Chapter 39

THESES-COLLECTOR. One who collects or prepares _theses_. The following extract from the laws of Harvard College will explain further what is meant by this term. "The President, Professors, and Tutors, annually, some time in the third term, shall select from the Junior Class a number of _Theses-Collectors_, to prepare theses for the next year; from which selection they shall appoint so many divisions as shall be equal to the number of branches they may assign. And each one shall, in the particular branch assigned him, collect so many theses as the government may judge expedient; and all the theses, thus collected, shall be delivered to the President, by the Saturday immediately succeeding the end of the Spring vacation in the Senior year, at furthest, from which the President, Professors, and Tutors shall select such as they shall judge proper to be published. But if the theses delivered to the President, in any particular branch, should not afford a sufficient number suitable for publication, a further number shall be required. The name of the student who collected any set or number of theses shall be annexed to the theses collected by him, in every publication. Should any one neglect to collect the theses required of him, he shall be liable to lose his degree."--1814, p. 35.

The Theses-Collectors were formerly chosen by the class, as the following extract from a MS. Journal will show.

"March 27th, 1792. My Class assembled in the chapel to choose theses-collectors, a valedictory orator, and poet. Jackson was chosen to deliver the Latin oration, and Cutler to deliver the poem. Ellis was almost unanimously chosen a collector of the grammatical theses. Prince was chosen metaphysical theses-collector, with considerable opposition. Lowell was chosen mathematical theses-collector, though not unanimously. Chamberlain was chosen physical theses-collector."

THESIS. A position or proposition which a person advances and offers to maintain, or which is actually maintained by argument; a theme; a subject; particularly, a subject or proposition for a school or university exercise, or the exercise itself.--_Webster_.

In the older American colleges, the _theses_ held a prominent place in the exercises of Commencement. At Harvard College the earliest theses extant bear the date of the year 1687. They were Theses Technological, Logical, Grammatical, Rhetorical, Mathematical, and Physical. The last theses were presented in the year 1820. The earliest theses extant belonging to Yale College are of 1714, and the last were printed in 1797.

THIRDING. In England, "a custom practised at the universities, where two _thirds_ of the original price is allowed by upholsterers to the students for household goods returned them within the year."--_Grose's Dict._

On this subject De Quincey says: "The Oxford rule is, that, if you take the rooms (which is at your own option), in that case you _third_ the furniture and the embellishments; i.e. you succeed to the total cost diminished by one third. You pay, therefore, two guineas out of each three to your _immediate_ predecessor."--_Life and Manners_, p. 250.

THIRD-YEAR MEN. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., the title of Third-Year Men, or Senior Sophs or Sophisters, is given to students during the third year of their residence at the University.

THUNDERING BOLUS. See INTONITANS BOLUS.

TICK. A recitation made by one who does not know of what he is talking.

_Ticks_, screws, and deads were all put under contribution.--_A Tour through College_, Boston, 1832, p. 25.

TICKER. One who recites without knowing what he is talking about; one entirely independent of any book-knowledge.

If any "_Ticker_" dare to look A stealthy moment on his book. _Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 123.

TICKING. The act of reciting without knowing anything about the lesson.

And what with _ticking_, screwing, and deading, am candidate for a piece of parchment to-morrow.--_Harv. Reg._, p. 194.

TIGHT. A common slang term among students; the comparative, of which _drunk_ is the superlative.

Some twenty of as jolly chaps as e'er got jolly _tight_. _Poem before Y.H._, 1849.

Hast spent the livelong night In smoking Esculapios,--in getting jolly _tight_? _Poem before Iadma_, 1850.

He clenched his fist as fain for fight, Sank back, and gently murmured "_tight_." _MS. Poem_, W.F. Allen, 1848.

While fathers, are bursting with rage and spite, And old ladies vow that the students are _tight_. _Yale Gallinipper_, Nov. 1848.

Speaking of the word "drunk," the Burlington Sentinel remarks: "The last synonyme that we have observed is '_tight_,' a term, it strikes us, rather inappropriate, since a 'tight' man, in the cant use of the word, is almost always a 'loose character.' We give a list of a few of the various words and phrases which have been in use, at one time or another, to signify some stage of inebriation: Over the bay, half seas over, hot, high, corned, cut, cocked, shaved, disguised, jammed, damaged, sleepy, tired, discouraged, snuffy, whipped, how come ye so, breezy, smoked, top-heavy, fuddled, groggy, tipsy, smashed, swipy, slewed, cronk, salted down, how fare ye, on the lee lurch, all sails set, three sheets in the wind, well under way, battered, blowing, snubbed, sawed, boosy, bruised, screwed, soaked, comfortable, stimulated, jug-steamed, tangle-legged, fogmatic, blue-eyed, a passenger in the Cape Ann stage, striped, faint, shot in the neck, bamboozled, weak-jointed, got a brick in his hat, got a turkey on his back."

Dr. Franklin, in speaking of the intemperate drinker, says, he will never, or seldom, allow that he is drunk; he may be "boosy, cosey, foxed, merry, mellow, fuddled, groatable, confoundedly cut, may see two moons, be among the Philistines, in a very good humor, have been in the sun, is a little feverish, pretty well entered, &c., but _never drunk_."

A highly entertaining list of the phrases which the Germans employ "to clothe in a tolerable garb of decorum that dreamy condition into which Bacchus frequently throws his votaries," is given in _Howitt's Student Life of Germany_, Am. ed., pp. 296, 297.

See SPRUNG.

2. At Williams College, this word is sometimes used as an exclamation; e.g. "O _tight_!"

TIGHT FIT. At the University of Vermont, a good joke is denominated by the students a _tight fit_, and the jokee is said to be "hard up."

TILE. A hat. Evidently suggested by the meaning of the word, a covering for the roof of buildings.

Then, taking it from off his head, began to brush his "_tile_." _Poem before the Iadma_, 1850.

TOADY. A fawning, obsequious parasite; a toad-eater. In college cant, one who seeks or gains favor with an instructor or popularity with his classmates by mean and sycophantic actions.

TOADY. To flatter any one for gain.--_Halliwell_.

TOM. The great bell of Christ Church, Oxford, which formerly belonged to Osney Abbey.

"This bell," says the Oxford Guide, "was recast in 1680, its weight being about 17,000 pounds; more than double the weight of the great bell in St. Paul's, London. This bell has always been represented as one of the finest in England, but even at the risk of dispelling an illusion under which most Oxford men have labored, and which every member of Christ Church has indulged in from 1680 to the present time, touching the fancied superiority of mighty Tom, it must be confessed that it is neither an accurate nor a musical bell. The note, as we are assured by the learned in these matters, ought to be B flat, but is not so. On the contrary, the bell is imperfect and inharmonious, and requires, in the opinion of those best informed, and of most experience, to be recast. It is, however, still a great curiosity, and may be seen by applying to the porter at Tom-Gate lodge."--Ed. 1847, p. 5, note a.

TO THE _n(-th.)_, TO THE _n + 1(-th.)_ Among English Cantabs these algebraic expressions are used as intensives to denote the most energetic way of doing anything.--_Bristed_.

TOWNEY. The name by which a student in an American college is accustomed to designate any young man residing in the town in which the college is situated, who is not a collegian.

And _Towneys_ left when she showed fight. _Pow-wow of Class of '58, Yale Coll._

TRANSLATION. The act of turning one language into another.

At the University of Cambridge, Eng., this word is applied more particularly to the turning of Greek or Latin into English.

In composition and cram I was yet untried, and the _translations_ in lecture-room were not difficult to acquit one's self on respectably.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 34.

TRANSMITTENDUM, _pl._ TRANSMITTENDA or TRANSMITTENDUMS. Anything transmitted, or handed down from one to another.

Students, on withdrawing from college, often leave in the room which they last occupied, pictures, looking-glasses, chairs, &c., there to remain, and to be handed down to the latest posterity. Articles thus left are called _transmittenda_.

The Great Mathematical Slate was a _transmittendum_ to the best mathematical scholar in each class.--_MS. note in Cat. Med. Fac. Soc._, 1833, p. 16.

TRENCHER-CAP. A-name, sometimes given to the square head-covering worn by students in the English universities. Used figuratively to denote collegiate power.

The _trencher-cap_ has claimed a right to take its part in the movements which make or mar the destinies of nations, by the side of plumed casque and priestly tiara.--_The English Universities and their Reforms_, in _Blackwood's Mag._, Feb. 1849.

TRIANGLE. At Union College, a urinal, so called from its shape.

TRIENNIAL, or TRIENNIAL CATALOGUE. In American colleges, a catalogue issued once in three years. This catalogue contains the names of the officers and students, arranged according to the years in which they were connected with the college, an account of the high public offices which they have filled, degrees which they have received, time of death, &c.[66]

The _Triennial Catalogue_ becomes increasingly a mournful record--it should be monitory, as well as mournful--to survivors, looking at the stars thickening on it, from one date to another.--_Scenes and Characters in College_, p. 198.

Our tale shall be told by a silent star, On the page of some future _Triennial_. _Class Poem, Harv. Coll._, 1849, p. 4.

TRIMESTER. Latin _trimestris_; _tres_, three, and _mensis_, month. In the German universities, a term or period of three months.--_Webster_.

TRINITARIAN. The popular name of a member of Trinity College in the University of Cambridge, Eng.

TRIPOS, _pl._ TRIPOSES. At Cambridge, Eng., any university examination for honors, of questionists or men who have just taken their B.A. The university scholarship examinations are not called _triposes_.--_Bristed_.

The Classical Tripos is generally spoken of as _the Tripos_, the Mathematical one as the Degree Examination.--_Ibid._, p. 170.

2. A tripos paper.

3. One who prepares a tripos paper.--_Webster_.

TRIPOS PAPER. At the University of Cambridge, England, a printed list of the successful candidates for mathematical honors, accompanied by a piece in Latin verse. There are two of these, designed to commemorate the two Tripos days. The first contains the names of the Wranglers and Senior Optimes, and the second the names of the Junior Optimes. The word _tripos_ is supposed to refer to the three-legged stool formerly used at the examinations for these honors, though some derive it from the three _brackets_ formerly printed on the back of the paper.

_Classical Tripos Examination_. The final university examination for classical honors, optional to all who have taken the mathematical honors.--_C.A. Bristed_, in _Webster's Dict._

The Tripos Paper is more fully described in the annexed extract. "The names of the Bachelors who were highest in the list (Wranglers and Senior Optimes, _Baccalaurei quibus sua reservatur senioritas Comitiis prioribus_, and Junior Optimes, _Comitiis posterioribus_) were written on slips of paper; and on the back of these papers, probably with a view of making them less fugitive and more entertaining, was given a copy of Latin verses. These verses were written by one of the new Bachelors, and the exuberant spirits and enlarged freedom arising from the termination of the Undergraduate restrictions often gave to these effusions a character of buffoonery and satire. The writer was termed _Terræ Filius_, or _Tripos_, probably from some circumstance in the mode of his making his appearance and delivering his verses; and took considerable liberties. On some occasions, we find that these went so far as to incur the censure of the authorities. Even now, the Tripos verses often aim at satire and humor. [It is customary to have one serious and one humorous copy of verses.] The writer does not now appear in person, but the Tripos Paper, the list of honors with its verses, still comes forth at its due season, and the list itself has now taken the name of the Tripos. This being the case with the list of mathematical honors, the same name has been extended to the list of classical honors, though unaccompanied by its classical verses."--_Whewell on Cambridge Education_, Preface to Part II., quoted in _Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 25.

TRUMP. A jolly blade; a merry fellow; one who occupies among his companions a position similar to that which trumps hold to the other cards in the pack. Not confined in its use to collegians, but much in vogue among them.

But soon he treads this classic ground, Where knowledge dwells and _trumps_ abound. _MS. Poem_.

TRUSTEE. A person to whom property is legally committed in _trust_, to be applied either for the benefit of specified individuals, or for public uses.--_Webster_.

In many American colleges the general government is vested in a board of _trustees_, appointed differently in different colleges.

See CORPORATION and OVERSEER.

TUFT-HUNTER. A cant term, in the English universities, for a hanger-on to noblemen and persons of quality. So called from the _tuft_ in the cap of the latter.--_Halliwell_.

There are few such thorough _tuft-hunters_ as your genuine Oxford Don.--_Blackwood's Mag._, Eng. ed., Vol. LVI. p. 572.

TUITION. In universities, colleges, schools, &c., the money paid for instruction. In American colleges, the tuition is from thirty to seventy dollars a year.

TUTE. Abbreviation for Tutor.

TUTOR. Latin; from _tueor_, to defend; French, _tuteur_.

In English universities and colleges, an officer or member of some hall, who has the charge of hearing the lessons of the students, and otherwise giving them instruction in the sciences and various branches of learning.

In the American colleges, tutors are graduates selected by the trustees, for the instruction of undergraduates of the first three years. They are usually officers of the institution, who have a share, with the president and professors, in the government of the students.--_Webster_.

TUTORAGE. In the English universities, the guardianship exerted by a tutor; the care of a pupil.

The next item which I shall notice is that which in college bills is expressed by the word _Tutorage_.--_De Quincey's Life and Manners_, p. 251.

TUTOR, CLASS. At some of the colleges in the United States, each of the four classes is assigned to the care of a particular tutor, who acts as the ordinary medium of communication between the members of the class and the Faculty, and who may be consulted by the students concerning their studies, or on any other subject interesting to them in their relations to the college.

At Harvard College, in addition to these offices, the Class Tutors grant leave of absence from church and from town for Sunday, including Saturday night, on the presentation of a satisfactory reason, and administer all warnings and private admonitions ordered by the Faculty for misconduct or neglect of duty.--_Orders and Regulations of the Faculty of Harv. Coll._, July, 1853, pp. 1, 2.

Of this regulation as it obtained at Harvard during the latter part of the last century, Professor Sidney Willard says: "Each of the Tutors had one class, of which he was charged with a certain oversight, and of which he was called the particular Tutor. The several Tutors in Latin successively sustained this relation to my class. Warnings of various kinds, private admonitions for negligence or minor offences, and, in general, intercommunication between his class and the Immediate Government, were the duties belonging to this relation."--_Memories of Youth and Manhood_, Vol. I. p. 266, note.

TUTOR, COLLEGE. At the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, an officer connected with a college, whose duties are described in the annexed extracts.

With reference to Oxford, De Quincey remarks: "Each college takes upon itself the regular instruction of its separate inmates,--of these and of no others; and for this office it appoints, after careful selection, trial, and probation, the best qualified amongst those of its senior members who choose to undertake a trust of such heavy responsibility. These officers are called Tutors; and they are connected by duties and by accountability, not with the University at all, but with their own private colleges. The public tutors appointed in each college [are] on the scale of one to each dozen or score of students."--_Life and Manners_, Boston, 1851, p. 252.

Bristed, writing of Cambridge, says: "When, therefore, a boy, or, as we should call him, a young man, leaves his school, public or private, at the age of eighteen or nineteen, and 'goes up' to the University, he necessarily goes up to some particular college, and the first academical authority he makes acquaintance with in the regular order of things is the College Tutor. This gentleman has usually taken high honors either in classics or mathematics, and one of his duties is naturally to lecture. But this by no means constitutes the whole, or forms the most important part, of his functions. He is the medium of all the students' pecuniary relations with the College. He sends in their accounts every term, and receives the money through his banker; nay, more, he takes in the bills of their tradesmen, and settles them also. Further, he has the disposal of the college rooms, and assigns them to their respective occupants. When I speak of the College _Tutor_, it must not be supposed that one man is equal to all this work in a large college,--Trinity, for instance, which usually numbers four hundred Undergraduates in residence. A large college has usually two Tutors,--Trinity has three,--and the students are equally divided among them,--_on their sides_, the phrase is,--without distinction of year, or, as we should call it, of _class_. The jurisdiction of the rooms is divided in like manner. The Tutor is supposed to stand _in loco parentis_; but having sometimes more than a hundred young men under him, he cannot discharge his duties in this respect very thoroughly, nor is it generally expected that he should."--_Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, pp. 10, 11.

TUTORIAL. Belonging to or exercised by a tutor or instructor.

Even while he is engaged in his "_tutorial_" duties, &c.--_Am. Lit. Mag._, Vol. IV. p. 409.

TUTORIC. Pertaining to a tutor.

A collection of two was not then considered a sure prognostic of rebellion, and spied out vigilantly by _tutoric_ eyes.--_Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 314.

TUTORIFIC. The same as _tutoric_.

While thus in doubt they hesitating stand, Approaches near the _Tutorific_ band. _Yale Tomahawk_, May, 1852.

"Old Yale," of thee we sing, thou art our theme, Of thee with all thy _Tutorific_ host.--_Ibid._

TUTORING FRESHMEN. Of the various means used by Sophomores to trouble Freshmen, that of _tutoring_ them, as described in the following extract from the Sketches of Yale College, is not at all peculiar to that institution, except in so far as the name is concerned.

"The ancient customs of subordination among the classes, though long since abrogated, still preserve a part of their power over the students, not only of this, but of almost every similar institution. The recently exalted Sophomore, the dignified Junior, and the venerable Senior, look back with equal humor at the 'greenness' of their first year. The former of these classes, however, is chiefly notorious in the annals of Freshman capers. To them is allotted the duty of fumigating the room of the new-comer, and preparing him, by a due induction into the mysteries of Yale, for the duties of his new situation. Of these performances, the most systematic is commonly styled _Tutoring_, from the character assumed by the officiating Sophomore. Seated solemnly in his chair of state, arrayed in a pompous gown, with specs and powdered hair, he awaits the approach of the awe-struck subject, who has been duly warned to attend his pleasure, and fitly instructed to make a low reverence and stand speechless until addressed by his illustrious superior. A becoming impression has also been conveyed of the dignity, talents, and profound learning and influence into the congregated presence of which he is summoned. Everything, in short, which can increase his sufficiently reverent emotions, or produce a readier or more humble obedience, is carefully set forth, till he is prepared to approach the door with no little degree of that terror with which the superstitious inquirer enters the mystic circle of the magician. A shaded light gleams dimly out into the room, and pours its fuller radiance upon a ponderous volume of Hebrew; a huge pile of folios rests on the table, and the eye of the fearful Freshman half ventures to discover that they are tomes of the dead languages.

"But first he has, in obedience to his careful monitor, bowed lowly before the dignified presence; and, hardly raising his eyes, he stands abashed at his awful situation, waiting the supreme pleasure of the supposed officer. A benignant smile lights up the tutor's grave countenance; he enters strangely enough into familiar talk with the recently admitted collegiate; in pathetic terms he describes the temptations of this _great_ city, the thousand dangers to which he will be exposed, the vortex of ruin into which, if he walks unwarily, he will be surely plunged. He fires the youthful ambition with glowing descriptions of the honors that await the successful, and opens to his eager view the dazzling prospect of college fame. Nor does he fail to please the youthful aspirant with assurances of the kindly notice of the Faculty; he informs him of the satisfactory examination he has passed, and the gratification of the President at his uncommon proficiency; and having thus filled the buoyant imagination of his dupe with the most glowing college air-castles, dismisses him from his august presence, after having given him especial permission to call on any important occasion hereafter."--pp. 159-162.

TUTOR, PRIVATE. At the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, an instructor, whose position and studies are set forth in the following extracts.

"Besides the public tutors appointed in each college," says De Quincey, writing of Oxford, "there are also tutors strictly private, who attend any students in search of special and extraordinary aid, on terms settled privately by themselves. Of these persons, or their existence, the college takes no cognizance." "These are the working agents in the Oxford system." "The _Tutors_ of Oxford correspond to the _Professors_ of other universities."--_Life and Manners_, Boston, 1851, pp. 252, 253.