jokes were of a much too serious character. The college Bible was
abstracted from the Chapel and sent to Yale; the communion wine was
stolen; a paper bombshell was exploded behind a curtain in the Greek
recitation-room; and Professor Pierce discovered one morning that all his
black-boards had been painted white. All the copies of Cooke's Chemical
Physics suddenly disappeared one afternoon, and next morning the best
scholars in the Junior Class were obliged to say, "Not prepared."

A society called the Med. Fac. was chiefly responsible for these
performances; but so secret was it in its membership and proceedings that
neither the college faculty nor the great majority of the students really
knew whether there was such a society in existence or not. A judge of the
United States Circuit Court, who had belonged to it in his time, was not
aware that his own son was a member of it.

Some of the members of this society turned out well, and others badly;
but generally an inclination for such high pranks shows a levity of
nature that bodes ill for the future. A college class is a wonderful
study in human nature, from the time it enters until its members have
arrived at forty or fifty years of age. There was one young man at
Harvard in those days who was so evidently marked out by destiny for a
great public career that when he was elected to Congress in 1876 his
classmates were only surprised because it seemed so natural that this
should happen. Another was of so depraved a character that it seemed as
if he was intended to illustrate the bad boy in a Sunday-school book. He
was so untrustworthy that very soon no one was willing to associate with
him. He stole from his father, and, after graduating, went to prison for
forgery and finally was killed by a tornado. There was still another, a
great fat fellow, who always seemed to be half asleep, and was very
shortly run over and killed by a locomotive. Yet if we could know the