A Collection of College Words and CustomsHall, Benjamin Homer
History
A Collection of College Words and Customs
Hall, Benjamin Homer
College students -- United States -- Language; English language -- United States -- Slang; Slang
CLASS COMMITTEE. At Harvard College a committee of two persons,
joined with the _Class Secretary_, who is _ex officio_ its
chairman, whose duty it is, after the class has graduated, during
their lives to call class meetings, whenever they deem it
advisable, and to attend to all other business relating to the
class.
See under CLASS BOOK.
CLASS CRADLE. For some years it has been customary at Harvard
College for the Senior Class, at the meeting for the election of
the officers of Class Day, &c., to appropriate a certain sum of
money, usually not exceeding fifty dollars, for the purchase of a
cradle, to be given to the first member of the class to whom a
child is born in lawful wedlock at a suitable time after marriage.
This sum is intrusted to the hands of the _Class Secretary_, who
is expected to transmit the present to the successful candidate
upon the receipt of the requisite information. In one instance a
_Baby-jumper_ was voted by the class, to be given to the second
member who should be blessed as above stated.
CLASS CUP. It is a theory at Yale College, that each class
appropriates at graduating a certain amount of money for the
purchase of a silver cup, to be given, in the name of the class,
to the first member to whom a child shall be born in lawful
wedlock at a suitable time after marriage. Although the
presentation of the _class cup_ is often alluded to, yet it is
believed that the gift has in no instance been bestowed. It is to
be regretted that a custom so agreeable in theory could not be
reduced to practice.
Each man's mind was made up
To obtain the "_Class Cup_."
_Presentation Day Songs_, June 14, 1854.
See SILVER CUP.
CLASS DAY. The custom at Harvard College of observing with
appropriate exercises the day on which the Senior Class finish
their studies, is of a very early date. The first notice which
appears in reference to this subject is contained in an account of
the disorders which began to prevail among the students about the
year 1760. Among the evils to be remedied are mentioned the
"disorders upon the day of the Senior Sophisters meeting to choose
the officers of the class," when "it was usual for each scholar to
bring a bottle of wine with him, which practice the committee
(that reported upon it) apprehend has a natural tendency to
produce disorders." But the disturbances were not wholly confined
to the _meeting_ when the officers of Class Day were chosen; they
occurred also on Class Day, and it was for this reason that
frequent attempts were made at this period, by the College
government, to suppress its observance. How far their efforts
succeeded is not known, but it is safe to conclude that greater
interruptions were occasioned by the war of the Revolution, than
by the attempts to abolish what it would have been wiser to have
reformed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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