Page:The Fraternity and the College (1915).pdf/214

 He is regularly on hand at the open house; he develops unusual skill and effectiveness in polishing up the furniture at sorority functions; he is a ladies' man from the outset, but he often lacks seriousness of purpose. The fraternity to him is too often only an opportunity to get into society and to wear another pin.

As I look over the list of the real leaders in our college community—the upperclassmen who have counted or who are counting for someting—I see that few of them are high school fraternity men. One must have staying qualities to get much of anywhere in college or in life. One must have, too, a serious purpose and push enough to carry it through. The high school fraternity man makes a good showing when he first appears in college; he has social talents, he talks well, he gives the hand gracefully, he makes a hit with the girls. But his enthusiasm wanes, he is frequently not a sticker, he falls behind, and he drops out or is dropped out to take a job or a position with father.

The reason is that his high school experience has not prepared him for real fraternity life or real college life; it has not set for him ideals of scholarship, ideals of home life; it has not trained him seriously to accept responsibility. The ideas of fraternity life which he brings with him to college are that the fraternity is simply a social club