The Holly chieftain., 1913-01-31
EARLY DAYS OF YALE
WHEN THE FAMOUS COLLEGE
WAS IN ITS INFANCY.
Wonderful Changes Have Been Made,
as the World Moved On-Athietic
Field a Thing Unknown to
the Founders.

On Saturday, November, %, at New
Haven. the Yale and Harvard football
gladiators matched their wits and
stamina In struggle for victory be-
fore forty thousand persons of both
sexes waving flags and shouting at
the top of their lungs. 1t is a pity
that Dr. David F. Atwater of Spring
field, the Oldest living graduate Of
Yale. class of 1889. could not see the
performance, for there was nothing
like it in his days at college. The
spectacle would be too strenuous for
the old gentleman, however, and as
for getting to the field of battle and
returning safely to his home without
physical hurt or mental collapse. it is
not to be thought of as feasible at his
age. Football as visual diversion is
a game for youth and for vigorous
middle life.
When DR.. Atwater was at New Hav-
en- the students were not athletic.
What they spent on college sports
would scarcely have filled a blind
mans cup with coppers. The doctor
remembers a gymnasium, but it was
very small, the apparatus was meager,
and the students made little use Of it.
One does not have to go further back
than the late seventies at Harvard to
remember that the gymnasium of that
comparatively modern day was a cir
cular brick building not much larger
than prosperous farmers smoke
house; ridiculously primitive and in
adequate was the equipment accord
ing to latter day notions, and the su.
perintendent was stout gray little
man who could spar and fence a bit,
but that was about all.
To return to Yale In 1S34-39, physi-
cal prowess seems to have been de-
manded only when town" and gown"
fought together, and brute Strength
was then more in evidence than skill
in boxing and wrestling. The college
leader in such affrays was known as
Major Bully, the biggest and sturdiest
man in his class, according to DR..
Atwater. Yale men were much given
to debating and literary expression.
"Linonia," brothers in Unity" and
"Calliope," were some of the societies
equipped with libraries and bristling
with logicians. the rivalry between
these organizations being intense.
Amusements of any kind were limited,
and from oyr point of view they were
tame enough. The New Haven &
Hartford railroad had not been built
when freshman Atwater entered col
lcge; so there was no running down
to New York to see the sights and to
dissipate. The stage coach and the
canal to Northampton afforded the
only means of transportation. Pro
fessor Benjamin Silliman was arguing
that it would never be possible to
build steamships powerful enough to
cross the Atlantic.
The college buildings then consist
ed of a row OF brick dormitories, a
plain chapel, an atheneum and lyceum
building in which the recitations were
held; round them all ran the old
wooden "Yale fence" Entrance ex-
aminations were oral and exclusively
classical. Flint and tinder supplied
ignition; imported friction matches,
few in number, were regarded as dan
gerous. DR.. Atwater remembers
tremendous demonstration of livery
stable men against the projected New
Haven & Hartford railroad because
it would injure their business. Such
was Yale in the old days in the men,
ory of an alumnus still living.-New