The Washington herald., 1908-01-12


lowed to join clubs and to make such
arrangements as they could with board
/ ing houses for their meals. 1t was deem
ed undesirable that they all be required
TO eat at the same place. 1t was pointed
out TO President Jeremiah Day that a
watch could be kept upon the STUDENT
the names and personnel of the variouC
clubs kept. and If any trouble arose il
could easily be traced to its source.
AT a meeting OF the faculty one day.
the Older members thought to draw our
fire. as Il We're. and voted not 10 make
the commons optional. but to abolish the
institution altogether for that term. It
came as a tremendous surprise 10 US, but
we could i'll conceal our satisfaction.
We We're nightly pleased, but said little
in public. letting the students know about
II only gradually and without great
proclamation. The student body seemed
greatly pleased, and the plan was tried.
We had the most peaceable term ever
known / do not recall that a single
complaint was made. Everything was
lovely and the goose hung high. 1t was
a great joke on the older members of the
faculty. Never after that was commons
compulsory.
Il went down to Yale not long ago, and
one of the college officials took me TO the
big dining hall there and showed me
how they feed LOO students there at a
time II is wonderful. The contrast TO
my student days is most marked. The
management is like that of a great no
tel"
sports Were FrOwned On,
OF the game of football as It used to
be played two generations ago at Yale,
Mr. Ely was particularly fond, but he
recalled little Of baseball games or other
sports There was no keen rivalry on
the diamond or gridirOn between picked
teams Of colleges, as to-day. Even with
Harvard there were no athletic relations.
Football OF the old-fashioned kind was
all that was played. according TO Mr..
Ely. in the SOS and 40s, and then the
game was nothing Ike the scientific
struggle of this day and generation.
NO, there weren't any such amuse-
ments as are in vogue now" he went on.
AN that is now encouraged in that line
was then frOWned upon and barred We
couldn't play billiards, or even ninepins.
Cards were never allowed and were play
ed only under cover. There was pTac-
tically no gambling Of any sort. Some
Of the lively youngsters who were sent
north from Virginia ana other Southern
States, more 10 be governed than any
thing else because their parents couldn't
do It, would occasionally play cards; but
they had to be very secret about it,
About the worst dissipation a Yale
man engaged IN at that time was break
ing a window in another students room
When the young fellows felt as if they
had 10 let of steam, they would occa-
sjonaily shatter "a few panes OF glass.
The Southeners were the most
troublesome in this respect also. Still, l
counted some OF them among my closest
friends Public opinion among the stu
dents largely governed and exerted de
terTing influences over the !awlessly in
clined
This old-fashioned game Of football
was the real sport 1t wasn't played at
all as college boys play it now. There
was nothing worse than b3rked shins IN
those days, with an occasional bruise or
confusion. It wasn't a case Of breaking
limbs every little while and Juggling
men half dead of the CORY field
still. il was plenty lively enough Two
Of the best players would be delegated
10 choose up sides Sometimes half the
college would engage in a game which
consisted chiefly of kicking not one an
other. but the ball. That was entirely
round, not eiipticai and was made of
an OK bladder blown up as hard as pos
sible and covered with & leather jacket
After the sides had been chosen they
would retire 10 their bounds and the BAN
would be put in play. The game became
"a general fight for all and the side which
got the bali over the other sides line
won. The field was usually the whole
length of the front campus and the fence
at either end was the goal II was very
exciting, and by no means a tame sport
even compared with the game as it g.
played to-day"
Mr.. Ely was the third Of the name, rep
resenting three generations, to graduate
from Yale. His father William Ely. was
graduated in the class OF 17S7. and his
grandfather. Rev. Richard Ely, OF Say
brook, Conn, in 1854 William Davis Ely
was born in Hartford, June 16. 1915. and
prepared for college at the Hopkins
Grammar School in that city. He en-
tered Yale in 1882.