Johns Hopkins University - Hullabaloo Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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Kneipe. The German language continued to be spoken. Many of our original fellows and instructors had studied in Germany, and were familiar not only with the German language, but also with German customs. There was very little formality in our meetings. We had no presiding officer, no constitution except the unwritten law of the Kneipe. Literary exercises and all professed objects of culture were excluded by common consent. Themain object of assembly was good-fellow- ship. There were in those days no annual dues. Individual mem- bers paid for what they consumed. Dutch treat was the law. The Kneipe was an esoteric body, but at the same time more or less peri- patetic. It had no local habitation, simply a name. We met in upper private rooms of restaurants on Madison and Eutaw streets. We wandered at will from one meeting-place to another with perfect unconcern. This German club flourished for about two years, when for some reason it fell into what Mr. Cleveland used to call innocuous desuetudef' Some said the club suffered from the growing tendency of young Hopkins instructors toward matrimony. The social attrac- tions of Baltimore certainly began to lure influential members into other associations. On the 16th ofjanuary, I87Q, there met by invitation in the spaci- ous apartment of two senior fellows, in anaancient mansion on Frank- lin Street, a pleasant company of survivors from the old German club. Many new men had come among us, and it was determined to break the thickening ice between the different departments by a social reunion. In those private rooms, belonging to the Sihler brothers, assembled asjolly a company of young fellows as ever met in a secret society hall ofan American college. There were representatives of the oldest and best fraternities in this country, but all ancient rivalries were now forgotten, all jealousies were laid aside. There were men in that gathering from Harvard and Yale, from Amherst and Princeton, from Michigan University and the University of Virginia, from a dozen American institutions of prominence, and from famous German univer- sities like Heidelberg, G6ttingen,and Leipzig. Some were American- ized Germans, and some were Germanized Americans. In short, it was a cosmopolitan society of very good fellows. Without describing the exact nature of our proceedings, it may be said that the singing of student songs, German and English, was a conspicuous feature in the programme. Even secret society songs were given away in the most reckless manner. It was very delightful to hear men from different colleges vying with one another in some , 14

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The early organization of the University by departments, and various other influences, individual and social, gave rise to a large number of associations, seminaries, societies, conferences, journal- clubs, reading parties, conversation classes in French and German, Shakespeare and Browning clubs, a field club, an archaeological society, etc. These various organizations generally embraced both instructors and students in kindred departments or congenial groups. Sometimes special reading clubs met in a professor's private library. Professor Charles D. Morris, almost from the very beginning of the University, used to invite to dinner at his house on Sundays little companies of graduate students from different departments in order that men might become better acquainted. Later on, there met every Friday evening at his house a class in Greek. After an hour's session the class adjourned to meet invited guests from other fields of study. The professor always provided an oyster supper, with beer and cigars. Some department parties have taken the form of laboratory or library teas. The biologists, influenced perhaps by japanese student- example, were at one time very artistic tea-drinkers. Some of them became so refined that they used iridescent champagne glasses for tea-cups. Dr. Samuel F. Clark became famous for his laboratory teas at a young ladies' college in Massachusetts, where he went to lecture before he became professor in Williams College. Dr. Hart- well's teas in the Director's office at the Gymnasium will not be forgotten. The Historical Seminary, from time to time,has had social sessions, with guests from Bryn Mawr School and the Woman's Col- lege of Baltimore. President Gilman has entertained, at the Univer- sity and in his own home, many companies of students, graduates and undergraduates, companies small and great,-students, grouped by departments, by specialties, nationalities, States, sections of country, in short by almost every available totem. Individual professors, trustees, and Baltimore families have shown varied but unceasing kindness and attention to Hopkinsians from the beginning of our student-life in this proverbially hospitable city. Soon after the opening of the University, in 1876, a little group of fellows and instructors began to hold Saturday evening sessions for literary and social purposes. For the first hour we read and dis- cussed in German some of the prose writings of Lessing. VVe then adjourned to a private room over a restaurant in West Madison Street to discuss oysters and other subjects. The second session proved so much more enjoyable than the first that other men joined our number, and we soon constituted a kind of German club or Saturday evening 13

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refrain where the name of their own college could he introduced-for example, lt's the way we have at old Amherst ! - or again, to hear the whole company joining with one accord, Here's to the j. H. L'., drink her down! and coining new rhymes in praise of new professors and a new university. After singing Good night, Sihler! we are going to leave you now, we felt so satisfied with our musical abilities that we sang all the way home There's music in the air when the inlhnt morn is nigh, and a great variety of other songs from the student hymn-book. I shall never forget the astonishmentwith which Baltimore policemen regarded that midnight procession of students marching up Howard Street. Perhaps they thought we were a body of seminary priests from St. Mary's taking a midnight promenade, or else we were so numerous that the lonely watchmen thought it advisable to let us pass by. - There was one permanent result of that social reunion on Frank- lin Street. In a local paper called The Tz1!w', edited by Dr. Beer, and devoted to the cause of education and literary criticism, appeared in january, 1879, the following report ofa committee on social organi- zation in the johns Hopkins University: At a meeting of the fellows, associates, and graduate students of the johns Hopkins University on Thursday evening, january 16, it was voted that a committee of five should be appointed to consult and report on the project of social organization. The appointed committee have consulted, and herewith report the following resolutions: Rfs0lm'a', That the committee on social organization recommend the formation of an informal academic club, to meet every Saturday evening from 9 until II o'clock, in the rooms last occupied by the German Kneipe, which have been again secured. Reso!zfm', That the committee recommend the appointment of but one oiiicer, viz. a treasurer, to collect such moneys as may be necessary, to manage the business affairs of the club, and to hold office for one academic year. Q Rcso!m'1f, That a meeting of fellows, associates, and graduate students, for organization and social purposes, be hereby called for Friday evening, January 3Ist, and that Dr. Von Holst be invited to meet the club on that occasion. G. SIHLER, Chairman, CHARLES R. LANMAN, H. C. G. BRANDT, Tnos. CRAIG, H. B AD.ABIS.,' 15