Before the first football game of every season the freshman class follows the band down to the stadium in the "Peerade." Two years ago the class of '53, then freshmen, wouldn't submit to the sophomore persecution and kidnapped the president of the sophomore class, taking him down to the field bound and gagged before releasing him.
Such freshman retaliation against its superiors has good foundations. Traditionally the frosh have undergone a period of indoctrination much the same as the "hazing" of other schools. At Princeton their particular antagonists are the sophomores, who make their life miserable in the early weeks of college.
The "drink" or beany is the freshman badge of distinction. Any sophomore may order any freshman to wear his "dink" and if he refuses, which is often the case, he is virtually attacked by any number of sophomores. Of
In the annual "horsing" ceremonies of class day held every spring, the members of the Tiger senior class poke fun at their masters and deans. Various responses are received, shock, surprise, or distaste, but one man who is noted for his good-humored handling of the situation is Dean of the College FRANCIS R. B. GODOLPHIN (left, as rickshaw boy). Godolphin is shown above halfway through his race around Nassau Hall, dragging a Princeton senior in a rickshaw. According to tradition the race begins with Godolphin as the passenger, but somewhere on the other side the two change, and Godolphin comes out the laborer. Every year the highjinks at "horsing" change, but one constant is the tradition of the seniors ridiculing the professors, singing songs, and smoking clay pipes together. The ceremony closes with every senior breaking his pipe against the cannon.
course a riot ensues, and if the freshmen win it, they the released from the fortune of having to wear "dinks" again.
Another sophomore highjink is a little more lasting, and more humiliating for the freshman. The poor victim in question is called upon the telephone and asked whether or not he is a freshman. On the affirmative answer he is told to get down to the freshman meeting quick in such and such a hall. The freshman, not suspecting fraud and deceit, then goes out into the hall, where he is jumped on by a squad of sophomores who shave a strip down the top of his hair with a pair of clippers. When so marked it takes more than a hat to conceal the class of the victim.
In some cases the sophomores don't even wait till the victim comes out of his room, but go in to get him. On one occasion this fall the proctors were called to stop a fight which ended up in the infirmary. The boy was only shocked, however, and was out the next day.
Not all the fighting between the freshmen and sophomores is so disorganized and spontaneous, however. The annual "canespree" in October is a traditional event. The name descended from ancient times, and has since lost most of its meaning, but it refers to a three-foot cane that one of the two classes tries to wrest from the grasp of the other. Nowadays the canespree has become a much larger series of events, and the name-event is not as important as the tug-o'-war or the track and field events that now make up the program.
Cocktails For Friendship
This year's sophomores won the contests for the second time in succession, taking it last year as freshmen as well. In celebration of this feat, the class of '51 gave the class of '55 a cocktail party which puts the two classes on better terms.
The feeling of cohesion inside one's own class in Tigertown, fathered and fostered by these common tribulations during the early part of freshman year, soon becomes a part of the class character and remains a part of it throughout the college course. At the end, the senior class feels just as class-conscious as it did as cowering freshmen.
The traditions go farther than this, too. They give Princeton its best and its worst qualities--the best, a feeling of good fellowship, friendliness and unity; the worst, a rah-rah chauvinistic attitude about itself and its accomplishments.
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