Page:Discipline and the Derelict (1921).pdf/42

 he has read these regulations, and though I have no doubt he goes over them, they seldom make any lasting impression upon him.

Most students have the feeling that it should be easier in a college town to borrow money not only from the college itself, but from private individuals, than in any other community. The contrary of this is in fact true, for men with money who live in a college town have had more experiences in lending it and more opportunities to lend it to undergraduates than have other people and have learned something from that experience. Every week almost throughout the college year some student, down in his financial luck, often a man whom I have never seen before on his first registration day, comes cheerfully and confidently into my office and asks, "Could you tell the name of some one in town who would lend me some money?"

"Can you give security?" I inquire. He seldom knows what I mean by the term, but when I explain I find almost invariably that he can not, so that the banks are out of the question. I generally explain to such a man that the place for him to get money is at home where he has friends, where people know him, and where, if he has lived a steady, dependable life, there are no doubt those who would be willing to trust him; but he generally leaves me discontented and disappointed.

I am surprised often, too, at the optimism of many of those who wish to borrow. Fellows who have not been able to save anything in the past are eager to tax the future, gonfidently expecting that what has proved impossible this year will offer no difficulties