Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-07
BY WALTER RICHARD EATON.

GREAT deal of nonsense is talked and
n written about the genus Undergraduate
"A This has been especially true since the
4 war. The undergraduate has been war;
ously represented as rah All boy,
flaming youth toting bottle OF syntnetlc gin on
his hop a riotous rowdy, an intellectually doped
daily attendant at motion picture shows, an ADO
lescent who hasn't thought in his head except
for foot ball, world-weary youth who can't even
be bothered to think about foot ball. moral an
archist, stuy little conservative -,.
Probably, if you hunted long and hard enough
through our colleges you could find undergrad
yates who justified each and every one OF these
descriptions But while you were hunting you
would meet some thousands of quite normal ana
attractive young men between the ages OF ~ OF
10 and % or %, who probably work harder than
you do (they have to- or get dropped), do con-
siderable amount of thinking and vary among
themselves just about as any cross section OF the
public varies. Generalizing about undergraduates
Is like generalizing about women-anythtng you
say will sound true, but probably won't be.
Undergraduate Changed.
Nevertheless, the undergraduate Of today has
changed from his predecessor before the war.
At least, considerable number of undergradu-
ates have changed-enough of them to make an
appreciate showing and to act as spokesman for
what is probably a widespread If vague attitude
among most of the rest If you don't believe IT,
read the Hardness Hoot.
The Hardness Hoot is a new magazine pub
lisfed by Yale undergraduates. and many people
assume from its name that it is the mere eternal
fippancy of youth. But 1t is much more than
that. It is the mouthpiece of what is obviously
cepted traditions and standards Of the past.
Youth, to be sure, is the time of revolt, and al
ways has been. But it has infrequently made it
self intelligenty vocal in colleges, or received
much support If 1t did. In European universities,
yes. But not in ours
May Be Last "Tap Day.
Recently Yale celebrated an annual event-Tap
day. In nearly all the stories sent out from New
Haven was the statement that perhaps 1t would
be the last Tap day held, that a long tradition
had possibly come to an end. This may not TURN
out to be the case but if it does an article IN the
most recent Hardness Hoot entitled The Elks IN
Our Midst" will have to take large share OF
the blame. Tap day, nearly everybody knows,
is the day when all Yale assemblies in the quad
rangle and so men from the Junior class are tap
ped by the sc members of the four senior so
ciet,es. All the men who are not tapped are left
to think whatever thoughts about themselves the
occasion suggests. knew one youth back in my
college days who failed to be tapped and devel-
oped nervous prostration es result from which
he never completely recovered. Lesser tragedies
were innumerable.
So great was the hold of the senior societies
that an underclassman who had the faintest
hope Of making one, before he would SO much as
whisper the name Skull and Bones" would first
drag you into his inner chamber and lock all the
doors. A. the president OF the Y. M. G. A. Cor