Harvard University - Red Book Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

Page 22 text:

Nothing can be more appropriate, more harmonious than danc- ing on the green. Youth and gayety and beauty-and in summer we are all young and gay and beautiful'-mingle well with the eternal youth of blue sky and velvet sward and the light breezes toying in the tree-tops. Youth and nature kiss each other in the bright, clear purity of the happy summer tide .... ' The funny part of Class Day comes last,-not so very funny to tell, but amazingly funny to see,-only 'a wreath of bouquets fast- ened around the trunk of an old tree, perhaps eight or ten feet from the ground, and then the four classes range themselves around it in four circles, with their hands fast locked together, the Freshman class on the outside, the Senior class within, grotesquely tricked out in vile old coats and 'shocking bad hatsf Then the two alternate classes go one way around the tree, and the two others the opposite, pell-mell, harum-scarum, pushing and pulling, down and up again, singing, shouting, cheering ,... and going all the time in that din and yell and crowd and crash dear to the hearts of boys. At a given signal there is a pause, and the Senior class make a sudden charge upon the bouquets, huddling and hustling and crowding and jumping at the foot of the old tree, bubbling upon each other's shoulders into momentary prominence and prospect of success, and immediately disappearing ignomin- iously, making frantic grasps and clutches with a hundred long arms and eager outstretched hands, and finally succeeding by shoulders and fists, in bringing the wreaths away piecemeal, and then they give themselves up to mutual embraces, groans, laments, and all the enginery of pathetic affection in the last gasping throes of separation,-to the doleful tearing of hair and the rend- ing of their fantastic garments. Such is the impression received of Class Dav on June 19, 1863, just forty years ago today. Save for the substitution of the Statue exercises for the Tree exercises,- legalized rowdyismf' as Gail Hamilton called it,-Class Day today is essentially what it was in the early sixties. The list of Class Day Officers for June 22, 1866, when Moorfield Storey was Orator, differs only in minor details from the list of Officers of today. There was no Ivy Oration delivered. Each outgoing class elected its Chaplain. The Class Committee consisted of two members instead of three, as it does today. The Photographic Committee and Senior Spread Com- mittee are additions of more recent date. A tide of increasing opposition to the exercises around the Class Tree set in, and with the class of '98 was introduced the S.tatue exercises. The earliest Senior Spread of which I have been able to find any record is the one described by Edward Everett Hale in My Col- lege Daysfi He says that on the night before Class Day, some of the Seniors, I do not know but what all, went out to the lower part of the college grounds, where there was still a grove of trees, and 'consecrated the grove,' as the phrase was,-which meant, drank all the brandy, whiskey, rum, and other spirits that they liked. This bears little resemblance to the Senior Spread in Me- morial Hall and the Delta that now comes the night before Class Day, and we should doubtless find a very different origin in reality for the Senior Spread. The old consecrating custom, however, is none the less interesting. Doubtless the origin of both the Senior 'Spread and the dances on Class Day evening in the Gymnasium and Memorial Hall dates to the dances given by individual members of the classhor by a number of members of the Senior class together. Mr. Ro-we men- tions attending such a dance on the evening following Commence- ment Day in 1765 given by young Nathaniel Sparhawk in the Town House. A short and simple address in. Latin, and a response, also in Latin, were the unassuming beginnings of our exercises in San- ders Theatre on the morning of Class Day. The exercises about the Statue, during which the proverbially reverend Seniors became a Hwrithing sea of humanityn in their frantic endeavors to get within their grasp the coveted flowers from the Statue, and then run the gauntlet beneath a perfect

Page 21 text:

.4.....4nHK4. mv-vu .Y THE YARD ON CLASS DAY

Page 23 text:

shower of confetti, molasses kisses, and varied colored ribbons, these exercises have been introduced within the memory of every- one. But the Tree exercises, the dancing around the Class Tree clad in vile old coats and Ashocking bad hats,' or as the later cus- tom was, in no hats and fewer clothes, had their beginning in the First quarter of the last century. The gay, festive attire of the Yard, the dreamy fairylancl of Chinese lanterns and transparencies, the sweet strains of music. with everything' cheerful and everyone happy, bring to the Senior a momentary feeling of sadness, as he thinks of the unreal appear- ance of the Yard he has come to know so well, and which he is so soon to leave. His feeling is but momentary, however, and quick- ly passes away as he hears again the soft strains of music floating through the archways of light, and is once more made aware of the rustling groups of men and beautifully dressed women. As he sees the varied colored gowns and happy faces lighted up by the swaying lanterns, he is content, for the fair sex are everywhere supreme-Class Day is theirs.