Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/82

 The rushee will be a wise boy if he keeps in mind the fact that if he joins a fraternity he is to live during his entire college course with the men who make up the membership. They are to be his friends, his daily and hourly companions; they are to be present at practically every social function he attends, he will take them home with him and introduce them to his mother and to his sisters, and gradually he is himself to be influenced by their characters and to become like them. It is not a picnic he is being invited to join himself to; it is a college family that he is becoming a part of. "Do you know why I did not accept the Gamma Psi bid?" a young fellow asked me not long ago. "I meant to do so when they asked me, but as I thought it over, I couldn't quite see some of those men fitting in at home with mother. They aren't her sort." He was a sensible man, and so will others be who stop long enough to give serious thought to this phase of the question.

Going into an organization is not wholly a matter of sentiment; it is quite as much a matter of business. I know young men who marry because they A are in love, and who give no thought as to how the increasing bills are to be paid. So men often join a fraternity because they like the crowd and never stop to ask themselves how much it is going to cost. Before assuming any obligation it is the