The Senior Bow at Yale.

The bowing of the Yale seniors as the president makes his exit from the chapel after the morning service is one of those customs peculiar to college men, and one whose origin is a matter of mere conjecture. The Yale News says of the custom: "It is believed to have been introduced at the time the college was founded, and to have been taken from a practice common at that time in New England churches for the congregation at the close of the service to rise and bow as the parson passed down the aisle. This practice of our Puritan ancestors was doubtless due to the reverence paid to superiors, and especially toministers in those days, and indeed the college authorities formulated rules specifying the exact conduct to be followed by a student in each particular on meeting a superior. One of the rules was as follows: "A student shall raise his hat at a distance of ten rods from the president, at eight rods from a professor, and at five rods from a tutor." In 1776, when Battell Chapel was first occupied, President Porter attempted to abolish the senior bow, but the seniors were so strongly in favor of preserving it that he yeilded to the continuation of the time honored custom, and it will doubtless be handed down to the grateful remembrance of future presidents and to seniors yet unborn."