[UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT]Know Ye Members of the Class of 1920. [Burlington, 1916]. Broadside on newsprint, 18¾ x 12½ in. Very fragile paper, creased and chipped, and torn at the folds, with small areas of loss.

A very amusing poster produced by the sophomores of the “ever watchful and omnipotent” class of 1919 issuing a set of instructions for new arrivals in the form of a series of absurd and draconian prohibitions. 

Freshmen were compelled to wear caps, and to doff them in the presence of the president of the university and touch them in the presence of a member of the faculty.  They were prohibited from smoking and wearing corduroy (“for the rustling thereof is most unpleasant to our patrician ears”). 

The poster closes with a dire warning: “Obey [these rules] and your path in college will be smooth, violate them and vengeance too terrible to contemplate will be ours.”

An interesting relic from the glory days of college hazing.  Clearly the Roaring Twenties started a few years early in the Green Mountain State!