Omaha daily bee., 1896-05-31

to Hamilton to find candidates to establish
a chapter of Kappa Alpha. The Hamilton
| students approached took the matter undel
! advisement, but finally declined to help form
( chapter of Kappa Alpha, preferring t.
| found a. new fraternity, which they did II
1882, calling it Alpha Delta Phi. The grea
| impetus given the movement to extend the
| then three or four Greek letter fraternities
| throughout the colleges of the country ap
pears to be due principally to the energy dis
| played during the first fifteen years of Its
| existence by Alpha Delta Phi, which shocked
even the conservatism Of those days by plac
| Of rivals, in nearly all of the eastern col
| leges, and as far west M ami university
Ohio. Its great rivals, Psi Upsilon, starting
at Union in 1888. closely paralleled Alpha
| Delta Phi in its work. When Delta Kappa
Epsilon was formed by a number of dssat-
isfed psi US" and others at Yale in 1874
| the extreme of this spirit Of propagation
seems to have been person fed, for no other
of the older fraternties has established SO
many chapters, in some instances in colleges
which were practically high schools, as Delta
Kappa Epsilon.
Twenty years ago, and for a long time
preceding, the membership of the few chap
ters of Kappa Alpha very few had or have
been establshed) was generally regarded as
limited and very exclusive" while the
policy of the fraternity was distinctly one
OF nonextenson. Its immediate imitator
Sigma Phi, was not long in securing like
classification. 1t, toe, had a restricted num-
ber of chapters, and a tendency to regard
"the grandfather" as having much to do
with the man. Delta Phi was rather less
exclusive, but evidently did not care to es-
tablish many new chapters. Coming to the
three great fraternities, Alpha Delta PM
was regarded as having a high social stand
ing, paying special attention to literary eX-
cellence among its members. and sensible
view of conservatism as to the extension of
Dar
to repeat this with reference to Psi Epsilon.
At the west, the arrival Of Alpha Delta Phi
at Miami gave rise to Beta Theta Pi, now
one of the largest, most progressive and best
governed Of the Greek letter fraternities. 1t
certainly places less weight on the pro-
priety or desirability of what people have
chosen to call conservatism with respect to
extension of membership and unquestionably
maintains as high literary excellence among
its members as some or the oluer ana
formerly more important fraternities'
Chi Psi while not 30 restricted as to
number of chapters as Sigma Phi or Kappa
Alpha, Is one of the smaller societies and
its general reputation at times has been
as much for good Fellowship as for social
or literary excellence. Another one of the
smaller fraternities.I until recently (when
a policy of extension seems TO have been
adopted) is Zeta Psi, said TO be very Sc
ret fraternity to have been founded by
Free Masons, and tofhaye made particularly
In recent years. fpemaTkaDle ADVANCE as
to membership. The escomparatively few aud
socially exclusive members of Delta Psi,
like those of Sigma. Phi and Kappa Alpha,
prefer few chapters. Whether by accident
or design, there is considerable. wealth cen
tered In this organization. Among western
societies which jamestown more enterprise
and prominence OF late years are Phi Kappa
Pse, Phi Delta Thetasand Phi Gamma Delta.
RITUALS AND CEREMONIALS.
Among some of the older organizations
the rituals suggest familiarity with cere-
mOnials, customs or peculiarities of lodge,
chapter and Communicates of Free Masons.
lodge and encampment Of Odd Fellows, the
Foresters and historical data concerning the
Templars and other societies of the middle
ages Evidently members of some
OF the fraternities last named have
lent hand in dressing up cere-
monials for the college fraternities
Most rituals OF college fraternitles, however,
would be considered commonplace and unsat-
isfactory by good judges.
During the last fifteen or twenty years. II
IL probably a fact that some Of the older
fraternities notable Kappa Alpha. Delta Phi
and Sigma Phi have retrograded somewhat.
During the eame period, the three great fra
terntles, Alpha Delta Phi, Psi Upsilon and
Delta Kappa Epsilon, around which names
the entire Greek letter world has been wont
to revolYe. have not much more than held