Little is known at Harvard about Trinity College, although it is hardly more than a hundred miles from Cambridge. Few know more than that it is a small Episcopal college, situated in Hartford, Conn. This knowledge is correct as far as it goes, but it does not do justice to Trinity.
The college is situated on a hill in the suburbs of Hartford, about a mile and a quarter from the heart of the city.
All departments of the institution are contained in a magnificent free stone building, of an eighth of a mile in length. It is divided into sections, three of which, Seabury, Northam Tower, (the centre of the building) and Jarvis, are used for dormitories. Other sections contain the chapel, library, laboratories and lecture rooms. In the basement is the common, dining-room. Each of the four college societies has a table of its own; there are also neutral tables for non-society men, and others for members of the faculty who live in the building.
The board, although but $4.50 a week is far superior to that of Memorial Hall, both in point of quality of food and in service; and this, in spite of the fact that the number of boarders is little more than a hundred. Cigars and cigarettes appear on the order list; and each man is allowed to have his own beer.
The building, as was said, is an eight of a mile in length, and is but a small part of the structure which was planned at the time that this part was built. It was the intention of the architect to model Trinity after the English colleges; and to carry out this idea, a continuous structure was to be built around the quadrangle.
The part already built was to be but one third of one side of the proposed building. This would make each side three-eights of a mile in length. To conceive the plan, imagine a building the depth of Sever built in the form of a square, each side of which was three-eighths of a mile in length. The area around the outside would be a mile and a half!
There is little possibility, however, that this plan will be carried out. Already a gymnasium and a physical laboratory have been built in what would have been the quadrangle in the gigantic scheme had been carried out.
Although Trinity can count but one hundred and twenty-five students, yet she has won herself an honorable position in athletics. Brinley, Paddock and Wright have well represented her in tennis. The college boasts of a nine and an eleven which have been victorious over colleges of much larger size, and it is seldom that a prize is not brought back from the Mott Haven games.
The society of Hartford is open to the student who cares to take advantage of it, and in winter he may plunge as deeply as he wishes into its dissipations.
The college societies in Trinity differ greatly from those of Harvard. There are four fraternities represented by chapters- the Psi Upsilon, the Alpha Delta Phi, the Delta Psi, and the Delta Kappa Epsilon. There is also a local society called the I. K. A. All these are secret, and three have club houses near the college. That of the Delta Psi is very beautiful, being built of granite and having a graceful stone tower.
Members are admitted to the societies in their freshman year, and in so small a college there is necessarily rivalry about the desirable freshmen. On this account, the "freshly" is the object of much more respectful attention than at Harvard, and consequently feels quite a man.
Owing to the fraternities, there is no class feeling whatever, and freshmen and seniors chum together as contentedly as possible. Whatever feeling exists is between the societies and is never unpleasant.
There is a custom in the colleges of presenting a lemon squeezer to the most athletic class. The class that has held it resigns it in their senior year to the one deserving it, and the presentation is made the occasion of a dinner.
The feeling at Trinity toward Harvard is very kindly, and great interest is taken on our athletic standing. While Trinity is yet but one of the small colleges, she is steadily gaining, and it is possible that she may soon take her place in the athletic games among the large universities. Surely there are few colleges more deserving of success, and it is sincerely hoped that she will soon be in a position to prove her work.
Read more in News
Special Notice.