A Collection of College Words and Customs Part 5

Mr. Pope being about to remove from Trinity to Emmanuel, by _Bene-Discessit_, was desirous of taking my rooms.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. I. p. 167.

BENEFICIARY. One who receives anything as a gift, or is maintained by charity.--_Blackstone_.

In American colleges, students who are supported on established foundations are called _beneficiaries_. Those who receive maintenance from the American Education Society are especially designated in this manner.

No student who is a college _beneficiary_ shall remain such any longer than he shall continue exemplary for sobriety, diligence, and orderly conduct.--_Laws of Univ. at Cam., Ma.s.s._, 1848, p. 19.

BEVER. From the Italian _bevere_, to drink. An intermediate refreshment between breakfast and dinner.--_Morison_.

At Harvard College, dinner was formerly the only meal which was regularly taken in the hall. Instead of breakfast and supper, the students were allowed to receive a bowl of milk or chocolate, with a piece of bread, from the b.u.t.tery hatch, at morning and evening; this they could eat in the yard, or take to their rooms and eat there. At the appointed hour for _bevers_, there was a general rush for the b.u.t.tery, and if the walking happened to be bad, or if it was winter, many ludicrous accidents usually occurred. One perhaps would slip, his bowl would fly this way and his bread that, while he, prostrate, afforded an excellent stumbling-block to those immediately behind him; these, falling in their turn, spattering with the milk themselves and all near them, holding perhaps their spoons aloft, the only thing saved from the destruction, would, after disentangling themselves from the ma.s.s of legs, arms, etc., return to the b.u.t.tery, and order a new bowl, to be charged with the extras at the close of the term.

Similar in thought to this account are the remarks of Professor Sidney Willard concerning Harvard College in 1794, in his late work, ent.i.tled, "Memories of Youth and Manhood." "The students who boarded in commons were obliged to go to the kitchen-door with their bowls or pitchers for their suppers, when they received their modic.u.m of milk or chocolate in their vessel, held in one hand, and their piece of bread in the other, and repaired to their rooms to take their solitary repast. There were suspicions at times that the milk was diluted by a mixture of a very common tasteless fluid, which led a sagacious Yankee student to put the matter to the test by asking the simple carrier-boy why his mother did not mix the milk with warm water instead of cold. 'She does,'

replied the honest youth. This mode of obtaining evening commons did not prove in all cases the most economical on the part of the fed. It sometimes happened, that, from inadvertence or previous preparation for a visit elsewhere, some individuals had arrayed themselves in their dress-coats and breeches, and in their haste to be served, and by jostling in the crowd, got sadly sprinkled with milk or chocolate, either by accident or by the stealthy indulgence of the mischievous propensities of those with whom they came in contact; and oftentimes it was a scene of confusion that was not the most pleasant to look upon or be engaged in. At breakfast the students were furnished, in Commons Hall, with tea, coffee, or milk, and a small loaf of bread. The age of a beaker of beer with a certain allowance of bread had expired."--Vol. I. pp.

313, 314.

No scholar shall be absent above an hour at morning _bever_, half an hour at evening _bever_, &c.--_Quincy's Hist. Harv. Univ._, Vol. I. p. 517.

The butler is not bound to stay above half an hour at _bevers_ in the b.u.t.tery after the tolling of the bell.--_Ibid._, Vol. I. p.

584.

BEVER. To take a small repast between meals.--_Wallis_.

BIBLE CLERK. In the University of Oxford, the _Bible clerks_ are required to attend the service of the chapel, and to deliver in a list of the absent undergraduates to the officer appointed to enforce the discipline of the inst.i.tution. Their duties are different in different colleges.--_Oxford Guide_.

A _Bible clerk_ has seldom too many friends in the University.--_Blackwood's Mag._, Vol. LX., Eng. ed., p. 312.

In the University of Cambridge, Eng., "a very ancient scholars.h.i.+p, so called because the student who was promoted to that office was enjoined to read the Bible at meal-times."--_Gradus ad Cantab._

BIENNIAL EXAMINATION. At Yale College, in addition to the public examinations of the cla.s.ses at the close of each term, on the studies of the term, private examinations are also held twice in the college course, at the close of the Soph.o.m.ore and Senior years, on the studies of the two preceding years. The latter are called _biennial_.--_Yale Coll. Cat._

"The _Biennial_," remarks the writer of the preface to the _Songs of Yale_, "is an examination occurring twice during the course,--at the close of the Soph.o.m.ore and of the Senior years,--in all the studies pursued during the two years previous.

It was established in 1850."--Ed. 1853, p. 4.

The system of examinations has been made more rigid, especially by the introduction of _biennials_.--_Centennial Anniversary of the Linonian Soc._, Yale Coll., 1853, p. 70.

Faculty of College got together one night, To have a little congratulation, For they'd put their heads together and hatched out a load, And called it "_Bien. Examination_."

_Presentation Day Songs_, June 14, 1854.

BIG-WIG. In the English universities, the higher dignitaries among the officers are often spoken of as the _big-wigs._

Thus having antic.i.p.ated the approbation of all, whether Freshman, Soph.o.m.ore, Bachelor, or _Big-Wig_, our next care is the choice of a patron.--_Pref._ to _Grad. ad Cantab._

BISHOP. At Cambridge, Eng., this beverage is compounded of port-wine mulled and burnt, with the addenda of roasted lemons and cloves.--_Gradus ad Cantab._

We'll pa.s.s round the _Bishop_, the spice-breathing cup.

_Will. Sentinel's Poems_.

b.i.t.c.h. Among the students of the University of Cambridge, Eng., a common name for tea.

The reading man gives no swell parties, runs very little into debt, takes his cup of _b.i.t.c.h_ at night, and goes quietly to bed.

--_Grad. ad Cantab._, p. 131.

With the Queens-men it is not unusual to issue an "At home" Tea and Vespers, alias _b.i.t.c.h_ and _hymns_.--_Ibid., Dedication_.

b.i.t.c.h. At Cambridge, Eng., to take or drink a dish of tea.

I followed, and, having "_b.i.t.c.hed_" (that is, taken a dish of tea) arranged my books and boxes.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. I. p. 30.

I dined, wined, or _b.i.t.c.hed_ with a Medallist or Senior Wrangler.

--_Ibid._, Vol. II. p. 218.

A young man, who performs with great dexterity the honors of the tea-table, is, if complimented at all, said to be "an excellent _b.i.t.c.h_."--_Gradus ad Cantab._, p. 18.

BLACK BOOK. In the English universities, a gloomy volume containing a register of high crimes and misdemeanors.

At the University of Gottingen, the expulsion of students is recorded on a _blackboard_.--_Gradus ad Cantab._

Sirrah, I'll have you put in the _black book_, rusticated, expelled.--_Miller's Humors of Oxford_, Act II. Sc. I.

All had reason to fear that their names were down in the proctor's _black book_.--_Collegian's Guide_, p. 277.

So irksome and borish did I ever find this early rising, spite of the health it promised, that I was constantly in the _black book_ of the dean.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. I. p. 32.

BLACK-HOOD HOUSE. See SENATE.

BLACK RIDING. At the College of South Carolina, it has until within a few years been customary for the students, disguised and painted black, to ride across the college-yard at midnight, on horseback, with vociferations and the sound of horns. _Black riding_ is recognized by the laws of the College as a very high offence, punishable with expulsion.

BLEACH. At Harvard College, he was formerly said to _bleach_ who preferred to be _spiritually_ rather than _bodily_ present at morning prayers.

'T is sweet Commencement parts to reach, But, oh! 'tis doubly sweet to _bleach_.

_Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 123.

BLOOD. A hot spark; a man of spirit; a rake. A word long in use among collegians and by writers who described them.

With some rakes from Boston and a few College _bloods_, I got very drunk.--_Monthly Anthology_, Boston, 1804, Vol. I. p. 154.