Page 55 - 1926 February - To Dragma

218 TO DRAG MA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI
During this period the dress of friars and nuns became fixed and since the
scholars were usually clerics their robes differed little from those worn by
other church orders. Gradually special forms were set aside for the univer-
sity bodies and in modified style are the costumes worn today. Hoods were
originally fashioned after the monks' cowls and like them attached to the
gown and drawn over the head. Later, when the hood was displaced by
the cap as a head covering, it was made separate sometimes with a border of
color. I n its present form the hood is the most significant and certainly
the most interesting part of the academic costume. The mortarboard is an
evolution of the skull cap worn by the ecclesiastics over the tonsured head.
The pointed shape which it later assumed developed into the modern tassel.

Caps and gowns have been used in this country from colonial times.
Columbia University, or King's College as it' was then known, at an eariy
date adopted a local code. New York, the University of Pennsylvania and
others also had codes in force before 1880. A few years later a student
movement favoring the use of academic costume l>egan. Presidents and
trustees became interested and encouraged it. The Yale Corporation was
one of the first governing bodies to be gowned, but the faculty of Harvard
was not supplied until the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary in 1886,
although Columbia and other universities had gowned their faculties at an
earlier date. The democratic appeal in clothing all alike in an outward
equal fellowship, the improvement in the general effect of university func-
tions, and the increased interest aroused in academic ceremonies as a result
of the practice brought about the rapid adoption of the costume. Indeed
it has met with such general favor that many normal and high schools in
recent years supplied their graduating classes with caps and gowns. Dark
blue or gray are the usual colors, and i f black is used the rounded sleeves
distinguish the gowns from those of the collegiate costume.

Thus is preserved in outward form a tradition of academic life symbolic
of the search for truth and the unceasing pursuit of learning down the
centuries.

A f A Quarterly.

Death of Fans' Beloved
Cristy Mathewson, probably in his prime the greatest baseball pitcher
America has known, died at his mountain camp at Saranac Lake, New
York, October 8, from tuberculosis, the result of being gassed while a
captain in the chemical war service in France. He had struggled against
the dread malady since 1920 when he retired to Saranac Lake. Believing
he had won. he returned in 192J to public life, becoming president and
part owner of the Boston Braves, but a bad cold contracted last spring
turned the tide against him.
He was a graduate of Bucknell of the class of 1902 and a member
of Phi Gamma Delta. His son "Christy" is now at Bucknell and a mem-
ber of his father's chapter.—Santa's Greek Fxchangc.