DEAR LIT. Army Correspondence. CAMP OF 20TH CONN. VOLS., Stafford Court House, Va., Feb. 11th, 1863. } YOUR correspondent hasn't been killed, died of disease, or been taken to any tobacco warehouse, that he has neglected you so long, but offers as an excuse for such neglect, "sickness." Not sickness which prevented him from walking abroad, for a few of your readers can bear witness to his late visit in the Elm City; and yet, an indisposition to literary effort-possibly chronic in this case-has postponed this letter, till many have doubted that you have a regular war correspondent. Let me then, even at this late day, dispel such delusions, and prove to the incredible, that you "can't most always tell, sometimes." About the 10th of Dec. last, I was put on "detached service," and my duty was to cope with and vanquish that arch-fiend, Typhoid. Not to weary you with details, I met the enemy in Baltimore, cleaned him out, and returned to the 20th about two weeks since, crowned with the victor's laurel. During my absence, the Reg. has not been idle; for I learn that our gallant boys have marched from Loudon Valley to Fairfax Station, and thence to this place, where I joined them. It is this kind of work that wears men down. One could measure the depth of the mud on the march, by the height it reached on the coat-tails of the men-in some cases approaching the neighborhood of the waist. This is a muddy country. In fact, I may say that the sacred soil is exceedingly soft, and that the blockade which holds us here, is eminently efficient. Before this reaches you, it will undoubtedly be out, that an expedition has started for North Carolina. One entire corps, the Ninth, has already embarked, and it is said Burnside is to have 40,000 men, and undertake the enterprise of forcing the back-door of Richmond. Success to him. As he will have everything his own way, and not be blocked by jealous and mulish generals, we may hope to hear good news from him. Whether we are to stay here, fall back to the defences of Washington, or follow the old Ninth, is a matter of curious conjecture at present. One thing appears pretty certain, that there will be no bat tle at Fredericksburg. It is understood that Hooker's plan, from the first, has been to throw a force in the rear of the rebel army of the Potomac, and crush them between two armies, or force them to evacuate-don't think I am coming the heavy, Herald correspondent's style-I only give you the general impressions which seem to prevail in this vicinity. Nous verrons. Our present camp is in what, when we came here, was a pine grove. but now a wild waste of stumps. A little village of log huts has sprung up, as if by magic, and we are quite comfortable. We are getting very expert in house building, as we invariably move after furnishing our shelters. In this view of the case, we may expect an early movement, even if it only be across yonder creek. The Picket fever, of which I spoke in my last, still rages among us, but now a little more sensible than before, for rebel cavalry occasionally appear in front of our lines-and a little more agreeable too, for there are a few houses on the line, where a good looking officer may get a warm breakfast, and chat with the buxom lasses, of whom one dwelling contains five, as fair as any in your Northern towns. To be sure, these dames say, "I reckon," and "right smart," but the heart is right, and if they connect your name with these two expressions, the style is quite endurable. I assure you, Picket is all the rage, just now. As we go out on this enchanting duty, we pass an old Episcopal Church, built in 1775, of which the Rev. John Moncure was the first pastor, and John Lee, said to be an ancestor of the rebel General, a Vestryman. It has been a beautiful edifice in its day, but is used now as a sort of head-quarters for reserve Picket. The last time I passed, there was a blazing fire inside, kindled on the marble floor. This old relic of the past should not be desecrated thus, but the deity called Nemesis appears to be the only one worshipped in this Christian Church. The poorer classes about here are in a very destitute condition, and are glad to beg a few hard tack from Union soldiers. Nevertheless, there is not a man, woman or child, but glories in Secession and Rebellion. Their pluck is admirable—their sense, nonBut I'm telling you everything in one letter, and that is contrary to all rules of writing. More next time. Meanwhile, may those glorious Seniors, self-satisfied Juniors, troublesome Sophs. and troubled Fresh., pursue their literary avocations in harmony and with success. Then shall the coming generation abound in learned men, and cheerfully, in the woods of Virginia, shall wreaths of smoke curl from the briar-wood of Yours, sense. K. The Wooden Spoon. Lull'd in the countless chambers of the brain, Rogers' Pleasures of Memory.. THE charm which antiquity sheds over both nature and history is something mysterious, yet universally real. It makes its appeal to every sensibility of the soul-to reverence, affection, imagination, reason. How often does the eye look out on the stars of heaven and watch their splendor, while the mind, wrapt in thought, forgets the visible glory, or sees it gathering a new radiance from associations with the eternal Past. Those "golden lamps of heaven" were shining when man began his strange career, and the centuries have brought to them no change. These are the same heavens under which patriarchs pitched their tents, and prophets waited for the Creator's visions; under which nations have risen to sink in ruin, human passion marked battle fields with its sanguinary deeds, and all the tragedies of human love and hate been enacted in smiles or tears. This affection for what is ancient is not only an element in our purely aesthetic taste for the sublime and beautiful, but enters largely into our love of home and country. It also gives to many customs and institutions of common life their highest charm, and even perpetuates them from age to age. We hear the church bells of our New England villages ringing out the evening hour, and are reminded that it is in deference to that ancient time when William the Conqueror bade the villagers of Old England cease the day's activities at the toll of the curfew. kind is ever charmed with what unites the Present with the Past. But our College community is itself a microcosm. Like the great world without, we have our venerable institutions-institutions at least whose source is known only in story and legendary myth. To this class belongs the "Wooden Spoon." It is by no means our purpose to rob it of any of its reputed antiquity, but rather to show that its authentic history reaches back beyond even our common traditions. The earliest mention of the Wooden Spoon, which we have found in the course of our somewhat extensive researches, is in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1795, then under the charge of Sylvanus Urban. The So man passage occurs in a reply to a communication of Dec., 1794, relative to the academical archæology of the Granta, one of the colleges at Cambridge. It is as follows: "Before I proceed to notice the queries of your ingenious correspondent, it may not perhaps be improper to mention one very remarkable personage which, either through inadvertency or design, he has passed over in total silence. I mean the 'Wooden Spoon.' This luckless wight (for what cause I know not) is annually the universal butt and laughing-stock of the whole Senate House. He is the last of those young men who take honours in his year, and is called junior optime; yet notwithstanding his being in fact superior to them all, the very lowest of the ¿ì ñоλλοí, or gregarious undistinguished batchelors, think themselves entitled to shoot the pointless arrows of their clumsy wit against the wooden spoon; and to reiterate the stale and perennial remark that wranglers are born with gold spoons in their mouths; senior optimes with silver: junior optimes with wooden, and the où о22oí with leaden ones.' We have also in the course of our investigation strayed upon the following, from another rare old book: "Who while he lives must wield the boasted prize Displays in triumph his distinguished boon The solid honors of the wooden spoon."—GRAD. AD CANTAB. p. 113. 'These incidental references give us indeed no clue at the date of its origin, but only assure us that, even at that remote time, it was a recognized and permanent institution. So much for its transatlantic antiquity and fame. But without crossing the water, we may vindicate its claim to a venerable old age. There are many traditions still preserved among us which connect the Wooden Spoon with the times of the ancient and now obsolete "College Commons." The story runs thus: a jack-knife was given to the homeliest, a cane to the handsomest, and a spoon to the one who ate the most. However it may be with the spoon and the cane, the knife was certainly presented as recently as the year 1829. If the curious and inquisitive inquire why the spoon thus bestowed was of wood, we must leave the answer to their own ingenious reflections. Should we, however, venture any explanation of our own, it would be as follows: The man who was the victim of such an appetite as to be compelled to signalize himself in consuming the bad rations of "Commons" was regarded as a very unfortunate fellow. To him, then belonged a wooden spoon, in accordance with our familiar maxim respecting those unusually unlucky. And now, leaving all traditions and ancient records, we come into the regions of certainty. The institution of the Wooden Spoon in its modern form was established in the Junior year of the class of 1848. We take pleasure in according the merit of originating the present custom to Henry T. Blake, Esq., who is still a resident of this city. The idea, as we have learned from conversation with that gentleman, was suggested by the tradition we have cited above, and the historical fact of a similar custom at Cambridge, Eng. Thus we find that at first the spoon was given to the student whose name was last on the list of appointments at Junior Exhibition. Gradually the principal control of the affair was placed in the hands of the non-appointees. It may be interesting to note some of the principal features in this second stage, when the plan had become organized and established. It appears that the Editors of the Yale Lit. Mag. selected at the commencement of the second term of each collegiate year some reliable individual from the Junior class, whose duty it was to call a meeting of the class for the choice of three from each division to be the "Spoon Committee." It was then the duty of the Cochleaureati-an apellation which at that time belonged to all non-appointment men-to meet at the call of the committee and elect their representative, "The Knight of the Wooden Spoon." The Spoon Committee also made all necessary arrangements and selected the "President" of the occasion, on whom it devolved to make the presentation, with such reflections as might be necessary and appropriate. It is scarcely needful to state that in many respects this earlier arrangement has been modified and in many others entirely abandoned. Thus the Editors of the Lit. have no longer any concern in the arrangement, the election meeting of each class is called by the previous committee, and the title Cochleaureati is applied only to the members of the Spoon Committee. It may be further added, that at present the officers of the Spoon are always chosen by the Committee from their own number, which is no longer confined to the non-appointment men, but includes also the lower appointees. The first design of bestowing the Spoon upon the last of the honor-men at Junior Exhibition, after the analogy of the English custom, has of course been set aside, and now the Spoon-man is selected as being par excellence generous, affable, upright, and in fine a high-minded, thorough gentleman. He is the representative of no particular party, but of the friendly, social element of his entire class. So, too, the Spoon Exhibition is no longer held at the same time of Junior Exhibition, and as a burlesque on its exercises, but vin |
