Chapter II: Introduction (2)

Similar in thought to this account are the remarks of Professor Sidney Willard concerning Harvard College in 1794, in his late work, entitled, "Memories of Youth and Manhood." "The students who boarded in commons were obliged to go to the kitchen-door with their bowls or pitchers for their suppers, when they received their modicum of milk or chocolate in their vessel, held in one hand, and their piece of bread in the other, and repaired to their rooms to take their solitary repast. There were suspicions at times that the milk was diluted by a mixture of a very common tasteless fluid, which led a sagacious Yankee student to put the matter to the test by asking the simple carrier-boy why his mother did not mix the milk with warm water instead of cold. 'She does,' replied the honest youth. This mode of obtaining evening commons did not prove in all cases the most economical on the part of the fed. It sometimes happened, that, from inadvertence or previous preparation for a visit elsewhere, some individuals had arrayed themselves in their dress-coats and breeches, and in their haste to be served, and by jostling in the crowd, got sadly sprinkled with milk or chocolate, either by accident or by the stealthy indulgence of the mischievous propensities of those with whom they came in contact; and oftentimes it was a scene of confusion that was not the most pleasant to look upon or be engaged in. At breakfast the students were furnished, in Commons Hall, with tea, coffee, or milk, and a small loaf of bread. The age of a beaker of beer with a certain allowance of bread had expired."--Vol. I. pp. 313, 314.

No scholar shall be absent above an hour at morning _bever_, half an hour at evening _bever_, &c.--_Quincy's Hist. Harv. Univ._, Vol. I. p. 517.

The butler is not bound to stay above half an hour at _bevers_ in the buttery after the tolling of the bell.--_Ibid._, Vol. I. p. 584.

BEVER. To take a small repast between meals.--_Wallis_.

BIBLE CLERK. In the University of Oxford, the _Bible clerks_ are required to attend the service of the chapel, and to deliver in a list of the absent undergraduates to the officer appointed to enforce the discipline of the institution. Their duties are different in different colleges.--_Oxford Guide_.

A _Bible clerk_ has seldom too many friends in the University.--_Blackwood's Mag._, Vol. LX., Eng. ed., p. 312.

In the University of Cambridge, Eng., "a very ancient scholarship, so called because the student who was promoted to that office was enjoined to read the Bible at meal-times."--_Gradus ad Cantab._

BIENNIAL EXAMINATION. At Yale College, in addition to the public examinations of the classes at the close of each term, on the studies of the term, private examinations are also held twice in the college course, at the close of the Sophomore and Senior years, on the studies of the two preceding years. The latter are called _biennial_.--_Yale Coll. Cat._

"The _Biennial_," remarks the writer of the preface to the _Songs of Yale_, "is an examination occurring twice during the course,--at the close of the Sophomore and of the Senior years,--in all the studies pursued during the two years previous. It was established in 1850."--Ed. 1853, p. 4.

The system of examinations has been made more rigid, especially by the introduction of _biennials_.--_Centennial Anniversary of the Linonian Soc._, Yale Coll., 1853, p. 70.

Faculty of College got together one night,
To have a little congratulation,
For they'd put their heads together and hatched out a load,
And called it "_Bien. Examination_."
_Presentation Day Songs_, June 14, 1854.

BIG-WIG. In the English universities, the higher dignitaries among the officers are often spoken of as the _big-wigs._

Thus having anticipated the approbation of all, whether Freshman, Sophomore, Bachelor, or _Big-Wig_, our next care is the choice of a patron.--_Pref._ to _Grad. ad Cantab._

BISHOP. At Cambridge, Eng., this beverage is compounded of port-wine mulled and burnt, with the addenda of roasted lemons and cloves.--_Gradus ad Cantab._

We'll pass round the _Bishop_, the spice-breathing cup.
_Will. Sentinel's Poems_.

BITCH. Among the students of the University of Cambridge, Eng., a common name for tea.

The reading man gives no swell parties, runs very little into debt, takes his cup of _bitch_ at night, and goes quietly to bed. --_Grad. ad Cantab._, p. 131.

With the Queens-men it is not unusual to issue an "At home" Tea and Vespers, alias _bitch_ and _hymns_.--_Ibid., Dedication_.

BITCH. At Cambridge, Eng., to take or drink a dish of tea.

I followed, and, having "_bitched_" (that is, taken a dish of tea) arranged my books and boxes.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. I. p. 30.

I dined, wined, or _bitched_ with a Medallist or Senior Wrangler. --_Ibid._, Vol. II. p. 218.

A young man, who performs with great dexterity the honors of the tea-table, is, if complimented at all, said to be "an excellent _bitch_."--_Gradus ad Cantab._, p. 18.

BLACK BOOK. In the English universities, a gloomy volume containing a register of high crimes and misdemeanors.

At the University of Göttingen, the expulsion of students is recorded on a _blackboard_.--_Gradus ad Cantab._

Sirrah, I'll have you put in the _black book_, rusticated, expelled.--_Miller's Humors of Oxford_, Act II. Sc. I.

All had reason to fear that their names were down in the proctor's _black book_.--_Collegian's Guide_, p. 277.

So irksome and borish did I ever find this early rising, spite of the health it promised, that I was constantly in the _black book_ of the dean.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. I. p. 32.

BLACK-HOOD HOUSE. See SENATE.

BLACK RIDING. At the College of South Carolina, it has until within a few years been customary for the students, disguised and painted black, to ride across the college-yard at midnight, on horseback, with vociferations and the sound of horns. _Black riding_ is recognized by the laws of the College as a very high offence, punishable with expulsion.

BLEACH. At Harvard College, he was formerly said to _bleach_ who preferred to be _spiritually_ rather than _bodily_ present at morning prayers.

'T is sweet Commencement parts to reach,
But, oh! 'tis doubly sweet to _bleach_.
_Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 123.

BLOOD. A hot spark; a man of spirit; a rake. A word long in use among collegians and by writers who described them.

With some rakes from Boston and a few College _bloods_, I got very drunk.--_Monthly Anthology_, Boston, 1804, Vol. I. p. 154.

Indulgent Gods! exclaimed our _bloods_.
_The Crayon_, Yale Coll., 1823, p. 15.

BLOOD. At some of the Western colleges this word signifies excellent; as, a _blood_ recitation. A student who recites well is said to _make a blood_.

BLOODEE. In the Farmer's Weekly Museum, formerly printed at Walpole, N.H., appeared August 21, 1797, a poetic production, in which occurred these lines:--

Seniors about to take degrees,
Not by their wits, but by _bloodees_.

In a note the word _bloodee_ was thus described: "A kind of cudgel worn, or rather borne, by the bloods of a certain college in New England, 2 feet 5 inches in length, and 1-7/8 inch in diameter, with a huge piece of lead at one end, emblematical of its owner. A pretty prop for clumsy travellers on Parnassus."

BLOODY. Formerly a college term for daring, rowdy, impudent.

Arriving at Lord Bibo's study,
They thought they'd be a little _bloody_;
So, with a bold, presumptuous look,
An honest pinch of snuff they took.
_Rebelliad_, p. 44.

They roar'd and bawl'd, and were so _bloody_,
As to besiege Lord Bibo's study.

_Ibid._, p. 76.

BLOW. A merry frolic with drinking; a spree. A person intoxicated is said to be _blown_, and Mr. Halliwell, in his Dict. Arch. and Prov. Words, has _blowboll_, a drunkard.

This word was formerly used by students to designate their frolics and social gatherings; at present, it is not much heard, being supplanted by the more common words _spree_, _tight_, &c.

My fellow-students had been engaged at a _blow_ till the stagehorn had summoned them to depart.--_Harvard Register_, 1827-28, p. 172.

No soft adagio from the muse of _blows_,
E'er roused indignant from serene repose.
_Ibid._, p. 233.

And, if no coming _blow_ his thoughts engage,
Lights candle and cigar.
_Ibid._, p. 235.

The person who engages in a blow is also called a _blow_.

I could see, in the long vista of the past, the many hardened _blows_ who had rioted here around the festive board.--_Collegian_, p. 231.

BLUE. In several American colleges, a student who is very strict in observing the laws, and conscientious in performing his duties, is styled a _blue_. "Our real delvers, midnight students," says a correspondent from Williams College, "are called _blue_."

I wouldn't carry a novel into chapel to read, not out of any respect for some people's old-womanish twaddle about the sacredness of the place,--but because some of the _blues_ might see you.--_Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XV. p. 81.

Each jolly soul of them, save the _blues_,
Were doffing their coats, vests, pants, and shoes.
_Yale Gallinipper_, Nov. 1848.

None ever knew a sober "_blue_"
In this "blood crowd" of ours.
_Yale Tomahawk_, Nov. 1849.

Lucian called him a _blue_, and fell back in his chair in a pouting fit.--_The Dartmouth_, Vol. IV. p. 118.

To acquire popularity,... he must lose his money at bluff and euchre without a sigh, and damn up hill and down the sober church-going man, as an out-and-out _blue_.--_The Parthenon, Union Coll._, 1851, p. 6.

BLUE-LIGHT. At the University of Vermont this term is used, writes a correspondent, to designate "a boy who sneaks about college, and reports to the Faculty the short-comings of his fellow-students. A _blue-light_ is occasionally found watching the door of a room where a party of jolly ones are roasting a turkey (which in justice belongs to the nearest farm-house), that he may go to the Faculty with the story, and tell them who the boys are."

BLUES. The name of a party which formerly existed at Dartmouth College. In The Dartmouth, Vol. IV. p. 117, 1842, is the following:--"The students here are divided into two parties,--the _Rowes_ and the _Blues_. The Rowes are very liberal in their notions; the _Blues_ more strict. The Rowes don't pretend to say anything worse of a fellow than to call him a Blue, and _vice versa_"

See INDIGO and ROWES.

BLUE-SKIN. This word was formerly in use at some American colleges, with the meaning now given to the word BLUE, q.v.

I, with my little colleague here,
Forth issued from my cell,
To see if we could overhear,
Or make some _blue-skin_ tell.
_The Crayon_, Yale Coll., 1823, p. 22.

BOARD. The _boards_, or _college boards_, in the English universities, are long wooden tablets on which the names of the members of each college are inscribed, according to seniority, generally hung up in the buttery.--_Gradus ad Cantab. Webster_.

I gave in my resignation this time without recall, and took my name off the _boards_.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 291.

Similar to this was the list of students which was formerly kept at Harvard College, and probably at Yale. Judge Wingate, who graduated at the former institution in 1759, writes as follows in reference to this subject:--"The Freshman Class was, in my day at college, usually _placed_ (as it was termed) within six or nine months after their admission. The official notice of this was given by having their names written in a large German text, in a handsome style, and placed in a conspicuous part of the College Buttery, where the names of the four classes of undergraduates were kept suspended until they left College. If a scholar was expelled, his name was taken from its place; or if he was degraded (which was considered the next highest punishment to expulsion), it was moved accordingly."--_Peirce's Hist. Harv. Univ._, p. 311.

BOGS. Among English Cantabs, a privy.--_Gradus ad Cantab._

BOHN. A translation; a pony. The volumes of Bohn's Classical Library are in such general use among undergraduates in American colleges, that _Bohn_ has come to be a common name for a translation.

'Twas plenty of skin with a good deal of _Bohn_.
_Songs, Biennial Jubilee_, Yale Coll., 1855.

BOLT. An omission of a recitation or lecture. A correspondent from Union College gives the following account of it:--"In West College, where the Sophomores and Freshmen congregate, when there was a famous orator expected, or any unusual spectacle to be witnessed in the city, we would call a 'class meeting,' to consider upon the propriety of asking Professor ---- for a _bolt_. We had our chairman, and the subject being debated, was generally decided in favor of the remission. A committee of good steady fellows were selected, who forthwith waited upon the Professor, and, after urging the matter, commonly returned with the welcome assurance that we could have a _bolt_ from the next recitation."

One writer defines a _bolt_ in these words:--"The promiscuous stampede of a class collectively. Caused generally by a few seconds' tardiness of the Professor, occasionally by finding the lock of the recitation-room door filled with shot."--_Sophomore Independent_, Union College, Nov. 1854.

The quiet routine of college life had remained for some days undisturbed, even by a single _bolt_.--_Williams Quarterly_, Vol. II. p. 192.

BOLT. At Union College, to be absent from a recitation, on the conditions related under the noun BOLT. Followed by _from_. At Williams College, the word is applied with a different signification. A correspondent writes: "We sometimes _bolt_ from a recitation before the Professor arrives, and the term most strikingly suggests the derivation, as our movements in the case would somewhat resemble a 'streak of lightning,'--a thunder-_bolt_."

BOLTER. At Union College, one who _bolts_ from a recitation.

2. A correspondent from the same college says: "If a student is unable to answer a question in the class, and declares himself unprepared, he also is a '_bolter_.'"

BONFIRE. The making of bonfires, by students, is not an unfrequent occurrence at many of our colleges, and is usually a demonstration of dissatisfaction, or is done merely for the sake of the excitement. It is accounted a high offence, and at Harvard College is prohibited by the following law:--"In case of a bonfire, or unauthorized fireworks or illumination, any students crying fire, sounding an alarm, leaving their rooms, shouting or clapping from the windows, going to the fire or being seen at it, going into the college yard, or assembling on account of such bonfire, shall be deemed aiding and abetting such disorder, and punished accordingly."--_Laws_, 1848, _Bonfires_.

A correspondent from Bowdoin College writes: "Bonfires occur regularly twice a year; one on the night preceding the annual State Fast, and the other is built by the Freshmen on the night following the yearly examination. A pole some sixty or seventy feet long is raised, around which brush and tar are heaped to a great height. The construction of the pile occupies from four to five hours."

Not ye, whom midnight cry ne'er urged to run
In search of fire, when fire there had been none;
Unless, perchance, some pump or hay-mound threw
Its _bonfire_ lustre o'er a jolly crew.
_Harvard Register_, p. 233.

BOOK-KEEPER. At Harvard College, students are allowed to go out of town on Saturday, after the exercises, but are required, if not at evening prayers, to enter their names before 10 P.M. with one of the officers appointed for that purpose. Students were formerly required to report themselves before 8 P.M., in winter, and 9, in summer, and the person who registered the names was a member of the Freshman Class, and was called the _book-keeper_.

I strode over the bridge, with a rapidity which grew with my vexation, my distaste for wind, cold, and wet, and my anxiety to reach my goal ere the hour appointed should expire, and the _book-keeper's_ light should disappear from his window; "For while his light holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return."--_Collegian_, p. 225.

See FRESHMAN, COLLEGE.

BOOK-WORK. Among students at Cambridge, Eng., all mathematics that can be learned verbatim from books,--all that are not problems.--_Bristed_.

He made a good fight of it, and ... beat the Trinity man a little on the _book-work_.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 96.

The men are continually writing out _book-work_, either at home or in their tutor's rooms.--_Ibid._, p. 149.

BOOT-FOX. This name was at a former period given, in the German universities, to a fox, or a student in his first half-year, from the fact of his being required to black the boots of his more advanced comrades.

BOOTLICK. To fawn upon; to court favor.

Scorns the acquaintance of those he deems beneath him; refuses to _bootlick_ men for their votes.--_The Parthenon_, Union Coll., Vol. I. p. 6.

The "Wooden Spoon" exhibition passed off without any such hubbub, except where the pieces were of such a character as to offend the delicacy and modesty of some of those crouching, fawning, _bootlicking_ hypocrites.--_The Gallinipper_, Dec. 1849.

BOOTLICKER. A student who seeks or gains favor from a teacher by flattery or officious civilities; one who curries favor. A correspondent from Union College writes: "As you watch the students more closely, you will perhaps find some of them particularly officious towards your teacher, and very apt to linger after recitation to get a clearer knowledge of some passage. They are _Bootlicks_, and that is known as _Bootlicking_; a reproach, I am sorry to say, too indiscriminately applied." At Yale, and _other colleges_, a tutor or any other officer who informs against the students, or acts as a spy upon their conduct, is also called a _bootlick_.

Three or four _bootlickers_ rise.--_Yale Banger_, Oct. 1848.

The rites of Wooden Spoons we next recite,
When _bootlick_ hypocrites upraised their might.
_Ibid._, Nov. 1849.

Then he arose, and offered himself as a "_bootlick_" to the Faculty.--_Yale Battery_, Feb. 14, 1850.

BOOTS. At the College of South Carolina it is customary to present the most unpopular member of a class with a pair of handsome red-topped boots, on which is inscribed the word BEAUTY. They were formerly given to the ugliest person, whence the inscription.

BORE. A tiresome person or unwelcome visitor, who makes himself obnoxious by his disagreeable manners, or by a repetition of visits.--_Bartlett_.

A person or thing that wearies by iteration.--_Webster_.

Although the use of this word is very general, yet it is so peculiarly applicable to the many annoyances to which a collegian is subjected, that it has come by adoption to be, to a certain extent, a student term. One writer classes under this title "text-books generally; the Professor who marks _slight_ mistakes; the familiar young man who calls continually, and when he finds the door fastened demonstrates his verdant curiosity by revealing an inquisitive countenance through the ventilator."--_Sophomore Independent_, Union College, Nov. 1854.

In college parlance, prayers, when the morning is cold or rainy, are a _bore_; a hard lesson is a _bore_; a dull lecture or lecturer is a _bore_; and, _par excellence_, an unwelcome visitor is a _bore_ of _bores_. This latter personage is well described in the following lines:--

"Next comes the bore, with visage sad and pale,
And tortures you with some lugubrious tale;
Relates stale jokes collected near and far,
And in return expects a choice cigar;
Your brandy-punch he calls the merest sham,
Yet does not _scruple_ to partake a _dram_.
His prying eyes your secret nooks explore;
No place is sacred to the college bore.
Not e'en the letter filled with Helen's praise,
Escapes the sight of his unhallowed gaze;
Ere one short hour its silent course has flown,
Your Helen's charms to half the class are known.
Your books he takes, nor deigns your leave to ask,
Such forms to him appear a useless task.
When themes unfinished stare you in the face,
Then enters one of this accursed race.
Though like the Angel bidding John to write,
Frail ------ form uprises to thy sight,
His stupid stories chase your thoughts away,
And drive you mad with his unwelcome stay.
When he, departing, creaks the closing door,
You raise the Grecian chorus, [Greek: kikkabau]."[02]
_MS. Poem_, F.E. Felton, Harv. Coll.

BOS. At the University of Virginia, the desserts which the students, according to the statutes of college, are allowed twice per week, are respectively called the _Senior_ and _Junior Bos_.

BOSH. Nonsense, trash, [Greek: phluaria]. An English Cantab's expression.--_Bristed_.

But Spriggins's peculiar forte is that kind of talk which some people irreverently call "_bosh_."--_Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XX. p. 259.

BOSKY. In the cant of the Oxonians, being tipsy.--_Grose_.

Now when he comes home fuddled, alias _Bosky_, I shall not be so unmannerly as to say his Lordship ever gets drunk.--_The Sizar_, cited in _Gradus ad Cantab._, pp. 20, 21.

BOWEL. At Harvard College, a student in common parlance will express his destitution or poverty by saying, "I have not a _bowel_." The use of the word with this signification has arisen, probably, from a jocular reference to a quaint Scriptural expression.

BRACKET. At the University of Cambridge, Eng., the result of the final examination in the Senate-House is published in lists signed by the examiners. In these lists the names of those who have been examined are "placed in individual order of merit." When the rank of two or three men is the same, their names are inclosed in _brackets_.

At the close of the course, and before the examination is concluded, there is made out a new arrangement of the classes called the _Brackets_. These, in which each is placed according to merit, are hung upon the pillars in the Senate-House.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. II. p. 93.

As there is no provision in the printed lists for expressing the number of marks by which each man beats the one next below him, and there may be more difference between the twelfth and thirteenth than between the third and twelfth, it has been proposed to extend the use of the _brackets_ (which are now only employed in cases of literal equality between two or three men), and put together six, eight, or ten, whose marks are nearly equal. --_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 227.

BRACKET. In a general sense, to place in a certain order.

I very early in the Sophomore year gave up all thoughts of obtaining high honors, and settled down contentedly among the twelve or fifteen who are _bracketed_, after the first two or three, as "English Orations."--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 6.

There remained but two, _bracketed_ at the foot of the class.--_Ibid._, p. 62.

The Trinity man who was _bracketed_ Senior Classic.--_Ibid._, p. 187.

BRANDER. In the German universities a name given to a student during his second term.

Meanwhile large tufts and strips of paper had been twisted into the hair of the _Branders_, as those are called who have been already one term at the University, and then at a given signal were set on fire, and the _Branders_ rode round the table on chairs, amid roars of laughter.--_Longfellow's Hyperion_, p. 114.

See BRAND-FOX, BURNT FOX.

BRAND-FOX. A student in a German university "becomes a _Brand-fuchs_, or fox with a brand, after the foxes of Samson," in his second half-year.--_Howitt_.

BRICK. A gay, wild, thoughtless fellow, but not so _hard_ as the word itself might seem to imply.

He is a queer fellow,--not so bad as he seems,--his own enemy, but a regular _brick_.--_Collegian's Guide_, p. 143.

He will come himself (public tutor or private), like a _brick_ as he is, and consume his share of the generous potables.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 78.

See LIKE A BRICK.

BRICK MILL. At the University of Vermont, the students speak of the college as the _Brick Mill_, or the _Old Brick Mill_.

BUCK. At Princeton College, anything which is in an intensive degree good, excellent, pleasant, or agreeable, is called _buck_.

BULL. At Dartmouth College, to recite badly; to make a poor recitation. From the substantive _bull_, a blunder or contradiction, or from the use of the word as a prefix, signifying large, lubberly, blundering.

BULL-DOG. In the English universities, the lictor or servant who attends a proctor when on duty.

Sentiments which vanish for ever at the sight of the proctor with his _bull-dogs_, as they call them, or four muscular fellows which always follow him, like so many bailiffs.--_Westminster Rev._, Am. Ed., Vol. XXXV. p. 232.

The proctors, through their attendants, commonly called _bull-dogs_, received much certain information, &c.--_Collegian's Guide_, p. 170.

And he had breathed the proctor's _dogs_.
_Tennyson, Prologue to Princess_.

BULLY CLUB. The following account of the _Bully Club_, which was formerly a most honored transmittendum at Yale College, is taken from an entertaining little work, entitled Sketches of Yale College. "_Bullyism_ had its origin, like everything else that is venerated, far back in antiquity; no one pretends to know the era of its commencement, nor to say with certainty what was the cause of its establishment, or the original design of the institution. We can only learn from dim and doubtful tradition, that many years ago, no one knows how many, there was a feud between students and townsmen: a sort of general ill-feeling, which manifested itself in the lower classes of society in rudeness and insult. Not patiently borne with, it grew worse and worse, until a regular organization became necessary for defence against the nightly assaults of a gang of drunken rowdies. Nor were their opponents disposed to quit the unequal fight. An organization in opposition followed, and a band of tipsy townsmen, headed by some hardy tars, took the field, were met, no one knows whether in offence or defence, and after a fight repulsed, and a huge knotty club wrested from their leader. This trophy of personal courage was preserved, the organization perpetuated, and the _Bully Club_ was every year, with procession and set form of speech, bestowed upon the newly acknowledged leader. But in process of time the organization has assumed a different character: there was no longer need of a system of defence,--the "Bully" was still acknowledged as class leader. He marshalled all processions, was moderator of all meetings, and performed the various duties of a chief. The title became now a matter of dispute; it sounded harsh and rude to ears polite, and a strong party proposed a change: but the supporters of antiquity pleaded the venerable character of the customs identified almost with the College itself. Thus the classes were divided, a part electing a marshal, class-leader, or moderator, and a part still choosing a _bully_ and _minor bully_--the latter usually the least of their number--from each class, and still bestowing on them the wonted clubs, mounted with gold, the badges of their office.

"Unimportant as these distinctions seem, they formed the ground of constant controversy, each party claiming for its leader the precedence, until the dissensions ended in a scene of confusion too well known to need detail: the usual procession on Commencement day was broken up, and the partisans fell upon each other pell-mell; scarce heeding, in their hot fray, 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. It need not be told that the disputes were judicially ended by a peremptory ordinance, prohibiting all class organizations of any name whatever."

A more particular account of the Bully Club, and of the manner in which the students of Yale came to possess it, is given in the annexed extract.

"Many years ago, the farther back towards the Middle Ages the better, some students went out one evening to an inn at Dragon, as it was then called, now the populous and pretty village of Fair Haven, to regale themselves with an oyster supper, or for some other kind of recreation. They there fell into an affray with the young men of the place, a hardy if not a hard set, who regarded their presence there, at their own favorite resort, as an intrusion. The students proved too few for their adversaries. They reported the matter at College, giving an aggravated account of it, and, being strongly reinforced, went out the next evening to renew the fight. The oystermen and sailors were prepared for them. A desperate conflict ensued, chiefly in the house, above stairs and below, into which the sons of science entered pell-mell. Which came off the worse, I neither know nor care, believing defeat to be far less discreditable to either party, and especially to the students, than the fact of their engaging in such a brawl. Where the matter itself is essentially disgraceful, success or failure is indifferent, as it regards the honor of the actors. Among the Dragoners, a great bully of a fellow, who appeared to be their leader, wielded a huge club, formed from an oak limb, with a gnarled excrescence on the end, heavy enough to battle with an elephant. A student remarkable for his strength in the arms and hands, griped the fellow so hard about the wrist that his fingers opened, and let the club fall. It was seized, and brought off as a trophy. Such is the history of the Bully Club. It became the occasion of an annual election of a person to take charge of it, and to act as leader of the students in case of a quarrel between them, and others. 'Bully' was the title of this chivalrous and high office."--_Scenes and Characters in College_, New Haven, 1847, pp. 215, 216.

BUMPTIOUS. Conceited, forward, pushing. An English Cantab's expression.--_Bristed_.

About nine, A.M., the new scholars are announced from the chapel gates. On this occasion it is not etiquette for the candidates themselves to be in waiting,--it looks too "_bumptious_."--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 193.

BURIAL OF EUCLID. "The custom of bestowing burial honors upon the ashes of Euclid with becoming demonstrations of respect has been handed down," says the author of the Sketches of Yale College, "from time immemorial." The account proceeds as follows:--"This book, the terror of the dilatory and unapt, having at length been completely mastered, the class, as their acquaintance with the Greek mathematician is about to close, assemble 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 preparations 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 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 assemble, all silent, at the place appointed. Laid on its bier, covered with sable pall, and borne in solemn state, the corpse (i.e. the book) is carried with slow procession, with the moaning music of flutes and fifes, the screaming of fiddles, and the thumping and mumbling of a cracked drum, to the open grave or the funeral pyre. A gleaming line of blazing torches and twinkling lanterns wave along the quiet streets and through the opened fields, and the snow creaks hoarsely under the tread of a hundred men. They reach the scene, and a circle forms 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 boatman of the Styx. Lingeringly is the last look taken of the familiar countenance, as the procession passes slowly around the tomb; and the moaning is made,--a sound of groans going up to the seventh heavens,--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 body of Euclid is committed to the funeral flames, the pyre, duly prepared with combustibles, is made the centre of the ring; a ponderous jar of turpentine or whiskey is the fragrant incense, and as the lighted fire mounts up in the still night, and the alarm in the city 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 in some conspicuous situation, or solemnly deposited in some fitting sarcophagus. So the sport ends; a song, a loud hurrah, and the last jovial roysterer seeks short and profound slumber."--pp. 166-169.

The above was written in the year 1843. That the interest in the observance of this custom at Yale College has not since that time diminished, may be inferred from the following account of the exercises of the Sophomore Class of 1850, on parting company with their old mathematical friend, given by a correspondent of the New York Tribune.

"Arrangements having been well matured, notice was secretly given out on Wednesday last that the obsequies would be celebrated that evening at 'Barney's Hall,' on Church Street. An excellent band of music was engaged for the occasion, and an efficient Force Committee assigned to their duty, who performed their office with great credit, taking singular care that no 'tutor' or 'spy' should secure an entrance to the hall. The 'countersign' selected was 'Zeus,' and fortunately was not betrayed. The hall being full at half past ten, the doors were closed, and the exercises commenced with music. Then followed numerous pieces of various character, and among them an _Oration_, a _Poem_, _Funeral Sermon_ (of a very metaphysical character), a _Dirge_, and, at the grave, a _Prayer to Pluto_. These pieces all exhibited taste and labor, and were acknowledged to be of a higher tone than that of any productions which have ever been delivered on a similar occasion. Besides these, there were several songs interspersed throughout the Programme, in both Latin and English, which were sung with great jollity and effect. The band added greatly to the character of the performances, by their frequent and appropriate pieces. A large coffin was placed before the altar, within which, lay the veritable Euclid, arranged in a becoming winding-sheet, the body being composed of combustibles, and these thoroughly saturated with turpentine. The company left the hall at half past twelve, formed in an orderly procession, preceded by the band, and bearing the coffin in their midst. Those who composed the procession were arrayed in disguises, to avoid detection, and bore a full complement of brilliant torches. The skeleton of Euclid (a faithful caricature), himself bearing a torch, might have been seen dancing in the midst, to the great amusement of all beholders. They marched up Chapel Street as far as the south end of the College, where they were saluted with three hearty cheers by their fellow-students, and then continued through College Street in front of the whole College square, at the north extremity of which they were again greeted by cheers, and thence followed a circuitous way to _quasi_ Potter's Field, about a mile from the city, where the concluding ceremonies were performed. These consist of walking over the coffin, thus _surmounting the difficulties_ of the author; boring a hole through a copy of Euclid with a hot iron, that the class may see _through_ it; and finally burning it upon the funeral pyre, in order to _throw light_ upon the subject. After these exercises, the procession returned, with music, to the State-House, where they disbanded, and returned to their desolate habitations. The affair surpassed anything of the kind that has ever taken place here, and nothing was wanting to render it a complete performance. It testifies to the spirit and character of the class of '53."--_Literary World_, Nov. 23, 1850, from the _New York Tribune_.

In the Sketches of Williams College, printed in the year 1847, is a description of the manner in which the funeral exercises of Euclid are sometimes conducted in that institution. It is as follows:--"The burial took place last night. The class assembled in the recitation-room in full numbers, at 9 o'clock. The deceased, much emaciated, and in a torn and tattered dress, was stretched on a black table in the centre of the room. This table, by the way, was formed of the old blackboard, which, like a mirror, had so often reflected the image of old Euclid. In the body of the corpse was a triangular hole, made for the _post mortem_ examination, a report of which was read. Through this hole, those who wished were allowed to look; and then, placing the body on their heads, they could say with truth that they had for once seen through and understood Euclid.

"A eulogy was then pronounced, followed by an oration and the reading of the epitaph, after which the class formed a procession, and marched with slow and solemn tread to the place of burial. The spot selected was in the woods, half a mile south of the College. As we approached the place, we saw a bright fire burning on the altar of turf, and torches gleaming through the dark pines. All was still, save the occasional sympathetic groans of some forlorn bull-frogs, which came up like minute-guns from the marsh below.

"When we arrived at the spot, the sexton received the body. This dignitary presented rather a grotesque appearance. He wore a white robe bound around his waist with a black scarf, and on his head a black, conical-shaped hat, some three feet high. Haying fastened the remains to the extremity of a long, black wand, he held them in the fire of the altar until they were nearly consumed, and then laid the charred mass in the urn, muttering an incantation in Latin. The urn being buried deep in the ground, we formed a ring around the grave, and sung the dirge. Then, lighting our larches by the dying fire, we retraced our steps with feelings suited to the occasion."--pp. 74-76.

Of this observance the writer of the preface to the "Songs of Yale" remarks: "The _Burial of Euclid_ is an old ceremony practised at many colleges. At Yale it is conducted by the Sophomore Class during the first term of the year. After literary exercises within doors, a procession is formed, which proceeds at midnight through the principal streets of the city, with music and torches, conveying a coffin, supposed to contain the body of the old mathematician, to the funeral pile, when the whole is fired and consumed to ashes."--1853, p. 4.

From the lugubrious songs which are usually sung on these sad occasions, the following dirge is selected. It appears in the order of exercises for the "Burial of Euclid by the Class of '57," which took place at Yale College, November 8, 1854.

Tune,--"_Auld Lang Syne_."