6
UNIVERSITY COURIER.
the position but principally because he is a brother Greek, well knowing at the same time that there are others outside fraternity walls that will do greater honor to themselves and their constituents. Work of that kind injures any school: Many fraternity men at K. S. U. do not hesitate to say that the smart men of the college are fraternity men, yet when it comes to a little society election they do not allow any one of their fraternity to run upon his merits, but for fear he will not succeed in making the position desired, they combine with other fraternities and say "we will give our man that position." Do you suppose it will result in ultimate good to say that the bulk of the students are, comparatively speaking, ignoramuses? You cannot make the professors here believe that only good students are fraternity men, nor that all the good students belong to some fraternity. Yet, to the outside world you who hide behind badges will say, out of five hundred and ten students here at Kansas State University, only a few, less than one hundred, are an honor to this institution. Such ideas are an injury to the fraternities and to our school. Fraternities are not here for the purpose of building up factions in college politics are they? If they are, the sooner they are driven from our walls the better will it be for our institution, and also for the fraternities themselves. There is but one sphere, I believe, in which fraternities can work successfully, and that is in a line of work they are comparatively ignoring at the present time. They are held together by the bond of friendship, and thus a nucleus is formed, from which rays of friendship ought to radiate, and, penetrating beyond the fraternity walls, ought to harm no one, but instead increase the friendly feeling among students in general. I believe that is more to be sought than positions upon programs. I believe it is the all in all of fraternity life. Chapters, however, that make their halls nothing more than gaming rooms, do not aim at the cultivation of the higher nature that grows more and more as true friendships are formed, but have a tendency to deaden worthy impulses and narrow one's life. No secret-society code has ever made one man love another whose life was not loveable. We meet friends, and, wishing to know them better, take them into more intimate associations, thus forming stronger attachments. To say that such an act draws social lines and forms cliques, is a mistake. It does not. These grow out of wrong ideas that a great many entertain in regard to the object of a fraternity. They seem to think it an organization for fighting in college politics; for kicking up rows so that one man can call another a "liar." I do not believe any fraternity sanctions such work. If it does, boys, what have you, except a union for evil? But if it is an association of friends that fills each with such a spirit that every man becomes, in one sense, his friend, then it does good, otherwise not. More anon, in reference to the evil effects of secret societies as seen by one of their members.
LITERARY.
AGE TO YOUTH.
Harvard has the largest college library in the United States. It consists of 185,000 volumes.
I have climbed the mountain height of life And stand, leaning upon my well-worn staff. Half way upon the rugged side. You toil and upward press with eager step. Your untried staff still borne aloft. And wreathed with Hope's bright flowers.
The crystal chalice of the years lies broken at my feet. And down the slope are white stones marking graves. In earth's bright sunlight. Which reaches not to where I wait at Heaven's gate. You lift the wine of days And quaff their nectar, thinking not of dregs which at the bottom lie.
I lift my eyes above and see a radiance thrown afar. And hear the music sweet of Heaven's harps, You see earth's glories crowd around And hear the plaudits of the multitude That shouts so loud that Heaven's stiller sound If heard at all, becomes a minor chord.
I reach my hand, so palsied, old and worn,
And clasp your own. Ah, how the pulses bound!
The summons come! I leave my place here on the height for you.
Take Duty's hand and follow closely where she leads.
"God first, self last,"
And all the rest in order true must come.
Sheridan, Wyoming Ty. CLARE.
THE STUDY OF MANKIND.
"The proper study of mankind is man," and one of the best places in which to study both man and womankind, is the post office of a moderately sized town, where the gorgeous post-boy is yet unknown, and where mail is to be had only by going to the building. It is a striking example of the boasted equality of our republic. Stranger, is it not? Everybody goes to the post office. Young or old, black or white, rich or poor, man, woman or child—some member of every family is there at least once a day; and often, as the long-suffering clerks have occasion to know, every member of some families go two and three times a day. We go, if we never write to anybody, or never receive any letters; we go, knowing that it will be a fruitless errand; we go because—well, just as we go to sleep at night, or eat breakfast every morning, just as if it were the only thing we could do.
But stop moralizing, my friend, and stand quietly with me in the corner. Here comes a large, portly gentleman. Get out of his way, please, for he is a prominent man in our town. You can see, in his stately progress through the crowd, in the sublime indifference with which he regards the common people, those who have no "box," and are patiently or impatiently awaiting their turns at the window—in the satisfaction with which he unlocks his box, and pockets the contents—it is very evident that the Judge is not a "person to be sneezed at." His manner shows an "I-come-when-Iplease-but-can-just-as-well-send" air, which is overwhelming in its self-conscious dignity. But turn your attention from the Judge to that gentleman who has just entered the door. With what pre-occupation does he cram his large budget of letters into his pockets.
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