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"Old clothes or overalls, seven days a week while in Middletown except for a special occasion or when entertaining young ladies on the campus." is the edict which the undergraduate body at Wesleyan University is following 100 per cent strong. Any man caught wearing anything resembling new suit, or even a three-piece suit of the same material, will be punished by immediate ducking in the swimming pool--new clothes and all. Wherefore, the simultaneous disappearance of "good" clothes and the tradesmen who were wont to exchange five dollar bills for "old" suits.
The wearing of old clothes and overalls and clothing of like disrepute is not altogether a modern fad at colleges, but, according to plans at Wesleayn, the complete change of wear will be something new. Formerly, it was the somewhat incongruous style at colleges to wear old "flannels" on the outside, with silk shirts and fancy stockings peeping through the holes in the outer garments. But now, apparently, the apparel is to be "old and ragged" from the verleat (sic?) undergarment to the rakish hat on the head.
For years Yale men--at least the seniors--have been wearing clothes that made the campus in Spring resemble a gala day on the stage of the Folles Hergere, for members of the graduating classes went around in their class' uniforms, which might be a sailor suit, a soldier's uniform, a ballet dancer's regalla or the adornments of a Fiji islander.
For years Yale men--at least the seniors--have been wearing clothes that made the campus in Spring resemble a gala day on the stage of the Folles Hergere, for members of the graduating classes went around in their class' uniforms, which might be a sailor suit, a soldier's uniform, a ballet dancer's regalla or the adornments of a Fiji islander.
One day not so long ago a "prof" complained because some of his sedate seniors in Horace and Catullus came in their class sailor suits. At the next gathering, the seafaring men attended class in evening dress, with high hats, patents, canes and all, as object lesson to the professor. After that, he preferred to take his satires and love lyrics in company with sailors. Quite appropriately, too, for who knows more of love or can better use satire than a lusty roamer of the Spanish main!
Following a general agitation among the Wesleyan undergraduates, the members of Psi Upsilon Fraternity were the first to pledge themselves to wear old clothes. Under the leadership of George R. Larkin '20 of Pittsfield, Mass., heads of various fraternities drew up rules to which their members were asked to subscribe.
Members of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity agreed to don overalls and jumpers but the supplies of local merchants were limited so that many of the fellows were forced to resort to less picturesque attire. Several dozen pairs of denims have been ordered and the overall army will be fully mobilized before the end of the week, it is expected.
Beta Theta Pi Fraternity seconded the requirements of the Psi Upsilon men, although they have not been able to locate enough overalls to go around. The Delta Kappa Epsilon men have agreed to wear old clothes around the campus and in classes and have gone one step farther than the others, stating that they will buy no new clothes until the first of July.
With the advent of warm weather, white "flannels," golf suits and portions of old uniforms resurrected from the old S.A.T.C. days have become popular [the Student Army Training Center was a World War I program at Wesleyan to help students be prepared for war]. Clean linen has not been placed on the blacklist of wearing apparel. The decision not to buy new suits this spring comes just at the time when the students are being asked for their quota in the $3,000,000 endowment campaign which the university is conducting and many of the students have stated that they will be able to increase their pledges with the money which they would have been forced to spend for clothes.
The Psi Upsilon members who have shown partiality to overalls, some of whom appear in the picture, are as follows:--
Everitt, Lauer, Webb, Henson, Crowell, Abbott, Heur, Robertson, Hubbell, Parson, Jackson, Stone, Stevens, Chapin, Fitzgerald, Whitely, Merritt, Williams, Hoyt, North, Woodruff, Mueller, Ott, Strickland.
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The students at Wesleyan were probably making a serious political statement which the Courant trivialized by portraying as a college prank. In the spring of 1920, there was a populist movement to wear denim to protest the high prices of clothing. On April 14, 1920, the New York Times reported the organization of the National League of Overalls Club, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, with chapters all over the country. Another article in the New York Times, from April 23, 1920, gives some of the context for the Overalls Movement:
OVERALLS PARADE TO OPEN A REVOLTAssured of the success of tomorrow's economy parade, which grew out of New York's adoption of the overalls "strike" against the high cost of necessities the Cheese Club announced yesterday that at the conclusion of the demonstration it would turn the movement over to a permanent organization, with the object of waging a continuous drive against profiteering.Evidences of sympathetic support from persons of all sorts and the growing disposition of all classes to join in the protest brought about this decision, it was explained. At the same time it was learned that a number of men and women of substantial position, long identified with various efforts at economic betterment, stood ready to lend aid and countenance, once they were satisfied the community was interested seriously.
Picture from an article in Appalachian History.
Loved this! Wouldn't it be great to record the memories of our town's elders about the Wesleyan of their childhoods? One lifelong resident told me that when he was a little boy, his parents would take him on evening walks in the springtime to listen to the fraternity men singing as they sat on the front steps of their houses. Wesleyan was then known as "the singing college."
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