University of Mississippi - Ole Miss Yearbook (Oxford, MS)

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with the loftiest conceptions of the Words-chivalrous, honorable, faithful, earnest and true: that instead of threatening with chaos an educational system, they stimulate order and encourage systematic education. The theory of fraternity, excepting that of Christianity, is the grandest of all earth's nobler aspirations. Man's brotherhood with man, love, benevolence, charity, sympathy- the sympathy that is not merely contemptuous pity, but a perfect affinity: the confluence of souls that pulse tenderly in response to the throbs of its brother 5 the sublime achievement of self-abnegation. That in a few deplorable instances this harmony is marred is due to no fault of the idea, but the error in humanity that not even Christianity has succeeded in correcting. We can not all be altruistic. though fraternity has done much to realize a perfect philanthropy, a union of hearts and a separation of self, a magnanimity of common purpose glorious in its inception. A brothers heart, with a b1'Olh6l'lS hand Is the noblest right of man- A mutual end wit.h common might lVins the crisis of the tight. IS

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Fraternity. L' VVhen friendship, love and truth abound Among a band of brothers, The cup of joy goes gaily roundg Each shares the bliss of othersg Sweet roses grace the thorny way Along this vale of sorrow 5 The flowers that shed their leaves to-day Will bloom again to-morrow. RATERNITIES have been in the American college world for over half a centuryg in that time combatting prejudices and supplanting aversions, establishing approval and enthusiasm. Begun in the early part of the century, they were under suspicion as hotbeds of all kinds of diabolical things, for in those days secret societies were considered necessarily revolutionary and the distinguished gentlemen at the head feared that the power ofthe ferrule would in some way be diminished if these organizations were continued. One gray-haired pedagogue is quoted as saying : Gen- tlemen, these organizations with their mysterious rites and symbols are a menace 3 We are on the verge of a revival of things savoring of the Inquisition. Evidently, the professor would not have been the loser for a little private inquisition into the objects of these dreaded bands, as their secrecy is but the unwillingness to have their transac- tions and procedure made the object of gossip and inquisitivenessg their rights and ceremonies but the solemnization of friendship and the purpose of awakening serious endeavor g their symbols merely the sign of culture and scholarship for which they strive. VVhat could be simpler, grander? Fraternities have come to stay. The quondam dreaded originators have become college presidents and trustees themselves. They know that only the highest ends of brotherly love and mutual benefit prompt the hearts of the fraternity membersg that in their oaths and rituals the most solemn obligations are assumed to be gentlemen and brothers, I7 02 I

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