New-York tribune., 1878-06-26

reunions will be held to-day, and with the Com
mencement exercises tomorrow the college year
| will close.
! INCIDENTS OF COMMENCEMENT WEEK.
THE TREMULoUs FRESHMAN AND HIS COMING TRIALS
SEVERE RxAMINATIoNs-REUNIoN or THE
CLASS OF 1853
| lPRoM sTAYF CORRESPONDENT THE TRIBUNE
| NEwHAvEN, June 25.-Tbe advance guard Of
| the Commencement crowd is the frightened-looking
young man who comes here early, with his mother
and sister, to get little used to the sit
nation before venturing into Alumni Hall to un-
dergO the tortures of examination for the Freshman
class. He is apt TO be nervous and to keep his
mother The Senior ignores him utterly the Junior
views him with unmitigated seorn and contempt;
while the justhedged Sophomore, who until within
month didn't dare sit the fence for fear of sos
wrath, gowers at him like hungry wild beast, and
looks forward to the opportunity afforded by the
Freshman limitations TO rend him limb from limb.
IL cannot be very pleasant for the young person to
contemplate, beyond the cold and heartless
encounter with the tutors in Alumni Hall.
the rude embrace of the Sophomore at tie opening
of his collegiate career, but a rule he bears up
under it bravely consoing himself with the thought
that the polite Junior, who is sweet on bis sister,
will see that no harm comes to him from the bloody
minded Sophomore. lie doesn't know yet that the
polite Junior comes to the Freshman's rescue only
after the fourth tossing in the blanket and the sixth
sousing in the tub, and when his only garment is
an undershirt, and that shoe-string rather than
shirt. He finds this out later. This year tho
young person viii think it's brutal; next year
he'll think it's fun. His present frightened
look however, is not so much in dread of
the Sophomore as of the examiners and in the
minds of those who know what kind of questions
tIa "A
doubt as to whether the SOphomore's cruelty is not
more tOlerable than the tender meTces of the
professors and tutors. To-day only the tender
Freshman aud his mother and sister vary the usual
scene. This evening and tomorrow the Alumni
will be coming in to fill up all the vacant spaces,
and the Freshman will be able to lose himself in
their shadow and forget that his trouble begins on
Friday.
The annual examinations ended last Thursday.
1t is said that they were much more severe than IN
previous years. and that the penalties for failute
have been enforced with more than usual ngor.
Two or three of the graduating class, as told,
will lose their degrees from not having successfully
passed the last examination while from the coming
Senior class G79) several have been dropped for tho
same reason and Juniors and SOphomOres have loss
| three or four members each Among those dropped
from the class of'79, are two three who have al
! ready been initiated into the Senior secret
societies. II they should drop back
year, the Senior societies would suffer the en-
barrassment of having Juniors as members which
would do az ALL you know. SO it is understood
that unless the faculty be prevailed upon 70
! give them another chance TO be examined at tho
beginning of the Fall term, they must leave cOllege
permanently. This is according to some written OF
unwrtten law of the Senior societies. and there Is
| no possibility of changing or evading it. 1t is .
mistaken impression that the young men study here
for the degree Of Bachelor of Arts; they study fox
| q Senior society pin. The Senior sOeietiss
| rule the whole course. The close of the
examinations, which this year has been
so fatal, has been of late years made the
| occasion for undergraduate class SuppeTH.
! This year only the Seniors and Freshmen kept M
! the custom. The Seniors went to Savn Rock and
made Rome howl, while the Freshmen, in white
stoyepipe hats and linen busters, took the and
went to Black Rock, near Bridgeport where they
PLAYED on tin hOrns and made life burden TO quiet
citizens and thought they were having the kind Of
| time the parrot and monkey had together,
| and woke up the next morning with the
! headache. To-day the graduating class Rave
| their "class-dayD with oratlon poem, class his
| tories and other performances. Tomorrow, tho
| Alumni Meeting in the mornings Grafton and poem
! to the Glass of '53, IN the chapel az noon; Law
| School commencement in the afternoon and class
commencement in the forenoon, an Alumni dinner in
the afternoon; and on Friday the Regatta at New
London.
The introduction Of the Grafton and poem in the
midst of the commencement exercises by the Class
of 1858 is new fea ture 1t has been fitted in be-
tween the regular Alumni meeting Wednesday
morning and the Law School commencement in
the afternoon because there was other place for
it, all the other time of Commencement
week being taken up with exercises of
some sort. The first intention of the COM
mittee of the class having the matter IN charge
was to have their classmate, Mr. Stedman, de-
liver poem at the class reunion in the evening.
but upon reflection it was determined TO accompany
it with a short grafton and give the exercises a
moro public character Distriet-Attomey Benjamin
K Phelps is accOrdngly to deliver the OratOn and
Mr. Stedman the poem in the Battell Chapel. ex-
President WoOlsey presiding. There is con-
siderable disappointment felt at the In 81
ability of the Hon. Randall l.. Gibson
TO deliver the address before the Law
School Oh account of his illness, but his class
mates have strong hopes that he will be able to be
present and preside at the reunion III the evening.
His place as orator before the Law School viii be
filed by member Of the same class, the Hon.
Henry c. Robinson, of Hartford, who Will deliver
the address to the graduating class. The Secretary
Of the Glass Of 1853, Mr. Henry H. Babcock, of this
CITY. has received letters from q sufficient num-
Der of members of the class to warrant the expeca-
ton that not less than fifty will be present out of a
total of ninety one survivors, an unusually large
proportion Other classes ending in three and eight,
have their reunions this year, the most notable OF
which, perhaps, the class Of 1868. and an unusu-
ally largo number OF graduates, who have distin-
euished themselves and honored their Alma Mater,
may be expected to be present.