the reason for which is evident. Whether Maecenas would have
considered it an _honor_ to have had the compliment of Horace,
"O et praesidium et dulce decus meum,"
transferred as a title for a game at cards, we leave for others to
decide.

DUMMER JUNGE,--literally, _stupid youth_,--among German students
"is the highest and most cutting insult, since it implies a denial
of sound, manly understanding and strength of capacity to him to
whom it is applied."--_Howitt's Student Life of Germany_, Am. ed.,
p. 127.

DUN. An importunate creditor who urges for payment. A character
not wholly unknown to collegians.

Thanks heaven, flings by his cap and gown, and shuns
A place made odious by remorseless _duns_.
_The College_, in _Blackwood's Mag._, May, 1849.

_E_.

EGRESSES. At the older American colleges, when charges were made
and excuses rendered in Latin, the student who had left before the
conclusion of any of the religious services was accused of the
misdemeanor by the proper officer, who made use of the word
_egresses_, a kind of barbarous second person singular of some
imaginary verb, signifying, it is supposed, "you went out."

Much absence, tardes and _egresses_,
The college-evil on him seizes.
_Trumbull's Progress of Dullness_, Part I.

EIGHT. On the scale of merit, at Harvard College, eight is the
highest mark which a student can receive for a recitation.
Students speak of "_getting an eight_," which is equivalent to
saying, that they have made a perfect recitation.

But since the Fates will not grant all _eights_,
Save to some disgusting fellow
Who'll fish and dig, I care not a fig,
We'll be hard boys and mellow.
_MS. Poem_, W.F. Allen.

Numberless the _eights_ he showers
Full on my devoted head.--_MS. Ibid._

At the same college, when there were three exhibitions in the
year, it was customary for the first eight scholars in the Junior
Class to have "parts" at the first exhibition, the second eight at
the second exhibition, and the third eight at the third
exhibition. Eight Seniors performed with them at each of these
three exhibitions, but they were taken promiscuously from the
first twenty-four in their class. Although there are now but two
exhibitions in the year, twelve performing from each of the two
upper classes, yet the students still retain the old phraseology,
and you will often hear the question, "Is he in the first or
second _eight_?"