Page:The Fraternity and the College (1915).pdf/86

 however, that the period of his probation is short and he usually breaks out worse than ever when it is ended.

As to "showing the freshman his true place," I have in another paper expressed myself on this topic. I believe that because of his somewhat wider experience the upperclassman should rule, but I have little sympathy with the feeling that it is to the advantage either of the freshman or of the fraternity that the initiate should be humiliated and insulted simply to establish the fact that the upperclassmen are in authority. I have always felt that it was pretty poor discipline even for parents and much less for fraternity men to be under the necessity to use force to show a child or a freshman his true place.

I think it is true, too, that such practices cheapen the ritual and center the thought of the initiate not on the seriousness of the ceremony through which he is going, but upon the probability of his getting a good crack across the pants as he is being led about by the fraternity officer. Even though the rough part of the initiation may be given on the day previous to the presenting of the real ritual, the initiate does not know this, and usually has his weather eye out for trouble. The seriousness of effect, therefore, I feel sure, is injured, and the real meaning of the ritual is lost.