Unnamed Bachelors at the University of Mississippi

According to Ratliff's account in The Town, "there's a thousand extry young fellers all new and strange and interesting and male" at the University of Mississippi (271). Ratliff believes that among these young men might be Linda's future husband. Flem later thinks about this group as "a thousand young men, all bachelors and all male" - and a threat to his financial interest in Linda (304). (The University of Mississippi began admitting women in 1882.)