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We take the following interesting extracts from Harper's Magazine of 1856:

"The president of Dartmouth College caught one of the students helping himself to wood from the presidential pile. 'Young man,' saith the venerable officer, 'what authority have you for taking away that wood?' To which the youthful rogue, mindful of his Latin syntax, replied, 'Opus and Usus, signifying 'need,' require the 'Ablative.' 'Take it, my son, take it,' said the old man; 'but when you have need again come to me and I will give you better authority than that.' "

Again, in regard to a practical joke:

"College boys are so full of mischief that they ought to be spoken to. We shall put some of them in the "Drawer" and shut them up. It has just come to our knowledge that the learned and distinguished president of one of our colleges has been made the victim of a practical joke, which we are induced to record with the expression of our regret that the boys will do such things. It seems that the worthy president went down to Virginia, where he was personally a stranger, to attend an ecclesiastical meeting at which many eminent ministers were to be present. On arriving, he was surprised to find that after making himself known, no attention whatever was shown him, and from certain ominous whispers he inferred that he was an object of suspicion. His position was embarrasing, and the conduct of his brethren inexplicable. In vain he sought to make himself agreeable or useful, and when at last he was constrained to make a formal demand, he was informed that a few days before his arrival a letter had been received from the president of the college which he professed to represent, stating that he should be unable to attend, and that a man who was unfortunately out of his mind was travelling around the country pretending to be the president of the college and would very likely present himself at the meeting. The truth flashed on the reverend doctor's mind in a moment. He had been sold by his students for a crazy man; some of the rogues having written the letter and dispatched it in advance of his visit. After much difficulty, with the aid of other letters in his possession, he succeeded in dispossessing the minds of the brethren of their first impressions, and took his seat as a member. But they kept a bright lookout on him all the while, lest the craze should get the better of him."

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