Yale University Law School - Yale Law Reporter Yearbook (New Haven, CT)

Page 101 text:

' . ...I POLITICAL. Since the overwhelming victory of Cleveland our class has been very quiet on the subject of politics. The Republicans are still sore, the Democrats are generous. The ring in the Kent Club managed to survive, but one who had known us in the fall of 1892 would hardly recognize us now as the same class. Twelve of our number were so foolish as to vote for Harrison then, and two of these even con- fess that they had been guilty of the same folly in 1888. Eight wise men voted for Cleveland when he was last before the people for election. Major Cal- lahan has voted the straight Democratic ticket since 1872, and Conlon has never scratched but one Dem- crat, and then he bolted with his party. Two men have voted for the last three years, but most of the voters in the class have only exercised this right since the last Presidential election. Governor Morris and Governor Russell each owe our class graditude for one vote, and even the present Governor of Vermont received a vote from one member of the class. One man took advantage of the opportunity to vote for Averill for Registrar. All the voting of another has been for himself, and a third has voted an incalculable number of times to adjourn the Kent Club. Thirty- Hve men have voted at elections occurring at some time or place. Twenty-eight men are thoroughbred Republicans, one is inclined in that direction and two are Inde-

Page 100 text:

Q4 Tllli YALE SHINGLE. election. There is said to be one teetotaler in the class. Every one uses more or less slang. The uncommonest vice in the class is iiirting-the class picture indicates the cause of this. Beer is our favorite drink, closely followed by water. Then comes a great variety-mint julep, milk, whisky, sherry Hips, prairie cocktails, vichy nectar, etc. One man drinks everything, and another, following the drinker's hrst maxim, always takes the same. Nearly every man in the class has a favorite amuse- ment peculiar to himself. Two men vote for cards, and two for dancing, and then follows a long list of amusements: Yachting, boating, grinding, reading cases, working, sleeping, attending Moot Court and the theatre, billiards, answering statistic questions, hearing Lord George talk English and recite, and loahng. One man amuses himself and educates his sense of sight by watching Brecken- ridge's mustache grow. One or two amuse them- selves by coming to recitations when engagements permit.

Page 102 text:

96 Tllli 'YAI,li Sl'lINGl,li. pendent Republicans. Twenty-live of us are out and out Democrats, and there is one Mugwump. One bold fellow says he owes allegiance to no party. The rest are too young to know what they are politically. Thirty-one men believe in protection in different degrees, while only ten men believe in absolute free trade. Five men think that a mean should be struck between the two, and several others believe in a tariff for revenue only. Several men favor free trade on principle, but think that the arti- licial condition to which the country has been brought by long continued protection, renders the further maintenance of the same imperative under the cir- cumstances. Two men say they believe in both in reason, although it is hard to understand how this happy compromise is possible. Twenty men believe that the ten per cent. tax on the issues of State banks is a wise provision, but ten others favor a repeal of the law imposing it. One man says he will never believe that the tax is improper while he can remember '49, and another scents immediate danger in repeal. In the future an appeal may become expe- dient, one thinks, and another thinks that a proper substitute for this law can be found in one requiring State bonds as securities for issues. Quite a number have formed no opinion on the subject. The Campaign Clubs drew about twentv men from our class, fourteen of these were in the Phelps' Bri- gade and six in the Cleveland Guards. Free liquor and lunches were held out as inducements to parade and although these usually proved mythical, five or six times each faction marched about the town I