Denatured Tap

Desire under the elms at New Haven used to reach its peak on the second Thursday in May. The junior class would assemble at 5 p. m. around the Yale Fence on the Old Campus while hundreds of other students and guests looked on from the sidelines and from surrounding dormitory windows. Out among the juniors would pass 60 grave-faced seniors, one at a time, each hunting a certain man. When the senior found his junior he would slap him on the back and bark, "Go to your room!" Such was Yale's "Tap Day." when the four secret senior societies (Skull & Bones, Scroll & Key, Wolf's Head, Elihu Club) chose members. A distinctly grim overtone accompanied the proceedings--the chagrin and bitterness of men who hoped they would be wanted and were not.

Last Thursday Yale's campus was empty of juniors. Obeying a brief announcement in the Daily News, they were waiting in their rooms. The 60 seniors went directly, unobtrusively for the men they wanted. Initiations in the societies' "tombs" were held that night as usual. If the change in Tap Day caused any grumbles or heartaches they were not public. The News said nothing. The Alumni Weekly was pleased, having long called Tap Day "barbarous."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.