An exhibition of old textbooks, ranging from the illuminated tomes of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to the homely volumes which Harvard professors wrote themselves for the instruction of their pupils, is now on exhibition in the Treasure Room of the Widener Library. Together with these home-made textbooks of Harvard College is assembled much information about the early days of the University and the contemporary undergraduate customs.
The lot of a Freshman today is far easier than that of a Freshman of two centuries ago, judging from the "College Customs" which form part of the collection. No longer (in Harvard at least) is the Senior the same awful figure that he was in the early seventeen hundreds. A list of rules to be observed by Freshmen, drawn up by Richard Waldron of the class of 1738, shows the veneration that they were compelled to bear towards their superiors.
Respect was the first requirement demanded of all Freshmen. The first rule in the old document reads, "No Freshman shall go by his Senior without taking his hat off if it be on." Exceptions to this may be made, it goes on to explain, in the case of a Freshman who is riding on horseback or who has both his hands occupied. Furthermore, "No Freshman shall ask his Senior an impertinent question," doubtless lest the latter be shocked. And woe betide the unhappy Freshman who failed to observe the next rule, that "No Freshman shall laugh in his Senior's face."
Apparently Freshmen were chastened in purse as well as in spirit, for rule number nine reads, "Freshmen are to find the rest of the scholars with bats and balls and footballs." This does not mean, as many Freshman of today might leap to conclude, that they had to seek out their mentors with bat and ball. It merely explains that they were expected to supply their superiors with such articles upon demand.
Democracy, furthermore, was less observed than now, since the classification of Freshmen which is given depended not upon marks nor upon athletic prowess but solely upon the social rank of their parents!
