A Collection of College Words and Customs Part 32

The _resident fellows_ were tutors to the cla.s.ses, and instructed them in Hebrew, "and led them through all the liberal arts before the four years were expired."--_Harv. Reg._, p. 249.

FELLOWs.h.i.+P. An establishment in colleges, for the maintenance of a fellow.--_Webster_.

In Harvard College, tutors were formerly called Fellows of the House or College, and their office, _fellows.h.i.+ps_. In this sense that word is used in the following pa.s.sage.

Joseph Stevens was chosen "Fellow of the College, or House," and as such was approved by that board [the Corporation], in the language of the records, "to supply a vacancy in one of the _Fellows.h.i.+ps_ of the House."--_Quincy's Hist. Harv. Univ._, Vol.

I. p. 279.

FELLOWS' ORCHARD. See TUTORS' PASTURE.

FEMUR. Latin; _a thigh-bone_. At Yale College, a _femur_ was formerly the badge of a medical bully.

When hand in hand all joined in band, With clubs, umbrellas, _femurs_, Declaring death and broken teeth 'Gainst blacksmiths, cobblers, seamers.

_The Crayon_, Yale Coll., 1823, p. 14.

"One hundred valiant warriors, who (My Captain bid me say) Three _femurs_ wield, with one to fight, With two to run away,

"Wait in Scull Castle, to receive, With open gates, your men; Their right arms nerved, their _femurs_ clenched, Safe to protect ye then!"--_Ibid._, p. 23.

FERG. To lose the heat of excitement or pa.s.sion; to become less angry, ardent; to cool. A correspondent from the University of Vermont, where this word is used, says: "If a man gets angry, we 'let him _ferg_,' and he feels better."

FESS. Probably abbreviated for CONFESS. In some of the Southern Colleges, to fail in reciting; to silently request the teacher not to put farther queries.

This word is in use among the cadets at West Point, with the same meaning.

And when you and I, and Benny, and General Jackson too, Are brought before a final board our course of life to view, May we never "_fess_" on any "point," but then be told to go To join the army of the blest, with Benny Havens, O!

_Song, Benny Havens, O!_

FINES. In many of the colleges in the United States it was formerly customary to impose fines upon the students as a punishment for non-compliance with the laws. The practice is now very generally abolished.

About the middle of the eighteenth century, the custom of punis.h.i.+ng by pecuniary mulets began, at Harvard College, to be considered objectionable. "Although," says Quincy, "little regarded by the students, they were very annoying to their parents." A list of the fines which were imposed on students at that period presents a curious aggregate of offences and punishments.

s. d.

Absence from prayers, 0 0 2 Tardiness at prayers, 0 0 1 Absence from Professor's public lecture, 0 0 4 Tardiness at do. 0 0 2 Profanation of Lord's day, not exceeding 0 3 0 Absence from public wors.h.i.+p, 0 0 9 Tardiness at do. 0 0 3 Ill behavior at do. not exceeding 0 1 6 Going to meeting before bell-ringing, 0 0 6 Neglecting to repeat the sermon, 0 0 9 Irreverent behavior at prayers, or public divinity lectures, 0 1 6 Absence from chambers, &c., not exceeding 0 0 6 Not declaiming, not exceeding 0 1 6 Not giving up a declamation, not exceeding 0 1 6 Absence from recitation, not exceeding 0 1 6 Neglecting a.n.a.lyzing, not exceeding 0 3 0 Bachelors neglecting disputations, not exceeding 0 1 6 Respondents neglecting do. from 1s. 6d. to 0 3 0 Undergraduates out of town without leave, not exceeding 0 2 6 Undergraduates tarrying out of town without leave, not exceeding _per diem_, 0 1 3 Undergraduates tarrying out of town one week without leave, not exceeding 0 10 0 Undergraduates tarrying out of town one month without leave, not exceeding 2 10 0 Lodging strangers without leave, not exceeding 0 1 6 Entertaining persons of ill character, not exceeding 0 1 6 Going out of College without proper garb, not exceeding 0 0 6 Frequenting taverns, not exceeding 0 1 6 Profane cursing, not exceeding 0 2 6 Graduates playing cards, not exceeding 0 5 0 Undergraduates playing cards, not exceeding 0 2 6 Undergraduates playing any game for money, not exceeding 0 1 6 Selling and exchanging without leave, not exceeding 0 1 6 Lying, not exceeding 0 1 6 Opening door by pick-locks, not exceeding 0 5 0 Drunkenness, not exceeding 0 1 6 Liquors prohibited under penalty, not exceeding 0 1 6 Second offence, not exceeding 0 3 0 Keeping prohibited liquors, not exceeding 0 1 6 Sending for do. 0 0 6 Fetching do. 0 1 6 Going upon the top of the College, 0 1 6 Cutting off the lead, 0 1 6 Concealing the transgression of the 19th Law,[25] 0 1 6 Tumultuous noises, 0 1 6 Second offence, 0 3 0 Refusing to give evidence, 0 3 0 Rudeness at meals, 0 1 0 Butler and cook to keep utensils clean, not exceeding 0 5 0 Not lodging at their chambers, not exceeding 0 1 6 Sending Freshmen in studying time, 0 0 9 Keeping guns, and going on skating, 0 1 0 Firing guns or pistols in College yard, 0 2 6 Fighting or hurting any person, not exceeding 0 1 6

In 1761, a committee, of which Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson was a member, was appointed to consider of some other method of punis.h.i.+ng offenders. Although they did not altogether abolish mulets, yet "they proposed that, in lieu of an increase of mulcts, absences without justifiable cause from any exercise of the College should subject the delinquent to warning, private admonition, exhortation to duty, and public admonition, with a notification to parents; when recitations had been omitted, performance of them should be exacted at some other time; and, by way of punishment for disorders, confinement, and the performance of exercises during its continuance, should be enjoined."--_Quincy's Hist. Harv. Univ._, Vol. II. pp. 135, 136.

By the laws of 1798, fines not exceeding one dollar were imposed by a Professor or Tutor, or the Librarian; not exceeding two dollars, by the President; all above two dollars, by the President, Professors, and Tutors, at a meeting.

Upon this subject, with reference to Harvard College, Professor Sidney Willard remarks: "For a long period fines const.i.tuted the punishment of undergraduates for negligence in attendance at the exercises and in the performance of the lessons a.s.signed to them.

A fine was the lowest degree in the gradation of punishment. This mode of punishment or disapprobation was liable to objections, as a tax on the father rather than a rebuke of the son, (except it might be, in some cases, for the indirect moral influence produced upon the latter, operating on his filial feeling,) and as a mercenary exaction, since the money went into the treasury of the College. It was a good day for the College when this punishment through the purse was abandoned as a part of the system of punishments; which, not confined to neglect of study, had been extended also to a variety of misdemeanors more or less aggravated and aggravating."--_Memories of Youth and Manhood_, Vol. I. p.

304.

"Of fines," says President Woolsey, in his Historical Discourse relating to Yale College, "the laws are full, and other doc.u.ments show that the laws did not sleep. Thus there was in 1748 a fine of a penny for the absence of an undergraduate from prayers, and of a half-penny for tardiness or coming in after the introductory collect; of fourpence for absence from public wors.h.i.+p; of from two to six pence for absence from one's chamber during the time of study; of one s.h.i.+lling for picking open a lock the first time, and two s.h.i.+llings the second; of two and sixpence for playing at cards or dice, or for bringing strong liquor into College; of one s.h.i.+lling for doing damage to the College, or jumping out of the windows,--and so in many other cases.

"In the year 1759, a somewhat unfair pamphlet was written, which gave occasion to several others in quick succession, wherein, amidst other complaints of President Clap's administration, mention is made of the large amount of fines imposed upon students. The author, after mentioning that in three years' time over one hundred and seventy-two pounds of lawful money was collected in this way, goes on to add, that 'such an exorbitant collection by fines tempts one to suspect that they have got together a most disorderly set of young men training up for the service of the churches, or that they are governed and corrected chiefly by pecuniary punishments;--that almost all sins in that society are purged and atoned for by money.' He adds, with justice, that these fines do not fall on the persons of the offenders,--most of the students being minors,--but upon their parents; and that the practice takes place chiefly where there is the least prospect of working a reformation, since the thoughtless and extravagant, being the princ.i.p.al offenders against College law, would not lay it to heart if their frolics should cost them a little more by way of fine. He further expresses his opinion, that this way of punis.h.i.+ng the children of the College has but little tendency to better their hearts and reform their manners; that pecuniary impositions act only by touching the shame or covetousness or necessities of those upon whom they are levied; and that fines had ceased to become dishonorable at College, while to appeal to the love of money was expelling one devil by another, and to restrain the necessitous by fear of fine would be extremely cruel and unequal. These and other considerations are very properly urged, and the same feeling is manifested in the laws by the gradual abolition of nearly all pecuniary mulcts. The practice, it ought to be added, was by no means peculiar to Yale College, but was transferred, even in a milder form, from the colleges of England."--pp. 47, 48.

In connection with this subject, it may not be inappropriate to mention the following occurrence, which is said to have taken place at Harvard College.

Dr. ----, _in propria persona_, called upon a Southern student one morning in the recitation-room to define logic. The question was something in this form. "Mr. ----, what is logic?" Ans. "Logic, Sir, is the art of reasoning." "Ay; but I wish you to give the definition in the exact words of the _learned author_." "O, Sir, he gives a very long, intricate, confused definition, with which I did not think proper to burden my memory." "Are you aware who the learned author is?" "O, yes! your honor, Sir." "Well, then, I fine you one dollar for disrespect." Taking out a two-dollar note, the student said, with the utmost _sang froid_, "If you will change this, I will pay you on the spot." "I fine you another dollar,"

said the Professor, emphatically, "for repeated disrespect." "Then 'tis just the change, Sir," said the student, coolly.

FIRST-YEAR MEN. In the University of Cambridge, England, the t.i.tle of _First-Year Men_, or _Freshmen_, is given to students during the first year of their residence at the University.

FISH. At Harvard College, to seek or gain the good-will of an instructor by flattery, caresses, kindness, or officious civilities; to curry favor. The German word _fischen_ has a secondary meaning, to get by cunning, which is similar to the English word _fish_. Students speak of fis.h.i.+ng for parts, appointments, ranks, marks, &c.

I give to those that _fish for parts_, Long, sleepless nights, and aching hearts, A little soul, a fawning spirit, With half a grain of plodding merit, Which is, as Heaven I hope will say, Giving what's not my own away.

_Will of Charles Prentiss, in Rural Repository_, 1795.

Who would let a Tutor knave Screw him like a Guinea slave!

Who would _fish_ a fine to save!

Let him turn and flee.--_Rebelliad_, p. 35.

Did I not promise those who _fished_ And pimped most, any part they wished?--_Ibid._, p. 33.

'T is all well here; though 't were a grand mistake To write so, should one "_fish_" for a "forty-eight!"

_Childe Harvard_, p. 33.

Still achieving, still intriguing, Learn to labor and to _fish_.

_Poem before Y.H._, 1849.

The following pa.s.sage explains more clearly, perhaps, the meaning of this word. "Any attempt to raise your standing by ingratiating yourself with the instructors, will not only be useless, but dishonorable. Of course, in your intercourse with the Professors and Tutors, you will not be wanting in that respect and courtesy which is due to them, both as your superiors and as gentlemen."--_Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 79.

Was.h.i.+ngton Allston, who graduated at Harvard College in the year 1800, left a painting of a fis.h.i.+ng scene, to be transmitted from cla.s.s to cla.s.s. It was in existence in the year 1828, but has disappeared of late.

FISH, FISHER. One who attempts to ingratiate himself with his instructor, thereby to obtain favor or advantage; one who curries favor.

You besought me to respect my teachers, and to be attentive to my studies, though it shall procure me the odious t.i.tle of a "_fisher_."--_Monthly Anthology_, Boston, 1804, Vol. I. p. 153.

FIs.h.i.+NG. The act performed by a _fisher_. The full force of this word is set forth in a letter from Dr. Popkin, a Professor at Harvard College, to his brother William, dated Boston, October 17th, 1800.

"I am sensible that the good conduct which I have advised you, and which, I doubt not, you are inclined to preserve, may expose you to the opprobrious epithet, _fis.h.i.+ng_. You undoubtedly understand, by this time, the meaning of that frightful term, which has done more damage in college than all the bad wine, and roasted pigs, that have ever fired the frenzy of Genius! The meaning of it, in short, is nothing less than this, that every one who acts as a reasonable being in the various relations and duties of a scholar is using the basest means to ingratiate himself with the government, and seeking by mean compliances to purchase their honors and favors. At least, I thought this to be true when I was in the government. If times and manners are altered, I am heartily glad of it; but it will not injure you to hear the tales of former times. If a scholar appeared to perform his exercises to his best ability, if there were not a marked contempt and indifference in his manner, I would hear the whisper run round the cla.s.s, _fis.h.i.+ng_. If one appeared firm enough to perform an unpopular duty, or showed common civility to his instructors, who certainly wished him well, he was _fis.h.i.+ng_. If he refused to join in some general disorder, he was insulted with _fis.h.i.+ng_. If he did not appear to despise the esteem and approbation of his instructors, and to disclaim all the rewards of diligence and virtue, he was suspected of _fis.h.i.+ng_. The fear of this suspicion or imputation has, I believe, perverted many minds which, from good and honorable motives, were better disposed."--_Memorial of John S.

Popkin, D.D._, pp. xxvi., xxvii.

To those who've parts at exhibition, Obtained by long, unwearied _fis.h.i.+ng_, I say, to such unlucky wretches, I give, for wear, a brace of breeches.

_Will of Charles Prentiss, in Rural Repository_, 1795.

And, since his _fis.h.i.+ng_ on the land was vain, To try his luck upon the azure main.--_Cla.s.s Poem_, 1835.