The College Freshman’s Don’t Book

An illustrated etiquette guide from 1910 full of wit, personality, and surprising parallels to college life today.

Covering a wide range of subjects, from room decor to procrastination, the suggestions in this entertaining book are at times comically antiquated and at others strikingly relevant. Take, for instance, the following excerpts:

Don’t carry a cane in your Freshman year; something is very likely to happen to it.

Don’t hesitate to hear other people’s opinions. The World did not begin, nor will it end, with you.

Don’t pawn your watch or sleeve-links during your first year. No matter how funny a story you make at home of pawning your Grandfather’s watch, the heads of the family never see the joke.

Don’t kill your conscience in regard to matters which you have been brought up to see in certain definite lights. If you think playing cards for money and the drinking of beer wrong, then don’t play and don’t indulge. You’ll never be thought less of in College for hanging on to principle.

Other don'ts cover topics like cramming, extracurriculars, dining, peer pressure, courtship, office hours, and courtesy.

A perfect gift for high school and college graduates, this book proves that wisdom is often found in unexpected places–just as in the world of academia.