Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/62

 officers of the fraternity happens to drop in to my office and finds a Deke asking me for Smith's address and history, Smith's stock picks up immediately in Beta circles, and ten to one he is wearing their pledge button before morning. I have heard one man, pretty wise and experienced in fraternity affairs, offer to bet that he could take almost any man, inconspicuously dressed, moderately good looking, and not too hopelessly unsophisticated, and get him pledged within a week just by introducing him to a few fraternities during rushing season, and starting a little competition. It would be an interesting experiment, and I should not be at all surprised if it worked. If I dared, I could myself tell some entertaining tales of men who were rushed through in order to keep the other fellows from getting them.

Another reason alleged for rapid work in rushing is the fact that the chapter can not bear to lose a man whom it is seriously after. One of the most frequent boasts in chapter letters after the rushing season, is the statement that "We rushed ten and never lost a man." "Why did you bid Savage so quickly?" I asked a fraternity officer not long ago. "You know little about him, and he is not you type of man in any sense." "I know that is true," he replied, "but the Psi U's were after him hard, and we didn't want to lose him." And yet