A tiger

[Jonathon Green]

A researcher has unearthed the following from the Sydney (Aus.) magazine The Bulletin

1900 Bulletin (Sydney) 30 Jun. Red Page/2 The newspapers report Melb. Uni. students as giving 'cheers for Prof. Marshall-Hall, and groans and 'tigers' for his opponents.' If 't was so, it was a reversal of the time-honoured 'tiger' practice. Tradition and custom hold that the 'tiger' is a howl which accentuates the cheers and intensifies the applause. The best of several 'origins' tells how, early in this century, an American politician, S.S. Prentiss, was stumping the country, and came to a town where there was a small menagerie on exhibition. This he hired for a day and threw it open to all-comers, availing himself of the occasion to make a political speech. The orator, holding a 10ft. pole, stood on the tiger's cage, in the roof of which there was a hole, and whenever the multitudes applauded one of his 'points' with three cheers, Prentiss poked the tiger, who uttered a harsh roar. From this three cheers and a tiger spread over the country.

Is there any truth in the etymology?  B.H. Hall omits 'tiger' from College Words & Customs (1856) while Bartlett (Dict. Americanisms  ed. 1859, as cited in OED) refers to a visit of the Boston Light Infantry to New York in 1826 and 'while there the Tigers at a public festival awoke the echoes . . . by giving the genuine howl . . .  Gradually it became adopted on all festive and joyous occasions, and now 'three cheers and a tiger' are the inseparable demonstrations of approbation in that city.'

All suggestions gratefully received.

Jonathon Green