YALE COLLEGE.

are coming within three rods, he shall not enter without a signal to proceed."

mitted to wear his hat within ten rods of that august person. The professors might not be approached uncovered within eight rods, and Humble as they were, it may be imagined even a tutor, then, received obeisance by law, that puny Sophomores sometimes found "five within twenty-seven and a half yards. The minutes" quite too short a time in which to Freshman, poor fellow! whenever he spoke to "discipline" the pluckiest of the Freshmen; a superior, which included all above him, even and as for the " errands," the "superiors" were the Sophomores, or was spoken to by one, was occasionally outwitted, as witness the following: obliged "to keep his hat off until bidden to put it on."

It will amuse modern collegians to read the following quotations from the college laws, printed in 1764, and in force long after:

"A Freshman shall not play with any members of an upper class, without being asked; nor is he permitted to use any acts of familiarity with them even in study-time.

"In case of personal insult, a Junior may call up a Freshman and reprehend (?) him. A Sophomore in like case must obtain leave from a Senior, and then he may discipline (?) a Freshman, not detaining him more than five minutes.

A Senior once gave a Freshman a dollar, and bade him go to the most distant store from the college and purchase pipes and tobacco. The Freshman departed, with becoming humility, and soon returned with ninety-nine cents' worth of pipes and one cent's worth of tobacco. Whether he was thereupon "disciplined" tradition saith not.

Referring to this servitude of the Freshmen, President Woolsey remarks, in his "Historical Discourse," delivered to the graduates in 1850: "All this was very gravely meant, and continued long in use. The Seniors considered it as a part of the system to initiate the ignorant striplings into the college usages, and they performed their duties with the decorum of danc

"Freshmen are obliged to perform all reasonable errands for any superior, always return-ing masters." ing an account of the same to the person who Even as late as 1800, it was required of the sent them. When called, they shall attend "ignorant striplings" that they should run erand give a respectful answer; and when attend-rands for resident graduates and for the two uping on their superior, they are not to depart until regularly dismissed..

"When a Freshman is near a gate or door belonging to college or college-yard, he shall look around and observe whether any of his superiors are coming to the same; and if any

per classes, any where within the limits of one mile. The poor fellows were formally exempted from such duty in 1804, but even now they are the butts of college ridicule, and the victims, occasionally, of various practical jokes, although these are becoming rarer every year.

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Semper floreat, alma mater, Yale!"

Up to the time of the Revolution, the system | instructors are not inferior, either in numbers of instruction was very limited, compared with or reputation, to that of any similar institution the present course. The graduates were ex- on this side of the Atlantic. pected, for the most part, to choose the clerical profession; indeed, the college was founded as a nursery of the Church; on which account the study of Hebrew was thoroughly pursued, and the New Testament diligently read by all classes; and this was the only Greek studied. The mathematical sciences received but little attention; rhetoric was almost unknown as a study until 1770; and the physical sciences were unheard of until a much later period. What would the students of the present day say, were they "weekly called to recite, memoriter, the Assembly's Catechism in Latin ?"

ARNOLD'S RESIDENCE

"Commencements," a hundred years ago, differed, in some respects, from the mild affairs of nowadays. Then they were occasions of such noisy mirth and even of riot, that the corporation was obliged to exert itself, by stringent laws, to control the exuberance of the departing Seniors. Cannons were fired, and it was usual for the graduating class to provide a pipe of wine, free to all comers. This, in 1760, took the place of the "barrel of metheglin," which, by a law of 1746, "the Seniors may provide and give away, and nothing more;" and when the authorities, compelled by the disturb-pany proved to be the only one which was comances and confusions which flowed from the pipe of wine, undertook to break up the custom of the general treat," the Seniors rebelled, brought large quantities of rum into college, and "carried on" to that degree that the Commencement exercises were suspended. "Similar scenes are not known to have occurred afterward, although for a long time that anniversary wore as much the aspect of a training day as of a literary festival."

When the news of the battle of Lexington arrived, by express, at New Haven, Captain Benedict Arnold, who was at that time commander of the "Governor's Guard," immediately called out his company, and the next morning about forty of them started with him for the seat of war. At Pomfret, on their way, they were joined by General Putnam. On their arrival at head-quarters at Cambridge, the com-.

During the Revolution the students were enthusiastic rebels. The news of the first battles echoed loudly, we may well believe, in the quiet cloisters of the college. The young patriots joined eagerly with the citizens in celebrating the great event of the first blow struck for liberty. Studies were abandoned, and military drills took their place. It was found almost impossible to keep up the regular exercises of the classes; and during almost the whole war the college was in a state of confusion which endangered its continued existence. At the inauguration of the Rev. Ezra Stiles as President, the students, who had been scattered in several of the neighboring towns, were reassembled, and under his energetic administration the college began the career of prosperity which has distinguished it from that time to the present.

It is unnecessary to speak of Yale College as it stands to-day. Its name and fame are as wide-spread as the Union. Its past is written in the history of the country; its present prosperity is indicated by its annual catalogues. Six hundred students are gathered within its walls to-day; its two lower classes number, respectively, one hundred and twenty-eight, and one hundred and thirty-four; and its corps of

plete in its uniform and equipments, and as such was selected to deliver the body of a British officer who had been taken prisoner at Lexington and had died of his wounds. Upon this occasion, one of the British officers, appointed to receive the body from the Guards, expressed his surprise at seeing an American company appearing so well, and remarked that "they were not excelled by any of his Majesty's troops."

While at Cambridge, Arnold was sent, with a thousand men, on the memorable expedition into Canada. About a dozen of his men accompanied him; the remainder of the company shortly returned to New Haven. "The Governor's Guard" still flourishes, and is justly proud of its history. Arnold "kept store" in New Haven for many years, and his sign is still preserved as a relic. He was in easy circumstances, as his house, still standing, gives evidence; and although maintaining a good position among his fellow-citizens, was yet regarded by many of them as a shrewd, selfish, unprincipled man. When the news arrived of his treachery at West Point, not a few who knew him declared that it was nothing more than might have been expected of him.

During the war," while the enemy held possession of New York, the towns on the seaboard were continually liable to attack. In the campaign of 1779, the British seem to have aimed at little more than to plunder, distress, and consume. The attack on this town took place on Monday, July 5, 1779. The fleet, consisting of two men-of-war, with tenders, transports, etc., anchored off the West Haven shore. The forces on board numbered 3000 troops, under the command of the infamous

General Tryon. Of these, about 1500 landed at West Haven, and a smaller detachment at South End, on the eastern side of the harbor.

The inhabitants of the city were entirely unprepared to offer resistance to such a force, but a few of the boldest men sallied out to meet the enemy, with the intention of harassing them and giving time for the removal of women and children to places of safety. These, carrying a few of their most portable valuables, hurried away, in carts, and wagons, and on horseback, to the woods beyond and behind West Rock, and from the summit of that eminence many of them watched the advance of the enemy and the smoke of the fire which their husbands and fathers were pouring at them from behind the trees and fences.

The writer, when a boy, has often listened to his grandmother, with breathless attention, as she narrated the events of that flight, or how, from "the top of the Rock," she watched "the red-coats" defiling along "the Allen-town road." The bridge over West River was so well defended by our militia that the enemy chose to make a circuit of nine miles in order to enter town by the Derby road. This course brought them almost to the very foot of West Rock, and the sight of their brilliant uniforms and glittering muskets, as it appeared to the women and children on the height above, was one never to be forgotten.

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robbing the inhabitants of their watches, mon-
ey, plate, buckles, clothing, bedding, and provi-
sions, they broke and destroyed their household
furniture to a very great amount. Some fami-
lies lost every thing their houses contained;
many have now neither food nor clothes to shift.
'Although in this expedition it must be con-
fessed, to the credit of the Britons, that they
have not done all the mischief in their power,
yet the brutal ravishment of women; the wan-
ton and malicious destruction of property; the
burning of the stores upon the wharf, and eight
houses in East Haven; the beating, stabbing,
and insulting of the Rev. Dr. Dagget (Profess-
or of Divinity in the College) after he was
made prisoner; the mortally wounding of Mr.
Beers in his own door; the murdering the aged
and helpless Mr. English in his own house; and
the beating, and finally cutting out the tongue
of, and then killing, a distracted man, are suf-
ficient proofs that they were really Britons."

Twenty-five of the inhabitants were killed during the skirmishing on the road and the sacking of the town, and between thirty and forty were carried off prisoners. By the next morning the militia of the neighboring towns had collected in such numbers that the "Britons" thought it prudent to retire. So they retreated on board their fleet and set sail to the westward. Thus ended the attack on New Haven-one of the most cruel and savage of the whole war.

The detachment which marched up along the East Haven shore received a check at "Black Rock," where there was a rudely-constructed fort, in which were nineteen men and three

Meanwhile the other divisions, which had landed on the other side of the harbor some time after the landing of the main body, had marched toward the city, meeting with little resistance, and entered the town nearly at the same time with the larger force. Notwithstand-field-pieces. During the war of 1812 a larger ing the proclamation in which General Tryon announced that the persons and property of the unresisting should be spared, the town was delivered up to promiscuous plunder; "in which," says the record published at the time, "besides

fort was built there, and named "Fort Hale,' in honor of Nathan Hale, the martyr spy. This noble young man entered the army under General Washington, immediately after his graduation at Yale College. He was well known

here, and his memory is still cherished with pride for his brave self-devotion, and grief for his sad martyrdom. The fort is now in ruins.

Sailing from that enchanted island, the abode of semi-translated Puritans, which superstitious skippers of fog-enveloped mackerel-smacks assert to be floating mysteriously along the indefinite shores of "Away Down East"-sailing thence in high-pooped pinnace, were good old Theophilus Eaton to enter our harbor in the twilight of some summer evening, he would have no difficulty in recognizing the spot on which he founded a city nearly two centuries and a quarter ago. East and West Rocks

wheels of the incoming steamboat. Not, however, until he had moored his venerable bark securely among "the oyster-stakes," and had entered the shaded streets of the modern city, would he realize the changes which two hundred years have made.

Hurry back to your pinnace, old patriarch! The boys don't touch their hats to governors even, nowadays; a disrespectful crowd is gathering around you; for

"Your old three-cornered hat,

And your breeches, and all that,
Are so queer."

"The City of Elms" owes a great part of its reputation to its beautiful trees. Its streets are lined with grand old elms or luxuriant maples, and its public squares are thick-shaded groves.

"Twin giants, guarding sea and land"still stand on duty, scarred veterans though they be. Between them, and spreading its The streets present long vistas of arched verdverdure to the very shore of the bay, stands a ure; and one of these, a view of which is given by forest, as thick and green as that which attract- the wood-cut on the next page, is the admiration ed his primeval admiration; and the tall spires of strangers and the pride of the native-born. which pierce the trees would be almost the only The meeting branches of the magnificent elms signs of the changes which had taken place dur- which border the long aisle form a Gothic arching his long absence. Not till he had sailed way of perfect symmetry and beauty. For these well up the harbor would he notice, with sur-old trees, and for the taste which leads to the prise, the masts and steeples and numerous planting of others, the city is mainly indebted white houses of old "Dragon," where his men to the late Hon. James Hillhouse, who, about caught innocent seals, and called them by that the year 1800, inclosed "the Green" and set fearful name, so long ago; which ancient fish-out the noble rows of elms which are, and will ing-place has changed into a prosperous village, and grown famous for "Fair Haven oysters" and fast yachts. Coming nearer, he might wonder at the long arm which Trade extends to beckon Commerce in,-"Long Wharf," in prosier phrase, grasping its great handful of sugar-laden West Indiamen, and telling him of the realization of his old commercial hopes and plans. Looking in that direction, toward the glowing west, a roaring, screaming train of cars might cause him a justifiable exclamation of surprise; or he might port his helm, in sudden terror, to escape destruction at the huge

long remain, most beautiful memorials of his taste and public spirit. The citizens should honor his memory with some more enduring monument; yet, till the last shadow falls from the oldest elm, his name will be gratefully mentioned by all who enjoy the summer shade or winter sheen of the grand old trees he planted.

A pleasing peculiarity of New Haven is that its dwellings have so generally the appearance of homes. The houses are mostly built in the cottage or villa style of architecture, and each embowers itself in shade and shrubbery, through which are given glimpses of gardens and grape