IT

COLLEGE INTEMPERANCE.

T is not the writer's purpose to indulge in highly colored language or loud declamation about the evils of intemperance, but simply to offer a few plain, commonsense-perhaps common-place-thoughts upon a subject of undeniable importance. To do this there is no occasion for exaggerating facts. There is probably no more intemperance at Yale, in proportion to the number of students, than at other colleges, and certainly not half as much as many good people, who trust to the veracity of newspaper reporters, imagine. Yet there is room and occasion for reform. If, in comparing our condition in this respect with that of an equal number of young men occupying similar social positions outside of college, we find our record no worse than theirs; let us remember that it ought to be far better. From the peculiar advantages which we enjoy; from the motives which presumably brought us here; from our aspirations, it is but fair to expect that a habit so dangerous, to say the least, to future success, a practice so likely to thwart every worthy effort, should be universally shunned and condemned. what are the facts? While we cannot agree with "a graduate of '69," who says that "mild bumming is rather popular at Yale," we cannot deny that men may often acquire and retain popularity among us in spite of a pretty strong tendency in that direction. In other words, college sentiment is disposed to pass lightly over offences against temperance, which, in other communities, would be called disgraceful.

But

We fall into the same error in this, as in many other matters, in supposing that, as students, we are not subject to the same rules as other people, and that the principles of morality, which we all acknowledge to be right and proper for men in business and professional life, are not applicable to ourselves. Perhaps the worst result of this error, if we indulge it, will be that when we come to put off our academic robes, we shall find ourselves saddled with various ugly habits, which are not so easily laid

aside. We had no intention, when we formed them, of carrying them with us into our business or profession; but we find too late that no other acquisitions of our college life cling to us so persistently. Our knowledge of Greek may fade away, every operation of mathematics may pass from our memories; but these will refuse to be forgotten or neglected.

The number of those in college who often drink to intoxication is, of course, small; but there are not a few, who, by occasionally indulging a taste for strong drink, are feeding an extremely dangerous appetite. It is very probable that some one, who may chance to cast his eye over this article, will be disposed to call the writer an "old granny," and complacently smile at the idea that he cannot always control himself in this matter. If so, the writer will endeavor meekly to bear up under the crushing epithet, and will even acknowledge that his critic may be one of those fortunate, but extremely rare individuals, who can indulge such a taste, to some extent, and never be greatly injured by it. But even the critic will not deny that there are others who are so constituted as to be unable to do this, and who, by departing from temperance in the least degree, are selling themselves to a slavery that is horrible to contemplate. Moreover, no man can be certain that he does not belong to this latter class, until he has made the trial, nor will he discover that he does, until he is bound hand and foot. It is a great mistake to suppose that only a few weak-minded men are liable to be thus led away. The drunkards are not all from the ranks of the fools. We are all well aware that many of the noblest minds have been made to grovel in the dust. under the lash of this most tyrannical master. Yet we are rather disposed to smile at the idea, that a practice, which has ruined thousands of greater men than we can hope to be, will ever injure us.

This is not a matter which concerns a few individuals. While it of course affects most deeply those who drink, the temperance men have no right to be indifferent to it. Indeed, they cannot be, unless they are so selfish as to be indifferent to the welfare of their classmates. Why is it,

then, that when we see classmates, and perhaps intimate friends, ruining their health and blighting their prospects by intemperance, we pass the matter over quietly, and, if we do not directly encourage them, at least use little or no influence to restrain them. I do not mean that temperance men should lavish advice unasked upon those who are not. In our democratic community, advice is a dangerous remedy. Few of us can take a dose of it without wry faces; fewer still can administer one so as to effect a cure. Yet, without being officious, or exposing themselves to the charge of meddling with other men's affairs, the temperance men might exert a strong influence and do much to check the evil. There can be no doubt, that, if college sentiment plainly condemned drinking, there would be less of it among us. If men could be made to feel that intemperance would detract from their popularity and lower them in the estimation of their classmates, some of them, at least, would take care to shun it. But how is such a sentiment to be created? Like everything else of the kind, it must of course come by degrees. Yet it need not be despaired of. Comparing the present state of college feeling with that of ten or twenty years ago, we perceive that a great advance has been made. Customs, which were then popular, are now looked upon as little better than relics of barbarism. We are far beyond the days of the Bully Club; a gradual purification of sentiment has swept away the Spoon; hazing has fallen into disrepute, and all abuse of Freshmen seems likely, in a few years, to be known only in tradition. May we not hope, then, that "bumming" will, sooner or later, come under the ban? Meanwhile, what can we do to hasten so desirable a reform? We must cease to talk of the excesses of our classmates as a pleasant joke, and let no fear of being called "old fogies" deter us from manifesting our disapproval, on all proper occasions. It is charitable to impute to thoughtlessness the fact, that men who never drink, and would consider themselves disgraced by being intoxicated, will often lightly joke over the follies of a classmate, who has brought himself into that condition. If the evil is to be mitigated, we must regard it as an evil.

There are, moreover, occasions upon which a class, as a whole, may properly express itself upon this point. One of the severest tests to which a man's temperance principles are subjected, during his college course, is experienced at about the close of Freshman year. There are many influences, which, at this period, tend strongly to lead one into excess. It is, therefore, especially important to be on one's guard at this time. One of the most enjoyable features, belonging to the close of Freshman year, is the class supper, which, after some years of neglect, was revived by the present Sophomore class. If it is conducted in a generous spirit, and society rivalry is not allowed to interfere, it becomes an extremely pleasant affair, and does much to strengthen the bonds of friendship and class unity. There is, however, one objection to it, which, to the writer at least, appears far from trifling. As it has thus far been conducted, it is too easy for one to begin there a career of intemperance. The occasion is most favorable. The class has just passed its first Annual; all the indignities and disagreeable experience of a Freshman's life are over; the newly-fledged Sophs are anxious to show their independence, and some are likely to think that such an addition to their dignity can only be adequately celebrated by a corresponding departure from their manhood. Hence, it happens that men, who have always before been strictly temperate, will drink at the class supper, and, having once laid aside their principles, are not likely to take them up again. If wine could be excluded from the table, while no rational pleasure would be diminished, more than one good end would be attained. There would then be no danger of any of those disgraceful exhibitions, which are liable to take place under the present system, and which cannot fail to cloud the enjoyment of the occasion for at least a large portion of the class. Such action would remove from the affair that suspicion, with which, not only the Faculty, but nearly all disinterested observers regard it, and above all, it would, as I firmly believe, save some from a life of intemperance.

H. H. R.

JUST AS IT USED TO BE.

Full many a face the walls disclose,
Of spectacled eyes and monstrous nose;
With mouth stretched grinning from ear to ear,
And lanky neck, amazing queer;

While underneath, in boyish scrawl,

The master's name adorns the wall,
Just as it used to be!

Each boy is droning at his desk,
Scratched up with face and form grotesque,
And many a name indented deep,

Posterity's rewards to reap,

Just as ours used to be!

Now all are on wild play intent,

The while the master's eye is bent;

When he looks up, then they look down,
And at their tasks profoundly frown;
When he looks down, with grimace sly
They torture their faces completely awry,
Just as we used to do!

The master was a man of fun,
And when he joked or made a pun,
(And cunningly they learned to trace
A joke within his smiling face,)
Right well they roared with wily craft,
And saw or not the point, they laughed,
Just as we used to do!

'Twas sad to muse what used to be,
And find all things unchanged but me;
'Twas sadder still to think that they
In coming years, with pain would say,
"O, that the days would come again
When all was pleasure, nothing pain,
Just as they used to be!"

B. W. D.