Nightshirt "Peerade"

BACK in the days around 1900 the students of Dartmouth College were as loyal in supporting the athletic teams as are presentday students. Transportation to games away from Hanover was limited to the railroad in the days before the advent of the automobile and good roads. Therefore only a few "rooters" were able to follow the teams in their games away from home. The students left in Hanover would gather in front of the telegraph office to await the telegram giving the final score.

However when Dartmouth played Williams in football at Newton Center, Mass. (a game arranged so the Boston alumni could see the team in action) a large delegation from Hanover went to Boston on the night train to be on hand to cheer the team. This was the forerunner of the present-day Harvard game weekend.

One year the baseball schedule was arranged to provide games in Williamstown on two successive days. When word reached Hanover that Dartmouth had lost the first game, a considerable number of students left by train for Williamstown, arriving there early on the morning of the second game. The loyal crowd marched through the main street of the town cheering for Dartmouth. The inspiration of this support enabled the team to win the second game.

The great rivals of Dartmouth in those years were Amherst, Williams and Brown. The following song listed some of the characteristics of colleges as seen through the eyes of Dartmouth students.

"I'll sing you a song of colleges and tell you where to go; Johns Hopkins for your knowledge, Cornell to learn to row, Amherst for your high-toned fops, Dartmouth for your men, For riches go to Williamstown, for muckers, Brown, Amen."

Another song with the following words mentioned our ability to cope with our rivals.

"Ring the bell, blow the whistle, Sail away up Salt River, Pull your anchor from the mud and sail away.

For we've beat the Amherst team In a way that's seldom seen, And we're good enough for Williams any day."

In 1899 Dartmouth and Brown were great rivals in athletics with Brown having the advantage in football. In fact it was rumored that Brown was not above strengthening a team xvith an occasional player from the boiler shop of the locomotive works in Providence. Thus the song entitled "I'll sing you a song of Colleges" ended with this line, "For muckers, Brown, Amen."

I believe it was in 1902 that Dartmouth first beat Brown in football by a score of 12 to o, and perhaps it was the next year that Dartmouth won 62 to o in a game played at Manchester, N. H.

It was in 1900 that we beat Brown 6 to 3 in baseball at Providence. This called for a celebration with a bonfire in Hanover, and somebody had the bright idea that we meet the train carrying the returning team at White River Junction. They were scheduled to arrive on the midnight train, so most of the students arrayed themselves in nightshirts (this being before the advent of the pajama) and boarded the 8:20 train for the Junction. Arriving there in ten minutes, we had 31/2 hours to wait for the midnight train. What to do with the interval, sit in the station? The very last of miserable fates. We were in luck. It happened that a circus was at the Junction that very day. We would go to the circus. Imagine the commotion when this unruly gang arrived! The show had already commenced; we paid our 50 cents each and went in. The performance was halted while we paraded around the ring, then took seats and the show went on. At the close of the regular show a so-called concert was scheduled, for which an extra 25 cents was demanded. We claimed that inasmuch as we missed the opening of the main show, we were entitled to remain for the concert free, and we won our point. The anti-climax to the evening was when the train arrived and we learned that the baseball team had remained in Boston for the night. When we arrived back in Hanover the bonfire was in progress, but we had celebrated enough for one day, and promptly went to bed.

However there was honor for the team when they arrived on the train at 2 p.m. the next day. The whole college was at NorwichHanover station to meet them. Hamp Howe's horses were detached from the stage coach, a long rope was attached, and the whole crowd pulling on the rope, the baseball team was drawn up the hill and around the campus, and accorded all the honor due them. Thus ended the famous "Nightshirt Peerade" to the Junction, but I remember that my roommate had inscribed the score, D-6, B-3, on the back of his night apparel, and thus for some nights at bedtime I continued to be reminded of how we celebrated the victory.

Other remembrances are about our bonfire celebrations, the only proper way of observing team victory. Of course it was the duty of the freshmen under supervision of the sophomores to gather the fuel. The best center piece for the pile of fuel was somebody's outhouse which could be picked up and transported by a crowd of students. Little did they care for this embarrassing loss to the owner of the property. Other material consisted of packing cases and barrels. This was before the day of the cardboard carton. When the fuel was assembled and ebon night drew her mantle over the landscape, the torch was applied. The yelling dancing crowd of celebrants must have made Eleazar Wheelock's Indian gatherings look like a May Pole dance.

I remember one such celebration when overzealous youths drew from its house in the village cemetery the town hearse, and ran with it around the campus in irreverent glee. A certain dignified professor from the faculty prevailed on the hilarious youths to return the vehicle to its domicile, and as they ran at top speed with it across North Main Street the glass doors swung open, the somber curtains fluttered in macabre gaiety, and the speeding chariot disappeared on its way back to a more conventional existence. No damage was reported.