Page:The Fraternity and the College (1915).pdf/109



One of the most vivid impressions I received at the first fraternity Congress I attended was connected with the reports which the individual chapters made to Congress with reference to the conduct, progress, and achievement of the chapter. No facts were stated more eagerly and with more evident pride than those which recounted the successes of the "joiners," and which gave in detail the number of members in each chapter who in one way or another had become allied with an external or extra-fraternity organization. In the eyes of the fraternity man, it seemed to me, there was no honor so great as being bid something else, and nothing so much to be desired as to belong to an organization outside of the fraternity, unless it were to belong to a number of such groups of men. No matter what the organization was, the simple announcement that some brother had made it was enough to call out rounds of applause. Even the announcement by one of the chapters that two of the brothers had broken into the mystic circle of Theta Nu Epsilon was considered a matter for general rejoicing.

In reading the various fraternity journals which come to my table I am impressed again with this same attitude of mind as seen in the chapter letters in which are recounted the various social and in-