Freshmen

At Harvard, of late years, the freshman has been gradually rising in the social scale, until now, thanks to the system of electives, and the consequent obliteration of the sharply defined class lines, he is almost "as good as his betters." In speaking of the changes which have taken place in college life, an exchange says:

"The conclusion is irresistible that within the last decade or two the American College freshman has undergone an almost startling development, and has become a much more appreciable quantity in college life than ever before. To us old fellows the change is decidedly bewildering. In our day the freshman was currently believed to possess no rights which an upper classman was bound to respect. He was despised and rejected. He was the hewer of wood and drawer of water for all his sophomore neighbors. He was regarded as the legitimate and proper object of all manner of "cussing," in dignity and torture. He was hazed. He was smoked out. He was dragged from his bed and given the pump bath. He was caused to mount his table and entertain his visitors with unspontaneous oratory, narrative and song. All these acts of discipline were performed, if not with acquiescence by the faculty, certainly with impunity."