Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/177

 "pipe." I remember asking a six year old neighbor boy of mine whose father is a bank president just what the older man did for a living. "He just gives money away," was the reply, and this answer with slight verbal changes expressed my idea of the business of a treasurer. I thought that he simply received money that was sent him. In retrospect, however, such a position takes on a very different aspect. If anyone who reads these paragraphs has had in mind accepting the position of treasurer of a corporation organized not for profit and composed largely of undergraduates who propose to build a fraternity house, my advice to him would be the same as that offered by Mr. Douglas Jerrold to young men about to get married—"don't." It is a delusion and a snare. That simple innocent job of treasurer has caused me more pain, has caused my fraternity brothers more annoyance, and has required more letters to be written which have never been answered than I ever dreamed of. I have held it twenty years, because I did not dare to drop it, and there was no one else foolish enough to take it away from me.

We got twenty-three sets of notes at the first canvass, and though this seemed pretty good, many of the old fellows did not sign them and have not since shown any material interest in the house building scheme. A number of these brothers