The New York herald., 1921-11-27

alive the old traditions. captains room
has been fitted out with a gallery of photo
graphs showing various former captains OF
the major sports leaning against the campus
fence in regulation Yale fashion. To the
casual observer there is some air of mystery
about the captains room, some secret design
that only the initiated can penetrate.
Actually, it is used for club and other meet
ings, parliamentary to the last rap of the
gavel.
Table tops carved with initials OF Yale
heroes are used as wall panels throughout
Mory's Heffelfnger, Dutch" Goebel, Wally
Winter, Tom Shevlin, Hinkey. Ted Coy
men who gave Yale her greatest triumphs-
cut their initials in the tables that Mory is
preserving for posterity.
There are no more initials being carved
to-day. The old enthusiasm has gone. The
mystic atmosphere of the inner room even
shrouded in the customary haze of blue
smoke has lost its drawing power. The old
spirit has vanished.
Crepe hangs on the door of Heublein's
and more crepe at the Hofbrau. The dis
penser of the Fish house punch has boarded
up his front. 1t was a losing fight. The
contraband still flows in quiet corners. but
it has ceased to become even an unofficial
part of the university activities.
At Harvard the prohibition pronounce
ment didn't strike such a death dealing blow.
Cambridge, in a manner of speaking, has
been accustomed to prohibition for 10, these
many years. More than score of years
ago Cambridge took advantage of a queer
quirk in the law, called local option, and
went dry. 1t has been dry" ever since.
But let it not be thought that this arbi-
trary ruling on the part of the Cambridge
council interfered with the traditions of a
college that had been standing since 1886.
While there was a bridge to Boston Harvard
was safe. Every club had it's bar and locker
system Every society had it's keg of beer
when occasion required. According to the
old charter, granted by Colonial Massachu-
setts, Harvard territory was beyond the law.
A police officer could set his foot on aca-
demic property only when armed with writ
of mandamus, a habeas corpus and few
other essentials of jurisprudence.
So for convivial gatherings in club house
and dormitory Harvard had little to worry
about. When man was formally elected
to a club he was presented with stein
along with the latch key, hat band and other
credentials of membership His name was
engraved on the stein. his class and his
number. He was given his hook in the
steinroom that should be inviolable through
out the ages. The stein was a symbol Of his
union with the order, his Identification in the
years to come, his solace in infirmity.
There were any number of pretty little
drinking traditions that Harvard might have
admitted in confidence. When a man came
to his majority he "set up keg for his
fellows There was nothing compulsory
about it. 1t was just one of those things
every Harvard man did without being told.
During the course of a long winter no
occasion was too slight to be celebrated by
a Beer Night. Even freshmen gave Beer
Nights to the seniors, to the juniors, to
themselves. The night before a game, the
night after a game the night after mid
years, the night before midyears, any night
in fact, could be painted red on the cal
endar simply by calling it a Beer Night.
For the less intimate celebrations not
part Of the regular curriculum, Boston was
the scene Of the revelry. Up until the winter
of 1911 this entailed a forty minute ride on
a crowded trolley car, with possibly sea-
going hack chartered for the return Journey.
Then came the subway. and Harvard Square
found itself eight minutes from the Parker
House bar. From that moment or Harvard
began to know Boston. side streets and all.
Wasn't it Mark Twain who suggested that
Harvard was conveniently located In the
poolroom at the Adams House? Ind that