advance the interest and welfare of the University. They themselves will confess it, when two or three years more have rolled over their heads. Considerable praise, however, is due to the present Sophomore Class, from the fact, that they have had the good sense to perceive, that nothing is to be gained by an obstinate resistance to law and justice. The foot-ball game. The annual game of foot-ball between the Sophomores and Freshmen, passed off with general satisfaction to all parties concerned, excepting, perhaps, the Freshmen. The first game, owing to some misunderstanding on the part of the Umpire, resulted, rather unexpectedly, in the victory of the Freshmen. This, perhaps, tended to shake off their natural timidity, and arouse them to more vigorous action. But the result of the next game had a decided tendency to lower their courage to the zero point. The Sophomores were triumphant, and maintained their success through the two following games. However, it must be confessed that the Freshmen, notwithstanding many disadvantages, fought with perseverance. They were fewer in number than the Sophomores, and, being a new Class, and therefore naturally disposed to underrate their powers, lacked that feeling of confidence of success, which is so essential to victory. These annual games are a source of considerable interest, especially to the ladies, and never fail to assemble quite a crowd. True to the natural tendency of the fair sex, to assist the weak and down-trodden, their feelings are generally enlisted on the side of the Freshmen. The sport is carried on in a manner rather too rough to be relished by a delicate constitution, and one who has a weakness for a whole skin and a sound head, would prefer to keep out of it. What with the ladies, the tumultuous crowd of lower-classmen, the groups of wise and dignified Juniors and Seniors, the College campus furnishes a lively and attractive scene, and is well worth witnessing, at least once in the course of a lifetime. Whately While upon the subject of College customs, it is perhaps worthy of remark, that the ceremony of the Whately Burial, so faithfully observed during a long series of years, was, last year, omitted. It would cause but little regret if it should be omitted in the future. The custom has long been growing stale, is a questionable source of amusement, and, except to the venders of torches, of no use to anybody. The Philermenians and United Brothers, constitute what are called the Literary Societies. They are at present in quite a flourishing condition. Libraries of considerable value belong to each, to which additions are made whenever the wants of the The Literary Societies demand and the capacities of their treasuries admit. Their literary exercises, which consist of debates and declamations, attract the attention of a good portion of their numbers, and are carried on with considerable interest and energy. A spirit of rivalry exists between them, which culminates at the Annual Initiation. Then, each Society strives to surpass its neighbor in the number of members which are added to its list. On the morning of the day for the Initiations, unsophisticated Freshmen are seized without any previous warning, glowing pictures of the advantages to be derived from becoming a Brother or a Phil., are held up to their imaginations, denunciations of hostile Societies deafen their astonished ears, no peace, no quiet is allowed them, until at last, invited, persuaded, tormented, they yield their consent, out of a sheer desire to get rid of their tormenters. Each Society has an election semi-annually. Their officers, at present, are as follows: Philermenian Society. President, Charles Elliott Mitchell. President, Samuel Vischer Woodruff. Librarian, George Thompson Woodward. Several changes have rceently taken place in the Faculty. The place of Professor Caswell, who is now in Europe, is supplied by Mr. E. L. Cutler, who has been appointed Instructor in Mathematics. Professor Angell having, much to the regret of the College, resigned the Professorship of Modern Languages, M. Alphonso Renaud has been appointed Instructor in French, and Mr. A. Deering, Instructor in German. The Editors of the University Quarterly, for the present year, are from the Senior Class, H. S. Burrage, S. U. Shearman. All things considered, the University never was in a more flourishing condition than at present. A large increase is soon to be made in the fund, which it already possesses, and numerous improvements are contemplated, which in a short time will be commenced. As the building, which at present contains the Library, is filled to overflowing, a new structure is to be erected, which will possess abundant room for at least 100,000 volumes, and at the same time will be capable of indefinite extension. A new Laboratory and Gymnasium are also to be erected. The University has long stood in need of the latter, and it is to be hoped that its wants will at last be supplied. Too much stress cannot be laid upon the importance of physical exercise, and the means for obtaining it should be found in every College. VI.-COLUMBIA COLLEGE. THE term by which we designate the closing exercises of our College life is, after all, a curious misnomer, "lucus a non lucendo." It is the end, not the commencement, especially in Institutions like ours, which are Academic in their course, and do not, as the Universities of the continent did, establish by their degree the beginning of a career in either of the liberal professions. Our professional study comes afterwards, and outside of College walls. With us these occasions are very much alike in the routine of the exercises, and I surmise, in the feelings of the Students,-whether in Yale or Union, in Harvard or Columbia, or with our young country cousins. Still accessories vary, and on them the style and character of the Commencement depends. Some Colleges hold their Commencements in their own Chapels or Halls; and the festive ending is in the midst of all the associations of the quadrennial term. Others must find convenient place without, and the sober Meeting-house assumes a new character, abandons its Sunday guise, and dons trappings of the world; shakes with vociferating applause, or rejoices in sweet music of a very unpuritanic type, even though some of it may be derived from "I Puritani." Columbia in past times held her Commencements in a Church-one of the old Dutch or Episcopal was borrowed,-desk or chancel, as the case might be, buried under the huge stage, and the vestry room or consistory turned into a punch room. Old Trinity used to figure in this way until an idea of the irreverence began to obtain, and we were refused the use of consecrated edifices. We have tried all sorts of rooms that were large enough, and, until Niblo built his accommodating Theatre, were sometimes rather at a loss. This year we made a new venture and engaged the Academy of Music, the largest and finest building of the kind in our luxurious city, capable of seating five thousand people, and redolent with associations of fashion and dress, music and scenic pageantry. There can be no doubt that the place has a material influence on the character of a Commencement, and with the same speakers, Greek, Latin, German and English, the whole affair is substantially changed if you transplant it from an old College Hall or grave Church, and put it down on the stage of an Opera House, in front of five tiers filled with thousands of glowing faces, of which the young and elegant of the gentler sex form no small part. Music and clapping, laughing and chattering, fans and boquets are more congenial and hearty, and the artistic air of the place inspires all to play their rôle with more grace and conscious interest. In all the Commencements of Columbia, and they form now a long list, we are safe in saying that there never has been one more brilliant and successful in all its accessories than that of 1860. Place, weather, audience, all combined to effect this. The huge stage was covered with chairs, supporting a weight of talent and distinction in all professions quite oppressive to imagine-while the boxes and parquette gleamed with a variety and beauty, which would exhaust our figures of flower beds, kaleidoscopes, rainbows or stars. To look at the glittering scene you would almost doubt whether there could be such a thing as a sad heart or a dim eye in the wide world. The sweet music has not yet left our ear, nor has our eye closed to shut out the gorgeous scene, and our heart never means to forget some inicdents of that "white day." Not indeed all in that house were blithe and hopeful in youth, nor sober in middle age and grave activities. There was one* at least whose eye grouped the whole-while his memory went back,-back, picking its way along lines of graves-threescore years and ten, to his "Commencement Day." There he sat-the survivor of the class of ninety-one, after an honorable life of professional labour-with body worn in the toil *John W. Mulligan, Esq. his mind still clear, heart genial, and the hope of the reward of a better land more than replacing the aspirations of youth. He could remember what is flattering to us in the contrast,-and shows that Columbia has spread out in something more substantial than putting the Opera House for Commencement in place of the old Chapel. He would say that "the progress in science then required for the degree of A. B., would not now suffice for matriculation." Still the chairs at that time were filled by no ordinary men-good William Samuel Johnson was President, and John Kemp taught Mathematics, Natural Philosophy and Astronomy; "Old" Peter Wilson, as the third generation afterwards used to call him, held the chair of Greek and Latin, and took especial care, as our fathers tell us, of synonyms and prepositions, while the Rev. John Gross combined in his department, Moral Philosophy, Geography, and the German language-the last his birthright. These were all capable men, but if you trace their antecedents you must go to England, Edinburgh, or Germany. They were not, as now, "to the manor born." We imported our scholarship, as we did our hardware, broadcloths and millinery. Professors, with a fame that Europe recognized, were not then as now-Columbia's own sons. The venerable McVickar, Anthon, and Drisler are illustrations of both these constituents-fame and birthright. But we must stop our pen which would willingly run on in like tripping, and must become mere chroniclers, recalling what a page our words must fill, and that grand-children may read with reverence the early numbers of the University Quarterly, as it goes down to them with ancestral honor and pedigree of C. C. The Commencement was held Tuesday, June 26th, at 10 A. M. The Exercises were opened with prayer by the Rev. Cornelius R. Duffie, Chaplain of the College, himself an alumnus, after which the following orations were delivered. |