Word: tree
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Dates: during 1890-1899
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...Senior class should support the Corporation in their proposition to do away with the Tree exercises, unless they can be so modified as to do away with all objectionable features. Harvard has taken the lead in abolishing many barbarisms of the past. She has dealt death blows to hazing and other forms of brutality. Why? Because Harvard men have realized that such practices are degrading, that the spirit that prompts them is meanness and cowardice. The men most eminently fitted for hazing was the "thug." Of course, there were many very admirable men that took part in hazing, but they...
...should Harvard not abolish this remaining barbarism, the "scrap" about the Tree? You may dignify it by the name of scrimmage, but it is really nothing more than a disorderly "scrap." It is a form of fighting more characteristic of a scuffle of "thugs" in a barroom than of an assembly of students about to receive the Bachelor of Arts degree from the first centre of learning in America. Not a single manly quality is called forth. No premium is set on courage, strength, or endurance. On the contrary, the most noticeable feature of the whole affair is often some...
...time honored custom; but, of late, it has been almost completely suppressed. So the argument for sentiment amounts to nothing if it can be shown that the custom is a bad one. Nor is it any argument to say that former classes have seen nothing wrong in the Tree exercises. Not to speak of the fact that the exercises have grown worse year by year, it is enough to remember that hazing and slavery were thought proper in their...
...committee of the Corporation insist on the abolishment of the scrimmage for the flowers on Class Day. What is the full import of this resolution? Does it not amount to a condemnation of the whole ceremony at the Tree, and the blotting out of the distinguishing feature of Harvard Class...
...Corporation may reply, "No. Substitute some other exercises at the Tree and there will be no objection to continuing the custom." But is not the scrimmage the very essence of the custom? Is it not the tradition itself, around which the cheering and other details have grown up? A moment's examination will show this to be the case. Ever since the year 1815, and probably from a much earlier date, the flower exercises have been established at the Liberty or Farewell Tree, which, it must be remembered, is the successor of the old Liberty Tree which formerly stood between...