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

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first-year men retaliated by painting their numerals on Avalks, fences, and the like. The hazing of freshmen by the sopho- more class, most of which took place during the first half of the first term, was carried on for many years. As late as 1920, freshmen were ordered not to roller skate or spin tops on the Campus; these privileges are reserved for Seniors. meeting met to celebrate Euclid ' s aca- deinic death and gloat over his corse. ' Preliminaries to the actual burial vere ' aried: red-hot iron pokers vere thrust throtigh the book ' s covers; the class trod upon the voltuiie to prove that Euclid had been gone over; they walked under the book to prove that he has been understood. The class would then march in solemn procession, with funeral torches. Sitting on the fence in front of South College in the J870 ' s e Burial of Euclid MO.NG vale ' s most colorful tradi- tions of old, The Burial of Eu- clid, dating back to the start of the nineteenth century, ranks high. The study of mathematics proved to be the Waterloo of many a sophomore, and at the undergraduate year ' s end a mass to the burial grotmd. Such items as Dirge by Asoph O More and Incan- tation by Hon. Sir Cumference can be foimd in the typical Class of 1857 pro- gram. Finally, about 1860, the custom died, ' the victim apparently of a reform movement aimed at its extravagances. Its loss was mourned.

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away the early evening. Each class had a particular part of the Fence they knew as their own. Occasional efforts by the Administra- tion to substitute plank benches placed around the campus were unsuccessful, for the Fence never lost its magic mag- netism until its final demolition in the face of progress. Early Dress (X 1824, uniform dress Avas decreed by the college. Part of the order read: The coat to be a plain frock-coat, with a standing cape, the classes . . . distinguished by [varying numbers of] marks of braid on the cape of the coat ... Subdued color schemes were prescribed as well, but the laws soon proved impracticable and unworkable. The Banger Rush ;5Z)usHEs were traditional encounters between freshmen and sophomores in which the two factions attacked each Senior privileges incltided spinning tops ' ' ' i ju i i ( T ' -i ' Traditional rushes — a decision determining the winner was tisually controversial . . . Other and tried to break through the other ' s lines. A decision determining the winner was usually controversial, if not impossible, at the battle ' s end. The object of the banger rush was for the sophomores to wrest a number of bangers— a type of cane— from the hands of the freshmen, who had been prohibited by tradi- tional sophomore edict from carrying bangers and from wearing stove-pipe hats until a certain time of year. These rushes took place sporadically after the first display of rage by the freshmen had been manifested. Freshman Rules ANY RULES existed which classified the freshman as inferior to his upperclass counterpart. It was 1804 be- fore freshmen were exempted from running errands for up- perclassmen, and in return for these sorts of indignities, the

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Hannibal Town and Gown i T ' AR MORE EXTRAVAGANT, and partic- ularly more regrettable, than any other chapter in Yale ' s history were the notorious Town and Gown mistuider- standings. The earliest official record of such trouble goes back to 1782, when a resi- dent of New Haven, a former graduate of the College, was subjected to indigni- ties under a pump by half a dozen un- dergraduates. The first real riot -tvas experienced in 1841, when a group of students playing football found themselves incapable of resisting the iwge of standing on a fire hose which lay across the held. The town ' s firemen, annoyed at the lack, of water, attempted to remove the students from their positions. Police c[uickly quelled the unrest, but that evening some of Yale ' s more adventurous stu- dents invaded the firehousc, cut the hose to bits, and created mild havoc. A Candy Sam settlement by the University prevented more repercussions from follo ' ing. In 1854, the most serious riot took place. A disturbance at the local theatre mushroomed into a mob scene, and when one Pat O ' Neill, a longshoreman, laid hold of a senior, John Sims, the lat- ter vas forced to draw a bowie knife and stab the tmlucky O ' Neill throtigh the heart. Yale ' s forces then ■iv ' ithdrew to re- main on the defensive, and thotigh one of the city ' s cannons was trained on the camptis, it failed to fire. Sims was subse- quently accjuitted by a jury. The last major riots on record are those which took place in 1919. It A as alleged that Yale men jeered soldiers re- turning to New Haven after World War I, and subsec]uent soap-box orations stirred the citizenry into a revengeful mood. After several days ' hostility, the disturbances subsided, and Town and Gown relationships have been as amica- ble as could be expected ever since.