Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

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graduates. Such unfortunate customs are those which evidence themselves in disregard and indifference for first year men. Forcing first year men to address upper class men as mister, to always wear a hat, never to talk loud, to avoid the places the upper class men frequent are quite as much, if not more, humiliating than hazing. Tradition expresses itself in the way college men give evidence to the call of the egregious in them. Does the dormitory spirit prevail, or does the fashion call men into fraternity houses, or is there no sentiment about these matters, men being promiscuously scattered in boarding houses and in different dormitories? Those are important questions, for there is no greater factor in shaping the character of a college than this simple matter of where students live. No one can gainsay the right of the college man to select his own associates, and therefore the fraternity house fashion has the most sanity in it. Here the family life is nearest approximated. Though it is an artefact, still it is a home and such are its influences. A modification of this same principle is seen in those institutions which have substituted clubs and club houses for fraternities and fraternity houses. Here oddly enough a man passes from one club and one club house to another as he progresses in his classes, but the spirit is the same and we are quibbling with names when we try to draw a distinction. The dormitory spirit is different in that it promotes a wider and more promiscuous association. There is one college in particular where this spirit is very strong, and chiefiy so because the college authorities have fostered it in every way. The secret of the system at this institution does not hinge on the handsomeness of its dormitories, though in this respect they are hardly surpassed by those of any other institution, but in a simple structural device. In the centre of each dormitory there is a great foyer or lobby, with galleries on either side containing small tables at which students are always at liberty to entertain themselves at cards or in reading. The real charm of the foyer, however, is the huge fire-place in which great logs of wood are burned on cold winter nights. Around this community hearthstone the inmates of the dormitory gather in soft, comfortable chairs, and in the glow and crackle and cheer of the blaze that faces all, their fancies somehow seem to run free. Then follows a pleasant round of yarn telling and political debate 'till the clock tolls the hour for retiring, and each one hurries from that circle of rest and recrea- tion to his bed-room and his books. Obviously, there could be devised no more democratic influence in college life, not to speak of the educational and humanizing effect of such a custom. The hand of tradition has been very wise in those institutions which hold once in 11 while, at stated times, a college hour. At such times all recitations are suspended, and the whole student body assembles in the college auditorium. Songs are sung, a dis- tinguished speaker addresses the student body, and various students speak on sundrv college affairs. What an hour is this! It is obligatory upon no one to come, yet every one comes. This is an hour of learning, enthusiasm, introspection and planning. It is a courtesy to the social side of college life on the part of the academic. The whole didactic machinery stops to pay its respects to that other side of college life, which is outside of the class-room but just as essential. One has but to witness and feel the enthusiasm of such a gathering to become a perpetual advocate of such a valuable custom. 24

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Sophcmores. He would witness the front ranks meet, a struggle and confusion worse confounded in which the six agile Freshmen would rush desperately over the heads of their opponents in a mad effort to gain the pole. Presently a whistle is blown and the Freshmen draw off leaving the Sophomore flag fluttering as defiantly as ever. If he was now interested and had a humor for the struggles of youthful brawn and brain he would remain to see the Freshmen reassemble their ranks and come forward as bravely as before. Perhaps the same confusion and ill-success would follow. Then their undaunted columns would advance the third time, and maybe the rush of the six would prove successful, the pole be reached, scaled, and the flag would belong to the Freshmen. Such are the famous flag rushes held annually at many colleges. There is a certain small college town on the New York Central which entertains travelers every year. If you should chance to be journeying through this town on a certain day in September you would have your attention called to perhaps a hundred eager looking young men standing impatient to board your train as it pulled into the small station. At that moment your interest breaks into astonishment for a company of twice as many rushing and panting young men appear from around the depot, make for the cars and proceed to forcibly tear our former company of would-be travelers from the steps of the train. As your locomotive steamed away you might make out a hand to hand encounter in which the first comers were finally worsted, forced to have their hands tied behind their backs and thus be marched triumphantly back to the college. The explanation of this surprising scene is that you have seen one of the customs of at famous small college which had the distinction of defeating the Yale eleven this year on their own gridiron. The sophomores, en masse, were making a secret dash for a nearby town where they had planned their annual banquet. Experience had shown the folly of holding these banquets in the college town for the Freshmen inevitably played havoc with them, frequently breaking them up entirely. fcustom had decreed that in so doing the Freshman was acting within his rights, and thereby not showing any disrespect toward the upper class menl. Unluckily a Freshman was in the town to which the Sophomores were going, learned the intelligence of their coming, and wired his class-mates, with the result we have just recounted. The Sophomores have still another method of carrying through their banquet, which consists of a concerted plan whereby they come upon and catch all of the Freshmen separately, tie them hand and foot in their own rooms, and only liberate them when their banquet is over. The Freshmen likewise give a banquet and the Sophomores reciprocate these methods of interference. There are still other customs which make for class rivalry. l-lazing is a custom that does not seem to be as much in vogue now as formerly. lts abuses were most glaring at military schools, and on this account it is rapidly becoming unpopular. But it serves as another illustration of what has been before shown, namely, the hand of tradition. Hazing is as varied in its forms as the colleges which practice it. Whether it be carrying water, doing errands, fanning out, making extempore speeches, singing solos, climbing poles, fighting fellow class-mates, or passively receiving cuffs and blows the humiliation of the under class men is the object and tradition deserves the thanks. There are other places where barbarisms of this type have disappeared to be replaced by customs equally as vicious in their malintent. Thus there are colleges which prescribe such unnatural traditional laws as to permanently distort the social attitude of their 23

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No discussion of tradition would be complete without some account of the honor spirit in colleges. This is at present a burning question at many institutions, and the old system of practice is rapidly falling under the ban. In this connection the great thing to be remembered is the fact that there is no such thing as an honor system. Honor spirit and honor system are quite distinct, and one by no means implies the other. An honor system is formal. It attempts to substitute student laws for faculty laws, and in so doing but begs the question. Honor spirit is quite different. It is never confined to codes or subjected to definition. If it does not exist as a student sentiment it does not exist at all. You can create an honor system in a day, but not so of honor spirit. The honor spirit is a growth. It is a factor of time and tradition, whereas the other is a factor of neither. The honor spirit is a slow aquisition and it only follows in the wake of traditions which make for honor. There are many other archives of tradition, but perhaps none so impressive. The curious may find it in the chronicles of institutional history, and derive a scholarly reward from turning effete and age eaten pages. Or he may read it on monuments, or on tomb- stones, or in deeds that live to speak a master mind. But the ordinary run of mankind will find tradition a very present thing. He will see its impress on student life. His manner of self-government, his sense of decorum and of his moral responsibility to the estate of manhood, his bearing toward his fellow-student, his manner of address, his atti- tude toward his teacher, whether it be manly co-operation or puerile antagonism, his esprit de corps, his pastimes, his philanthrophy, his moralty, his religion-will all acknowledge the impress of a traditional sub-stratum. WYNDHAM BLANTON. QQ. xl lg -2. -,XQ1 25