The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-10-21
ACADEMIC COSTUMES.

The wearing of the traditional aca- demic costume by college officers and
 students, or by those holding academic
 degrees, on occasions of ceremony is to the American public still novelty.
 It is true that on the statute books of Columbia and one or two other colleges
 there were inscribed long ago pre-
 scriptions for distinctive and appro-
 priate dress, but the. custom of wear
 ing the cap, gown, and hood, belong
 ing to the different degrees soon died
 out, if ever it was at all generally
 adopted. Later came the movement
 for graduating classe in colleges to
 wear caps and gowns at their com
 mencement--at Yale the practice was
 introduced in 1878 and again In 1S91-
 but only then was the academic dress
 seen, and that too of the simplest type.
 It is only within few years that the
 brilliant colors and rich materials of
 the costumes appropriate to the grades
 higher than the Bachelors have been
 worn; and even now the sight is so un-
 wonted that a good deal of uncertainty
 exists in the popular mind as to what the various blues and scarlets and
 blacks signify, or why one gown is silk,
 another of serge.
 Confusing as the colors are when seen in procession or massed on the platform 1t is, however, not difficult matter to interpret them. They are all most all arranged according to sim pie but highly effective plan which a representative body of college delegates drew up some six years ago, It should be remembered first of all, that every faculty or department of the univer- sities have adopted distinctive coors, and that these colors appearing as fac ings or trimmings on the hoods show whether the weafer has received his degree from one or the other. Thus to name the chief ones, a hood faced and trimmed with scarlet means a degree in divinity, purple stands for law, blue for philosophy, green for medicine, white for arts and letters orange for science, pink for music, brown for fine arts Secondly, the hoods are lined with the distinctive color of the college the degree. Thus Doctor cf Laws of Yale wears a hood lined with blue, edged with purple; a Doc tor of Philosophy of Columbia appears in 8 hood lined with the pale blue and white with dark blue velvet or satin around It's edges in a band three or four inches wide. The bodies of these satin hoods are all black, and those for | I,L.D., and D. D., are cut rather more | amply than those worn by, say, a Mas ter of Arts, and have panels at the | sides There are some small differences in the hoods of some of the colleges, | but, broadly\speaking, the patterns and 2oor-plnns above described are those adopted by all the largest and most fa- nous American institutions of learn ng.
 The gowns are of serge for Bachelors, silk for Masters and Doctors The low est degree has long pointed sleeves, he Masters gowns have long square 'ornered extensions on their sleeves md a Doctors gown always is faced Town the front with velvet and barred with stripes of velvet on the sleeves. These trimmings may be black or black ,iped with color of wearer's degree, or Ill of scarlet or purple or blue, as the Iegree was given by this or that facul- " hN SpNllS dil biaCN are lnc ltstiSl !
 fective foundations for brilliant color ng of the hoods hanging from the houldcrs.
 All the colleges affect the traditional nortar- board cap; and here too an easy mark exists in the gold assels the doctors are allowed to wear Instead of the black ones worn by the achelors and masters. Mere and lore frequently these costumes are be- lg adopted for use at the more elab- rate of academic functions. Their use ,as very general at the Princeton an- iversary celebration, and at the re- ent inauguration of President Hadley f Yale there was hardly an official or
 delegate who did not appear in his dress.