University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. honor men, both of them, and Buller sure to be a double first. We hear nothing from them of cruel hazing scrapes, but we are entertained with descriptions of cock-fights, town and gown rows, boating and wine parties, ad nauseam. In Spain we meet a number of itinerant collegians, with spoons in their hat-bands, enioying vacation in their own peculiar way, and in Russia have the pleasure of seeing a bust given by the students in the Winter Palace. Ah! what merry dogs are the Russian students ! An absurd spectacle is that which we are invited to witness in Heidelberg, the reception accorded to Freshmen, or, Nasty Foxes, as they are called. The ceremonies are ridiculous, burnt cork and beer play- ing a prominent part in them ; and are none the less laughable on account of the greeting song, some stanzas of which have reached thi s country. And smokes the fox tobacco? And smokes the fox tobacco? And smokes the leathery fox tobacco ! Sa! Sa! Fox tobacco? And smokes the fox tobacco? Then let him fill a pipe ! Then let him fill a pipe ! Then let him fill a leathery pipe ! Sa ! Sa ! Leathery pipe ! Then let him fill a pipe ! And now we return from our flying trip, convinced that human nature is the same the world over. Inspired by this novel and sage conclusion, we snap our fingers in the face of our glum looking monitor ; we take pleasure in throwing off restraint at times and performing deeds that will live in the pages of this book. And from this book itself we derive grati- fication, for it is a history of four years of our life of the life of every student. The Freshman is pictured as he draws toward the end of a well- spent year a year of good resolutions and low marks. The vacation passes quickly spent at home in the bosom of his family and he returns to find himself a student-at-large. However, explanations are soon in- vented and given, and, if the fellow is clever, four or five conditions are easily disposed of, and the whilom Freshman becomes a Sophomore. Over this period of his life we must draw a veil, and remove it only when he blazes forth into a Junior, full of conquests and conceit. What verses pass between young jackanapes and a lady who describes herself as A creature fair With shadowy hair, And a nymph with languid eyes. But these trifles are forgotten when a silk hat presses the Senior ' s brows, and his money has been forwarded to the Thesis Agency in Chicago. Everything is forgotten then but the glory of being. To this period have we come, and here let us rest, content to trust the future to itself. ? 1 1

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1 THE BLUE AND GOLD. , xh another ' s back with a book under his arm crede m experto. Still another jolly trio was that comprised of Tom Taylor, Tom Hughes, and Canon Kingsley, who have reminded us, in one of their effusions, that they Once a year like school boys Robin Hooding go, Leaving fops and fogies A thousand feet below. A large group was that which gathered around the table at Ambrose ' s fifty years ago, and sent in regular accounts of its nightly proceedings to Blackwood ' s in the form of the immortal Nodes Ambrosianae, with many of whose pages any article in THE BLUE AND GOLD would com- pare favorably. The authors are described as meeting in a tap-room, eating and drinking an enormous quantity, conversing a little on current topics, drinking again in fact drinking all the time and finally reeling away home. And these men, not on account of these scenes at Ambrose ' s, nor yet in spite of them, were regarded as leading spirits in a great party half a century ago. If farther illustrations of our proposition are required, any biography will furnish them. Lives of great men all remind us that they enjoyed the follies of youth as much as any of us. For our individual encourage- ment it needs nothing more than the rollicking lines of Dr. Holmes ; their strong ring brings home to us in a free sense the joyousness of being one of the boys, and we unite one voice with his in singing Then here ' s to our boyhood, its gold and its gray, The stars of its Winter, the dews of its May ! We turn from the long faces of the Berkeleyan contributors to the jolly countenances of these mighty men, who have retained their fun-loving dispositions notwithstanding their gray hairs, and our mind is determined ; with the latter shall our lot be cast. But perhaps in these radical times the order of things has been reversed ; perhaps it is right that sages and philosophers should defy old age and be jolly good fellows, and that young men should assume the sedate deportment of Sisyphus. Is it the case elsewhere than in Berkeley ? If so, we will retract our resolution and defer fun and nonsense to our grand climacteric. We turn to the Eastern colleges and beg to be enlightened. It is no tale of quiet, hardworking students that the Cambridge or New Haven tradesman, searching for his missing sign, pours into our ears. We turn to Princeton and are in- formed that the Divinity students can and do whip all the rest of the college in a free fight. Dartmouth sends us, with its greetings, a full account of the last hazing scrape, which is only exceeded in brutality by the annual nigger affair at West Point. We are convinced that there is still life in the Eastern Universities, and cross the Atlantic to ascertain whether they have degenerated in the Old World institutions of learning. We fall in with Seward of Christ Church, and Buller of Brazennose x

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THE BLUE AND GOLD. A One word may be necessary as to the changed auspices under which this publication appears. Recent events have so disturbed University affairs as to render it impossible for the Class of ' 81 to follow the example of former Junior classes in publishing THE BLUE AND GOLD, and under these circumstances the Iota Chapter of the Zeta Psi Fraternity has assumed the task. There is, of course, some uncertainty among the lota ' s members as to the reception with which their performance will meet ; but they are animated by the best intentions towards all members and all de- partments of the University, and beg at least a recognition of this good feeling. But however uncertain they may have been in regard to the re- ception awaiting their work, there has been no faltering in its prosecution, but steadily pressing on towards its completion, they have ever borne in mind that He either fears his fate too much, Or his deserts are small, That puts it not unto the touch, To win or lose it all.