penned by an Anonymous Yale student, 1873.
To whom it may concern:
We come before the college now on justice's side arrayed,
To claim redress for open wrongs that vandal hands have made,
To give a college sentiment expression bold and free,
Asserting each man's native right, if such a thing there be.
We represent no clique or clan, but honest men and true,
Who never will submit to that which 15 men may do,
Who feel the shameful yoke that long has on the college lain
And who propose to do their best to break that yoke in twain.
We are not 'soreheads', God forbid that we should cherish strong
Desires to be identified with principles that long
Have been a blight upon the life and politics of Yale
Before whose unjust aims the glow of "Boss Tweed's" brass would pale.
We represent the neutral men, whose voices must be heard
And never can be silenced by a haughty look or word
Of those whose influence here at Yale would but void and null
Did they not wear upon their breasts two crossed bones and a skull
We hold no grudge 'gainst any man, but wish that all may be,
United by the common bonds of peace and harmony.
Yet, when a few do to themselves most proudly arrogate,
The running of affairs, there can be no such happy state.
What right, forsooth, have fifteen men to lord it over all?
What right to say the college world shall on their faces fall
When they approach? Have they, indeed, to 'sickly greatness grown'
And must each one with servile speech them his "superiors" own?
If they have grounds on which they base their claim as just and true.
We challenge them to set them forth exposed to public view
that all may know the reasons why this oligarchy proud
Elect themselves as lords superior o'er us, the 'vulgar crowd'.
We offer no objections to their existing clan,
No one disputes with them this right, we question but the plan
On which they act - that only he who wears the pin upon his breast
their emblem, he for every post shall be considered best.
We wish this understood by all. Let none who read this say,
That we are moved by petty wrongs or private spite obey:
It is for principles of right that we with them contend,
For principles which they've ignored, but which we here defend.
O fellow students, who with us revere these classic halls,
O ye across whose pathway bright their sacred glory falls,
Ye men of every class who feel our Alma Mater's care,
Shall college life beneath these elms this loathsome aspect wear?
Shall none assert the right to act as to each seemeth best,
But cringe and fawn to him who wears death's head on his breast?
Nay, let all rise and break the spell whose sickly glamour falls
About all that originates within these brownstone walls.
And if they will not hear our claims, or grant justice due,
But still persist in tarnishing the glory of the (red white and) blue,
Ruling this little college world with proud, imperious tones,
Be then the watchword of our ranks - BEWARE THE
SKULL AND BONES!
Courtesy of Anthony C. Sutton's book,
America's Secret Establishment
