ometimes to
unpleasant conflict. A Senior having a claim to the service of a
Freshman prior to that of the classes below them, it had become a
practice not uncommon, for a Freshman to obtain a Senior, to whom,
as a patron and friend, he acknowledged and avowed a permanent
service due, and whom he called _his_ Senior by way of eminence,
thus escaping the demands that might otherwise be made upon him
for trivial or unpleasant errands. The ancient custom was never
abolished by authority, but died with the change of feeling; so
that what might be demanded as a right came to be asked as a
favor, and the right was resorted to only as a sort of defensive
weapon, as a rebuke of a supposed impertinence, or resentment of a
real injury."--_Memories of Youth and Manhood_, Vol. I. pp. 258,
259.

The following account of this system, as it formerly obtained at
Yale College, is from President Woolsey's Historical Discourse
before the Graduates of that Institution, Aug. 14, 1850:--

"Another remarkable particular in the old system here was the
servitude of Freshmen,--for such it really deserved to be called.
The new-comers--as if it had been to try their patience and
endurance in a novitiate before being received into some monastic
order--were put into the hands of Seniors, to be reproved and
instructed in manners, and were obliged to run upon errands for
the members of all the upper classes. And all this was very
gravely meant, and continued long in use. The Seniors considered
it as a part of the system to initiate the ignorant striplings
into the college system, and performed it with the decorum of
dancing-masters. And, if the Freshmen felt the burden, the upper
classes who had outlived it, and were now reaping the advantages
of it, were not willing that the custom should die in their time.

"The following paper, printed I cannot tell when, but as early as
the year 1764, gives information to the Freshmen in regard to
their duty of respect towards the officers, and towards the older
students. It is entitled 'FRESHMAN LAWS,' and is perhaps part of a
book of customs which was annually read for the instruction of
new-comers.

"'It being the duty of the Seniors to teach Freshmen the laws,
usages, and customs of the College, to this end they are empowered
to order the whole Freshman Class, or any particular member of it,
to appear, in order to be instructed or reproved, at such time and
place as they shall appoint; when and where ev