350 AS UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT -IV 



my life, this answer provoked the greatest, and the re- 

 mainder of the faculty were clearly in the same condition. 

 I dismissed the youth at once, and hardly was he outside 

 the door when a burst of titanic laughter shook the court 

 and the youth was troubled no more. 



Far more serious was another case. The usual good- 

 natured bickering between classes had gone on, and as a 

 consequence certain sophomores determined to pay off 

 some old scores against members of the junior class, at a 

 junior exhibition. To do this they prepared a "mock 

 programme, " which, had it been merely comic, as some 

 others had been, would have provoked no ill feeling. Un- 

 fortunately, some miscreant succeeded in introducing into 

 it allusions of a decidedly Rabelaisian character. The 

 evening arrived, a large audience of ladies and gentlemen 

 were assembled, and this programme was freely distrib- 

 uted. The proceeding was felt to be an outrage; and I 

 served notice on the class that the real offender or offend- 

 ers, if they wished to prevent serious consequences to all 

 concerned, must submit themselves to the faculty and take 

 due punishment. Unfortunately, they were not manly 

 enough to do this. Thereupon, to my own deep regret and 

 in obedience to my sense of justice, I suspended indefi- 

 nitely from the university the four officers of the class, 

 its president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer. 

 They were among the very best men in the class, all 

 of them friends of my own; and I knew to a certainty 

 that they had had nothing directly to do with the articles 

 concerned, that the utmost which could be said against 

 them was that they had been careless as to what appeared 

 in the programme, for which they were responsible. Most 

 bitter feeling arose, and I summoned a meeting of the en- 

 tire student body. As I entered the room hisses were 

 heard; the time had evidently come for a grapple with 

 the whole body. I stated the case as it was : that the four 

 officers would be suspended and must leave the university 

 town until their return was allowed by the faculty; that 

 such an offense against decency could not be condoned ; 



