Princeton University - Nassau Herald Yearbook (Princeton, NJ)

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22 HiSZ07j! Qf the Clays of '96. was chosen as our Washington's Birthday Orator, and H. G. Pierce as '76 Prize Debater. MclVlurdy was appointed class historian for the year. One day we awoke to iind a heavy snow in the act of falling and we realized that the culmination of our troubles as Freshmen was at hand. At least if we did not realize it then we soon had it called to our attention. O, the long and dreary winter, O, the cold and cruel Winter, Ever deeper, deeper, deeper Fell the snow o'er all the landscape- F ell the covering snow, and drifted Thro' the rampzzs, 'round the bzzz'Zdi1zg.v. We did not mind the falling, though, it was the spherical, compact mass, propelled at a high rate of speed, which we feared. We cared not for snow in drifts-it was when We saw it in the hands of dead-shot Sophomores that we dodged and ran or started at a too intimate contact with our spinal column. The eastern end of Dickinson and the west entry of the Scientific School used to be worse places to pass than an Indian gauntlet. In former years a snowball fight, a regular pitched battle between the two classes, had been the final outcome of such assaults and we determined to force the issue and have our revenge as of yore. Some sixty of our class were divided into groups of ten, with the following instructions: The six groups shall march on the campus at two o'clock, from different directions. When the Sophs begin to snowball you encourage them to follow you towards the cannon-there the divisions will meet and begin to throw back. The plan was that the rest of our class should then rush on and the iight would become general. At the time appointed the organized parties marched on the campus, but lo! a wonder came to pass-the

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Hzklofgf qf Ike Class gf '96, 2I then a certain member.of our class, by name Dan JJ. Hoyt, between whom and Roy Kirkman there had sprung up quite a friendship. That was all well enough here in Princeton, but to an unprejudiced mind it might seem a trifle ozmfcf that Hoyt should invite himself to spend his Christmas holidays with Kirk. That was what he did, however, and Kirk was so dumb- founded at his phenomenal nerve that he consented before he knew where he was at. So they went up to Port Jervis together and Hoyt made himself quite at home at Kirk's, telling them not to put themselves out for him, he'd take care of himself. Kirkman-stood it for several days, but when Hoyt began borrow- ing his underclothes and using his tooth-brush, Kirk struck and determined to rid himself of the incubus. Thereupon he gathered ffseven other devils worse than himself and one night started out to show Hoyt the town. There was a mid- night express then, leaving Port Jervis for the wilds of western New York, and by midnight they had Dan J. sound asleep. Then they bought him a ticket for the West, put him in the train and as it pulledlout Kirk danced on the station platform, singing merrily, Put him off at Buffalo. We were all back promptly on time from the holidays, for as Freshmen we were of course afraid to be late, and thought our presence imperatively needed. On January Ioth we held a class-meeting and selected officers for the remainder of the year. Langdon Lea had represented us so worthily in all the class rows hitherto, that he was again elected president. We felt the need of a vice-president and A. G. Milbank was de- clared the man. Mollie McGuire had been secretary in the early part of the year and might have been again had he not, in his anxiety to retain his position, written his name down on the blackboard before he was nominated. This action com- pletely soured the anti-Lawrenceville combine, so he was turned down and Gordon Johnston elected. Roland S. Morris

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Hz'st01gf gf the Class of '96. V 23 Sophomores did not attack them. So the ight was averted, as for that time, but it would have occurred sooner or later had it not been for the actioniof the powers that be. The snowball encounters had attained of late a most gory reputation and the faculty determined that they must cease and took vigorous measures to suppress the projected fray. By sending notice to the officers both of Ninety-Six and '95 that if a fight took place they fthe officersj would be summarily expelled, whether they were personally engaged or not, our plan of retaliation was effectually squelched. But snowballing still continued and bye and bye developed into a sort of guerilla warfare, wherein we defended ourselves whenever we could, or rather dared. One of the most noteworthy of these exchanges of pleasantry befell when a certain Sophomore, on attacking McGuire with a 'fwater-soaker, received a well-merited rebuke. A hot argu- ment followed, which ended in the Sophomore being knocked down by the fist of the irate Mollie, much to the satisfaction of the spectators. ' But now all hostilities between classes were temporarily laid aside, for Examinations with a capital E, the much-dreaded Mid-Years, spoken of by Freshmen with bated breath, detested by Sophomores and annoying to all, were at hand and required the concentration of every nerve. But before the examinations had begun, a step was taken which must not be left unrecorded. It was in our Freshman year that the Princeton Honor System of conducting examinations was introduced. The mass-meeting at which the resolution, leading to this course, was passed, was one of the largest in the history of the college. The vote of our class, although not long from schools where quite a different method was in vogue, was unanimous for the new order of honor. And I am proud to say that no member of our class who has once put that pledge upon his paper has ever given us cause to regret that he was a part of Ninety-Six.