Indiana University - Arbutus Yearbook (Bloomington, IN)

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The first graduate of the college was General Williaiii McKee Dunn. He was in attendance six years, and in the first arrangement of the classes constituted the entire Sophomore class. It is claimed? that ever since that time the Sophomores have been noted for paucity of num- bers and strength of intellect. 'fs The hrst literary society of the Seminary wasicalled the Henodelphisterian Society, and was so exceedingly classical that while in its hall every student was compelled to take in lieu of his own plain name one once current in the streets of Rome or Athens. It is supposed that the society's name killed it. . .fr lr my rl .l , -,., f W. rfl1lrrfgP1'f.: .. fcf 4 Of at T-.. X lit? .. af' ff' X , W V X X l U img: .1 A 'E ,.. 5 , 51 fi I yjlrf Hill rlllll l'Q,,f..Qg,, ,x l .,., mlrlflif Q W , tr ,rl 1- yr 1 5, p i 0 51' Y WMM llwqxitx -V 1 ' flmlulgl I 'll 21 all-Ia -5' ' l M it Y drill: , , , , 3,I!ffi:fl r bi' ' ., . 1 l Three years after the opening of the Seminary a sec- ond professor was needed, and john M. Harney, afterward a successful editor, was elected. He was a graduate of Miami University, and with a friend walked from Oxford, Ohio, to Bloomington. Tradition has it that arriving at eventide near unto the outer walls of the city, they washed their shirts in the branch that Hows thereby, and then walked on into town. f5iBy the Sophs. 'B' 'In the early thirties, President Wylie required all stu- dents to attend morning prayers. Those prayers were dreaded by the boys more than the day's work, for they were always held before breakfast, and often before sunrise. It was a common thing in the dim light of early dawn to see half-dressed boys skurrying across the campus, fasten- ing their collars and buttoning their clothes as they went, in order to get into chapel before the bell stopped tolling- After roll-call and prayers most of the fellows no doubt went back to bed. Q ' .

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Old Vlemorlies. One morning at prayers, as Dr. Theophilus VVylie, Act- ing President of the University, was lifting the lid of the desk to take out the Bible, he caught a glimpse of a large red rooster 'which the boys had placed there to surprise him. The Doctor slipped in his hand cautiously and removed the Bible, but the rooster made no disturbance. After prayers the chapel was cleared and his roosterness lib- erated, the boys decided that Dr. Wylie was exceedingly sly. Q G Q Even before girls were admitted to the College the boys had strings to their hearts. Courting was carried on quite as extensively in proportion to the number of stu- dents in attendance as it is now. Many of the boys got their wives here. I C9 Q GD On the morning of May 1, 1824, the opening day of the Seminary, the aspiring young Hoosiers who presented themselves for admission, probably made an interesting picture. They came from their cabin homes arrayed in the proverbial linsey-woolsey shirts, home-spun jeans pants and coon-skin caps. Their feet, as a rule, were bare, except for a generous coating of honest red clay mud. To this day that red clay color in footgear is very fashionable among I. U. students. In the Hrst days of the Seminary the boys persisted in coming to school without their coats on the plea that it was too Warm to wear them. One day the professor sug- gested that when the weather got warmer he wouldn't ex- pect them to wear anything. History records that they ever after wore their coats. GGG The Reverend Baynard R. Hall was the first, and for two years, the only Professor of Indiana University. He was educated at Union College and at Princeton, and was, as he says, The nrst man since the creation of the world to read Greek in the 'New Purchasef l' I GD C9 C9 In the College campus are two trees wound so closely together that it requires careful observation to see that there are two. Standing together thus, they have weath- ered the storms and rains that have beaten down upon them for a half century, Thereby hangs a tail,-a romance of the forties which might furnish material for an excel- lent QQ novel. The trees were Wound together by a maiden fair and her Southern lover, who there made vows that were ne'er to be broken. He thought of her tenderly when he was at home for vacation, and afterwards mar- ried-another girl.

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The Senior Serenades. l Away back in the sixties, in the days of Commencement orations and Senior vacations, the Senior Serenade was a very pleasant custom. After examinations were over, the Seniors used to select a moonlight night, and go about in wagons, serenading the professors. Sometimes they car- ried an organ for accompaniments, and they spared no encort to make it a real musical treat. In '69 there was a lady in the class, and by 371 the ladies' voices were prominent in the chorus. Until ,74 the annual serenade was a delightful affair, both for Seniors and pro- fessors. But in that year the juniors and law students turned out in force on the night of the serenade and took a too active part in the joyful exercises. They followed the Seniors up East Second Street to Dr. Wylie's, where, after a few minutes of ear-splitting pandemonium, a truce was declared. The junior wagon started back down the hill, but a Senior, James jefferson, very foolishly seized the horses' heads. Many blows and the plunging of the team at last shook him off, and in a passion he drew his pistol and fired into the wagon, strikingxggzal Montgomery in the arm. The town authorities imposed several fines, the Faculty refused Jefferson his diploma, and prohibited Senior serenades. They were revived later in the seventies, and by 1880 had again become a regular part of Commencement exer- cises. The Seniors always had a brass band or an orches- ii tra in their wagons, and the under-classmen took a fiendish delight in following on foot and helping the band. They used all sorts of ingenious and hideous devices for this purpose, but tin horns and pans were the standard instru- ments. Sometimes circular saws were carried about, in spite of their weight and inconvenience. One famous in- vention was twenty feet of wire strung at intervals with tin cans, which, when dragged in front of the horses, would render them perfectly unmanageable. Fire-crackers were often used for the same purpose. But the triumph of devil- ish ingenuity was the horse-fiddle, a nail keg with but one head, and that of rawhide, through which a rosined string was passed-and knotted on the inside. A gloved hand drawn over that string would produce more noise than any two bands. For several years the custom was merely a great lark for the boys and a nuisance to the community, especially to the Faculty. New professors, on being surprised by such a noise, sometimes imagined themselves gravely insulted. But from a conflict of noise to actual hostilities was but a step. The buzz-saw performers attempted to smash the instrument of their great rival, the bass drummer, and fre- quently provoked a charge from the whole company of musicians. Then, too, it was laborious chasing the wagons, and the practice of blockading streets grew in favor. The police had to interfere on several occasions to secure a free thoroughfare.