THE HESPERIAN.
NONDESCRIPT.
SOME HISTORY.
This is Charter Day or will be if The Hesperian appears
on time. The day is one we celebrate for various reasons,
principal among which is the fact that one cold night along in
1881 Professor Aughey delivered a lecture in the chapel, tell
ing us that the University was founded on the 15th of Febru
ary, Anno Domino eighteen hnndred and sixty-nine, and that
we ought to observe that day in an appropriate manner. We
were trying to do that on the night of the speech. The room
was half filled with frozen people, or filled with half-frozen
people, or something like that, and in addition to the afore
mentioned speech some college songs were given to the suffer
ing audience. The present Senior class was out in force, sit
ting in a row on the front seats, enjoying the exercises with al1
the happy guso of innocent Prephood.
The next year witnessed a mighty change, as the Sop'a would
say in his oration. The college paper, then called The Hes
perian Student, was in debt to the extent of forty dollars
and a mortgage on its soul and body was about to be fore
closed. One week before Charter Day, some bright man sug
gested an entertainment, as a means of raising the necessary
lucre, and a committee wasjappointcd without delay. The af
fair was extensively advertised and evening found the chapel
packed with students, who paid foradmission at the rate of two
for a quarter, citizens who were taxed twenty-five cents, and
several members of the faculty, who were compelled to pay
a half a dollar apiece before being admitted. The programmes
were printed on the backs of huge comic valentines, and
showed a few eccentricities of illustration, construction, and
expression that would have done credit to any funny almanac
ever published. The programmes, however, did not equal
the programme. All the absurdities that could be devised
were placed on exhibition. A smile is necessary even now
when one recalls the orchestra, the military company, the
singing class, theCharter Day oration by John Dryden, and
the wonderful phonograph. This last instrument was a sim
ple wash tub and clothes wringer, the handle of which was
gravely turned by "Monsieur Hippolyte, of Africa," while
the Cadet Band, behind the scenes, wheezed out "Sweet Bye
and Bye." The last act was a burlesque faculty meeting in
which every professor was personified by a reckless student.
The meeting was a racy one, in which University affairs were
discussed with a boldness that would at the present time se
cure a vacation for the participants. The whole was a tre
mendous success, principally because it was largely impromptu
and the boys threw themselves into the spirit of the thing
with the abandon of trained actors. In spite of the low ad
mission fee more than enough was cleared to free the paper
frnm debt. Humorously it was called a success, George Mc
Lain declaring afterwards that the floor yielded him a peck of
buttons at the next sweeping.
In February 1883 there seemed to be no general desire to
celebrate our birthday, consequently the Palladian Society re
solved to use the date for an entertainment that had been con
templated for some time by a few of its reckless members. It
was to be an Ethiopian affair, and the widely scattered bills
called the participants "Refined College Minstrels." There
are at least a dozen members of that famous company still in
the Univtusity, and they often speak of the three weeks spent
in rehearsing their beavy parts as a period of unalloyed enjoy
ment and ceaseless flunking. The audience did not differ very
materially from the crowds that gather at the present time to
hear special programmes. The curtain was drawn and a semi
circular row of blackened visages smiled serenely upon the ex
pectant multitude. An orchestra, consisting of tambourine-,
bones, two violins, a double bass, a cornet and a piano (pre
sided over by Mr. Charles Sumner Allen, of the class of '86),
had been formed for the special purpose of adding gloom to
the occasion. It played an overture of some length in order
to prepare the victims for the jokes that were to follow. Of
these one sample will be given, and one only. "Bones" looks
around and in'quires the name of the theater in which the com
pany have the honor of playing. He is assured that it is not
a theater, but simply a college chapel. Of course he wants to
know why it is called a chapel, and then comes the denoue
ment: "Because some chap'll freeze to death here one of these
days." With rare fortitude that unhappy audience remained
in their seats during one whole hour of such unpleasantness.
Then they had a diversion in the way of a "Shakespearian
Revival" that was indeed startling. The play of Julius Qe
sar was represented with a faithfulness that would have pat to
shame Salvani, Booth, Keene or Buffalo Bill. The noble Ro
mans, clad in borrowed sheets for togas, and armed with
cheese knives, hacked up poor Caesar on that old chapel ros
trum in a way that was beautiful to behold. Then when Mark
Antony, disguised as C. S. Polk, harangued the motley crowd
from his post behind the old pulpit, there was scarcely a wet
eye in the house. It was beautiful. Once the orator grew
fen-id and declared that the Preps, or somebody else would
gather and "fight for Caesar 'till the cows come home." Then
he turned to pathos and drew out Cassar's necktie and worked
on the feelings of the Roman tough. "You all do know this
necktie; I remember the first time ever Cassar put it on;
'twas on a Friday evening, in his room, and 'twas used to hide
a dirtv shirt." The acting was spirited throughout, and the
few changes that were made in the text of the play served to
make the whole stronger and more pointed than the original.
There were other things on the programme, but with the pos
sible exception of "Tackhammcr, a colored extravaganza,"
they were unimportant and need no special mention. The
people who were decoyed into the chapel on that eventful
night managed to recover in the course of a week or two, but
the upright and moral newspaper men of the capital city have
never gotten over the nervous prostration brought about by
witnessing the performance. It was a jolly, careless, harm
less way of celebrating, but it will never be repeated in the
University for various reasons. One is that wfc.n tJ,- m.,,.!
was remodeled the stage was made too small to accommodate
a minstrel troupe. Another reason is-well, the one we have
given is enough. That show in '83 was the last of its kind
in the University.
In the following year the day was observed, but as the exer
cises were sober and earnest thev were not 9nnr...j u.. .1..
rather wickedly disposed young man who masquerades in
.. w1Ums a u.c onaesenpt. In this history, then, 1884
will be a blank page, and all who are anxious to read a full
report of those doings ara respectfully referred to the Som
brer (Copies can be had at this office at the rate of three
'or a dollar.)
There is really no necessity for our writing up 1885 It is
but one short year since last Charter Day, and the events
should be fresh in the minds of all who were in Lincoln when
the celebration took place. Then, the circumstances were so
peculiar and so liable to be misunderstood that the task of the
historian is indeed ahard one. No full account has been pub
lished, however, and in order that old students and our ex
changes may learn even at this late day what was done, we
will give the sad storv brieflv nA .;, -ui...
I Charter Day came on Sunday, and the University did not cele-
