Page:The Fraternity and the College (1915).pdf/192

 about the same as having to choose whether he will stand by his family or the golf club.

College spirit is a somewhat difficult term specifically to define. It is a commendable feeling or attitude of mind apparently, but I have never yet been able to get from any undergraduate student whem I have asked, an adequate definition of the term, though I have sought such information persistently. From the various scattered opinions which I have gathered, college spirit seems usually to be connected with an athletic contest, and is most violent in its manifestation at a class row. In the opinion of the average undergraduate, the man who makes the loudest noise, and who stirs up the greatest riot is indisputably showing the most intense college spirit.

The vast majority of mained and injured underclassmen whom I, as a disciplinary officer, have interviewed within the last ten years have excused their condition on the ground that it was induced by a feeling of college spirit. If Brown's lessons are unlearned it is because he had to go to the Chicago game with the team, for "It's a fellow's duty to stir up a little college spirit," you know. If Jones is caught hazing a freshman or pasting illiterate and vulgar proclamations on every residence in town, it is purely an unselfish recognition on his part of a sophomore's duty to keep college spirit alive. If Smith comes home half tipsy, it is