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The Beacon indulges in a study of freshman character. Following are some interesting extracts from the Beacon's article:
"Before perusing this interesting and instructive subject further, it may be well for the benefit of the uninitiated, to define this curious word which we have taken as the subject of our treatise, lest it be not familiar to all.
The word freshman is of very ancient origin, being derived from the old Sanscrit root, fhra, signifying raw, green, innocent, fresh. Compounded with the Saxon word Man, it becomes a synonym of infantile innocence and unworldliness, and is universally applied to individuals of a tender age when they first enter collegiate halls of learning.
Do not misunderstand the term freshman. Among the ancient Hindoos, by whom the word was first used, the sterner sex alone was capable of imbibing Greek, Latin and elocution; but tempora mutantur, and with the advent of the nineteenth century it was necessary for women too to be acquainted with empiricism and algebra, and therefore the old Sanskrit word has lost something of its significance.
Doubtless had the Hindoos known of the change which was to be, they would have invented a word to suit the exigencies of future generations, and in addition to freshman, Webster's Unabridged would have contained fresh-woman; but such is not the case, and it would be unseemly in us to try to improve upon the Hindoos. Freshman must stand, and in using it we desire to be understood as referring to the genus fresh homo."
The latter classifies freshmen as follows: 1, the inquiring freshman; 2, the ingenious freshman; 3, the innocent freshman; 4, the freshman who thinks he is a senior; 5, the good little freshman; and 6, the model freshman.
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