He posted copies of the rules on each of the four walls of the room, and insisted on decorous behaviour and perfect silence.

The consequence was that he soon became the butt of innumerable jokes: fellows said they weren't in school, and meant to enjoy themselves.
"Rats" hit on the idea of carrying in an old newspaper under his coat.
This he surreptitiously produced, and pretended to read as though it belonged to the room.

At a favourable moment, with an exclamation of, "Well, this is a rotten paper!" he suddenly crunched the sheet up in his hands and tore it into fifty pieces.

Lucas, naturally imagining that the property of the room was being destroyed, rushed up exploding with wrath.

An explanation followed, and the whole assembly went off into fits of merriment, at the latter's expense.
By the time this trick was worn out, other waggish gentlemen had introduced the practice of dropping wax matches on the floor and treading on them, and of hunting an imaginary moth--an irresistibly humorous proceeding, in which the participators rushed about brandishing books and magazines, ever and anon crying, "There he is!" and smiting on the head some quiet, unoffending reader.