Tuesday, March 23, 1965
University Daily Kansan
Page 3
Hill Folklore Reflects Fact, Fantasy, Folly
Bv Bob Curtright
Blood . . . guts . . . gore? Tales of mayhem on the KU campus that would rival the best of Poe?
Yes.
That, and commonly accepted beliefs which would raise skeptical eyebrows on a witch doctor, are factors ingrained in our college heritage, according to Daniel Barnes, assistant instructor of English.
Barnes, a member of the Kansas Folkcore Society, has been collecting folklore and campus beliefs from students in his English classes for the past three years in an effort to determine the resemblance they bear to the campus folk tradition in general and the characteristics peculiar to their adaptation by KU students.
"FOLKLORISTS HAVE long recognized that the college campus offers a relatively extensive source of tales, jokes, and songs because the students represent wide areas of geographical, social, and ethnic distribution." Earnes said.
"But the college campus is also a source of folklore of a very special nature, a type which surrounds the institutions and members of the college community itself."
One of the most prevalent of folk beliefs here is one attached to Fraser Hall. "Tradition has it that Horace Greeley made his 'Go West, young man, go West'" speech from the steps of Fraser, "Barnes said."
BARNES ADDED that this was an interesting claim and one which is contradicted by nothing less than historical fact.
"First," he said, "Bartlett tells us it was not Greeley, but John Babson Dane Soule, who first 'wrote' those words in 1851, 21 years before Fraser was built. Secondly, Greeley himself died in 1872, the year construction of Fraser was begun."
All this is really beside the point, Barnes said, adding that the effect of this widespread belief is simply to enhance the traditional value of the most traditional symbol on campus.
BARNES QUICKLY added that
KU folk tradition is not limited to revered and ivy-covered walls, Summerfield and Murphy Halls are two good examples, he said. "The story goes that when Summerfield was being constructed, someone made a mistake and the glass wall — which should have been built on the north side—ended up on the south."
He said that another informant told him that Summerfield was originally designed for downtown New York City.
Murphy Hall, a somewhat revolutionary concept in architectural design, supposedly has 18 square feet of dead space in it that wasn't in the plans, he said. "They just had to put in an extra wall."
"Beliefs are not restricted to campus buildings, either. Some of our most colorful folk traditions have grown up around statues and monuments, to the extent that they have gained common ritual acceptance."
HE SAID MANY students also believe that different sections of Murphy were designed by three, and in some versions, five different people. "This would account for the confusion in the design of the building.
"A VARIANT OF THIS BELIEF—one from a young man—is that if you kiss your girl at midnight under the campanile while the bells are striking, you will be married in a year's time."
For example, a girl becomes an official KU coed when she is kissed under the campanile, he said. Barnes attributed this belief to an old but effective KU tradition for the campus males.
Barnes said that the single most widespread belief in this category surrounds the statue of the pioneer east of Fraser Hall. "Tradition has it that the pioneer throws a load of dirt over his shoulder every time a chaste coed graduates from KU," he said. "In other versions, he throws dirt over his shoulder whenever such a coed walks past him."
Barnes added that this is the most universal of all campus traditions and that the linking with the pioneer statue was a clever
adaptation of this belief to distinctively local surroundings.
"ONE SPECIES of the folklore which is found in great abundance here, is the horror story," he said. "The motif of the pickled hand is one of the most popular and gruesome examples."
BARNES CON CLUDED that such tales had significant functional implications. In this case, it was to discourage students from staying in the dormitory or fraternity house over the holidays.
In a sorority initiation the pledge was blindfolded and told to shake the hand of a dead man. The actives thrust a pickled hand they had stolen from the laboratory into her hand. They ran out of the room and locked the door. In the morning they found their sister with snow-white hair, nibbling on the hand.
feet were just scraping the top of the car.
THIS, AND variations where the parked couple is attacked by escaped madmen all seem to point to the functional implication of "no parking." Barnes said.
"This tale is told here with slight, but significant, modifications." Barnes said. "The girls become medical students playing tricks on a roommate or three nursing students and a classmate."
and the pickled hand clutching his throat.
"There is much to be learned from a careful examination of the KU folklore, for the tales seem to follow a three step movement: interdiction, violation of interdiction, and consequence.
In the most repeated version, a group of medical students places the hand on the door knob of the room of a medical student who wasn't going home for vacation. When they returned, they found the student's body, with white hair
Other tales concerning girls who attempted to stay in dorms over the holidays and who met strange and gruesome ends are for the same functional purpose, he said.
"Several prominent tales have to do with the almost universal phenomenon of 'parking', " he added.
There were two people parked along a dark road. They were both drinking and when the boy had to relieve himself, he left the car and disappeared behind a nearby tree. After several minutes the girl began to worry because he hadn't returned. She heard a light tapping sound on the roof, so she got out to look for him. When she got out, she noticed something in the dark hanging above the car from the tree. It was her boyfriend and his
"The interdiction is implicated: Don't stay in the dorms over vacation, and don't park. In each case, the interdiction is violated, for the people do stay over vacation and the people do park.
"The consequence takes the form of something gruesome as a warning to discourage further violations," he added. "And the elaborate attempts at establishing some sort of credibility, not only by localizing the setting, but also by adapting the tale to fit minute particulars, all speak for a high degree of assimilation and strong tradition for KU folklore."
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