MICHIGAN DAILY
S
hy
Alumni Sing I Wanna Go
Parade Heralds Michigras Carnival
Students Needed Pioneering pirit
In Old Days When Men W ere Men
Pranksters Ruled Campus mourn1,ed on a post at the rear, which Social life, according to Mr. Shaw.
With Cow Professorsseemed to have been a prolific source centered mainly at the popular
of student humor," Mr. Shaw says. church socials where students met
And Frosh As Victims "It was turned upside down in winter the townspeople and their lovely
and flled with water, with a corres- daughters. "Many of the brightest
Father's Cheks ponding vacation the following and most beautiful local belles came
morning. Finall. in Dr. Tappan's from North Ann Arbor nearly a mile
Were P l e Too day it was carried away, post and all." away," he says. "The old wooden
WereProlemI ToCalf Entered Class viaduct over the tracks was known in
B'C DThere are many stories of donkeys those days as the Bridge of Sighs."
aBy LEONARD.nSCHLEIDER n sin inusa p1es "Of conviviality there was com-
own above is the Michigras parade as students saw it in 1907. The
coach was the float of the Rocky Mountain Club and those on it
ed themselves by firing pistols. Latest Michigras, gigantic two-day
us carnival, was held May 6 for benefit of women's swimming pool
rarsity Band's trip to Yale.
The Show Outside Was Preferred
"Only 25 years had elapsed since and one of the time when the Chapel,.
the first steamship crossed the At- a campus fixture visited twice daily,
lantic and the first 10 miles of pas- was filled with hay. Once, Mr. Shaw
senger railway in the United States relates. a whole load of wood, wagonI
had been laid but 15 years. The and all, was laboriously set up on the
telegraph was a recent invention and roof of the college hall. On another
electricity was a plaything . . . " Such occasion, the author continues, stu-
was the situation when the class of dents before their recitation period
1847 matriculated at the University stampeded a calf into the open door
of Michigan. of the building. Professor Winchell,
This and many other records of into whose class the bovine entered,
student life in the early days of the thought it a "proposed and deliberate
University are includet? in the insult." This view was not shared
"University of Michigan," by Wilfred by the Class Book of 1861 which said,
Shaw, Director of Alumni Relations. "Any one will at once perceive that
In 1847, Mr. Shaw informs his no one was to blame but the calf, who
readers, the Michigan Central, which lost his presence of mind."
had only reached Ann Arbor a year Strange as it may appear in this
or so before, was running one train age of the high cost of living, rooms
a day between Detroit and Dexter. cost $7.50 per week in 1850, while
Most of the students rode into town board ranged from $1 to $2 weekly.;
on horseback or on the stagecoach. Not so strange is the expense account;
Ann Arbor was then a village in sent to his father by H. B. NicholsI
the valley of the Huron, far from the in that year, "It is all humbug for
wooded campus. A few houses stood the catalogue to say the charges willI
along the country road which is now range from $5 to $7.50 per year. as
State Street. it will not be less than $15 to each
Campus Had Turnstile student."
The campus, Mr. Shaw explains, Circus Caused Bolts
looked for years like a small farm! Students ate in various houses.- the
and was surrounded by a fence with most favored being that of Mrs.
a turnstile on the northwest corner. O'Lary who was renowned for her
This was often broken and was final- apple dumplings as well as for the;
ly replaced by a series of steps, over pulchritude of her waitresses. In later
which the students passed to their years, luncheon clubs sprang up at
boarding houses in town after their which students took their meals until
morning recitations and their after- the introduction of fraternities.
noons of study. Although most of them came from
In time this stile gave way to posts the state of Michigan, students or-l
with room enough between for a man, ganized themselves into regional clubs.
"but not for a cow." Early hours These, as the University attracted4
were imperative, for kerosene or coal- more and more non-residents to its ,
oil were practically unknown in- the fold, expanded into such groups as
forties, and candles and whale-oil the Rocky Mountain Club, the Cana-i
were the sole source of illumination. dian Club and the New York and Ohioi
The wood yard, where the students Clubs. Not until this century were
chopped their own fuel, was the there enough foreign students on the <
source of heat. campus to warrant formation of an
"Time went according to a bell International Center.
paratively little in the earliest days,
though occasionally some students
succumbed to the beer and wine of
the German townspeople," Mr. Shaw
writes. A drinking bout in 1858 end-
ed with one student dead and many
expelled.
Traditional rivalry between classes
and departments existed from the
beginning. "Lessons were taught the
upstanding freshmen, with natural
retaliations on the sophomores," Mr.
Shaw says.
Inter-department rivalry was most
intense at about 1900. The class of
1900 hoisted a flag bearing the class
numerals to the top of the University
flagpole and then cut the halyards.
A Western sharpshooter from the
Law School brought it down with his
second shot.
Luncheon Clubs Originated
After the Civil War, organized bolt-
ing became the campus rage. It was
necessary to enforce the rule provid-
ing for "classes ,to wait for the in-
structor until at least five minutes
after the ringing of the bell." The
rule was applied in 1871 when a
group of freshmen and sophomores
absented themselves when the circus
was in town and were consequently
suspended.
The burning of "mechanics" was
also a popular rite, says Mr. Shaw in
concluding his chapter on student
life, which in its earlier, days celebrat-
ed the completion of the course in
physics under Professor Williams.
This ancient ceremony took the form
of a procession of solemn juniors
which escorted the "corpus"-a skull
crowned with the sophomore insig-
nia-to a place of judgement. Dur-
ing the formal trial, presided over by
a Pontifex Maximus, in which Judex,
an Advocatus Pro and an Advocatus
Con argued, the sophomores inter-
1jnote~d with bloody results.
In the dark pre-New Deal days of 1933, there was a shortage of food,
closed fraternities and a campaign by the Daily to lower the price of
haircuts. President Ruthven and Coach Kipke did their part by selling
the Goodfellow edition of the Daily.
pep rally the night before the 1937 State game resulted in a riot
vhich the Michigan Theatre facade was wrecked, a polieemnan was
red and four students were arrested. This Liberty St. bonfire was
nguished a few minutes later when police arrived with tear-gas.
Not A Poolroom, But The City Room
F s---r..ar pe'i lodeaysults.
Freshmen Propel Peanuts- For Sophomores' Pleasure
In this humble abode the Michigan Daily grew to manhood. Recognized.
s "pacemaker of college newspapers" and winner of an award for typo-
raphical excellence, the Daily now has its own editorial and composing
loms in the Student Publications Building.
Sex rears its familiar head every year when the Junior Girls Play is
presented. The chorus above was deemed worthy of Florenz Ziegfield
back in the days when Lillian Gish ruled Broadway.
Trials And Tortures Are Honors Here
Was Suggested Designt Of Tower
'
"Assume the position" was a familiar phrase to the freshmen of yesterday. Under the guiding hands of
their age-old enemies, the sophomores, neophytes were forced to pursue such customs as propelling peanuts
with their noses. Today all these traditions are relegated to the realm of legend.
WhenThe University Was But A Tiny Babe In Arms
_
A _a
' ;' ::'" ^}:5:$ ,y. .{.] ^' : ti ' p} {:'i4 ;. ii{ ., . y' qq. , q 'y,.yt. ) C jw:
:'t ss:?; as- ' : ?........ v: 1:. :?; :j4.._ - '":::".J2. .. ?:... 'a?" :+SC . ,.. ., sx. _:\ s ...11SL?. ...::,eib44 3Y.. ' ; 5:+1tt$ie$ 4. _". ' '"'ffi .-.
* '