And when you and I, and Benny, and General Jackson too,
Are brought before a final board our course of life to view,
May we never "fess" on any "point," but then be told to go
To join the army of the blest, with Benny Havens, O!
Song, Benny Havens, O!
FINES. In many of the colleges in the United States it was formerly customary to impose fines upon the students as a punishment for non-compliance with the laws. The practice is now very generally abolished.
About the middle of the eighteenth century, the custom of punishing by pecuniary mulets began, at Harvard College, to be considered objectionable. "Although," says Quincy, "little regarded by the students, they were very annoying to their parents." A list of the fines which were imposed on students at that period presents a curious aggregate of offences and punishments.
£ s. d.
Absence from prayers, 0 0 2
Tardiness at prayers, 0 0 1
Absence from Professor's public lecture, 0 0 4
Tardiness at do. 0 0 2
Profanation of Lord's day, not exceeding 0 3 0
Absence from public worship, 0 0 9
Tardiness at do. 0 0 3
Ill behavior at do. not exceeding 0 1 6
Going to meeting before bell-ringing, 0 0 6
Neglecting to repeat the sermon, 0 0 9
Irreverent behavior at prayers, or public divinity
lectures, 0 1 6
Absence from chambers, &c., not exceeding 0 0 6
Not declaiming, not exceeding 0 1 6
Not giving up a declamation, not exceeding 0 1 6
Absence from recitation, not exceeding 0 1 6
Neglecting analyzing, not exceeding 0 3 0
Bachelors neglecting disputations, not exceeding 0 1 6
Respondents neglecting do. from 1s. 6d. to 0 3 0
Undergraduates out of town without leave, not exceeding 0 2 6
Undergraduates tarrying out of town without leave, not
exceeding per diem, 0 1 3
Undergraduates tarrying out of town one week without
leave, not exceeding 0 10 0
Undergraduates tarrying out of town one month without
leave, not exceeding 2 10 0
Lodging strangers without leave, not exceeding 0 1 6
Entertaining persons of ill character, not exceeding 0 1 6
Going out of College without proper garb, not exceeding 0 0 6
Frequenting taverns, not exceeding 0 1 6
Profane cursing, not exceeding 0 2 6
Graduates playing cards, not exceeding 0 5 0
Undergraduates playing cards, not exceeding 0 2 6
Undergraduates playing any game for money, not exceeding 0 1 6
Selling and exchanging without leave, not exceeding 0 1 6
Lying, not exceeding 0 1 6
Opening door by pick-locks, not exceeding 0 5 0
Drunkenness, not exceeding 0 1 6
Liquors prohibited under penalty, not exceeding 0 1 6
Second offence, not exceeding 0 3 0
Keeping prohibited liquors, not exceeding 0 1 6
Sending for do. 0 0 6
Fetching do. 0 1 6
Going upon the top of the College, 0 1 6
Cutting off the lead, 0 1 6
Concealing the transgression of the 19th Law,[25] 0 1 6
Tumultuous noises, 0 1 6
Second offence, 0 3 0
Refusing to give evidence, 0 3 0
Rudeness at meals, 0 1 0
Butler and cook to keep utensils clean, not
exceeding 0 5 0
Not lodging at their chambers, not exceeding 0 1 6
Sending Freshmen in studying time, 0 0 9
Keeping guns, and going on skating, 0 1 0
Firing guns or pistols in College yard, 0 2 6
Fighting or hurting any person, not exceeding 0 1 6
In 1761, a committee, of which Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson was a member, was appointed to consider of some other method of punishing offenders. Although they did not altogether abolish mulets, yet "they proposed that, in lieu of an increase of mulcts, absences without justifiable cause from any exercise of the College should subject the delinquent to warning, private admonition, exhortation to duty, and public admonition, with a notification to parents; when recitations had been omitted, performance of them should be exacted at some other time; and, by way of punishment for disorders, confinement, and the performance of exercises during its continuance, should be enjoined."—Quincy's Hist. Harv. Univ., Vol. II. pp. 135, 136.
By the laws of 1798, fines not exceeding one dollar were imposed by a Professor or Tutor, or the Librarian; not exceeding two dollars, by the President; all above two dollars, by the President, Professors, and Tutors, at a meeting.
Upon this subject, with reference to Harvard College, Professor Sidney Willard remarks: "For a long period fines constituted the punishment of undergraduates for negligence in attendance at the exercises and in the performance of the lessons assigned to them. A fine was the lowest degree in the gradation of punishment. This mode of punishment or disapprobation was liable to objections, as a tax on the father rather than a rebuke of the son, (except it might be, in some cases, for the indirect moral influence produced upon the latter, operating on his filial feeling,) and as a mercenary exaction, since the money went into the treasury of the College. It was a good day for the College when this punishment through the purse was abandoned as a part of the system of punishments; which, not confined to neglect of study, had been extended also to a variety of misdemeanors more or less aggravated and aggravating."—Memories of Youth and Manhood, Vol. I. p. 304.
"Of fines," says President Woolsey, in his Historical Discourse relating to Yale College, "the laws are full, and other documents show that the laws did not sleep. Thus there was in 1748 a fine of a penny for the absence of an undergraduate from prayers, and of a half-penny for tardiness or coming in after the introductory collect; of fourpence for absence from public worship; of from two to six pence for absence from one's chamber during the time of study; of one shilling for picking open a lock the first time, and two shillings the second; of two and sixpence for playing at cards or dice, or for bringing strong liquor into College; of one shilling for doing damage to the College, or jumping out of the windows,—and so in many other cases.
"In the year 1759, a somewhat unfair pamphlet was written, which gave occasion to several others in quick succession, wherein, amidst other complaints of President Clap's administration, mention is made of the large amount of fines imposed upon students. The author, after mentioning that in three years' time over one hundred and seventy-two pounds of lawful money was collected in this way, goes on to add, that 'such an exorbitant collection by fines tempts one to suspect that they have got together a most disorderly set of young men training up for the service of the churches, or that they are governed and corrected chiefly by pecuniary punishments;—that almost all sins in that society are purged and atoned for by money.' He adds, with justice, that these fines do not fall on the persons of the offenders,—most of the students being minors,—but upon their parents; and that the practice takes place chiefly where there is the least prospect of working a reformation, since the thoughtless and extravagant, being the principal offenders against College law, would not lay it to heart if their frolics should cost them a little more by way of fine. He further expresses his opinion, that this way of punishing the children of the College has but little tendency to better their hearts and reform their manners; that pecuniary impositions act only by touching the shame or covetousness or necessities of those upon whom they are levied; and that fines had ceased to become dishonorable at College, while to appeal to the love of money was expelling one devil by another, and to restrain the necessitous by fear of fine would be extremely cruel and unequal. These and other considerations are very properly urged, and the same feeling is manifested in the laws by the gradual abolition of nearly all pecuniary mulcts. The practice, it ought to be added, was by no means peculiar to Yale College, but was transferred, even in a milder form, from the colleges of England."—pp. 47, 48.
In connection with this subject, it may not be inappropriate to mention the following occurrence, which is said to have taken place at Harvard College.