The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-06-07

the same way in q dentists chair. I get
awfully tired of II after a few minutes.
Naturally on each meeting night l
began to get restless in the midst Of the
first long speech. and always my mind
turned to Adelphi. felt that II could
go out into the anteroom, or downstairs,
or downtown, | could work out some
little plan to crush and humiliate that
low brOwed society. But there was a
rule against leaving the room for more
than three minutes during meeting. 1t
was rue OF self-preservation for the
society and was rigidy enforced. At
any minute the president could order a
roll call and the missing members were
fined Is cents.
So l had to use strategy, as did the
other members who yearncd for relief
from oratory, and the meetings were
usually a long battle between a sharp
eyed chairman, a few cowardly inform
crs and a dozen Ingenious absentees
We retired Ill. We craved leave to go
out and round up distinguished
alumna. We discovered marauders in
the anteroom. We retired to shovel on
the freshly fallen snow from the walks.
We retired to harass Adelphi
That was my specially. l harasscd
Adelphi from every quarter. did 1t
unremittingly and relentlessly. II
could not make Gnothautii proud
I could at least keep Adelphi worried /
harassed them by getting into the base
mcnt and turning out their lights
Coaxed a watermelon out of their ante
room over into ours
Together with Tom Andrews / per-
suaded two darkies from the town to
go into their meeting and sing banjo
| gelections. The frivolous Adelphiads
TC.comed them with great relief unt.l
the singers gave a final encore from the
rear door with a line of retreat estab-
llShed. l wrote that encore myself. 1t
was all about Ad.l?hi. and I stlll think
1t was my finest literary effort.
All Of these harassings .cl to re-
prl-als, and the two societies became
| armed CitIdels. Occasionally "A member
of n rival society was captured on
hostile ground and dragged before the
other society. which usually stood him
| in corner and skinned him with sar-
casm.
Now and then n meeting would sus-
pend wh,.e an cmissary from tae other
society would stalk in stern, scornful
and defiant to deliver a challenge to de-
bate or oratory. But otherwise there
were no truces. and by the end OF my
| second year we were capturing each
others members on meeting nights and
| locking them In our closets with great
regularity.
That spring 1t was evident even to u.s.
that unless something desperate was
done Adelphi would make our open
meeting sound like a pale, timid boot in
"A churchyard. Adelphi was roaringly
prosperous. She had the interstate ora
tor. She had the best debaters In school
she had a humorist who was in tre-
mendous demand in college affairs. She
had real author. who had received
genuine money from an actual maya
zine. and she had quartet which sang
original songs.
| Against this we had nothing out of
the ordinary to put up. except a poor
old poet who taught school for several
years before coming to college and
whose verse made the college paper
| with difficulty, We were greatly de-
pressed over the outlook. For once II
seemed as IL We would have to take the
count with no argument.
| And Adelphi was correspondence
cheerful. The Adelphians were unbear-
| able, in fact. They talked about that
open meeting through the winter until
you would have thought that 1t was
going to be q national political conven-
ton. AS matter OF fact, these meet
ings were no great shakes, anyway
They didn't represent the real solid work
OF the societies. Every one with any