Jack led the opposition to having the girls join. He said:
“You fellows all know my sister Polly.” (There was a chorus of assent and several side glances at Frank, who looked carefully out of the window.) “You know Polly is great. She is as good a fellow as any of you here.” Here he glared pugnaciously about, but as no one seemed to disagree with him in the least he continued.
“I would as lief chum with Polly as not—but not in this club. I think we would have better times and do more business if we were alone. We could easily enough have social nights in the club once in a while. We can always get the girls and have a good time together outside, but I believe we ought to keep the club out of it. I wish they would organize a debating club of their own. It would be great sport to have a joint debate.”
The antis won, and the word “boy” used in the provision on membership. Only two other points concerning membership made much discussion—how many votes were necessary to get a boy in and how many votes were necessary to get him out after he was in.
Will Morrissey had not talked much yet, but he grew eloquent when he urged that one vote should be enough to keep a boy out. “Why,” he said, “if we are going to do good work here we must be careful who we have in. If we have united action we must be a band of brothers. We must not have in here anyone who is obnoxious to anyone else.”
Pietro Frontenelli was an Italian lad who had completely won the hearts of the rest of the boys since he had been in Fairfield. He was supposed to be a socialist at least, quite likely an anarchist, possibly a Camorrist, but altogether a most likable fellow. The boys indifferently called him “Pete” or “Nellie” for short; he admitted himself that his whole name made quite a mouthful.
“Pete” thought it made little difference whether we all thought alike or not. “Of course,” he said, “we want to thresh out the questions we have up for discussion and get at what seems to be the correct answer. But it’s a sure shot we will be more likely to get at that result if we approach it from as many angles as we can. I would like to see members elected by a majority vote.”
George Perkins thought that provision would be too liberal and finally the boys compromised on allowing election if no more than three votes were cast against the candidate.
They decided to follow the same rule in the election of honorary members.