April 7, 1899

The Class of 1902 dealt a blow to both the Class of 1901 and a Vassar tradition. By long custom, classes selected their class trees secretly in the sophomore year, revealing its location as graduation approached. But as ’01 came to the secret site, they found themselves suddenly passing between two lines of jeering freshmen.

Adding insult to injury, the freshmen had also discovered the location of the celebration to be held after the consecration of the tree and had carried ’01’s ice cream off to Strong, where they had a party of their own.

—The New York Times