A Collection of College Words and Customs Part 28

The only law which now obtains at Harvard College on the subject of dress is this: "On Sabbath, Exhibition, Examination, and Commencement days, and on all other public occasions, each student, in public, shall wear a black coat, with b.u.t.tons of the same color, and a black hat or cap."--_Orders and Regulations of the Faculty of Harv. Coll._, July, 1853, p. 5.

At one period in the history of Yale College, a pa.s.sion for expensive dress having become manifest among the students, the Faculty endeavored to curb it by a direct appeal to the different cla.s.ses. The result was the establishment of the Lycurgan Society, whose object was the encouragement of plainness in apparel. The benefits which might have resulted from this organization were contravened by the rashness of some of its members. The shape which this rashness a.s.sumed is described in a work ent.i.tled "Scenes and Characters in College," written by a Yale graduate of the cla.s.s of 1821.

"Some members were seized with the notion of a _distinctive dress_. It was strongly objected to; but the measure was carried by a stroke of policy. The dress proposed was somewhat like that of the Quakers, but less respectable,--a rustic cousin to it, or rather a caricature; namely, a close coatee, with stand-up collar, and _very_ short skirts,--_skirtees_, they might be called,--the color gray; pantaloons and vest the same;--making the wearer a monotonous gray man throughout, invisible at twilight. The proposers of this metamorphosis, to make it go, selected an individual of small and agreeable figure, and procuring a suit of fine material, and a good fit, placed him on a platform as a specimen. On _him_ it appeared very well, as a belted blouse does on a graceful child; and all the more so, as he was a favorite with the cla.s.s, and lent to it the additional effect of agreeable a.s.sociation. But it is bad logic to derive a general conclusion from a single fact: it did not follow that the dress would be universally becoming because it was so on him. However, majorities govern; the dress was voted. The tailors were glad to hear of it, expecting a fine run of business.

"But when a tall son of Anak appeared in the little bodice of a coat, stuck upon the hips; and still worse, when some very clumsy forms a.s.sumed the dress, and one in particular, that I remember, who was equally huge in person and coa.r.s.e in manners, whose taste, or economy, or both,--the one as probably as the other,--had led him to the choice of an ugly pepper-and-salt, instead of the true Oxford mix, or whatever the standard gray was called, and whose tailor, or tailoress, probably a tailoress, had contrived to aggravate his natural disproportions by the most awkward fit imaginable,--then indeed you might have said that 'some of nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.' They looked like David's messengers, maltreated and sent back by Hanun.[23]

"The consequence was, the dress was unpopular; very few adopted it; and the society itself went quietly into oblivion.

Nevertheless it had done some good; it had had a visible effect in checking extravagance; and had accomplished all it would have done, I imagine, had it continued longer.

"There was a time, some three or four years previous to this, when a rakish fas.h.i.+on began to be introduced of wearing white-topped boots. It was a mere conceit of the wearers, such a fas.h.i.+on not existing beyond College,--except as it appeared in here and there an antiquated gentleman, a venerable remnant of the olden time, in whom the boots were matched with buckles at the knee, and a powdered queue. A practical satire quickly put an end to it. Some humorists proposed to the waiters about College to furnish them with such boots on condition of their wearing them. The offer was accepted; a lot of them was ordered at a boot-and-shoe shop, and, all at once, sweepers, sawyers, and the rest, appeared in white-topped boots. I will not repeat the profaneness of a Southerner when he first observed a pair of them upon a tall and gawky shoe-black striding across the yard. He cursed the 'negro,'

and the boots; and, pulling off his own, flung them from him.

After this the servants had the fas.h.i.+on to themselves, and could buy the article at any discount."--pp. 127-129.

At Union College, soon after its foundation, there was enacted a law, "forbidding any student to appear at chapel without the College badge,--a piece of blue ribbon, tied in the b.u.t.ton-hole of the coat."--_Account of the First Semi-Centennial Anniversary of the Philomathean Society, Union College_, 1847.

Such laws as the above have often been pa.s.sed in American colleges, but have generally fallen into disuse in a very few years, owing to the predominancy of the feeling of democratic equality, the tendency of which is to narrow, in as great a degree as possible, the intervals between different ages and conditions.

See COSTUME.

DUDLEIAN LECTURE. An anniversary sermon which is preached at Harvard College before the students; supported by the yearly interest of one hundred pounds sterling, the gift of Paul Dudley, from whom the lecture derives its name. The following topics were chosen by him as subjects for this lecture. First, for "the proving, explaining, and proper use and improvement of the principles of Natural Religion." Second, "for the confirmation, ill.u.s.tration, and improvement of the great articles of the Christian Religion." Third, "for the detecting, convicting, and exposing the idolatry, errors, and superst.i.tions of the Romish Church." Fourth, "for maintaining, explaining, and proving the validity of the ordination of ministers or pastors of the churches, and so their administration of the sacraments or ordinances of religion, as the same hath been practised in New England from the first beginning of it, and so continued to this day."

"The instrument proceeds to declare," says Quincy, "that he does not intend to invalidate Episcopal ordination, or that practised in Scotland, at Geneva, and among the Dissenters in England and in this country, all which 'I esteem very safe, Scriptural, and valid.' He directed these subjects to be discussed in rotation, one every year, and appointed the President of the College, the Professor of Divinity, the pastor of the First Church in Cambridge, the Senior Tutor of the College, and the pastor of the First Church in Roxbury, trustees of these lectures, which commenced in 1755, and have since been annually continued without intermission."--_Quincy's Hist. Harv. Univ._, Vol. II. pp. 139, 140.

DULCE DECUS. Latin; literally, _sweet honor_. At Williams College a name given by a certain cla.s.s of students to the game of whist; the reason for which is evident. Whether Maecenas would have considered it an _honor_ to have had the compliment of Horace, "O et praesidium et dulce decus meum,"

transferred as a t.i.tle for a game at cards, we leave for others to decide.

DUMMER JUNGE,--literally, _stupid youth_,--among German students "is the highest and most cutting insult, since it implies a denial of sound, manly understanding and strength of capacity to him to whom it is applied."--_Howitt's Student Life of Germany_, Am. ed., p. 127.

DUN. An importunate creditor who urges for payment. A character not wholly unknown to collegians.

Thanks heaven, flings by his cap and gown, and shuns A place made odious by remorseless _duns_.

_The College_, in _Blackwood's Mag._, May, 1849.

_E_.

EGRESSES. At the older American colleges, when charges were made and excuses rendered in Latin, the student who had left before the conclusion of any of the religious services was accused of the misdemeanor by the proper officer, who made use of the word _egresses_, a kind of barbarous second person singular of some imaginary verb, signifying, it is supposed, "you went out."

Much absence, tardes and _egresses_, The college-evil on him seizes.

_Trumbull's Progress of Dullness_, Part I.

EIGHT. On the scale of merit, at Harvard College, eight is the highest mark which a student can receive for a recitation.

Students speak of "_getting an eight_," which is equivalent to saying, that they have made a perfect recitation.

But since the Fates will not grant all _eights_, Save to some disgusting fellow Who'll fish and dig, I care not a fig, We'll be hard boys and mellow.

_MS. Poem_, W.F. Allen.

Numberless the _eights_ he showers Full on my devoted head.--_MS. Ibid._

At the same college, when there were three exhibitions in the year, it was customary for the first eight scholars in the Junior Cla.s.s to have "parts" at the first exhibition, the second eight at the second exhibition, and the third eight at the third exhibition. Eight Seniors performed with them at each of these three exhibitions, but they were taken promiscuously from the first twenty-four in their cla.s.s. Although there are now but two exhibitions in the year, twelve performing from each of the two upper cla.s.ses, yet the students still retain the old phraseology, and you will often hear the question, "Is he in the first or second _eight_?"

The bell for morning prayers had long been sounding!

She says, "What makes you look so very pale?"-- "I've had a dream."--"Spring to 't, or you'll be late!"-- "Don't care! 'T was worth a part among the _Second Eight_."

_Childe Harvard_, p. 121.

ELECTIONEERING. In many colleges in the United States, where there are rival societies, it is customary, on the admission of a student to college, for the partisans of the different societies to wait upon him, and endeavor to secure him as a member. An account of this _Society Electioneering_, as it is called, is given in _Sketches of Yale College_, at page 162.

Society _electioneering_ has mostly gone by.--_Williams Quarterly_, Vol. II. p. 285.

ELEGANT EXTRACTS. At the University of Cambridge, Eng., a cant t.i.tle applied to some fifteen or twenty men who have just succeeded in pa.s.sing their final examination, and who are bracketed together, at the foot of the Polloi list.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 250.

EMERITUS, _pl._ EMERITI. Latin; literally, _obtained by service_.

One who has been honorably discharged from public service, as, in colleges and universities, a _Professor Emeritus_.

EMIGRANT. In the English universities, one who migrates, or removes from one college to another.

At Christ's, for three years successively,... the first man was an _emigrant_ from John's.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 100.

See MIGRATION.

EMPTY BOTTLE. At the University of Cambridge, Eng., the sobriquet of a fellow-commoner.

Indeed they [fellow-commoners] are popularly denominated "_empty bottles_," the first word of the appellation being an adjective, though were it taken as a verb there would be no untruth in it.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 34.

ENCENIA, _pl._ Greek [Greek: enkainia], _a feast of dedication_.

Festivals anciently kept on the days on which cities were built or churches consecrated; and, in later times, ceremonies renewed at certain periods, as at Oxford, at the celebration of founders and benefactors.--_Hook_.

END WOMAN. At Bowdoin College, "end women," says a correspondent, "are the venerable females who officiate as chambermaids in the different entries." They are so called from the entries being placed at the _ends_ of the buildings.

ENGAGEMENT. At Yale College, the student, on entering, signs an _engagement_, as it is called, in the words following: "I, A.B., on condition of being admitted as a member of Yale College, promise, on my faith and honor, to observe all the laws and regulations of this College; particularly that I will faithfully avoid using profane language, gaming, and all indecent, disorderly behavior, and disrespectful conduct to the Faculty, and all combinations to resist their authority; as witness my hand. A.B."

--_Yale Coll. Cat._, 1837, p. 10.