The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-01-20
LITTLE HAZ|NG At ,YHLE
FEW CASES OF THE PRACTICE
NOW IN ITS OLD
FORM
DIED OUT QUITE RECENTLY
Some Discipline Still for Individual
Freshmen and Some Encounters
Between the Classes-OId-
Time Tagging.

Hazing like that practiced at West
Point is thing of the past at Yale
There is an annual revival of the cd
custom during the first week of the col
lege year. but il is OF a weak sort COM
pared with the practice at West Point or
that of Yale fifty years ago, and rarely,
if ever, rises above mere horseplay. Once
in while a particularly contumacious
freshman will kick and the momentary
blaze of sophomore authority will afford
an evenings enjoyment, but, on the
whole, there is very little behavior at
Yale nowadays that justifies the name
hazing, says the New York Sun. The
practice, in fact, has diminished re-
markedly in the last five years and in a
year or two there will probably be hardly
anything worthy of the name remaining
in Yale customs.
Ir the old days a Yale hazing, or fag-
ging, was systematized. When or how
the custom was instituted is not known
but that it existed early in the history
of the college there is no doubt. In the
hrst manuscript set of rules for the col
lege, dated 1145, and row in posses son of
the university, there is a liberal space
set aside for the regulations concerning
tagging and the duties of the freshmen
toward the upper classmen. At that time
there was only che college bui ding, Ya,e
ground later used as the site for Old
South. There Were 103 students at the
institution and most of them We're housed
In the one building. There was an open
yard in front of Yale college, and this
was fenced off from College and Chapel
streets in front and on one side and from
the cornfields and back yards of residents
of the block on the other. The students
usually wore gowns when outside of III sir
rooms@and the regulations of-the institu-
ton were very strict. There were reg
ular hours for religious worship regular
hours for play and rules regarding alb
sence from the college yard. A student
might never venture outside the ward
without permission of the president, and
disregard of the rules regarding dress
was punishable by fines. Free speech
was forbidden and in 10 case cou d there
be "Reproachful reviing, disrespectfuI or
ceflturnaclous language" but on all oc-
caslons the students were enioined to
show tokens of reverence obedience and
respect" Whenever the president or any
of the three tutors appeared in the coll
lege yard it was obligatory upon the
students present to uncover their heads
rise up from their seats, cease their con-
Versation, bow and keep silence until
the officer passed out of the yaYd This
rule was in force as late as 1885, and is
preserved today in the universal dofing
OF caps to instructors on the campus and
streets.
Says the old manuscript law books of
the college in 1745: 'tAlI undergrad 5l,a les
shall be uncovered in the college ward
when the president, either Of the fellows
or the tutors are there, and when they
are in sight or view in any other place
All bachelors of the arts shall uncover
in the yard when the president is there
ana all scholars shall bow when he pass
es INTO or out from the meeting hall"
This custom is still preserved in the dig
nif1ed bowling of all seniors in the college
chapel when the president passes out.
1t is an old custom that Yale men delight
TO preserve. A few years ago d president
OF Yale Sought to defeat the purpose of
the students to bow him out on the oc-
casion of his service in the chapel, and
TO the establishment of the mex he dis
appeared through a side door of the
chapel while preparations were being
made for him in the middle aisle The
seniors raised great uproar over this
marked deviation from eollege custom
and piled out through doors and windows
after the president. He was seen making
rapid progress toward his GomiciIe. The
seniors took after him at full speed and
lining up along the sidewalk, gave him
the stately bow of the ceremony. One
bow was not enough. The first in line
ran around back of the line and took
places at the other end. making his prog
ress one long triumphal path The next
morning and ever afterward the pres:-
dent accepted the inevitable.
The life of the freshman must have
been trying to the soul in those carly
days. The hours for study were mapped
out precisely by the president, and any
Infringement of the rules was met with
instant punishment. The only time a
student might be absent from his room
was Tor half hour after breakfast an
hour and a half after dinner, and be-
tween prayers in the evening and at
o'clock. If he was caught awav from
his room without leave in the hours sneci-
hed Tor work the freshman was fined two
pence. EITHER the president or one of
the tutors made sudden descent on the
dormitory chambers after 8 D. m. To see
IL the students were where they were
expected to be. To go out of the college
yard without hat or coat or gown was
punished by fine of three pence. To
go beyond two miles from the coJlega
yard without permission usually resulted
in rustication for a fortnight TO go in
swimming within sight of residents of
the town often resulted in dismissal
from college, as did drinking in pubic
places of entertainments with any of the
fair maidcns of the town
In the 1145 college laws there is some
reference to the system of tagging in use
IN those days, but a fuller statement of
1t is obtained from the laws of President
Daggett, of 1865, which are recorded in
the queer cramped hand of the doctor
OF divinity According to this manu-
script every freshman was obliged by the
laws of the college to go on errands when
sent by any student in the superior
classes. If he refused he was Immediate
ly punished sometimes by fine, quite
as often corporally by the upper class
man, whose orders were disobeyed, and
IN the presence of senior or tutor.
South Middle and Athenaeum had by
TINS time been added to the college build
lngs. and the freshmen were divided
among the rooms of the upper classmen
IKE Wallets In each room lived three
men, two upper classmen and their fag-
the freshman Until 1867 the classes We're
not alphabetically, but in ac
with the rank of their families
md men OF the highest court roomed
losether and chose fag of nearly equal
social station. The freshman was sup
posed to do anything and everything he
was told to do, and no refusal from him
was permitted. No graduates sould send
a rag on an errand out of the college
yard, however, and no freshman could be
called upon for duty in studying time
without the consent of a tutor. The
freshmen acted as messengers for uppe7
lassmen on all sorts of errands, and their
only safeguard was the provision that
they need not obey orders that involved |
needless, unreasonable or vexatious err
rand Should such an errand be forced |
upon them they had the privilege of COM
planning to the president to. whom +ha |