Term-Time Terpsichorean Revels Cost Undergraduate Five Dollars in 1816--Crows-Feet Prescribed for Seniors

"No undergraduate shall attend any ball, assembly or party of pleasure during term time, unless authorized by the President at the request of the parent, guardian or patron, under fine of five dollars."

The CRIMSON reporter, snooping around the Library recently in his eternal search for news, happened to stumble over an old book, containing the above among "The Laws and Catalogues of Harvard College," as prescribed in 1816.

The system of fines used in Cambridge a century ago seems to have been a most elaborate one, according to this book. Students who did not "preserve stillness, abstaining from all noise and loud conversation, singing and all other noise, which may tend toward interruption," were fined "a penalty not exceeding $1." Also, "No student shall be an actor, or in any way a partaker in any stage plays or theatrical entertainments in the town of Cambridge, or a spectator at the same; under a penalty of $2. Nor shall he attend theatrical amusements in any other place in term time, under the penalty of $10 for the first offense."

In the volume there is also a paragraph describing the dress required by an undergraduate, whose coat should be "black-mixed, single breasted, with a rolling cape square at the end, and with pocket flaps: waist reaching to the natural waist, lapel of the same length; skirts reaching to the bend of the knee; three crows-feet, made of black silk cord, on the lower part of the sleeve of a Senior, two on that of the Junior, and one on that of a Sophomore. The pantaloons of black mixed or of black bombazet, or when of cotton or linen fabric of white. There must not be more than eight or less than six buttons, fiat, covered with the same cloth as the garments, on the front of the coat. The neck cloths must be plain black or plain white."