“Many men prefer the Wooden Spoon to any other college honor or prize, because it comes directly from their classmates, and hence, perhaps, the Faculty disapprove of it, considering it as a damper to ambition and college distinctions.”

This account of the Wooden Spoon Exhibition was written in the year 1851.  Since then its privacy has been abolished, and its exercises are no longer forbidden by the Faculty.  Tutors are now not unfrequently among the spectators at the presentation, and even ladies lend their presence, attention, and applause, to beautify, temper, and enliven the occasion.

The “Wooden Spoon,” tradition says, was in ancient times presented to the greatest glutton in the class, by his appreciating classmates.  It is now given to the one whose name comes last on the list of appointees for the Junior Exhibition, though this rule is not strictly followed.  The presentation takes place during the Summer Term, and in vivacity with respect to the literary exercises, and brilliance in point of audience, forms a rather formidable rival to the regularly authorized Junior Exhibition.—­Songs of Tale, Preface, 1853, p. 4.

Of the songs which are sung in connection with the wooden spoon presentation, the following is given as a specimen.

   “Air,—­Yankee Doodle.

 “Come, Juniors, join this jolly tune
  Our fathers sang before us;
  And praise aloud the wooden spoon
  In one long, swelling chorus. 
    Yes! let us, Juniors, shout and sing
      The spoon and all its glory,—­
    Until the welkin loudly ring
      And echo back the story.

 “Who would not place this precious boon
  Above the Greek Oration? 
  Who would not choose the wooden spoon
  Before a dissertation? 
    Then, let, &c.

 “Some pore o’er classic works jejune,
  Through all their life at College,—­
  I would not pour, but use the spoon
  To fill my mind with knowledge. 
    So let, &c.

 “And if I ever have a son
  Upon my knee to dandle,
  I’ll feed him with a wooden spoon
  Of elongated handle. 
    Then let, &c.

 “Most college honors vanish soon,
  Alas! returning never,
  But such a noble wooden spoon
  Is tangible for ever. 
    So let, &c.

 “Now give, in honor of the spoon,
  Three cheers, long, loud, and hearty,
  And three for every honored June
  In coch-le-au-re-a-ti.[88]
    Yes! let us, Juniors, shout and sing
      The spoon and all its glory,—­
    Until the welkin loudly ring
      And echo back the story.”
    Songs of Yale, 1853, p. 37.

WRANGLER.  In the University of Cambridge, Eng., at the conclusion of the tenth term, the final examination in the Senate-House takes place.  A certain number of those who pass this examination in the best manner are called Wranglers.

The usual number of Wranglers—­whatever Wrangler may have meant once, it now implies a First Class man in Mathematics—­is thirty-seven or thirty-eight.  Sometimes it falls to thirty-five, and occasionally rises above forty.—­Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng.  Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 227.