Evening star., 1905-09-13

| come to him graduclly and the young
| men about him will Above everything else.
| an upper classman hates a freshman who
| appears to know it all or is inqulsitlVe'
many a freshman has spoiled his chances
| of becoming a fraternity man by showing
! onA the other of these qualities at the
| beginning of his college career.
A Game That Has No Let Up.
Day and night the rushing keeps up;
there is no let up. Just about the time the
| freshman gets buried in his lessons of the
morrow some one knocks on his door and
| in walks an upper classman who Is ahaoii-
| ity itself for the better part of the evening,
| ami before bidding the hoss good night Of
| fers to take him the following afternoon to
| the practice game of foot ball with the uni
| versjty team of the city and point out the
| famous athletes and introduce him to some
| of them.
At first, the net is cast for every fresh
| man, that all may be studied and no poten-
| tial frat material be permitted to escape.
| Gradually, however, as the rushing prog
res ses, this or that freshman is dropped
| for good and sufficient reasons-some OF
them would appear highly absurd to the
workaday world-and all efforts are con-
centrated on those remaining under obser-
va ton. Perhaps while these are in the pro-
cess of being winnowed a dozen of a
"fratS'' from the city just happen to drop
out to college for a day in the bosom of
their alma mater. Incidentally of course,
the freshmen meet the grads at frat
headquarters are warmly greeted by the
latter and are told confidentially by the up
per classmen about the marvellous record in
athletics of each grad" and his present
high standing in his community.
So it goes, day in and day out-a heart
breaking struggle. with every fraternity
man constantly on the qui vive, for he
kI;ows that many of the men his frat are
rushing are also being rushed with equal
fervor by rival frat or two and it's
simply a case of straning every nerve to
secure even partial victory.
How the Girls "Frats" Rush,
In that college or university where the
dormitory system has no place the fresh
men are picked up in the class room, in
the gymnasium and the athletic field,
and their boarding houses and homes, If
they happen to live near by, are haunted
day and night by the rusherS. AS in the
college with the dormitory system, no
stone is left unturned to capture the avail
able fraternity material.
Among the girl "frats' the rushing is
every bit strenuous that of the young
men. One of the chief methods Of femi-
nine frat rushing is to give a series of
dances for the "freshies,' at which they
meet young men who are instructed to
develop opportunities to speak kind words
for the frat into the ears of the guests,
and otherwise endeavor to impress them
with the idea that there's only one frat
worth belonging TO, and so on, ad intini-
tum.
Similar methods of talking frat to the
freshmen are sometimes employed in order
to get around the faculty restriction some
times put on active fraternity members
not to talk frat" directly to freshmen
until certain day. Alumni members are
asked TO do the talking. and in some cases
are altogether too willing to assist in cir
cumventing the authorities But 1t should
be stated that when frat" men
| men are under restriction not to talk frat
to freshmen until a certain time, they gen
a W a
| letter.
Pledge Day-The Climax.
| Like everything else ma terial the rush
| ing season must come to an end sooner or
| later and in many colleges that event
| ours with the arrival of what is generally
known as pledge day" and In some col
| Ieges as spike day." this being a distinc-
| lively western term.
| Pledge day is sometimes agreed upon
| by the various interested fraternities
| themselves; more often it is required of
! them by the college authorities. In either
! case every frat" member Is bound bv
| honor not to extend an invitation of any
| sort to freshman to become member
| of his fraternity before the arrival of the
day set aside for that particular purpose
pledge" or spike day. It's all right
to dine a freshman and to show him
good time, and to help him with his new
| studies, and to coach him in gymnastics
| and to seek his company large part of
| the time, and to hail him as jolly good
| fellow, and otherwise to permeate him
| with the feeling that you'd like mighty
well to have him for fraternity brother
but as for even limiting such a thing by
word of mouth that is strictly under the
| ban! OF course, there come times when
some over-zealous frat" man commits
| this well-nigh objectionable sin, but be 1t
| said to the credit of the large body of
| fraternity men where pledge day Is In
| vogue that such breaches of faith and
| honor are rare indeed.
The theory of pledge day is that it less
ems the intensity of the struggle among
the various 'frats' for possession of the