The Days of a Man 1870 



Wasted quently spend altogether too much time in loafing, 

 energy smoking, playing cards, and talking in desultory 

 fashion about things not worth while. Daudet 

 says of certain men that "they sat around, they did 

 not think, they did not speak just smoked." The 

 use of tobacco is a handicap to either teacher or 

 student. Recalling once more the advice of Professor 

 Swain, both should "let their competitors smoke." 

 One thing, however, is perfectly clear: if the residents 

 in any chapter fall steadily below par, something is 

 wrong with its membership or its mode of life. 



As a college teacher for forty-five years, and a 

 fraternity man still longer, I do not condemn the 

 system as a whole, because I know from experience 

 that great good may come of it if all cooperate to 

 worthy ends. For that, however, fraternities must 

 first rise above their easily besetting sins idleness, 

 snobbery, lavish expenditure, and dissipation. As 

 for the sororities, their standards are naturally 

 higher on the whole than those of the young men. 

 They are, nevertheless, affected by the same general 

 problems, except, of course, those of dissipation. 



I would by no means seem to imply that the evils 

 mentioned above are, or have been, confined to the 

 groups just under discussion. Various forms of in- 

 dividual deviltry due to an exaggerated or perverted 

 sense of humor may break out at almost any time, 

 anywhere. Andrew D. White, the first president of 

 Cornell University, mentions in his autobiography 

 two affairs on which I can throw a little light. The 

 first was the printing and distribution of a so-called 

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