Chapter 3

This degree is not conferred in the United States.

B.D. An abbreviation for _Baccalaureus Divinitatis_, Bachelor in Divinity. In both the English Universities a B.D. must be an M.A. of seven years' standing, and at Oxford, a regent of the same length of time. The exercises necessary to the degree are at Cambridge one act after the fourth year, two opponencies, a clerum, and an English sermon. At Oxford, disputations are enjoined upon two distinct days before the Professors of the Faculty of Divinity, and a Latin sermon is preached before the Vice-Chancellor. The degree of Theologiæ Baccalaureus was conferred at Harvard College on Mr. Leverett, afterwards President of that institution, in 1692, and on Mr. William Brattle in the same year, the only instances, it is believed, in which this degree has been given in America.

BEADLE, BEDEL, BEDELL. An officer in a university, whose chief business is to walk with a mace, before the masters, in a public procession; or, as in America, before the president, trustees, faculty, and students of a college, in a procession, at public commencements.--_Webster_.

In the English universities there are two classes of Bedels, called the _Esquire_ and the _Yeoman Bedel_.

Of this officer as connected with Yale College, President Woolsey speaks as follows:--"The beadle or his substitute, the vice-beadle (for the sheriff of the county came to be invested with the office), was the master of processions, and a sort of gentleman-usher to execute the commands of the President. He was a younger graduate settled at or near the College. There is on record a diploma of President Clap's, investing with this office a graduate of three years' standing, and conceding to him 'omnia jura privilegia et auctoritates ad Bedelli officium, secundum collegiorum aut universitatum leges et consuetudines usitatas; spectantia.' The office, as is well known, still exists in the English institutions of learning, whence it was transferred first to Harvard and thence to this institution."--_Hist. Disc._, Aug., 1850, p. 43.

In an account of a Commencement at Williams College, Sept. 8, 1795, the order in which the procession was formed was as follows: "First, the scholars of the academy; second, students of college; third, the sheriff of the county acting as _Bedellus_," &c.--_Federal Orrery_, Sept. 28, 1795.

The _Beadle_, by order, made the following declaration.--_Clap's Hist. Yale Coll._, 1766, p. 56.

It shall be the duty of the Faculty to appoint a _College Beadle_, who shall direct the procession on Commencement day, and preserve order during the exhibitions.--_Laws Yale Coll._, 1837, p. 43.

BED-MAKER. One whose occupation is to make beds, and, as in colleges and universities, to take care of the students' rooms. Used both in the United States and England.

T' other day I caught my _bed-maker_, a grave old matron, poring very seriously over a folio that lay open upon my table. I asked her what she was reading? "Lord bless you, master," says she, "who I reading? I never could read in my life, blessed be God; and yet I loves to look into a book too."--_The Student_, Vol. I. p. 55, 1750.

I asked a _bed-maker_ where Mr. ----'s chambers were.--_Gent. Mag._, 1795, p. 118.

While the grim _bed-maker_ provokes the dust, And soot-born atoms, which his tomes encrust. _The College.--A sketch in verse_, in _Blackwood's Mag._, May, 1849.

The _bed-makers_ are the women who take care of the rooms: there is about one to each staircase, that is to say, to every eight rooms. For obvious reasons they are selected from such of the fair sex as have long passed the age at which they might have had any personal attractions. The first intimation which your bed-maker gives you is that she is bound to report you to the tutor if ever you stay out of your rooms all night.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 15.

BEER-COMMENT. In the German universities, the student's drinking code.

The _beer-comment_ of Heidelberg, which gives the student's code of drinking, is about twice the length of our University book of statutes.--_Lond. Quar. Rev._, Am. Ed., Vol. LXXIII. p. 56.

BEMOSSED HEAD. In the German universities, a student during the sixth and last term, or _semester_, is called a _Bemossed Head_, "the highest state of honor to which man can attain."--_Howitt_.

See MOSS-COVERED HEAD.

BENE. Latin, _well_. A word sometimes attached to a written college exercise, by the instructor, as a mark of approbation.

When I look back upon my college life, And think that I one starveling _bene_ got. _Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 402.

BENE DISCESSIT. Latin; literally, _he has departed honorably_. This phrase is used in the English universities to signify that the student leaves his college to enter another by the express consent and approbation of the Master and Fellows.--_Gradus ad Cantab._

Mr. Pope being about to remove from Trinity to Emmanuel, by _Bene-Discessit_, was desirous of taking my rooms.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. I. p. 167.

BENEFICIARY. One who receives anything as a gift, or is maintained by charity.--_Blackstone_.

In American colleges, students who are supported on established foundations are called _beneficiaries_. Those who receive maintenance from the American Education Society are especially designated in this manner.

No student who is a college _beneficiary_ shall remain such any longer than he shall continue exemplary for sobriety, diligence, and orderly conduct.--_Laws of Univ. at Cam., Mass._, 1848, p. 19.

BEVER. From the Italian _bevere_, to drink. An intermediate refreshment between breakfast and dinner.--_Morison_.

At Harvard College, dinner was formerly the only meal which was regularly taken in the hall. Instead of breakfast and supper, the students were allowed to receive a bowl of milk or chocolate, with a piece of bread, from the buttery hatch, at morning and evening; this they could eat in the yard, or take to their rooms and eat there. At the appointed hour for _bevers_, there was a general rush for the buttery, and if the walking happened to be bad, or if it was winter, many ludicrous accidents usually occurred. One perhaps would slip, his bowl would fly this way and his bread that, while he, prostrate, afforded an excellent stumbling-block to those immediately behind him; these, falling in their turn, spattering with the milk themselves and all near them, holding perhaps their spoons aloft, the only thing saved from the destruction, would, after disentangling themselves from the mass of legs, arms, etc., return to the buttery, and order a new bowl, to be charged with the extras at the close of the term.

Similar in thought to this account are the remarks of Professor Sidney Willard concerning Harvard College in 1794, in his late work, entitled, "Memories of Youth and Manhood." "The students who boarded in commons were obliged to go to the kitchen-door with their bowls or pitchers for their suppers, when they received their modicum of milk or chocolate in their vessel, held in one hand, and their piece of bread in the other, and repaired to their rooms to take their solitary repast. There were suspicions at times that the milk was diluted by a mixture of a very common tasteless fluid, which led a sagacious Yankee student to put the matter to the test by asking the simple carrier-boy why his mother did not mix the milk with warm water instead of cold. 'She does,' replied the honest youth. This mode of obtaining evening commons did not prove in all cases the most economical on the part of the fed. It sometimes happened, that, from inadvertence or previous preparation for a visit elsewhere, some individuals had arrayed themselves in their dress-coats and breeches, and in their haste to be served, and by jostling in the crowd, got sadly sprinkled with milk or chocolate, either by accident or by the stealthy indulgence of the mischievous propensities of those with whom they came in contact; and oftentimes it was a scene of confusion that was not the most pleasant to look upon or be engaged in. At breakfast the students were furnished, in Commons Hall, with tea, coffee, or milk, and a small loaf of bread. The age of a beaker of beer with a certain allowance of bread had expired."--Vol. I. pp. 313, 314.

No scholar shall be absent above an hour at morning _bever_, half an hour at evening _bever_, &c.--_Quincy's Hist. Harv. Univ._, Vol. I. p. 517.

The butler is not bound to stay above half an hour at _bevers_ in the buttery after the tolling of the bell.--_Ibid._, Vol. I. p. 584.

BEVER. To take a small repast between meals.--_Wallis_.

BIBLE CLERK. In the University of Oxford, the _Bible clerks_ are required to attend the service of the chapel, and to deliver in a list of the absent undergraduates to the officer appointed to enforce the discipline of the institution. Their duties are different in different colleges.--_Oxford Guide_.

A _Bible clerk_ has seldom too many friends in the University.--_Blackwood's Mag._, Vol. LX., Eng. ed., p. 312.

In the University of Cambridge, Eng., "a very ancient scholarship, so called because the student who was promoted to that office was enjoined to read the Bible at meal-times."--_Gradus ad Cantab._

BIENNIAL EXAMINATION. At Yale College, in addition to the public examinations of the classes at the close of each term, on the studies of the term, private examinations are also held twice in the college course, at the close of the Sophomore and Senior years, on the studies of the two preceding years. The latter are called _biennial_.--_Yale Coll. Cat._

"The _Biennial_," remarks the writer of the preface to the _Songs of Yale_, "is an examination occurring twice during the course,--at the close of the Sophomore and of the Senior years,--in all the studies pursued during the two years previous. It was established in 1850."--Ed. 1853, p. 4.

The system of examinations has been made more rigid, especially by the introduction of _biennials_.--_Centennial Anniversary of the Linonian Soc._, Yale Coll., 1853, p. 70.

Faculty of College got together one night, To have a little congratulation, For they'd put their heads together and hatched out a load, And called it "_Bien. Examination_." _Presentation Day Songs_, June 14, 1854.

BIG-WIG. In the English universities, the higher dignitaries among the officers are often spoken of as the _big-wigs._

Thus having anticipated the approbation of all, whether Freshman, Sophomore, Bachelor, or _Big-Wig_, our next care is the choice of a patron.--_Pref._ to _Grad. ad Cantab._

BISHOP. At Cambridge, Eng., this beverage is compounded of port-wine mulled and burnt, with the addenda of roasted lemons and cloves.--_Gradus ad Cantab._

We'll pass round the _Bishop_, the spice-breathing cup. _Will. Sentinel's Poems_.

BITCH. Among the students of the University of Cambridge, Eng., a common name for tea.

The reading man gives no swell parties, runs very little into debt, takes his cup of _bitch_ at night, and goes quietly to bed. --_Grad. ad Cantab._, p. 131.

With the Queens-men it is not unusual to issue an "At home" Tea and Vespers, alias _bitch_ and _hymns_.--_Ibid., Dedication_.

BITCH. At Cambridge, Eng., to take or drink a dish of tea.

I followed, and, having "_bitched_" (that is, taken a dish of tea) arranged my books and boxes.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. I. p. 30.

I dined, wined, or _bitched_ with a Medallist or Senior Wrangler. --_Ibid._, Vol. II. p. 218.

A young man, who performs with great dexterity the honors of the tea-table, is, if complimented at all, said to be "an excellent _bitch_."--_Gradus ad Cantab._, p. 18.

BLACK BOOK. In the English universities, a gloomy volume containing a register of high crimes and misdemeanors.

At the University of Göttingen, the expulsion of students is recorded on a _blackboard_.--_Gradus ad Cantab._

Sirrah, I'll have you put in the _black book_, rusticated, expelled.--_Miller's Humors of Oxford_, Act II. Sc. I.

All had reason to fear that their names were down in the proctor's _black book_.--_Collegian's Guide_, p. 277.

So irksome and borish did I ever find this early rising, spite of the health it promised, that I was constantly in the _black book_ of the dean.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. I. p. 32.

BLACK-HOOD HOUSE. See SENATE.

BLACK RIDING. At the College of South Carolina, it has until within a few years been customary for the students, disguised and painted black, to ride across the college-yard at midnight, on horseback, with vociferations and the sound of horns. _Black riding_ is recognized by the laws of the College as a very high offence, punishable with expulsion.

BLEACH. At Harvard College, he was formerly said to _bleach_ who preferred to be _spiritually_ rather than _bodily_ present at morning prayers.

'T is sweet Commencement parts to reach, But, oh! 'tis doubly sweet to _bleach_. _Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 123.

BLOOD. A hot spark; a man of spirit; a rake. A word long in use among collegians and by writers who described them.

With some rakes from Boston and a few College _bloods_, I got very drunk.--_Monthly Anthology_, Boston, 1804, Vol. I. p. 154.

Indulgent Gods! exclaimed our _bloods_. _The Crayon_, Yale Coll., 1823, p. 15.

BLOOD. At some of the Western colleges this word signifies excellent; as, a _blood_ recitation. A student who recites well is said to _make a blood_.

BLOODEE. In the Farmer's Weekly Museum, formerly printed at Walpole, N.H., appeared August 21, 1797, a poetic production, in which occurred these lines:--

Seniors about to take degrees, Not by their wits, but by _bloodees_.

In a note the word _bloodee_ was thus described: "A kind of cudgel worn, or rather borne, by the bloods of a certain college in New England, 2 feet 5 inches in length, and 1-7/8 inch in diameter, with a huge piece of lead at one end, emblematical of its owner. A pretty prop for clumsy travellers on Parnassus."

BLOODY. Formerly a college term for daring, rowdy, impudent.

Arriving at Lord Bibo's study, They thought they'd be a little _bloody_; So, with a bold, presumptuous look, An honest pinch of snuff they took. _Rebelliad_, p. 44.

They roar'd and bawl'd, and were so _bloody_, As to besiege Lord Bibo's study.

_Ibid._, p. 76.

BLOW. A merry frolic with drinking; a spree. A person intoxicated is said to be _blown_, and Mr. Halliwell, in his Dict. Arch. and Prov. Words, has _blowboll_, a drunkard.

This word was formerly used by students to designate their frolics and social gatherings; at present, it is not much heard, being supplanted by the more common words _spree_, _tight_, &c.

My fellow-students had been engaged at a _blow_ till the stagehorn had summoned them to depart.--_Harvard Register_, 1827-28, p. 172.

No soft adagio from the muse of _blows_, E'er roused indignant from serene repose. _Ibid._, p. 233.

And, if no coming _blow_ his thoughts engage, Lights candle and cigar. _Ibid._, p. 235.

The person who engages in a blow is also called a _blow_.

I could see, in the long vista of the past, the many hardened _blows_ who had rioted here around the festive board.--_Collegian_, p. 231.

BLUE. In several American colleges, a student who is very strict in observing the laws, and conscientious in performing his duties, is styled a _blue_. "Our real delvers, midnight students," says a correspondent from Williams College, "are called _blue_."

I wouldn't carry a novel into chapel to read, not out of any respect for some people's old-womanish twaddle about the sacredness of the place,--but because some of the _blues_ might see you.--_Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XV. p. 81.

Each jolly soul of them, save the _blues_, Were doffing their coats, vests, pants, and shoes. _Yale Gallinipper_, Nov. 1848.

None ever knew a sober "_blue_" In this "blood crowd" of ours. _Yale Tomahawk_, Nov. 1849.

Lucian called him a _blue_, and fell back in his chair in a pouting fit.--_The Dartmouth_, Vol. IV. p. 118.

To acquire popularity,... he must lose his money at bluff and euchre without a sigh, and damn up hill and down the sober church-going man, as an out-and-out _blue_.--_The Parthenon, Union Coll._, 1851, p. 6.

BLUE-LIGHT. At the University of Vermont this term is used, writes a correspondent, to designate "a boy who sneaks about college, and reports to the Faculty the short-comings of his fellow-students. A _blue-light_ is occasionally found watching the door of a room where a party of jolly ones are roasting a turkey (which in justice belongs to the nearest farm-house), that he may go to the Faculty with the story, and tell them who the boys are."

BLUES. The name of a party which formerly existed at Dartmouth College. In The Dartmouth, Vol. IV. p. 117, 1842, is the following:--"The students here are divided into two parties,--the _Rowes_ and the _Blues_. The Rowes are very liberal in their notions; the _Blues_ more strict. The Rowes don't pretend to say anything worse of a fellow than to call him a Blue, and _vice versa_"

See INDIGO and ROWES.

BLUE-SKIN. This word was formerly in use at some American colleges, with the meaning now given to the word BLUE, q.v.

I, with my little colleague here, Forth issued from my cell, To see if we could overhear, Or make some _blue-skin_ tell. _The Crayon_, Yale Coll., 1823, p. 22.

BOARD. The _boards_, or _college boards_, in the English universities, are long wooden tablets on which the names of the members of each college are inscribed, according to seniority, generally hung up in the buttery.--_Gradus ad Cantab. Webster_.

I gave in my resignation this time without recall, and took my name off the _boards_.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 291.

Similar to this was the list of students which was formerly kept at Harvard College, and probably at Yale. Judge Wingate, who graduated at the former institution in 1759, writes as follows in reference to this subject:--"The Freshman Class was, in my day at college, usually _placed_ (as it was termed) within six or nine months after their admission. The official notice of this was given by having their names written in a large German text, in a handsome style, and placed in a conspicuous part of the College Buttery, where the names of the four classes of undergraduates were kept suspended until they left College. If a scholar was expelled, his name was taken from its place; or if he was degraded (which was considered the next highest punishment to expulsion), it was moved accordingly."--_Peirce's Hist. Harv. Univ._, p. 311.

BOGS. Among English Cantabs, a privy.--_Gradus ad Cantab._

BOHN. A translation; a pony. The volumes of Bohn's Classical Library are in such general use among undergraduates in American colleges, that _Bohn_ has come to be a common name for a translation.

'Twas plenty of skin with a good deal of _Bohn_. _Songs, Biennial Jubilee_, Yale Coll., 1855.

BOLT. An omission of a recitation or lecture. A correspondent from Union College gives the following account of it:--"In West College, where the Sophomores and Freshmen congregate, when there was a famous orator expected, or any unusual spectacle to be witnessed in the city, we would call a 'class meeting,' to consider upon the propriety of asking Professor ---- for a _bolt_. We had our chairman, and the subject being debated, was generally decided in favor of the remission. A committee of good steady fellows were selected, who forthwith waited upon the Professor, and, after urging the matter, commonly returned with the welcome assurance that we could have a _bolt_ from the next recitation."

One writer defines a _bolt_ in these words:--"The promiscuous stampede of a class collectively. Caused generally by a few seconds' tardiness of the Professor, occasionally by finding the lock of the recitation-room door filled with shot."--_Sophomore Independent_, Union College, Nov. 1854.

The quiet routine of college life had remained for some days undisturbed, even by a single _bolt_.--_Williams Quarterly_, Vol. II. p. 192.

BOLT. At Union College, to be absent from a recitation, on the conditions related under the noun BOLT. Followed by _from_. At Williams College, the word is applied with a different signification. A correspondent writes: "We sometimes _bolt_ from a recitation before the Professor arrives, and the term most strikingly suggests the derivation, as our movements in the case would somewhat resemble a 'streak of lightning,'--a thunder-_bolt_."

BOLTER. At Union College, one who _bolts_ from a recitation.

2. A correspondent from the same college says: "If a student is unable to answer a question in the class, and declares himself unprepared, he also is a '_bolter_.'"

BONFIRE. The making of bonfires, by students, is not an unfrequent occurrence at many of our colleges, and is usually a demonstration of dissatisfaction, or is done merely for the sake of the excitement. It is accounted a high offence, and at Harvard College is prohibited by the following law:--"In case of a bonfire, or unauthorized fireworks or illumination, any students crying fire, sounding an alarm, leaving their rooms, shouting or clapping from the windows, going to the fire or being seen at it, going into the college yard, or assembling on account of such bonfire, shall be deemed aiding and abetting such disorder, and punished accordingly."--_Laws_, 1848, _Bonfires_.

A correspondent from Bowdoin College writes: "Bonfires occur regularly twice a year; one on the night preceding the annual State Fast, and the other is built by the Freshmen on the night following the yearly examination. A pole some sixty or seventy feet long is raised, around which brush and tar are heaped to a great height. The construction of the pile occupies from four to five hours."

Not ye, whom midnight cry ne'er urged to run In search of fire, when fire there had been none; Unless, perchance, some pump or hay-mound threw Its _bonfire_ lustre o'er a jolly crew. _Harvard Register_, p. 233.

BOOK-KEEPER. At Harvard College, students are allowed to go out of town on Saturday, after the exercises, but are required, if not at evening prayers, to enter their names before 10 P.M. with one of the officers appointed for that purpose. Students were formerly required to report themselves before 8 P.M., in winter, and 9, in summer, and the person who registered the names was a member of the Freshman Class, and was called the _book-keeper_.

I strode over the bridge, with a rapidity which grew with my vexation, my distaste for wind, cold, and wet, and my anxiety to reach my goal ere the hour appointed should expire, and the _book-keeper's_ light should disappear from his window; "For while his light holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return."--_Collegian_, p. 225.

See FRESHMAN, COLLEGE.

BOOK-WORK. Among students at Cambridge, Eng., all mathematics that can be learned verbatim from books,--all that are not problems.--_Bristed_.

He made a good fight of it, and ... beat the Trinity man a little on the _book-work_.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 96.

The men are continually writing out _book-work_, either at home or in their tutor's rooms.--_Ibid._, p. 149.

BOOT-FOX. This name was at a former period given, in the German universities, to a fox, or a student in his first half-year, from the fact of his being required to black the boots of his more advanced comrades.

BOOTLICK. To fawn upon; to court favor.

Scorns the acquaintance of those he deems beneath him; refuses to _bootlick_ men for their votes.--_The Parthenon_, Union Coll., Vol. I. p. 6.

The "Wooden Spoon" exhibition passed off without any such hubbub, except where the pieces were of such a character as to offend the delicacy and modesty of some of those crouching, fawning, _bootlicking_ hypocrites.--_The Gallinipper_, Dec. 1849.