Drawn by J. Norman Lynd
MEETING DISTINGUISHED GUESTS AT A FRATERNITY HOUSE, AND—
Where there is a gap, there is caste, and where caste is recognized, snobbery is inevitable. When the fraternity woman disclaims snobbery, she means that she is careful not to emphasize the distinctions between herself and others. She is like the teacher who, in order to preserve strict impartiality, takes off her fraternity-pin when she goes to class. No, the fraternity woman, aware as she is of the “greater blessings of her lot,” does not snub those less fortunate than herself; she either ignores them or is kind to them. Sometimes she manages both attitudes at the same time, as in the case of a party given to all the students, in which the programs of the fraternity members are filled weeks ahead. And if the outsiders who go feel like parasites, it is surely their own fault. Admit, on the one hand, a fund of common knowledge and common acquaintance, extensive social experience, and the assurance of social standing, and, on the other, instead of these things, the ever-present sense of having been passed over as negligible, or, what is yet worse, of having been tried and found wanting. Can the gap be bridged?
PREPARING HER OWN DINNER
Nor do the attempts of the fraternities to bridge the gap bear out their claims of democracy. In a recent report on social customs made by a committee of the Pan-Hellenic, only three chapters mentioned any effort to be “nice” to the whole student body. One spoke of a spring picnic; two, of attempts at occasional “open houses,” in one case dubbed a failure by some members; and the third, “prospects of a party for all college women and a freshman scholarship”! I am afraid it is impossible to deny that the fraternities live in a world by themselves, shut off by an insuperable barrier from those who are not “their sort.” And if this is not caste, what is?
The system, however, does create a sort of noblesse oblige, which in some cases makes the fraternity girls leaders in the class and student organizations, Young Women’s Christian Association, and various other college activities, although in this they are sometimes thwarted by inter-fraternal rivalries and jealousies, and by the combined hostilities of the barbarians. Further, they are said to coöperate earnestly and efficiently with deans and presidents in coercing refractory members of their own body, and in helping put through reforms and other measures for the good of the whole student body. They are the most loyal part of the alumnæ, and through their permanent connection with their chapters, continue to come back and show interest in their alma mater long after other students have broken the tie.
Drawn by J. Norman Lynd