New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-05-20
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THE YdLE FENCE.

A Judgment from which there is no appeal
has been rendered in the matter of the Yale
fence and the painful intelligence Will soon
reach the uttermost ends Of the earth that this
historic structure must go. No one can under
stand what grief is until he has seen strong
man weep. and the flood Of tears which is now
combining with the Mississippi TO suomerge
the continent is the measure by "hlch 'ne
sorrow of Yale students and aluinni' 'helf
sweethearts. wives and daughters, must De es-
timated. The statesman in his caolnet' lhe
Judge upon the bench, the clergy man IN HIS
study the editor in his sanctum the lawyer
at the bar, and the merchant behihd MS
counter, have forgotten constituents cuiprits'
Denitents readers clients and customers, "hlle
"their supplications seek the skies, their tears
tbe cround.D But it is all in yan The
coming Commencement will be the last at
which the sons of Yale will assemble at tho
sacred shrine, to gather inspiration TO tell
the story of their hopes and fears, their loves
and their ambitions,
The Yale Campus is bounded in many places
by fence in which the indifferent eyes OF
strangers would behold all the physical proper
ties of the immortal fence that is about TO
vanish but to the discriminating vision OF the
student and the graduate there is but one
fence at Yale-the hallowed fabric which de-
fines the southwestern corner Of the Campus
and stretches for hundred feet or more along
Chapel and College sts it is not beautiful;
indeed. its pathetic LONELINESS has been one
of its most endearing attributes. Yale men
contemplate it as Rufus ChOate contemplated
Judge Shaw They know that it is ugly, but
IL "a =. I(x-
of the original builder, of whose work nothing
now remains save the spaces between ltsNeom-
ponent parts, its rails are round ana OF
comfortable diameter, and by some innate
quality Of fibre and proportion most easily and
soothingly adjustable to the human form
divine At rare intervals bind Impulse
toward reconstruction on more aesthetic INES
has manifested itself among the college au-
thorities, but it has always been checked In It's
earliest stages and year after year as post or
rail has yielded to decay it has been replaced
by a duplicate of its own pristine form and
color; so that the fence of to-day is the fence
of long procession of yesterdays.
The Yale fence is not an incident, it is an
institution. The college possesses no other
common rendezvous II is the social centre Of
student life; the place where songs are sung
and news exchanged, and enterprises planned
and excursions started and engagements made
and bets recorded. 1t is entwined and made
beautiful with memories and aspirations; it
is the last object which the eyes of the student
rest on as he leaves his alma MATER the first
to welcome the returning graduate. These
are sentimental considerations, but it is sem
timent that makes the world go round. A
sentiment involved the siege of Troy and many
another lofty enterprise. And this is why some
thousands Of alumni have lately united with
the undergraduates of Yale in an ardent pc
tition to the powers that be that the mere
matter Of a $4,000 building should not be
allowed to interfere with $40 fence. It is
this that has wrung an emphatic protest from
Senator Dawes, and pathetic lamentation
from Secretary Whitney, and has even sug-
gested to the Hon. Frederick II. Dubois, Dele
gate in Congress from the Territory of Idaho,
the propriety of a joint resolution. The men
who drew up and circulated the petition for
the preservation Of the fence made one tao
tical bunder. They should have brought to
bear the beautiful enthusiasm of woman. No
girl who has ever leaned over the balconies
of the New Haven House while the incense of
college songs was waited past her to the star
lit sky will hear without emotion that the
fence on which the serenaders perched will
soon be nothing more than tradition.
Having paid this feeble tribute to the grace,
the glory and the goodness Of Yales most
cherished institution, we venture to remark
that if the corporation had yielded to senti-
mental pressure and rejected tho chance to
secure a building essential to the welfare of
the college, it's action would have been abso-
lutolv indefensible.