Page:BairdsmanualofAmericancollegefrate8.pdf/33

Rh Custom regulates much that pertains to the life of chapters and their peculiar practices. Many colleges are crowded with chapters, and among these a great rivalry springs up, and extraordinary efforts are put forth to obtain desirable members. Many of the chapters are now old enough to admit grand-children of the early members, and it is frequently the case that a student entering college has already decided to join, if he can, some fraternity to which a father, brother, cousin or other relative belonged during his college life. The resulting restriction of choice, however, is not always to the best advantage of the chapter. Chapters will sometimes draw members from some particular town or school; friends from either place will be a great inducement to a freshman. In the face of such difficulties it will be seen to be quite an undertaking to organize a new chapter which can compete successfully with those already established.

In the early days of the fraternities only seniors were admitted to membership, but the sharp rivalry for desirable men soon pushed the contest into the junior class, and so on down, until at some colleges it scarcely stops at the academy. The general rule is, however, that members shall be drawn from the four undergraduate classes. At Yale, the chapters of the general fraternities for many years were merely junior societies; and at Dartmouth, for a long time, though members were pledged, they were not admitted until the sophomore year. In some of the