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

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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

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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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