1903-04 Volume 28 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

336 THE SCROLL.the college. The freshmen were to run errands for all the upper classes,and, in some instances, particular freshmen were assigned to college dignitaries.We find references to president's freshmen and tutor's freshmen.In connection with their employment, a curious hierarchy of privilege developeditself. A tutor could take a freshman from a fellow, a fellow'srights were superior to those of a senior sophister, a. senior sophister's to ajunior sophister's, and a junior sophister's to a sophomore's. The freshmenhad collective duties, one of which was to supply the upper classes with ballsand bats on the playing field.A rigid ceremonial of the Spanish-Bourbon type was instituted. Thefreshmen must take off their hats on the approach of an instructor or upperclassman; they must also pause on the approach of one of their superiors.The laws interdicted all impertinence on the part of the novice. He wasnot allowed to rap on the doors of the upper classmen or to play with them.He belonged to a separate and inferior caste.A chapter on "Student Life During the RevolutionaryPeriod," (1775-1840), treats ofhazing, cane sprees, townand gown fights, etc. Speaking of such pranks as placing acow on the- top floor of a dormitory, barring out professorsfrom class rooms, or painting the President's house red, whiteand blue, the author says: Whether at.home or among thenorthern colleges, the southern students possessed the greatestaptitude for violence, and were the most daring in carryingtheir plans into execution."The next chapters of the book, relating to student life inthe "Transition Period," (1840-1870), and in the "ModernPeriod," (1870-1900), include an account of the developmentof athletics. Handball and cricket were in vogue at Princetonfrom 1840 to 1865. Boating began at Yale in 1843; thefirst inter-collegiate boat race with Harvard was in 1852;Harvard sent a crew to Engla;nd in 1869. The first.regularbaseball nines in colleges were formed at Princeton in 1858,at Amherst in 1859, at Yale in 1865; the first of the regularYale-Harvard baseball games was played in 1868. A roughform of football was one of the traditional amusements, ofcollege men as far back as pre-Revolutionary times, and itcontinued at Yale until 1858. Football was revived at Princetonin 1864, at Yale in 1870. Rugby rules were adopted byan inter collegiate convention in 1876. The author says:Track and field sports were the last branches of athletics to receiveserious attention. As early as 1872 we have records of organized field days.Until recently this department of athletics excited less interest than football,baseball, and boating. Now in many colleges it ranks above baseball, andis looked upon with favour by the authorities because it enlists a much largernumber of men in its pursuit than any other sport. In international contests,American athletes have distinguished themselves in this line, whereasthey have uniformly failed in boating, the only other form of athletics inwhich international competition is possible.