BULLY CLUB.  The following account of the Bully Club, which was formerly a most honored transmittendum at Yale College, is taken from an entertaining little work, entitled Sketches of Yale College. “Bullyism had its origin, like everything else that is venerated, far back in antiquity; no one pretends to know the era of its commencement, nor to say with certainty what was the cause of its establishment, or the original design of the institution.  We can only learn from dim and doubtful tradition, that many years ago, no one knows how many, there was a feud between students and townsmen:  a sort of general ill-feeling, which manifested itself in the lower classes of society in rudeness and insult.  Not patiently borne with, it grew worse and worse, until a regular organization became necessary for defence against the nightly assaults of a gang of drunken rowdies.  Nor were their opponents disposed to quit the unequal fight.  An organization in opposition followed, and a band of tipsy townsmen, headed by some hardy tars, took the field, were met, no one knows whether in offence or defence, and after a fight repulsed, and a huge knotty club wrested from their leader.  This trophy of personal courage was preserved, the organization perpetuated, and the Bully Club was every year, with procession and set form of speech, bestowed upon the newly acknowledged leader.  But in process of time the organization has assumed a different character:  there was no longer need of a system of defence,—­the “Bully” was still acknowledged as class leader.  He marshalled all processions, was moderator of all meetings, and performed the various duties of a chief.  The title became now a matter of dispute; it sounded harsh and rude to ears polite, and a strong party proposed a change:  but the supporters of antiquity pleaded the venerable character of the customs identified almost with the College itself.  Thus the classes were divided, a part electing a marshal, class-leader, or moderator, and a part still choosing a bully and minor bully—­the latter usually the least of their number—­from each class, and still bestowing on them the wonted clubs, mounted with gold, the badges of their office.

“Unimportant as these distinctions seem, they formed the ground of constant controversy, each party claiming for its leader the precedence, until the dissensions ended in a scene of confusion too well known to need detail:  the usual procession on Commencement day was broken up, and the partisans fell upon each other pell-mell; scarce heeding, in their hot fray, the orders of the Faculty, the threats of the constables, or even the rebuke of the chief magistrate of the State; the alumni were left to find their seats in church as they best could, the aged and beloved President following in sorrow, unescorted, to perform the duties of the day.  It need not be told that the disputes were judicially ended by a peremptory ordinance, prohibiting all class organizations of any name whatever.”