The Professor Locked in the Tool Closet
A practical joke played on himself
A campus anecdote about an absent-minded professor who locked himself into the janitor's closet and only discovered the key in his own pocket hours later — a forgotten sliver of Victorian college humor.
NewsPipe summary
Burlington Weekly Free Press · February 18, 1876 · Page 1
1 min readA few days ago one of the professors perpetrated a practical joke upon himself worthy to be cherished in the archives of the institution. He had occasion to visit a small closet, in which the janitor keeps his tools, situated in the basement near the engine. Not wishing to be disturbed, he locked himself in and put the key into his pocket.
During his manipulations, he lost his hold upon it, and upon trying to get out he found himself locked in through his own malicious device. He waited a long time for his tormentors to repent, and then became exasperated. He pounded the door, wept, and swore through the keyhole, but in vain. The janitor had gone down to town, and there was none to heed his cry.
In the course of the afternoon he returned and accidentally discovered the mighty fallen into a sullen fit of distrust, and destitute of all confidence in humanity. When the professor sat down to his newspaper after supper that evening, and clapped his hand into his pocket, he found the key of the closet, and immediately [...] over himself. — University Era.
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