Page:Samuel F. Batchelder - Bits of Harvard History (1924).pdf/106

 May, owing in great measure to the energy of Amos A. Lawrence, ’35, then Treasurer of the University, the Faculty provided arms and instructors, the playing-field was once more turned into a Campus Martius—how appropriately is our greatest military memorial placed there!—the little octagonal gymnasium close by (now the carpenter’s shop) was utilized as an armory, and the undergraduates began drilling assiduously. “Hardee’s Tactics” bulged from every pocket. In the course of a few weeks came the rumor that the State Arsenal on Garden Street was to be attacked by a mob, and the student corps undertook its defence. The semi-hysterical state of collegiate feeling turned the episode into a broad and rather discreditable farce. A raid by the mythical mob itself could hardly have been more disastrous to the premises to be guarded. Quis custodiet custodes? A writer in the “Harvard Magazine” three years later inquired reminiscently:

Perhaps on account of the levity exhibited on that occasion, the college authorities made no attempt to re-