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THE FUTURE CITIZEN pigc 2 FROLICS of COMMENCEMENT DAY How The Sweet Girl Graduate and Her Brother Inject Life Into an Otherwise Dull Ceremony (By F. G Holmes.) From the earliest days of our re- punlic, June has been the month of commencements. It is the month of the “sweet girl graduate”; the month of cap and gown ; the month of reckless “spilling” of oratory. At the commencement, the fond parent, sister, and sweetheart have the time of their lives. The grad uate enjoys the excitement of the occasion, though contrary tx> gen eral belief, he feels a little foolish and a trifle ashamed of himself. AT OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE. At Oxford graduation day was in meduevul times. known as commem oration day. At Cambridge, how ever, it was and still is known as commencement day. The name and ceremonials were a part of the heritage received by the young Harvard College from the older English institution. For a few years in early colonial times, com mencements were held in the fall. After a time, however, late spring was selected as the most fitting time for such ceromonies, and this has been the accepted season ever since. Like the laws of the Medes and Persians, graduation ceremonies never change. Thus, it has been left to the students themselves to make what they can out of com mencement day. BASEBALL IN FULL DRESS. After the formal commencement exercises at Brown University the seniors give a dance which lasts til' the wee hours of the morning. After all of the girls have been taken home, they return to the campus and play a game of base- hall. The game is played in even ing clothes but in strict accordance with all of the traditions of the great national sport. White shirt bosoms glitter im pressively. The catcher’s white tie peeps jauntily from under his protector. Patent leather pumps in place of spiked shoes. The run ner on first leaps forward at the crack of a bunt, and slides for the bag in his dress suit in a true sports manlike manner, arising beyond redemption of tailor or laundry— but safe on second. THE LEMONADE BARREL. At Dartmouth the first exercise of commencement week is known officially as “Sing-out,” but pop ularly as the “Wet-down.” At seven in the evening, all four of the classes line up tinder the direction of the senior marshal, and march around the campus cheering each hall and dormitory. They then march to a corner of the field where stands a great barrel of lemonade (honestly, it is, but it didn’t use to be though, in the brave days of old!) First each of the seniors takes a drink; then each of the juniors. These two classes form a circle around the barrel, and sophomores and freshman make a concerted rush for it, each class endeavoring to secure exclusive possession, Ol course, the barrel is upset in the melee, and neither freshman nor sophomores get any lemonade— except on their clothing. RUNNING THE GAUNTLET. Then the classes march- to an other corner of the field and line up in double rows against a fence. The seniors grasp their class canes tightly in their hands, and between the two lines the juniors are made to run the gauntlet. Safely through, they take up their position just be yond the seniors, then the sopho mores are forced to run bet ween the members of both classes, These in turn also line up, and the poor freshman are forced to dash through all three classes and take what they get. “THE PIPE OF CONTENTMENT” At St. Stephen's College, an E piscopa! fitting school for the min istery, on the Hudson, commence ment day is marked by a unique ceremony. The entire senior. class sits Indian fashion in a great circle, and from student to student is pass ed a single huge pipe, called the “pipe of contentment,’’ from which each of the students takes several puffs of the fragrant: weed.- HOOP-ROLLING. At several of our larger women’s colleges “hoop rolling” is observed just before commencement day. On the surface the custom ap pears frivolous. It is really symbol ic. At an appointed time the girls who are about to graduate don their caps and gowns—emblems of of the traditional dignity of the “grand old seniors”—and with great rolling hoops race up and down hill and across campus with black gowns and tassels Hying in one last frolicsome farewell to little- girl years. ALUMNI MASQUERADES. At Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, and Columbia commencement week is marked by a masquerade of the alumi not calculated to lend solem nity or dignity to the ceremonies, After the graduates have been told impressively baccalaureate that they are now about to leave “these quiet and scholistic shades” to join in the great struggle which is go- ingon in the “the real world” and have been properlv sobered by the awful gravity of life before them, they behold returning to the quiet scholistic shades, from the real world, hundreds of alumni, fifteen times less grave than they, fifteen times more boyish. A GOOD REASON “Why did the* little fly fly?” Jane asked the girl beside her. ‘‘Because,” she answered with a sigh, “The little spider spied’er.”