FRESHMEN AT YALE TROD PATH OF THORNS IN 1787

Modern Freshman live in luxurious dormitories Chrysler to classes perhaps and at the slightest provocation proffer their opinions on bottled goods and other important questions of the day. Their self assertion is quite painful and appalling to the upper classmen. Whether he gets away with it or not a Freshman now actually dares to step blithely up to cut in on a senior who is dancing with somebody's somebody. This of course will never do but it is done.

In the days of old so often celebrated things were much different at least at Yale. Trembling in his homespuns at the sight of a superior if only in age the poor Freshman was parceled out, body and clothing all to be regulated by a different set of rules. Each move of the first year underlings might involve the breaking of a rule for which fracture or infringement he might be hailed to the bar of upper class justice to be tried converted and sentenced to bed without supper all within five brief minutes.

Regulate Doffing of Hats

There have recently come to light in the archives of Wldener Library some rules for Freshman passed at Yale College about 1787. These regulate the doings of the Freshmen from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same. Some of the most explicit clauses are those dealing with the matter of taking off and putting on of hats with specific attention to the prevention of catching acids. The baring and the covering of the head is thus mathematically regulated in the Freshman Constitution:

"The Freshman are to be uncovered and are forbidden to wear their Hats (unless in stormy weather) in the front door yard of the President's or Professor's House or within Ten rods of the Person of the President Eight Rods of the Professor and five Rods of a Tutor." Freshmen must have spent a considerable part of each day glancing about that with a calculating eye on hand their hatbrims.

Must Be Fully Dressed

What Bacchanalian tendencies of dress or undress, what custom of venturing forth in airy raiment is throttled by the following rule remains a asrtorial secret.

"No Freshman shall wear a Gown or walk with a Cane or appear out of his Room without being fully dressed and with his Hat," Later the headpiece comes in for further attention: "When ever a Freshman speaks to a Superior is spoken to by one he shall keep his hat off until he is bidden to put it on,"

In the following law which is slightly ringed with ultramarine inter class gamboling of all sorts is list at with one say ing clause that seems to have been inserted to insure the upper classmen a regular Freshman income if they choose. "A Freshman shall not play with any members of an upper class without being asked neither is he permitted to use any Acts of familiarity with them even in Study Time.

Make Way For Superiors

With a remarkable lack of foresight regarding congestion of traffic the anchorites laid down the following ordinance that required more vigilance and a nice ability to measure distances rapidly. "When a Freshman is near a Gate or Door belonging to College or College Yard he shall look around and observe whether any of his Superiors are coming within three rods he shall not enter without a signal to proceed. In passing up or down stairs or through an entry or any other narrow passage if a Freshman meets a superior he shall stop and give way leaving the most convenient side if on the stairs the Banister side."

Guided into the paths of righteousness by these regulations the Freshmen of 1787 trod thorny ways with constant anxiety about hats and the right of way. And the rules quoted above are only some of the milder restrictions. More awe inspiring were the provisions requiring Freshmen to run errands for upperclassmen and giving to the upperclassmen unlimited right of chastisement in case the mission went askew. But sufficient has been said to show the humblest Yale Freshman who walks the campus that he is monarch of all he surveys in comparison with the lot of his unhappy ancestors