Indiana University - Arbutus Yearbook (Bloomington, IN)

Page 22 text:

®ut IRaison b ' Etre 99 THIS IS neither a Preface, nor an Apology, nor an In- troduction , nor a card To him (or her. as the case may be) who reads this book, nor a Prologue ' im Himmel, nor — well, never mind. We have chosen to use the phrase raison d ' etre, partly because it is French and partly because we don ' t know (ust what It means. It may not be appropriate, but we will leave that to our thousands of readers, gentle and otherwise, to settle according to the rules handed or knocked down by the late lamented Marquis of Queensbury, or otherwise. We might translate it a la Chimmie Fadden, were it not that we utterly detest slang and profanity. It has been our purpose throughout to conduct this work upon so high a moral plane that it will be, in the words of the poet, clean out of sight. ' Briefly, then, to come immediately to the point, without any unnecessary circumlocution or tedious intricacies of speech, which so frequently mar the grand simplicity of pure Anglo-Saxon English and cause captious, caviling critics to lament the Nordauish degeneration of the best modern prose writers, etc.. etc.. our purpose is a trinity, as follows, VIZ : I. TO BOOM INDIANA UNIVERSITY, COD BLESS HER ! II. TO EXHIBIT THE TRUE INTELLECTUAL MACNIFICENCE OF THE CLASS OF ' 96, and last but nevertheless III. TO TEACH THE BABES AND SUCKLINGS OF ' 97 HOW TO GET UP A GOOD ANNUAL. To all these grand ideals we know an indulgent public will fervently add Amen. THE EDITORS