Kappa Alpha Theta Journal, Vol. 14 no. 4
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THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA, Published by the Fraternity. Edited by lota Chapter. JANUARY , MARCH, MAY, NOVEMBER. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Thk Building of Phi’s Fraternity House. H. H. W ., Phi , - 179 Social Life at a Woman’s College. E. IV. IV., Kappa - 181 An Alpha Girl’s Idea of Fraternity Life. D. D. H., . 185 Alumnae Department: A True Theta. A. M.} Epsilon Alumnae , - 189 Undergraduate Department : Our Pansies, _ 19° Rushing the Fraternity, _ 191 Class Spirit, _ 192 House Rules, _ 194 Chapter Strength, _ 196 Individual Responsibility of Freshmen, - 196 The Summer Vacation, _ 197 Chapter Letters, _ . - 199 Personals, _ 231 Wedding Bells, - 234 In Memoriam, _ 235 Editorials, _ 236 Exchanges, _ 238 Address everything intended for publication, and all business communica¬ tions to CECILIA AGNES LAW, 33 East Ave., Ithaca, N. Y. All material intended for publication should reach the editor before October 5, December 5, February 5, April 5. TERMS— $1.00 per Year; 25 cents Single Copy; Sample Copy Free. The Kappa Alpha Theta will be sent to all subscribers until ordered dis¬ continued and arrearages paid, as required by law.
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FRATERNITY DIRECTORY. GRAND COUNCIL. President — Myra M. Post, . 342 Cadillac Boulevard, Detroit, Mich. Vice Presidents — Mary E. S. Scott, . . . 113 Rutgers St., Belleville, N. J. M. Edith Bell, . 382 E. Town St., Columbus, O. Ednah Harmon Wickson . Berkeley, Cal. Secretary — Alice E. Wadsworth, . . . .6317 Lexington Ave., Chicago, Ill. Treasurer— Mary E. S. Scott . 113 Rutgers St., Belleville, N. J. Editor — Cecilia Agnes Law, . 33 East Ave., Ithaca, N. Y. EDITORIAL BOARD OF THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA. Editor-in-Chief— Cecilia A. Law, . . 33 East Ave., Ithaca, N. Y. Exchange Editor— Jane D. Caverley, . Sage College, Ithaca, N. Y. Editor of the Catalogue — M. Edith Bell, . . 382 E. Town St., Columbus, O.
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CORRESPONDING SECRETARIES. ALPHA DISTRICT. President — Mary E. S. Scott, 113 Rutgers St., Belleville, N. J. Iota, Cornell University — S. Jenney Gilbert, 7 Central Ave., Ithaca, N. Y. Lambda, University of Vermont — Helen M. Ferguson, 77 N. Union St., Burlington, Vt. Mu, Allegheny College — Ella F. Craig, Huling Hall, Meadville, Pa. Chi, Syracuse University — Elizabeth Dean, 720 Irving Ave., Syracuse, N. Y. Alpha Beta, Swartlimore College — Mary W. Lippincott, Swarthmore, Pa. Alpha Dei/ta, Woman’s College of Baltimore — Alice P. Bennett, Balti¬ more, Md. Alpha Epsilon, Brown University — Martha Wilbur Watt, Pembroke Hall, Brown Univ., Providence, R. I. Alpha Zeta, Barnard College— Florence Lippincott, 65 West 83d St., New York, N. Y. Gamma Alumna, Harriette Waller, 204 N. 123d St., New York, N. Y. Eta Alumna, Ruth Ida Norton, Shelburne, Vt. Theta Alumnae, Mary Schofield Ash, 1717 Vine St., Philadelphia, Pa. BETA DISTRICT. President — M. Edith Bell, 382 E. Town St., Columbus, O. Alpha, De Pauw University — Edna Locke Hamilton, Greencastle, Ind. BETA, Indiana State University — Emma Clinton, Bloomington, Ind. Delta, University of Illinois — Josephine Schillinger, Champaigne, Ill. Epsilon, Wooster University — Mary Nixon Corbett, 3 College Ave., Woos¬ ter, Ohio. Eta, University of Michigan — Jane V. Pollack, Ann Arbor, Mich. Kappa, University of Kansas — Marie Nelson, Lawrence, Kansas. Pi, Albion College — Lena M. Hunt, 1109 E. Porter St., Albion, Mich. Rho, University of Nebraska — Selma A. Wiggenhorn, K. A. ©, House, 1601 M. St., Lincoln, Neb. Tau, Northwestern University — Irene Graves, 1047 Forest Ave., Evans¬ ton, Ill. Upsilon, University of Minnesota — Margaret Moore, 1119 Sixth St., S. E., Minneapolis, Minn. Psi, University of Wisconsin — E. Genevieve Stevens, 139 W. Wilson St., Madison, Wis. Alpha Gamma, Ohio State University — Mary McMillan Loren, cor. High St. and King Ave., Columbus, Ohio. Alpha Alumnae, Mary E. Becket, Greencastle, Ind. Beta ALUMNiE, Jessie A. Bradford, 515 15th Ave., S. E., Minneapolis, Minn. Delta Alumnae, Mrs. M. Borthwick Cheney, 1110 So. Boulevard, Oak Park, Ill. Epsilon Alumnae, Annis McLaughlin, 1115 N. High St., Columbus, Ohio. Zeta Alumn^E, Hattie Mary Tutewiler, 801 Senate Ave., Indianapolis, Ind. GAMMA DISTRICT. President— Ednah Harmon Wickson, Berkeley, Cal. Phi, Stanford University — Helen P. Vinyard, Box 5, Stanford Univ., Cal. Omega, University of California— Isabel B. Godin, K. A. 0. Hall, 2626 Clianning Way, Berkeley, Cal. The K. A. 0. Club of Southern Cal. — Mrs. Thomas P. McCrea, Los Angeles, Cal. Entered at the Post Office at Ithaca as second-class matter.
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The Kappa Alpha Theta Vol. XIV. MAY, 1900. No. 4. The Building of Phi’s Fraternity House. “ Nothing venture nothing have.” Phi chapter has been having such an interesting and suc¬ cessful experience in the matter of house building that we think it only right and in true accord with fraternity spirit to divulge the secret to our sisters all over the country, who may be longing to own their houses and yet not dare to make the attempt. We ourselves regarded the undertaking as one likely to involve a great deal of risk, perhaps even failure ; but it has proved altogether simple and satisfactory, and we shall be in the new home by next September. The plan we pursued was this : In January we sent two letters to each member of Phi’s alumnae and to the alumnae from other chapters who are living here at the university or have been at any time especially connected with Phi girls. In one of the letters we said that we proposed building a house, and gave a brief description of the way in which we thought the thing could be done. We proposed, we said, to incorporate into a stock company, and we invited the Thetas to whom we were writing to become joint members with us in the said company. They could do so by taking one or more shares ; out of which shares, when a sufficient number had been taken, we proposed to build our house. We concluded this letter by a brief statement of Phi’s present condition, dwelling upon our successful experience
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1 8 o THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA . with the management of fraternity houses in the past and upon our hopeful outlook for the future. The second letter accompanied this and was a copy of the formal articles of incorporation which we hoped each recipi¬ ent would sign. We enclosed the names of several of the Faculty who were helping us and had promised to become stock holders, and gave special emphasis to the strictly busi¬ ness basis upon which we were proceeding. Within three weeks from the time these letters were sent we had received answers from nearly every one and our money was assured ! Those who could not send money have asked to help us in furnishing the house when com¬ pleted, and to this end we have established a furnishing fund. In this connection, though it may be anticipating a little, it might not be amiss to tell how we ourselves propose to swell the list of useful household articles. Each girl has pledged herself on returning to the university after the sum¬ mer vacation, to bring a sofa pillow and some kitchen uten¬ sil. Besides this we have a “ mite box 99 into which we put all our spare pennies, and sometimes even our — very spare — dollars, and out of which we expect all sorts of wonderful things to flow when the time comes. To go back a little ; as soon as the money was assured, a meeting of the stockholders was called and a board of trustees elected. So many of the stockholders live here at the university, or very near it, that a quorum could be made without any difficulty and the business be attended to at once. The board of trustees manage the business for the associa¬ tion and oversee the building of the house. The girls of the chapter pay interest on the money in¬ vested and assume the insurance and taxes. To show you that we have done everything very carefully with regard to the business side, let us say that before be¬ coming incorporated or sending our subscription letters, we appointed a committee to look into the laws of incorporation as authorized by this State and then proceeded entirely in conformance to the laws as given us.
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SOCIAL LIFE AT A WOMAN'S COLLEGE . 181 The subscribers incorporated as a stock company. They put up the house for the chapter, and the chapter practically rents it from the company. The rent pays the interest and provides for a sinking fund of $200 a year, which shall gradually pay off the principal. There is no provision for limit of time, but the house can be paid for in fifteen years if the chapter so wishes, and the rent, meanwhile, is scarcely any heavier than we pay for our present house. Last year we bought a piano on this same plan, that is, the money we are paying for the rent of it goes to paying for the piano itself. Just now interest centers in plans and designs. Several architects have drawn up plans and been very kind in taking our ideas and suggesting new ones. We think we have found what we want at last, too. Next year when the dream is a reality we will send you its photograph. H. H. W., Phi. Social Life at a Woman’s College. It is a fact often overlooked that a student in his eager¬ ness and earnestness to acquire learning is likely to neglect, the development of one or more sides of his nature that go to make up a well rounded life. The intellectual, physical and spiritual development of a student is much talked of, but we hear little concerning the social life. This is by no means the least important element in one’s College career, especially in the career of a College woman, and its im¬ portance should be emphasized more than it is. The first and most natural reason why a certain amount of social life is necessary for a college woman is that it is a means of much needed recreation. A woman is prone to confine herself too closely to books and to laboratory work, and she needs to have occasionally something that will com¬ pletely change her trend of thought. She needs a good hearty laugh with a group of jolly people, or she needs
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1 82 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA . perhaps simply to go into a friend’s room where someone is reading a new story aloud, in order to rest herself in both body and mind. These are ways of recreation that attract many who disdain the gymnasium or the athletic field, and though it must be acknowledged that out-door exercise is the best possible form of recreation, it cannot be denied that the form just mentioned does much toward serving its purpose. Every well educated man and woman of to-day abhors narrow mindedness. A person must be broad in his views, must be charitable towards the various opinions of others, no matter how radically they may differ from his own opinions. There is no better way of overcoming this narrow-mindedness than by mingling and conversing with other people. A student that shuts herself up in her room from morning till night, leaving it only to go to her lectures and to her meals, will soon grow to think that people who do not believe and act just as she does are to be condemned. On the other hand, if she mixes freely with the other stu¬ dents, attends their little teas and parties where opinions are exchanged and current events are discussed, she will soon find that others think themselves to be just as much in the right as she thinks she is. She will learn that there are other things in the world to know besides what she reads in books or hears in the lecture room ; there is human nature to study, that greatest and most interesting of all studies, for the pursuit of which the world is the laboratory and society at large, the material on which to work. Social life for a young woman at college not only helps to broaden her views but it aids her in acquiring individuality as well. She is called upon to defend her opinions, to stand up for what she believes to be true. This gives her strength of mind, and independence, and enables her to command the respect and admiration of her fellow students. What has been said has to do chiefly with the influence of social life upon the intellectual development. No men¬ tion has been made of the influence of social life on one’s
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SOCIAL LIFE AT A WOMAN'S COLLEGE . 183 friendships, made during the college course, and of the value of these friendships. Few of us ever stop to think of how or where we came to make them. If traced back to the very beginning we often would find the origin of that we hold so dear to have been some social gathering at the beginning of the college year, where as Freshmen or Sopho¬ mores we discussed our common woes and common interests. Friendship we find, then, is one of the most important re¬ sults as well as one of the most necessary factors of social life at a woman’s college. A college friendship is peculiar to itself. It is formed under peculiar circumstances, and is likely to be the most genuine, most enduring, and most de¬ voted of any we may form throughout life, and no young woman can afford to miss the pleasures, benefits and com¬ forts derived from it. The mode of life at a woman’s college makes it necessary for students to turn to certain forms of social life not com¬ monly practiced by the world in general. The phase nearest and dearest to every college girl is that which goes on in her own little room. Her room is her home, and in it she spends the greater part of her time. Here her friends drop in for an afternoon cup of tea or cocoa, or a half dozen girls gather together, after the evening’s work is done, to make fudge and to rest their tired minds by laughing and talking for a few moments before going to bed. Here, on the big broad couch or on the window seat loaded down with pillows a merry coterie of maidens will listen to some one of their number tell of her day’s experiences, or per¬ haps of the latest novel that has created a sensation. The after thoughts of these happy little gatherings are some of the most highly prized of all that memory holds, after one has left the old familiar halls, and they form a very import¬ ant element in that love for one’s Alma Mater that lasts as long as life itself. The college with its Halls of Residence is a little world by itself, and as was said before methods of amusement are resorted to, not carried on just as in the world at large.
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184 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA. One of the most common of these in all women’s colleges is the presenting of little plays or farces, by one class or society in compliment to another, or possibly to the student body as a whole. This helps to develop originality among those that have the play or farce in hand, gives them self- confidence in appearing before others, furnishes excellent opportunity for those that work together to become well acquainted, and at the same time is the source of a great deal of pleasure and amusement for the lookers-on as well as for the performers. Another phase of social life is that which comes in con¬ nection with athletic life. Almost every woman’s college is especially interested in some one form of athletics. At Wellesley it is boating; at Bryn Mawr and Vassar it is basket ball ; at Smith it is tennis. This interest takes the form of contest games, which many friends of the students and of the college have the privilege of witnessing. The outside world, thus has an opportunity of getting a glimpse of the college life and the students come in contact with people of the outside world. In many colleges, walking, bicycling, or golfing may be substituted on certain days of the week for the required work in the gymnasium. Four or five students start out together for a long tramp in the country, or a bicyling party go out for a ride, or the golf enthusiasts get together for a game. Then, too, there are the tennis courts that offer ex¬ cellent opportunity for good physical exercise as well as for sociability. Interclass tournaments are sometimes arranged, and these just as the boat-races and out-of-door basket ball games, bring visitors from the surrounding country. A phase of social life that is common to all universities and colleges is that which takes the form of receptions. At the beginning of every college year numerous teas and re¬ ceptions are given bv the upper classmen for the new stu¬ dents. Later come the receptions given by the faculty, by the college authorities, by the President and the Dean. These, while they are very enjoyable and serve the purpose
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IDEA OF FRATERNITY LIFE. 185 of forming acquaintances, do not take a very essential part in the social life, for they are usually very formal, con¬ ventional affairs where one is simply introduced to a stranger, exchanges a few words with him, and then passes on to meet another. It might be well to explain briefly the reasons for the ex¬ isting difference between the social life of a young woman at a woman’s college and that at a co-educational institution such as Kansas. University. Most women’s colleges have halls of residence for their students, and co-educational universities and colleges do not. Life in a building with fifty or sixty young women cannot but take on a form peculiar to itself. The absence of association with men in the class room and at most social gatherings makes the life so different from that any place else, but it is this very peculiarity that makes it so delightful. Whether it is ap¬ preciated or not, it is a fact worth considering that this life is of great importance in the forming of character, in the fixing of principles and in the moulding of habits for all future life, and is a very important factor in every young woman’s college career. E. W. W., Kappa. An Alpha Girl’s Idea of Fraternity Life. Noble as are our fraternity ideals and lofty as are the heights of moral, intellectual and social good to which they call us, to my mind these incentives are not the only, or — may we say it — the greatest good which we derive from our fraternity life. Sometimes the very striving for the highest development of one’s nature fails of its purpose and inculcates a selfish¬ ness which may mar with its hardness, crystalline though that hardness may be, the whitest soul. The best people ought to be the most helpful, and we are realty living more nearly up to our God-ordained destiny, when we are having
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i86 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA. a care for others, with more thought for their souls than for our own. Margaret Deland in her novel, “ Philip’s Wife,” give us a type of this sort of selfish idealism in Philip, and he is most aptly characterized by the sarcastic words ad¬ dressed to him by his estranged wife, when giving up the keeping of their child to him, praying him to give ‘‘some slight attention to the child’s soul in intervals of saving his own.” The higher education and college life appears to have no greater dangers to women and the world than this — that their own development of intellect and of passion-power may come to seem to them their highest and holiest duty instead of their most graciously-granted privilege, and a kind of refined selfishness comes to hedge them round, keeping all the perfume and sweetness within to ferment and finally embitter their nature, when flowing naturally to those around them it would be as the very oil of glad¬ ness, and their own lives would surely grow more sweet and strong and tender. The stress of our college life and work, and the habit it engenders of “ getting things done,” is something to be wished for, truly, but have we not all of us often thought with regret, after a week of constant and strenuous striving to do all that we ought to do, how very few moments of it all we have felt that we could give away or use for any one but ourselves. Of course, this element of selfishness must enter in a large degree into the college period of our lives, and rightly so, but the danger is that the habit will so become a part of us that even in our after life our own development will seem to us more our duty than the happiness of those about us when the two conflict. Is not our safeguard and defence against this tendency to be found, in great measure, in our fraternity relation? True, we are selfish in a way in our little circle of friends, we do shut out of our lives those who are out of our frater¬ nity, we do greedily grasp every honor and every good for our beloved sisterhood, but how infinitely better than to covet it all for ourself. In the matter of class or social dis-
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IDEA OF FRA TERNITY LIFE. 187 tinction, the honor that we think should have been ours, and the loss of which might else have given us hard and bitter thoughts, we are rejoiced to see go to a sister Theta. All jealous feeling is merged into one of delight and pride in and for her, so much the nobler than if the joy were for ourselves. For a sister’s misfortune we feel almost as deeply as for our own — if we stood alone we might hardly have time to notice it, so busily engaged would we be in building for our own good fortune. We make sacrifices for our fraternity or for a sister that, without this relation, we would not have the right nor the opportunity to make, and grow stronger and sweeter thereby. We take from our own work time to help the bewildered freshman with hers, we exercise a tender thoughtfulness over the health of a frail sister, or a restraining influence over the waywardly in¬ clined, Our interests and power are thus diversified and multiplied in proportion to our fraternity enthusiasm and faithfulness. My readers will pardon a bit of personal experience to illustrate this point. After having passed a pleasant year in the fraternity, but having no unduly exalted idea of what it had meant to me, it was my fortune to enter a school from which fraternities for women were strictly de¬ barred, with the expectation that social cliques would be kept out, too. Of course you need not be told that they were not. Really, the lines of social distinction were most rigidly drawn, and the rivalry between the various literary societies most intense. But that is beside the point. There I came to know a girl, a brilliant student, a prominent mem¬ ber of one of the literary societies, a girl talented in many ways and of unusual executive ability ; in short, one of those born to lead. But, alas, the ways in which she did impress all of these facts upon her fellow students, not be¬ cause she wanted to be unpleasant, but because she couldn’t help it. She was a noble girl, too, in many respects of pure gold, but all edges and corners. And in our chapter in the college from which I had just
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i88 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA . come was her cousin, as like her in person and intellect as could be, as capable and as wholly a leader and a recognized one. But with it all she owned such womanly sweetness, and tact, and considerateness for the feelings and opinions of others, that her word was not so much “law” as “ gospel,* 9 and we all loved her. She was a senior when I knewT her, and I am sure it is not far from the truth to as¬ sume that she was not, naturally, of a sweeter nature than her cousin, but that she had learned through three or four years of fraternity life the art of adjusting herself to others ; had learned to consider their ideas and preferences, and not to insist upon the adoption of her own unmodified by them. The difference between the two was not one of character but of environment, or opportunity rather — of Kappa Alpha Theta ideals and associations for the one, and no fraternity life at all for the other. Is it not proverbial that the only child is a spoiled one ? We of our fraternity do not deem ourselves only daughters, sole heiresses of the riches which the pursuit of the higher life and learning bestow, but many sisters, bound in love and harmony, each willing to divide with the others the bounteous wealth which ever grows with the sharing, and which Kappa Alpha Theta showers upon us day by day. Whatever may be our aim, surely the lesson of unselfishness is not one of the least results of the ideal fraternity life. D. D. H.
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ALUMNAE DEPARTMENT. A True Theta. A beautiful example of the endurance of Theta love and loyalty is shown by a member of a chapter of Theta which has not existed for over twenty years. I had obtained her address and had written to her asking for information con¬ cerning her chapter. A very prompt reply came saying she would immediately obtain all the material she could for the chapter history and send it to me. And she had written to several other members asking them to help. She ended by saying, “ It has been twenty-five years since I left college, and almost as long since I have seen a Theta but the old love is strong within me and whatever I can do for my fra¬ ternity will be done eagerly . I am more than glad to have our names recorded with Theta girls for the sake of the ones to whom it meant so much.” These were not idle words for in a short time I received as complete a history of the chapter as she could possibly get. Surely such loyalty, after twenty-five years away from all Theta influence and with the knowledge that one’s own chapter is no longer living, is proof that Theta love is en¬ during. All glory of scholarship, all renown or remem¬ brance of former fame will fade as time goes on ; but the love you have given to Theta, the friendships you have made in your fraternity life will never cease. ” For to live abundantly is to love abundantly and to live forever is to love forever.” A. M., Epsilon Alumnae . 189
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UNDERGRADUATE DEPARTMENT. It has been very appropriately said “There’s pansies, that’s for thoughts,’’ for it seems to me no other flower could so well have been called the emblem of thought. As we gaze into the tiny faces of our black and gold pansies we need no words to convey to us the mes- Our Pansies. sages they fain would bring ; of love and encouragement and hope from the absent Thetas whose hearts are ever with us. They tell us of Theta ideals and, as voiceless messengers, impress upon our hearts the true meaning of Theta with a force no words could possibly impart. As the years roll on we read more and more of the pansy thoughts. At first the gold is uppermost, and we see only the bright side. As freshman, even before initiation, we think of all our fraternity will mean to us, of happy hours with loving companions, of school days and years spent to¬ gether as a little family, and Theta life seems all sunshine. Gradually but surely we realize the responsibilities, we feel what we must be to our fraternity ; and as the black be¬ comes more and more prominent, we understand in a deeper, truer sense, the meaning of Theta. Here as in life, sun¬ shine and shadow must mingle, yet the shadows are never too dark for the sunshine of Theta love to pierce through. In connection with our pansy, we are likely to take thought to mean some unexpressed sentiment from an ab¬ sent heart to our own. May they not also be an inspiration to thoughtfulness ? How much happier our homes would be, how much more ideal our fraternity life, if this were the motive of every action ; how little need of rules if the mean¬ ing of our pansy but ruled our hearts and lives ; how much more considerate would we be to those without our sister¬ hood who have not the joys that Theta brings to us. If we could only wear a little pansy always, that would 190
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UNDERGRADUA TE DEPAR TMENT. i 9 1 look up sorrowfully sometimes, sometimes with a smile to say “well done,” but ever to remind us of Theta ideals. If we could only plant within our hearts seeds of the pansies of thoughtfulness, that in the days to come would blossom and sweeten not only our fraternity but the world with their delightful fragrance. Then here’s to our pansies The black and the gold ; Bringing treasures of thought As their petals unfold. And, oh, may the thoughts Be the purest and best That the black and the gold Of our pansies suggest. Whenever in college The shadows appear, May the pansies bring thoughts That will banish each tear. And when in the college Of Life we’er enrolled, Dear Father watch over The black and the gold. Jane V. PoiyiyACK, Eta . What an erroneous idea the non-fraternity girl has in thinking that we suppose she is rushing us, if she makes any friendly advances towards us. The other day in talking with one of our girls who has recently come into our fraternity, I asked her why she had been so cold and conservative when I tried Riishmg the ^ friendly last year — and the same old Fraternity. J answer was given me — I was afraid yon
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192 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA . would think I was rushing you.” This is one reason why there is such a barrier between the fraternity girls and the “ barbs/ ’ — we are afraid they will think we are rushing them and vice versa . This should not be and the fraternity idea in college life should not prevent the girls from having just as dear friends among the ‘ barb’ girls. The fraternity girl must go more than half way in making the advances. The ‘ barb’ will soon see you are not ‘ ‘ rush¬ ing” her and will quickly warm up, making advances towards you. Many a little ‘ barb’ around college is lone¬ some and homesick and needs your sunny ” good-morning” to cheer her up for the day’s work. If you are going home her way, ask her to walk with you, because nine times out of ten, she will not of her own accord, especially if you are with another fraternity girl. These are very little things to do, but what a vast differ¬ ence it is to one little barb, she feels that she is really wanted, and there is some one that cares for her. A girl who has been in the fraternity since the beginning of the Freshman year does not realize that these things exist, but take the girl who has been a ‘ barb’ for a year or two and she realizes how very thoughtless the fraternity girl is and how uncomfortable she often makes the ‘ barb’ feel. Our fraternity should make us broader, but in how many cases does it make the girls narrower. The fraternity sisters should be nearer and dearer to each other than anyone else, yet does that necessitate their being ” cliquey” around col¬ leges ? It certainly ought not to. Upsilon. If the institution of fraternities has had one decided evil accompanying it, it has been the destruction of class spirit. This must have been noticed in a greater or smaller degree in every college. Yet if every fraternity Class Spirit. member would only realize that it is the college, the class, that makes possible the life of a fraternity, she would, I am sure, be more inclined
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UNDERGRADUA TE DEPARTMENT. 193 to give the enthusiasm and interest rightfully due to class affairs. Now the secret societies have worked in two ways toward ruining class spirit. First, they have lessened the interest of their own girls in reference to the class. This, of course, is very natural, when we consider it in one light. Frater¬ nity meetings, suppers and entertainments take up one’s time to a great degree. The girls of each little Greek circle are congenial, the members of each class not always so. When a girl has spent two or three weeks working indefati- gably for a fraternity dance, she pays little attention to the plans for a class supper. A fraternity girl said the other day, “No, I’m not coming to the class supper. It’s a bother, you know it’s a bother, and I know it’s a bother. I don’t care for half the girls in the class, and I’m not going to trouble myself to come.” Now this girl is particularly loyal to her society, where she gives a great deal of time and work. Yet in the class she stands on one side and wonders why they are all so stupid. The lack of class spirit in non-fraternity girls can be largely traced to the attitude of their more favored class¬ mates. This, I think, is the most pitiful aspect of the affair. That girls to whom [the class is the only source of real college life should take no interest in it, is dreadful. The bitterness of being “ left out ” runs through their four years’ course, and spoils everything else. One of these girls said recently, “ I don’t think I shall come to-night. I cannot really enjoy myself. All the time I feel that you fraternity girls are just here out of duty, and some of you always look so resigned, I suppose you’re thinking how in¬ ferior it is to your own suppers and good times. I don’t wonder at it, it’s a fact and that’s all there is to it. But, don’t you see, some of the girls in the class are no more con¬ genial to me than to you. Yet you all stick together, and smile meaningly at each other and act as if the rest of us were on a slightly lower plane. As for me, I’ve lost all the interest I ever had in the class, and class affairs make me more unhappy than usual.”
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i94 'THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA. Truly, this is a discouraging state in which to be. Here is the chance for fraternity girls to think of their duty to the class. Remember, as a non-fraternity girl once said, “ It’s all we have.” If possible, put more enthusiasm into the class than into the fraternity. The latter always is full of interest to its members ; make the class so, too. Plan en¬ tertainments and spreads and enter into them heartily. Make the non-fraternity girls forget for the time being that societies do exist. We are inclined to think that rules are relics of bar¬ barism and that the atmosphere of a house is sweeter and better where there are no rules. This I think is a whole¬ some sign. Certainly a society where right feeling is the guiding principle and no rules are imposed House Rules. upon people is one greatly to be desired, and one which will surely exist sometime. But most of us have not yet reached that ideal state of character-development when we no longer need helps from outside. A few simple rules, it seems to me, will serve the purpose of crutches for us until we are strong enough to throw them aside altogether. Many rules or rules, however few, which do not take for granted a certain desire on our part to be considerate in our attitude toward one another would be demoralizing and even insulting in a fraternity house. ” Don’t be profane” ; “ Don’t eat with your knife.” It is such rules that make us rebellious because they belittle us by the very suggestion that we might do those forbidden things. But the rules that grow out of a desire to be thoughtful of others, and dignified and sensible ourselves ought to be rather a help than otherwise ; and if such rules do make us feel rebellious that very thing, it seems to me, proves that we need the rules. We have in our house two rules : I. The house shall be quiet after half past seven on study
Page 20
UNDERGRADUATE DEPARTMENT. 195 nights — that is, singing and playing and loud visiting is supposed to cease at that hour. II. The house shall be closed at quarter past ten except on the occasion of a party or social gathering of some sort. And one of the girls occupies the unenviable position of house-committee to see that these very simple rules are en¬ forced, though there has not been great necessity for her to act in her capacity of dragon. It is easy to see how the first rule is a good one, for most of our girls have heavy work in college and need their time uninterrupted. If we had not this rule some one of us, having a particularly easy night might play the piano half an hour longer than usual. Not that it would be an indi¬ cation of her total depravity or hopeless selfishness if she did ; only, if a definite time is arranged for and everyone understands the situation she is more likely to remember. The second rule works good in the end, I am sure, for all concerned. It seldom has to be enforced arbitrarily for most callers consider a call of two hours or two hours and a half quite long enough. But even the people who come with the intention of making a visit rather than a call soon learn that they are not welcome after ten o’clock and regu¬ late their visits accordingly. And I think that they ap¬ preciate and enjoy the time which they do spend at the house all the more if they know that it can’t be prolonged indefinitely, and have quite as much admiration for the young women whom they come to see. Of course rules cannot be successfully carried out unless the girls all work together to stand by them. It is not consid¬ ered necessary in a civilized community for a policeman to stand armed at every corner and ready to read the riot act every five minutes. Surely no such proceeding is necessary in a fraternity house. Our own experience in Eta Chapter has proved to me that the arrangement is easy and salutary all around if every one in the house will cooperate with every one else in upholding the rules that they themselves have made. Irene Stoddard Baker.
Page 21
THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA. 196 %•/ Quite contrary ideas of what constitutes the best fra¬ ternity chapter are held by different people. Some people look at the fraternity from the stand-point of those outside. They consider it purely a social organiza- . tion, and if it has the largest number rela- Strength. tively, of popular society girls, girls of old and wealthy families in the city, it is held to be the best chapter. There is another view, in sharp contrast to this, and one which appeals to me as being more noble and more helpful. According to this, that fraternity which is most congenial, most closely united and thoroughly harmonious within itself, is the best one. One of the most important requisites to ideal fraternity life is that close spirit of union of all the sisters and this should never give place to anything else. It is above all necessary to truest, highest fraternity life and should never be lost. If the chapter be strong internally, all other considerations will care for themselves. Freshmen are often slow in realizing their part in, and duties to their fraternity. They ought to be made to feel that each one must not only keep up the present standard of the fraternity but also endeavor to raise it. But little can be accomplished if they start on general improvement ; we must begin in details. When each detail is Individual perfect we need have no fear for the whole. Responsibility if each girl could be made to feel indi- of Freshmen. vidual responsibility to accomplish well and on time every piece of work assigned to her, half of our worries would fly away. Sometimes we find a girl who asks what is to be done at meeting that day. If she doesn’t know of enough business to take up the time, she ought to sit down to think up some. If there isn’t any work to be done immediately, let her plan some for future days. But never come to meeting without an active mind, never wait for subjects to be presented to you but have
Page 22
UNDERGRADUATE DEPARTMENT. 197 some thoughts to present to the other girls. Let each member feel an individual responsibility for the welfare of Kappa Alpha Theta. Summer — quiet, restful, peaceful summer has again come. To all college students it is a time of real pleasure. Dur¬ ing the last busy weeks of work in “cramming” for ex¬ aminations our thoughts often turn to those weeks of rest which we are soon to realize. And now as The Summer we anticipate them, — what way are we Vacation, planning to enjoy them to the fullest measure? I have sometimes heard criti¬ cisms to the effect that college girls and especially fraternity girls are so engrossed in college life and work that the summer vacation is largely spent in dreaming of college and in corresponding with college friends, and that the family and friends at home receive comparatively little attention. On the other hand there are some girls who, relieved from all work and responsibility of fraternity and Alma Mater plunge into society with full force. Light novels serve for their reading and every day is spent in mere pleasure seek¬ ing. Is this true recreation for young women who are re¬ ceiving a training through the higher education ? We are judged not so much by the work which we accomplish as by the way in which we find our amusement. It is in the summer then, when we are free from all re¬ strictions and may largely choose our mode of life that our characters speak for themselves. If we are selfish enough to dream all summer of college work and companions in¬ stead of being useful, bright at home, or to trifle away our time with mere gaieties, the stuff of which we are made shows only too plainly. As loyal college women who would find the true recrea¬ tion, we must strive to make our summer vacation a counter¬ part of our active winter life. Firstly, we must bring to our home circles a fresh spirit of good cheer and helpful-
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THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA . 198 ness, endeavoring to serve in every possible way rather than to be served, simply because we have been away all the winter months. Let us enjoy healthful social festivities in a moderate degree, let us read some good deep books, and let us do some solid thinking. Vacation spent in this way would help us to take up college duties again in the Fall with renewed vigor and interest. The summer is before us and now is the time for every true Theta to decide that she will embrace the opportunity of broadening her character rather than stifling its growth. Caroline Clothier, Alpha Beta .
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CHAPTER LETTERS. The date upon which the next chapter letter should be sent out is October 5. Please write on one side only of the paper, and put the personals on separate sheet headed only by the name of the chapter. Any per¬ sonal communication to the editor should also be written on a sepa¬ rate sheet. Please note the way the chapter letters are headed and always arrange them in the same way, putting nothing at the head but the names of the chapter and the university. Alpha District. IOTA — CORNEL,!, UNIVERSITY. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of resident alumnae, 10 ; number of active members, 14 ; seniors, 7 ; juniors, 2 ; sophomores, 3 ; freshmen, 1 ; special, 1. Names and addresses of this year's initiates : Juliet Sarah Crossett, . Warsaw, N. Y. Ella Craig Russ, . San Antonio, Texas Maida Rossiter, . 17 Chalmer’s Place, Chicago, Ill. Number of faculty in the university, 315, — 120 professors, 195 in¬ structors and assistants ; number of students, 2299. Women’s frater¬ nities and number in chapter : Kappa Alpha Theta, 14 ; Kappa Kap¬ pa Gamma, 14 ; Delta Gamma, 21 ; Alpha Phi, 19. Men’s fraternities, Zeta Psi, Chi Phi, Kappa Alpha, Alpha Delta Phi, Phi Kappa Psi, Chi Psi, Delta Upsilon, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Theta Delta Chi, Phi Delta Theta, Beta Theta Pi, Psi Upsilon, Alpha Tau Omega, Phi Gam¬ ma Delta, Phi Delta Phi, Phi Sigma Kappa, Delta Tau Delta, Sigma Phi, Sigma Chi, Delta Chi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Delta Phi, Kappa Sigma. CHAPTER LETTER. It seems but a short time ago since Iota corresponded with her sister chapters through the pages of the Journal — so short a time, indeed, that only a little has since happened to write you about. During the first two weeks after we returned, Alice Dick¬ inson, who was in the chapter with us during the college year of ’97-’ 98, was with us. On the evening of her last day at Cornell we had the pleasure of initiating Julia Crossett, ’02, into Kappa Alpha Theta. Mrs. Comstock
Page 25
50 Kappa Alpha Theta. women deem it a public duty to remain in a state of uninterrupted and ecstatic enthusiasm. However, it is not because the writer is a progressive woman that she discusses the subject. She is quite the reverse and therefore 'finds it difficult at times to maintain this approved attitude of mind in a creditable manner. Not that she does not sympathize with the advancement of Radcliffe college. After having stood so long looking through the pickets at Harvard college, it is quite a triumph for that institution to have gotten one foot over the university’s threshold. The part we dislike about the matter is that it should be regarded as such an unspeak¬ able honor, by men and women alike, for the Annex girls to be admitted to equal privileges with Harvard men. We consider that the. honor is attached to the other party, if it is a question of glory at* all. It is Harvard who should be congratulated upon at last showing signs of being able to keep up with the times in ed¬ ucational improvements. We should prefer, moreover, that these changes be made in a more natural and matter-of-course manner. Society does not pat a man upon the head because he performs an act of justice, neither does it call before the curtain the one who has simply received his due; why then should it not be equally reasonable in regard to the affairs of educational institutions ? We are weary of hearing women loudly proclaim their equal¬ ity with men, and then servilely turn and fawn upon the au¬ thority that grants them their so-called “rights.” If women have unswerving faith in their intellectual capacity, that is all that is necessary ; their abilities will demonstrate themselves and nothing need be said about them. If, as a matter-of-fact, they doubt their own powers, and are only making a loud noise in or¬ der to postpone the discovery that “the defect in their heads is just absence of mind,” the sooner they learn to keep still, the better. The writer believes in women so thoroughly, in their intelligence, their perseverance, their true womanliness, believes in them so unreservedly that it is painful to her to see them humble them¬ selves so abjectly when accepting the tardy favors which men see fit to bestow. To our mind it seems about time that our brothers were reminded that in the first recorded discussion upon the sub¬ ject of higher education, mankind played a very ignominious part. No man who accepts a certain familiar story, related in the third chapter of Genesis, has any right to express his opinion upon the subject of education, in the presence of a woman. ^ What would be the intellectual development of the race, if Eve had been as stupid and unprogressive as was her husband ? Did Adam care
Page 26
200 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA. was with us. We have been obliged to do without her at our initiations for over a year, and her being with us again made us realize how much we had missed. At the banquet which followed she told us something of our sisters at Stan¬ ford, where she was during the winter term. It was very pleasant, Phi sisters, to hear from you so directly. The evening before Easter Sunday our Sophomores enter¬ tained the chapter, and at that time we had the pleasure of having with us Mrs. Abbott. Dr. Lyman Abbott was the University preacher for two Sundays, and two of our girls are members of his former pastorate in Brooklyn. On Monday evening, April twenty-third, the Sage Dra¬ matic Club are to give Thackeray’s “The Rose and the Ring ’’ to the women of our university. On the following evening it is to be repeated, with the members of the faculty and their wives as the audience. Two of our girls take part in the play and two are members of the Lyric Club, which furnishes the music for the occasion. If the Spring has opened as perfectly in the parts where dwell our Theta sisters as it has with us at Cornell, there can be in the main naught else but happiness and renewed inspiration. That this is so, is Iota’s Spring term wish for you. LAMBDA — VERMONT UNIVERSITY. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of resident alumnae, 19 ; number of active members, 14 ; seniors, 3 ; juniors, 5 ; sophomores, 3 ; freshmen, 2 ; special, 1 ; rented rooms. Names and addresses of this year's uiitiates : Mary Wheaton Hall, *02 . Rutland, Vt. Alice Bean, ’02 . Newport, Vt. Alice Harriet Derby, ’02 . Essex Junction, Vt. Margery Batchelder, Special . ... Newport, Vt. Mary Tracy, ’03 . Shelburne, Vt. Hattie Hodge, ’03 . Burlington, Vt. Number of faculty in the university, 50 ; number of students, 522. Women’s fraternities and number in chapter : Pi Beta Phi, 12 ; Delta Delta Delta, 11 ; Kappa Alpha Theta, 14. Men’s fraternities : Lambda
Page 27
CHAPTER LETTERS. 201 Iota (local), Sigma Phi, Delta Psi (local), Phi Delta Theta, Alpha Tau Omega, Kappa Sigma, Sigma Nu, Delta Mu (local medical), Phi Chi (medical), Alpha Kappa Kappa (medical), Theta Nu Epsilon (medi¬ cal). CHAPTER LETTER. Lambda has had a vacation and, although the ten days were short, rest and the “ sweet restorer” have brought us back with awakened energies and rekindled interest. The poets and the robins have already announced the Spring opening, and though the obstinate snow banks dis¬ pute the truth of it, there is a whisper in the air and a promise in the trees that assures us. Perhaps all do not know that Lambda’s home is in a city ‘ ‘ beautiful for situation.” Burlington reclines upon a hill- slope, with gaze directed toward the long line of mountains which stretches away in the blue distance — the Adirondacks. In their green and odorous forests, in their pure water and bracing air, many an invalid has found life and health. Below rest the waters of historic Lake Champlain — in the winter, the scene of merry skating parties ; in summer, dotted with green islands and white sails. Crowning the hill in architectural beauty are the college buildings, whose charm and that of the life within, come with new power to the Senior, who is about to leave them forever. Preparations for the play “ Much Ado about Nothing,” to be given by the college girls, are now in progress. Our most lively interest is excited by the success of ‘‘As You Like It,” which was produced Commmencement week of last year. Our annual Junior Promenade occurred the evening of February 26, and was characterized by its usual large at¬ tendance and enthusiasm. On the evening of April 27, we were very pleasantly en¬ tertained by our alumnae at our rooms. Supper was served and an enjoyable evening spent. We found that a delightful surprise awaited us, for at the beginning of the evening’s entertainment some mysterious movements distracted our attention, and a hush of expectancy crept over us, when one
Page 28
202 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA. of our sisters appeared with an elegant banner, beautiful in design and richly wrought in fraternity colors. MU — ALLEGHENY COLLEGE. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of resident alumnae, 6 ; number of active members, 19 ; seniors, 3 ; juniors, 4 ; sophomores, 4 ; freshmen, 6 ; special, 2. Names and addresses of this year's initiates : Anna M. Slease . 23 Fleming Ave., Allegheny, Pa. Zella M. White . Bradford, Pa. Bessie K. Phillips . 206 E. Water St., Warren, Pa. Jessie A. Williams . Laurel St., Warren, Pa. EleanorS. Doty . Water St., Warren, Pa. Maud Bartholomew . . Laurel St., Warren, Pa. Ruth Townley . Meadville, Pa, Marion Bemus . Meadville, Pa. Marion Sackett . Meadville, Pa. Number of faculty in the university, 18 ; number of students, 400. Women’s fraternities and number in chapter : Kappa Kappa Gamma, 14 ; Alpha Chi Omega, 16; Kappa Alpha Theta, 19. Men’s fraterni¬ ties : Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Delta Theta, Delta Tau Delta, Phi Gamma Delta, Sigma Alpha Epsilon. CHAPTER LETTER. The girls of Mu Chapter have returned to college filled with a new enthusiasm which bodes well for the future welfare of the chapter. Many pleasant events have taken place since our last letter. On February fourteenth, Kappa Alpha Theta gave a valentine party at the home of Sister Gertrude Harper, East Chestnut Street. Suits of cards, fashioned in the shape of hearts, served to amuse the guests for the great part of the evening. The rooms were tastefully ornamented with festoons of paper hearts and other decorations appropriate to the occasion. On February twenty-second, Allegheny College held her first annual Washington’s Birthday dinner in the college gymnasium. It was a brilliant success, calling forth such college spirit as Allegheny has never before witnessed.
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CHAPTER LETTERS. 20 s Many interesting toasts were given. One of our Freshmen was on the general committee and was responsible for much of the success of the banquet. And now we want to introduce to you our new pledgling, Marian Sackett, of Meadville, who has already endeared herself so much to our hearts that we wonder how we ever got along without her. At the latter part of the term Miss Sackett entertained Kappa Alpha Theta and a few friends of the chapter at her pretty home on Liberty Street. Great was the surprise manifested at the skill shown by some of the young gentlemen in the art of plying the needle, and that, too, with the aid of a thimble. The result was a beau¬ tiful display of aprons, hemmed, stitched, or basted, accord¬ ing to the taste or fancy of the wielder of the needle. One of our alumnae, Miss Emma Lockart, is ill of typhoid fever at her home on Randolph Street. Although the girls have expressed their sympathy by sending flowers, there is little they can do as yet to show their appreciation of all she has done for the active girls. Mu sends kindest greetings to all her sister chapters. CHI — SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of resident alumnae, 14 ; number of active members, 32 ; seniors, 7 ; juniors, 8 ; sophomores, 6 ; freshmen, 10 ; special, 1 ; Chap¬ ter house, rented. Names and addresses of this year's initiates : Florence Buck . Bucksport, Me. May Baker . Mexico, N. Y. Georgia Allen . 809 S. Geddes St., Syracuse, N. Y. Bertha Knapp . Essex, N. Y. Mabel Howe . Binghamton, N. Y. Edna Mitchell . Hornellsville, N. Y. Maud Miller . Verona, N. Y. Eva Smith . 408 Walnut Place, Syracuse, N. Y. Luclare Smith . • . 408 Walnut Place, Syracuse, N. Y. Lucile Baldwin . 215 Furman St., Syracuse, N. Y. Laura Cowan . 127 Ashworth Place, Syracuse, N. Y. Camilla Quackenbush . Herkimer, N. Y. Marion Leslie West . 113 Harrison Place, Syracuse, N. Y.
Page 30
204 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA . Number of faculty in the university, 133 ; number of students, 1,402. Women’s fraternities and number in chapter : Alpha Phi, 31 ; Gamma Phi Beta, 35 ; Kappa Kappa Gamma, 31 ; Pi Beta Phi, 30 ; Delta Delta Delta, 21 ; Kappa Alpha Theta, 32. Men’s fraternities : Delta Kappa Epsilon, Delta Psi, Phi Kappa Psi, Psi Upsilon, Phi Delta Theta, Beta Theta Pi, Nu Sigma Nu, Phi Delta Phi. CHAPTER LETTER. Lured on by the clear sunshine and the enticing, sociable chirp of some jolly robins on the balcony outside, the corre¬ sponding editor sat down by the open window to write the journal letter. But April sunshine is deceptive, a chilly breeze left behind by the February blizzard, came in at the window, which the aforesaid maiden immediately closed lest the mantle of the corresponding editor fall prematurely on the shoulders of some more capable but much-to-be-pitied individual. The burden of studying is heavier than usual now that 41 spring, sweet spring ” is really coming, and the only con¬ solation one can find is in the fact that the “ grind ” will soon be over. Vacation plans are already the subject of almost paramount interest for, as usual, a number of Chi girls are going camping together at the Thousand Islands where Mrs. Pratt, the mother of one of our city girls, kindly gives over to us for absolute possession during the first weeks in June, her cottage at “ Point Olivia.” Three of our girls returned to-day from attending Junior week at Colgate University, and the rest of us, who were not so fortunate, have been listening to the tales of the drives, dances, and receptions that they enjoyed while there. We, who are in the chapter-house, are looking forward with impatience to the day when we shall tear the April sheet from the calendar and begin the month of May, for it is to be full of enjoyment for us — best of all our new chap¬ eron, Mrs. Smith, is to come to us at the beginning of the month, with her two daughters who have been sisters in fraternity since September but who will become even nearer sisters in sharing with us the delightful, cultured woman whom we can all consider as “ mother ” together.
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CHAPTER LETTERS. 205 With all due modesty Chi would like to make a suggestion — a plan for a sort of chapter exchange, so to speak, of brilliant ideas. If one chapter has given two or three es¬ pecially successful rushing parties, why not send the plans for these to some other chapter and receive in exchange the plans of some successful parties given by that chapter. Chi is ready to set the ball rolling with three or four suggestions if some other chapter is likewise so disposed. ALPHA BETA — SW ARTHMORE COLLEGE. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of resident alumnae, 4 ; number of active members, 15 ; seniors, 7 ; juniors, 3 ; sophomores, 3 ; freshmen, 2 ; graduate, 25. Names and addresses of this year's initiates : Alma A. Hull . Baltimore, Md. (deceased) Helen M. Eastwick . Philadelphia, Pa. Annie S. Hawke . Piedmont, Ala. Elizabeth M. Booth . . Chester, Pa. Nnmber of faculty in the university, 13; number of students, 208. Women’s fraternities and number in chapter : Pi Beta Phi, 13 ; Kappa Kappa Gamma, 9 ; Kappa Alpha Theta, 15. Men’s fraternities : Kappa Sigma, Delta Upsilon, Phi Kappa Psi. CHAPTER LETTER. As the chapter roll is called for the last time in this college year, Alpha Beta gives answer “Here” with a little thrill of homesick tenderness. It is the same old story, yet ever new, this fast approaching separation of our little band, and, as we wander over the campus these dreamy May days and our Seniors plan out their untried futures, full of hope and courage, there will creep in a note of sadness and regret at the inevitable disbanding which time will bring for us. Somehow, during the past month Alpha Beta has clung to¬ gether as never before, and many precious afternoons we have spent in the cosy, chatty intercourse so dear to college girls. I11 the college woods and along the Crum Creek there are innumerable ideal nooks for long uninterrupted “con¬ fabs ’ * and we all owe much of the pleasure and inspiration of our life here to these spring walks and talks.
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206 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA. The basket ball games, with all the attendant excitement, are over ; the Spring vacation has gone, we scarcely know how or where. Somerville Day, the annual reunion of all Swarthmore’s girls, kept us rushing with banquet prepara¬ tions, practice for the Greek play (translated) and endless other details, and was celebrated on April 14th with the usual zest and enthusiasm. In April, the pleasure was granted to our favored Seniors of spending the afternoon with Alpha’s President, Miss Scott, at the home of Mary Ash, ’98. It was at the Theta alumnae meeting, and the Seniors were asked to talk over the prospects for next year. Much to our disappointment Miss Scott was unable to spare the time for a visit to Swarthmore. We wanted her to see Alpha Beta’s home and to meet all the girls, but will hope for that at some early date in the future. Soon, all too soon, the hurry and excitement of Com¬ mencement days will be upon us. Blowing one’s own horn is never very profitable employment, so you may just refer to our May report for Alpha Beta’s honors in these festivi¬ ties. We really have one or two ! I shall leave to you of skill in framing the graceful phrase to tell of the mingled joy and sadness of Commencement. I can only trust that for all of us it will never mean a final good-bye, but always Auf wiedersehen. ALPHA DELTA — WOMAN’S COLLEGE OF BALTIMORE. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of resident alumnae, 1 ; number of active members, 19 ; seniors, 4 ; juniors, 6 ; sophomores, 3 ; freshmen, 6 ; Chapter room, rented. Names and addresses of this year's initiates : Lida Norris . 2500 Charles St. , Baltimore, Md Carrie Van Doren . 265 Sixth Ave., Newark, N. J Margaret Huhill . 216 Read St., Oil City, Pa Edna Coultas . Morristown, N. J Ruth Haslup . Ruxton, Md Anna Haslup . Ruxton, Md
Page 33
CHAPTER LETTERS. 207 Number of faculty in the university, 21 ; number of students, 294. Women’s fraternities and number in chapter: Delta Gamma, 17; Alpha Phi, 21 ; Tau Kappa Pi (local), 22 ; Kappa Alpha Theta, 19; Pi Beta Phi, 14 ; Delta Delta Delta, 11 ; Gamma Phi Beta, 13. CHAPTER EETTER. Alpha Delta again sends greeting to her sister chapters. She too is busy with the usual rush of college work which characterizes the closing weeks of the college year and which renders all the more agreeable the prospect of coming social pleasures. The usual monotony of the winter term was enlivened by an unusually large number of social events in the form of teas, receptions, concerts and plays. A most successful concert was given by the Glee Club in March. During the same month occurred the Junior Play, another most pleasing event. In both of these Alpha Delta’s girls were prominent. Dr. and Mrs. Goucher entertained the Seniors, Faculty and Trustees by a large reception given at their home on St. Paul Street. On March 29, a reception was given at Finsal Hall in honor of Dr. Win¬ chester of Wesleyan University, at which the faculty and Seniors of the College were entertained. The students of the advanced French course gave a most delightful rendition of Moli£re’s “ Le Bourgeoise Gentil- homme”, on the evening of March 30th. It was very en¬ thusiastically received. The chapter was very pleasantly entertained on Saturday evening, March 31st, at the home of one of our city girls, Ethel Sharp. Alpha Delta had the pleasure of meeting Miss Barnheisel, of Phi, at a tea given in her honor by Miss Ogier, of this city. We were much delighted also with a visit from Miss Cram of Eta, on March 31st and were pleased to meet her again at the home of Ethel Sharp.
Page 34
208 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA. ALPHA EPSILON — BROWN UNIVERSITY. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of resident alumnae, 8 ; number of active members, 25. Names of this year's initiatrs : Ada Geneva Wing, Ethel Ella Rich, Mabel Cornelia Moulton, Georgie Smith Peck, Helen Whitmarsh, Bessie Allen Hood, Irene Turner Seabury, Alice Morse Barrett, Ida Maude Warren. Number of faculty in University, 87 ; number of students, 925. Women’s fraternities : Kappa Alpha Theta, (locals) Alpha Beta, Delta Sigma. Men’s fraternities : Alpha Delta Phi, Delta Phi, Psi Upsilon, Beta Theta Pi, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Zeta Psi, Theta Delta Chi, Delta Upsilon, Phi Delta Theta, Alpha Tau Omega, and Kappa Sigma. CHAPTER LETTER. The twenty-second of February is always a great day for the Alpha Epsilon chapter, and this year was no exception to the rule. Coming as it does so near the birthday of our chapter, and being a holiday also, it offers special opportuni¬ ties for pleasure. This year our annual reception and dance took place at Pembroke Hall in a most enjoyable manner. The building was transformed ; its recitation rooms were decorated and adorned with flowers, plants, rugs, furniture, and Oriental cosy corners, while red paper shades over the electric lights gave a rosy glow to everything. There were about four hundred guests, including many of the girls at Pembroke, men from the University proper, faculty, parents and outside friends. We were delighted that Miss Florence Durstine, of Wellsley, was able to be present. During vacation several of us went to call on our Theta bride, Mrs. Arthur Morgan McWhinnie, in Pawtucket. She has a lovely home, to which all Thetas are cordially welcome, and she is just as dear as when she was our Carrie Briggs. It was in the last part of March that we learned that we were to have a new dean, Miss Emery, a graduate of Bryn Mawr, and now dean of the Women’s College of Wisconsin.
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CHAPTER LETTERS. 209 All the Alpha Epsilon girls thought at once, “ Why, that’s where Psi chapter is, * ’ and felt that they would on that ac¬ count have all the more interest in Miss Emery, who might perhaps tell them something of their Wisconsin sisters. Last week we had a most delightful social meeting at our wee fraternity room. We sewed, played games, and, most important of all, prepared our supper and ate it. Now, to cook Welsh rarebit, make tea and salad, beside serving other delicacies prepared beforehand, to twenty-five girls in a room the size of an ordinary family sitting-room, is ex¬ citing. The pleasure, however, far exceeded any incon¬ venience experienced, and everything had a flavor not to be obtained when sitting decorously at a table where all is calm and sedate. Afterward we sang songs and talked, and all agreed that it was one of the jolliest meetings of the year. It was at this meeting that we learned of the new member of Mrs. Walton’s family. Mrs. Walton, as has been written before, is a member of Eta chapter now living in Providence. Everybody asked at once if it was a Theta baby, and were disappointed to learn that the Alpha Tau Omega boys, of which fraternity Mr. Walton is a member, claim the new comer as a brother. We are all looking forward to Commencement week, and hope our sister chapters will have as pleasant a time as we expect to enjoy. ALPHA ZETA — BARNARD COLLEGE. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of resident alumnae, 3 ; number of active members, 16 ; seniors, 3 ; juniors, 1 ; sophomores, 6 ; freshmen, 5 ; special, 1 ; Chap¬ ter room given by the college, no rent demanded. Names and addresses of this year's initiates : Gertrude Helen Clark, ’03 ... . 258 West 78th St., New York City Ellice Heaton Fitch, ’03 . 273 West 84th St., New York City May Amerman Johnson, ’03 . . . 356 West 145th St., New York City Mary Warren Moen, ’03 . 308 West 77th St., New York City Marguerite Siedler, ’03 . 108 West 78th St., New York City
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210 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA. Number of faculty in the university, 443 ; number of students, 2,775. Women’s fraternities and number in chapter : Kappa Alpha Theta, 16 ; Kappa Kappa Gamma, 21. Men’s fraternities : Alpha Delta Phi, Psi Upsilon, Delta Phi, Delta Psi, Phi Gamma Delta, Phi Kappa Psi, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Zeta Psi, Theta Delta Chi, Phi Delta Theta, Delta Upsilon, Sigma Chi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Beta Theta Pi, Phi Sigma Kappa, Theta Xi, Phi Beta Kappa. CHAPTER LETTER. Alpha Zeta feels that at length she has something to re¬ count to the fraternity at large, besides the chronicle of quiet chapter life. In the first place, we would tell the fraternity that we have initiated five new members from the freshman class, and have thus gained for ourselves five capable and en¬ thusiastic girls, who are an added strength to our chapter. On Saturday February seventeenth, we gave our annual reception to the College, faculty, and our friends. Our guests — as many as came — pronounced the reception a suc¬ cess in all particulars. Perhaps what impressed us most was the selectness of the company, for while we feared for rain a blizzard took us unawares. In spite of the severe weather, many of the members of Gamma Alumnae came up to Barnard to greet us, and received, we hope, a cordial welcome. On March nineteenth, the second anniversary of the founding of the chapter, a dance was given us by some of our friends. A number of us were unfortunately, not able to be present, but those who came had a delightful time. We have been most kindly rembered by Ellen Pyle of Swartlnnore, who was with us last year ; and lately we had the pleasure of meeting two Swarthmore Thetas in our chapter room. The only member of Alpha Zeta, Katherine Hawkins, ’98, who is not near us, and whom some of us have never seen, is soon to be in New York so that we are looking forward to a re-union of all Alpha Zeta chapter. The list of the freshmen is as follows : May A. John¬ son, Mary W. Moen, Gertrude H. Clark, Ellice H. Fitch, Marguerite Siedler, all of New York.
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CHAPTER LE TTERS. 2 1 1 Beta District. ALPHA — DE PAUW UNIVERSITY. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of resident alumnae, 25 ; number of active members, 35 ; seniors, 12 ; juniors, 3 ; sophomores, 10 ; freshmen, 10 ; Chapter house, rented. Names and addresses of this year's initiates : Alice lima Wilkee . Vera McCabe . . . . Eleanor Rinn . . . . Mary Moses .... Daisy Haughton . . Ruby Faris .... Edna Taylor . . . Mary Lewis .... Ruth Baker .... Alice Cox . Elizabeth Matthews Bernice Warren . . Erma Roberts . . . . . Sullivan, Ind. . Covington, Ind. . Covington, Ind. . . Rushville, Ind. . . Oaktown, Ind. . Terre Haute, Ind. . Greencastle, Ind. . Greencastle, Ind. . Greencastle, Ind. . Greencastle, Ind. . Greencastle, Ind. . Renssalaer, Ind. Knightstown, Ind. Number of faculty in the university, 30 ; number of students, 660. Women’s fraternities and number in chapter : Kappa Alpha Theta, 35 ; Kappa Kappa Gamma, 23 ; Alpha Phi, 17 ; Phi Mu Epsilon, 16 ; Alpha Chi Omega, 18. Men’s fraternities : Delta Tau, Delta Upsilon, Phi Gamma Delta, Phi Delta Theta, Beta Theta Pi, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Sigma Nu, Sigma Chi, Phi Kappa Psi. CHAPTER LETTER. Would not the corresponding editors of all the chapters like to join with Alpha’s in a protest against those who make pleas to us? Whatever happens to college students, who do their duty, prepare their lessons day by day, and never “ flunk ” or break the rules? And when the rushing is all over at once, and there are no new girls to write about, and social affairs are so much alike everywhere in the col¬ lege world, what shall we do — spin fairy tales or write dis¬ sertations on the trials of the editor ?
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212 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA . It might be interesting, though, while we are talking about lessons, for you to know that the studentship of Alpha has improved steadily since the first of the year, in accord¬ ance with the raised standard of the University. But we all hope there will be no further elevation. We are now in that half-despairing and half-hopeful state induced by the impending fraternity examination. Our preparation gives us a sense of pride in the greatness of the fraternity, at the same time that it reveals our ignorance on many points concerning which we should be informed. Although as a chapter we have not heretofore given any attention to charitable work, we have lately become inter¬ ested in the Free Kindergarten Movement in Greencastle, and as a fraternity, have given it some substantial aid. We have received our friends in appropriate state at the appointed times, and have given one or two pleasant parties, one of them on the eve of St. Valentine’s day. We are now making preparation to entertain the non-fraternity girls of the school, for the double purpose of putting a little pleasure into their lives, which cannot be so full of happi¬ ness as our own, and giving a few of our “non-stars” a chance to make their reputations. Our farces have proved more popular than our girls, when it comes to a matter of entertainment. In order to give all the girls an equal chance of development along this most essential line, a few nebulous masses have been plucked from the “ Milky Way” and set to training for the stage, a task which has been un¬ dertaken with such zeal, that the established “ stars” must needs look well to their shining. The corresponding editor, as one of these incipient stellar lights, asks pardon if her literary style does not show its accustomed brilliancy and artistic finish, but she takes little pride in her literary attain¬ ments now that a new path to fame and fortune has opened up before her. We have this term enjoyed a visit from Helen Yorkwood, who was with us a few years ago, and who has recently been made State Secretary of the Young Woman’s Chris-
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CHAPTER LETTERS . 213 tian Association. Her visit was more especially in the in¬ terests of this organization, but she had some time for us as Thetas, and her sweet voice was more than once lifted for us in the old songs we knew and loved. Her presence in our midst, even more than her helpful talks for all the col¬ lege girls, stimulated us to greater interest in the work. To all the Theta chapters greeting and farewell until the short summer is over and all are once more busy winning victories for our dear fraternity. BETA — INDIANA STATE UNIVERSITY. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of resident alumnae, 35 ; number of active members, 21 ; Chapter house, rented. Names of this year's initiates : Daisabel Hendricks, Alice Hogshire, Elizabeth Hendricks, Bonnie Spink, Clara Roelker, Bertha Orr, Beatrice Williams, Margaret Allen, Sylvia Cox, Metella Druley, Lena Washburn, Emma Honneus. Number of faculty in the university, 60 ; number of students, 1,050. Women’s fraternities : Kappa Kappa Gamma, Pi Beta Phi, Delta Gamma, Kappa Alpha Theta. Men’s fraternities : Beta Theta Pi, Phi Gamma Delta, Sigma Nu, Sigma Chi, Phi Delta Theta, Phi Kappa Psi, Delta Tau Delta. DELTA — UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of resident alumnae, 4 ; number of active members, 16 ; seniors, 2 ; juniors, 3 ; sophomores, 6 ; freshmen, 2 ; graduate, 1 ; special, 1 ; graduates from other chapters, 1 ; Chapter house, rented. Names and addresses of this year's initiates : Louise R. Brookings . Du Quoin, Ill. Jessie Lummis . 521 York St., Quincy, Ill. Julia R. Mattis . 201 N. Elm St., Champaign, Ill. Phoebe Mulliken . Church St., Champaign, Ill. Marjorie Forbes . 908 W. Illinois St., Urbana, Ill. Ellen G. Smith . 530 Belden Ave., Chicago, Ill. Mary H. Kittredge . 130 Court St., Keene, N. H.
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214 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA. Number of faculty in the university, 227 ; number of students, 1,680. Women’s fraternities and number in chapter : Alpha Chi Omega, 14 ; Kappa Kappa Gamma, 20 ; Pi Beta Phi, 21 ; Kappa Alpha Theta, 16. Men’s fraternities and number in chapter: Sigma Chi, 19; Sigma Alpha Epsilon, 20; Kappa Sigma, 20; Phi Delta Theta, 21 ; Delta Tau Delta, 18 ; Alpha Tau Omega, 14 ; Phi Gamma Delta, 23. CHAPTER LETTER. It seemed to me when I wrote that last letter that I should have nothing to say for the May Journal, and yet I have the most exciting experience that has ever fallen to the lot of Delta to relate to you. I think I wrote to you last fall about having almost a Theta house. We girls rented par¬ lors downstairs and the entire upstairs of a house just two blocks from the University, and in many respects we were supremely happy. As time wore on we began to realize that our landlady lacked a little tact in getting on with us girls, but we tried to make the best of things with true Theta bravery. I11 the early part of March, however, we concluded that we must have a “ whole house or none,” so we began to look about for such an one. We were most fortunate in finding the dearest little cottage of eight rooms, all ready furnished, and we moved immediately. The dray¬ men came up on Monday afternoon and carted over every box and bundle of the eleven Thetas. Early on Tuesday morning we girls started to the new house to “ get settled ”. Just imagine our consternation — nay, absolute horror — to see strange men in the house, calmly carrying out the above mentioned boxes and bundles ! The affair was soon ex¬ plained. We rented from the owner’s agent, and the very day that we rented the house, the owner had sold the entire furniture. We realized that there was a choice kernel in the matter for some lawyer, but we were not anxious to get into suits of that sort. Accordingly, we, with the assistance of Dean Kinley, the best dean possible, and of Professor Pickett, who is truly a friend in need, undertook to rent the house empty and furnish it ourselves. It was such fun and such work ! The girls from town all contributed odd
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CHAPTER LETTERS . 215 dressers and chairs and tables, to say nothing of bedding, velvet rugs and fine lace curtains. Then we girls wrote home and the following week the express wagons kept up a well regulated beat between the real Theta home and the express office. We are settled now and I wish you all, yes, every dear one of you could come to see us. I know we look nice in our new home, for when people come for the first time, they hold up their hands in polite surprise and say “ Why, have you young women done all of this f I had no idea you could possibly make things look so pretty ! ” Then we Delta girls slip around and pat each other gently on the back. We manage the work finely. We have a man come every morning to look after the furnace. Then each two girls see to their own room. The parlor is cleaned each week by two of the girls, each two taking their turn. We have a woman come in to do all the heavy clean¬ ing, such as washing windows and sweeping. The down¬ stairs is arranged so that we can entertain in every room, for in the sitting room Mabel Davison, “ Davy ” as we love to call her, and Mollie Kittridge have cots, fixed up for couches, and in the library, Jessica Lunnnis and Mabel Storms have a folding bed. Are you getting tired of this lengthy account ? If you could only realize how perfectly happy we are, I am sure you would forgive me for writing this much. I shall close now for one of the girls has prom¬ ised to write an article on College Chapters furnishing their own houses and you will likely hear all the rest that I might say. Delta sends best wishes to Theta. EPSILON — WOOSTER UNIVERSITY. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of resident alumnae, 16 ; number of active members, 15. Names of this year's initiates : Nellie Lloyd, Lucy Cass, Lucy Warren, Faye Blayney.
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216 THE KAPPA ALTHA THETA . Number of faculty in the university, 25 ; number of students, 800. Women’s fraternities : Kappa Kappa Gamma, Kappa Alpha Theta. Men’s fraternities : Phi Gamma Delta, Beta Theta Pi, Alpha Tau Omega, Phi Delta Theta. CHAPTER LETTER. The Epsilon girls have all returned from their Easter va¬ cation with glowing accounts of the good times they have had. During the vacation, our college choristers, gave a series of concerts throughout Ohio, which were received with marked favor. Four of the choristers are Theta girls, and while in Columbus they were most delightfully entertained by Alpha Gamma. They enjoyed their short visit very much, and were charmed with their Theta sisters. Three of our girls graduate in music this spring, Charlotte Wilhelm in Instrumental, and Grace and Mary Anderson in vocal. They will each give a Recital, during the term, to which we are all looking forward as special treats. The Ladies’ Advisory Board of the University, are in¬ augurating a new plan of entertaining all the girls in the Collegiate, Academic, Music and Art Departments once a term, and will give their first reception next Monday even¬ ing. It is a delightful idea, and will enable us to become better acquainted with the wives of the professors, the town ladies and each other. Inter-collegiate athletics have been reinstated in Wooster, the new coach has arrived, and the boys are on the top wave of excitement. Naturally enough we girls share in the enthusiasm. We often get most interesting letters from our two sisters in Japan, Ruth and Grace Thompson, who left us last summer. They are both engaged in teaching English at Tokio, and write amusing accounts of the dainty little Japanese maidens who are their charges. The short term before us is so full of events that it will seem to fly past in no time, and we shall each have reached another mile-stone in our college life.
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CHAPTER LETTERS. 217 ETA — UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of resident alumnae, 4 ; number of active members, 21 ; seniors, 6 ; juniors, 4 ; sophomores, 2 ; freshmen, 9 ; Chapter house, rented. Names and addresses of this year's initiates : Charlotte R. Greist . Elsie L. Sawyer . Esther M. Woodruff . . . Helen Post . Flora L,. Goeschel .... Mary Dorothea Nourse . Anna E. Drummond . . . Charlotte S. Bissell . . . Julia P. Benson .... Frances Nichols Boynton Mabelle W. Mason . . . . New Haven, Conn. . Joliet, Ill. . . . Saginaw, Mich. . . . . Detroit, Mich. . . . Bay City, Mich. Grand Rapids, Mich. . . . Chicago, Ill. . Toledo, O. ... Gambier, 0. . . Lockport, N. Y. . . Gladstone, Mich. Number of faculty in the university, 233 ; number of students, 3,357. Women’s fraternities and number in chapter : Kappa Alpha Theta, 21 ; Delta Gamma, 25 ; Alpha Phi, 17 ; Gamma Phi Beta, 21 ; Sorosis, 28 ; Pi Beta Phi, 18 ; Kappa Kappa Gamma, 14 ; Delta Delta Delta, 10. Men’s fraternities : Chi Psi, Alpha Delta Phi, Delta Kappa Ep¬ silon, Sigma Phi, Zeta Psi, Psi Upsilon, Beta Theta Pi, Delta Up- silon, Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Delta Theta, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Theta Delta Chi, Sigma Chi. Taw Department — Phi Delta Phi, Delta Chi. Medical Department — Nu Sigma Nu, Phi Rlio Sigma, Pi Beta Phi. Dental Department — Delta Sigma Delta, Xi Psi Phi. Homaeopathic Department — Nu Sigma Alpha, Phi Alpha Gamma. Phi Chi, Pharmacy and Kappa Sigma, General Fraternity. CHAPTER LETTER. Eta has been trying all year to send as many valuable suggestions and excellent plans to you as she has received herself but I am afraid she must end in failure for here, her last chance, she still has nothing to give. It is the same with us here as it is with all of you — plenty of work, enough fun, spring fever and a longing for vacation. At present we are bewailing the fact that we must lose one of our girls. Charlotte R. Griest is about to leave for
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2 1 8 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA. home to get ready for her trip abroad this summer. We shall miss her in so many ways. She is the girl who always makes a martyr of herself and plays for us to dance, she is the one who is always on hand for work — have you such a girl? Don’t let her get away from you. In June we shall lose four or five more dear girls and then how forlorn we shall be. We are glad some of our seniors live in town though, so they can not slip very far away from us. Just now we are all busy writing our letters to the old girls. You know every year each girl in the chapter writes to some one or two of the old girls assigned to her and in that way the old girls keep in touch with our life here at college and we with their life We have had some such nice visits from some of our old girls lately. Susie Patterson, Mabel Gale and Minerva Rhines have been out from Detroit. Bertha Hull came up from Ypsilanti and Catherine Keiths was here from Flint for a day. We do so love to have the old girls come. As this is the last chance Eta will have, she wishes you now a very pleasant summer and a successful fall and good¬ bye for this year. KAPPA — KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of active members, 20 ; seniors, 6 ; juniors, 5 ; sophomores, 2 ; freshmen, 4 ; special, 3. Names and addresses of this year's initiates : Edith Allen . Independence, Kansas Estelle Riddle . Minneapolis, Kansas Cora Moore . Holton, Kansas Maud Brown . Ottawa, Kansas Bertha Badsky . Overbrook, Kansas Isabelle Hazen . Lawrence, Kansas Nell Wilhelmi . Lawrence, Kansas Louise Alder . Lawrence, Kansas Mary Barnette . Lawrence, Kansas
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CHAPTER LE TTERS. 2 1 9 Number of faculty in the university, 69; number of students, 1,134. Women’s fraternities and number in chapter : Kappa Kappa Gamma, 17 ; Pi Beta Phi, 20. Men’s fraternities : Beta Theta Pi, Phi Gamma Delta, Phi Delta Theta, Sigma Chi, Phi Kappa Psi, Sigma Nu. CHAPTER BETTER. Kappa chapter has had no particularly interesting experi¬ ences in the short time since the last Journal letter. The beginning of Lent came and with it a necessary lull in social events, and let us hope, a fitting increase in application to our study. By the aid, however, of occasional card parties and kindred amusements, we have contrived to escape the evil effects brought about, as the old adage tells by “ all work and no play.” For a time, too, the fraternity ex¬ amination occupied our undivided attention. At every turn one could see groups of Thetas with an abstracted look in their eyes, which might by some have been attributed to an appropriate Lenten devotion, but was much more probably due to hazy recollections of the important points in our history. Now that the examination is over, we have turned our minds to more commonplace things and our Katsups. The last one of these we have had is unique enough to be note¬ worthy. Our this year’s initiates entertained us with elaborate shadow dramas in pantomime, which developed both the histrionic talents of the kittens and the risibility of the older Kats. At this week’s Katsup we are to be entertained at whist, and we are to have with us for the first time in many weeks Edith Davis of Topeka, ’96. We have all felt the loss in our chapter of one of our last year’s girls, Anna Warfield of Abilene. On account of ill health she was compelled to leave school about the first of March, but is improving greatly and expects to be able to resume her studies in the fall. At the last Phi Beta Kappa election, Edna Warkentin was chosen as a member of that fraternity. Before taking up her work at Lawrence, Miss Warkentin was a student at Bryn Mawr.
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220 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA. PI — ALBION COLLEGE. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of resident alumnae, 6 ; number of active members, 16 ; seniors, 5 ; juniors, 2 ; sophomores, 2 ; freshmen, 7 ; Chapter house, owned. Names and addresses of this year's initiates : Ola H. Smith . . . . Vera Louise Franklin Elizabeth M. Cole . . Maude Boonstra . Alice Sanford Wixom Rouie Adair White . . Chicago, Ill. . Albion, Mich. Morenci, Mich. Zealand, Mich. . Wixom, Mich. . Albion, Mich. Number of faculty in the college, 22; number of students, 401. V omen’s fraternities and number in chapter: Delta Gamma, 18; Alpha Chi Omega (music), 16; Kappa Alpha Theta, 16. Men’s fra¬ ternities : Alpha Tau Omega, Sigma Chi, Sigma Nu, Delta Tau Delta. CHAPTER LETTER. Pi has been lost in the whirl of social life since our last letter, but we will try to emerge long enough to tell you about it. The first thing which memory presents to view is the in¬ formal party which we gave our resident alumnae and a few of our friends. This was followed by a progressive anagram party for our loyal Theta brethren. Then Vera Franklin, one of our Freshmen, took us all out in a big bob¬ sleigh to her country home, where we held fraternity meet¬ ing, and when it came to the bountiful supper, we drew deep breaths of ecstasy and “fell to” with all the gusto that a loyal Theta should. The Spring term opened very auspiciously for the college with the presentation of the drama Iphigenia among the Taurians in the original Greek by the members of that de¬ partment under the able direction of Prof. F. S. Goodrich. Three of our girls took part in it. On Saturday afternoon the twenty-first of April, we gave a reception at the Lodge for the Faculty ladies and all of
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CHAPTER LETTERS. 221 the girls in college. Thus we are trying to break down the barriers between the Greeks and the non-fraternity people. In the evening, we entertained our base ball team who had just conquered Ypsilanti in the first game in the champion¬ ship series. Needless to say it was a jolly crowd. Now we are looking forward to the Annual Musical Festival which always brings us so many visitors. Commencement will come all too soon and rob us of the five dear sisters who have been with us so long. But we can not even think of it yet. With best wishes from Pi to all Thetas for the summer. RHO — UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of resident alumnae, 12; number of active members, 14. Names and addresses of this year's initiates : Margaret Loomis . . . Laura Woodford . . Katherine Agnew . . Esther Paddock . . . Vallie Helen Stewart . Elizabeth Paddock . . Jeannette Post .... . . . Lincoln, Neb. . . Medina, N. Y. . Plattsmouth, Neb. Cold Water, Mich. . . . Axtell, Neb. Cold Water, Mich. .... York, Neb. Number of faculty in the university, 187 ; number of students, 2,100. Women’s fraternities : Kappa Kappa Gamma, Delta Delta Delta, Delta Gamma, Pi Beta Phi. Men’s fraternities : Phi Kappa Psi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Phi Delta Phi, Phi Delta Theta, Sigma Chi, Alpha Theta Chi, Phi Gamma Delta, Delta Upsilon, Delta Tau Delta, Alpha Tau Omega, Beta Theta Pi, Kappa Sigma. CHAPTER LETTER. As this letter goes Rho is disbanded for the spring holi¬ days after the long stretch of winter work. Our chapter house has lost half its “ inmates,’ * though work and play, the latter in increased proportion goes on within its walls as usual. Rho Thetas are still heaving long sighs resulting from a mixed feeling of relief and penitence when they think of the recent fraternity examinations.
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222 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA. Our activity for the last two months has been closely con¬ fined to scholastic lines, but there have been a few times when we have gathered together “ on pleasure bent.” One Friday night during February we initiated Miss Jeannette Post of York, Neb., after which ceremony we held our annual banquet at the home of Jane and Jessie Macfarland. Our friends remembered us right royally. The flowers sent by the men’s fraternities gave an air of summer to the scene. Leola Vancil of ’99, whose presence we have missed this year sent us the most daintily sketched of plate cards. So with good cheer and many a toast serious and gay, our six Freshmen’s first annual banquet passed. We haven’t had any trouble this year over Easter bonnets. That problem was solved when Miss Charlotte Clark invited us to spend an afternoon at her home and supplied us with the “ingredients” for the most spring-like of millinery, tissue paper of every imaginable hue and plenty of pins. The results were startling, the general effect being that of several disintegrated rainbows wandering around in frag¬ ments. A dainty blue and white toque took the prize. The girls of the chapter house had the pleasure of enter¬ taining at dinner Miss Scott of Tan, one day during March. It is all too seldom that we have the privilege of meeting sisters from other chapters. Rho sends greeting to all her sisters and best wishes for the few weeks that remain of the school year and for the summer vacation. TAU — NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of resident alumnae, 14 ; number of active members, 15 ; seniors, 2 ; juniors, 2 ; sophomores, 3 ; freshmen, 5 ; special, 3. Names and addresses of this year's initiates : Margaret G. Bennett . Moline, Illinois Mabel Whiteside . Freeport, Illinois Anna Johnson . Wilmette, Illinois Edna Cooke . Evanston, Illinois Margaret J. Pearson . Evanston, Illinois
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CHAPTER LETTERS. 223 Number of faculty in the university, 271 ; number of students, 2,344 in the degree conferring department. Women’s fraternities and num¬ ber in chapter : Kappa Alpha Theta, 15 ; Delta Gamma, 15 ; Gamma Phi Beta, 9; Alpha Phi, 14; Kappa Kappa Gamma, 12 ; Delta Delta Delta, 12 ; Phi Beta Phi, 15 ; Zeta Phi Eta (School of Oratory), 10; Alpha Chi Omega (School of Music), 16. Men’s fraternities and number in chapter : Beta Theta Pi, 24 ; Phi Kappa Psi, 22 ; Sigma Chi, 8 ; Phi Kappa Sigma, 10 ; Delta Tau Delta, 13 ; Sigma Alpha Epsilon, 15 ; Delta Upsilon, 17 ; Sigma Nu, 12 ; Phi Delta Theta, 14. chapter EETTER. Spring has brought Tau girls unusual enthusiasm, this year, for we are all anxious to make the most of the few re¬ maining weeks, both in our College and fraternity work. Although many of our girls return next year, we have been on the lookout for “ perfect Thetas”, and have found one already, in Harriet Illsby, from Evanston High School, and we hope to have more soon. The pleasant days make us all anxious for the time when we can enjoy a ride in a “ Theta ’bus ”, as we call our car¬ riages for we never have more genuine fun, then when ‘‘doing the town” in this way and dropping in on the Alumnae by sixes and sevens, to tell them the latest Theta news or cordially invite them to oblige us with a temporary loan. Tau is looking forward to Apr. 27, our annual dance — if any Theta is in or near Chicago, let her be sure to come, and be assured a hearty welcome. Don’t forget. Northwestern’s faculty and students feel deeply the death of Prof. Cohn of the German Dept. He was such an en¬ thusiastic worker, and a fine example to all, his place will be very hard to fill. UPSILON — UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of resident alumnae, 33 ; number of active members, 16 ; seniors, 2 ; juniors, 5 ; sophomores, 2 ; freshmen, 7 ; graduate, 1 ; special, 1 ; Chapter rooms, rented.
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224 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA . Names a?id addresses of this year's initiates : Helen Wind, ’03 . 122 Highland Ave., Minneapolis, Minn. Grace Lavoyea, ’03 . 303 9th St., So. Minneapolis, Minn. Lulu Ridgeway, ’03 . 2001 Kenwood, Parkway City, Minn. Nellie Renney, ’03 . 1702 Nicollet Ave., Parkway City, Minn. Glenn Stockton, ’03 . Faribault, Minn. Fannie Sawyer, ’00 . Faribault, Minn. Elizabeth Andrews, ’02 . Faribault, Minn. Harriet Watson, ’03 . Sauk Rapids, Minn. Helen Traver, ’03 . Saratoga Springs, N. Y. Number of faculty in the university, 234 ; number of students, 3,225. Women’s fraternities and number in chapter : Kappa Kappa Gamma, 22 ; Alpha Phi, 21 ; Delta Gamma, 16 ; Delta Delta Delta, 15. Men’s fraternities : Chi Psi, Beta Theta Pi, Alpha Delta Phi, Psi Upsilon, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Phi Psi, Theta Delta Chi, Phi Delta Theta, Sigma Chi, Phi Gamma Delta, Delta Upsilon, Delta Tau Delta, Zeta Psi. In academic department : In Eaw School— Phi Delta Phi, Delta Chi. In Medical School— Alpha Kappa Kappa, Nu Sigma Nu, Phi Alpha Gamma. In Dental College— Delta Sigma Delta, Psi Omega. CHAPTER LETTER . The writing of the last chapter letter of the year truly marks the beginning of the end, and, as warm weather ap¬ proaches, we realize that it will not be long before we shall be saying farewell to those whose sojourn with us will be ended— the Seniors. Our life for the last two or three months has been rather uneventful, college and fraternity work largely occupying the girls’ attention. We are plan¬ ning some entertainment for ourselves in the near future, however. The excitement attendant upon commencement is beginning to manifest itself as the Senior play nears per¬ fection and the Seniors themselves appear on the campus in all the dignity of their caps and gowns. Upsilon sends greetings to all the other chapters and hopes that you may all have a very pleasant vacation. PSI — UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of resident alumnae, 10 ; number of active members, 18 ; seniors, 5 ; juniors, 1 ; sophomores, 10; freshmen, 2 ; Chapter house, rented.
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CHAPTER LETTERS. 225 Names and addresses of this year's initiates : Bessie Rae Note . 1819 N. Sawyer Ave., Chicago, Ill. Amy Johnson . 620 Francis St., Madison, Wis. Blanche Clark . Galesville, Wis. Phoebe Buell . . Sun Prairie, Wis. Ella Buell . Sun Prairie, Wis. Callafern Williams (now Mrs. Arthur Arpin) .... Milwaukee, Wis. Number of faculty in the university, 130; number of students, 1,923. Women’s fraternities : Delta Gamma, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Gamma Phi Beta, Delta Delta Delta, Pi Beta Phi, Alpha Phi, Kappa Alpha Theta. Men’s fraternities : Psi Upsilon, Kappa Sigma, Beta Theta Pi, Delta Upsilon, Phi Kappa Psi, Psi Rho Beta (local), Theta Delta Chi, Phi Gamma Delta, Sigma Chi, Chi Psi, Phi Delta Phi, Delta Tau Delta, Phi Delta Theta. CHAPTER LETTER. It hardly seems possible that this is the last letter to the Journal for this year ; time flies so. During Prom, week we entertained our friends and their out of town guests at a reception. Since our last letter we have had initiation with Amy Johnson, ’03, as candidate, whom we are delighted to in¬ troduce to you as a new Theta sister. During the winter and spring we have had with us at different times, several of the old girls, whose visits we enjoy immensely. In our meetings we have been trying a new scheme. That, of having, after our regular fraternity meeting, a dis¬ cussion of some one of the leading questions of the day. A leader is appointed for each week, who conducts the dis¬ cussion. Lately we have discussed the Boer question, and find it both profitable and interesting. We are planning to entertain some of the High School girls after Easter, and also to give a play soon, to which each of the girls can invite one or two friends. With mingled feelings of joy and sadness we are looking forward to our annual banquet in June. Joy, at seeing the old girls and sadness, because for some of us it means the last banquet, while we are active members.
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226 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA. ALPHA GAMMA— OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of resident alumnae, 18 ; number of active members, n ; seniors, 3 ; juniors, 3 ; sophomores, 3 ; freshmen, 2 ; special, 1. Names and addresses of this year's initiates : Maud Lyon . . Westfield, N. Y., or 1128 Dennison Ave., Columbus, O. Desha Hubbard . 369 Town St., East Columbus, O. Number of faculty in the university, 115 ; number of students, 1,250. Women’s fraternities and number in chapter : Kappa Kappa Gamma, 13 ; Pi Beta Phi, 10 ; Delta Delta Delta, 15. Men’s fraternities : Phi Gamma Delta, Beta Theta Pi, Chi Phi, Sigma Nu, Phi Delta Theta, Phi Kappa Psi, Sigma Chi, Alpha Tau Omega, Delta Tau Delta, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Phi Delta Phi (law), Theta Nu Epsilon (inter-frater¬ nity), Alpha Zeta (agricultural), and Sigma Xi (scientific). CHAPTER LETTER. The first of April finds Alpha Gamma very happy indeed for we have a pledgling, Edna Hoover, who has just donned the black and gold. Then, too, we have been having a very joyful time lately as several of our Alumnae girls, who have been away, returned for spring vacation and at the same time we were so fortunate as to have with us Ruth Bogardus and Mary and Grace Anderson from Epsilon which was a great pleasure though the visit was far too brief. Since our last letter, we have had two dances in the Col¬ lege Armory. These were particularly enjoyable as it is only recently that we have been permitted to use the armory for dancing and it is considered quite a privilege. We enjoyed the party given with Kappa Kappa Gamma, of which we spoke in our last letter, very much indeed and we feel that the experiment was a great success. We are now studying for the examination and also plan¬ ning for the celebration of our anniversary which is May twenty-fourth. Alpha Gamma hopes that all Thetas may have a very happy summer vacation.
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CHAPTER LETTERS . 227 Gamma District. PHI — STANFORD UNIVERSITY. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of resident alumnae, 14 ; number of active members, 12 ; seniors, 4 ; juniors, 3 ; sophomores, 2 ; freshmen, 3 ; Chapter house, rented. Names and addresses of this year's initiates : Charlotte Chambers (initiated May, 1899) . San Jos6, Cal. Genevieve Chambers (initiated Nov., 1899) . San Jos£, Cal. Clara Stevenson (initiated Nov., 1899) . Fair Oaks, Cal. Mayme Hendrick (initiated Nov., 1899) . Boyle Ave., Eos Angeles, Cal. Joshena Mekeel (initiated Nov., 1899) . Santa Barbara, Cal. Pledged— Jean Elizabeth McIntosh . Chico, Cal. Number of faculty in the university, 100; number of students, 1,400. Women’s fraternities and number in chapter : Delta Gamma, 15 ; Kappa Kappa Gamma, 19; Alpha Phi, 16; Kappa Alpha Theta, 12. Men’s fraternities : Zeta Psi, Beta Theta Pi, Phi Delta Theta, Sigma Nu, Sigma Chi, Delta Tau Delta, Phi Kappa Psi, Chi Psi, Kappa Sigma, Delta Upsilon, Sigma Rho Eta (local), Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Kappa Alpha. CHAPTER BETTER. Phi can think, talk, feel, dream nothing but House ! A new house, and all our own at last ! How good it seems. We are making all sorts of plans for furnishing it. The summer vacation bids fair to turn us all into pillow makers and embroiderers. The campus will see a good many changes next fall. All the women’s fraternities will have their own new houses, and there are to be some new landed proprietors among the men too. Each year broadens and lengthens us. In a decade we will never know what we originally stood for. By then all the college buildings will be done, probably. Our splendid new Library and Assembly Hall are completed and have been open for regular use since the first of the year. The Memorial Chapel Mrs. Stanford is building to her husband is well under way and looms up with its huge
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228 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA . derricks and scaffolding like a great six or seven masted ship. How happy we ought to be who love our colleges and fraternities. What happy, days and years they bring us, and the opportunities for giving and receiving good. Best wishes to all the chapters and hopes for the pleasantest of summer vacations. OMEGA — UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. CHAPTER REPORT. Number of resident alumnae, 8 ; number of active members, 17 ; seniors, 3 ; juniors, 4 ; sophomores, 4 ; freshmen, 4 ; graduate, 1 ; special, 1 ; Chapter house, rented. Names and addresses of this year's initiates : Muriel Ransom . 1120 Bush St., San Francisco, Cal. Edith Rutherford Evans . 304 East 14th St., Oakland, Cal. Ida Robinson Nicholson .... Bancroft and College, Berkeley, Cal. Edna Wilde . Ventura, Cal. Number of faculty in the university, 159 ; number of students, 1,716. Women’s fraternities and number in chapter : Kappa Kappa Gamma, 18 ; Gamma Phi Beta, 20 ; Delta Delta Delta, 11 ; Kappa Alpha Theta, 17. Men’s fraternities: Beta Theta Pi, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Phi Delta Theta, Chi Phi, Sigma Chi, Delta Upsilon, Chi Psi, Zeta Psi, Delta Tau Delta, Alpha Tau Omega, Phi Gamma Delta, Sigma Nu, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Kappa Alpha. CHAPTER LETTER. Vacation is at hand and with it comes the bustle and ex¬ pectation which attends the return to our homes from which we have been separated for six long months. College life is indeed a pleasure and we feel that the four short years we spend there cannot be replaced by anything else and yet it is sweet to think of home. We decide a hundred times over and over again, there is nothing like being among one’s own. It acts as a positive restorative after the hard work of months of study. And while the summer is a thing of joy, it is likewise a thing of sorrow. Each May the Seniors, fortified with the principles they have gathered under the wise tutelage of our Alma Mater, go forth to try
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CHAPTER LETTERS . 229 their luck with the world. Some as teachers seek the popu¬ lous cities or the quieter country districts, some seek pro¬ fessions in different walks of life, while others are destined to reign as queens of the home, but whatever realm they seek we feel the gap that comes after the parting. I think every fraternity girl fully realizes what it means. It is to the Senior that the Freshman goes in the perplexity of cir¬ cumstances which suddenly unfold about her, it is to the Senior that the Sophomore, though wise, appeals in matters of deeper judgment, and it is to the Senior that the Junior goes to receive final instructions in the work which is to be¬ come theirs and there is a tinge of pathos in the scene when we see our graduates tripping off at Commencement with the magic scroll under their arms which is virtually the key that admits them into the mysterious chamber of the outside world. Thus, no one College chapter can feel that she alone is about to sustain a loss ; it is general from the flourishing one in a flourishing college to the smaller one in a struggling college. Omega herself is to relinquish three of her fine girls — Ruth Wilder, who represented us at the Convention, Lena MacAulay, our chapter President, and Minnie Wilson, who has borne upon her shoulders the duties of journalism. And now that we have looked forward let us look back¬ ward. We have had the honor of being able to meet Mrs. Comstock, our Theta from Cornell, who fortunately arrived in time to be with us on our receiving day. You cannot probably appreciate how we enjoy meeting our eastern sis¬ ters. It seems to draw closer for us the bonds between the East and West and makes us feel that though we are remote and on the very edge of the Pacific ocean, that you are nearer while yet far. It seems this year that the whole college has been seized with the spirit of fraternalism. Pres. Benjamin Ide Wheeler is an avowed exponent of the idea and believes in the bene¬ ficial influence it exerts in college life. On April twentieth the new women’s sorority — Delta Delta Delta made its first
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230 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA. appearance and must be complimented upon the women it has chosen to represent its interests and on April twenty - fourth they formally introduced themselves in the college world by a Tea which they gave. There are rumors of others who intend to appear in the near future and will probably brave the gaze of the outside world by August. The men have been active likewise and to the thirteen chap¬ ters which already exist have added two. At the same time that so much energy has been shown in establishing centers of fraternity life, a feeling of better in¬ terfraternity spirit has been created and the idea of a Pan- Hellenic compact has been taken up. So far nothing very definite has been accomplished, but it is being seriously dis¬ cussed by members of all the women’s fraternities. We know that rushing is a necessary evil and if it must exist we ought to divest it of certain features which it could cer¬ tainly lose. On May eighteenth about fifty of our college women will depart for Capitola to attend the summer conference of the Y. W. C. A. which will hold a conference. Nor are we to be the only ones there. Representatives from every college in the state will be present and the whole number to be ac¬ commodated will of a certainty reach over one hundred. Through the beneficence of Mrs. Hearst, the college presi¬ dents throughout California have been secured as speakers and Mrs. Benjamin Ide Wheeler will be our guest of honor. Miss Taylor, who has been sent out from general head¬ quarters in Chicago is busily engaged in perfecting plans which shall make this enormous intercollegiate meeting as it were, a success.
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PERSONALS. ALPHA. Helen Lockwood, ex- 1900, has accepted the office of State Secretary of the Y. M. C. A. of Indiana. The engagement of Grace Mae LaFever ’oo, to Charles J. Brown, Beta Theta Pi, ’99, is announced. E. Nora Leveringhaus, *99, is teaching German in the El wood, Ind. High School. The engagement of Alice Wilkie ’03, to Paul Poynter, Delta Upsilon, ’97 is announced. ALPHA GAMMA. Katherine Kiser, ’95, who is teaching in Chicago, Ohio, has been at home for a short vacation. Josephine Barnaby, ’96, who is teaching in Warren, Ohio, spent a few days in Columbus recently. Mrs. Kingsbury (Lillian Prescott of Tau) is living in Columbus now. IOTA. The engagement of Effie M. Abrams, ex-’o2, of Hartford, Conn., to Royal Storrs Haynes, '99, of Brooklyn is an¬ nounced. KAPPA. Nelle Wilhelm, ’03, will leave with her mother about the first of May for Germany and France, where she expects to join Erna Barteldes who has been abroad since last April. Elizabeth Stone Walker is the proud mother of a fine boy. Kate Riggs is continuing her studies in Berlin. LAMBDA. Mary Tewksbury, ’99, paid us a flying visit last month. Anna Clark, '98, spent a few days in town recently.
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232 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA. Bessie Wright, ’94, who is teaching in Newport, was at her home during the vacation. Katherine Gage, ’97, and Geneva Jones, ex-’o2 were in Burlington February 26 to attend the Junior Promenade. MU. Miss Vena Fenno is in New York City doing editorial work on an encyclopaedia of biography. Mrs. George Derby is visiting her parents at Wellsboro. Mrs. Sion B. Smith expects to move to Pittsburg soon, where Mr. Smith is to have a lawyer’s office. Miss Clara Campbell who is in Paris has just taken a trip through Italy with a friend. While the Allegheny College Basket Ball team was at Warren, Pa., during the vacation, they were delightfully entertained at the home of Miss Bartholmew. TAU. Leone Gould has returned from two months in Washing¬ ton and Philadelphia, she will not return to college this year. Irene Parkes is studying music in Berlin. Lida Scott has been playing in the Thalian Dramatic Club, and enjoyed meeting the Rho girls, when in Lincoln. The engagement of Jessie Cope to Mr. Mark Cressop, Delta Tau, is announced. Miss Alta Miller has just returned from Memphis and New Orleans where she was the guest of Jeannette Becker, who returned with her, for the Junior Prom. Irene Graves spent five weeks in Minneapolis, last January where she met a few of the Upsilon girls. PSI. The engagement of Jessamine Lee, ’99, and Marion Fox is announced. OMEGA. Grace Bogg, one of our Sophomores, will represent us on the Editorial Staff of the 1903 Blue and Gold.
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PERSONALS, 233 Agnes Hart, nSe Borland, and her husband, Walter Mor¬ ris Hart, depart for the East shortly. Mr. Hart intends pursuing higher work at Harvard and will then proceed to Europe. Dr. Clifton Price has departed for the East to bring home his bride, Elizabeth Hoyt, ex-’oo. They will be with us a year and will then travel abroad.
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WEDDING BELLS. ALPHA. Married at the home of the bride’s parents in Indianapolis, Ind., March 8th, Mary Ritter, ’97, and Charles Austin Beard, . T. A., '98. Mr. and Mrs. Beard sailed on March 10th for Oxford, England, where Mr. Beard is employed in the interests of the Ruskin Hall movement. IOTA. The marriage is announced of Nully Davidson Gunn, ’99, to Mr. Harry Wade Hicks, ’99, on Thursday evening, May 31st, at eight o’clock, at the home of the bride’s parents in Plattsburgh, N. Y. Mr. and Mrs. Hicks will be at home after October 1st, at Melrose Highlands, Mass. LAMBDA. The invitations for the marriage of Katherine Louise Parker, ex-’oi, to Mr. William Spooner Huntington are issued for the evening of April 17th, at Bradford, Vt. PSI. Callafern Williams, ’03, and Arthur Arpin were married in Milwaukee this spring. Ina Virginia Langley, (ex-’oi), was married to Arthur Stuart at her home in Merrill, Wis., on Thanksgiving Day. 234
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In Hletuoriam. Jessie Smith Huntington of Upsilon Chapter Died, November, 1899. “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth.”
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EDITORIALS. The question of the advantage of the fraternity house is not often discussed now, the only question seems to be where and how the house may be had. Phi gives us business de¬ tails of how she has done it and is ready to tell the inexperi¬ enced just how to go to work in a business-like way. Chap¬ ter house life seems to be the natural aim of the fraternity and to offer the best conditions for fraternity life and devel¬ opment. The ordinary objections to it have all been an¬ swered long ago by those who have lived them down and who know that they are far outweighed by the many ad¬ vantages. Time is not wasted, rather saved the closer and more intimate life of the house so far from leading to a selfish disregard for those not of the chapter, helps to the fullest use of the new and wider opportunities for hospitali¬ ty. One of the first considerations in beginning is not to make too extravagant a start. No chapter has a right to impose upon itself and those who are to follow it a burden of debt. Get a detailed statement of the running expenses from an experienced chapter and make a liberal allowance for differing conditions, and then be sure to keep the ex¬ penses from running ahead of the income. The ordinary chapter must be content to start slowly with what it can afford to have, not what it thinks it must have. With such a start it is surprising how soon the house can be fully fur¬ nished, and the practical work of the housekeeping will be an experience that the girls will be glad to have. The num¬ ber of our chapters owning and renting houses is slowly in¬ creasing and as conditions change and the chapters realize the possibilities and advantages, a still larger number will come to be able to do so. We have yet to hear from a chap¬ ter that has regretted taking a house. To those who do not yet see their way clear to taking the step at once we would suggest that a fund be started for the future and plans laid that will make prompt action possible when the right time comes.
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EDITORIALS . 237 It is to be regretted that through no fault of theirs we can not publish reports from all of our alumnae chapters, but throughout the year we have heard only of earnest, enthusi¬ astic work. No new chapters have been added to our roll this year, one has resigned its charter, so that we now have 22 active chapters with a total membership of 401. The average membership of the chapters is between 18 and 19. The whole number of initiates for the year is 130, the aver¬ age number for each chapter is between 5 and 6. Alpha and Chi each initiated 13, and Alpha Gamma 2. Of the other women’s fraternities we meet Kappa Kappa Gamma in 17 different cases, Pi Beta Phi in 12, Delta Gamma and Del¬ ta Delta Delta each in 10, Alpha Phi in 9, Gamma Phi Beta in 6, and Alpha Chi Omega in 5.
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EXCHANGES. We clip the following from an article in the Arrow signed, “ A Fraternity Man.” What he says of snobbishness is true, but he makes two mistakes when he holds men as free from this cardinal sin, and fraternity girls as the chief if not the only sinners. Fraternity girls are not more de¬ serving of blame in this respect than their sisters the non¬ fraternity girls or the girls who have never gone to college, and it is a sin that the attitude of fraternity men is largely to blame for : ‘‘ There is one grave charge that can be honestly brought against her, and that shall be the subject of the present sermon. Every non- fraternity man, and a great many fra¬ ternity men, will tell you that intentionally or uninten¬ tionally the fraternity girl does everything she can to break down that spirit of democracy and free comradeship which is absolutely essential for any healthy college life. Fraternity men do the same thing, you say ? No, they do not. With the exception of a few snobs, they do not take the trouble to make class distinctions. In the gymnasium, on the grand-stand, in the class-room, and (pardon me) behind the screens of the institution that should perhaps be anathe- mized as the “ corner groggery,” one man is as good as another. College politics and college girls are the two things which tend to destroy this equality. In the presence of either, the class line appears. Of course a girl must be careful whom she associates with. It is absolutely necessary to draw the line somewhere. But the inexorable separation of “ Greek” and 4‘ barbarian” is a very unfair classification. In the first place, the number of fraternity men in college is very seldom equal to the number of what, for want of a better term, may be called the “ eligibles.” Mention any qualifications you will, social, financial, scholastic, moral, or athletic, and there are always many “barbs” who possess them. On the other hand, everyone knows “ frat men” who are notorious imbeciles, if not worse. Yet the average fraternity girl draws the fra¬ ternity line, and no other line. When a man is introduced to her, she seldom inquires as to his family, his character,
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EXCHANGES. 239 his accomplishments, or his bank-account. A “ Greek’ ’ is a fit companion for her ; a “ barb” is not. Merely, in order to defend his own sex, the writer wishes to call attention to the fact that fraternity men seldom think of applying any similar test to the other gender. The large number of popular non-fraternity girls which every college can show, contrasts painfully with the mere handful of non¬ fraternity men who have any social life to speak of. The rules of social conduct which the fraternity girl has formulated are just to no one. They are unjust to the fra¬ ternity man because they do not compel him to stand on his own merits, unjust to the “barb” because they give him practically no recognition at all, and they are unjust to the girl herself because they put under a sort of social stigma many of those in whose company she would naturally find the most pleasure. That may be an evil, you say, but what is the remedy ? Simplicity itself. Do not take it for granted that a little jewelled pin on his waistcoat makes a man a gentleman, nor that the absence of it puts him beneath your notice. Do just what you would at home. Find out, if you can, who he is, and treat him accordingly. You will find that a very large proportion of those you want to know are fraternity men, but give the others a chance too. Draw the line as high as you please, but don’t make it altogether a fraternity line. In college society there is, and ought to be, a pre¬ sumption in the fraternity man’s favor, but do not accept that presumption as conclusive evidence. No one can criticise any girl if she forms her opinion of the man she meets at college, in the same way and on the same basis as she would in societ}' anywhere else. Could a girl ever lose in popu¬ larity by it ? Snobbishness in man or woman ought to be treated as the cardinal sin in a college community. Of course it is absurd to argue for a revolutionary ‘ liberty, equality and frater¬ nity.’ But it is not absurd to ask that everyone shall stand for what he or she really is. In no other way can be pre¬ served that most precious of all college traditions — 4 The comrade heart For a moment’s play, And the comrade heart For a heavier day, And the comrade heart For ever and aye.’ ”
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240 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA. Now read the following short quotation from an article upon the rushee in the journal of one of the best men’s fraternities. “ Treat him as kindly as you can and do anything you possibly can for him. Of course it depends on the man and on the chapter how you will treat him. Take him to see the girls, but be sure that the girl is one who will talk to him of nothing but your fraternity. A girl can do lots of good talking to boys, and it is a good thing to stand in with the girls on general principles.” Is not the attitude of the fraternity man here, and what he expects of the girls, rather more familiar and natural than the more ideal attitude which “ A Fraternity Man” would have us believe is the true one ? We agree with “a frater¬ nity man most heartily in his remarks upon the sin of snob¬ bishness but we as fraternity women refuse to accept the blame for that sin, which he would put upon us alone. Through her position the fraternity girl has greater oppor¬ tunities than she would otherwise have, to foster “that spirit of democracy and free comradeship which is absolutely essential for any college life,” among the women as well as among the men, and it will take real argument and proof to convince us that she does not make quite as good use of her opportunities as do either her fraternity brother or her non- collegiate sister. We quote the following from an article upon college en¬ thusiasm in the Key : “ Whether the existence of fraternities tends to promote or to hinder college spirit, is a question which vitally con¬ cerns both the college and the fraternity. The question as it presents itself to us as individual chap¬ ters must be answered by results rather than by argument. The fraternities themselves, through the actions of their members, must furnish the material and the statistics which will go to prove whether fraternities do or do not promote college spirit. If one were making a business of collecting such statistics, the questions which he would ask would run something; as follows : Do the fraternity girls attend and take an active part in
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EXCHANGES- 241 class meetings ? Are they interested in the social life of their class and do they show it by attending class parties ? Do they belong to literary societies ? Do they know the other members of the class ? If these and similar questions can be answered affirma¬ tively, well and good, but if not something needs to be done. Genuine college spirit consists not merely in waving col¬ lege and class colors at foot-ball games and in singing college songs ; but it demands of us thought and care in electing officers and in choosing committees. It is the duty of every fraternity girl both for her own good and for the good of her fraternity to identify herself with some college organizations, and not confine her interests and her influence solely to her own fraternity. Her individual tastes will decide for her whether she inte¬ rest herself in dramatics, in literary work, or along philan¬ thropic lines. Too much enthusiasm and college spirit has never proved fatal, but of the lack of it, one can not speak so surely. If each girl in the fraternity makes her personality felt throughout the entire class, is she not doing her part in fostering college spirit ; and if this could be truly said of the members of every fraternity, would the question regarding the influence of fraternities on college spirit ever have been raised ? ’ 1 We quote from an editorial in the Anchora of Delta Gamma : “ In days gone by, one of the most oft-repeated arguments advanced by the remonstrants of higher education for women was that by such education women would be so metamor¬ phosed as to be utterly unfitted for the commonplace duties of every-day life. But only yesterday, before the Alumnae Association of the Woman’s College of Baltimore, a gradu¬ ate of one of our great western co-educational universities, most emphatically expressed her disappointment in college women as a whole and in college alumnae in particular. She professed to have based her expectations upon the old and valid claim of noblesse oblige , and declared herself dis¬ tressed to find that college women, with all their exceptional opportunities, were only very ordinary mortals after all. Verily, in all ages there are carping critics who would place us in the old Calvanistic dilemma of utter condemnation whichever way we turn. Yet the very radicalism of such
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242 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA . critics sometimes serves to spur us on to more accurate thoughts and more definite actions. Because the names of all or even of most of our college women are not enrolled upon the pages of the Books of Fame and are not constantly flaunted before the eyes of the public, who shall say that such women have not been truly responsive to all the blessed opportuni¬ ties of their college course ? Are great deeds ‘ ‘ always to be soen and heard of men?” Who can judge the value of another’s life or guage the heroic grandeur of another’s deeds? Among women so well as among men, it is one of the marks of true culture, when one, all unconscious of self, can respond to every demand so naturally, so adequately, and so quietly as to distract all attention from the doer to the thing done. That college women are taking an active part in the world’s work cannot be denied, but that the names of the workers are not always blazoned abroad, we need not regret.” The following editorial from the Sigma Chi Quarterly is of interest to all Greek letter fraternities : 4 ‘ An old question of considerable importance is the grow¬ ing custom among certain fraternities of the open pledging of students while still in the high school. The sentiment among fraternity men in general has been opposed to this practice, I believe, but force of circumstances occasioned by more intense rivalry is tending to make it an established cus¬ tom in more than one institution. It has generally been conceded that there is a marked distinction between the pledging of young men who are in the sub-collegiate depart¬ ment connected with an institution where Greek letter fra¬ ternities have established chapters, and the pledging of pu¬ pils who are still in attendance at the high school in the same town or city. The former are growing up in a fraternity at¬ mosphere and usually make more valuable members of the active chapter afterwards, because of their preliminary train¬ ing. The case of the high school student is different. He cannot receive the brotherly advice and attention with which a pledged man in the preparatory department is favored, and sometimes later on he becomes undesirable and a hindrance to the general welfare of the chapter by whom he was pledged, and the necessity of dropping him is a pleasant cir¬ cumstance to neither party. Too often his fraternity affilia¬ tions give him an exaggerated idea of his own importance which is detrimental to his future possibilities. The remedy is apparently to be found only in an agreement among all the
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EXCHANGES. 243 fraternities of an institution not to pledge men before they are actually enrolled in college. The following clipping from the University of Minnesota chapter letter in the last Beta Theta Pi maintains that from the point of view of the writer such an agreement has been productive of much good in that institution : “ 4 A11 innovation was introduced in the autumn in the matter of fraternity rushing. A meeting of representatives from all the academic fraternities and socities was called by President Northrop, at which an agreement was entered into that no fraternity should rush high school students. A com¬ mittee was appointed to guard this agreement, consisting of members from Kappa Kappa Gamma and Alpha Phi, Psi Upsilou, Chi Psi, and Beta Theta Pi. No cases have yet been discovered in which the agreement has been violated. The agreement is quite satisfactory in that we do not have to be on the qui vive lest one of the other fraternities should start rushing the seniors in the high school and cut a big swath before anybody else gets a chance at them ; and we do not have to have our chapter life hampered throughout the year by never-ending rush meetings. * 99 In commenting upon this same editorial the Cadiicens of Kappa Sigma suggests going one step further : “Each year the progress of the Fraternity system in so¬ lidity and conservatism brings forth some policy, or some attitude toward a condition that presages better things for the future. Elsewhere in this issue we have quoted an edi¬ torial from the Sigma Chi Quarterly , in reference to the pledging of high school students which shows that this evil is receiving the deep consideration of that Fraternity. Other articles of similar import show that everywhere the Frater¬ nity world is alive to the danger from the practice ; and we hope before long that some efficacious method of preventing it will be the outcome. If the present year shall bring any such plan near to the point of full fruition its right to be called a year of great Fraternity progress will have been es¬ tablished. While the keen rivalry among Chapters has forced Kappa Sigma to countenance this sort of pledging at some institutions, yet it has always been recognized by our leaders as a dangerous practice, and one that might in some instances actually destroy the life of a Chapter. Eventually it should come to pass that no man in an American college shall unite with a Fraternity until his sophomore year. It may be said that this is a radical departure from traditions
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244 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA. and in some cases a deprivation to a student of Fraternity advantages, but we simply say that the more radical the de¬ parture the more beneficent it sometimes is, and a man who expects his college education and his Fraternity experience all to be acquired in his Freshman year is not the sort of a man Kappa Sigma is looking for. A policy of taking no man until he is a sophomore would simplify the whole pledg¬ ing question as it would be easy to reach an agreement not to pledge or solicit until the end of the Freshman’s year.” The following is a timely editorial upon chapter officers from the Kappa Alpha Journal : “As the year grows to a close the responsibility of the active member should be emphasized. Soon officers are to be elected to govern the chapter during the coming term. The welfare, if not the very existence, of the chapter de¬ pends upon the wisdom with which the officers are selected. Good, energetic officers can pull a weak chapter through its trying period. Listless, careless men can throw into in¬ activity a chapter that would otherwise be energetic and ag¬ gressive. Let the older men who are now to lay aside the responsibilities of leadership see to it that worthy successors are selected. The first officer should be a man of marked executive ability, one who can manage and direct others without seem¬ ing to. For in a fraternity there should be absolute una¬ nimity, and everything should be done as of one accord. This is good theory, but in practice it is often found impos¬ sible. So he who in name governs the chapter should have tact enough to really govern it and absolutely direct its acts for the best interests of all ; but to get proper results he must conceal the fact that he is reall directing affairs and let the impression prevail that every one is working together in unison, actuated by the same impulses and responsive to the same motives. The qualities of a great leader he must have. For he is working among men who recognize no superiors, and who consider no one of their fraternal band their inferior. There must be a one man power to attain the best results, he must have the love and confidence of his f raters, he must lead while seeming to be lead. Almost as much care should be taken in selecting a Chapter Secretary. He should be one who is prompt and accurate in every day matters — the hard worker. He will then see to it that the chapter is represented in the Journal .
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EXCHANGES. 245 Better have a conscientious worker than the transcendent genius. The “ genius ” can never be depended 011. The (VI) should be a hustling business man, one not too tender-hearted, but who will compel his f raters to comply with the laws. And yet, with it all, he must enforce law with brotherly love rather than with fear of punishment. O11 these three officers the welfare of the chapter depends most. And it is not impossible to find men who come up to the ideal. Select them, impress them with their responsi¬ bility and school them in their duty and you who leave college this year may be sure your chapter is left on a firm footing.’ * The following is a practical business plan suggested by the Beta Theta Pi for house seekers : “ I11 spite of the fact that we have published with con¬ siderable fullness of detail many of the plans adopted by different chapters of our own and other fraternities for the accumulation of chapter- house funds, the letters which we are receiving in regard to this matter, show that it is not so well understood as it seems to us that it ought to be. We have had so many requests to formulate plans of this kind, that we deem it best to here outline what we regard as the simplest and most efficient. Supposing that a chapter is occupying a rented house and desires to become the owner of that house, we reccomend that in the first instance, a fund be accumulated through the efforts of the undergraduates of the chapter. This may be done by subscribing say $50 each for such a fund, agreeing to pay for the same at the rate of $1 a month. In our chapters this will result in the accumulation in four years of between one thousand and two thousand dollars. Have a committee among the alumni appointed to take charge of such a fund, as trustees. It has been found by experience, that unless the trustees, who hold the legal title to the money, are alumni, that the fund will receive no ac¬ cessions from the outside. Boys are entirely too apt to ex¬ pend such money for what they deem to be an emergency in the life of the chapter, to absorb the money in entertain¬ ments or in furnishing a new hall or something of this kind, from which there is no apparent return. The money then having been accumulated, a corporation should be organized among the alumni, which will be author¬ ized by the law to take title to real estate. Such a corpora¬ tion can usually acquire the title to the property desired,
Page 72
246 THE KAPPA ALPHA THETA . using the accumulated amount to pay for the equity and arranging through some local building and loan association, gradually to pay the purchase price of the property in monthly installments, which will be found to be not much greater than the rent which has theretofore been paid for the use of the property. After the installments have been paid in for five or six years, it will usually be found to be cheaper to withdraw the share from the building and loan association and to apply the money so obtained in the extinguishment of a part of the obligation on the mortgage, the residue being represent¬ ed by a mortgage for a smaller amount at a much lower rate of interest. The payment by installment should be kept up, however, and the accumulation so made should be used to extinguish the mortgage on the property at the earliest possible moment. It must not be forgotten that in a scheme of this kind, provision must be made for meeting the taxes and repairs upon the property and retaining it in good condition. It will be observed that in the foregoing plan, no account has been taken of possible gifts from the alumni of the chapter or other members of the fraternity ; but the plan outlined provides entirely for the payment for the property by the undergraduates who have the use of it. The justice of this scheme is apparent to every person who thinks about it at all. There is 110 good reason why the alumni of a chapter, who belonged to it in the days when the chapter-house was not a necessity should pay for a luxury of this kind to be enjoyed by their successors. Consequently, if the alumni are not relied upon to furnish any part of the funds, no disappointment will result from their apparent lack of interest. Experience demonstrates however, that the loyalty of the alumni can confidently be relied upon for help in an enter¬ prise such as we have outlined. The way to secure their assistance is simply by doing the best you can without it and by not relying upon it. The best way is to appoint a committee comprising mem¬ bers in about every third class back to the organization of the chapter. This will give a committie who are personally acquainted with every member from the oldest to the youngest. Such a committee should outline a plan such as has been set forth and should send a circular letter, ac¬ companied by a personal letter, to each alumnus, urging them to contribute a fixed sum which should be $50, $100
Page 73
EXCHANGES. 247 or $200 each. It may be arranged that gifts of this kind should be paid for in installments. The result of such a canvass of the alumni will be disap¬ pointing in the first instance. The general use of chapter- houses is a novelty in college life, and graduates who have been out of college ten years or more can seldom be made to appreciate its necessity. But whatever money is obtained from this source can be counted as pure profit and as addi¬ tional to the sum secured from the successive delegations of undergraduates. Many of the chapters would hesitate to enter upon a scheme of this kind, because it would seem that a very long time must necessarily elapse before the culmination of the plan — complete ownership of the house, — but it must be remembered that twelve years, while it is a long time to look forward to, passes very quickly, and that alumni of the Class of ’88 are not yet entirely out of sympathy with college activities. Some sixteen years ago, we proposed a scheme of this kind to one of our chapters and it was rejected, because the boys seemed to think that they might not live to see its con¬ summation. That chapter is still living in a rented house, no better than it at first occupied, and if the plan had been adopted, it would now own its own house and would have acquired in the meantime, habits in the accumulation of money which would have resulted in many benefits quite obvious to all concerned. If a chapter is not now living in a house at all, we urge it by all means to first rent a house for three or four years until it has ascertained beyond question that such a style of living will be in accord with the life of the college, the means of its members and their social activities. Such a beginning need not interfere in any way with the accumulation of a house- fund on precisely the same plan as was first referred to.”