The Yale Promenades.

The junior promenades have taken place at Yale since 1848, being at that time known as the "Wooden Spoon Entertainments." They were intended as a burlesque on the regular junior exhibition, and were in imitation of a custom in Cambridge, England, of naming the last man on the junior appointment list, the "wooden spoon." The faculty finally put a stop to the wooden spoon entertainments in 1870. The first junior promenade, however, was held under that name in 1851. It was originated to defray the expenses of the band that played at the junior exhibition and was so successful that it became a settled thing. The promenades now require such a lavish expenditure that it is understood that several members of the faculty thing it unwise to permit them to be continued.