Yale University - Banner / Pot Pourri Yearbook (New Haven, CT)

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AT THE COLLEGE PUMP 1845 stagecoach. Actually New Haven was an isolated village, and Yale was a small but growing College. By 1 841 Yale was already 140 years old, and the undergraduate inherited much from previous tradition. The two great Literary Societies (Linonia and Brothers in Unity), Phi Beta Kappa, Skull and Bones, Alpha Delta Phi, Psi Upsilon, Kappa Sigma Theta, Kappa Sigma Epsilon, the Old Yale Fence, the Yale Literary Magazine, and Chi Delta Theta were all part of his heritage. He studied Greek, Latin, Mathematics, Grammar, Geography, Physics, Hebrew or Modern Languages, Logic, Rhetoric, Philosophy, American Law, Political Economy, and Theology. The opportunity of taking a few elective courses in the last term of both the Junior and Senior years had already been inaugurated. There were activities other than studies, however. The Yale man of 1841 enjoyed the Fence on the corner of College and Chapel Streets, he participated in hazing and in rushes , and he attended both morning and evening compulsory chapel on weekdays plus three required services on Sunday. If popular he was asked to join a secret society in each of his four under- graduate years, and if a scholar he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. Bullyism and the College Bully had just disappeared from the Yale Tra- dition, but there are indications that the Burial of Euclid , an annual occasion in Sophomore year to commemorate the completion of study of that great mathematician ' s works, may have been celebrated at this early date. Athletics were practically unknown, although the Freshmen and Sophomores each year scrambled on the Green in what was known as football. Meals were taken in either Commons or in one of the numerous eating clubs, and walking and ice-skating seem to have been two chief ways of getting exercise. The first traces of informal boating were to appear in the year 1843, and this sport was soon popular. In 1842 Commons was abandoned, and all the students began dining in eating clubs. In the same year a second Senior society, Scroll and Key, was established. In after years there followed a veritable flood of secret societies, in each of the four under- graduate years, but most of these organizations were short-lived and XII

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VOLUME ONE HUNDRED y enienarian oj a aJJale raaihon 1841-1941 Just one hundred years ago the first small four- page edition of the Yale Banner appeared as a protest against the barbarity of firemen and the injustice of New Haven petty court decisions. The protest stemmed from a fight which occurred between the firemen of New Haven and some Yale students on the New Haven Green. The Banner was introduced into an atmos- phere which might seem comfortable but somewhat primitive to the Yale student of the Twentieth Century. The Yalensian of 1841 had few con- veniences. When cold he stoked his coal or wood stove, when he read it was by the dim and flickering light of a whale oil, camphor oil, or kerosene lamp, and when thirsty he went to the college pump for water. The rooms of some of the buildings of the Old Brick Row were already old and musty, all of the streets of New Haven were but dirt roads, and the only transpor- tation existent within the town was by horse and buggy. For long distance travel there was the railroad, just recently built and inefficient. Also the THE FIRST EDITION XI

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' football as played about 1850 few survived the century. By 1845 student enroll- ment in Yale College in- cluded 424 undergraduates, of whom only 195 lived in College dormitories. The College was already facing a perplexing dormitory prob- lem. By the 1840 ' s Yale was in reality a University, but did not officially adopt the title, University, until 1887. The Thanksgiving Jubilee and Biennial Jubilee , two annual celebrations, are believed to have started in the 1840 ' s, but it is definitely known that the Wooden Spoon Exhi- bition first began in 1846, and the accompanying Concert shortly after- wards. Then in 1850 was held the first Freshman Pow-Wow , to celebrate having gotten through Freshman year. By 1852 informal boating had developed into a competitive form of athletics, and Yale ' s first intercollegiate crew race took place in that year. At the same time the College was expanding physi- cally with occasional new build- ings, and Alumni Hall was occupied in 1853. Town and Gown troubles flared up in 1854 and developed into a bloody riot, in which Pat CNeil, a towny, was stabbed to death. So unsettled was the relationship between Yalensians and New Haveners that the carrying of pistols by the stu- dents became commonplace. When in 1858 another battle ensued, this time between a group of students who ate together in an eating club known as the Crocodiles and a mob of firemen, one of the firemen was shot and died several days later. In the meantime a new course had been introduced into the curricu- lum. It was known as Home Gymnastics , and was taught by Pro- fessor Charles Langdon; this marks the beginning of Yale ' s effort to PRESENTING THE WOODEN SPOON ABOUT 1855 XIII