Evening star., 1905-09-13
How the Freshmen Are Pledged.

The moment pledge day arrives no time
is lost In extending the coveted invitations.
The word moment is used advsedly. Frat
men do not wait till the rising sun is paint
ing the east to extend the invitations. AS
soon as the clock strikes midnight they
burst into the rooms of the men they want,
rCut them out of sleep sometimes simu-
lated) and then and there endeavor to
pledge them to their respective "frats'
This work of pcdging is not done in a
helter-skelter sort of way. Certain frat"
men told off to seek out certain fresh
men in dormitory. boarding house or home,
and a few minutes before midnight find
these messengers patiently waiting "a tn cir
posts for the ushering in Of pledge day. 1t
not infrequently happens that three or four
men. representing as many fraternties, will
invade freshmans room at the same time
and put him in the rather awkward di-
lemma of sending all except one away sick
at heart.
to take advantage of the arrival of pledge
day to speak their curbed thoughts of
weeks Like the boys, the girls resort TO
all sorts of devices to extend their invita-
tions the first moment they can do SO in all
honor. Last year. in order to be able to
ask a popular freshman to become one of
their number. the members Of a well-known
sorority appointed a senior to make a so
cial cali on the young woman in question
on the evening before pledge day, to stay
there until after the clock finished striking
InlutliRDt ana tntll 10 make ncT little
speech. The messenger, accompanied by
an escort, industriously talked the long
hours into the past and otherwise carried
out her instructions to the end. Then the
freshman who had been longing for bed
since 10 o'clock, burst out:
why, the idea, to think I'd join mis-
cradle old fraternity that would keep me up
all niGht!'
A few days later the rejected sorority
was further downCast to see the pin of
their leading rival on the young woman's
dress, the members of which, intuitively
feeling sure that she was their sort ana
would not join any other sorority, had not
considered it necessary to disturb her SUM
bers. Perhaps if they had, they. too, would
have missed her.
End of Rushing-Anti-Cl Climax.
In those colleges where pledge day does
not exist rushing gradually dies out as
the available freshmen, one after another,
are pladged and initiated. AS a general
rule 1t is al least a month before any one
is pledged: 1t takes that long for each
frat to decide on the "freshies' it really
wants. After the limitations begin. another
month or six weeks will probably pass be-
fore the rushing season ends of Itself, the
contest for the last freshman having been
decided
Pledgng a freshman is truly the climax
! of the rushing process. The anti-cllmaX
| speedily follows initiation when the feeds
| cease, the theater parties cease, there are
| no more dances, personal attentions of all
| sort stop in large measure-when the new
frat brother Is made to feel that, after
| ALL he is merely an insignificant freshman
! and must take a freshman's place. 1t is a
| very hard descent; but there Is this COM
| pensation: surrounding the new brother
| and ever ready to help and befriend him is a
| small band of fellow colleglans, and as the
| proper perspective comes to him he feels
| in his heart that he has done good thing
| indeed.