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and later the members of one class-1837 -who have been conspicuous in public affairs, William M. Evarts, Morrison R. Waite, Edwards Pierrepont, and Samuel J. Tilden, suggest the value of their training. There were exhibitions, plays, and prize debates. The campaigns for securing freshmen reached back into the preparatory schools, were conducted on railway trains coming into New Haven, and culminated in the Statement of Facts," held a week after the opening of the term, when orators from the societies set forth alternately the incomparable history, the superior prize-list, and the immense advantage of one or the other in fervid oratory. Who can forget the playful humor, the sarcasm, the cross-fire of repartee, which that exciting occasion exhibited to the novice in college associations? The most spirited meetings of the commencement week were held in their halls, and men eminent in public life paid tribute to their usefulness. A third society, the Calliopean, was established by Southern students in 1819, and was an expression of their sectional feeling.

But these societies became too large; with the growth of the college the members scarcely knew each other by sight;

fluent and confident public speech came to be less highly esteemed than it had been fifty years before; the course of study became more comprehensive and exacting, and the development of class societies and the expansion of college life rendered unnecessary the excitements of the society evenings; the two great literary camps which used to fill the air with their rival cries, and parade their trophies at annual commencement, passed into honorable oblivion. The Brothers men said Linonia never died because there was not a quorum at the funeral, and the Linonians retorted:

Three hearers heard in a sleepy state,
Three speakers spoke with eloquence great
To gain three prizes in Brothers hall;
Three judges judged, and that was all.

The mention of the Calliopean Society suggests the numbers and influence of Southern men at Yale before the war. They brought with them manners and a culture foreign to the sober atmosphere of the North, but fascinating to the untravelled eyes of the boys of New England. To the charm of their aristocratic bearing and address there was added a picturesqueness of attire-Byronic collar, velvet waist

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coat, flowing scarf, and sumptuous watchchain, all crowned with the glory of locks which Hyperion might have envied the cynosure of college fashion. But they

Entrance to Old South Middle.

brought a more vital contribution to the college in their fervid eloquence, in their generosity, and in the suggestion of a wider range of thought and action in a world outside the college gates.

College customs and amusements are transitory in their nature; they rise, run their course with greater or less length of life, change with varying surroundings, or give place to others. Many in the older times were recognized institutions. The Bully Club, won in battle from sailors at the Dragon-ancient name of Fair Haven

was for forty years the symbol of leadership in the college, an ægis in combats with the town, and invested with the mystery of legendary awe. Each class had a Bully of its own, but the Senior class furnished the Bully for the college, the autocrat of the undergraduate world. The institution was abolished in 1841 in consequence of a mêlée on Commencement Day between its adherents and those who opposed the old order of things as savoring of barbarism. The memory of it is recalled in the dirge written by Nathaniel P. Willis, of '27, for the funeral of the Bully of his class :

Ye've gathered to your place of prayer
With slow and measured tread;

Your ranks are full, your mates all there-
But the soul of one has fled.

He was the proudest in his strength,
The manliest of ye all;

Why lies he at that fearful length

And ye around his pall?

subject than now to feminine distraction. It was adopted from the custom at the University of Cambridge of naming the Junior Optime, or last man in the honor list, the "Wooden Spoon," and although the distinction was first bestowed upon a third colloquy man at Yale, in later years the desire of exalting the most popular man

SKULL AND BONES

There are old graduates who remember the grotesque hilarity of the burial of Euclid, which braved the faculty ban for nearly half a century with all the zest of lawless adventure. The old print of its ceremonies is thus described: "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, circumscribed by spherical fiends and segments of oblique angled devils, while his great right hand is grasping the tangents and cy

cloidal curves which compose his mathematical thunderbolts."

The freshman Pow-wow, a substitute for the annual foot-ball game, and the Thanksgiving Jubilee, which took the place of the more orderly exercises on Thanksgiving-eve in the staid old debating

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societies, were the occasions for the display of much dramatic ability, wit, and eloquence; but their excessive exuberance brought upon them the displeasure of the authorities, and led to their abandonment.

The memory quickens at the name of the "Wooden Spoon," and recalls a crowded theatre, the vivacity of eager maidens and their gallants, a brilliant exhibition of undergraduate wit and eloquence and all the glamour of youth and unaccustomed festivity. The presentation of the coveted emblem under the charge of the Cochleaureati, as non-appointment men were called, was the great entertainment of a year less

in his class made
it the absolute gift
of the undergrad-
uates.
The en-
chanting music,
the elaborate wit
of the programme,
the unequalled
acting, and the
brilliant, fluttering
audience still daz-
zle the mind's eye.
The men of hum-
ble scholarship
studied more Lat-
in for the purposes
of burlesque, paid
more attention to
original composi-
tion and devel-
oped more latent
talent than the
most sanguine of
their instructors
could have wished
for, so great was
the incentive and
so eagerly sought
the honor. As one
of the songs had it:

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Old Yale has many honors
In reach of every son,

And scarce a son departs from her
Without some honor won;
While hundreds take these honors
'Twixt every twelfth full moon,
But one a year, and only one

Can take the Wooden Spoon.

When college life has passed away,
And battle-life's begun,
This Wooden Spoon will ever be
A type of college fun.

But soon you'll choose your better-half,
You'll be a fraction soon,
And fractions of a fraction then

May use this Wooden Spoon.

The Junior Promenade with an accompaniment of concert, ball, senior and soph

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omore German, has become its successor and brings a burst of color, gayety and temporary freedom from restraint into the round of college occupations.

For a short

period, a sort of dark ages in the fifties, Fate and the Faculty saw fit to institute a system of intellectual torture, a revival of the peine forte et dure, which laid the crushing weight of Ana

lytical Geometry, Differential and Integral Calculus, the influence of the Greek accent and Butler's ponderous "Analogy" upon a helpless college. Biennial examinations were imposed upon sophomores and seniors, and covered the entire work of the two preceding years; an unearned tribute to the mental powers of boys of eighteen. Into some minds the rills of learning never ran; and even from the diligent much must have escaped, but in the eyes of the faculty they should have been reservoirs brimming with learning to be drawn upon at will. Succeeding generations know not the nightmare of that time. Annuals and later term examinations took their place, but their memory still haunts the corners of the campus in the refrain:

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grapes." This was only in the birth of each, however, for they are now more nearly equal, although the prestige of age and achievement remains with "Bones," and this triumvirate sways the college world, raises to preferment or proscribes with absolute power.

These are societies of the senior class alone. The societies of the other classes

for in obedience to the Yale class-feeling each year has its own-have been ephemeral in their life and without any strong influence; their secrecy has never been profound, and a union of their forces for a college celebration has not been unusual. They generally serve as steps to the pinnacle of college success. A possible exception to this generalization should be made in favor of the Junior Societies A. K. E., V. Y., and A. A. ., which have a history of fifty years, and though without the attraction of exclusiveness, keep Yale in touch with fraternity life in other colleges.

Except for the curriculum itself no force in the college is to be compared with the senior societies. The bond among their members lasts through life, and so close is it that even the college world knows nothing of their proceedings, and can only conjecture their purposes. Their cardinal principle in the selection of members is the recognition of character and achievement. The

various activities of a college career are all recognized literary ability, scholarship, athletic energy, the liking of many friends are all avenues to the temple of fortune. This is the highest honor which a Yale man can receive from his fellows, and because it comes from them he sets it above scholastic distinction or any titles which the faculty can confer. All the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it, for it is itself a crown of victory for whatever task a man may have undertaken.

The society halls are retired and guard their own secrets. Curiosity stops abruptly at the iron doors. The members do not even breathe the name of any one of the three societies, and the little gold badge of membership never leaves the person. By so much the more is their glamour increased in the eyes of the unthinking, but their real strength lies in the character of the men they choose

WOLF'S

HEAD

garnered wisdom. It may be inferred that the system has its defects-few institutions are better than the men who compose them. A world of perfect retribution is an unrealized ideal, and the mimic world of college does not always weigh with perfect scales. The genus "Swipe," anglicè toady, is not unknown; and individuality of thought is sometimes sacrificed to public opinion, crys

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tallized by the soci

ety men and the society standards. But what a sane, what an impartial, what a tremendous public opinion it is! The writer, the debater, the scholar. the athlete, each is goaded to the full measure of his abilities. Life is strenuous and eminently practical because success is tangible. The organization of effort, carried to its highest development at New Haven in athletics, debate, or the different phases of social life, which is the "Yale spirit" upon its tangible and mechanical side, is due in large measure to the society influences

and in the stand they take for the better which concentrate into channels of effithings in academic life.

The timorous freshman sees afar the shining mark, and his footsteps take a purpose in their course. The swashing sophomore, in the hurly-burly of midnight, casts a backward glance of prudence at upperclass dignity, conscious of the ordeal to come. Juniors are, of course, as men on trial for their lives, and walk accordingly with guarded, and alas ! sometimes worldly eyes. Sir Senior himself, in the full panoply of success, with the consciousness of deeds well done, feels the responsibility of great place and does his best to meet it. He has passed through the valley of tribulation and over the hill of difficulty, and now he sits serene in the enjoyment of his

ciency all the diffuse and vagrant energies of the college. The system is at once the child and supporter of that vigorous democracy which endures because it recognizes the achievements of worth, and yet acknowledges no claims of birth or station.

The only public manifestation of the effect of these senior societies upon college life is at the annual choice of members from the incoming Senior Class. For weeks before the announcement the elections have been taking place in the society retreats, and the results are disclosed in a manner at once mysterious and dramatic, which gives to the ceremony the sombre tone of a Nemesis tragedy.

On a certain Thursday afternoon in the

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