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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTCA LANGA TILDAN FOUNDATION

which from time immemorial, till a few years ago, was the dearest privilege of a Yale man, was denied him until he became a sophomore. Latterly they were allowed to sit on the fence if they beat the Harvard freshmen at baseball in the spring, which they strove for so zealously that only one class-that of 1889-ever lost the privilege. Freshmen formerly could not carry canes at all and still can not do it till Washington's Birthday. The date of this emancipation in this respect was celebrated till recently by marching in procession, carrying immense canes, called "bangers." This practice the faculty has lately broken up. A further restriction forbids the wearing of beaver hats till the Washington's Birthday of sophomore year. Rushes at Yale have been rough and tumble affairs, yet have been singularly free from serious accidents. Of course the sophomores buried Euclid in early times, the class of 1863 being the last to keep up the practice. Class pictures have been taken for many years, and class statistics, which were first gathered in 1858 and first issued as a pamphlet in 1870, appear a short time before graduation. As has been stated, the moral tone of Yale is good for a large college. While, of course, there are many, "wild fellows" and a very few who are utterly depraved, the great band are earnest, good men, and in nearly every graduating class over one-half are church members.1

On March 17, 1854, occurred the great riot. That week a variety troupe was performing at Howard's Athenæum, corner of Church and Chapel streets, and the students and "townies" granted their applause and favor to two different singers. Bad feeling arose and on Friday night about 40 or 50 students who were there were warned by the police that a mob had assembled without the hall awaiting them. They formed in line and, guarded by a few policemen, made their way through the sullen crowd, which followed them. When they reached Trinity church some one started singing "Gaudeamus." The mob rushed upon the rear row of students and one of these, who it was never known, plunged a dirk into the heart of one of the rioters. Pistol shots were fired and the students got safely to South College, where most of their fellow students were assembled. When the mob could not break in the doors they got an old cannon and trained it against the college. The police managed to spike this in the confusion and later gathered forces to drive the rioters away. This was the last great town and gown fight, though there was a firemen's riot on February 9, 1858, in which a man was killed on High street.2

GROWTH OF ATHLETICS.

The old annual football game between the freshman and sophomore classes on the green was abolished by the faculty in 1857 because of its roughness.

'Four Years at Yale, 405–522.

2 Four Years at Yale, 500-51.

Some games have retained their place as peculiarly the property of some one class to this day, and no one but a dignified senior would dare to spin tops, play marbles, roll hoops, or recreate himself with the attractive "niger infans" or "nigger baby." Quoits are the peculiar property of theologues. Hare and hounds has been tried by Yale often, but has never gained a permanent foothold. In winter the glassy surface of Lake Whitney offers fine skating, and its placid waters furnish delightful rowing in summer, when sailing in the harbor is also popular.

Yale's growing interest in boating led to the organization of the Yale navy in 1853, with six boat clubs and a commodore. A year before, occurred on Lake Winnepesaukee the first of the long series of YaleHarvard boat races. In 1860 a system of having four-year clubs instead of class ones was begun, and nearly all the college belonged to the Glyuna, Varuna, or Nixie, the last named living only four years. "Sheff" also had a boat club called the Undine. In 1868 the system was changed again so as to have five clubs, one from each class in the college proper and one from the scientific school. The Yale University Boat Club, as now organized, was founded in 1870, and the title of commodore was changed to that of president.

The first boathouse was built in 1859 and was only an old shed. In 1863 a new one was built for $3,400, which at the time was the best in the country. The club was incorporated in the same year. The mud flats where the house was built were leased from the Hartford and New Haven Railroad Company, but no rent was ever charged. In 1875 the present boathouse, a fine, commodious building, was erected at the cost of $16,500. Class races occur every spring and fall, now held on Lake Whitney but formerly either on New Haven Harbor or at Lake Saltonstall, some 4 miles to the east. These are occasions of great interest. In 1852 the Undine Boat Club of Yale raced unsuccessfully the Oneidas of Harvard, and that began intercollegiate racing for Yale. Occasional races occurred till 1864, when regular yearly races were arranged, which took place between the two colleges at Worcester, Mass., till 1870.

Baseball was first played in 1859, and on September 30, 1865, the Yale University Baseball Club played its first intercollegiate game with the Agallians of Wesleyan University, and won by the score of 39 to 13.'

RESIGNATION OF PRESIDENT WOOLSEY.

In 1871 President Woolsey, being 70 years of age, felt himself no longer able to bear the responsibilities and burdens of his office, and therefore resigned it. He did not, however, give up activity. He was connected with the college by giving lectures on international law in the law school and by serving on the corporation till 1884. He was

1 1 Yale Book, II, p. 365 (S. C. Bushnell).

made one of the American revisers of the New Testament, in which position Dr. Howard Crosby said of him: "His erudition, his judgment, and his clear statement, on the one side, and his courtesy, gentleness, and modesty, on the other, fitted him peculiarly for his position and formed the crowning charm to our coterie." In 1877 he published a notable work, "Political Science; or, the State Theoretically and Practically Considered." He was one of the editors of Johnson's Encyclopedia and was active in many ways. Feeling that a citizen ought to take interest in politics, he accepted a nomination for Presidential elector from the Republican party in 1876 and 1884. Devoted to Yale to the last, he died, after some months of failing health, July, 1889. At his funeral his successor, President Dwight, said of him:

Dr. Woolsey was so venerable that he impressed every intelligent person who knew him. He had richness of magnetism, much of the poetic mind, large mental grasp, openness to thought, in many lines originality and variety in his ideas and thinking, the ease of perfectly working mechanism in his mental operations, wonderful power of memory, great facility for accurate learning and accurate statement of what he had learned. He was an independent, honest, earnest thinker, subjecting all knowledge and learning to the true test. Those who came into connection with him as students were impressed by his mental characteristics in all these respects, and the nearer they came to his real life the more they were impressed.

SECTION VII.-PRESIDENT NOAH PORTER (1871-1886).

On May 11, 1871, the corporation elected Noah Porter, Clark professor of moral philosophy, as President Woolsey's successor. His recent book on "American Colleges and the American Public" had called the attention of the country to him as an educator, while his monumental work on "The Human Intellect" had placed him high among the learned men of the country. Gentle, mild, and gracious, never saying a harsh word or doing an unkind deed, he has been so beloved by the students that, with one exception only, every one of the fifteen classes graduating under him voted him the most popular professor of their entire course. There is not a Yale man, old or young, who has not a warm place in his heart for this revered instructor, who still continued his instruction in the right principles of human conduct as long as he lived. A member of the class of 1831, after studying theology and serving as a tutor, he was pastor at New Milford and at Springfield, Massachusetts, till called to the Clark profess orship in 1846. In 1864 he became an editor of Webster's Dictionary. His work on mental philosophy had its counterpart in 1885, when he issued his "Elements of Moral Science," which has also been widely used. His election was regarded as a pledge that the college would keep on in the lines President Woolsey had marked out. On October 11, 1871, he was inaugurated, and his address was on higher education.

Yale Book, I, 160.

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