A Collection of College Words and Customs Part 59

OXFORD. The cap worn by the members of the University of Oxford, England, is called an _Oxford_ or _Oxford cap_. The same is worn at some American colleges on Exhibition and Commencement Days. In shape, it is square and flat, covered with black cloth; from the centre depends a ta.s.sel of black cord. It is further described in the following pa.s.sage.

My back equipped, it was not fair My head should 'scape, and so, as square As chessboard, A _cap_ I bought, my skull to screen, Of cloth without, and all within Of pasteboard.

_Terrae-Filius_, Vol. II. p. 225.

Thunders of clapping!--As he bows, on high "Praeses" his "_Oxford_" doffs, and bows reply.

_Childe Harvard_, p. 36.

It is sometimes called a _trencher cap_, from its shape.

See CAP.

OXFORD-MIXED. Cloth such as is worn at the University of Oxford, England. The students in Harvard College were formerly required to wear this kind of cloth as their uniform. The color is given in the following pa.s.sage: "By black-mixed (called also _Oxford-mixed_) is understood, black with a mixture of not more than one twentieth, nor less than one twenty-fifth, part of white."--_Laws of Harv. Coll._, 1826, p. 25.

He generally dresses in _Oxford-mixed_ pantaloons, and a brown surtout.--_Collegian_, p. 240.

It has disappeared along with Commons, the servility of Freshmen and brutality of Soph.o.m.ores, the _Oxford-mixed_ uniform and b.u.t.tons of the same color.--_Harv. Mag._, Vol. I. p. 263.

OXONIAN. A student or graduate of the University of Oxford, England.

_P_.

PANDOWDY BAND. A correspondent writing from Bowdoin College says: "We use the word _pandowdy_, and we have a custom of _pandowdying_. The Pandowdy Band, as it is called, has no regular place nor time of meeting. The number of performers varies from half a dozen and less to fifty or more. The instruments used are commonly horns, drums, tin-kettles, tongs, shovels, triangles, pumpkin-vines, &c. The object of the band is serenading Professors who have rendered themselves obnoxious to students; and sometimes others,--frequently tutors are entertained by 'heavenly music'

under their windows, at dead of night. This is regarded on all hands as an unequivocal expression of the feelings of the students.

"The band corresponds to the _Calliathump_ of Yale. Its name is a burlesque on the _Pandean Band_ which formerly existed in this college."

See HORN-BLOWING.

PAPE. Abbreviated from PAPER, q.v.

Old Hamlen, the printer, he got out the _papes_.

_Presentation Day Songs_, Yale Coll., June 14, 1854.

But Soph'more "_papes_," and Soph'more sc.r.a.pes, Have long since pa.s.sed away.--_Ibid._

PAPER. In the English Universities, a sheet containing certain questions, to which answers are to be given, is called _a paper_.

_To beat a paper_, is to get more than full marks for it. In explanation of this "apparent Hibernicism," Bristed remarks: "The ordinary text-books are taken as the standard of excellence, and a very good man will sometimes express the operations more neatly and cleverly than they are worded in these books, in which case he is ent.i.tled to extra marks for style."--_Five Years in an Eng.

Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 238.

2. This name is applied at Yale College to the printed scheme which is used at the Biennial Examinations. Also, at Harvard College, to the printed sheet by means of which the examination for entrance is conducted.

PARCHMENT. A diploma, from the substance on which it is usually printed, is in familiar language sometimes called a _parchment_.

There are some, who, relying not upon the "_parchment_ and seal"

as a pa.s.sport to favor, bear that with them which shall challenge notice and admiration.--_Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. III. p. 365.

The pa.s.ser-by, unskilled in ancient lore, Whose hands the ribboned _parchment_ never bore.

_Cla.s.s Poem at Harv. Coll._, 1835, p. 7.

See SHEEPSKIN.

PARIETAL. From Latin _paries_, a wall; properly, _a part.i.tion-wall_, from the root of _part_ or _pare_. Pertaining to a wall.--_Webster_.

At Harvard College the officers resident within the College walls const.i.tute a permanent standing committee, called the Parietal Committee. They have particular cognizance of all tardinesses at prayers and Sabbath services, and of all offences against good order and decorum. They are allowed to deduct from the rank of a student, not exceeding one hundred for one offence. In case any offence seems to them to require a higher punishment than deduction, it is reported to the Faculty.--_Laws_, 1850, App.

Had I forgotten, alas! the stern _parietal_ monitions?

_Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 98.

The chairman of the Parietal Committee is often called the _Parietal Tutor_.

I see them shaking their fists in the face of the _parietal tutor_.--_Oration before H.L. of I.O. of O.F._, 1849.

The members of the committee are called, in common parlance, _Parietals_.

Four rash and inconsiderate proctors, two tutors, and five _parietals_, each with a mug and pail in his hand, in their great haste to arrive at the scene of conflagration, ran over the Devil, and knocked him down stairs.--_Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 124.

And at the loud laugh of thy gurgling throat, The _parietals_ would forget themselves.

_Ibid._, Vol. III. p. 399 et pa.s.sim.

Did not thy starting eyeb.a.l.l.s think to see Some goblin _parietal_ grin at thee?

_Ibid._, Vol. IV. p. 197.

The deductions made by the Parietal Committee are also called _Parietals_.

How now, ye secret, dark, and tuneless chanters, What is 't ye do? Beware the _parietals_.

_Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 44.

Reckon on the fingers of your mind the reprimands, deductions, _parietals_, and privates in store for you.--_Orat. H.L. of I.O.

of O.F._, 1848.

The accent of this word is on the antepenult; by _poetic license_, in four of the pa.s.sages above quoted, it is placed on the penult.

PART. A literary appointment a.s.signed to a student to be kept at an Exhibition or Commencement. In Harvard College as soon as the parts for an Exhibition or Commencement are a.s.signed, the subjects and the names of the performers are given to some member of one of the higher cla.s.ses, who proceeds to read them to the students from a window of one of the buildings, after proposing the usual "three cheers" for each of the cla.s.ses, designating them by the years in which they are to graduate. As the name of each person who has a part a.s.signed him is read, the students respond with cheers. This over, the cla.s.ses are again cheered, the reader of the parts is applauded, and the crowd disperses except when the mock parts are read, or the officers of the Navy Club resign their trusts.

Referring to the proceedings consequent upon the announcement of appointments, Professor Sidney Willard, in his late work, ent.i.tled "Memories of Youth and Manhood," says of Harvard College: "The distribution of parts to be performed at public exhibitions by the students was, particularly for the Commencement exhibition, more than fifty years ago, as it still is, one of the most exciting events of College life among those immediately interested, in which parents and near friends also deeply sympathized with them.

These parts were communicated to the individuals appointed to perform them by the President, who gave to them, severally, a paper with the name of the person and of the part a.s.signed, and the subject to be written upon. But they were not then, as in recent times, after being thus communicated by the President, proclaimed by a voluntary herald of stentorian lungs, mounted on the steps of one of the College halls, to the a.s.sembled crowd of students. Curiosity, however, was all alive. Each one's part was soon ascertained; the comparative merits of those who obtained the prizes were discussed in groups; prompt judgments were p.r.o.nounced, that A had received a higher prize than he could rightfully claim, and that B was cruelly wronged; that some were unjustly pa.s.sed over, and others raised above them through partiality. But at whatever length their discussion might have been prolonged, they would have found it difficult in solemn conclave to adjust the distribution to their own satisfaction, while severally they deemed themselves competent to measure the degree in the scale of merit to which each was ent.i.tled."--Vol. I. pp. 328, 329.

I took but little pains with these exercises myself, lest I should appear to be anxious for "_parts_."--_Monthly Anthology_, Boston, 1804, Vol. I. p. 154.