A Collection of College Words and Customs Part 52

In the English universities, every B.A. of three years' standing may proceed to this degree on payment of certain fees. In America, this degree is conferred, without examination, on Bachelors of three years' standing. At Harvard, this degree was formerly conferred only upon examination, as will be seen by the following extract. "Every schollar that giveth up in writing a System, or Synopsis, or summe of Logick, naturall and morall Philosophy, Arithmetick, Geometry and Astronomy: And is ready to defend his Theses or positions: Withall skilled in the originalls as above-said; And of G.o.dly life and conversation; And so approved by the Overseers and Master of the Colledge, at any publique Act, is fit to be dignified with his 2d degree."--_New England's First Fruits_, in _Ma.s.s. Hist. Coll._, Vol. I. p. 246.

Until the year 1792, it was customary for those who applied for the degree of M.A. to defend what were called _Master's questions_; after this time an oration was subst.i.tuted in place of these, which continued until 1844, when for the first time there were no Master's exercises. The degree is now given to any graduate of three or more years' standing, on the payment of a certain sum of money.

The degree is also presented by special vote to individuals wholly unconnected with any college, but who are distinguished for their literary attainments. In this case, where the honor is given, no fee is required.

MAKE UP. To recite a lesson which was not recited with the cla.s.s at the regular recitation. It is properly used as a transitive verb, but in conversation is very often used intransitively. The following pa.s.sage explains the meaning of the phrase more fully.

A student may be permitted, on pet.i.tion to the Faculty, to _make up_ a recitation or other exercise from which he was absent and has been excused, provided his application to this effect be made within the term in-which the absence occurred.--_Laws of Univ. at Cam., Ma.s.s._, 1848, p. 16.

... sleeping,--a luxury, however, which is sadly diminished by the antic.i.p.ated necessity of _making up_ back lessons.--_Harv. Reg._, p. 202.

MAN. An undergraduate in a university or college.

At Cambridge and eke at Oxford, every stripling is accounted a _Man_ from the moment of his putting on the gown and cap.--_Gradus ad Cantab._, p. 75.

Sweet are the slumbers, indeed, of a Freshman, who, just escaped the trammels of "home, sweet home," and the pedagogue's tyrannical birch, for the first time in his life, with the academical gown, a.s.sumes the _toga virilis_, and feels himself a _Man_.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. I. p. 30.

In College all are "_men_" from the hirsute Senior to the tender Freshman who carries off a pound of candy and paper of raisins from the maternal domicile weekly.--_Harv. Mag._, Vol. I. p. 264.

MANCIPLE. Latin, _manceps_; _manu capio_, to take with the hand.

In the English universities, the person who purchases the provisions; the college victualler. The office is now obsolete.

Our _Manciple_ I lately met, Of visage wise and prudent.

_The Student_, Oxf. and Cam., Vol. I. p. 115.

MANDAMUS. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., a special mandate under the great seal, which enables a candidate to proceed to his degree before the regular period.--_Grad. ad Cantab._

MANNERS. The outward observances of respect which were formerly required of the students by college officers seem very strange to us of the present time, and we cannot but notice the omissions which have been made in college laws during the present century in reference to this subject. Among the laws of Harvard College, pa.s.sed in 1734, is one declaring, that "all scholars shall show due respect and honor in speech and behavior, as to their natural parents, so to magistrates, elders, the President and Fellows of the Corporation, and to all others concerned in the instruction or government of the College, and to all superiors, keeping due silence in their presence, and not disorderly gainsaying them; but showing all laudable expressions of honor and reverence that are in use; such as uncovering the head, rising up in their presence, and the like. And particularly undergraduates shall be uncovered in the College yard when any of the Overseers, the President or Fellows of the Corporation, or any other concerned in the government or instruction of the College, are therein, and Bachelors of Arts shall be uncovered when the President is there."

This law was still further enforced by some of the regulations contained in a list of "The Ancient Customs of Harvard College."

Those which refer particularly to this point are the following:--

"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.

"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.

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

"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."

Such were the laws of the last century, and their observance was enforced with the greatest strictness. After the Revolution, the spirit of the people had become more republican, and about the year 1796, "considering the spirit of the times and the extreme difficulty the executive must encounter in attempting to enforce the law prohibiting students from wearing hats in the College yard," a vote pa.s.sed repealing it.--_Quincy's Hist. Harv. Univ._, Vol. II. p. 278.

On this subject, Professor Sidney Willard, with reference to the time of the presidency of Joseph Willard at Harvard College, during the latter part of the last century, remarks: "Outward tokens of respect required to be paid to the immediate government, and particularly to the President, were attended with formalities that seemed to be somewhat excessive; such, for instance, as made it an offence for a student to wear his hat in the College yard, or enclosure, when the President was within it. This, indeed, in the fulness of the letter, gradually died out, and was compromised by the observance only when the student was so near, or in such a position, that he was likely to be recognized. Still, when the students a.s.sembled for morning and evening prayer, which was performed with great constancy by the President, they were careful to avoid a close proximity to the outer steps of the Chapel, until the President had reached and pa.s.sed within the threshold. This was a point of decorum which it was pleasing to witness, and I never saw it violated."--_Memories of Youth and Manhood_, 1855, Vol. I. p. 132.

"In connection with the subject of discipline," says President Woolsey, in his Historical Discourse before the Graduates of Yale College, "we may aptly introduce that of the respect required by the officers of the College, and of the subordination which younger cla.s.ses were to observe towards older. The germ, and perhaps the details, of this system of college manners, are to be referred back to the English universities. Thus the Oxford laws require that juniors shall show all due and befitting reverence to seniors, that is, Undergraduates to Bachelors, they to Masters, Masters to Doctors, as well in private as in public, by giving them the better place when they are together, by withdrawing out of their way when they meet, by uncovering the head at the proper distance, and by reverently saluting and addressing them."

After citing the law of Harvard College pa.s.sed in 1734, which is given above, he remarks as follows. "Our laws of 1745 contain the same identical provisions. These regulations were not a dead letter, nor do they seem to have been more irksome than many other college restraints. They presupposed originally that the college rank of the individual towards whom respect is to be shown could be discovered at a distance by peculiarities of dress; the gown and the wig of the President could be seen far beyond the point where features and gait would cease to mark the person."--pp. 52, 53.

As an ill.u.s.tration of the severity with which the laws on this subject were enforced, it may not be inappropriate to insert the annexed account from the Sketches of Yale College:--"The servile requisition of making obeisance to the officers of College within a prescribed distance was common, not only to Yale, but to all kindred inst.i.tutions throughout the United States. Some young men were found whose high spirit would not brook the degrading law imposed upon them without some opposition, which, however, was always ineffectual. The following anecdote, related by Hon.

Ezekiel Bacon, in his Recollections of Fifty Years Since, although the scene of its occurrence was in another college, yet is thought proper to be inserted here, as a fair sample of the insubordination caused in every inst.i.tution by an enactment so absurd and degrading. In order to escape from the requirements of striking his colors and doffing his chapeau when within the prescribed striking distance from the venerable President or the dignified tutors, young Ellsworth, who afterwards rose to the honorable rank of Chief Justice of the United States, and to many other elevated stations in this country, and who was then a student there, cut off entirely the brim portion of his hat, leaving of it nothing but the crown, which he wore in the form of a skull-cap on his head, putting it under his arm when he approached their reverences. Being reproved for his perversity, and told that this was not a hat within the meaning and intent of the law, which he was required to do his obeisance with by removing it from his head, he then made bold to wear his skull-cap into the Chapel and recitation-room, in presence of the authority.

Being also then again reproved for wearing his hat in those forbidden and sacred places, he replied that he had once supposed that it was in truth a veritable hat, but having been informed by his superiors that it was _no hat_ at all, he had ventured to come into their presence as he supposed with his head uncovered by that proscribed garment. But the dilemma was, as in his former position, decided against him; and no other alternative remained to him but to resume his full-brimmed beaver, and to comply literally with the enactments of the collegiate pandect."--pp.

179, 180.

MAN WHO IS JUST GOING OUT. At the University of Cambridge, Eng., the popular name of a student who is in the last term of his collegiate course.

MARK. The figure given to denote the quality of a recitation. In most colleges, the merit of each performance is expressed by some number of a series, in which a certain fixed number indicates the highest value.

In Harvard College the highest mark is eight. Four is considered as the average, and a student not receiving this average in all the studies of a term is not allowed to remain as a member of college. At Yale the marks range from zero to four. Two is the average, and a student not receiving this is obliged to leave college, not to return until he can pa.s.s an examination in all the branches which his cla.s.s has pursued.

In Harvard College, where the system of marks is most strictly followed, the merit of each individual is ascertained by adding together the term aggregates of each instructor, these "term aggregates being the sum of all the marks given during the term, for the current work of each month, and for omitted lessons made up by permission, and of the marks given for examination by the instructor and the examining committee at the close of the term."

From the aggregate of these numbers deductions are made for delinquencies unexcused, and the result is the rank of the student, according to which his appointment (if he receives one) is given.--_Laws of Univ. at Cam., Ma.s.s._, 1848.

That's the way to stand in college, High in "_marks_" and want of knowledge!

_Childe Harvard_, p. 154.

If he does not understand his lesson, he swallows it whole, without understanding it; his object being, not the lesson, but the "_mark_," which he is frequently at the President's office to inquire about.--_A Letter to a Young Man who has Just entered College_, 1849, p. 21.

I have spoken slightingly, too, of certain parts of college machinery, and particularly of the system of "_marks_." I do confess that I hold them in small reverence, reckoning them as rather belonging to a college in embryo than to one fully grown. I suppose it is "dangerous" advice; but I would be so intent upon my studies as not to inquire or think about my "_marks_."--_Ibid._ p.

36.

Then he makes mistakes in examinations also, and "loses _marks_."

--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 388.

MARKER. In the University of Cambridge, England, three or four persons called _markers_ are employed to walk up and down chapel during a considerable part of the service, with lists of the names of the members in their hands; they an required to run a pin through the names of those present.

As to the method adopted by the markers, Bristed says: "The students, as they enter, are _marked_ with pins on long alphabetical lists, by two college servants, who are so experienced and clever at their business that they never have to ask the name of a new-comer more than once."--_Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 15.

His name p.r.i.c.ked off upon the _marker's_ roll, No twinge of conscience racks his easy soul.

_The College_, in _Blackwood's Mag._, May, 1849.

MARSHAL. In the University of Oxford, an officer who is usually in attendance on one of the proctors.--_Collegian's Guide_.

MARSHAL'S TREAT. An account of the manner in which this observance, peculiar to Williams College, is annually kept, is given in the annexed pa.s.sage from the columns of a newspaper.

"Another custom here is the Marshal's Treat. The two gentlemen who are elected to act as Marshals during Commencement week are expected to _treat_ the cla.s.s, and this year it was done in fine style. The Seniors a.s.sembled at about seven o'clock in their recitation-room, and, with Marshals Whiting and Taft at their head, marched down to a grove, rather more than half a mile from the Chapel, where tables had been set, and various luxuries provided for the occasion. The Philharmonia Musical Society discoursed sweet strains during the entertainment, and speeches, songs, and toasts were kept up till a late hour in the evening, when after giving cheers for the three lower cla.s.ses, and three times three for '54, they marched back to the President's. A song written for the occasion was there performed, to which he replied in a few words, speaking of his attachment to the cla.s.s, and his regret at the parting which must soon take place. The cla.s.s then returned to East College, and after joining hands and singing Auld Lang Syne, separated."--_Boston Daily Evening Traveller_, July 12, 1854.

MASQUERADE. It was formerly the custom at Harvard College for the Tutors, on leaving their office, to invite their friends to a masquerade ball, which was held at some time during the vacation, usually in the rooms which they occupied in the College buildings.

One of the most splendid entertainments of this kind was given by Mr. Kirkland, afterwards President of the College, in the year 1794. The same custom also prevailed to a certain extent among the students, and these b.a.l.l.s were not wholly discontinued until the year 1811. After this period, members of societies would often appear in masquerade dresses in the streets, and would sometimes in this garb enter houses, with the occupants of which they were not acquainted, thereby causing much sport, and not unfrequently much mischief.