Chapter 19

See COLLEGE BIBLE.

FRESHMAN SERVITUDE. The custom which formerly prevailed in the older American colleges of allowing the members of all the upper classes to send Freshmen upon errands, and in other ways to treat them as inferiors, appears at the present day strange and almost unaccountable. That our forefathers had reasons which they deemed sufficient, not only for allowing, but sanctioning, this subjection, we cannot doubt; but what these were, we are not able to know from any accounts which have come down to us from the past.

"On attending prayers the first evening," says one who graduated at Harvard College near the close of the last century, "no sooner had the President pronounced the concluding 'Amen,' than one of the Sophomores sung out, 'Stop, Freshmen, and hear the customs read.'" An account of these customs is given in President Quincy's History of Harvard University, Vol. II. p. 539. It is entitled,

"THE ANCIENT CUSTOMS OF HARVARD COLLEGE, ESTABLISHED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF IT."

"1. No Freshman shall wear his hat in the College yard, unless it rains, hails, or snows, provided he be on foot, and have not both hands full.

"2. No Undergraduate shall wear his hat in the College yard when any of the Governors of the College are there; and no Bachelor shall wear his hat when the President is there.

"3. Freshmen are to consider all the other classes as their seniors.

"4. No Freshman shall speak to a Senior[26] with his hat on, or have it on in a Senior's chamber, or in his own, if a Senior be there.

"5. All the Undergraduates shall treat those in the Government of the College with respect and deference; particularly they shall not be seated without leave in their presence; they shall be uncovered when they speak to them or are spoken to by them.

"6. All Freshmen (except those employed by the Immediate Government of the College) shall be obliged to go on any errand (except such as shall be judged improper by some one in the Government of the College) for any of his Seniors, Graduates or Undergraduates, at any time, except in studying hours, or after nine o'clock in the evening.

"7. A Senior Sophister has authority to take a Freshman from a Sophomore, a Middle Bachelor from a Junior Sophister, a Master from a Senior Sophister, and any Governor of the College from a Master.

"8. Every Freshman before he goes for the person who takes him away (unless it be one in the Government of the College) shall return and inform the person from whom he is taken.

"9. No Freshman, when sent on an errand, shall make any unnecessary delay, neglect to make due return, or go away till dismissed by the person who sent him.

"10. No Freshman shall be detained by a Senior, when not actually employed on some suitable errand.

"11. No Freshman shall be obliged to observe any order of a Senior to come to him, or go on any errand for him, unless he be wanted immediately.

"12. No Freshman, when sent on an errand, shall tell who he is going for, unless he be asked; nor be obliged to tell what he is going for, unless asked by a Governor of the College.

"13. When any person knocks at a Freshman's door, except in studying time, he shall immediately open the door, without inquiring who is there.

"14. No scholar shall call up or down, to or from, any chamber in the College.

"15. No scholar shall play football or any other game in the College yard, or throw any thing across the yard.

"16. The Freshmen shall furnish bats, balls, and footballs for the use of the students, to be kept at the Buttery.[27]

"17. Every Freshman shall pay the Butler for putting up his name in the Buttery.

"18. Strict attention shall be paid by all the students to the common rules of cleanliness, decency, and politeness.

"The Sophomores shall publish these customs to the Freshmen in the Chapel, whenever ordered by any in the Government of the College; at which time the Freshmen are enjoined to keep their places in their seats, and attend with decency to the reading."

At the close of a manuscript copy of the laws of Harvard College, transcribed by Richard Waldron, a graduate of the class of 1738, when a Freshman, are recorded the following regulations, which differ from those already cited, not only in arrangement, but in other respects.

COLLEGE CUSTOMS, ANNO 1734-5.

"1. No Freshman shall ware his hat in the College yard except it rains, snows, or hails, or he be on horse back or haith both hands full.

"2. No Freshman shall ware his hat in his Seniors Chamber, or in his own if his Senior be there.

"3. No Freshman shall go by his Senior, without taking his hat of if it be on.

"4. No Freshman shall intrude into his Seniors company.

"5. No Freshman shall laugh in his Seniors face.

"6. No Freshman shall talk saucily to his Senior, or speak to him with his hat on.

"7. No Freshman shall ask his Senior an impertinent question.

"8. Freshmen are to take notice that a Senior Sophister can take a Freshman from a Sophimore,[28] a Middle Batcelour from a Junior Sophister, a Master from a Senior Sophister, and a Fellow[29] from a Master.

"9. Freshmen are to find the rest of the Scholars with bats, balls, and foot balls.

"10. Freshmen must pay three shillings a peice to the Butler to have there names set up in the Buttery.

"11. No Freshman shall loiter by the [way] when he is sent of an errand, but shall make hast and give a direct answer when he is asked who he is going [for]. No Freshman shall use lying or equivocation to escape going of an errand.

"12. No Freshman shall tell who [he] is going [for] except he be asked, nor for what except he be asked by a Fellow.

"13. No Freshman shall go away when he haith been sent of an errand before he be dismissed, which may be understood by saying, it is well, I thank you, you may go, or the like.

"14. When a Freshman knocks at his Seniors door he shall tell [his] name if asked who.

"15. When anybody knocks at a Freshmans door, he shall not aske who is there, but shall immediately open the door.

"16. No Freshman shall lean at prayrs but shall stand upright.

"17. No Freshman shall call his classmate by the name of Freshmen.

"18. No Freshman shall call up or down to or from his Seniors chamber or his own.

"19. No Freshman shall call or throw anything across the College yard.

"20. No Freshman shall mingo against the College wall, nor go into the Fellows cus john.[30]

"21. Freshmen may ware there hats at dinner and supper, except when they go to receive there Commons of bread and bear.

"22. Freshmen are so to carry themselves to there Seniors in all respects so as to be in no wise saucy to them, and who soever of the Freshmen shall brake any of these customs shall be severely punished."

Another manuscript copy of these singular regulations bears date September, 1741, and is entitled,

"THE CUSTOMS OF HARVARD COLLEGE, WHICH IF THE FRESHMEN DON'T OBSERVE AND OBEY, THEY SHALL BE SEVERELY PUNISHED IF THEY HAVE HEARD THEM READ."

"1. No Freshman shall wear his hat in the College yard, except it rains, hails, or snows, he be on horseback, or hath both hands full.

"2. No Freshman shall pass by his Senior, without pulling his hat off.

"3. No Freshman shall be saucy to his Senior, or speak to him with his hat on.

"4. No Freshman shall laugh in his Senior's face.

"5. No Freshman shall ask his Senior any impertinent question.

"6. No Freshman shall intrude into his Senior's company.

"7. Freshmen are to take notice that a Senior Sophister can take a Freshman from a Sophimore, a Master from a Senior Sophister, and a Fellow from a Master.

"8. When a Freshman is sent of an errand, he shall not loiter by the way, but shall make haste, and give a direct answer if asked who he is going for.

"9. No Freshman shall tell who he is a going for (unless asked), or what he is a going for, unless asked by a Fellow.

"10. No Freshman, when he is going of errands, shall go away, except he be dismissed, which is known by saying, 'It is well,' 'You may go,' 'I thank you,' or the like.

"11. Freshman are to find the rest of the scholars with bats, balls, and footballs.

"12. Freshmen shall pay three shillings to the Butler to have their names set up in the Buttery.

"13. No Freshman shall wear his hat in his Senior's chambers, nor in his own if his Senior be there.

"14. When anybody knocks at a Freshman's door, he shall not ask who is there, but immediately open the door.

"15. When a Freshman knocks at his Senior's door, he shall tell his name immediately.

"16. No Freshman shall call his classmate by the name of Freshman.

"17. No Freshman shall call up or down, to or from his Senior's chamber or his own.

"18. No Freshman shall call or throw anything across the College yard, nor go into the Fellows' Cuz-John.

"19. No Freshman shall mingo against the College walls.

"20. Freshmen are to carry themselves, in all respects, as to be in no wise saucy to their Seniors.

"21. Whatsoever Freshman shall break any of these customs, he shall be severely punished."

A written copy of these regulations in Latin, of a very early date, is still extant. They appear first in English, in the fourth volume of the Immediate Government Books, 1781, p. 257. The two following laws--one of which was passed soon after the establishment of the College, the other in the year 1734--seem to have been the foundation of these rules. "Nulli ex scholaribus senioribus, solis tutoribus et collegii sociis exceptis, recentem sive juniorem, ad itinerandum, aut ad aliud quodvis faciendum, minis, verberibus, vel aliis modis impellere licebit. Et siquis non gradatus in hanc legem peccaverit, castigatione corporali, expulsione, vel aliter, prout præsidi cum sociis visum fuerit punietur."--_Mather's Magnalia_, B. IV. p. 133.

"None belonging to the College, except the President, Fellows, Professors, and Tutors, shall by threats or blows compel a Freshman or any Undergraduate to any duty or obedience; and if any Undergraduate shall offend against this law, he shall be liable to have the privilege of sending Freshmen taken from him by the President and Tutors, or be degraded or expelled, according to the aggravation of the offence. Neither shall any Senior scholars, Graduates or Undergraduates, send any Freshman on errands in studying hours, without leave from one of the Tutors, his own Tutor if in College."--_Peirce's Hist. Harv. Univ._, App., p. 141.

That this privilege of sending Freshmen on errands was abused in some cases, we see from an account of "a meeting of the Corporation in Cambridge, March 27th, 1682," at which time notice was given that "great complaints have been made and proved against ----, for his abusive carriage, in requiring some of the Freshmen to go upon his private errands, and in striking the said Freshmen."

In the year 1772, "the Overseers having repeatedly recommended abolishing the custom of allowing the upper classes to send Freshmen on errands, and the making of a law exempting them from such services, the Corporation voted, that, 'after deliberate consideration and weighing all circumstances, they are not able to project any plan in the room of this long and ancient custom, that will not, in their opinion, be attended with equal, if not greater, inconveniences.'" It seems, however, to have fallen into disuse, for a time at least, after this period; for in June, 1786, "the retaining men or boys to perform the services for which Freshmen had been heretofore employed," was declared to be a growing evil, and was prohibited by the Corporation.--_Quincy's Hist. Harv. Univ._, Vol. I. p. 515; Vol. II. pp. 274, 277.

The upper classes being thus forbidden to employ persons not connected with the College to wait upon them, the services of Freshmen were again brought into requisition, and they were not wholly exempted from menial labor until after the year 1800.

Another service which the Freshmen were called on to perform, was once every year to shake the carpets of the library and Philosophy Chamber in the Chapel.

Those who refused to comply with these regulations were not allowed to remain in College, as appears from the following circumstance, which happened about the year 1790. A young man from the West Indies, of wealthy and highly respectable parents, entered Freshman, and soon after, being ordered by a member of one of the upper classes to go upon an errand for him, refused, at the same time saying, that if he had known it was the custom to require the lower class to wait on the other classes, he would have brought a slave with him to perform his share of these duties. In the common phrase of the day, he was _hoisted_, i.e. complained of to a tutor, and on being told that he could not remain at College if he did not comply with its regulations, he took up his connections and returned home.

With reference to some of the observances which were in vogue at Harvard College in the year 1794, the recollections of Professor Sidney Willard are these:--

"It was the practice, at the time of my entrance at College, for the Sophomore Class, by a member selected for the purpose, to communicate to the Freshmen, in the Chapel, 'the Customs,' so called; the Freshmen being required to 'keep their places in their seats, and attend with decency to the reading.' These customs had been handed down from remote times, with some modifications not essentially changing them. Not many days after our seats were assigned to us in the Chapel, we were directed to remain after evening prayers and attend to the reading of the customs; which direction was accordingly complied with, and they were read and listened to with decorum and gravity. Whether the ancient customs of outward respect, which forbade a Freshman 'to wear his hat in the College yard, unless it rains, hails, or snows, provided he be on foot, and have not both hands full,' as if the ground on which he trod and the atmosphere around him were consecrated, and the article which extends the same prohibition to all undergraduates, when any of the governors of the College are in the yard, were read, I cannot say; but I think they were not; for it would have disturbed that gravity which I am confident was preserved during the whole reading. These prescripts, after a long period of obsolescence, had become entirely obsolete.

"The most degrading item in the list of customs was that which made Freshmen subservient to all the other classes; which obliged those who were not employed by the Immediate Government of the College to go on any errand, not judged improper by an officer of the government, or in study hours, for any of the other classes, the Senior having the prior right to the service.... The privilege of claiming such service, and the obligation, on the other hand, to perform it, doubtless gave rise to much abuse, and sometimes to unpleasant conflict. A Senior having a claim to the service of a Freshman prior to that of the classes below them, it had become a practice not uncommon, for a Freshman to obtain a Senior, to whom, as a patron and friend, he acknowledged and avowed a permanent service due, and whom he called _his_ Senior by way of eminence, thus escaping the demands that might otherwise be made upon him for trivial or unpleasant errands. The ancient custom was never abolished by authority, but died with the change of feeling; so that what might be demanded as a right came to be asked as a favor, and the right was resorted to only as a sort of defensive weapon, as a rebuke of a supposed impertinence, or resentment of a real injury."--_Memories of Youth and Manhood_, Vol. I. pp. 258, 259.

The following account of this system, as it formerly obtained at Yale College, is from President Woolsey's Historical Discourse before the Graduates of that Institution, Aug. 14, 1850:--

"Another remarkable particular in the old system here was the servitude of Freshmen,--for such it really deserved to be called. The new-comers--as if it had been to try their patience and endurance in a novitiate before being received into some monastic order--were put into the hands of Seniors, to be reproved and instructed in manners, and were obliged to run upon errands for the members of all the upper classes. And all this was very gravely meant, and continued long in use. The Seniors considered it as a part of the system to initiate the ignorant striplings into the college system, and performed it with the decorum of dancing-masters. And, if the Freshmen felt the burden, the upper classes who had outlived it, and were now reaping the advantages of it, were not willing that the custom should die in their time.

"The following paper, printed I cannot tell when, but as early as the year 1764, gives information to the Freshmen in regard to their duty of respect towards the officers, and towards the older students. It is entitled 'FRESHMAN LAWS,' and is perhaps part of a book of customs which was annually read for the instruction of new-comers.

"'It being the duty of the Seniors to teach Freshmen the laws, usages, and customs of the College, to this end they are empowered to order the whole Freshman Class, or any particular member of it, to appear, in order to be instructed or reproved, at such time and place as they shall appoint; when and where every Freshman shall attend, answer all proper questions, and behave decently. The Seniors, however, are not to detain a Freshman more than five minutes after study bell, without special order from the President, Professor, or Tutor.

"'The Freshmen, as well as all other Undergraduates, are to be uncovered, and are forbidden to wear their hats (unless in stormy weather) in the front door-yard of the President's or Professor's house, or within ten rods of the person of the President, eight rods of the Professor, and five rods of a Tutor.

"'The Freshmen are forbidden to wear their hats in College yard (except in stormy weather, or when they are obliged to carry something in their hands) until May vacation; nor shall they afterwards wear them in College or Chapel.

"'No Freshman shall wear a gown, or walk with a cane, or appear out of his room without being completely dressed, and with his hat; and whenever a Freshman either speaks to a superior or is spoken to by one, he shall keep his hat off until he is bidden to put it on. A Freshman shall not play with any members of an upper class, without being asked; nor is he permitted to use any acts of familiarity with them, even in study time.

"'In case of personal insult, a Junior may call up a Freshman and reprehend him. A Sophomore, in like case, must obtain leave from a Senior, and then he may discipline a Freshman, not detaining him more than five minutes, after which the Freshman may retire, even without being dismissed, but must retire in a respectful manner.

"'Freshmen are obliged to perform all reasonable errands for any superior, always returning an account of the same to the person who sent them. When called, they shall attend and give a respectful answer; and when attending on their superior, they are not to depart until regularly dismissed. They are responsible for all damage done to anything put into their hands by way of errand. They are not obliged to go for the Undergraduates in study time, without permission obtained from the authority; nor are they obliged to go for a graduate out of the yard in study time. A Senior may take a Freshman from a Sophimore, a Bachelor from a Junior, and a Master from a Senior. None may order a Freshman in one play time, to do an errand in another.

"'When a Freshman is near a gate or door belonging to College or College yard, he shall look around and observe whether any of his superiors are coming to the same; and if any are coming within three rods, he shall not enter without a signal to proceed. In passing up or down stairs, or through an entry or any other narrow passage, if a Freshman meets a superior, he shall stop and give way, leaving the most convenient side,--if on the stairs, the banister side. Freshmen shall not run in College yard, or up or down stairs, or call to any one through a College window. When going into the chamber of a superior, they shall knock at the door, and shall leave it as they find it, whether open or shut. Upon entering the chamber of a superior, they shall not speak until spoken to; they shall reply modestly to all questions, and perform their messages decently and respectfully. They shall not tarry in a superior's room, after they are dismissed, unless asked to sit. They shall always rise whenever a superior enters or leaves the room where they are, and not sit in his presence until permitted.

"'These rules are to be observed, not only about College, but everywhere else within the limits of the city of New Haven.'

"This is certainly a very remarkable document, one which it requires some faith to look on as originating in this land of universal suffrage, in the same century with the Declaration of Independence. He who had been moulded and reduced into shape by such a system might soon become expert in the punctilios of the court of Louis the Fourteenth.

"This system, however, had more tenacity of life than might be supposed. In 1800 we still find it laid down as the Senior's duty to inspect the manners and customs of the lower classes, and especially of the Freshmen; and as the duty of the latter to do any proper errand, not only for the authorities of the College, but also, within the limits of one mile, for Resident Graduates and for the two upper classes. By degrees the old usage sank down so far, that what the laws permitted was frequently abused for the purpose of playing tricks upon the inexperienced Freshmen; and then all evidence of its ever having been current disappeared from the College code. The Freshmen were formally exempted from the duty of running upon errands in 1804."--pp. 54-56.

Among the "Laws of Yale College," published in 1774, appears the following regulation: "Every Freshman is obliged to do any proper Errand or Message, required of him by any one in an upper class, which if he shall refuse to do, he shall be punished. Provided that in Study Time no Graduate may send a Freshman out of College Yard, or an Undergraduate send him anywhere at all without Liberty first obtained of the President or Tutor."--pp. 14, 15.

In a copy of the "Laws" of the above date, which formerly belonged to Amasa Paine, who entered the Freshman Class at Yale in 1781, is to be found a note in pencil appended to the above regulation, in these words: "This Law was annulled when Dr. [Matthew] Marvin, Dr. M.J. Lyman, John D. Dickinson, William Bradley, and Amasa Paine were classmates, and [they] claimed the Honor of abolishing it." The first three were graduated at Yale in the class of 1785; Bradley was graduated at the same college in 1784 and Paine, after spending three years at Yale, was graduated at Harvard College in the class of 1785.

As a part of college discipline, the upper classes were sometimes deprived of the privilege of employing the services of Freshmen. The laws on this subject were these:--

"If any Scholar shall write or publish any scandalous Libel about the President, a Fellow, Professor, or Tutor, or shall treat any one of them with any reproachful or reviling Language, or behave obstinately, refractorily, or contemptuously towards either of them, or be guilty of any Kind of Contempt, he may be punished by Fine, Admonition, be deprived the Liberty of sending Freshmen for a Time; by Suspension from all the Privileges of College; or Expulsion, according as the Nature and Aggravation of the Crime may require."