oldest college periodical and "generally recognized to be among the best of college journals," 3" The Yale Literary Magazine." Its founders, E. O. Carter, F. A. Coe, William M. Evarts, Chester S. Lyman, and W. S. Scarborough, were all members of the famous class of 1837, and ever since that time it has been edited by five members of the senior class. In February, 1886, it issued its semicentennial number, containing articles from such distinguished former editors as Donald G. Mitchel, Judge F. M. Finch, W. W. Crapo, President Daniel C. Gilman, Charlton T. Lewis, President Andrew D. White, Prof. Thomas K. Lounsbury, and Prof. E. R. Sill. The founder of the "Lit," as it is called, was William T. Bacon, who was not chosen editor only because he did not care for it. The character of the contributions to the "Lit" has always been high, and it has been an exponent of what is best in student thought. An election by one's class to a "Lit" editorship is one of the greatest honors of the course and is diligently striven after. On November 5, 1840, on account of the firemen's riot, appeared the first number of the "Yale Banner." "Richelieu" Robinson, of the class of '42, was one of the principal contributors, and it was intended as the students' organ against the firemen. It suspended on December 10. On November 3, 1842, appeared Vol. 1, No. 5, as an annual. In 1845, Vol. II followed, and ever since that date the "Banner" has yearly appeared with a fund of interesting information. Up to 1865 it was a four-page folio sheet, followed in a week or so, after 1853, by a two-page folio supplement. In 1866 it appeared as a double sheet, and from 1870 onwards it has been an octavo pamphlet. It is filled with val 1 Yale Book, 11, 274. > Four Years at Yale, 425-460. Thwing, 92. • Origin of the Lit," Rev. C. S. Lyman, Yale Literary Magazine, L, 181. uable facts and statisties. At one time it is said to have been owned by the Skull and Bones Society, but of late years the proprietorship of it has been with the "Lit" editors, who sell the right of publication to the highest bidder. It appears about December 1.1 ALUMNI MEETINGS. In 1827 an Alumni Association was organized, but it soon died. In 1842 it was reorganized, with Chancellor Kent as president. It still exists, having its meetings on the Tuesday morning of Commencement week. The class of 1821, in 1824, held the first triennial reunion, a practice followed by all subsequent classes, except 1858, which postponed it, on account of the rebellion, till 1865. Other especial reunions are still held at the sixth, tenth, fifteenth, twentieth, twenty fifth, and fiftieth anniversaries of graduation. The class of 1836 began the pub lication of triennial records, which custom other classes have fol lowed. The class of 1844 started the practice of giving a silver cup to the first child born to a member of the class marrying after graduation. In 1848 it was given to a girl; but the class of 1849 decided it should be bestowed upon a boy, and the law has so remained. The class of 1856 gave no cup, and 1885, having no child to which to give it, cele brated a "Malthusian Feast." GROWTH OF THE SOCIETY SYSTEM. The secret-society system at Yale is of at least as great importance as at any other college, and the honors it offers are, to many students in every class, more attractive than the honors of high scholarship." During President Day's administration the old literary societies flourished, not yet being affected by the Greek Letter fraternities or the growing class feeling. "Brothers," starting with the class of 1768, the first one recorded in the catalogue not according to its social rank, but according to the alphabet, soon got into friendly relations with its elder sister "Linonia." From 1801 onward for some years, all Freshmen were allotted alternately to the two societies. John C. Calhoun, how ever, insisted on going to Brothers, where most of the Southerners were, though he was allotted to Linonia. In 1830 open war began again, and every fall the assembled Freshman class was addressed by the respective presidents of the societies, with the so called "statement of facts," in which each society showed its superiority to the other. Until about 1840 the meetings, which were held on Wednesdays, at 8 p. m., were secret. The palmy period for these societies was the first third of this century, during which time the offices in them were fiercely sought for. From 1825 to 1840, when the faculty stopped the practice, they had exhibitions, plays, etc. Red was the color of Linonia and blue that of Brothers. Four Years at Yale, 425-460. "Yale Book, 1, 380, (G. E. Day). 3 Four Years at Yale, 535-541. |