The chapel has two transepts, one occupied by the juniors, the other by the sophomores. The seniors fill the seats on either side of the center aisle; while the freshmen are consigned to the gloomy region under the rear gallery. The deportment of the students during chapel exercises is, without exception, dignified and respectful. President Porter reads a selection from the scriptures and announces four verses of a hymn, which are sung by the choir. Then follows the “long prayer,” during which almost every head is bowed. It can not be denied, however, that many a lesson is rapidly scanned during this part of the devotions. At the close of the prayer all stand until the president and instructors have left the building. The seniors face the center aisle, and as the president passes make a low bow, bringing the body into a horizontal position. The effect from the galleries is ludicrous, and affords visitors no little amusement. Immediately after prayers the classes repair to their recitation rooms. Although compulsory prayers are not universally popular, yet if regarded merely as a means of securing regularity, and, by assembling the classes, of fostering a spirit of college unity, they are undeniably valuable. It would not do to describe Yale customs and neglect the “fence.” The uninitiated can not read of the “fence” and its traditions without a smile. To one who has not been a member of the Yale world, the customs of the fence seem as ridiculous as the antics and gambols of brokers on ’change. But having once, as a freshman, felt the joy of balancing on that “fence,” after defeating the Harvard freshman at base ball; as sophomore having displayed the wonders of the tailor’s art from the next higher division of the same perch; as junior having sung there the college songs, and watched the people “pass on the other side of the way,” and at last, as senior, having parted from one’s classmates there, the Yale “fence” must be to him more than any other dingy-brown, two-railed old structure can be. Among several privileges which are withheld from the freshman when he begins his course, is that of sitting on the “fence.” Most readers would not regard this in the light of a serious privation. But such it really seems to the new comer. As soon as the Yale freshmen defeat the Harvard freshmen at base ball, they are rewarded by being permitted to sit on the freshmen fence. A man on taking his seat in the United States Senate can not feel any more real satisfaction than a Yale freshman perched for the first time on the “fence we’ve won.” One of the most amusing exercises of commencement time is the presentation of the sophomore fence to the freshmen. A sophomore makes the speech of presentation, to which a freshman replies. These speeches are often bright and witty, and are received with great applause.