Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/132

 unused to such things. The house party is the most difficult form of fraternity social dissipation to explain to the outsider; from his point of view it is little less than an orgy. It is a form of pleasure that is undoubtedly hard on a man's studies. The theoretical time taken up by the party seldom exceeds three days, but no house party was ever given that did not consume two weeks of actual time in discussion and preparation and participation and at least a week after it was over in getting back to a normal state of mind and emotion. A boy called me up while I have been writing this paper to ask my advice concerning his work. "What is the trouble?" I asked. "I simply can't get down to work since the house party," he replied. "We had so much pleasure and excitement that I cannot get it out of my mind." To a middle-aged, stolid parent or professor this may all seem like foolishness, but it is quite a regular and normal viewpoint for the young undergraduate.

I have never seen such a function where the program was not too congested. At the outset the fellows mean to be conservative, to give themselves a little time to think, to give their guests a few minutes to rest; but by the time the preparations have been fully completed the different events have been planned so closely to follow one another that there is little opportunity to eat and none at all