ing
them the better place when they are together, by withdrawing out
of their way when they meet, by uncovering the head at the proper
distance, and by reverently saluting and addressing them."

After citing the law of Harvard College passed in 1734, which is
given above, he remarks as follows. "Our laws of 1745 contain the
same identical provisions. These regulations were not a dead
letter, nor do they seem to have been more irksome than many other
college restraints. They presupposed originally that the college
rank of the individual towards whom respect is to be shown could
be discovered at a distance by peculiarities of dress; the gown
and the wig of the President could be seen far beyond the point
where features and gait would cease to mark the person."--pp. 52,
53.

As an illustration of the severity with which the laws on this
subject were enforced, it may not be inappropriate to insert the
annexed account from the Sketches of Yale College:--"The servile
requisition of making obeisance to the officers of College within
a prescribed distance was common, not only to Yale, but to all
kindred institutions throughout the United States. Some young men
were found whose high spirit would not brook the degrading law
imposed upon them without some opposition, which, however, was
always ineffectual. The following anecdote, related by Hon.
Ezekiel Bacon, in his Recollections of Fifty Years Since, although
the scene of its occurrence was in another college, yet is thought
proper to be inserted here, as a fair sample of the
insubordination caused in every institution by an enactment so
absurd and degrading. In order to escape from the requirements of
striking his colors and doffing his chapeau when within the
prescribed striking distance from the venerable President or the
dignified tutors, young Ellsworth, who afterwards rose to the
honorable rank of Chief Justice of the United States, and to many
other elevated stations in this country, and who was then a
student there, cut off entirely the brim portion of his hat,
leaving of it nothing but the crown, which he wore in the form of
a skull-cap on his head, putting it under his arm when he
approached their reverences. Being reproved for his perversity,
and told that this was not a hat within the meaning and intent of
the law, which he was required to do his obeisance with by
removing it from his head, he then made bold to wear his skull-cap
into the Chapel and recitation-r