ery. The Junior class could
not be divided because of other studies. Their recitations (?)
continued to be a bedlam, a pandemonium. I afterward learned that some
students, who already had some knowledge of the subject, remained
on purpose to create disturbance. One of them, a son of a trustee, I
caught blowing snuff through the room. It was a favorite trick of the
class to drop a bundle of snuff in the stove. Each one of the
fifteen recitations that I had with this class was spoiled by some
disturbance. On two occasions some of them stole the keys of the room
and locked me in with part of the class. Fortunately, I was able to
drive back the bolt. The president was less lucky. Twice he and his
entire class were obliged to climb down from the window by a ladder.
There is no use in multiplying words. The treatment to which I
was subjected was shameful. What made it even worse was, that the
authorities permitted such conduct toward one whom they had invited
to take the initiative in beginning a new study. It was a
perfectly-understood thing that I had accepted the temporary
appointment more to relieve the college than for my own benefit."

The writer of the above is now one of the leading professors in
another college. His name and reputation are among the best in the
land. He writes concerning his present position: "We have here two
hundred and fifty students, all told. The utmost courtesy prevails,
both in the recitation-room and in the streets. During the five years
that we have been in existence as a college I do not remember that a
single rude act has been committed toward any professor. I attribute
this to a variety of circumstances. We began with a small body
of students, who gave tone to the subsequent ones. We have no
dormitories. The college is in a city too large to be controlled by
students. Nothing could be pleasanter than the intercourse between
town and college. Not a gate has been carried off, no loud shouting is
heard. If there are night-revels, nobody ever hears of them. We have
no prizes, no honors, no marking system. We hold rigid examinations,
and watch the tendency to negligence if it shows itself."

One circumstance may lead us to take a more hopeful view of the
situation. The colleges--and consequently the classes--are growing
larger. At Yale and Harvard, for instance, the classes exceed two
hundred on entrance. It is clear that so large a body cannot cohere
very firmly. The sense of homogeneousnes